Title 42: Appeals court rejects bid by GOP-led states to keep Trump ...

CNN —

A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by several Republican-led states to keep the so-called Title 42 rule in force, after a district court struck the controversial Trump-era border policy down.

The new ruling from the DC Circuit US Court of Appeals sets the stage for the case to go to the Supreme Court. The Biden administration is set to stop enforcing Title 42 – which allows for the expulsion of migrants at the US-Mexico border – on Wednesday.

The Republican-led states previously indicated that if the appeals court ruled against them, they’d seek the intervention of the Supreme Court.

In the new order, the DC Circuit denied the states’ request to intervene in the case and dismissed as moot the states’ request that it put the lower court’s ruling on hold.

The unsigned order was handed down by a circuit panel made up of an Obama appointee, a Trump appointee and a Biden appointee.

They wrote that the “inordinate and unexplained untimeliness” of the states’ request to get involved in the case “weighs decisively against intervention.”

The case is a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union, representing several migrants brought In January 2021 challenging the program. The appeals court noted on Friday that the Republican-led states had long known that their interest in keeping the policy in force would diverge from the Biden administration’s approach to the case.

The appeals court wrote that “more than eight months ago, the federal government issued an order terminating the Title 42 policy.”

“Yet these long-known-about differing interests in preserving Title 42—a decision of indisputable consequence—are the only reasons the States now provide for wanting to intervene for the first time on appeal,” the DC Circuit said. “Nowhere in their papers do they explain why they waited eight to fourteen months to move to intervene.”

The ACLU attorney representing the migrants praised the court’s decision.

“The states are clearly and wrongly trying to use Title 42 to restrict asylum and not for the law’s intended public health purposes,” the attorney, Lee Gelernt, told CNN in an email. “Many of these states were vigorously opposed to past COVID restrictions but suddenly believe there is a need for restrictions when it comes to migrants fleeing danger.”

White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said after the ruling that the administration has a “robust effort underway” for managing the border following the policy’s expected lifting next week.

“To be clear: the lifting of the Title 42 public health order does not mean the border is open. Anyone who suggests otherwise is doing the work of smugglers spreading misinformation to make a quick buck off of vulnerable migrants,” Hasan said in a statement. “We will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws and work to expand legal pathways for migration while discouraging disorderly and unsafe migration. We have a robust effort underway to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 lifts as required by court order.”

The White House also urged Republicans in Congress to agree to more border funding and work on comprehensive immigration reform. The Biden administration has asked Congress for more than $3 billion as it prepares for the end of Title 42 to help shore up resources for border management and technology.

The administration’s handling of Title 42, which the Trump administration put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been the target of litigation from both supporters and opponents of the program.

Last month, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan struck down the program. But Sullivan put his ruling on hold for five weeks so that the Biden administration would have time to prepare for the policy’s wind down. The administration has also appealed the ruling, arguing that the program was lawful, even if federal public health authorities have determined it is no longer necessary.

As the December 21 deadline for Sullivan’s ruling to go into effect approaches, officials have been preparing for a surge of migrants. More than 1 million migrants have been expelled under the rule, which is a public health authority the Trump administration began using at start of the Covid-19 pandemic to expel migrants before they went through the asylum application process.

Republican-led states, in their attempts to intervene in the case, allege that allowing the policy to terminate would “cause an enormous disaster at the border.”

They have argued that the “greatly increased number of migrants that such a termination will occasion will necessarily increase the States’ law enforcement, education, and healthcare costs.”

The Biden administration opposed the states’ attempt to intervene and their request to keep the policy in place, calling the requests untimely and unjustified.

“The States could have sought to intervene after the CDC acted to terminate the Title 42 orders in April 2022,” the administration wrote.

The migrants who challenged the program in the case also opposed the states’ request, writing in a court filing that the states were “transparently interested in Title 42 as a restriction on immigration and asylum” rather than as a public health measure.

The Biden administration tried to wind down the Title 42 program earlier this year, but a coalition of mostly GOP-led states – in a separate case filed in Louisiana – successfully sued to block the Department of Homeland Security from ending enforcement.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the Biden administration announced its intention to end Title 42. It was in 2022.

Title 42: Biden administration wants Supreme Court to allow Trump ...

CNN —

The Biden administration told the Supreme Court Tuesday that the justices should reject an emergency bid by a group of GOP-led states to keep the controversial Trump-era border restriction known as Title 42 in effect while legal challenges play out.

But it also asked for the court to delay the ending of Title 42 until at least December 27, citing ongoing preparations for an influx of migrants and the upcoming holiday weekend.

The administration said that the states, led by Arizona, do not have the legal right to challenge a federal district court opinion that had vacated the program and ordered its termination by Wednesday.

Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily froze that deadline on Monday, and asked the parties involved in the lawsuit, the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, to weigh in.

Until the Supreme Court issues an order – which can come at any time, although the court has no deadline – the authority will remain in place.

Since March 2020, Title 42 has allowed US border agents to immediately turn away migrants who have crossed the southern border illegally, all in the name of Covid-19 prevention. There have been nearly 2.5 million expulsions – mostly under the Biden administration, which has been bracing for an influx of arrivals if the authority lifts.

The last-minute legal wrangling comes as federal officials and border communities have been bracing for an expected increase in migrant arrivals as early as this week as the issue of immigration continues to ignite both sides of the political divide. The Department of Homeland Security has been putting in place a plan for the end of the program that includes surging resources to the border, targeting smugglers and working with international partners.

In court papers Tuesday, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar stressed that it would be highly unusual for the court to allow the states to step in at the last minute when they had not been an official party in the dispute at hand.

“The government recognizes that the end of the Title 42 orders will likely lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings,” Prelogar wrote.

Video Ad Feedback Large group of migrants cross into El Paso 02:46 - Source: CNN

“The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem. But the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification,” she wrote.

Lawyers for the ACLU, who are representing families subject to Title 42, also urged the justices to deny the states’ appeal.

“The record in this case documents the truly extraordinary horrors being visited on noncitizens every day by Title 42 expulsions,” Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the families, wrote.

“The States’ argument effectively boils down to an assertion that Title 42 – with no hearings and no access to asylum – is a better immigration control system from their perspective than the actual immigration statutes that Congress has enacted,” Gelernt added. “But again, that is a choice for Congress.”

Preparing for end of Trump-era authority

The White House has been preparing for Title 42 to end, expecting a flow of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. In the Del Rio sector, for example, officials predicted that the number of migrant encounters could double from 1,700 a day to 3,500 a day when Title 42 ends, straining overwhelmed resources in a remote area of the border.

Despite the freeze from Roberts’ Monday decision, the administration is moving forward with planning, CNN has reported.

“We’re going on as if nothing’s changed,” a senior US Customs and Border Protection official told CNN, adding that policy discussions are still underway to provide other legal pathways to Nicaraguans, Haitians and Cubans who make up a large number of encounters.

A group of migrants are waiting on the US side of the Rio Grande as the Texas National Guard blocked access to parts of the border with barbed wire and vehicles as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico con 20 December 2022. David von Blohn/CNN

A DHS spokesperson told CNN in an email that officials along the southern border have moved over 9,000 migrants out of El Paso over the last week. US Border Patrol has also moved nearly 6,000 other migrants through to other sectors, the spokesperson said, and migrants have been placed in immigration proceedings “in addition to several measures that have been put in place over the last six months as part of the DHS Plan for Southwest Border Security and Preparedness.”

CNN’s Ed Lavandera, reporting from El Paso on Tuesday, described soldiers from the Texas National Guard deploying fence and barbed wire in areas where migrants have been crossing. The city’s Democratic mayor has declared a state of emergency and the city is looking for warehouse space to use as temporary shelter.

