Plain Talk

Minot, N.D. — When outgoing state Rep. Rick Becker announced that he would be challenging incumbent U.S. Senator John Hoeven in the general election as an independent, after having the NDGOP's endorsement to Hoeven this spring, state Republican party chairman Perrie Schafer described Becker as having "left the party." "I think he's got a point," Senator Kevin Cramer said of Schafer's remark on this episode of Plain Talk. Becker is the founder of the Bastiat Caucus of Trump-aligned state lawmakers and activists, though has disputed the idea that he is anything but a member of the NDGOP. "This move to run as an independent...it surprised me," Cramer continued, referring to Becker's announcement. He noted that Becker had spoken about respecting the vote of Republican delegates at the state party's convention. "This really is a violation of that." "If he's the leader of a party, it's a third party," Cramer continued. "I think it isolates him." Cramer and I also discussed Rep. Liz Cheney's primary loss in Wyoming - Cramer accused her of "myopia" - as well as some elements controversial Inflation Reduction Act that he likes and feels may be beneficial to North Dakota. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk publish? Consider subscribing, for free! Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

North Dakota's general election got a lot more interesting over the last couple of weeks. First, Cara Mund, a former Miss America, jumped into the U.S. House race as an independent to take on Republican incumbent Kelly Armstrong and Democratic-NPL challenger Mark Haugen. Then state Rep. Rick Becker went back on his statements in support of the decision of Republican delegates at the NDGOP state convention, which chose incumbent Senator John Hoeven over him, and re-entered the U.S. Senate race. Then the Secretary of State approved the signatures for a ballot measure legalizing medical marijuana. That's a lot of things to talk about, but on this episode of Plain Talk, fill-in co-host Jamie Selzler and I tackle them all. David Owen, a representative of New Approach North Dakota, the group backing the marijuana measure, joined to talk about how they were able to run a successful petition campaign, and they'll win over North Dakota voters to their cause. Also, Jamie and I discuss Mund, Becker, and Rep. Liz Cheney's defeat in the Wyoming primary. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe, for free! Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Kansas, a very red, very Republican state, just voted, in a landslide, to maintain status quo protections for abortion. Meanwhile, in Congress, there was a vicious debate over the last week over who hates veterans. In Michigan, Democrats backed a pro-Trump, election conspiracy Republican in a primary against a GOP incumbent that voted to impeach Trump. Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss these topics, and more, on this episode of Plain Talk.

The ESG movement in venture capitalism - the acronym stands for "environment, social, and governance" - is a threat to North Dakota's economic well-being, but not just in the way you might be imagining. Our state's primary industries - energy and agriculture - are also carbon-heavy industries, which is why our state runs afoul of the "environment" part of ESG. Our state is investing big money into improving the environmental impact of our industries - we created, for example, the clean and sustainable energy fund which is driving money into things like carbon capture projects - but the ESG movement isn't terribly pragmatic. It's very ideological, viewing only certain types of renewable energy as satisfying the "environmental" component of it the platform. Which is why the credit rating energy Standard & Poor just gave North Dakota a "moderately negative" (their term) rating, tabbing our state as a "climate transaction risk." That's bad for North Dakota, and in more ways than one, as Treasurer Thomas Beadle explained on this episode of Plain Talk. He points out that this sort of rating doesn't just deter capital investment into our biggest and most important industries, it can also drive up the cost of bonding for the state. It works like this: since our primary industries are rated a risk, and our state government gets most of its revenues, directly or indirectly, from those industries, then our bonds to build things like highways are seen as a riskier investment. Thus, we have to pay more to borrow that money. What can our state do about it? Beadle points to things like the state-owned Bank of North Dakota, and the aforementioned sustainable energy fund (other states are calling this sort of thing a "green bank"), as factors that help, but until national, and international, banks and governments come to realize that market manipulations do not obviate our need for baseload energy, we're stuck with things as they are. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk publish? Subscribe on your favorite podcast service. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

As the controversy over a corn milling plant near Grand Forks, and the Grand Forks Air Force Base, to be built by a Chinese company whose leader is a member of the Chinese Communist Party, continues to unfold, Sen. Kevin Cramer sees the need for legislation to address the matter. Federal officials are in the process of reviewing the land purchase and potential development for national security threats, but on this episode of Plain Talk, Cramer said more needs to be done. "Agricultural investments are largely exempt. That needs to change," he said. Cramer also addressed the controversy over the PACT Act, which would provide medical benefits for soldiers exposed to toxic burn pits while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Supporters of the bill, including comedian Jon Stewart, ripped Republican Senators who changed their vote from "yes" to "no" after the bill came back from the House. Cramer says the reason he changed his vote is because House Democrats added a "technical glitch" that turns almost a half-trillion dollars of spending into non-discretionary spending. "Democrats have played politics with the lives of veterans, Cramer says. "At the end of the day, the bill will pass," he said, calling his "no" vote "procedural." Cramer also addressed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify same-sex marriage in federal law. He says he doesn't begrudge his colleague, Republican Congressman Kelly Armstrong, for voting for the bill in the House, but he doesn't believe it goes far enough to protect religious liberty. And even if it's tweaked, Cramer said it would be unlikely he'd vote for it. As for the Inflation Reduction Act, which just came out of negotiations between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, Cramer called it "a disaster." He said the permitting reforms that Manchin won as a concession from Schumer are unlikely to accomplish much. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk are published? Subscribe, for free, on the podcast platform of your choice. Forum Communications Compoany is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Minot, N.D. — Last week the North Dakota Democratic-NPL saw some internecine conflict over their U.S. House candidate, Mark Haugen, who is pro-life and supports the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Patrick Hart, the chairman of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the challenges of managing the disparate points of view in his party. We also spoke about what his party is do to find its way in a state where Republicans are seeing historic levels of dominance, and where he sees some opportunities for Democratic-NPL candidates in the 2022 election and beyond. Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the strategy of Democrats promoting extreme Republican candidates in primaries with the hope of defeating that candidate in the general. Given the fraught times we're living in, should anyone be supporting extremism, even if the calculation is to defeat it? We also discussed Congressman Kelly Armstrong's vote to codify same-sex marriage in federal law, and Attorney General Drew Wrigley's decision not to seek an external investigation of a scandal over deleted email accounts in his office. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, by way of your favorite podcast platform. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

