News

​‘Standing Rock will vote’

November 5th, 2018

Dale Brave Crow holds up his Standing Rock Sioux Tribe ID card - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FORT YATES – The Standing Rock Sioux are not angry. After centuries of unfair treaties and mistreatment they’re shrugging away the latest government attempt to suppress their votes, and heading to the polls in record numbers.

Absentee ballots have quadrupled this midterm election from previous years with 320 received by the Sioux County Auditor’s office by November 5. More than 1,480 Standing Rock Sioux have already voted, and at least 650 more will vote November 6 after they…

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​Sen. Cory Booker: Heitkamp is ‘the antidote to what ails us’

November 2nd, 2018

Senator Cory Booker - photograph provided by North Dakota Democratic-NPL

CANNONBALL – As Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s four-day tour neared Standing Rock, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey disclosed why he joined the North Dakota Democrat’s last push before Election Day.

“She corrals me all the time to advocate her issues,” Booker said. “God, I’ve got so many stories, some times things I’m really reluctant, but that goes to show the power that she has. She brings people together on both sides of the political aisle.”

As an example, Booker said…

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The final Democratic push for North Dakota

November 1st, 2018

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Fargo Air Museum to kick off Bring It Home Heidi! final campaign stretch before Election Day - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – The differences between competing political rallies in North Dakota is palpable. Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s last push before Election Day – former Vice President Joe Biden attending – was lively, filled with people from all races, and featured Indigenous music performed by the Turtle Mountain Drum Group.

Few people among the hundreds that attended “Bring It Home, Heidi!” rally on Thursday at the Fargo Air Museum wore hats. Parents held months-old babies and swayed to…

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Abuse of power?

November 1st, 2018

graphic by Raul Gomez

BISMARCK – After medical marijuana’s Measure 5 was passed by more than 64 percent of North Dakotans in 2016, but before the legislature gutted the measure and enacted laws, André Thom, J.D. worked at a Minnesotan marijuana manufacturing company.

When invited to speak before the legislature Thom asked for a no vote on Senate Bill 2344, because he saw the state stripping the original intent of Measure 5 away. And then he lost his $60,000 a year job because the North Dakota Attorney…

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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…

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Justice for Savanna?

October 31st, 2018

graphics by Raul Gomez

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…

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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…

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​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…

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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…

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​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…

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