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Articles written by James Macpherson


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  • North Dakota close to banning abortions at 6 weeks

    JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press

    BISMARCK, N.D — North Dakota on Friday moved closer to adopting what would be the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, with lawmakers sending the Republican governor measures that could set the state up for a costly legal battle over the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure. The North Dakota Senate overwhelmingly approved two anti-abortion bills Friday, one banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy and another prohibiting women from having the procedure because a fetus has a g...

  • Suspects in teacher kidnapping returned to Mont.

    JAMES MacPHERSON, MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

    SIDNEY (AP) — Two men charged in the kidnapping of a high school math teacher were extradited Tuesday to Montana, where they appeared in court less than a mile from where Sherry Arnold disappeared during her morning run. Sidney City Judge Gregory Mohr told Lester Van Waters, 47, and Michael Spell, 22, that they could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated kidnapping. The judge set a Feb. 28 appearance in Montana district court. AP Photo/Elijah Nouvelage Lester Van Waters Jr., one of two suspects charged with a...

  • Suspects in teacher kidnapping going back to Montana

    JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press

    WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota judge has ordered two suspects in the disappearance of a Montana math teacher to be moved to Montana for trial. District Judge David Nelson ordered the extradition of 47-year-old Lester Vann Waters Jr. and 22-year-old Michael Keith Spell during Tuesday hearings in Williston, N.D. Waters and Spell are charged with aggravated kidnapping in the disappearance of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold of Sidney, Mont. Arnold disappeared Jan. 7 shortly after she left her home for a run. Authorities have s...

  • Suspects in teacher kidnapping going back to Montana

    JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press

    WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered the extradition of two men from North Dakota to Montana to face kidnapping charges in the disappearance of a high school math teacher who is believed to be dead. Judge David Nelson ordered Lester Vann Waters Jr., 47, and Michael Keith Spell, 22, to be extradited during separate hearings in Williston, a city in northwestern North Dakota near the Montana border. They were to be transported about 45 miles to the southwest later Tuesday, to Sidney, Mont., where the missing t...

  • No discipline planned at North Dakota degree mill

    JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press

    BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) — No immediate discipline is planned for any Dickinson State University employees in the wake of an audit determining the school awarded hundreds of degrees to foreign students who didn't earn them, the chancellor of North Dakota's university system said Saturday. AP Photo/The Dickinson Press, Dustin Monke Dickinson State University President D.C. Coston speaks on Friday, at the Badlands Activities Center in Dickinson, N.D. According to an audit report, the university awarded hundreds of degrees t...

  • Powerful storm to bring snow, ice to the Dakotas

    JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press

    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A powerful storm that pummeled much of the West is promising to bring its chaotic mix of snow, sleet and ice to much of the Dakotas on Thanksgiving Day. The system closed roads and delayed flights from Anchorage to Salt Lake City on some of the busiest travel days of the year. Meteorologists warned residents in the Dakotas to expect a range of messy wintery weather, from freezing drizzle in the eastern two-thirds of South Dakota to a possible blizzard in eastern North Dakota. "Like the Boy Scouts, y...

  • Erratic white pelicans due to return to refuge

    JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press Writer BISMARCK, N.D.

    White pelicans at the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in central North Dakota have baffled biologists in recent years with no-shows, massive die-offs and hurried departures. The big-billed birds' expected return to their nesting grounds in a few days may add to the mystery, said Paulette Scherr, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist. "The birds are going to return," she said. "But will they have problems? We don't know that." The white pelicans — among the largest birds in North America, measuring six feet from bill to t...

  • Water conflict ebbs as Missouri River rises

    JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press Writer B I SMARCK, N.D.

    Recreational boaters are back and the fish are biting in the u p p e r r e a c h e s o f t h e Mi s s o u r i Ri ve r sys t em. Hundreds of miles downstream, fully laden barges are again plying the Big Muddy without worry of hitting bottom. Low river levels caused by a decade of dry conditions in the Missouri River basin have been reversed by rains and robust snow runoff, and the warring over water among downstream and upstream states has ebbed until the next drought hits. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages...

  • Rejected in Mont., compost firm OK'd in N.D.

    JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press Writer BISMARCK, N.D

    A Montana man believes he has found the perfect place to compost oil sludge with cow manure and other organic waste: North Dakota. Environmental regulators in Montana forced Dale Leivestad to close an operation that turned manure, straw and unsalable crude oil to compost, saying it made a mess. So Leivestad wants to start a sludge-to-compost facility a few miles over the border in sparsely populated Bowman County, where he has the blessing of the state Heal th Department. "It's going to be a very safe place to ply our...