Mother's Day

Where would we be without mothers? They give life, nurture, education, and are often the first person we call when need in help. There is only one day out of a year where people are to honor their mothers. I think their should be many days where people are to honor their mothers. The one day is called Mother's day. Today is Mother's Day a very special day for all the moms out there. All moms deserve a break every now and then. It most be hard to be a mom especially if they are single and working. So make sure she feels loved and respected on Mother's Day. Today is an opportunity where the kids can try and give back the love and everything else a mom gives to her children. Every day for mother is like a kids Holiday. They give us advice all the time. All the different kinds of moms out there still should be loved and cared for on Mother's Day. The stay-at-home moms, single moms, step moms, foster moms, and family moms should all be able to take the day off. For some people Mother's Day can be stressful. They don't know what to get their moms or what to do on Mother's Day with their moms. There's many different things you can get or do for your mom on Mother's Day. You could get her slippers, flowers, take her out to eat, or there are many different kinds of presents you could get her. If you don't want to get her anything or don't have the money you can do all her chores for her, give her a massage, or make her break feast in bed. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution of Congress recommending the federal government observe Mother's Day. Mother's Day has many advantages. It helps the economy, many products get lots of business on Mother's Day, and many more. Like the card companies, flower companies, and restaurants make lots of money on Mother's Day. Today's new mom is very different than she was a generation ago. She is older and more likely to be unmarried. My brothers and I decided to get our mom a card, flowers, and candles. I still don't think that is enough for what she does for our family. You should most definitely spend the day with her or maybe if she is sick of you, you should leave her alone for whole day. So Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and hope it is a good one.

Right or wrong

America is dealing with a big problem about illegal aliens. America is trying different tactics to decrease the number of illegal aliens in America. Obviously none of them are working to good. The border patrol can't stop them all from coming over to America. There is way to many illegal aliens in America. Arizona's Governor, Jan Brewer signed a bill (1070). Which allows police to question people about their immigration status, including asking for identification if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. Obama has called the new law "misguided" and instructed the justice department to examine it to see if it's legal according to the website. This raised a big concern for many people living in Arizona and some other people as well. It sparked fear for many U.S. citizens that they will be hassled by police because they might look a little Mexican. This could be racial profiling. I wouldn't want police officer stopping me on the street asking for my identification for no parent reason. Their were as many as 3,500 protesters at the State capital. Some say this goes against our freedom and privacy. According to the Fargo Forum that Arizona is the nation's busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico. It is estimated that their are 460,000 illegal immigrants. The violence created by illegal immigrants is a big issue to the people of Arizona. The law also says that police officers are going to have training which will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion. If they do find a illegal immigrant they will turn them over to the federal immigrant officers. If caught they can be thrown in prison and fined up to 2,500 dollars. Our country could use any money they can get. That is a lot of people that are taking over American jobs. Since they will work for little or nothing. Some big companies strive off illegal immigrants. They don't have to pay them mini um wage. They can pay them much, much lower, like a dollar or two a hour. They don't have to give them benefits. It's not fair illegal immigrants don't have to pay taxes. Many of them are drug dealers. They don't have health insurance. I think this law will help the problem out some but not fix it completely. Do you think this law is unfair? Do you think this law should help full?

Fight for president

North Dakota State University President Joseph Chapman is resigning. He has been North Dakota's president over a decade. He said he has been thinking about resigning for awhile. He wasn't pressured to resign. He mentioned it wasn't fun anymore for him. The resignation was on January 2, 2010. University system Chancellor William Goetz said he hopes a new president will be hired by July 1, 2010. The University has narrowed the selection to 8 candidates. After a few hours with each candidate they are going to narrow them down to four or five. This weekend are the interviews and there are open to the public. The committee will prepare questions such as why they are pursuing the NDSU presidency, how they would strengthen NDSU's research activity and what role athletics should play in a university. Those four or five candidates will come back in late April or early May to meet with various groups. Here are the 8 candidates.

Tom Keon is 60 years old. He is currently the dean of business administration for the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He played a major role in transitioning the college from teaching institution to a research university. That will help him in the running for the NDSU president. To read more on all the people you can click on the hyperlink of the word "Those."

Priscilla Nelson is also 60 years old. She is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and former provost of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

John Gardner is 52 years old. He is a vice president for economic development and global engagement for Washington State University in Seattle.

