September Special Session Day 3

Republican Lawmakers kill bill to ban data center NDAs

Senator Jamie Selzler (D-Fargo) remarked, “North Dakotans have made it incredibly clear that they want transparency in the data center industry. The bill that Republicans defeated today would have done just that. Elected officials should work out in the open on the people’s business, not in secret and behind closed doors. While this idea lost today, Democrats will come back in the regular session to again make the case that an open government is the best government.”

Bob Heitkamp joins News and Views

Bob Heitkamp is running for North Dakota State Senate in District 25.

He’s served as the Executive Director of Marketplace for Kids the past 10 years, was a business owner, and worked in construction.

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North Dakota House kills total ban on kratom, complicating special session

In the House debate, supporters said a total ban is necessary to address what they called a dangerous, addictive drug. Opponents said the total ban did not have a proper hearing and left out key voices from the process, including members of the public who use kratom for pain relief.

Data center nondisclosure bill dies in North Dakota Senate vote

Bill sponsor Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, tried to persuade lawmakers that the bill was needed to preserve trust in government in the face of multi-billion dollar data center development projects that are popping up around the state.

“Secrets destroy trust in government,” Mathern said.

Carrying the Kratom ban bill to the House floor

Afternoons Live with Tyler Axness is live at the Capital for the special session and joining Tyler is Rep. Austin Foss, D44 Fargo, to talk about the kratom ban and other business being discussed.

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Kratom ban and regulations bills advance in North Dakota special session; data center NDAs proposal killed

Sen. Tim Mathern, a Fargo Democrat who proposed the bill, said he wasn't surprised the bill died, but citizens are concerned about artificial intelligence companies eyeing North Dakota for data center projects.

"The citizens are now hearing that Republicans are not listening," Mathern told The Forum, adding the next step for North Dakotans to have their voices heard is at the polls during the November election.

N.D. Senate approves a House-passed bill banning the sale & possession of natural kratom to those under 21

The North Dakota Senate has passed a bill banning the sale and possession of natural kratom to those under age 21, creates licensing and labeling requirements and criminal penalties in a 46-0 vote.

The Senate added an amendment banning synthetic kratom.

Data center NDAs get do-not-pass recommendation from committee

The Joint Policy Committee began by passing an amendment to Senate Bill 2406, sponsored by Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo. The bill would establish a roughly one-year moratorium barring agencies from entering nondisclosure agreements concerning data centers and industrial projects. An agency entering into a nondisclosure agreement with the developer of a data center or industrial project would be grounds for the suspension, revocation or rescission of a developer's permit or approval from an agency.

Grand Forks D-NPL candidates talk housing, data centers, school lunches as special session begins

Tyler York, a House candidate in District 43, called on the lawmakers to look again at previously proposed housing investments. In February 2025, the Senate voted down a bipartisan bill that would have seen $200 million put into the state’s Housing Incentive Fund.

“(Former Gov. Doug) Burgum proposed investing $95 million — it died,” York said. “Gov. (Kelly) Armstrong proposed $105 million. Legislators denied both Republican governors’ requests. That record removed every excuse. This is not partisan gridlock. Republicans hold a legislative supermajority. They have the power to act.”

North Dakota Democrats’ bid to add child care, data center bills falls short

"I think that those have far more to do with an election being in November than actually being sound policy," Armstrong said.

House Minority Leader Rep. Zach Ista, D-Grand Forks, who attempted to introduce the child care bill in the House, said the Democrats' actions were not politically motivated.

"This is being responsive to what the voters want," Ista said. "If we can't even have conversations about two issues that are important to constituents across the state, I don't know what our job is as a body anymore."

Is the Fargo area getting another data center?

About 624.55 acres of land southeast of Casselton, North Dakota, may be sold to Geronimo Power, a Minnesota-based company that recently posted a video about the benefits of data centers in North Dakota.

Goldwyn calls for accountability in Military Museum Event Center

Veterans don’t want a gilded event space. They want better care at the VA. They want better schools for their kids. Veteran homelessness is up in our state. We could be turning this into subsidized housing for veterans. Imagine what the Veterans home in Lisbon could do with more funding! Just last night, I heard from a veteran who said buildings for our current soldiers sit in disrepair in our state. We honor our veterans by addressing these issues, not by mismanaging their tax dollars. And where’s accountability? These failed fundraisers need to be fired!

Effort to ban NDAs for data centers fails floor action, Kratom bills generate intense debate during North Dakota special session

Here's a summary of what was accomplished on Thursday and what still needs to happen in this legislative special session.
shouting distance of 100%."'

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Legislature rescues Military Gallery, seeks safeguards for future projects

Many lawmakers say legislation is needed in the 2027 session to ensure that taxpayers are not exposed to the mismanagement of a public-private partnership again. Construction of the $78 million Military Gallery on the Capitol grounds has been paused since July 3 because of lagging private fundraising.

