National Roundup

Alaska
Court blocks timber sale in Tongass Forest
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge has blocked what would have been the largest timber sale in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest in decades.

Wednesday’s ruling ends the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to open 37.5 square miles (97 square kilometers) of old growth forest on Prince of Wales Island to commercial logging, CoastAlaska reported.
The ruling by Judge Sharon L. Gleason also stops road construction for the planned 15-year project.

Conservationists had already successfully blocked the federal government’s attempt to clear large amounts of timber for sale without identifying specific areas where logging would have occured.

Gleason allowed the forest service to argue in favor of correcting deficiencies in its review and moving forward without throwing out the entire project, but ultimately ruled against the agency.

Gleason’s ruling said the economic harm of invalidating the timber sales did not outweigh “the seriousness of the errors” in the agency’s handling of the project.

The method used in the Prince of Wales Landscape Level Analysis was the first time the agency used it for environmental review on an Alaska timber sale.

The forest service, which can appeal the decision, did not return calls seeking comment.

Gleason’s decision affects the Prince of Wales Island project and the Central Tongass Project near Petersburg and Wrangell.

The ruling triggers a new environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, said Meredith Trainor, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

The ruling in the lawsuit brought by the council includes a requirement for public input on specific areas proposed for logging, Trainor said.

Tess Axelson, executive director of the Alaska Forest Service, said in a statement that the ruling “threatens the viability of Southeast Alaska’s timber industry.”

Mississippi
Court rules officer’s fatal shooting of Black man justified
PETAL, Miss. (AP) — An appeals court has upheld a ruling that a Mississippi police officer was justified when he fatally shot a Black Louisiana man, who called police after a car crash.

U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett ruled in September that Petal police officer Aaron Jernigan was protecting himself when he fatally shot Marc Davis of LaPlace, Louisiana, in 2017.

On Monday, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with Starrett’s ruling, The Clarion Ledger reported.

Davis, 34, was driving on Mississippi 42 on June 2, 2017, when he was involved in a car crash in Petal.

Davis called police and Jernigan arrived, but later the pair got into an argument and Jernigan shot Davis three times. Davis later died at the hospital.

Jernigan said Davis physically assaulted him, attempted to take his gun, and refused orders to stand down.

Yoshanta Albert, mother of Davis’ five children, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2018, claiming Jernigan shot Davis unexpectedly and without a warning shot. The lawsuit also claimed that Jernigan used excessive force.

Starett threw out the lawsuit, stating Jernigan didn’t use excessive force and if he did, Jernigan was “entitled” to, considering the situation.

Albert was among the large crowd that rallied earlier this month in front of the state Capitol  against police brutality after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed in Minneapolis last month while in police custody.

“This is not what justice looks like: a child without a father,” Albert said at the protest, as she waved a photo of her 2-year-old daughter, Leah, standing next to her father’s casket. “I waited three years. His death was swept under the rug.”

Illinois
2 brothers threaten to stop cooperating in Smollett case
CHICAGO (AP) — Two brothers who have said they helped actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago last year no longer intend to cooperate with authorities, according to their attorney.

But one legal expert said even if Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo stop cooperating it won’t hurt the case because prosecutors can present at trial the brothers’ previous testimony before a grand jury.

“What they said is already under oath on paper,” said David Erickson, a former state appellate judge who teaches at Chicago Kent College of Law.

At the heart of the brothers’ change of heart is a growing frustration with the refusal by authorities to return their belongings — including a gun — that was seized early last year during the police investigation that led to the “Empire” actor’s arrest.

“(The brothers) were, like ‘Gloria, we’ve had it, we’ve been so patient,” their attorney, Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez told the  Chicago Tribune after writing a letter to the police department’s attorney.

“Everything we’ve provided the office is without subpoena ... Instagram messages, social media posts, phone records, whatever it is we’ve needed, and wanted, they’ve produced. That ends now. We’ve obviously been too accessible for them.”

Schmidt even informed the police department’s attorney that whether or not they get their belongings back, they are through cooperating, according to a letter obtained by the newspaper.

Erickson said that if they do refuse to testify they can be held in contempt of court and prosecutors can also charge them with taking part in what authorities say was a staged attack.

Do they want that? “ he said.

The threat to not cooperate is the latest twist in a story that has been full of them since January 2019, when Smollett told police that two masked men had approached him in downtown Chicago, made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing.

The story included Smollett’s contention that his attackers told him he was in “MAGA Country,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” There was national attention on the case, both when the incident occurred and later when police alleged Smollett staged the attack with the help of the brothers to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett, who allegedly paid the brothers $3,500 to help him stage the attack, was charged with lying to police  before the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office announced it was dropping the charges. A judge subsequently ordered a special prosecutor to investigate, and the special prosecutor later secured another indictment against Smollett. Smollett has maintained his innocence.