Plain Talk

We all know how divided we are as a country. Politics has always been an ugly business, but it's perhaps uglier right now than any time in recent memory. Given that, who would want to run for public office, and expose themselves to the brutal acrimony of an increasingly uncivil process? On this episode of Plain Talk, I spoke with two candidates for the North Dakota legislature about that very topic. Mike Motschenbacher is running for the state House in District 47 in the Bismarck area. Mason Wede is running for the state Senate in District 29. They're both Republicans, and they both say that, as bad as things are, it's a job somebody has to do. Our state, and our communities, has challenges. There are budgets that must be written. And if principled grownups aren't willing to do those jobs, who will? Subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting service: https://www.inforum.com/podcasts/Plain-Talk-With-Rob-Port Want to read more of Rob's work? Get a subscription that works for daily newspapers across the upper midwest: https://www.inforum.com/subscribe

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic malaise, America's employers have been in a crunch. Not only are their costs rising due to supply line snaggles, but many of them are having trouble finding and keeping workers. Jonathan Holth is one a North Dakota employer. He is a co-founder of the Toasted Frog restaurant in downtown Grand Forks, and has since opened additional locations in Bismarck and Fargo. He's also the co-owner of the Urban Stampede Coffee Bar in Grand Forks. On this episode of Plain Talk, he discusses what his business has been doing to keep workers on the job, which includes getting creative with leave time and other benefits. Among the creativity is an accepting approach to employees struggling with addiction. Holth himself is nearly 14 years sober, and was appointed by Governor Doug Burgum to serve on the advisory council for North Dakota's Office of Recovery Reinvented. Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I talk about the upcoming anniversary of the January 6 riot in Washington D.C. and the growing mainstream acceptance of political extremism in America.

One thing I think about, as our kids return to school from a long holiday break, is how hard it can be to get them back into the education groove. That challenge is perhaps on the minds of parents more so now than before, given the way COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down. In October Kirsten Baesler, the Superintendent of North Dakota's public school system, released data from testing showing significant pandemic-era declines among the state's students in proficiency levels for English and mathematics. How worried should that make you? Perhaps not as worried as you think you should be says Dr. Dann Conn. Conn is a professor of teacher education and kinesiology at Minot State University. He's also the co-author of a book, Unraveling the Assessment Industrial Complex, which calls into question the purpose and efficacies of the very testing regime being used to measure educational declines. "Kids are resilient," Conn said on this episode of Plain Talk. "They'll bounce back." He argues that parents, educators, and policymakers ought to be more focused on what we might call real-world outcomes than testing scores. Subscribe to Plain Talk on your favorite podcasting platform by clicking here.

Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota's long-time Attorney General, announced recently that he'll end a more than four-decades-long career in elected office once his term is up next year. Who will replace him? The name you'll hear most often in those conversations is Drew Wrigley, who served two stints as North Dakota's U.S. Attorney, one under former President George W. Bush, and another under former President Donald Trump, and between them served six years as Lt. Governor under former Governor Jack Dalrymple. Wrigley joined this episode of Plain Talk to say nothing definitive about if he's running, though it sure seems like he is. In addition to speaking about what his approach to the office would be, what priorities he'd focus on, and his philosophy about the job of Attorney General, Wrigley hinted that those interested in whether he's running or not might want to check the candidate filings at the Secretary of State's office in the first week of 2022. This seems to me like a pretty good confirmation that he's running.

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

Wayne Stenehjem has served the State of North Dakota in elected office for more than 40 years, from his stint in the Legislature starting in the mid-1970s to two decades serving as Attorney General. Now, he's calling it a career, announcing that he'll step down once his current four-year term is up. Stenehjem joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it. To say that his career was consequential for our state would be an understatement. In the Legislature, where he served with two of his brothers, Alan and Bob, something he believes to be unprecedented in America's legislative bodies, he had a hand in creating the open records and meetings law state government operates under today. He pushed for a uniform court system, moving it beyond an antiquated system that saw different areas of North Dakota served by different sorts of courts. When he became Attorney General in 2000, the State of North Dakota didn't even have a crime lab to handle evidence like fingerprints and DNA. But it wasn't all serious business. Stenehjem also recounts how he reacted with his brother Bob, then the Senate Majority Leader, would steal his parking space at the capitol during a legislative session. Also on this episode, North Dakota has had an ongoing debate about ethics for years now, well before voters approved an ethics amendment for the state constitution. Some of the people behind that push have notions about what constitutes ethics, as far as campaign finance go, that are hard to square with how Americans have traditionally viewed free speech and participatory democracy. Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, whose office has become ground zero for this argument, joined Plain Talk to discuss.

