North Dakota
Today in History, 1957: North Dakota woman one of 173 to die on U.S. roads on Christmas night
On this day in 1957, U.S. traffic deaths during the Christmas holiday reached 173 nationwide, including a North Dakota woman killed in a Minnesota crash.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
N.D. Woman Yule Crash Victim
Death Toll Across U.S Reaches 173
Traffic deaths on Christmas night were only seven from the National Safety Council’s fatality estimate for the holiday period amid warnings the final toll would exceed it.
Among those killed on the nation’s highways during the brief holiday was a North Dakota woman.
She was Mrs. Martin E. Sitz, 54, of Park River, N.D., who died in a car-truck collision on Highway 2 about seven miles east of Fosston, Minn., late on Christmas Eve.
Her death raised the Minnesota traffic toll for 1957 to 666. That is 38 more than at this time a year ago.
No motor vehicle fatalities had been reported in North Dakota up to 11:30 last night.
Before the holiday got under way, the Safety Council estimated 180 persons would die in traffic mishaps between 6 p.m. (local time) Tuesday and midnight Wednesday.
Nearing the close of the 30-hour period, traffic deaths across the country had reached 173, according to the Associated Press.
At least 26 other persons died in fires and 14 were killed in miscellaneous accidents, bringing the total to 213.
Unseasonably mild weather in most parts of the country brought auto travel above normal.
Mrs. Sitz’ 51-year-old husband was seriously injured in the Minnesota crash and Archie Piotrias, 64, of Argyle, Minn., the truck driver, suffered chest injuries. They were hospitalized at Fosston.
Mr. and Mrs. Sitz, who had resided in Park River for several years, were on their way to the Twin Cities to spend the holidays with members of their family.
Mrs. Sitz’ death was the first fatality reported from a Christmas holiday in Minnesota, which is in the midst of its worst traffic year in history.
Park River is in Walsh County about 120 miles north and 17 miles west of Fargo-Moorhead. Fosston, in Polk County, is in northwestern Minnesota about 50 miles east and 60 miles north of Fargo-Moorhead.
In South Dakota, Alan Gates, 21, of Pierre died Wednesday of injuries suffered early Saturday when his car rolled over on U.S. 14, a mile east of Fort Pierre, S.D.
Gates, who had been attending Huron (S.D.) College, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jess Gates.
James Matthews, 21, of Pierre, and Connie Bartels of Fort Pierre, who were riding with Gates, have been released from the hospital.
The death was the 176th on South Dakota highways so far this year and 10 fewer than on this date a year ago.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
North Dakota
The Women’s College Fan Guide To 2026 Junior Nationals – FloWrestling
Justin Fairbanks went to work! He created this incredible breakdown of Fargo participants and their college commitments. Email kyle.klingman@flosports.tv with updates.
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North Dakota
San Francisco plots risky socialist bank modeled after controversial experiment
San Francisco voters will decide whether the city should have a public bank after city supervisors this week approved such a proposal to appear on the November ballot.
The city would be the first in the nation to have a municipal government-owned bank. Only the state of North Dakota runs a major public bank in the nation.
But the city’s proposal gives no answer as to where the estimated $325 million in start-up costs will come from as the city faces a $643 million budget deficit.
“In a moment like this, asking voters to commit San Francisco to potentially running a financial institution is asking for trust the city has not yet earned,” said Supervisor Alan Wong, one of the two votes against placing the measure on the ballot.
“Our city’s track record shows that meeting those demands is harder than it sounds, even for institutions designed with the right intentions,” he added.
Socialist Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who just returned from a months-long mental health leave, indicated that future legislation would figure out a revenue steam. Supporters of a bank wanted to get ahead of a 2028 expiration date for a state law that gives cities the power to create their own public banks.
“It feels like an incredible tool to add to the city’s tool kit,” Misha Steier, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, told the San Francisco Chronicle. The coalition was founded by Fielder.
“This is the culmination of years and years of movement effort,” Steier said.
A city bank, supporters say, would unlock financing for thousands of housing units that lack funding to address the housing crisis. It could finance climate goals or lend to small businesses in the area.
“This ensures we have an institution run by real bankers that is accountable, nevertheless, to public priorities and public policy priorities,” Fielder said.
“We can build a public bank that prioritizes reinvesting back into what we all need to sustain our local communities,” added Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who brought forth the measure. “Let us use every tool at our disposal to keep the city affordable and to drive an economic recovery that leaves no one behind.”
The bank would be run by qualified bankers appointed by an oversight committee whose members would be selected by local officials. While it does not establish a revenue stream, the ballot measure would at least enshrine the bank’s rules, structure and mission in the city’s charter — including a provision that it would never lend to fossil fuel corporations or weapons manufacturers.
How startup costs will be funded seems to be difficult to answer. Fielder in February attempted another ballot measure that would impose a higher tax on lending companies to help fund such a bank, though that effort was paused to focus on this new ballot proposal.
Any new taxes may be difficult in the current political environment; this past June, voters in the progressive city even voted down a tax hike on highly paid CEOs.
