GLENN SCHERER: Fracking encroaches on national parks

When I was a teen, a friend and I drove coast-to-coast, touring our national parks. What I remember from that 1977 road trip is rolling across endless, wild, empty, unspoiled public and private lands on the way to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Zion.

PHIL KRINKIE: Minnesota commits another stadium error

For more than 30 years, Minnesota legislators and local officials have stumbled and bumbled their way through a half-dozen taxpayer-funded stadium deals. Today, as the 2013 legislative session draws to a close, they are about to commit still another in a long list of stadium building blunders.

• Phil Krinkie

GEORGE WILL: Absolute power is corrupting absolutely

Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture by the professionally pious, this past week has been amusing.

• George Will

OUR OPINION: The scandals’ key casualty is trust

Revelations and headlines steadily erode the Obama administration’s most valuable resource, the asset it most desperately needs: trust.

• Our Opinion

Ross Hartsough, Grand Forks, letter: They’d never do that? Oh, yes, they would

On to your list of places where young women would never text, please cross off “the back of a speeding motorcycle.”

Stan Stein, Wahpeton, N.D., letter: N.D. cuts taxes, Minnesota raises them

As the dust settles following the 2013 legislative session, voters from both sides of the aisle should be proud of the work that their elected Republican majorities have done on their behalf.

MAC SCHNEIDER and KENTON ONSTAD: Questionable priorities weaken legislative session

With respect for our friends the majority leaders, if that’s the definition of getting the job done, we fully expect the people of North Dakota to decide someone else should do the job next session.

• Mac Schneider
• Kenton Onstad

KATHRYN RAND: On behalf of the UND School of Law: Thanks

The university, the North Dakota University System chancellor and the State Board of Higher Education saw the need to ensure continued excellence in legal education for decades to come at North Dakota’s law school.

• Kathryn Rand, dean of UND School of Law.

OUR OPINION: Shirvani’s management style matters — a lot

Here’s an idea for Chancellor Hamid Shirvani as he approaches a performance review by the North Dakota University System’s board: "I'm sorry" goes a long way.

• Our Opinion

GEORGE WILL: Conveniently forgetting Watergate’s lesson

The burglary occurred in 1972, the climax came in 1974, but 40 years ago this week — May 17, 1973 — the Senate Watergate hearings began exploring the nature of Richard Nixon’s administration.

• George Will

THAT REMINDS ME: 1963 saw ‘planting’ of new crop: Missiles

Fifty years ago, the director of the Minuteman program said there was “absolutely no truth” to reports the international missile could not carry its payload to targets in the Soviet Union.

• Marilyn Hagerty

OUR OPINION: Marriage, traditional values and majority rule

Our view: In modern America, values hold sway only as long as most people say they do.

• Our Opinion

Thanks for making RED event a success

The fourth annual Read Every Day or RED event on May 2 was an amazing success, thanks to a wonderful cadre of volunteers.

Ellen Brehmer, Grand Forks, N.D., letter: Too many blame victims of sexual assault

The question to victims of violence, “Did they try to get away?” is what I call the second wave of abuse.

Viewpoint: March of science confirms anti-abortion view

Forty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that unborn humans aren’t persons under the law and don’t have the right to life. But in Roe vs. Wade, the judges said that if the personhood of the unborn were ever established, their case would collapse.