At the beginning of this episode of Plain Talk, Attorney General Drew Wrigley took exception to my recent reporting suggesting that he and Gov. Kelly Armstrong are at odds over sentencing legislation and the performance of state prison officials.

Based on what would follow, I think the conflict between two of North Dakota's top elected officials is positively overt.

According to Wrigley, the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, headed by director Colby Braun, is lying to state lawmakers and the public.

He took particular issue with a recent fiscal note issued by the DOCR indicating that so-called "truth in sentencing" legislation he supports, which would mean that inmates serve a larger percentage of their sentences, will cost taxpayers as much as $269 million.

"Their quest is to make it extraordinarily expensive to turn people away from the bill," he said.

"That is a blatant falsehood," a stormy Wrigley told guest-cost Erin Oban and I.

"It is not worth the paper it's written on," he continued about the fiscal note.

"It would be a joke if it weren't a matter of serious policy debate," he said.

Wrigley also said that DOCR officials have been hiding data from the public and lawmakers, and making misleading statements about rising crime rates. "What an absolute abdication of responsibility," concluded.

These are serious accusations -- lying, abdication of responsibility, etc. -- but Braun isn't an independent operator. He has a boss. That's Armstrong, who was also scheduled to appear on this episode to discuss the progress of property tax reform, which he has made his primary focus during this legislative session. 

I asked Wrigley if he felt Braun should be fired, and he demured, saying it wasn't his place to advise the governor on personnel issues.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode.

We all know the old saying.  You don't talk about religion and politics in polite company. Only, does that advice make sense in a society like ours, where we practice self-governance? How can we govern ourselves if we can't talk to one another about politics?

And, more pertinent to this episode of Plain Talk, how do we teach our kids how to participate in discourse over challenging issues like abortion or gun control if teachers are afraid to tackle politics in the classroom?

Lindsey Galvao is a long-time educator -- the social studies curriculum specialist at GBH and a multiplatform creator for public media, and curriculum writer for the Civics Collection on PBS LearningMedia. (https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/col...)

Ben Klutsey is the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University whose work is featured in the documentary "Undivide US." (https://undivideusmovie.com/) They recently co-authored an op-ed about politics in the classroom, (https://www.grandforksherald.com/opin...) and joined my cohost Chad Oban and I to talk about that very conundrum.

"We disagree and that's ok," Klutsey told us. The problem, he argues, is that so many people say "we disagree and you're a threat to my existence." Both Klutsey and Galvao say that teachers need to be unafraid to host discussions about even fraught social and political questions, but that their focus should be on listening and encouraging students to understand one another. But how do we deal with misinformation?

Kids who might have gotten the idea that the Sandy Hook school shooting didn't really happen, as right-wing talk radio host Alex Jones has claimed, or that the world is flat? Galvao said she would encourage teachers to ask those kids, "How do you know what you know?" They should be encouraged to explore the basis for their point of view. "We have to think about abiding by certain core principles," Klutsey said, identifying them as respect, authenticity, and curiosity. Which is to say that we need to respect those who disagree with us, represent our own views authentically, and be curious about why others disagree with us. Though, he acknowledged, that doesn't mean making room for false information. "Facts are facts," he said, "and you have to engage on facts as an educator." 

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts | Episode Archive

Recorded live at the North Dakota Professional Communicators conference in Minot, this special episode features Rob and Chad in front of a live audience talking media bias, political polarization, and the value of honest disagreement.

They share lessons learned from tough interviews and respond to audience questions about journalism, trust, and what could be done to make North Dakota’s legislature more effective.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode.

To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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On this episode of Plain Talk, co-host Chad Oban takes the reins with guest co-host and former State Senator Jessica Bell for a conversation with Matt Perdue, Government Relations Director at North Dakota Farmers Union.

Perdue, who's running to become the next president of NDFU, emphasizes the uncertainty facing many producers amid economic headwinds, fluctuating commodity prices, and ongoing concerns about federal farm policy and trade conflicts. He also shares how farmers are working through complicated relationships with energy developers, the challenges of rising land prices and absentee landowners, and the importance of investing in rural communities to attract and retain young families.

Plus, Chad and Jessica dive into the recent veto snafu by Gov. Kelly Armstrong, the implications of growing partisanship, and the upcoming appointment of a new Superintendent of Public Instruction.

