Articles

Omdahl: Summer of 2011 gets failing grade

Labor Day seems to mark a division between summer and fall even though the calendar doesn’t figure it that way. Anyway, it’s a good time to look back and evaluate what should be the best season of the year.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: ‘Turning Points’ confirms Sinner never left priesthood

the aid of his former press secretary, Bob Jansen, Gov. George Sinner has recorded his life’s story in an autobiography titled “Turning Points,” now on sale at local book stores.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: The onus is on leader and staff

If the North Dakota Board of Higher Education is as dysfunctional as some of its actions suggest, the chancellor and the professional staff must shoulder some of the responsibility. Dysfunction suggests that the chancellor has not used his staff strategically to provide the board with the kind of advice and assistance that is required by a lay board that meets once a month.

Omdahl: Camping resets end date

Even though Jesus said he didn’t know much about the end of the world, some of his alleged followers keep making predictions with certainty and conviction. Apparently, they don’t want to deal with the day-to-day challenge of living Christianity so they sit around and speculate about the unknowable.

Omdahl: Updating ’38 guide to history

Most folks who can remember the Works Progress Administration think of it as a program for blue-collar workers who became unemployed in the Great Depression.

Omdahl: UUFDA measure changed

As they say in Trondheim, the lutefisk is out of the barrel. An anonymous source close to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has disclosed that the upcoming Legislature will be taking up an UUFDA* bill, and this without holding hearings in Bergen, Olga, Fort Ransom or any other North Dakota community known to boast of a large number of bona fide Norwegians.

Omdahl: Wrigley takes on great job

Dear Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley: First, congratulations on your appointment by Gov. Jack Dalrymple. Be a good choice.

Omdahl: Off-year elections haunted

While pundits on television are spending their time talking about the political environment in this nonpresidential election, they are neglecting the historical weather vanes that would give some direction to their speculations. With rare exceptions, the party of the sitting president loses congressional and legislative seats in nonpresidential election years.

Omdahl: Live-ins often go awry

“Shacking up” is the old term for cohabitation. But “shacking up” made cohabitation sound so crude we now call it “live-in,” a term that applies to 25,000 relationships in North Dakota.

Omdahl: Focus on good in nation

In a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th birthday of the Republic. Or will we? For the past several decades, discontent has become more prevalent than gratitude, the “Be grateful” billboards posted by the Newman Sign Co. notwithstanding.

Columns

Omdahl: Measure 2 deserves ‘no’ vote

Because proponents of the property tax repeal have taken comments by former Gov. Ed Schafer and me out of context, we have issued a joint statement making it clear that we are opposed to Measure 2.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: The kids from ND did well

Bill Scouton knew Kari Wigton before Dick Clark even knew she existed. So who is Bill Scouton, and who is Kari Wigton?

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Cramer upends process

By announcing that he will bypass the North Dakota Republican endorsing convention and go straight to the party primary in his quest for a U.S. House seat, Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer has thrown the party endorsing process into turmoil.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Mythical holiday bargains

The credit card bills for our wild holiday spending have started arriving, and they attest to the fact that we did not get as many Black Friday bargains as we had thought.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Census will cost the west

We just about held a statewide “Populationfest” when the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the state had an increase of 31,000 residents – a 4.7 percent – in 2010 over the 2000 count.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Measure a recipe for chaos

Looking at the possible passage of a North Dakota constitutional amendment abolishing the property tax, legislators have already started considering methods for getting around the consequences of such precipitous action.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Studies create problems

Two recent studies by the Council on State Taxation have raised serious doubts about North Dakota’s business climate and warrant the concern of the state Legislature and economic development leaders.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Might be no future in future

Sometime around 1970, professor Ed Banfield wrote a book, “The Unheavenly City,” in which he described the “present-oriented” nature of lower-class people whose lifestyle was devoid of thoughts of the future.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Omdahl: Ed board fails its mandate

Article VIII of the North Dakota Constitution grants sweeping powers to the Board of Higher Education for the management of the state’s colleges and universities. A number of recent events suggest, however, that the board may not be measuring up to its constitutional mandate.

• Lloyd Omdahl

Who will pick up shortfall?

The North Dakota treasury may be brimming with windfall revenue, but financing the total repeal of all property taxes will be virtually impossible. Oil production may have a favorable prognosis, but agricultural prosperity will still depend on the whims of the federal government.

• Lloyd Omdahl