Just across the border from El Paso in Ciudad Juarez, CNN’s David Culver has spoken with migrants who spent weeks traveling hundreds of miles, often on foot, and are now confused as they hope for asylum in the US.

As for what happens on Wednesday if the expiration is still on hold, one official said there may be a “mini surge.”

“I think there’s some that probably haven’t gotten the message and won’t until they cross,” the official said. “There are some already committed who will cross.”

Late Friday night, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against the states, holding that they waited an “inordinate” amount of time before trying to get involved in the case. That order triggered the emergency application at the high court, which was addressed to Roberts.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich – who took the lead for the states – said Monday that “getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border,” adding: “Unlawful crossings are estimated to surge from 7,000 per day to as many as 18,000.”

Video Ad Feedback A Texas shelter works overtime trying to keep up with the surge in migrants crossing the U.S. border 04:07 - Source: CNN

Brnovich had told the justices in court papers that they should put the lower court ruling on hold. As an alternative, he said that the justices should grant an “immediate” temporary injunction to maintain the status quo and also consider whether to skip over the appeals court and agree to hear arguments on the merits of the issue themselves.

“Failure to grant a stay here will inflict massive irreparable harms on the States, particularly as the States bear many of the consequences of unlawful immigration,” Brnovich argued.

In the case at hand, six families that unlawfully crossed the US-Mexico border and were subject to the Title 42 process brought the original challenge.

In court papers, the ACLU previously argued that Covid-19 was always a thinly veiled pretense to increase immigration control. “There is no legal basis to use a purported public health measure to displace the immigration laws long after any public health justification has lapsed.”

Meanwhile, although the Biden administration objects to the states’ attempt to intervene in the ongoing dispute and has said it is prepared to allow the program to end, it is still appealing the district court opinion to preserve the authority of the government to impose public health orders in the future.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Preparing For End Of Trump-Era Authority

Biden administration appeals court decision that blocked ...

CNN —

The Biden administration has decided to appeal a federal court decision that blocked the use of a controversial Trump-era policy allowing for the swift removal of migrants at the US-Mexico border.

Last month, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan blocked the authority, known as Title 42, but agreed to a Biden administration request that he pause his ruling for five weeks so that the government can prepare to comply with it.

Wednesday, the Justice Department told the court it planned to appeal.

“The government respectfully disagrees with this Court’s decision and would argue on appeal, as it has argued in this Court, that CDC’s Title 42 Orders were lawful … and that this Court erred in vacating those agency actions,” the Biden administration said in a court filing.

Title 42 – which has been heavily criticized by public health experts and immigrant advocates – has largely barred asylum at the US-Mexico border, marking an unprecedented departure from traditional protocol.

But while its origins were in the Trump administration, Title 42 has become a key tool for the Biden White House as it faces mass migration in the Western hemisphere. Officials have been bracing for an influx of migrants when the authority lifts.

The new filing does not ask the court to reconsider the determination made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Title 42 is no longer needed, an administration official noted. Rather, the Justice Department has indicate it is seeking an appeals court ruling to establish that the CDC was within its legal authority in making such a determination.

The official also said that Department of Homeland Security is continuing with its preparations for Title 42 to lift on December 21, the expiration of the pause Sullivan placed on his ruling striking the policy down.

Several Republican-led states have asked the court to let them intervene in the case striking down the Title 42 ruling, so that the states could defend the Trump-era policy.

In their request to intervene, the Republican states pointed to the separate litigation they had brought challenging the Biden administration’s efforts to end the authority, which resulted in a court order from a separate court blocking Title 42’s termination earlier this year.

“Because invalidation of the Title 42 Orders will directly harm the States, they now seek to intervene to offer a defense of the Title 42 policy so that its validity can be resolved on the merits, rather than through strategic surrender,” they wrote.

The states seeking to defend the policy are Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The federal government’s approach to the Title 42 rule has been the target of litigation from both the policy’s critics and its supporters. Republican-led states previously filed their own lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s attempt to end the policy, and in April, secured an order from a federal judge in Louisiana halting that termination.

The Biden administration is preparing a regulation for notice and comment following the Republican states’ argument in that lawsuit, which claimed that the federal government did not give opportunity for those states to prepare for the end of Title 42. The new framework would also make the Louisiana case moot.

This story has been updated with additional details.

US v. Texas: Immigration lawsuit's risks for Greg Abbott, Joe Biden

Gov. Greg Abbott, in his first public comments after being sued Monday by the federal government over his border security initiatives, dismissively suggested the U.S. Justice Department was using "some obscure statute" to undermine the state's effort to combat unlawful immigration.

But a legal scholar with five decades of experience in environmental law said that while the statute at the crux of the federal action dates to the late 19th century, it has stood the test of time and could endanger the three-term Republican governor's latest initiative at the Texas-Mexico border.

Doug Burgum says Texas' razor wire, buoy barrier 'is on' Biden

BOONE, Iowa — President Joe Biden's inability to secure the nation's southern border is to blame for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's controversial use of buoys and razor wire to stop migrants from entering the country, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said Saturday while campaigning for the Iowa caucuses.

“I support what Gov. Abbott is trying to do. But Gov. Abbott shouldn't have to do this. This is a federal responsibility. And it's been completely abdicated by the Biden administration,” said Burgum, one of the Republican presidential candidates crisscrossing Iowa this weekend.

“This is on Biden administration, not on Gov. Abbott,” Burgum told reporters after speaking to about 30 people at a Boone cafe Saturday.

The Biden Justice Department this week sued Abbott over the state’s floating barrier, saying it’s illegal and raises humanitarian, navigation and public safety issues, resulting in adults and children being severely cut during river crossings.

The battle over the Texas barrier comes as Customs and Border Protection says migrant encounters were down 30% in June, the first full month since new Biden administration immigration restrictions went into effect, the Associated Press reported.

As the leader of a "big border state," Burgum said he's "got a lot of empathy for what he's (Abbott) going through."

"If millions of people were piling into North Dakota from Canada, we’d be doing everything we can. But we’d be doing the job that belongs to the federal government,” he said.

When asked if he would use tactics like razor wire to protect North Dakota, Burgum said “this is what we end up with” without a secure border.

“Nobody wants to see a child that gets cut on razor wire, but why are people not entering (legally) through ports of entry,” said Burgum, who added that he would support changes to the U.S. immigration system to allow more migrants to enter the country legally.

“We can have a discussion about legal immigration across all skill levels,” he said. “We can do that like other smart countries. Because we have a place that people want to get into," said Burgum, adding that "Canada is poaching” highly skilled, foreign-born residents in the U.S. whose visas are expiring.

“They’re advertising to get those people to move to Canada,” Burgum said. “They added like one million highly skilled people last year.

“When we have 11 million jobs open in America, we’re hurting our economy, our long-term competitiveness by not being smart about how we’re going to do this,” said Burgum, who is campaigning on improving the nation’s economy, energy independence and national security.

“But we can’t have a conversation in this country about immigration policy without … secure borders,” said Burgum, who was introduced by his wife, Kathryn.

Burgum said he agreed with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' stand to not endorse a Republican candidate in Iowa's first-in-the-nation GOP caucus. Reynolds become a target of former President Donald Trump, who criticized her for failing to give him a nod, saying she wouldn’t be governor without his endorsement.

“That’s the smart thing to do. That’s the right thing for Iowa,” Burgum said. “It’s her job to do the right thing for Iowa. … Go Iowa. Go Kim.”