North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer joined this episode of Plain Talk and discussed all sorts of stuff. The January 6 committee, and what it's revealed about the way former President Donald Trump handled the riot at the U.S. capitol. The Build Back Better plan. The state of inflation. The retrenchment going on in the Republican party. Carbon capture. Also, the divides in the national Republican party are impacted the NDGOP as well. Cramer, a former chairman of the NDGOP, weighs in on some of the rule changes being discussed by his state party relating to how the party does its business around state conventions and endorsing candidates.

Politics in North Dakota are about as divisive these days as they are anywhere else. In our state, the divide in the Republican party is between traditional Republicans and a faction of conservatives, in-step with former President Donald Trump, who feel the state's Republicans haven't been conservative enough. I've been writing and talking about this divide a lot, and recently state Rep. Jeff Hoverson, a Republican from Minot and a member of the Bastiat Caucus of lawmakers who align with this faction, asked to come on the podcast to talk it out. So Hoverson joined my Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I and we talked about Hoverson calling people who disagree with him "enemy" and the other things that are dividing us. I'm not sure we changed anybody's mind, but it was good conversation. Also, Oban and I discuss some of the changes the NDGOP is making to their state convention and candidate endorsement process. I wrote about the proposed rule change for the timing of the convention in recent column, and we talked about that, but we also discussed another potential rule change that would make it harder for candidates to seek the NDGOP's endorsement. It would even require the candidates to pay the party for the privilege of being considered. Good idea or bad? We talked it out.

Religion has always been at the center of American life, but in recent years many Americans are turning away from faith. The polling firm Gallup has been tracking trends in religion since the 1930s when church membership among Americans hovered in the 70 percent region. It stayed that high through the late 1990s, but in the last couple of decades, it has plunged. In 2020, the percentage of Americans who said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque plunged to 47 percent. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? And why is it happening? Roxanne Salonen and Devyln Brooks are both Christians. The former is a Catholic; the latter a Lutheran pastor. They both write columns on spirituality, and they joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the decline of religion in America with the host, yours truly, who is an atheist.

North Dakota has industries that produce a lot of carbon. Oil. Natural gas. Coal. Agriculture. But North Dakota's newest industry could be taking that carbon and putting it someplace where it can't harm the environment. Wade Boeschans, a vice president with a company called Summit Carbon Solutions, joined this episode of Plain Talk to answer questions about one of the first, and biggest, projects of this burgeoning industry. The Midwest Carbon Express is a pipeline that will gather carbon emitted by ethanol plants across Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and bring them to a spot in North Dakota where it will be stored underground. What are the challenges attendant to building such a project? Is it safe? Who will be responsible for all this stored carbon long-term? Wade answers those questions and more.

Misinformation. Fake news. These are terms we hear a lot in America in 2021, but what do they mean? How do they happen? Dr. Dan Pemstein is an associate professor of political science at North Dakota State University. He joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about his research into online misinformation both here in America and across the globe. Also, state Rep. Rick Becker, a Republican from Bismarck, flew off the handle recently when asked about a quarter-million dollars in Paycheck Protection Program loans he took for his businesses, the bulk of which have reportedly been forgiven. Becker has refused to answer questions about those loans, choosing instead to engage in what is almost a borderline homophobic attack on me, the one asking the questions. For the record, I don't consider being called gay to be an insult. Co-host Chad Oban and I discuss.

