Recently Governor Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1503 into law. Previous to that, it passed 65 – 29 in the House and 35 – 12 in the Senate. It’s aim? To protect free speech on North Dakota’s campuses. At the national level we’ve all heard many stories about students who, whether it’s because of campus administration or harassment from…
If your video doesn’t start, try refreshing the page. A new ballot measure campaign seeks to amend North Dakota’s state constitution to make it harder to amend the constitution. Specifically, it would require a 60 percent supermajority for any constitutional amendment on the ballot to pass. It would also limit each proposed amendment to just…
LIVE at 2 P.m.: North Dakota Vaccine Manager Discusses Johnson & Johnson Pause and Vaccine Hesitancy
The rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been paused across the nation. North Dakota is possessed of some of the highest rates of hesitance in the nation when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations in general. What does the pause mean for you? How do we persuade people who are skeptical of any of…
Live at 10am: Rob Port and Demcoratic Activist Chad Oban Talk North Dakota Politics
Chad Oban is a long-time activist in North Dakota politics. He served as the executive director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL and his wife, Erin Oban, is a state Senator from Bismarck. On this episode of Plain Talk Live, Rob and Chad will talk about the rise of the Bastiat Caucus in North Dakota, the…
Plain Talk Live: A Campaign to Make Amending North Dakota’s Constitution Harder
A group calling itself Protect North Dakota’s Constitution held a press conference today announcing a ballot measure campaign aimed at making changes to North Dakota’s constitution a bit harder. Currently, outside of a greater number of signatures required on petitions for constitutional measures, it’s as easy to amend the state constitution at the ballot box…
LIVE at 3:30 P.m.: Handouts for Coal? Sen. Jim Roers Discusses on Plain Talk Live
Is North Dakota about to give the coal industry a handout? That’s what critics of pro-coal legislation in Bismarck are saying, but there’s another side of the story. Power sources like wind and solar have enjoyed decades of political favoritism. From heavy production subsidies to outright mandate for their use, the market has been skewed…
What Happened to Rob Port?
MINOT, N.D. — “You’ve lost it.” That was the stark, one-line email I received this week from a reader upset about something I wrote. What, I’m not sure. He didn’t include that in the email, and I decided, amid responding to the dozens of daily emails I get from readers, that I didn’t care enough…
LIVE at 11:10 A.m.: Congressman Kelly Armstrong Talks to Rob Port After Visit to the Southern Border Crisis Zone
There is perhaps no political conflagration in America more intractable than our debate over border security and immigration. In the long run, we need policies that facilitate lawful immigration while giving no quarter to illegal entry into our country. In the here and now, we have a crisis at the southern border, with thousands upon…
Plain Talk Live: Do We Want Big Corporations to Be Our Cultural Referees?
In Georgia, Major League Baseball reacted to the passage of election reform laws with a boycott. The sports league has moved its all-star game from Atlanta to Colorado. In North Dakota, a debate over legislation dealing with transgender athletes was dominated by rumors about what the NCAA might do to punish the state if it…
Plain Talk Live: What’s the Future of Legalized Marijuana in North Dakota?
Earlier this year, North Dakota’s House of Representatives passed bills to both legalize and decriminalize recreational marijuana. That legislation didn’t fare so well in the state Senate. Each was shot down by lawmakers. A last-ditch effort by some Senators to bring a delayed bill that would have put the question of legalization on the statewide…