North Dakota’s bank sees deposits mostly from the state’s collections of taxes and fees and corporate accounts. A very small portion comes from residents as “it is the Bank’s policy not to compete with the private sector for retail deposits,” it said on its website.
The bank has mostly seen success and has turned a profit for many years, which can be returned to the state government’s general fund or used for economic development initiatives. A lot of the success can be traced to the the state’s fracking boom, according to research by University of Illinois Chicago professor Robert S. Chirinko.
But unlike commercial banks, deposits into the public bank are not insured by the federal government, which means North Dakota takes on all the risk. California’s law requires federal insurance, which will give the city more regulatory hurdles as no public bank has sought that approval before.
Chirinko said any success replicating North Dakota’s model will heavily depend on funding. San Francisco’s proposed focus on investing in climate-friendly technology or housing may also not pay off immediately.
“There could be a role there for government, but you have to recognize that you’re not going to get your money back,” he said.
Such banks also can face accusations of unfair political influence. In 2016, North Dakota’s bank financed local law enforcement’s militarized response to controversial protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, sparking liberal backlash.
Already, critics in San Francisco are saying the same political favoritism could happen for how loans and other financial products would get issued.
“What do they want? An SF Public Bank staffed by cronies of absentee SF Supervisor Jackie Fielder,” claimed tech figure and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan. “It’ll be a tremendous grift mill robbing the city blind.”
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North Dakota
Today in History, 1975: Earthquake rattles portions of Minnesota and the Dakotas, including Fargo-Moorhead
On this day in 1975, a moderate earthquake centered near Morris, Minnesota, shook parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota, startling residents but causing no major damage or injuries.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Earth Tremor Felt Across Wide Area Including F-M
An earth tremor at 9:56 a.m. today was widely felt in the Fargo-Moorhead area as well as other parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota, but the National Weather Service here said it had no reports of damage.
The tremor lasted from two to five seconds, Keith Blessum of the Weather Service said, and ignited telephone reports from a wide area.
The earthquake measured 5.0 on the Richter Scale. Waverly Person of the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver, Colo., said: “The earthquake was moderate and was centered in the Morris, Minn., area. It could have caused much damage in a heavily populated area.”
The quake also was felt in northwestern Iowa. Carl Stover of the Earthquake Information Center said it affected an area 300 miles long and 180 miles wide in four states. He said the exact center of the quake was 10 miles west of Morris.
Person said the earthquake that struck California’s San Fernando Valley in February 1971, killing 54 persons and causing millions of dollars in property damage, measured 6.5 on the Richter Scale.
There were no injuries reported, but authorities in several communities in Minnesota and North and South Dakota reported that residents were startled, buildings shook, dishes rattled and books fell off shelves. Some residents in Alberta, Minn., and Wheaton, Minn., also reported cracked foundations.
Among the first to report locally was Mrs. Paul Dutt, 909 27th St. N., Fargo, who told the Weather Service pictures on the walls moved and a vase moved across the top of the television set.
Marjorie Henderson, who lives on a farm between Enderlin and Lisbon, N.D., reported that the house shook and windows rattled during the tremor, while Mrs. Wesley Belter, who lives south of Casselton, N.D., said that she and four neighbors had similar experiences.
Mrs. Earl Ernst, who lives eight miles east of Wolverton, Minn., also reported that the walls of her trailer home shook and dishes rattled.
Other reports received by the Weather Service at Hector Airport here were from Hankinson and Wahpeton, N.D., and Breckenridge and Ottertail, Minn.; Milbank, S.D., White Rock Dam on the South Dakota border and Canby, Minn.
The earth tremor shook much of northeastern South Dakota and parts of southeastern North Dakota and western Minnesota but apparently caused no injuries, the Associated Press reported.
Donald Johnson, Codington (S.D.) County Civil Defense Director, said the strongest tremors were felt in the South Shore area, about 12 miles northeast of Watertown.
Johnson said a school was evacuated in South Shore, but there were no injuries or major damage reported.
A University of Minnesota professor said that part of that state has a history of minor earthquakes, with about half a dozen reported since the mid-1800s.
Residents in the Willmar, Alexandria, Morris and Long Prairie areas all felt the tremor. It hit about 9:55 a.m., and lasted five to 10 seconds.
No major damage was reported, although the tremor startled many people and shook household furnishings. Some residents in Alberta, near Morris, reported cracked foundations.
Dr. Harold Mooney, professor of geophysics at the University of Minnesota, estimated the tremor would have measured 4 or 4.5 on the Richter Scale. Mooney’s seismograph wasn’t operating when the tremor struck, and he said his was the only such measuring device in the area.
“The motion of a fault in the western part of the state sent out seismic waves at thousands of feet per second, and that’s what the people felt,” Mooney said.
“There is a history of earthquakes in that area, so this one was not without precedent.”
The most recent was near Alexandria in 1950, he said. The most severe was near Brainerd in 1917; that one broke some windows and knocked things off shelves.
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