There are several Republican primary races where the battles are between normal traditional conservative Republicans and extremists. The most high-profile race is in District 8 in Bismarck. Traditional Republicans Mike Berg and Ken Rensch are taking on extremist Reps. Brandon “George Santos” Prichard and SueAnn Olson.

With his constant blasts of the LGBTQ community and non-Christians, Prichard is a hate-monger and book-banning supporter. Prichard also has fibbed about attending the University of Minnesota Law School. Bismarck and the state of North Dakota would be much better off if Berg and Rensch are nominated.

Twelve-year incumbent Kirsten Baesler is the clear choice to be re-elected as superintendent of public instruction. Baesler has done an excellent job under difficult circumstances. Baesler also has strong public school experience as a former assistant principal in Bismarck and president of the Mandan School Board.

Candidate Jim Bartlett was executive director of the North Dakota Homeschool Association. Nothing wrong with that,

but homeschooling advocates should not be in charge of our public schools

. Also, it’s alarming to see Bartlett’s push to bring more Christianity into the public schools. That would be unconstitutional. Bartlett’s agenda would be a better fit for the state’s private religious schools.

Candidate Darko Draganic has potential, while candidate Jason Heitkamp is not qualified.

The only legitimate Democratic Party candidate for Congress is Trygve Hammer. He has a passion for improving people’s lives and an impressive military record.

With one exception (Kristin Nelson), the endorsements for the Fargo School Board by the Fargo Education Association are preposterous. The other three FEA-endorsed candidates don’t belong on the board.

Allie Ollenburger (who led the botched recall effort in 2021)

and Paul Mohror are chaos candidates.

Likely influenced by contentious contract talks, the FEA seems to be primarily motivated by animosity toward the current board and the school district administration. The FEA’s selections are certainly not in the best interests of the school district or the citizens of Fargo. Fortunately, there are five strong candidates running for four open positions on the board. They are Nelson, Seth Holden, John Campbell, Ryan Dodd and Nikkie Gullickson.

Citizens of West Fargo would be well-served by electing Amy Zundel, who just won a YWCA Woman of the Year award, to the city commission. I don’t know if Zundel is a Republican or Democrat, and I don’t care. What I do know is Zundel is smart, determined and friendly.

It’s because of Zundel’s hard work and research that North Dakota’s weak child abuse laws were toughened. As a private citizen, Zundel put in countless hours to protect the state’s children. With that kind of tenacity, she would be a perfect fit for the West Fargo City Commission.

InForum columnist Jim Shaw is a former WDAY TV reporter and former KVRR TV news director.

FARGO — Lots of people will be traveling this Memorial Day weekend, espcially on rural roadways.

Elin Nozewski with Jerry Car Insurance says rural areas typically have less street lights and longer roads. As people are celebrating Memorial Day weekend, she says fatal crashes become a little more common.

“About a third of those accidents are caused by people who are driving over the posted speed limit. And the second-highest risk factor is inebriated driving,” said Nozewski.

According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, for every 100,000 vehicles, 1.7 fatal crashes occur over memorial weekend.

“It’s a very busy travel weekend. There’s a lot of people in a hurry to get where they want to go. Biggest thing is just to make sure that we plan for that travel and we get there safely,” said Sergeant Adam Malafa with the North Dakota Highway Patrol.

His best tip is to keep distractions to a minimum.

“If you’re the driver, your job is to drive. Not to be, you know, engaged in, you know, whether it’s other conversations or whatever else might be going on in that vehicle,” Malafa said.

When you’re sharing the roads, Malafa says to be mindful of others that aren’t used to the area.

“If they make a lane change that you didn’t expect them to, it’s probably not because they’re trying to be mean it’s probably just because they might not know the road,” Malafa said.

With the updated “Move Over” law, he says to remember all cars must move into the next lane or slow down, if they see a car on the shoulder with hazard lights on.

“Especially with the construction, we’ve got going on just be patient,” Malafa said.

In North Dakota, if you violate the “move over” law, its a $20 fine.

If you commit a traffic violation when distracted while driving, its a $100 fine.

If you violate the seatbelt law, its a $25 fine with 1 point against your license.

According to Jerry Car Insurance, the most dangerous times to drive nationwide during the Memorial Day weekend are 11 p.m. on Saturday to 1 a.m. on Sunday. The risk rises again later on Sunday night from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

My name is Anne Sara, better known as Sara.
I was born an only child in Port-au-prince, Haiti and moved to the U.S at the age of 2.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is where I was raised.
After graduating with my bachelor degree at Albright College, I moved to Florida to continue my studies.
WDAY is the reason why I moved to North Dakota.

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – In an effort to combat crime in tribal communities, approval has been given for more officers to be trained for North Dakota’s Bureau of Indian affairs.

At hearings of the Senate Indian Affairs and Interior Appropriations Committees this week, North Dakota Senator John Hoeven pressed BIA Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland on the need for additional law enforcement in Indian Country and secured his support for increasing operations at The Indian Law Enforcement Advanced Training Center (ATC) at Camp Grafton .

“We need to continue to build it, because we need more law enforcement, not only on the reservation, but across the country,” said Sen. John Hoeven.

In 2020, Hoeven secured funding to open the ATC at Camp Grafton to provide law enforcement training options closer to home for BIA officers in the Upper Great Plains.

Camp Grafton delivers training for police officers, criminal investigators, correctional officers, dispatchers, and command staff working in Indian country. Specifically, the ATC at Camp Grafton delivers specialized advanced training in areas such as criminal, narcotics, and missing children’s investigations.

“According to BIA’s most recent data from 2021, 5,429 law enforcement and public safety personal participated in training programs offered at the Camp Grafton ATC and the Indian Police Academy in New Mexico, but over 3,000 training participants, more than half, received training at the ATC. That’s good progress, but we need to do more, and key officials at the Interior Department committed to work with us to train and recruit more law enforcement officials for our tribal communities.”

ATC also offers training in more recent areas of need like school resource officer training and opioid overdose protocols.

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