Fort Lincoln fourth grade elementary school teacher Annie Beck, who will be teaching next year abroad in Morocco. Brian L. Gray photo

By Brian L. Gray

After four years of teaching in Mandan, Annie Beck has chosen to educate students in an environment wholly different than where she works now.

Beck, who teaches fourth grade at Fort Lincoln Elementary School, will be taking a one-year sabbatical from her teaching position to become a teacher in Morocco.

Beck will be teaching in the city of Marrakesh, at a school called the American School of Marrakesh, which teaches an American curriculum to its students.  While there, Beck will be teaching the same courses she does here in Mandan. She will be educating an upper elementary class of about 17 to 20 students, and will be teaching her students in the English language.

Beck learned of the teaching opportunity while searching online. A website, TIEonline.com, connected her with several international schools looking for American teachers. She considered jobs along the coastal areas of South America, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, among other areas of the world before settling on Morocco. “I was up for anything, however, and applied to many different schools in multiple countries,” she says.

After learning more about the teaching program offered in Morocco, Beck finally chose her sabbatical location. She says she has traveled to a few international cities before, including Paris, but has never been to Africa before.

Beck says she is excited to experience a new area of the world. “Exploring new cultures is always a thrill,” she says. “I am looking forward to learning more about the traditions, history, geography, food, music and all other aspects of Moroccan culture. I am also excited to be working with students who are having an international education and to bring that experience back to future positions I will hold back here.”

Beck, who is originally from Mandan, graduated from St. Mary’s Central High School in 2002. From there she graduated with a degree in elementary education from the University of North Dakota. Knowing she wanted to eventually return home, Beck first moved to Santa Cruz, Calif., where she taught fourth grade for three years. Following her time there, Beck felt it was time to return home, and began teaching at Fort Lincoln.

Beck has been considering teaching abroad since college, but the opportunity to do so has not come until now.

“I’ve always loved traveling, and I believe living abroad, rather than just visiting an area, will be an even richer experience,” she says.

It is those very experiences that inspired her to become an educator. “I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in second grade, or maybe even earlier,” she says. “For me, there is no greater thrill than helping to instill a love of learning in a student and seeing a face light up as a new discovery is made.”

Due to the academic success following its first full year, the school district has planned to expand the Brave Center Academy to twice its current size in the next school year.

The Mandan School Board approved the reorganization and expansion of the Brave Center Academy during its meeting on May 6.

The expansion will be called the Alternative Day Program, which will be exclusively for at-risk high school students under the 16 years of age.

Mandan High School Assistant Principal Perry Just said the middle school portion of this program is going to move on site at the Mandan Middle School. The goal of this change, he said, is creating a place to help at-risk students to transition back to the high school or eventually move to the Brave Center Academy.

The program now assists 19 students who struggle academically. It will assist 38 students beginning in the fall semester of the 2013-14 school year.

The current schedule at the academy begins at 5:30 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. The expanded program will begin earlier in the day, from 2:30 to 5 p.m. This expansion will allow students to attend as a full-time student, from 2 to 8:30 p.m., or attend in either the afternoon or the evening, based on individual student needs.

The expansion will mean an growth of staff hours as well. Its two employees, who work part-time, will have its hours extended to full-time positions.

Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Lind said that there are enough students on the waiting list to justify this level of growth. “It is enlightening that there are enough students in waiting to fill all of the openings,” he said. “We started slow, and the number of students has expanded once we’ve seen what the capabilities are.”

“For the better part of the year, there has been a waiting list for students to enter the BCA,” Just said. “These students are attending school at MHS and struggling to be successful in the regular setting or are not currently in school but have expressed interest in attending school at an alternative setting.”

Following its first year, 37 students have been enrolled in the Brave Center Academy program. Of those students, three have graduated so far and a total of 126 classes have been completed, with an average “B” grade. Attendance has averaged 86 percent.

Ross Munns, sitting third from the right, sits with Fellow graduates of this year’s ICM’s Fellows Program. Just above Munns is the Delaware Chief Justice Hon. Myron T. Steele and the President of the National Center for State Courts Mary McQueen. Submitted photo

Ross Munns, an assistant court administrator with the Administrative Unit 3 of the North Dakota Judiciary in Bismarck, became a fellow of the Institute for Court Management, after having successfully completed the requirements of the ICM Fellows Program. Munns is a lifelong resident of Mandan.

