Some conservation advocates say political leaders like Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, and Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak are betraying Theodore Roosevelt's conservation legacy even as they attend the opening of a presdiential library dedicated to him.

"When you see the attacks on national monuments, when you see national park staff being cut all across the board, it's hard to say, yes, these people are TR champions," John Bradley, executive director of the North Dakota Wildlife Federation, said in this episode of Plain Talk.

"TR ended the Gilded Age, and it seems to be that we're right back in a Gilded Age where people with money and people with power and influence can run roughshod on our public lands, our national narrative," he continued.

Bradley says that what his organization wants is balance.

"We have an approach that it's not one or the other," he said. "It's not 'our public lands must be protected in in pristine wilderness,'" he said. "What we're seeing, though, is just a shift from a more balanced approach to this administration with their their drill baby drill policies."

Brock Wahl, chair of the North Dakota chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said North Dakota's leaders aren't listening to his organization. "If they're not talking to us hunters in North Dakota, us residents, then whose opinions are they listening to?" he asked.

Also on this episode, we discuss the complicated legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, and respond to listsener feedback on tuition waivers, the property rights issues around data centers, and a controversial survey conducted by the North Dakota Ethics Commission.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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There will be a lot to see when the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens in Medora next month.

There will be traditional exhibits and artifacts and eight "adventure galleries" where visitors can learn from Theodore Roosevelt instead of just about him. Among the experiences available will be sitting around a camp fire and talking to characters from Roosevelt's era, a train ride experience simulating Roosevelt's frantic trip back to New York to be with his suffering family, a 14-minute canoe ride down the "River of Doubt," and an opportunity to interact with an AI-simulated version of Roosevelt himself.

But one of Robbie Lauf's favorite features, he told us on this episode of Plain Talk, is the building itself. "We built what I think is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world," he said.

Lauf is the executive director of the library, which he says will help change the shape of tourism in North Dakota, moving it from being, somewhat infamously, the last place people think to visit in the United States to perhaps a spot much higher on the list.

"I hope this is an incredible story of what our state can do and when we dare greatly and put big ideas out there," he said.

He also said the library is in a strong fiscal position, and hasn't yet touched the funds made available by the State of North Dakota. "The state of North Dakota put the first $50 million as a challenge grant to raise $100 million to access that 50. That is an endowment," he said. "So zero dollars of that $50 million has been spent on construction. Zero dollars of the earnings, frankly, have been spent. We have it siphoned off in a separate fund where it hasn't been touched, because that, for us, in the legislative intent, was for the operations and maintenance of a facility."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I discuss the potentially divisive distraction President Donald Trump's visit to the library opening festivities could cause. We also talk about some of the misguided partisan analysis around Fargo's recent local elections, and respond to listener feedback.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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Vern Thompson began this political cycle running for the U.S. House, but when delegates to the Democratic-NPL convention gave their endorsement to Trygve Hammer instead, he shifted his focus to a race for Agriculture Commissioner.

It also marked a shift in Thompson's strategy. Of late he, and Hammer, have been courting votes from the far-right populist wing of the North Dakota Republican Party, which is feeling disaffected after their candidates were trounced by more moderate Republicans in the state's recent primary.

"I'm going after any vote that's out there," Thompson said of the strategy on this episode of Plain Talk.

Thompson also took questions on his very vocal opposition to data centers. He's calling for the state to implement a one-year moratorium on the projects "so we can give communities the time they need to make informed decisions and weigh the benefits and the impacts."

Though Thompson, who referred to the decision by some North Dakotans to support data centers as "greed" and a desire to "go take all the money they can get," claims he's not necessarily against the projects. "I'm not against industrial development. I'm all for it. We own a business. But the fact is, this is being pushed down our throats so fast by a lot of out-of-state multi-billionaire corporations and I just think we have to slow down."

He also accused his opponent, Republican incumbent Doug Goehring, of being more loyal to those interests than North Dakota voters. "He's just going along with whatever the the big money out of state multi-billionaires want," Thompson said. "He's he's kind of gotten to be a corporate shill."

