Governor on free school meals

By Jeff Beach | Deputy Editor

By Michael Achterling

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong will vote against Measure 2 this November, a constitutional ballot measure that would provide free school meals to K-12 students.

Armstrong said he decided to oppose the measure because it would constitutionally mandate nearly $140 million in biennial spending before lawmakers set foot in Bismarck for the 2027 legislative session. The Department of Public Instruction fiscal note attached to the measure puts the biennial cost of providing the meals between $124.3 million to $134.3 million.

“No matter what happens in the future of North Dakota’s budget, you could have $7 soybeans, you could have $12 oil, and this money comes off before anything else is spent,” Armstrong said in an interview Thursday. “I don’t like constitutional mandated spending at all.”

By North Dakota Monitor Staff

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor to the Senate floor for final confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Traynor’s nomination was announced in May. He will replace U.S. Circuit Judge Ralph Erickson, if he is approved by the Senate.

By Jacob Fischler and Sam Gauntt

The nation’s election infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattacks by foreign actors, President Donald Trump said during a primetime address Thursday night, citing a batch of documents he declassified — but providing no proof broad interference actually occurred or affected an election outcome.

Democrats and advocates quickly criticized the remarks as another attempt by Trump to give Republicans an advantage in crucial midterm elections and sow distrust of results, following his firing of members of the Election Assistance Commission, demands by his administration for state voter rolls, an executive order limiting mail-in ballots and more.

Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and some non-state groups “have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure,” Trump said, quoting one of the documents, which were compiled by White House and intelligence community staff. The document said its authors did not know if any adversaries planned to interfere in elections.

By Cami Koons

Farmers from across the country are urging the federal government to expedite an investigation of the fertilizer industry as they struggle with “impossibly high input costs.”

A letter from grower associations, including the North Dakota Corn Growers Association, follows a slew of recent federal actions taken to address the expense of fertilizers.

In the letter sent to leaders of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, corn growers said recent events, like the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid conflicts in the Middle East, have “exacerbated” the “fragility of our agricultural economy.”

But, the letter said, the issue of high fertilizer prices has been “years in the making” due to a “failure” of the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to enforce antitrust laws.

Two recent stories deal with how state regulators handle environmental protection of permitting of major development projects. 

One covers the legal challenges surrounding the permit for what could become North Dakota’s largest dairy operation, where opponents argue state regulators failed to adequately evaluate  potential environmental impacts. 

Another is the ongoing courtroom dispute over the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, where attorneys debated whether the North Dakota Public Service Commission can even consider public safety when approving pipeline routes.

North Dakota Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach talks about those stories in this episode of A Closer Look with the Monitor. The weekly podcast is a partnership with Prairie Public’s Main Street hosted by Craig Blumenshine. 

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