"I'm spending it just as fast as I'm making it."

- Erick Dschaak, 19, who's making $28 an hour as a roughneck in Slope County. He's got a fairly new pickup, a motorcycle and is working on buying a house. At the same time, he says he's more conservative with his money than many in the oil fields.

* * *

"It makes me feel good to help these folks out."

- Smoky Wright, a Farm Rescue volunteer, helping harvest the wheat of Norman Fleck in McIntosh, S.D. Fleck, Flasher, was injured April 14 and needed help with the harvest.

* * *

"She thinks it's cool, all this stuff I get to do. Now she can make more friends."

- Kelsi Hatzenbuhler, a fifth-grader, on how her sister, Kassidi, is excited about starting kindergarten.

* * *

"Everyone wants kids in the 21st century to have those good experiences."

- Gayle Schuck, development director for The Library Foundation Inc., for the Bismarck Public Library, which is in the process of raising the remaining funds for a renovation and enhancement of its children's library.

* * *

"A lot of it's common sense. The winds can change at any time. It's hard to fight a fire in the wind."

- Burleigh County Emergency Manager Mary Senger urging residents to plan for any controlled burns.

* * *

"I'm disappointed and disgusted."

- U.S. District Judge Rodney Webb on Fargo ignoring judges' opinions on the city's traffic fines.

* * *

"We have almost 800 employees in the Department of Corrections. They deserve to come to a safe environment to do their jobs, which is critical to keeping North Dakota safe."

- Leann Bertsch, director of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, after an interim legislative committee approved a $67 million plan to remodel the prison. She said the plan would meet the prison's most pressing construction needs and provide a better environment for its workers.

* * *

"There's a group of people that think we should build brand new, and spend the money, and be done with it. And then there's a group of people who think we really shouldn't do anything, and that we should have rehab programs."

- Rep. Chet Pollert, R-Carrington, who chaired the interim legislative committee that developed the plan to remodel the prison.