New Mexico
Appeals court rejects lawsuit against oil and gas regulators
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico appeals court rejected a lawsuit alleging that the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state failed to meet constitutional provisions for protecting against oil and gas industry pollution, in an opinion Tuesday. Environmental advocates vowed to appeal the matter to the state’s top court.
A panel of three judges on the New Mexico Court of Appeals found that it was beyond the judiciary’s authority to weigh whether the pollution controls are adequate, writing that the state Constitution directs the Legislature to balance the benefits of environmental regulation with natural resources development.
The 2023 lawsuit from a coalition of environmental groups was the first to invoke the constitution’s pollution-control clause, a 1971 amendment requiring that New Mexico prevent the contamination of air, water and other natural resources.
“While plaintiffs correctly observe that, as the ‘Land of Enchantment,’ the state’s beauty is central to our identity, we cannot ignore the long history of permitting oil and gas extraction within our borders,” the panel wrote, invoking the state motto. “If anything, the law, history, and tradition of our state demonstrates that resource extraction must be considered alongside, and must coexist with, pollution control legislation.”
Gail Evans, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead counsel on the case, said Tuesday’s opinion would dismiss the case entirely if unchallenged and “displays a fundamental misunderstanding of our constitution and constitutional rights.” She said plaintiffs intent to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“Fifty years ago, New Mexico voted to amend the constitution and to provide protections from industry pollution and the court has found today that the amendment — the pollution control clause — is essentially meaningless, and that has to be wrong,” Evans said.
The court challenge comes as New Mexico’s state government rides a wave of record income from development in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive, oil-producing regions.
Oil-related revenue collections underwrite a considerable amount of the state’s budget, including public education.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration is policing the industry with regulations that target methane and other emissions. But the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups say these efforts are not enough and that the state is failing to enforce existing pollution-control measures.
Attorneys for the Democratic-led Legislature and environmental regulators said the lawsuit threatened their constitutional authority.
Appeals Judge Katherine Wray issued an additional concurring opinion, expressing further limitations of the pollution control clause.
California
County to pay $2.7M to teen boy attacked in ‘gladiator fights’ at juvenile detention facility
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County on Monday agreed to pay $2.7 million to a teenager who was attacked by at least six other young people at a juvenile detention center in so-called “gladiator fights” that were allegedly facilitated by probation officers.
The boy’s beating in 2023 at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall was captured on surveillance video that also showed several officials standing idly by and some of them shaking hands with the participants in the beating.
A state grand jury in March charged 30 correctional officers for their role in allowing and sometimes encouraging nearly 70 fights to take place between July and December 2023. The officers face charges including child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy, and battery.
More than 140 victims between the ages of 12 and 18 were involved, according to authorities.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said after the charges were announced that it seemed the attacks were planned.
“They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, in a certain time, in a certain place. A space and a time was created for the fights, and the plan was for the fights to happen,” he said.
The investigation began after the Los Angeles Times first obtained and published video footage that shows a then-16-year-old being attacked by at least six other young people, who came at him one by one as officers stand by watching.
The video was first made public during a court hearing during which a public defender for the boy, now 17, argued to a judge that he was not safe at Los Padrinos and should be released ahead of his trial.
His attorney, Jamal Tooson, said the settlement was a “first step” in recognizing the “egregious” conduct of the LA County Probation Department.
“Our priority needs to be not just protecting my client but all children in similar circumstances under the care and watch of the probation department,” Tooson said. “There were lawsuits prior to this. I personally represent several individuals who’ve been harmed at the same facility after this.”
According to a correction action plan written by the department, staff failed to review CCTV footage of the facility, delayed taking the teen to the hospital, and waited too long to notify his parents. To address these issues, the department will ensure CCTV monitors are “staffed routinely” and conduct random footage audits, and develop a protocol for making sure young people in custody are given medical care and their parents are informed appropriately.
A judge ruled in April that the LA County Probation Department could not continue housing juveniles at Los Padrinos and approved a plan in May to move more than 100 youths out of the facility. California’s state board overseeing local correctional facilities has previously ordered Los Padrinos to be shut down.
