Category Archives: North Dakota

States to award anti-abortion centers roughly $250m in post-Roe surge

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At least 16 states will fund largely unregulated facilities that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies

In the months since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, at least 16 states have agreed to funnel more than $250m in taxpayer dollars towards anti-abortion facilities and programs that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies.

Much of that money is set to go to anti-abortion counseling centers, or crisis pregnancy centers, according to data provided by the Guttmacher Institute and Equity Forward, organizations that support abortion rights. It has been paid out throughout 2023 and will stretch into 2025.

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Fossil fuel firms spent millions on US lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest bills

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About 60% of oil and gas operations protected from protest due to money spent on lobbying, says Greenpeace USA report

Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign donations to state lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest laws – which now shield about 60% of US gas and oil operations from protest and civil disobedience, according to a new report from Greenpeace USA.

Eighteen states including Montana, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia and the Dakotas have enacted sweeping anti-protest laws which boost penalties for trespass near so-called critical infrastructure, that make it far riskier for communities to oppose pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that threaten their land, water and the global climate.

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North Dakota state senator, wife and two children die in Utah plane crash

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Doug Larsen and family killed shortly after taking off from Canyonlands airfield, about 15 miles north of Moab

A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were traveling in crashed in Utah, a senate leader said Monday.

Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed on Monday in an email that the Republican state senate majority leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by the Associated Press.

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North Dakota governor signs bill allowing teachers to ignore students’ pronouns

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Measure also requires teachers to tell parents if student is trans and bars them from using bathroom matching their gender

North Dakota’s governor has signed a bill into law that allows public school teachers and state government employees to ignore the pronouns their transgender students and colleagues use, the governor’s office announced on Monday.

The new law, signed by the Republican governor, Doug Burgum, also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student is transgender. It also prohibits transgender students from using the appropriate bathroom without prior approval from a parent or guardian.

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Huge winter storm closes US highways and prompts rare southern California blizzard warning

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Hundreds of thousands lose power and thousands of flights canceled as weather takes toll across northern and western states

A brutal winter storm closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming on Wednesday, trapped drivers in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in southern California in decades – and the worst won’t be over for several days.

Meanwhile, pockets of the south-east will be cooking, with record-breaking warmth expected to stretch into the mid-Atlantic spiking temperatures more than 40F warmer than normal and creating weather that feels more “like June than February”, according to the National Weather Service.

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‘Bomb cyclone’ storm could bring deadly winter weather to US

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An estimated 50 million Americans also under windchill alerts as ‘once-in-a-generation-event’ could impact holiday travel

Severe winter weather is set to affect millions across the US this week, as freezing temperatures and strong storms threaten to wreak havoc on holiday travel plans.

A burst of arctic air settling over several states this week is forecast to drop temperatures to dangerous – and potentially deadly – levels just as more than 110 million Americans are expected to set out for their celebrations.

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US National Weather Services warns of ‘widespread’ winter storm hazards

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More than 15 million people under winter advisory while several areas in midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms

More than 15 million people are under a winter advisory as of Tuesday, as several areas in the midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms, Axios reported.

Storm warnings are in effect across a dozen states, including parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota.

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Marijuana, abortion, climate crisis: what was down the ballot in the midterm

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The ‘green wave’ expanded to Maryland with voters opting for recreational cannabis while California voted to enshrine abortion

Voters across the US weighed in on a variety of ballot measures during the US midterms on Tuesday, passing judgement on everything from recreational drugs to abortion rights, to sports betting and the climate crisis.

Multiple states voted on whether or not to legalize recreational marijuana, part of a growing “green wave” that has already seen many relax their laws on cannabis use.

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Indigenous nations sue North Dakota over ‘sickening’ gerrymandering

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The suit charges that diluting Indigenous power violates their voting rights and will handicap tribe members who run for office

Days before a new legislative map for North Dakota was set to be introduced in the state house, leaders of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation sent a letter to the governor and other state lawmakers urging them to rethink the proposal.

“All citizens deserve to have their voices heard and to be treated fairly and equally under the law,” they wrote, arguing that the proposed map was illegal, diluting the strength of their communities’ voice.

