On this date in 1909, burglars dynamited the safe of the First State Bank of Englevale, stealing $3,600 in cash and escaping undetected, leaving extensive damage and limited clues.

Here’s the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:

Gaining entrance by forcing the front door, burglars this morning dynamited the safe of the First State Bank of Englevale, a small town thirteen miles southwest of Lisbon, secured $3,600 in currency and made good their escape, leaving practically no clue behind which can be used by the authorities in detecting the yeggmen.

Not until 5 o’clock this morning was the robbery discovered despite the fact that sufficient dynamite was used to wreck the safe, blow out the plate glass front and tear a hole in the brick work in the front of the building.

The majority of the stock of the bank is held in the estate of the late H. F. Opfer of this city. J. L. Opfer, a son, who is transacting business in the cities at present, is vice president, while E. G. Opfer of this city is a director.

Suspicion at first pointed to three strangers who were seen at Englevale last evening, but this theory was shattered when two of the men were located at Verona and they satisfied the authorities that they were not the men wanted. No train leaves Englevale during the night and no strange autos were seen about the village.

The bank building is a one-story structure surrounded by business houses with no one sleeping in the neighborhood. According to the report received by E. G. Opfer this morning, some residents recollect hearing an explosion about 1:10 a.m., but thought nothing of it and failed to investigate.

At 5 o’clock Wm. Norum, cashier of the bank, arose and saw the shattered front of the bank from his home, and coming to the scene found the condition of affairs.

Tracks of a pair of ponies entering the village from the west, and returning in the same direction, were discovered this morning. Fresh footprints were also found along the railroad track and it is suspected that when one of these clues is followed up that the guilty parties may be apprehended.

The loss of $3,600 in cash, as well as the damage to the building and safe, is fully covered by insurance. Notes and books of the bank which were also in the safe were not touched.

The burglary was reported at the office of Sec. W. C. Macfadden of the North Dakota State Bankers’ association, and every effort will be made to locate the robbers.

BISMARCK — North Dakota Gov.

Kelly Armstrong

is exercising his right to line-item veto legislation as six bills were substantially changed — one of them twice — on Monday, May 19, while undergoing final approval.

The state constitution gives the governor the authority to veto a portion of long budget bills, a power typically reserved for cutting spending items.

In over half of the veto letters, Armstrong emphasized that parts of budget bills pertaining to policy changes, not direct appropriations, should not be immune to line-item vetoes.

Allowing

the Legislature

to “shoehorn” policy into budget bills “undermines” the system of checks and balances and violates the “longstanding principle of separation of powers,” Armstrong wrote.

Among the six line-item vetoed bills was the state’s Ethics Commission budget. Armstrong eliminated a section granting lawmakers immunity from prosecution if they disclose conflicts of interest in voting on a bill.

“Public confidence in government is built on the belief that no one, especially elected officials, is above the law,” Armstrong wrote in the veto letter.

He said the vetoed section, which isn’t attached to a specific appropriation, “sends the wrong message to North Dakotans: that legislative disclosure, however minimal or selective, is enough to avoid the legal consequences that any private citizen would face under similar circumstances.”

Under the attorney general’s budget, Armstrong vetoed a portion attempting to bar judges from being able to waive 24/7 sobriety program fees. The section was added to the budget at the last minute after the original, stand-alone bill to restrict judges’ authority failed.

Participation in the program, which has been in place since 2008, is often ordered by the court for people with drug or alcohol-related offenses.

“It (the addition) invites a constitutional challenge and will only increase the costs and jail overcrowding for counties,” Armstrong wrote in the veto letter.

He also cut a $150,000 grant that would have funded a Native American homelessness liaison position in the Industrial Commission’s budget.

He called for a long-term, statewide approach to

homelessness

and housing insecurity instead of “a piecemeal approach” that risks “fragmentation, inefficiency and duplication of effort.”

In the same bill, he scratched a section mandating the Bank of North Dakota allocate $250,000 to study post-oil economic development in western North Dakota communities.

He called the action premature, saying it sends the wrong idea about the “strength” and “longevity” of the state’s energy industry.

In the Parks and Recreation Department’s budget, Armstrong vetoed a section that would have required the agency to receive approval from the Legislature to rename state parks, a provision that also had no direct appropriation.

Such a requirement is so far-reaching, it could lead to unnecessary, top-level deliberation and “not only encroaches on the executive branch’s function to faithfully execute laws passed by the Assembly but also leads to absurd results,” the veto letter states.

Another $350,000 was taken out of the Department of Commerce’s budget that would have gone to the State Fair Association for sanitation restoration projects.

The funding wasn’t included in the State Fair Association’s individual budget, where Armstrong said it “rightly belonged.”

Further, the state Legislative Council will stay in its second-floor office in the state Capitol building in Bismarck after its bid to move to the 15th floor was rejected by Armstrong. The agency, which received funding for 25 more employees, oversees the Legislature’s operations and is staffed by attorneys, researchers and accountants.

Under the provision in the Legislative branch’s budget, the space occupied by the Department of Career and Technical Education would instead be used by Legislative Council. However, the Legislature neglected to consult with proper channels — namely, the public and the department itself, Armstrong wrote in his veto letter.

He said his administration is “more than willing” to help Legislative Council accommodate its growing staff.

“Requiring the acquisition of a specific floor of the Capitol building via state law is superfluous and undermines our ongoing efforts to find ways to better utilize the Capitol building’s square footage to reduce costs and save taxpayers money,” he added.

When the 2025 legislative session adjourned, lawmakers sent a total of 601 bills to the governor, 597 of which were signed, with four vetoed in their entirety — a

library materials bill,

a

private school voucher bill,

a

tax credit for prisons

and another impacting

state employee health insurance.

To overturn a governor’s veto, the Legislature would have to meet for a special session. Legislative leaders have not announced whether they will reconvene to push back on any line-item vetoes.

Budget bills go into effect on July 1. Policy bills take effect Aug. 1.

“Through limited use of my line-item veto authority, we’ve reduced spending, protected the integrity of the budgeting process and preserved executive branch authority to ensure that state government remains efficient and transparent,” Armstrong said in a Monday release.