Documents reveal state and federal agencies are training law enforcement agencies to surveil anti-Keystone XL pipeline activists’ social media, and how to arrest protesters en masse.
Keystone XL
ACLU sues feds for documents related to anti-protest activities
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Civil liberties groups say a government report conflated indigenous protesters with violent “environmental rights extremists,” and revealed anti-Keystone XL pipeline protesters’ free speech rights were being chilled by surveillance.
Keystone XL
Judge: TransCanada must study modified Keystone XL route
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A federal judge in Great Falls on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of State to update its environmental assessment of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to reflect changes in the pipeline’s route through Nebraska. District Judge Brian Morris’ 13-page partial order is a temporary win for environmental and indigenous rights groups who sued the federal government under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Environment
Fort Peck tribal chairman signals desire to join Keystone XL lawsuit
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Fort Peck Indian Reservation tribal chairman Floyd Azure said he plans to urge the tribes’ executive board to join a lawsuit that accuses the federal government of failing to address the threat a foreign-owned oil pipeline poses to the tribes’ drinking water.
2017 Legislature
Forgotten communities
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How state budget cuts gut public aid infrastructure in Montana’s rural counties. When Bill Kaye says the staff and volunteers of the Livingston Food Resource Center saved his life, he isn’t speaking metaphorically.
2018 Elections
With the midterm field set, Tester faces another tough contest
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The results of June 5 primary elections gave some clues as to the mood of Montana’s electorate, and all signs points to another competitive — and expensive — U.S. Senate race this fall.
Crime and Justice
State settles decades-old lawsuit over inmate mistreatment
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MISSOULA — The Montana Department of Corrections has reached a settlement with human rights groups that ends a nearly 30-year-old lawsuit over prison conditions stemming from a deadly 1991 prison riot at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Missoula U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch on Friday signed-off on the settlement brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana, and Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.
Keystone XL
Federal judge hears arguments in Keystone XL pipeline lawsuit
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Anti-pipeline plaintiffs presented oral arguments today in Great Falls federal court in a lawsuit against the federal government seeking to revoke permits greenlighting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that environmental and indigenous groups say were granted based on faulty outdated data.
Environment
Demonstrators march ahead of Keystone XL hearing
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Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline gathered at Riverside Park in Great Falls on Wednesday in support of environmental and indigenous justice groups suing the U.S. government in federal court to stop the pipeline. The lawsuit, combined by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris from two similar suits, claims the U.S. Department of State and the Bureau of Land Management violated federal environmental laws when the Trump administration resurrected Keystone XL in January 2017.