Blake Nicholson, Author at Valley News

Cars are parked outside RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, N.D., on Monday, April 1, 2019. Police in North Dakota say "several" bodies have been found inside the business in suburban Bismarck. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

4 killed at North Dakota business

by Blake Nicholson Associated PressApril 1, 2019

MANDAN, N.D. — Four people were found dead Monday in what police called a “multiple homicide” at a North Dakota property-management business.Three men and a woman were found dead inside RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, a city of about 22,000…

Tom Witke, left, his son Chad, center, and Nick Kenny, launch a boat into the swollen waters of the North Fork of the Elkhorn River, to check on Witke's flooded property, in Norfolk, Neb., Friday, March 15, 2019. Heavy rain falling atop deeply frozen ground has prompted evacuations along swollen rivers in Wisconsin, Nebraska and other Midwestern states. Thousands of people have been urged to evacuate along eastern Nebraska rivers as a massive late-winter storm has pushed streams and rivers out of their banks throughout the Midwest. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Midwest flooding closes stretches of major river, interstate

by Margery A. Beck Associated Press, and Blake Nicholson Associated PressMarch 15, 2019

In this Oct. 11, 2016 photo provided by Samuel Jessup, climate change activist Michael Foster, of Seattle, turns an emergency shut-off valve on an oil pipeline in northeastern North Dakota. Foster was arrested and ended up spending six months in jail. The valve-turning tactic has been embraced in recent years by activists who believe fossil fuels are precipitating a global warming crisis. But the energy industry and its advocates say it amounts to domestic terrorism, and lawmakers in several states are considering stiffening penalties. (Courtesy of Samuel Jessup via AP)

‘Valve turners’ shut down pipelines in protest

by Blake Nicholson Associated PressMarch 9, 2019

Moorhead, MN area elementary school electronic sign shows to temperature Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. Daytime temperatures in the Fargo-Moorhead area were near -20F as frigid weather grips the area. (AP Photo/Bruce Crummy)

Polar Vortex Blankets Midwest in Frigid Temps

by Blake Nicholson Associated PressJanuary 29, 2019

Boston Celtics basketball star Kyrie Irving accepts gifts from students on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota on Thursday, Aug 23, 2018. Irving traveled to the reservation from which his mother came to be honored by the tribe for his heritage and his support of its battle against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. (AP Photo/Blake Nicholson)

C’s Irving Honored by Mother’s Sioux Tribe

by Blake Nicholson Associated PressAugust 24, 2018

Aldo Seoane of the Yoeme tribe, with a group protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline, helps set up teepees on the National Mall near the Washington Monument in Washington, Tuesday, March 7, 2017. A federal judge declined to temporarily stop construction of the final section of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline, clearing the way for oil to flow as soon as next week. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Judge Won’t Stop Dakota Pipeline Construction

by Blake Nicholson Associated PressMarch 7, 2017

Refuse remains in the Dakota Access pipeline opponents' main protest camp as a fire burns in the background in southern North Dakota near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, as authorities prepare to shut down the camp in advance of spring flooding season. (AP Photo/Blake Nicholson)

Pipeline Protesters Break Camp

by Blake Nicholson Associated Press, and James MacPherson Associated PressFebruary 22, 2017

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2016, file photo, heavy equipment is seen at a site where sections of the Dakota Access Pipeline were being buried near the town of St. Anthony in Morton County, N.D. The Army has notified Congress Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, that it will allow the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota, completing the four-state project to move North Dakota oil to Illinois. The Army intends to allow the crossing under Lake Oahe as early as Wednesday, Feb. 8. The crossing is the final big chunk of work on the pipeline. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File)

Pipeline Foes Hold ‘Last Stand’

by James MacPherson Associated Press, and Blake Nicholson Associated PressFebruary 8, 2017

Hay is stacked up to feed horses at a protest encampment along the route of the Dakota Access oil pipeline near Cannon Ball in southern North Dakota on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017. President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued an executive action to advance construction of the pipeline, which opponents believe threatens drinking water and cultural sites. The pipeline developer disputes that. (AP Photo/James MacPherson)

Pipeline Protesters Face Choice Following Change in White House

by James MacPherson Associated Press, and Blake Nicholson Associated PressJanuary 26, 2017

Ray Franks, of New York, carries a case of water into a mess hall at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016. An overnight storm brought several inches of snow, winds gusting to 50 mph and temperatures that felt as cold as 10 degrees below zero. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Protesters Receive Conflicting Messages

by Blake Nicholson Associated PressDecember 9, 2016