Marvin Baker
North Dakota
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Articles by Marvin Baker
City of Minot Approves AXON License Plate Reader Technology
Minot City Hall (Photo: Kyler Collom, The Dakotan) The City of Minot voted 4-3 to approve usage of AXON automated license plate reader technology. After months of deliberation, the Minot City council has come to a decision on the usage of the AXON Automated License Plate Reader Technology in a 4-3 vote with Alderman Hayes, Pitner, Olson, and Mayor Jantzer vting in favor and Aldermen Fuller, Blessum, and Samuelson against.
North Dakota governor’s veto ‘clear and unambiguous,’ attorney general says
Written by The Dakotan | The Dakotan • Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Chief Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness talk to reporters June 11, 2025, about an opinion related to Gov. Kelly Armstrong’s veto. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor) Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Chief Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness talk to reporters June 11, 2025, about an opinion related to Gov. Kelly Armstrong’s veto.
New Links Emerge in Dunseith Debacle: How Much Did State Leaders Know?
The Dakotan has been on the ground floor of a breaking story - the Dunseith Debacle. Other media have called it Dunseith-Gate or Dunseith Declassified. The Dunseith Debacle has been a story which apparently ties into potential national security issues, commercial aviation supply chain compromises, public flight safety risks, possible State and federal agent cover-up, possible murder, and public corruption.
The Dunseith Debacle: Letters to the Governor
Minot, ND – The Dunseith Debacle has consumed a considerable amount of my time over the past few months and has likely been the most significant story I’ve covered at The Dakotan during my time here. To summarize the situation as concisely as possible: businessman Charles Hoefer purchased the former Benchmark chip manufacturing facility in Dunseith, ND.
Former North Dakota lawmaker to plead guilty to child sex tourism charge
Written by The Dakotan | The Dakotan • xr:d:DAF97yK-f6U:4,j:5589388181878029746,t:24030816 xr:d:DAF97yK-f6U:4,j:5589388181878029746,t:24030816 BY: AMY DALRYMPLE (North Dakota Monitor) Former North Dakota state Sen. Ray Holmberg has signed an agreement indicating he will plead guilty to a child sex tourism charge. A plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court on Monday says Holmberg will voluntarily plead guilty to a charge of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity.
Jared Hendrix Announces Campaign for State House in Fargo’s District 10
FARGO, ND - Today, Jared Hendrix launched his campaign for State House in District 10 in Fargo. On April 2nd, he was endorsed by local Republicans. “North Dakota has tremendous opportunities. We have all we need for success and self sufficiency – agriculture, oil, coal, water aquifers, rail infrastructure, a growing tech industry and, most importantly of all, the best people,” said Hendrix.
There’s Always Tomorrow
When does Spring arrive? Seems like the answer is always tomorrow, but then I’ve grown accustomed to disappointment over my many years in North Dakota. I enjoy the changing of the seasons, others do too, but my patience is quite limited when it comes to Spring. It’s a struggle for me when Spring refuses to arrive when I want it to arrive. Yes, it’s a yearly occurrence. Darn it. This year, according to the calendar, March 19 is the first day of Spring. Bluebirds, blossoms, and sunshine?
Attempted Murder, Chase, Leads to Prison
MINOT – It was time to pay for his actions and when the proceedings concluded Joshua Chambers, 19, Minot, racked up 75 years in prison sentences in front of North Central District Judge Richard Hagar Monday afternoon. Hagar tacked on slightly more than $71,000 dollars restitution, court fees, and three years' supervised probation upon release.
District 40 Representative, Matt Ruby
Join us in The Dakotan Studio as we welcome District 40 Representative, Matt Ruby, for an engaging discussion on the dynamic landscape of North Dakota politics. Delve into the latest updates and insights on the developments within District 40, as we explore the pressing issues and initiatives shaping our community. Don't miss out on this enlightening conversation!
What is happening to North Dakota shopping malls?
Have you been to a shopping mall lately? I haven’t until recently and it’s quite surprising at the lack of activity going on. Some of it could be attributed to COVID, but somehow I doubt it because we’ve seen a shift in buying habits before the pandemic and that’s undoubtedly due to the Internet. It doesn’t matter where you live in North Dakota, you probably have a mall within a reasonable dis-tance.
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Doomed from the start When I started my job at the Kenmare News in late 2013, a recurring assignment was to cover the Berthold City Council. During one of those council meetings, I met Alex Gregg, a young real estate developer from Phoenix. The oil boom was in full swing and Gregg - along with his business partner, Raymond McLeod Sr. - was in Berthold to pitch a 234-unit housing development just east of town that would include a park, a grocery store, and possible apartments.
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Are we losing history in real time? It has come to my attention that the very existence of the Cavalier County Republican is in limbo. Country Media, which also has publications in Oregon and California, apparently doesn’t want to continue publishing the official Cavalier County newspaper. For those of you who may not know, I operated the Republican from December 1995 until the end of August 1999. My title was editor and publisher.