This episode is presented by Lignite Energy Council, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the development of North Dakota's abundant lignite resouces. Their goal is to maintain a viable lignite coal industry and support the generation of electrcity, syntheitc natural gas, and valuable byproducts. Visit www.Lignite.com/Podcast to connect and learn more.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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On this episode of Plain Talk, Sen. Josh Boschee, a Democrat from Fargo, characterized the just-completed legislative session as marked by crucial victories but also "too many missed opportunities" and numerous "close calls on bad Republican bills."

He emphasized how Republicans and Democrats worked together to achieve both.

Among the victories? Passing Gov. Kelly Armstrong's property tax plan, which implements $1,600 primary residence property tax credits and 3% caps on growth in property tax bills. Noting his day job in real estate, Boschee extolled "how much this is going to help make housing more affordable throughout our state."

He highlighted that the reform could potentially "completely wipe out" property taxes for lower-priced or rural homes or those in smaller communities, allowing residents to invest that money in home repairs, buy a larger home, or open up more affordable housing stock for others.

And the bad bills? Boschee said those included "book bans, what teachers are teaching in the classroom, which bathrooms people are using," and issues related to "abortion and gay marriage."

Most of those initiatives failed, and Boschee said that's because "a faction of the Republican party worked with Democrats to defeat a lot of those bills."

Boschee also praised former Rep. Cynthia Schreiber Beck, who passed away recently. She was someone who "got things done for Richland County or District 25," he said. "Someone that we could all depend on and trust" and who "told you like it was."

 "If she wasn't going to support your idea, you knew it," he said, but if she liked your idea, she "would work with you to make it better or to get it across the finish line."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the impact the property tax cap may have on the ways North Dakota communities develop, and how the state's new ban on cell phones in schools will play out.

This episode is presented by Lignite Energy Council, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the development of North Dakota's abundant lignite resouces. Their goal is to maintain a viable lignite coal industry and support the generation of electrcity, syntheitc natural gas, and valuable byproducts. Visit www.Lignite.com/Podcast to connect and learn more.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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Though his instance on a "skin in the game" provision in property tax reform -- effectively a cap on how much of the primary residence credit property owners could receive -- was one of the major flash points during this year's legislative session, Senate Majority Leader David Hogue says he's satisfied with the outcome overall.

More than that, really. He was downright enthusiastic on this episode of Plain Talk. "Nobody, whether you measured it on a per capita basis, whether you measure it on a percentage of your surplus that you gave back to the taxpayer, nobody in the nation is doing what North Dakota is doing," he said.

"You know, what Minnesota did last session when they had a surplus, they don't have a surplus this session. So, guess what? No tax relief," Hogue said. "Montana, the same thing. They are trying some income tax relief."

Hogue also extolled a provision in the property tax package that went overlooked by many, but which he sees as important.

"Our rural legislators were interested in seeing more funding for rural infrastructure, but they were also interested in seeing that funding source be something that isn't flat and static like our gasoline tax," he said. "And so in addition to using the Legacy Fund earnings to fund the primary residents tax credit, we also tied 2% of those Legacy Fund earnings to go into the DOT budget and specifically to fund rural infrastructure. County roads. Bridges."

Which isn't to say that he thought the property tax package was perfect. "The biggest issue that probably went unreported was how many people are eligible for the primary residence tax credit and how many are going to claim it," Hogue said.

The Tax Commissioner's office was estimating around 160,000 eligible homes, he continued, while the Senate's estimate was around 144,000. "If you do that math, that's 16,000 primary residence applications times two in a bienium. That's 32,000 homes times a $1,600 tax credit," he said. "That's a $50 million item of difference that you're trying to factor into the amount of tax relief."

He expects the Tax Commissioner may be coming to lawmakers for more funding for the property tax credits.

Also on this episode, my co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the public reaction to my story about Jesse Burgum being misleading about her dad Doug Burgum's financial involvement in her fiml career and news that once-disqualified and infamous baseball legends like Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson are now eligible for the Hall of Fame.

This episode is presented by Lignite Energy Council, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the development of North Dakota’s abundant lignite resources. Their goal is to maintain a viable lignite coal industry and support the generation of electricity, synthetic natural gas, and valuable byproducts. Visit www.Lignite.com/Podcast to connect and learn more.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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Nick Archuleta and North Dakota United, the state's combined teacher and public workers union, are touting a report showing that our state is sliding down the rankings in terms of teacher pay.

