Plain Talk

Last week, in response to an open record request filed by myself and others for emails, Attorney General Drew Wrigley announced that his office wouldn't be able to satisfy those requests in full. An employee, who was not a supervisor or attorney in his office and who had no authority to do so, ordered the deletion of former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's email account. Stenehjem passed away earlier this year. Wrigley, who had already announced a campaign for the office, was appointed his replacement by Governor Doug Burgum. Subsequent to the deletion of Stenehjem's account, the employee also ordered the deletion of Deputy Attorney General Troy Seibel's account. Seibel left the office earlier this year after Wrigley informed him that he would be bringing in his own personnel for that position. The original records requests were part of investigations into controversy over a cost overrun for newly-constructed office space for employees of the AG's office, but these deletions have become a controversy in their own right. Wrigley addressed the matter on this episode of Plain Talk. He declined to name the employee during our interview, but indicated that afterward his office would be releasing the communication in which the account deletions were ordered, and that this would identify the employee. He also declined to discuss what disciplinary actions his office would take with regard to this employee, saying they're an "internal personnel" matter. He added that he'd received at least one "plea" not to identify this person publicly, but said he had no legal authority to keep that information from the public. There is "no way to ascertain" the number of emails that were deleted. Wrigley also said that while he wasn't aware of any situation where records that needed to be retained for on-going matters of litigation, "the timeline was very rapid" for the removal of the accounts. Wrigley said that he assumes a "vast" number of the emails in those accounts were also sent to other state employees, and so are maintained as records in those accounts, but with the accounts now gone, and with the state's IT personnel assuring him there's no way to get them back, there's also no way to measure how much information is now lost. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Governor Doug Burgum's administration is on the path to proposing some very significant policy to address North Dakota's child care process in the upcoming legislative session. It will be "something different from what you usually see from our administration," Lt. Governor Brent Sanford said on this issue of Plain Talk. Child care has been talked about as an urgent public policy need for, well, about a generation now, most recently at a Chamber of Commerce event in Fargo, yet there hasn't been much in the way of substantial progress on the issue. Part of the problem is politics. "Our legislator's eyes glass over" when this issue gets brought up in the context of early childhood education. "They'll say 'we don't want to back the school bus up to the maternity ward'," Sanford says. He thinks a more persuasive approach will be to talk about the need for childcare policy in the context of the economy. Ensuring access to affordable child care "is what we have to do to retain and recruit," Sanford says, especially because the private sector can't seem to provide that. "The daycare model is uneconomic," Sanford argues. "It doesn't work." In fact, he says, it only works to the extent it is now because of low-wage workers. He pointed out that ratio policies, which dictate the number of children per daycare worker a facility can have, were "built when we still had minimum wage workers. Who still has minimum wage workers?" Sanford says the administration is still working on a policy proposal, but that it may include revenue from the state's Legacy fund to make things work.

President Joe Biden is putting the blame for high gas prices on gas station owners. "My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril," he wrote in a tweet posted before Independence Day. "Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now." How does an actual gas station owner feel about that? "He seem to think we can drop the price twenty cents to be patriotic," Kent Satrang said on this episode of Plain Talk. Satrang is the owner of Petroserve USA, which has several locations in North Dakota and Minnesota. He said doesn't really get to choose his prices. They're set by a very competitive market. A station that is selling fuel at a price that's significantly higher than competing stations simply won't see business. And besides, Satrang argues, companies like his don't make much on the fuel anyway. Satrang says his margin amounts to a "few cents a gallon." "The actual credit card company makes more off our fuel for their fees than we do," he said, adding that most of his profits come from the food, drinks, and other items sold in his convenience stores. Also on this episode, Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the unhappy state of America as another Independence Day comes and goes.

America's industry, from power production to agriculture to manufacturing, needs "to be governed by policymakers not lawsuits." That's what Jason Boherer, president of the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council, said on this episode of Plain Talk. He sees the recent Supreme Court decision in North Dakota v. EPA as a boon not just for his industry, but for American democracy in that it will require Congress and other legislative bodies to actually make a decision on what it wants emissions policy to be, instead of punting the question to regulators and judges. That's a more transparent process, he argues. A more predictable one. That, in the end, will serve America better. And while some are arguing that the Supreme Court's finding that the EPA didn't have authority from Congress to regulate emissions in the way it was will endanger the environment, Bohrer sees it as helping. He argues that projects such as carbon capture, of which there are many here in North Dakota, will be more viable now that they don't have to match pace with a timeline from the EPA that seemed calculated, on a political basis, to be "impossible to meet," according to Bohrer. This ruling "increases the odds that you're going to see carbon capture on some of our projects," he claims, and that seems likely. Which is good news for North Dakota. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on the podcast platform of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as a pro-life Democrat. There are pro-choice Republicans too, of course, but on this episode of Plain Talk, it was Mark Haugen, the Democratic-NPL candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, who is staunchly pro-life, who we were speaking to. Haugen's party leaders have described the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade as "evil," but Haugen isn't too worried about that. "Pat's a good friend of mine," he said, referring to party chairman Patrick Hart, and adding that they'd discussed the matter. Still, Haugen feels it's important to remember that pro-life Democrats are a part of the party. "Are we the minority? Absolutely. But that's democracy," he said. "I have to work hard at explaining my position. Haugen describes that position as being "whole life," arguing that Democrats should focus on social assistance policies to help mothers and children. Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I also discussed the political ramifications of overturning Roe v. Wade, both locally and nationally, as well as the latest revelations of the January 6 committee. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe, for free, on the podcast platform of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org

