Plain Talk

"It's a tragedy what's happening in Texas," Dr. Paul Carson said on this episode of Plain Talk, referring to that state's measels outbreak, which has already claimed the life of one child. Carson is a medical doctor and an emeritus professor of the public health faculty at North Dakota State University. I wrote recently about North Dakota's statewide kindergarten vaccination rates for well-establi...

Rep. Scott Louser, a Republican from Minot, is one of a handful of North Dakota lawmakers who, after casting a vote in favor of a resolution asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn precedent striking down state bans on same-sex marriage, came to regret the decision. "I'm taking the heat for it," Louser said of his change of heart on this episode of Plain Talk. "I don't have a fantastic answer th...

On Tuesday, February 25, lawmakers in the state House of Representatives worked late into the evening to finish work on the hundreds of bills introduced in that chamber this session so that they could be sent over to the state Senate for consideration. This legislative session has seen a lot of bills introduced — the most since the 1990s — and that's put a strain on the process. So much so that st...

"I got angry," Scott Davis said on this episode of Plain Talk. "I had to walk away." Davis served as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs under three North Dakota governors (John Hoeven, Jack Dalrymple, and Doug Burgum), and now works as a consultant for North Dakota's tribal communities (he has familial roots in both the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Chippewa). What made him ang...

MINOT — For the first time ever we took the Plain Talk podcast on the road, to famed bar, restaurant, and political hangout Peacock Alley. We interviewed Senate Majority Leader David Hogue and House Minority Leader Zac Ista. We also interviewed a couple of former lawmakers, Jessica Bell and Erin Oban. The theme of the night? The legislature is going to have to change. Bell and Oban talked about ho...

Lawmakers in Bismarck are considering a number of school choice bills which would, in various ways, make public dollars available for parents to use toward private school tuition. The most important one, perhaps, is Senate Bill 2400, introduced by Sen. Michelle Axtman, and it does a whole lot more than just fund school choice. As currently amended, it would create what's called education savings a...

At the beginning of this episode of Plain Talk, Attorney General Drew Wrigley took exception to my recent reporting suggesting that he and Gov. Kelly Armstrong are at odds over sentencing legislation and the performance of state prison officials. Based on what would follow, I think the conflict between two of North Dakota's top elected officials is positively overt. According to Wrigely, the North...

In our promotions for this episode of Plain Talk, we had indicated that state Rep. Nico Rios would be joining us. Rios has made some fairly ugly headlines over the past year or so. He derated two law enforcement officers with bigoted and homophobic comments  during an arrest for DUI. More recently, with regard to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, he wondered in an X post "if the CIA would...

"We live in an age where people can say whatever they want without consequence," says Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Hunegs appeared on this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the anti-Semitic comments made recently by state Rep. Nico Rios, who referred to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo as "this Jew." "There's nothi...

Property taxes are complicated, so is it any surprise that reforming the property tax code is similarly complicated? We talked about the property tax issue on this Plain Talk (again) because it is, without a doubt, the most complicated and consequential question before lawmakers in Bismarck during the 2025 session. Rep. Scott Louser, a Republican from Minot, discussed his property tax plan, which...

There is a fight in the Legislature between the North Dakota Game & Fish Department and a group of hunters and landowners over regulations aimed at curbing the impact of chronic wasting disease on North Dakota's wildlife populations. But is that fight really about CWD? Or is this another front in the culture war spurred by (in some respects not entirely unreasonable) frustration with Game & Fish r...

There's no denying that the easy availability of explicit content on the internet is a major problem for parents, not to mention schools. We all agree, children shouldn't be looking at pornography, but how we go about regulating access (and even how we define what is and is not pornography) are tricky problems. Rep. Steve Swiontek, a Republican from Fargo,  has proposed a bill that would create a...

