News

Red, white and Burn

December 11th, 2019

Photograph and design by Raul Gomez

FARGO — Since 2016’s Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has said very little about North Dakota. Until now.

Never an essential swing state, North Dakotans feel overlooked, at times, and appear mostly proud of being partisan. The state threw 63 percent of its weight behind President Donald Trump in 2016, but North Dakotans have not always bled red. In fact, as the most socialistic state in the Union, North Dakota has voted for Democratic presidents such…

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​Sen. Cramer defies ND motion on Armenian genocide

December 11th, 2019

Hadji and Nouritza - photograph provided by Sabrina Hornung

By Sabrina Hornung and C.S. Hagen
sabrina@hpr1.com

BISMARCK — When Senator Kevin Cramer blocked a bipartisan motion for the United States to officially recognize the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire last week, he not only bowed to President Donald Trump’s wishes, he also defied both houses of state government.

In 2007, the Governor, and North Dakota House of Representatives, and the state Senate officially recognized Resolution 3003 on January 3, 2007 and became the…

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​Fargo residents call for ‘revolution’

November 27th, 2019

Fargo City Commissioner John Strand listens while residents speak their views on climate change - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO — Climate change has been known and ignored for half a century, but Fargo residents made their voices known Wednesday during a city organized Town Hall event, demanding an end to fossil fuels and for the city to declare a climate change emergency.

More than one hundred people showed up to the event organized by Fargo City Commissioner John Strand. He emphasized the importance that all opinions on the issue were important, but only one person stood up to deny climate change was…

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​Legacy Fund hearing disrupted by protest

November 13th, 2019

Screenshot of the RRVDSA disruption

FARGO — The North Dakota Legislature Legacy Fund Earnings Committee hearings started off Tuesday night by listening to the public on a range of ideas on how to spend the state’s $6.36 billion surplus from oil and gas revenues. On Wednesday, however, the hearings turned sour after a representative from an out-of-state bill mill took the stand.

Members of the Red River Valley Democratic Socialists of America immediately disrupted the speaker, Jonathan Williams, the chief economist and…

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Soybeans in the snow

November 13th, 2019

Bob Bowerman, a Kidder County farmer, holds up a picture of his combine stuck in the mud - photograph by C.S. Hagen

By C.S. Hagen and Sabrina Hornung

ROBINSON — On the second day of deer season hunters and farmers gathered in Carol’s Kitchen for bacon and eggs, coffee, and stories. Extreme precipitation including 14 inches of snow this autumn were still making front page news as many farmers struggle to bring their corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, and to the east sugar beets in from frozen fields.

The ground is saturated, and now rock solid. Thin ice covers a foot of water over some roads, including…

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​Standing Rock vs. Energy Transfer Partners part 2

November 13th, 2019

Protestors on Veterans Memorial Bridge in Fargo 2017 - photograph by C.S. Hagen

LINTON — The battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline is not finished, part two began Wednesday morning during a public hearing conducted by the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

Energy Transfer Partners — the parent company of the Dakota Access Pipeline — wants to expand the pipeline’s capacity, nearly doubling the flow of crude oil south. The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, the principal opponent against the expansion, said such a change would put the environment, drinking…

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​Abortions on decline even as Roe v. Wade is threatened

November 12th, 2019

Kathryn Kolbert before speaking at a Planned Parenthood event in Fargo - photograph by C.S. Hagen

FARGO — In some places across the state the words Planned Parenthood are spoken as curse words, but the facts say differently: abortions are down, young women are finding information and assistance, and the poor can afford to plan their families.

“It’s always like a curse word until they need the help,” Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert said before speaking at the 15th annual Progress on the Prairie Planned Parenthood event Tuesday night. “And that’s been my experience over the…

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I’m going to say goodbye now, Mom: An essay on Alzheimer’s

November 7th, 2019

Cover by Raul Gomez

By Lonna Whiting
lonnawhiting@gmail.com

I’m eating lunch at my desk transcribing an interview from a doctor about the benefits of colonoscopies before age 50.

It’s going to be used in a blog piece I’m ghostwriting for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association as part of Colon Cancer Awareness Month.The doctor’s voice comes through my earbuds, watery, nervous and scripted. They all sound the same like they’re reciting passages from Gray’s Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical…

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​‘Planned Parenthood Direct’ App expands reproductive healthcare access

November 6th, 2019

In early October, Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) announced that Planned Parenthood Direct, a free smartphone app, was available for patients in North Dakota. The app, which can be downloaded on Google Play and in the App Store, allows patients across the state to connect with Planned Parenthood’s sexual and reproductive health care providers in order to receive confidential care and home delivery of contraceptives.

The Planned Parenthood Direct app is available for…

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Walz to Moorhead: Community is ‘critical’

November 6th, 2019

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (left) and Moorhead Mayor Jonathan Judd - photograph by Bryce Haugen

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz comes to Moorhead quite frequently. He campaigned hard last year in this city of 45,000 on the western edge of the state. In January, he brought his multi-city inaugural party - One Minnesota - to Junkyard Brewing. In the months since he’s flown in several times to talk policy with local leaders and attend ceremonies.

Walz returned to town on October 29 as a part of his two-month bonding tour. The goal of the tour is to help the governor and his staff…

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