BISMARCK — Gov. Jack Dalrymple and Department of Human Services officials say a recent scathing audit fails to tell the whole story about how the agency deals with child care licensing, but State Auditor Robert Peterson is standing behind his staff and suggested DHS is downplaying the findings because of public outrage.
The audit released last month found that DHS didn't properly monitor or suspend providers and notify parents "after confirmed knowledge of activities that jeopardize the health and safety of children."
Auditors reviewed 58 provider licenses out of about 1,600 licensed providers that care for more than 39,000 children statewide, trying to include at least one provider from each of the state's 53 counties.
Some of the harshest criticism targeted 13 cases in which providers were allowed to operate under memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreements. Two agreements were noted in the licenses, and auditors identified an additional 11 related to providers' care, reported concerns and required corrections.
"Providers were allowed to continue operating under MOU agreements while the Department was aware of activities including illegal drug use by the provider, restricted persons being present at the facility, inappropriate touching from adults, inappropriate sexual play between children, and other concerns of supervision and discipline," the report states.
But the DHS official who oversees child care licensing said the spreadsheet reviewed by auditors contained only anecdotal information on the 11 MOU agreements and didn't reflect how the concern was addressed. Confidentiality laws prevented DHS officials and auditors from providing details of the individual cases, but they spoke generally about the process.
"Generally, if an individual is a staff member at a program and there's a complaint about them, and that individual has been removed from the facility, then we would allow them to continue to operate because the threat has been removed," Early Childhood Services Administrator Rebecca Eberhardt said, adding, "They didn't look at the whole file to see what actions were taken."
Dalrymple also said it provided an incomplete picture.
"I look at it as kind of like you're seeing one side of a story, as the initial report, and then you don't see anything after that. So it's really kind of not fair," he said.
Allison Bader, the auditor in charge of the report, said evidence showed that investigations into the allegations found a "substantiated concern" that was enough to issue the MOU agreements in the first place. Auditors found that DHS took no action to more closely oversee providers operating under MOU agreements and didn't notify parents about them.
"The parents would be the ones that are there on a regular basis to know if there's somebody there who shouldn't be," she said.
Peterson — who, like Dalrymple, is a Republican not running for re-election this November — said DHS had the flexibility to notify parents but didn't do it, and the agency shouldn't get mad at auditors for pointing it out.
"They're trying to cover this as best they can," he said of DHS. "Our recommendations are valid because we're looking at the child's safety."
Notification at issue
Rep. Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, who chairs the Legislature's Human Services Committee and is a former director of Cass County Social Services, said removing an accused person from the setting could be enough to ensure children's safety, comparing it to a school teacher being placed on leave while allegations are investigated.
"Obviously, we keep the schools running," she said.
With due process concerns, officials walk a thin line on whether and when to notify parents, she said.
"When you've substantiated an allegation, parents need to be told that. Parents deserve to be told that. It sounds like that wasn't going on," she said.
State law says DHS may suspend a license "any time after the onset" of an investigation alleging child abuse or neglect by the owner, operator or in-home provider if law enforcement has been involved and if "continued operation is likely to jeopardize the health and safety of the children."
The agency also can prohibit an owner, operator, provider, staff member or household member from being on the premises during child care hours after a report of child abuse or neglect.
The law says the department "shall" notify parents when a license has been suspended, and that it "may" notify parents if there's an investigation into a provider or staff member.
Department policy requires that when a provider or staff member is investigated by the county-administered, state-supervised Child Protection Services, DHS must make a good-faith effort to notify affected parents of the results — though state law allows earlier notification.
"Because a lot of the allegations are not substantiated, we have notified (parents) after the fact, not prior to," DHS attorney Jonathan Alm said, adding that if there's an investigation by CPS and law enforcement indicating a risk to children, "the suspension would occur sooner than later" and parents would be notified.
Auditors contend there's an "improper balance" between ensuring safe quality of child care and supporting providers to become licensed or keep operating without meeting minimum requirements.
"They need to be more forceful in contacting the parents and making sure the parents know," Peterson said.
Changes considered
The audit recommends DHS further oversee providers to ensure compliance with MOUs, suspend providers when children are at risk of harm and directly notify parents immediately after confirmed knowledge of activities that jeopardize children's health and safety.
Eberhardt said the department is looking at updating policy to see if additional visits to providers are warranted to better monitor MOU requirements. Currently, each provider is supposed to receive one announced visit and one unannounced visit per year, though auditors found that 16 of the 58 providers checked didn't have the proper unannounced inspections, and documentation was incomplete for an additional five inspections.
Dalrymple noted some of the deficiencies raised in the audit — among them the backdating of licenses and licenses becoming effective before background checks are performed — are being addressed by an advisory group he formed last spring in the wake of the summer 2015 drowning-related death of a 5-year-old girl whose child care provider in Velva was operating with a lapsed license.
"We were first and we were way ahead in wanting to follow through on some of the things that were coming out about day care licensing," he said, adding he expects the group to take up proposed rules next month. "That's a big piece of this because those rules touch on a lot of these topics."
Dalrymple said he still has confidence in DHS Executive Director Maggie Anderson, calling her an "outstanding" director and saying Eberhardt also is doing a good job. Criminal charges filed against Anderson in connection with the investigation into the Velva incident were dismissed earlier this month.
Hogan, who was "shocked" at how bad the audit was and has asked for the advisory group to meet soon, said the problems are "much more systemic than one person," and that replacing Anderson before the transition to a new governor would serve no purpose. Areas of state law may need strengthening to address some of the issues, she said.
"I think it's a system issue that we all have to own and look at," she said.