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

Supreme Court blocks Biden administration for now from ending ...

WASHINGTON – In a blow to the Biden administration's ability to set the nation's immigration policy, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the government could not halt the expulsion of migrants for public health reasons under the controversial Title 42 program.

That program, which has been in place since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, must continue while courts assess a lawsuit filed by Republican officials in 19 states who say that unwinding the Title 42 policy would unleash a national "catastrophe."

The emergency intervention from the high court came days after the Trump-era program was set to expire. The justices announced they will hear arguments about the program in the upcoming year, but limited their review to whether the conservative states may intervene in the litigation. Oral arguments are expected in February. In the meantime, expulsions will continue.

The high court's unsigned order noted that Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have denied the emergency request from the states and allowed the administration to lift the Title 42 policy.

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the court's ruling Tuesday, joined by Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The court's decision on the states' emergency request was "unwise," Gorsuch wrote. "The emergency on which those (Title 42) orders were premised has long since lapsed."

"The only plausible reason for stepping in," Gorsuch said, has to do with the states' concerns about immigration and the situation on the border.

"But the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,'' Gorsuch added. "And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort."

While the decision was a legal loss for President Joe Biden, the political implications were less clear: The administration's effort to lift Title 42 has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans and uncertainty from some Democrats who fear border communities were not prepared for an influx of migrants. The Supreme Court's decision appeared to defuse that situation for now, even as it left thousands of migrants in limbo.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the Biden administration would comply with the high court's ruling. She also said the administration is advancing its "preparations to manage the border in a secure, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 eventually lifts and will continue expanding legal pathways for immigration.

"Title 42 is a public health measure, not an immigration enforcement measure, and it should not be extended indefinitely," she added.

Title 42 permits Customs and Border Protection agents to expel migrants without the usual legal review to Mexico or to their home countries to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in holding facilities. Title 42 has been used to expel migrants more than 2.4 million times since its implementation in 2020 and has bottled up tens of thousands of migrants in Mexican border cities who are waiting to request asylum in the United States.

The Biden administration announced in April that it intended to wind down the Title 42 policy because vaccines and therapeutics had eased the impact of the virus. Separately, a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled in November that the way the program was created violated the law and ordered the administration to end it by Dec. 21. That mandate was temporarily paused by the Supreme Court.

Border:El Paso readies for 'whatever happens' as humanitarian crisis persists

Appeal:Conservative states ask Supreme Court to keep Title 42 policy in place

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The legal wrangling set up a potential humanitarian crisis for the White House and sowed confusion on both sides of the border, where many migrants waited for word about whether they could seek asylum in the United States. Some migrants in Juárez told The El Paso Times they had heard the border would "close" on Dec. 21; others that it would "open." People staying in shelters shared stories of friends who had been expelled and others who had been able to stay in the U.S.

Debate over Title 42 made its way to the Senate floor Dec. 22, as lawmakers raced to approve a $1.7 trillion spending plan before the holiday weekend. Two last-minute amendments that would have extended the program failed.

Biden administration officials have said they have rushed resources to the border but have also called on Congress to spend more than $3 billion to speed up the processing of asylum claims and to move some migrants to less crowded facilities. "We need Congress to give us the funds we've requested to do this in a safe, orderly, and humane way," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The president, meanwhile, will travel to Mexico next month to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the White House said, and attend the North American Leaders' Summit. The long-running tension between Washington and Mexico City over migrants traveling through Mexico to the U.S. is certain to come up.

Contributing: Lauren Villagran, El Paso Times; Rebecca Morin, Sarah Elbeshbishi, Francesca Chambers, Maureen Groppe.

Martha's Vineyard migrant flight lawsuit could cost Florida $1 million

TALLAHASSEE — Florida has agreed to pay up to $1 million to two law firms to defend it following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial decision last summer to relocate nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

So far, the state has paid nearly $112,000 to the firms Consovoy McCarthy and Campbell Conroy & O’Neil to represent DeSantis and other state officials in a class action lawsuit filed in Boston by attorneys representing the migrants.

This is on top of the nearly $1.6 million paid to Destin, Fla.-based aviation firm Vertol Systems Company, which the state contracted for the migrant flights.

Post-flights overview:Revisiting DeSantis, Martha's Vineyard, and the migrant flight controversy

Administration's role on flights:Text messages reveal DeSantis officials worked closely for weeks on Venezuelan migrant flights

When combined, it represents a cost of around $35,000 for each migrant relocated through the program.

The legal contracts were signed in late September, a couple of weeks after the flights, and they cap the fees the firms can charge at a half million dollars each. They have agreed to work for the state for as long as three years.

Thomas C. Frongillo of Campbell Conroy & O'Neil, who is listed as the state’s lead attorney for the Boston case, is charging $650 an hour. The hourly fee for partners at Consovoy McCarthy is also $650. But the charges vary depending on the employee, going as low as $150 per hour for junior paralegals at Campbell Conroy & O'Neil and $200 for paralegals at Consovoy McCarthy.

Boths firms have Boston locations. Neither responded to media requests.

U.S. News & World Report gives Campbell Conroy & O'Neil high rankings for class action lawsuit defense. Consovoy McCarthy, a conservative firm, has been involved in numerous high-profile cases, including representing former President Trump in a financial-records case and election law disputes.

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Boston nonprofit Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the lawsuit in Massachusetts' federal court, accused Florida of using “scarce taxpayer dollars” on “DeSantis’ immigration theater.”

“Florida's hard-working people are now on the hook for a million dollars for out-of-state lawyers to defend DeSantis' fraudulent scheme,” he said in a statement. “If you can't be fair, you should at least be frugal.”

More spending to come

While opponents have called the transport a vicious political stunt, DeSantis has said his migrant relocation program is the "most effective" way to steer asylum seekers and other migrants away from Florida. He contended that it's more effective to intercept migrants at the Texas border than to track them down when they arrive in Florida.

“If they get in a car with two other people, there's no way we're going to be able to detect that,” he said.

State lawmakers gave the Florida Department of Transportation $12 million for the migrant relocation program. The money comes from interest earnings from Florida’s $8.8 billion portion of the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan. State spokespeople did not respond to questions about whether that money is being used for the legal costs.

But it is clear the state intends to spend all of it.

"I'll tell you this, the Legislature gave me $12 million," DeSantis said in September. "We're going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we're protecting the people of the state of Florida."

So expect more taxpayer dollars to be spent on the relocations – especially as legal challenges mount.

On top of the Boston lawsuit, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other immigration organizations sued DeSantis over the flights in Miami federal court last month. A Democratic Florida state senator also filed suit. Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, also opened an investigation into how the migrants were “lured” to board flights from San Antonio to Martha's Vineyard.

In addition, the Treasury's Office of the Inspector General said it is examining whether DeSantis improperly used COVID-19 aid to fund the transport.

When asked about whether he agreed with the cost of the program during a December press conference, House Speaker Paul Renner said he supported the governor’s efforts.

“I think the cost of illegal immigration far, far exceeds the [$12 million] we appropriated, and I’m prepared this year to appropriate more,” he said.

USA Today Network-Florida government accountability reporter Douglas Soule is based in Tallahassee, Fla. He can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com. Twitter: @DouglasSoule

Biden administration scales back student loan forgiveness plan as ...

Washington CNN —

The Biden administration scaled back eligibility for its student loan forgiveness plan Thursday, the same day six Republican-led states sued President Joe Biden in an effort to block his student loan forgiveness plan from taking effect.

Borrowers whose federal student loans are guaranteed by the government but held by private lenders will now be excluded from receiving debt relief. Around 770,000 people will be affected by the change, according to an administration official.

