North Dakota
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum gets firsthand view of war in Israel
TEL AVIV, Israel — One of the first things North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum did when he landed in Tel Aviv was meet with locals whose family members had been taken hostage by Hamas.
One was a cousin of a 3-year-old who was abducted nearly two months ago, he said. Another man’s two sons have been held prisoner for roughly a year.
The meeting was part of his four-day trip to Israel to speak with Israeli citizens and officials about attacks perpetrated by terrorist groups, including Hamas. Sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition, the trip came just weeks before the first anniversary of Hamas launching an attack on Oct. 7, 2023, against Israel. The assault killed more than 1,100 people, leading to a war that is still ongoing.
“Oct. 7 was Israel’s 9/11,” Burgum told The Forum on Thursday, Oct. 4.
Burgum reaffirmed North Dakota’s support for Israel on Sunday as a way to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. He directed the State Capitol building to be lit blue and white, the colors of Israel’s flag, on Sunday and Monday.
On Tuesday, just days after Burgum flew back to North Dakota from Israel, Iran launched a massive attack against Israel, with some missiles going through Israel’s nearly impenetrable Iron Dome missile defense system north of Tel Aviv. The launch was in response to the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, among other deaths, according to media reports.
Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. It doesn’t control the Lebanese government, but it wields significant power in the country that borders Israel to the north. Like Hamas, the U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist group.
Despite thousands of rockets being fired on Israel, its citizens continue on with their lives, a move that Burgum called inspirational.
Contributed / North Dakota Governor’s Office
“The strength and the will of the people who are under attack is, you can’t read about that,” he said. “You have to see that firsthand and understand that.”
Burgum’s four-day trip started Sept. 17, as pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon exploded. The attacks killed dozens and injured thousands.
Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have blamed Israel for the pager attack, though Israel hasn’t commented on the incident, according to media reports.
Burgum said he and others were under pressure to complete their objectives in a short amount of time. With the threat of a missile attack from Iran imminent, flights into and out of Israel were being canceled, he said.
Contributed / North Dakota Governor’s Office
There is misinformation about what is happening in Israel, Burgum said in noting why it was important for him to talk to people “on the ground” and “fighting the battles.” One man whose son is being held hostage told Burgum that Israel cannot make deals for hostages if that means Iran gets a nuclear weapon, the governor said.
“I think it’s extremely valuable for anyone in the U.S. that’s touching or influencing policy to really understand what’s going on on the ground in these war zones,” he said.
In addition to meeting with the family members of hostages, Burgum also spoke to what he called “unsung heroes.” That included off-duty police officers and retired military members who jumped into action to help others during attacks, as well as those who operate the Iron Dome.
“There are going to be some moments that … I won’t forget personally,” he said.
He also met family members who lost loved ones during the Supernova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023. Video shows thousands of festivalgoers danced in the early hours as Hamas launched rockets.
As attendees fled, militants shot at them, according to media reports. More than 350 died in the attack, according to media reports.
“That really hit home because, if you’ve got kids that are in their 20s and going to music festivals, it’s like wow, to think that they walked in there and the violence that (Hamas) committed,” Burgum said.
Burgum said he met an officer who helped saved festival attendees. He went back and forth a dozen times, bringing back as many attendees as possible to safety, the governor said.
“These are just incredible stories,” he said. “You understand more in-depth what we all kind of know about Oct. 7, with that anniversary coming up.”
Contributed / North Dakota Governor’s Office
The officials Burgum met included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They talked about the importance of the U.S. and Israel being allies, the events that happened that week and the threat of Iran getting a nuclear weapon.
“If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, then the threat of World War III is at our doorstep,” he said.
Burgum criticized President Joe Biden’s administration, saying that it is wavering in its support for Israel. In an interview with Fox News, Burgum said the Biden administration unfroze billions of dollars in frozen assets to Iran.
Burgum claimed that money went to Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, a military group based in Yemen that also has been labeled a terrorist organization.
“We’re in a proxy war with Iran right now,” he told Fox.
Former President Donald Trump’s sanctions had “Iran financially on their knees,” he told The Forum. Under the Biden administration, Iran has increased its oil and arms exports, Burgum said.
Iran has sold drones to Russia, which the country is using against Ukraine, Burgum said.