Also on this episode, we discuss the controversy around long-time state lawmaker Rep. Jim Kasper, who suffered a brain bleed more than a year ago and still hasn't fully returned to work. Is it time for him to step aside so that someone more capable can represent the voters of District 46?

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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"The public schools are state-run schools, and the state can certainly impose licensing requirements on the schools that it runs. It can have hiring qualifications for the teachers that it deems fit to teach in the public schools," Michael Bindas said on this episode of Plain Talk. "But private schools are meant to provide an alternative to the public school system. Something different. And this licensing regime makes it very difficult for private schools to do that."

Bindas is a senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, which is representing the Capstone Academy, a Fargo-based private school, in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of North dakota's teacher licensing.

Though the plaintiff's filings in the case do reference a cost burden, Bindas said that's not the primary argument. The larger issue, he claims, is that state licensing requirements for teachers ultimately restricts how they teach, and even what courses can be taught.

As an example of the latter issue, Bindas alleged that a private school in the state couldn't offer a course in logic because the state didn't offer something like that as a subject matter choice teachers seeking a license. "They couldn't do it because the state didn't have a box for logic to be taught. And so therefore, the state says no teacher in the in the school was eligible to teach that course. That is absurd," he said.

Also on this episode, me and co-host Chad Oban talk about that survey released by the Ethics Commission purporting to show that a strong majority of North Dakotans think their elected officials are unethical, something that clashes with the results of polls conducted with scientific rigor, not to mention the outcomes of recent elections.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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When we asked Mike Thiesen why he's seeking a state Senate seat in Minot-area District 3, he told us that it stems back to being a "glutton for punishment."

Thiesen is an electrician by trade -- he did his interview with us from a work trailer on a job site -- and currently serves as the mayor of Surrey, a community on the periphery of Minot. He's a candidate for the Democrat-NPL (he stressed the NPL part when I mentioned his partisan affiliation) and like most Democrats in North Dakota he's campaigning in a heavily Republican area. He says he can overcome that by bringing issues home.

"I feel in Bismarck they get caught up in the national politics thing," he said. "I want to bring it closer to home and just make sure everything works."

"I thoroughly enjoy being part of a community and I got this weird thing where I think I can help people," he said in another part of the interview. "I work really good as a team and I just think I can help. That's the gist of it."

Thiesen is young, by political standards, and he thinks the perspective of someone who has school-age children, and is in the prime of their career, is missing in the legislature. If elected, he said school issues are one thing he'd like to take on.

"We currently have $180 million worth of deferred maintenance in our schools across the state," he said. "That is an issue that's kind of near and dear to my heart, because living in Surrey, we're having issues with our school right now with some maintenance issues."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I respond to reader feedback, and talk about whether Matthew Simon, current chair of the North Dakota Republican Party, should resign after the populist faction that gave him that just got wiped out in the June primary.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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If there were a throughline for North Dakota's recent primary vote that ran from the top-of-the-ticket statewide races to local competitions like the Fargo mayoral race, it would be the rejection of belligerent ideologues in favor of pragmatic public servants.

That's the argument Fargo's mayor-elect Josh Boschee made on this episode of Plain Talk. "North Dakotans want people who are going to get to work," Boschee said, as opposed to candidates who are "hung up on ideology."

Voters want public servants, not talk radio hosts and influencers, it seems.

Boschee, a long-time Democratic state Senator, won the nonpartisan race over City Commissioner Michelle Turnberg, a self-described "conservative" who has adopted a belligerent approach to elected office and remains in her current office. How will the new mayor contend with that sort of friction, which, in recent years, has become routine in Fargo's city government? He says he's ready for it.

"I think some people want to frame it as, because we were two opponents, and we'll be working together, that there might be a lot of conflict, and that certainly may end up being true. But as you guys have seen me in the legislature, I mean, there are plenty of legislators that use a similar leadership style as Commissioner Turnberg, and I've been able to work with them, especially when we focus on the issues that we share."

