By Amy Dalrymple | Editor
Meredith Larson, chief operating officer for the North Dakota University System, speaks during a committee hearing on Oct. 6, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
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, Deputy Commissioner Meredith Larson told the Legislature’s Higher Education Funding Review Committee earlier this month.
From the left, Republican Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus and Democratic-NPL tax commissioner candidate Mark Nelson (Photos provided by the campaigns)
By Jack Dura
North Dakota voters have a choice for the state’s tax commissioner between the incumbent who says he wants to explore more tax reductions and a challenger who says the Republican-dominated state government is moving in the wrong direction.
Republican Brian Kroshus is seeking a second four-year term, challenged by Democrat Mark Nelson. North Dakota is the only state with an elected tax commissioner.
Kroshus said he wants to keep working with state lawmakers to advance a “low and reasonable tax environment.” He said officials should explore eliminating the state income tax, and he is not opposed to doing so. But many citizens would argue that additional property tax cuts are more important, he said.
Nelson, a retired Rugby-area farmer, said he is running because “everything in the state is going in the wrong direction and the state is also in crisis.” Nelson opposes eliminating the state individual income tax, saying it would put too much pressure on property taxes and give “more welfare to people who can actually afford to pay the bill.”
Voters mark their primary election ballots at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, on March 3, 2026. This year’s statewide ballot measures are written, on average, at a graduate-school reading level, according to a new report. (Photo by John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)
By Anna Claire Vollers
This year’s statewide ballot measures are written, on average, at a graduate-school reading level, according to a new report.
The readability of 2026’s ballot questions — which ask voters to weigh in on issues as varied as abortion, property taxes, voter ID and firearms — varies by state, political data tracking nonprofit Ballotpedia found in its newest Ballot Measure Readability Report.
The report analyzes the level of education voters would need to understand the titles and summaries of the measures put before them. Because ballot measures are often lengthy and full of legal language, states write shorter titles to be published on the ballot for voters to read.
The titles of North Dakota statewide ballot measures require a reading level of college to graduate-level, according to the analysis.
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State officials are curtailing some hunting in southern North Dakota because of a disease outbreak. North Dakota Monitor reporter Jack Dura joins host Craig Blumenshine to explain what hunters need to know.
Also this week, lawmakers began discussing possible legislation to address data center development that focuses on electricity costs, water use and what happens when a facility is no longer operating. Reporter Jacob Orledge describes the proposal and where lawmakers might have differing views.
A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public's Main Street.
EARLIER ND MONITOR NEWS AND COMMENTARY
FROM STATES NEWSROOM
Electric bikes and electric scooters parked on a street in Columbus, Ohio. Lawmakers in Ohio and many other states have enacted or are considering tougher regulations for e-bikes and e-scooters as their popularity – and safety concerns – grow. (Photo by Megan Henry/Ohio Capital Journal).
By Anna Claire Vollers
A string of high-profile deaths and injuries involving electric scooters and bikes is spurring states and cities across the country to crack down on them. As technology improves, e-scooters and e-bikes capable of motorcycle-like speeds have become cheaper and more popular. Some models — and the ability to modify them with aftermarket upgrades — are blurring the lines between bicycles, scooters and motor vehicles.
State and local regulations, many of which were originally written to manage the glut of low-speed rideshare scooters nearly a decade ago, haven’t kept pace, some experts say, and they’ve left city officials scrambling to do more.
National groups power spending against higher bar for constitutional amendments in SD | South Dakota Searchlight
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