North Dakota
Gov. Kelly Armstrong: Tech firms' 'ideology will change real quick' for North Dakota energy
GRAND FORKS – Gov. Kelly Armstrong says North Dakota’s energy reserves gives it the power to push back against “liberal ideology” in the major tech firms that want to set up data centers in North Dakota.
Tech demand for North Dakota energy means the state can change tech companies’ attitudes toward fossil fuels, socially conscious investment and other issues that “started on Slack chats from employees in Silicon Valley,” Armstrong told attendees at an event at the University of North Dakota.
“We can help reset that narrative, because when they need you to make their next billion dollars in profits, their ideology will change real quick,” Armstrong said to the Grand Forks Herald when asked to clarify his comments.
Armstrong delivered a wide-ranging address to UND’s Memorial Union on Wednesday night before answering questions from students and Grand Forks residents.
He expressed concern about the decline of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights – protection from unreasonable searches and seizures – in the digital era and said people need to have more empathy and understanding for those who disagree with them.
“I’m going to let you in on a little-held view,” he said. “Fifty percent of the country isn’t evil, and 50% of the country isn’t stupid.”
Armstrong visited UND at the behest of the university’s chapter of Turning Point USA. The group’s national arm is well-known for its combative attitude against liberal or left-wing ideas, and advertises itself as empowering Americans to “rise up against the radical left.”
Asked about the group’s politics, Armstrong said he believes in respectful debate and that many of his best friends are liberals.
“I think it’s OK to fight for your ideology. I think how you do it is important,” he said.
Armstrong returned to North Dakota’s energy industry, particularly its oil and gas sector, throughout the evening, praising it for saving a “dying” western North Dakota.
He praised lignite coal as “cheap” and “reliable” and
alluded to long-considered plans
to sue Minnesota for its law requiring its energy suppliers to be 100% carbon-free by 2040.
“Right now, we’re suing them,” Armstrong said in his remarks. “They’re telling us how to produce the energy they need to keep the lights on in Minneapolis. My response? Just say ‘thank you, go produce your own.’”
Armstrong spokesperson Mike Nowatzki later told the Herald in a text message that North Dakota had not filed a lawsuit against its eastern neighbor, but “have warned (Minnesota) that its carbon-free standard is unlawful.”
Energy demand posed by artificial intelligence data center projects the state hopes to attract is expected to exceed the state’s entire production capacity,
the Forum reported
last year.
Around 55% of North Dakota’s energy generation comes from burning coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with 36% coming from its next-largest source, wind power.
Armstrong has extensive ties to the oil and gas industry,
ProPublica and the North Dakota Monitor reported last year,
with the governor telling reporters that oil and gas was the source of almost all of his personal income.
Attendees repeatedly raised questions of federal policy with the governor throughout the evening. Armstrong pointed out he has little sway over Congress or the executive branch as a state official, but weighed in on several issues.
In response to one atmospheric sciences student’s concerns about cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, Armstrong said “disruptions have to happen” for the U.S. to address its national debt.
Armstrong said the state would
fund three rural projects that had a combined $20 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants pulled
as part of Trump administration cost-cutting.
He characterized the projects as another example of government waste, though, saying that a federal agency “that was here to help Grand Forks in ‘97 after the flood now all of a sudden is handing out grants to build lagoons,” referring to a proposed $1.9 million wastewater lagoon in Fessenden.
He said North Dakota would “help in any capacity we can” to deport undocumented immigrants, but told another attendee he would support congressional efforts
to keep humanitarian parolees from Ukraine in North Dakota from being deported.
He said dismantling the U.S. Education Department was “a good thing for North Dakota,” saying states would be better served by receiving federal education funding directly.
Armstrong indicated, as he has previously, his support for
school choice legislation
in North Dakota but noted he has “two kids in public school and I think they do a fantastic job.”
He did not directly answer a question about whether he would sign a bill requiring school and public libraries to hide materials with “obscene” content from minors – legislation that
some have characterized as censorship
– but said he is a “free speech absolutist” and “fan of the First Amendment.”
“I don’t pretend to know what the next literary masterpiece is, but I want it in a library,” he said.
Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education for the Grand Forks Herald. He can be reached at jirvine@gfherald.com.
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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