FARGO — An investigation is underway after a garage fire occurred Wednesday night, May 1, near the North Dakota State University campus.

The call came in just before 7 p.m. Someone reported smoke coming from a garage located in an alley in the 1000 block of 17th Street North.

Firefighters put the fire out quickly. Investigators say damage is minimal, just some normal “garage stuff” on the floor burned.

The cause of the fire is not being released.

Officers were seen canvassing the area, including looking under cars in a nearby parking lot.

Investigators were on scene for nearly two hours.

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.

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.

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.

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