CSi Weather…

TONIGHT…Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 20s. South winds 5 to 10 mph.

.SATURDAY…Sunny. Highs in the lower 40s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

.SATURDAY NIGHT…Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 20s. West winds 10 to 15 mph.

.SUNDAY…Sunny. Highs in the mid 30s. Northwest winds 10 to

15 mph.

.SUNDAY NIGHT…Partly cloudy. Lows around 15. Northwest winds

5 to 10 mph shifting to the southeast after midnight.

.MONDAY…Sunny. Highs around 30.

.MONDAY NIGHT…Mostly clear. Lows 15 to 20.

.TUESDAY…Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 30s.

.TUESDAY NIGHT…Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 20s.

.WEDNESDAY…Partly sunny. A 20 percent chance of rain and snow

in the morning. Highs in the lower 40s.

.WEDNESDAY NIGHT…Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 20s.

.THURSDAY…Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 30s.

.THURSDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower 20s.

.FRIDAY…Partly sunny. Highs in the lower 30s.

 

Cooler temperatures for Sunday but still above normal.

Saturday night through Friday will be very mild with the Chinook pattern

expected to continue for much of the extended period. During this

time several weak clipper systems will move through. This will

bring some periods of gusty winds, mainly Tuesday through

Thursday of next week. Other than some gusty winds, the extended

will be dry with above normal temperatures.

 

Jamestown (CSi)  Jamestown Regional Airport boardings in November this year slipped under the one thousand mark to 851 down 19-percent from November of 2017 when there were 1051 boardings.  The boardings hadn’t been under one thousand per month since November of 2016 with 932 boardings.

Through November this year Jamestown boardings were 10, 901, compared to 11, 941 through November of 2017, down 8.7 percent.

 

Bismarck  (NDFU)  – Hundreds of North Dakota Farmers Union members in attendance at the organization’s 92nd state convention called on the Trump administration and USDA to immediately distribute more than $6 billion in aid designated to farmers hurt by the trade war with China.

“The Administration told us in August, when half of the $12 billion was first distributed, that a second payment would be coming ‘if warranted,’” said NDFU President Mark Watne. “I’d say soybean prices that are $2 a bushel less than a year ago, and an 80-cent increase in basis, definitely qualifies as ‘warranted.’”

In September, soybean farmers could apply for 82.5 cents a bushel compensation through the Market Facilitation Program, based on actual production. While welcomed income, Watne said the amount wasn’t enough to offset price losses. “The Administration promised to hold farmers harmless in this trade war. While it’s great to see sales starting to pick up with China, it doesn’t fix the here and now or the damage that’s been done.”

NDFU members in a special order of business Friday said, “The continued loss of markets that had been secured by many years of established relations will be either lost or will take substantial time to regain. Without these payments, family farmers may endure years of low prices and lower crop insurance coverage as a result of the trade war.”

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota regulators say the state’s oil production set a record in October.The Department of Mineral Resources says the state produced an average of 1.39 million barrels of oil daily in October. That’s up from 1.35 million barrels in September.North Dakota also produced a record 2.56 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in October, up from 2.52 billion cubic feet in September. There was a record 15,344 producing wells in October, up from 15,287 in September.The October tallies are the latest figures available.There were 67 drill rigs operating in North Dakota on Friday, up two from the October average. 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The resumption of soybean sales to China this week is encouraging to American farmers who have seen the value of their crop plummet amid a trade war with the world’s second-largest economy, but producers see it only as a small step and say they need more federal aid.

Private exporters reported sales of 1.13 million metric tons of soybeans to China on Thursday and another 300,000 metric tons on Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. The Thursday report was the ninth-largest daily sale since 1977, according to the agency’s Foreign Agriculture Service, and it comes less than two weeks after the Trump administration reached a three-month truce in its trade war with China during which the two sides will try to work out their differences.

Davie Stephens, a Kentucky farmer who serves as president of the American Soybean Association, said the resumption of sales is “positive news” but that “it is vital that this 90-day process result in lifting the current 25 percent tariff that China continues to impose on U.S. soybean imports.”

“Without removal of this tariff, it is improbable that sales of U.S. soybeans to China can be sustained,” he said.

China had suspended U.S. soybean purchases earlier this year but under the truce agreed to buy more U.S. farm products. The country typically buys between 30 million and 35 million metric tons of U.S. beans in a normal year.

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s top law enforcement officer says he will back legislation that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, noting that it would reflect the reality of what’s already happening in state courts.

“There is nobody in jail who only possessed or used a small amount (of marijuana),” Republican Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said Wednesday. “That just isn’t the typical sentence in those cases.”

