North Dakota
Our view: It’s not yet time for term limits in North Dakota
North Dakota is one in all 35 states that should not have time period limits for state lawmakers. Some need to put the difficulty earlier than the state’s voters, together with the backers of a latest petition that was submitted to North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger.
The group wanted 31,164 legitimate signatures, however
Jaeger’s workplace invalidated hundreds
of the signatures for notary points or just that they have been deemed “insufficient” – which means that some might need violated guidelines for writing their signature, signed the petition greater than as soon as and so forth.
For the report, time period limits do really feel proper. It appears odd in up to date politics to permit state-level lawmakers to accrue a lot energy through longevity. In some instances, lawmakers with years of expertise may be extra highly effective than, say, the governor.
But there has not but been sufficient proof to persuade us that time period limits must be enacted in North Dakota.
Jaeger’s choice to invalidate the petition that not too long ago got here via his workplace was the best one. If sufficient signatures have been invalid, the petition shouldn’t be allowed to maneuver ahead. Some will cry foul, however process should be adopted to the letter of the legislation on petitions. When it’s not, it will probably set up precedent, which opens the door for different questionable petitions sooner or later.
Defective petitions apart, North Dakotans should go sluggish when deciding the way forward for time period limits.
Whereas longtime elected officers do achieve energy with their longevity, additionally they achieve useful expertise that can not be rapidly absorbed by newcomers.
And in North Dakota – the place lawmakers solely meet each two years – we see that form of expertise as a useful asset that shouldn’t be squandered. Shedding it will create a void that will make it simpler for lobbyists – who clearly haven’t any time period limits – to exert extra affect into the method.
Time period limits additionally may result in additional divisiveness, since new lawmakers who are usually not involved about longtime reelection might really feel they don’t have anything to lose by selling radical concepts.
The proposal from the group North Dakota for Time period Limits would have restricted the governor and members of the Legislature to eight consecutive years in workplace.
At current, solely 15 states have time period limits for legislators, whereas 35 have time period limits for the governor. South Dakota is one in all them; in that state, members of the Legislature are restricted to eight consecutive years in a single chamber, however they’ll transfer to a different and run once more in the event that they like. It has created an odd carousel of lawmakers who’ve been in workplace for many years and who transfer forwards and backwards between the Home of Representatives and the Senate.
Governors of all states must be restricted to 2 phrases, however given the alternate options – that lawmakers want the expertise to run our state’s distinctive biennial finances, that time period limits give energy to lobbyists and that there are workarounds to most states’ term-limit guidelines – our choice is to simply go away issues as they’re.
And, after all, North Dakota does have a safeguard in place to oust lawmakers who’ve served too lengthy, whose politics now not align with their constituents or who merely have overstayed their welcome.
It’s referred to as Election Day.
North Dakota
Illinois State Gets 1st Win Over North Dakota, 35-13
(AP) — Wenkers Wright ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns and No. 13 Illinois State knocked off North Dakota for the first time, 35-13 in the regular season finale for both teams Saturday.
The Redbirds are 9-2 (6-2 Missouri Valley Conference) and are looking to reach the FCS playoffs for the first time since 2019 and sixth time in Brock Spack’s 16 seasons as head coach.
Illinois State opened the game with some trickery. Eddie Kasper pulled up on a fleaflicker and launched a 30-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Loyd to cap a seven-play, 70-yard opening drive.
Simon Romfo tied it on North Dakota’s only touchdown of the day, throwing 20 yards to Nate DeMontagnac.
Wright scored from the 10 to make it 14-7 after a quarter, and after C.J. Elrichs kicked a 20-yard field goal midway through the second to make it 14-10 at intermission, Wright powered in from the 18 and Mitch Bartol caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Rittenhouse to make it 28-10 after three.
Seth Glatz added a 13-yard touchdown run to make it 35-10 before Elrichs added a 37-yard field goal to get the Fighting Hawks on the board to set the final margin.
Rittenhouse finished 21 of 33 passing for 187 yards for Illinois State. Loyd caught eight passes for 121 yards.
Romfo completed 11 of 26 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown with an interception for North Dakota (5-7, 2-6).
Illinois State faced North Dakota for just the fourth time and third time as Missouri Valley Conference opponents. The Redbirds lost the previous three meetings.
North Dakota
Photos: Championship scenes from North Dakota Class A, Class B state volleyball
FARGO — Top-seeded Langdon Area-Munich lived up to its billing Saturday night at the Fargodome.
The
Cardinals earned a 15-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-16 victory
against No. 2-seeded South Prairie-Max to earn the North Dakota Class B volleyball state championship.
Bismarck Century spoiled West Fargo Sheyenne’s bid for a three-peat. The
Patriots scored a 25-21, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22 victory
for the Class A state championship.
Century won its 10th state title in program history.
Below are championship scenes from Saturday night at the Fargodome:
Peterson covers college athletics for The Forum, including Concordia College and Minnesota State Moorhead. He also covers the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks independent baseball team and helps out with North Dakota State football coverage. Peterson has been working at the newspaper since 1996.
North Dakota
North Dakota Badlands national monument proposed with tribes’ support
A coalition of conservation groups and Native American tribal citizens on Friday called on President Joe Biden to designate nearly 140,000 acres of rugged, scenic Badlands as North Dakota’s first national monument, a proposal several tribal nations say would preserve the area’s indigenous and cultural heritage.
The proposed Maah Daah Hey National Monument would encompass 11 noncontiguous, newly designated units totaling 139,729 acres in the Little Missouri National Grassland. The proposed units would hug the popular recreation trail of the same name and neighbor Theodore Roosevelt National Park, named for the 26th president who ranched and roamed in the Badlands as a young man in the 1880s.
“When you tell the story of landscape, you have to tell the story of people,” said Michael Barthelemy, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and director of Native American studies at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College. “You have to tell the story of the people that first inhabited those places and the symbiotic relationship between the people and the landscape, how the people worked to shape the land and how the land worked to shape the people.”
The U.S. Forest Service would manage the proposed monument. The National Park Service oversees many national monuments, which are similar to national parks and usually designated by the president to protect the landscape’s features.
Supporters have traveled twice to Washington to meet with White House, Interior Department, Forest Service and Department of Agriculture officials. But the effort faces an uphill battle with less than two months remaining in Biden’s term and potential headwinds in President-elect Trump’s incoming administration.
If unsuccessful, the group would turn to the Trump administration “because we believe this is a good idea regardless of who’s president,” Dakota Resource Council Executive Director Scott Skokos said.
Dozens if not hundreds of oil and natural gas wells dot the landscape where the proposed monument would span, according to the supporters’ map. But the proposed units have no oil and gas leases, private inholdings or surface occupancy, and no grazing leases would be removed, said North Dakota Wildlife Federation Executive Director John Bradley.
The proposal is supported by the MHA Nation, the Spirit Lake Tribe and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe through council resolutions.
If created, the monument would help tribal citizens stay connected to their identity, said Democratic state Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, an MHA Nation enrolled member.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service. In a written statement, Burgum said: “North Dakota is proof that we can protect our precious parks, cultural heritage and natural resources AND responsibly develop our vast energy resources.”
North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven’s office said Friday was the first they had heard of the proposal, “but any effort that would make it harder for ranchers to operate and that could restrict multiple use, including energy development, is going to raise concerns with Senator Hoeven.”
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