North Dakota

Letter: Washington policy disadvantages North Dakota small businesses and farms

Published

12 months ago

May 9, 2023

Letter: Washington policy disadvantages North Dakota small businesses and farms

A not too long ago finalized federal regulation, known as Part 1071, would require all monetary establishments — together with each financial institution, credit score union and Farm Credit score Company in North Dakota — to burden small-business and farm clients with invasive questions after which publicly report the information they acquire to the federal company.

The Client Monetary Safety Bureau’s (CFPB’s) new rule implements a piece of federal regulation requiring lenders to gather and report knowledge on credit score candidates. The regulation specifies knowledge factors monetary establishments should compile on all small enterprise and farm candidates, together with the race, intercourse, and ethnicity of the principal homeowners in addition to gross annual income.

The CFPB’s rule could have a considerable unfavorable influence on small-business and farm lending for a number of causes. First, the rule raises important considerations concerning the privateness of candidates, significantly in smaller communities. Second, the CFPB’s inflexible knowledge assortment necessities will hamper the flexibility of group banks to tailor loans to fulfill the distinctive wants of its clients, which is a trademark of relationship-based lending. Third, these necessities and their chilling impact on small-business and farm lending will finally hurt the debtors the bureau is making an attempt to assist — women-owned and minority-owned companies and farms.

The CFPB ought to use its authority to exempt extra group banks, which make roughly 60 % of small enterprise loans and 80 % of farm loans, from this rule and must also restrict obligatory knowledge factors to solely these required by regulation. And, Congress ought to step in and cross laws to remove these dangerous necessities as soon as and for all.

To keep away from disadvantaging small companies and farms in native communities, together with proper right here in North Dakota, Washington ought to droop and finally block Part 1071 – it’s a misguided coverage.

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North Dakota

North Dakota 2024 county teachers of the year announced

Published

3 hours ago

May 1, 2024

Press Room

North Dakota 2024 county teachers of the year announced

BISMARCK — North Dakota K-12 Superintendent Kirsten Baesler announced the 2024 county teachers of the year Wednesday, May 1.

Forty-nine teachers were chosen from a pool of 356 different nominees for the honor, according to a news release from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. Two teachers were chosen from LaMoure County as they both tied in the award’s scoring system. The ultimate goal of the program is for one teacher to be represented from each of the state’s 53 counties.

The county teachers of the year were:

Adams: Anna Block, Hettinger Public School
Barnes: Tresa Cruff, Barnes County North
Benson: Abel Sacatani, Warwick Public School
Billings: Jennifer O’Brien, Prairie Elementary School
Bottineau: Casey Mills, Westhope Public School
Bowman: Amy Burke, Bowman County
Burke: Whitney Rick, Burke Central
Burleigh: Kendall Bergrud, Wachter Middle School
Cass: Deb Pieper, West Fargo High School
Cavalier: Lane Lindseth, Langdon Area Schools
Dickey: Anna Kemmer, Southeast Region Career and Technology Center, Oakes
Divide: Rayme Haggin, Divide County Elementary
Dunn: Vicki Carney, Killdeer Public School
Emmons: Kadie Walls, Linton Public School
Foster: Kristen Hewitt, Carrington High School
Golden Valley: Chelsey Erdmann, Lincoln Elementary
Grand Forks: John Stempinski, Valley Middle School
Grant: Kayla Tatro, Roosevelt Public School, Carson
Griggs: Kayla Danielson, Griggs County Central
Hettinger: Eamon Alido, Mott Regent Public School
Kidder: Danielle Wachter, Kidder County Public School
LaMoure: Cameron Young, Edgeley Public School; Heidi Mathern, Edgeley Public School
Logan: Christina Gross, Napoleon Public School
McHenry: Emma Cook, TGU Towner
McIntosh: Alli Mogen, Wishek Public School
McKenzie: Tiffany Olson, Fox Hills Elementary
McLean: Seleena Briones, White Shield School
Mercer: Katie Isaak, Beulah Elementary School
Morton: Mary McHugh, Sweet Briar School
Mountrail: Erica McRae, Parshall High School
Nelson: Jill Wall, Lakota Elementary School
Oliver: Lynn Schwalk, Center-Stanton High School
Pembina: Heather Lafferty, North Border
Pierce: Ashleigh Blikre, Ely Elementary
Ramsey: Kelly Anderson, Sweetwater Elementary
Ransom: Ashley Nudell, Lisbon Public Schools
Renville: Chaleigh Clark, MLS Mohall
Richland: Kristi Nordick, Zimmerman Elementary
Rolette: Brooke Zupan, St. John’s Public School
Sheridan: Lucas Senske, McClusky-Goodrich High School
Sioux: Tessa Jahner, Solen High School
Steele: Denise Carlson, Finley-Sharon Public School
Stutsman: Charity Dosch, Montpelier Public School
Traill: Wendy Dafforn, Hatton Eielson School
Walsh: Trisha Cole, Park River Area School
Ward: Macie Harris-Nelson, Kenmare Public Schools
Wells: Angel Opdahl, Central Regional Special Education Unit
Williams: Kari Hall, Williston High School

