u/PlainTalkND

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/ISwRa7Lt2CU

A topic that has caused public consternation around development in North Dakota is the practice of companies asking public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements about their proposed projects. Sen. Tim Mathern has a bill for the upcoming special session that would ban the practice, but only for data center issues, which Democratic candidates have made a central campaign issue this election cycle. Shouldn’t that sort of legislation cover other types of projects?

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bM3KO9Pvlg

Article: https://www.inforum.com/opinion/columns/port-republican-lawmaker-suggests-a-ward-system-for-fargo-would-allow-the-city-to-be-taken-over-by-imports

Rep. Desiree Morton is back in the news with more ugly comments about Fargo’s immigrant, Somali, and Muslim communities. She says that a proposed ward system would allow these 'imports' (as she described them) to take over city government.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bM3KO9Pvlg

Gov. Kelly Armstrong has called North Dakota lawmakers into special session to address a kratom crisis. Mac Haddow from the American Kratom Association said they partly agree with Armstrong’s move. They fully support a ban on synthetic kratom, which Haddow said is basically an opioid. However, he argues that natural kratom only needs regulation.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/IlidsSzE4CE

Gov. Kelly Armstrong says that because kratom is widely available for purchase in North Dakota, over the counter, with not even an age limit, that North Dakotans are assuming it’s safe and not addictive. But that’s not necessarily true, he says. He hopes that lawmakers ban kratom, both in synthetic and botanical varieties, but if they don’t, he hopes they implement age limits and some regulations to ensure that ingredients and dosages published on packaging are accurate.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TesNZ2S-IDU

Dr. Chris Tiongson is a Democratic candidate running in a deeply Republican state, in District 41, where the incumbents are all Republicans. He has a lot of progressive ideas about what the state ought to be doing, but how does he balance that with the reality that we have to pay for those things, and the public may be unwilling to do so?

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-RBrjMUQ8M

We’re going to run into a “glass ceiling” with housing in North Dakota where it becomes a “burden” on the state’s economic growth, says Adrian Cummings, president of the Grand Forks-based Forx Builders Assocation.

Former Fargo city commissioner Arlette Preston explains how a switch to a ward system for city government would go if voters approve it in a special election. She also explains would would happen to current members of the city commission.

#northdakota #fargo

North Dakotans support the military, and the Heritage Center in Bismarck is a wonderful and popular amenity, so it’s shocking that the state Historical Society couldn’t raise $38 million to get a military museum built. But ground has been broken on the project, and if some donors don’t step up, the taxpayers may be left holding the bag.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUKavCJTVc0

Is North Dakota still open for business? Longwater co-founder and CEO Brooks Burgum answers that question, saying that a growing chorus of not-in-my-back-yard objections to development in the state is “scary.”

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nky0L65JWD4

Attorney General Drew Wrigley has had a long-running feud with the North Dakota Department of Corrections. In this interview, he put air quotes with his fingers around the word “professional” when using it to describe the DOCR. He backed away from that jab somewhat, but continues to insist that the department isn’t honest, and is releasing prisoners too early.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOzBxZY856A

Rep. Jonathan Warrey, chair of a newly-created committee dealing with AI issues, says he’s personally opposed to a moratorium on data centers. It stops everything, without improving decision making, and one would symbolically send a message that North Dakota is closed for business.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvB_OR77yZI

North Dakota’s elected officials are crowding into Medora to celebrate the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, but John Bradley from the North Dakota Wildlife Federation says they’re betraying the former president’s conservation legacy.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhi4ME8TpY

Rep. Jim Kasper of District 46 in Fargo has been largely off the job for more than a year after a brain bleed. He should resign, or demonstrate to the voters that he can still do the job, but it seems likely he’s waiting to resign until after August 1st so that voters don’t get a chance to cast their ballots for his replacement this November.

Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhi4ME8TpY

Democratic-NPL Ag Commissioner candidate Vern Thompson says he’s not against industrial development, but is calling for a one-year moratorium on new data centers which he says are being “pushed down our throats” by out-of-state, billionaire corporations.