Call to action on kratom

By Jeff Beach | Deputy Editor

By Jack Dura, Michael Achterling and Jeff Beach

Twenty-three deaths in North Dakota since 2019 were linked to kratom and related compounds, part of a pattern that has worried officials and sparked talks of a special legislative session to do something about it.

Gov. Kelly Armstrong’s office said Friday that he and Attorney General Drew Wrigley will hold a press conference on Monday to announce actions aimed at addressing kratom substances “to protect public health and safety in North Dakota.”

Two psychoactive ingredients known as mitragynine and 7-OH are found in kratom leaves. From 2019 through June 2026, kratom, 7-OH and/or another related compound called mitragynine pseudoindoxyl were part of the primary cause of death for 23 people, according to the State Epidemiology Office.

By Ella Stern

Food & Water Watch and the Land Stewardship Project sued the state of Minnesota Thursday over a decision to allow a Morris mega-dairy to expand without a more rigorous environmental review. 

Riverview wants to expand West River Dairy from 7,855 cows to almost 19,000 cows, making it the biggest dairy in Minnesota. 

Riverview also is expanding into North Dakota, with a 25,000-cow dairy planned near Hillsboro facing a legal challenge.

A team led by the North Dakota Geological Survey is excavating a mammoth skeleton that’s been hidden under a garage in the northwest part of the state.

The mammoth was first discovered in the 1980s, but paleontology crews have spent weeks this summer working to recover it. North Dakota Monitor reporter Michael Achterling talks to host Craig Blumenshine about the rare find, which is the most complete mammoth discovered in the state.

A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public's Main Street.

North Dakota Republican lawmakers are set to discuss a possible special session to ban the substance kratom and address a fundraising shortfall of the state Military Gallery, which has paused construction.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday received a videoconference invitation for a Sunday meeting from Senate Majority David Hogue, R-Minot, in which he said he had met with Gov. Kelly Armstrong and some of his staff members on Monday.

By Jeff Beach

Montana-Dakota Utilities has begun making its case for a 14.5% rate increase while separately moving forward on a data center project.

The company needs approval from the North Dakota Public Service Commission, which briefly discussed the rate case Monday. The commission will first take up an interim rate increase while the PSC considers the case. 

MDU also has entered an agreement with Applied Digital to supply power to a data center near Center, northwest of Bismarck. MDU has a request filed with the PSC to extend electrical service to that project.

By Michael Achterling

A mammoth excavation under a northwest North Dakota garage is unearthing a more complete prehistoric beast than paleontologists had hoped for when the discovery was made in the 1980s.

The excavation in Burke County is being spearheaded by the North Dakota Geological Survey, which has used its team, summer interns and some geology students from the University of North Dakota since June to carefully dig out the iconic animal.

North Dakota State Geologist Clint Boyd said this mammoth skeleton is a rare find and the most complete mammoth from North Dakota.

Enormous piles of iron-rich waste sitting dormant in Minnesota are about to see movement for the first time in decades, soon heading hundreds of miles west to North Dakota.

North American Iron plans to develop a 2,400-acre site near Minot to produce pig iron, an essential ingredient in steel-making. The operation, which could produce 2 million metric tons annually, would be the first of its kind in the country and aims to boost domestic production.

The facility is slated to bring 650 permanent jobs to the Minot area.

By Jeff Beach

Democratic candidates for North Dakota Public Service Commission say recent statements by a PSC attorney about pipeline safety point to larger problems in state government. 

PSC attorney Zachary Pelham told a judge that the agency can’t consider public safety when evaluating the route of an interstate hazardous liquid pipeline in North Dakota. 

John Pederson and Scot Kelsh, Democrats who are challenging Republican incumbents for two positions on the PSC, took issue with those comments during a news conference last week.

“The narrow legal arguments in district court that the Public Service Commission cannot consider safety are emblematic of a broader leadership problem at the commission,” Pederson said. 

Republican incumbent Sheri Haugen-Hoffart said in an interview that the federal Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would have jurisdiction over safety for the interstate pipeline. She said the PSC docket reflects that. 

“I am comfortable that we consider safety when it comes to siting,” she added.

By Peyton Haug

A ceremony last year celebrated a key step in converting a former North Dakota coal mine into a processing site for nickel mined in Minnesota.

But now the future of the project looks less clear, with a feasibility study also examining whether to send the nickel by rail to Michigan.

By Jack Dura

A state panel on Wednesday gave final approval to revisions to a scrutinized bonus program for employees of the office that oversees billions of dollars in state funds. 

The initial performance bonus program, authorized by the 2023 Legislature, drew scrutiny last year from observers, including lawmakers, who perceived the payouts as excessive – as much as $293,000 for one employee – and overstated based on what investments the Retirement and Investment Office directly manages. The bonus program essentially rewards certain office staff for how well internally managed investments perform, but some officials have wondered whether the office is broadly interpreting what state law means by “internally managed.”

By Jack Zaleski

A reasonable dialogue about the startling proliferation of huge data centers in North Dakota (and elsewhere) has been effectively nullified by special interests that don’t want elected officials, regulators or members of the public scrutinizing their multi-million-dollar installations. They have skillfully managed and manipulated the debate by pitting neighbor against neighbor, community against community, and red politics against blue politics. They have turned a few print pundits and conservative talk show hosts into shills, some willingly, some not yet grasping how cleverly they have been used.

All of this sophisticated sophistry has been masterfully crafted in order to discredit and marginalize North Dakotans who dare to ask legitimate questions about what data centers mean in the here and now, and how they will affect the future of the towns that have been finagled into hosting them.

Thanks for reading Monitor Weekend Wrap. Did you know our daily morning newsletter is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.