North Dakota
What's the cost of time off in North Dakota's Legislature? Here's who missed and why
BISMARCK — While one North Dakota lawmaker’s vacation made recent headlines, a deeper look shows that more than half of the state’s legislators have missed time this session — absences for which taxpayers are footing the bill.
Rep. Lori VanWinkle, R-Minot, has been the subject of criticism this week for her
week-long absence to go on a family vacation
during session, but even after missing a week, she does not have the most absences in
the Legislature.
According to a report from North Dakota’s Legislative Council, 85 of 141 legislators have missed at least one day so far this session. There have been 195 total absences as of April 17, costing North Dakota taxpayers $41,535 in per-diem payments to absent legislators.
Who missed the most days so far and why?
Those who have been absent most often this session say they were not on vacation. They had work, or medical and familial emergencies and obligations — with one exception.
VanWinkle missed seven of the 64 days of session bu April 17, making her the legislator with the third most absences this session.
Five of those days were taken to go on a family vacation
that House leadership said she did not inform them of beforehand. VanWinkle contested this, saying she did inform leadership.
VanWinkle said that she was singled out for her trip while other legislators did not receive the same level of scrutiny for their absences.
“I would suggest — if we’re really thinking that I have missed some sort of exorbitant number of days compared to everybody else — we should do an audit of absences, and that would probably be very appropriate to find out how atrocious my absences actually are in the greater realm of of everybody else’s,” she said Monday.
Rep. Landon Bahl, R-Grand Forks, has missed the most time of any lawmaker this session, with 10 absent days so far, according to the Legislative Council report on absences.
He said his absences are largely due to work. Bahl said he believes his district understands because it has a large number of business owners who want a “certain kind of representation.”
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
“I’m the vice president and COO of 322 Hospitality Group,” Bahl said. “So most of the time I will go back to Grand Forks to really touch base with leadership because we have eight different entities. … I’m constantly emailing and bouncing back and forth, because that’s my job. This is a part-time citizen Legislature.”
Bahl is the only representative besides VanWinkle to miss a full week of the session. He said he missed the week to travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby for the rights of fraternities and sororities in his capacity as a board member of the Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.
“I wasn’t skiing, as much as I love skiing,” Bahl said. “That would have been fun to be skiing, but I was in D.C. However, I will admit, it did feel like kind of a vacation, to be honest.”
Bahl said “99%” of the time he has alerted the House majority leader and the speaker of the House when he will be absent so they can prepare for it, and while he would not retroactively forgo his pay for days he already missed, he “absolutely” would in the future.
He suggested the Legislature look at instituting a rule for next session that lawmakers would not receive pay if they missed a day and were not sick.
Rep. Jayme Davis, D-Rolette, missed the second most time so far this session, with nine days absent.
She said she missed nearly a week of the session because of her father’s death and had to miss some Fridays to drive back to Rollette to pick up her mother, who has Parkinson’s disease, and drive her back to Bismarck for medical appointments.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
She said none of her absences were for a vacation and that she communicated with leadership in advance of her absences.
“As much as I want a vacation, no,” Davis said. “I’m here to do a job I was elected to do, and so, unless it’s literally life or death, that’s probably the only reason why I would miss.”
She said the legislators were “all adults” and should be able to make their own decisions but added that elected officials should not be paid to be on vacation.
“You have 80 days. We know that,” Davis said. “If you want to go on a vacation, it’s your choice. You’re going to have to answer to your constituents, right? But that’s also not something that our taxpayers should pay for, right?”
Rounding out the top five most absent legislators are Reps. Matthew Ruby, R-Minot, and Alisa Mitskog, D-Wahpeton, who both missed six days of the session to date. Both said they informed leadership ahead of their absences.
Ruby said he had a doctor’s appointment, National Guard duty and a son’s surgery to account for his days off.
Mitskog said she had never missed this many days of session before and felt bad about it. She missed days to attend some of her husband’s medical appointments in Fargo and Minneapolis. Mitskog said she wanted to be able to ask questions at his appointments. However, she said that her husband had just gotten out of an appointment Wednesday, which she had not joined him for because she felt she had missed too much session time already.
A respiratory infection earlier in the session and taking her mother to a medical appointment in Fargo account for her other absences.
Now deceased Rep. Josh Christy, R-Fargo, had 11 listed absences stemming from his hospitalization before his death on Feb. 18, 2025. His absences were not included in the number of total absences or the total amount of money due to absent legislators in this article.
Can the chambers withhold pay from lawmakers?
There is a question on whether the legislative body can vote not to pay representatives for absences lawmakers feel are inexcusable.
There is a section of Century Code that says legislators are “entitled” to pay during legislative sessions regardless of their absence. However, there is a rule in both chambers going back before 1957 that states no legislator is entitled to “draw pay while absent more than one day without leave.”
This rule is likely why both chambers vote to excuse the absent members at the end of every day of session, Legislative Council Director John Bjornson said.
“Generally, the statute’s going to override a rule,” he said, but he noted Legislative Council would follow the direction of the presiding officers and majority leaders in each chamber if they asked Legislative Council to withhold pay for a representative.
He said Legislative Council received multiple inquiries Wednesday from legislators about forgoing pay for their absences, but no official requests had been submitted yet.
BOWBELLS, N.D. — More cases of
measles
have been identified in North Dakota, including in a previously uninfected county.
The North Dakota Health and Human Services Department announced on Thursday, May 29, the state’s 28th case, up seven from last week.
The latest case was the first reported in Burke County in far northwest North Dakota. The release did not identify the age of the infected individual but said they traveled frequently to
Williams County, where the first case was reported.