Under the legislation being drafted and sponsored by Fargo GOP Rep. Shannon Roers Jones, someone caught with less than an ounce of marijuana or two pot plants or fewer would be fined $200. It’s currently a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.

The bill will be considered when the legislative session convenes Jan. 3 in Bismarck. It comes after North Dakota voters in November rejected a measure that would have made it legal for people 21 and older to grow, possess, use and distribute marijuana.

The ballot measure also would have sealed the records of anyone convicted of a marijuana-related crime that, under the measure, would have been legal.

Roers Jones said she also is crafting separate legislation that would allow the sealing of criminal records for people previously convicted of some misdemeanor crimes, including marijuana possession, if they avoid unlawful behavior for a few years, probably three to five. It would exclude non-violent, non-sexual offenses, and it isn’t clear yet whether records would be sealed automatically or if people would have to request their records be sealed.

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A new waiver is providing some relief to North Dakota child care providers that were scrambling to comply with a federal requirement to conduct criminal background checks before new employees can start work.

The Bismarck Tribune reports that the North Dakota Department of Human Services recently received approval for a waiver that’ll delay when child care centers need to implement the fingerprint-based background check process. Providers through next September will be allowed to hire employees immediately under direct supervision until background checks are complete.

The state implemented the new federal requirement on Oct. 1. But providers expressed concerns that new employees weren’t able to start work right away.

The department’s early childhood services administrator, Amanda Carlson, says some providers were struggling to fully staff their facilities. She says the department is looking into expediting the process.

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s biggest rancher organization is walking back its opposition to a plan by Gov. Doug Burgum to expand a military training center.The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association says in a statement with the North Dakota National Guard that it does not oppose land transactions between “willing sellers and buyers.”The group earlier passed a resolution stating that private agricultural land should not be taken out of production and sold to government.The Guard says it will ensure that “any newly acquired land remains in agriculture production.”Burgum’s budget plan calls for using $15 million from the state’s voter-approved oil tax savings account to fund the 6,000-acre expansion of Camp Grafton Training Center-South in Eddy County.The military says it’s needed in part to handle longer-range and deadlier ammunition.

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota landowners who unsuccessfully sued the developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline over land easements have lost their appeal.The 21 landowners sued for more than $4 million in 2017, saying a company formed by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and a hired land acquisition consultant used deception to acquire unfair private land easements.A federal judge last year ruled that they didn’t prove their case, in part because the fraud-based claims required a higher standard of proof.They took their case to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Thursday upheld the judge’s ruling.The pipeline has been moving North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois since June 2017. 

In world and national news…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is dismissing the accusations from President Donald Trump’s former fixer that Trump directed hush money payments to two women during the presidential campaign to buy their silence about alleged affairs. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley on Friday blasted the media for taking Michael Cohen seriously and “giving credence to a convicted criminal.”WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol says a 7-year-old girl who died while in their custody appeared to be in good health when she was first detained along a remote stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. An intake form signed by the girl’s father said she wasn’t sick, wasn’t sweating and seemed mentally alert. Immigration officials say the girl’s father told officials that she was sick and vomiting on a bus heading to a Border Patrol station, but had stopped breathing by the time they arrived.PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for “calm” and “order” ahead of promised new protests by the broad yellow-vest movement after rioting in recent weeks. Macron said Friday that “I don’t think our democracy can accept” the “occupation of the public domain and elements of violence” that marked protests the past few Saturdays, notably in central Paris. 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker says he plans to remain in Wisconsin after leaving office in 24 days. Walker spoke briefly about his future Friday after signing three bills into law weakening the powers of his Democratic successor Tony Evers. The former presidential candidate says he’s had a lot of opportunities in recent weeks to take jobs in Washington, but he plans to remain in Wisconsin.

 

BRUSSELS (AP) — Britain’s environmental secretary says Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit bill can survive in Parliament despite strong opposition. Michael Gove said Friday he thinks the contentious bill can pass in Parliament although he did not offer details about how parliamentary support can be gained in the coming weeks.

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Joan Steinbrenner, the wife of late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, died Friday. She was 83.

The Yankees said she died surrounded by family at her home in Tampa, Florida.

Joan Steinbrenner held the title of Yankees vice chair.

Born Elizabeth Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) Zieg was born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio and she received a degree in dental hygiene from Ohio State. In 1956, she married George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010.

She is survived by sons Hank and Hal; daughters Jessica Steinbrenner and Jennifer Steinbrenner-Swindal; 14 grandchildren; and three great grandchildren. Hal has been the team’s controlling owner since November 2008.

The Yankees said a private family service will be held.