This is not a good look for the Fargo Police Department at a time when, both locally and nationally, law enforcement is under fire for being reluctant to hold their own accountable. Continue reading…
It’s Amazing What You Can Do With a Billionaire’s Money and a Lack of Integrity
MINOT, N.D. — A group calling itself North Dakota Voters First — they’re the folks who call themselves the “badass grandmas” — has submitted 36,708 signatures to the Secretary of State. Those signatures are in support of a constitutional amendment which would impact military and overseas voting and election audits as well as create open…
In Another Blow to North Dakota’s Wellbeing, Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline Shutdown Citing Obama-Era Error in Federal Permitting
MINOT, N.D. — “The Court will nonetheless require the oil to stop flowing and 24the pipeline to be emptied within 30 days from the date of this Opinion and accompanying Order.” Those are the words of Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee who has been presiding over the long-running legal dispute over the Dakota Access…
Are We Still Allowed to Love America?
MINOT, N.D. — This may be the strangest Fourth of July holiday in my lifetime. As we celebrate our nation’s founding, the federal government is mobilizing the National Guard to protect monuments in Washington, D.C., many of them dedicated to our founders, from violent protests. In recent weeks memorials to numerous American luminaries have been defaced and…
Social Media Justice Seems a Lot Like Mob Justice
MINOT, N.D. — I can’t stop thinking about Kipp Gabriel. Before I read Chris Hagen’s article about his death, I’d never heard of Gabriel despite his regional celebrity as a Fargo-based hip-hop performer. He was found dead this week just days after a group of women took to social media to accuse him of sexual assault, something…
North Dakota’s State Parks Are a Treasure
MINOT, N.D. — “I don’t want to leave, Daddy.” Those were the words of my 4-year-old son, Cooper. He and I were in the process of packing up our tent on a recent Sunday after a weekend at Lake Metigoshe State Park. Though it’s more accurate to say that I was packing up the tent,…
We’re Not Going to Get Much Justice From Cops Investigating Themselves
MINOT, N.D. — In early June, Todd Osmundson, then a deputy chief with the Fargo Police Department, made the astoundingly poor choice to infiltrate, in plain clothes, a rowdy protest inspired by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. As part of is ill-conceived cover, Osmundson chose to carry around what he initially claimed was…
Turns Out Burgum Was Right Not to Order a Moratorium on Evictions During Pandemic
MINOT, N.D. — Earlier this year, as our society grappled with the realities of a global pandemic, the North Dakota Democratic-NPL decided it was time to leverage the situation for political gain. They joined with several left-leaning groups, including the North Dakota chapter of the ACLU, in calling on Gov. Doug Burgum to issue an…
Is Trump Losing Steam in North Dakota?
MINOT, N.D. — There is a growing national weariness when it comes to our president. RealClearPolitics.com runs a useful and widely-referenced aggregator of polling. Of the last 10 surveys it tracked in the 2020 presidential race, not one of them has President Donald Trump leading. Worse, more than half show former Vice President Joe Biden with…
Latest Spat in the NDGOP Has Former Chairman Planning His Own State Convention for the Party
MINOT, N.D. — There are a lot of fractures in the North Dakota Republican Party, from Gov. Doug Burgum ruffling the feathers of many lawmakers with his big-money spending in the June legislative primary campaigns to the rump caucus Bastiat faction of the Legislature, the divides in North Dakota’s dominant political party have perhaps never been more palpable.…