Tag Archives: North Dakota

Bismarck’s NBC affiliate reports: A controversial bill has been introduced by lawmakers involving language surrounding transgender people. If someone involved in an organization that receives state funding, including public schools, violated the proposed law, they would receive a fine of $1,500. “Say, they’re a boy, but they come to school and say they’re a girl. As far as that school …

The Associated Press reports: Books containing “sexually explicit” content — including depictions of sexual or gender identity — would be banned from North Dakota public libraries under legislation that state lawmakers began considering Tuesday. House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, of Dickinson, introduced the bill and said public libraries currently contain books that have “disturbing and disgusting” content, including ones that …

The Insider reports: Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said on Wednesday that his right hand may need to be amputated after a yard work accident over the weekend. “While working in the yard over the weekend, I sustained a serious injury to my right hand, which required immediate surgery,” Cramer said in a statement. “I continue to remain …

The Associated Press reports: North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator announced Monday that he would resign following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges. Republican Ray Holmberg, who rose to become one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers in a career that spanned 46 years, said he would resign effective …

The Bismarck Tribune reports: North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who spent more than 40 years in elected office, died unexpectedly Friday, just a month after announcing plans to retire at the end of the year. His spokeswoman, Liz Brocker, confirmed his death Friday night. Stenehjem had been taken to the hospital Friday morning after being found unresponsive in his …

Bismarck’s CBS News affiliate reports: A North Dakota lawmaker and an organizer of a rally to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates is infected with the coronavirus and won’t attend the event. Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson says he is “quarantining.” He told The Associated Press Monday that he is taking the deworming drug ivermectin and has not checked into a hospital. He …

Bismarck’s Fox News affiliate reports: A North Dakota lawmaker was barred from boarding a flight at Minot International Airport Monday, following an incident with a TSA agent. Rep. Jeff Hoverson, R-Minot, said he and his wife were planning to travel Monday for their anniversary. Hoverson told Your News Leader that a TSA agent who was giving him a pat down …

From North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum: Gov. Doug Burgum and chief medical officers and physicians from several of the state’s largest hospitals today warned that hospital capacity in North Dakota is reaching critical levels and urged the public to help reduce the need for hospitalization. “The pressure on hospitals and clinics in both our urban and rural areas is reaching …

The Grand Forks Herald reports: Gov. Doug Burgum signed legislation Friday, April 16, authorizing North Dakota public schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The bill cleared the House and Senate by wide margins earlier this session after lawmakers included provisions to gird against possible lawsuits, including one portion requiring that displays of the Judeo-Christian text appear alongside other …

The Associated Press reports: A proposal in North Dakota to shield schools and teachers from lawsuits arising from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms is unconstitutional and would spur costly and unwinnable legal fights, attorneys and education officials told state lawmakers Wednesday. Despite the cautionary advice, the House Judiciary Committee gave the legislation an 11-3 “do-pass” recommendation, hoping that a …

The Bismarck Tribune reports: Schools would be permitted to post the Ten Commandments under a bill that sailed through the North Dakota Senate on Wednesday but also encountered questions of constitutionality. Senate Bill 2308 was approved 34-13. Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, brought the bill, which would allow schools to post the Ten Commandments, permit students to recite the Pledge of …

The Hill reports: North Dakota’s coronavirus mortality rate is the highest of any U.S. state or country, according to an analysis of data from last week conducted by the Federation of American Scientists. The analysis shows that North Dakota has a rate of 18.2 deaths per 1 million people. South Dakota, meanwhile, has 17.4 deaths per million, the third-worst rate …

The Grand Forks Herald reports: North Dakota has put in place a statewide mask mandate, occupancy limits on public-facing businesses and the suspension of most high school winter sports as the state’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 outbreak continues to spiral out of control. The mask order, announced in a news release late Friday night, Nov. 13, means residents of the state must …

The Grand Forks Herald reports: North Dakota’s hospitals have reached their limit, and the coming weeks could push them past their capabilities, Gov. Doug Burgum said at a news conference on today. Due to a major shortage of health care staffing, the state’s hospitals have a severe lack of available beds. Rising COVID-19 hospitalizations and high noncoronavirus admissions, some resulting …

Bismarck’s Fox News affiliate reports: A Republican candidate for the state legislature in North Dakota who died from COVID-19 in October won his election Tuesday night. Election results in North Dakota showed the Bismarck-area district going to David Andahl and Dave Nehring. The district chooses two representatives. According to the Associated Press, Andahl died due to complications from COVID-19 at …

North Dakota’s Dickinson Press reports: A 33-year-old self-professed “Proud Boy” was arrested Wednesday by the Dickinson Police Department on C-Felony Terrorizing charges after sending an anonymous email to The Dickinson Press in which he conveyed a bomb threat, targeting a voting location in the city. Anthony A. Raymond of Dickinson was arrested and incarcerated at the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center …

Reuters reports: The number of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 is topping 25% in several states in the U.S. Midwest as cases and hospitalizations also surge in the region, according to a Reuters analysis. North Dakota’s positive test rate has averaged 30% over the past seven days compared with 6% the prior week. The positivity rate has risen to …

Bismarck’s CBS News affiliate reports: After both Republican and Democratic politicians spoke out against a portion of the North Dakota Republican Party’s recently adopted policy platform that describes LGBT practices as “unhealthy and dangerous,” and “sometimes infecting society at large,” the NDGOP Executive Committee voted to disavow Resolution 31 and its “harmful and divisive language.” In a statement after the …

The Associated Press reports: North Dakota’s Republican governor on Thursday blasted an anti-LGBTQ resolution that was passed by hundreds of his party’s delegates, calling it insulting and divisive. The resolution — one of dozens of party policy statements in a passed by this spring by mail-in ballot — states that many “LGBT practices are unhealthy and dangerous, sometimes endangering or …

The Associated Press reports: Bernie Sanders has won North Dakota’s Democratic presidential caucuses. Participation in Tuesday’s contest was expected to be dramatically higher than it was four years ago. That’s mainly due to a procedural change that makes the caucuses function more like a traditional election, with citizens able to drop in at 14 caucus sites to cast their ballot …