News

Winter is coming, Fargo Public Works is ready

October 10th, 2018

by Ryan Janke
ryanjanke@hpr1.com

Leaves on the lawn. Frost on the windshield. Street lights coming on shortly after supper. Your breath visible walking to your car. If you’ve stepped outside lately, it didn’t take you long to figure out winter is coming.

Some people hate it - the slippery sidewalks and streets, the shoveling, and sitting in a cold car waiting for the defroster to clear the windshield. Others love it - snowmobiling, ice skating, and taking the kids sledding. Whatever…

The Depth of the Valley

October 10th, 2018

by Jacques Harvieux
jacquesthejock@gmail.com

Local television station Valley News Live is misleading viewers on Measure 3 - the legalization of recreational marijuana to be voted on this November - by skewing polling information and using heavily biased statistics to fit an anti-marijuana narrative.

This Wednesday Valley News Live produced an article, “Not Much Support for Recreational Pot in ND.” The article quotes a recent polling survey conducted by Strategic Research Associates…

‘Tale of two economies’

October 9th, 2018

West Fargo resident Jennifer Restemayer speaks about health care issues in Fargo's Island Park - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Every time the state legislature meets to discuss healthcare issues, Jennifer Restemayer holds her breath, watches, and waits. The West Fargo resident displayed a picture of her daughter, Allison, who suffers from a genetic disorder, and wouldn’t be alive today if the Affordable Care Act hadn’t been passed.

Allison, a high school senior now, needs approximately $300,000 worth of hospital care every year just to live, she said. Before the Affordable Care Act was passed her…

Heitkamp to vote no on Kavanaugh

October 4th, 2018

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp speaking - photograph by C.S. Hagen

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp plans to vote against the nomination of U.S. Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After weeks of waiting for an answer and not answering questions pertaining to the nomination hand picked by President Donald Trump, Heitkamp gave her reasons for not giving Kavanaugh her vote for the first time in a press release.

“As I said after Judge Kavanaugh was nominated, and as I’ve continued to say…

‘Passing North Dakota around like it’s a warm bottle of gin’

October 1st, 2018

Wayne Stenehjem at the North Dakota GOP Convention - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – Eight months after the state’s Attorney General joined Texas and 18 other states in a federal lawsuit attempting to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, a Bismarck attorney filed a lawsuit requesting the state withdraw.

Thomas Dickson of Dickson Law Office and five other petitioners filed a suit against current Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem arguing that the Texas should not speak for the sovereign state of North Dakota, and that Stenehjem is breaking state…

“Something to hide”

October 1st, 2018

BISMARCK – All the usual suspects are opposing Measure 1, the initiated attempt to form an ethics commission that would create transparency into the state’s political system.

On one side, the North Dakotans for Public Integrity, with approximately $340,000 in reported contributions want to establish a five-member commission whose job will be to ban political contributions from foreign government entities, foreign individuals, foreign corporations, restrict lobbyists, and require all…

Verdict: Not Guilty

September 28th, 2018

Cass County State's Attorney Leah Viste talks to reporters after verdict is read - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – A jury found William Henry Hoehn not guilty on a charge of conspiracy to murder Savanna Lafontaine Greywind Friday afternoon, shocking onlookers and family.

The Greywind family gasped audibly when the verdict was read. Norberta Greywind, Savanna’s mother, hung her head in her hands as the jury left, silently weeping. Other family friends wept openly in the court hallways.

Cass County State’s Attorney Leah Viste said she was disappointed with the verdict, but if new…

‘This was a play straight from hell’

September 27th, 2018

William Hoehn looks on as a picture of Savanna Greywind is shown on screens in court - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – “My life has been repeated loss of everything,” William Hoehn said to his mother over a jailhouse phone recording. He sounded frustrated, angry. “Repeatedly and totally.”

Hoehn, 33, was warning his mother to stay away from a previous fiancée, Tanith McCloud on September 16, 2017. A month after his final arrest, facing charges of conspiracy to murder Savanna Lafontaine Greywind, unsure at the time if he would be facing the death penalty, his concern was to tell his…

I beg your pardon

September 27th, 2018

graphics by Raul Gomez

All Donald Heitkamp wanted in 2010 was to find the person responsible for his pesticide-destroyed crops. Instead, the farmer of wheat, corn, and soybeans in Richland County became embroiled in a battle against what he calls corruption, secretive pardons, and a state department agenda to protect big business.

Smiles still come easily to the 66-year-old farmer, despite his eight long years of fighting the system. He’s not jaded, and although his own investigations and requests for help…

‘I’m fighting for everyone’

September 26th, 2018

Ruth Buffalo, running for the North Dakota House of Representatives for West Fargo's District 27 - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Ruth Buffalo’s Nike sneakers are worn treadless. She’s walked hundreds of miles knocking on more than 3,000 doors in South Fargo’s largest district to introduce herself and her bid for a legislative seat in the state’s House of Representatives.

She’s Fargo’s broad-shouldered mother, a kind-eyed, relentless force to be reckoned with, speaking reason while too many others toe parochial lines.

This year a record number of Native women and men are running for office…