GRAND FORKS — A bicyclist was injured after a collision with an SUV on a rural highway in Walsh County, North Dakota.

The incident occurred at 5:17 p.m. on State Highway 17, near Grafton.

According to a report from the North Dakota Highway Patrol, the collision involved Dennis Loewen, 67, of Park River, who was riding a bike, and a 2007 Suburban, driven by Brenden Erickson, 22, of Grafton.

The report said “Loewen was eastbound and made an abrupt maneuver and turned north toward the school near mile marker 119 on State Highway 17. Erickson was eastbound behind Loewen. When Loewen swerved into his lane, Erickson struck Loewen broadside. Loewen sustained severe injuries. Loewen was brought to Unity Hospital for treatment.”

The crash remains under investigation by the NDHP

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GRAFTON, ND — One Park River, North Dakota, man was seriously injured in a bicycle crash just after 5 p.m. on Monday, August 19.

Dennis Loewen, a 67-year-old from Park River, was biking east on State Highway 17 when he made an “abrupt maneuver” near mile marker 119 and began heading north, according to a release from the North Dakota Highway Patrol.

Meanwhile, 22-year-old Brenden Erickson from Grafton, N.D., was driving his Chevrolet Suburban eastward as well.

Erickson struck Loewen.

Loewen was transported to the hospital with severe injuries. Erickson was uninjured.

The crash remains under investigation, according to the release.

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.

BISMARCK — North Dakota has joined a lawsuit to block 200,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children under an Obama administration program from accessing taxpayer-funded health care.

North Dakota Attorney General

Drew Wrigley

signed on to the lawsuit led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. The case, filed Aug. 8 in North Dakota U.S. District Court, will be decided by federal Judge Daniel Traynor, who is seated in Bismarck.

Along with North Dakota and Kansas, 13 other Republican-led states have signed the complaint against the U.S. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The administrative procedure lawsuit seeks to reverse a Biden administration rule that would expand access to health care to recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA. In 2012, then-President Barack Obama signed an executive order that protected children brought to the U.S. illegally from deportation.

President Joe Biden announced in May that his administration would expand health care to DACA beneficiaries, also called “Dreamers.” It classifies those who are “lawfully present” in the U.S. as eligible for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

“I’m proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country and committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed,” Biden said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve previously directed the Department of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to ‘preserve and fortify’ DACA. And that’s why today we are taking this historic step to ensure that DACA recipients have the same access to health care through the Affordable Care Act as their neighbors.”

The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, was a 2010 law that made affordable health care coverage more available to uninsured U.S. citizens. It also required citizens to obtain health insurance.

The lawsuit claims those protected by DACA do not qualify for taxpayer-funded health care because, “by definition,” they are unlawfully present in the U.S. There are 530,110 such immigrants in the U.S., and the final rule would allow up to 200,000 to be eligible for “a subsidized health plan,” the lawsuit said.

“For over a decade, Obama’s DACA executive order has been defended in court on the basis that is was not changing anyone’s legal status, it was merely exercising prosecutorial discretion not to deport certain aliens,” Wrigley said. “Now, the federal government turns around and says DACA does change aliens’ legal status by making them ‘lawfully present’ for government subsidized healthcare. The lawlessness and hypocrisy of that move is breathtaking.”

Expanding government-supported health care to DACA beneficiaries would place administrative, financial and resource burdens on states, the lawsuit said. The rule also could encourage more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally with the hope that their children would qualify for health care under DACA, the lawsuit claimed.

“It is likely that aliens who would otherwise have returned to their countries of origin will instead remain in the United States because of the eligibility for ACA coverage provided by the Final Rule,” the lawsuit said, referring to the Affordable Care Act.

North Dakota has 160 immigrants protected by DACA, the lawsuit said. Court documents estimated that 6,000 to 9,000 immigrants live in North Dakota illegally and cost taxpayers between $27 million and $36 million a year.

“Illegal aliens shouldn’t get a free pass into our country,” Kobach said in a statement. “They shouldn’t receive taxpayer benefits when they arrive, and the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t get a free pass to violate federal law.”

Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia have also joined the lawsuit.