“The problems with Iran are connected to both of the proxy wars that we are involved with right now,” he said. “The Biden-Harris (administration) allowing Iran’s production to increase has been a key failure in foreign policy because it’s literally helping to pay for both wars that we’re in.”
Iran sees Trump as a threat, Burgum said in pointing to U.S. intelligence that unveiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the former president.
“He’s been one of the strongest presidents in supporting Israel, which is the key to peace in the Middle East, the key to democracy everywhere, in terms of a country being able to be democratic and self-determination,” Burgum said of Trump. “I could easily see where, if President Trump wins, on the day that he is sworn in is when all the hostages finally come home, if not before that.”
Activists across the county have voiced support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and have protested the U.S. government’s support of Israel. In Fargo, supporters of Palestine have called on city leaders to approve a resolution that would ask for a cease-fire in Gaza, calling Israel’s war “a genocide on the Palestinian people.”
As of mid-August, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war in the strip, according to media reports.
Hamas governs Gaza.
When asked what he would say to supporters of Palestine and Palestinian Americans, Burgum said “we have to be careful” about labels for groups. People of various religions live in Israel, he said.
Supporting Israel is about standing up against terrorism, Burgum said. The goal of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah is to destroy Israel and the U.S., he said.
“It’s a function of terrorism that we have to be against, not against a group of people,” he said. “We stand up against terrorism around the world, and we support our allies. In this case, it’s really clear to me that our ally is Israel. Free people everywhere have to be united against the tyranny of terrorism and those people that financially support it.”
BISMARCK (North Dakota Monitor) — A federal district court judge indicated he will nullify a nearly $28 million judgment against the federal government related to costs North Dakota incurred during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests so the parties can reach a settlement.
North Dakota is still set to receive a payment Attorney General Drew Wrigley described as satisfactory, but attorneys would not disclose the amount during a Friday hearing.
Attorneys for the United States and North Dakota said the settlement would allow the parties to avoid litigating the case in appeals court,putting the nearly seven-year-old lawsuit to rest.
“We’re hoping we really don’t need to fight any further,” Department of Justice attorney Jonathan Guynn said during the hearing.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019, concerns demonstrations against the construction of the crude oil pipeline, also known as DAPL, that took place in rural south-central North Dakota in 2016 and 2017.
North Dakota claims the federal government caused the protests to grow in size and intensity by unlawfully allowing demonstrators to camp on federal land. The state says it had to pay millions of dollars on policing and cleaning up the encampments as a result. The United States denies the state’s allegations.
North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor in April 2025 sided with the state and ordered the executive branch to pay North Dakota the $28 million sum, a decision the U.S. Department of Justice later appealed to the 8th Circuit.
If the settlement moves forward, North Dakota would receive a “substantial monetary payment” from the United States, attorneys said Friday. As a condition of the agreement, the Department of Justice wants Traynor’s judgment and three other orders in which he ruled against the United States to be voided. That includes the court’s 120-page ruling from April 2025.
Both parties said Friday that having the rulings nullified wouldn’t have a significant negative impact on the public, since the documents could still be cited even if they no longer hold the weight of court orders.
At the same time, Guynn said the Department of Justice wants the orders vacated because it doesn’t want the legal conclusions Traynor made to influence the outcome of future lawsuits.
“The downstream consequences of keeping these on the books is troublesome for the United States,” he said during the hearing. If Traynor does not agree to axe the rulings, the United States would likely no longer be willing to settle and move forward with its appeal instead, Guynn added.
Traynor’s orders make findings about the federal government’s responsibility under the Federal Tort Claims Act — the law North Dakota filed the suit under — which the state noted previously in court filings “could have utility holding the federal government to account” in the future.
Still, attorneys for the state said they believe this trade-off is outweighed by the time and money the public would save by not going through the appeals process. North Dakota would also avoid the risk of having Traynor’s judgment overturned by higher courts.
Wrigley said the settlement will be made public once it’s finalized.
The United States’ appeal of Traynor’s decision has been on hold since last summer, when the state and federal government informed the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals they had started settlement negotiations and wished to pause the case.
The 8th Circuit will have to first send the case back to Traynor before he could grant the parties’ requests.
The case went to trial in Bismarck in early 2024. During the four-week trial, the court heard from witnesses including former governors Doug Burgum and Jack Dalrymple, Native activists, federal officials and law enforcement.
