The amount of US land used to grow wheat is at the lowest in almost a century

Wheat markets are in flux right now, and the price is on the rise. A late season snowstorm in Kansas, drought in North Dakota are all factors, but so too is the fact that there were fewer wheat acres planted this year than at any point since the government began tracking the information in 1919.

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ND coal studying supply of valuable rare earth elements

The same geological history that produced North Dakota’s coal history may hold additional value in the form of rare earth elements essential to the electronics and defense industries. Extracting those elements is the challenge, but investment from several government agencies is refining the processes to determine the viability long-term. Jessica Holdman with the Bismarck Tribune

Read & Share   sourced from: Bismarck Tribune

The Government Shouldn’t Compete With Private Businesses for Profits

Rob Port with the Say Anything Blog weighs in on the City of Minot’s proposed garbage pick-up policy revisions that would result in a mandated change of service from private haulers to City-provided garbage pick-up. The law change would capture about 1,200 multi-residential units. At a Committee of the Whole meeting this week, members of

Read & Share   sourced from: Say Anything Blog.com

Western governors back Endangered Species Act, with changes

The Western Governors Association, an association of 22-western Governors, met in Montana recently. Among the topics of business, a discussion and ultimately a resolution in support of the Endangered Species Act with a few caveats. Some of the concerns are that states have a larger voice in the federal decisions that impact them and that

Read & Share   sourced from: Associated Press

Five members named to state Economic Development Foundation board

The Economic Development Foundation board was established by the legislature in 2001 to provide an oversight role for the state’s economic development efforts. What’s curious about the appointments and the larger board makeup is there isn’t a single member from Minot on the 17-member board. The larger question is does that matter? Is this a

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Minneapolis City Council gives tentative approval to $15 minimum wage

It appears the minimum wage experiments in cities across the U.S. will continue. Minneapolis is the latest large city to take up the economically-controversial topic with a proposal to raise minimum wages to $15 per hour. Seattle recently implemented their own mandated wage increase, and in that case, there’s data that suggest the policy backfired.

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Seattle’s minimum-wage increase made the most vulnerable workers poorer

In the battle for a higher minimum wage, the logic seems clear; raise wages for the lowest earners among us to bring them closer to a living wage. It’s great in intention, but it would now seem that in real world practice, it doesn’t play out that way. Seattle has gone through two significant minimum

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

Oil country eases into break from frantic growth

Did the oil bust in Western North Dakota? Though we all know it slowed down, it doesn’t seem like ‘bust’ is the correct description. And the same can be said for at least some of the outside media coverage of North Dakota’s new oil reality. This article is passed along to get a sense of

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Oil climbs on weaker dollar, but rise in U.S. drilling drags

The number of active drilling rigs in the U.S. has been growing in recent months and so has the oil output. Both have combined to put downward pressure on the price of oil which has recently risen above the lows produced by a 7-month downward trend.

Read & Share   sourced from: Reuters

How Sweden is pushing toward the seemingly impossible goal of zero emissions

Our distant Scandinavian relatives have built themselves some pretty sustainable energy infrastructure, just 5% of Sweden’s energy comes from fossil fuels. But they’ve set an even higher goal — be 100% sustainable by 2045. And the problems they have to solve in order to get there and the manner in which they’re attempting to solve

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

Bakken leads rig count increase

There are a lot of barometers we can use to measure the amount of activity taking place in the oil field and which direction it’s heading, and one of them is the rig count; that’s the number of active drilling rigs working in North Dakota. And the news is slanting slightly towards the positive. Last month

Read & Share   sourced from: Bakken.com

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Grand Forks Voters choose to build on Arbor Park after close vote

Grand Forks residents narrowly chose economic activity and a new development in downtown Grand Forks over keeping a park that was put in place following the 1997 flood. But a quote from Grand Forks City Council President Dana Sande is perhaps most telling in how the City will move forward. “The thing that should never be

Read & Share   sourced from: Grand Forks Herald

Evidence for a New Economic Development Model?

Economic growth, economic diversity, these are buzzwords in North Dakota and in Minot right now. The City’s NDR application talks about it; our consultant on the project, CDM Smith, even has a $300,000 budget to create an ‘Economic Development Strategic Plan for Minot & Ward County’. We also have the MAGIC fund, a sales-tax-funded pot

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Shakeup at IRET Results in Leadership Transition to Minneapolis

One of Minot’s larger employers, IRET, is going through a company transition that will result in significant operating changes. In a news release available on the IRET website, the company announced the retirement and pending retirement of several top executives. In addition to the personnel shakeup, the company also announced that those filling new leadership roles will

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Fact Checking Claims About Economic Incentives

In the doldrums of the oil downturn, economic resiliency, development, and diversity have never been more important. And it’s become apparent — especially here in Minot where we see evidence of businesses closing almost weekly, that we haven’t been very good at creating any of those things. Perhaps it’s because we’re using the wrong methods.

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Experts tell Fargo audience Bakken is set for a comeback

The Fargo Chamber of Commerce hosted a couple Bakken-vested business leaders at recent breakfast gathering and the message they delivered was one ringing with optimism. Kathy Neset of Neset Consulting and Rob Lindberg, Director of Bakken Backers suggest the numbers tell the story, and it’s one still full of unrealized potential. In the Bakken, we’ve

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum