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The sudden national fame for the 85-year-old North Dakota newspaper columnist seems to be because she's incredibly nice and because so many snarky sorts are amazed that a chain restaurant could be the most beautiful eatery in town.

This month, the bees from 1.6 million hives — many of them trucked in commercially from as far away as North Dakota — will pollinate California's almond orchards. Then beekeepers will pack up their colonies and drive them back to the northern Plains, where bees can graze for the summer. But scientists says that floral feast in the Great Plains is shrinking because of high corn prices.

The nickname, which some say is racist, has been controversial for decades. Now it will be decided by referendum or a court ruling.

A discovery of at least 2 billion barrels of oil in the western part of the state has led to an oil boom. That means a low unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, but residents question the cost. "To expect a county of 20,000 people to overnight absorb another 20,000 people is ludicrous," one official says.

Breakthrough technology is allowing previously untapped oil to be drilled in the U.S., Canada and South America. And experts say that's moving the global energy supply's center of gravity away from the Middle East and toward the Americas. In a decade, they say, that could make the U.S. a bigger oil producer than Saudi Arabia. Small towns like Williston, N.D., are reaping the benefits — and bearing the burdens — of the boom.