Tooson believes there is a pervasive “culture problem” extending throughout the probation department’s facilities that cannot be addressed by the correction action plan. He has filed at least 19 lawsuits in federal court alleging issues from physical violence allowed by officials to sexual assault by staff members in LA County’s youth detention centers, he said.
“Until we actively start changing the mindset and behavior of those who are put into a caretaking responsibility of these youth, I think we’re going to find ourselves in the same situation,” he said.
Washington
DOJ drops lawsuit against Trump adviser Navarro
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is dropping a lawsuit that it filed against White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, a case in which he was accused of using an unofficial email account for government work and wrongfully retaining presidential records during the first Trump administration, according to a Tuesday court filing.
The joint filing by the Justice Department and an attorney for Navarro doesn’t explain why they are abandoning a case that was filed in 2022, during President Joe Biden’s term in office. The one-page filing says each side will bear their own fees and costs.
The lawsuit accused Navarro of using at least one “non-official” email account — a ProtonMail account — to send and receive emails. The legal action comes just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Navarro served a four-month prison sentence after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges.
The civil cases alleges that by using the unofficial email account, Navarro failed to turn over presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The government notified the court of the lawsuit’s dismissal a day before U.S. Magistrate G. Michael Harvey was scheduled to preside over a status conference for the case.
Navarro served as a trade adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term. A longtime critic of trade arrangements with China, he has been named senior counselor for trade and manufacturing for Trump’s second administration.
Hawaii
Judge denies privacy in divorce case of Maui doctor charged with attempting to kill his wife
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — A judge denied a request to keep proceedings private in a divorce case for a Hawaii anesthesiologist accused of attempting to kill his wife on a hiking trail.
Gerhardt Konig’s wife filed for divorce last month after he was indicted on an attempted murder charge. Konig has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say he pushed her toward the edge of a cliff, attempted to inject her with a syringe and then bashed her head with a rock while they were hiking in Honolulu in March.
The couple had been visiting Oahu while their children stayed home on Maui.
An attorney representing the wife filed a motion to withhold the divorce case from the public to protect the privacy of the couple’s young children. The wife also objected to allowing news cameras to document their divorce proceedings.
According to court records, a judge denied her requests to seal the case during a hearing Monday.
“At this time, we do not have any comment except to direct the media to review our objection to the application for extended coverage and implore the general public to respect this family’s privacy during this very difficult time in their lives,” an attorney for the wife said in an email to The Associated Press Tuesday.
Konig didn’t oppose the wife’s motion to seal the divorce case.
Konig’s wife also filed a petition for a temporary restraining order after the hiking trail incident, which said Konig accused her in December of having an affair and that they had been in therapy and counseling. She also said her husband has sexually abused and assaulted her.
The Associated Press does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly.
She has since agreed that the restraining order is now unnecessary because her husband is being held without bail during the criminal case against him. Her attorney said she may refile the petition if Konig’s custody status changes.
New York
Police arrest ‘social media prankster’ who dumped food on himself at local businesses
CENTEREACH, N.Y. (AP) — Police in the suburbs of New York City have arrested who they described as a “ social media prankster” over viral videos in which he dumps heaps of food on his head and runs away, leaving others to clean up his mess.
Kyle Vazquez, 21, was arrested in Centereach, on Long Island, on Monday. He was charged on eight counts, including six counts related to recording people without their consent and two counts of criminal tampering, police said.
The Coram resident pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and was released pending his next court date on June 30, according to prosecutors and court records.
Suffolk County police say Vazquez dumped a tub of eggs on his head in front of a Ralph’s Italian Ices in Centereach on April 29. He then fled in a car, leaving a mess of broken eggshells in the entranceway, police said.
Vazquez pulled a similar stunt at a Chinese eatery in town the next day, pouring a bucket of beans over his head while standing shirtless in the middle of the establishment.
Then in May, Vazquez visited three homes and asked the residents if he could use the bathroom. He then created a disturbance and filmed residents without their knowledge or consent, police said.
Vazquez posted videos of the stunts, along with many others, on his TikTok account, which has more than 100,000 followers.
