North Dakota
North Dakota Senate votes down bill on parents' access to minor's medical exam rooms
BISMARCK — The North Dakota Senate struck down a bill on Thursday regarding parent or guardian access to the medical examination room of minors after an extensive and emotional floor debate.
House Bill 1450 would have clarified that a parent or guardian had “full and complete access” to the examination room of a minor in their care, and would have required health care facilities to post this information prominently for parents and guardians to see.
The bill would also have required that a health care provider give written notice to the parent or guardian of a minor before they ask the minor any questions. The notice would have informed parents and guardians of their right, and the minor’s right, to opt out of questions; whether the minor’s answers to questions will be shared with other people or recorded in any capacity; and a list of the topics of the questions that may be asked.
HB1450’s primary sponsor, Rep. SuAnn Olson, R-Baldwin, said a parent or guardian’s right to be in a medical examination room with their child already exists, but the bill sought to clarify it and ensured that health care providers informed parents and guardians of the right.
The measure garnered extensive opposition testimony in the Senate Human Services Committee from medical professionals, including representatives from Central Dakota Forensic Nurse Examiners, Rolette County Public Health, the North Dakota Hospital Association and the North Dakota Medical Association.
They said they were concerned the bill would “reinforce the power dynamics that perpetuate abuses,” and potentially conflict with North Dakota laws that allow minors to consent to their own health care in limited circumstances, such as instances of sexual assault, or when consent is implied due to a life-threatening situation that requires emergency examination and treatment.
According to the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused by the age of 18 and of those, over 60% will be abused by a family member.
“How can a child be honest if the person sitting next to them may be the biggest part of the problem?” The bill’s carrier Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo, said. “Passing this bill will cripple the ability of health care providers to do what is right for their child and adolescent patients.”
The discussion on the Senate floor, which took over an hour, brought multiple senators to tears and prompted some to allude to their own experiences with abuse at home that they said would have prevented them from answering questions from medical professionals honestly had a parent or guardian been in the medical examination room.
“I stood on the doorstep in one of my early campaigns, I heard a child crying loudly in the house. Then I heard a male voice shout, ‘You quit crying or I’ll give you something to cry about,’” Sen. Dick Dever, R-Bismarck, said on the floor of the Senate.
“I knocked on the door. Immediately I heard only silence. I knocked again, there was no answer. Those sounds were familiar from my own childhood. I don’t know whether I am heaven-bound because my mother shared the love of Christ with my three brothers and me or because my father beat the hell out of us. Both were true … If I had been questioned in this kind of circumstance (in a medical examination room), my responses would have been different with my father in the room than without him.”
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The bill does specify that it does not apply to legally emancipated minors or in instances of suspected physical or sexual abuse when a provider has documented the concern and notified the appropriate authorities. However, Sen. Kristin Roers, R-Fargo, said this is not specific enough and leaves a grey area for medical professionals to have to navigate.
“I am a mandated reporter as a nurse,” Roers said. “When do we consider something a suspected case of abuse? Is it when I saw a bruise, or once I’ve had a chance to find out that it wasn’t from falling off the jungle gym, but because their dad hit them? When? Where’s the line? This doesn’t define that. How can I ask the questions and actually get at the root of that?”
“I was one of those girls who was abused,” she continued. “Not by my parents, really, and I never told my parents until I was an adult. And I just wonder, would I be in a different situation if someone had asked me the right questions? I never would have answered them correctly if my parents were in the room. But would I have, if I had been there alone?”
Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, said she respected those who shared their stories in the chamber but, “sometimes a sad story makes for bad law.”
She said there were stories on both sides of the issue and shared a story she said was from a constituent about their 12-year-old daughter being “pushed” by a nurse practitioner to get on the birth control pill during a sports physical. She said the nurse practitioner had attempted to speak with her constituent’s daughter privately but the constituent refused to let them, and when the nurse practitioner continued to push on the topic of birth control, the constituent took their daughter and left the medical examination.
“The reason these bills are before us today is because of vaccinations,” Myrdal said. “Should a child be vaccinated without a parent’s permission? I certainly don’t think so. And also the transgender issue — I mean let’s be honest here, that’s why this bill is before us — where we read stories of teachers or … health providers taking a child and agreeing to help them (transition) and not tell their parents.”
Other senators who spoke in support of the bill said parents were responsible for the protection of their children and brought up stories about children being asked questions that they felt were inappropriate by medical professionals during examinations and about physicians abusing children under the guise of medical examinations.
Sen. Kent Weston, R-Sarles, read from a handout of stories that he said happened to North Dakota legislators.
