Tag: north dakota

North Dakota court reverses judge’s ruling that legalized abortion

The North Dakota Supreme Court has reinstated the state’s abortion ban, overturning a previous ruling from a judge finding it unconstitutional.

The new decision makes it a felony crime to perform an abortion, with abortion providers facing as many as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Patients are protected from prosecution, however.

North Dakota initially moved to ban abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. This prompted the state’s one abortion provider, Red River Women’s Clinic, to move from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota.

The state passed a near-total ban in 2023, before it was struck down by State District Judge Bruce Romanick, ruling that it was unconstitutionally vague.

According to the North Dakota Constitution, at least four of the five justices to agree for a law to be deemed unconstitutional. Three justices believed that the law was vague on whether it was constitutional. The other two said that the law is not unconstitutional.

Justice Jerod Tufte wrote in his opinion that the natural rights granted by the state constitution do not extend to abortion, and that the law “provides adequate and fair warning to those attempting to comply.”

Those who opposed the higher court’s decision ironically called it “a devastating loss for pregnant North Dakotans.”

“As a majority of the Court found, this cruel and confusing ban is incomprehensible to physicians. The ban forces doctors to choose between providing care and going to prison,” Center for Reproductive Rights senior staff attorney Meetra Mehdizadeh said. “Abortion is healthcare, and North Dakotans deserve to be able to access this care without delay caused by confusion about what the law allows.”

Republicans praised the decision, however.

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Local Officials Quarantine Nearly 200 Unvaccinated Schoolchildren For 21 Days

Public health officials in a North Dakota community ordered nearly 200 unvaccinated schoolchildren to quarantine for 21 days because of measles.

“About 180 Williston-area students are isolating at home after three schools were notified by public health officials of measles exposure on their campuses,” North Dakota Monitor reports.

Unvaccinated students at Missouri Ridge Elementary, Williston Middle School and Williston High School were told they need to isolate for 21 days to ensure they were not infected, said Paula Lankford, spokesperson for Williston Basin School District 7. The precaution is to prevent students from unknowingly spreading the virus to others.

Health officials on Tuesday confirmed nine cases of measles in Williams County in northwest North Dakota. Daphne Clark, spokesperson for the Upper Missouri District Health Unit, said the measles cases are considered part of an outbreak because health officials believe community spread is occurring without direct contact with known carriers of the illness.

Four people diagnosed with measles were in Williston schools while infectious, the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services said.

The entire campuses of the affected schools were considered exposed, Lankford said.

The quarantine requirement affects some unvaccinated fourth grade students who were touring Williston Middle School on the day of the exposure, Lankford said. It also affects a few other students who don’t attend the affected schools but shared a bus ride with an exposed student, she said.

“Each of the schools is going to work with those families that are excluded to ensure that they have educational opportunities for their kids and connections with teachers through digital means,” Lankford said.

The Williston school district has a total enrollment of about 5,300 students.

Public health officials want to isolate healthy children for weeks.

They have obviously learned nothing from the 2020 COVID debacle.

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North Dakota Governor Signs Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana Edibles That Meet Certain Requirements

The governor of North Dakota has signed a bill into law legalizing select marijuana edibles for registered medical cannabis patients.

About a week after the measure from Rep. Steve Vetter (R) cleared the legislature, Gov. Kelly Armstrong (R) gave it final approval on Monday.

Under the newly enacted law, the state’s medical marijuana program will be expanded to permit the sale of cannabis edibles, which is defined as a “soft or hard lozenge in a geometric square shape into which a cannabinoid concentrate or the dried leaves or flowers of the plant of the genus cannabis is incorporated.”

While a fairly restrictive definition compared to many other legal states, advocates are encouraged by the development, as North Dakota patients were previously expressly prohibited from using cannabis products other than flower, tinctures, capsules and topical patches.

The new law requires edibles to contain no more than 5 milligrams of THC per serving in a package that can be up to 50 milligrams total.

In written testimony discussing the legislation, the sponsor emphasized that, “if this bill becomes law, it would be the most conservative edibles law in the nation.”

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North Dakota Senate Committee Rejects Bill To Expand Marijuana Decriminalization That Had Already Passed House

A North Dakota Senate committee has defeated a House-passed bill that sought to reduce the state penalty for low-level marijuana possession to a $150 civil fine.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted 5–2 to reject the bill, HB 1596, from Rep. Liz Conmy (D). While the proposal had support from county prosecutors and defense attorneys in the state, police and sheriffs departments were broadly opposed.

“The voters have spoken on this issue,” Stephanie Ingebretsen, who testified on behalf of the Chiefs of Police Association of North Dakota. “They’re not interested in legalization and would like it to stay a criminal offense.”

While North Dakota in 2019 enacted what advocacy groups refer to as a marijuana decriminalization law that removed the risk of jail time for possessing under a half-ounce of cannabis, possession nevertheless remains a criminal infraction and carries a fine of up to $1,000.

While voters have not weighed in on decriminalization itself, last year they rejected an adult-use legalization ballot initiative that would have created a commercial cannabis market. Voters also rejected an earlier legalization proposal at the ballot box in 2022.

The newly rejected bill, HB 1596, would have made simple possession of up to half an ounce of marijuana a civil citation. That change would remove the need for courtroom appearances, which proponents said would help decongest the state’s clogged court system and free up prosecutorial resources for more pressing concerns.

“To give you an idea of the magnitude of time, energy and resources extended,” sponsor Conmy told colleagues, “between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2024—four years in North Dakota—there were 8,676 marijuana charges, 7,365 cases opened, 17,000 hearings, 2,357 cases with a public defender appointed. And all of these cases were handled by our state’s attorneys.”

More than 90 percent of cases involved possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, she said.

