Wisconsin
Judge: Pipeline can operate on reservation amid reroute work
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge will allow an oil and gas pipeline to continue to flow on a northern Wisconsin American Indian reservation while its operators work to reroute the line around the tribal land.
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued Enbridge in 2019 demanding it remove the section of line that runs across the tribe’s reservation in Ashland County. The tribe is concerned the pipeline could rupture and contaminate its drinking water.
Enbridge has been working on a 40-mile reroute around the reservation.
Western District Judge William Conley ruled Wednesday the company can continue to operate the line on the reservation until its relocation project is finished.
The Line 5 pipeline carries oil and natural gas liquids from Superior to Sarnia, Ontario. Enbridge said agreements have been reached with all private landowners along the new route for the pipeline.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is currently finalizing an environmental impact statement for the project. The agency’s draft environmental impact statement drew intense criticism from environmental groups, tribal members and activists who argued it didn’t adequately evaluate impacts, including the risk of spills.
Last month, the DNR investigated a possible spill near the Bad River Reservation after a contractor reported some contaminated soil south of Ashland.
Enbridge officials said they couldn’t find a leak in the pipeline and believe the contamination was from a past discharge, according to the DNR.
Enbridge spokeswoman Juli Kellner said “only a trace amount of product” was found during scheduled system maintenance. She said the line was shut down as a precaution.
New York
Judge rules for religious adoption agency limiting services
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that New York state could not require a Christian family services agency to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples.
New Hope Family Services in Syracuse professes that it cannot provide adoption services to same-sex or unmarried couples because of religious beliefs. It filed a federal lawsuit against the state Office of Children and Family Services in 2018 after the agency told it to revise its “discriminatory and impermissible” policy or shut down its adoption program, according to court filings.
U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in Albany cited free speech protections Tuesday in granting New Hope a summary judgment and ruling the state agency couldn’t compel New Hope to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples.
An attorney for New Hope said shutting down an agency for its religious beliefs serves no one.
“New Hope’s faith-guided services don’t coerce anyone and do nothing to interfere with other adoption providers who have different beliefs about family and the best interests of children,” Roger Brooks of the Alliance Defending Freedom said in a prepared release.
The state Office of Children and Family Services said in a prepared statement it was “deeply disappointed with the decision and maintains that discrimination on any basis should not be tolerated. We’re reviewing our options for next steps.”
The district court in Albany had dismissed New Hope’s lawsuit in May 2019, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit sent the case back down to the trial court.
New Hope said it takes no government funding and has placed more than 1,000 children with adoptive families since 1965.
Colorado
Clerk pleads not guilty in election system breach
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado county clerk accused of allowing an unauthorized person to break into her county’s election system in search of proof of the conspiracy theories spun by former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case on Wednesday.
Tina Peters entered her plea in Grand Junction before Judge Matthew Barrett, who scheduled a trial for her in March.
Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
Peters denies she did anything illegal and contends the charges are politically motivated. She has issued reports purporting to show suspicious activity within voting systems, but those have been debunked by various officials and experts.
Last month, Peters’ former chief deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in connection with the case under a deal that requires her to testify against Peters. She was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation. A third employee from Peters’ office has also been charged in the scheme.
Prosecutors alleged that Knisley worked to get a security badge for a man Peters said she was hiring in the clerk’s office. Peters then used it to allow another, unauthorized person inside the room to make a copy of the election equipment hard drive during an update to election equipment in May 2021, it said. That other person has not been charged.
A judge prohibited Peters from overseeing last year’s and this year’s elections in Mesa County, a western region of the state that is largely rural and heavily Republican. Trump lost Colorado in 2020 but won the majority of the vote in this county.
Peters lost her bid to become Colorado’s top elections official in June, losing a primary election in which she sought to become the Republican candidate to challenge Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in November’s election. Peters alleged fraud in the primary but a recount she paid for confirmed that she lost.
On Tuesday, a judge threw out her lawsuit challenging the way the recount was conducted, saying she waited until after the recount was finished to ask for it to be stopped so he did not have the authority to consider it.
Her lawyer in the case, David Wilson, said some recount observers reported that election machines were tested with test ballots instead of actual ballots cast by voters before they were used to conduct the recount. According to the secretary of state’s office, its election rules require scanning machines to be tested with a set of test ballots that contain every potential configuration of ballot marking, which it says is the most reliable way to make sure the machines are operating correctly.
