Lots of great stuff made the list, but only a few things will be presented in our holiday gift guide 2011. Made popular by the boys on Jersey Shore, this Italia track jacket is a must for today’s MTV teen. ($39.95, Soccer Shirts Plus) Forget diluted whiskey and scotch.  Especially for us purchasing the good [...]

As we begin to wonder when the unemployment we’re currently facing will end, we also have to examine whether or not we need fundamental restructuring of the rural economy.  North Dakota hopes that much of its future economic growth can come from natural resource expansion, particularly surrounding the Bakken Oil Fields.  However, what is left [...]

This isn’t an issue I’ve covered yet, but it’s one that’s percolating through plenty of newspapers and blogs.  Should North Dakota change its law, which I understand says pharmacists have to own at least 51 percent of any pharmacy in the state?  Or should we change the law so that big box pharmacies can come [...]

I was just reading through the new Business Watch magazine.  Apparently North Dakota was the only state in the region to expand its economy this past November.  Our uenemployement is still low and our population grew, too.   From the article: The burea’s most recent extimate put the state population at 641,481 in July 2008, up from [...]

I didn’t realize that if retail stores carry Pride of Dakota products they can be listed on the Pride of Dakota web site.  That’s free advertising just for carrying a great product, and it seems like good business sense. It almost makes me wish I owned a store.

Bismarck Tribune reporter Brian Duggan recently wrote a column about North Dakota’s economy, saying that it wasn’t what he expected it to be.  While touting the state’s relatively healthy economy, which many people attribute to oil development on the Bakken formation, Duggan worked in the forecasts showing a slightly higher chance than 50/50 that the recession will [...]

According to this KX News article, shoppers were out in abundance early this morning.  Unlike other parts of the country, people in North Dakota aren’t as worried about the economy.  The article states that the recent oil boom in the western half of the state (North Dakota is now fifth in the nation for oil [...]

According to this KX News article, the real estate industry in North Dakota is doing reasonably well.  While there were slightly fewer homes sold in the Bismarck area this year and although they sold for slightly less than they would have the prior year, agents and builders cited in the article indicated that North Dakota [...]

North Dakota farmers Wayne Hauge and David Monson, who wish to grow crops of industrial hemp, appeared with their case in the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals last week.  This post at StopTheDrugWar.org said it could take weeks or months to get a decision. Monson and Hauge maintain that industrial hemp (used in products ranging from lotions to clothing) is not the [...]

This Bismarck Tribune article highlights a survey-study by the Bismarck Mandan Development Association during a recent job fair in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It appears that while the rest of the nation struggles with unemployment, the Bismarck/Mandan area in North Dakota is “apparently rich with jobs.” It’s not that the economic downturn hasn’t brushed North Dakota.  Major manufacturing [...]