Trading on Insider Information is Illegal, Sen. Hoeven

The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to investigate and call bullshit on the load of crap North Dakota’s senior senator is trying to sling.

You’re Busted, Senator!

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he’s trying to tell us that since his digits haven’t quite curled around a treat yet, he’s done nothing wrong.

We call B.S.

According to a story first reported on CNBC, Hoeven purchased stock in the BlackRock Health Sciences Trust II fund five days after receiving a briefing on the coronavirus. After that same briefing, several of his colleagues sold off shares of stock, presumably in anticipation of the market taking a nosedive due to the crisis that was coming. As they’d just been told by “health and State Department officials.”

As The Hill reported, “According to financial disclosure forms, Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) each sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks within days of the Senate holding a classified briefing on Jan. 24 with Trump administration officials on the threat of the coronavirus outbreak.”

Since he hasn’t avoided the loss of millions, like his colleagues, Hoeven’s still flying a bit under the radar. But that certainly doesn’t me he’s done nothing wrong.

On the contrary….

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Activists Push for Fargo and Moorhead Climate Emergency Declarations

Declaration will be an acknowledgement that the climate crisis is an issue and that cities need to begin preparing to adapt.

Red River Valley Climate Action Members Gather Signatures for Resolutions

Activists with Red River Valley Climate Action (RRVCA) want the Fargo (N.D.) City Commission and Moorhead (Minn.) City Council to declare climate emergencies, and they’re collecting signatures to highlight community members’ support.

Graphic to sign the resolution climate emergency declarationRed River Valley Climate Action is an ad-hoc group of climate and social justice activists formed by Neva Francis after the Youth Climate Strike in September 2019. Its members are high school students, college students and adults who live, study and work in FM metro communities.

Francis said a climate emergency declaration will be an acknowledgement by local governments that there is a climate crisis, a commitment to consider the environmental impacts of every decision they make and a promise to make every effort to decrease the cities’ carbon emissions.

“We’re doing this to get Fargo and Moorhead leaders to formally acknowledge they agree with the scientific consensus around climate change, that we can see the effects right now, that human activity contributes to the climate crisis and that city leaders have a responsibility to make decisions that decrease carbon emissions to ensure a healthy and sustainable community for the generations to come,” Francis said.

Photo of members of Red River Valley Climate Action
Red River Valley Climate Action members have been collecting signatures on resolutions to show citizens’ support for local climate action.

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Coronavirus Pandemic – What Are Our Leaders Waiting For?

Will and Ben knew what they were talking about. Too bad they aren’t talking to government leaders about the coronavirus pandemic.

Government Responses to COVID-19 Spread Defy Logic

* Editors Note, March 16, 2020 – Hours after IV Words published this post on March 15, N.D. Gov. Doug Burgum announced statewide school closures due to coronavirus. By that time, every state around us – Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota – had already announced closings. Fargo Public Schools sent announcements to students and parents shortly thereafter. As of today, about 30 states have shuttered schools for the purposes of social distancing in the hope of at least slowing the spread of the virus.

“Discretion is the better part of valor” is a bit of wisdom based on a line from Shakespeare’s “King Henry the Fourth, Part One.”

“Caution is preferable to rash bravery,” Falstaff said in the play.

Another way of saying it these days is “Prudence is the better part of valor.” Either way, the old saying means it’s “wise to be careful and avoid unnecessary risks.”

Seems to me too many people are OK with taking unnecessary risks with the coronavirus pandemic right now.

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Guest Post: Grand Aunt Hilda and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

The Stofferahn family history is a wake-up call. U.S. leadership needs to act fast to avoid another 1918.

A family’s history points to the danger
of today’s coronavirus pandemic.

by Curt Stofferahn

I’ve been thinking of Grand Aunt Hilda this past week.

Graphic for Guest PostsThe discovery of hot spots of coronavirus (COVID-19); the announcements of meeting, convention and tournament postponements; colleges and universities cancelling face-to-face instruction in favor of online instruction and postponing reconvening until two weeks after the end of spring breaks; and repeated reminders of the Trump administration’s miserable failure in dealing with the outbreak – they all reminded me of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and how my Grand Aunt Hilda was a victim.

Influenza Pandemic of 1918, Iowa & South Dakota

I learned about Grand Aunt Hilda when we were children visiting my grandparents. When we discovered a trunk in the storeroom with portraits of relatives in it, I asked Grandma about one in particular, a charcoal portrait of a lovely young woman who looked vaguely familiar. She went with us to the storeroom to look at the portrait, and with some melancholia said that it was my grandfather’s sister, Hilda, who had died in the pandemic.

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Raisins to the Rescue

Jump. Run. Walk. Ball. Throw. Catch. Milk. Baby… Mother.

Work. Play. And Remembering That Very First Day.

Dick. Jane. Wow.

It’s been a long, long time.

This card and about half a dozen more were hiding at the bottom of a box in our basement for who knows how long. I’m guessing they languished there or in a different one in my mother-in-law’s storage space for years. She taught school for more than 30 years, so that’s probably where they came from.

Images and sensations of the two-room schoolhouse in Medora, N.D., where I completed 1st through 4th grades under the guidance of, first, Mrs. McCusky, then Ms. Anderson, swept through my head when I found the cards. They were the two teachers I had over those four years.

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IV Words Guest Posts – What’s Your Big Idea?

Share your opinions. Extend your organization’s message. Boost understanding of your mission.

Have a great idea for an opinion piece or news/feature story about something related to the environment, climate crisis, economic inequality, social justice, politics, government? Whether you want to write a guest post yourself or simply share an idea, IV Words will help you get it out there.

Activists, this is a place for you to generate additional excitement about your mission, extend your message to new audiences and promote your objections, solutions and moral indignation.

To get started, visit the “Submit Content / Ideas” page and follow the instructions.

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