National Roundup

Illinois
Attorney: 1,000 inmates to go free under virus lawsuit
CHICAGO (AP) — About 1,000 Illinois inmates scheduled for release in the next nine months could soon be set free as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit filed last spring amid a growing COVID-19 health crisis in state lockups, a lawyer involved in the case said Tuesday.

The settlement calls for the release of low- to medium-risk inmates who are within nine months of their release date and are eligible for certain good-time credits, according to a court document filed Tuesday. The Illinois Department of Corrections agreed to "use its best efforts" to process the awards within the next month, the document states.

Attorney Sheila Bedi said the settlement applies to about 1,000 inmates. She also said she believes thousands more inmates should be released.

"It remains a public health crisis," Bedi, who is a professor at Northwestern University, told the Chicago Tribune. "It is still very much a real issue."

In a statement, Gov. J.B. Pritzker's press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh said the Department of Corrections has consistently reviewed prisoner records to find those eligible for 180 days or less of earned discretionary sentencing credit.

"Since the March 9, 2020 Gubernatorial Disaster Proclamation based on this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the Department has been prioritizing these eligibility reviews in an effort to increase the availability of space for quarantining or isolating the offender population in accordance with CDC guidelines and limit the number of men and women who may be exposed, but always with a view to ensure public safety," Abudayyeh said Tuesday.

A consortium of Chicago civil rights attorneys and community activists filed the lawsuit seeking the release of as many as 13,000 inmates. The attorneys argued that prisons "pose a particular risk of spreading the COVID-19, with catastrophic consequences not just to the prisoners and staff, but also to their communities and the hospitals that serve them." The lawsuit alleged that Pritzker and others had not moved quickly enough to identify vulnerable prisoners for early release.

At the time, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow denied emergency relief, saying that he found "no convincing reason for a federal court to intrude" on the state's efforts to contain the problem. In a 48-page opinion last year, Dow said that the stakeholders had taken steps that "plainly pass constitutional muster" to contain the spread of the virus.

Since the pandemic began, 87 inmates and one staff member have died of COVID-19 and nearly 11,000 inmates and 4,200 staff members have tested positive, according to Illinois Department of Corrections statistics.
The rate of deaths has slowed since the prison system began universal testing and voluntary vaccinations for inmates and staff.


Florida
City attorney arrested on  charges of child molestation
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The city attorney for Jacksonville Beach in Florida has been arrested on charges of molesting a child.

Jail records show that Christopher Ambrosio was arrested Wednesday by police officers in nearby Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Ambrosio, 48, is facing charges of contributing to the delinquency of a child and lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim older than age 12 but younger than age 16, according to online jail records.

Ambrosio serves as the attorney to all City of Jacksonville Beach departments, including Beaches Energy Services and the City of Jacksonville Beach Police Department. He also serves as general counsel to the City Council and Boards, according to The Florida Times-Union.

"We are learning details as the public is and the most important things for us, for me as the mayor, is to make sure that our city staff and citizens stay informed," Mayor Chris Hoffman told the newspaper.

Ambrosio was still in jail as of Wednesday morning. There was no online court docket so there was no way to tell if he had hired an attorney yet.

Louisiana
States sue to undo Biden pause on US oil & gas lease sales
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thirteen states sued the Biden administration Wednesday to end a suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water and to reschedule canceled sales of leases in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska waters and western states.

The Republican-leaning states, led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, seek a court order ending the moratorium imposed after Democratic President Joe Biden signed executive orders on climate change on Jan. 27.

The suit specifically seeks an order that the government go ahead with a sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico that had been scheduled for March 17 until it was canceled; and a lease sale that had been planned for this year in Alaska's Cook Inlet.

And it calls for other suspended lease sales to go forward. Sales also have been postponed for federal lands in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma, Nevada and New Mexico.

Biden and multiple federal agencies bypassed comment periods and other bureaucratic steps required before such delays can be undertaken, the states claim in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the federal court's Western District of Louisiana.

The Department of the Interior declined immediate comment.

The lawsuit notes that coastal states receive significant revenue from onshore and offshore oil and gas activity. Stopping leases, the lawsuit argues, would diminish revenue that pays for Louisiana efforts to restore coastal wetlands, raise energy costs and lead to major job losses in oil producing states.

Although Landry and the lawsuit's supporters said the moratorium has already driven up prices and endangered energy jobs, Biden's suspension doesn't stop companies from drilling on existing leases. But a long-term halt to oil and gas sales would curb future production and could hurt states like Louisiana that are heavily dependent on the industry.

Biden's team has argued that companies still have plenty of undeveloped leases — almost 14 million acres (6 million hectares) in western states and more than 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) offshore. Companies also have about 7,700 unused drilling permits — enough for years.

Administration officials have declined to say how long the pause on lease sales will last.

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia are the other plaintiff states.

Western Energy Alliance, an industry lobbying group based in Colorado, sued over the leasing suspension in federal court in Wyoming on the same day it was announced. The Biden administration had not responded to the complaint as of Wednesday.

The Interior Department is hosting a livestreamed forum on the leasing program Thursday as it considers changes that could affect future sales and how much companies pay for oil and gas they extract. A report outlining initial findings and the next steps in the review is due this summer.