North Dakota
Port: What a strange time to be Kirsten Baesler
MINOT — It’s no big secret that Kirsten Baesler, who has served as North Dakota’s superintendent of public schools since 2012, is not well liked by our state’s MAGA movement.
Baesler has faced challenges from the far-right nearly every time she’s run for reelection. Last year, her latest challenger, religious zealot Jim Bartlett, succeeded in
wresting the North Dakota Republican Party’s state convention endorsement away from her.
(Superintendent is officially a nonpartisan position, but the political parties traditionally endorse candidates at their conventions anyway.)
When Baesler’s nomination to serve in President Donald Trump’s Department of Education
was announced,
most of North Dakota’s Republican statewide elected leaders congratulated her. The holdout?
Sen. Kevin Cramer,
perhaps Trump’s most ardent supporter in state elected office. It’s traditional that the state’s top leaders congratulate a colleague on moving on to federal service, but Cramer had nothing to say, and the silence was meaningful.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump’s slash-and-burn approach to downsizing the federal government has reached the Department of Education. His administration
announced Tuesday
that 1,315 of the cabinet department’s employees had been fired in addition to 572 who had previously accepted voluntary separation agreements and 63 probationary employees who were let go.
That’s a 47% reduction in the department’s workforce, and Trump has vowed to eliminate the department entirely, though he’ll need approval from Congress to go that far. As a conservative, I’m not sad to see our bloated federal workforce get downsized, though I wonder if Trump’s manic and chaotic approach to that end will prove salubrious to our nation’s well-being.
Time will tell.
What’s curious is seeing moderate Baesler, who enjoyed
the endorsement of North Dakota’s teacher and public workers union
but not the Republican Party, in a central position to dismantling the federal government’s education wing.
Though, in fairness to Baesler, she’s been clear about that objective, if not as blunt as other Trump administration leaders.
“Yes, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet with the Education Transition Team, including Linda McMahon,”
Baesler told me in January
when I was the first to report that she was in talks for a position in Trump’s administration. “We have a shared interest in returning education control back to the states and creating a work-ready focus in education.”
“This is an opportunity to build on the relationships I’ve formed with fellow state education leaders over the past 12 years to implement the changes that will help our students become future-ready citizens,” Baesler said in
a press release
officially announcing her nomination. “I look forward to working alongside Secretary-designate McMahon to deliver on President Trump’s education agenda and return education decisions to the states,”
The U.S. Senate has
since confirmed
McMahon’s nomination to serve as secretary of Education.
I texted Baesler for comment about the Department of Education firings and she did not reply. Dale Wetzel, her state communications director, had indicated that she would have no further comment after announcing her nomination.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that under Baesler’s leadership, North Dakota’s Department of Public Instruction has shrunk. In 2013, the first appropriations bill for the department considered by lawmakers under Baesler’s tenure
listed DPI’s workforce at 99.75 full time equivalent employees,
or FTEs.
A dozen years later, as lawmakers in Bismarck
consider budget questions
during their 2025 session, Baesler’s presentation to the Senate Appropriations Committee lists 86.25 FTEs, a roughly 14% reduction.
In 2013, Baesler’s DPI requested total funding, including state and federal funds, of roughly $2.2 billion which, adjusted for inflation, would be north of $3 billion in the 2025 session.
Currently, her department is asking for $2.9 billion for the 2025-2027 biennium, which is actually a decrease in spending after inflation.
Baesler, at least from a fiscal perspective, has always been more conservative than her populist critics have given her credit for.
Even so, it’s odd to see her heading into the MAGA milieu in Washington, where her more temperate and collaborative approach to education policy sticks out like a sore thumb, though Baesler is hardly the first of North Dakota’s political leaders to track that trajectory.
Former Gov. Doug Burgum went from
weeping exhortations for masking
during the pandemic, from
condemning the Jan. 6 riots
and
attending President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration,
to
proclaiming that Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Strange days, indeed.
North Dakota
ND State Fair completes 2026 grandstand lineup with EDM artist Zedd, ‘Turn Up ND!’
MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – We now know the entertainers who will round out this year’s North Dakota State Fair grandstand lineup.
In what is a first for the state fair, Zedd will put on an EDM show at the grandstand on Friday, July 24. He’s an award-winning artist and DJ, known for hits like ‘Clarity’ and ‘The Middle.’
The show will feature immersive production, sound and visuals. Tickets will be just over $58, including fees.
The fair wraps up on Saturday, July 25, with this year’s ‘Turn Up ND’ show. It features TI, Da-Baby and Waka Flocka Flame.
All three have made a name for themselves in the trap and hip-hop music genres.
Tickets for this show are just over $78, including fees.
