North Dakota
PHOTO FEATURE: UND’s newest faculty and administrators take on southern route for 2024 bus tour of North Dakota – UND Today
Participants learned about industry, commerce, history, education and beauty of the Roughrider State
Several of UND’s newest faculty and administrators trekked to the western edge of North Dakota and back recently on a three-day bus tour Aug. 19-22 to learn firsthand about their new state.
This year’s New Faculty & Administrators Bus Tour, the 32nd of its kind, mostly straddled North Dakota Highway 200 and Interstate 94, with stops in Mayville, Carrington, Bismarck, Hebron, Medora, Jamestown and Fargo, before heading home to Grand Forks to kick off the new academic year. Around 25 touring faculty and administrators were treated to stops at the Oscar Zero Minuteman Missile Operations Center, a historically renovated throw-back to life in North Dakota during the Cold War near Cooperstown; a traditional drive-in diner in Carrington; the North American Coal mining operation south of Underwood near Falkirk; the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Capitol in Bismarck; the world-famous Hebron Brick Co.; the historic tourist town of Medora and the nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park; the Black Leg Ranch, known for its dedication to regenerative agricultural and natural approaches to raising livestock southeast of Bismarck; the World Largest Buffalo at Frontier Village in Jamestown; and a date representatives of the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce at the Brewhalla entertainment complex in Fargo.
The new faculty and administrators also had breakfast with 10 incoming UND students, who are Presidential Scholarship Recipients, and the students’ family members at the First International Bank building in Bismarck.
Along the way, bus riders also heard from North Dakota residents and experts in a variety of fields, including state agricultural leader Chris Griffin, a former North Dakota legislator; Brian Van Horn, president of Mayville State University; Valerie Naylor, former longtime superintendent of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and current national parks researchers with The Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University, and Shannon Straight, executive director of the Badlands Conservation Alliance; Jerry Doan and son, Jay, owner/operators of the Black Leg Ranch near Bismarck; and many more.
UND Vice President for Research & Economic Development Scott Snyder, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Randi Tanglen and new Dean of the College of Education & Human Development Shelbie Witte were among the tour participants.
The tour, free for participants and supported by the UND Alumni Association & Foundation, alternates between northern and southern routes of the state each year. It was introduced in 1990, when Tom Clifford was president of the University.
Check out the sights of this year’s bus trip across North Dakota through the photo tour below:
GRAND FORKS — A North Dakota composer’s dream is turning into a statewide invitation.
Williston-based musician Emily Black-Driscoll was chosen as the North Dakota Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2026. She’s preparing an original composition that will premiere in August.
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North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
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