Munns and 10 other court professionals from around the United States took part in the graduation ceremonies conducted at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The Honorable Myron T. Steele, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware and president of the Conference of Chief Justices, welcomed and address the graduates.

Munns delivered the graduation speech at the U.S. Supreme Court, after being selected as class spokesman and representative by members of the graduating class. The speech highlighted the positive impacts of the ICM Fellows Program and the need to continue advancements in the field of Court Administration in order to ensure fairness and equal access to the court system.

The ICM Fellows Program is the only program of its kind in the United States. This professional certification program was established more than 40 years ago, in part by then Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, in his call for improving the management of state court administration. This intensive four-phase educational program better prepares court professionals for management and leadership positions.

The jury’s verdict favored Delores Tietz, who used Humira in October 2009 for almost seven months for her rheumatoid arthritis. She was later diagnosed with a life-threatening fungal infection, histoplasmosis, which has been proven to be an effect of Humira use.

As a result of the Humira use, Tietz began experience chest pain and fever, and was taken to a hospital in May 2010. Her condition worsened as her organs began failing, and she fell into a coma.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert in September 2008 to manufacturers of drugs like Humira to provide new information to doctors about the risks of histoplasmosis.

Abbott Laboratories, the original makers of Humira before the company split off its research-based pharmaceutical business into the new company AbbVie on Jan. 1, didn’t send a letter directly to treating doctors until May 17, 2010, 10 days after Tietz was hospitalized.

The jury found AbbVie negligent for not taking reasonable measures to make sure doctors were suspicious enough to check for histoplasmosis.

This was the first Humira lawsuit filed against Abbott to go to trial.

Tietz began recovering following the coma in 2010, but had to go through physical and speech therapy. She spent a total of 13 months in the hospital.

In a statement, a spokesperson for AbbVie, Adelle Infante, said the company will plan to appeal.

“Humira has more than 15 years of clinical and safety data, with therapeutic risks well documented in the prescribing label,” the statement said. “We will appeal this verdict based in part on the jury’s assessment that the medical community was sufficiently warned about the risk of histoplasmosis.”

-Brian L. Gray

Ronald Harvey Cuthbertson, 56, was placed into custody on May 9 at the Warroad, Minn., Port of Entry, as he was trying to gain entry into the United States from Canada. He was listed as a suspect in an ongoing sexual imposition investigation.

A 48-year-old woman reported on April 23 that she had met a man at the Lonesome Dove in Mandan on April 21. The woman said she had danced and talked with the man for a couple of hours and offered him a ride to his semi.

The woman told the Mandan Police that she wanted to look inside the truck, and when she climbed the steps, the man pushed her inside. Once in the truck, the man took off the woman’s clothes and raped her.

The suspect was charged on May 3 with Class AA felony gross sexual imposition. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

Border patrol agents took custody of Cuthbertson and his commercial vehicle. The North Dakota Bureau of Investigations and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension executed a search warrant on his vehicle at the time he was apprehended.

At this time, Cuthbertson is at the Roseau County Minnesota Jail awaiting extradition.

-Brian L. Gray

A detour route is clearly marked along the road. Knife River will provide residents of the affected area of Sunset Drive access to their property.

Work involves a complete reconstruction of the street, including the installation of new water and sewer lines.

The fire emergency includes a ban on garbage and pit burning, campfires, charcoal grills, burning of farmland, cropland or ditches. This ban does not include the use of campfires, charcoal grills or chiminea devices within the city limits of Mandan.

The penalty for violations is a Class B misdemeanor, which comes with a maximum sentence of 30 days in jail or a $1,000 fine. The ban will remain in effect until further notice.

More information can be found online at co.morton.nd.us.

That’s what I told myself while doing my best not to crash my car following a recent snowstorm. I was driving about 15 miles an hour on the icy roads, trying to keep my momentum and also keep control. You know how that goes if you live on the prairie, where winter often begins around September and hangs around until August.

