Iowa
Lawsuit over beef farm in trout stream watershed may proceed
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state court judge said environmental groups may proceed with a lawsuit seeking to halt expansion of a cattle farm in northeast Iowa near a prized trout stream.
Judge Michael Huppert on Monday ruled against the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which sought to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter and Iowa State Council of Trout Unlimited.
The groups are seeking to protect Bloody Run Creek, a stream in Clayton County that is among the few waterways designated with an Outstanding Iowa Waters designation qualifying it for a high level of protection. The owners of Supreme Beef want to stock farm buildings with 11,600 cows and spread manure on fields that are in the stream’s watershed.
Huppert found the Sierra Club has standing to sue by showing that some of its members fish, hike and shoot photos in and along Bloody Run Creek. He said the group has adequately shown that real harm could come from cow manure reaching the creek and that concerns aren’t just speculative.
The cold-water creek has significant populations of several trout species.
The Iowa DNR approved a manure management plan for the farm in April 2021 despite claims that it underestimated by more than 1.3 million pounds the nitrogen and phosphorous that would be released by the cow manure.
“The resulting pollution will have a devastating and irreversible impact on an Iowa Outstanding Water, the fishery residing within, and other streams,” the Trout Unlimited group said in a court document.
The DNR did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the ruling.
Maine
Retired judges will hear divorce cases to clear backlog
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine court system will assign retired judges to divorce proceedings to clear a growing backlog of more than 6,000 cases that have been delayed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The program began last week and will assign the former judges as referees to divorce cases where both sides involved have lawyers. The referees would work to resolve the cases without a trial, The Bangor Daily News reported Tuesday.
“The goal is to add capacity in the short term to allow us to address the backlog without adding work to existing personnel,” Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill said.
Judges who volunteer as referees will be paid the same full-day $350 stipend amount as other active retired judges who work in the court system.
According to Alyson Cummings, an employee for the administrative office of the courts, the cost of the program and the number of cases the judges will handle have not been determined yet.
The pilot program will last through June 2023, the newspaper reported.
Wisconsin
Attorneys in parade crash want 2023 trial
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Attorneys for a man accused of killing six people and injuring dozens more when he drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee told a judge Tuesday that they can’t be ready for trial by fall as scheduled and need to push the proceeding into next year.
Darrell Brooks Jr.’s trial is slated to begin Oct. 3 and run all that month. His attorneys told Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow during a hearing that the time frame is unrealistic given the volume of evidence they need to review and the trial should be held in early 2023.
The judge gave them until Friday to file a formal motion to reschedule the trial. She set a hearing for Monday afternoon on the request.
Dorow added she may rule then on the defense’s request to move the trial out of Waukesha County or bring a jury in from another county. Brooks’ attorneys filed the request in February, arguing publicity about the case had been overwhelmingly negative toward Brooks and he can’t get a fair trial in Waukesha.
Dorow had asked Brooks’ attorneys and prosecutors to put together a questionnaire to send to potential jurors to gauge local bias as she considers moving the trial. The two sides spent most of the day Tuesday hashing out the wording. They came up with a 19-page, 100-question survey asking potential jurors if they knew any of the parade victims, whether they themselves were impacted in any way by the incident and whether they feel they’re still impacted.
The judge said at the end of Tuesday’s hearing she may decide on moving the trial without using the questionnaires. She noted that if the trial is pushed into next year, she can’t send them out until October anyway because the county won’t receive its list of eligible jurors 2023 from state judicial officials until then.
Brooks drove his SUV into the parade in downtown Waukesha on Nov. 21, swerving into people and running them over as he plowed through the route, according to a criminal complaint. Six people died and more than 60 were injured. Prosecutors have charged him with more than 70 counts, including six counts of homicide. Any potential motive remains unclear.
Brooks attorney Anna Kees told Dorow on Tuesday that the defense team hasn’t decided what arguments to make but a not guilty plea due to insanity is a possible avenue.
Ohio
GOP lawmakers and AG want public safety a factor in bail
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Judges in Ohio would be required to consider criminal suspects’ threat to public safety when setting bail amounts under a state constitutional amendment proposed by Republican lawmakers that could go before voters this fall.
The proposal announced Tuesday follow a ruling by a divided Ohio Supreme Court earlier this year that a $1.5 million bond for a Cincinnati man accused of fatally shooting a man during a robbery was too high. The court voted 4-3 to uphold a lower court decision that lowered the bond to $500,000.
The Supreme Court majority said safety concerns expressed by the victim’s family members, and evidence that the suspect presented a false ID when confronted after fleeing to Las Vegas, weren’t factors relevant to the amount of bail.
The court did say that public safety concerns could be met by other requirements, such as electronic monitoring, which was done in the case of the Cincinnati murder suspect, according to court records. He was also banned from contacting the victim’s family.
The proposed amendment to the state constitution, backed by GOP Attorney General Dave Yost, was introduced in the state House by Reps. Jeff LaRe and D.J. Swearingen and in the state Senate by Sen. Theresa Gavarone.
