North Dakota
Port: On the demise of an important cultural bridge to North Dakota’s past
MINOT — It’s hard to describe how important a cultural event the Norsk Hostfest was.
I say “was,” using the past tense, because news this week is that the annual event, which had just completed its 46th year, is coming to an end.
The event was important to me as a descendant of Scandinavian immigrants. My maternal great-grandparents came to America from Norway, and homesteaded a farm near the Ryder area. The Hostfest was a way for me to connect to their cultural traditions, from food and music to the history of the Norwegian diaspora.
Click the image above to view the PDF document.
The event was also important to my family. We spent years attending and working at the event. We were a host family for Scandinavian performers who traveled to Minot to entertain at the event. We even got some local media coverage in 2004 about four generations of my family volunteering.
I have so many memories from the Hostfest. For a while, when I was a paperboy for the Minot Daily News, I would go out to the festival early in the morning to sell newspapers door-to-door in the RV campgrounds. My grandma would tell me stories about her immigrant parents.
And the food! I once ate so much
rommegrot
— a Norwegian dessert pudding — that the resulting gastro-intestinal pyrotechnics are still a thing of family lore.
I even met famed political consultant Karl Rove at the Hostfest one year.
He was there to be inducted into
the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame,
and was being escorted around by former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. Apparently the two of them were friends from their College Republican days. They ran across me working at a booth. I was a part-time political blogger then. I hadn’t yet begun my full-time writing career.
I have so many happy memories from the Hostfest.
Now, it’s over.
“In recent years, the festival has faced significant increases in the cost of nationally recognized performers, as well as insurance, facilities, labor, and logistics,”
a press release from the Hostfest board said.
“At the same time, attendance levels have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, creating ongoing financial challenges that cannot be responsibly overcome.”
The pandemic certainly didn’t help the festival, and I think we can fairly blame some mismanagement, too. As the generation the event originally catered to began to die out there was little effort made to draw the interest of younger generations. It was expensive, too, making it cost prohibitive for younger families to begin the traditions of attendance that cultural event like the Hostfest depends on.
But it’s hard to ignore the involvement of Epic Companies,
which took over management of the event
for a couple of years post-pandemic before the company’s spectacular financial collapse prompted its exit from the arrangement. Epic had tried to take the event in a new direction, away from its cultural roots and toward some sort of a modern music festival, and it just didn’t work.
After years of failing to adapt to modern audiences, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and poor management by Epic Companies, Minot and North Dakota are losing a treasure.
A bridge to our past.
A preservation of an important part of our state’s history.
I’d like to think that the Hostfest will be replaced with something new that will continue to preserve Scandinavian heritage in our area, but it probably won’t be. To be clear, some preservation continues. The
Scandinavian Heritage Association,
which maintains the Scandinavian Heritage Park in Minot, will endure, and that’s a good thing. They do wonderful work.
It’s just not the same.
It feels like we need things like the Hostfest now more than ever. So many in our society, nearly all of them descendants of previous waves of immigration, have adopted a pronounced hostility to new generations of immigrants. They’ve committed themselves to making it clear that those new immigrants aren’t welcome. Which is why it’s important for us to remember our own immigrant past. The joys and the struggles and the warts.
The Hostfest was a part of that. Now it’s gone. So it goes.
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.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
NCAA Set to Change Unpopular Football Rule Just in Time for North Dakota State’s FBS Jump
North Dakota State playing in the FCS playoffs and College Football Playoff in back-to-back years? It’s likelier than you think.
That’s because on Wednesday, according to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA Division I cabinet voted to repeal a rule that effectively barred teams transitioning from FCS to FBS from playing in postseason games in their first FBS seasons. The Bison are making that move along with Sacramento State in 2026.
The reported change has been a long time coming; the rule has hampered teams from immediate bowl eligibility for decades. Its good intentions of dissuading teams from rashly making the FCS-to-FBS leap have been rendered obsolete in recent years by the fact that programs generally arrive in FBS more prepared than ever before.
Consider the number of new FBS teams that have had to work within the provision in the past decade alone
That list includes: Liberty (home for the holidays at 6–6 in 2018), James Madison (8–3 in 2022 under coach Curt Cignetti, and barely able to play in a bowl at 11–1 in ’23 due to a lack of bowl-eligible teams), Jacksonville State (8–4 in ’23 before backing in like the Dukes), Missouri State (7–5 in 2025, also backed in) and Delaware (6–6 in ’25, ditto).
James Madison in particular became a cause célèbre in ’23 because it started the season 10-0, climbing as high as No. 18 in the AP Poll in mid-November. Then-Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares bandied about suing the NCAA before the Dukes lost 26–23 to Appalachian State, an event that caused the program to back off and accept a bid to play Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. James Madison lost that game 31–21, by which time Cignetti had left for Indiana.
There was a time when the FCS-to-FBS jump was an imposing one, and the NCAA did not want to incentivize making it lightly—not even a proud Florida A&M program could make a mid-2000s attempt at a jump stick. However, the Flames, Dukes and other teams have shown it’s not so great a climb for programs with the right resources and management.
Now the Bison and the Hornets stand to benefit.
How far can North Dakota State and Sacramento State go in the near term?
The Bison opened 12–0 last year before a shock loss to Illinois State in the FCS playoffs’ second round, so that question may answer itself. North Dakota State does not play a single Power 4 team—a potential strength-of-schedule albatross if it has designs on really surging. A potential roadblock: the fact that the Bison have to visit the Mountain West’s two favorites, UNLV (Oct. 10) and New Mexico (Oct. 24).
It’s a different story for the Hornets, a 7–5 squad a year ago whose move to the FBS is widely seen as a gamble on their growth potential. Sacramento State also does not play a major-conference team, but has a breakneck travel schedule ahead of it—the Hornets will visit Ypsilanti, Mich.; Bowling Green, Ohio; Muncie, Ind.; Mount Pleasant, Mich. and Honolulu. Combine that with a first-year coach—Oakland native and ex-MC Hammer choreographer Alonzo Carter—and it could be a long FBS debut in California’s capital.
More College Football From Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s College YouTube channel.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow
-
Minnesota1 minute agoRationalizing Charlotte’s Shocking Decision to Trade LaMelo Ball to Minnesota
-
Mississippi6 minutes agoMississippi Legislature will talk school choice, redistricting in 2027
-
Missouri14 minutes agoMissouri Highway Patrol investigating KCPD officer involved shooting
-
Montana17 minutes ago
Montana DEQ works toward impairment designation for Big Hole River
-
Nebraska22 minutes agoTunnel Talk: 5-for-5 impact on Nebraska volleyball, reseat update
-
Nevada29 minutes agoTerrible’s takeover of Primm gets Nevada regulatory approval
-
New Hampshire32 minutes agoNational Guard Helicopter Rescues 80-Year-Old Canadian Hiker From New Hampshire Peak
-
New Jersey37 minutes agoNew Jersey Hall of Fame Announces Incoming 2026 Class of Inductees
