Illinois
Lawsuit by shredding firm seeking operating permit tossed
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit filed against the city of Chicago by the owner of a metal-shredding facility that wants to operate in the city.
Southside Recycling, formerly known as General Iron, wanted the federal court to force Chicago to issue a permit that would allow the company to open a facility in a Southeast Side neighborhood.
“The city’s failure to issue the permit to Southside Recycling has caused significant and potentially permanent damage to Southside Recycling’s business,” the company said in the lawsuit filed last month which sought more than $100 million in damages.
U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. rejected the company’s claim its constitutional rights are being violated because Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is delaying a decision on a permit while environmental studies are conducted. The move was taken at the request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Citing a recent Supreme Court case, Dow noted the process hasn’t been finalized, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“Until the government makes up its mind, a court will be hard pressed to determine whether the plaintiff has suffered a constitutional violation,” Dow wrote.
Junked automobiles, used appliances and other metallic waste would be shredded at the plant. Opponents say granting a permit to Southside Recycling would amount to environmental racism because it would move a polluting business from Lincoln Park, a white, wealthy neighborhood, to a Latino-majority community.
In a statement, the owner of Southside Recycling, Ohio-based Reserve Management Group, said the company will seek a ruling in state court ordering the city to issue a permit to allow operation of the plant.
“The decision to dismiss acknowledged the appropriateness of the City’s choice to cooperate with the EPA’s request for additional analysis,” the city law department said in a statement.
California
60 charged with running national meth network
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Sixty people are charged with running a California-based drug ring that sold methamphetamine around the country and in Australia, authorities announced Tuesday.
A federal jury in San Diego issued the indictments in May after a year-long investigation that led to the seizure of 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of meth, 90 guns and $250,000 in cash, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Forty-four people were in custody and 16 were being sought, authorities said.
Most of those indicted are from San Diego and face charges including importing methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute meth and to launder money.
The drug charges carry at least a 10-year sentence ranging up to life in prison.
According to prosecutors, the network obtained thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and smuggled it across the border into the United States in hidden compartments in cars and motorcycles.
“The defendants then used these cars and motorcycles, along with trains, commercial airlines, the U.S. mail and commercial delivery services like FedEx and UPS, to distribute that methamphetamine to dozens of sub-distributors,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office statement.
The drugs were sold throughout San Diego County, and in Hawaii, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Kentucky, prosecutors said.
Drugs also were sold in Australia and New Zealand, authorities said.
Profits from drug sales went to the ringleaders through bulk cash shipments, bank account deposits and money transfers through a variety of systems, including Western Union, PayPal and Venmo, authorities said.
South Carolina
Once powerful lawmaker receives prison sentence
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina lawmaker who once ran one of the General Assembly’s most powerful committees is getting ready to head to prison for an 18 month sentence on corruption charges.
Former Rep. Jim Harrison has had the sentence for perjury hanging over his head for three years. The state Supreme Court refused to overturn that conviction in January while overturning two misconduct in office convictions.
In a courtroom Tuesday, Harrison pleaded guilty to the two misconduct in office charges but was sentenced to no additional prison time. The Republican submitted an Alford plea, where he agreed the evidence against him is strong enough for a conviction but he doesn’t admit guilt.
Harrison. 70, was ordered to report to a state prison Thursday. He likely won’t serve the entire 18 months behind bars because state law allows sentence reductions for good behavior. A judge agreed to special considerations because of Harrison’s age and heart problems.
Harrison will be the first lawmaker to go to prison in a Statehouse corruption probe that started in 2014 with the conviction of House Speaker Bobby Harrell for spending campaign money on personal expenses.
Harrell and two other Republican legislators all pleaded guilty and received probation in the corruption investigation. Harrison was the only lawmaker to go to trial..
Former state Sen. John Courson also pleaded guilty to converting campaign contributions into money for himself. He is awaiting sentencing.
Harrison served 24 years in the South Carolina House, rising to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Wyoming
State Supreme Court justices choose Fox for chief justice
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Supreme Court will soon get a new chief justice.
The justices on the state high court chose fellow Justice Kate Fox for the role starting Thursday, the Supreme Court said in a statement Tuesday.
She will replace Chief Justice Mike Davis, whose term as chief justice ends Wednesday.
Republican Gov. Matt Mead appointed Fox to the Supreme Court in 2014. Fox had been an attorney in private practice with the firm Davis and Cannon since 1990.
She holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wyoming and was a clerk for U.S. District Judge Clarence A. Brimmer in Cheyenne for a year.
Fox helped lead Wyoming’s judicial branch through challenges including the coronavirus pandemic and fiscal trouble and “thoroughly understands all levels of the judicial branch and the challenges it faces,” Davis said in the statement.