Earlier this year Governor Doug Burgum raised a lot of eyebrows in the political world by announcing a goal for North Dakota's carbon-based industries, including oil and coal, to become carbon neutral. Can we do it? There are no magic bullets to achieving that goal, but there are some promising endeavors. On this episode of Plain Talk I discussed one of those with Kevin Black, CEO of Creedence Energy Services, and Marty Shumway, the technical services director of Locus Bio-Energy Solutions. Shumway's company has developed a biosurfactant, that could be made from agricultural products like canola and sugar from right here in North Dakota, that, in some instances, has improved the output of older oil wells by as much as 70 percent. That's a big deal for the oil industry, where more oil from any given well means more profits, but it's a big deal from the perspective of lowering the environmental footprint of the oil industry as well. More from any one well means fewer wells are needed. It also means Again, there is no one thing we can do to achieve Gov. Burgum's goal of carbon-neutral oil and gas industries, but there are many small things, and this endeavor seems to be one of them.

Sen. Erin Oban is the only member of the Democratic-NPL to be elected in western North Dakota. To the extent that you can consider her Bismarck-area district to be "western North Dakota," anyway. Oban announced recently that she will not be running for another term in that office. Hot on the heels of that announcement, Republican Sean Clearly made one of his own, saying he'd like to take over the Senate seat in District 35. Cleary talks about that decision on this episode of Plain Talk. We cover North Dakota's workforce needs, our economy's needs, how to defeat some of the negative perceptions of our state held by people in other parts of the world, and the looming issue of abortion which may be very much an issue for state Legislature should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down the Roe v. Wade decision. Also, fun fact: Oban was Cleary's middle school math teacher. For the record, Cleary says math wasn't his favorite subject, but he hopes Oban doesn't hold his behavior as a 12-year-old against him.

Vaccine mandate policies are a fluid situation right now. They're being challenged in the courts. The federal government is tweaking its policies. In North Dakota, during the recent special session of the Legislature, a bill passed that doesn't ban businesses from implementing vaccine mandates, but did implement a lot of policies dictating what those mandates should look like. The Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce opposed that bill. Arik Spencer, president and CEO of that organization, joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about how the state's businesses are handling all of this uncertainty. Also, Rob and co-host Chad Oban talk about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's recent comments about electric cars.

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

Kelby Krabbenhoft, the long-time CEO of South Dakota-based health care giant Sanford abruptly left his job last year after making some controversial comments about masking during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, news broke that Krabbenhoft left with a big, fat golden parachute strapped to his back. He got a $49.5 million payout, and that prompted North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread to blow the whistle. On this episode of Plain Talk, Godfread talks about the connection between what hospitals spend and what health care, and health insurance, cost you. He says hospitals are always wanting more from insurers, and the taxpayers, even as pay to executives goes up. If this keeps up, Godfread, a Republican, argues, we're going to end up with the sort of single-payer health care system Democrats want.

North Dakota's coal industry is promoting electric cars. The Lignite Energy Council owns a Tesla, emblazoned it with pro-coal messaging, and has been driving it around. It's an image so incongruous to some that the Washington Post recently featured the marketing effort in a national news article. Jason Bohrer, president of the LEC, joined this episode of Plain Talk with co-host Chad Oban to discuss why he feels it's important for the debate over coal and energy not to be seen through the lenses of partisan politics or the culture war. Also discussed is the just-completed special session as well as the resignation of Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger as his struggles with sobriety continue.

On this episode of the Jay Thomas Show, a state lawmaker upset with Rob calls into the show and yells at him.

Sen. Nicole Poolman has served in the North Dakota Senate since 2012. During last week's special session, she announced her retirement, saying she won't be running for another term. Some of her reasons were personal, she wants to spend more time with family, and some were professional, she wants to focus on her job as a teacher, but part of the reason is what she cited as a "toxic" political environment. Sen. Poolman joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss that toxicity.

North Dakota snack food startup Dot's Pretzels has been acquired for $1.2 billion. The special session of the legislature continues with fights over redistricting and culture war bills dominate. Rob Port and Chad Oban talk about these issues and more.

A return for the Plain Talk Podcast. On this episode, Rob talks to fellow columnist Tony Bender about the divides in the North Dakota Republican Party, the tribalism of American politics in 2021, redistricting, and the special session of the legislature in Bismarck.

Rob and Jay talk about the special session in Bismarck, as well as vaccine mandates.

