5 things to know today: $12M donation, Wayne Stenehjem, Transgender bill, 'War bride', Street art

University of Mary President Monsignor James Shea announces $12 million donation on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

By InForum

February 02, 2022 at 7:00 AM

1. University of Mary receives $12M donation from Bakken oil company founder

The University of Mary on Tuesday, Feb. 1, announced it has received a $12 million donation from the founder of Continental Resources, a top Bakken oil producer, to bolster the college's engineering program.

The donation is the largest single donation the University of Mary has received in its history, the college said in a news release Tuesday. The majority of the funds are from the Harold Hamm Foundation, the namesake of which founded Continental Resources in 1967.

In a statement, Hamm said the University of Mary's engineering program will help create future engineers for North Dakota's oil and gas industry.

2. Life and career of North Dakota's longest serving attorney general leave deep mark

2471344+stenehjem.jpg — Gubernatorial candidate Wayne Stenehjem speaks during the Republican district convention Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, at PRACS in Fargo.Michael Vosburg / Forum News Service

Any public official who holds office for as long as Wayne Stenehjem is bound to find supporters and detractors, but in the days since North Dakota's longest-serving attorney general died, observers from all political corners have remembered him as a principled man who left a deep mark on the state's government.

Stenehjem, who was found unresponsive at his Bismarck home on Friday, Jan. 28, died that evening at 68 years old. His career in elected office began when he was a 23-year-old law student and spanned a half-century in which North Dakota political control underwent a dramatic shift from the Democratic Nonpartisan League to today’s Republican Party dominance.

Grand Forks Republican Sen. Ray Holmberg, who was elected to the Legislature alongside Stenehjem in 1976, said the former attorney general championed many of the same issues from his days as a lawmaker into the final years of his career, among them government transparency, women's rights and a compassion for people struggling with addiction. As a veteran of the Legislature, Stenehjem had policy know-how and deep relationships with lawmakers that allowed him to be an effective attorney general, Holmberg said.

3. Bill banning transgender athletes heads to South Dakota Gov. Noem's desk

The South Dakota House of Representatives on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, voted in favor of Senate Bill 46, an act promoters say will protect fairness in women's sports by banning transgender girls and women from competition.

South Dakota is on the verge of becoming the latest state to ban transgender girls and women from athletics, after a consequential vote of approval from the House of Representatives.

Nearly a year after a "fairness in sports" bill failed after a style-and-form veto from Gov. Kristi Noem, House Republicans passed a measure on Tuesday, Feb. 1, in a 50-17 vote that green-lights lawsuits by girls or women who lost to transgender competitors. The bill stops short of awarding monetary benefits.

Senate Bill 46 was brought by the governor's office and sailed through the Senate in the session's first two weeks with relative ease. It now heads to Noem's desk for her signature.

There was no debate on the floor Tuesday on the measure, which had been held over from a vote Thursday, Jan. 27.

Unlike the contested transgender legislation of previous years, such as one banning access to restrooms, SB 46 appears more narrowly tailored to girls' and women's sports.

4. How a Vietnamese 'war bride' found a new life in rural North Dakota

After moving from Vietnam to North Dakota, Anh Gietzen went into the Holstein heifer business.

People are often drawn to read obituaries about others they don’t even know, and such is the case for the “war bride” who left her native Vietnam in 1971 to make a life on a North Dakota farm with a U.S. Army veteran.

Be Ba “Anh” Gietzen, 71, died after a long battle with dementia on Jan. 18 in her home in rural Glen Ullin, about halfway between Bismarck and Dickinson.

“It still kind of hasn't even hit me that she's gone yet. The house feels so dang quiet,” said her 73-year-old husband, Russell Gietzen.

Her extraordinary experiences are detailed in the obituary written by Russell , who, as a North Dakota farm boy serving in Vietnam, embraced the language and culture of Anh’s birthplace early on.

5. Street art coming to downtown West Fargo

FargoArt2.jfif — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has urged the National Credit Union Administration to remove language from a draft strategic plan that could limit credit unions from working with farmers and ranchers.

ince last year’s successful ColorFest, which brought street art created by locals to downtown Sheyenne Street, the city of West Fargo is moving forward to bringing more art to downtown.

The West Fargo City Commission recently approved a proposal brought forward by Planner Malachi Petersen to install vinyl adhesive wrappings on utility boxes around the city.

The vinyl wraps will be designed by local artists and will be partially funded by private businesses and $8,000 from the city’s economic development sales tax money.

Petersen the project is modeled after a similar project that is in downtown Fargo. The city of Fargo's Blank Spaces program began in 2018, in conjunction with the Arts Partnership.

“This type of public art is very popular,” Petersen said.