Minot, N.D. — You couldn't possibly have missed the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Roe v. Wade precedent which held that it was unconstitutional for state governments to ban abortion. The ruling was unambiguous. "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion," the court ruled. "Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives." North Dakota, like many other states, has legislation regulating abortion which was written so that it would take effect should the Roe precedent be overturned. On this episode of Plain Talk, the state official responsible for making that determination, Attorney General Drew Wrigley, says we can expect his decision imminently. "I expect to be announcing that decision in a matter...of hours not days," he said, adding that he doesn't expect to make the announcement today, but it's coming soon. That's not surprising given how clear the Supreme Court was in their opinion. Wrigley noted that while researching the issue, he was surprised to see that the 2007 "trigger bill" banning abortion was bipartisan. It was "even sponsored by a Democrat," he noticed. The bill in question was House Bill 1466, and its primary sponsor was former Rep. James Kerzman, a Democrat. The other House co-sponsor was Rep. Ralph Metcalf, who was also a Democrat. Rep. Merle Boucher (a gubernatorial candidate in 2004), Rep. Bill Amerman, Sen. Joan Heckaman (the current Minority Leader), Sen. Richard Marcellais, and Sen. Tim Mathern were other notable Democrats who voted to pass the bill. In addition to the 2007 law, there is also a 2019 trigger bill that banned the most common type of surgical abortion, though Wrigley said that bill was largely moot given the 2007 law. Once these certifications are completed, Wrigley's office will focus on other bills regulating abortion that haven't been enforced because they've been enjoined by the courts based on the Roe decision. Among these are a ban on abortions after a heartbeat is detected, regulation of the disposal of aborted babies, and a bill regulating hospital admissions for abortions. Wrigley also addressed the status of his inquiry into a land purchase made by a trust associated with billionaire Bill Gates. His office has sought information on the transaction, and the trust. If it's found to be in violation of a state prohibition on corporate farming, Wrigley says the trust will be required to divest itself of the property.

Sen. Kevin Cramer and I will never agree about former President Donald Trump. I think the man was a disgrace to his office. Cramer would be fine if we elected him president again. But one thing we agree on, as we discussed the on-going hearings of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot, is that Vice President Mike Pence was the hero of that story. He held his oath to the constitution higher than his loyalty to Trump, and that was a heroic act. Though I still can't fathom why Cramer, who sees Pence as the hero, can't recognize that Trump is the villain. But you'll have to listen to this episode of Plain Talk to hear him explain that. As to gas prices, the roots of our problems lay in the unwillingness of the American left to recognize that we still need oil, Our world runs on it. It's unavoidable. The efforts to put the oil industry out of business have only hamstrung its ability to deliver us a product that is vital to our economy and our quality of life. Gas prices are higher than they need to be because they're fighting a Sisyphean struggle against anti-oil politics. Cramer also discussed the gun control issue, which is much on the minds of Americans after shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. Cramer's not a fan of red flag laws - he responded to some recent criticism of his argument that Republicans are more interested in winning "red wave" elections than in passing red flag laws - but he is open to steps that can be taken to address the potential for violent shooters. One idea he supports is allowing juvenile records to be used as disqualifiers in background checks for gun purchases. Want to be notified of new episodes of Plain Talk? Subscribe on the platform of your choice.

The North Dakota Republican Party, the dominant force in our state's politics, is deeply divided. If anyone was hoping that primary night, which saw that divide driving the debate in legislative competitions across the state, was going to resolve things they're in for a disappointment. Republicans across the state voted, and the NDGOP remains about as divided as ever. We talked about it on this episode of Plain Talk. First Jim Poolman, former insurance commissioner and former vice chairman of the NDGOP, joined Wednesday co-host Chad Oban and I, then Pat Finken, a long-time veteran of state politics and head of the Brighter Future Alliance, chimed in. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on the podcasting platform of your choice. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Minot, N.D. — Shannon Roers Jones is a state lawmaker who is currently halfway through her second term representing Fargo-area District 46. She's also a candidate for mayor of Fargo, and she has been, arguably, the most visible candidate thanks in no small part to a political mugging her father got from the Fargo's city commissioners, including two of her opponents in the mayoral race. On this episode of Plain Talk, Roers Jones talks about what it would be like serving as a mayor and lawmaker (she hasn't decided if she'd do both if elected mayor), the claims that her mayoral duties, if elected, would clash with her career duties (she works for the family business, Roers Construction, as her day job), and what she describes as "media bias" in the local coverage of this race. "The Forum has chosen to publish only negative stories and only negative letters," Roers Jones claims, referring to the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, the flagship newspaper for Forum Communications, my employers. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Click here to subscribe, for free, on your favorite podcasting service. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.

Inflation is a real problem. It's making us poorer. Your wages aren't being cut, but the cost of living your life is growing faster than what you earn. Fuel prices are up. Utility bills are going higher. Groceries cost more. Hell, everything costs more. But the subject of inflation is a lot more complicated than what's presented by the politicians and the pundits. On this episode of Plain Talk, Dr. David Flynn, a professor of economics at the University of North Dakota, discussed what's causing inflation, and what can do about it. One of the hardest parts of talking about this subject is that there's many different causes that necessitate many solutions. Interest rates are part of the solution, but then so is trade policy. How can we ease supply line snaggles? How can we shorten supply lines? How can we make our economy more nimble so that it can respond to change without necessarily driving up prices? And how do we drive the wage-price spiral? Where higher cost wages drive higher-cost goods and services which in turn creates demand for higher wages again? Earning more money is good, except it doesn't mean much when the cost of living is growing about as fast. Want to be notified when new episodes of Plain Talk drop? Subscribe, for free, on just about any podcast service you can think of. Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.