Simone Biles has had some trouble competing at the Tokyo Olympics, and that has certain political commentators steaming. Charlie Kirk called Biles a "sociopath," as one example, and you've probably seen worse on social media. But why do people care so much? Does everything have to be culture war? Also, a federal moratorium on evictions is set to expire soon, and many are upset about it, but at what point do we give property owners back their right to legal recourse against people who aren't paying their rent? Or who are in other ways violating the terms of their lease? Jay Thomas, host of the Jay Thomas Show on WDAY AM970 in Fargo, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss.

Is critical race theory an attempt to take over our education system and indoctrinate students with left-wing orthodoxies about race and culture? Or is it controversy ginned up as a "lucrative side hustle" by various pundits and activists, as Nick Archuleta argues in a recent column? https://www.inforum.com/opinion/lette... Archuleta, the president of North Dakota United, which represents teachers and public workers, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss. The audio of every episode of Plain Talk Live is available on the Plain Talk podcast, which you can find through your favorite podcasting service.

Congressman Kelly Armstrong, a Republican from North Dakota, was all set to serve on the high-profile House commission aimed at investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Then, suddenly, he wasn't. Armstrong joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about the politics in selecting who sits on that commission, and the work the commission has done so far. Also, Armstrong has recently introduced a bill that will be part of a package of legislation aimed at accountability for the tech industry, and he'll talk about why that initiative is important.

Does North Dakota need term limits? A ballot measure currently being circulated would implement limits for the Governor, and the Legislature, but no other statewide elected offices. Is it a good idea? Former Governor Ed Schafer says he's come around to the idea of term limits after previously opposing them. He joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss.

"We are not supposed to insult these people for their decision to not get vaccinated. We are supposed to understand their position," columnist Mike McFeely writes. "But should we be empathetic toward those with no good reason for not getting vaxxed?" "Most are supporters of Donald Trump and to call their decision-making deplorable is worse than insulting their grandmother," he continued in a recent column, choosing to see the vaccination debate through a partisan political lens. Is this fair? There's evidence to suggest that vaccine hesitancy is far less political than commentators like McFreely would like to believe. "For example, as of this weekend, 41 percent of New York City residents were not vaccinated. Trump won 22 percent of the vote in NYC," National Review columnist Jim Geraghty notes. "In Chicago, 43 percent of residents are not vaccinated. Trump carried 24 percent of the vote in Cook County," he continues. "In Multnomah County, which includes Portland, Ore., just under 63 percent have at least one dose, meaning that 37 percent are unvaccinated. Trump won under 18 percent in that county in 2020. Detroit has vaccinated just under 40 percent of its residents; Trump carried 5 percent of the vote in that city." Even if every single Trump voter opted against the vaccine, which certainly isn't the case, we'd still be left with a lot of people who voted for Joe Biden and are, so far, refusing to get the vaccine. Many in the news media have worked very hard to shoehorn the vaccine issue into a political narrative. The New York Times, as one example, published a statistical analysis in April which seems to show that vaccine hesitancy is generally higher in Trump-voting areas, and that the rate of vaccination is generally lower there. Yet per the Times' own data, Hawaii was, at the time, well below a 40 percent vaccination rate. Pennsylvania, Oregon, Nevada, and Michigan all had relatively low vaccination rates as well at that time. All of those states went to Joe Biden in 2020. Perhaps a political narrative isn't appropriate for the vaccination debate? Perhaps the efforts to frame the issue as another front in partisan politics does more harm than good? If the answer to that last question is "yes" it's a particularly egregious sin for members of the news media who claim to value vaccination. After all, if we want people to get vaccinated, is writing them off as deplorables the best way to go about it? Jay Thomas, host of the Jay Thomas Show on WDAY AM970, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss.

There are some deep fractures in the North Dakota Republican Party. A faction of the party, loosely affiliated under the banner of the Legislature's supposedly conservative Bastiat Caucus, is attempting to recall Governor Doug Burgum. They're pushing a constitutional ballot measure to implement term limits. They attempted to take over leadership of the North Dakota Republican Party this spring. Now they're attempting a recall of Rep. Dwight Kiefert, a Republican who has represented District 24 since 2013. On this episode of Plain Talk, Kiefert will address the recall campaign and speaks to what he sees as its motivations.

