CSi Weather…

.TONIGHT…Partly cloudy. Lows 10 to 15. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.

.THURSDAY…Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 20s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

.THURSDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. Lows 5 to 10 above. East winds around 5 mph.

.FRIDAY…Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 20s. West winds around

5 mph.

.FRIDAY NIGHT…Partly cloudy. Lows 15 to 20.

.SATURDAY…Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 30s.

.SATURDAY NIGHT…Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 20s.

.SUNDAY…Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 30s.

.SUNDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. Lows 15 to 20.

.MONDAY…Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 20s.

.MONDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. Lows around 10.

.TUESDAY…Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 20s.

.CHRISTMAS DAY…Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of light snow.

Highs 20 to 25.

Saturday looks to be the warmest day this week, then temperatures to near late December normals and increased chances for precipitation.

Currently, the next chance of precipitation arrives late Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.

 

Valley City (VCSU) VCSU athletics is offering free admission for all fans to the men’s basketball game on Weds Dec 18. The Vikings host University of Maine at Fort Kent for a 7 p.m. game.

Instead of a gate fee, the athletic department is accepting donations for the Barnes County Food Pantry. Fans are asked to bring their donation items to the game, and the athletic department will take care of delivering those items to the food pantry.

(VCSU) Valley City State University will hold its fifth Winter Commencement on Thursday, Dec. 19, at 3:30 p.m. in Vangstad Auditorium.

President Alan LaFave will preside at the commencement exercises and give remarks, as will Kathleen Neset, member of the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education.

The undergraduate student reflection will be presented by Autumn Johnson of Hazen, N.D., graduating on Thursday with a major in history and minor in political science.

Faculty speaker is Joan Oigawa Aus, associate professor of education and chair of the elementary education and English language learners programs at VCSU. Aus has taught at the university since 2000; in spring 2019, she received the Faculty Excellence Award for Senior Faculty.

Members of the VCSU Woodwind Studio, directed by Daniel Becker, assistant professor of music, will perform at the ceremony.

The event, open to the public, will be live streamed at www.youtube.com/user/VCSUVikings/live.

Buxton  (NDHP)  The North Dakota Highway Patrol reports, a 32 year old Dilworth, Minnesota man was killed when the straight truck he was in was hit by a train two miles south of Buxton, in rural Traill County around 11 a.m., Wednesday.

The man was driving a 2004 Mack straight truck was eastbound on a township road two miles south of Buxton when he failed to yield for an oncoming Burlington Northern Santa Fe train and the truck was hit on the passenger side.

The intersection was marked with railroad signs and a yield sign.

The truck driven who was not  wearing a seatbelt and died on scene.

The locomotive operator,  38 year old Travis Hubrig, of Minot ND and the passenger on the train, 44 year old, Brandon Escobar, of Moorhead Minnesota, were not Injured.

The man’s name is expected to be released on Thursday.

 

FARGO  (AP)  A popular but cash-poor 3D printer business in Colorado is relocating to North Dakota. Gov. Doug Burgum announced Wednesday that the LulzBot brand of 3D printers will be manufactured by Fargo Additive Manufacturing Equipment 3D, or FAME 3D. The company plans to bring 13 employees from Colorado and hire an additional 50 workers for its Fargo plant. FAME 3D last month bought out Aleph Objects Inc., the Loveland, Colorado company that was making the printers. Before its financial woes, it employed more than 100 people, most of whom were laid off.