“’My 13-year-old son went for a sports physical. The doctor asked him if he was sexually active and offered him condoms. What does that have to do with playing basketball?’” Weston said. “This was a personal friend of mine that, while she was 17, (she said) ‘While I was lying on the exam table, my doctor gave me — a teenager at the time — advice as what best placement for my hips during sex (was).’”
Weston said 99% of doctors were “fantastic” and that he was not bashing doctors, but that in all professions there were good and bad people. He said that the fundamental right belongs to the parents.
“We need to give parental rights and then get after the bad actors,” Weston said. “That’s how we deal with this.”
Multiple senators said the bill had them conflicted about which way to vote. An amendment was offered on the floor that some said would have moved the bill “in the right direction” but it was voted down in a narrow 26-21 vote.
The bill previously passed the House with a 72-15 vote but came out of the Senate Human Services Committee without a recommendation. The Senate voted the bill down in a 29-18 vote.
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CASSELTON, N.D. — North Dakota will lead the nation in a U.S. Department of Agriculture push to improve farm technology and research, federal officials announced Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said Grand Farm, a research campus west of Fargo, will be the national program manager for USDA’s National Proving Grounds Network for AgTech. Grand Farm will also be the first proving ground in the network, focusing on weed control.
North Dakota launched Grand Farm seven years ago, integrating research capabilities from North Dakota State University at Fargo with industry partners such as tech giant Microsoft.
Hoeven said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who visited Grand Farm last year, recognized that North Dakota provided a model for ag tech research and could be the manager for the rollout.
“It’s a huge deal,” Hoeven said. “It’s Grand Farm going national.”
Hoeven announced that $11 million will launch the proving grounds, a collaboration of Grand Farm, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and NDSU.
Scott Hutchins, USDA under secretary for research, education and economics, said the first year of research will be concentrated in North Dakota and Georgia. The University of Georgia announced a partnership with Grand Farm in 2024.
He said after reviewing results from the first year, the department plans to accept proposals for research hubs in other states, eventually creating the national network.
Hutchins said profitability is a top priority. He said there has been a boom in ag technology, but farmers need help sifting through it all.
“Which one can provide the greatest return on investment?” he asked.
Hoeven said focusing on profitability is a must during rough economic times. “Right now, if you’re growing a crop, in most cases, you’re not making money,” Hoeven said.
The North Dakota Legislature invested $10 million in 2021 to help propel Grand Farm, which covers 590 acres near Casselton. Operating from tents and with portable bathrooms in its first years, the research site opened its first building in 2024. The Legislature invested an additional $7 million in 2025.
“The National Proving Grounds is the next chapter,” said Brian Carroll, chief operating officer for Grand Farm.
George Vellidis, of the University of Georgia’s Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture, said Georgia is one year into operating its 250-acre research area similar to Grand Farm.
He said the goal is to translate the research in the Upper Midwest to crops grown in the southeast. A robot that can be taught to recognize weeds in North Dakota will have to be taught a different set of weeds that grow in Georgia, for example.
Grand Farm board member Kyle Courtney, who farms near Oakes, North Dakota, said the initiative will help field test practices “under a unified umbrella to help farmers make better decisions.”
North Dakota Monitor is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
North Dakota
West Fargo Fire Department to host ND Ethics Commission public meeting – KVRR Local News
BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR) — North Dakota Ethics Commission is getting out of its dingy office setting in Bismarck to hold a public meeting in West Fargo.
The stop is part of the commission’s commitment to accessibility and public engagement.
They are hitting the road on Friday, April 24 for a 9 a.m. meeting at West Fargo Fire Department.
You can learn about their work and listen to their discussions and decisions.
You can also take part in the newly adopted public comment period.
Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, Chair of the Commission, says they want to meet people where they are and make it easier for North Dakotans to engage.
The tiny town of Kindred, N.D., just southwest of Fargo, has a population of about 1,000 people.
When a few high-profile visitors rolled through Kindred Public School District 2 on Jan. 26, it was not a surprise that the middle schoolers sharing a building with Kindred High School could hardly contain their excitement.
“Hey, Michigan is here!” young students squealed to their teachers.
“Notre Dame’s here!”
Indeed, football coaches from both staffs had made the trip to Kindred on the same day. Stanford came, too.
It’s not often that college football coaches flock to North Dakota for recruits, but it’s also not often that North Dakota — a state that, as recently as last year, didn’t have a player ranked among the top 2,000 prospects in the country — is pumping out blue-chippers.
This year, the state has two four-stars in the same class for the first time in the modern recruiting era, which dates back to 2002. And it just so happens that tight end Brooks Bakko, the nation’s No. 120 prospect, and athlete Luke Starcevic, No. 216, attend the same high school — a school with just over 400 students in grades 7-12.
