Lifestyle

North Dakota’s new law banning student cellphone use in public schools took effect Aug. 1. North Dakota Living turned to students to ask their thoughts on the cellphone ban.

Each year, electric cooperatives from across the country sponsor high school sophomores and juniors to participate in the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. The all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., immerses students in the democratic process, teaches them about cooperatives and includes a full itinerary of monuments, museums and historic sites.

This fall, students returning to school will say goodbye to summer and their cellphones.

In April, Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed into law a bill banning student cellphone use in the state’s public schools.

The law requires cellphones to be secured during instructional time, from the start of the school day to dismissal, or “bell to bell.” It does not include school-owned devices such as laptops and tablets used for educational purposes, but covers a variety of personal devices, including smartwatches and tablets, that could distract students during the day.

Kennedy DeLap has a little more hardware to lug with her camera bag.

The Bismarck native and North Dakota Living photojournalist was crowned Miss North Dakota 2025 on June 7 at the Bakken Auditorium in Williston.

“They put the crown on my head, and I just couldn’t believe it,” DeLap says.

She fully expected to be at work the following Monday, editing photos and dicing through interviews from a recent assignment in Medora. But instead, she was being interviewed by the Williston Herald about her new job as Miss North Dakota.

Like a warm hug, laughter echos through the dining room as a group of ladies gathers for coffee, gleefully cajoling cookies from the kitchen staff inside the Mott Health Care Center (MHCC).

The scene is the culmination of a mighty community effort.

“Perseverance is never giving up and never losing hope” was once scripted onto a wall of the physical therapy room in the center. That seems appropriate.

Just like the prairie depends on different grasses, wildflowers, insects, birds and animals to keep the land thriving, your body needs a rich variety of microbes to stay healthy. There is an invisible ecosystem inside you made of bacteria, fungi, viruses and many other microbes. It’s called the microbiome – and it’s doing much more than you think.

The city of Dickinson reimagined a downtown site – a former banking center – to create a vibrant outdoor space for the community.

Dickinson’s Legacy Square opened in 2023 after five years of planning and fundraising.

“What’s to eat?” our kids would say when they were younger and living at home.

Actually, they still say that when they visit.

When our son was a rapidly growing teenager, he sometimes made multiple trips to open the fridge within 30 minutes.
“The food hasn’t changed since the last time you checked,” I’d say.

When I went to retrieve some food from our basement food pantry, I’d pick up a box of crackers. My hand would fly upwards at no resistance. The box was empty.

Diamonds may be formed under intense pressure, but we are flesh and blood, and sometimes pressure can crush us.
Stress. It can result from the day-to-day rush to get out the door in the morning. Deadlines. Workplace pressures. The weather’s impact on crops. Spring calving. Financial worries. Even mindless scrolling through the phone, getting agitated about information we don’t agree with or negative posts.

Daily living can be stressful, but recognizing stress and taking steps to simply breathe can sometimes reduce the long-term effects of stress.

Pat Traynor believes he lives in “the most generous part of the planet.” Since 2008, he has witnessed hundreds of thousands of generous donors give $165 million to more than 500 local charities in primarily North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

Marlo Anderson is living proof there’s reason to celebrate every day. As founder of the National Day Calendar – the official, authoritative source for fun, unusual and unique national days – Anderson has built a wildly popular national brand around celebration.

Anderson’s curiosity popped in 2013, as he searched for information on the internet about the national day dedicated to his favorite snack – popcorn (the movie-theater buttered kind, preferably).