A pen stroke from reality, SB 2398 seeks to avoid any 'pathway that creates a problem' near military bases
Now, after Senate Bill 2398 was approved by both the North Dakota Senate and House of Representatives, its chief sponsor may finally be able to relish the result of nearly a year of work on the legislation.
"There is always satisfaction with bringing a project (to fruition)," said Sen. Jeff Barta, R-Grand Forks. "I feel very good about this."
Awaiting the signature of Gov. Kelly Armstrong, SB 2398 is just a pen stroke from final approval. If it happens, it will do two things in particular: Create impact zones adjacent to military installations and also form committees tasked with providing oversight of proposed development within those zones.
The bill especially focuses on the Grand Forks region, due to the proximity of Grand Forks Air Force Base, Camp Grafton (5 miles south of Devils Lake) and the Cavalier Space Force Station.
Its genesis, according to Barta, was in part "a conversation about wind farms." But a China-backed corn mill, once proposed to be built in Grand Forks, played a role too, he said.
Known locally by the name of its ownership group — "Fufeng" — the planned factory was announced in November 2021, when local government and development leaders touted its potential impact to the region's economy. Soon after the announcement came very public discussions centered around its supposed environmental impacts as well as the possibility that it was a national security threat, due to its planned proximity to Grand Forks Air Force Base. In early 2023, the Air Force provided an official opinion, confirming the concerns about security. The city abandoned the plan shortly thereafter.
SB 2398's overarching goal is to help avoid similar problems in the future, Barta and other supporters have said.
"We have some great things going with the installations here and I don't even know all of the things they are doing," Barta said via telephone Thursday during a break at the Capitol. It's important to keep the nearby lands free of development that could hinder those operations, he added.
"It's just allowing them to do the operational things they need to do to stay at the forefront of (their military activities). We don't have a crystal ball knowing where new developments are going to go ... both in the air and on the ground," he said. "It's about knowing that we aren't going down a pathway that creates a problem. We certainly don't want another Fufeng, right? That wasn't the entire genesis behind this, but it was certainly a contributing factor."
He believes Fufeng's proponents and civic boosters "did everything that was asked." But well-intentioned projects can sometimes inadvertantly run afoul of military missions, he said.
"Not pointing fingers at anyone whatsoever," he said. "We went through the appropriate channels, so everything should (have been) good, only to find out that no, it wasn't."
He stresses that SB 2398 is not specifically a response to Fufeng. However, Grand Forks' saga with the project was big news, prompting coverage by the New York Times. Even today, it's being discussed in national circles. In "Seven Things You Can't Say About China," a book that has spent time this spring in the New York Times bestseller list, author Tom Cotton — a Republican senator from Arkansas — referenced Fufeng and the controversy it stirred.
During a recent meeting of the City Council, Grand Forks resident Craig Spicer stood during the public comment segment to read a snippet.
"Local officials celebrated the economic investment and job creation at first, but engaged local citizens began showing up at meetings to oppose the project and ultimately prevailed, after which they broke out into chants of 'USA,' " said Spicer, quoting directly from the book.
As SB 2398 was being mapped out, the Department of Defense took notice, Barta said. "They see we're doing things right in North Dakota and we can further protect these crucial missions that we have going on at every one of our (military installations)."
Bruce Gjovig, a member of the Mayor's Base Retention Committee in Grand Forks, wrote testimony in favor of SB 2398, noting that North Dakota lacks state-level legislation to protect installations from encroachment.
"When we accept a military installation, we have a duty to protect it," Gjovig wrote. "Coordination and communication are needed between military authorities and state, county and township jurisdictions. This is critical to ensure certain developments align with military compatibility goals."
SB 2398's route through the Legislature wasn't a direct one.
Its original wording created predetermined and sizable impact zones — 25 miles in each direction — near military installations. The size of those zones raised concern.
Now, the zones will be "
established by an assessment in a compatible use study and contingent upon the missions of each military base
."
Input during the legislative process also prompted a change in the makeup of the committee — technically committees, with an "s."
In an earlier form, the bill called for the members to include the governor. That changed, however, and members now include the state agriculture commissioner, as well as a representative from each county within the boundaries of a zone, to be selected by local county commissions; a township representative, to be selected by the boards of township supervisors; a city representative, to be selected by affected city councils; and, on a voluntary basis, the commander of each military installation, or a designee.
Barta noted Thursday that if it becomes law, SB 2398 will authorize multiple panels whose members will specialize in the installation in their particular region.
"Those committees are specific to the (nearby) installation," he said. "We're trying to bring it as local as we can."
