Star Tribune
North Dakota voters defeat measures to legalize recreational marijuana, axe property tax
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota voters rejected a ballot measure to outlaw most local property taxes, which critics said would have led to dramatic cuts in state services.
Voters also defeated a measure calling for the legalization of recreational marijuana and another that sought to make it more difficult to amend the state constitution.
The measure to end local property taxes based on assessed value would have forced the state to provide an estimated $3.15 billion in replacement revenue to local governments during each two-year budget, according to a legislative panel. The state now forecasts about $5 billion in general tax revenues in the current two-year budget.
Supporters of the proposed cut said rising property taxes were increasingly frustrating to voters and that the taxation system was hard to understand. Opponents said the measure would force legislators to make huge cuts to state services.
North Dakota voters also turned down the measure to legalize recreational possession and use of the drug. The outcome of the proposal wasn’t clear until Wednesday morning. North Dakota is one of a handful of states, including Florida and South Dakota, where recreational marijuana measures went before voters. Two dozen states have legalized recreational marijuana, the most recent being Ohio in 2023.
North Dakota voters rejected past measures in 2018 and 2022. The state’s Senate defeated two House-passed bills for legalization and taxation in 2021.
The measure sought to legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older to use at their homes and, if permitted, on others’ private property. The measure also outlined production and processing regulations, prohibited uses — such as in public or in vehicles — and would have allowed home cultivation of plants.
Supporters said the measure would have allowed law enforcement to focus limited resources on more important issues, such as fentanyl. Opponents said marijuana has harmful physiological and societal effects.
“She didn’t always lie, but she didn’t always tell the truth,” Bauer said. “And she had secret truths, and that’s OK. And her friends, in an effort to change this, have told a great deal of revisionist history that’s not supported by [the] evidence.”
Kingsbury’s disappearance from her Winona home on March 31, 2023, sparked nationwide interest and spurred more than 2,000 volunteers to search for her along Hwy. 43 south of Winona over more than two months. A Fillmore County deputy found her body in a culvert on June 7 that year.
Both lawyers rarely agreed on evidence as they picked apart each others’ arguments throughout Wednesday morning and early afternoon.
Law enforcement testified Kingsbury’s home with Fravel on Kerry Drive didn’t show signs of a struggle and appeared to be intact. Bauer said that testimony shows Fravel couldn’t have killed Kingsbury by smothering her with a towel the way prosecutors suggest, arguing there would have been broken furniture or marks. The defense attorney also pointed out a neighbor who shares a wall with the home said she had never heard Fravel and Kingsbury argue.
Prokopowicz argued Fravel, at 240 pounds, was much heavier than Kingsbury and could have subdued her quickly. The prosecutor also pointed out that no locks or windows were damaged, saying it was unlikely someone could have snuck into the house, smothered Kingsbury, wrapped her body in the gray fitted sheet she was found in and duct taped it without Fravel’s knowledge.
Fravel told police he was home for much of that morning, then left for more than two hours to drive items to his parents’ home in Mabel, Minn., before turning back because he had packed the wrong items in Kingsbury’s van. Prokopowicz pointed out Fravel had switched the license plates on Kingsbury’s van with his own car and pointed out a 44-minute gap where Fravel would have had time to hide Kingsbury’s body.
The next time St. Paul voters cast their votes for the White House, they will select the city’s elected leadership as well. With 60% voting yes, St. Paul voters Tuesday opted to move city elections from odd-year elections to coinciding with electing the next U.S. president.
Proponents of the plan said it will increase voter turnout for city races. In 2016, more than 140,000 St. Paul residents cast votes. And in 2020, more than 150,000 voted. Those numbers were about three times greater than the people who decided St. Paul’s mayor and City Council elections in 2021 and 2023.
In transition, all seven members of the St. Paul City Council, who were elected in 2023, will now serve 5-year terms.
Then, on Nov. 4, 2025, St. Paul voters will vote for mayor to serve a one-time, 3-year term.
Voters will select the mayor and all seven members of the City Council at the same time they vote for president and vice president.
How will the city ballot, which uses ranked-choice voting and provides for an unlimited number of initial candidates, be merged with the ballot for president and other federal, state and local elections? In Portland, Ore., which blends ranked choice-voting with more standard ballots for state and federal races, voters receive two ballots — one with local candidates and one for president, federal and state offices.
Star Tribune
Jackson Gatlin pleads guilty to sexually assaulting teenage girl in Vineyard Church youth group
DULUTH – Jackson Gatlin, dressed in a dark suit with his hands cuffed behind his back, was led by authorities from the courtroom Wednesday morning after pleading guilty to felony-level criminal sexual conduct in a case where numerous women have come forward with similar stories of being sexually assaulted as girls when he was their youth leader here at The Vineyard Church.
As part of a deal, Gatlin pleaded guilty to one count and on four others entered an Alford plea — in which he maintains innocence, but admits there is sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty during a trial. The third-floor courtroom at the St. Louis County courthouse was at capacity for the hearing, with several of his victims sitting together in a row. Gatlin, 36, will be sentenced during separate hearings November 25-26, with all the impact statements during the first.
He will likely serve 13 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender.
Civil charges are expected to be filed soon against Gatlin — in addition to his father Michael Gatlin, who was a senior pastor at the church, his mother Brenda who was also in a position of power, The Vineyard Church in Duluth and Vineyard USA, according to Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney who has represented victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Cosby. There will be 10 complaints against each entity, nine from victims and one from a mother whose daughter died by suicide.
“The church should be a place where people feel secure — a sanctuary to find God, practice your faith and find support within your community,” Kuvin said during a press conference after the hearing, sitting alongside the victims in a conference room at a downtown law office. “Unfortunately, the church became a living hell for these young girls.”
Neither of Gatlin’s parents were in the courtroom on Wednesday.
As part of the Alford plea, the prosecutors went through each victim’s allegations and the testimony that would have occurred during a trial. It showed a pattern of Gatlin, then in his early 20s, establishing closeness with 11 to 16 year old girls that extended beyond just the church.
His text messages went from friendly to flirty to sexual. He brought them to his bedroom in his family home or drove them in his car or made them sit next to him on a bus ride. He touched them or made them touch him. He bound their wrists or otherwise restrained them. He raped them and at least in one case laughed when they told him to stop.
