Plain Talk

Attorney General Drew Wrigley is still fired up about a bill to implement mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes - that was later amended to "presumptive minimums" - which was defeated in the state House of Representatives. There was controversy over  how the bill was handled in committee and Wrigley's involvement in advocating for it, but on this episode of Plain Talk, Wrigley made it cle...

A debate over a bill to implement what supporters call "presumptive minimum" sentences for certain crimes like fleeing or assaulting an officer, or possessing a gun during a grime, has grown surprisingly contentious in the legislature. There has been some bizarre procedural moves around the bill, including the chairman of the judiciary committee undermining his own committee's vote on the bill, an...

Did you know there's such a thing as a fake legislative day? Ok, maybe that's not the official term, but that colloquialism has grown up around a practice at the Legislature in Bismarck which sees lawmakers protracting their session despite the 80-day limit that's in Article IV of the state constitution. You see, if the lawmakers don't gavel in for a floor session, they can still meet in their var...

Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions of Ukranians, most of whom need a place to go. Meanwhile, North Dakota has a long-enduring workforce shortage that is felt most acutely in the state's oil fields. Now, those two problems are coming together to form what is, if not a solution, is at least a way to mitigate some suffering while simultaneously creating some new opportunities....

"When I'm in committee, when I'm speaking, nobody ever asks me any questions." That's what Kristie Miller had to say on this episode of Plain Talk. She's the mother of a trans person and has become active in North Dakota politics opposing a legislative agenda in Bismarck she characterizes as an attack on the trans community. The most frustrating aspect of that activism? How hard it is to even get...

Drawing capital to North Dakota has been a problem for our state since, well, statehood. Our economy is heavily dependent on commodity-driven industries - energy and agriculture. Generations of political leaders have tried to find a way to diversify, but not much has changed. Which would argue, I think, for some outside-the-box thinking. And that's what Commerce Commissioner Josh Teigen was doing...

What's the right legacy for North Dakota's Legacy Fund? It's a perennial question, all the more so when lawmakers are in session in Bismarck, and the answer is seemingly different for everyone. And that's the problem. The Legacy Fund was created two decades ago to store a big chunk of oil tax revenues for the future. Now the fund has billions in principal, and produces hundreds of millions in reve...

The American system for insurance and health care is broken. There's no two ways about it. We pay too much, and get too few choices. How much can North Dakota's lawmakers do about it? Not a whole lot, but there are things they can do to keep it from getting worse. House Bill 1416 would stop insurers from using price pressure convince North Dakotans to opt-in to health insurance plans that freeze o...

Minot, N.D. — I have been an outspoken critic of legislation before lawmakers in Bismarck that seeks to implement new content regulations on libraries and private stores open to the general public. So when Sen. Janne Myrdal agreed to come on this episode of Plain Talk, she knew what she was getting into. Kudos to her for coming on anyway to face questioning from myself and guest co-host Chad Oban...

Minot, N.D. — "It's happening," Sen. Scott Meyer, a Republican from Grand Forks, said on this episode of Plain Talk. "We're not stopping it." He's referring to sports gambling, which is one of the topics he says his constituents talk to him about the most. "It's becoming more and more common. It's everywhere," he says. Meyer is backing House Concurrent Resolution 3002, which, if passed, would put...

Minot, N.D. — If Senate Bill 2360 , which has already passed North Dakota's Senate by a 38 - 9 vote, were to become law, would Christians and Muslims and other citizens of faith have to buy their holy books in a porn shop? This bill, introduced by Sen. Keith Boehm, a Republican from Mandan, would require that any material having pictures or even "written descriptions of nude or partially denuded h...

Minot, N.D. — There aren't a lot of Republicans in the United States Senate willing to praise President Joe Biden for his trip to Kyiv, in Ukraine, which is a war zone. That's what Senator Kevin Cramer told me on this episode of Plain Talk. But Cramer himself? He thinks the president did good. He called the trip "gutsy" and "appropriate." Staying on the national security topic, we discussed the Ch...

