News

​Red flag legislation on gun control pitched as proactive, saving lives

January 16th, 2019

Photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – Backed by police and educators, state legislators hope to curb violent crime and rising suicide rates by proposing bipartisan legislation that would allow police to temporarily confiscate firearms from those deemed dangerous individuals.

Representative Karla Rose Hanson, a Democrat from Fargo, wrote House Bill 1537, which would establish Public Safety Protection Orders or “red flag” laws against individuals deemed dangerous to themselves or others.

“Public Safety…

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​Lawmakers defy science with ‘abortion reversal’ pill bill

January 15th, 2019

North Dakota State Capitol Building - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – North Dakota legislators introduced a bill to require physicians to provide information to patients about a questionable “abortion reversal” pill.

House Bill 1336 targets the “informed consent” section of the North Dakota Century Code and seeks to legally bind physicians to tell women planning on having an abortion about the possible effects of a reversal to abortion-inducing drugs. 

“It may be possible to reverse the effects of an abortion-inducing drug if she…

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​‘Feeding babies is not a partisan issue’

January 15th, 2019

Macy Hornung breastfeeding her child - photograph provided by Images by s.k

BISMARCK – While state legislators busy themselves with writing bills to suppress initiated measures, reinforce marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, solicit stronger penalties for protests, and require schools to offer Bible classes, the state’s Democrats and a handful of Republicans proposed a bill to clarify legalized breastfeeding in public. 

If passed, penalties could be enforced on those who prohibit women from exercising their rights, according to House Bill 1330. The bill stemmed…

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Woman in the red dress

January 9th, 2019

Cover art by Raul Gomez

FARGO– Annita Lucchesi began researching the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women with a hand broken from domestic violence. Never before compiled into a single database by any law enforcement agency, her task is daunting, even without the pain.

“I almost became one of the women on this list,” Lucchesi said. “Having escaped domestic violence I felt the responsibility to create this resource. I thought someone was already doing it, there are lots of lists out there, but…

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Two bills aim to help state with murdered and missing Indigenous People

January 9th, 2019

Ruth Buffalo in traditional attire at North Dakota state capitol - Facebook picture

BISMARCK– North Dakota’s first Native Congresswoman introduced two bills related to murdered and missing Indigenous people.

Ruth Buffalo, of Fargo, turned in the bills – House Bill 1313 and House Bill 1311 – to require additional training and data collection by law enforcement related to MMIW issues.

Buffalo, a Democrat, and a registered member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation, recently made national headlines after receiving permission from the House minority leader and…

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​Legislators want Bible classes in public schools

January 8th, 2019

Antique Bibles - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – Reflecting sentiments of the 1920s, state legislators are trying to push a bill that will authorize a Bible class as an “elective instruction” course in public and nonpublic schools.

“The bill calls it being an elective – not an essential studies course – which is two very different things,” Representative Aaron McWilliams, a co-signer from Hillsboro, said. “What the bill doesn’t do – some people look at it and immediately fear that what it does is say that…

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Don’t sell your gun and you’re a criminal

January 8th, 2019

Guns on display in Fargo - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – A licensed retailer refusing to sell a firearm to any legally qualified person should be a crime in North Dakota, or so say a handful of the state’s elected few.

A newly-proposed bill in the North Dakota Sixty-sixth Legislative Assembly currently known as House Bill 1160 plans to enforce penalties on any licensed retailer who refuses to sell another authorized person a firearm. The original bill stated anyone who refuses, but sponsors plan to rewrite the bill.

“A person…

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​Ethics commission: “symbols of evil”

January 4th, 2019

Ellen Chaffee and Dina Butcher days before Measure 1 passed in North Dakota - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – After repeated attempts at better government transparency over the years, the constitutional initiated Measure 1, now known as Article XIV, which created an Ethics Commission, is now inseparable from law and will be incorporated into the state’s Constitution on January 5.

Opponents may not like the fact that out-of-state lobbyists will be held accountable for buying political favors, but the details will take two legislative sessions to comb through, Senator Tim Mathern,…

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Policing for Profit

December 20th, 2018

design by Raul Gomez

by Jacques Harvieux
jacquesthejock@gmail.com

For those unfamiliar with civil asset forfeiture, it is the process in which law enforcement officers take assets from a person. These “assets,” range from literal cash to private property such as vehicles, houses, and small possessions. In every case it is a person’s private property being taken by law enforcement.

The property is often taken based upon mere suspicion of said person’s involvement of a crime or illegal activity. What is…

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War on women’s health

December 19th, 2018

Pro-choice activists during protest in 2014 - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Women’s health is on the frontlines in the war for healthcare dominance. On the side to repeal the Affordable Care Act led by President Donald J. Trump, nearly 70 attempts offering little to no alternatives have been made against current healthcare law.

No attacks succeeded until December 14, when a district court judge in Texas ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional because Congress eliminated a penalty for those who forgo health insurance. The federal…

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