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ND Rep. Emily O’Brien under review by Ethics Commission for using taxpayer money to benefit her company

North Dakota State Representative Emily O’Brien has recently been accused of using her elected office to the financial benefit of her employer, the Bioscience Association of North Dakota (BioND). Currently, she serves as the company’s Chief Operating Officer.

In the 2023 legislative session, O’Brien sponsored House Bill 1455. This legislation would grant tax exemptions for raw materials, single-use product contact systems, and reagents used for biologic manufacturing. According to an email crafted by State Representative and Citizens Alliance of North Dakota (CAND) Executive Director Brandon Prichard, the legislation would give a unique benefit to BioND. BioND serves as a recruitment and coordination tool for bioscience companies that currently operate in North Dakota, and potential investors that could bring bioscience operations to the state. 

CAND received this complaint, which lists several violations of ND Century Code 12.1-13-02. This code bans public servants from obtaining a pecuniary interest in any property, transaction, or business that may be impacted by official action or information to which they have exclusive access in their role as a public servant.

Thus far, BioND has obtained $1,670,000 in funding from the State of North Dakota since 2019. O’Brien’s key votes on two legislative items have played a pivotal role in this funding. Prichard noted that these votes raise “questions about her impartiality and commitment to serving the public interest.”

It should be noted that O’Brien is the chair of the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee (LAFRC). Any ethics rules and conflict of interest rules go through her committee. In effect, Rep. O’Brien is in charge of the very rules she is violating.

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FBI sent several informants to Standing Rock protests, court documents show

Up to 10 informants managed by the FBI were embedded in anti-pipeline resistance camps near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation at the height of mass protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016. The new details about federal law enforcement surveillance of an Indigenous environmental movement were released as part of a legal fight between North Dakota and the federal government over who should pay for policing the pipeline fight. Until now, the existence of only one other federal informant in the camps had been confirmed. 

The FBI also regularly sent agents wearing civilian clothing into the camps, one former agent told Grist in an interview. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, operated undercover narcotics officers out of the reservation’s Prairie Knights Casino, where many pipeline opponents rented rooms, according to one of the depositions. 

The operations were part of a wider surveillance strategy that included drones, social media monitoring, and radio eavesdropping by an array of state, local, and federal agencies, according to attorneys’ interviews with law enforcement. The FBI infiltration fits into a longer history in the region. In the 1970s, the FBI infiltrated the highest levels of the American Indian Movement, or AIM. 

The Indigenous-led uprising against Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access oil pipeline drew thousands of people seeking to protect water, the climate, and Indigenous sovereignty. For seven months, participants protested to stop construction of the pipeline and were met by militarized law enforcement, at times facing tear gas, rubber bullets, and water hoses in below-freezing weather.

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North Dakota senator Doug Larsen and his wife and two kids die in plane crash

North Dakota senator Doug Larsen, as well as his wife and two kids, have died in a plane crash.

The small plane they were travelling in crashed in Utah, a Senate leader said Monday. Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators.

The plane crashed Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said all four people on board the plane were killed.

“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Hogue wrote in his email. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”

“I’m not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy,” Hogue wrote. “Hold your family close today.”

The crash of the single-engine Piper plane was being investigated, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, the social media website formerly called Twitter.

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‘Self-serving’ North Dakota GOP boosts own meal allowance after axing free school lunch bill

Republicans in North Dakota are facing criticism this week after they voted to boost their own budgets for meal reimbursements, even as they blocked an expansion of a free lunch program for low-income school students.

The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reports that the Republican-dominated North Dakota Senate voted to ratify the boost to meal reimbursements for lawmakers and state workers just 10 days after the same institution narrowly blocked a bill that would have expanded the state’s free lunch program.

According to the Forum, the legislation had previously passed through North Dakota’s House of Representatives and would have “dedicated $6 million over the next two school years to cover lunch costs for K-12 students with family incomes below double the federal poverty level,” meaning that “children from families of four making less than $60,000 a year would have qualified.”

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North Dakota official says ‘no evidence’ supports suspect’s claim teen was Republican ‘extremist’

A North Dakota official said that there’s “no evidence” supporting Shannon Brandt’s claim that 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson was part of a “Republican extremist group” before he allegedly used his car to hit the teenager, who later died.

Brandt, 41, is being charged with criminal vehicular homicide, as well as leaving the scene of a crash involving a death after the incident in the early Sunday morning hours. He was held in the Stutsman County Jail until Tuesday, when he posted a $50,000 bond and was released.

The incident happened after a “street dance” in McHenry, North Dakota and Brandt told state first responders’ radio that he struck the pedestrian with an SUV because the pedestrian was threatening him,” a probable-cause affidavit states. The document also states that Brandt fled the scene, but later returned and called 911.

Brandt also thought that Ellingson was part of a “Republican extremist group,” and then allegedly hit him, according to the court document. 

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4 Farmers Found Dead in Wheat Field, Throwing Town’s Entire Harvest Season Into Turmoil

A North Dakota farmer and three farm hands, all three from the same family, were found dead on Monday in what law enforcement officials have described as a likely murder-suicide.

In the small town of barely 1,000, in the midst of harvest season, loved ones are living what they’ve called a “complete nightmare.”

Douglas Dulmage, 56, a farmer, husband and father of two, was found shot dead in his combine in his family’s field south of Cando, North Dakota.

Outside of the combine, Justin Bracken, 34, Richard Bracken, 64, and Robert Bracken, 59, also of Cando, lay dead in the field they’d been helping him harvest. A .357 revolver was found near the bodies, according to The Associated Press.

In a statement released via Facebook on Tuesday, Towner County Sheriff Andrew Hillier described what his deputies found.

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