Plain Talk

Is recreational marijuana inevitable in North Dakota? The Biden administration announced a loan forgiveness program for farmers, but not white farmers. Is that fair? A Wahpeton school teacher has been suspended after a classroom discussion about George Floyd and the Derek Chauvin trial outraged students (or, perhaps more accurately, their parents). Rob Port and Jay Thomas, talk radio host for WDAY AM970 in Fargo, discuss these topics and others.

Rail shipments are hugely important to North Dakota's economy. Framers and ranchers depend on the railroad infrastructure to bring their crops and livestock to market. The state's manufacturers receive shipments of raw materials, and send out finished products, by rail. The energy industry, too, depends on rail.

The fraught political debate over pipeline infrastructure has often squeezed the capacity available for North Dakota's oil fields. Rail is a flexible, if not optimal, way to get petroleum to market. Given this importance, shouldn't rail safety be paramount for North Dakota's leaders?

After a few firey and explosive derailments of oil-by-rail shipments created a new narrative for anti-oil activists to pounce on, Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, a Republican, sought funding from the Legislature to begin a state-run rail inspection program.

The federal bureaucracy is typically in charge of that, but their coverage leaves much to be desired. State inspectors help them cover more rail. But some of North Dakota's lawmakers, even as they've funded the rail inspection program, have been hostile to it.

Some of them would rather leave it to the federal government. Others resent the modest cost, which currently stands at just $600,000 for the two-year budget cycle. Every time the program is funded, a sunset provision is put in.

Fedorchak joins this episode of Plain Talk to talk about the success of the rail inspection program, and the fight to keep it funded.

A Fargo/Moorhead mosque was vandalized with racial slurs and Nazi imagery recently. That and other incidents have led for some to call for new hate crime policies in North Dakota.

Fargo City Commissioner Arlette Preston is calling for a new ordinance. The editorial board of the Fargo Forum has also called for new statewide policies. But do these policies work? Do they actually deter hate crimes?

Wess Philome, an activist with OneFargo and the Black Lives Matter movement, wants new policies enacted.

Mark Friese, a practicing defense attorney with the Vogel Law Firm in Fargo, questions both the efficacy of such policies and the necessity. These men join this episode of Plain Talk Live to discuss the issue.

Ed Schafer helped usher in the current era of Republican dominance in North Dakota when he was elected Governor back in the early 1990s.

How does he feel about the Trump era, and the strife and faction now dividing his party?

We'll talk about it on this episode of Plain Talk Live.

Also, the Governor weighs in on the just-completed legislative session, the battles between the legislative branch and the executive branch under current Governor Doug Burgum, as well as his thoughts on the way the Legacy Fund is being used.

Some Republicans in the U.S. House want Rep. Liz Cheney, the GOP's conference chair and the third-ranking Republican in the chamber, to go over her criticism of former President Donald Trump.

Trump supporters are even attacking House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, pointing out his living arrangement with prominent consultant Frank Luntz.

Is any work getting done in the House amid all this in-fighting? Can Republicans effectively rebut the Democrats' agenda when they're busying throwing pies at one another?

Also, the Biden administration has finally conceded that the Dakota Access Pipeline should continue to operate during a court-ordered review, earmark spending is making a comeback, and federal legislation addressing civil asset forfeiture may be on the way.

Congressman Kelly Armstrong will discuss the problems in his caucus and these other topics on this episode of Plain Talk.

Rob and Jay talk headlines including COVID-19 vaccines and what happened at the Legislature

Do vaccination selfies, or other types of posts people make on social media indicating they've received a COVID-19 vaccine, bother you? Some are irate about them.

Some want them to stop.

Rob and Jay Thomas, talk show host for WDAY AM970 in Fargo, talk about that and other headlines and issues heading into a new week.

The North Dakota Republican Party is, without question, the dominant political organization in the state.

The Democrats hold no statewide offices.

They haven't held a majority in either of the Legislature's chambers since the Clinton administration.

They haven't held a statewide executive branch office since the dawn of the Obama administration. Starting in 2010, the Democrats began losing their control of the state's congressional delegation, culminating in former Senator Heidi Heitkamp losing control of a Senate seat that had been home to a Democrat since the Eisenhower administration.

But, despite that dominance, the NDGOP's coalition is showing some cracks. In the Legislature, the secretive and controversial Bastiat Caucus has begun to define itself as the true protectors of the state's conservative movement and the NDGOP platform.

Activists aligned with the caucus to one degree or another have, this year, launched a campaign to take over control of NDGOP district organizations, and perhaps ultimately the state party itself.

Perhaps one of the most visible members of the Bastiat Caucus, Rep. Jeff Hoverson of Minot, who said he doesn't even belong to the Republican caucus in the state House, joins this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the movement.

The North Dakota Democratic-NPL has been out of power in North Dakota for about two generations. They haven't held the governorship since the early 1990s.

They haven't held a statewide executive branch office since 2009, or a majority in either chamber in the Legislature since 1994.

Until 2010, the state's entire congressional delegation were members of the Democratic-NPL, as of 2018 those seats are now all held by Republicans. The party holds just 7 seats in the state Senate, and only 14 in the House.

How can they turn it around?

Zach Raknerud was the unsuccessful Democratic-NPL candidate for U.S. House in 2020, and he's currently running to be a committeeman for the party in 2021.

He joins this episode of Plain Talk Live to talk about his party, its past, and what he believes could be its future.

President Joe Biden is set to deliver his first State of the Union address to a country that is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and deeply divided in just about every way a society can be divided.

From environmental issues to infrastructure to immigration, can he map out a policy agenda that brings people together to solve real problems?

Rob Port and University of North Dakota professor of political science Bo Wood discuss on this episode of Plain Talk Live.

Also, North Dakota's legislative session is due to be wrapped up this week. Governor Doug Burgum has signed a raft of pro-gun bills, and declared North Dakota a 2nd Amendment "sanctuary state."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up an important gun rights case. What could that mean for guns and self in America?