North Dakota
Could a state icon bring more attention to North Dakota?
BISMARCK — A
state icon
could help North Dakota promote itself to the rest of the country and possibly bring in more visitors, a tourism leader says.
More than 5,200 people have voted for one of two state icons that could represent the Peace Garden State. Voting began last week and runs through the end of the month.
Voters who go to
surveymonkey.com/r/StateIconPress
can choose between two options: a circular icon that features an American bison in the Badlands or a sunset icon inside the letters ND.
The results could be revealed as early as mid-March, North Dakota Tourism and Marketing Director Sara Otte Coleman told The Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 18. The state icon will help North Dakota promote itself to potential visitors, she said.
“We not only wanted to help educate and raise awareness for the state, but we also really wanted to create some in-state pride and have it be something that people would want to buy and wear and tout,” she said.
The state icon will complement the state’s
“Be Legendary”
brand, Coleman said. North Dakota changed its logo in 2018 as a way to bring its 57 brands under one unifying logo.
Contributed
The rebrand attracted criticism and controversy. The state changed its longtime black-and-white logo and “Legendary” slogan, opting for a simpler font with color.
Lawmakers and others questioned why
North Dakota didn’t bid out the logo project.
Instead, the state hired Kara Ellefson, a longtime marketing executive at Great Plains Software from Hawley, Minnesota, for $9,500 to create the logo. Then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum knew Ellefson — he was the CEO of Great Plains before he sold it to Microsoft in 2001.
The threshold for bidding a North Dakota project is $10,000, meaning the transaction was legal. The governor’s office said Burgum did not suggest Ellefson for the project.
Contributed
The North Dakota Department of Commerce asked for bids to design the state icon, Coleman said. Four companies submitted proposals, and The Good Kids, a design studio in Bismarck, won with a bid of about $23,000, she said.
Other states have icons, like Minnesota’s blue and green “MN.” Some states have multiple symbols, Coleman noted.
There could be tweaks to the proposed icons before a final one is announced, she said.
“This is something to build on,” she said. “It’s not the do-all, end-all. … It’s just kind of a fun marketing metric.”
North Dakota has used different visuals in the past to promote the state, including the pioneer logo used for the Centennial Celebration in 1989 and imagery of Lewis and Clark.
The state proposed themes to include in the icon designs, Coleman said. People praise the state’s “beautiful sunsets, landscapes and blue skies,” she said.
State tourism leaders also encouraged “ND” to be a part of the logo, she said.
“I think they’re fun,” she said of the proposed icons. “I’m excited about them. I think either one of them could work well.”
The state has limited recognition in the U.S., Coleman noted. A 2022 study showed that only 22% of respondents were familiar with North Dakota, according to the request for proposals that sought bids for the icon. North Dakota is largely seen as a flyover state with few attractions.
North Dakota Tourism expanded advertising in recent years. TV promotions used Minot native and actor
Josh Duhamel
to highlight attractions like Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
It seems to have paid off. About 3.6 million people visited the state tourism website last year, up 30% from 2023, she said. Several visitor metrics, such as the number of people flying into the state and Canadian border crossings into North Dakota, were up about 10% each last year, she said.
Other metrics, including hotel occupancy rates and Theodore Roosevelt National Park visits, remained flat, Coleman noted.
“We’ve had great results with the work that we do, considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the country,” she said.
North Dakota has in the past underfunded its marketing budget, Coleman said, but it is making progress in telling its story.
“Hopefully, next time we do that national survey, we will show a higher number than 22%,” she said.
The survey doesn’t have a comment section, but input on the icons can be sent to
tourism@nd.gov.
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.
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