I suspect that many in the general public, when they hear about carbon capture, think of it as some pie-in-the-sky thing. Something that's being developed. That's in the work. Not really something that is, as yet, a practical part of modern industry. Except, the State of North Dakota just permitted its first carbon capture project under state primacy. Which is to say, that state officials reviewed and permitted the project, not the feds. It's the first time that's ever happened in the United States. That state control made all the difference. That's what Gerald Bachmeier, the chief executive officer of Red Trail Energy, said on this episode of Plain Talk. His company just added carbon capture to their ethanol facility near Richardton, North Dakota. It officially began capturing carbon on June 16, 2022, and they expect to store underground 100 percent of the 180,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually from its fermentation process. That's a big deal, but the regulatory process leading up to it may be the bigger deal. According to Bachmeier, it took North Dakota officials less than a year to permit their project. He compared that to the experience of another ethanol plant in Iowa which waited more than six years to get their permit from the feds at the EPA. He expects North Dakota will be able to permit future projects even faster. "Ours took a little longer because we were the first one," he said. Going forward, his company expects to add to their capture operations. He says the next phase is to capture the carbon coming off their heating systems, at which point their facility will be nearly carbon zero. He also said a part of their business in the future may be selling access to their storage well to other carbon-emitting businesses. And that's a key factor in all of this. For Red Trail, capturing this carbon wasn't just a good environmental decision, but a good business decision as well. While the cost of developing this project was around $38 million, he expects his company will bring in upwards of $9 million per year in revenues from 45Q tax credits from the federal government, as well as commanding $0.15 cents per gallon more for their ethanol thanks to a better carbon rating. Bachmeier sees a bright future for carbon capture. "For North Dakota's industries, I think we have a huge opportunity." Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Last week, in response to an open record request filed by myself and others for emails, Attorney General Drew Wrigley announced that his office wouldn't be able to satisfy those requests in full. An employee, who was not a supervisor or attorney in his office and who had no authority to do so, ordered the deletion of former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's email account. Stenehjem passed away earlier this year. Wrigley, who had already announced a campaign for the office, was appointed his replacement by Governor Doug Burgum. Subsequent to the deletion of Stenehjem's account, the employee also ordered the deletion of Deputy Attorney General Troy Seibel's account. Seibel left the office earlier this year after Wrigley informed him that he would be bringing in his own personnel for that position. The original records requests were part of investigations into controversy over a cost overrun for newly-constructed office space for employees of the AG's office, but these deletions have become a controversy in their own right. Wrigley addressed the matter on this episode of Plain Talk. He declined to name the employee during our interview, but indicated that afterward his office would be releasing the communication in which the account deletions were ordered, and that this would identify the employee. He also declined to discuss what disciplinary actions his office would take with regard to this employee, saying they're an "internal personnel" matter. He added that he'd received at least one "plea" not to identify this person publicly, but said he had no legal authority to keep that information from the public. There is "no way to ascertain" the number of emails that were deleted. Wrigley also said that while he wasn't aware of any situation where records that needed to be retained for on-going matters of litigation, "the timeline was very rapid" for the removal of the accounts. Wrigley said that he assumes a "vast" number of the emails in those accounts were also sent to other state employees, and so are maintained as records in those accounts, but with the accounts now gone, and with the state's IT personnel assuring him there's no way to get them back, there's also no way to measure how much information is now lost. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Governor Doug Burgum's administration is on the path to proposing some very significant policy to address North Dakota's child care process in the upcoming legislative session. It will be "something different from what you usually see from our administration," Lt. Governor Brent Sanford said on this issue of Plain Talk. Child care has been talked about as an urgent public policy need for, well, about a generation now, most recently at a Chamber of Commerce event in Fargo, yet there hasn't been much in the way of substantial progress on the issue. Part of the problem is politics. "Our legislator's eyes glass over" when this issue gets brought up in the context of early childhood education. "They'll say 'we don't want to back the school bus up to the maternity ward'," Sanford says. He thinks a more persuasive approach will be to talk about the need for childcare policy in the context of the economy. Ensuring access to affordable child care "is what we have to do to retain and recruit," Sanford says, especially because the private sector can't seem to provide that. "The daycare model is uneconomic," Sanford argues. "It doesn't work." In fact, he says, it only works to the extent it is now because of low-wage workers. He pointed out that ratio policies, which dictate the number of children per daycare worker a facility can have, were "built when we still had minimum wage workers. Who still has minimum wage workers?" Sanford says the administration is still working on a policy proposal, but that it may include revenue from the state's Legacy fund to make things work.

President Joe Biden is putting the blame for high gas prices on gas station owners. "My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril," he wrote in a tweet posted before Independence Day. "Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you're paying for the product. And do it now." How does an actual gas station owner feel about that? "He seem to think we can drop the price twenty cents to be patriotic," Kent Satrang said on this episode of Plain Talk. Satrang is the owner of Petroserve USA, which has several locations in North Dakota and Minnesota. He said doesn't really get to choose his prices. They're set by a very competitive market. A station that is selling fuel at a price that's significantly higher than competing stations simply won't see business. And besides, Satrang argues, companies like his don't make much on the fuel anyway. Satrang says his margin amounts to a "few cents a gallon." "The actual credit card company makes more off our fuel for their fees than we do," he said, adding that most of his profits come from the food, drinks, and other items sold in his convenience stores. Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the unhappy state of America as another Independence Day comes and goes.

America's industry, from power production to agriculture to manufacturing, needs "to be governed by policymakers not lawsuits." That's what Jason Boherer, president of the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council, said on this episode of Plain Talk. He sees the recent Supreme Court decision in North Dakota v. EPA as a boon not just for his industry, but for American democracy in that it will require Congress and other legislative bodies to actually make a decision on what it wants emissions policy to be, instead of punting the question to regulators and judges. That's a more transparent process, he argues. A more predictable one. That, in the end, will serve America better. And while some are arguing that the Supreme Court's finding that the EPA didn't have authority from Congress to regulate emissions in the way it was will endanger the environment, Bohrer sees it as helping. He argues that projects such as carbon capture, of which there are many here in North Dakota, will be more viable now that they don't have to match pace with a timeline from the EPA that seemed calculated, on a political basis, to be "impossible to meet," according to Bohrer. This ruling "increases the odds that you're going to see carbon capture on some of our projects," he claims, and that seems likely. Which is good news for North Dakota. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on the podcast platform of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as a pro-life Democrat. There are pro-choice Republicans too, of course, but on this episode of Plain Talk, it was Mark Haugen, the Democratic-NPL candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, who is staunchly pro-life, who we were speaking to. Haugen's party leaders have described the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade as "evil," but Haugen isn't too worried about that. "Pat's a good friend of mine," he said, referring to party chairman Patrick Hart, and adding that they'd discussed the matter. Still, Haugen feels it's important to remember that pro-life Democrats are a part of the party. "Are we the minority? Absolutely. But that's democracy," he said. "I have to work hard at explaining my position. Haugen describes that position as being "whole life," arguing that Democrats should focus on social assistance policies to help mothers and children. Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I also discussed the political ramifications of overturning Roe v. Wade, both locally and nationally, as well as the latest revelations of the January 6 committee. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe, for free, on the podcast platform of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org

