National Roundup

Montana
Planned Parenthood sues state over new abortion laws
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block four new laws restricting access to abortion in the state before they take effect.

The laws are set to take effect Oct. 1. They would ban abortion after 20 weeks of gestations; restrict access to medication abortion and ban access to medication abortion through telehealth; require abortion providers to ask patients if they would like to view an ultrasound; and prohibit insurance plans that cover abortion procedures from being offered on the federal exchange.

The lawsuit filed in Yellowstone District Court claims the laws violate Montana’s constitution, which protects access to abortion before the fetus is viable, generally at 24 weeks gestation.

The laws were passed earlier this year by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte, who last November became Montana’s first Republican governor in 16 years. Former Democratic governors blocked previous attempts to limit abortion access.

Martha Stahl, president of Planned Parenthood of Montana, said the laws would have a disproportionate impact on people in rural areas, low-income families and Native Americans.

Supporters of the laws have said they will protect women seeking abortion and make the procedure safer. Abortion advocates disputed those arguments.

New Mexico
US Forest Service accused of failing to protect meadow mouse
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — Environmentalists have sued again over an endangered mouse found only in parts of New Mexico and Arizona.

In the latest legal filing, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Maricopa Audubon Society allege that the U.S. Forest Service has failed to protect the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and its habitat in the Sacramento Mountains from cattle grazing.

The tiny rodent was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014. The agency then designated nearly 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) along about 170 miles (274 kilometers) of streams, ditches and canals as critical habitat in parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona.

Robin Silver with the Center for Biological Diversity told the Carlsbad Current-Argus that grazing is to blame for stream-side meadows being trampled and the mouse disappearing.

“It’s absurd that the Forest Service spends millions in taxpayer money failing to protect the area and stop this slow-motion extinction instead of just removing the cows,” he said.

The group last year had called for an independent investigation into Forest Service practices in southern New Mexico, saying hundreds of grazing violations on the Lincoln National Forest have pushed the mouse closer to extinction.

Three decades ago, the mice were found at 17 locations in the Sacramento Mountains on the Lincoln National Forest. Now, it’s just one. A report made public last year noted that the downward trajectory of the population continued in 2020.

The mice live near streams and depend on tall grass to hide from predators. They hibernate for about nine months, emerging in the late spring to gorge themselves before mating, giving birth and going back into hibernation. They normally live about three years.

According to the lawsuit, there were dozens of cases a year where the Forest Service reported cattle grazing in protected mouse habitat. It cited as many as 40 violations over a two-month period.

Between 2016 and 2019, the Forest Service spent more than $8.4 million on fencing and other projects in the Sacramento Mountains, including along the Agua Chiquita creek, to protect mouse habitat.

The Lincoln National Forest said in a statement that the agency worked to ensure the mouse’s safety by installing permanent pipe and cable fencing near its habitat.

Each mile of fence costs between $137,000 and $227,000, records show.

More projects to protect the mouse and riparian habitat are planned, forest officials said.

Environmentalists are calling on the agency to suspend grazing permits where the violations occur and for the federal government to study the impacts of the activities for future decision making.

Missouri
Man sentenced to 60 years for wife’s death
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — A Cape Girardeau man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for the shooting death of his wife in 2019.

Timothy Edward Corrigan, 71, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 64-year-old Katheia Corrigan at their home on April 5, 2019.

Corrigan was sentenced Friday to 30 years on each count, with the sentences running consecutively, The Southeast Missourian  reported.

“He won’t be getting out,” said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Mark J. Welker.

Corrigan was originally charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors said he called Cape Girardeau police on the night his wife died and admitted shooting her.

Indiana
Court upholds conviction in scalding of boy, 5
PORTLAND, Ind. (AP) — Indiana’s appeals court has upheld a man’s conviction for causing serious burns to a 5-year-old boy by forcing the child’s hands into scalding water.

A Jay County jury had convicted Marcus A. Ternet, 54, last December of battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14 years old. He was sentenced in February to 13 years in prison for the May 2011 incident at a Portland trailer home.

Trial testimony indicated Ternet intended to clean the boy’s hands after he had contact with a toad when he took him to a sink routinely not used because the water was dangerously hot.

The boy’s mother said skin was “hanging off” her son’s scalded hands, which were treated at two hospitals.

Ternet’s trial was set to begin in 2012, but he never showed. He was arrested and jailed in 2019.

In his appeal, Ternet maintained there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction and that prosecutors failed to prove his handling of the child was “rude, insolent or angry,” The Star Press reported.

The appeals court disagreed in a 3-0 ruling issued Aug. 6 upholding Ternet’s conviction. Judge Melissa May wrote that, “We find it inconceivable that Ternet could be other than ‘rude, insolent, or angry’ while holding (the boy’s) hands under hot water for the length of time necessary to cause the skin to peel off.”