The Department of Education initially said these loans, many of which were made under the former Federal Family Education Loan program and Federal Perkins Loan program, would be eligible for the one-time forgiveness action as long as the borrower consolidated his or her debt into the federal Direct loan program.

On Thursday, the department reversed course. According to its website, privately held federal student loans must have been consolidated before September 29 in order to be eligible for the debt relief.

Borrowers with privately held federal student loans who have not consolidated yet are currently out of luck, though the Department of Education said it “is assessing whether there are alternative pathways” to provide relief.

Borrowers with privately held federal student loans represent a small portion of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers. There are about 4 million borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans, but not all of those people are likely eligible for the loan forgiveness plan, which also includes an income requirement.

“Our goal is to provide relief to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible, and this will allow us to achieve that goal while we continue to explore additional legally-available options to provide relief to borrowers with privately owned FFEL loans and Perkins loans, including whether FFEL borrowers could receive one-time debt relief without needing to consolidate,” the Department of Education said in an emailed statement.

“Borrowers with privately held federal student loans who applied to consolidate their loans into Direct Loans before September 29, 2022 will obtain one-time debt relief. The FFEL program is now defunct and only a small percentage of borrowers have FFEL loans. This is a completely different program than Direct Loans,” the statement said.

Lawsuit argues forgiveness will hurt loan servicers

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Missouri by state attorneys general from Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa.

“In addition to being economically unwise and inherently unfair, the Biden Administration’s Mass Debt Cancellation is another example in a long line of unlawful regulatory actions. No statute permits President Biden to unilaterally relieve millions of individuals from their obligation to pay loans they voluntarily assumed,” Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson’s office said in a news release.

The plaintiffs argued that student loan servicers – including the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, known as MOHELA – are harmed by Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. It argues that the plan creates an incentive for borrowers to consolidate Federal Family Education Loans owned by MOHELA into Direct Loans owned by the government, “depriving them (MOHELA) of the ongoing revenue it earns from servicing those loans,” according to the lawsuit.

But the Department of Education’s move to exclude borrowers with privately held federal loans from the student loan forgiveness plan could weaken that legal argument, said Luke Herrine, an assistant law professor at the University of Alabama who previously worked on a legal strategy pushing for student debt cancellation.

The White House continues to argue that its student loan forgiveness plan is legal.

“Republican officials from these six states are standing with special interests, and fighting to stop relief for borrowers buried under mountains of debt,”said White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan in an emailed statement.

“The President and his administration are lawfully giving working and middle class families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and prepare to resume loan payments in January,” he said.

Federal student loan payments have been paused since March 2020, thanks to a pandemic-related benefit. The pause expires on December 31.

Earlier this week, a public interest lawyer who is also a student loan borrower, sued the Biden administration over the student loan forgiveness plan, arguing that the policy is an abuse of executive power and that it would stick him with a bigger state tax bill.

How Biden’s plan will work

Under Biden’s plan, individual borrowers who earned less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 annually in those years will see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness. Pell grants are awarded to millions of low-income students each year, based on factors that include their family’s size and income and the cost charged by their college. These borrowers are also more likely to struggle to repay their student debt and end up in default.

The administration is expected to roll out the first wave of student loan forgiveness in October.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated this week – before the administration excluded FFEL borrowers – that Biden’s plan could cost the government $400 billion but warned that the estimate relies on several assumptions and is “highly uncertain.”

Estimating the cost of student debt forgiveness is complicated because loans are generally paid back over several years. The White House argues that the CBO’s estimate should be looked at over a 30-year time frame.

Untested legal waters

Biden announced the forgiveness plan in August, after facing mounting pressure from Democrats to forgive some student loan debt. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren repeatedly called on the President to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.

But canceling federal student loan debt so broadly is unprecedented and, until now, has yet to be tested in court. Biden initially urged Congress to take action to cancel some student debt, rather than wade into a murky legal area himself, but Democrats don’t have the votes to pass such legislation.

In a Department of Education memo released in August, the Biden administration argued that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 – or Heroes Act – grants the Education Secretary the power to cancel student debt to help address the financial harm suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Heroes Act, which was enacted in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, “provides the Secretary broad authority to grant relief from student loan requirements during specific periods,” including a war, other military operation or national emergency, according to the memo.

The lawsuit filed Thursday argues that the Heroes Act does not grant the President such broad authority.

What happens next

Additional lawsuits challenging Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan could be forthcoming. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has said he is working on developing the best legal theory to sue the administration over the action.

A conservative advocacy group called the Job Creators Network is also weighing its legal options, planning to file a lawsuit once the Department of Education formalizes the student loan forgiveness plan next month.

But some legal experts are skeptical that a legal challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan could be successful.

Abby Shafroth, staff attorney at the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center, previously told CNN that she believes the merits of the Biden administration’s legal statutory authority are strong and that it’s unclear who would have legal standing to bring a case and want to do so. Standing to bring a case is a procedural threshold requiring that an injury be inflicted on a plaintiff to justify a lawsuit.

If the standing hurdle is cleared, a case would be heard by a district court first – which may or may not issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the cancellation from occurring before a final ruling is issued on the merits of the hypothetical case.

Several recent US Supreme Court decisions have touched on executive power, limiting the federal government’s authority to implement new rules. While the Supreme Court takes up a small number of cases each year, lower courts may look at what the justices have said in those cases when assessing the Department of Education’s authority.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Biden administration finalizing its plans as it braces for end of Title ...

Washington CNN —

The Biden administration is finalizing its response to Wednesday’s anticipated end of a Trump-era border restriction known as Title 42, according to officials familiar with the planning.

Officials said the plans, which may include the revival of a controversial asylum policy, could be announced within the coming days. But it appears the administration may end up with some more time to consider its plans after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday issued a temporary hold on the order lifting the policy.

A surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border in recent days has already raised alarm among Democrats and Republicans, some of whom have called on the White House to find a way to extend the restrictions, and has placed immigration – a politically precarious issue – back at the forefront. The White House has said the administration is bound by a court order.

But Roberts paused that order in response to an emergency appeal by the leaders of several GOP-led states. In a brief order, signaling that the court wants to act quickly, Roberts asked the Biden administration to respond by 5 p.m. ET Tuesday to the appeal.

The brief order from Roberts does not necessarily reflect the final outcome of the case, but it means the policy that allows officials to swiftly expel migrants at US borders will stay in effect at least until the justices decide the emergency application.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement following Roberts’ order that “as required by the Supreme Court’s administrative stay order, the Title 42 public health order will remain in effect at this time and individuals who attempt to enter the United States unlawfully will continue to be expelled to Mexico,” adding: “While this stage of the litigation proceeds, we will continue our preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when the Title 42 public health order lifts.”

For weeks, the administration has been bracing for the end of Title 42 that was invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and allowed officials to turn away migrants encountered at the US southern border. The lifting of the authority means a return to traditional protocols at a time of mass migration in the Western Hemisphere, stressing already-overwhelmed resources.

Officials have been weighing policies to try to stem the flow of migrants heading to the US southern border. Among them is a proposal that would bar migrants from seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border if they could have received refuge in another country they passed through, mirroring Trump-era asylum limits. The proposal is being finalized and is expected to be announced this week prior to the lifting of Title 42.

The new rules are likely to generate outcry and legal challenges from immigration advocates, who have pushed for an end to Title 42. Enacting a version of a Trump-era asylum rule could also pose political challenges for Biden, who vowed to enact a more humane immigration policy than his predecessor.

