DakotaPolitics.com Launches Vote Lookup Tool

KXNet.com and DakotaPolitics.com have created a new tool for finding actual votes case by your district Representitives and Senators during the Legislative Sessions since 2001.

We have broken the votes down into categories and topics which allow you to get their record on specific issues that are of interest to you.

Whether you want to see their votes on Income Tax, Abortion, Banking, Game and Fish, etc., you can choose your district and then click to see how they voted.

The tool is available right now on the DakotaPolitics.com Home Page

Below is an example report for District 2 in North Dakota:

District 2 Delegation Wind Energy Bills and Resolutions

The following list represents all District 2 Delegation's votes on bills and resolutions related to Wind Energy

Some bills may be represented more than once if the house or senate had multiple roll call votes on the same bill.

Year	Bill	Title	Final Bill Status
2007	HB 1363	Decommissioning Commercial Wind Energy Facilities District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay	Failed
2007	HB 1233	Income Tax - Wind Energy Tax Credit Assign In Power Purchase Agreement District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2007	HB 1317	Property Tax - Wind Turbine Electric Generator Taxable Valuation District 2 Votes Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea John Andrist (R) Senate Yea	Passed
2007	HB 1072	Property Tax - Wind Turbine Electric Generators Valuation District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea John Andrist (R) Senate Absent Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2007	HB 1028	Proposed Studies - Energy Development And Transmission Committee Study District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2007	HB 1506	Renewable And Recycled Energy Policy District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea John Andrist (R) Senate Absent	Passed
2007	HB 1231	Wind Energy Project Payments Of Property Owner District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay John Andrist (R) Senate Absent	Passed
2007	HB 1456	Wind Farm Siting Study And Report 7/31/08 District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2005	SB 2365	Department Of Commerce - Wind-To-Hydrogen Demonstration Projects Appropriation District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Nay	Failed
2005	HB 1283	Energy Conversion Facility Siting District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea Dorvan Solberg (D) House Absent	Passed
2005	HB 1481	Income Tax - Alternative Energy Device Income Tax Credit On Form Nd1 District 2 Votes Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay	Failed
2005	HB 1314	Renewable Electricity Trading And Tracking System District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Absent Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay	Passed
2005	HB 1308	Renewable Energy Commission - Renewable Energy And Conservation Office And Appropriation District 2 Votes Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay	Failed
2005	SB 2229	Renewable Energy Policy And Commission Various District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Nay	Failed
2005	SB 2238	School Wind Turbine Electricity Purchase Credits 7/1/05 District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea	Failed
2005	HB 1385	Wind Energy Pricing Jurisdiction District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay	Failed
2005	SB 2239	Wind Option Agreements, Easements, And Leases District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2003	HB 1435	Public Service Commission - Renewable Energy Production Incentive Program District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea John Andrist (R) Senate Absent	Failed
2003	HB 1412	Renewable Energy Goals For State Agencies District 2 Votes Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay	Failed
2003	SB 2286	Reports Of Receipts For Resale Of Rec District 2 Votes Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Yea John Andrist (R) Senate Yea	Passed
2003	SCR 4025	Senate Concurrent - Congress Urged To Create Wind Energy Production Tax Credit District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Nay	Passed
2003	HB 1340	Wind Energy Development Lease Termination District 2 Votes Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay John Andrist (R) Senate Yea	Failed
2003	HB 1378	Wind Energy Hydrogen Production Study District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2003	SB 2310	Wind Turbine Siting And Development Contracts District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Bob Skarphol (R) House Absent Dorvan Solberg (D) House Yea	Passed
2003	SB 2244	Wind Turbines For School Districts District 2 Votes John Andrist (R) Senate Yea Dorvan Solberg (D) House Nay Bob Skarphol (R) House Nay

ND 2008 Election Races and Current Polls

DakotaPolitics.com has a list of all of the 2008 statewide and legislative races for the 2008 Election.