Minot, N.D. — You couldn't possibly have missed the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Roe v. Wade precedent which held that it was unconstitutional for state governments to ban abortion. The ruling was unambiguous. "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion," the court ruled. "Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives." North Dakota, like many other states, has legislation regulating abortion which was written so that it would take effect should the Roe precedent be overturned. On this episode of Plain Talk, the state official responsible for making that determination, Attorney General Drew Wrigley, says we can expect his decision imminently. "I expect to be announcing that decision in a matter...of hours not days," he said, adding that he doesn't expect to make the announcement today, but it's coming soon. That's not surprising given how clear the Supreme Court was in their opinion. Wrigley noted that while researching the issue, he was surprised to see that the 2007 "trigger bill" banning abortion was bipartisan. It was "even sponsored by a Democrat," he noticed. The bill in question was House Bill 1466, and its primary sponsor was former Rep. James Kerzman, a Democrat. The other House co-sponsor was Rep. Ralph Metcalf, who was also a Democrat. Rep. Merle Boucher (a gubernatorial candidate in 2004), Rep. Bill Amerman, Sen. Joan Heckaman (the current Minority Leader), Sen. Richard Marcellais, and Sen. Tim Mathern were other notable Democrats who voted to pass the bill. In addition to the 2007 law, there is also a 2019 trigger bill that banned the most common type of surgical abortion, though Wrigley said that bill was largely moot given the 2007 law. Once these certifications are completed, Wrigley's office will focus on other bills regulating abortion that haven't been enforced because they've been enjoined by the courts based on the Roe decision. Among these are a ban on abortions after a heartbeat is detected, regulation of the disposal of aborted babies, and a bill regulating hospital admissions for abortions. Wrigley also addressed the status of his inquiry into a land purchase made by a trust associated with billionaire Bill Gates. His office has sought information on the transaction, and the trust. If it's found to be in violation of a state prohibition on corporate farming, Wrigley says the trust will be required to divest itself of the property.

Sen. Kevin Cramer and I will never agree about former President Donald Trump. I think the man was a disgrace to his office. Cramer would be fine if we elected him president again. But one thing we agree on, as we discussed the on-going hearings of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot, is that Vice President Mike Pence was the hero of that story. He held his oath to the constitution higher than his loyalty to Trump, and that was a heroic act. Though I still can't fathom why Cramer, who sees Pence as the hero, can't recognize that Trump is the villain. But you'll have to listen to this episode of Plain Talk to hear him explain that. As to gas prices, the roots of our problems lay in the unwillingness of the American left to recognize that we still need oil, Our world runs on it. It's unavoidable. The efforts to put the oil industry out of business have only hamstrung its ability to deliver us a product that is vital to our economy and our quality of life. Gas prices are higher than they need to be because they're fighting a Sisyphean struggle against anti-oil politics. Cramer also discussed the gun control issue, which is much on the minds of Americans after shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. Cramer's not a fan of red flag laws - he responded to some recent criticism of his argument that Republicans are more interested in winning "red wave" elections than in passing red flag laws - but he is open to steps that can be taken to address the potential for violent shooters. One idea he supports is allowing juvenile records to be used as disqualifiers in background checks for gun purchases. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe on the platform of your choice.

The North Dakota Republican Party, the dominant force in our state's politics, is deeply divided. If anyone was hoping that primary night, which saw that divide driving the debate in legislative competitions across the state, was going to resolve things they're in for a disappointment. Republicans across the state voted, and the NDGOP remains about as divided as ever. We talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk. First Jim Poolman, former insurance commissioner and former vice chairman of the NDGOP, joined Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I, then Pat Finken, a long-time veteran of state politics and head of the Brighter Future Alliance, chimed in. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on the podcasting platform of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Minot, N.D. — Shannon Roers Jones is a state lawmaker who is currently halfway through her second term representing Fargo-area District 46. She's also a candidate for mayor of Fargo, and she has been, arguably, the most visible candidate thanks in no small part to a political mugging her father got from the Fargo's city commissioners, including two of her opponents in the mayoral race. On this episode of Plain Talk, Roers Jones talks about what it would be like serving as a mayor and lawmaker (she hasn't decided if she'd do both if elected mayor), the claims that her mayoral duties, if elected, would clash with her career duties (she works for the family business, Roers Construction, as her day job), and what she describes as "media bias" in the local coverage of this race. "The Forum has chosen to publish only negative stories and only negative letters," Roers Jones claims, referring to the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, the flagship newspaper for Forum Communications, my employers. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Click here to subscribe, for free, on your favorite podcasting service. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Inflation is a real problem. It's making us poorer. Your wages aren't being cut, but the cost of living your life is growing faster than what you earn. Fuel prices are up. Utility bills are going higher. Groceries cost more. Hell, everything costs more. But the subject of inflation is a lot more complicated than what's presented by the politicians and the pundits. On this episode of Plain Talk, Dr. David Flynn, a professor of economics at the University of North Dakota, discussed what's causing inflation, and what can do about it. One of the hardest parts of talking about this subject is that there's many different causes that necessitate many solutions. Interest rates are part of the solution, but then so is trade policy. How can we ease supply line snaggles? How can we shorten supply lines? How can we make our economy more nimble so that it can respond to change without necessarily driving up prices? And how do we drive the wage-price spiral? Where higher cost wages drive higher-cost goods and services which in turn creates demand for higher wages again? Earning more money is good, except it doesn't mean much when the cost of living is growing about as fast. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on just about any podcast service you can think of. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