The installations themselves have the ability to opt in on the zones and committees.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
28 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Black beauty businesses are stuggling under Trump's tariffs
Earlier this summer, Dajiah Blackshear-Calloway, 34, started to notice that her regular clients weren't visiting her hair salon as often as they used to. The salon, in Smyrna, Georgia, houses two stylists and offers dozens of services that range from $50 natural hairstyles to $745 tape-in weave extensions. Her most popular services are $254 sew-ins, where human hair extensions are woven into braids, and $125 quick weaves, where human or synthetic hair is styled and then glued to a stocking cap. But the prices of hair extensions and hair glues used to create wigs and weaves have gone up exponentially after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a series of different tariffs on China and Vietnam, where the majority of Black beauty products are made. The price of a package of hair imported from Vietnam has gone up to $290 from $190 since May. A bottle of hair glue, imported from China, has gone up from $8 a bottle to $14.99 at her local beauty supply store. 'We're being impacted at every level,' Blackshear-Calloway said. 'I'm either having to eat that cost or pass that expense along to my clients, which affects their budgets and their pockets as well.' To avoid passing on rising costs, Blackshear-Calloway is asking her clients to bring their own hair to their appointments. Now her salon is offering a quick weave service without hair for $140, but with hair the price is $400, according to her booking website. She's also struggling to get products since her wholesaler is delaying shipments as tariff rates fluctuate. Kadidja Dosso, 30, owner of Dosso Beauty, which sells hypoallergenic braiding hair, as well as The Dosso Hair Salon in Philadelphia, has also faced delayed shipments on imports from China. She waited over a month to get $50,000 worth of China-made braiding hair via air freight at John F. Kennedy Airport in June, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced 145% tariffs on the country over confusion over what tariff should apply. 'We have to provide more specifics of the products – exact materials, the product use – for it to clear customs,' Dosso said. 'Part of the issue was that the same language that we've been using for years wasn't descriptive enough.' She wants to avoid raising prices on her $13 packets of hair, which customers typically buy at least five at a time to complete one hairstyle. Higher costs Tariffs are disproportionately impacting Black business owners like Blackshear-Calloway and Dosso, said Andre Perry, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'Many Black entrepreneurs started off with less wealth,' Perry said. He said that the wealth gap puts Black entrepreneurs, especially those in low-margin businesses like consumer goods or hair care services, into precarious financial positions as tariffs eat into their bottom lines. Sina Golara, an assistant professor of supply chain and operations management at Georgia State University, said rising costs due to tariffs are 'like a tax that you're imposing on business.' 'In some cases, it could be borne by the foreign manufacturer, but in most cases, it will also have quite a substantial impact on the domestic buyers and consumers,' Golara said. Diann Valentine, 55, founder of Slayyy Hair, first felt the impact of tariffs shortly after the initial 145% tariff was imposed on China and she faced a $300,000 bill to get 26,000 units of braiding hair out of the Los Angeles port in May. 'To lose that kind of money at this stage has been devastating,' Valentine said. Since then she has raised the price of her braiding hair and drawstring ponytail extensions by 20%. She also laid off four employees and is working 16-hour days to compensate in her two Glow+Flow beauty supply stores in Inglewood and Hawthorne, California. Slayyy Hair supplies $8.49 nontoxic braiding hair and $35.99 synthetic drawstring ponytails to TJ Maxx and Marshalls, which have resisted renegotiating prices or delivery deadlines to compensate. 'So essentially, we paid more for our ponytails than TJ Maxx and Marshalls paid for them,' Valentine said. She is also trying to renegotiate price increases with Target, where she sells in at least 70 stores in California, Nevada and Colorado, she said. TJ Maxx and Marshalls declined a Reuters request for comment. Fifty percent of the merchandise comes from China, Valentine said, and prices for synthetic wigs, human-hair weaves, plastic hair rollers, rubber bands, combs and brushes that stock her shelves are trending up at her beauty supply locations. 'I thought maybe we would see an increase in foot traffic because there would be more DIY hairstyles – more women doing their hair at home,' she said. 'But for right now, we've only seen decreased foot traffic and also a decrease in frequency of visits from our existing customers.' Struggling salons While beauty product sales are typically resilient during economic downturns, beauty services are seen as discretionary, said Marley Brocker, senior analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. 'Tariffs on those imports are going to directly lead to higher costs for those service providers, whether they're buying directly from overseas manufacturers or buying from wholesalers within the U.S.,' she said. Black U.S. consumers spent approximately $2.29 billion on hair care products in 2022, according to a NielsenIQ study from that year. But higher prices are causing some Black women to visit the salon less frequently. Deiara Frye, 27, of Raleigh, North Carolina, usually schedules hair appointments at least five times a year, but so far this year she's only gone once. 'Due to the cost of everything rising over the years, I tend to get braids a little more often now than sew-ins, or try to maintain my natural hair,' she said. She's also seeing prices for her natural hair products like Unilever's Shea Moisture and Procter & Gamble's Pantene go up. Fewer visits are impacting salons and beauty supply stores. Until earlier this year, Dionne Maxwell was selling wigs, braiding hair, shampoos, and conditioners out of her mini beauty supply store in Dallas, Georgia, located 33 miles outside of Atlanta, but she shut it down after she started losing foot traffic in May and moved operations into her home. Now she's relying on orders placed through Uber Eats, TikTok Shop and to sustain her business, but even those sales have slowed significantly, she said. 'We don't have the money for advertising, because enough revenue is not coming in to advertise with,' Maxwell said. Tariffs have raised Maxwell's wholesale price for China-made braiding hair by 50 cents per pack, she said, and she is now required to buy more hair in her wholesale orders. She said she's struggled to negotiate better prices with her hair wholesalers, who are requiring her to order more units of merchandise at higher costs. Her wholesaler is asking her to purchase 110 packs of hair per order, when she was previously able to buy 30 packs at a time, she said. 'For the past two months, we have been basically paying our bills out of pocket because we really have had nothing coming in,' Maxwell said.