State lawmakers in places like Texas and Tennessee have fled their states in an attempt to block laws backed by the Republican majorities in their legislative chambers. Now, at the national level, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has urged his colleagues to do something similar to block a massive Democratic spending bill. Are these tactics legitimate? Jay Thomas, host of the Jay Thomas Show on WDAY AM970 in Fargo, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss.

Starting this month, some qualifying Americans with children will receive monthly money from the government in an amount representing up to $300 per child. The payments come from the child tax credit millions of Americans tax every year. Think of them as a sort of advanced payment on a credit these families would have taken anyway. Is this good policy? Also, the calculus on these payments could get complicated for some Americans who may end up surprised by a tax bill at the end of the year if they don't adjust their withholdings appropriately. Sen. Kevin Cramer joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss this issue, as well as the shift in the way Republicans are talking about the climate debate and the push Democrats are putting behind spending and infrastructure bills in Congress.

Humanity is pushing its way into space, and some billionaires are leading the charge. Not everyone is happy about this. Jonah Lantto from the Good Talk Network joins this episode of Plain Talk to talk about it. Also, in multiple states, Democratic lawmakers have taken to fleeing their state capitols to deny Republicans the ability to pass laws they don't like. Is this a valid tactic? And in Tennessee, Republicans have fired a public health official over an email encouraging young citizens to get vaccinated. They've also curtailed the state's outreach efforts about vaccines. Why are so many so enraged by vaccines?

A faction of the North Dakota Republican Party which calls itself the Bastiat Caucus is pushing a constitutional ballot measure to implement term limits for the Governor and for the state Legislature. This comes amid deep tensions between the Batiats and the rest of the NDGOP. Does the state need term limits? Is this a wise political move from the Bastiats? Chad Oban, the former executive director of the Democratic-NPL, joins the episode of Plain Talk to discuss.

There is broad bipartisan agreement that America needs to invest in infrastructure. The problem is, there isn't a lot of agreement on what infrastructure is. In Congress, Democrats are pushing an infrastructure bill that includes a raft of progressive policy priorities that have little to do with roads or bridges, or power grids. Congressman Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota talks about that debate on this episode of Plain Talk Live. We'll also talk about Coal Creek Station, North Dakota's largest coal-fired power plant, finding a new buyer. The plant was set to be closed, but now a new company plans on operating it into the future, but what does it need to be a success? Also, the role of big tech in our lives continues to be a pressing political concern, particularly in issue areas like privacy and free speech. Armstrong has been appointed to a task force taking on this issue, and will talk about his work there.

Jupiter Paulsen was a 14-year-old girl who was brutally murdered in Fargo by a man with a history of criminal conduct who was out on probation. Some are blaming officials for letting Arthur Prince Kollie, the man arrested for the murder, out of custody. North Dakota, like many other states in America, has made some long strides toward criminal justice reform that includes an emphasis on moving away from incarceration. Was Paulsen's murder evidence of those reforms going too far? Jay Thomas, host of the Jay Thomas Show on WDAY AM970 in Fargo, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss.

A group of hardcore supporters of Donald Trump have gotten approval to begin circulating a petition to recall North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and his running mate Lt. Governor Brent Sanford. Will they be successful? Chad Oban, former executive director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss it. Also, a federal judge has dismissed the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's lawsuit against the Dakota Access Pipeline, marking the end of an era of North Dakota politics, and at the national level Democrats suffered a defeat in their efforts to implement national election reforms. Is that issue over?

Critical race theory. You've no doubt been hearing a lot about it. It's in our headlines. It's grist for the ceaseless mill of cable news outrage. It's a topic of debate in our school districts. Do you know what it is? Is it valid curriculum? A worthy avenue for scholastic endeavor? Or is it an ideology? Political doctrine dressed up as academics? Perhaps it's a bit of both. Dr. Dan Conn, a professor teacher education at Minot State University, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about it.