Governor, DHS fire back at scathing audit of child care licensing


A portrait of Bill Little sits on his kitchen table in Grand Forks with other newspaper clippings and various paperwork from his time at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Little holds a newspaper clipping with his B-52 crew who were selected as top crew for the month of May in 1964. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Veteran John Friend, a mechanic for F101 Voodoo fighter planes at GFAFB during the Cold War holds a keepsake box put together by his daughter including a portrait from his time in service, his dog tags and patches from his uniform. . Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Little looks at an copy of Combat Crew from April 1970 which dons an illustration of a B-52 bomber on the cover. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Veteran Bill Little, in his home in Grand Forks, looks for his name on a list of enlisted men from a box of mementos from his days as a B52 gunner at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Veteran Bill Little, a former B-52 Gunner with the Grand Forks Air Force Base in his home in Grand Forks, N.D. holds his flight helmet, from his time as a B-52 gunner, in is computer room in his home in Grand Forks. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Snapped on Jan. 27, 1983, this photo shows the devastating aftermath of an explosion on board a B-52 aircraft that claimed the lives of five Air Force service members. (U.S. Air Force historical photo)
John D. Friend talks about different aspects of plane repair in front of a displayed F-101 Voodoo Interceptor at the Grand Forks Air Force Base near Grand Forks, ND on Tuesday, August 23, 2016. (Joshua Komer/Grand Forks Herald)
GRAND FORKS, N.D.—For John Friend, the ghosts of what might have been are still seared into his memory. An assistant crew chief at Grand Forks Air Force Base, he served during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962.
"We heard the news, and they had us come for a meeting," said Friend, who had grown up in southern Illinois and joined the Air Force only about a year earlier. "They said, 'This is going to be really serious.'"
Part of Friend's job was ensuring a speedy F-101 Voodoo interceptor was ready to fly — a job that demanded speed and concentration. He remembers once trying to screw an item onto an aircraft and realizing his screwdriver wasn't nearby. He grabbed a kitchen knife and did the best he could to finish while the plane was in motion.
During the crisis, that pressing level of readiness kept Friend so close to the runway that he recalls sleeping on the wing of a nearby aircraft. When he went off-shift, he remembers wandering back to his quarters to have a nightmare of a mushroom cloud in the distance.
"It was jumpy," he said. "Scary, jumpy — we thought this was it. We thought (for) sure there was going to be a nuclear exchange. At that time, we didn't know if we were going to be the only ones left or the first ones to go."
The Cold War may seem a little more distant each day, but airmen still remember well when Grand Forks was on the front lines of a conflict that at a moment's notice could have descended into blaring alarms, bombers on the runway and mushroom clouds on the horizon.
For more than three decades, the men and women of Grand Forks Air Force Base, some of whom still live in the area, were ready to spring to action if the Cold War—the decades of post-World War II political tensions between the U.S. and the USSR—turned hot.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, which was a crucial turning point in the unraveling of the Soviet Union that led to its dissolution in coming months.
The recollections of Cold War veterans are many and varied. All of them, though, have a story to tell about the time in American life when the future was anything but certain.
Some served as electricians and mechanics, while others sat sequestered in missile capsules, prepared to launch warheads over the North Pole. Still others, remember the regular readiness drills or waiting "on alert" to board a B-52 bomber to fly across the Arctic and, quite possibly, end the world.
There were times they stood "on alert" for hours or days on end, serving their country in rotating shifts, to ensure the Air Force could respond to sudden orders from Washington. Now, a quarter-century after the Cold War ended, former airmen remember their time on base fondly, even cloaked behind the veneer of danger.
Friend, who still lives in Grand Forks, arrived at the base in mid-1962. He recalls chatting with a flight attendant on a trip out of Minneapolis and the dawning realization that—like many of the men he served alongside—he was about to be very, very far from home.
"She said, 'Oh, you're going out to the end of the line,'" he recalled with a chuckle. "I said, 'Oh my God.'"
'Ain't no Nordstroms'
Grand Forks Air Force Base was founded in the 1950s and was quickly equipped with everything it would need to wage nuclear war. Bryan Booker, the installation's historian, said its earliest years saw the arrival of fighter interceptors—quick and responsive aircraft that could get in the air in a hurry to head off enemy planes.
By 1960, the base received one of its marquee missions: nuclear-armed B-52 bombers, capable of carrying an atomic payload into the heart of the Soviet Union. Those, in turn, were supported by the KC-135 tankers, which refueled bombers while they were in the air. By 1964, construction began on nuclear missile silos in the broader Grand Forks area — 150 eventually dotted the countryside.
Years later, Mike Yaguchi, who reported for duty as a missile launch officer in 1986, remembers the sprawling wilderness as a remarkably easy transition from his time growing up in Seattle. There were still plenty of things to do outdoors, he said, but he was stunned by the lack of diversity and the small population.
"There ain't no Nordstroms in Grand Forks," he joked.
Others recalled the biting cold. Edwin Parks, a New Jersey native who took the same assignment in 1984, said: "All I can remember was that the first 20 days in North Dakota, the high never got above 10 below. It was crazy."
Underground crew
Both Parks and Yaguchi had what might be the most iconic job on base. As missile launch officers, they were stationed below ground for long periods of time in a launch "capsule." At any time, they could be asked to launch a nuclear warhead. Until then, though, the job could be monotonous.
"Most of your days, we would have practice messages we would get, some security alarms would go off if a rabbit jumped on the site ... you'd have to send the security police to go check that out," Parks said. "It was not real exciting, and most of the time you sat around waiting for something to happen."
But if anything were to happen, Parks said, they would need to follow a rigid set up steps to send a missile into Russia. First, he and his partner would receive a code from Washington, D.C., to arm a missile. Second, they'd target it and give the order to launch it. Third, there was a catch. They would need a second capsule team to confirm the launch before the missile would fly—one extra security check that made the weapon impossible to launch without the right protocol.
"Without that code, it was tougher than trying to win the lottery or the Powerball," Parks said.
The job wasn't for the faint of heart.
Yaguchi explained the training required to become a launch officer included a "key turn" — a literal key-turn necessary to launch the missile.
"When you did your first practice key-turn, you would sign a document that said you fully understand the responsibility that comes with this career field," Yaguchi said. There were always airmen who simply couldn't do it, but "nobody gave them grief."
High in the sky
B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker crews, ever-ready to fly over Russia, comprised the other half of the base's Cold War mission.
Bill Little, a retired Air Force veteran who spent nearly 30 years in the Air Force first joined in the 1940s and now lives in Grand Forks. In his home he keeps a room full of Air Force memorabilia, including an old helmet he wore as a B-52 gunner. It was a post he held at the base from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s.
"Each crew had a target," Little explained. "We'd go over in (a room) they called 'the vault,' and we'd study our mission. You'd know what defenses they had, as far as intelligence could ascertain — exactly what your target was, or exactly how to get there and how to get back."
It was an opportunity to study not only the defenses you'd fly over but also the terrain near your target. There was always, of course, the chance you might be shot down, he said.
"There were many, many targets in Russia during that period of time, the Cold War," Little said. "I even had Moscow one time. I didn't like it. Because they had two rings of missiles around it and so forth—I don't know. I'd better not say too much. I don't know what's still classified. You knew the probability in Moscow, you might not make it."
That was the daily reality many airmen faced: If a nuclear war began, odds were you might not come home.
Quick and deadly
Gary Masilko, now a retired Air Force colonel, arrived on base in 1980 as an instructor pilot for the KC-135 refueling tankers. By 1983, he was commander of the 905th Air Refueling Squadron, overseeing the refueling mission in Grand Forks and beyond. In the case of a nuclear strike, he said airmen probably would have less than 10 minutes to get in the air.
"And if we did survive the mission, when we return there might not be a town," he said. "You have a younger generation that can't even conceive that we were in a position where we would have been doing that."
Yet Masilko said he and the rest of the Air Force personnel on base took it in stride.
"In the Air Force, nobody was drafted. Everybody here is a volunteer, and they've accepted the mission. You need to be comfortable understanding that this is your job," he said. "This is what we do. This is what our country is committed to at this time. We don't like that we're in the Cold War, but we're here to make sure that if it gets hot, we're ready to respond."
'Every time ... you'd remember'
In 1983, the ever-present, if far away, threat of war was punctuated by a deadly explosion right on the Grand Forks base when five members of a maintenance crew were killed.
The airmen were inside a B-52 bomber when a spark from a circuit breaker set off a giant explosion.
"It was so intense. It basically burned it to the ground," base historian Booker said. "It just showed the inherent danger that Air Force personnel go through every day. Even when they weren't flying, how dangerous the mission could be."
A black-and-white Air Force photograph shows the devastation. Taken from above, the outline of the charred plane is visible, but only the tail seems to be partially intact.
Ed Hattenberger, who worked as an aircraft mechanic on the base and in related roles from 1976 to 1990, said he knew three of the crew members who died. For years before the tarmac was resurfaced, it was a constant reminder of the tragedy.
"That part of the ramp had burn marks on the surface of it," he said. "So every time you drove by it, you'd remember."
A post-Cold War world
Twenty-five years ago, the Soviet Union was in the midst of breaking apart.
The failed August 1991 coup attempt speeded the end of the world's second superpower. It was just four months later on Christmas Day when the iconic hammer and sickle flag was removed from the Kremlin.
It was the beginning of the end of the Cold War and a time that led to a long series of changes shifting missions at the base.
At the height of the Cold War, Booker said there were more than 3,000 Air Force personnel on base. Today, there's between 1,500 and 2,000.
As the U.S. military shifted closer to a peacekeeping mission, the Bombers — which had transitioned from B-52s to the sleeker and more modern B-1s in the 1980s — went off alert in the early 1990s and soon after were transitioned away from the base.
By 1998, all nuclear missiles had been removed from the base's silos. The KC-135 tankers, which remained on base for years and often were sent on worldwide missions, left the base for good in 2010.
The Interceptor aircraft, which transitioned from F-101 Voodoos to the Delta Dart decades earlier, had already gone in the 1970s.
Today's air base has a radically different focus on unmanned aircraft. The Global Hawk aircraft arrived in 2011, and Booker said the Department of Homeland Security also flies Predator aircraft on border surveillance missions.
But the airmen who lived or worked on the base during the height of the Cold War remember it fondly.
Nole J. Myers Jr., who served as a parachute rigger, said he loved it.
"I'm a family guy. We got used to living here. The quality of life and the quality of air. It wasn't quite the hassle of big-city life," he said. Given the chance to join the 1970s Air Force, he said he'd do it again.
"You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. I miss it still."
Friend remembers it fondly, too, recalling the 8mm film he shot with a handheld camera—the same film that shows a Voodoo aircraft slide down the runway before floating into the sky.
"It gets in your blood," Friend said. "You just can't get enough of it."

A quarter-century after the Cold War's end, veterans of Grand Forks Air Force Base recall the days when they and the world were a key-turn away from an atomic Armageddon.


North Dakota Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, (from right) talks about the state's Legacy Fund as House Minority Leader Kenton Onstad, D-Parshall, and Brad Crabtree of the Great Plains Institute listen on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016, during the Greater North Dakota Chamber's Policy Summit at the Ramkota Hotel in Bismarck, N.D. Photo by Mike Nowatzki / Forum News Service
BISMARCK — North Dakota leaders are signaling a growing willingness to use earnings from the state's $3.8 billion Legacy Fund to shore up declining revenues when they craft the budget for next biennium, but just which earnings will be available is still up in the air.
"I'll tell you right now, I'm counting on the revenue from the Legacy Fund," Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, said during a lively panel discussion Thursday as part of the Greater North Dakota Chamber's daylong Policy Summit in Bismarck.
The discussion came about three weeks after the Legislature met in special session to plug a $310 million budget shortfall for the current biennium that ends next June, in part by using $100 million in profits from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.
The Legacy Fund has grown to more than $3.8 billion since state voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2010 to create the trust fund by setting aside 30 percent of the state's taxes on oil and gas production and extraction starting in 2011.
There were no guidelines on how to spend the money, but lawmakers can't tap it until after June 30, 2017. After that date, the state treasurer must transfer earnings to the state's general fund.
Wardner and House Minority Leader Kenton Onstad, D-Parshall, both said there's no appetite to spend the fund's principal — which requires two-thirds approval in both the House and Senate — but agreed that the earnings will likely be needed to fund state programs.
Wardner said about $120 million in earnings are expected to be available for the 2017-19 biennium, citing a Legislative Council estimate.
"If we're going to keep our priorities and make sure we get through this time, we're going to need that $120 million," he said. "In my mind, I'm planning on that we're probably going to use it."
Long-term vision
Brad Crabtree, vice president for fossil energy for the Minneapolis-based Great Plains Institute, led an initiative in 2013-14 involving public and private sector leaders from across the state to develop a road map for the Legacy Fund. He urged lawmakers Thursday not to use the Legacy Fund just to plug short-term budget gaps but to invest most of the earnings back into the principal to allow compounding interest to build the fund bigger so it can be invested in major long-term initiatives later on.
Crabtree said the group presented lawmakers last year with modest recommendations about governance and management of the fund, "and to be very candid, most of the legislators in the hearing room couldn't give a damn."
"I don't see a lot of responsiveness or vision to new ideas, and so it worries me that we're going to make some bad choices that will then set the precedent ... that the Legacy Fund slowly dies a death by a thousand cuts legislative session by legislative session," he said.
"That's an unfair statement," Wardner shot back. "The Legislature is not going to let it die. We're committed to leaving it in there. Sometimes we need to use it, the interest, in order to get through a tough time."
However, the question remains whether the earnings that have accrued so far will also be available for lawmakers to spend with a simple majority vote, or whether they'll be considered part of the principal and will require a two-thirds vote to spend. State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt has asked Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem for an opinion on the issue.
"The constitution is silent on it," she said.
Warner and Onstad both said they're not interested in using those earnings. Onstad said after the panel that he doesn't even want to use the 2017-19 earnings, "but I think we're going to be forced to because we've cut revenue in other areas."
Like other state revenues, monthly deposits into the Legacy Fund have shrunk considerably as low crude prices have slowed oil drilling activity, though a rebound is in the forecast.
The average monthly deposit so far this calendar year has been $29.7 million, down from about $50 million in 2015 and $93 million in 2014, according to the treasurer's office. The record high monthly deposit was more than $117 million in August 2014. This month's deposit was about $35.3 million.
The 2016 figures reflect GOP lawmakers' decision last year to lower the oil extraction rate from 6.5 percent to 5 percent as of Jan. 1, while doing away with price-based tax breaks that would have drastically reduced oil tax collections. Whether the tax break was necessary continues to be a source of debate, as seen Thursday.
Revenue forecasts released earlier this month project tax revenues going into the Legacy Fund will total about $810.7 million this biennium and $994.2 million in 2017-19.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple told reporters last month that he would not rule out the possibility of using interest earnings from the Legacy Fund in his proposed budget for 2017-19, but said he doesn't support spending the principal.

