Port: Shouting match erupts during legislative meeting over Development Fund controversy

MINOT — An audit of the North Dakota Development Fund delivered to that committee in September revealed some disturbing information about serious conflicts of interest and a problematic lack of documentation around millions of taxpayer dollars. Those findings have made headlines around the state. It's a controversy that seems likely to end the existence of the fund. Gov. Kelly Armstrong promised to "tear" the Commerce Department "down to the studs" upon taking office. Now his administration has paused some operations of the Development Fund, and appears poised to ask lawmakers to shut it down in the upcoming legislative session. Amid all that, unfortunately, has been Sen. Jeff Magrum, the chair of the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee. His antics in elected office often veer between the cartoonish (his claim that colonoscopies cause colon cancer) and the borderline sinister (his push for clemency for unrepentant far-right extremists).

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