North Dakota
BreakTime acquires 23 Loaf 'N Jug stores in North Dakota, Montana
GRAND FORKS — EG America is selling 23 Loaf ‘N Jug stores to BreakTime Corner Market in North Dakota and Montana.
By mid-June, two Loaf ‘N Jug locations in Grand Forks should be under the ownership of BTCM. The company will become owner of all the locations in North Dakota (14) and the nine locations in Montana.
Bret Sullivan, BTCM regional operations director, will return to the area soon during the ownership transition. Sullivan and a co-worker spent a week in North Dakota and Montana a few months ago visiting all the stores the company is purchasing.
They visited all 23 stores in five days.
“We came in and started on a Monday. We drove like crazy, and got to all 23 by Friday night. We were hurrying. We had some late nights, but we got through them all.”
Sullivan plans to spend two weeks visiting the stores again at the end of May and into June.
That’s when customers will start to see a different sign on the buildings and maybe other cosmetic changes at the stores. There won’t be a lot of changes inside the store.
Expanding products will be one of them.
“Loaf ‘N Jug is kind of restrictive at the store level because they want their stores to be the exact same,” Sullivan said. “We don’t operate that way, so you get a little more variety of what we sell.”
Plans are to find a product or two that is made in the city or the county of the new stores and sell it at BreakTime. That’s an additional way for the company to have a tie with the community.
Sullivan said the company has been expanding through acquisitions.
With stores in Kansas and Colorado, BTCM believes the move northward to North Dakota and Montana was a natural progression for the company.
“They’re older stores, but they are in pretty good shape,” Sullivan said. “That’s kind of the niche we’ve been working in the last few years.
“Everybody is excited to see more territory. I just came from western Texas and western Kansas. It’s a whole different look when you get up to Montana and North Dakota.”
Some workers at Loaf ‘N Jug thought BTCM was going to take over in early May, but the transition was delayed. Sullivan said he was unsure of the purchase price for the 23 stores.
This isn’t BTCM’s largest acquisition. Just a couple of years ago, it acquired 48 stores in Texas.
The Houston-based company bought its first convenience store in Houston in 1999. The company now operates numerous gas stations/convenience stores.
Established in 2004, BTCM has emerged as a multifaceted enterprise, specializing in the operation and management of gas stations/convenience stores, retail shopping centers, office buildings and the acquisition of land for retail development.
Sullivan said he’s looking forward to learning about the employees in the new stores. He said there will be no layoffs.
“Everybody is staying on board,” he said. “We want to maintain consistency. People get comfortable. They don’t like changes in their convenience stores.”
Store managers will be given more latitude in what they can do at the stores, Sullivan said.
“We’re excited to see our company grow a little larger and see some new territory and move on, move forward,” Sullivan said.
Kevin Fee is a freelance reporter for the Herald.
North Dakota
The Democratic Spirit: Reflections on North Dakota History and the Declaration of Independence at 250 – America250
A state and national public forum comprising a lecture, and then a question-answer session. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lecture commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and explore its enduring significance in American life. Appiah’s scholarship on ethics, identity, and cosmopolitanism offers a unique lens for examining democratic ideals in a diverse society. By connecting these themes to North Dakota’s historical narrative, the forum fosters civic engagement, intellectual discourse, and cultural understanding within our community.
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
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