On this episode of Plain Talk, state Rep. Tom Beadle talks about his bill – one of two before the Legislature in Bismarck – to legalize sports betting in North Dakota. His would be restricted to professional sports. The other, introduced by Rep. Jason Dockter, would also include amateur sports like collegiate athletics and the…
Audit: North Dakota’s Use of Open Source Textbooks Has Saved North Dakota Students a Lot of Money
For generations now the cost of higher education has been out of control. This isn’t exactly news to you, I’m sure, but it may surprise you to know that the cost of textbooks has grown even faster than the rapid increase in tuition costs. Check out this graph from a recent report from the North…
House Says No To Forming Sunset Committee To Review Inactive Boards And Committees
There’s probably nothing more government than forming a committee to study committees, but HB1361 sponsored by Rep. Ben Hanson (D-Fargo) was actually a pretty good idea. The gist of the legislation was to review the hundreds of boards and committees set up by the state and see which ones are active and still, you know, doing stuff.…
UPDATED North Dakota District Conventions: Districts 11, 13, 21, 27, 41, and 45 Fargo-West Fargo-Cass County Area Guide Part I
UPDATED Candidate information below in bold type This post is part of a continuing series highlighting the potential state legislative candidates from each district for their party’s nomination. For more information on this series, refer to the “SAB’s Guide To North Dakota District Conventions: A Government Of People Who Show Up” post. Due to the large number…
Guest Post: Efforts To Reform North Dakota's Pharmacy Law Seem To Have Fizzled
Over the last five years or so, the subject of North Dakota’s unique pharmacy ownership law have been debated in the Legislature as well as the public. During the 2009 and 2011 legislative sessions, bills were introduced in the state House of Representatives, which would have removed the requirement of state law that a pharmacy…
North Dakota House Mid-Session Legislative Vote Ranking
North Dakota’s legislature meets only once every two years for a constitutionally-constrained 80 day session. That means the legislative process can get hectic and hard to follow. Which, in turn, means it can be hard to keep track of your legislators are doing. To that end, LegitSlater and I put our heads together to come…
Entertainment Industry Gets Social Media Inheritance Bill Amended To Exempt Copyrighted Material
HB1455, introduced by Rep. Ben Hanson, does two things. First, it prevents employers from asking employees for access to their online/social media accounts. As I’ve noted previously, this makes me a little uncomfortable. I don’t like the idea of employers asking for that sort of information, but I really don’t like the government putting the…
Should North Dakota Allow Earlier Sunday Openings?
The Sunday closing law is a fascinating one because a lot of the support and opposition to it. Rep. Rick Becker has introduced HB1437 which doesn’t mandate an end to Sunday closing laws but rather gives local government the option of allowing businesses to be open (this is different from HB1367 introduced by Rep. Randy…