In 2019, state Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, a Democrat from Fargo, introduced a red flag bill. It would have created a judicial process through which guns could be taken away from people exhibiting troubling behavior. I was among the many critics of the bill, and it failed decisively, early in the session, in the House. But is there merit to the idea, if not Hanson's specific bill? She joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it with me along with Wednesday co-host Chad Oban. We talked about how we can set up a process to get guns out of the hands of dangerous people while simultaneously ensuring the process isn't abused, or that it doesn't deny responsible gun owners their rights. We also had a lengthy discussion about gun politics, which like so many hot-button political issues are another front in America's endless culture wars. Chad and I also discussed the threats made against myself and my family recently, which I've written about, and our predictions for the outcome of the state's upcoming June primary vote. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on any podcast service you choose. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

We live in a political environment where it seems everyone is trying to undermine the public's trust in our election laws. From the right are baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. From the left are claims, such as the one made by Democratic Sec. of State candidate Jeffre Powell, that when politicians talk about election integrity it's a "code word for voter suppression." State Rep. Michael Howe is seeking the NDGOP's nomination for Secretary of State, and he argues that he way through this food fight is transparency. "People want to know more about their elections. And rightfully so," he said on this episode of Plain Talk. There is "a lot of misinformation out there," and the way to combat it is to be "open and transparency." Asked about the election conspiracies promoted by former President Donald Trump, Howe, who said he voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, said that Joe Biden won the election and that he's confident votes in North Dakota were counted accurately, though he said he couldn't speak for what happened in other states. Howe also discussed claims from his primary opponent, Marvin Lepp, that North Dakota's voting machines are outdated and insecure. He expressed support for enhancing reporting requirements for political candidates and committees in North Dakota. He talked about improving the aspects of the Secretary of State's job that have to do with business filings and land management. Want to be notified with new episodes of Plain Talk release? Subscribe, for free, on your favorite podcast service. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

"We can't get enough school counselors." That's what Congressman Kelly Armstrong had to say on this episode of Plain Talk. We've all be talking about how we can make our school after in the wake of another horrific tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, and much of that has been focused on proposals that would make our schools seem like prisons, with more law enforcement on campus and more restrictions on building access. Armstrong mentioned that he recently had the opportunity to spend some time in Israel. "I don't want our children to have to go to school like they have to," he said. While saying he wouldn't support any new restrictions on gun sales or ownership, he said there are things we can do to help. Like hiring more school counselors. Or making some reforms to the juvenile court system that continue to protect the privacy of juvenile criminal records but don't restrict their utility in background checks for gun transactions. Also on this episode, Mike Hopkins, the CEO of Bakken Energy, gives an update on his company's hydrogen hub project. They're in the process of obtaining asserts from the Dakota Synfuels Plant, which processed coal into fuel, and once they have possession they're going to get to work using North Dakota natural gas to make hydrogen while using the state's advantageous geology to store the carbon that process produces. Bakken Energy has entered into an agreement with the tribal government of the MHA Nation to get gas from oil development on their lands, which would help mitigate North Dakota's lingering problems with flaring, an issue that's been particularly acute on tribal lands. In addition to the supply side of his business, Hopkins also spoke about the emerging markets for hydrogen, and how his business will serve them. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk when they're released? Subscribe - for free! - on the podcast service of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Governor Doug Burgum is spending big to influence the North Dakota Republican Party's legislative primaries. The people on the pointy end of that stick, namely the Bastiat Caucus wing of Trumpy populist candidates, don't like that so much, and they've even come up with some dubious legal arguments claiming it may be illegal. Are they right? Almost certainly not. But even beyond the legalities, is what Burgum doing kosher from just an ethical point of view? I discussed it on this episode of Plain Talk with my Wednesday co-host Chad Oban. We also hit on the state of some of those legislative races around the state - it's not looking so good for the Bastiats but District 8 is still a battleground - and touched on some upcoming conversations about gun control we're going to have on the show. Also on this episode, Cody Schuler, the new advocacy manager for the ACLU of North Dakota, joins to talk about his job and what issues his organization will be prioritizing going forward, with abortion being a big one given that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to overturn the Roe v. Wade precedent. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Consider subscribing, for free, on the podcasting platform of your choice! Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Minot, N.D. — In 2021 the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. Among those receiving a ring? Scott Davis from right here in North Dakota. Davis spent years serving our state as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He's in the private sector now, helping private organizations with their outreach to Native American communities, and some of that work has been for the Atlanta Braves. That team has a Native American-themed nickname, and those have been controversial. Davis has been working with the team to find common ground and support from Indian Country, and for that work the team gave him a ring. Davis talked about what it was like to receive that honor on this episode of Plain Talk. He also spoke about a major new initiative he helped broker between the Braves and the 7G Foundation, an organization that works to mold the next "seven generations" (that's where the name comes from) of Native American leaders through education and sports. The Braves will be hosting the Native American All-Star Baseball Showcase at Truist Park from July 16 - 17. High school baseball players of Native American descent from around the country will participate. Davis says it's a way for baseball to find new talent, and fun opportunity for Native American players. He thinks the major league teams, including the Braves, are going to find some prospects at the game. Players interested in participating can register at the 7G Foundation website. You can read the full press release for the game here. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Click here to subscribe, for free, on your favorite podcasting platform. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

MINOT, N.D. — Terrible news from Texas. Another mass shooting, this one taking the lives of 21 people, 19 of them school children. My Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the shooting, the reaction, and the exhausting debate we have after every one of these incidents on this episode of Plain Talk. Also, Roscoe Streyle, a Republican primary candidate for the state House in District 3, discusses an idea he has to cut the state's property taxes in half. Would it be permanent relief? How do we keep local governments from back-filling the state's relief with new tax hikes? How do we ensure that our schools and other local services continue to be adequately funded? Streyle answers those questions, and also discusses what it's like to be running in a contested legislative primary in a divided North Dakota Republican Party. Want to be notified about new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe, for free, on your favorite podcasting platform. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org

Minot, N.D. — Marvin Lepp would like to be North Dakota's next secretary of state. He's running as a Republican, though he said on this episode of Plain Talk that the office "really ought to be nonpartisan, and he's running on election integrity. He said he got more involved in politics in recent years during the debates over pandemic-era policies like business closings and mask mandates, and when he was thinking about running for office, decided secretary of state seemed like a good fit. He didn't seek the NDGOP's endorsement at the party's state convention earlier this year because he said his is a single-family home - he works in auto service and his wife is a homemaker - and it was a decision that was a difficult one to make. How can our elections be better? Lepp says North Dakota's election machines are running on antiquated software. He said there are questions about the mobile hotspots election workers use. He also said he's spoken to poll workers who told him that the company which manages North Dakota's election machines was able to remotely log into them to fix a firmware issue, something he feels raises security concerns, though he admitted he hadn't verified this claim. Does he think President Joe Biden won the 2020 election? Former President Donald Trump and his movement have made that a litmus test question for Republicans nationally. "He won in North Dakota," Lepp told me, referring to Trump. As for elsewhere, Lepp said he's "not sure" because there are "too many" questions lingering. Lepp also spoke about the non-election portions of the secretary of state job, including managing business filings and serving on important state boards such as the State Industrial Commission and the Land Board. Want to be alerted to new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite pocasting platform.

