July 7, 2020

Mount Rushmore protest leader charged with two felonies

A packed courtroom of supporters learned Monday morning that one of the protest leaders who helped shut down the highway to Mount Rushmore on Friday is facing five criminal charges, including two felonies.

Nick Tilsen is charged with second-degree robbery for allegedly stealing a shield from a law enforcement officer, a prosecutor said during his initial appearance at the Pennington County Courthouse in Rapid City. Tilsen is also charged with simple assault for allegedly assaulting the same officer.

The 38-year-old Porcupine resident — who appeared in court via a video feed from the Pennington County Jail — is also charged with three misdemeanors: impeding a highway, unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct.

Tilsen is accused of three kinds of disorderly conduct but can only be convicted of one: engaging in violent or threatening behavior, obstructing traffic or disturbing the lawful assembly at Mount Rushmore.

Read more: https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/mount-rushmore-protest-leader-charged-with-two-felonies/article_363e00b2-3a22-5de9-937f-2c518d3c5b6d.html

July 7, 2020

Noem and Other Imperialists Try to Erase American History and Ideals

I don’t need to watch my dog poop to know that I need to clean up his crap.

I didn’t watch the crass campaign speeches at Mount Rushmore last night, but, sure enough, Governor Kristi Noem remains full of crap:

Gee, Kristi, is Senator Mike Rounds part of that purported effort to “discredit America’s founding principles” for saying we shouldn’t name military bases after Confederate traitors? Is the Gettysburg Police Department part of that purported effort for finally removing decals showing a traitor flag that isn’t even an authentic part of the town’s founding and history?

Governor Noem’s weak attempt to bogeyman protest as an assault on God-fearing white folks’ heritage (you don’t have to be a dog to hear Noem’s whistles) is refuted by the brave protesters who blocked the road to Mount Rushmore yesterday. They weren’t trying to erase history; they were trying to bring it to the fore, demonstrating that Mount Rushmore is not some private pomp-ground for rich and powerful white invaders but part of stolen land that by treaty belongs to the Lakota people. The Rushmore protesters, like protesters across America in this hot and dangerous summer, weren’t trying to undermine America’s principles; they were trying to get Noem and other elected officials to live up to our professed principles of an ever more perfect Union with Liberty and Justice for All.

Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2020/07/04/noem-and-other-imperialists-try-to-erase-american-history-and-ideals/

July 7, 2020

Drain the Snake: Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline Shut Down

Last year, Energy Transfer Partners said they wanted to double the amount of oil it pumps through the Dakota Access Pipeline to 1.1 million barrels of Bakken crude per day.

This morning, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ordered them to cut the amount of oil shipped via Dakota Access to zero:

Back in 2016, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the government hadn’t properly reviewed the Dakota Access pipeline and suspended the project. The next guy in charge couldn’t be bothered with law or anything other than his Big Oil buddies’ thirst for black-gold profits and said, go ahead, build your illegal pipeline. So if you hear any pipeliners griping about liberal judges shutting down business, remind them that breaking the law has consequences.

http://dakotafreepress.com/2020/07/06/drain-the-snake-judge-orders-dakota-access-pipeline-shut-down/
(no more at link)

July 6, 2020

Is moving football to the spring really such a bad idea? Like it or not, it's time to consider the

Is moving football to the spring really such a bad idea? Like it or not, it’s time to consider the option


Straight up: The 2020 sports calendar is irrevocably wrecked. Doesn’t matter what happens now, there’s no fixing it. The Mavs could come to like living in a bubble and FC Dallas could avoid infecting the rest of MLS and the Rangers could remember to close the lid before flushing, and it wouldn’t help. Not enough, anyway. No one will look back at the most tumultuous year in at least a generation and label it a golden year of sport.

So if it’s already a bust, is flip-flopping football really such an awful idea?

I can hear you all the way over here: If God really wanted us to play football in the spring, He’d have found better financing.

But let’s face it, at the rate cases are spiking, there’s a pretty good chance football might not be an option this fall, either. Might as well consider our options.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/oklahoma-sooners/2020/07/05/is-moving-football-to-the-spring-really-such-a-bad-idea-like-it-or-not-its-time-to-consider-the-option/

July 6, 2020

North Dakota trucking company faces $2 million in fines in 2018 illegal dumping

BISMARCK — A North Dakota trucking company may face $2 million in fines for failing to clean up the damage from a 2018 illegal dumping incident, according to a complaint filed in May by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.

Case documents indicate that on June 10, 2018, a landowner in Dunn County reported that a driver for SBT Inc., a small trucking outfit based in Utah but operating in North Dakota, had drained oil waste onto his property. Authorities were quick to respond to the scene and arrest the driver. The following day, a team of inspectors, including a representative from the Department of Environmental Quality, SBT officials and the landowner surveyed the site and determined that the driver had deposited approximately 100 barrels of salt water into the ground.

SBT was at first proactive in addressing its driver’s mess, rushing to the scene to assess the damage within hours, but the Department of Environmental Quality said communication with SBT broke down over the last year as the company seemed to back away from its cleanup responsibilities.

“Initially, the company was responsive in beginning remediation at the site. At some point their enthusiasm for the remediation seemed to wane,” said Karl Rockeman, the director of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Quality, noting that cleanup at the spill site has stalled over the past six to nine months.

Read more: https://www.inforum.com/business/energy-and-mining/6557474-ND-trucking-company-faces-2-million-in-fines-in-2018-illegal-dumping

July 6, 2020

Indigenous activists demand removal of Iowa monuments, restructuring of historical narrative

An imposing figure that stood in the center of the women's march in 2017, an event attended by nearly 26,000 people, caused Christine Nobiss' heart rate to increase.