Boschee says he's focused on being a mayor for everyone in Fargo, including those who voted against him.

"I've been in a lot of elections, and what I've learned, for one thing, is elections are about addition and not subtraction," he said. "And when you only focus on your base, you only focus on the people who are cheerleading you or pat you on the back every time you say something or comment on Facebook, you're not going to grow your coalition."

In his victory speech after the election, Boschee made reference to a recent Facebook post made by Fargo-area Rep. Desiree Morton, objecting to volunteers of Somali heritage volunteering to help the campaigns of Republican U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak and local legislative candidates. He told us he thought it was something important to highlight.

"20% of Fargo are people of color. A good number of them are folks who come from other parts of the world," he said. "I've stood up to my legislative colleagues when they've said inappropriate things about other North Dotans, and that's not going to change in the mayor's office."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I discussed the similarities between Boschee and Gov. Kelly Armstrong, despite their obvious ideological differences, as well as the decline of North Dakota's populist movement.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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Gov. Kelly Armstrong, by his own admission, went out on a limb when he backed a slate of traditional Republican candidates this primary season against a populist faction that has captured control of the NDGOP and censured him, twice.

The gamble paid off. Armstrong-backed candidates made nearly a clean sweep in the primaries, but if you ask the governor about it, all the credit goes to the candidates.

"They knocked doors. They handed out palm cards. They didn't cut Facebook videos. They didn't complain," he said. "They went out there. They did the hard work it takes to win an election and they talked about moving North Dakota forward, not how bad they hated North Dakota. That's not what North Dotans want to hear."

Armstrong was also critical of the excuses coming from the populist faction about why they lost the election. "Three things I've learned today. One is it's pretty hard to complain about turnout when you think a group of 30 people should decide who your candidate is," he said. "Two, anybody who disagrees with the opposing side is an uneducated voter. And three, anybody who disagrees with them is a is a special interest."

"How about quit making excuses, quit being a victim, go win elections," he added. "Go out there and do the work."

Armstrong also addressed populists -- particularly activist Brandon Prichard, whose group Citizens Alliance of North Dakota was very active in the primary -- trying to align with him in the last days of the election. "It's too cute by half by somebody who thinks he's smarter than everybody else," the governor said.

Also on this episode, me and co-host Chad Oban analyze the primary results from around the state, as well as the mayoral and city commission races in Fargo.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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North Dakota is in the midst of a heated, divisive primary between traditional Republicans and populists. Who will win in key legislative races around the state? Who will advance to the general election in some of the competitive statewide races?

Who will be the next mayor of Fargo, and will that ballot measure implementing a single-subject rule for proposed constitutional amendments pass?

Me and co-host Chad Oban make our predictions.

Also on this episode, Sen. Michelle Axtman, who is in the midst of one of those heated primaries in Bismarck-area District 7, talks about a new survey about technology in schools. Lawmakers passed legislation to ban cell phone use in schools by students, but what about technology that's provided by the schools? Are students on Chromebooks and tablets too much? Axtman and a coalition of other state leaders -- including Superintendent Levi Bachmeier, Lt. Gov. Michelle Strinden, and First Lady Kjersti Armstrong -- have commissioned a study asking for input from educators, administrators, parents, and the public.

"I'm a STEM person as a pilot. Technology is a big part of learning that industry as well," she said. "None of us want to get rid of technology, wipe it out of the classrooms." But they are trying to find out what the right balance is.

As for her primary race, Axtman admitted to being "nervous" about it, but added that nobody running for elected office should take it for granted. She says she's happy with the race she's running. "I'm really proud of the fact that we've focused on what things we are going to do if elected rather than slamming our opponents or doing anything like that," she said.

If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at 701-587-3141. It's super easy — leave your message, tell us your name and where you're from, and we might feature it on an upcoming episode. To subscribe to Plain Talk, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts or use one of the links below.

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