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During the 69th Legislative Assembly, North Dakota Democratic-NPL Insider will provide updates and calls to action each day of the regular session. If you would like to have something added to the newsletter, email us at [email protected]. Spread the word of our newsletter by sharing our sign-up link today: https://demnpl.com/join-our-newsletter/.
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Undeterred Podcast
Democratic-NPL leadership has launched a podcast! The first features Rep. Gretchen Dobervich! She walks Dem-NPL Treasurer Pat Hart through what to expect from the North Dakota Legislature.
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What's coming up?
Democratic-NPL Bills
Monday, January 20 Sen. Tim Mathern’s bill (SB 2096) to provide for regional acute psychiatric treatment and residential supportive housing services will be heard in the Senate Appropriations - Human Resources Division and his bill (SB 2171) regarding emergency mental health petitions will be heard in the Senate Human Services Committee
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Ally Group Day of Action
Saturday, January 18, 2025 Multiple
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Not a Dem-NPL Event, but one many will be interested in: ACLU-ND, ERA NOW, Prairie Action ND, Prairie Abortion Fund, and supporters like you to hold events across North Dakota to mark the presidential inauguration and what would have been the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Events will include activities like writing letters to legislators, sharing legislative updates, and advocating for abortion access.
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Fargo 10:00 a.m. March at Veterans Memorial Bridge 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Open House at Brewhalla, Upper Level
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Grand Forks 1:00 p.m. March 2:00 p.m. Coffee, Convo, and Card Writing Urban Stampede
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Jamestown 1:00-3:00 p.m. Linden Court Apartments, Community Room Behind Casey's north gas station
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Mandan 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Poppy Creative, 408 W Main Street
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Inauguration Night Solidarity Social
Monday, January 20, 2025 – 5:00 PM Fargo Labor Temple 3002 1st Avenue North, Fargo
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Everyone is welcome to join us! There will be food and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic options), games, merch, and karaoke! While we hoped for another Democratic administration, the country voted otherwise and our hard work continues. Join us as we rise up to hold our democracy! There is plenty of parking, come whenever works for your schedule. If Karaoke is your thing, that will start around 7. This is a family friendly event and everyone is invited!
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District 44 Public Forum
Saturday, January 25, 2025 – 10:00 AM Northport Library Community Room 2714 Broadway North, Fargo
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Sen. Josh Boschee and Reps. Karla Rose Hanson and Austin Foss will provide updates about the session and take questions.
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District 36, 37, and 39 Reorganizations
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 – 7:00 PM District 24 Headquarters 200 N. Central Ave. Valley City
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District Reorganization is a great time to get involved in your local Democratic-NPL Party! District 24 consists of all of Barnes and Ransom Counties.
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District 24 Reorganization
Sunday, February 16, 2025 – 2:00 PM District 24 Headquarters 200 N. Central Ave. Valley City
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District Reorganization is a great time to get involved in your local Democratic-NPL Party! District 24 consists of all of Barnes and Ransom Counties.
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Help us spread our message—share these posts from the past week!
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Letter: It's been a privilege to serve
The team of public professionals who show up each day at USDA RD are dedicated to putting the federal resources entrusted to us by Congress to work for you, our friends and neighbors in North Dakota. In the four years of this administration, USDA RD has invested more than $2.8 billion in our state’s small towns and rural areas, leaving a legacy of collective impacts well-beyond any individual effort. From clean water and safe streets in Larimore and Richardton; reliable electricity and high-speed internet services from our co-ops; new and expanded health care facilities in Belcourt, Cando, Cooperstown, Jamestown, Northwood, and Rugby; assistance to rural grocery stores in Garrison and Beulah; and more affordable, accessible housing from Bottineau to Bowman, investments by USDA RD make living our lives, no matter our zip code, better.
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House withdraws meal reimbursement bill, resolution against same-sex marriage
Meanwhile, House Bill 1323 would have allowed lawmakers to reimburse themselves for meals during any organizational, special or regular session.
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Reps. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo; Keith Kempenich, R-Bowman; Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo; David Monson, R-Osnabrock; and SuAnn Olson, R-Baldwin, are listed as sponsors.
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North Dakota Ethics Commission receives early pushback in legislative hearing
“We have consistent questions that come up, but nobody kind of gets around to asking for the advisory opinion,” Executive Director Rebecca Binstock said during a Wednesday hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. “In those instances, the commission would like to say something has come to its attention multiple times, and so let’s go ahead and provide some clarity on this situation.”
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McFeely: How much damage can Burgum do in four years as Interior secretary?
When Burgum was nominated not only for Interior secretary but also picked by Trump to head the new National Energy Council, tasked with establishing U.S. energy dominance in the world, it sort of gives a bigger hint.
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This has little to do with "unleashing American energy independence" as Trump lieutenants like Burgum squawk, or lowering the price of gas as GOP politicians have claimed. No, it has to do with further enriching the oil companies and investors like Burgum buddy Harold Hamm. North Dakota is a petrostate and Republicans like Burgum envision American becoming the same.
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ND House votes down blue law bill 89-4
The House Industry, Business and Labor Committee votes 10 to four approving a do not pass recommendation for a bill that would reinstate North Dakota’s blue law prohibiting retailers from being open between midnight and noon on Sundays.
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Committee members who rejected the do not pass recommendation are Republican State Reps. Jorin Johnson, Jim Kasper of Fargo, Ben Koppelman of West Fargo and Mike Schatz of New England. Despite the recommendation, the bill will head for a floor vote as all bills do in the Legislature.
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What Now, Lieutenant?
