North Dakota
Port: Measure 2 is needed reform for North Dakota's initiated measure process
MINOT — You readers of this column are, on average, well-informed and politically literate, but I would not be surprised if most of you couldn’t give me a description of Measure 2, on which we will be asked to cast our ballots in November.
It’s
a constitutional amendment initiated by the Legislature
that, if approved by voters, would limit future ballot measures to no more than a single subject, bar people who aren’t North Dakota residents from circulating petitions in support of a ballot measure, and for constitutional measures, require two votes for approval — one on the June primary ballot, and once again on the November ballot. Oh, and for constitutional amendments, the required number of signatures would go up, from 4% of the statewide population to 5%.
These are weighty, consequential changes to the initiated measure process. You probably know little about them, because our lawmakers have a terrible habit of putting proposals like this one on the ballot and then doing next to nothing to make the case for them. This proposed amendment was passed in the state House and Senate with large supermajorities — 73-18 in the former, 44-2 in the latter — yet where are those majorities now to explain the merits of this measure to voters?
They’re nowhere to be found, perhaps because they lack confidence that voters will support it.
According to the North Dakota Poll,
sponsored by the North Dakota News Cooperative, just 36% of voters supported the proposal in November, while 46% said they opposed it.
Those aren’t good numbers for the measure’s proponents, but they also don’t paint a picture of an unwinnable argument. They communicate a need for persuasion, but this measure will fail if nobody organizes the affirmative argument.
So, in the spirit of Don Quixote tilting at a windmill, allow me to make the case.
Let’s concede that our initiated measure process is deeply broken. Supporters of the status quo (who are, if you look carefully, usually paid political professionals) would have you believe that the petitioning process is some exercise in pure citizen activism. It is not. It has become a playground for deep-pocketed interests who pay temp workers hundreds of thousands of dollars to hound North Dakotans for enough signatures to get their pet projects on the ballot.
Signature fraud is almost routine, and what little lawmakers have done to try to close the loopholes that allow this fraud has been furiously opposed by the aforementioned paid activists because they like the loosey-goosey status quo that allows them to bulldoze their way onto the ballot.
Still, the public has made clear that they want this process to exist despite the apparent problems attendant to approving complicated legislation at the ballot box. So, Measure 2 is a compromise. It preserves the process but makes some necessary tweaks — no more complex proposals aimed at bamboozling voters or armies of out-of-state mercenaries to harass you for signatures at the farmers market or street fair. And amendments to our constitution would get extra scrutiny. Two votes, instead of one, and a higher signature threshold.
These proposals will not fix what ails the initiated measure process, but they will at least improve it. I hope you’ll vote yes.
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.”
-
Business1 week ago
Column: Molly White's message for journalists going freelance — be ready for the pitfalls
-
Science5 days ago
Trump nominates Dr. Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid and help take on 'illness industrial complex'
-
Politics7 days ago
Trump taps FCC member Brendan Carr to lead agency: 'Warrior for Free Speech'
-
Technology6 days ago
Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI
-
Lifestyle7 days ago
Some in the U.S. farm industry are alarmed by Trump's embrace of RFK Jr. and tariffs
-
World7 days ago
Protesters in Slovakia rally against Robert Fico’s populist government
-
News6 days ago
They disagree about a lot, but these singers figure out how to stay in harmony
-
News7 days ago
Gaetz-gate: Navigating the President-elect's most baffling Cabinet pick