jloos

DE will most likely follow CAT to a lesser degree. Farm equipment sales have been and likely will be much better than general equipment sales, due to the commodity boom. However, with the boom turning to bust the farmers will be hurting in the next year or so as well. Hopefully things stabilize a bit by that point. The idiots in the legislature are doing their best at spending the ND surplus. Somebody should let them know this is a global economy and ND is not immune. The drilling in Western ND will stop very soon unless oil gets above $60-70/bar. As noted above large corporations have a significant face (at least in Fargo). Microsoft, Otter Tail and MDU are all feeling the recession. Deere will likely join them soon.

Thanks for the video Bob, freakin hilarious

Still a mystery - where is Dr. House Given the fact he had a spinal tap it sound like they were ruling out leukemia, bleeding on the brain, and infection (encephalitis, meningitis). Sounds like he is feeling better. The fact he is back on the bench is good news. Hopefully they do find out what the problem was, but if his symptoms are gone, it may remain a mystery.

Bismarck beat South. It looks like a Western school is the favorite to win state for the first time since the Peluso (Bismarck), Philion (Minot) days. Actually, I believe that is the only year a Western team has ever won state. I want to say it was 92, I remember watching the game while I was playing bantams. I only saw Bismarck play once, and they did not impress me too much. They were very solid defensively. I remember looking at their roster and seeing all Sr and Jr's.

Vandevelde will likely end up in the top 4 at the end of the year. The most impressive stat to me is Martens. He had 19 points his first three years at UND (playing in 50+ games). He has 15 points in 18 games this year. I thought Kozek and Watkins would be where Martens is with stats. I don't think many would have predicted Miller and Martens to be the leading scorers half way through the season. The most unimpressive stat to me is defensive scoring. Other than Genoway and Miller (part time) the D are virtually non-existant on the scoreboard. I would guess 90% of Genoway and Miller's points are on the PP. Marto and LaPoint are not stay at home style defensemen. Even stay at home defensemen like Jones should get a few assists on outlet passing. To me this is very telling of the biggest problem on this Sioux team - inability to get the puck up ice. I realize the Sioux like to play low and forecheck aggressively, rarely using the points, but they need to generate more scoring chances on the rush.

He is not old enough - he will be in the 2009 draft.

Kazakhstan and Latvia appear to be weaker than the usual bottom two. Remember in GF those spots belonged to Belarus and Switzerland. I recall the US losing to Belarus and playing a very close game with Switzerland.

From what I have seen of him I would agree. He is a very good two way player. He would easily be a high first round pick in the draft next year if he was 6' or bigger. I remember seeing him in the MNHS tourney as an 8th grader.

This may be the shootout goal of the year: Jason Blake Spin O Rama

NTDP U18 N. MATTSON - must have been hurt for a couple months and has only played in 6 games so not sure whats up

Nearly all of the kids on the team have committed. The few that have not are likely to play MJ or are not top recruits. I just looked and only 5 players are not committed. I was looking at the stats and Mattson has 0 penalty minutes. How does a defenseman play 25 games and not get a single penalty? Morin would be a huge pick up but like everyone else says he is likely to play MJ. His style of play appears to be better suited for MJ's anyway (he has 70 pim's so far, next closest on his team has 46). Even if he plays college he will likely stay out East. He is from NY and I believe that is his brother on Harvard.

USA Today used convictions of Tribal officials, which account for most, if not all of these federal convictions (same with South Dakota). The numbers are correct, but the conclusion is obviously flawed. North Dakota is not the most corrupt state. The reservations are obviously rampant with corruption, and the US Attorney's office in ND is extremely aggressive.

North is terrible. They have good goaltending, that may keep things close, but this should be a very one-sided game. I saw North lose to Bismarck - they had 5 shots on goal the entire game. Labernik and luck were the only things that kept that game close. The numbers are down too much on the Northside. At least the girls are still doing well.

It is too bad these three local players (I count Warroad as local) are not with the Sioux: Monique Lamoureux, F, Fr 16 11 14 25 1.5625 31 1 1 2 Jocelyne Lamoureux, F, Fr 16 6 13 19 1.1875 36 3 1 0 Gigi Marvin, F, Sr 16 10 8 18 1.1250 10 2 3 1 These three would likely have put the Sioux women in the top 10.

Not sure if it was mentioned anywhere else, but Jacques Lamoureux currently leads the country in scoring (as well as goals, pts/game, GW goals and PP goals). This kid has been through a lot and it is nice to see him back on top of his game. Of the Lamoureux boys I always thought he was the most gifted offensively. It is difficult to compare the brothers as they are completely different players (goalie, stay at home d-man, grinder).

I get asked this all the time and this is not necessarily true. They have every right to fire him for using illegal drugs or more importantly for a felony arrest without triggering the ADA. THis is a bit dated, but explains the Justice Department's stance nicely - I usually print this out when asked if the ADA: LINK The legitimate cases where the ADA prevents firing someone addicted to drugs typically comes up where the employee takes a leave to get treatment and is fired. I have never seen anyone successfully bring up the ADA after getting fired subsequent to getting arrested for drugs.

I always liked his insight and his passion for the game. That said, I have lost all respect for the man. I have sympathy for the kid who gets hooked on meth through peer pressure. However, I have no sympathy for a well educated middle aged family man who takes on meth. What an extremely selfish thing to do. I hope he gets whatever help he needs, but I also hope I never have to listen to him again.

Downie is an extremely dirty player. This one still ticks me off - Jason Blake Cheapshot

I was living in St. Paul. I was watching Regis while eating breakfast (we did not have cable). They showed live footage of what they said was a small plane that crashed into the first tower and then proceeded to show the second plane live. It was a very sick thing to watch. I was then paged to work where I stayed for the next 18 hours making sure no terrorists wanted to blow up the metrodome.

Apparently Helling picked on him when they were kids. I have heard Helling and Jason Blake share a lot of the same personality traits.

I find it pretty hard to believe ZZ top would lip synch a concert. They are one of the great American blues/rock bands. You Tube them if you want to see what they are like now. I last saw them live about 5 years ago and they put on a great show. Billy Gibbons is one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time.

All anyone can do is speculate about what promises were made to this kid. I highly doubt he was told anything other than the truth about his role. Walski was basically recruited to be a practice goalie as well and he is (for now) the starting goalie for next year. If Snider was told there was a possibility he would remain on the team that was likely true. I am sure if he was told that the chances were not good.

We are praying for Will and your family. If there is anything "good" about an ALL diagnosis is that it is highly curable in young children. Unfortunately this takes 2-3 years of chemo, steroids and other bad medications. After the first month things will get easier. A friend of the family is about 9 months into the treatment. Have they told you what risk level Will falls into?

For the past 32 years Washington DC has been one of the safest places in the Country. This ruling will turn it into a violent city. Everyone knows gun control laws work great at preventing violent crimes. Nancy Pelosi is one of the biggest proponents for these laws. She is probably the smartest person in the world. Look at her energy policy. As Speaker she refuses to lift the moratorium on off shore drilling in the US. Oil and natural gas prices are incredibly low because we do not pay as much as they do in Europe. What great logic!

Apparently he is in town all week. I thought he was still in jail for the Vegas incident. Strange.