Yesterday, in response to consternation among media types over the demise of conservative news and opinion magazine The Weekly Standard, I argued that if “mainstream” media types were so concerned about it they ought to try hiring more conservatives. I received a lot of feedback on that post through various mediums, and one consistent and well-made…
Prisons Aren’t Jobs Programs
Governor Doug Burgum’s executive budget his ignited several debates over policy and spending across the state. Perhaps one of the most heated so far is the proposed relocation of the Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center, a prison facility for female inmates current located in New England, North Dakota. On one side of the debate is…
NDGOP State Committee Votes Against Endorsing Legislation to End North Dakota’s Open Primaries
Tonight the North Dakota Republican Party voted against a resolution endorsing legislation aimed at ending North Dakota’s open primary system. Here’s the vote tally, per the party: 19-Yes 29-No 8-Absent/Not Voting The resolution would have needed 29 “yes” votes to pass, so it wasn’t particularly close. The issue was brought to the state party by District…
North Dakota Has Seen a Significant Drop in Student Loan Debt Loads
Are North Dakota students getting smarter about how they finance higher education? It sure seems that way. The cost of attending institutions in the North Dakota University System certainly hasn’t gotten any cheaper, yet the volume of debt being carried by North Dakota students across all 11 public institutions in our state has declined. Earlier…
Read It: Governor Burgum, Senator-Elect Cramer Tell NDGOP in Letter Not to Give up Open Primary
Last week I wrote about proposed legislation, being considered for endorsement by the North Dakota Republican Party, which if passed would end North Dakota’s open primary system. In our state the political parties hold endorsing conventions, but the actual nominees are chosen in a statewide vote in June of election years. Some, arguing that political…
Video: Senator Heitkamp, Who Still Hasn’t Congratulated Senator-Elect Cramer, Delivers Angry and Tearful Farewell Speech
Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s last address on the floor of the U.S. Senate today came off less like a graceful farewell than a not terribly coherent stump speech delivered with tearful emotion and a rambling sort of vitriol. She sounded at times like a peeved schoolmarm lecturing we bad boys and girls about how we have…
Teddy Roosevelt Library Is a Good Idea, but Please Don’t Call It Mt. Rushmore
“North Dakota’s Mount Rushmore,” is a term Governor Doug Burgum has been throwing around, touting the $50 million in interest earnings from North Dakota’s nearly $6 billion Legacy Fund to the build out of a $150 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora. I cringed when I read that Burgum was calling the project that.…
Pro-Obamacare Lawsuit, Filed by North Dakota Democrats as a Campaign Gambit, Smacked Down by Judge
When it’s an election year in North Dakota we know at some point left wing interests will probably file some frivolous lawsuit to manufacture headlines, and that invariably these lawsuits will fail on their merits once the election is over. The most notorious example is from the 2012 cycle when the Dakota Resource Council and…
Public Service Commission Says North Dakotans Can Be Charged for Green Energy Policies in Other States
The Public Service Commission, in a split decision, recently gave the go-ahead to Xcel Energy to inflate power bills here in North Dakota to recover the cost of building wind energy capacity in compliance with green energy policy in other states. Commissioner Randy Christmann, who voted no, made it clear why this was a terrible…
Pro Athletes Facing Bigger Tax Bills Should Blame High-Tax States Not Trump’s Tax Reform
“Why pro athletes may lose a fortune because of the new tax law,” reads a headline from MarketWatch. Professional athletes aren’t the most sympathetic demographic. Even players making the minimum in their leagues are usually taking home multiples of the median household income for Americans. Still, the Trump tax cuts were promised to be tax…