South Dakota’s Senate Republican leader says that a committee will investigate a suspended senator for allegedly harassing a legislative aide during an exchange over childhood vaccines and breastfeeding. Sen. Casey Crabtree, the Senate GOP leader, had declined to provide details of the alleg…
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has yet to make herself available to the Capitol press during the first three weeks of the state’s legislative session. It breaks with a decades-old ritual of South Dakota governors holding a weekly news conference to publicly discuss their policy initiatives an…
North Dakota lawmakers are weighing what to do about the state's pension plan for public employees, which faces a nearly $2 billion shortfall from full funding.
Supporters of eminent domain bills in the Legislature testified this week that they would protect property owners from pipeline companies, while opponents believe the legislation could harm infrastructure projects in the state and hamper future energy and agricultural development.
North Dakota has among the least restrictive gun laws in the country, but some conservative lawmakers believe the state Legislature should lift nearly all limits on where weapons can be carried.
Secretary of State Michael Howe's office is monitoring more than 30 election-related bills in the Legislature, a nationwide trend since the 2020 presidential election.
A bill in North Dakota’s Legislature would provide a way around the state's corporate farming law, which supporters say would provide a needed boost to livestock production but detractors say opens the door to foreign and corporate ownership of farmland.
A bill to restrict drag shows and cabaret performances in North Dakota is one step closer to becoming a law.
The South Dakota Senate has suspended a Republican state senator in a rare move that stripped her of legislative power while keeping the allegations against her a secret. Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller told reporters earlier Thursday that she was being punished following an exchange she had with a legislative aide about vaccinations. The Republican-controlled Senate voted to form a committee to investigate Frye-Mueller’s conduct and suspend her from voting or holding other rights of an elected official. Republican Sen. Michael Rohl, who initiated the motion to suspend Frye-Mueller, said in a statement that it was based on “serious allegations” and the need to ensure a safe working environment for employees. Frye-Mueller has opposed vaccination requirements in schools.
A former North Dakota lawmaker who lost his bid for reelection last year is back at the Legislature this year, hired for his expertise on water issues.
North Dakota lawmakers have proposed a bill that would keep private the addresses and phone numbers of criminal defendants before trials, as well as the names of police officers involved in shootings while authorities investigate what happened.
Some participants in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection are taking their case that the 2020 presidential election was stolen to sympathetic audiences, including elected officials, in red states. In South Dakota, Republican lawmakers on Wednesday welcomed Trennis Evans III as he urged them to pass a resolution encouraging “humane and fair treatment” of those, like himself, who faced or are facing federal charges related to the deadly siege. The resolution failed — but the hearing underscored how sympathy for the Jan. 6 attack resounds among the grassroots of the GOP’s right wing. Republicans willing to confront such rhetoric face pushback.
The North Dakota Senate will soon vote on a bill revising the state's abortion laws in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned last year.
A tussle between conservative women serving in the North Dakota House of Representatives and their historically male-dominated leadership ranks has morphed into legislation that could shake up the power structure of the Capitol.
"Shark Tank" entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary is heading up a new investment program in North Dakota, another project he's promoting in the state.
The North Dakota House of Representatives has passed a bill requiring landfills to get state approval before accepting wind turbine blades.
North Dakota's Tourism and Marketing Division plans to spend $3.1 million advertising the state this year with a new campaign called "Hello."
A relaunched effort to attract workers and families to settle in North Dakota aims to rely on local “community champions” to act as connectors between newcomers and local employment.
A North Dakota legislative panel on Tuesday heard a raft of bills opponents have called discriminatory toward transgender people, prompting familiar arguments to resurface around topics such as school sports participation.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, along with the state’s Republican attorney general, say the state will prosecute pharmacists who dispense abortion-inducing pills. The Food and Drug Administration recently implemented a rule change that broadens access to the pills. The rule change’s impact has been blunted in states like South Dakota by laws limiting abortion broadly and the pills specifically. The Republican governor and South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley released a letter to South Dakota pharmacists saying they are “subject to felony prosecution” if they procure or dispense abortion-inducing drugs. The state bans all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant person.
As Indian Country braces for a potentially seismic court decision, Native American lawmakers and tribal advocates in North Dakota are hoping to cement decades-old federal adoption rules in state law.
The state Senate has rejected a bill to add a solar energy representative to North Dakota's EmPower Commission.
Content by Meadowlark Initiative. Meadowlark Initiative's mentorship program helps North Dakota ranchers and property owners better their land operations.
Content by Meadowlark Initiative. Since 1970, North Dakota has lost 53% of its grassland bird populations. That's 720 million birds, and includes the western meadowlark, which is declining at a rate of 1.3% per year in the state.
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The state Senate has passed a bill that would double the existing fines for drivers who are caught doing more than 20 mph over the posted speed limit in North Dakota.
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A Native American tribe in South Dakota says several of its members died when December storms buried their reservation in snow and left them stranded. Leaders of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe said this month that the deaths could have been prevented had it not been for a series of systemic failures. Tribal members are expressing anger at many people, including Republican Gov. Kristi Noem and the Indian Health Services — saying the little help that was offered came too late. A 12-year-old asthmatic boy who spent days struggling to breathe was among the dead — because an ambulance couldn't get to his home in time to help him.
Call it bipartisanship: As Rep. Todd Porter walked into the Capitol one day earlier this month, he spotted Sen. Kathy Hogan lying on the floor. She had just fallen while leaving for the day.
North Dakota's State Library is rolling out 10 book vending machines in communities lacking libraries, including Center, Fort Yates and McClusky.
Rachel Booth and her husband have tried without success for the past three years to have children.
Gov. Kristi Noem is demanding the U.S. Department of Justice investigate why her family's social security numbers were leaked when Congress released its findings in the Jan. 6 investigation. The House Select Commission on the Ja. 6 Investigation's final report in December included White House logs of visitors in December 2020. About 2,000 people's social security numbers were included in the report, including numbers for Noem, her husband, her three children and her daughter's husband. Noem visited the White House in December 2020 and met with former President Donald Trump in her official capacity as governor.
Some northern Burleigh County residents worry that a proposed pipeline that would transport carbon dioxide emissions from Midwestern ethanol plants to North Dakota for permanent underground storage could hamper development as Bismarck continues growing to the north.
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