By Amy Dalrymple | Editor
Gail Gilliam donned an early bird costume during a No Kings rally in Fargo on Oct. 17, 2026, to encourage people to vote early this election season. Similar events were held in Grand Forks, Devils Lake, Valley City, Jamestown, Bismarck and Dickinson. (Photo by Dan Koeck/For the North Dakota Monitor)
By Jeff Beach and Michael Achterling
Hundreds rallied across North Dakota on Saturday to encourage early voting in the Nov. 3 election, joining similar No Kings events across the country.
Fargo and Bismarck rallies, each with a few hundred attendees, featured tables with information about how and when people can vote.
Fargo event organizer Lyn Dockter-Pinnick said the group Red Red United Indivisible is working to promote the largest early vote turnout in history.
“Vote early, that’s what we’re about today,” she said.
Work continues on the new QTS data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah, on April 17, 2026. Today’s data center buildout has become the largest industrial boom since the railroad era of the 19th century, with $10 trillion in investment and almost twice the economic impact. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Tim Henderson
The sheer size of investment in data centers is drawing concern as it surpasses all other historical booms and crowds out other more job-creating ventures.
Until now, no industry had driven the U.S. economy with such force since the railroad expansion of the late 1800s, when titans battled one another to lay the transcontinental tracks that would connect America from coast to coast.
Railroads in the 19th century consumed about $173 billion in today’s dollars and created more than 2% of the nation’s annual economic output (GDP) over 20 years.
Today’s data center buildout will dwarf that amount, with $10 trillion in investment, and now have almost twice the economic impact — nearly 4% of GDP. That’s according to a report created by a Columbia Business School professor, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh.
A courtroom at the Placer County Superior Court in Roseville, California, earlier this year. In California and other states, the rosters of public defenders have been shrinking at an alarming rate, often leaving defendants in jail for days, weeks or months without access to an attorney. (Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./ CalMatters)
By David Montgomery
Throughout many other states, the rosters of public defenders have been shrinking at an alarming rate, often leaving defendants in jail for days, weeks or months without access to an attorney.
Many public defenders are leaving, while those that remain are forced to juggle enormous caseloads.
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North Dakota gives certain low-producing oil wells a tax break intended to help them keep operating, but the designation is permanent even if a well later produces much more oil.
Monitor reporter Jacob Orledge joins host Craig Blumenshine to discuss his recent reporting, which found that North Dakota is on pace to miss out on about $66 million this year in tax revenue from wells that no longer meet the criteria for the tax break.
A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public's Main Street.
EARLIER ND MONITOR NEWS AND COMMENTARY
FROM STATES NEWSROOM
Members of the New Hampshire state House meet during session this May. Both of New Hampshire’s legislative chambers are considered among the most competitive this midterm election cycle, according to a recent analysis by Sabato’s Crystal Ball. (Photo by Molly Rains/New Hampshire Bulletin)
By Kevin Hardy
Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found.
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