North Dakota
Trump invites former ND first lady Kathryn Burgum to help lead national addiction recovery effort
WASHINGTON — The wife of former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will help lead a national initiative to further prioritize addiction treatment and recovery.
Kathryn Burgum and husband Doug Burgum,
now U.S. Secretary of the Interior,
were part of an executive order signing at the White House on Thursday, Jan. 29, to launch the Great American Recovery Initiative.
The initiative will be co-chaired by Kathryn Burgum and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
She spoke briefly at the event, beginning with thanks to President Donald Trump who was seated near her.
“Your leadership today, relative to this announcement about the Great American Recovery, is a gift to all Americans who are suffering from the brain disease of addiction,” she said.
Inspired by Kathryn as she advocates to remove the stigma around the disease of addiction. Her courage sharing her story is transforming lives and proving there is hope in recovery.
Grateful that @POTUS is driving this important work forward—this initiative will save lives! https://t.co/6dnjUYr3y3
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) January 29, 2026
Kathryn Burgum spearheaded addiction recovery efforts in North Dakota
through the Office of Recovery Reinvented while her husband was governor.
She began speaking openly about her own battle with alcohol addiction that she said started in high school.
“I was a blackout drinker from the start,” Kathryn Burgum said at the White House event, now marking more than 23 years of sobriety.
Forum file photo
Over her husband’s eight years as governor, the couple hosted Recovery Reinvented events,
with speakers and activities focused on ending the stigma
around the disease of addiction.
“I was asking people to share their stories openly about addiction, so we can eliminate the shame and stigma, so more people would reach out for help, and more lives could be saved,” she said from the Oval Office.
The Great American Recovery Initiative will create stronger coordination across government, the health care sector, faith communities, and the private sector, the White House website said.
Kathryn Burgum said it represents a fundamental shift from reaction to prevention, fragmentation to coordination, stigma to science, and short-term fixes to long-term recovery.
“For the first time, we’re aligning federal leadership across health, justice, labor, housing, veterans, social services, the faith office and education around one single shared truth: When addiction is treated early and correctly, people recover and families heal,” she said.
Kylie Cooper/ Reuters
A comment from Trump during the ceremony drew laughs from those gathered, when he hinted he had chosen Doug Burgum to serve in his Cabinet because Kathryn had caught his eye.
At Oval Office event on drug addiction, Trump praises Kathryn Burgum, wife of interior secretary, who spoke about her experience in recovery.
TRUMP: I saw them riding horses in a video and said, who is that? I was talking about her, not him … I said, I’m going to hire him pic.twitter.com/nMo9MgMLdP
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) January 29, 2026
“You know, I saw them riding horses in a video. And I said, ‘Who is that?’ I was talking about her, not him,” Trump said, the audience chuckling.
“And I explained it, I said, ‘I’m gonna hire him,’ because anybody has somebody like you to be with, it’s an amazing tribute. And it’s a great couple,” Trump said.
FARGO, N.D. (KELO) — The Sioux Falls Stampede staved off elimination with a 2-1 overtime win over the Fargo Force in game four of the USHL Western Conference Finals Saturday night.
Thomas Zocco scored the game-winner 12 minutes into the extra period. Arseni Marchenko put Fargo on the board first in the first period. Noah Mannausau tied the game for the Herd in the second period.
Sioux Falls outshot Fargo 53-49, including 9-5 in overtime. Linards Feldbergs made 48 saves.
Three of the four games of the series have gone to overtime. The winner-take-all game five is Tuesday at the Premier Center.
New ballot measure guide to be mailed to North Dakota voters ahead of election
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BISMARCK (North Dakota Monitor) — A federal district court judge indicated he will nullify a nearly $28 million judgment against the federal government related to costs North Dakota incurred during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests so the parties can reach a settlement.
North Dakota is still set to receive a payment Attorney General Drew Wrigley described as satisfactory, but attorneys would not disclose the amount during a Friday hearing.
Attorneys for the United States and North Dakota said the settlement would allow the parties to avoid litigating the case in appeals court,putting the nearly seven-year-old lawsuit to rest.
“We’re hoping we really don’t need to fight any further,” Department of Justice attorney Jonathan Guynn said during the hearing.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019, concerns demonstrations against the construction of the crude oil pipeline, also known as DAPL, that took place in rural south-central North Dakota in 2016 and 2017.
North Dakota claims the federal government caused the protests to grow in size and intensity by unlawfully allowing demonstrators to camp on federal land. The state says it had to pay millions of dollars on policing and cleaning up the encampments as a result. The United States denies the state’s allegations.
North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor in April 2025 sided with the state and ordered the executive branch to pay North Dakota the $28 million sum, a decision the U.S. Department of Justice later appealed to the 8th Circuit.
If the settlement moves forward, North Dakota would receive a “substantial monetary payment” from the United States, attorneys said Friday. As a condition of the agreement, the Department of Justice wants Traynor’s judgment and three other orders in which he ruled against the United States to be voided. That includes the court’s 120-page ruling from April 2025.
Both parties said Friday that having the rulings nullified wouldn’t have a significant negative impact on the public, since the documents could still be cited even if they no longer hold the weight of court orders.
At the same time, Guynn said the Department of Justice wants the orders vacated because it doesn’t want the legal conclusions Traynor made to influence the outcome of future lawsuits.
“The downstream consequences of keeping these on the books is troublesome for the United States,” he said during the hearing. If Traynor does not agree to axe the rulings, the United States would likely no longer be willing to settle and move forward with its appeal instead, Guynn added.
Traynor’s orders make findings about the federal government’s responsibility under the Federal Tort Claims Act — the law North Dakota filed the suit under — which the state noted previously in court filings “could have utility holding the federal government to account” in the future.
Still, attorneys for the state said they believe this trade-off is outweighed by the time and money the public would save by not going through the appeals process. North Dakota would also avoid the risk of having Traynor’s judgment overturned by higher courts.
Wrigley said the settlement will be made public once it’s finalized.
The United States’ appeal of Traynor’s decision has been on hold since last summer, when the state and federal government informed the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals they had started settlement negotiations and wished to pause the case.
The 8th Circuit will have to first send the case back to Traynor before he could grant the parties’ requests.
The case went to trial in Bismarck in early 2024. During the four-week trial, the court heard from witnesses including former governors Doug Burgum and Jack Dalrymple, Native activists, federal officials and law enforcement.
The Dakota Access Pipeline carries crude oil from northwest North Dakota to Illinois. It crosses the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which prompted the tribe to begin protesting the pipeline on the grounds that it poses a threat to its water supply and sovereignty.
North Dakota’s lawsuit originally requested $38 million in damages from the federal government. Traynor ordered the executive branch to pay $28 million since the U.S. Department of Justice previously gave the state $10 million as compensation for costs it spent related to the protests.
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