The Biden administration tried to wind down the Title 42 program earlier this year, but a coalition of mostly GOP-led states – in a separate case filed in Louisiana – successfully sued to block the Department of Homeland Security from ending enforcement.

Title 42 becomes a top White House concern

Inside the White House, the pause on the termination of Title 42 will not have any effect on what have been intensive behind-the-scenes preparations for the end of the authority, according to a White House official.

While the Department of Homeland Security serves as the lead agency on the issue and has said their preparations continue, the looming end of the pandemic-era public health authority has been a central focus for the last several weeks inside the West Wing, with senior White House officials playing a significant role in the internal debates over policy options to address an expected surge of migrants at the border.

There are no plans to slow the ongoing effort, the official said, given the possibility any delay is only brief in nature. “We’ve always been aware of the role the courts have in this process, but it’s not something that changes the approach,” the official said.

Officials will also continue to press Congress to approve the inclusion of more than $3 billion in additional funding to assist their preparations at the border as part of the omnibus funding bill.

The looming end of Title 42 has been a source of heightened concern, particularly as numbers of migrants attempting to cross the border increased in the days ahead of the order’s expiration. Biden has come under fire from border-state lawmakers for his handling of the matter. His advisers have convened meetings almost daily to weigh their options.

In formulating their plans, officials have sought ways to bring order to the situation at the border, where images of long lines and crowded holding facilities have generated outcry. Their goal has been to deter migrants from crossing illegally while still preserving their ability to legally apply for asylum.

Whether the new asylum policies can deter migrants from attempting to enter the US remains unclear. Large numbers of migrants have already arrived at the Mexico side of the border awaiting Title 42’s expiration. Administration officials have said many of them are being exploited by smugglers offering false promises related to the end of Title 42, and officials are doubtful those practices would be altered by new rules.

And economic and safety conditions in the countries the migrants are leaving remain unstable and have worsened since the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Homeland Security is actively monitoring intelligence to try to determine how many migrants are moving toward the US southern border and where they’re heading, though human smuggling organizations often influence pathways.

“It’s a cat and mouse game,” one senior Homeland Security official said.

An intelligence memo, from the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis, circulated last week underscored the concern within the administration over an increase in arrivals, citing human smuggling organizations adjusting their methods and how migrants may shift their calculus.

On the US side of the border, officials have been striking contracts to move migrants to other border stations for processing to avoid overcrowded facilities, the senior DHS official said. The administration has also identified cities within the United States to move migrants for processing – an idea that’s long been considered among officials – but no decision has been made yet.

In a document outlining border security preparedness, DHS broke down its six-pillar plan, which was released in the spring and has since been updated. It includes scaling up ground and air transportation capabilities to transport migrants for processing and remove them, leaning on a CBP One mobile application to process asylum seekers, and increasing referrals for prosecutions for repeat border crossers, the document said.

White House pushes back against criticism

The White House has pushed back on calls for the administration to find a way to extend the controversial public health authority, saying it is bound by court orders.

Images from the border have raised alarm among elected officials, some of whom have publicly questioned the Biden administration’s readiness and preparations to handle the expected influx of people trying to enter the United States.

Over the weekend, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called on Biden to “use every bit of power he has as an executive to find a way or ask for an extension.”

The White House official declined to elaborate when asked whether Biden has the authority to secure such an extension.

The White House has insisted that the end of Title 42 does not mean that the US border will suddenly be open to all – and that there are existing processes in place to process the claims of asylum-seekers. The administration has also pointed to monthslong work that the Department of Homeland Security has been doing to prepare for the increase in migrants arriving at the border, while also calling on Congress to approve extra funding that the administration has requested to manage the situation.

Over the weekend, a federal law enforcement source familiar with daily operations in South Texas told CNN that border authorities in the Rio Grande Valley have encountered between 900 and 1,200 migrants daily during the past two weeks.

Biden to discuss migration with Ecuadorian president

Migration in the Western Hemisphere will be discussed between Biden and Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Monday, according to a White House official, who stressed that Ecuador has been “setting an important example” on the issue.

The two leaders will also follow up on several issues discussed during this year’s Summit of the Americas, including an agreement to increase security cooperation to tackle drug-related gang violence, the official said.

Over the summer, against the backdrop of the Summit of the Americas, Biden announced a regional partnership to address mass migration in the Western Hemisphere. The agreement, dubbed the Los Angeles declaration, was signed onto by multiple Western Hemisphere nations.

Under the declaration, governments are expected to commit to expanding temporary worker programs, bolstering legal pathways like refugee resettlement and family reunification, providing support to countries hosting large migrant populations, and cracking down on human smuggling networks.

Biden and Lasso will revisit those efforts Monday, the official said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the Biden administration announced its intention to end Title 42. It was in 2022.

Priscilla Alvarez Kevin Liptak Mj Lee Phil Mattingly

SB4 legal challenge: El Paso County sues Texas over immigration law

Texas civil rights organizations and El Paso County on Tuesday sued the Texas Department of Public Safety, challenging a new law that empowers state law enforcement to detain and deport migrants entering or living in the U.S. illegally.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin on behalf of El Paso County and two immigrant advocacy organizations, El Paso's Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways.

In the complaint, the ACLU calls Texas Senate Bill 4 "patently illegal," and says it violates "the federal government’s exclusive immigration powers and the sensitive foreign policy implications of these powers."

The Texas law takes "control over immigration from the federal government" and deprives immigrants of their rights under federal law, according to the complaint. The complaint asks the court to prevent enforcement of S.B. 4 before the law takes effect on March 5.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Tuesday. The Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Abbott on Monday signed Senate Bill 4 into law in Brownsville, Texas. He said it and two other laws dealing with border security will "better protect Texas and America."

"President (Joe) Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself," Abbott said in a statement on Monday. "These laws will help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas, add additional funding to build more border wall and crackdown on human smuggling."

Senate Bill 4 passed both houses of the Texas Legislature in November. The legislation mirrors the federal law that makes illegal entry at the U.S. border a misdemeanor and illegal re-entry a felony.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said the law will put a financial burden on the county. The county would be tasked with providing detention space for an expected increase in migrant detainees, arrested by state authorities. A new jail could cost upward of $40 million, he said.

"We feel its unconstitutional what they are doing, and it’s unlike us," Samaniego told USA TODAY. "We want to continue to be us – humanitarian, above the fray of the political stuff."

In a county where interstate highways overlook the low skyline of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and thousands of people legally crisscross the U.S.-Mexico border daily, civil rights advocates say lawful residents and U.S. citizens will inevitably be targeted.

More than 80 percent of El Paso County residents identify as Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and many residents can trace their roots to Mexico within a generation or two.

The new Texas law is "rooted in anti-immigrant sentiment," said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

"We know in El Paso what that looks like. We’re the lucky ones who survived Aug. 3," she said, referring to the Aug. 3, 2019, racist mass shooting targeting Hispanics at an El Paso Walmart in which 23 people died.

Penalties for violating the law against illegal entry range from a class-A misdemeanor to a second-degree felony, which could lead to a 20-year jail sentence.


'Bag Full of Drugs,' kiwiberries: News from around our 50 states

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday that the state must reinvent its corrections system as it grapples with a prison crisis and also called for borrowing $1 billion to fund improvements at public schools. The Republican governor detailed a wide-ranging agenda in her annual State of the State address, given on the opening night of the legislative session. Ivey said she is creating a group to study a lottery or casinos as a revenue source for the state, a move that could press the pause button on anticipated gambling debate in the Legislature. Prisons are expected to be a central focus on the legislative session after the U.S. Justice Department last year said violent and crowded conditions in Alabama prisons violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Ivey’s administration is exploring a plan to lease three new prisons and close most existing facilities.