N.D. leaders shift toward willingness to spend Legacy Fund earnings for 2017-19 budget --EMDASH-- but which earnings?


WINNIPEG, Man.—For the second time in less than a year, two men from the same remote Canadian community have discovered they were switched at birth, prompting outrage and new questions about substandard healthcare for Canada's indigenous people.
David Tait and Leon Swanson were swapped in the government-run Norway House Hospital in 1975 in the western Canadian province of Manitoba, DNA testing confirmed.
"I want answers so bad," Tait said, choking back tears at a press conference in Winnipeg on Friday. He added that he felt "distraught, confused (and) angry."
Tait's biological mother ended up raising Swanson instead, and Swanson's birth mother raised Tait, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Norway House is made up of two northern Manitoba communities and has a population of about 5,000 predominantly indigenous Cree Nation people. It is accessible by airplane and a long indirect road linking it with Winnipeg, about 500 miles to the south.
In November, the Manitoba government said two other men who were close friends were also switched at birth in 1975, at the same Norway House Hospital. As they grew up, people noticed how they resembled each other's family more than their own.
Eric Robinson, a former Manitoba cabinet minister who is helping the men in the latest case, said there were always suspicions in the community about their parentage. He suspects there are more undiscovered cases.
"The federal government owes these people," he told reporters. "What happened to them is criminal."
Canada's health department operates the Norway House hospital.
Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott said the second case "deeply troubled" her. She said the health department would hire an independent party to investigate hospital records and look into whether there are other such cases.
"Cases like this are an unfortunate reminder to Canadians of how urgent the need is to provide all Indigenous people with high-quality health care," Philpott said in a statement.
Canada's 1.4 million indigenous people often live in dire social and economic conditions with subpar health and education services.
Practices to ensure the identities of newborns have improved since the 1970s, and Norway House Hospital now fits infants with identification bands, the health department said in a statement.

Second case of babies switched in Canadian hospital shakes community


iPhones sit on display during a preview event at the new Apple Store Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., July 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
SAN FRANCISCO—Apple Inc issued a patch on Thursday, Aug. 25, to fix a dangerous security flaw in iPhones and iPads after researchers discovered that a prominent United Arab Emirates dissident's phone had been targeted with a previously unknown method of hacking.
The thwarted attack on the human rights activist, Ahmed Mansoor, used a text message that invited him to click on a web link. Instead of clicking, he forwarded the message to researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
The hack is the first known case of software that can remotely take over a fully up-to-date iPhone 6.
Experts at Citizen Lab worked with security company Lookout and determined that the link would have installed a program taking advantage of a three flaws that Apple and others were not aware of. The researchers disclosed their findings on Thursday.
"Once infected, Mansoor's phone would have become a digital spy in his pocket, capable of employing his iPhone's camera and microphone to snoop on activity in the vicinity of the device, recording his WhatsApp and Viber calls, logging messages sent in mobile chat apps, and tracking his movements," Citizen Lab wrote in a report released on Thursday.
The researchers said they had alerted Apple a week and a half ago, and the company developed a fix and distributed it as an automatic update to iPhone 6 owners.
Apple spokesman Fred Sainz confirmed that the company had issued the patch after being contacted by researchers.
The Citizen Lab team attributed the attack software to a private seller of monitoring systems, NSO Group, an Israeli company that makes software for governments which can secretly target mobile phones and gather information. Tools such as that used in this case, a remote exploit for a current iPhone, cost as much as $1 million.
NSO Chief Executive Shalev Hulio referred questions to spokesman Zamir Dahbash, who said the company "cannot confirm the specific cases" covered in the Citizen Lab and Lookout reports.
Dahbash said NSO sells within export laws to government agencies, which then operate the software.
"The agreements signed with the company's customers require that the company's products only be used in a lawful manner," he added. "Specifically, the products may only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes."
Dahbash did not answer follow-up questions, including whether the exposure of the tools use against Mansoor in UAE and a Mexican journalist would end any sales to those countries.
NSO has kept a low profile in the security world, despite its 2014 sale of a majority stake for $120 million to California private equity firm Francisco Partners. That company's chief executive, Dipanjan Deb, did not return a call on Thursday. In November 2015, Reuters reported that NSO had begun calling itself "Q" and was looking for a buyer for close to $1 billion.
Sarah McKune, senior legal adviser to Citizen Lab, said Israel tries to follow the strictures of the Wassenaar Arrangement, which puts controls on the international sale of nuclear and chemical weapons technology and more recently cyber intrusion tools.
NSO may have had to apply for an export license, she added, saying that raised questions about "what consideration was given to the human rights record of UAE."
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not respond to an email seeking comment.
NSO marketing material says that it also has capabilities for Android and BlackBerry devices. No version of the software has been exposed, indicating it remains effective.
Citizen Lab did not directly accuse UAE of carrying out the attack on Mansoor with NSO gear called Pegasus, but it said other NSO attacks on critics of the regime were connected to the government.
It also said a Mexican journalist and a minority party politician in Kenya had been targeted with NSO software and that domain names set up for other attacks referred to entities in Uzbekistan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other nations, suggesting that other targets lived in those nations.
A call to the UAE embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.
The market for "lawful intercept," or government hacking tools, has come under increased scrutiny with revelations about authoritarian customers and noncriminal victims.
Two popular vendors, Hacking Team of Italy and Gamma Group of the United Kingdom, have had their wares exposed by researchers or hackers.
Mansoor had previously been targeted with software from both of those companies, according to Citizen Lab.
"I can't think of a more compelling case of serial misuse of lawful intercept malware than the targeting of Mansoor," said one of the Citizen Lab researchers, John Scott-Railton.

Apple fixes security flaw where hacking software could take over entire phone


Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson walks onto the field during the afternoon practice on the second day of the Minnesota Vikings training camp at Minnesota State University in Mankato on Saturday, July 30, 2016. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)
What intrigued the Vikings running back was Bryant having spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers before finally retiring in April at 37.
"They were talking about Kobe being the only guy (in NBA history) to play for one franchise for like 20 years,'' Peterson said. "And I remember looking at that like, 'Man, wow, that'd be amazing to be able to do that.' So that's what I hope, man, is to finish here.''
OK, even Peterson, who talks about playing until his late 30s, doesn't believe he'll last 20 seasons. What the 10-year veteran wants to do, though, is play for no team other than Minnesota.
"That would be amazing,'' Peterson sad. "That would be the ultimate goal.''
It was 1½ years ago that Peterson, coming off missing the final 15 games of the season because of a child-abuse incident, said he wasn't sure he wanted to come back to the Vikings. With rumors swirling that Peterson could be traded, he did return and became last season the second-oldest player to lead the NFL in rushing.
Peterson, 31, is now vying to break hall of famer Curtis Martin's record and become the oldest. Then he wants to continue playing long-term with the Vikings.
"We got a great coaching staff, great team, young team, great fans here, so why not?'' he said. "The coach is the main thing.''
Peterson has developed a special bond with Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer, who played a key role last year in making him feel comfortable about returning. Zimmer has great trust in his running back, and that recently was illustrated.
Zimmer left the choice up to Peterson on whether he wanted to play in the preseason. Peterson, who hasn't had an exhibition carry since 2011, had said in May he was "itching" to change that, but he ultimately decided it was in his best interests to remain on the sideline.
"He trusts me,'' Peterson said of his relationship with Zimmer. "We trust each other.''
So Peterson won't take the field Sunday when the Vikings open U.S. Bank Stadium in the third preseason game against San Diego. Instead, he next will play in the Sept. 11 regular-season opener at Tennessee.
As far as Zimmer is concerned, it will be business as usual. Peterson might be a year older, but he's not planning on any changes from last season, when he rushed for 1,485 yards on 327 carries, an average of 20.4 per game.
"I think he can handle the same workload he had last year,'' Zimmer said.
One-team wonders
Peterson, who arrived in Minnesota in 2007, would like to join the short list of legendary runners who played with just one NFL team.
Peterson is No. 17 on the NFL career rushing list with 11,675 yards. No. 2 Walter Payton, No. 3 Barry Sanders and No. 9 Jim Brown are the only other players in the top 25 to have not played for multiple franchises.
"When you play with the same team, I think it makes it a lot more attainable to play for a long time,'' said Eric Dickerson, who is No. 7 on the list and played for four teams from 1983-93. "You look at Adrian. You look at Walter Payton, who was with the Bears his whole career (from 1975-87). When you have to move to another team, it makes it harder. When you don't, you know that team and the team knows you and that makes it much easier.''
The Vikings, who stood by Peterson despite his troubles in 2014, know all about Peterson. But will they like him well enough next year to again pay him huge bucks?
Peterson is guaranteed this season to make $12 million on a contract that was restructured in July 2015. He is on the books in 2017 for a base salary of $11.75 million, a $6 million roster bonus and a $250,000 workout bonus, which would be a whopping total of $18 million.
Few believe Peterson will end up playing for that amount. The Vikings would owe him nothing if he is waived by the third day of the league year next March, although a very possible scenario is his deal is again restructured.
For now, Peterson isn't dwelling on his future contract situation.
"Right now, I really don't worry about that,'' he said. "I focus on the season and things that I can control right now, and whatever else comes after this year will take care of itself. ... At the end of the day, I know business is business, so never unexpect the unexpected.''
For how long?
Peterson has talked about playing until he's 40 but also has backed off from that number. If all works out, here's how long now he's thinking now about playing for the Vikings.
"I kind of change by the seasons,'' Peterson said. "You'll never know how I feel next year or the year after that or the year after that, Right now, I plan on playing long term, for five or six more years. But who knows what life brings?''
If Peterson plays five more years, he would need to average 1,336 yards a season to break Emmitt Smith's career rushing record of 18,355 yards. If he logs six more, he would need to average 1,113.
"That's one of my goals,'' Peterson said of topping Smith. "It's high up there.''
If Peterson duplicates his yardage total from 2015, he will move up this season to No. 8 on the all-time list. Hall of famers in line to be passed include No. 14 Thurman Thomas (12.074), No. 13 Franco Harris (12,120), No. 12 Marcus Allen (12,243), No. 10 Marshall Faulk (12,279), Brown (12,312) and No. 8 Tony Dorsett (12.739).
"It's going to be an honor,'' Peterson said. "I grew dreaming about playing in the NFL and being the best player to ever play. And just to climb the ladder and pass guys, pass greatness along the way, is just a humbling feeling.''
Team goals
Entering this season, though, Peterson has been more outspoken about team goals. The Vikings are coming off their first NFC North title in six years, and Peterson has let everyone know who will listen he believes they have what it takes to claim the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
"That would be awesome to defend the North and put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs and to win a Super Bowl,'' Peterson said. "If I have 1,000 yards, 900 yards, if we're playing in the Super Bowl, that's the best season of my career, over my MVP season. That's how I view it.''
Peterson hoisted the MVP trophy in 2012 when he gained 2,097 yards, nine short of breaking Dickerson's 1984 record for the most in a season. After that, Peterson regularly talked about not only breaking Dickerson's mark, but crushing it.
There's been less talk about that lately. Could it be that Peterson has put such thoughts on the back burner?
"I remember saying in training camp one time, 'You know what, I'm going for 2,500, and I'm just going to leave it at that, so you guys don't have to ask me anymore,''' Peterson said. "That's what it'll always be. That really hasn't changed. I still got the same mind-set that's a mark that I'm going to put out there for myself.''
He also has the mind-set that all the additional yards he gains, he wants them to be with the Vikings.