Appeals court rejects lawsuit against oil and gas regulators
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico appeals court rejected a lawsuit alleging that the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state failed to meet constitutional provisions for protecting against oil and gas industry pollution, in an opinion Tuesday. Environmental advocates vowed to appeal the matter to the state’s top court.
A panel of three judges on the New Mexico Court of Appeals found that it was beyond the judiciary’s authority to weigh whether the pollution controls are adequate, writing that the state Constitution directs the Legislature to balance the benefits of environmental regulation with natural resources development.
The 2023 lawsuit from a coalition of environmental groups was the first to invoke the constitution’s pollution-control clause, a 1971 amendment requiring that New Mexico prevent the contamination of air, water and other natural resources.
“While plaintiffs correctly observe that, as the ‘Land of Enchantment,’ the state’s beauty is central to our identity, we cannot ignore the long history of permitting oil and gas extraction within our borders,” the panel wrote, invoking the state motto. “If anything, the law, history, and tradition of our state demonstrates that resource extraction must be considered alongside, and must coexist with, pollution control legislation.”
Gail Evans, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead counsel on the case, said Tuesday’s opinion would dismiss the case entirely if unchallenged and “displays a fundamental misunderstanding of our constitution and constitutional rights.” She said plaintiffs intent to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“Fifty years ago, New Mexico voted to amend the constitution and to provide protections from industry pollution and the court has found today that the amendment — the pollution control clause — is essentially meaningless, and that has to be wrong,” Evans said.
The court challenge comes as New Mexico’s state government rides a wave of record income from development in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive, oil-producing regions.
Oil-related revenue collections underwrite a considerable amount of the state’s budget, including public education.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration is policing the industry with regulations that target methane and other emissions. But the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups say these efforts are not enough and that the state is failing to enforce existing pollution-control measures.
Attorneys for the Democratic-led Legislature and environmental regulators said the lawsuit threatened their constitutional authority.
Appeals Judge Katherine Wray issued an additional concurring opinion, expressing further limitations of the pollution control clause.
California
County to pay $2.7M to teen boy attacked in ‘gladiator fights’ at juvenile detention facility
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County on Monday agreed to pay $2.7 million to a teenager who was attacked by at least six other young people at a juvenile detention center in so-called “gladiator fights” that were allegedly facilitated by probation officers.
The boy’s beating in 2023 at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall was captured on surveillance video that also showed several officials standing idly by and some of them shaking hands with the participants in the beating.
A state grand jury in March charged 30 correctional officers for their role in allowing and sometimes encouraging nearly 70 fights to take place between July and December 2023. The officers face charges including child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy, and battery.
More than 140 victims between the ages of 12 and 18 were involved, according to authorities.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said after the charges were announced that it seemed the attacks were planned.
“They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, in a certain time, in a certain place. A space and a time was created for the fights, and the plan was for the fights to happen,” he said.
The investigation began after the Los Angeles Times first obtained and published video footage that shows a then-16-year-old being attacked by at least six other young people, who came at him one by one as officers stand by watching.
The video was first made public during a court hearing during which a public defender for the boy, now 17, argued to a judge that he was not safe at Los Padrinos and should be released ahead of his trial.
His attorney, Jamal Tooson, said the settlement was a “first step” in recognizing the “egregious” conduct of the LA County Probation Department.
“Our priority needs to be not just protecting my client but all children in similar circumstances under the care and watch of the probation department,” Tooson said. “There were lawsuits prior to this. I personally represent several individuals who’ve been harmed at the same facility after this.”
According to a correction action plan written by the department, staff failed to review CCTV footage of the facility, delayed taking the teen to the hospital, and waited too long to notify his parents. To address these issues, the department will ensure CCTV monitors are “staffed routinely” and conduct random footage audits, and develop a protocol for making sure young people in custody are given medical care and their parents are informed appropriately.
A judge ruled in April that the LA County Probation Department could not continue housing juveniles at Los Padrinos and approved a plan in May to move more than 100 youths out of the facility. California’s state board overseeing local correctional facilities has previously ordered Los Padrinos to be shut down.