“It’d be hard to put a number on it,” Kindred head coach and middle school principal Eric Burgad said of the number of college teams that have come through his program to visit the star-studded duo. “It was crazy, though. It got to a point where I had to ask myself, ‘OK, do I need some help with this?’ because I’m our middle school principal and I’ve got a job to do during the day, and the number of coaches that reach out and just want to be in Kindred … is a lot.
“We’re happy when the dead period comes around, and these guys can catch a breath.”
Bakko, who received his first Division I offer from Minnesota around this time last year, committed to the Gophers late Monday night, waking his parents up around midnight to tell them the good news once he got off the phone with tight ends coach Eric Koehler.
#AGTG COMMITTED❗️❗️
I am blessed to announce my commitment to the University of Minnesota 〽️〽️ I would like to thank my Family, Coaches, and teammates for this opportunity! ROW THE BOAT! @CoachKoehler @Coach_Fleck @CoachHarbaugh @nick20lee @kindredfootball #skiumah pic.twitter.com/bSguMs0rjf— Brooks Bakko (@BakkoBrooks) April 7, 2026
Starcevic has upcoming official visits planned to Notre Dame, Kansas State and Oregon, and is hoping to issue a commitment within the next month or so.
The two pals have known each other since fifth grade, dating back to their days playing grassroots basketball together.
Now they’re putting North Dakota high school football on the map.
“Going through it together has been unique, obviously, and we’ve both had a lot of fun, and it’s been a really cool opportunity for us,” Starcevic said. “Maybe we’ll look back in a little bit and realize how special it is. It’s been cool to be, I guess, the face of football recruiting in the state, and it’s just been a fun journey. We’ve both worked hard for this, and we’re happy it’s all paying off.”
Burad has been a high school coach for a dozen years and a head coach for three. He’s aware that North Dakota isn’t exactly the first (or most convenient) stop on the list for college recruiters who routinely flock to Georgia, Florida, California and Texas for talent.
Recently, however, Burad has noticed that North Dakota seems to be producing more FBS-caliber recruits. Riley Sunram, a former four-star defensive lineman out of Kindred, signed with Minnesota in the Class of 2024. Starcevic’s older brother, Jake, a former three-star linebacker, enrolled at Army in the Class of 2025 before transferring home to North Dakota in December.
Burgad has a theory for the shift.
“I honestly think social media has made the recruiting just really kind of open up,” he said. “It’s easy for these kids to take their highlights from a Friday night game or the first four games of a season and put them on their X (account) and that stuff, coaches are very well connected.
“If a coach in Minnesota sees it, it might make its way to a coach in the South and a coach on the West Coast, and I just think those things circulate a lot better. We’ve always had really good players in our state — maybe it’s just a little bit easier to access them now.”
Bakko and Starcevic have both received double-digit offers, many from schools in the Big Ten and Big 12. Because North Dakota is so cold, they play multiple sports year-round and don’t just focus on football — another advantage from Burgad’s perspective that makes his recruits more well-rounded athletically in this era of hyper-specialization. It helps that both players are comfortable playing in the snow, too.
Starcevic’s recruitment has been particularly interesting because some schools are recruiting him as a defensive end, others project him as an offensive lineman and Oregon is pursuing him as a tight end.
He played tight end and defensive end as a junior this past season, with Burgad and the school’s offensive coordinator jumping at the opportunity to put him on the field with Bakko in 12-personnel packages.
“He’s one of the best football players I’ve seen,” Bakko said. “So I’m proud of him, I’m going to support him wherever he goes.”
Kindred rolled through the 2025 regular season with a 10-0 record but was upset, in overtime, by Devils Lake in the Division AA semifinal.
In many ways, Bakko and Starcevic are the only two people in North Dakota who know exactly what the other is experiencing. Many times when a college coach would visit the school and the two friends would temporarily be excused from their respective classes, they’d walk through the hallways together, wondering about who might be waiting for them.
“Having Luke, one of my best friends, by my side through it and helping each other out, visiting places together, it’s been really fun,” Bakko said.
The duo has one more season of high school football together before Bakko heads off to Minnesota and Starcevic is off to his school of choice. In addition to Kansas State, Notre Dame and Oregon, Starcevic said he might schedule a few more official visits.
If these two are successful at the next level, it will only help put the spotlight on one of only five states in the U.S. with fewer than 1 million people.
“I definitely think it’s growing and people are finding out more about the talent in our state, which is good,” Starcevic said. “Hopefully it continues to grow in the future and North Dakota keeps thriving.”
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