Word: dakotas
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When the taxpayers of Cass County, North Dakota, learned that Washington was ready to spend $46 million on a new federal courthouse in downtown Fargo, they did something most politicians in Washington couldn't have imagined: the citizens tried to give the money back. Agitated by stories in the local newspaper, they sent angry letters to the federal judge overseeing the project, who then helped shrink the plan to $36 million. The state's two Democratic Senators joined the opposition and urged architects to design something that would cost no more than $23 million. Then planners scrapped the idea...
...encourage younger people to get into agriculture. Another is that an end to obsolete limits on production will better position trade-savvy farmers to compete in markets overseas. Democrat Kent Conrad has warned of a "disaster" if the cuts are indiscriminate. But Bill Pietsch, vice president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau in Fargo, a Republican-tilted outfit, puts it this way: "Our people will swear. We expect our Senators to swear. But as these payments are reduced, most of North Dakota will continue to be farmed...
...rate. Violent crime is a rarity here; there were only five homicides in the entire state last year. Not all the locals are working as much as they would like, but unemployment stands at 2%, and help wanted signs are everywhere. Urban Weber, regional manager for Job Service North Dakota, knew something had changed when Hardee's offered $6 an hour for hamburger flippers this spring. "I've never seen an economy like this," says Weber. "We've got more jobs than we've got people...
Cuts will affect few in Fargo the way they will the legions of rural-life researchers toiling at North Dakota State University. On the edge of chocolate-dark fields on the west side of the campus, the federal government has built a maze of greenhouses, labs and research facilities dedicated to spawning new high-yield varieties of bug-resistant wheat, potatoes, sunflowers and sugar beets. There the Northern Crop Sciences Lab, the Biosciences Research Laboratory and the Wheat Quality Laboratory attract millions each year in research grants. Nearby, the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute and the Mountain-Plains Consortium perform...
...There's a North Dakota saying," explains Boyd Christenson, a radio talk-show host in Fargo: "When a little animal has been on the teat for a long time, it's tough to be weaned." In general, Fargoans refuse to wait passively for the budget cuts to rip their social fabric. In early March, 10 Fargo churches, along with the Salvation Army, created a Communal Needs fund to help locals who touch bottom. The money will be doled out to individuals who need emergency help with rent, transportation or food. There is not much to go around: donations now total...