Potential data center site

By Jeff Beach | Deputy editor

By Jeff Beach

A company building a solar farm west of Fargo has plans to add a battery storage facility and potentially a data center in the area. 

Minnesota-based Geronimo Power says it has been working with stakeholders in Harmony Township to explore the potential development of a data center.

Geronimo Power started construction on its Harmony Solar project north of Mapleton this summer. 

By Jeff Beach

A Minnesota nickel mining company has chosen a processing site in Michigan over a site in western North Dakota.

Talon Metals announced Thursday it will use a processing site in Marquette County, Michigan, and will not use a former coal mine site at Beulah in Mercer County. 

State and local officials gathered in Beulah last year when Talon Metals announced that it would invest $365 million to process nickel and other critical minerals at the former Beulah Mine site.  

By Lilo H. Stainton

Federal, state and local officials joined thousands of family members in lower Manhattan Friday to honor the victims of 9/11 and celebrate those who responded, 25 years after the terrorist attack that shocked the world and changed how Americans view the vulnerability of their nation, and even each other. 

The event marks the day hijackers commandeered two commercial airlines and flew them into the twin towers on a bright Tuesday morning in 2001. The attack killed nearly 3,000 people from 27 states

North Dakota raised its top interstate speed limit to 80 mph about a year ago. Today, Highway Patrol data shows shifts in where speeding tickets are being written.

Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach talks with host Craig Blumenshine about the impact of lowering interstate speed limits around North Dakota cities.

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

By Jeff Beach

North Dakota state troopers wrote fewer speeding tickets on stretches of interstate highway that went up to an 80 mph speed limit in 2025, but some areas where speed limits were reduced saw a spike in citations — especially at Dickinson. 

North Dakota’s top highway speed went up to 80 mph on Aug. 1, 2025. At the same time, stretches of interstate at Dickinson, Grand Forks, Jamestown and Valley City saw the speed limit reduced from 75 mph to 70 mph. 

“They created a speed trap,” Rep. Ben Koppelman, who sponsored the 80 mph bill, said of the Dickinson area.  

By Jack Dura

Data centers grow communities’ property tax base, add more people to the local population and are an opportunity for North Dakota’s energy resources, according to a panel discussion Wednesday at the Lignite Energy Council’s annual conference.

Rainbow Energy Center CEO Stacy Tschider, Applied Digital Director of Local & Regional Affairs Dave Nehring and Ellendale Mayor Don Flaherty discussed benefits, best practices and misconceptions they see related to data centers, which have generated intense public scrutiny.

By Jack Dura

The only fair housing organization in the Dakotas has furloughed some of its staff due to the delay of a crucial federal grant.

The Grand Forks-based High Plains Fair Housing Center has been awaiting the $425,000 Fair Housing Initiatives Program grant since May. Executive Director Michelle Rydz said she and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were getting ready to sign the grant last week, when “for some reason they stopped,” Rydz told the North Dakota Monitor.

As a result, she has furloughed three of her eight staff. A fourth employee might be furloughed in a couple of weeks, Rydz said.

By Jack Dura

Tribal leaders should support their community’s youth to spur growth and break away from old politics that hinder opportunities, the leader of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians told college students, instructors and other tribal officials Thursday. 

Tribal Chairman Jamie Azure said he wanted to break away from that “standard approach” soon after his entry into tribal government as a council member in 2016. He outlined how his tribe worked to engage youth and drive toward goals for the Turtle Mountain community after trainings on strategic planning for Native nations showed why opportunities were lacking.

“We learned that if we are going to move forward as a nation, we needed to start planning on moving forward by using correct data, by using higher education, by showing people that our sovereign nations weren’t just little specks on a map,” Azure told an audience at the 29th Tribal Leaders Summit in Bismarck. 

By Jack Dura

Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Chuck Grassley of Iowa say they want to help U.S. beef producers grow their herds while President Donald Trump plans to import 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef meant to lower prices for consumers.

The two senators spoke with reporters after Grassley and his wife, Barbara, toured the North Dakota Capitol on Wednesday. The Grassleys had earlier toured the Minnesota Capitol, and were on their way next to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library at Medora. 

By Amy Dalrymple

North Dakota was set to ban people from using federal food assistance to buy candy, soda and other sugary drinks starting this month.

The federal government, which has encouraged states to adopt such policies, then abruptly asked the state to postpone until Nov. 1 just days before it was set to take effect. This delay could give North Dakota a chance to reassess whether the policy is worth its hefty price tag to implement. 

The SNAP soda ban was not vetted in a legislative session. The public had no chance to comment. Grocery stores and retailers had no input. The feds now plan to take public comment, but it seems like a check-the-box exercise to fend off future court challenges, not a sincere effort to gauge the public impact. What if North Dakota pressed pause and gave the policy real consideration in January when the Legislature reconvenes?

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