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A city of governors The community of Casselton is unique in North Dakota and probably in the nation because in 132 years of statehood, Casselton, now with a population of 2,500, has produced five governors. Most places couldn’t do that in 260 years; yet, this little town 20 miles west of Fargo is known for this unusual fact. Andrew Burke In 1880 he and his wife, Caroline, arrived in Casselton, and he worked as a cashier with First National Bank, Casselton. On Nov.
A city of governors
The community of Casselton is unique in North Dakota, and probably in the nation because in 132 years of statehood, Casselton, now with a population of 2,500, has produced five governors. Most places couldn’t do that in 260 years, yet this little town 20 miles west of Fargo is known for this unusual fact. Andrew Burke In 1880 he and his wife, Caroline, arrived in Casselton and he worked as a cashier with First National Bank, Casselton. On Nov. 4, 1890, he was elected governor by a popular vote.
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A state of governors It’s been nearly 113 years since Howard Taft beat out Theodore Roosevelt for the presidency, and although we know he ran again in 1912, Woodrow Wilson easily won. Because Roosevelt once lived in Dakota Territory, to this day he remains one of the state’s poster boys. We’re building a Theodore Roosevelt Library, Roosevelt look-alikes roam around Medora in the summer, and just about anywhere you go in the state, you’ll find information about Roosevelt. And rightfully so.
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A Parkinson’s promise A University of Guelph professor in Ontario has found a solid link between herbicides and the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Previous studies had found an association between two commonly used agrochemicals (paraquat and maneb) and Parkinson’s disease. Paraquat is a chemical herbicide, or weed killer, that’s highly toxic and used all over the world. It’s one of the most common herbicides used today, but it can cause fatal poisoning when ingested or inhaled.
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Strangely enough Oh no! I’ve broken the law in Florida several times. I better go back and turn myself in to Tampa police! There are a lot of stupid laws in this country, including Florida and North Dakota. Some of them are so crazy, you just have to shake your head and wonder, who in God’s name would even want to create such laws? And, how can they be enforced? Now that I know I’m a criminal in Tampa, I don’t know how I’ll handle the stress! It’s illegal to go downtown without having at least $10.
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Local history on our TV screens Ever since digital television came along in 2009, more and more channels are being added to the airwaves all the time. Known as subchannels, many local channels that have always been in our communities, add two, three, four or more subchannels. It all started with Prairie Public Television that mandated a digital signal long before the government. Prairie Public is the pioneer in this technology, at least in North Dakota.
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The grasshopper grind A lot of people, especially those who live on farms and ranches, will remember how bad grasshoppers were in the 1980s, particularly in the second half of the decade when drought conditions persisted. Grasshoppers were all over the place, and rather than using mass quantities of pesticides to kill the hoppers and everything else in their paths, a Bismarck Junior College biology professor came up with a unique method of knocking out the infestation.
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This is the wrong ‘Angle’ Over the years there have been plenty of controversies regarding the Northwest Angle in northern Minnesota. At least twice in Minnesota’s history, the residents of the angle threatened to secede from the United States and become part of Canada. Northwest Angle is the only place in the continental United States that is north of the 49th Parallel. And if you have business in Roseau or Warroad, you have to take Manitoba roads to get back to the U.S. border.
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Rock on North Dakota Do you remember Rockin’ the Hills or Party in the Pasture? These were music festivals held in North Dakota some years ago that became very popular but only for a few short years. Rockin’ the Hills was near Bottineau and Party in the Pasture was near Beulah. It appeared the organizers were trying to fashion both of these festivals after We Fest in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
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Negatory Big Ben Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “negatory Big Ben?” It was CB radio lingo from a song called Convoy by C.W. McCall that played on radio stations in 1976. Messages like “breaker one nine, what’s your 10-20, 10-4, it’s clear to flag town, gonna put the hammer down, 10-4” and an endless list of slang language was commonly used on citizen band radio. Most of us had them in our cars during the second half of the ‘70s.
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In a place where less is more A residual effect of a recent trip to the VA hospital in Fargo opened my eyes to what I think many people have been misled about in recent years. Instead of driving south to Bismarck and east to Fargo, or east to Grand Forks and south to Fargo, I went southeast to Carrington, followed N.D. Highway 200 to Cooperstown, Finley, and Mayville before coming out on Interstate 29 near Hillsboro.
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In the beginning Since the mid 1980s, a lot of radio and television stations have come on the air in North Dakota. And since 2009, the number multiplied with the advent of digital TV and radio. But how about in the beginning? What was radio like in the beginning for residents of North Dakota? As you might imagine, the radio dial was quite different than it is now. You didn’t really need to do any tuning because there was no place else to go. Here’s something you might find interesting.
