North Dakota
Senator Cramer Shares Appreciation for Military Veterans at North Dakota American Legion Conference
![Senator Cramer Shares Appreciation for Military Veterans at North Dakota American Legion Conference Senator Cramer Shares Appreciation for Military Veterans at North Dakota American Legion Conference](https://www.cramer.senate.gov/imo/media/image/American%20Legion%20Photo%2011_1200.jpg)
BISMARCK – During the American Legion Annual Department Winter Conference on Friday, U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) expressed his appreciation for their tireless advocacy and highlighted some of his recent legislative efforts pertaining to veterans’ affairs. Additionally, he reiterated the need to recruit more servicemembers and stand up to our adversaries by projecting strength, not weakness.
“The world is on fire and hungry for American leadership, and trying to balance those things is no small matter. If we project weakness, our adversaries see vulnerability. If we project strength, they settle down. From Iran to Russia, we have a President projecting weakness, and the world is reacting to it. Earlier this week, I was able to visit with Garrett Illerbrunn’s family at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His service and the strength of his family are the epitome of the best of North Dakota and the nation. We need to attract more people into the service like Garrett and his wife Lorna. I hope no child from North Dakota or the United States, has to go to war again, but if we had to go to war again, I hope we have a whole bunch of people ready to do it. One of the reasons I believe we are struggling to recruit more people is they don’t know the cost of freedom, nor do they understand the glory of fighting for our freedom, or the camaraderie or the benefits of having brothers and sisters in arms. That is what the Legion does so well, if not better than anybody. You foster a legacy of service and do an incredible job changing policies to make sure promises are kept for those who serve.”
Senator Cramer concluded his speech by reciting the fourth verse of the Star-Spangled Banner.
“Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand. Between their loved home and the war’s desolation. Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: “In God is our trust;” and the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave. O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Thank you for all you do, and God bless.”
As a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Cramer has co-led and supported various pieces of legislation to provide veterans access to co-pay free mental health care services and facilitate expanded peer support networks and health resources for veterans facing mental health challenges. He has also worked to expand health care coverage for veterans battling toxic exposure and increase coverage of innovative therapies for veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
Specific pieces of legislation and efforts Senator Cramer led to support our nation’s veterans and fund efforts by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), include:
- The Combat Veterans Pre-Enrollment Act of 2023, which would allow combat veterans to pre-enroll in a health care benefits program six months prior to their discharge.
- The Safeguarding VA Dependent Education Benefits Act of 2023, which would protect the GI educational benefits of a spouse or dependent whose benefits would be terminated as a result of a servicemember being convicted or dishonorably discharged for domestic or sexual assault.
- The TAP Promotion Act, which would allow accredited members of Veterans Service Organizations to participate in the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) classes to help servicemembers file Benefits Delivery at Discharge claims.
- The REMOVE Copays Act, legislation allowing veterans to attain copay-free mental health and substance abuse care through VA and community providers for their first three outpatients visits each year.
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North Dakota
Letter: Be wary of plans for large-scale dairies in North Dakota
![Letter: Be wary of plans for large-scale dairies in North Dakota Letter: Be wary of plans for large-scale dairies in North Dakota](https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/01de397/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1500+0+0/resize/1706x1066!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fgrandforksherald%2Fbinary%2FLetterToEditor_binary_1019589.png)
To the editor,
There is a history of confined animal feeding operations ruining the environment in many states. The new
Riverview Dairy
operations set to enter the eastern part of North Dakota near Hillsboro and Wahpeton should be looked at through the eyes of how we want our livestock industry to expand.
Twenty-five thousand confined dairy cows is huge. Yes, they have state of the art waste disposal systems — or do they? What about flooding? Not unheard of in the Red River Valley. Additionally, the water required for these animals may seem fine but what about in a drought? Do you want to compete for drinking water with cows? Aquifers are being depleted for ag use already.
Twenty-five thousand animals hooked up to machines. Not grazed. Not good.
Workers will be temporary and not connected to the communities. Their money will be sent out of state/country. The money from Riverview will be sent out of the state. Riverview has multiple dairies in other states. Most inputs will be bought wholesale and not locally.
Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring said this LLP can do business without the change to our corporate farming law in the last legislative session. However, they sure are being subsidized by support for infrastructure stemming from other legislation piggy backed on that change in our anti-corporate farming law. A law that was meant to support local farmers to expand by accessing capital from other sources. This dairy will finish the small dairy opportunities in North Dakota using money meant to support them.
