DOJ election monitors coming

By Jeff Beach | Deputy editor

By Michael Achterling

Department of Justice election monitors will observe polling locations in Cass County on Election Day as part of a nationwide effort.

The federal observers will be part of more than 1,000 election monitors being sent to polling locations across all 50 states on Election Day, an expansion of the department’s monitoring compared to 2022. In the 2022 midterms, observers were sent to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states.

The DOJ monitors will visit up to seven polling locations in Cass County and will observe for about an hour at each site, county officials said.

By Shalina Chatali

Medicaid recipients who are disabled or have a chronic illness will not have to prove they are unable to work to be exempted from new work requirements that take effect next year, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston grants a partial victory to the 25 Democratic-led states that sued the Trump administration in June, arguing that its new “medically frail” designation was too narrow and would make it too difficult for ill and disabled people to remain on Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for people with low incomes.

However, the decision also granted some concessions to the administration, most notably by allowing the new work requirements included in the measure known as the One Big Beautiful Big Act to remain in place.

North Dakota has launched a website to show the public more about the state’s $15 billion Legacy Fund and how it’s invested. 

North Dakota Monitor reporter Jacob Orledge joins host Craig Blumenshine to describe what the new site provides and what information remains out of view. 

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

By Jacob Orledge

North Dakota has launched a new website aiming to make Legacy Fund investments more transparent to the public. 

The long-awaited website allows users to see where and how the state has invested taxpayer money through the Legacy Fund, a sovereign wealth fund fueled by oil taxes, which is valued at $15 billion. 

But Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, one of the sponsors of the 2025 law requiring the website’s creation, said the intent was to improve the transparency around investments state officials have declined to disclose. He said the website falls short.

By Jacob Orledge

Every K-12 student has the legal right to receive a lunch at school in North Dakota without any stigma or shaming. But students and families who can’t afford to pay can still have long-term consequences, and some students may choose to go hungry to avoid them. 

There are more than two dozen school districts that reported referring parents to debt collection agencies for unpaid lunch debt, according to a state survey. At least one district withholds transcripts from students who haven’t paid off their account balance. 

By Jack Dura

North Dakota’s Ethics Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to begin its own inquiry into a state-backed business financing program that drew critical audit findings and lawmakers’ concerns about conflicts of interest and a lack of documentation for millions of dollars in transactions. 

The move is the first of its kind for the 7-year-old ethics panel.

Last month, the Legislature’s audit review committee asked Attorney General Drew Wrigley to investigate the North Dakota Development Fund. He declined to do so earlier this month, citing a legal conflict in his office.

“I would ask the question: If we don’t initiate, who would initiate it, if it wasn’t us?” Chair Pam Sharp said.

By Mary Steurer

A federal appeals court has upheld a North Dakota judge’s decision ordering a Federal Reserve board to change how it regulates debit card transaction fees.

The fees, which apply every time someone makes a debit card purchase, are meant to compensate banks for processing the transactions. 

The lawsuit was brought by Corner Post, a Watford City truck stop and convenience store. The northwest North Dakota business claimed in court records that it has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in debit card transaction fees to banks.

More than a year ago, then-North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor ruled that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors regulated the fees in a way that unfairly favored banks at the expense of businesses and consumers.

By Jack Dura

A North Dakota judge has ruled that the law for nominating people to the panel that promotes the beef industry violates the state constitution because it gives nominating power to specific trade groups and no one else.

“That is arbitrary and unreasonable,” South Central District Judge Jackson Lofgren wrote in his Friday decision.

Three cattlemen who are the directors of the Ranchers Rights Initiative challenged the law last year as unconstitutional.

By Jeff Beach

An accounting firm’s investigation into the financial management and reporting at Dickinson State University has yielded a group of recommendations, including more support and oversight from the North Dakota University System.

The University System, led by Commissioner Brent Sanford, has been discussing creation of a shared services system to support North Dakota’s smaller colleges that have struggled to attract and retain employees with expertise in areas such as accounting, payroll and financial aid. 

The investigation was triggered by the dismissal of the vice president of finance at Dickinson State University in December 2025. That former vice president disputed the firing and the findings of the investigation.

By Jack Dura and Michael Achterling

The North Dakota Supreme Court on Wednesday denied an effort by GOP officials to overturn potential election victories of four legislative candidates whose paperwork they challenged, saying the court case came too late.

The three challengers filed a petition with the court asking the seats be declared vacant and filled by appointment should any of the four challenged candidates win. Two of the challengers lost their primaries to three of the candidates they allege are ineligible due to primary paperwork errors they said Secretary of State Michael Howe’s office wrongly allowed to be corrected without the original petition signers’ consent.

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