Finishing career with Vikings is Peterson's 'ultimate goal'


The U.S. Department of Agriculture has closed six offices in five U.S. states after receiving anonymous threats, a USDA representative said on Tuesday, Aug. 30.
"Yesterday, USDA received several anonymous messages that are concerning for the safety of USDA personnel and its facilities. As a precaution, USDA has closed offices," USDA spokesman Matthew Herrick said in an emailed statement.
Herrick said offices were closed in Fort Collins, Colorado; Hamden, Connecticut; Beltsville, Maryland; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Kearneysville and Leetown, West Virginia.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said USDA was working with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure the safety of their offices and personnel, but he declined to provide any details about the threats.
"In consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, USDA has taken some prudent steps to ensure the protection of their facilities and their personnel," he told a news conference.

USDA closes offices in five U.S. states after threats


Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) is tagged out by Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano (22) in the eighth inning at Progressive Field on Monday night. Photo by David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
CLEVELAND—Jason Kipnis' RBI single with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning broke a scoreless tie and gave the Cleveland Indians a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.
The loss was the 11th in a row for the Twins.
The win went to reliever Zach McAllister (3-2), who came into a bases-loaded, two-outs situation in the top of the 10th and got the third out.
Abraham Almonte led off the bottom of the 10th with a bunt single against reliever Brandon Kintzler (0-1). Chris Gimenez, after failing on two sacrifice bunt attempts, pushing the ball foul both times, swung away and singled to right field, moving Almonte to second.
Rajai Davis hit a grounder to third baseman Miguel Sano, who tagged out Almonte going to third. Indians manager Terry Francona challenged the call, but after a video review, the out call was upheld.
That left Gimenez at second and Davis at first with one out.
Kipnis then lined a single to left-center field, scoring Gimenez with the winning run, and the only run of the game.
The Twins at least they snapped their streak of having given up eight or more runs in their last six games in a row.
The Indians have been mired in an extended slump. In a six-game trip to Oakland and Texas that concluded Sunday, Cleveland scored one or no runs in six of the seven games. They have now scored one or no runs in seven of their last eight games.
That trend continued as Twins pitchers held the Indians scoreless on five hits through nine innings. Twins starter Hector Santiago pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings with three hits, two strikeouts and four walks.
Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer was even better than Santiago. Bauer pitched six scoreless innings with five hits, four strikeouts and one walk. However, neither starter was involved in the decision.
Neither team had a runner reach third base until the top of the seventh. Andrew Miller, in relief of Bauer, gave up an infield single to Jorge Polanco leading off the inning. Eddie Rosario struck out, but a bloop single to center by Juan Centeno sent Polanco to third.
But with runners at first and third and one out, Miller struck out the next two batters, pinch-hitter Robbie Grossman and Brian Dozier, to end the inning.
Bauer and Santiago traded zeroes in the first five innings. Bauer held the Twins scoreless on four hits, but three of the four hits came with two outs and nobody on base.
Santiago held the Indians scoreless on two hits. Neither team had a runner reach third base in the first five innings.
The Indians' best chance to score came in the fifth. Jose Ramirez led off with a double, but Brandon Guyer struck out, Almonte popped out and Roberto Perez grounded out to end the inning.
NOTES: Indians RHP Danny Salazar has been placed on the Paternity List. To replace Salazar on the roster RHP Shawn Armstrong was recalled from Triple-A Columbus. . . The Indians' team batting average at Progressive Field is 55 points higher than their batting average on the road. They are hitting .293 and averaging 5.8 runs per game at home and hitting .238 and averaging 4.1 runs per game on the road. . . The Twins have placed OF Danny Santana on the disabled list with a sprained left shoulder. He suffered the injury when he collided with left fielder Robbie Grossman in the first inning of Sunday's game. . . To replace Santana on the roster the Twins called up OF Logan Schafer from Triple-A Rochester.

Twins lose 11th straight, fall to Cleveland in 10th


Minnesota Vikings players stretch before their first practice at U.S. Bank Stadium on Friday, August 26, 2016. The Vikings will face the San Diego Chargers in a preseason NFL football game Sunday, the first-ever game for the team at their new stadium. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)
MINNEAPOLIS—Charles Johnson didn't expect to see as much of himself as he did Friday.
The Vikings practiced at U.S. Bank Stadium in preparation for Sunday's preseason game against San Diego, their debut at the sparkling new venue. Plenty of chatter among players was about the 8,100-square-foot video board that enables fans to see plenty.
"That's what we were talking about," Johnson, a fourth-year Vikings receiver, said after the workout. "You can see people's zits and stuff. We've got to make sure we're looking right when we come out here because the camera's going to be on."
There are video boards at each end of the stadium. The grandiose one on the west end is the 10th largest in the NFL; its total square footage of 13HD LED is tops in the NFL.
Not to suggest receivers running toward the end zone will want to gaze up and see themselves score, but there's always the possibility of the video board being a distraction. To help his team get used to the distraction, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer had the offense go west during the practice.
"I think it's great for the fans," Zimmer said. "Distractions are what you let them be. That's why I had the offense go this way (Friday), because that screen down there is bigger. Just to get an input on things so they can get a little bit better feel for it."
That was the overall point of Friday's workout. Zimmer wanted his players, some of whom never had been to the stadium, to begin the adjustment to their new home.
Players saw the locker rooms, then got a feel for the new turf and sight lines at the 66,200-seat venue.
Before practice, the massive doors on the west end of the stadium were opened for the first time, a process that takes about five minutes. Zimmer said he could feel a bit of a breeze on the field once the doors were open.
One thing Zimmer really wanted to see was the lighting since half the stadium roof is outfitted with high-tech transparent panels. Zimmer even has information in his office about angles of the sun hitting the stadium.
Zimmer said the sun was "kind of poking down" at one end when the Vikings began at 10 a.m. workout that lasted 1 hour, 40 minutes. He doesn't foresee there being any significant issues with shadows.
"It's really bright in here," Zimmer said. "And I don't think (Friday was) a real bright day."
The Vikings played in the dreary Metrodome from 1982-2013 before spending the past two years outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium. Guard Brandon Fusco, a six-year veteran, called U.S. Bank Stadium "a lot better" than the Metrodome, and one reason is the brightness.
"It makes you kind of feel it's kind of open up top," Fusco said. "It's a good amount of light. I'm happy with what they did. I'm really excited about it."
The stadium cost $1.1 billion. Ground broke on the former Metrodome site in December 2013 and the venue was completed in June, six weeks ahead of schedule.
"How can you not like this?" said linebacker Eric Kendricks. "It's good for the city, and it's good for us. It's going to be awesome to play here. You can't help but be excited."
Zimmer said Friday was the only time the team will practice at U.S. Bank Stadium. After Sunday's game, Minnesota concludes its four-game preseason schedule next Thursday at home against Los Angeles; the first regular-season game at the venue is Sept. 18 against Green Bay.
The Vikings are 2-1 when playing their first regular-season game at a new venue. They won their debuts at Metropolitan Stadium in 1961 and at the Metrodome in 1982 before losing their first one at the temporary digs of TCF.
"Hopefully, we make (U.S. Bank Stadium) a home," Zimmer said. "I hope our crowd is extremely loud every time. That part is a great home-field advantage."