Jeffrey Powell is an administrator at Mayville State University and the Democratic-NPL candidate for Secretary of State. He was endorsed by the party's executive committee (he made a late decision to run so didn't attend the party's state convention in Minot) and in November will be facing off against one of two potential Republican candidates. State Rep. Michael Howe is squaring off with Bismarck mechanic Marvin Lepp in the NDGOP primary. Powell has been watching that race, and on this episode of Plain Talk, said it frustrates him when the Republican candidates talk about "election integrity," arguing that's a "code word for voter suppression." He said the primary job of a Secretary of State is to protect the right of the people to vote, and accused Republican lawmakers of enacting laws to suppress votes in past legislative sessions. Powell also spoke about running as a Democrat in a state that has become deeply Republican over the last couple of decades. He said there is a "sense of fear" among Democrats who think about running for office in North Dakota. He acknowledged that both Republicans and Democrats have become more extreme in recent years, but that the alleged danger is "more keenly felt by people who are more likely to be Democrats." Powell said he hasn't personally felt any danger in running for office. Also on this episode, Dickinson-based oil worker Riley Kuntz, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Senator John Hoeven for the NDGOP's primary nomination, spoke about why he decided to mount what he admits is a long-shot bid to defeat one of North Dakota's most popular political figures. He said he was disappointed state Rep. Rick Becker, who challenged Hoeven at the NDGOP's state convention, wasn't successful and felt he had to continue the challenge to Hoeven. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk publish? Consider subscribing on your favorite podcast platform. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

This year's primaries, from local legislative races to the national midterms, are in many ways a referendum on the influence of disgraced former President Donald Trump and his movement's on-going influence on the GOP. What did we learn after this week's primary elections? And the fundraising numbers we're seeing in North Dakota's Republican legislative primaries so far? We talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk. Matt Lewis, senior columnist for the Daily Beast and host of the Matt Lewis and the News podcast, joined to discuss the national races. Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discussed the more local races, where traditional or "establishment" legislative candidates seem to have an edge. Want to be notified of new episodes? Subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting service. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

When it comes to regulating air quality - both in terms of health and cosmetic measures like visibility - North Dakota does an excellent job. We have some of the cleanest air in the nation. Ours is one of only four states to have never violated a federal air quality standard protecting health or the environment. We've been building on that excellent record too. "Since 2002, total emissions from coal-powered electricity generation plants in North Dakota were reduced by 102,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, or 72%, and 41,600 tons of nitrogen oxide, down 55%," Patrick Springer reported last month. Despite this, the Biden administration argues that North Dakota's state-level management of regional haze isn't good enough. They want to layer more federal regulations on top through the EPA's Regional Haze Program. Mack McGuffey, an attorney who specializes in this area of environmental policy and is representing North Dakota's Lignite Energy Council, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the issue. He and his client are encouraging the public to provide public comment to the EPA, something you can do through CleanAirND.com, a website set up by the LEC to inform and facilitate that process. Matour Alier, who is running for the Fargo City Commission, also joined this episode. We talked about his objections to a recent column of mine that was critical of him, how a local candidate can stand out in a field of 15 contenders, and his experiences as a refugee who went from living in a camp for a decade to being a home owner in North Dakota. Click here to subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting service. "Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org."

Minot, N.D. — Will the U.S. Supreme Court strike down the Roe v. Wade precedent and make bans on abortions constitutional again? Will the federal government create new law regarding abortion, either codifying it as legal or creating national restrictions? And what are the political ramifications for all this? Sen. Kevin Cramer discussed these issues on this episode of Plain Talk. He also reacted to my recent interview with New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin whose new book contains an anecdote about January 6 which includes Cramer. We also discussed the situation in Ukraine, from the potential for food shortages as war ravages one of the world's great agriculture producers, to the increasingly assertive role America is playing in the conflict. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk when the publish? Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting app.

On January 6, as rioters were infiltrating the U.S. Capitol building, New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin was in the building with many of our national leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Kevin Cramer. He and co-author Alexander Burns tell that story in a new book, just released this week, called "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future." Martin spoke with co-host Chad Oban and I about what it was like to watch some of our nation's most recognizable political figures react to the riot in real-time as part of a larger narrative about the transition from the Trump era to Biden's current presidency. I wrote about an excerpt from Martin's book, describing Cramer's response to the riots, in a column earlier this week. Also on this episode, Chad and I discuss the political implications over the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade precedent. The debate over abortion is one thing, but the shift of that debate from the judiciary and back into the arena of democracy, where it would be settled by governors and state legislatures across the country has the potential to be one of the most profound turn of events in a generation or two of American politics. Want to follow Plain Talk? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform.

When President Joe Biden, as one of his first moves in office, canceled the Keystone XL pipeline it was "a symbol" for the oil and gas industry that the political situation would be hostile to them in the coming years. That lead them to curtail their investments in new production capacity, something that, per Smith, speaking on this episode of Plain Talk, is now contributing to higher fuel prices and a higher cost of living for Americans. Cheap energy is of enormous interest, not just to Americans but to the whole world, Dr. Smith says. "Cheap energy is the solution to poverty," he said, casting the debates on energy issues as a "conflict between the reduction of poverty and the interest in reducing carbon emissions." Though he says the world can't ignore climate issues, he has a hard time ranking them above the goal of lifting people out of poverty. Dr. Smith has also done extensive research in the role of trust, love, and empathy in a society, and spoke about those issues in the context of our low-trust society and political environment. He will be speaking about these topics more at a Tuesday, May 3, talk sponsored by North Dakota State University's Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth. If you want to participate in Dr. Smith's lecture, which will be part of the Menard Family Distinguished Speakers Series, visit the Challey Institute's page on the NDSU website.