Fox said she was deeply honored to be entrusted with the job.
Georgia
State high court to get new leadership
ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Supreme Court is set to get new leadership this week.
Presiding Justice David Nahmias is to be sworn in as chief justice, and Justice Michael Boggs is to be sworn in as the new presiding justice. Outgoing Chief Justice Harold Melton is set to swear in both men on Thursday at 3 p.m. in the House Chamber at the Georgia Capitol.
The chief justice heads the state judicial branch and speaks for the state’s highest court. He also chairs the Georgia Judicial Council, which makes policy for the judicial branch. The presiding justice oversees oral arguments and deliberation meetings in the chief justice’s absence and is vice-chair of the Judicial Council.
Both the chief justice and presiding justice are elected to the positions by their fellow justices for a four-year term.
Nahmias has served on the high court since he was appointed by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue in August 2009. Boggs was appointed in 2016 by then-Gov. Nathan Deal.
Melton announced in February that he planned to leave after serving on the high court since 2005. Law firm Troutman Pepper announced Tuesday that Melton would be joining the firm on July 19.
Iowa
High court overturns gay bias verdict against former governor
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Overturning a landmark $1.5 million jury verdict, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that former Gov. Terry Branstad did not illegally discriminate or retaliate against a gay state official.
The court found a lack of evidence to show that Branstad discriminated against then-Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey because of his sexual orientation.
Although Godfrey was widely known as openly gay, there is no proof Branstad was aware of Godfrey’s sexual orientation before asking him to resign and slashing his salary when Godfrey refused, Justice Christopher McDonald wrote.
The ruling overturned a 2019 verdict in which Polk County jurors found that Branstad and his former legal counsel violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Jurors had awarded Godfrey, a Democrat who is now an official with the U.S. Department of Labor, $1.5 million in damages for emotional distress.
Branstad, a Republican who later served as U.S. ambassador to China, has argued that he sought Godfrey’s resignation because powerful business interests disagreed with rulings by Godfrey and his staff awarding benefits to injured workers. He has claimed that he acted legally in 2011 by reducing Godfrey’s salary by $40,000, to the lowest amount allowed by the Legislature for the position.
Godfrey couldn’t be fired under a provision in Iowa law intending his six-year term to be insulated from politics. He eventually left state government in 2014.
The ruling ordered a lower court to dismiss all of Godfrey’s claims, ending a case that lasted a decade, made three trips to the Iowa Supreme Court and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees.
Six of the seven justices agreed with the outcome, including the two justices that Branstad appointed to the court.
Florida
Girl, 13, sues state over ban on transgender school athletes
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A 13-year-old transgender girl sued Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday over a new law that will prevent her from playing girls sports at public schools, arguing that the ban is discriminatory and will deprive her of opportunities.
The Broward County girl, Daisy, has played on girls soccer teams since she was 7, but will no longer be able to do so on school teams under the law that takes effect Thursday.
Participating in sports has given her leadership skills and provided her a social network and support system, according to the lawsuit filed on her behalf by the Human Rights Campaign in a federal court in Fort Lauderdale. The lawsuit only identifies her as “D.N.” to protect her privacy. The group said her name is Daisy. She also planned to try out for a high school volleyball team.
“Depriving her of these opportunities will have a long-term impact on her future. It also will create a sense of shame and diminish her positive sense of self, which can have lifelong consequences,” the suit says. The new law “also sends a message to (Daisy’s) current and future teammates that there is something wrong with her.”
DeSantis signed the bill on June 1, the first day of Pride Month. The bill requires anyone participating in girls athletics to have an original birth certificate that states they are female.
“Ron DeSantis made a conscious choice to sign an anti-LGBTQ bill on the very first day that we are celebrating Pride,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “DeSantis decided to take that day to attack the community. It was not lost on us that he did that as political theater, but this bill that he signed has real-world negative implications for transgender people in Florida.”
DeSantis’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
When he signed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” at Christian school surrounded by student athletes, DeSantis was asked why he was doing so on the first day of Pride Month.
“It’s not a message to anything other than saying we’re going to protect fairness in women’s sports. We believe that it’s important to have integrity in the competition and we think it’s important that they can compete in a level playing field,” DeSantis replied.
Daisy began taking hormone blockers to stop testosterone when she was 11 and began receiving estrogen this year, according to the lawsuit. It says because of the treatments, she has no competitive advantage because of her sex assigned at birth.
“If (Daisy) does not have the option to play girls’ sports in high school and college, she will not be able to play sports at all and will lose the benefits of being part of the team network that has supported her emotionally and psychologically,” the lawsuit said. “She may be isolated and face emotional and mental confusion and emotional distress during this critical period of her social and psychological development.”