Vikings enjoy first practice in U.S. Bank Stadium


WATFORD CITY—When I was a little girl my big sister and her friend rescued a baby robin from a knocked-down nest. I was so young at the time that the memory doesn't have any details, except for the way that creature's eyes looked before they were open, all blue and puffy, and how naked and impossibly fragile it was.
Even as a kid I knew that a baby that tiny had slim chances of surviving in a shoebox on eyedropper feedings. But the two girls tried anyway, and I watched the way little sisters do, willing it to turn out differently.
Tonight I'm out on my deck listening to the coyotes howl and watching a couple does come down the hill to take a drink in the dam. They've been creeping slowly toward their spot, shaken but not deterred by what sounds like a muskrat slapping and splashing in their water hole, and I'm wishing he would cool it. I mean, all those girls want is a little drink.
The way we do this circle of life thing seems so painstaking sometimes.
A few weeks ago all of the ranch dogs turned up with porcupine quills in their noses (well, all but our big old Lab who learned his lesson years ago when he came home full of sorrow and one tiny quill barely dangling from his nostril).
So my husband and dad had the task of pulling a few quills from snouts after work that day. It wasn't the first time.
And if those dogs don't learn their lesson, it won't be the last.
These are the things that happen out here. Sometimes between the beautiful sunrise and sunset we're reminded that nature is not the Disney movie we'd like to imagine it to be.
For example, earlier this summer, Dad was driving his side-by-side down the road with his brother and his two dogs. They were taking it slow, noticing the scenery and catching up when he noticed a baby killdeer running and flitting beside them. So he slowed down and remarked on the tiny bird, pointed it out to his brother, marveled at the little creature. And just as he finished saying some tender thing about being a witness to new life, his pup jumped out and snatched it up, bit it right out of the air like a scene out of an old Loony Tunes cartoon, feathers flying, tiny bird leg dangling out the dog's mouth.
And that was that.
I have dozens of similar stories that I could pull out of the archives to help illustrate my point, like the time Mom's cat drug a not-quite-dead-chipmunk into the house, or the one where my husband smashed a mouse with his boot in the middle of our living room in the middle of Easter dessert while his big sister stood shrieking on our couch.
And I have one about bats that I don't want to get into right now, but why I'm bringing this all up in the first place is because just the other day, in the middle of a visit about the baby, my grandparents and my nephew going to kindergarten, Mom pulled out the latest.
"Oh, did I tell you about the bird in the sink?"
No. No, she hadn't.
"Oh, I was standing at the sink and a bird flew up out of it."
"Wait. A bird flew out of your sink!?"
"Yeah. Yeah. Well anyway, it flew up at me and then started banging against the window and so I screamed."
"Yeah, I bet you screamed."
"And Dad came huffing in, wondering what was going on, you know ..."
"Because you're easily startled."
"Yeah. And so he was able to grab the bird against the window and bring it out to the door to set it free."
"Oh, that's good."
"But, well, then I heard him holler, 'Don't look, don't look!"
"Oh, no ..."
"Cause the cat was out on the deck ..."
"Oh. No."
"And as soon as that bird left his hands, well, she got up off her chair and snatched it up, and that was that."
If this were a Disney movie, I think that would have turned out differently.
Yes, the law of the land is hard to buck sometimes.

At the ranch, circle of life can be tough to witness


A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
LOS ANGELES—Twitter has opened its Amplify program to all video creators in the United States, allowing them to generate content from pre-roll ads sold by the company.
Under the standard terms of the program, Twitter will pay video creators 70% of ad revenue, keeping 30% for itself. That's better than YouTube and Facebook, both of which share 55% of ad revenue with video-content partners.
That said, Twitter isn't home to the same level of video creation or consumption that either YouTube or Facebook are. While Twitter's more favorable rev-share model is aimed at addressing that, Twitter remains stuck in short-form territory: In June it expanded the maximum length of video posted from 30 seconds to 140 seconds.
With Twitter's Amplify Publisher Program, approved creators can either elect to opt-in videos tweet-by-tweet, or pre-set monetization for all of their videos. The content doesn't have to be exclusively available on Twitter.
Also Tuesday, Twitter is launching Media Studio, which replaces video.twitter.com as a desktop destination for accessing upgraded publishing and monetizing tools. Media Studio provides a new unified media library (with videos, GIFs and images) plus tweet scheduling and planning capabilities, team-based management and multi-account support, and improvements in stability and upload performance.
In addition to the expanded Amplify program, creators can choose to work with Niche, the creator-focused software platform Twitter acquired in early 2015. Niche currently works with 35,000 creators worldwide together with advertisers to develop "authentic and resonating" branded content.

Twitter opens video ads to all U.S. users, touting better revenue-sharing terms than YouTube or Facebook


Alden Lieberg photographs the damage to Kelly and Brenda Beck's vehicle from a hailstorm Saturday afternoon in Arvilla, ND. photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
Brenda Beck checks the damage to her Chrysler van after Saturday's hailstorm in Arvilla, ND. photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
ARVILLA, N.D.—Kelly Beck walked around his yard Saturday afternoon, golf ball-size hail and leaves crunching under his feet as he assessed the damage at his Arvilla home.
"It's just like a bullet went through it," he said as he held a green bell pepper with two large holes showing the projectile of the hailstone.
Arvilla, a small town of about 300 residents that is approximately 20 miles west of Grand Forks, suffered significant hail damage from the storm that formed around 4 p.m. Saturday in northeast North Dakota. Hail fell for about 25 minutes in the city, with some stones as large as 3 inches, Beck said. Residents around town were seen raking leaves knocked down by the storm, with ditches still filled with hail hours after the storm passed. Others looked over vehicle damage, including smashed windows.
Aside from the bell pepper plant, the rest of the garden was destroyed. A van in his yard was marked with hail dents and cracks in the windshield. Plants, lawn ornaments and pots appeared pummeled.
"When it first started, I heard bang, bang," he said, adding his first thought was how it missed his pickup. "Then it let loose."
Parts of Arvilla lost power, though crews were on scene several hours after the storm.
The storms that formed in the Red River Valley triggered several alerts produced several reports of tornadoes in Grand Forks County, including a "large and dangerous" tornado near Holmes, N.D., which is about 30 miles southwest of Grand Forks. Another tornado touched down south of Cummings, N.D., a Traill County town of about 200 people roughly 25 miles south of Grand Forks.
The storm destroyed a farmstead north of Hillsboro, according to the National Weather Service.
Other parts of the Valley saw heavy rain and hail, with reports ranging from pea- to baseball-sized stones.
It seemed the storms affected a swath of land between Fargo and Grafton, with the bulk of it staying between Arvilla and Hillsboro. Though reports indicated the storm could produce torrential flooding and winds exceeding 40 mph, it was too early to tell Saturday how much damage was caused across the region.

Red River Valley storms produce tornadoes, 3-inch hail


The students were allegedly in a car, when the 17-year-old started showing off his knife and pretended to stab him the first time and the actually stabbed the 16-year-old boy in the leg the second time. Police don’t believe that the stabbing was intentional, however the 16-year-old student did need stitches.
A 21-year-old New England woman was arrested by Dickinson police for driving under the influence on the 10 block of Main Street South around 12:35 a.m. Friday.
A Dickinson man reported that his wallet had been stolen on the 200 block of Kuchenski Street on Friday morning. The wallet contained $180 cash and credit cards, which had been used fraudulently across the city, including $56 of charges at Rosie’s Food and Gas, $57 at the Loaf N’ Jug, $15 at Hardee’s and $1 at the Holiday Station. The case is under investigation.
A Dickinson man reported Friday that there were $119 worth of fraudulent charges on his credit card. The case was passed to the El Paso, Texas, authorities where the charges were made.
A Dickinson man reported that his $1,100 wedding ring had been stolen on Friday morning from the 3400 block of Energy Drive.
A Dickinson man reported that his red 2011 Yamaha four-wheeler had been stolen from his property on the 1900 block of Canyon Drive on Saturday. He believes it was stolen sometime between Wednesday and Friday. The four-wheeler is valued at $8,000.

Police Blotter: 17-year-old student stabs another student in the DHS parking lot on Friday


GRAND FORKS -- A man has been pronounced dead by medical officials after being found unresponsive Friday morning at the Hilton Garden Inn on the University of North Dakota campus.
The 26-year-old had been staying at the hotel and was not affiliated with the university, according to a release from the UND Police Department.
The release stated that officers from the department responded to a call about the man at about 8:20 a.m. and attempted life-saving measures until the man was transported by medical personnel to Altru Hospital, where the man was later pronounced dead.
The man's identity was not included in the release.

Man declared dead after being found unresponsive in Grand Forks hotel


LOS ANGELES—Donald Trump's controversial candidacy is already dampening political ad spending, and there are reasons to believe the negative Trump effect could get worse.
All the major TV station owners have reported second-quarter results, and the political-spending sector was a mixed bag.
The pattern is quite different this year from 2012. During the Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney general election, spending ramped up quickly in the second quarter, right after the Republican primary. This year, the percentage of total ad spending from political advertising dropped from the first to second quarters at all four major companies. Three of the four saw a lower percentage of political ad spending in the second quarter 2016 than in second quarter 2012. (Meredith saw a slight increase.)
Commentary from these and other companies that own local TV stations suggests they're putting on a brave face. Some argue that the drawn-out primaries on both sides pushed spending into the third quarter; others say presidential election years are always back-loaded and are confidently projecting higher spending in Q3 and Q4.
But the fact remains that Trump isn't spending on advertising. According to Advertising Analytics, the Hillary Clinton campaign and pro-Clinton PACs have spent more than $90 million on political ads since the end of the primaries. Trump, amazingly, has spent zero. (Trump PACs have spent $8.2 million.)
And there may be a secondary Trump effect. If the polls continue to show massive leads for Clinton even in what are normally major battleground states, her campaign may decide that it simply doesn't need to spend as much as it otherwise would have. Advertising is always heavily concentrated on states where the race is the closest; if there are fewer of those states, spending could be pared back.
Bear in mind that presidential ad spending is a small component of overall political spending. Most observers peg combined candidate and PAC spending for the presidential election at one-third of total political spending, while outliers like Meredith project an even lower contribution.
As such, many station owners are banking on strong spending by candidates for Senate, House, and gubernatorial races to deliver strong numbers through the rest of the year, even if spending for presidential campaigns remains weak. In some cases, the presence of less palatable candidates at the top of the ballot may force down-ballot candidates to spend more in order to get the word out. The big question is whether that spending will be enough to make up the difference. With most station owners having projected a big year due to the elections, there's quite a bit at stake.

