North Dakota
Grand Forks police chief to retire after 40-year career
GRAND FORKS — One of the region’s most recognizable law enforcement officers is about to sign off the radio for the final time.
Grand Forks Police Chief Mark Nelson will take off his badge for the last time on Friday, Sept. 20.
Nelson said the decision to retire was an easy one. He made the decision nearly 10 years ago when he took over as chief that he would retire in September 2024.
Along with the patrol cruisers, much has changed over Nelson’s career. He points to how much technology is now in each police car and how many passwords officers need to remember. That wasn’t a problem when he first started at the Grand Forks Police Department in 1988.
“When I walked through the door, we would buy space pens because the ink would not freeze in the wintertime,” he said.
Nelson, 60, who also spent more than three decades with the North Dakota National Guard, said it was a Minot police officer who visited his history class in seventh grade who inspired him to pursue a career in law enforcement.
“He wasn’t talking about how fast he got to drive, how all the extra things that you do, shoot guns,” he said. “He talked about working with people, caring about people, and I don’t know, it just resonated with me. I tried to live by that the rest of my life.”
Nelson started his career with the Ward County Sheriff’s Department. After four years there, he spent the past 36 years with the GFPD, the last decade as the chief.
Along with improving the day-to-day operations, Nelson spent a lot of time focusing on community relationships.
“I tell my guys if the first time you’ve ever dealt with someone in the community is on a negative interaction, we’ve failed as a department,” he said.
That community support was so important on May 27, 2020, the day Officer Cody Holte was shot and killed during a police ambush; easily the worst day of his career.
“No. 1, being in the room with the family when they were told Cody did not make it; two, making the call to his twin brother, who at the time was a Fargo cop, that Cody did not make it. How do you tell your department, how do you look up and stand up in front of 100 people and say we lost a family member today?” Nelson said.
What he will miss the most, he said, is the people, especially the young officers. About half of the nearly 100 officer force have only been with the department for less than four years.
“Watching people achieve what they want to, and knowing I have had people in my office and you give them a little bit of advice and then they get that position they were seeking and they come in and thank you, or just watching them foster and grow and challenge themselves,” he said.
Nelson said it still hasn’t fully sunk in, that for the first time since he started working at age 11, he won’t need to be anywhere that day. Nelson also served with the National Guard for 34 years, including two deployments. Along with family time, the chief plans to do some shopping.
“I always make the joke — I’ll have to buy clothes because I’ve worn a uniform for 40 years, I don’t have much of a wardrobe, to be honest with you,” he said.
Mayor Brandon Bochenski said he waited until Nelson retired before launching a nationwide search. He hopes to pick a new chief by the end of the year.
Lt. Dwight Love will serve as interim chief until a new chief is hired.
Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years.
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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