Plain Talk

When the Capstone Classical Academy project was announced for Fargo, some people immediately looked at it through a political lens. It was called "Trumpy," by some. But is it? On this episode of Plain Talk, headmaster Paul Q. Fisher describes the philosophy behind the school's mission. They're hoping to provide the people of the region with an education rooted in classical education. That means th...

This week Governor Doug Burgum helped announce a nearly $2 billion investment in developing a datacenter in western North Dakota that would primarily be used to mine cryptocurrency. But that announcement was overshadowed, somewhat, by the extensive criminal record of the man who heads up the construction company that would build it. Jamie Selzler, the former executive director of the North Dakota...

A new survey from North Dakota United, the state's combined public worker and teacher union, finds strong evidence that teachers are feeling burned out. Why? A lot of the same reasons many of us are feeling burned out. It's politics and the pandemic and shifting attitudes about compensation levels. On this episode of Plain Talk, co-host Chad Oban and I interview Nick Archuleta, the president of No...

I'll admit, I wanted to use this interview to push Congressman Kelly Armstrong, a fellow baseball nut, to pass legislation to end Major League Baseball's ongoing lockout. But I controlled myself. After all, what kind of conservative would I be if I was pushing for that sort of federal intervention? Principle must trump emotion. What Armstrong and I did talk about was President Joe Biden's first ye...

Why are so many judicial races in North Dakota uncompetitive? And not uncompetitive because the winning candidates dominate, but because they're usually running unopposed? Part of the problem is the pay Justice Daniel Crothers said on this episode of Plain Talk. He's served on the North Dakota Supreme Court since he was appointed in 2005. He ran for election to the unexpired four-year term he was...

"I've largely stayed out of that stuff," says Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski, speaking about national hot-button issues. He says he's tried to focus on local issues like public safety and infrastructure. But when the University of North Dakota announced they were pursuing a new policy that could punish people for using the wrong pronouns, and would allow access to even sensitive campus facili...

"We have opportunities that are being missed," says Shannon Roers Jones. Roes Jones is currently a state representative, having been elected to the House from District 26 in 2016. She was just re-elected to that seat by a small but comfortable margin in 2020, and now she'd like to be mayor of Fargo. On this episode of Plain Talk, she talks about why she'd be better for that job than incumbent Tim...

After more than two decades in the North Dakota legislature, having served in some consequential ways, as an influential appropriator and eventually leader the majority Republican caucus, Rep. Chet Pollert is calling it a career. On this episode of Plain Talk, he talked about that decision, as well as what changed during his tenure in office, and what challenges North Dakota might face in the futu...

I make a living writing and talking about politics, and I divide the topics I cover up into two categories. First, there's the sexy stuff. The hot-button stuff. Topics that immediately stir up interest from the audience. It's the stuff we spend most of our time talking about. How big should the government be, and how much should it cost us? Stuff like that. Then there's the unsexy stuff. Like bloc...

We all know how divided we are as a country. Politics has always been an ugly business, but it's perhaps uglier right now than any time in recent memory. Given that, who would want to run for public office, and expose themselves to the brutal acrimony of an increasingly uncivil process? On this episode of Plain Talk, I spoke with two candidates for the North Dakota legislature about that very topi...

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic malaise, America's employers have been in a crunch. Not only are their costs rising due to supply line snaggles, but many of them are having trouble finding and keeping workers. Jonathan Holth is one a North Dakota employer. He is a co-founder of the Toasted Frog restaurant in downtown Grand Forks, and has since opened additional locations i...

One thing I think about, as our kids return to school from a long holiday break, is how hard it can be to get them back into the education groove. That challenge is perhaps on the minds of parents more so now than before, given the way COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down. In October Kirsten Baesler, the Superintendent of North Dakota's public school system, released data from testing showing...

Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota's long-time Attorney General, announced recently that he'll end a more than four-decades-long career in elected office once his term is up next year. Who will replace him? The name you'll hear most often in those conversations is Drew Wrigley, who served two stints as North Dakota's U.S. Attorney, one under former President George W. Bush, and another under former Pre...

It's been a wild year in North Dakota politics, from a lawmaker getting expelled from the Legislature for the first time in state history to a small group of NDGOP leaders walking out of their own party's meeting just last week. On this episode of Plain Talk I was joined by Chad Oban and Jamie Selzler, both former executive directors of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL, to talk about the year that...

Wayne Stenehjem has served the State of North Dakota in elected office for more than 40 years, from his stint in the Legislature starting in the mid-1970s to two decades serving as Attorney General. Now, he's calling it a career, announcing that he'll step down once his current four-year term is up. Stenehjem joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it. To say that his career was consequential...

North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer joined this episode of Plain Talk and discussed all sorts of stuff. The January 6 committee, and what it's revealed about the way former President Donald Trump handled the riot at the U.S. capitol. The Build Back Better plan. The state of inflation. The retrenchment going on in the Republican party. Carbon capture. Also, the divides in the national Republican part...

Politics in North Dakota are about as divisive these days as they are anywhere else. In our state, the divide in the Republican party is between traditional Republicans and a faction of conservatives, in-step with former President Donald Trump, who feel the state's Republicans haven't been conservative enough. I've been writing and talking about this divide a lot, and recently state Rep. Jeff Hove...

Religion has always been at the center of American life, but in recent years many Americans are turning away from faith. The polling firm Gallup has been tracking trends in religion since the 1930s when church membership among Americans hovered in the 70 percent region. It stayed that high through the late 1990s, but in the last couple of decades, it has plunged. In 2020, the percentage of America...

North Dakota has industries that produce a lot of carbon. Oil. Natural gas. Coal. Agriculture. But North Dakota's newest industry could be taking that carbon and putting it someplace where it can't harm the environment. Wade Boeschans, a vice president with a company called Summit Carbon Solutions, joined this episode of Plain Talk to answer questions about one of the first, and biggest, projects...

Misinformation. Fake news. These are terms we hear a lot in America in 2021, but what do they mean? How do they happen? Dr. Dan Pemstein is an associate professor of political science at North Dakota State University. He joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about his research into online misinformation both here in America and across the globe. Also, state Rep. Rick Becker, a Republican from...

Earlier this year Governor Doug Burgum raised a lot of eyebrows in the political world by announcing a goal for North Dakota's carbon-based industries, including oil and coal, to become carbon neutral. Can we do it? There are no magic bullets to achieving that goal, but there are some promising endeavors. On this episode of Plain Talk I discussed one of those with Kevin Black, CEO of Creedence Ene...

Sen. Erin Oban is the only member of the Democratic-NPL to be elected in western North Dakota. To the extent that you can consider her Bismarck-area district to be "western North Dakota," anyway. Oban announced recently that she will not be running for another term in that office. Hot on the heels of that announcement, Republican Sean Clearly made one of his own, saying he'd like to take over the...

Vaccine mandate policies are a fluid situation right now. They're being challenged in the courts. The federal government is tweaking its policies. In North Dakota, during the recent special session of the Legislature, a bill passed that doesn't ban businesses from implementing vaccine mandates, but did implement a lot of policies dictating what those mandates should look like. The Greater North Da...

Rob and Jay talk about the North Dakota Democratic-NPL and their relationship to a man who attacked Sen. John Hoeven's office with an ax. They also discuss political extremism in America.

Kelby Krabbenhoft, the long-time CEO of South Dakota-based health care giant Sanford abruptly left his job last year after making some controversial comments about masking during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, news broke that Krabbenhoft left with a big, fat golden parachute strapped to his back. He got a $49.5 million payout, and that prompted North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfre...