10 things to know about how social media affects teens’ brains

Kids today are among the first generation of humans to grow up with social media as a dominant factor in their lives. After hundreds of thousands of years of evolving and adapting to the natural world, we’re now dealing with the challenges of evolving and adapting to a much faster-moving technological world. It’s a great

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Rare earth minerals deposit found in Sweden

Our Scandinavian friends in Sweden have made a big discovery — a significant deposit of neodymium and praseodymium. They’re rare earth elements that go into making magnets. Why does it matter in Minot? Because like it or not, we are members of a global community, and in the geopolitics of rare earth elements, China has

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Another country bans single-use plastic plates and cutlery for environmental reasons

When it comes to single-use plastic, England has decided the costs outweigh the convenience. They’re banning a bunch of stuff. Items caught in the policy net include plastic plates, trays, bowls, utensils, and other implements that find their way into the waste stream. England previously banned plastic straws in 2020. The goal is simple —

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Potted Christmas trees are a rentable alternative to their fake and fresh-cut cousins

What’s better than buying a real Christmas tree? How about renting one? You get all of the fragrance, none of the needles. It’s an idea that forces us to ask, why did this take so long to think of? Get the full story on reusing Christmas trees from NPR.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

The White House unveils a new system to track and better prevent opioid overdoses

Few, if any, communities in the country have escaped the scourge of opioid addiction. Minot is no exception. And those most impacted have begged and pleaded at all levels of government for more action. Well, the Federal government is stepping up in a role that will serve all communities – filling the data gap so

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Want a Daily Dose of Minot News & Commentary? Sign Up For Daily Updates!

Follow Us Here!

The Culture Wars are Here, and They Didn’t Spare the Schools

Race and racism, LGBTQ+, library books: they’re all hot-button cultural topics that evoke strong emotional responses, and often bad behavior by adults, as well. It’s created a hostile environment for our educators and many are sounding the alarm that if it doesn’t quit, they will. Get the full story from NPR.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Across the country, cities and states begin battles with corporate pharmaceuticals over opioid crisis

Through lives lost to overdoses or changed forever due to addiction and numerous cascade effects such as increases in property crime and demand for services, the costs of the opioid epidemic are staggering. And who’s bearing the cost? People, families, and local places are carrying a lot of it. And now they’re using the legal

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

New opportunities for old coal plants?

There aren’t many days that go by that there isn’t a story about a new coal-fired power plant being decommissioned. We lost one in North Dakota last year; yesterday, there was a story out of Estevan on final dates for their plants. Since 2010, nearly 300 of these plants have closed across the country? Political

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

The struggle to hire and keep doctors in rural areas means patients go without care

The ripples of health care policy are constantly bouncing around in our lives, and among the bigger trends shaping rural landscapes are the loss of rural hospitals and near access to healthcare. NPR has both sides of the story — patients and providers — on the challenges facing health care in places like Minot. One

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Americans say: hold drug companies responsible for opioid crisis

Some states have filed lawsuits against the drug companies. And according to a poll conducted by NPR, the majority of Americans are ok with holding those same companies accountable. Get the full story from NPR.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

This Is Your Brain On Ads: How Mass Marketing Affects Our Minds

Have you ever marveled at how ad-filled our lives are? In modern America, there are few places where we can escape their influence, and new research indicates that ad exposures at a young age may influence buying decisions decades later. If you take a moment to think about it, one can’t help but wonder if

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Want a Daily Dose of Minot News & Commentary? Sign Up For Daily Updates!

Follow Us Here!

Teen Suicide Spiked After Debut Of Netflix’s ’13 Reasons Why,’ Study Says

Television watching is vastly different today than it was even 10 years ago. Binge-watching and the viral-like consumption of content are major differences. And in the one case of one popular Netflix show from a few years ago with suicide story-line, researchers identified a spike in teen suicide following the release. While the researchers are

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Court Says Using Chalk On Tires For Parking Enforcement Violates Constitution

There is no rage like a citizen who gets a parking ticket. In North Dakota, one of those citizens led a charge to eliminate a cities ability to price parking with parking meters. That political battle was fought decades ago; that citizen was successful and a law banning parking meters is still in place today.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

LGBT presence in rural America significant

The idea that LGBT populations are only on the coasts and in the bigger cities false. A recently released study found that between 2.9 and 3.8 million LGBT individuals call rural America home, and they’ve chosen to live here for the same reasons as everywhere else — values associated with close-knit communities.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

Teams searching for cheap way to stop algae blooms, with $10 million prize on the line

You have an efficient, cost-effective way to remove phosphorous from freshwater bodies? If so, you may want to enter it into an innovation competition sponsored The Everglades Foundation in Florida. The prize: $10,000,000. Whether North or South, algae blooms are an increasing problem and one of the primary contributors is phosphorus-rich runoff that feeds the

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

The economy keeps adding jobs, but filling them gets harder

Jobs, jobs, jobs — they aren’t hard to find. The tricky part is for the businesses that need qualified people to fill them. NPR has the story on the national trend, but there’s a message we’d do well to take note of here in Minot. We perpetually pursue jobs through economic development, but we already

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR