North Dakota Monitor selected for ProPublica investigative reporting project

Jacob Orledge and the North Dakota Monitor were selected by ProPublica's Local Reporting Network to partner on an investigative reporting project. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Two big items on my wishlist when we launched the North Dakota Monitor less than seven months ago: Find a way to bring more investigative reporting to the state, and recruit back to North Dakota a talented journalist who had left.

I’m thrilled to say we’ve achieved one of those goals and are well on the way to reaching the other.

Reporter Jacob Orledge is joining the North Dakota Monitor after being selected by ProPublica to work on a yearlong investigative reporting project. Orledge, who previously reported for the Tioga Tribune, is one of five journalists selected for the first group of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network 50 State Initiative .

The ProPublica Local Reporting Network began in 2018 to help remedy the lack of investigative reporting at the local level. ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigative journalism, is bringing that effort to all 50 states. Our project will be the first time the network has worked with a North Dakota outlet.

I first met Orledge while watching him collect awards at North Dakota Newspaper Association conventions. He spent more than four years covering the Bakken oil field and rural communities in the Tioga area. He also has received national recognition for his work, named the National Newspaper Association’s Rookie Reporter of the Year in 2019 and a 2020-21 Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellow.

North Dakota has been home to many talented journalists who work here for a few years and then leave the state. When they leave, they take with them the expertise they gained and the relationships with sources they developed. Orledge was one of them, leaving North Dakota about a year ago to return to his home state of Delaware.

Fortunately for us, the chance to make a pitch to ProPublica came along at the right time, and we were able to lure him back to the state.

We’ll have a lot more to tell you in the future about his in-depth reporting project. Generally speaking, his area of interest is property rights — a topic we think is on a lot of North Dakotans’ minds these days.

You likely have already seen Orledge’s byline in the Monitor. He has done some freelance work for us, including covering a marathon three-day regulatory hearing involving the Summit Carbon Solutions permit application for underground carbon dioxide storage facilities.

On Friday, before he even had a chance to unload his vehicle after driving to North Dakota from Delaware, Orledge was on assignment in Bottineau . He covered what will likely be the most substantive court hearing in a lawsuit brought by the North Dakota Landowners Association against the state of North Dakota.

It’s a high-stakes lawsuit that has prompted several energy companies to intervene, including Summit and Minnkota Power. The landowner group, which is joined by the North Dakota Farm Bureau, argues that North Dakota laws that affect underground storage of CO2 are unconstitutional. The state and the energy companies disagree and say an adverse ruling poses a threat to the industry. One thing all sides agree on — this case will be appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court, regardless of how the District Court judge rules.

Other media outlets have covered the lawsuit, but Orledge was the only news reporter at Friday’s hearing in Bottineau.

That’s what drives us at the Monitor — looking for stories that have impact for people in the state but might otherwise go uncovered.

Now with this partnership, we’ll be able to do that work at a deeper level. If you support investigative journalism you can’t get anywhere else, please consider making a donation to the North Dakota Monitor. All contributions stay local and help us pay for things like equipment, travel expenses to conduct interviews and open records requests. Thanks for your support.

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