North Dakota passes kratom regulation bill, rejects full ban

HB 1628 sets licensing and testing requirements that the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office estimated would cost nearly $4 million, but Foss said the true cost is unknown. North Dakota can’t guarantee what is in kratom products matches the label, and state agencies would have to constantly monitor kratom to make sure synthetics are not mixed in, he said.

How North Dakota’s Military Gallery project ran out of money for construction

Schweigert told the Tribune that PACE Fundraising was not aware that the July groundbreaking was the start of "ongoing construction" and would have advised that it was "out of the ordinary" to start ongoing construction with so few pledges solidified.

"Usually before you break ground, you want to be 50% for-sure in your pledges; 75% is a better number before you break ground," Schweigert said. "We have run projects — and projects do break ground before they have 100%, but you usually are within shouting distance of 100%."'

Port: Fundraiser for embattled military museum was paid $430,000 and raised just $800,000

But does that pass the smell test? Are we really to believe that only $800,000 in donations were possible for a museum honoring the military? In a state like North Dakota, where honoring the military is something next door to a religion? Yes, there's been some ups and downs in North Dakota's commodity-driven economy, but this project needed at least $12.8 million to unlock state funds, and counting actual cash in hand, never even broke $1 million.

Legislature rejects Dem-led attempts to add childcare, data center moratorium for special session

During a press conference Friday morning, Sen. Jamie Selzler, D-Fargo, said the lawmakers were attempting to introduce the bills for discussion.

“We just wanted to talk about it,” Selzler said. “Republicans are not listening, because if they were listening, they’d be willing to talk about these things.”

Democrats’ bills on childcare assistance & pausing data center development fall in N.D. House & Senate

“In the House, I’ll tip my hat. They at least had the courage to go on the record and put their name behind their vote so they can be responsible to their constituents who can ask why didn’t you want to debate more childcare funding? Why didn’t you want to debate a brief pause in data center development?” House Minority Leader Zac Ista, a Dem-NPLer from Grand Forks, said.

Data center nondisclosure bill lacks support in committee

Rep. Austin Foss, D-Foss, called the penalties under current law “a slap on the wrist.”

He supported the bill because it includes the possibility that an industrial developer could have a permit revoked if a nondisclosure agreement is in place.

“The crux of this bill is basically saying it’s not all on the public official, that both parties are in violation of that law,” Foss said.

Legislators to consider future of state military museum in Bismarck

Rep. Zachary Ista, D-District 43, said, “We really find ourselves with quite a dilemma now as state lawmakers are having to make a decision on this.

“And as I look back to my prior support for the public-private partnership on this, I have some regrets about supporting that going forward. I think if I was to continue my legislative service, I’d take a much more skeptical view of these projects with this experience in mind.

“Probably what we should have done is simply authorized the use of the Capitol grounds for this project and require it to be fully privately funded.”

“I am bothered by prior reporting that wealthy donors affiliated with the oil and gas industry reneged on some commitments,” Ista said. “And, we just see that, at the end of the day, it’s North Dakota taxpayers that are going to bear this complete risk for tens of millions of dollars of project.

USPS whistleblower predicts ‘catastrophic’ effect on elections under Trump vote-by-mail order

The unnamed whistleblower predicted the result could be “foreseeable catastrophic disruption to our coming nationwide elections based on the reckless pursuit of readying a new, insufficiently tested, poorly planned mail-in ballot screening system.”

The system contains several massive flaws and, with virtually no time to spare before the November elections, USPS officials kept on developing an online verification system in violation of a Massachusetts judge’s injunction, the whistleblower said.

Groundbreaking for Trump's arch will begin soon, Burgum says

“We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck,” Burgum said in a social media post.

The 250-foot-tall arch will be among Trump’s most visible projects, as the administration continues its attempts to remake Washington. Critics, however, have voiced fears that the structure may be too large, and overshadow other monuments, like the Lincoln Memorial on the other side of the Potomac River.

The Largest Data Centers Planned in Rural Counties

With a population of about 5,800 residents, Carson County has a lot of the same vulnerabilities that any other small, rural community would face in the fight against hyperscale data centers, which are funded by some of the wealthiest companies in the world.

Hunger crisis widens in North Carolina as food banks face more demand, federal cuts

A big part of the organization’s 2030 strategic plan is to increase access to fresh produce and protein. But the Trump administration has cut funding for a program that buys fresh foods from local farmers to donate to food banks.

Epstein Update: 106 Lawmakers Sign Petition to Make DOJ Release More Files

Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced a bill that would compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release more files related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York federal jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking. Lawmakers have demanded more transparency from the federal government over investigations into Epstein, with Massie last year leading an effort to secure the release of a trove of Epstein-related documents.

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