Trump's candidacy taking a toll on political ad spending


FARGO - The 2016 season kicks off with the five-time defending FCS champion Bison on Saturday.
Watch our pregame show live on inforum.com and wday.com starting at 3:30 p.m. Look for the link off our homepages.
Get your second-screen experience when North Dakota State hosts Charleston Southern at the Fargodome by joining our live blog.
Keep up with the score, highlights and insight as the Forum Communications sports team invites you into the action during the game.
You can post a comment or pose a question to our staff throughout the blog's duration.
Access the blog here.

Live pregame show, blog: Charleston Southern at Bison football game


A portrait of Bill Little sits on his kitchen table in Grand Forks with other newspaper clippings and various paperwork from his time at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Little holds a newspaper clipping with his B-52 crew who were selected as top crew for the month of May in 1964. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Veteran John Friend, a mechanic for F101 Voodoo fighter planes at GFAFB during the Cold War holds a keepsake box put together by his daughter including a portrait from his time in service, his dog tags and patches from his uniform. . Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Little looks at an copy of Combat Crew from April 1970 which dons an illustration of a B-52 bomber on the cover. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Veteran Bill Little, in his home in Grand Forks, looks for his name on a list of enlisted men from a box of mementos from his days as a B52 gunner at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Veteran Bill Little, a former B-52 Gunner with the Grand Forks Air Force Base in his home in Grand Forks, N.D. holds his flight helmet, from his time as a B-52 gunner, in is computer room in his home in Grand Forks. Jesse Trelstad/ Grand Forks Herald
Snapped on Jan. 27, 1983, this photo shows the devastating aftermath of an explosion on board a B-52 aircraft that claimed the lives of five Air Force service members. (U.S. Air Force historical photo)
John D. Friend talks about different aspects of plane repair in front of a displayed F-101 Voodoo Interceptor at the Grand Forks Air Force Base near Grand Forks, ND on Tuesday, August 23, 2016. (Joshua Komer/Grand Forks Herald)
GRAND FORKS, N.D.—For John Friend, the ghosts of what might have been are still seared into his memory. An assistant crew chief at Grand Forks Air Force Base, he served during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962.
"We heard the news, and they had us come for a meeting," said Friend, who had grown up in southern Illinois and joined the Air Force only about a year earlier. "They said, 'This is going to be really serious.'"
Part of Friend's job was ensuring a speedy F-101 Voodoo interceptor was ready to fly — a job that demanded speed and concentration. He remembers once trying to screw an item onto an aircraft and realizing his screwdriver wasn't nearby. He grabbed a kitchen knife and did the best he could to finish while the plane was in motion.
During the crisis, that pressing level of readiness kept Friend so close to the runway that he recalls sleeping on the wing of a nearby aircraft. When he went off-shift, he remembers wandering back to his quarters to have a nightmare of a mushroom cloud in the distance.
"It was jumpy," he said. "Scary, jumpy — we thought this was it. We thought (for) sure there was going to be a nuclear exchange. At that time, we didn't know if we were going to be the only ones left or the first ones to go."
The Cold War may seem a little more distant each day, but airmen still remember well when Grand Forks was on the front lines of a conflict that at a moment's notice could have descended into blaring alarms, bombers on the runway and mushroom clouds on the horizon.
For more than three decades, the men and women of Grand Forks Air Force Base, some of whom still live in the area, were ready to spring to action if the Cold War—the decades of post-World War II political tensions between the U.S. and the USSR—turned hot.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, which was a crucial turning point in the unraveling of the Soviet Union that led to its dissolution in coming months.
The recollections of Cold War veterans are many and varied. All of them, though, have a story to tell about the time in American life when the future was anything but certain.
Some served as electricians and mechanics, while others sat sequestered in missile capsules, prepared to launch warheads over the North Pole. Still others, remember the regular readiness drills or waiting "on alert" to board a B-52 bomber to fly across the Arctic and, quite possibly, end the world.
There were times they stood "on alert" for hours or days on end, serving their country in rotating shifts, to ensure the Air Force could respond to sudden orders from Washington. Now, a quarter-century after the Cold War ended, former airmen remember their time on base fondly, even cloaked behind the veneer of danger.
Friend, who still lives in Grand Forks, arrived at the base in mid-1962. He recalls chatting with a flight attendant on a trip out of Minneapolis and the dawning realization that—like many of the men he served alongside—he was about to be very, very far from home.
"She said, 'Oh, you're going out to the end of the line,'" he recalled with a chuckle. "I said, 'Oh my God.'"
'Ain't no Nordstroms'
Grand Forks Air Force Base was founded in the 1950s and was quickly equipped with everything it would need to wage nuclear war. Bryan Booker, the installation's historian, said its earliest years saw the arrival of fighter interceptors—quick and responsive aircraft that could get in the air in a hurry to head off enemy planes.
By 1960, the base received one of its marquee missions: nuclear-armed B-52 bombers, capable of carrying an atomic payload into the heart of the Soviet Union. Those, in turn, were supported by the KC-135 tankers, which refueled bombers while they were in the air. By 1964, construction began on nuclear missile silos in the broader Grand Forks area — 150 eventually dotted the countryside.
Years later, Mike Yaguchi, who reported for duty as a missile launch officer in 1986, remembers the sprawling wilderness as a remarkably easy transition from his time growing up in Seattle. There were still plenty of things to do outdoors, he said, but he was stunned by the lack of diversity and the small population.
"There ain't no Nordstroms in Grand Forks," he joked.
Others recalled the biting cold. Edwin Parks, a New Jersey native who took the same assignment in 1984, said: "All I can remember was that the first 20 days in North Dakota, the high never got above 10 below. It was crazy."
Underground crew
Both Parks and Yaguchi had what might be the most iconic job on base. As missile launch officers, they were stationed below ground for long periods of time in a launch "capsule." At any time, they could be asked to launch a nuclear warhead. Until then, though, the job could be monotonous.
"Most of your days, we would have practice messages we would get, some security alarms would go off if a rabbit jumped on the site ... you'd have to send the security police to go check that out," Parks said. "It was not real exciting, and most of the time you sat around waiting for something to happen."
But if anything were to happen, Parks said, they would need to follow a rigid set up steps to send a missile into Russia. First, he and his partner would receive a code from Washington, D.C., to arm a missile. Second, they'd target it and give the order to launch it. Third, there was a catch. They would need a second capsule team to confirm the launch before the missile would fly—one extra security check that made the weapon impossible to launch without the right protocol.
"Without that code, it was tougher than trying to win the lottery or the Powerball," Parks said.
The job wasn't for the faint of heart.
Yaguchi explained the training required to become a launch officer included a "key turn" — a literal key-turn necessary to launch the missile.
"When you did your first practice key-turn, you would sign a document that said you fully understand the responsibility that comes with this career field," Yaguchi said. There were always airmen who simply couldn't do it, but "nobody gave them grief."
High in the sky
B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker crews, ever-ready to fly over Russia, comprised the other half of the base's Cold War mission.
Bill Little, a retired Air Force veteran who spent nearly 30 years in the Air Force first joined in the 1940s and now lives in Grand Forks. In his home he keeps a room full of Air Force memorabilia, including an old helmet he wore as a B-52 gunner. It was a post he held at the base from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s.
"Each crew had a target," Little explained. "We'd go over in (a room) they called 'the vault,' and we'd study our mission. You'd know what defenses they had, as far as intelligence could ascertain — exactly what your target was, or exactly how to get there and how to get back."
It was an opportunity to study not only the defenses you'd fly over but also the terrain near your target. There was always, of course, the chance you might be shot down, he said.
"There were many, many targets in Russia during that period of time, the Cold War," Little said. "I even had Moscow one time. I didn't like it. Because they had two rings of missiles around it and so forth—I don't know. I'd better not say too much. I don't know what's still classified. You knew the probability in Moscow, you might not make it."
That was the daily reality many airmen faced: If a nuclear war began, odds were you might not come home.
Quick and deadly
Gary Masilko, now a retired Air Force colonel, arrived on base in 1980 as an instructor pilot for the KC-135 refueling tankers. By 1983, he was commander of the 905th Air Refueling Squadron, overseeing the refueling mission in Grand Forks and beyond. In the case of a nuclear strike, he said airmen probably would have less than 10 minutes to get in the air.
"And if we did survive the mission, when we return there might not be a town," he said. "You have a younger generation that can't even conceive that we were in a position where we would have been doing that."
Yet Masilko said he and the rest of the Air Force personnel on base took it in stride.
"In the Air Force, nobody was drafted. Everybody here is a volunteer, and they've accepted the mission. You need to be comfortable understanding that this is your job," he said. "This is what we do. This is what our country is committed to at this time. We don't like that we're in the Cold War, but we're here to make sure that if it gets hot, we're ready to respond."
'Every time ... you'd remember'
In 1983, the ever-present, if far away, threat of war was punctuated by a deadly explosion right on the Grand Forks base when five members of a maintenance crew were killed.
The airmen were inside a B-52 bomber when a spark from a circuit breaker set off a giant explosion.
"It was so intense. It basically burned it to the ground," base historian Booker said. "It just showed the inherent danger that Air Force personnel go through every day. Even when they weren't flying, how dangerous the mission could be."
A black-and-white Air Force photograph shows the devastation. Taken from above, the outline of the charred plane is visible, but only the tail seems to be partially intact.
Ed Hattenberger, who worked as an aircraft mechanic on the base and in related roles from 1976 to 1990, said he knew three of the crew members who died. For years before the tarmac was resurfaced, it was a constant reminder of the tragedy.
"That part of the ramp had burn marks on the surface of it," he said. "So every time you drove by it, you'd remember."
A post-Cold War world
Twenty-five years ago, the Soviet Union was in the midst of breaking apart.
The failed August 1991 coup attempt speeded the end of the world's second superpower. It was just four months later on Christmas Day when the iconic hammer and sickle flag was removed from the Kremlin.
It was the beginning of the end of the Cold War and a time that led to a long series of changes shifting missions at the base.
At the height of the Cold War, Booker said there were more than 3,000 Air Force personnel on base. Today, there's between 1,500 and 2,000.
As the U.S. military shifted closer to a peacekeeping mission, the Bombers — which had transitioned from B-52s to the sleeker and more modern B-1s in the 1980s — went off alert in the early 1990s and soon after were transitioned away from the base.
By 1998, all nuclear missiles had been removed from the base's silos. The KC-135 tankers, which remained on base for years and often were sent on worldwide missions, left the base for good in 2010.
The Interceptor aircraft, which transitioned from F-101 Voodoos to the Delta Dart decades earlier, had already gone in the 1970s.
Today's air base has a radically different focus on unmanned aircraft. The Global Hawk aircraft arrived in 2011, and Booker said the Department of Homeland Security also flies Predator aircraft on border surveillance missions.
But the airmen who lived or worked on the base during the height of the Cold War remember it fondly.
Nole J. Myers Jr., who served as a parachute rigger, said he loved it.
"I'm a family guy. We got used to living here. The quality of life and the quality of air. It wasn't quite the hassle of big-city life," he said. Given the chance to join the 1970s Air Force, he said he'd do it again.
"You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. I miss it still."
Friend remembers it fondly, too, recalling the 8mm film he shot with a handheld camera—the same film that shows a Voodoo aircraft slide down the runway before floating into the sky.
"It gets in your blood," Friend said. "You just can't get enough of it."

