Sen. Erin Oban is the only member of the Democratic-NPL to be elected in western North Dakota. To the extent that you can consider her Bismarck-area district to be “western North Dakota,” anyway. Oban announced recently that she will not be running for another term in that office. Hot on the heels of that announcement, Republican Sean…
Plain Talk: How are North Dakota’s businesses handling vaccine mandate uncertainty?
Vaccine mandate policies are a fluid situation right now. They’re being challenged in the courts. The federal government is tweaking its policies. In North Dakota, during the recent special session of the Legislature, a bill passed that doesn’t ban businesses from implementing vaccine mandates, but did implement a lot of policies dictating what those mandates…
Plain Talk: Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread on Krabbenhoft’s big, fat golden parachute and what it means for your health care costs
Kelby Krabbenhoft, the long-time CEO of South Dakota-based health care giant Sanford abruptly left his job last year after making some controversial comments about masking during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, news broke that Krabbenhoft left with a big, fat golden parachute strapped to his back. He got a $49.5 million payout, as we learned…
Guest Post: Leadership Is Needed In The Conservative Movement
This guest post was submitted by Dustin Gawrylow, managing director of the North Dakota Watchdog Network Before you read the following opinion, please click this link and listen to the audio. If you don’t see a problem with what did and did not get said in this clip, then you probably won’t agree with anything…
Rauschenberger resignation, special session, and why North Dakota’s coal industry bought a Tesla
North Dakota’s coal industry is promoting electric cars. The Lignite Energy Council bought a Tesla, emblazoned it with pro-coal messaging, and has been driving it around. It’s an image so incongruous to some that The Washington Post recently featured the marketing effort in a national news article written by reporter Will Englund. Jason Bohrer, president of the LEC, joined this…
Plain Talk: Lawmaker who resigned citing ‘toxic’ political environment speaks out
Sen. Nicole Poolman has served in the North Dakota Senate since 2012. During last week’s special session, she announced her retirement, saying she won’t be running for another term. Some of her reasons were personal, she wants to spend more time with family, and some were professional, she wants to focus on her job as a teacher,…
Plain Talk: Dot’s Pretzels, the special session, redistricting, and the culture wars
North Dakota snack food startup Dot’s Pretzels has been acquired for $1.2 billion. The special session of the Legislature continues with fights over redistricting and culture war bills dominate. Rob Port and Chad Oban talk about these issues and more. Subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting platform by clicking here.
Plain Talk: Tony Bender on ‘We the People’ rally, political tribalism, and special legislative session
On this episode, Rob talks to fellow columnist Tony Bender about the divides in the North Dakota Republican Party, the tribalism of American politics in 2021, redistricting, and the special session of the Legislature in Bismarck. Subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting platform by clicking here.
Should the eviction moratorium end? Why was there so much outrage over Simone Biles? Watch the discussion live at 11 a.m.
Simone Biles has had some trouble competing at the Tokyo Olympics, and that has certain political commentators steaming. Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk called Biles a “sociopath,” as one example, and you’ve probably seen worse on social media. But why do people care so much? Does everything have to be culture war? Also, a federal moratorium on evictions is set to expire…
Are concerns about critical race theory valid? Watch the discussion with the head of North Dakota’s teacher union
Is critical race theory an attempt to take over our education system and indoctrinate students with left-wing orthodoxies about race and culture? Or is it controversy ginned up as a “lucrative side hustle” by various pundits and activists, as Nick Archuleta argues in a recent column? This debate has become heated, to the point of violence in some unhappy instances,…