Gary Miller is 56 years old. He is provost and vice president for academic affairs and research at Wichita (Kansas) State University.

Benjamin Ogles is 49 years old. He is currently the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio University in Athens.

Dean Bresciani is an adjunct professor and former vice president for student affairs for Texas A&M University.

William Ruud is president of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Davenport is president of Minnesota State University, Mankato.

We have some tough choices to make, which is a good thing; that's what we want," said committee chairman Steve Swiontek. Well that's good that there will be a tough battle for the presidency. All the candidates to me seem like they would be a good president for NDSU. They all have lots of experience. Out of these candidates which one would you choice? From there background I would choose Tom Keon. He is a dean and knows what to do to be a dean. But I don't know how the interviews go. I'm sure who ever they pick will be a great help for NDSU.

The Big Flood

The flood of 2009 had everyone on their toes. Cities all over North Dakota were in panic mode because of the rising water in spring. The water flooded much of the land causing thousands of dollars in damage. People had to get evacuated from their homes. I don't know one person that would want to get evacuated from their homes every year because of the spring flood. It wasn't a good deal especially the Fargo/Moorhead area. Millions of sand bags had to be made for Fargo, Valley City, and other towns. Luckily we have many nice people that volunteered their time to make those sand bags. Grand Forks didn't have to do much sandbagging. After the 1997 flood that nearly flooded the whole town, they built huge dikes along the river on both sides to prevent flooding. So far it as worked. Grand Forks had learned a lesson from the past. I just hope and I bet many more people hope Fargo and other towns can do the same thing "learn from the past." They let water out all winter long on Ashtabula dam. That made so the lake could hold more water and slow the running water down to let the river height go down as well. So far Fargo is trying to make up a diversion plan. They talked about making a diversion channel that goes around Fargo or goes on the other side around Moorhead. They also talked about is to make dams and tributaries on the Red River. The other thing they are talking about is making huge dikes on both sides of the river like Grand Forks. There's pros and cons according to some people in the area. With making huge dikes according to the article, he says it will make the river downstream higher and cause way worse flooding than it already does. If they decide to put in dams and tributaries that will flood the farmer's crop land. The farmers are not going to be happy with this idea. With making a diversion channel according to the article it will cost $783 million dollars of local funding. The people of North Dakota and Minnesota are going to have to pay for that out of their own pockets. I'm sure some taxes and other funding will go up for the whole state. The only ones that should have to pay are the people that live next to the Red River. It is their choice to liver there or not. These plans are raising many different arguments and sides. It doesn't matter what plan they do use people are going to hate it and people are going to love it. The people are mostly pushing towards the diversion channel. They say it protects the greatest amount of people, provides the greatest number of benefits, and takes the most land out of the flood plane.

Tosses verdict

That's crazy how a judge can overturn a jury's verdict. In the Case of Alphonzo Williams, Judge Ralph Erickson had presided over the juries reasonable verdict. Williams was arrested in March of 2009 in Fargo during an undercover sting and accused of taking part in a drug-dealing conspiracy. The trial took place in November in federal court. The jurors found Williams guilty on three of four drug-related counts. In January Erickson took the extraordinary step of throwing out the jurors' verdicts on the charges of Williams. It was the first time Erickson has ever thrown out a jurors' verdict in his 16 years of being a judge. Erickson said there wasn't enough evidence to prove that Williams was part of a drug conspiracy. They say it was a little bias because there were 12 white jurors and Williams is a black man with a known drug trafficker. I believe there was no bias for the man. The appeals court could affirm Erickson's ruling, it can call for a new trial, or it can decide Erickson is wrong and order him to sentence Williams. I argue with the ability that the judge can overturn a jurors' decision but with the courts acceptance. Some people are saying that they rather see ten guilty men go free than one innocent man gets convicted. When they arrested Williams and Booker, Booker had cocaine and heroin on him and Williams had just a half-gram of crack, that's known as "personal use" amount in his pocket. The police officer never talked to Williams and made a deal to sell or do anything with crack. Williams was not charged with possessing drugs but rather conspiring to distribute drugs. With the jury hearing William's prior convictions of possession with intent to distribute crack were unable to ignore the evidence that should have never been brought up. That is unfair for Williams that the jury heard that evidence. With knowing that evidence the jury already had in their minds that Williams is a drug dealer. To get convicted of crimes by a jury there needs to be so much evidence that it basically proves that person getting accused is guilty. If there is a doubt that the person is innocent than there must be more evidenc to prove if they are guilty. From the evidence shown I think Williams is innocent. What do you think? It would be nice to see what the courts do to the judge's decision, if they keep it, give him a new trail, or sentence Williams. I think the courts will argue with the judge's decision.