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Farm tractors in North Dakota We all know North Dakota is an agricultural state, and it takes an awful lot of farm machinery to take this state from seeding through harvest every year. And when we get out in the country, we’ll see all kinds of machines and colors moving slowly but methodically through fields.
Farm tractors in North Dakota
We all know North Dakota is an agricultural state and it takes an awful lot of farm machinery to take this state from seeding through harvest every year. And when we get out in the country, we’ll see all kinds of machines and colors moving slowly but methodically through fields. We like to think that farm machinery for the most part is American made, but after a check of some brand names, it turns out American made tractors are and have been the exception, not the rule.
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Cyclical produce production It’s amazing how our eating habits have changed over the course of the last 50 years, and even more so if you go back 130 years. A recent North Dakota Farmers Market & Growers Association report indicates that good and smart eating has been, well, sort of cyclical in this state. Back in the 1890s, just after statehood, there were a lot of people consuming fresh produce, mostly vegetables, primarily because they grew their own.
Cyclical produce production
It’s amazing how our eating habits have changed over the course of the last 50 years and even more so if you go back 130 years. A recent North Dakota Farmers Market & Growers Association report indicates that good and smart eating has been, well, sort of cyclical in this state. More:A changing sports landscape Back in the 1890s, just after statehood, there were a lot of people consuming fresh produce, mostly vegetables, primarily because they grew their own.
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A changing sports landscape If you think about sports in North Dakota in 1960 vs. today, it was drastically different and continues to change. There were almost twice the number of schools in the state, there were three state boys basketball tournaments, and it wasn’t always the “big” towns that were winning games. In the official report of the North Dakota High School Activities Association from 1960, the Class C District 6 boys basketball tournament is one example of how things have changed.
A changing sports landscape
If you think about sports in North Dakota in 1960 vs. today, it was drastically different and continues to change. There were almost twice the number of schools in the state, there were three state boys basketball tournaments and it wasn’t always the “big” towns that were winning games. In the official report of the North Dakota High School Activities Association from 1960, the Class C District 6 boys basketball tournament is one example of how things have changed.
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A subject of profound sorrow My sister contacted me recently to tell me that a good friend of ours from the early 1980s had died, and she wondered if I remembered him. Of course, I did, but it had been years since I had seen him. Still, when you make friends with someone, that bond never really disappears because there are too many shared memories, even if 40 years have passed. It’s just one in a string of deaths recently of friends and acquaintances from my high school days and my early 20s.
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History lessons in real time Do you like to read newspapers? Most people do despite the advent of digital social media. Newspapers continue to be the most trusted source of information, and all you have to do is go back and look at old issues and you’ll see exactly what I mean. When it’s the here and now, we don’t necessarily think about it. We read the paper: the headlines, the obituaries, the sports, the ads.
History lessons in real time
Do you like to read newspapers? Most people do despite the advent of digital social media. Newspapers continue to be the most trusted source of information. And all you have to do is go back and look at old issues and you’ll see exactly what I mean. When it’s the hear and now, we don’t necessarily think about it. We read the paper; the headlines, the obituaries; the sports; the ads. We most often get our satisfaction from the latest edition, then we put it in the recycle bin.
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Get a charge out of a road trip Some years ago when the Cenex station in Richardton installed an E-85 pump, it gave me an idea. I decided to take a trip from northwest of Minot to Rapid City and back using only E-85 alcohol fuel. The theory was to fill in Minot then in Richardton. That would take me to Sturgis, where I could fill there, go to Rapid City, and take care of my business.
Get a charge out of a road trip
Some years ago when the Cenex station in Richardton installed an E-85 pump, it gave me an idea. I decided to take a trip from northwest of Minot to Rapid City and back using only E-85 alcohol fuel. The theory was to fill in Minot, then in Richardton. That would take me to Sturgis, where I could fill there, go to Rapid City and take care of my business. On the return trip, it would get topped off in Sturgis, then a fill in Richardton and again in Minot before taking the short trip home.
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North Star Highway Once upon a time in North Dakota, about 104 years ago, there was a road crisscrossing the state called the Green Trail that was marked from Enderlin to Estevan. Sometime before the North Dakota Department of Transportation began to issue maps in 1924, the Green Trail was renamed the North Star Trail because it was linked to a road that went from Enderlin to Fairmount. That was in 1922.
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Fifty years ahead of his time A Mark Andrews newsletter from August 1975 surfaced here in my office, and its contents are about solar energy being a bright hope for the future of the United States. Andrews, who passed away on Oct. 3 of last year, was a Republican senator from North Dakota who represented us in Washington from 1981 to 1987 and was a candidate for governor in 1962. He was 94 when he died. His newsletter is very forward thinking and lays out many of the challenges we’re having now.