Carbon capture and storage is a big deal for North Dakota. Not just because our state's economy is dominated by commodity-based industries - energy and agriculture - that emit a lot of carbon, but because the geology under our feet lends itself to storing captured carbon. There are billions in investments lined across several projects to not only capture and store carbon emitted in our state, but to bring carbon from other parts of the world here for storage as well. One of the first major projects is the Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, proposed by Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions, which would bring carbon emitted by ethanol plants across the upper midwest to our state for storage. Only, some landowners say the company hasn't been doing a good job at winning them over. On this episode of Plain Talk, Daryl Lies, the president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau, said some landowners had Summit Carbon representatives poking around on their land without permission. Kurt Swenson, himself a landowner who is in the process of negotiating with Summit, says the deals the company wants, and which North Dakota law allows, takes too much from landowners and doesn't compensate nearly high enough. These are important things, both men argue, because the future of the emerging carbon capture and storage industry in North Dakota hinges on how these first deals play out.

Minot, N.D. — Sen. Jessica Bell, a Republican from District 33, has a lengthy track record of reliably conservative policy making in the North Dakota Senate, which includes her consequential work to save a coal-fired power plant that employs, directly and indirectly, thousands of her constituents. Yet the delegates at the NDGOP's local district convention didn't endorse her for re-election. Instead they endorsed a man named Keith Boehm, who campaigned against Bell based on her votes against a bill regulating transgender participation in North Dakota school activities. How did a culture war issue come to be so much more important than jobs and taxes and sound governance? Sen. Bell talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk. "It was a bad bill," she said in explanation of her vote on the transgender activities issue. "It was poorly written." She said North Dakota's elected officials ought to be focused on issues important to North Dakota, and not national culture war issues. "Just because we saw it on Fox News doesn't mean it's appropriate," she said. She added that she does appreciate the challenge, however, in that it gives her the opportunity to talk about her work in the Senate. It is "pushing me to be better," she said. Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I talk about the roots of the controversy around the Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, and Sen. Ray Holmberg resigning from the Senate amid controversy.

North Dakota's initiated measure process has become a venue for deep-pocketed special interests to hire local fronts, pay mercenaries to collect signatures, and then pound their issues into the heads of voters with big-money marketing campaigns. What was intended to empower grassroots activists to keep state government honest has turned into a shortcut for political professionals to pretty much bypass the rigors and scrutiny of the legislative process. It is in this context that a new ballot measure, which seeks to reform the initiated measure process, enters the debate. The organizers have just submitted their signatures to Secretary of State Al Jaeger's office, and they're waiting on approval, but if passed by voters this measure would require that constitutional amendments get 60 percent of the statewide vote instead of a mere simple majority. It would also require that proposed amendments be limited to just one subject. It's an idea that "resonates with North Dakotans," Jeff Zarling from Protect North Dakota's Constitution, the group behind the measure, said on this episode of Plain Talk. Zarling, along with former North Dakota Adj. General Mike Haugen, is leading the group. He's spent the last year gathering signatures for his group's measure. "People were appalled that it takes a simple majority to amend the constitution," he told me. "Why should the constitution not have more respect than statutory law?" Zarling also made the point that, in these polarized times, a requirement that a proposed amendment to our state constitution garner a greater degree of consensus before becoming law isn't such a bad idea. "This isn't a partisan issue. This is a North Dakota issue. People want more moderation," he said.

Minot, N.D. — Ves Marinov serves the state of North Dakota as a member of the Highway Patrol. He's also a citizen of Fargo who is running for a city on the city's commission. He's campaigning on a platform of addressing crime, eliminating special assessments, moving the city to a ward system for its elected leaders, and making the city more efficient. But it's that first issue, given his day job, that Marinov, a new American from Bulgaria who immigrated in 2003, is most passionate about. "Crime has been rising," he said on this episode of Plain Talk. "We can't solve that by turning our police departments into another social services department." Recently I wrote a story about Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney, who holds the portfolio for policing issues for the city commission, emailing with Fargo Police Department detectives regarding what authorities describe as a robbery incident in which the mayor's son was the victim. In his emails, Mahoney told detectives not to follow a particular lead and suggested other leads to follow as if he were a member of the investigation team. Mahoney defended his actions to me, and Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski didn't see a problem either, but Marinov says that crossed a line. He said it's a "clear example" of one person having too much power over the city's law enforcement. "All the oversight is coming from the mayor," Marinov said. With regard to the investigation involving the mayor's son, "I feel that some ethical boundaries were crossed." Also on this episode, Fahad Nazer, the spokesman for the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington D.C., joins to talk about something North Dakota, America, and Saudi Arabia all care about, which is promoting stable oil markets.

Medical marijuana is legal in North Dakota, having been approved by voters by way of a ballot measure. Recreational marijuana, however, has taken a rockier road. Multiple ballot measure campaigns have failed in the past. House Bill 1420, considered during the last legislative session, and which would have also implemented legalization of non-medical use of marijuana, also failed. But the proponents of legalization are giving it another shot, and this time they're perhaps more organized than they have been before. On this episode of Plain Talk, state Rep. Matt Ruby (R-Minot) as well as Fargo-based attorney Mark Friese of the Vogel Law Firm, join to talk about their proposed measure. Their campaign is called New Approach North Dakota, and they have until July to get the requisite number of signatures to put it on the ballot. Also on this episode, my Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss a draft bill that would prohibit lawmakers from leading property to the state, as well as the intrigues of the upcoming June primaries, particularly in the legislative races.

Ben Hanson made an interesting point on this episode of Plain Talk. He's a former state lawmaker and candidate for the Cass County Commission, facing off against Tony Grindberg, who is another former state lawmaker. His race won't be settled by approval voting, but he lives in Fargo where approval voting is used for local races. Fargo has a lot of candidates running for mayor and the city commission, and Hanson wonders if approval voting, where voters cast a ballot for multiple preferred candidates, might have drawn more people into those races. He compares Fargo to West Fargo, where there are far fewer competitive races. Does he have a point? Maybe, though, as we talked about during his interview, Fargo isn't the only place where there are a lot of candidates for local offices. In Grand Forks, which doesn't use approval voting, there are something like 23 candidates for the school board. Whatever is happening, there is a lot for voters to pay attention to in local races this cycle. Hanson talked about his own races, and the challenges attendant to running for local office in general. Also on this episode, Sen. John Hoeven talks about winning the NDGOP's endorsement at the recent state convention, what's driving the rancor in politics both in the Republican party and across the political spectrum, and what he'll focus on as he begins his general election campaign.