Never mind the fact that I was playing slalom with the snowdrifts on the road, there was something else at play that was making me nervous. Moving at that speed made me feel I was dragging, and it’s not like me to move at a slow pace. At that, quite frankly, stressed me out.

I’m naturally a speeder. And I know cops read this paper. I confess. Yes, I speed. Like, all the time. When I drive slow I get edgy and irate – to the point where I’ll yell at a busload full of nuns if they slow me down. During the storm I was riding that wave of discomfort, until a memory arose and instantly put me at ease. I thought back to when I was a young kid sitting in the backseat of our old family car, a 1984 Chevy Celebrity station wagon. Our entire family of six was in the car late at night, and our dad was driving us home from a long road trip.

I was watching my dad with awe as he navigated along the dark roads. He was a traveling salesman for Eckroth Music for nearly 30 years, so he’s a veteran – nay, a warrior – behind the wheel. I observed his hands on the wheel, the way he intricately moved it side to side, with a rhythm that made me think he was orchestrating a pitch-perfect synchronization between the car and the road that I couldn’t begin to understand. I watched this elaborate navigating, convinced I’d never be able to do that. To me it was like witnessing a work of art, the way he subtly controlled the wheel.

I knew I was always safe when my dad was behind the wheel. He drove with a calm poise and focus, and never rushed while on the road. This was what put me at ease while driving during the recent snowstorm, and I said to myself, “Be more like your dad,” and I was no longer irate.

In my young eyes, there was a subtle grace to my dad’s driving. I was in awe of the complex understanding he had behind the wheel. This admiration eventually grew to haunt me to the point where I wasn’t able to get my license until I was 19. I was convinced driving was such a complicated procedure that there was no way I’d ever learn. It took way too many hours of driving than normally necessary to finally convince myself I could actually do it.

A few years later I was driving with my dad for the first time. After a series of white-knuckle near-accidents and various mishaps immediately followed by words my dad never usually used and I only heard during late night cable movies, he finally spurted out to his nervous and unskilled pimply redheaded son behind the wheel, “Watch the road!”

That immediately put everything into perspective for me. I needed to watch the road, and not my hands. He was right. Only a fool focuses not on the destination, but the shoes used to get there. Years of misguided childhood theories were obliterated in an instant, and I was finally able to learn how to actually drive.

It’s truly amazing how much impact can come from three simple words.

And since then I’ve become the best driver on the road. Some days, in fact, I’m convinced I’m the only good driver on the road.

The road these days is not the only place I speed. My livelihood, my job, pits me in a position where I’m always in a race against the clock. I’m constantly in a rush. So much, in fact, that I don’t think I’ve had a complete thought in my head since 2008.

There’s also something about being in your thirties where you begin to feel like the time has come to accomplish those things you’ve let slide over the years, like some invisible deadline looms and you need to have those goals accomplished before you move into that next step in life, whatever it might be.

That’s where I’m at now, and I often feel that surge driving me, like I’m racing against some deadline that never really comes. It hasn’t been a perfect pursuit, as I’m still working on this whole “slow your life down” thing. But I’m getting better at it.

To help me out, I often go back to those childhood moments of watching my dad behind the wheel. It’s become my mental mantra of sorts to remind me to slow my life down. Not just while in the car but everywhere. I’m trying not to feel so pushed to move onto the next thing so quickly. Rather, I’m trying to better appreciate the now, to focus less on where I’m going but where I’m at.

He might have never meant to, but that’s something my dad taught me. I still feel comfort whenever I think of him behind the wheel. I knew I was always safe when he drove, and now I have full confidence that I’m safe whenever I’m behind the wheel, and so is anyone else who drives in my car.

I often think of that comfort he provided me when I was younger, and it leads me to think that one day I may have kids of my own sitting in the backseat who’ll be able to sleep calmly through the trip, knowing their dad is keeping them safe.

Because they’ll know I don’t go too fast. They’ll know I’m alert and cautious, and I think before I make a move. They’ll know they can rest comfortably because I’ll be holding them close from my driver’s seat, making sure they know that they are in safe and protective hands.

And maybe one of my kids will one day watch my hands a little too intently and become too afraid to ever get a license.