Alaska

Anchorage: State highway officials are looking for mechanics and using department assets to find them. Electronic message boards set up along roads around Anchorage are displaying help-wanted messages calling for heavy-duty mechanics to apply to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, KTVA-television reports. The department has three heavy-duty mechanic positions open in Anchorage, says spokesperson Shannon McCarthy, and maintenance shops in Fairbanks, Valdez and Healy also have vacancies. McCarthy says it’s sometimes tough to attract and retain mechanics who can maintain construction equipment. The electronic signs urge potential applicants to call the department for more information.

Arizona

Tucson: A federal judge in Tucson has reversed the misdemeanor convictions of four activists, saying members of the humanitarian group No More Deaths were led by “sincere religious beliefs” when placing water and food for migrants in Arizona’s protected Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge near the U.S.-Mexico border. Judge Rosemary Marquez wrote in the opinion filed Monday that Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick met the guidelines for establishing they acted on their beliefs. The four had appealed another judge’s ruling a year ago finding them guilty of federal misdemeanors. They were cited by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services officers in 2017 after driving a truck into the wilderness area and leaving bottles of water and other supplies for migrants who cross the region.

Arkansas

Bentonville: Benton County plans to appeal the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s decision not to help pay for the costs to clean up damages from two tornadoes that struck in October, officials said. The county was notified of the decision by letter Jan. 24, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The county has 30 days to appeal. The letter did not specify why the county was denied. But Robert McGowen, county public safety administrator, said it was because the county was short $124,134 of the threshold for assistance. Damage assessments from the October tornadoes totaled $6.5 million for uninsured public property, McGowen said. Most of the damage – $5.5 million worth – involved two electric companies. “For some reason, FEMA did not accept the preliminary damage assessment numbers we provided them and reduced the amounts that were submitted by the entities,” McGowen said.

California

Sacramento: The governor revealed a plan Tuesday that would keep more water in the fragile San Joaquin River Delta while restoring 60,000 acres of habitat for endangered species and generating more than $5 billion in new funding for environmental improvements. The framework announced Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom is a unique approach to managing the state’s scarce water resources. Historically, California has governed water usage by issuing rules – often challenged in court by farmers or environmental groups. Those lawsuits can drag on for years and prevent programs designed to boost sagging salmon populations and other threatened species that live in the delta. Instead of issuing new rules, for the past year the Newsom administration has been negotiating with water agencies to come up with “voluntary agreements” between the two sides with “partnership and oversight from environmental groups.”

Colorado

Steamboat Springs: A school district hired a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent to conduct an investigation into a high school’s culture related to student claims of sexual harassment or sexual assault. The Steamboat Springs School District hired Jane Quimby of Quimby and Associates in Grand Junction to investigate complaints that female students were not being heard or protected by administrators, The Steamboat Pilot & Today reports. District officials also announced Steamboat Springs High School Principal Kevin Taulman has been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation. Quimby served as an FBI special agent for 20 years and is an attorney and a former high school and college teacher, officials said. Quimby will report to the school district’s attorneys, Caplan & Earnest, and not to Superintendent Brad Meeks in order to strengthen the integrity of the investigation, officials said.

Connecticut

Hartford: A federal judge has dismissed nearly all claims in a lawsuit that sought to force all-male fraternities at Yale University to admit women, saying fraternities and sororities are specifically excluded from a federal law that bans discrimination based on gender in education. U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden in Bridgeport issued the ruling Jan. 30 in the lawsuit filed last year by three women who attend Yale. They sued nine fraternities and Yale in response to alleged sexual assault, harassment and discrimination at the all-male social organizations. The judge allowed only one claim against Yale to continue forward toward trial: an allegation that school officials failed to act when informed by one of the plaintiffs that she and other women had been groped against their will at a fraternity party in 2016.

Delaware

Bridgeville: A year after moving the World Championship Punkin Chunkin from Delaware to Illinois, event organizers have made a plea to their fans here: “Bring us home.” “The biggest thing is to create the buzz. It’s a great tradition to try to keep continuing,” says Frank Payton, president of the World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association. While organizers said Illinois had better state protections against liability – a special focus after a 2016 malfunction left a person critically injured – it drew a much smaller crowd than back home. Payton estimates fewer than 15,000 people attended last year’s event in Rantoul, Illinois, over two days, down from the estimated 30,000 in 2016. At its height, the nonprofit Punkin Chunkin drew up to 100,000 wide-eyed spectators to Sussex County, raising more than $1 million through the years for local charities. Last year it managed to pull in just $1,500.

District of Columbia

Washington: A thief caught on surveillance video stole a mother’s vehicle while she was pumping gas and her child was sitting in the back seat. The mother was dragged Tuesday morning while trying to stop the thief, news outlets report. Video appeared to a show a man sneak into the SUV and drive away as the mother tried to stop the thief. Elroy Jacobs told news outlets he witnessed the woman being dragged for about a block before she was run over. He said he chased the vehicle and found the child still inside after the SUV was abandoned. “I saw this woman hollering, ‘My baby, my baby, they’re taking my baby,’ ” Jacobs said. “I’m not thinking about no weapon, if they have any weapon. I’m just thinking about the child.” It’s unclear whether the mother was injured. Police had not announced any suspects or arrests, news outlets report.

Florida

Miami: Two men charged with drug trafficking could have done a better job hiding their wares than using a package labeled “Bag Full of Drugs,” authorities say. Ian Simmons and Joshua Reinhardt, both 34, were pulled over Saturday after a trooper clocked them going 95 mph on Interstate 10 in the Panhandle, according to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report. The trooper determined Reinhardt was the subject of a felony warrant for violation of probation and requested backup. A Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s deputy arrived, and a K-9 alerted them to the presence of contraband in the vehicle, the report said. Authorities found about 75 grams of methamphetamine, 1.36 kilograms of the date-rape drug GHB, 1 gram of cocaine, 3.6 grams of fentanyl, 15 MDMA tablets and drug paraphernalia. “Note to self- do not traffic your illegal narcotics in bags labeled ‘Bag Full Of Drugs,’ ” deputies wrote on Facebook. “Our K-9’s can read.”

Georgia

Atlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp and state Superintendent Richard Woods announced a plan Tuesday to cut five mandatory standardized tests for public school students, including four in high school. The Republican officials are also trying to cut the length of state tests and evaluate local tests that Georgia’s 181 school districts give to evaluate student progress. Both Woods and Kemp oppose the current amount of testing, part of a national backlash to a system largely built by Republicans in Georgia. “When you look at the big picture, it’s clear Georgia simply tests too much,” Kemp said at a news conference. “On test days it’s making students physically sick because they’re worried they will not do well.” The biggest changes would come in high school. The economics test would be dropped, and the state Board of Education would decide which others would go – possibly geometry, physical science and American literature.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A sick Hawaiian monk seal under the care of wildlife scientists is suffering from a parasitic infection often spread via feral cat feces, officials say. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials determined the seal was suffering from toxoplasmosis, The Honolulu Star-Tribune reports. The female seal, known as Pohaku, was taken from Ko Olina on Oahu to the agency for monitoring after reports she was “logging,” or lethargically floating on the water. There are an estimated 50,000 to 300,000 feral cats on Oahu, and they are a primary source of toxoplasmosis, a parasite that reproduces in the digestive system of cats, the agency says on its website. Hawaiian monk seals are exposed to the parasitic eggs when they consume contaminated prey or water, the NOAA says. Toxoplasmosis can destroy muscle, liver, heart and brain tissue and cause organ failure. Treatment options for infected seals are extremely limited.