The county winners are eligible to apply for the state teacher of the year award. The 2025 teacher of the year will be announced in a Sept. 27 ceremony at the Capitol, the release said.

The current teacher of the year is Sheila Peterson, a physical education teacher at Wachter Middle School in Bismarck.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.

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North Dakota

Plain Talk: North Dakota coal industry distances from carbon pipeline project; lawyers fire back at Miller

Published

10 hours ago

May 1, 2024

Press Room

Plain Talk: North Dakota coal industry distances from carbon pipeline project; lawyers fire back at Miller

MINOT — “I’m sympathetic to what they’re doing while recognizing there’s a better way to do it.”

Those are the words of Jason Bohrer, president of the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council, an advocacy and lobbying group that represents the state’s coal industry. He was speaking on this episode of Plain Talk about the Midwest Carbon Express pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions. That project has no ties to the coal industry. Rather, it seeks to bring carbon emissions gathered from ethanol plans across the upper midwest to North Dakota where it would be buried underground.

Bohrer joined the program to discuss the controversy around the North Dakota Republican Party’s resolution branding carbon capture as “fascism.” The resolution appeared to pass at the party’s state convention earlier this month, but after a recount,

it turns out it failed.

But Bohrer says Lignite’s larger concern is that public backlash against Summit’s project may turn into generalized opposition against the concept of carbon capture.

“An individual project differs from a technological opportunity,” he said.

“We’re going to take a long-term view,” he added.

Also on this episode, two board members from the North Dakota Association for Justice joined to discuss consternation in North Dakota’s legal circles over Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller’s gubernatorial campaign saying some ugly things about lawyers.

“Politicians and trial lawyers often struggle with the truth,” is a quote Miller spokesman Dawson Schefter gave me for

an article about their campaign ad

attacking their opponent in the Republican primary. “Kelly Armstrong is both, so it’s no surprise he lies about his opponent and his opponent’s ads.”

The NDAJ fired back,

calling those comments “ill-informed and ignorant.”

Then Schefter came back again. “It’s no surprise lawyers and politicians are sticking up for each other,” he told me in response to the NDAJ’s statement. “While Kelly Armstrong was raking in cash defending drug dealers, a man who beat his wife unconscious, and a man who attempted to suffocate his daughter — Tammy Miller was growing a company and creating thousands of jobs. Job creator or trial lawyer is an easy choice.”

“Frankly, we were offended,” attorney Tatum O’Brien said.

“She probably has a failing campaign,” attorney Tim O’Keefe added by way of explaining why Miller’s campaign would launch the attack.

Both O’Brien and O’Keefe are board members of the NDAJ and say attorneys do important work defending the rights of citizens in court, from Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure to the Seventh Amendment right to seek a jury trial in matters of civil law.

Want to subscribe to Plain Talk? Search for the show wherever you get your podcasts, or

click here

for more information.

Rob Port is a news reporter, columnist, and podcast host for the Forum News Service with an extensive background in investigations and public records. He covers politics and government in North Dakota and the upper Midwest. Reach him at rport@forumcomm.com. Click here to subscribe to his Plain Talk podcast.

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The Coolest Thing Ever | North Dakota Game and Fish

Published

17 hours ago

May 1, 2024

Press Room

The Coolest Thing Ever | North Dakota Game and Fish

Last turkey season we were in the thick of the newborn stage. I was lucky to get out a few times, but it was a lot more abbreviated than I’m accustomed to. After another long, albeit mild, winter riddled with daycare illnesses, I found myself dreaming of turkey season. I was manifesting calm, sunny weekends and a stretch of household health to get us through.