Below is the latest list from DakotaPolitics.com

Governor

John Hoeven Party:Republican Party	Tim Mathern Party:Democratic-NPL Party	DuWayne Hendrickson Party:Independent Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
71.46%	24.55%	3.36%
John Hoeven's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Tim Mathern's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	DuWayne Hendrickson's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for Governor

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U.S. House

Earl Pomeroy Party:Democratic-NPL Party	Duane Sand Party:Republican Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
50.00%	46.61%
Earl Pomeroy's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Duane Sand's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for U.S. House

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Public Service Commissioner

Brian Kalk Party:Republican Party	Cheryl Bergian Party:Democratic-NPL Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
40.65%	59.35%
Brian Kalk's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Cheryl Bergian's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for Public Service Commissioner

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Insurance Commissioner

Adam Hamm Party:Republican Party	Jasper Schneider Party:Democratic-NPL Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
16.71%	68.37%
Adam Hamm's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Jasper Schneider's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for Insurance Commissioner

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Treasurer

Kelly Schmidt Party:Republican Party	Mitch Vance Party:Democratic-NPL Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
6.47%	84.55%
Kelly Schmidt's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Mitch Vance's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for Treasurer

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Auditor

Robert Peterson Party:Republican Party	Daryl Splichal Party:Democratic-NPL Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
33.54%	62.11%
Robert Peterson's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Daryl Splichal's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for Auditor

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Superintendent of Public Instruction

Wayne Sanstead Party:Democratic-NPL Party	Max Laird Party:Independent Party
DakotaPolitics.com Polling Results (last 4 weeks combined)
36.61%	59.82%
Wayne Sanstead's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions	Max Laird's Profile Legislative Voting Record On the Issues Campaign Contributions

View Detailed Information on the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction

FishingBuddy.com Dominates ND Outdoor Website Market

In recent reports via the third-party vendor Quantcast, the numbers now prove that FishingBuddy.com continues to dominate the North Dakota Outdoors Website Market by a whopping margin of more than 4:1 versus NodakOutdoors.com !

ND Statewide: Nodak: 4181 Uniques, FBO - 18,497 Uniques

Fargo/Moorhead DMA - Nodak: 3002 Uniques, FBO - 7,495 Uniques

Bis/Man/Min DMA - Nodak: 1701 Uniques, FBO - 11,840 Uniques

Links Below:

Nodak:

http://www.quantcast.com/nodakoutdoors.com/geo

FishingBuddy

http://www.quantcast.com/fishingbuddy.com/geo

TON 2.0 is in Beta

The beta version of the new Total Outdoor Network (TON 2.0) is now public and available to view!

Midkota Solutions and TON have launched three beta sites and have used some content from the existing system

Check out the following:

TON Corporate Site

Fishing Buddy Beta Site

North Star Outdoors Minnesota Beta Site


For more information on the planned features of TON 2.0, see:
TON 2.0 Feature Overview

Lee Enterprises Paper in MT Cuts Staff

Sign of the times to come for the Bismarck Tribune? - Time will tell if the Bismarck paper is forced to cut staff as well

By Gazette News Services

MISSOULA - The Missoulian has announced that it will lay off four full-time and three part-time employees.

"With a tough economic environment resulting in skyrocketing newsprint and fuel costs, along with softening in certain segments, the Missoulian has been faced with very tough financial decisions, not dissimilar to many other businesses in our community and our industry," publisher Stacey Mueller said Wednesday.

The layoffs by the newspaper, the third-largest in Montana, include two newsroom employees, two in advertising, one in circulation and two part-time telemarketing sales staff whose work was outsourced.

"This was a very difficult decision, one we don't take lightly, as the folks impacted were our team members and we care about each of them," Mueller said.

Lee Enterprises Web Revenues in Declinie

From AdAge



As of late 2006, he said, 70% of the paper's online ads were the result of either up-sells from print or buys in tandem with print. Today, print advertisers account for 50% of McClatchy's web business, as the chain has been able to attract a growing number of online-only advertisers in nonclassifieds categories such as retail. "This is significant because it's establishing a separate, independent business from our print product," Mr. Pruitt told analysts.