We're now 40th in the nation, down significantly from roughly a decade ago.

But Archuleta admitted during an interview on Plain Talk that educators could be doing a better job of giving the taxpayers some context around the pay issue. "We are horrible at telling our success stories," he said.

"We have to do a better job," he added, rattling off some examples of the stories that could be told. "Eighth graders are second in the nation in mathematics. Fourth graders are third in the nation in mathematics.

Archuleta said it's also time to "tone down the rhetoric surrounding K12 education" and back off some of the expectations, from the left and the right, that educators be central to the culture wars.

"Everybody that I know that has gone into education goes into it because they want to make sure that every child has the best educational outcomes that they can possibly have," he said. "They don't go into it to be part of a political scrum and they shouldn't. That's exactly the wrong reason to get into education."

As for teacher pay specifically? Archuleta said that North Dakota is "not increasing salaries very quickly." He also noted that other states like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and New Mexico have "done things that actually raise salaries faster."

This is impacting North Dakota's ability to recruit new teachers. "We have an acute teacher shortage in North Dakota" that "has gotten to the point, this is particularly true in rural areas but also in our larger areas, where we're depending more and more on foreign based teachers, particularly from the Philippines."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I talk about how on-going chaos in the North Dakota Republican Party and a possible legal fight with the state Ethics Commission may impact the upcoming election cycle. We also take a look at the last bills from the recently-concluded legislative session that are on Gov. Kelly Armstrong's desk and what he might do with them.

(Full disclosure: Oban also works for North Dakota United.)

This episode is presented by Lignite Energy Council, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the development of North Dakota’s abundant lignite resources. Their goal is to maintain a viable lignite coal industry and support the generation of electricity, synthetic natural gas, and valuable byproducts. Visit www.Lignite.com/Podcast to connect and learn more.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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"The Minot State one took us by surprise," U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak told us on this episode of Plain Talk, referring to the cuts of nearly two dozen staff at the North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities. One of those workers, Kyle Erickson, who lives with cerebral palsy and not only works for the center but received services from it as a child, joined us to talk about the cuts on a previous episode of Plain Talk.

"We found out about it in the newspaper, and we've been trying to get to the bottom of it, and I'm not sure that we have yet," Fedorchak said, expressing some mild frustration with how President Donald Trump's administration has been going about these cuts.

"I do wish that some of the sudden cuts that are coming out, that the the administration is unleashing, would be a little bit more clear," she said. "That we'd have more heads up, that we understood the grand scheme and how these things are working out. What the big plan is, because I think that's what's hard. It's not having time to prepare for them. Or be thoughtful about them."

"You know, if I was doing it, that's not how I would do it," Fedorchak continued, responding to a question about how DOGE and Elon Musk have presented their efficiency efforts to the public. "I would I would not talk about it this way, but I'm not in charge."

Still, Fedorchak supports the overall effort. "In my opinion, we do need to be retracting and right-sizing the federal government," she said. "It isn't sustainable. There has been out of control spending and we have to correct that for ourselves and for the future citizens of our country."

Fedorchak also pushed back on claims that Medicaid is being cut and that Republicans are pushing for tax cuts for the rich. She said the rate of growth in Medicaid spending is to be slowed, and that Republicans only want to renew existing tax policy.

Also on this episode, Minot-based rapper Dakotah Faye performed his song '925,' discussed how he's managed his burgeoning career as a performing artist from North Dakota, and talked about his work with the F5 Project as someone who has struggled with addiction in the past.

This episode is presented by Lignite Energy Council, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the development of North Dakota’s abundant lignite resources. Their goal is to maintain a viable lignite coal industry and support the generation of electricity, synthetic natural gas, and valuable byproducts. Visit www.Lignite.com/Podcast to connect and learn more.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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During the closing hours of the legislative session, lawmakers came to a consensus around a property tax plan endorsed by Gov. Kelly Armstrong which provides $1,600 credits for the primary residences of North Dakotans and a 3% cap on the growth in overall property tax bills.

