724: 'A healer instead of just a technician' (Video)
Plain Talk
The North Dakota Democratic-NPL had a strong recruitment season for legislative candidates. Among them is Dr. Chris Tiongson, a pediatrician seeking a seat in the state House of Representatives in Fargo-area District 41. Running for elected office is a daunting task. It's a lot of work and it comes with a public spotlight, and the public can be cruel, so why did Tiongson decide to take time away from his medical practice to run? "As I've seen over the years, almost 30 years in pediatrics now, there are so many things that are happening outside the exam room that parents and families...
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724: 'A healer instead of just a technician'
Plain Talk
The North Dakota Democratic-NPL had a strong recruitment season for legislative candidates. Among them is Dr. Chris Tiongson, a pediatrician seeking a seat in the state House of Representatives in Fargo-area District 41. Running for elected office is a daunting task. It's a lot of work and it comes with a public spotlight, and the public can be cruel, so why did Tiongson decide to take time away from his medical practice to run? "As I've seen over the years, almost 30 years in pediatrics now, there are so many things that are happening outside the exam room that parents and families...
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723: The young people want to rent, not own (Video)
Plain Talk
Housing issues may be among the most complicated and important issues policymakers face. In order for local economies to grow, they need workers, and those workers need places to live. And they can't just be any old place. They need to be places they can afford to live, and want to live. But that's not easy. A home or apartment building built today might stand for a century or more, but the housing expectations of the public shift from generation to generation. That's one point Adrian Cummings, president of the Grand Forks-based Forx Builders Assocation, made on this episode of Plain Talk. He...
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723: The young people want to rent, not own
Plain Talk
Housing issues may be among the most complicated and important issues policymakers face. In order for local economies to grow, they need workers, and those workers need places to live. And they can't just be any old place. They need to be places they can afford to live, and want to live. But that's not easy. A home or apartment building built today might stand for a century or more, but the housing expectations of the public shift from generation to generation. That's one point Adrian Cummings, president of the Grand Forks-based Forx Builders Assocation, made on this episode of Plain Talk. He...
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722: 'I have no idea where he got his numbers' (Video)
Plain Talk
Some time before the November general election, Fargo voters will have a special election concerning a proposal to city government from an at-large commission, where each member of the commission (except for the mayor) is elected by the whole city, to a ward system, where the city is split into jurisdictions each with a specific representative. "It would establish six wards and one person elected from each ward," former city commissioner Arlette Preston, an organizer behind this issue, said on this episode of Plain Talk. "The candidate would have to live inside the ward and be elected by...
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722: 'I have no idea where he got his numbers'
Plain Talk
Some time before the November general election, Fargo voters will have a special election concerning a proposal to city government from an at-large commission, where each member of the commission (except for the mayor) is elected by the whole city, to a ward system, where the city is split into jurisdictions each with a specific representative. "It would establish six wards and one person elected from each ward," former city commissioner Arlette Preston, an organizer behind this issue, said on this episode of Plain Talk. "The candidate would have to live inside the ward and be elected by...
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721: 'This NIMBY idea, it's scary to think about' (Video)
Plain Talk
Is North Dakota still open for business? That's a question we asked during an interview with Brooks Burgum, co-founder and CEO of Longwater, a private equity and alternative asset management firm. What prompts that question is what seems to be a growing, anti-development attitude among some political factionsin North Dakota. The state once marketed itself as an easy place to do business, but increasingly building things like transmission lines, pipelines, and data centers has become a fraught business. "Where would we be if no one built a railroad?" Burgum, who is the former governor's cousin,...
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721: 'This NIMBY idea, it's scary to think about'
Plain Talk
Is North Dakota still open for business? That's a question we asked during an interview with Brooks Burgum, co-founder and CEO of Longwater, a private equity and alternative asset management firm. What prompts that question is what seems to be a growing, anti-development attitude among some political factionsin North Dakota. The state once marketed itself as an easy place to do business, but increasingly building things like transmission lines, pipelines, and data centers has become a fraught business. "Where would we be if no one built a railroad?" Burgum, who is the former governor's cousin,...
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720: 'Drew Wrigley lost that battle' (Video)
Plain Talk
North Dakota from Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office, and the numbers look pretty good. The rate of incidents per 100,000 citizens for the most serious "Group A" crimes was down 7.4% from 2024 to 2025. Crimes against persons (murder, assault, etc.) were down 3%, crimes against property were down 12.2%, crimes against society (drug and gun violations, etc.) were down 3.2%, and total statewide arrests were down 3.7%. But to hear Wrigley tell it, that's merely the plateau at the top of a rise in crime that he says necessitates the reform to sentencing laws he's been furiously campaigning for...
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720: 'Drew Wrigley lost that battle'
Plain Talk
North Dakota from Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office, and the numbers look pretty good. The rate of incidents per 100,000 citizens for the most serious "Group A" crimes was down 7.4% from 2024 to 2025. Crimes against persons (murder, assault, etc.) were down 3%, crimes against property were down 12.2%, crimes against society (drug and gun violations, etc.) were down 3.2%, and total statewide arrests were down 3.7%. But to hear Wrigley tell it, that's merely the plateau at the top of a rise in crime that he says necessitates the reform to sentencing laws he's been furiously campaigning for...
info_outlinePublic Service Commissioner Jill Kringstad didn't attend the North Dakota Republican Party's state convention, alongside every other statewide Republican incumbent. Thus, she doesn't have the party's endorsement, but neither does her opponent, Chris Olson.
She was appointed to her job by Gov. Kelly Armstrong, and has his backing, and told us, during a live recording of Plain Talk at the Blue Rider bar in Minot, that being on the campaign trail for the first time, she's enjoying talking to the voters.
"Just to meet them and hear them and hear them talk about how they're saying, you know, we're telling our friends, we're telling our families."
Data centers have been a hot topic this election cycle. Kringstad said the PSC is already involved in ensuring that those power-hungry developments don't drive up rates when they pull electricity from utilities regulated by the PSC, but that ultimately she's a regulator. The state probably needs some new laws for data centers, and the PSC doesn't make laws.
"We're not here setting policy. What we're doing is we're operating within the confines of the laws and the rules that are passed by the legislature," she said, noting that there's an ongoing interim study about the issue, and that she expects a lot of debate over data centers during legislative session next year.
We live in very polarized time, but Kringstad also acknowledged during the interview that she has some bipartisanship in her family. The candidate said she's been involved in Republican politics since she was nine years old, when her parents were helping out with then-Gov. John Hoeven's campaign, but her sister is a district chair for the North Dakota Democratic-NPL.
"We have different views on politics and that's ok," Kringstad said. "We don't discuss everything, but the things that we do discuss, we have very substantive back and forth discussions that are respectful and we always walk away and say, 'Okay, you have your opinion. I have mine. I just see things differently and I love you anyway.'"
Also on this episode, Minot Mayor Mark Jantzer talked with me and co-host Chad Oban about how his community is handling a new budgeting reality after the legislature imposed a 3% cap on spending growth as a part of sweeping property tax reform. He explained that to manage the budget under these constraints, the city of Minot has primarily relied on utilizing its reserves to reduce property taxes over the last two budgets, but he warned that this is "not sustainable," and said that by 2027 the city would have to make cuts and find new revenues.
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.