By Amy Dalrymple | Editor
“It helped us stay afloat through all of the changes we’ve had to and wanted to make in the past few years.” - Jennifer Klath, whose Fargo employer participated in a federal childcare program that is ending this fall.
Jennifer and Travis Klath, pictured Aug. 16, 2026, in Moorhead, Minnesota, benefit from the ND Working Parents Child Care Relief Program. The program, which uses matching dollars from participating employers and the federal government to subsidize childcare, ends in September. (Photo by Dan Koeck/For the North Dakota Monitor)
By Erin Hemme Froslie
A pilot program designed to attract and retain workers in North Dakota by assisting with childcare costs will stop in September, ending financial support for hundreds of families.
The ND Working Parents Child Care Relief Program began in 2023 using federal COVID-19 relief funds. The goal of the program, which is administered by the state Department of Health and Human Services, was to make it easier for parents to join or rejoin the workforce after the pandemic.
Overall, there are 524 working parents representing 61 employers enrolled in the program, according to the department.
(Illustration by Oona Zenda/KFF Health News)
By Arielle Zionts and Darius Tahir, KFF Health News
Two of the nation’s most powerful health officials predict artificial intelligence will play a key role in solving rural America’s health challenges.
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a panel of U.S. senators that AI nurses can provide “concierge care” to rural patients. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has said “the best way to help some of these communities is going to be AI-based avatars” that connect rural patients to mental health services.
And many state health leaders agree. They are using some of their funding from the $50 billion federal Rural Health Transformation Program to expand AI among rural health organizations.
Meanwhile, some rural Americans are skeptical.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., pictured in Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
By Ariana Figueroa
Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report.
The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.
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A year after North Dakota’s cellphone ban took effect in public schools, policymakers are eyeing how to approach artificial intelligence and school-issued devices.
North Dakota Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach describes how a state education official is urging lawmakers to let schools retain flexibility on deciding how to use AI. Reporter Michael Achterling joins host Craig Blumenshine to talk about a recent survey about technology in schools and a lawmakers plan to bring new legislation in 2027 to place limits on screen time in school and other guardrails.
A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public's Main Street.
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FROM STATES NEWSROOM
U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, speaks during a Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary event on Oct. 28, 2024. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By Meghan O’Brien
About two years ago, U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, started hearing increasing complaints about slow mail delivery. Veterans weren’t receiving their prescriptions on time, he said, or medications got lost on the way. Some people said they received bills on the day payments were due. Newspaper publishers said it took over a week for papers to travel less than 100 miles away, and some reported lost deliveries.
Rounds took his frustrations to the postmaster general, who resigned not long after their meeting. Rounds then brought his complaints to the new postmaster general, “who basically pooh-poohed our concerns” and said “the bigger problems were in the bigger cities,” Rounds recalled.
The senator’s recent actions include supporting an investigation into the Postal Service, proposing legislation to remove bonuses for Postal Service executives, and placing a hold on Senate confirmations of new members for the Postal Service’s executive board.
Mice may drive Lyme disease more than deer | Amanda Watford
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