Recalling the eve of destruction, Grand Forks Air Force Base veterans reflect 25 years after the Cold War


U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton stands with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, after accepting the nomination on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 28, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
NEW YORK—The Republican National Committee asked the charity of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's family on Monday, Aug. 29, to produce all correspondence its staff had with the U.S. State Department while Clinton served as America's most senior diplomat.
Clinton's campaign to win the Nov. 8 presidential election has been dogged by criticism that donors to the Clinton Foundation may have expected special favors from the U.S. government in return. She says donors to the global charity receive no preferential treatment.
"The Clinton Foundation can play a vital role in filling important gaps in the public record by demonstrating its commitment to transparency and making public all correspondence its officials had with the State Department during Secretary Clinton's tenure," Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, said in a letter to the foundation's president, Donna Shalala.
The RNC provided a copy of the letter to reporters.
Spokesmen for Clinton and the foundation, which is known for its work to widen access to HIV medicines in developing countries, did not respond to a request for comment.
Some emails have already emerged that show Clinton Foundation officials seeking meetings with Clinton and other diplomats on behalf of supporters who have made large donations to the foundation.
Foundation officials also sought other favors, including help with visa issues or urging the government to hire certain people, emails show. Spokesmen for Clinton have noted that in several cases the requests from foundation officials were unsuccessful.
Thousands more emails from Clinton's tenure are still in the process of being released as public records. Their release was delayed in part because of Clinton's decision to use an unauthorized private email server for her work without informing record-keeping officials.
In his letter, Priebus said the foundation's own records have "the unique ability" to establish whether donors received special treatment.
Clinton promised President Barack Obama that her family's charities would annually disclose all their donors and seek prior approval from the State Department for any additional money given by foreign governments when Obama made her his most senior diplomat in 2009. The charities said last year they failed to comply with the promises, blaming oversights.
The foundation has said it will no longer accept foreign or corporate funding for at least some of its work if Clinton is elected. Her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, will remain on the board.

Republicans ask Clinton Foundation to produce State Department correspondence


MINNEAPOLIS—As recently as six years ago, Target Center was a local house of horrors in downtown Minneapolis.
But the tide started to turn in 2011, when Cheryl Reeve led a talented roster featuring Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen to the franchise's first WNBA championship, starting a stretch of three titles in five years. A fourth championship could come later this fall.
Flip Saunders was brought back to lead the Timberwolves front office in 2014, and all he did was acquire Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng.
The Wolves enter this season with a promising, young roster, a proven coach in Tom Thibodeau and a legitimate shot to end an NBA playoff drought that dates to 2004.
The only issue is that Target Center is still ugly.
But it shouldn't be for much longer.
A new Target Center scoreboard, the first visual sign of progress amid a $97 million renovation project that is set to be completed in time for the start of the Wolves' 2017-18 season, was unveiled Friday morning and will be on display Sunday night when the Lynx take on Seattle.
Featuring 4,300 square feet of display space—four times the size of its predecessor—the new scoreboard is massive. It is so big there are scoreboards inside the scoreboard, which are easily seen by those sitting in the first few rows. So big that even if you're sitting in one of the top rows at Target Center — the seats that make you fear for you life and gasp for oxygen as you approach your chair — you still have a pretty good view of the action.
When you combine the big board — advertised as the "largest center hung arena scoreboard in the Upper Midwest" — with separate video boards in each of the arena's four corners, Target Center has seven times more digital board space than it did before.
It's big, and it's beautiful.
"You walk in here and it's 'Wow,'" Wolves general manager Scott Layden said. "This is a big-time addition."
It catches your eye the moment you walk into the arena. For a moment you forget that you're in a severely outdated facility, designed in the 1980s, and instead consider the possibilities for the future.
"The feeling folks are going to get when they see something of this size creating this much energy—the light shows, the digital shows, the player introductions, the way in which we can prompt things to happen late in the game when the score is close to pull the crowd back in," Wolves CEO Ethan Casson said, "it's a great tool."
The scoreboard alone makes Target Center feel 10 years younger, and this is only Phase One of the renovation. Also included in this phase are suite-level construction and acoustic improvements.
"It's a great first step," Casson said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Exterior work will be done during the Wolves' season, and a bevy of interior improvements — such as restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, the concourse, a new lobby, additional club spaces, and food and beverage upgrades — will happen in the third and final phase next summer, when the Lynx will play their home games at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
When that's all completed, Target Center should again be a facility worthy of housing its on-court product.
Combine the upgraded digs with the WNBA's premier franchise and one of the NBA's best young cores, and there's a chance Target Center could be a must-visit destination.
"I know the players are going to love the sort of energy that these things bring," Layden said. "I think that's the bottom line — it enhances the experience."

Finally, the Wolves might give the Target Center two good te...


WEST FARGO—Two women who worked for the West Fargo Hockey Association's bingo operation at the M&J Saloon in West Fargo have been arrested on suspicion of defrauding the operation of more than $10,000.
Leah Willason, 39, of Fargo, and Amy Grieger, 41, of West Fargo, were arrested Thursday evening, Aug. 25, according to West Fargo police Detective Joe Birrenkott.
Birrenkott said one of the women worked as a caller for the bingo operation and the other was a floor walker.
He said they are suspected of having defrauded the hockey association of more than $10,000 since the first of the year.
The two women were being held in the Cass County Jail Friday morning, Aug. 26, pending possible theft charges involving an amount between $10,000 and $50,000, according to online jail records.