Minot, N.D. — A war of words between state Auditor Josh Gallion, a Republican, and members of his own party in the state legislature has made a lot of headlines of late. Gallion has accused lawmakers of being "corrupt" for allegedly targeting a member of his office for specific termination and for legislation he says undermines his ability to do his job. Lawmakers say it was  actually Gallion who...

"She's right." That's what Chris Jones, the director of North Dakota's Department of Human Services, had to say on this episode of Plain Talk about many of the complaints of one of our previous guests. Specifically Robin Nelson, the CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Red River Valley, who said that child care operations like her are "drowning" thanks to difficulties with hiring and red tape. "I...

Minot, N.D. — You've heard just about every elected official in the state talk about it. Access to childcare, and as importantly, access to childcare that's affordable, is a real problem in North Dakota. So much so that it's contributing mightily, to our critical workforce shortages. People who can't find a place to send their kids during the day, or who can't afford it, can't go to work. But Robi...

The Fufeng project, a controversial corn milling plant planned for the Grand Forks by the China-based company, is officially defunct now this week. City officials pulled the plug after the Department of the Air Force announced that the plant was a security threat to the nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base. I've long expressed sympathy for Grand Forks city officials who got caught in the crossfire be...

Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski said his city first asked officials at the Grand Forks Air Force Base about the potential security risks of a corn milling plant to be built by Fufeng, a Chinese company, some 16 months ago. The Air Force has finally given an answer, in the form of a letter to North Dakota Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, but should it have taken that long? Bochenski joine...

Minot, N.D. — Drew Wrigley is asking a lot from state lawmakers in his first time before them as Attorney General. He wants a $24 million increase in his office's budget to recruit and retain attorneys, hire more Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents, oversee the exploding growth in North Dakota's charitable gaming industry, and address backlogs at the state crime lab. He wants new mandatory min...

For about a century, North Dakota has had a ban on corporate farming. This is to say that if you want to run a farming or ranching business in our state, you can only do it with family members who are no more distant in relation to you than first cousins. But there has been a push, in recent years, to ease up on the ban, particularly in the area of animal agriculture. The argument is that allowing...

Two state officials joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss a couple of the more complicated and political thorny issues North Dakota's legislature is taking up this session. Rep. Zac Ista, a Democrat from Grand Forks, talked about his opposition to an income tax plan being touted by Gov. Doug Burgum and Republican lawmakers. He said the plan may pull revenues away from needed spending areas,...

The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is an exceeding slim majority. All the more so because, in many ways, the members of that majority are divide against themselves. Can these House Republicans govern effectively? Congressman Kelly Armstrong joined this episode of Plain Talk to answer that question. "We all have to talk to one another a lot more," he said. He also pointed...

Should sports betting be legal in North Dakota? Should a lawmaker who works for a company that also has a huge health insurance contract with the state also be on a board that approves the contract? And is it a good idea to require that some small school districts share superintendents? We talk about all those issues on this episode of Plain Talk. Rep. Matt Ruby, a Republican from Minot, talks abo...

Tammy Miller went from being the CEO of a major, Fargo-based corporation, to the COO of Governor Doug Burgum's administration, and now to Burgum's Lt. Governor, tasked with presiding over the state senate this legislative session. She joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss that transition, her past asperations for public office, and how she can serve the state of North Dakota and Burgum's ad...

For the first time in decades, the North Dakota Senate has a new chairman of its appropriations committee. Why does that matter? The chairs of the appropriations committees in the House and the Senate are in charge of reconciling all the spending the legislature is trying to do in the next two-year budget cycle with the amount of revenue the state expects to collect. The two people who hold those...

Should children in North Dakota have access to surgery and other types of treatment that can change their birth gender? If a bill that will be introduced in the 2023 session of the legislature is passed, such treatments would be prohibited. State Rep. Brandon Prichard, a Republican from District 8 who is sponsoring that bill, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it. The bill doesn't make t...