Karen Anderson
Warwick, North Dakota
North Dakota
Yankton County, SD deputies arrest South Dakota fugitive after 4-week search
![Yankton County, SD deputies arrest South Dakota fugitive after 4-week search Yankton County, SD deputies arrest South Dakota fugitive after 4-week search](https://gray-ktiv-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/5BIOZUTZNNCSZIRYDRGDC2B3FM.jpg?auth=af9564e22d94c032fd0df16ec13b259bffec2bd841393f6c024d3d92fe67cd63&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
YANKTON COUNTY, SD (KTIV) – There’s a new development in a manhunt that started last month in South Dakota.
Authorities in Yankton County say they’ve found an Iowa man wanted for violating his parole and arrested him after a nearly four-hour standoff Monday night.
The Yankton County Sheriff’s Office says its deputies learned 48-year-old Jason Sitzman was inside a home in Lesterville, South Dakota, and went to that home trying to make contact with him.
Sitzman was wanted on warrants for violating his parole in Iowa, as well as, for failure to appear in court in Yankton County and for aggravated eluding of law enforcement.
But, Sitzman, and another woman who was inside, refused to leave the house. That was at around 7:00pm. Around 10:45pm authorities used chemical agents inside the home to get Sitzman and the woman outside. The woman is identified as 23-year-old Kendra Kirrman.
Both were taken into custody and charged with obstructing law enforcement.
Law enforcement have been looking for Sitzman for more than a month. Back on June 19th… he reportedly fled South Dakota authorities on a motorcycle… riding into Nebraska before ditching the bike at the Chalkrock Wildlife Management Area in Cedar County. Authorities searched the area using drones and a helicopter but weren’t able to find Sitzman.
Copyright 2024 KTIV. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
North Dakota judge will decide whether to throw out a challenge to the state's abortion ban
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Attorneys argued Tuesday over whether a North Dakota judge should toss a lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion ban, with the state saying the plaintiffs’ case rests on hypotheticals, and the plaintiffs saying key issues remain to be resolved at a scheduled trial.
State District Judge Bruce Romanick said he will rule as quickly as he can, but he also asked the plaintiffs’ attorney what difference he would have at the court trial in August.
The Red River Women’s Clinic, which moved from Fargo to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, filed the lawsuit challenging the state’s now-repealed trigger ban soon after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The clinic was North Dakota’s sole abortion provider. In 2023, North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature revised the state’s abortion laws amid the lawsuit. Soon afterward, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, joined by doctors in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine.
North Dakota outlaws abortion as a felony crime, with exceptions to prevent the mother’s death or a “serious health risk” to her, and in cases of rape or incest up to six weeks of pregnancy.
The plaintiffs allege the law violates the state constitution because it is unconstitutionally vague for doctors as to the exceptions, and that its health exception is too narrow.
The state wants the complaint dismissed. Special Assistant Attorney General Dan Gaustad said the plaintiffs want the law declared unconstitutional based upon hypotheticals, that the clinic now in Minnesota lacks legal standing and that a trial won’t help the judge.
“You’re not going to get any more information than what you’ve got now. It’s a legal question,” Gaustad told the judge.
The plaintiffs want the trial to proceed.
Meetra Mehdizadeh, a staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the trial would resolve factual disputes regarding how the law would apply in various pregnancy complications, “the extent to which the ban chills the provision of standard-of-care medical treatment,” and a necessity for exceptions for mental health and pregnancies with a fatal fetal diagnosis.
When asked by the judge about the trial, she said hearing testimony live from experts, as compared to reading their depositions, would give him the opportunity to probe their credibility and ask his own questions to clarify issues.
In an interview, she said laws such as North Dakota’s are causing confusion and hindering doctors when patients arrive in emergency medical situations.
“Nationally, we are seeing physicians feeling like they have to delay, either to run more tests or to consult with legal teams or to wait for patients to get sicker, and so they know if the patient qualifies under the ban,” Mehdizadeh said.
In January, the judge denied the plaintiffs’ request to temporarily block part of the law so doctors could provide abortions in health-saving scenarios without the potential of prosecution.
A recent state report said abortions in North Dakota last year dropped to a nonreportable level, meaning there were fewer than six abortions performed in 2023. The state reported 840 abortions in 2021, the year before the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
The court’s decision enabled states to pass abortion bans by ending the nationwide right to abortion.
Most Republican-controlled states now have bans or restrictions in place. North Dakota is one of 14 enforcing a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Meanwhile, most Democratic-controlled states have adopted measures to protect abortion access.
The issue is a major one in this year’s elections: Abortion-related ballot measures will be before voters in at least six states. Since 2022, voters in all seven states where similar questions appeared have sided with abortion rights advocates.
___
Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this story.
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