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1. Entity linked to billionaire Bill Gates pays $13.5 million for Campbell Farms’ North Dakota farmland
An entity associated with Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, appears to have purchased about 2,100 acres of northern Red River Valley farmland in North Dakota in a deal quietly worked out with the owners of Campbell Farms, a potato farming group headquarted in Grafton, North Dakota, last November.
Nobody involved in the deal seems eager to talk about it.
Public deeds show the transaction totals about $13.5 million, with a rough average price in two counties of $6,400 per acre. Pembina County transfers break down to about $6,600 per acre. The Walsh County documents are complicated by river boundaries, but the sale price calculates to about $6,000.
The Pembina records show “grantors” (sellers) are brothers “William T. (‘’Bill”) Campbell, a married individual, Gregory T. (‘Greg”) Campbell, a married individual and Thomas S. (“Tom”) Campbell, a single individual.” Agweek left phone messages, emails and texts for Tom and Greg and visited offices of Bill at Campbell Properties, Fargo, without a response.
Read more from Forum News Service’s Mikkel Pates
2. These are the biggest statewide and legislative races on North Dakota’s primary ballot
David Samson / The Forum
With North Dakota’s primary election fast approaching, candidates in contested races for statewide and legislative offices are finishing up their campaigning and hoping the voters will vault them through to the November general election.
The state’s conservative political makeup means the Republican primaries often decide who will serve in public office, but North Dakota Democrats also have several contested intraparty races.
The official primary election will take place on Tuesday, June 14, but thousands of North Dakotans have already cast their ballots through mail-in or early voting. To find out where to vote or what to bring to the polls, visit
https://vip.sos.nd.gov/PortalList.aspx
.
Read more from Forum News Service’s Jeremy Turley
3. How North Dakota’s campaign finance laws allow groups to conceal donors, spending
Generations of North Dakota lawmakers have constructed an intricate set of campaign finance rules meant to strike a balance between the right to self-expression through donations and the democratic ideal of transparency.
But as money in politics comes under closer scrutiny, deep-pocketed North Dakota donors have maneuvered the complicated web of laws in a way that allows them to choose which information to disclose and which to conceal from the public.
Two of the most active campaign finance groups in this year’s election cycle have drawn criticism from transparency advocates and state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for declining to divulge details of their political activity.
Funded by Gov. Doug Burgum, the Dakota Leadership PAC has spent an unknown amount of money on ads promoting Republican candidates, including several
who are running against ultra-conservative incumbent lawmakers.
4. Minnesota auto dealers ask court to block ‘clean car’ rule
The Minnesota Auto Dealers Association on Wednesday, June 9, filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in an attempt to block a “clean car” rule set to take effect in 2024.
The organization in a petition filed with the Minnesota Court of Appeals argued that the agency overstepped its statutory authority in implementing the rule that would require auto manufacturers to make more electric and hybrid vehicles available in Minnesota.
State law prohibits agencies from delegating authority to other entities, the group argued, and in this case, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency turned over its authority to the California Air Resources Board when it adopted that state’s standard. Minnesota is also barred from adopting the rule under federal clean air standards, the association said.
Since the introduction of the Clean Car standards in 2019, pollution control officials said the plan would help Minnesota reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s top source: transportation. Roughly 25% of the heat-trapping gasses that spur warming temperatures and more extreme weather events in the U.S. stem from cars and low-duty trucks. And they argued it could help put the state back in line with 2007 goals set in statute.
Read more from Forum News Service’s Dana Ferguson
5. Behind closed doors, Minnesota leaders keep working to wrap up more than $3 billion in spending bills
Minnesota legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday, June 9, met again to weigh whether lawmakers in the divided Statehouse could resolve unfinished work and return for a special session.
The governor, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller met virtually on Thursday afternoon to size up the progress that conference committee leaders had made in bridging gaps in plans to fund education, public safety, transportation and health and human services. Targets for the bills total more than $3 billion.
State lawmakers last month were unable to reach deals on the bills before the legislative deadline and additional spending proposals along with a $4 billion tax relief plan got stuck in the final hours as leaders in the House said they wanted the full package of bills to pass.
This week, chairs of the transportation and public safety committees met with the leaders in private. The lawmakers writing the education and health and human services bills were set to meet with them in the coming days, Walz said.
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