North Dakota
Casselton leaders request signs to show motorists bypass route
CASSELTON, N.D. — Casselton leaders want signage that will guide trucks and passenger vehicles to a bypass west of the city instead of through the heart of the small town.
The Cass County Commission has thrown its support behind Casselton’s efforts to reroute North Dakota Highway 18 traffic. Commissioners voted unanimously Monday, Oct. 6, to sign letters of support for two projects: one to encourage the North Dakota Department of Transportation to install signs showing the bypass route and another asking the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments to study the potential for turn lanes on Highway 18 south of Casselton.
Highway 18 takes traffic that turns off Interstate 94 at Exit 331 north through Casselton’s residential and downtown area, as well as by Central Cass High School. Bill Hejl, a retired farmer from nearby Amenia, suggested posting signage for the bypass route as a way to help motorists find the more efficient route around town to businesses west of the city.
Contributed / Cass County Commission
“I’ve watched some semis coming from the north on Highway 18 from Amenia and go all the way through Casselton and then turn right and go west on I-94,” he said. “They could have taken the bypass route to the ethanol plant.”
Casselton leaders will ask the DOT to install signs that direct I-94 traffic to use Exit 328 to Lynchburg, about 3 miles west of Exit 331, to drive north on Cass County Highway 26. That runs into Cass County Highway 10, and motorists can then drive east to Highway 18 just north of Casselton.
The city also will ask the DOT to install a sign that would show southbound traffic on Highway 18 that vehicles can take Highway 10 to Highway 26, then to I-94.
The new signs would show several businesses along the bypass route, including the Tharaldson Ethanol and North Dakota Soybean Processors plants.
Many vehicles use the bypass route already, but signs will show those that go through town that there is an alternate route, Mayor Michael Faught said.
Anna Paige / The Forum
“We love to have them go through town, utilizing the stores, but this just kind of sets it up so truckers know there’s a (bypass) route,” he said.
The intersection of Highway 18 and Fifth Street North near Central Cass gets busy, especially during the harvest season, Faught said. A lot of vehicles go through that intersection, and roughly 1,100 students and staff members come to the school building each school day, said Central Cass Superintendent Morgan Forness.
“That’s a major intersection that brings both city, county and state highways all to the same intersection,” Forness said. “It’s also the access point for our school. So you can imagine, every morning 1,100 people converge on this site. It’s basically the one access point to the school.”
The school has access to parking lots so parents can drop off children in the lots, instead of while on Fifth Street, Forness said.
There are safety concerns about truck traffic going by the school, he said, especially as the community continues to grow. Discussions about adding bypass route signs is a timely topic, Forness said.
“When that number of people are coming to the school, for the most part, at the same time in the morning or leaving at the same time in the afternoon, it’s a very congested site for us,” he said. “Safety for students and those who walk and bike amidst a lot of traffic is something that we want to really stay on top of.”
Hejl is a nonvoting member of the Casselton Job Development Authority. His son, John Hejl, is the Casselton fire chief.
Signs directing vehicles to the bypass not only means less traffic going by the school, Bill Hejl said. It also will unclog streets for emergency vehicles, allowing for faster response times, he said.
“We just want to make sure our community, our residents and students are safe there,” Faught said. “We are just trying to be as safe as possible.”
GRAND FORKS — A North Dakota composer’s dream is turning into a statewide invitation.
Williston-based musician Emily Black-Driscoll was chosen as the North Dakota Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2026. She’s preparing an original composition that will premiere in August.
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North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
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