North Dakota lawmaker quits after child porn suspect texts

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator says he’ll resign following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges. Republican Ray Holmberg already had stepped down as head of a powerful panel that oversees the Legislature’s business between sessions after a published report that he had exchanged scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges. Holmberg’s resignation is effective June 1. He had risen to become one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers in a career that spanned 46 years.