Since 2007, the City of Fargo has had an ordinance making it illegal for federal firearms license holders to conduct transactions out of their homes. Only, nobody really paid attention to it until federal officials became aware of it and informed FFL holders in Fargo operating that way that they couldn't renew their licenses. There aren't many people in Fargo who do this. There were just seven in May of last year when then-Fargo Police Chief David Todd said there hadn't been any complaints about them. Still, Fargo's city leaders have refused to back down from this restrictive ordinance, so the Legislature stepped in. During their 2021 session, they passed a state law pre-empting Fargo's ordinance. But at a recent meeting, city commissioners tabled a motion to bring their ordinance into compliance with state law, opting instead to explore a lawsuit against the state over the law. Edward Krystosek, a Fargo resident and past candidate for the city commission who has followed this issue closely, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about the city's actions.

Earlier this year North Dakota's lawmakers passed a bill requiring full legislative approval of any interim appropriation of federal money that exceeds $50 million in a biennium. Now lawmakers don't want to follow their own law. Former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer weighs in on that situation on this episode of Plain Talk Live. Also, there's drama at the State Investment board, with revelations that a consultant, paid by the state to manage its money managers, has also accepted payments from the managers it recommends for hire. Is this pay for play? What steps can the board take to address this situation?

If you can name me a North Dakota community that wasn't built around a railroad stop, or at least had rails running through it at one point in its history, I'll buy you lunch. Rail infrastructure has been important to North Dakota for as long as our state has been a state. Longer, really, so when one of the companies providing rail service in our region is seeking out a merger with another American rail line, it matters to us. John Brooks, Chief Marketing Officer for Canadian Pacific Railway, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about his company's efforts to merge with Kansas City Southern, and why that transaction is a better outcome for North Dakota than a rival merger bid from Canadian National.

With the vigorous demonstrations against the Line 3 pipeline, the upper midwest is getting another front-and-center look at the often vicious politics of energy infrastructure. Left-wing activists train to be arrested, the plot conflict with law enforcement, all to produce media coverage that is sympathetic to their cause. Meanwhile, every single one of us, including the most ardent and extreme of pipeline protesters, is using the oil moved by pipelines every day. Jay Thomas from WDAY AM970 in Fargo joins this episode of Plain Talk to talk about the Line 3 protests and pipeline politics in general.

A big name in power is coming to North Dakota to invest in hydrogen energy, and it's a big deal for our state in a lot of ways. It's a new industry, for one, in a state that desperately needs economic diversification. The proposed hydrogen hub will be a new customer for North Dakota natural gas, a commodity produced as a byproduct of oil exploration here. We produce so much a lot of it gets burned off as excess in the Bakken oil fields. It will also be a shot in the arm for North Dakota's nascent efforts with carbon capture. The hydrogen plant will be carbon-neutral because what carbon it produces will be captured and stored here in the state. On this episode of Plain Talk Live, Bakken Energy CEO Mike Hopkins will discuss this new project and the specifics of North Dakota, from public policy to geology, that are making it possible.

The Administrative Rules Committee approved a ban on LGBT conversion therapy asked for by the North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners, which oversees licensing for social workers. Some Republican lawmakers resisted the change. Was it the right move? I'll talk about it with former Democratic-NPL executive director Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. This episode of Plain Talk will also feature, prominently, two of the most fun political words. Gerrymandering. Filibuster. Now that the census is completed, the task of redistricting lays before North Dakota's lawmakers. Since North Dakotans mostly vote for Republicans, that means the process will be controlled by Republicans Already, some of the state's Democrats are suggesting that the Republican plan will be an exercise in gerrymandering (whee!) which should be referred to the ballot and defeated by voters who would then also vote to approve a Democratic plan which could only be introduced at the ballot box because, again, North Dakotans mostly don't vote for Democrats. Sound convoluted? It is. Also, at the national level, Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, is the lone vote standing in the way of much of the Democratic agenda, including ending the filibuster (whoo!) and advancing sweeping election reforms. Is he taking a stand for the wellbeing of our country? Or is this an exercise in self-serving politics?

