Today in Minot

Sometimes the most revealing stories begin with the smallest details. A reporter’s modest $6 win on a Chilean horse race in a converted Wyoming diner perfectly captures the scale of what’s happening across the state—where $2.1 billion was wagered on horse racing in 2024, meaning every adult would have bet over $4,500 if the load were spread evenly. What started as an effort to revive Wyoming’s struggling horse tracks has mushroomed into thousands of gaming machines that look suspiciously like slot machines, proliferating so rapidly that local officials are fielding complaints and lawmakers are scrambling to catch up with taxes and regulations for an industry they barely planned for. Andrew Graham with WyoFile has the full story that should sound familiar in North Dakota where charitable gaming has grown widely since the legalization of e-tab machines (slot machines).

A severe weekend storm that claimed three lives also caused devastating damage to North Dakota’s agriculture industry. Total damage is still being assessed from the widespread storm, which included a tornado near Enderlin that killed residents Michael Dalton Dehn, 73, Katherine Ann Pfaff-Dehn, 73, and Marcario...

The MHA Nation is breaking ground on a new water facility to support the expansion of Fort Berthold Rural Water Systems. The current facility, built in 1994, no longer meets the needs of a system that now serves all six segments of the reservation. The new building will provide office space and storage for pipes and materials. A ground blessing and remarks from tribal leadership, including Chairman Mark Fox, are scheduled for Wednesday, June 25 at 11 a.m. in New Town. Edward Segal with KX News has the full story.

A tiny green beetle with a destructive appetite has reached another milestone in its relentless march across Minnesota. The emerald ash borer—an invasive insect that kills ash trees by burrowing under their bark—has now been confirmed in Wadena and four other counties, bringing the state’s total to 58 affected counties. What started as a single discovery in 2009 has become an ongoing ecological crisis, with emergency quarantines now limiting the movement of firewood and ash materials to slow the beetle’s spread. For communities watching their ash trees disappear one by one, it’s a familiar and frustrating pattern of arrival, quarantine, and loss. Staff with Wadena Pioneer Journal has the full story that’s lurching in our direction.

For the first time since 2007, Fargo is looking at a possible bump in garbage and recycling fees. The proposal would raise monthly garbage collection by $1, from $9 to $10, and do the same for recycling, which is currently optional at $4. City officials point to rising equipment costs but emphasize that even with the increase, Fargo’s rates would still be among the lowest in the region. A small adjustment, they say, to help keep things running—and picked up—on schedule. Drew Berg with InForum has the full story on Fargo’s service and changes.

Editor’s note: anytime we get a chance to measure Minot to other places with real data, we share the story. One imperfect comparison point in this story is worth noting. Over a two-week period, Fargo has two garbage pick-ups and one recycling pick-up. In a two-week period in Minot, we have three garbage pick-ups and one recycling pick-up. We are paying more, but the city provides an extra pick-up, too.

Most developers see land as a blank canvas to be scraped clean and rebuilt from scratch. Steve Nygren saw something different when he looked at 900 acres outside Atlanta—he saw an opportunity to prove that you could build more housing per square mile than typical sprawl while preserving 70% of the natural landscape. Twenty years later, Serenbe stands as a living contradiction to conventional wisdom: dense yet peaceful, profitable yet environmentally conscious, walkable yet surrounded by forests and farms. In his new book, this former restaurateur-turned-developer argues that transforming how we build isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about applying “radical common sense” to your own backyard, one decision at a time.

https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-7t7x2-18e1e51

Military deception rarely unfolds as precisely as it did last Saturday night. While the world watched B-2 bombers head west toward the Pacific—flight trackers following their every move, news outlets reporting their destination—another group of stealth bombers quietly slipped east from Missouri. By the time Iran realized the misdirection, seven B-2s were already dropping bunker buster bombs on three nuclear facilities in what the Pentagon calls the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history. The question now isn’t whether the mission succeeded tactically, but whether it achieved its strategic goal of actually setting back Iran’s nuclear program—something that may take weeks to determine. Watch the full report from the Wall Street Journal below.

For the 8.4 million people worldwide living with type 1 diabetes, every day is a careful balancing act with insulin—too little and organs suffer damage, too much and they risk coma or death. But a groundbreaking stem cell treatment has just offered something extraordinary: the possibility of freedom from that lifelong dependency. In a small clinical trial, 10 out of 12 patients with severe type 1 diabetes were able to stop their insulin therapy entirely after receiving lab-grown pancreatic cells. While larger studies are still needed, this represents a potential turning point for a condition that has demanded unwavering vigilance from patients since childhood. Tessa Koumoundouros with Science Alert has the full story.

After nearly five decades behind bars, 80-year-old Leonard Peltier is learning what freedom feels like again. The Native American activist, whose case became a symbol of injustice for Indigenous rights supporters worldwide, was released from prison in February following a last-minute commutation by President Biden. Now living in a modest home on North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain reservation, Peltier is adjusting to simple pleasures—fixing an old van, drinking endless cups of coffee, and reconnecting with family he lost decades with. Allison Herrera with MPR has the full story on one of America’s most debated cases.

The most dangerous moment in any classroom often comes with a single word: “Why?” When a Holocaust educator shows students a death registry with a black line drawn through her great-uncle’s name, that inevitable question opens the door to understanding—but under Mississippi’s new anti-DEI law, answering it honestly might break the law. House Bill 1193 bans educational content that increases “awareness or understanding” of issues related to race, religion, or national origin, creating an impossible paradox: How do you teach the Holocaust without explaining that Jews were murdered because they were Jewish? The law’s sweeping language threatens to gut everything from constitutional law classes to canonical American literature, leaving Mississippi educators wondering if education itself has become too risky. Margaret McMullan with The Bulwark has the story that puts Mississippi squarely on a slippery slope.