"We all take it for granted," says Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, talking about energy that's reliably available and cost effective. She's running for the Public Service Commission, and she's the incumbent, only not really. She was appointed to the PSC by Gov. Doug Burgum a couple of months ago to replace Brian Kroshus who is now the Tax Commissioner. She's new to the job, in other words, though not to the area of public policy the PSC deals with. She was the first female board chair in history for both Capital Electric Co-Op and Central Power Co-Op. She's been on the Capital Electric board for about a decade. What will she bring to the PSC? "Innovation over regulation," she said on this episode of Plain Talk.

I'm a baseball nerd. And a political nerd. And as a person with a foot in both of those worlds, I can say that there's a lot of overlap between the two. There's just something about baseball that appeals to people who are also deeply interested in politics. Anyway, today is opening day for baseball, so on this episode of Plain Talk, three political nerds - Congressman Kelly Armstrong, my frequent co-host Chad Oban, and me, of course - take off their political hats and put on their baseball hats. We talk about our favorite teams (the Mets, the Dodgers, and the Yankees, respectively), our favorite baseball moments, and how we feel about the ways the game is changing. If you're a baseball nerd, or aspire to be one, this episode is for you.

Minot, N.D. — "I would not vote for Nancy Pelosi" to be Speaker of the House. So says Mark Haugen, who received the North Dakota Democratic-NPL's endorsement at their state convention in Minot last month, and is currently running unopposed in the primary. He's far from a cookie-cutter progressive candidate for the Dems. He's pro-life, for one, at a time when it's hard to find any Democrats anywhere who aren't categorically in favor of abortion. He's also like to see more moderate and pragmatic Democratic leadership. "We can't win as the old Democratic party of the past," he said on this episode of Plain Talk. Also on this episode, Chad and I talk more about the aftermath of the NDGOP's state convention, as well as some surprises in a couple of local district conventions that have happened since, including one in District 3 (Minot) where newcomers were locked out, and one in District 13 (West Fargo) where long-time lawmaker, and current Speaker of the House, Rep. Kim Koppelman, didn't receive the convention endorsement.

After all the Sturm und Drang, all the attack ads and recriminations, incumbent Senator John Hoeven bested Rick Becker in the North Dakota Republican Party's Senate primary. On this Plain Talk, Chad Oban and I wrap up what happened, and talked about what it might mean for the NDGOP and North Dakota politics going forward.

"The problem we've gotten into are the tactics being used," says former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer. Schafer will be delivering a speech at what is expected to be an NDGOP state convention marked by factionalism and resentments, and his hope is to inspire delegates to find a sense of unity. This year marks the 30 year anniversary of Schafer's election, which ushered in the era of Republican dominance that thousands and thousands of North Dakotans grew up with. On this episode of Plain Talk, Schafer says he intends to tell that story, and talk about how Republicans found so much success in North Dakota. It was about optimism, he says, and competent policymaking, which is distinct from the "incendiary things" modern politicians say and do to "get on Facebook and Tiktok." "It gives Republicans a black eye," Schafer says. "I think it creates a shallowness." One cause of the infighting in the NDGOP is a lot of new people getting involved in party politics. They're angry and they want change, Schafer says, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but he argues that some "have been able to take advantage of that" and point the energy toward some unproductive initiatives.

"There are some problems within the Democratic party in North Dakota that we need to fix." That's according to Trygve Hammer, a Marine veteran from Velva who just accepted the Democratic-NPL's endorsement to campaign for a seat on the Public Service Commission. He spoke about his candidacy on this episode of Plain Talk - he'll be running against Republican Sheri Haugen-Hoffart who was just appointed by Gov. Doug Burgum - and he doesn't sound like your typical Democratic candidate. He's pro-oil, pro-coal, and he's not afraid to be critical of his own party, which he says needs to "get over" the years of dominance the NDGOP has accrued and start "showing up." Why is he running for the PSC? "The party asked me. The party needed me," he said, noting that he was first recruited for a 2022 campaign in February. But it wasn't until this month that he decided to campaign for the PSC specifically. He said he wished he had more time to prepare for the campaign, and he admitted, when I asked him if there were specific policies the PSC has implemented that he could cite as reasons for a change in leadership, that he still has to get up to speed. Still, Hammer has the skills and the personality to connect with North Dakota voters in ways that Democratic candidates in the recent past have struggled to achieve. Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the upcoming NDGOP convention, and some of the potential shenanigans which may play out there.

The Sierra Club in other states, such as Iowa, is opposed to the Carbon Express pipeline, but not in North Dakota. They're not against it. They're also not for it. "If we voted, we would probably vote to oppose it," Dr. Dexter Perkins, a member of the North Dakota chapter of the high-profile environmental activist group, told me on this Plain Talk. Perkins, who is also a geologist at the University of North Dakota, says he's skeptical that the pipeline will work, but he and his group are hoping it does. "We're hoping we're wrong," he said, noting that the clubs refusal to condemn the project "puts us in the minority among environmental groups." That's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the pipeline, which would bring carbon emissions from ethanol plants across the upper midwest to North Dakota where they would be pumped underground, but given the intensity of environmental politics, but given the polarizing nature of environmental politics in America, the reticence to be opposed seems like a breakthrough for pragmatism. Perkins agrees. "We're a pretty practical bunch of people," he said of his Sierra Club chapter. Want more Plain Talk? Consider subscribing via your favorite podcasting service: https://www.inforum.com/podcasts/plain-talk-with-rob-port Want to support Plain Talk? Get a subscription, for a low introductory rate of just $0.99 per month, which also buys you access to great news, sports, and analysis across our dozens of publications: https://inforum.news/port

It's over folks. The North Dakota Democrats have selected candidates for two Public Service Commission seats, Attorney General, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. They left campaigns for Tax Commissioner and Secretary of State unfilled. On this episode of Plain Talk, I talk with my regular co-host Chad Oban, a former executive director of the party, about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Minot, N.D. — It was a busy episode of Plain Talk today. Sen. Kevin Cramer joined to discuss everything from the reason why he endorsed incumbent Sen. John Hoeven over challenger Rick Becker (he said Hoeven was not only his colleague but also his "mentor), the war in Ukraine (he says Biden is doing many of the right things, only he's doing them too late), energy (there's "nothing moral" about exporting our climate guilt), and the Supreme Court nomination battle. On that last issue, Cramer said he hasn't made up his mind yet. He said he's reviewed the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings, but still has a meeting coming up with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson which he'd like to honor. "If I make a hard decision before that I'll probably cut her loose," he said, but as of now he intends to talk with her privately first. He said one thing he'd like to discuss with her, which hasn't gotten a lot of attention, are her views on the right of states and what Cramer calls "cooperative federalism."