Rep. Scott Louser voted for that plan, and encouraged his colleagues to vote for it, but in a surprise move, also announced in a floor speech that he had drafted language for a ballot measure campaign for his own property tax plan which had been amended into oblivion earlier in the session.

"I wanted everybody to vote for property tax relief," he said of his eyebrow-raising move. "I just think there's a better way to do it."

Louser wants the state to buy out the 60 mills funding school districts across the state, something he estimates will cost $750 million. He says his plan wouldn't nullify the plan lawmakers did pass, but he pointed out that the primary residence credit would have to be reauthorized by lawmakers next session anyway, and that his expectation would be, if voters approve his ballot measure, that lawmakers reduce of eliminate the credit.

But wouldn't that mean some people, who saw their property tax bills eliminated by the primary residence credit, would start getting bills again? Louser said the next legislative session ould have to take that issue up, too.

"If this were to pass, we are going to be in a situation next session where we have to evaluate for all of those people that had their taxes zeroed out," he said. "How do you balance that? How do you keep it at zero at a lower amount and then continue to step up the credit in the future?"

Though Louser also indicated that he's not entirely decided on whether to go forward with his measure campaign or not. "It's hard for me to answer, 'are you going forward?'" he said, indicating that he like to do some polling of the public first. "If the polling shows that it's a 25 point no, why proceed with it? I don't have that answer yet."

Louser also expressed frustration about the failure of a campaign finance reform bill which was originally intended to require legislative candidates to disclose beginning and ending fund balances, as well as campaign expenditures but ran into a wall of what was at times viscerally angry opposition in the House chamber.

"It was almost all about process and not about the product," Louser said of the debate.

"In the end, it's the product that we that we leave for the for the public to see. And the product that we have now is nothing. Nothing changed," he continued, referring to the fact that the legislation, drained of any real reform by the House, ultimately failed. Louser pointed out that taxpayers have "spent a little over a million dollars" on a new campaign finance system for the Secretary of State's office"to make this reporting easier for us as legislators, easier for the public to read," but that system now won't be fed with better data.

This episode is brought to you by the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation, providing education and outreach opportunities related to the petroleum industry, advancing quality of life initiatives, and promoting and enhancing the conservation heritage of North Dakota. Learn more at www.NDPetroleumFoundation.org.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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Like many organizations and government entities across our region, the Fargo School Board has had to weigh how to react to an erratic president who is on a seek-and-destroy mission for anything with even a whiff of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Katie Christensen Mineer is the president of the school board. She and her fellow board members have come under fire for removing from their website four "philosophies" related to how they handle students in the LGBTQ community. Some critics have accused her and her board of capitulating to President Donald Trump.

"We did this when we did because we were in the process of applying for and renewing a lot of our federal grants, which is $19.7 million," she said on Plain Talk. "And we wanted to protect those dollars."

But she added that the philosophies didn't really have any bearing on how the school district conducts its business. "I believed in these statements for sure and I think some people liked seeing them there," she said, "but the actual, like, inner workings of our district, that is rooted in our strategic plan and that is rooted in our policies."

Christensen Mineer also said that former Superintendent Rupak Gandhi, who very publicly proclaimed that he would ignore state laws regulating bathroom and pronoun use in our schools after the 2023 session, put her district in the political crosshairs.

"A part of me is proud of him and I spoke in support of that and then a part of me is like, 'Oh, crud. What did we just do here?' Because yeah, I mean, we became this target then."

Also on this episode, the Trump administrations chaotic approach to slashing federal spending has resulted in 23 workers losing their jobs at a Minot State University center that served disabled people. One of them, Kyle Erickson, wasn't just a worker at the center, but also received services from it.

"It was kind of a neat little full circle moment for me because one of the projects that [the North Dakota Center for Pesons with Disabilities] runs is called infant development and they do a lot of work with, you know, early intervention, early diagnosis, screening, that type of thing. And I was born with cerebral palsy," he said. "I spent a lot of my youth in infant development."

"I've been involved with this organization my entire life as a client and now I'm an employee fighting to keep this place running for, you know, people that were like me 10, 20 years ago that do rely on the good work."

This episode is brought to you by the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation, providing education and outreach opportunities related to the petroleum industry, advancing quality of life initiatives, and promoting and enhancing the conservation heritage of North Dakota. Learn more at www.NDPetroleumFoundation.org.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It’s super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you’re from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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