Idaho

Bonners Ferry: A long-closed road built through grizzly bear habitat in northern Idaho will reopen following national security concerns, federal agencies said. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the plan to reopen more than 5 miles of Bog Creek Road after years of discussion, The Spokesman-Review reports. The road was closed in the late 1980s to protect endangered grizzly bears roaming the area between Upper Priest Lake in Idaho and the Canadian border, officials said. The U.S. Border Patrol has asked the Forest Service since 2013 to reopen the road because of threats to border security. Neither agency specified those threats. The Forest Service is expected to install and repair culverts along the road and to cut back trees and other vegetation that has come close to or obstructed the road, officials said. The road will “not be open for public motorized use,” Forest Service officials said.

Illinois

Joliet: Police are searching for a man who caused thousands of dollars of damage in a Walmart in suburban Chicago by spraying disinfectant inside the store while wearing a surgical mask and a sign on his back declaring that he has the deadly coronavirus. Two men apparently in their 20s walked into the store in Joliet on Sunday. One of them put on the yellow surgical mask and started spraying Lysol on clothing, produce and health and beauty items, causing nearly $10,000 in damage, police said. “He was telling everyone the same thing, that he was protecting them from the virus,” Tony Prokes, a customer, told WLS-TV in Chicago. The man wore a homemade sign on his back that read, “Caution I have the Coronavirus.” The apparent prank comes amid growing worldwide concern about the virus that has killed hundreds of people, most of them in mainland China, and sickened more than 20,000 around the world.

Indiana

Gary: A local man testified that a now-dead man gave him a video recording of his confession to killing five people in 2000, a crime for which another man is serving 300 years in prison. Cleveland C. Bynum, 37, was convicted of murder in 2001 for the shooting deaths of sisters Angela Wallace, 24, and Suzanne Wallace, 34, who were both from Gary. Bynum, then 22, was also convicted of killing 37-year-old Sheila R. Bartee and 24-year-old Anthony Jeffers, also from Gary, and Elizabeth Daily-Ayers, 37, of Hobart. Bynum’s attorney, Frances Watson, filed a successive petition for post-conviction relief in 2016 for Bynum, who maintains his innocence and is seeking to overturn his conviction. Lake Criminal Magistrate Natalie Bokota on Monday heard testimony for the relief, The Times of Northwest Indiana reports. Roger Shannon testified Gerald Mathews gave him a cellphone that contained a video recording of Mathews confessing to killing the five people.

Iowa

Des Moines: Griff the bulldog, Drake University’s live mascot, will retire this summer, the university announced Wednesday. Drake anointed the former champion show dog as its live mascot in fall 2015. Now 7, Griff has since been a constant staple at thousands of Drake events, the Drake Relays and other sporting events, and graduations. Over the past year, he tried to meet as many presidential candidates as he could in the run-up to the 2020 Iowa caucuses. “Griff has been such a special part of our campus community,” Drake President Marty Martin said in a statement. Drake anticipates having Griff’s successor, Griff II, in place by July 1, the day after Griff is set to retire. Future live mascots will be christened Griff with an additional nickname. The school said Griff intends to enjoy long naps in retirement, mostly on his favorite oversized chair.

Kansas

Wichita: A collaborative effort is underway to preserve and make accessible historic television and radio programs produced by public media stations in the state. KMUW-FM and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting said in a news release Wednesday that the online collection will be digitized from deteriorating and obsolete formats. It will showcase statewide coverage of social issues, commentary, public reporting and history from more than 70 years of archival collections in the state. The Kansas collection consists of programs produced by KMUW, High Plains Public Radio, KPR, KPTS, KRPS, KHCC and Vietnamese Public Radio. These programs will be the first from Kansas contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and Boston public media producer WGBH.

Kentucky

Hodgenville: The town where President Abraham Lincoln was born will host activities this month to commemorate his 211th birthday. Ceremonies will be held Feb. 12 in downtown Hodgenville and at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park, officials say. Local officials plan to attend the first ceremony, which will include a flag raising and wreath laying, according to the statement from Lincoln Days Celebration. The event at the national park will include a procession from the visitor center to the Memorial Building and a wreath laying. Afterward, a luncheon at the LaRue County Extension Building will feature Centre College President John Roush, who will speak about Lincoln’s leadership style and legacy.

Louisiana

New Orleans: A group that was denied permission to march in the city of Natchitoches’ Christmas parade when it insisted on carrying Confederate battle flags asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to revive its lawsuit alleging constitutional violations. The permit for the Louisiana Sons of Confederate Veterans was denied in late 2015, months after the slayings of nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church by white supremacist Dylann Roof. Pictures on social media of Roof posing with Confederate battle flags led to renewed opposition to public displays of Confederate iconography around the nation. In Natchitoches, a nonprofit group that organized the annual parade denied a permit to the SCV after city officials expressed concerns that some in the city would be offended by the display of Confederate battle flags and that protests might disrupt the procession.

Maine

Portland: The state’s two U.S. senators are among a group of lawmakers pushing for the federal government to crack down on the use of dairy terms on plant-based products. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King want U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn to work with Congress to prevent what they see as misuse of dairy terms on products that contain no dairy. Collins and King joined a bipartisan group of seven senators in asking for Hahn’s help in late January. The senators said the use of dairy terms such as “milk” on “imitation products in the marketplace” is confusing for consumers. The International Food Information Council Foundation released survey results in 2018 saying that “three-quarters of Americans understand that plant-based ‘milk’ products do not actually contain cow’s milk.”

Maryland

Baltimore: Democrat Kweisi Mfume and Republican Kimberly Klacik won special primaries Tuesday for the U.S. congressional seat that was held by the late Elijah Cummings. In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 4 to 1, the Democratic nominee will be the heavy favorite heading into the April 28 special general election. The majority-black district includes parts of Baltimore’s inner city that have struggled with drugs and violent crime, as well as more well-to-do communities in the suburbs. Whoever wins the special general election will serve the rest of Cummings’ term through Jan. 3, 2021, and have to stand for reelection in November to keep the seat. For Mfume, who in 1996 stepped down to lead the NAACP after serving five terms as a district’s congressman, it’s a chance to regain the seat he held more than 20 years ago.

Massachusetts

Boston: Commuters can expect several years of station gridlock at one of the city’s busiest train stations once major construction kicks off in late summer. Boston transportation officials have warned commuters who use South Station that they should add 5 to 10 minutes to their daily commute in anticipation of delays caused by the construction of an office tower and installation of fare gates. The number of doors that commuters use to get from the lobby to the platforms and back will be limited to five, down from the typical eight to 10, and a large area of the concourse will be cordoned off. The new configuration could come as early as July, The Boston Globe reports. A concrete extension will be added to the platform to allow more room for riders under the new construction configuration. New fare gates will also be installed on the outside area near the platforms.

Michigan

Saline: A public meeting called to address racist social media posts by students at a suburban Detroit high school turned volatile when a white parent asked a Hispanic parent, “Why didn’t you stay in Mexico?” The exchange Monday shocked many who had gathered for a community meeting at the Saline Area Schools district office. Parent Adrian Iraola said his son had endured racist name-calling by students in the district and described the impact it had on him, ultimately fueling him to earn a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. As Iraola described “the abuse that he was enduring in this school system,” another parent, Tom Burtell, interjected, “Then why didn’t you stay in Mexico?” Iraola responded that he lives in America because it is “the greatest country in the world.” In an MLive.com interview, Matthew Burtell, a 2014 Saline High School alumnus and Tom Burtell’s son, spoke out against his father’s “racist and xenophobic behavior.”

