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February 4, 2010 Page 3
A good game full Of winners
Hello,
You know, I like sports. Oh, I
don't sit glued to the TV for a loot-
ball game. But I occasionally watch
one. Did you know that in a three-
hour tootball game, there is about
twelve minutes of actual football'?
Really. Twelve minutes. The rest is
analysi;s, replays, advertising, and a
pretty' much general waste of time.
And personally, I think the refs in
the Viking game last week were
hon'ible. And Brett Favre is maybe
the toughest guy in the world!
And I like golf. If you are in a
cart. Sharing refreshments with a
friend. And you don't care where
the dang ball goes. And the weather
is nice. And it's not windy. And
there is going to be a card game
after the golf game. I still can't
answer the question, "Are golfers
athletes?"
I don't care for professional bas-
ketball. I don't think anyone other
than Jack Nicholson does. But col-
lege ball. when March Madness
starts is wonderful. Who can forget
the excitement of NDSU playing
Kansas tough last year? Awesome!
But, really, high school sports
are where it is at for a lot of the
Dakotas. Gyms fill up in large and
small towns across the plains.
People will fight
raging blizzards, icy
roads, and power
outages to cheer on
young athletes who
are wrestling, play-
ing ball, cheerlead-
ing, or maybe in the
band.
People will fight raging blizzards,
icy roads, and power outages to
cheer on y6ung athletes who are
wrestling, playing ball, cheerlead-
ing, or maybe in the band. I did all
of the above. Well, most. Okay.
Some.
I was back in my old home coun-
try over the weekend. Berthold. You
know. The Berthold Bombers. The
headline on the sports page of the
Minot Daily News read "Bombers
Survive!" And they did. Barely.
Against a handftfl of kids from
Mandaree. The Warriors. Both
teams had kids and grandkids of
friends of mine.
I didn't get to go to the game.
But I talked to a lot of people who
were there. And although Mandaree
didn't win the game, they won a lot
of friends at that game.
My brother, who attends most of
the Bomber games, said the
Mandaree coach and kids showed
the most class of any team he could
remember. As well as the Mandaree
fans.
When a player went down in a
scramble for the ball, it was a
Warrior who was the first guy there,
offering a hand up.
When a Bomber fouled out, it
was the Warriors and their coach,
who lined up to give a ball player a
pat on the back, a hug, or shake his
hand.
When someone made a great
shot, or a great pass, it was the
Warrior fans that gave the player
applause, no matter what team he
was on.
The Warrior fans applauded
When Bomber players were intro-
duced. They,didn't turn their back.
Two great teams. And nobody
lost.
Thanks guys, Dean Meyer
Capitol
Report
By Shirl-y Meyer
lo lhe editor
Postal Service does its part to be 'green'
To the editor:
Most people associate the United
States Postal Service with the color
blue - the blue eagle logo, blue uni-
forms, blue collection boxes - so they
might not realize how green the
USPS is.
In October, the USPS
announced results of its first green-
house gas report, which showed
the Postal Service's direct carbon
tbotprint is only one-twentieth of 1
percent of America's greenhouse
gas emissions. That's pretty green
for an agency with 220,000 vehi-
cles (the largest civilian fleet in the
world), 34,000 facilities (more
than McDonald's and Starbucks
combined) and 618,000 employ-
ees.
The Postal Service, which receives
no tax dollars for operations, has
earned more than 75 major environ-
mental awards, including 40 White
House Closing the Circle Awards and
the 2009 Climate Change Champion
of the Year Award.
For all the blue associated with
mail, these achievements show that
the United States Postal Service is
also a good green' neighbor.
Corlene Olson, postmaster, Beach
Karen Schmeling, postmaster,
Golwl
Judy Stenberg, postmaster,
Sentinel Butte
Dithering on drinking
The start of a new year often
brings with it a resolve to try some-
thing new, fix something old, or tack-
le a problem too long left unsolved.
hnagine what the start of a new
decade could offer.
A specific problem that has long
suffered from vast national equivoca-
tion has been one that involves the
health and safety of young people:
underage drinking.
Curious given a concerted feder-
al effort to curb underage drinking.
The Interagency Coordinating
Committee on the Prevention of
Underage Drinking (ICCPUD),
which is chaired by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, supports a range of
programs.
That effort, among others, seems
to have made some progress. But
progress may be slowing - meaning
it's time to revisit the issue and the
role all adults play (or don't play) in
realizing the goals set out in a report
from the National Research Council
and Institute of Medicine of the
National Academies (Reducing
Underage Drinking: A Collective
Responsibility') - a critical research-
based book and call to action that got
the ball rolling.
According to new Monitoring the
Future data from the University of
Michigan, a long-term gradual
decline in alcohol use among 8th,
10th, and 12th graders has leveled
off, with the trend continuing for only
the 8th graders.
Not encouraging news given
what we know about youth ',and alco-
hol.
For example, the Academies
estimate the annual cost of underage
drinking at $53 billion in losses
from traffic deaths, violent crime
and other destructive behavior.
When it comes to older adolescents;
Teens Today research from SADD
(Students Against Destructive
Decisions) reveals that by 12th
grade more than 3 in 4 teens are
drinking.
• The Center for Substance Abuse
Research (CESAR) notes that 85 per-
cent of 17-year-old drinkers get
drunk at least once in a typical
month.
And then there's college.
In February 2009, a survey of
6,608 students at the University of
Wisconsin revealed:
• 33 percent of respondents report-
ed that they have missed classes due
to alcohol.
