Cops investigate things and find facts. Whether those facts add up to a criminal charge is a question of law. In other words, a decision for lawyers to make, not cops, and certainly not the cops who are investigating one of their coworkers. Continue reading…
Devils Lake’s New Age-21 Vaping Law Is Probably Illegal
MINOT, N.D. — Recently the Devils Lake City Commission passed a new ordinance raising the age at which it’s legal to purchase and use vaping products. The city also increased the penalty for the unlawful sale, purchase, and/or use of said products. The North Dakota Century Code sets the age for vaping at 18. Devils Lake has…
And Now for Something a Little Different
MINOT, N.D. — A little more than 16 years ago, I started a blog called Say Anything on a ratty old Gateway desktop computer with a dial-up internet connection. It was 2003. We were invading Iraq and George W. Bush was the commander-in-chief. I was an opinionated 23-year-old kid. I started a weblog on a…
Print Column: Burleigh County Made the Right Decision
MINOT, N.D. — Let’s start here: North Dakota is a wonderful place. That was a subtext of the refugee resettlement debate in Burleigh County this last week, though one overlooked by most. The county commissioners had before them the opportunity to exercise a veto over continued refugee resettlement. They ultimately voted to continue resettlement, though in…
UPDATED: With Incumbent Kelly Schmidt Retiring, Fargo Republican Says He’s Interested in Running for State Treasurer
North Dakota Treasurer Kelly Schmidt, a Republican, has announced she won’t seek a fifth four-year term in office during the 2020 election cycle. “This is not something I have taken lightly,” she told Bismarck Tribune reporter Jack Dura. “I have thought about it. I have prayed about it. I have visited with my family about…
If Local Stores Want Local Shopping They Should Give Local Shoppers Something They Can’t Get Online
In a recent editorial, the Grand Forks Herald teed off on people who resort to petitions to try and stop retail store closings in their communities. The petitions “are disingenuous and slathered in irony, since they often attract thousands of people who sign their name but obviously rarely shopped at those stores in the past,”…
The Fisher Industries Border Wall Contract Is Among the Cheapest Awarded
There has been a lot of political furor, of late, over North Dakota-based Fisher Industries receiving a very large federal contract to build a portion of the controversial border wall between the United States and Mexico. The company is set to be paid $268 million to build 31 miles of border wall in the Cabeza…
President Trump, It’s Time to Withdraw From Afghanistan
Since the 2001 invasion, the American taxpayers have spent nearly $1 trillion on military operations in Afghanistan. It’s a total that doesn’t include spending by covert branches of our government, such as the CIA or ancillary costs associated with the war incurred by organizations like the Department of Veterans Affairs. But now a bombshell report…
Print Column: North Dakota Opened Its Arms to Oil Workers, Why Not Refugees Too?
MINOT, N.D. — The Trump administration has given the states and local governments the ability to opt-out of federal refugee resettlement. The feds, or the private groups doing resettlement for the feds, haven’t always been cooperative. City and county governments, not to mention school districts and social service organizations, have often found themselves struggling to…
Uproar Over Delay in Armenian Genocide Resolution Is the Perfect Distillation of Dumb Twitter Politics
News this week is that North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer has, at the behest of President Donald Trump’s administration, held up the passage of a bipartisan resolution about the Armenian genocide. On Twitter there was outrage (is there ever anything else on Twitter?) from Cramer’s political opponents. Here’s North Dakota House Minority Leader Josh Boschee…