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‘They don’t include Native voices’: tribes fight to ensure their votes count

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As the Native American population grows to the largest in modern history, groups say it’s vital that they organize to make sure they’re not left out of the redistricting process

In a small unadorned conference room in the North Dakota state capitol, Collette Brown, a representative for the Spirit Lake Nation, stood up on 26 August to testify on behalf of the 7,559 members of her federally recognized tribe.

Speaking to a largely white, male Republican committee of lawmakers, she explained what Native American communities stand to lose with redistricting if the legislature decides to draw legislative boundaries that split Native American communities or create areas that have at-large representation, instead of single-member districts.

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Republicans in six states rush to mimic Texas anti-abortion law

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North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Florida eye similar measures to new Texas ban after six weeks

Republican leaders in as many as six US states are rushing to follow the lead of Texas in adopting an extreme abortion ban that critics, including Joe Biden, have slammed as unconstitutional and built to encourage vigilantism among the public.

Abortion rights advocates are bracing to resist a flurry of initiatives from Florida to North Dakota in the wake of the new Texas law, the most extreme in the US, which the conservative majority on the supreme court refused to block.

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What is sovereignty? A conversation about American colonialism

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Jacqueline Keeler, the author of a new book on standoffs with the government, tells Jason Wilson why the colonial relationship on which the US was founded needs to be renegotiated

In 2014, the writer Jacqueline Keeler started the #notyourmascot hashtag, a social media campaign highlighting the way sports teams use Native Americans mascots to perpetuate racist caricatures. In her current work, she investigates people who are falsely claiming Native ancestry for personal gain – including Susan Taffe Reed, the Native American program director who turned out not to be Native American.

“In all of this, the central issue is our domination by a colonial government,” she says.

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North Dakota governor in tears at split over face mask use in the US – video

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Republican Doug Burgum was moved to tears over divisions in the US over wearing face masks during the coronavirus pandemic, in which some stores have turned customers away for wearing masks. 'This is a ... senseless dividing line,' he said

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Joe Biden hopes to cement lead in crucial Democratic primaries

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Bernie Sanders, second in the race, campaigns in Michigan hoping to win the state with the most delegates

Joe Biden is hoping to cement his position as frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president on Tuesday, as millions of voters in six states have their say in the next round of primary election contests.

For Bernie Sanders – the second of two major remaining candidates in the race – the six primaries in Michigan, Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota will be a crucial test of whether he can reverse the momentum the former vice-president enjoys coming out of his victories in the Super Tuesday states last week, and prevent him from extending his delegate count lead.

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North Dakota: police discover several bodies inside Bismarck building

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  • Police say ‘several people deceased inside’ at Mandan business
  • Vehicles clustered around RJR Maintenance and Management

Police responding to a medical call at a North Dakota business on Monday found “several” bodies, authorities said.

The Mandan police department issued a three-sentence news release confirming that officers had found “several people who were deceased inside” the business in the city of about 22,000 just across the Missouri River west of Bismarck.

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Polar vortex: how cold will it be and what should the midwest expect?

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Though the region is familiar with bitter winters, record low temperatures may be threatening, forecasters warn

Record low temperatures are descending on the American midwest. The region is long familiar with bitter winters, but this is an exceptional cold snap that forecasters warn could be life-threatening. The extreme chill comes after a snowstorm that hit the area overnight on Monday.

Related: Americans’ climate change concerns surge to record levels, poll shows

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Heidi Heitkamp talks to North Dakotans about her no vote on…

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As Sen. Heidi Heitkamp hustled down the main drag in Sunday's Uffda Day parade, Elizabeth Ritter, a middle-aged woman in a pink coat and matching hat, stepped off the curb, pulled the lawmaker close and spoke into her ear, carving out a private moment amid the blaring music and cheers. "I said I was proud of her and God bless her," Ritter said later.

Heitkamp says no to Kavanaugh, citing temperament

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North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's decision to vote against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court defies her state's heavy support for President Donald Trump, but could boost the vulnerable Democrat's standing with independents and women. In a politically fraught decision Thursday just a month before the Nov. 6 election, Heitkamp cited concerns about the federal judge's temperament in announcing her opposition.

North Dakota officials tell tribes of election requirements Source: AP

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North Dakota is going ahead with requiring residents to provide a street address in order to vote on Election Day, even though some American Indian tribes have argued in federal court that they sometimes aren't assigned on reservations. Secretary of State Al Jaeger's office notified the state's five tribes by email late Friday of North Dakota voter ID requirements.