Rob Port is the editor of SayAnythingBlog.com, a columnist for the Forum News Service, and the host of the Rob (Re)Port on Fargo-based WDAY AM970 from noon-2pm weekdays.

Author Archives: Rob Port

Mac Schneider visits with supporters after announcing his intention to run as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, March 6, 2018, at the Depot in downtown Fargo. David Samson / The Forum

Democratic House Candidate Mac Schneider Takes Swipe at Big Banking, Accidentally Hits Senator Heitkamp

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Democratic House Candidate Mac Schneider Takes Swipe at Big Banking, Accidentally Hits Senator Heitkamp

- 2 hours ago - ,

Democratic House candidate Mac Schneider took a swipe at Big Banking, and the Trump tax cuts, with this tweet this morning: Call me crazy, but this isn’t the best way to help working families. #ndpol https://t.co/7SaRmuGdY6 — Mac for North Dakota (@mac4northdakota) April 20, 2018 Schneider is being a bit myopic. These benefits to banks…

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. Washington Post photo by Ricky Carioti

The Fight Over Online Sales Taxes Cannot Be About Fairness

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“Our view: Put online sellers on equal footing,” is the headline over a Grand Forks Herald editorial today, making the point that the U.S. Supreme Court should back South Dakota’s law instituting a 4.5 percent sales tax on online sales of retailers doing more than $100,000 in annual business. It’s a case with national implications because…

An aerial view of the main protest camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land at the confluence of the Missouri River and Cannonball River in southern Morton County North Dakota on February 13, 2017. TOM STROMME/Bismarck Tribune

Ladd Erickson: Social Media and the Human Race: A DAPL Protest Postscript

- 4 hours ago - ,

This guest post was submitted by McLean County State’s Attorney Ladd Erickson. Oil pipeline protests are a possibility in Minnesota and South Dakota this summer.  I helped Morton County prosecute DAPL cases and thought better about posting about it at the time.   I no longer have that constraint, and will example how social media fueled…

Dakota Access Pipeline opponents sing prayer songs Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, as they vacate the Oceti Sakowin camp near Cannon Ball, N.D., ahead of the evacuation deadline. Tom Stromme / Bismarck Tribune

Los Angeles Times Reporter Worried #NoDAPL Coverage Wasn’t Slanted Enough Toward the Protesters

- 17 hours ago - ,

Over at the University of North Dakota professor Mark Trahant – a journalism professor, albeit one sharply biased in favor of the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline protesters – is holding a symposium on those protests which today featured a panel of panelists who covered them. One of the panelists – Los Angeles Times reporter Sandy Tolan…

Podcast: Governor Burgum Says He’s Out to “Change the Budget Process Itself”

- 21 hours ago - ,

Governor Doug Burgum and state Rep. Tom Beadle both joined Rob today to talk about the budget guidelines for the 2019 legislative session. “It just wasn’t a fully sustainable model,” Beadle said of spending in previous, boom-era legislative sessions. Burugm, meanwhile, says he’s out to “change the budget process itself.” “We don’t have a revenue…

Kevin Cramer, surrounded by family and supporters, accepts the ND Republican endorsement for the US Senate Saturday, April 7, at the ND Republican convention. (Eric Hylden / Forum News Service)

Rep. Cramer Signs Letter Urging End to Federal Contract With Citibank Due to Restrictions on Gun Sales

- 1 day ago - ,

“Citigroup Inc (C.N) added restrictions on firearms sales for new retail-sector clients, the Wall Street bank said on Thursday, the strongest move to date by a major U.S. lender following last month’s high school shooting in Florida,” Reuters reported last month. Here’s what the bank is doing specifically: In an emailed statement Citi said it…

Podcast: Almost Everybody in North Dakota Is Breaking This Tax Law

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Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger was on air with me today to discuss the Supreme Court fight over applying state taxes to online sales (I wrote about it earlier today), and to correct an unfortunate misrepresentation of his position perpetrated by his Democratic challenger Kylie Oversen, and he revealed something pretty interesting. If you buy something…

Former state Sen. Mac Schneider accepts the endorsement for U.S. House at the Democratic convention March 17. Photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald

Japan Opens Doors to American-Made Ethanol, North Dakota Democrats Hardest Hit

- April 18, 2018 - ,

Yesterday I wrote a post wondering if North Dakota Democrats – U.S. Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp and U.S. House candidate Mac Schneider, in particular – weren’t overplaying their hands in their attempts to fan the flames of rural anxiety over Trump’s trade standoff with China. The Democrats have invested so much political capital into promoting…

Kylie Oversen, a former state legislator from Grand Forks and chairwoman of the state Democratic-NPL, announced her bid for tax commissioner last month at UND. Sam Easter/Grand Forks Herald.

Democratic Tax Commissioner Candidate Misrepresents Incumbent’s Online Sales Tax Position

- April 18, 2018 - ,

Yesterday Kylie Oversen, the North Dakota Democratic Party’s candidate for Tax Commissioner, posted a press release urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Quill vs. North Dakota precedent which limits states to applying the sales tax only to entities with a physical presence within their borders. Quill was actually litigated by then-Tax Commissioner Heidi…

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