By Amy Dalrymple | Editor
“Every citizen in North Dakota deserves safe buildings to go into.” - North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread, who highlighted a lack of a dedicated enforcement division to inspect for compliance with state building code.
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread speaks to members of a Residential Resiliency Roundtable, hosted by the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, at the Bismarck Event Center on Sept. 21, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
By Michael Achterling
Residential property insurance rates are projected to increase 26% from 2025 to 2028 in North Dakota, according to American Property Casualty Insurance Association figures presented Monday in Bismarck.
Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread said the projected jump follows an average increase of about 14% that North Dakota property owners saw between 2024 and 2025.
“It doesn’t mean that every North Dakotan is going to face a 26% increase; this was commercial, residential and multi-family businesses,” Godfread said during a North Dakota Residential Resiliency Roundtable. “But it’s absolutely a signal that’s worth taking seriously.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is urging President Donald Trump to embargo diesel fuel exports as rising costs impact farmers in his largely agricultural state. Grassley is shown at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on July 23, 2026. (Screenshot from committee webcast)
By Ashley Murray
Diesel prices hit a record average of $6.51 a gallon Monday, and some in President Donald Trump’s own party are breaking their support for the ongoing war in Iran that has driven fuel prices to staggering levels in the United States and across the globe.
Already House Republicans locked in tight races as the November midterms approach have distanced themselves from the president’s conflict and his administration’s stagnant negotiations with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage for global petroleum products. Another major vote on Iran support is expected later this week in the U.S. Senate.
Longtime Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley urged Trump throughout the weekend to embargo diesel fuel exports as costs impact farmers in his largely agricultural state.
Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are federally protected as a threatened species. A new memo from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik says that endangered animals may be killed as long as the action was not “intentionally directed at a particular animal or animals.” (Photo courtesy of Terry Tollefsbol/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
By Alex Brown
The Trump administration’s top wildlife official issued a directive last week that expands a recent rollback of endangered species protections much further than the feds had told the public.
Individuals and industries may kill endangered animals in the course of logging projects, developments and other activities, it said — so long as the activity’s purpose isn’t killing species.
The memo issued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik is the most drastic move yet in the Trump administration’s campaign to limit the scope of the Endangered Species Act.
Wildlife advocates and experts said the nation’s bedrock wildlife conservation law would offer few safeguards under the new federal guidelines.
EARLIER ND MONITOR NEWS AND COMMENTARY
FROM STATES NEWSROOM
The White House, south facing, on June 11, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
By Jennifer Shutt
The three news organizations that President Donald Trump has barred from entering the White House filed a lawsuit against the administration on Monday.
CNN, MS Now and Politico wrote in a joint statement the suit is intended “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
Trump announced last week on social media that he intended to bar journalists from those three news organizations, airing a years-running grievance that he doesn’t believe their reporting is accurate.
No Kings to host voter mobilization effort ahead of Election Day | Michigan Advance
Minnesota campaign forum reveals widespread unease with AI technology race | Minnesota Reformer
FROM OTHER ND MEDIA OUTLETS
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'Serious offense': North Dakota fund audit references removed from public records | The Bismarck Tribune
Healthcare worker sees rise in electric scooter and bike injuries | Grand Forks Herald
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