The Dakota Access Pipeline carries crude oil from northwest North Dakota to Illinois. It crosses the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which prompted the tribe to begin protesting the pipeline on the grounds that it poses a threat to its water supply and sovereignty.
North Dakota’s lawsuit originally requested $38 million in damages from the federal government. Traynor ordered the executive branch to pay $28 million since the U.S. Department of Justice previously gave the state $10 million as compensation for costs it spent related to the protests.
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – North Dakota leaders unveiled an initiative aimed at getting more oil out of the Bakken, using enhanced oil recovery and CO₂.
Senator John Hoeven said the effort is getting a boost from $36 million from the Department of Energy for “Crack the Code 2.0,” a $157 million initiative with state and industry funding.
Hoeven said the goal is to use CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery, calling it “an important, usable, valuable commodity” and saying, “We’re linking our coal plants with our oil and gas producing companies to do it.”
Funding will be used to develop technology to make enhanced oil recovery profitable and viable, and then implement it in North Dakota oil fields in a number of pilot projects.
Hoeven said current recovery rates in the Bakken are limited.
“We’re only producing about 10 to 12% of the oil out of that shale,” he said, “But with EOR, advanced oil recovery techniques, we can double it. We can take it from 10 to 12% up to 25% or better.”
Hoeven said the effort is also tied to electricity demand, saying North Dakota will “produce more electricity for a company that wants to do AI, that wants to do data centers, needs more and more electricity,” and that “it isn’t just about oil and gas.”
North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness said the pilot projects are expected to start soon.
“We hope to see these pilots putting their technologies into the ground sometime late this year, first quarter of next year,” said Ness.
“So I would expect by this time next year, we’re going to maybe potentially begin to see what are some of the results early on,” Ness added. “And again, this is going to take multiple, multiple swings at this thing. It’s not going to just happen. If it was easy, we’d be doing it. Nobody’s done it anywhere in the world. This is where we’re going to crack the code.”
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Three years after a deal with Fairview was called off, South Dakota-based Sanford Health is getting into the Twin Cities market with a new merger.
On Friday, the health system announced that it will combine with North Memorial Health.
Fairview, Sanford call off planned merger
Under the merger, Sanford says the organization will invest $600 million to strengthen the Robbinsdale hospital and double the Maple Grove hospital’s size.
Sanford is the largest rural nonprofit health system in the country, with 58 hospitals and roughly 56,000 employees across the Dakotas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. North Memorial operates two hospitals in Robbinsdale and Maple Grove, along with several other clinics, employing more than 6,500 people.
If completed, the health systems plan to keep some local leadership in place, including North Memorial CEO Trevor Sawallish, and two North Memorial board members will serve on the combined system’s board. However, the overall company will be led by Sanford CEO Bill Gassen.
The companies say they expect the merger to close later this year, as long as regulatory processes don’t cause delays.
Sanford’s previous attempt to merge with Fairview was called off in 2023, eight months after initially announcing the planned merger. Many Minnesotans raised concerns about that transaction, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, although some of that was due to the University of Minnesota’s partnership with Fairview and the possibility of an out-of-state company running the state’s flagship medical school.
As with most mergers, concerns are still likely to arise about possible cutbacks and the impact on the state’s healthcare quality. However, the deal seems more likely to be completed than Sanford’s past attempts.
Reaction
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, who represents over 1,000 workers at North Memorial, called the news “worrisome.”
“At a time when healthcare costs are skyrocketing for Minnesota families and frontline healthcare workers are getting squeezed by short staffing levels, this latest attempt at consolidation brings many concerns. It is especially concerning because previous merger attempts by Sanford Health to come into Minnesota have failed due to their values and corporate behavior,” the union said.
SEIU also called on Ellison “to use all of his office’s powers within the law to provide oversight into this proposed merger and ensure the interests of Minnesota’s workers and patients are protected.”
Ellison’s office is asking the public to submit information through an online Community Input Form.
“As we have done and are currently doing with other healthcare transactions, we are conducting a thorough review of this potential acquisition to ensure it complies with the law and is in the public interest,” Ellison daid. “Proposed health care consolidation requires careful examination. As long as I am Attorney General, I will use the full range of regulatory tools to protect Minnesotans’ access to quality, affordable healthcare.”
The Minnesota Nurses Association released a statement saying it is “deeply concerned” by the merger announcement, warning it “could have far-reaching consequences for patients, healthcare workers, and the communities they serve.”
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