A ballot measure aimed at implementing term limits in North Dakota for the governor and members of the legislature hit the skids when the Secretary of State's office disqualified tens of thousands of signatures. How did a political campaign screw up an issue that, all else aside, is almost certainly popular with most North Dakotans? My co-host Chad Oban and I talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk with House Minority Leader Josh Boschee, a Democrat from Fargo. Boschee said he's against term limits, but is more disappointed in what this ballot measure campaign has done to the credibility of the initiated measure process. Boschee also talked about his party's upcoming state convention and what the next legislative session might look like. Boschee is the only one of the legislature's four leaders who is returning. House Majority Leader Chet Pollert, Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, and Senate Minority Leader Joan Heckaman are all retiring. "I don't know who I'll be working with," Boschee said. He gave credit to past Republican leadership in the legislature, noting that they were pragmatic and often willing to work with the Democratic minority, but expressed concerns over that sort of approach to legislating taking a back seat as the NDGOP grows more extreme. Want to support this podcast? Consider a subscription to access all of the great Forum Communications news, sports, and opinion content at a low introductory rate of just $0.99 per month: https://inforum.news/port

Thanks to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, and politics that are largely hostile to oil and gas development here in America, our energy prices are skyrocketing. You know it. You've been to a fuel pump lately. You've seen the prices at the grocery store. Oil touches nearly every part of our lives, and when its price goes up, our lives get more expensive a lot faster than most of us can make more money. On this episode of Plain Talk the president of North Dakota's oil industry group argues that American energy policies have had been "exporting our guilt" to other parts of the world. From political activism to litigation to government regulation, we've made producing oil and gas in America harder even as demand for those products has continued to climb. This has been great for countries like Russia and Venezuela even as it drives up prices for Americans. Even worse, Ness notes, this trend is bad for the environment. Russia's regulation of oil and gas development is not as responsible as America's. Oil and gas produced in America is going to be cleaner oil and gas. North Dakota oil, specifically, can be "the cleanest barrel of oil in the world," Ness says, but points out that domestic policies, such as the Biden administration's moratorium on leases on federal lands as well as its insistence on running up the price of production by tacking on so-called "social costs," are making it harder to produce that barrel. Ness also discusses North Dakota's oil tax policy, saying a trigger that kicks in a higher tax rate at high oil prices should go away in favor of a flat tax.

In 2020, Shelley Lenz ran for governor, and received the endorsement of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL to do so. But in 2022, Lenz is running for the state Senate, only she's doing so as an independent. Why the switch? Neither party is doing right by the people, Lenz argued on this episode of Plain Talk. Lenz is hoping to be elected to the legislature in Dickinson-area District 37, where Republican Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner is retiring. She says the issues around the Legacy Fund's investments, some of which have gone to not-so-great places like Russia and China, is an example of what she's talking about. Though lawmakers have already created a program to divert as much as 20 percent of the Legacy Fund's investments to North Dakota, Lenz says she wants more, as much as 50 or 60 percent. Will that message resonate with voters? And can someone who isn't a Republican win in western North Dakota? That's why we hold the elections, folks.

During their 2021 regular session, North Dakota's lawmakers did something they hadn't ever done before in state history. They expelled one of their own. Luke Simons, then an elected member of the House from Dickinson, was expelled after my reporting exposed documents detailing years of harassment of people who work in and around the Legislature, including two of his fellow lawmakers, Rep. Emily O'Brien from Grand Forks and Rep. Brandy Pyle of Casselton. Now, during their interim between sessions, lawmakers are looking at how their harassment policies might be strengthened. O'Brien joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss just how tall an order that is. She noted that implementing these policies is difficult because they apply to elected officials who aren't really anyone's employees outside of the voters. Also complicating the work is that many in the public are fine with this sort of behavior from their elected officials. Simons, a member of the controversial Bastiat Caucus of Trump-aligned Republican lawmakers, still enjoys support to this day. Several lawmakers who voted for his expulsion have been censured over it at meetings of their district party committees. It's very possible that Simons could run for, and win, a seat in the Legislature in the future. What then? There don't seem to be any good answers. Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I talk about the Democratic-NPL denying me media credentials for their upcoming state party as well as the debate over energy policy that's erupted in America since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting disruptions it provoked in international energy markets. Want to know when new episodes of Plain Talk come out? Subscribe, for free, on your favorite podcasting platform. Want to support Plain Talk and get access to a lot of other great local news content? Consider subscribing for a low introductory rate of just $0.99 per month.

The politics around local development were already a fraught exercise before the cloud of geopolitical issues cast a shadow over them. Things like economic incentives, zoning ordinances, traffic, smells, noise, and infrastructure loads have never been easy to navigate. But add in growing concerns over the presence, in our local economies, of businesses based in places like China? The process becomes positively byzantine. The Fufeng Group would like to build a corn milling plant near Grand Forks, North Dakota, and all the usual concerns are around it. Are they getting too much taxpayer support? Is the project palatable to those who have to live or work near it? But then there's also the fact that Fufeng is based in China which is ruled by an oppressive Communist government that, among other sins against basic human decency, has millions of ethnic minorities confined in forced labor camps. Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski joins this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the Fufeng project debate which has roiled his community so much that one person tried to make a citizen's arrest of the city council at a recent meeting. Bochenski acknowledges that concerns about China are valid, all the more so after Russia's invasion of Ukraine elevated the question of our nation's economic ties to these regimes, but argued that a local city council is ill-prepared to take the lead on them. Subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting platform: https://www.inforum.com/podcasts/plain-talk-with-rob-port Support Plain Talk with a subscription that unlocks great content from news outlets across the region: https://inforum.news/port