North Dakota’s Public Service Commission has shot down a wind farm siting permit requested by NextEra Energy for a project in Burke County (north of Powers Lake). One commissioner described the decision as “historic.” The most important line from my colleague John Hageman’s report on the decision is this (emphasis mine): Public Service Commissioners unanimously…
Plain Talk: Defense Attorney Says a North Dakota Drug Testing Law Is Unconstitutional
The state Legislature requires some drug defendants to be drug tested while out on bail and awaiting trial, but this requirement has become a real problem. Defense attorney Mark Friese of the Vogel Law Firm spoke about it on this episode of Plain Talk. Some defendants can’t afford the testing, Friese said, and end up…
Print Column: North Dakota Is Fun, Despite What Some Dumb Spam “Study” Says
MINOT, N.D. — A humble request made to my fellow members of the news media: Please stop creating spam headlines for companies like WalletHub or NerdWallet. These companies send out press releases touting “studies” or “surveys” which are usually some ranking of states or communities. Local journalists, always hungry for content in an age where…
Losers Don’t Get to Be Choosers, Democrats
The Legislature has been organizing its interim committees of late, and a tradition for Democrats during this time is to spend a bunch of time whining about committee assignments. This time around, state Rep. Karla Rose Hanson (D-Fargo) is insinuating that Republicans purposefully excluded Democrats, and women specifically, from appointments to chair interim committees: You…
What Have the Anti-Oil Activists Ever Done for Us?
A few recent headlines in the regional media are interesting, given their juxtaposition. Our state’s battle to be reimbursed for the heavy costs of handling the violent and often unlawful #NoDAPL protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline continues. “North Dakota’s congressional delegation is calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to address the state’s year-old request…
New Study Suggests Legal Marijuana Doesn’t Reduce Opioid Problems
Back in 2014 a study was released suggesting a strong connection between legal marijuana and decreased overdoses from opioid abuse. It looked at data from 1999 to 2010, and found that states that ended marijuana prohibition to one degree or another had an average of 25 percent lower rate of opioid overdoses. What’s more, that…
In an undated photo, a urine test sample container. (Johnny Tergo/Copyright 2019 The New York Times)
What Good Is Drug Testing if Defendants Can’t Afford It?
North Dakota state law requires that defendants in drug cases be tested on a regular basis, as a part of their bond agreements, to ensure they aren’t using. But what happens if they can’t afford it? Someone facing criminal charges probably finds themselves in a precarious employment situation, at best, and drug testing can run…
Plain Talk: North Dakota State Is “Being Used as a Mouthpiece” by Planned Parenthood Says State Senator
On this episode of Plain Talk, state Senator Janne Myrdal (R-Edinburg) talks about the objections she and other lawmakers share over North Dakota State University partnering with Planned Parenthood. “I believe in academic freedom,” Myrdal told me. But she added that NDSU is “being used as a mouthpiece” by a group with a partisan political…
Legislative Leadership Flip Flops and Embraces Move to Gut State Auditor’s Powers
In the closing days of the 2019 legislative session an amendment was slipped into the budget for state Auditor Josh Gallion’s office. The amendment was approved by bipartisan majorities in both chambers – only a small faction of Republicans in the state House voted against it – and signed by Governor Doug Burgum. It forces…
North Dakota Democratic Party: “Coal Is No Longer a Viable Source of Energy.”
In the Minot Daily News over the weekend was a remarkable letter from a leader in the North Dakota Democratic-NPL which derided our state’s coal industry. Brad Magnuson, chairman of his party’s Renewable Energy Caucus, says “Long term, coal is not a viable source of energy.” “Short term, until renewables become exclusive in North Dakota, coal is…