So here’s a look at the full lineup, which is packed with some major stars, featuring Alex Warren, Jon Pardi, Jessie Murph, Niko Moon and Zach Top.
The fair will hold two days of the popular MHA Indian Horse Relays on July 20 and 21.
For information on tickets, dates and more, go to ndstatefair.com.
Copyright 2026 KFYR. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
Darlene Struble
Darlene Kay Struble was born April 11, 1946 in Valley City, ND to Frank and Ruby (Satreaas) Klima. She grew up in LaMoure, ND and graduated from LaMoure High School 1964. After graduation, Darlene continued her education at North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton before completing her LPN training in Grand Forks.
Darlene married the love of her life, Charles Struble, on October 25, 1969 at Trinity Lutheran Church. Together, they made their home in Jamestown where she began her career in the OB department at Jamestown Hospital. Her dedication to caring for others continued throughout her professional life, later leading her to Dakota Clinic in Jamestown. Her work was an extension of her compassionate spirit, and she touched many lives until her retirement in 2009.
She filled her days with many loves; her family above all, but also the quiet joys of gardening, flowers, sewing, crafts, and scrap booking. She had a special gift of preserving memories, and spent countless hours gathering family history. Darlene started her day at the Depot Cafe nearly every morning. It was a simple tradition, but one she shared with her children, friends, and eventually grandchildren. Not only were Depot mornings filled with love and laughter, but an abundance of Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes.
Darlene passed away peacefully on March 23rd 2026 at Eventide in Jamestown, surrounded by the love of her family. She leaves behind her husband Chuck, her sons; Cory (Deb) Struble and Dave (Leslie) Struble, two sisters; Linda (Gary) Kraft and Roberta (Karl) Wilhelm, six grandchildren; Jayden (Darsh), Allie, Jonah, Grace, Evyn, and Owen, and seven nieces and nephews. She has been reunited with her parents, her daughter, Tiffiney Dick, and her sister, Mary Lee Guffy.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Jamestown Regional Medical Center Foundations, specifically to the OB ward.
Memorial Service- 3:30 PM Saturday, March 28, 2026 at Haut Funeral Home in Jamestown, ND, with Pastor Kristi Weber, officiating.
Interment- Highland Home Cemetery, Jamestown, ND (at a later date).
North Dakota
Hope’s Corner: Hope Springs Eternal
I spent the first day of spring, last Friday, weeding my back yard flower beds. Let that sink in, because this is North Dakota. We have April showers in May, and May flowers in June. We sometimes have snow in June, too. Weeding my tulips in March is a first.
The tulips have been up for a couple of weeks in my south-facing gardens. The six inches of snow last weekend did not deter their enthusiasm. According to the South Dakota State University Extension Service, tulips close to our shared border usually begin to appear in late March and early April. Mine are early risers this year. I blame the switch to Daylight Saving Time.
My yarrow and hollyhocks have been green and growing for four weeks. The yarrow was a little miffed at the one subzero night a week or so ago, but the hollyhocks merely flattened out and took it in stride. Our friends at the South Dakota Extension Service assure me both of those plant varieties normally sprout in mid-May. Maybe the frequent solar storms and northern lights displays have affected them.
Shortly after that subzero stretch in February, which Katie the Wonder Puppy and I called The Degrees of Despair, the pussywillow began to bud. I cut my first bouquet this past Friday the 13th. And did you know the blossoms are called catkins?
That shrub is only a couple weeks early in blooming. Obviously, like all cats, my pussywillow is indifferent to solar storms, the northern lights, and Daylight Saving Time. When its feet get warm enough, it stretches out and basks in the sun. Wild catnip has, however, sprouted near the pussywillow’s trunk. I suspect some deep-rooted drug dependency at work there.
But, weeds? There is wild horseradish marching across my tastefully scattered scoria chips. There is quackgrass strangling daylilies and yarrow. There are weeds of unknown name towering over my tulips. Actually, I have a name for those weeds, but that name is best kept to myself.
I pulled out one quackgrass clump, and I am pretty sure its far end stretched all the way to Gladstone. It was like pulling one of those string strips from the top of a fifty-pound sack of sunflower seeds. Not that I regularly buy fifty-pound bags of sunflower seeds for the neighborhood birds, or anything.
I was feeling pretty smug last Saturday after I finished all my weeding. I figured I would need to start mowing in a few more days. I began looking at seed catalogs and dreaming of Big Boy tomato plants.
Late Saturday evening Katie and I went outside to take in the fresh air. It was snowing. Gotta love North Dakota.
Jackie Hope is the longest running Dickinson Press contributor and columnist. Hope’s Corner is a weekly humorous column with a message of hope.
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