A towering bronze sculpture of a pioneer, his son and a sitting Indigenous "scout" titled "Pioneer Statuary Group" was the source of Nobiss' hurt and discomfort.

Nobiss, aka Sikowis, identifies as Plains Cree/Saulteaux, and said when she sees monuments like the statuary group "it feels like we're being mocked."

Nobiss is the SHIFT Director of Seeding Sovereignty, the Indigenous and womxn-led organization that hosted a rally Saturday calling for the removal of three monuments from Capitol building grounds. Bringing down monuments that protesters and activists say uphold white supremacy is just one part of the recent national civil rights movement sparked by George Floyd's death in police custody on May 25.

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/07/05/iowa-indigenous-activists-demand-removal-capitol-monuments/5369955002/

July 6, 2020

Black Iowans have been denied right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness

Cedar Rapids Gazette Editorial


The Declaration of Independence, signed 244 years ago this weekend, purports to be a model for people seeking to free themselves from tyranny.

But nearly two and a half centuries later, this is not yet a nation where all people enjoy the same unalienable rights — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Ongoing protests against racism and police violence offer an important reminder — the dream of freedom has not been realized for Black and brown Americans.

When governments fail to protect our fundamental rights, the Declaration prescribes, the people have the right to alter or abolish oppressive systems, pursuant to their safety and happiness. With inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, Iowa has an opportunity to start correcting these historic injustices.

Coronavirus

The coronavirus is disproportionately affecting communities of color. People who are Black and Latino are being infected and dying of the disease at a higher rate than their white counterparts. Some of the reasons behind this divide are racial discrimination in health care and that people of color are more likely to work as essential workers.

Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/staff-editorial/black-iowans-have-been-denied-right-to-life-liberty-and-pursuit-of-happiness-20200704

July 6, 2020

Why so many people are pissed off about the drug industry's lawsuit against insulin program

Why so many people at the Capitol are so pissed off about the drug industry’s lawsuit against Minnesota’s new emergency insulin program


From the day they introduced it to the day it passed the Minnesota Legislature, backers of a bill to provide insulin to diabetics who can’t afford the hormone said it wouldn’t draw a lawsuit from drug makers.

Citing assurances from unnamed industry executives, those proponents of the bill, which relies on the companies’ existing patient assistance program charities instead of substantial fees on drug companies, was less of a lawsuit magnet. In April, the DFL-controlled Minnesota House approved the bill by 111-22. The Senate responded with a vote of 67-0.

They were wrong.

On Tuesday night, just hours before the Alex Smith Insulin Affordability Act was to take effect, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — the industry trade group better known as PhRMA — filed suit to get the new law declared unconstitutional. “A state cannot simply commandeer private property to achieve its public policy goals,” states the suit, which names the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy and MNsure as defendants. “Because the Act takes private property for public use without paying just compensation, it is unconstitutional and should be enjoined.”

Walz’s reaction: ‘What the hell?’

Minnesota’s plan, brokered by Republicans in the state Senate, relies on existing patient assistance programs run by pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo-Nordisk. Only if the companies refused to participate in the program do they face fees or fines: $200,000 per month for six months, and increasing to $400,000 per month for the next six. After a year of non-participation, fines go to $600,000 a month.

Read more: https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2020/07/why-so-many-people-at-the-capitol-are-so-pissed-off-about-the-drug-industrys-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-new-emergency-insulin-program/

July 6, 2020

Former Minneapolis cop says MPD rejected his intervention training offers twice

A former Minneapolis police sergeant, recognized for his work in helping clean up the scandal-plagued New Orleans Police Department, says he twice offered his old department training that could have prevented the death of George Floyd. Twice he was turned down.

Michael Quinn, a retired 23-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, said he offered intervention training to two former MPD chiefs. The training teaches officers how to intervene with a fellow officer before situations escalate and is credited with changing cultures in police departments. Quinn says the training would have taught Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane what to do when they saw then-officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. The three are now charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder; their charging documents stating “none of the officers moved from their positions” as Floyd lay dying.

After decades of police brutality and corruption cases in which officers witnessed their co-workers engage in illegal acts but did nothing — or helped them actively conceal the crimes — some police reformers developed a new training protocol focused on the duty to intervene.

Known as “peer intervention training,” the method seeks to create a different culture inside police departments, one that encourages officers to correct their co-workers, rather than remain silent or participate in cover-ups.

Read more: https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/07/02/former-minneapolis-cop-says-mpd-rejected-his-intervention-training-offers-twice/4

July 6, 2020

Dayton Mayor Tim McNeil pleads guilty to misdemeanors in handling of festival funds

Dayton Mayor Tim McNeil has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors involving mismanagement of committee funds for the Hennepin County suburb's annual festival.

"I would like to apologize to the residents of Dayton for the pain and suffering my negligence has caused — and particularly to my friends and family who have endured the past 18 months through no fault of their own," read an announcement McNeil made Thursday in a Facebook post.

McNeil also posted a statement from his lawyer, John Conard, who characterized the pleas as admissions of "technical violations of charitable registration laws" involving McNeil's role in managing the Dayton Heritage Day festival.

Neither McNeil nor Conard returned messages for comment Sunday.

The mayor will be required to return the festival money he misused, which will go to the Lions Club now running the Heritage Day parade, according to the Facebook posting.

Read more: https://www.startribune.com/dayton-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-mishandling-of-festival-funds/571637822/