News

Voter suppression begins

October 31st, 2018

Margaret Landin and Dan Francis - Necessary P.O. Box Not Allowed - wet plate collodion photograph by Shane Balkowitsch recently named Shadow Catcher in Hidatsa

BISMARCK – The state’s agenda to suppress the Native vote is already working during early election. A handful of votes have already been denied because their addresses didn’t match the Secretary of State’s confusing database.

The suppression is backfiring, however. Indigenous voters are applying for new IDs in record numbers. Absentee ballots in some reservations have quadrupled. Native voters are fighting back and yet the state remains mostly quiet and callous to Native…

Justice for Savanna?

October 31st, 2018

FARGO – Hours after Savanna Lafontaine Greywind’s body was stuffed into a cramped bathroom closet, police came to search Brooke Lynn Crews’s and William Hoehn’s apartment. They found nothing suspicious, not then, not during a second search, nor a third.

The first time police arrived Hoehn was resting on the apartment’s only bed, drinking a beer, playing a video game, with baby Haisley Jo, ripped viciously from her mother’s womb, quiet, wrapped in blankets beside him.

After…

Local Fargo Organizations Plan First Summit for LGBTQ+ Folks

October 31st, 2018

by: Melissa Gonzalez
melissam.gonzalez@outlook.com

North Dakota Human Rights Coalition held an LGBTQ+ Summit over the weekend of Oct. 5-7 at the Baymont Inn in Mandan.

The summit was a historical moment as it was the first statewide gathering for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The goals of the summit were to provide opportunities for networking, support and strategizing for educational opportunities as well as assisting attendees in recognizing their political power.

The North Dakota…

AG behind delayed medical marijuana law, opponent says

October 30th, 2018

Attorney David Thompson and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem

BISMARCK – The differences between two attorneys – one fighting to retain his Attorney General’s seat and the other striving to take it – couldn’t be starker.

Wayne Stenehjem, a Republican, is the longest-serving Attorney General in North Dakota’s history. Tall, peppery-brown haired, he’s a difficult official to reach.

His rival, David Thompson, is gaining political ground online and through a grassroots campaign. Balding and stocky, a juggernaut for personal injury cases…

Final sentence issued in Savanna Greywind’s case

October 29th, 2018

William Hoehn arrives at Cass County District Court in prison orange and handcuffs - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Although a jury found him innocent of conspiracy to murder Savanna Greywind, William Hoehn received a sentence of life imprisonment plus one year with the possibility of parole Monday morning.

“The injustice has to some extent been minimized,” Greywind family attorney Gloria Allred said.

The sentence came as a surprise to Savanna’s mother, Norberta Greywind, who is now ready to move forward on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women issues, and is first targeting the Fargo…

In Texas, ACA is on the chopping block, at home, a scheduled hearing is postponed

October 25th, 2018

North Dakota Supreme Court petition

BISMARCK – The sudden postponement of a hearing questioning the state joining a federal lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act appears to be a partisan move to benefit Republicans and has prompted an appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court for assistance.

Burleigh County District Court Judge James S. Hill postponed a hearing based on the legality behind North Dakota’s Attorney General joining the state to the Northern District of Texas federal lawsuit against the United States of…

The Rest of the World and Us - Rick Steves and Measure 3

October 24th, 2018

by Jacques Harvieux
jacquesthejock@gmail.com

Last Friday national travel host celebrity, activist, and philanthropist Rick Steves paid a visit to North Dakota in order to show his support and to help educate more people on Measure 3 and the coming election in November.

“Guidebook author and travel TV host Rick Steves is America's most respected authority on European travel. Rick took his first trip to Europe in 1969, visiting piano factories with his father, a piano importer. As an…

‘Sunshine disinfects’

October 19th, 2018

President of North Dakotans for Public Liberty looks on as Ellen Chaffee speaks about her findings related to lobbyist expenditures - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Ellen Chaffee wanted to know how much lobbyists were spending to influence North Dakota legislators. Online searches ended in dead ends. As the founders of North Dakotans for Public Integrity, Chaffee and Dina Butcher knew politicians are treated to dinners on a daily basis in the state’s capital, especially true during legislative sessions, but real data was nowhere to be found.

Not until Chaffee paid $118 to the Secretary of State’s election office under a Freedom of…

ALEC-backed legislators behind suppressing vote

October 17th, 2018

Cover by Raul Gomez

BISMARCK– The U.S. Supreme Court decision to support North Dakota’s voter ID laws eliminating the use of postal addresses on identification cards was only a nail in the voting coffin. The effort to suppress Native and rural votes began years ago, and carries corporate bill mill ALEC’s fingerprints all over the fine print.

The 2009 ALEC-created Voter ID Act, which North Dakota has embraced, states that every voter must show proper identification – and like Wyoming in 2011 the…

The troubling case of the vanishing signs

October 17th, 2018

The digital sign at the Lions Club in Richardton displaying Chente Ornelas pro-measure 3 advertisement - photograph provided by Chente Ornelas

RICHARDTON – As if partisanship issues aren’t enough this midterm election year, political signs are vanishing across the state. From Richardton to Enderlin, Valley City to Jamestown to Fargo, and across the Red River into Moorhead, billboards have been pulled down and yard signs have vanished with hardly a trace.

Bad weather or overheated partisans? There are a few clues that imply Old Man Winter doesn’t care about state politics.

Chente Ornelas paid $50 to put a sign up in…