By Jeff Beach | Deputy Editor
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks in Fargo, N.D., on April 22, 2025. She was invited by North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, left. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
By Jeff Beach
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reversing course on a change to a federal crop insurance policy to allow farmers to buy more protection if weather or field conditions prevent them from planting a crop.
USDA had eliminated the option to buy additional prevented planting insurance going into the 2026 growing season. This raised concerns from growers in North Dakota, where the buy-up option has been a popular risk-management tool.
In a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins where the department stood on the policy.
“We are 100% supportive of that and are moving forward to execute that buy-up option,” Rollins said.
Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe, left, and Democratic-NPL secretary of state candidate Ryan Braunberger. (Photos courtesy of Secretary of State’s Office and Braunberger)
By Michael Achterling
North Dakota’s Republican and Democratic candidates for secretary of state agree the state’s elections are secure, free and fair in response to President Donald Trump’s election integrity speech.
In a primetime national address last week, Trump said election infrastructure across the country, including voting machines, ballot tabulators, voter rolls, election pollbooks and official election results websites were exposed to hacking and other exploitation from foreign countries and other non-state groups.
The Trump administration released a batch of documents after the speech, but they provided no proof that broad interference occurred or affected an election outcome.
Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe and Democratic challenger Ryan Braunberger, a state senator from Fargo, in interviews said voter information and voting results are secure in North Dakota.
Voters fill out and turn in ballots during early voting at the Bismarck Event Center on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
By Michael Achterling
A Democratic-NPL candidate for state House in northeast North Dakota withdrew her name from the November general election ballot, the Secretary of State’s Office announced Tuesday.
Lynnell Popowski, a candidate in District 19, works as a shared mobility program manager for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, a position that is funded through a federal grant. She said her supervisor told her that her running for a seat in the North Dakota Legislature was a violation of the Hatch Act of 1939.
North Dakota Monitor reporter Jack Dura. (Photo by Michael Achterling)
By Monitor Staff
The North Dakota Monitor on Tuesday welcomed Jack Dura to its reporting staff.
Dura, a Fargo native, has 10 years of reporting experience in North Dakota, most recently for The Associated Press.
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FROM STATES NEWSROOM
Investigators work near the Houston location of a fatal ICE shooting July 7. Statistics released July 20 show a record number of immigration arrests in June and an even higher rate in early July. (Photo by Jon Shapley/The Texas Tribune)
By Tim Henderson
Immigration arrests reached 1,593 per day in early July in a new push to detain and deport immigrants that has led to deaths in traffic stops. There were more than 43,000 arrests in June, the highest recorded by the Trump administration, according to statistics released Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reflecting new bookings into detention facilities.
The June monthly total surpassed the 42,000 arrests in December, which included Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
Trump proposal to end employer race, gender reporting advances | Nada Hassanein
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