Compiled by LAURENDONOVAN

Bismarck Tribune

The Emmons County Record will be the first weekly newspaper in North Dakota to go virtual. It also recently achieved status as the weekly newspaper with the third-largest circulation in the state.

The first virtual edition of the newspaper will go online Monday.

Other newspapers in North Dakota have Web sites, and some interaction by computer, but the Record will be the first weekly in the state in which readers can click from front page to back, with all the classifieds and obituaries in between.

Publisher Allan Burke said the online version will be free for a couple of weeks and he hopes people will go to the site, click around, and help test-drive the thing.

After the first two weeks, the paper will cost $29.95 for an online edition, which people can pay for with a credit card while they're on the site. They can see all the pictures and use a search tool to get specific information. The previous three months' editions of the Record also will be available at the online address.

Burke said the virtual version of the newspaper will actually be a scan of the paper, so it will look exactly like the tabloid-sized newsprint version people are used to seeing.

He said he hopes it proves popular with his out-of-state subscribers who, because of the U.S. Postal Service, have a number of complaints about paper delivery. He said about half the paper's subscribers live out of state, and he estimates he might pick up hundreds more if they'd have more reliable service.

He said he already gives free subscriptions to any local soldiers serving in Iraq, and he'll switch that to the online version to make it quicker and more reliable for them to read. He also plans to give a virtual subscription to every graduating senior so they can keep up with hometown news during their first year of college.

Burke said he'll also give a combined rate to subscribers who want both the paper and the virtual editions of the paper.

Starting Monday, the Record will be found at www.ecrecord.com.

- Emmons County Record

Confidence issues

All that glitters is not gold when it comes to economic development.

A case in point is what happened in Napoleon.

Developers there are paying off a $75,000 debt, at the rate of $675 a month, because a man named Dan Bradford, who said he had invented a process to sterilize metal medical equipment with microwaves, skipped town and hasn't been seen for six months.

The technique would have been quite an accomplishment, since metal cannot be microwaved, at least by conventional technology.

The Napoleon group gave Bradford a total of $135,000 when he said he would create 100 high-paying jobs in a 40,000-square-foot building that was never built.

Napoleon is repaying the debt to the Stutsman County Development Corporation of Jamestown, which pitched in to help Napoleon get the deal going.

The North Dakota attorney general's office has said Bradford cannot sell his technology without repaying Napoleon.

Bradford had said he was part of the Bradford White manufacturing family of Philadelphia, which despite the name has no Bradford family connection, a fact uncovered by the local newspaper.

Bradford said he meant it as a joke, but no one in Napoleon found it funny.

Over in Hazelton, Eric Sari, who has a company he calls Energy Technology Systems, wanted money to build two buildings in town for workers to make ovens designed for "solder reflow and adhesive curing." Unlike in Bradford's case, ETS does exist and makes products in Washington.

Hazelton economic developers have never publicly said what financial assistance Sari received, but he wanted $100,000 from Linton, in $25,000 increments based on equipment and progress on a building when he made the same pitch to that town first.

ETS did have a few people on payroll in Hazelton and Linton, but no longer.

At the construction sites, one building has a foundation, and the other some metal walls on a foundation. No work has been done on either one for a couple of years.

- Emmons County Record

Brotherly bust

A man who calls himself a "Brother in Christ" disputes the facts of his marijuana bust in Ashley.

The Rev. Jacob "Israel" Kleczka said he had considered his move to Ashley one of the greater blessings in life for the landscape, the wildlife and the hospitality of the locals.

He wasn't even deterred when the double-decker van that he built to run as a mobile food ministry got stolen before he could make the move.

Red flags did go up his second day in Ashley, when someone told him that the tattoos on his body, which he said represent Christ, might cause trouble for him.

"I took no heed to this comment, as all I encountered was politeness and smiles," he said.

That evening, he was arrested.

A friend of a friend had supper with him and returned to two hours later, with two more officers in backup.

Kleczka said he was arrested at gunpoint for selling THC, which is the scientific shorthand for marijuana.

He claims the cop later recanted his story and said the marijuana was free.

Kleczka said the situation has caused him a hardship, because his van has been located and he hasn't been able to get his van to go visit his two young boys.

"This unjust hardship … due to the fact a man I had never previously met claims I acquired drugs and then gave him the drugs free," he said.

- Ashley Tribune

Teen delivers

She's only a Center High School junior.

But she's already a prize-winning cook with a very generous heart.

Tiffanee Rathjen entered the Center Community Club's second annual "Soup's On," contest and walked away with first place for her Pizza Soup.

It might have been beginner's luck, or good timing, but she is a self-described cookaholic. Her recipe was something she had tried once, liked and decided she could duplicate, adding a little of this and a little of that.

The judges really liked it and awarded her $125 in cash, which most teenage girls would have used for a fast sprint through the mall.

Instead, Rathjen decided to give her money to the Peer Youth Workers in her school. Half the money will go toward AIDS research and the other half for cancer research.

"My stepdad's friend died of cancer," she said. "So, it's a way I can help."

Her prize-winning recipe:

2 cans pizza sauce

1 can tomato soup

½ tsp. garlic powder

2 c. diced pepperoni

2 cans water

1 tbs. Italian seasoning

1 c. Italian sausage

Mix ingredients, bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Garnish with Cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

- Center Republican