To accommodate the LulzBot manufacturing line, FAME 3D is actively outfitting the vacant building at 1001 25th St. N, the former corporate headquarters for Vanity clothing. The building is located in one of 25 areas of North Dakota that Burgum designated in April 2018 as Opportunity Zones under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A group is working to rename Custer Park in Bismarck because of the “historical trauma” it says is associated with its namesake, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The military officer served during the Civil War and fought against Native Americans on the Great Plains in the 1860s and 1870s before leading his men to death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. He spent several years stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln in Mandan before his death. Two Bismarck women representing the group say the Native American community has negative views of the Custer name.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A New Jersey company that sells caller identification spoofing services is suing North Dakota over its new law which makes it a crime to use false caller ID information with intent to defraud or mislead. SpoofCard LLC says the law is unconstitutional and that federal law takes precedence. SpoofCard and CEO Amanda Pietrocola are asking a federal judge to stop the state from enforcing the law that took effect in August and to award them unspecified monetary damages. Spoofing involves altering or disguising the number that shows up on the caller ID of the person being called.

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Industrial Commission has endorsed a measure aimed at reducing the wasteful burning of natural gas in the state’s oil patch. The three-member panel led by Gov. Doug Burgum approved an order Tuesday that lets producers and companies that purchase their gas enter into contracts that guarantee space for the producer’s gas on systems such as pipelines. State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms says such a guarantee lowers the risk for investing in new gas gathering and processing facilities. Helms said the order could help accelerate projects by as much as two years.

 

In world and national news…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House is marching toward a historic evening vote to impeach President Donald Trump. As debate proceeded on Wednesday, Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Congress must “defend democracy” by evicting him from the White House. Trump would be just the third American president to be impeached, a distinctive dark mark on his tenure. From the White House, he tweeted that despite the Democrats’ patriotic talk, they were actually perpetrating “an assault on America.” He and his Republican supporters say the Democrats are just trying to remove a president they couldn’t beat at the ballot box.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — An incredulous and defiant President Donald Trump is staring down Wednesday’s impending impeachment vote as he has every obstacle in his presidency: broadcasting his grievances. The White House insisted Trump would be busy working on Wednesday, but Trump spent his morning tweeting, retweeting and expressing disbelief as he prepares to become just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. Republican allies are rallying behind the president and reassuring conservative voters that the president remains in good spirits even as the prospect of impeachment looms.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigrants convicted of a felony or of illegally reentering the U.S. or driving drunk will be barred from claiming asylum under a proposed regulation announced by the Trump administration. The proposal announced Wednesday lists seven criminal areas that would bar migrants from claiming asylum in addition to federal restrictions already in place. It also would remove a requirement to reconsider some asylum denials. The proposal must undergo a public comment period before it would go into effect. It’s another effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict asylum. Immigrant advocates criticize Trump’s hard-line policies as inhumane and say the U.S. is abdicating its role as a safe haven for refugees.

 

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Law groups representing immigrants say the immigration court system under the Trump administration has become a “deportation machine.” A lawsuit filed in federal court in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday says that the immigration courts have the ultimate goal of deportation rather than fair adjudication. Melissa Crow of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, says this case has the potential to provide fairness to asylum seekers and others who have been the target the Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies.

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Lee says Tennessee won’t stop resettling refugees under an option offered to states by President Donald Trump’s administration. In reaching the decision announced Wednesday, Lee said he considered his own experience helping Kurdish refugees and weighed it against the will of fellow Republicans in the Legislature. GOP lawmakers had sued the federal government over its refugee resettlement program and legislative leaders hoped Lee would take Trump up on his offer. So far, no state has said it plans to reject refugees. More than 2,000 refugees resettled in Tennessee during the 2016 budget year. That number was 692 in 2018.

 

DETROIT (AP) — Mercedes Benz will pay a $13 million penalty to U.S. safety regulators for a string of reporting failures involving recalled vehicles. The German automaker agreed to the payment in a settlement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Last year the agency opened an investigation into recall reporting lapses by Mercedes involving more than 1.4 million vehicles. The investigation covered allegations of recall notification letters being sent too slowly to vehicle owners as well as slow reporting of safety problems to the agency. The settlement Wednesday also addresses flaws with the operation and functionality of Mercedes’ internet site that lets vehicle owners check for recalls by their vehicle identification numbers.