
5 issues to know at present: Well being plan, Mediation session, Due course of, Senator appointed, Earmarked tasks – InForum
1. North Dakota insurance coverage commissioner to scrutinize Sanford Well being Plan
Contents
- 1 1. North Dakota insurance coverage commissioner to scrutinize Sanford Well being Plan
- 2 2. Becker County, Teamsters head into final mediation session earlier than strike
- 3 3. Court docket: Cass County prosecutor’s ‘improper query’ didn’t violate defendant’s proper to due course of
- 4 4. Democratic North Dakota senator appointed to federal rural growth job
- 5 5. Return of earmarks in Congress brings Minnesota tasks greater than $130M
North Dakota Insurance coverage Commissioner Jon Godfread introduced Thursday, March 17, his workplace will conduct an in-depth examination of Sanford Well being’s insurance coverage operations.
The examination of Sanford, the Insurance coverage Division’s first, will focus primarily on psychological well being and dependancy companies, claims processing and fraud reporting, Godfread stated in a information launch.
“The aim of the examination is to ensure one among our bigger medical insurance corporations is following our legal guidelines and upholding their guarantees to North Dakotans,” Godfread stated.
Learn extra from Discussion board Information Service’s Jeremy Turley
2. Becker County, Teamsters head into final mediation session earlier than strike
File picture / U.S. Division of Agriculture
The Teamsters Union says there was no progress towards averting a strike at a mediation session Tuesday between Becker County and the Teamsters Native 320, which represents 173 county workers — about half the county workforce.
“There was completely no progress yesterday,” Teamsters enterprise agent Roger Meunier stated Wednesday.
The union has filed an intent to strike with the state’s Bureau of Mediation Companies, and the 2 events are actually in a 10-day “cooling off interval” mandated by state regulation.
They’ll meet for a last mediation session on Saturday, March 19 on the courthouse, and in the event that they don’t come to an settlement, all 173 workers within the Human Companies and Courthouse bargaining items will go on strike on Tuesday, March 22, Meunier stated.
Learn extra from Discussion board Information Service’s Nathan Bowe
3. Court docket: Cass County prosecutor’s ‘improper query’ didn’t violate defendant’s proper to due course of

The North Dakota Supreme Court docket has dominated that an improper query requested by a Cass County prosecutor throughout a person’s trial on a cost of gross sexual imposition didn’t violate the defendant’s due course of rights and subsequently didn’t justify a brand new trial.
The ruling got here in response to an attraction filed with the Supreme Court docket by Tyler Morrow, the lawyer for Mackenzy Bazile, who was convicted in Cass County District Court docket of gross sexual imposition.
Morrow argued that Bazile deserved a brand new trial primarily based on the way in which the prosecutor within the case, Assistant Cass County State’s Legal professional Ryan Younggren, questioned Bazile throughout trial.
Younggren, who’s a candidate for the job of Cass County state’s lawyer, admitted in court docket filings to creating a mistake throughout Bazile’s trial in April 2021, however maintained the error he made whereas questioning Bazile didn’t rise to the extent of prosecutorial misconduct and shouldn’t end in a brand new trial.
Learn extra from The Discussion board’s David Olson
4. Democratic North Dakota senator appointed to federal rural growth job

Jeremy Turley / Discussion board Information Service
The administration of President Joe Biden has appointed Erin Oban, a Democratic state senator from Bismarck, to function the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s director of rural growth for North Dakota.
In her new function, Oban will oversee state operations for
an company that gives funding
to rural and tribal communities for housing, financial growth, small enterprise help and different financial functions.
The one elected Democrat from Bismarck, Oban
introduced final yr
she wouldn’t run for reelection in 2022, citing divisiveness in politics.
Oban advised Discussion board Information Service on Thursday, March 17, she’s going to resign her legislative place earlier than she is sworn in to her new federal job on the finish of the month. The native Democrats in her capital metropolis district might be charged with appointing somebody to serve out the final seven months of her time period.
Learn extra from Discussion board Information Service’s Jeremy Turley
5. Return of earmarks in Congress brings Minnesota tasks greater than $130M

After a decade-long absence, members of Congress are as soon as once more in a position to direct spending to particular tasks of their dwelling districts and states, and Minnesota’s senators and representatives introduced dwelling hundreds of thousands in a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending invoice signed by President Joe Biden this week.
The state’s congressional delegation obtained greater than $130 million for 70-plus Minnesota-specific tasks and applications, a Discussion board Information Service overview of the federal laws discovered, together with regulation enforcement services, wastewater remedy, rural broadband, and different infrastructure tasks.
Earmarks, as they’re known as, are provisions in federal spending payments that immediately allocate cash for particular applications and circumvent the standard course of the place authorities businesses accomplish that on their very own tips. The observe fell out of favor resulting from excesses similar to Alaska’s infamous
“bridge to nowhere”
venture within the 2000s, and was seen by many as an emblem of waste in Washington.
Learn extra from Discussion board Information Service’s Alex Derosier
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