• 24 percent of respondents report-
ed they had unprotected sex due to
alcohol, and
• 49 percent of respondents report-
ed doing something while drinking
alcohol that they later regretted.
So pervasive is college drinking
that teens in SADD-related focus
groups cite preparing lot it as a pri-
mary reason for drinking in high
school.
Ralph Hingson of the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism points out some of the
same as well as other alcohol-related
consequences for college stndents:
Assault: More than 696,0(X) are
assaulted by another student who has
been drinking.
Sexual Abuse: More than 97,(X)0
are victims of alcohol-related sexual
assault or date rape.
Unsafe Sex: 400,0(X} have unpro-
tected sex and more than 100,000
report having been too intoxicated to
know if they consented to having sex.
Academic Problems: About 25
percent of students report academic
consequences of their drinking,
including missing class, falling
puts youth at risk
behind, doing poorly on exams or
papers, and receiving lower grades
overall.
Drunk Driving: 2.1 fiaillion drive
under the influence of alcohol each
year.
And yet the problem of alcohol
use on or around college campuses
continues to be a polarizing issue,
with some in higher education advo-
cating for lowering the minimum
legal drinking age (pool ... the
"problem" then disappears) while
prevention experts insist that the law
saves lives and serves as an effective
deterrent (SADD research points m
the 21-year-old minimum legal
drinking age as the number one rea-
son those younger don't drink).
Similarly, researchers at the
Washington University School of
Medicine credit the current law for a
decline in binge drinking among 12-
to 20-year-old males (females are not
doing as well), although they found
that college students of both genders
are binge drinking more.
Knowing the scale and the cost of
the problem, all Americans can begin
the new decade with a renewed sense
of urgency m pursue proven effective
strategies to reduce underage drink-
ing at college ... and before. A good
start, as with other problems, is
acknowledging that one exists.
Many colleges that have cite declines
in underage and high-risk drinking
among students.
The time to equivocate ran out
when the ball dropped at midnight on
Dec. 31.
(Stephen Wallace, author of
Reality Gap: Alcohol, Drugs, and
&:r-- What Parents Don't Know and
Teens Aren't Telling, serves as
national chairman and chief execu-
tive offh'er of SADD, hlc. (Students
Against Destructive Decisions).
Road flood control costs
both Iqave to be addressed
I'm always a little surprised with
some of the questions I'm asked.
We were out for supper the other
night with a few friends and we
started discussing the cost of our lat-
est storm.
Someone asked me what a new
REA pole would cost, and I didn't
have any idea. His response was
that as a state legislator 1 should
know that. I guess he was right so
with a phone call or two I now know
that a new pole can cost anywhere
from $300 to $800, depending on
size. Hundreds of these poles were
snapped off like twigs. The cost of
this storm is going to be astronomi-
cal. I don't know what the final esti-
: mates are going to be, but just the
man hours alone are going to be
incredible. These crews worked
long, long hours in extremely diffi-
cult conditions. Once again,
"Thank-you."
1 don't suppose they ever get
used to coming up to a door after
getting a rancher's electricity back
on and are met with a big hug and
kiss. That can really hurt if your
face is frozen.
,, For those people lucky enough to
have a generator, they can really
appreciate how cheap our electricity
is even in the winter months.
• - Running a place on a generator can
be a pricy option - necessary, indis-
I don't suppose
they ever get used
to coming up to a
door after getting a
rancher's electrici-
ty back on and are
met with a big hug
and kiss,
pensable, but expensive.
With this last storm it's pretty
much a certainty that the Red River
is going to be flooding Fargo and the
Valley again. Everyone is praying
that it won't be as bad as last year,
but we'll just have to wait and see.
It took the state of North Dakota
over 10 years to pay their costs of
the 1997 flood. The floods of 2009
were considered to be a 125-year
event and luckily for us the federal
government picked up 90 percent of
those costs. When these 125-year
events start happening every year it
is impossible to budget, let alone pay
for them.
The president's budget was
released on Monday and fortunately
for North Dakota, monies have been
set aside for a comprehensive study
for permanent flood control relief.
Permanent flood control for the Red
River Valley is going to be extreme-
ly expensive. Most of us realize the
importance of flood control in the
valley, but the oil patch is the driver
of the job creation and the budget
surplus in the state the past few
years. We have to start funding
more of our infrastructure needs out
in the West, too.
Production levels of crude oil
continue to climb and set another
new record - in November - over
245.000 barrels per day. The current
rig count is 80, on the rise, and now
10 percent above the number operat-
ing in the state one year ago. Oil and
gas production and extraction tax
collections totaled $28.9 million in
December. So far the tax collections
in the new biennium through
December have totaled $120 mil-
lion, but remember we have to start
repairing our roads if this kind of
activity is going to be sustained.
I can be contacted at jmey-
er@nd.gov or by phone at 225-2736.
God Bless,
Shirley Meyer
State Representative, District 36
A recent statewide survey showed that when
North Dakotans plan to shop they prefer
newspaper over every other media source by
more than 3-to-1.
More than 3-to-l! How's that for a glowing
recommendation?
The survey proved, once again, that when
people turn through the pages of a
newspaper, they've turned their attention
to finding information, entertainment and
prices.
That means, if you're looking for
customers, we know a place where your
customers are looking for you: in North
Dakota's many excellent newspapers.
Source: North Dakota Statewide Survey 2008
North Dakota Newspaper Association wwwmdna.com
NY00saidit,
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