News

Part Three: Meet your candidates

May 16th, 2018

FARGO – Special assessments are the main event in this year’s city commissioners’ race, inciting verbal jabs between candidates. In one corner, weighing in after more than three years experience, Fargo Commissioner Tony Gehrig threw the first punch, outlining his plan to end all assessments.

Heavyweight Tim Flakoll, a former state Senator, countered with his own plan, describing Gehrig’s proposal, late during his first term as a city commissioner, as “lip service.”

Other…

Part Two: Meet your candidates

May 10th, 2018

FARGO – In city government two popular forms of governing bodies exist: a city council led by an elected mayor with wide powers, and a city commission, also led by an elected mayor whose authority is limited.

Under a city council, the “strong mayor” form acts as a CEO for the city, while under a city commissioners setting the mayor is leader of the commission, and commissioners in some places are rotated into the mayoral position and are viewed as successors. In Fargo, the mayor…

‘Dirty little secrets’ – Fargo’s special assessment debate heats up

May 9th, 2018

FARGO – Nearly a week after City Commissioner Tony Gehrig announced his plan to end special assessments, challenger Tim Flakoll revealed a counter plan, saying “People with specials need real service, not lip service.”

From 2015, assessments have increased from $3.7 million to $24 million, and the city is in debt up to $450 million due to special assessments, according to city commissioner statistics.

Gehrig, an incumbent city commissioner and an Air Force captain, says all special…

Native voices cry for justice

May 5th, 2018

MMIW marcher with sign - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO– Once again, Native drums and voices resonated through downtown Fargo Saturday morning raising awareness for missing and Indigenous women. More than 50 people dressed in red gathered at the Fargo Public Library and marched to Veterans Memorial Bridge for National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls.

They sang and marched because 84 percent of Native women experience some kind of violence in their lifetime, and on some reservations, Native women are…

‘Stop playing politics with people’s health’

May 4th, 2018

Hallie Skripak Gordon and others cheering as cars honk during protest outside of Congressman Kevin Cramer's office - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO – One year after the state’s only Congressman voted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, concerned citizens protested his vote outside both his Fargo and Bismarck offices.

In Fargo on Friday, nearly a dozen people took a half hour from their lunch breaks to wave signs and attempt to bring attention that ACA, or Obamacare, has helped North Dakotans. They protested to remind current Congressman Kevin Cramer that the American Health Care Act, or AHCA, would have hurt…

Republican attempt to suppress Native votes fails

May 2nd, 2018

BISMARCK– After Senator Heidi Heitkamp won her race in 2012 against Rick Berg, a primarily Republicans legislature sought to tighten its hold on the state by passing stricter voting identification laws. Their attempts were foiled, however, after a federal ruling struck residential address requirement from the new law.

The law requires identification to contain a current residential street address, which thousands of minority, Democratic-leaning communities, and rural Indigenous people…

Meet your candidates

May 2nd, 2018

FARGO – Nine people are running for two seats on Fargo’s City Commission this year, which promises to be an interesting race. This year’s election cycle for the City Commission is not the city’s largest, but it’s close, with a return of former city officials.

Those running for the city’s commission include:

Tim Flakoll
Tony Gehrig (incumbent)
Liz Maddock-Johnson
Kelan Oster
Dave Piepkorn (incumbent)
Arlette Preston
Lenny N. Tweeden
Michael J. Williams
Linda Boyd

Instead of…

Nordic club targeted with white supremacist mail

May 1st, 2018

MOORHEAD – White supremacist groups have switched tactics and are attempting to spread their ‘alternative facts’ to a local Nordic cultural organization. Last year, groups including the Ku Klux Klan and Identity Evropa launched a massive national mail campaign focused on recruiting college students by saying they weren’t racist, but pro-white.

So far in 2018, the white supremacist front has remained relatively quiet, in fact, many are hoping their 15 minutes of Presidential…

Fentanyl trafficking ring linked to Chinese kingpin

April 27th, 2018

FARGO – What began as a local fentanyl overdose investigation caught the eyes of national leadership when the case became an international trafficking conspiracy spanning China to Grand Forks, and beyond.

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to law enforcement and justice departments Friday morning at the Quentin N. Burdick U.S. Courthouse, first thanking them for their service, and then describing how the war on drugs has narrowed in on fentanyl with a major bust…

Destroying heritage

April 25th, 2018

One of the last old Wesley College buildings - photograph provided by UND

GRAND FORKS – Residual racism is a leading reason why the University of North Dakota plans to demolish the last brick-and-mortar remnants of Wesley College, some historians say. Wesley College, a former Methodist school, merged with UND in 1905, becoming one of the first American marriages between a religious college and a state university.

University personnel say racism has nothing to do with the upcoming changes, but that budget cuts and financial necessity are forcing tough…