Tooson believes there is a pervasive “culture problem” extending throughout the probation department’s facilities that cannot be addressed by the correction action plan. He has filed at least 19 lawsuits in federal court alleging issues from physical violence allowed by officials to sexual assault by staff members in LA County’s youth detention centers, he said.
“Until we actively start changing the mindset and behavior of those who are put into a caretaking responsibility of these youth, I think we’re going to find ourselves in the same situation,” he said.
Washington
DOJ drops lawsuit against Trump adviser Navarro
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is dropping a lawsuit that it filed against White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, a case in which he was accused of using an unofficial email account for government work and wrongfully retaining presidential records during the first Trump administration, according to a Tuesday court filing.
The joint filing by the Justice Department and an attorney for Navarro doesn’t explain why they are abandoning a case that was filed in 2022, during President Joe Biden’s term in office. The one-page filing says each side will bear their own fees and costs.
The lawsuit accused Navarro of using at least one “non-official” email account — a ProtonMail account — to send and receive emails. The legal action comes just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Navarro served a four-month prison sentence after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges.
The civil cases alleges that by using the unofficial email account, Navarro failed to turn over presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The government notified the court of the lawsuit’s dismissal a day before U.S. Magistrate G. Michael Harvey was scheduled to preside over a status conference for the case.
Navarro served as a trade adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term. A longtime critic of trade arrangements with China, he has been named senior counselor for trade and manufacturing for Trump’s second administration.
Hawaii
Judge denies privacy in divorce case of Maui doctor charged with attempting to kill his wife
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — A judge denied a request to keep proceedings private in a divorce case for a Hawaii anesthesiologist accused of attempting to kill his wife on a hiking trail.
Gerhardt Konig’s wife filed for divorce last month after he was indicted on an attempted murder charge. Konig has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say he pushed her toward the edge of a cliff, attempted to inject her with a syringe and then bashed her head with a rock while they were hiking in Honolulu in March.
The couple had been visiting Oahu while their children stayed home on Maui.
An attorney representing the wife filed a motion to withhold the divorce case from the public to protect the privacy of the couple’s young children. The wife also objected to allowing news cameras to document their divorce proceedings.
According to court records, a judge denied her requests to seal the case during a hearing Monday.
“At this time, we do not have any comment except to direct the media to review our objection to the application for extended coverage and implore the general public to respect this family’s privacy during this very difficult time in their lives,” an attorney for the wife said in an email to The Associated Press Tuesday.
Konig didn’t oppose the wife’s motion to seal the divorce case.
Konig’s wife also filed a petition for a temporary restraining order after the hiking trail incident, which said Konig accused her in December of having an affair and that they had been in therapy and counseling. She also said her husband has sexually abused and assaulted her.
The Associated Press does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly.
She has since agreed that the restraining order is now unnecessary because her husband is being held without bail during the criminal case against him. Her attorney said she may refile the petition if Konig’s custody status changes.
New York
Police arrest ‘social media prankster’ who dumped food on himself at local businesses
CENTEREACH, N.Y. (AP) — Police in the suburbs of New York City have arrested who they described as a “ social media prankster” over viral videos in which he dumps heaps of food on his head and runs away, leaving others to clean up his mess.
Kyle Vazquez, 21, was arrested in Centereach, on Long Island, on Monday. He was charged on eight counts, including six counts related to recording people without their consent and two counts of criminal tampering, police said.
The Coram resident pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and was released pending his next court date on June 30, according to prosecutors and court records.
Suffolk County police say Vazquez dumped a tub of eggs on his head in front of a Ralph’s Italian Ices in Centereach on April 29. He then fled in a car, leaving a mess of broken eggshells in the entranceway, police said.
Vazquez pulled a similar stunt at a Chinese eatery in town the next day, pouring a bucket of beans over his head while standing shirtless in the middle of the establishment.
Then in May, Vazquez visited three homes and asked the residents if he could use the bathroom. He then created a disturbance and filmed residents without their knowledge or consent, police said.
Vazquez posted videos of the stunts, along with many others, on his TikTok account, which has more than 100,000 followers.