Come opening weekend, Grandma and Papa arrived and the weather part was just as planned, if anything, maybe too warm. We dusted off the Kelty and pitched it in a familiar piece of grasslands. However, my cozy night under the stars was quickly interrupted with a nightlong bout of vomiting in the buffaloberry bushes. I’m still not sure if it was due to our Mexican food date night in Dickinson or yet another stomach bug but seemed par for the course these days. I almost opted to stay back that morning, but I had waited too long for this.

Tired and nauseous, “Team Ocho,” made up of myself, Scott and good Friend, Jason, hiked the mile and change back to the trees where we knew turkeys would be roosted. They were there, they gobbled, and they headed the other direction. The morning drug on as we tried to predict where they were headed but seemingly always got it wrong and found ourselves in their dust. It was getting warm, and I needed a nap, so I recommended a move back to camp.

It only grew hotter and whatever bug I had seemed to sneak up on Scott, too. The mood was not what I had expected for a sunny opening turkey weekend. We wasted away the afternoon before deciding on a drive to try to find some other birds to roost for the morning.

Wouldn’t you know it, we stumbled into a few male birds strutting around. We parked the truck and climbed a hill to get eyes on them. Spirits lifted as we enjoyed a beautiful evening display of turkeys being turkeys and counted a dozen different males. The sun was fading, and we knew they’d roost soon, but just then we heard the dreaded sound of a pickup. It slowed to a stop and my initial thought was “now we’ll have to have a discussion on morning plans,” but that thought was quickly interrupted by the pickup door opening, a shotgun blast, and birds running.

My heart sank. Frustration that we just wasted our entire evening and were left with no plan for the morning. Disappointment that those hunter’s vision of a turkey hunt and mine were so misaligned. And bummed on never getting to find out what tomorrow morning would have been like.

Our tags were left unfilled, and a bitter taste lingered for days on a weekend I had envisioned going so much differently.

Fast-forward to the following weekend and we planned on taking turns. Scott headed west after bedtime Friday, and by the time Fisch was enjoying his usual scrambled eggs Saturday morning, we received a text that Dada had sealed the deal and would be heading home soon. As readers know by now, turkey nuggets for dinner.

Sunday was my turn and I opted to hunt my leftover unit alongside Jackie, Department marketing specialist and turkey hunting novice.

I had no intentions of pulling the trigger unless I called in a double. We scouted these birds before the season and made the only move we had, get as close to them on public land as we could. We setup a strutting tom decoy with a real fan, a breeding hen and a jake.

The morning greeted us with a chorus of gobbles, sharp-tailed grouse, pheasants crowing, swans trumpeting and deer sneaking through the very buffaloberries we were hiding in. I yelped and turkeys responded. At one point I thought an entire group was heading our way but then the gobbles retreated. Later in the morning, I thought we had another one hooked as Jackie saw him last at 100 yards and he gobbled in the creek bed below us for a good half-hour before going silent again. I waited and waited, staying silent, but he never did appear.

It was growing late and as a last resort I gave the ole gobble call a try. No response, but a few minutes later Jackie noticed the tom back up on a ridge, fanned out at about 500 yards. This time, he was fanning, running, fanning, running. No gobbles, but she saw him in the same spot at 100 yards and then things once again seemed to halt. I stayed patient and quiet.

And then I heard, at a remarkably close distance, the unmistakable spitting and drumming. Without moving a muscle, I shifted my eyes to the left and at about 5 yards a strutting tom emerged. I couldn’t really warn Jackie who was about 10 yards to my right but hoped she’d see him soon enough.

She did and quickly shifted to reposition her gun and he came out of his strut but remained focused on our decoy. I shook with anxiety thinking to myself “shoot, shoot.”

Her safety clicked off, a pause, and finally the sound I was waiting for. But I don’t know what happened, he didn’t flop. He seemed confused and began to slowly walk away. “Shoot again,” I said. But his head was beginning to go below a hill, and instinct kicked in. I stood up and pulled the trigger.

I still couldn’t tell you what happened and the last thing I want is to embarrass Jackie, a good friend and hunting partner. If she did miss, we’ve all been there. I was still shaking even though I wasn’t planning to shoot. I just didn’t want him to get away if he was injured but we agreed I’d tag him so that Jackie could continue hunting.

Regardless, Jackie was pumped: “THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER.” Those of you who’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jackie might be able to imagine this. And I agreed with her in my own, more reserved expression. I hope it always stays the coolest thing ever. That’s what I envision when I think spring turkey hunting. And that’s what replayed in my head all week as I counted the minutes until I could get back out there for Jackie’s first bird.

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