General News

A 42-unit apartment building in northwest Mandan was severely damaged by fire Sunday.

The blaze was reported shortly after noon. Firefighters say it began in a third floor patio – and spread throughout the upper floor.

"The entire third floor was consumed," said Morton County Emergency Manager Tom Doehring. "It will be uninhabitable, and it will have to be reconstructed."

Fire crews from Mandan, Bismarck, the nearby Marathon Oil Refinery, and rural departments responded. They fought the blaze in 90-plus degree heat and humid conditions.

A Rolette County woman is speaking up and telling her story about being sexually abused by a Catholic Priest. Prairie Public Reporter Todd McDonald has details…

The state Board of Higher Education has given UND permission to issue up to $80 million in bonds for a new Student Union.

But the actual cost may be less than that.

UND students voted to approve the project, with the bond payoff to come from increased student fees.

Interim UND President Josh Wynne had asked the staff to take another look at the proposal – because he was concerned about increased student debt load. But he told the Board he supports the project.

The mining stopped in the mid-90s.

But the reclamation work goes on.

Knife River Coal continues to work on reclaiming the Gascoyne Mine in southwestern North Dakota. It has one permitted parcel left to reclaim.

"This has taken decades," said Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann, who holds the PSC's reclamation portfolio. "While some of the features were tiny, they weren't ignored."

Christmann said the company needed to make sure the reclamation was done correctly, even though mining operations had ceased -- and no revenue was coming in.

The developers of the Dakota Access Pipeline are taking the next step in expanding the pipeline’s capacity.

The current capacity is 500,000 barrels of oil a day.

Energy Transfer Partners has now applied to the North Dakota Public Service Commission to site a new pumping station in Emmons County, west of Linton.

"It will consist of five 6,000 horsepower electric motors and pumps," said Commissioner Julie Fedorchak. "It will allow for pipeline transportation of up to 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day.

North Dakota’s Insurance Department has fined Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota $125,000 after a 16-month “market conduct exam” found it had improperly denied certain claims and failed to report some insurance fraud.

Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread said the focus was on mental health and substance abuse claims. He said a lot of the problems came in disagreements over the level of treatment.

"Your doctor says, 'You need 10 days of in-patient treatment,' and Blue Cross may come back and say, 'No, you need three," Godfread said.

North Dakota producers have planted a lot less durum this year.

The North Dakota Wheat Commission reports durum acres fell to 750,000 – the lowest since 2011.

Wheat Commission marketing director Jim Peterson said it stands to reason.

"Typically, producers need $1 to $1.50 a bushel premium to grow durum over spring wheat," Peterson said. "That's primarily because of the quality risk."

Peterson said durum has a higher quality threshold to make milling quality.

"That just hasn't been there in the last couple of years," Peterson said.

The president of Bismarck State College will retire June 30th, 2020.

Larry Skogen has served as BSC’s leader for 12 years. Skogen said he’s leaving on a “high note” – after what he described as a “wonderful” Legislative session.

"The support we got for our health sciences program, the polytechnic initiative, pay raises for our employees -- all of this was just really, really wonderful," Skogen said in an interview with Prairie Public.

What also drove his decision -- the campus is beginning a strategic planning effort.