News

North Dakota’s Marijuana gets the puff-puff pass

April 19th, 2017

FARGO - A hesitant round of applause rippled across the Peace Garden State Tuesday when the North Dakota Compassionate Care Act became law.

Governor Doug Burgum, voted the nation’s third most popular governor by the Morning Consult Governor Approval rankings, signed Senate Bill 2344 on Monday, making medical marijuana legal - to an extent - in North Dakota. The law began as an initiated measure and was passed by all state voting districts in 2016.

The road to becoming law was bumpy,…

Armed DAPL Mercenary Arrested in Bismarck

April 18th, 2017

Kyle Thompson mugshot - Burleigh County Sheriffs Department

BISMARCK - The disguised DAPL security guard set free by law enforcement last year after reportedly driving crazily toward the main Standing Rock camp armed with a semi-automatic AR-15, was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, according to police.

Kyle James Thompson, 30, was arrested at 8:03 p.m. Tuesday for simple assault domestic violence, carrying a concealed weapon, and for possession of schedule I, II, and III drug paraphernalia, according to the Burleigh County arrest records.…

Commission Study Shows Refugees Good for Fargo

April 13th, 2017

FARGO - Recent attempts to curb the influx of refugees into Fargo fell flat Thursday when the Fargo Human Relations Commission announced its findings after a six-month study into the impacts of resettlement.

“The nature of the question posed to us was in direct opposition to our existence as set by city ordinance,” Barry Nelson, member of the Fargo Human Relations Commission, said. The commission’s mission is to promote acceptance and respect for diversity and discourage all forms…

North Dakota’s body hunter, seeker of the missing and the dead

April 13th, 2017

Missing persons posters are everywhere, stapled to telephone poles, taped to post office doors, fed through Facebook feeds and chats. They pop up every few days as desperate cries from the families of loved ones who suddenly disappear.

The posters are usually ignored until the tragedy hits home, victims say. Sometimes, the missing are found, but most of the time their trails grow cold.

Police either don’t file reports or have no more leads, and that’s when Lissa Yellow Bird-Chase…

The long, strange saga of Jason Halek comes to an end

April 13th, 2017

Well, it looks like Jason Halek is finally going to the pokey.

Remember Jason? He’s the fellow who dumped more than 800,000 gallons of salty, oilfield wastewater into an abandoned oil well southwest of Dickinson in Stark County, and then attempted to cover it up.

And his partner in crime, Nathan Garber, might be sitting in the cell next to him after they are sentenced this summer by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck, putting an end to a case that has dragged on for more…

The high road

April 6th, 2017

“Jackie” isn’t ready to come out with her real name yet. She’s a heroin addict, a Fargoan clean for nearly a year. In her 20s she overdosed three times, then carried an overdose reversal drug in her wallet, which saved her life. She shot “downs” or heroin, free-based “ups” or methamphetamine.

One of the main questions she used to ask was, “Does it have legs?” Pure heroin, sometimes laced with fentanyl and known in the Upper Midwest as “China White,” has…

Nowhere to run: Senate passes HJR 69

April 5th, 2017

Despite wide opposition from the general public including many subsistence hunters, 52 members of the US Senate caved to special interest groups such as Safari Club International and the NRA and voted in favor of House Joint Resolution 69. If signed by the president, it will become legal for trophy hunters to kill Alaskan wildlife using cruel killing methods including the use of airplanes to spot bears, bear baiting, steel-jawed leghold traps, wire snares, and killing animals who are…

FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Targets Standing Rock Activist

March 23rd, 2017

CANNON BALL - Joint Terrorism Task Force agents contacted an Indiana activist days after he returned home from Standing Rock’s fight in North Dakota against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Aaron Pollitt, 28, from Indiana, was charged on October 22, 2016, by Morton County Police with engaging in a riot and criminal trespass, according to Morton County Clerk of Court. His trial is pending.

After three weeks of direct action and living in the Standing Rock camps, Pollitt, listed as a water…

White Supremacist’s Church Burns In Nome

March 23rd, 2017

Alt White: The Siege of North Dakota. Part four in the series on racism in North Dakota. Pioneer Little Europe and the Creativity Movement plow ahead with plans in making an Aryan enclave in Nome, ND, but an old Lutheran church bought by Craig Cobb burns to the ground.

NOME - Either arson or “an act of God” left the Zion Lutheran Church in ashes Wednesday, according to law enforcement and one of the building’s owners, white supremacist Craig Cobb.

Nome - photo by C.S. Hagen

Residents of the tiny town of…

Valley City: Microcosm of the Nation

March 22nd, 2017

Russell J. Myhre, Valley City attorney in his office - photo by C.S. Hagen

Russell Myhre lit a second cigarette, pulled his wool coat closer against the February chill after proudly revealing a red heart tattoo on his chest. He waved to Fred Thompson, former Valley City Police Chief, from across the parking lot behind his law office.

“Hey, Mr. Thompson, come on over here, my friend,” Myhre said. “You just wandering around?”

“Nope,” Thompson said. No mistaking the man was law enforcement. Large-framed, shoulders slightly stooped, he eyed the area…