Two arrested on suspicion of swiping $10K from ND hockey club


Lorne Campbell, chief engineer for the western region of Prairie Public Radio in Bismarck, monitors the signal transmission on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016. BISMARCK TRIBUNE PHOTO
BISMARCK—State agency heads see North Dakota returning to a new pre-boom normal following two rounds of budget cuts and further reductions being required for the 2017-19 biennium.
Following several years of record revenues flowing to the state's coffers, agencies realize they need to pull back and realign themselves to remain efficient while providing services residents have come to expect.
"Nothing was normal during those (previous) two bienniums," Office of Management and Budget Director Pam Sharp said.
Generally funded agencies were required to cut 2.5 percent from budgets following a projected $310 million revenue shortfall unveiled last month. Rainy day funds and Bank of North Dakota profits were also used during a special session to plug the remainder of the gap.
The cuts follow a $1.074 billion shortfall in February plugged with rainy day funds, turnover dollars from the previous biennium and 4.05 percent in budget cuts.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple in May ordered agencies to deliver budget proposals at 90 percent levels of ongoing spending from the current biennium.
"They're going to need to cut deeper than this and they're going to have to assume that one-time expenses aren't going to happen unless they're absolutely critical," Sharp said.
North Dakota Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger said July revenue collections, the first reported since the new forecast, show general fund collections were nearly $1.7 million ahead of forecast.
The next revenue forecast in November will provide a clearer revenue picture for 2017-19 and will be what the governor's executive budget proposal is based off of.
Rauschenberger said a lot can still happen and revenues are being watched closely.
"These next three months, August, September, October will be very critical," Rauschenberger said.
Making cuts
For the tax department, nearly $355,000 in salaries and wages were cut. Unfilled positions as well as staff that retire before the end of the biennium won't be replaced; a total of eight positions will be impacted.
The tax department also will be cutting more than $422,000 in operating expenses, which will result in fewer mailings and a reduction in printing costs.
A $500,000 reduction in funds for the Homestead Tax Credit and nearly $192,000 for the Disabled Veteran Credit are also among the cuts.
In the past, the Homestead Tax Credit usually has a few million dollars left over at the end of the biennium, according to Rauschenberger. If there's a shortage in the veterans tax credit a deficiency appropriation could be made by the Legislature and shift money from the Homestead Tax Credit during the 2017 session, he said.
"We'd really been planning this all along," said Rauschenberger, adding earlier this year he'd figured a second round may be coming. "We kind of had a head start."
Sharp said OMB cuts total $1.1 million. No salaries or wages were cut in this round, but more than $349,000 for what was listed as capital assets, $200,000 in contingency fund dollars and $100,000 in funding for Prairie Public Broadcasting were cut.
In the previous round of budget cuts, four open positions were left vacant, which Sharp says might be eliminated in OMB's 2017-19 budget.
Public Service Commission members during their regular meeting earlier this week outlined $198,000 in cuts.
A total of $135,000 in funds for reclamation and grain warehouse insolvencies litigation will be cut. More than $47,000 in salaries and wages and $16,000 in operating expenses also received the axe.
For the 2017-19 budget, a restructuring of some PSC divisions and consolidation of a management position are among the items to be proposed to lawmakers to improve efficiencies.
"Probably the hardest thing I've ever been involved in. It was very challenging," Commissioner Brian Kalk said of the 2017-19 budget proposal.
Cuts to the North Dakota Department of Transportation total $16.4 million and largely will be dealt with through changes in scope to 2017 road construction projects, department spokeswoman Jamie Olson said.
"That doesn't really effect any of those (underway) right now," Olson said.
Cost reductions can come from using asphalt instead of concrete. More competitive bids also have been coming in for projects during the slowdown in oil activity.
"This does affect not only the state highway projects, but it does impact some dollars that are going to the counties," Olson said.
Nearly $13.1 million of the DOT cuts come from general fund transfers for statewide road projects. Another $2.8 million will come from a funding pool for non-oil producing county road projects.
State Auditor Robert Peterson's budget is largely salaries and wages, which led to cuts of more than $261,000.
"We actually had enough (room) left so it's not impacting anyone," Peterson said.
During the first round of budget cuts, two of six positions in the agency's North Dakota University System Performance Audit Division were left vacant that hadn't yet been filled. The six positions were authorized by the Legislature last session. For the 2017-19 budget, two more positions would be left open, though his office will submit a request for funding all six positions.
Peterson said tight budgets are nothing new to him.
"I remember coming in and having 97 percent budgets under Gov. Schafer," Peterson said. "I think we'll be OK."
Prairie Public looks to cut $100K
When every dollar counts, a cut of $100,000 in state funding as part of a round of budget cuts will create some pain that will have to be addressed, the head of Prairie Public Broadcasting said this week.
John Harris, president and CEO of Prairie Public, says the cuts in state funding will likely come from areas such as programming for television and radio as well as on educational workshops the organization puts on across the state.
"We haven't targeted anything specific yet. We should be able to tighten our belts," said Harris, adding that the annual budget is typically from $7.5 million to $8 million.
The $100,000 is a small part of the $1.1 million in cuts to the Office of Management and Budget this month as part of a 2.5 percent budget cut to generally funded agencies ordered by Gov. Jack Dalrymple.
Prairie Public has several public and private funding sources, including state and federal dollars, as well as grants and member dollars.
"It's tough, and you just have to make adjustments," said Harris, explaining that the most important assets are programming and staff.
The organization operates on a fiscal year that begins Oct. 1; he estimated about $25,000 of the cut will be for 2016 and the rest for fiscal year 2017.
Harris said decisions on cuts will be made in the fall.
"It's $100,000. It's tough. Any amount is to be honest," Harris said. "Every dollar counts."

Agencies see new normal coming for state funding


U.S. Senator John Thune (R), right, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R), second from right, and U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem (R), top center, speak with constituents following their remarks during a panel called "Check-in From Washington, DC" during Dakotafest on Wednesday morning east of Mitchell. (Matt Gade/Republic)
MITCHELL, S.D.—The U.S. Senate majority is up for grabs in 2016, and one of South Dakota's Republican senators is less optimistic than his counterpart.
In an interview last week, U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds said he's "very concerned" about the possibility his party could lose its existing 54-46 U.S. Senate majority.
"If we lose any of those and pick up enough to get to 51, we're OK," Rounds said. "If we go to 50-50, then whoever is the next vice president breaks the tie on who the majority leader is.
"So with the challenges between Donald Trump and Hillary, who knows how that's going to come out? Right now, it's not looking good for Donald Trump. He's got an uphill battle ahead of him."
Rounds estimates approximately four or five of the 24 Republican Party Senate seats are in play this November, but he said the Nevada seat being vacated by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid could swing back in the direction of the GOP. Including the Nevada Senate seat, only 10 Democratically-held seats will be on the ballot this year.
According to the poll-analysis website FiveThirtyEight, several Republican-held U.S. Senate seats are a tossup. Voters in Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could push Republican incumbents out the door in favor of Democratic challengers.
If the Republicans lose the Senate, Rounds said operating in the minority could be a matter of limiting the amount of "damage" caused by the next president.
"But if the Democrats control the senate, and if we have a Democrat president, then we've got real problems because that means that the president will appoint the next Supreme Court Justice and maybe the next three Supreme Court justices," Rounds said.
And Rounds said any liberal appointee would "change the direction of our country for several generations to come."
But Thune, South Dakota's senior senator and the third-ranking Senate Republican, was more optimistic about his party's chances.
"We have a strong field of candidates across the country this year, which is why I'm confident Republicans will maintain the majority in the next Congress and continue to build on what we've accomplished over the last 20 months," Thune said Wednesday in a statement.
Thune, a two-term senator, is one of the 24 Republicans facing a challenger this year. Thune's challenger is Democrat Jay Williams, of Yankton, but FiveThirtyEight's June projection estimated a Democrat has a 2 percent chance of winning South Dakota this year.
Thune pointed to what he called the "strong, results-oriented message" of his party, which he said Republicans will express to the American people in the coming months.
For Thune, there's more at stake than a Democrat-led Senate.
Thune is currently the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, a post he would lose in January if the 2016 elections don't go the way Republicans hope. And Thune expressed pride in the work the committee has been able to achieve under his leadership.
"The Commerce Committee has played an integral role in some of the Senate's biggest accomplishments: passing the first long-term highway bill in nearly a decade, passing a security- and consumer-focused aviation bill and enacting first-of-their-kind railroad reforms that will improve rail service for South Dakota agriculture producers and small businesses," Thune said.
And Thune's hoping to maintain that forward momentum in 2017 if given the opportunity.
"There's more work to be done, and I look forward to continuing it next year," Thune said.

South Dakota Sen. Rounds concerned Republicans could lose Senate majority


TAMPA, Fla.—North Carolina's far east coast could see tropical storm-force winds from a weather system expected to pass near its Outer Banks region on Tuesday, Aug. 30, before it turns out to sea, U.S. forecasters said.
The tropical depression, which has yet to be named, could strengthen into a tropical storm later on Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. As of morning, it was blowing winds of 35 mph and was located about 135 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C.
The state's Outer Banks region could see heavy rainfall and a minor storm surge, the National Weather Service in Newport, N.C., said in a weather advisory. Little impact was expected elsewhere in the state.
Forecasters were also tracking another tropical depression developing off the coast of Cuba, which was expected to churn towards Florida's Gulf Coast later in the week. The hurricane center expected it would strengthen into a tropical storm on Tuesday.
On its current path, the system could make landfall on Florida's north-central Gulf Coast on Thursday, bringing storms into Georgia and the eastern Carolinas on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Florida planned to raise the activation status of its State Emergency Operations Center on Tuesday to begin preparing.
Forecasters warned the system could dump five to 10 inches of rain over much of Florida by Friday, and some areas could be pounded by up to 15 inches of rain.

N. Carolina, Florida brace for brewing tropical systems


Aug 26, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Minnesota Twins left fielder Robbie Grossman (36) can't reach a ball hit for a home run by Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Darwin Barney (not pictured) in the sixth inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 26, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier (2) forces out Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson (20) at second but can't turn a double play in the sixth inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
TORONTO—Justin Smoak and Russell Martin each had five RBIs, Francisco Liriano earned his first win for the Blue Jays and Toronto used four home runs to defeat the Minnesota Twins 15-8 on Friday night.
Smoak, Martin, Josh Donaldson and Darwin Barney homered for the Blue Jays. Donaldson added three RBIs.
The Blue Jays (72-56) entered Friday tied for first place in the American League East with the Boston Red Sox
Trevor Plouffe homered for the Twins (49-79), who lost their eighth game in a row and Kurt Suzuki had three RBIs.
Twins left-hander Pat Dean (1-4) allowed eight hits, one walk and six runs in three innings.
Liriano (7-12) allowed two hits, four walks and four runs (three earned) in five innings to go 1-1 in four starts for Toronto after a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The left-hander struck out seven.
Joe Biagini allowed a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Eddie Rosario to cut Toronto's advantage to 6-5.
Barney led off the four-run Toronto sixth with his fourth homer of the season.
Pat Light replaced Andrew Albers after shortstop Jorge Polanco's throwing error on Ezequiel Carrera's grounder
As Jose Bautista struck out, Carrera stole second and took third on a throwing error by the catcher, Suzuki.
Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion walked to load the bases and Martin hit a three-run double for a 10-5 Toronto lead.
The Blue Jays added five runs in the seventh against Michael Tonkin and Michael O'Rourke, who allowed Martin's 15th homer, a two-run shot.
Smoak and Donaldson had RBI singles in the inning.
The Twins scored twice in the eighth against Aaron Loup on a sacrifice fly by Suzuki and an RBI single by Rosario.
Loup allowed a sacrifice fly to Max Kepler in the ninth.
Plouffe hit his eighth homer of the season with two out in the first inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Jays came back with five runs in the second inning, three on the 14th homer of the season by Smoak and two on the 30th home run of the season by Donaldson.
Troy Tulowitzki, Melvin Upton Jr. and Bautista hit singles in the inning.
The Twins cut the lead to 5-2 with an unearned run in the third on walks to Kurt Suzuki and Robbie Grossman, an error by Liriano on an infield trickler by Eddie Rosario and Plouffe's sacrifice fly.
Singles by Upton, Darwin Barney and Smoak restored Toronto's four-run lead in the bottom of the third.
Suzuki hit a two-run double in the fourth to reduce Toronto's lead to 6-4. It scored Kepler and Eduardo Escobar, who had walked.