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Supporters, opponents turn out in Norfolk for 3rd public meeting on Keystone XL pipeline

It must have been hard at times Wednesday for members of the Nebraska Public Service Commission to believe people were talking about the same project.

The commission conducted a third public meeting on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which — if constructed — would carry about 830,000 barrels of tar sands crude oil through Nebraska every day.

During the first half of the daylong hearing at the Divots Conference Center in Norfolk, opponents suggested that allowing the pipeline would be like Nebraskans selling their souls for a temporary economic gain — taking a major gamble on the state’s valuable underground water supply and residents’ futures.

Many of them said it isn’t a matter of if, but when the pipeline would leak and cause environmental damage.

Dozens speak for and against the Keystone XL pipeline in Nebraska

Landowners, environmentalists, laborers, and concerned citizens from each side made comments on the record as the commission considers the pipeline’s proposed route.

The commission has previously held public meetings in York and O’Neill, but people here in Norfolk say it’s time for the controversial issue to have some sort of resolution.

One landowner, Art Landerup, asked the commissioners, “how will you protect the aquifer? How will you protect fragile and porous soils? How will you protect the rivers and streams?”

Others commented their support for the pipeline and the economic boost it will bring to the state.

Because President Trump issued a permit giving the pipeline’s construction the green light, the commission’s approval of the route is the last piece preventing it from moving forward.

After $3 Billion Spent, Keystone XL Can’t Get Oil Companies to Sign On

Keystone XL is facing a new challenge: The oil producers and refiners the pipeline was originally meant to serve aren’t interested in it anymore.

Delayed for nearly a decade by protests and regulatory roadblocks, Keystone XL got the green light from President Donald Trump in March. But the pipeline’s operator, TransCanada Corp., is struggling to line up customers to ship crude from Canada to the U.S. Gulf

EPA Moves to Eliminate Essential Clean Water Act Protections

Continuing its march toward elimination of key Clean Water Act protections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday issued a formal notice of withdrawal of the Obama administration’s rule defining which waters can be protected against pollution and destruction under federal law.

This is the first step in EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s plan to eliminate essential Clean Water Act protections for waterways across the country that have been in place since the 1970s.

Within the next few months, Pruitt is expected to take the more dangerous second step—adopting a narrow definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) long sought by industry that will allow uncontrolled pollution and destruction of our nation’s rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands.

The decision to withdraw and replace the definition that protects our nation’s waterways—a move advocated by industry groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the American Petroleum Institute—was made soon after Pruitt became administrator and without consultation with the public, the states or environmental groups. In fact, Pruitt attended the Farm Bureau Advocacy Conference on the same day he signed the withdraw and replace notice to announce to his allies that “relief is on the way.”

Trump calls for ‘golden age of American energy dominance’

President Trump continued his drive to promote an “energy dominance” policy Wednesday by meeting with state and tribal leaders and energy industry association heads on the subject.

“I’m confident that, working together, we can usher in a golden age of American energy dominance and the extraordinary financial and security benefits that it brings to our citizens, not only the Native Americans, but all over the country,” Trump said during brief remarks in front of reporters before the meeting.

In his prepared remarks, Trump spoke repeatedly about the need to end restrictions on drilling, mining and other energy production activities. Trump also promoted his administration’s roll back on environmental regulations that he said got in the way.

“Many of your lands have rich natural resources that stand to benefit your people immensely,” Trump said to the American Indian leaders assembled at the White House for a discussion.

“These untapped resources of wealth can help you build new schools, fix roads, improve your communities and create jobs, jobs like you’ve never seen before. All you want is the freedom to use them, and that’s been the problem. It’s been very difficult, hasn’t it? It’ll be a lot easier now, under the Trump administration.”

DeVille: Trump’s ‘America First’ puts Native America last

The Trump administration budget proposal is detrimental for all Americans. Furthermore, the budget jeopardizes the future of Native American people and tribes. The federal government has often failed to uphold the its responsibility to protect Native people, though our people have followed the route of assimilation at the behest of the U.S. government.

When Trump’s budget was announced weeks ago, I was appalled. His so-called “America First” budget clearly puts America last, gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior in favor of corporate special interests and CEOs. The administration has proposed cutting the EPA’s budget by $2.5 billion and DOI’s budget by $1.6 billion, which would eliminate key programs that North Dakotans need to ensure that we leave a strong and healthy legacy for our children. Living in the heart of the Bakken oilfields, I have seen firsthand the important work that the EPA does in North Dakota. Across the state we depend on programs funded by the EPA for healthy water and air quality. The EPA’s Clean Water Rule protects small streams and other critical water bodies. In North Dakota, headwater, rain-fed and seasonal streams contribute to the drinking water supplies of 290,000 people.

Disregarding that our children and the generations that follow have access to clean drinking water, Trump and his administration have put the needs of corporate polluters first.

Two Native American tribes allege discrimination in Montana schools

Two indigenous tribes in Montana are asking the federal government to investigate what they say is systemic racism and discrimination in a public school district on their reservation.

The Assiniboine and Sioux tribes on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana filed a complaint Wednesday with the Justice Department and the Education Department saying that the Wolf Point School District discriminates against native students and “deprives them of basic rights to which they are entitled in school.”

The complaint adds that “the unequal treatment of Native students is detrimental to their development and education and violates federal law.” According to the 46-page document, the discrimination in the school district, which is state-run and governed by a local school board, is longstanding and includes bullying, racial slurs, discriminatory hiring practices, intolerance of tribal practices and beliefs, disproportionate discipline of nonwhite students and denial of equal educational opportunities, guidance and college counseling to native students.

“We live and reside in the United States,” said Roxanne Gourneau, a member of the reservation’s tribal executive board, which filed the complaint. “We’re not asking for something more. We’re asking for equity.”

Con man or brilliant? Clashing portraits of Martin Shkreli offered as trial begins

Martin Shkreli is either a con man who scammed hedge fund investors of millions or a nerdy genius who made them even richer.

The conflicting portraits were offered Wednesday at opening statements of Shkreli’s securities fraud trial, a case colored by the ex-pharmaceutical CEO’s antics on social media which, despite the urging of his lawyers to lay low, have never subsided.

“Is he strange? Yes,” defense attorney Benjamin Brafman told the jurors in federal court in Brooklyn. “Will you find him weird? Yes. But Martin Shkreli, despite all his flaws and dysfunctional personality, is brilliant beyond words.”

In his opening, assistant US attorney Karthik Srinivasan accused Shkreli of building a bogus hedge fund empire by telling “lies on top of lies on top of lies”. Though he portrayed himself as a Wall Street wizard, “in reality, he was just a con man”, the prosecutor said.

FBI agent charged with lying about his role in Oregon standoff activist’s killing

An FBI special agent lied about his involvement in the fatal shooting of a protester who helped lead an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge, according to a federal indictment on obstruction of justice charges.

A grand jury in Portland has charged W Joseph Astarita with three counts of making false statements, alleging that he lied when he claimed he did not fire his weapon during the attempted arrest of LaVoy Finicum, a key figure in the Oregon militia standoff at the Malheur national wildlife refuge in 2016.

The charges, revealed in federal court records on Wednesday, raise fresh questions about the death of Finicum and the FBI’s response to the high-profile protest in rural eastern Oregon, which was led by ranchers and rightwing activists, who seized federal property to protest government land regulations.

Media Contempt for Facts Grows Along With the Dangers of War With Russia