Steep spending declines
But several major publishers have not been as successful on that front and are apparently paying for it now. At Lee -- which publishes a number of Midwestern titles including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- online ad revenue declined 9.1% during the quarter. A spokesman cited tough comparisons -- the chain's results were boosted by joining the HotJobs network last year -- but also steep spending declines in key classifieds categories that are afflicting its print and online results.


Read the Full Article

Newspapers, reeling from slumping ads, slash jobs

From the AP is this analysis of newspaper revenues and the overall newspaper industry today and down the road:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080629/ap_on_bi_ge/newspapers_cutbacks

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer Sun Jun 29, 2:55 PM ET

NEW YORK - Even for an industry awash in bad news, the newspaper business went through one of its most severe retrenchments in recent memory last week.

Half a dozen newspapers said they would slash payrolls, one said it would outsource all its printing, and Tribune Co., one of the biggest publishers in the country, said it might sell its iconic headquarters tower in Chicago and the building that houses the Los Angeles Times.

The increasingly rapid and broad decline in the newspaper business in recent months has surprised even the most pessimistic financial analysts, many of whom say it's too hard to tell how far the slump will go.

"They're in survival mode now," said Mike Simonton, a media analyst at Fitch Ratings, a credit analysis agency.

"We had very grim expectations for the sector," Simonton said, and publishers have either met or surpassed his estimates for how bad the results would be.

Last week alone, deep staff cuts were announced at The Hartford Courant and The (Baltimore) Sun — two Tribune papers — as well as at the Daytona Beach-Journal, while The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press said they hoped to reduce the head count in their joint operations by 7 percent through buyouts. The Boston Herald said up to 160 employees would be laid off as it outsourced its printing operations, and in a memo explaining the terms of its job security pledge, the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., said it is operating in the red. The week before, McClatchy Co. said companywide staff cuts of 10 percent were coming.

Tribune, meanwhile, told its employees Wednesday that it hoped to wring more value out of its "underutilized" real estate in Chicago and Los Angeles, extending an asset-selling program Tribune is pursuing to service a $13 billion debt load, much of which it took on from going private.

Tribune has already reached a deal to sell one of its largest newspapers, Long Island-based Newsday, but ran into delays early this month in liquidating Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play, when negotiations for the field's purchase by a state agency broke down over financing. Tribune is also moving to sell the Cubs.

Tribune has enough money to meet its debt requirements this year, bond analysts have said, but it must make headway on asset sales in order to meet its obligations in 2009.

Tribune's troubles reflect broader problems in the industry, where a deepening economic downturn is worsening losses from a long-term shift away from print advertising toward online, especially in classified categories like help wanted, autos and real estate, where rivals such as Craigslist, Move.com and AutoTrader.com are thriving.

Advertising is by far the most important source of revenue for newspapers. And in the first quarter, their overall ad revenue slumped 12.9 percent, led by a 24.9 percent drop-off in classifieds, compared with the same period a year earlier.

In fact, the industry group that compiles and releases ad revenue figures, the Newspaper Association of America, this month stopped putting out quarterly press releases with the numbers, though it quietly updated them on its Web site.

NAA spokeswoman Sheila Owens said in an e-mailed statement that the organization will now put out press releases only with full-year data "to keep the market focused on the longer-term industry transition from print to a multiplatform medium."

Some say complacency in the industry about the threat the Internet posed is to blame for the current quagmire.

Speaking on the CNBC business news cable channel Friday, Sam Zell, the real estate magnate who is now Tribune's CEO, said newspapers have historically been "monopolies" in their local markets and "insulated from reality," according to a transcript of his remarks provided by CNBC.

Going forward, if ad revenues continue to slide rapidly, companies including Journal Register Co., MediaNews Group Inc. and — in the absence of further asset sales — Tribune could then risk violating their loan terms, said Emile Courtney, a media industry credit analyst for Standard & Poor's.

Already, just two major publishers have investment-grade debt under S&P's ratings — Gannett Co. and The New York Times Co. The industry is divided between them and "everybody else," Courtney said.

Given the current poor climate for the business, he said: "I have doubts banks will be as willing as they were in the past to waive or amend covenants."