News

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…

Politics of privacy

October 17th, 2018

Senator Heidi Heitkamp's political advertisement

BISMARCK– Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s open letter advertisement featuring survivors of sexual abuse to Congressman Kevin Cramer was well intended, but not well managed, she said.

Heitkamp, known as the most endangered Democrat in the nation, is in the final weeks of a heated race against Cramer for her Senate seat. She knows forgiveness might not come easily, but is taking responsibility for her office’s lack of due diligence.

“The trauma of people being named when they didn’t…

State strips then delays Native voting rights

October 13th, 2018

Native women during a rally against hate in Fargo - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – Men in state government and on the U.S. Supreme Court crippled Native suffrage recently, but women are leading the fight to bring Native votes in record numbers to the polls.

Some women are offering rides on Election Day to Natives lacking transportation. Others are filming videos on social media trying to explain what Native people need to prepare for ahead of time. Secretary of State promises to handle address switches from a post office box to a physical address are…

Robocall scam prompts misconduct allegation against AG

October 12th, 2018

Wayne Stenehjem - photograph by C.S. Hagen

GRAND FORKS – More allegations of corruption and misconduct were levied at North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem Friday afternoon by his challenger, attorney David Thompson.

Due to a conflict of interest from large campaign donations from the Republican General Association – heavily supported by the telecommunication industry – Stenehjem has been willfully ignoring the prosecution of rising flood of robocall scams, Thompson said.

Instead of using the “powerful weapons”…

Texas lawsuit threatens ‘cataclysmic’ hike in health insurance costs

October 12th, 2018

Former U.S. Representative for North Dakota Earl Pomeroy and former Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Mary Wakefield - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – In an attempt to terminate current healthcare laws North Dakota quietly joined Texas and 18 other states, shopped for a friendly judge, then hired a radical attorney who quit after a countersuit was filed. The state – led by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem – remains tight lipped about the trial’s progress.

Liz Brocker, public information officer for the North Dakota Attorney General’s office said she has no new information on the federal lawsuit being tried in…

The great American pension heist

October 11th, 2018

FARGO – Bob Berg wore the Pullman-brown jacket and drove a matching-colored UPS truck throughout North Dakota until he retired, faithfully deducting his salary every month to fund his pension.

Now, he’s getting far less than he saved for and was promised. His pension has taken a $700 monthly hit, and insurance rates have risen by $400 each month.

Dennis Kooren also wore the same iconic jacket for 30 years, retiring in 2007. Until three years ago, his pension came in full, and then…