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An anniversary nobody wants A memorial has been established and is in place; Le Musi-Cafe is rebuilt and is once again the go-to tavern in town and from an outsider looking in, everything appears normal. The truth is, Lac-Megantic, Quebec, will never again be normal. Tuesday, July 6 marked the eighth anniversary of the worst rail disaster in modern Canadian history. It happened late on the night of July 6, 2013, and into the next day, and it has a western North Dakota connection.
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The legend of Minnewaukan As we consider unusual phenomenon in North Dakota’s history, Devils Lake has to be right up there toward the top. We’ve heard a lot of stories over the years, most having to do with the lake’s continued rise that keeps swallowing up farmland and parts of surrounding communities and tribal property. What many people outside of Devils Lake may not know is that in 1934, Devils Lake was nearly empty, and Pres.
The legend of Minnewaukan
As we consider unusual phenomenon in North Dakota’s history, Devils Lake has to be right up there toward the top. We’ve heard a lot of stories over the years, most having to do with the lake’s continued rise that keeps swallowing up farmland and parts of surrounding communities and tribal property. But what many people outside of Devils Lake may not know is that in 1934, Devils Lake was nearly empty and Pres. Franklin Roosevelt spoke at a spot that now has water nearly 60 feet deep.
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Sitting on a ‘gold’ mine Is it possible these days to create wealth, wealth that comes from an idea or a product that doesn’t currently exist in this part of the world? Of course, it is, but in order to make money, you have to spend money. That’s the unfortunate part of this scenario. As the saying goes, no risk no gain. In this case it’s property, or the lack of it that hinders someone from pursuing that wealth that is available, primarily because of a perceived consumer demand.
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North Dakota ‘Riel’ history They say truth is stranger than fiction, and if you read history books, you will see how remarkable that really is. Many of us have in our minds that what is now North Dakota began with statehood in 1889, but there were a lot of historical events that occurred and people who lived here prior to statehood and the establishment of the Dakota Territory in 1861.
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The Fleischkuekle rocks Do you remember the three old ladies in their 1948 sedan, cruising around town with a bull horn mounted on the roof? “Spreading the Word” was a Kroll’s Diner TV commercial in which three German ladies made it clear that the Fleischkuekle rocks. The commercial, both hilarious and very clever at the same time, pointed out the strong German influence in foods in North Dakota. Fleischkuekle is just one of the many ethnic foods in the state that are common.
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Treasures among us In the late 1970s, there wasn’t a whole lot to do after high school in my hometown except work on the farm or go to Bismarck and work in retail and not make any money. Most of us struggled, at least initially, until we either got college degrees or got promoted in jobs we took right out of high school. Several people chose to step way outside the box and look for opportunities in a place most of us were scared to pronounce, let alone live and work there.
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Making small town connections Years before I got married, I had this quirky habit of showing up in small towns and just mingling with people. I’m not sure one could do that these days, but back in the ‘80s, it was a lot of fun, and I met a lot of good people. • One of the best examples I can provide is one day I driving through southern Manitoba on a hot day and decided to stop at a tavern in Killarney and have a cold, afternoon beer. There was a lady tending bar who was probably 40ish.
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Dateline North Dakota When you come into Minot from the south on U.S. Highway 83, you’ll see a billboard about Anita Knutson, a college student at Minot State University who was found dead in her apartment with numerous stab wounds. This is one of numerous homicides that have happened in the state and remain unsolved.
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Ramping up the rumor mill Several weeks ago I received some “good, solid” information about how to protect ourselves from coronavirus. The information was attributed to Johns Hopkins University and the British Columbia Minister of Public Health. As I read through the three-page report, I got to thinking that Johns Hopkins wouldn’t be quoting itself in such a report. It wouldn’t attribute itself, at least not on topics in the report, that involve such things as vodka and Listerine.
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Little known North Dakota history… May 23, 2000, was a very unusual and interesting day in North Dakota. Most people who live here aren’t aware of what happened, but for those who are, it was a historic day. Seven Canadian premiers (equivalent to governor) and the Canadian ambassador to the United States were in the state for a lengthy meeting.
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The explosion of Beulah… Throughout the history of North Dakota, the community of Beulah is one of a number of short-term oddities. In the early 1980s, the population exploded, and the Mercer County community grew by 500 percent. So imagine that, a sleepy little community of 1,300 in 1980 finds itself with 7,800 people by the end of 1983. Now that’s larger than Devils Lake and Valley City and almost as big as Wahpeton. How did it happen? The building of power plants is what fueled such rapid growth.
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An explanation of content… When I started writing this column more than seven years ago, the subject was often the first thing that popped into my head. I still remember the first one I wrote. It was about my two uncles who fought in World War II. One was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and the other was killed in the Aleutien Islands. In that first year, it was expanded to include everything from ice cream at the local Tastee Freez to the exploration of Mars.
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