The Verge
29 minutes ago
- The Verge
Apple is reportedly making more of its new iPhones in India instead of China
Apple is manufacturing more of its iPhone 17 phones for the US in India instead of in China, and for the first time, the full lineup of new models will ship from India at launch, according to Bloomberg. The company is also working on a successor to the iPhone 16E that it plans to make in India, Bloomberg says. Apple has increasingly been moving iPhone production to India to reduce its dependence on manufacturing in China. The company already expects to pay $1.1 billion in tariffs for the current quarter, but Bloomberg reports that currently, Apple's exports of iPhones to the US from India are exempted from tariffs. That's despite the Trump administration's 50 percent tariff on many imports from India, and while analyst Patrick Moorhead move 'does dodge some tariffs,' he noted that iPhone subassemblies are still mostly produced in China then shipped to India for final assembly. Earlier this month, Apple announced a $100 billion investment in US manufacturing that builds on the $500 billion it announced earlier this year. Trump has claimed that companies committed to building products in the US would be exempt from future tariffs on imported chips. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday morning that the administration plans to increase tariffs on India, saying it's a result of the country buying and selling Russian oil despite sanctions from the war in Ukraine. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jay Peters Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Apple Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
California's long ballot count may be Trump's next target in the war over voting
The latest salvo in President Donald Trump's campaign against mail-in voting arrived Monday, as he announced he wants to 'lead a movement' against mail ballots and advocate instead for in-person and paper ballots, which he says are 'faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election.' Trump has criticized mail-in ballots since their rapid rise in 2020, when after years of slower growth they exploded as a key innovation of the Covid election. But the logistics of counting mail-in votes helped keep the nation in suspense over who won for nearly four days after polls closed. This latest push by Trump may also have the convenience of being the latest line of attack in the redistricting wars. In California, state Democrats are attempting their own mid-decade gerrymander to counter the Trump-led push by Republicans to draw more friendly districts in Texas. And California sticks out as one of the most prominent embracers of mail-in voting — and among the slowest to count them. Overall, mail-in voting accounted for 30% of the total vote nationwide in 2024, down from its 2020 peak of 43%. However, in California, the practice made up 81% of the total vote, according to a recent report from the Election Assistance Commission. Mail-in voting overall has proved to be a challenging process for many election administrators, with hurdles including voter and ballot verification and logistical issues like opening envelopes, keeping materials secure and, in many cases, hand-counting. Essentially, all of the processes that happen in person when someone votes at a polling place — especially checking in and verifying their registration — can pile up fast when it happens by mail. But California has had some of the greatest difficulties sorting through mail votes quickly. Of the states with the highest share of mail-in voting in the 2024 election, California set a benchmark for slowest progress the morning after the election. While Democrats have achieved steady success at the statewide level in recent years, California's prolonged vote counts left the nation in suspense over which party would win control of the House of Representatives for days after the 2022 and 2024 elections. Northern California's Lake County didn't reach the halfway mark tabulating its 2024 election results until more than two weeks after election night. Responding to scrutiny, the elections supervisor complained, 'Why do we need to rush?' Following the election, state legislation was introduced requiring counties to conclude a majority of their counting process 13 days after the election. The bill passed the state Assembly with bipartisan support and is in a state Senate committee seeking funding sign-off. Meanwhile, Trump faces high legal and political hurdles to changing mail-in laws on his own at the federal level. Without new federal laws, states have wide latitude to set their own election procedures. And his recent post may just have been top of mind for him because of a prompt from Russian President Vladimir Putin. But it's also happening as California state legislators convened Monday to move forward on plans for a congressional map that, if approved by voters, would target five Republicans to lose their seats in the upcoming midterms. The effort was sparked by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom as a response to Texas Republicans' congressional redraw seeking to fortify their majority. It may put the redistricting wars and Trump's renewed crusade on mail-in votes on a political collision course in the Golden State.