Unlike my HAC board, Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing was not rigorous. For Republican senators, it was a chance to remind their target audience that they should be very worried and/or outraged about wokeness and the woke agenda and DEI and “social Marxism” and even CRT, though it may be too late now that CRT is taught in both kindergarten and law school.
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U.S. Attorney’s office releases Community Report
The investigation into Morgan-Derosier revealed ties between him and Holmberg, resulting in an investigation and his eventual arrest. Holmberg pleaded guilty in August, 2024 to traveling to Prague, Czech Republic, to have commercial sex with underage boys. Court documents indicate Holmberg took approximately 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021 to engage in commercial sex acts with minors. Holmberg is currently detained pending sentencing.
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“I could not be prouder of the career prosecutors, civil litigators, and talented staff of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota,” Schneider said. “They exhibit not just excellence in the courtroom, but also a commitment to our communities and law enforcement partners that makes North Dakota a safer place. Upholding the rule of law, keeping our country safe, and protecting civil rights is not just a mission statement, it’s the daily work of the office.”
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How does the Fargo School Board feel about some bills in the ND legislature?
Tyler Axness takes over for Joel Heitkamp during "News and View" while having a conversation with Robin Nelson on the cell phone bill and school lunch bill in the State Legislature. Robin is a Fargo School Board member and is the Board-appointed Spokesperson on legislative issues
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It’s Time to Check Back in, Liberals—Trump 2.0 Will Be Far, Far Worse
Folks, it’s time to reengage. Trump will take the oath of office at noon on Monday. Soon thereafter, this parade of misfit toys we’ve been watching testify this week will occupy their Cabinet positions. Orders will start percolating out—from Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, and other Trump deep staters—to start doings things differently. Trump already knows certain leverage points in the federal bureaucracy that took him months or years to locate the first time around. And he’ll have one big thing that he didn’t have in 2017: a pliant and willing establishment that signals a desire to be 100 percent on his side and that will give him every benefit of every doubt as he pulls at the republic’s threads.
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Bannon calls Project 2025's influence 'years in the making'
Bannon calls Project 2025's influence 'years in the making'
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Mark Zuckerberg Doubles Down on the MAGA-fication of Meta
It’s an odd claim coming from the CEO of a company where men outnumber women by almost two to one: In 2022, the most recent year of Meta’s reported employee data, only 37% of its workers were female—a figure that hasn’t budged since Meta began reporting it five years earlier. The same is true of Silicon Valley as a whole, where women, Black, and Hispanic workers remain dramatically underrepresented despite years of (more or less sincere) corporate diversity efforts. Just last September, a new analysis by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that women in tech made zero representation gains over the past generation.
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DNC and POLITICO host Midwest Regional National Officer Forum
The Democratic National Committee and POLITICO co-host an in-person candidate forum for DNC officer elections in Detroit, Michigan, focused on the Midwest region. The forum will be moderated by POLITICO journalists including Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels, White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns, Politics Bureau Chief and Senior Political Columnist Jonathan Martin, and National Political reporters Elena Schneider and Holly Otterbein.
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How the Trump Administration Could Make Project 2025 a Reality
In an interview with conservative activist Tucker Carlson shortly after Trump’s reelection, Vought likened OMB to the “nerve center” through which a president can ensure their policy directives trickle down to the multitude of federal agencies and a civilian workforce of more than two million people.
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“Properly understood, [OMB] is a President’s air-traffic control system with the ability and charge to ensure that all policy initiatives are flying in sync and with the authority to let planes take off and, at times, ground planes that are flying off course,” Vought wrote in Project 2025.
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What Blue States Can Do If Trump and Republicans Withhold Disaster Aid
Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal disaster relief from the state just months ago, and he recently repeated that threat. There’s plenty of reason to believe Trump means it, too, considering he reportedly delayed or withheld disaster aid to blue states and Puerto Rico during his first term as president. Republican lawmakers like Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) have also raised the idea in light of the California wildfires, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Monday that he believes federal aid should be conditional. “It appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects. So that’s something that has to be factored in,” Johnson said, echoing the larger right-wing response to the fires, which has been to blame Democrats. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) chimed in later on Monday. “They don’t deserve anything, to be honest with you,” he said of the prospect of outside aid coming into California, citing “inner-city woke policies.”
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I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers
Alongside those holding political office, tech gragillionnaires (I had to invent a new number) like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg obviously wield huge global influence with their computers and numbers and whatnot. There has been a lot written about them and there will be more, as they continue to shape the world and win favour with Donald Trump. Big, scary, probably ruinous things lie ahead. But I’m here to discuss the smaller part. The insult to injury, the sprinkling of salt in the wound.
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Committees
Every bill is voted on in the North Dakota legislature, but first, it must go through a committee hearing. The committee will vote to give the bill a "Do Pass" or a "Do Not Pass" recommendation. Below is a list of Standing Committees this legislative session.
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Senate Standing Committee Members
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Monday through Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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House Standing Committee Members
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
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Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
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Meets Monday through Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
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Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
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Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
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Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
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The Century Club supports our year-round work to build party infrastructure supporting candidate recruitment, local district and regional leadership, issue-based education, and tools for Dem-NPL success.
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Help us elect great Democrats up and down the ballot!
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The North Dakota Democratic-NPL is launching a new grassroots program called “Neighbor to Neighbor” where volunteers will connect with voters in your community to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for connecting with voters in 25 homes in your neighborhood or friends and family to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot about 3-4 times this year.
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Grassroots organizers are the lifeblood of the Dem-NPL! Sign up to volunteer with the Dem-NPL!
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