Dale Haugen

A farm boy from Ryder – Growing up on a small family farm, Dale never dreamed of a career off the farm. “Farming was in my heart and that is truly what I wanted to do,” he says. But interest rates were rising in the 1970s and when some neighboring land came for sale at auction, Dale determined his future wasn’t on the farm. “During the oral bidding process, I could not see a path forward, and we let the land go,” he says.

substation

A decommissioned substation that sat powerless for nearly a year is no longer out of commission.

Central Power Electric Cooperative, a Minot-based generation and transmission cooperative, has disassembled its retired Garrison area substation and moved it 75 miles south to the Lineworker Training Center in Mandan, where it will be used as a training tool. The donated substation is a critical foundational piece of training equipment, which will allow for the development of a training program specifically for substation technicians.

caffeine+coal

“Not many people get mad at the guy making coffee,” Travis Helfrich jokes.

It’s hard to imagine anyone being mad at a guy like Helfrich, who not only makes good coffee, but helps make the electricity Americans depend on to power their lives. He’s a coal worker, then a coffee roaster. In that order, for now.

While adjusting to a shiftwork schedule in his mid-20s, Helfrich picked up a coffee-drinking habit.

Tim Mahoney

quoteDeath and tragedy permeate Tim Mahoney’s hardest days on the job as mayor of Fargo.

First, it was the 2014 death of his friend and predecessor, former mayor Dennis Walaker, an undisputed giant in Fargo’s history.

Then, it was Fargo police officer Jason Moszer, who died in the line of duty in 2016.

Hello North Dakota

song quoteJenee Munro said hello to North Dakota 10 years ago, and she has no plans to say goodbye.

The Plentywood, Mont., native appreciates the wide-open spaces, abundant outdoor opportunities and natural wonders North Dakota offers. What’s more, she’s found a community she loves in Rolla, and one she says cares about her family, too, including her husband, Josh, and their three children.

Jeff Tweten

Millions of Americans tuned in to the first “Monday Night Football” broadcast of the year. Two NFL powerhouses, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills, faced off in a Jan. 2 game the oddsmakers had tipped in the Bills’ favor by two-and-a-half points. According to preliminary ratings, the game was the most-watched “Monday Night Football” telecast in ESPN history with 23.8 million viewers, surpassing a 2009 Packers-Vikings game in which many Upper Midwesterners likely were among the 21.8 million viewers.

It was not the game, however, that drew the massive audience.