"Rural America gets bad vibrations from Big Wind," Robert Bryce wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal. He notes that President Joe Biden's administration is pushing for "tens of thousands of wind turbines," but asks, "where, exactly, will all those turbines be built?" It's a good question. Many Americans, even those who support the concept of wind energy, may not realize just how thoroughly we will need to carpet-bomb our landscape with wind turbines to reach some of the goals set for wind production. Remember, too, that all those turbines will also need to be serviced by transmission lines to carry that energy to market. While a coal plant or a nuclear plant generally sits in one location, wind turbines are dispersed across the landscape, and the transmission lines that serve them end up covering a lot of ground. Bryce, who has authored a report on this problem for the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based think tank, joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about wind turbines and the challenges of not-in-my-back-yard attitudes. You can read Bryce's WSJ article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-am... You can read his report for the Center of the American Experiment here: https://files.americanexperiment.org/...

Coal Creek Station is North Dakota's largest coal-fired power plant and, for a while, it was slated for closure, thanks to a long-running political campaign to tilt the energy markets away from coal, with environmental activists and political partisans cheering its demise. Then, a reprieve. Current owner Great River Energy is close to a deal with a buyer that would continue to operate the plant. Yet there are forces working to undermine that deal - some for political reasons, others because they just don't want to compete with coal-fired power anymore. At the center of this vortex of politics and energy is McLean County and State's Attorney Ladd Erickson who want the power plant to remain open. The closure of Coal Creek Station would be economically and culturally devastating for central North Dakota. McLean County and Erickson have shown a willingness to fight the anti-coal political winds. On this episode of Plain Talk, Erickson joins to discuss the pending deal.

"I would like us to get the smile back," Sen. Kevin Cramer said in a recent interview. "I mean, we still are the greatest experiment in political world history. Self-governance requires people of virtue, as Os Guinness puts it, and our virtue needs to be demonstrated in our personalities, not just in our ideals. If I grieve anything, it's that we've become too angry," he continued. How does Cramer square that statement with his staunch support for former President Donald Trump, a man famous for his incessant ridicule of his critics? He'll talk about it on this episode of Plain Talk. Also, the Biden administration seems intent on facilitating the fossil fuel aspirations of nations who aren't so friendly with us - lifting sanctions for Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline and Iran's oil exports - even as it works to fight energy development here in the United States. Though, in fairness, Biden's EPA administrator Michael Regan just visited North Dakota and had a lot of encouraging things to say about the state's big bets on carbon capture. Can this administration be worked with on energy?

Earl Pomeroy served in the North Dakota House of Representatives from 1980 to 1985, as state Insurance Commissioner from 1985 to 1992, and as the state's at-large member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2010. He knows a thing or two about state politics. And national politics. He joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about the state of national politics, the rise of the Trump movement, the withering of Democratic appeal in rural America, and perhaps some thoughts on unemployment benefits.

Public health officials and other policymakers have been working hard to persuade people to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but one group of citizens in two North Dakota counties are being denied that opportunity. Williams and Burleigh counties — the former in the heart of North Dakota's oil fields, the latter home to the state capital — are refusing to provide COVID-19 vaccines to their jail inmates citing cost and liability issues. Does this make sense? Dane DeKrey, advocacy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, says this is a human rights issue. He joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss.

Earlier this year North Dakota's lawmakers approved a bill that prohibited institutions in the state's university system from working with groups that promote abortion. The bill, as passed, also included a financial penalty, denying matching state fundraising dollars for campuses that ran afoul of the provision. The impetus for the legislation was a long-standing grant relationship between Planned Parenthood, which is involved not only in promoting abortion rights but also in partisan politics on the side of Democrats. Governor Doug Burgum signed the law, though he vetoed the penalty, leaving only the prohibition in place. Many on the state's campuses see the Legislature's actions as an affront to academic freedom. Is it? Dr. Bo Wood, a professor of political science at the University of North Dakota, joins this episode of Plain Talk to discuss that as well as the controversy around Rep. Liz Cheney and the splintering of the GOP.

You're probably hearing a lot about cryptocurrency these days. Dogecoin. Bitcoin. The businesses you patronize are telling you they accept it. Heck, here in North Dakota, the City of Williston has begun accepting it as a payment option. But what is it? How do you use it? And given the headlines we see about the rollercoaster values of cryptocurrencies, is it a safe place to put your money? Jack Seaman from MinDak Gold and Silver Exchange is a business owner who accepts cryptocurrencies. He has a crypto ATM in his business. He joins this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the practical realities of using cryptocurrency.

Rob and Jay talk about UFOs.