But they’ll learn. Because I did.

My brudder lives on Fishhook Lake so I was probably more engaged in this activity than either of my loyal readers. He informed that he would be one of the official 100 boats that would guide Governor Dayton and his entourage for the day. The Minnesota fishing opener is a big deal to Minnesotans; and both my loyal readers know that me, my brudder, friend Eug, and my two boys participated in this event until we realized that the weekend after opener was a better weekend to fish.

The weather usually sucks and the boat traffic on the opener takes on freeway proportions; it is not uncommon to worry more about other boats in your lane than the fishing line in your hand.  And God save you if you catch a walleye and mark the spot.

How can you tell if someone in a boat faraway catches a walleye? When someone uses a net to retrieve a fish and then puts the fish in their live well. Walleye fisherman don’t like to put a northern pike in the boat, they call them slimers, and toss them back with great disdain.

Once you snag a walleye it’s usually a good idea to toss a floating marker in where you think you caught it. However, our experience has taught us that a marker becomes a fishing boat magnet. Boats from the other side of the lake stealthily troll towards the marker… and if another walleye is bagged it doesn’t take long for every boat on the lake to circle the marker a few times.

We took good note of this Minnesota behavior one morning when we discovered another boat in our spot. We set our rigs up a couple hundred yards from the interloper, tossed a marker out, circled it once, and slowly trolled our way to our desired fishing hole.

The boat in our spot slowly headed towards our marker, we even said good morning to its occupants as they went by. It didn’t take long before there were a dozen boats circling our phony marker. Meanwhile, we hovered over our spot and quietly harvested our limit while enjoying the fruits of our ploy as well.

Alas, such thoughts only make the howl of the elusive walleye more prominent. But the lakes are still iced over and I’ve just been informed by Eug that we may have to wait until June to imbibe in the hunt.

About now those of you who’ve never experienced a fishing opener should be wondering what’s the big deal and the answer is that I enjoy the Minnesota opener because North Dakota’s fishing season never closes, so the only way I know that it’s time to go fishing is about now.

Thus here I am on the verge of retirement, waiting for Eug and my brudder to decide how much longer I have to wait before I can satiate the howl of the elusive walleye that’s rampaging my conscious…

Okay, maybe that’s a bit over the top. Let me just say that I hope the ice goes out and the fish come up and I get to expend some of my retirement chasing such things.

Here’s hoping that you get to enjoy chasing after your desires as well…

Almont’s school board has decided to close their high school this spring and send the students to New Salem. Seven students would have gone to Almont High School in the fall- two freshmen, four sophomores and one junior. According to Lawrence Lohmen, superintendent at Almont, “Part of the $60,000 in savings will be used for building improvements and towards hiring another teacher for the 32 students expected next fall in the elementary school.

Mandan High School took two firsts and a third at the State Science Olympiad held in Fargo. Three MHS seniors, John Bender, Jon Schirado and Mike Schaff, and junior Kevin Munns, teamed up to win the Science Bowl, a quiz competition much the like the old college bowl on television. Senior Jon Hagerott took first in bridge building; the third place came from Bender and Schirado in the Laser Shoot, where they had to calculate the firing of a laser through a prism and a lens to hit a specific target. Thirty-five class A and B schools participated in the Science Olympiad.

50 Years Ago – 1963

The Mandan Board of Education has announced the acceptance of the request by Dr. W.L. Neff for a release from his contract as superintendent of the Mandan Public Schools. He has accepted the position as director of secondary education at Dickinson State College. Dr. Neff has been in Mandan for 29 years, 19 of which he has served as superintendent and 10 as principal of Mandan High School.

Dr. W.L. Neff

Receiving the first annual John Philip Sousa award for outstanding participation in junior high school music activities is Frank Vogel, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Vogel, Mandan. The ninth grade clarinetist received the award from Band Director Ernest Borr and Junior High Principal L.H. Stock.

Henry “Buck” Eckroth, former Mandan High School athlete, has signed a contract as head football and track coach at St. Mary’s High School for the 1963-64 season. Eckroth, an 11-year coaching veteran, has been coach for the past four years at Greybull High School, Greybull, Wyo. He had previously coached at Fessenden and Mott.

