Cally Peterson

When China first confirmed reports that patients were being treated for a novel virus of unknown cause, some 1 million people were in New York City as the Times Square ball dropped on 2020, with millions more watching at home.

Electric cooperatives have a strong history of environmental stewardship. In fact, many electric cooperatives made commitments to the environment long before it was required by law.

Because co-ops are owned by the membership, the cooperative business model enables members to assert their voices to determine the direction of the co-op. Board directors elected by the membership also guide the cooperative to make decisions, establish policies and best practices, and carry out the vision of cooperative membership.

Lisa Rossow met her future husband, Wayne, in a seemingly perfect way for a girl from western North Dakota: at a boot-scootin’-boogie country bar after a Valentine’s Day rodeo. Besides the cowboy charm, it didn’t take long for the pair to find even more common ground.

Lisa grew up on a dairy and grain operation in Flasher. Her mother, Jackie Miller, is a longtime employee of Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative, and when she met Wayne, Lisa was working for Roughrider Electric Cooperative.

THE GREAT EQUALIZER
A Republican from Minot, Haugland was first elected to represent her district in 1938, merely 18 years after women were given the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She was re-elected 26 consecutive times, even when her party dropped her from the ballot in 1962. She won that primary as an independent, and then the general election, and would run again the next cycle as a Republican.

A hollowed-out hole in an oak tree on the Missouri River. Lonely fur trading outposts. Military forts. An old sheepherder’s wagon. Humble sod homes. Homestead shanties. Isolated ranches. And a rock ledge on a butte. What do these things have in common? They all served as early post offices through present-day North Dakota.

“Your kid has done it or seen it done, and I can almost guarantee it,” says Kidder County High School Principal Michael Wachter.

The “it” Wachter describes? Vaping.

Using an e-cigarette is commonly called vaping. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid into a vapor that can be inhaled. The vapor may contain nicotine, flavoring, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemicals.

“It’s happening,” he says. “Your son or daughter has seen a device being used. And that right there is peer pressure in itself.”

Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative member Annette Broyles drives 80 miles roundtrip each workday, to get from her home in rural New Salem to her classroom at United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in south Bismarck. She doesn’t mind the drive, because she loves her job. In fact, she celebrated her 16-year work anniversary in December.

“Every job I have had has kind of led me to this,” Broyles says.

Minnesota has hockey. North Dakota has basketball. And no one knew North Dakota basketball better than Don Hanson.

For 35 years, Hanson produced the basketball bible for North Dakota: “The Hoopster.” It is a comprehensive guide to North Dakota high school and college basketball, complete with team previews, player information, statistics, predictions and even a master list of North Dakota school nicknames dating back to a time before school consolidation.

As a nearly 20-year active member of the U.S. Army Reserves, the Hazen native had been deployed before. She served in the 2008-10 campaign of Operation Iraqi Freedom, earning a Bronze Star Medal and a Combat Medical Badge as the executive officer of a forward surgical team.

“It was life-changing,” Ziemann-Bolinske says.