North Dakota
Today in History, 1962: Minot man charged under North Dakota law banning the sale of candy cigarettes
On this day in 1962, a Minot store manager was charged under North Dakota’s 1953 ban on candy cigarettes, setting up the law’s first court test over whether bubble gum cigarettes counted as illegal “confectionery.”
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Minot Man Charged in Candy Cigarette Case Challenges 1953 Law
“I’d heard something about such a law but I thought they were kidding me,” the manager of the S. S. Kresge store in Minot said Friday after he was arrested and charged with displaying and possessing packaged candy cigarettes.
“I was the stock man in the Kresge store in Fargo when the law was passed in 1953, prohibiting the sale of candy cigarettes,” John H. Larson said.
“But I never paid any attention to it; I never knew it existed,” he added.
Larson, who lived in Moorhead and worked in the Fargo Kresge store from 1952 to 1959, said he had heard mention of the law but he didn’t think talk about it was serious.
Minot police Capt. Floyd Rouse had noticed a small girl in the business area of Minot with bubble gum cigarettes and a police investigation led to Larson’s arrest Friday.
It was, to any state official’s recollection, the first such charge made under the 10-year-old law, which attracted nationwide attention to North Dakota when it was passed.
Larson intends to plead innocent to the charge, because the article in question is a roll of white paper-covered bubble gum. He claims, therefore, that it is not a candy or a confectionery, which the law specifically states it is illegal to sell if designed to imitate cigarettes.
“Bubble gum is not candy or a confectionery,” Larson said.
The dictionary actually doesn’t help, because it says a confectionary is a sweetmeat, or something prepared and sold by a confectioner, or a candy.
And a confection, the dictionary says, is “a preparation of roots or fruits, etc., with sugar; a sweetmeat; preserve; confit.”
And a confit is a dry sweetmeat.
So it looks as if the law is headed for its first court test.
Larson was released on his own recognizance and is expected to appear on the charge next week.
The 1953 Legislature passed the law to do its part in keeping youngsters from smoking.
The bill stated the intent:
“…such candy or confectionery products and the purchase and use thereof by minors readily create a desire on the part of such minors to purchase and use genuine cigarettes or other tobacco products.”
The law provides a penalty on conviction of not more than a $1,000 fine, 90 days in jail, or both.
The bill was initiated in the state Senate under the sponsorship of state Sen. Agnes Geelan of Ransom, now a member of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission, and the late Sen. E. C. Stucke of McLean.
Larson said his store and all the other Kresge stores in the nation had received a carton of the imitation cigarettes through its nationwide chain store outlets. Minot police confiscated and held 19 packages of the gum.
Larson said he offered to throw out the merchandise, which was being offered as part of a store closing-out sale, but police refused to permit that.
“Those guys over there (the police) don’t know what they got into,” Larson laughingly told The Forum.
He said the gum was a popular item.
“They went like hot cakes,” he said.
The candy cigarette law wasn’t the only one of its kind the 1953 Legislature wrestled with by a long shot.
The session got more nationwide publicity than any other in many a year because of it and these other bills which were introduced, but which did not pass:
★ An anti-treat bill, designed to prevent the buying of a drink by a friend.
★ A bill which would have forbidden dancing in the dark.
★ A bill which would have made it obligatory that a beauty parlor close at 5:30 p.m. on the dot — whether or not a customer’s hair was ready. The reason for that bill apparently stemmed from an angry legislator whose dinner had been kept waiting because his wife was in a beauty parlor.
The Senate passed the candy cigarette law 41 to 7.
Among the few not voting for it was former Sen. Kenneth Pyle of Cass, who explained his vote by reading a telegram he said he had received that day and which was signed by all his grandchildren. It read:
“Dear Grandpa. Please don’t let them take our candy from us.”
The bill passed the House by a vote of 68 to 39 after long debate, some serious and some tongue-in-cheek.
Former Rep. A. C. Langseth of Eddy-Foster, among many others, spoke for the bill. He said:
“If the health and morals of our young people are not worth legislating for, I don’t know what is.”
Former Rep. Guy Larson of Burleigh observed:
“There is one ingredient lacking in the bill — common sense.”
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.
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