Fate of the Sioux nickname

I was reading in the Grand Forks Herald about the "fate of the Sioux nickname Unknown" article. The Fargo Forum as an article about the Sioux nickname to. The article talks about about the UND nickname "Fighting Sioux" might be changing to something else. According to the Feb. 19 Fargo Forum "the date is taken from a university lawsuit settlement with NCAA, included University of North Dakota athletics nickname that it said were "hostile and abusive" to American Indians." I don't think the UND nickname is hostile and abusive to the American Indians. I think it is a honor for them to use the nickname. Other states wouldn't even know the Sioux Indian tribe exist if it wasn't for the UND nickname. The nickname promotes their name to the Nation. The lawsuit was settled in October 2007 that UND was given until Nov. 30 2010 to discard the nickname or obtain permission from North Dakota's Standing Rock and Spirit Lake Sioux tribes to continue using it. Last April, 67% of the tribe supported the nickname. So only a few of the tribe members want UND to change the nickname. The name does not make the women, men, and children become invisible because of the historical images of the male warrior. When I hear "Fighting Sioux" I think of the whole tribe fighting or the whole team fighting to win. If they do change the nickname it's going to cost the university alot of money and time. UND is moving to NCAA Division I status and wants to join the 10-school Summit League. The Summit League officials will not consider UND's application until the nickname dispute is resolved. The officials will meet by phone in March and than again in June face-to-face. If UND is unable to apply by June they will have to wait tell 2011 to try to apply again. UND will be out a year in that process and who knows something could happen in that year where they won't allow UND in the Summit League when they do have this nickname dispute resolved. The nickname should stay the same. The town of Grand Forks thrives on the Fighting Sioux nickname.

Thompson woman sues ammo company

I was reading the Fargo forum and I say an article "Thompson woman sues ammo company." I want to read and find out more about it. The article is about a woman that shoots a gun and the bullet supposedly blew up. "Sheri Sponsler age 46, says a defect in the design or production of the shell caused her injuries" (forum C4). Her attorney says "the shell's brass casing holding the powder failed and exploded, blowing out the bottom of the gun's chamber and sending shrapnel into Sponsler's face, eye, and hand." There's many things that could of caused the exploding. The gun could have had a weak spot in it, the barrel could have been plugged, wrong shell for the gun, and others. There will have to be more evidence to prove it was the bullet that blew up. The ammunition company denis any wrongdoing and has asked to dismiss the case. The two sides are scheduled to meet on Feb. 25. She is seeking more than 75 thousand dollars for her pain and emotional distress. I do not think she should get the money, she knew the risks she was dealing with when she was shooting that gun. In today's society everyone is just sue happy. They know they can get money out of the big company's so they try all they can to do so.

Hunting illegally

It is really hard to prove people that hunt illegally. Unless the game warden watches them or has video tape of them doing it they could convict them easily. If they didn't see it then it mostly is someone tells the game wardens and from there they need enough evidence to convict them. There is so many people that hunt illegally. For all the people who do hunt illegally and don't get caught the people who do get caught should get punished severely to maybe scare other people. For some illegal hunting fines are just a slap on a wrist and it won't stop the people from hunting illegally. Not many people will stop hunting illegally unless stronger punishments are forced on the people. The main one I am talking about is the guy that shot a huge buck in Minnesota last November. He pleaded not guilty to three new accounts on January 22, 2010. He already pleaded not guilty to thirteen accounts. He already shot two deer before the world record with his bow. In Minnesota the law is to only shoot one deer a season with a bow. They are going to test his hunting jacket for gun powder to see if he shot it with a gun. He could easily lie and say he wore a different jacket. The buck is the biggest four-by-four ever found or shot in the world. If he is convicted I hope he doesn't just get a slap on the wrist especially when it's a world record. He has committed many previous convictions. He needs to be punished severely enough so he will not do it again, because he did keep doing things illegally. This needs to show everyone what can happen if you do hunt illegally to.