Former President Joe Biden spent the last moments of his time in office issuing preemptive pardons to family members and political allies. He also pardoned thousands of people convicted of crimes, often to the bewilderment of judges and prosecutors, including some here in North Dakota. New President Donald Trump, meanwhile, spent the first moments after his inauguration releasing hundreds of peopl...

Participatory politics is what makes our democracy work, but it also supposes that those who are participating are doing so in good faith. How do we handle people who want to use the tools of participation -- things like open records requests and open meetings -- as soap boxes for narcissistic jeremiads? What if the people participating aren't intent on being constructive, but instead are out to j...

In North Dakota, game and fish officials have the authority to restrict bait hunting in order to protect animals from diseases like chronic wasting disease. And that's what they've been doing. When a case is found in the deer population, they ban the use of bait for hunting in an area 25 miles around it. This has a very vocal faction of the hunting community incensed. Many of them insist that chro...

By his own admission, Auditor Josh Gallion had a rocky relationship with lawmakers last session, which resulted in the Legislature appropriating funding for an audit of Gallion's office. That audit has been completed. It had findings related to communications issues and confusing invoices. The review also found that Gallion has implemented measures to improve these issues, and that they have impro...

The public and media reaction to Gov. Kelly Armstrong's first address to the state Legislature has focused on his bold and aggressive plan for property taxes. That's understandable. There's a near-consensus in the state's political circles over property taxes being the most pressing issue facing this legislature. But Armstrong's state-of-the-state address telegraphed another hot issue that could p...

Guest hosts Jessica and Michael Bell welcome Representative Anna S. Novak for a wide-ranging conversation on the upcoming legislative session.   From property tax proposals to requiring the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, they explore the policies that will shape classrooms and communities statewide. Rep. Novak and the hosts also tackle energy reliability , including the role of coal and the pote...

"Turn off the TV and talk radio," Chris Berg said in this February 6, 2024 interview, which we're re-publishing during our holiday break. Berg worked in those media for over a decade, earning the most notoriety (and, depending on your perspective, infamy) as a television host in the Fargo market. But Berg says he now has some regrets. I invited him to talk on this episode of Plain Talk after he re...

We're in holiday mode here at Plain Talk, so we thought we'd bring you some reruns of a few of our best interviews from 2024. This interview with Rebecca Binstock, the executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, was originally published on July 26, 2024. "Ethics commissions alone do not create ethical government," Binstock told us, adding that it also requires a robust news media and...

It was an excellent year for the Plain Talk podcast. Our audience grew by leaps and bounds and is larger than ever. For that ,we have you to thank, dear listener. Thank you for tuning in. This Christmas, we wanted to reflect on the year that was, and the year that's ahead of us. On this episode of Plain Talk, Chad Oban and I talk about the highlights (and lowlights) of 2024. The Doug Burgum era of...

McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson has not been mincing words in his reaction to some of President Joe Biden's pardons that impact our region. He's called them "ridiculous" and "despicable," though he wants to be clear that this didn't have anything to do with politics. "Some of the stuff that President Trump said he's going to pardon is despicable," he said on this episode of Plain Talk...

A national survey reports that a shocking number of Americans under the age of 30 condone the murder of health industry CEO Brian Thompson, an act allegedly committed by Luigi Mangione. Me and Chad Oban discuss that survey on this episode of Plain Talk. Do the people justifying the murder of Thompson understand that people they don't like so much might decide to play by the same rules? What happen...

If you get into an accident involving a local political subdivision in North Dakota -- maybe a garbage truck side-swipes your car, or you slip on some ice outside of a school -- you may find yourself dealing with what's called the North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund. This self-insurance fund, paid for by local entities, handles those claims. And, according to a scathing report from Insurance Commi...

Artificial intelligence. Whether you love it, hate it, or are indifferent, it's here, and there are important questions about how it will be used, and what sort of opportunities it presents for our region, which policymakers need to discuss. Rep. Josh Christy is a first-term Republican lawmaker from Fargo who is heading into his second legislative session. He's also what you could call an AI profe...