North Dakota
Port: The best thing we can say about this book-banning lawmaker is that he's lazy
MINOT — The problem with Sen. Keith Boehm’s book-banning bill, which has already passed the state Senate and is currently before the House Appropriations Committee, is that it would cost North Dakota taxpayers an enormous amount of money.
No, strike that.
The problem with Boehm’s bill is that it’s censorship, motivated by a seething hatred of the LGTBQ community and grounded in the notion that the government, not parents, ought to curate the sort of literary content kids consume.
But certainly, a problem with Boehm’s bill is undoubtedly the cost. Boehm seems to be aware of that, which is why he turned up before the appropriators with an amended version of the legislation in hand that, while compromising his censorious vision, certainly reduces his cost.
Hilariously, Boehm proposed removing his bill’s restrictions on digital content. He asked that a requirement for age verification on the online library system be cut, something the state library estimated would cost $2 million to implement.
This was desperation, and state Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, a Fargo Democrat who serves on the committee, called it out. “It seems like it would be an inconsistent application of your policy, just to eliminate a fiscal note in order to get it passed,”
she said,
and, well, yeah. Precisely.
Boehm’s bill also got a smackdown from the state’s prosecutors.
Anna Paige / The Forum
The way things work now, there is a reasonable democratic process through which people irked by library content can file a challenge to have that content restricted in some way or removed. It’s typically handled by local library boards, or school boards, and for generations this process has been just fine, though in most parts of the state it hasn’t been used often, because despite what troglodytes like Boehm and his ilk might have you believe, our librarians and educators are not devious pornographers bent on soiling the innocence of North Dakota’s young people.
Senate Bill 2307
allows any member of the public, be they a North Dakota citizen or not, to appeal a decision made about library content to law enforcement. Specifically, state’s attorneys. They would “have to read the material, determine if it’s unlawfully obscene, decide whether to prosecute the library and potentially be the prosecutor,”
Peyton Haug reports.
Jonathan Byers, representing the North Dakota States Attorney’s Association, said that process would be expensive and burdensome for prosecutors. He’s got a point. Prosecutors have to deal with actual criminals and shouldn’t be distracted by some gadfly perturbed because a junior checked out a book about a gerbil with two dads.
He also said that putting prosecutors in the position of a censor would be “unethical.”
Byers noted that Boehm didn’t bother to talk to them about his legislation. In fact, Boehm, who is not what any reasonable person would describe as a competent or diligent lawmaker, didn’t bother to engage with the State Library Association or the State School Board Association.
“I have not engaged all the stakeholders,” Boehm was forced to admit to the committee.
Think about that for a moment.
Boehm has wasted hours and hours of this Legislature’s time during its hectic session — he’s distracted his colleagues from important debates about property taxes and infrastructure spending — to debate a bill that accuses our state’s libraries and schools of spreading pornography and would turn our prosecutors into cultural bowdlerizers.
He’s done all that without bothering to have a conversation with the people who run our libraries and schools or the people he’d put in charge of his proposed interdiction.
One wonders if Boehm’s ever actually been in a library. Or read a book, for that matter.
Per Haug’s reporting,
several members of the Appropriations Committee were deeply skeptical of the fiscal implications of Boehm’s bill. “There has to be somebody and some entity that has to bear these costs,” Rep. Brandy Pyle, a Republican from Casselton, said during the hearing. “Somebody’s going to have to pay if this goes forth.”
She’s right. There’s a heavy cost to this sort of legislation. In dollars and cents, sure, but there’s a cultural cost, too, that comes from replacing enlightenment in our community with darkness and fear. Unconvinced by Boehm’s maneuvering, the committee, today, gave his bill a 22-1 “do not pass” vote.
Boehm and those who side with him seem to delight in being offended, but the most offensive thing in this sorry spectacle is that someone like Boehm would be given the privilege of serving in elected office.
The citizens of District 33, the voters of the great state of North Dakota, deserve better than this.
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
On this day in 1943, two North Dakota army officers, Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz and First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson, were killed in separate medium bomber training crashes in Florida and Georgia.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Army Plane Crashes Kill Two N. D. Men
Two North Dakota officers in the army air forces were killed Sunday in bomber crashes during training flights, Associated Press dispatches revealed Monday.
Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz of Harvey (Wells county) was killed with 10 others from the Avon Park, Fla., army bomber base when two medium bombers collided during a routine formation flight. Both planes crashed and there were no survivors.
First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson of Warwick (Benson county) was one of six killed when a medium bomber from MacDill field, Tampa, Fla., crashed near Savannah, Ga. Lieutenant Anderson was co-pilot of the plane.
None of the other victims of either accident was from the Dakotas or Minnesota.
Lieutenant Kuntz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Kuntz of Harvey, was graduated from the army air force navigation school at Hondo, Texas, as a second lieutenant last October, and received his wings as a navigator.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
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