Williams County has nearly half the state’s cases with 13 infections, according to Health and Human Services.
The state has reported 23 cases in people who are less than 20 years old, including three in children 5 years old or younger.
Burke is the fourth county in North Dakota to have a measles case. Cass and Grand Forks counties reported seven cases each as of Thursday. At the end of last week, Cass County reported six cases and Grand Forks County reported two.
People in Divide County may have been exposed to the virus, Health and Human Services said. Places of possible exposure in Crosby include Lindsey’s Grocery Store at 211 Main St. S. from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Monday and Dollar General, 1108 Fourth St. SE, between 3:20 and 5:45 p.m. Monday, the release said.
“This is the highest number of measles cases reported in North Dakota since 1978, when 211 cases occurred,” state Immunization Director Molly Howell said in a statement.
North Dakota has a vaccination rate of almost 90%. The risk of measles to vaccinated residents is low, Health and Human Services said.
Measles is highly contagious since it can spread through the air and linger in rooms for up to two hours, the release said.
“People with measles are contagious before and after symptoms appear, increasing the risk of unintentional spread,” the release said.
The state recommends two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — the first between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
Two doses of the vaccine provide 97% protection, while one dose is 93% effective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The MMR vaccine is effective for life.
Residents who were born before 1957 are considered immune.
Those who have contracted the virus should monitor symptoms for 21 days, while unvaccinated people who are exposed to measles should quarantine for the same time period, the release said.
Information on measles and the vaccine can be found at
hhhs.nd.gov/immunizations/measles.
North Dakota
North Dakota (NDHSAA) high school baseball playoffs: 2025 brackets, matchups, game times (5/28/2025)
The postseason has arrived for North Dakota high school baseball.
The playoffs begin in the Peace Garden State in Class A and Class B, with a handful of games getting underway this week. Region semifinal and finals will be played throughout the state of North Dakota, with a chance on the line to advance to the next round.
Stick with High School on SI North Dakota for all of the matchups, game times and scores throughout the 2025 NDHSAA baseball playoffs.
Here are the NDHSAA high school baseball playoff brackets, with matchups and game times from NDHSAA’s Class A and Class B:
No. 4 at No. 1 Mandan
No. 3 Legacy at No. 2 Sheyenne
No. 4 Jamestown at No. 1 Fargo Davies
No. 3 West Fargo Horace at No. 2 Minot
BYE: Thompson
Bishop Ryan at No. 3 Northern Cass
Rugby at No. 1 Park River/Fordville-Lankin
No. 5 Shiloh Christian at No. 4 LaMoure/Litchville-Marion
Follow SBLive North Dakota throughout the 2025 high school baseball season for Live Updates, the most up to date Schedules & Scores and complete coverage from the preseason through the state championships!
Be sure to Bookmark High School on SI for all of the latest high school baseball news.
To get live updates on your phone – as well as follow your favorite teams and top games – you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App| Download Android App
— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi
The North Dakota State Library’s Center for the Book announces the North Dakota Great Read titles for 2025 are “What We Leave Behind” by Barb Solberg and “Sir Rupert and the Battle of the Squirrels” by RubyAnn Stiegelmeier.
“Great Reads from Great Places provides a wonderful opportunity to highlight North Dakota authors both nationally and across the state,” says Literacy Specialist Tammy Kruger. “We are excited to have the talents and hard work of Barb Solberg and RubyAnn Stiegelmeier showcased in 2025!”
Every year, the Library of Congress asks each state Center for the Book to select titles that represent the state’s literary landscape to highlight at the National Book Festival, an event showcasing the importance of books and reading. This year’s festival will be held on Saturday, Sept. 6, in Washington, D.C., and online. More information can be found at
https://www.loc.gov/events/2025-national-book-festival
.
The North Dakota Center for the Book invites North Dakotans to read “What We Leave Behind” by Barb Solberg and “Sir Rupert and the Battle of the Squirrels” by RubyAnn Stiegelmeier.
For more information on the 2025 North Dakota Great Read Program, visit
https://library-nd.libguides.com/NDCenterforthebook/greatreads
.
About “Sir Rupert and the Battle of the Squirrels”: This book is a funny approach to creative problem solving, cooperation and perseverance. Sir Rupert is a young person living in the castle, aspiring to become a “real” knight someday. He tries to help everyone he can to gain necessary knighthood experience. When his friend Bertha, the castle cook, comes to him one day asking for help with squirrels that have overrun the kitchen, Sir Rupert’s skills are put to the test. He asks everyone he can find for help, but no one has practical advice, so he and his friends team up to tackle the problem on their own. This story draws on themes of asking for help, persevering no matter what, helping others in the face of adversity, and receiving approval for one’s efforts even when things don’t turn out the way you planned.
About “What We Leave Behind”: Martin and Asta came to America in 1913 to homestead and create a better life for themselves and a hoped-for family. Nineteen years later during the difficult years of the Great Plains Dust Bowl, they intend to improve the lives of three of their nine children by sending their 18-year-old daughter with her two younger sisters to Norway to live with relatives for two years. But things do not go according to plan. The oldest sister falls in love with and marries a young Norwegian man, leaving the two younger sisters with no one to take them home. By 1940, when Germany invades Norway, the two younger sisters were living with the family relative who in the meantime married a Quisling, a member of the Norwegian Nazi Party. The two sisters miss the last U.S. evacuee ship out of Petsamo, Finland, and soon German soldiers take one sister to Grini, a concentration camp north of Oslo. Eventually she and her older sister both marry men active in the Norwegian Resistance Movement of WWII. Will the entire family ever reconnect?
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