The 82nd Homecoming and Past Masters Night of Mandan Masonic Lodge No. 8 will be honoring Earl Vredenburg, Master of the Lodge in 1952-53. Vredenburg is the current chief of the Mandan Police Department. Commending the honoree will be Past Master James R. Hanson; Ray N. Pengra will present the Past Master’s ring to Vredenburg.

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An estimated thousand people jammed into the New Salem auditorium for the Morton County 4-H Talent Night and Recreation Party, sponsored by the New Salem Lions Club. Twenty-two acts were introduced by Arnold Meyer, of Flasher, and Sally Friese, New Salem. Taking first prize was the New Salem Helpers 4-H Club for their story and dance number, “An Old Indian Tale,” directed by Mrs. Carl Matthiesen and Mrs. Joe Kautzman, club leader and assistant leader, respectively.

Delores Wilkens of the Jolly Mixers 4-H Club of New Salem won second prize for her song, “Going Home,” and the Heart River 4-H Club of Mandan won third prize for a spirited tumbling exhibition.

75 Years Ago – 1938

This week, glittering plate glass showcases, designed to display pastries and baked goods, and an electric sign, “Midwest Bakery Welcomes You,” greeted visitors to Mandan’s newest business establishment, the Midwest Bakery, located at 216 West Main Street. The entire building, formerly occupied by the Buttrey’s and J.C. Penney stores, has been remodeled with the front of the building decorated in white and green. Baking is done in a huge gas-heated Hubbard oven, which has a capacity for 200 loaves of bread at one time. Breads and pastries will be marketed under the trade name of Pioneer Bread and Pastries.

According to store manager P.L. Varduina, “All of the bakery’s employees must reside in Mandan, and everything used in the business must also be obtained here, and this, of course, includes the Russell Miller flour, manufactured in Mandan.”

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Frank Lockbeam has been unanimously elected to the position of chief of the Mandan Fire Department, and Frank Boehm was named as its new secretary. Lockbeam will succeed the late Mike Heidt, who had been fire chief for the past 20 years. Boehm will succeed John C. Fleck, the group’s secretary for the past four years. The 28-year-old Fleck died April 20 from a diabetic condition.

Mrs. Madge Runey, 53, Mandan school teacher for the past four school terms and former Burleigh County Superintendent of Schools, has died in a Bismarck hospital. Although having been in poor health for the past year, she remained at her position as English instructor at Mandan High School until April 29. She had been engaged in the teaching profession in the state since 1910.

Madge Runey

100 Years Ago – 1913

“Tuesday, the Central School received a handsome Victrola phonograph purchased from H. H. Williams with the money realized from the recent school program. It is valued at $150. The instrument was used for the first time on Tuesday afternoon when it furnished music for the pupils to march out of school at the close of the afternoon session.

“The city commission at their meeting last Thursday night took the first step toward the paving of Main and adjoining streets by passing an ordinance for the creation of a Paving Improvement District.”

125 Years Ago – 1888

The village of Mandan was organized in the spring of 1881; by 1888 its population was at 2,600.

May 17, 1888: “On Thursday at 3:30 p.m. the thermometer stood at 65 degrees above zero.

“The party of gypsies who are around town telling fortunes, appear to be doing a driving business. They are willing to tell the fortunes of anybody- married and singles ladies as well. Anything to turn a nimble dollar or two.

“It is an unsanitary, barbarous plan- that of banking up houses and offices with manure. It may be all right for the winter when everything is frozen up solid, but in the spring, when the thaw comes, it is unhealthful and productive of serious evils. The base of every building should be well built to start with, and the banking used should be earth- enough of it to keep out the cold.

“This morning the Pioneer received a new typewriter of the Remington make. It is the largest size and will write a line 14 inches long. It is a dandy, but then this office has to have all the labor-saving devices that are to be had. Time is money in Dakota.

“The local Democrats have not yet all left their party. There is one in town who wears a portrait of Grover Cleveland in his hat. A wicked Republican says that the picture is undoubtedly worn there to show that Cleveland is lacking in the upper story.”

(To contact Diane Boit, email mandan-news.com)