Minnesota

St. Paul: There’s time to protect the privacy of Minnesotans who vote in the Super Tuesday presidential primary March 3, Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon and a bipartisan group of lawmakers said Wednesday. Under current law, the state must provide the names and party preference of primary voters to the four parties with major-party status in Minnesota – Democrats, Republicans and two pro-cannabis parties. A bill rolled out Wednesday by Democratic Sen. Ann Rest, of New Hope, and Democratic Rep. Ray Dehn, of Minneapolis, would tightly restrict that data. The bill, which has some Republican support, would restrict the sharing of party preference data to the national party committees, and only for verification purposes. Otherwise the data would be private, with penalties for making it public. And voters could opt out of sharing their data.

Mississippi

Jackson: A plan to give teachers at least a $1,000 pay raise won state Senate approval Wednesday, and now it goes to the House. The pay bill easily passed the Senate with bipartisan support. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said last week that he wants it to be part of a multiyear plan to increase some of the lowest salaries in the nation. Senate Bill 2001 would give $1,000 across-the-board raises to most teachers and to all teachers’ assistants. Teachers in the first two years of their careers would receive raises of $1,100 in an effort to boost the beginning salaries. The National Education Association says the average teacher salary in the U.S. was $60,477 for the 2017-18 school year. Mississippi had the lowest average that year, at $44,926. The average teacher salary in Mississippi for the 2018-19 school year – the most recent data available – was $45,105, according to the state Department of Education.

Missouri

Jefferson City: Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to make grants available for potential builders of an ultrafast Hyperloop test track in the state. House members in a voice vote gave initial approval to a bill that would make a 10- to 15-mile test track eligible for public-private partnership grants. Hyperloop technology involves a tubular track through which a train-like pod carries passengers at speeds up to 640 mph. Missouri supporters envision connecting Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis with a system that could cut a roughly 4-hour drive across the state down to a 30-minute commute. They’re now advocating for a test track to be built in Missouri. “It would bring in investment dollars from around the world to make Missouri an innovative state,” bill sponsor Rep. Travis Fitzwater told colleagues on the House floor. It’s not cheap. Some estimates have put the cost at $25 million to $27 million per mile, excluding land acquisition.

Montana

Bozeman: The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it is removing a portion of a former wood-treatment facility in the state from its list of Superfund sites, despite concerns. The agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality determined that all the required cleanup of the facility is complete and that no additional work is needed to protect human health and the environment in the area, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports. The Idaho Pole Company operated the facility near Cedar Street until 1997 and contributed to soil and groundwater contamination, officials said. It was designated a Superfund site in 1986. The Gallatin City-County Board of Health and the Gallatin Local Water Quality District have repeatedly voiced concerns and have said the federal agency did not adequately work with local government officials to ensure redevelopment is safe.

Nebraska

Omaha: American evacuees from the growing coronavirus outbreak in China will be flying into Omaha as soon as Thursday and be quarantined at a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base, officials said Wednesday. The plane will be landing at Eppley Airfield and park at a remote spot. The passengers will not go inside the terminal, said a news release from Nebraska Medicine, and they’ll be taken to Camp Ashland, which sits about 30 miles southwest of the airport. Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson said he couldn’t yet say how many evacuees were headed to Omaha or when the flight was expected to land. Nebraska National Guard officials have been preparing to house evacuees in three buildings with 85 hotel-style rooms at the camp. Guard officials have said the evacuees won’t interact with guardsmen or employees there.

Nevada

Carson City: The entry point to about 13,000 acres of scenic backcountry in the Lake Tahoe Basin will get an upgrade. The Tahoe Fund announced this week that it landed a $100,000 donation from the E.L. Cord Foundation among other gifts to jump-start the work in the Spooner Lake area of Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park. The fund raised $300,000 through private donations for an amphitheater that is part of the project. But the fundraising is more important than the amount suggests because the money from private sources will be used to leverage $2.9 million in public funds, Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry said. The project by the Nevada Division of State Parks could break ground as soon as spring 2020, with phase one complete by the end of 2021.

New Hampshire

Durham: A University of New Hampshire expert on kiwiberries will give a crop overview and discuss best production practices and information on market potential on the grape-sized fruit in an event this weekend. The Kiwiberry Breeding and Research Development program is the first of its kind in the nation. Will Hastings, vineyard manager and research technician of the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station’s program, will give a discussion Saturday at the NOFA-NH Winter Conference at Kearsarge Regional High School in North Sutton. The tropical-tasting, smooth-skinned relative of the fuzzy supermarket kiwi has been grown in backyards and private gardens in the region for more than 140 years. Despite its long history, though, virtually no commercial production exists. Hastings is co-author of “Growing Kiwiberries in New England, a Guide for Regional Producers.”

New Jersey

Toms River: Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has restored funding to one of two public assistance programs that help Ocean County senior citizens maintain their independence, Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari says. The county government is to receive $1.47 million for the Jersey Assistance for Community Caregiving program, up about $400,000 for the state fiscal year 2020, Vicari says. The program, which will serve about 225 seniors each month, offers an array of services for those who would otherwise be forced to reside in nursing homes. Those services include respite care, housekeeping, home delivered meals, personal emergency response plans, transportation, adult day care, special medical equipment or supplies, caregiver training and home health aide services. Applicants must meet certain income requirements, all according to county officials.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: The state House of Representatives approved a budget plan Wednesday to increase annual state spending by more than a half-billion dollars to expand early childhood education programs, boost teacher salaries and shore up health care for the poor. The House voted 46-24 along party lines with Democrats in support of the $7.6 billion general fund spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The bill now moves to the Senate, where a variety of amendments are likely. State economists are forecasting an $800 million surplus in state government income for the coming fiscal year that is linked closely to record-setting oil production in the state. Republicans in the House minority criticized the proposed $530 million, 7.5% increase as irresponsible and unsustainable in the event of an oil-sector downturn. They outlined their own plan that would increase spending by 4.3% and called for giving every New Mexico resident a $200 rebate.

New York

Albany: The state could ban retail pet shops from selling dogs, cats or rabbits as soon as mid-2021 under a Democratic state senator’s bill. The state would join Maryland and California and hundreds of municipalities nationwide that have taken a stand to outlaw sales of those pets, Deputy Senate Leader Mike Gianaris said Monday. Supporters including The Humane Society of the United States and the New York State Animal Protection Federation say the vast majority of New York pet stores already don’t sell cats, dogs or rabbits. But Libby Post, the executive director of the federation, says the proposal is an “opportunity for pet stores to rebrand themselves as compassionate businesses that put puppies over profits.” New Yorkers could still buy cats, dogs and rabbits directly from breeders.

North Carolina

Raleigh: Officials in the capital city approved the creation of a citizen advisory board Tuesday charged with reviewing the police department’s policies. Activists have called for greater oversight of the Raleigh Police Department’s procedures for years, despite pushback from some department employees and leaders, news outlets report. The calls were renewed following the fatal shooting of a man Raleigh police said was armed and “acting strangely” last week, as well as a traffic stop last month that prompted a use-of-force investigation, the outlets say. The board will consist of five members, but those people have not been announced, according to Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. She asked for people interested in serving on the board to reach out to their council member.

North Dakota

Bismarck: A group is seeking to oust Burleigh County Commissioner Kathleen Jones through a recall petition due in part to her support for resettling refugees in the county. The petition against her, which lists a five-person sponsoring committee, calls for Jones to be recalled for “the reasons of contempt of the voters and negligence in office.” The county commission voted 3-2 in December to allow Lutheran Social Services to continue resettling refugees in Burleigh County. The meeting was prompted by an executive order from President Donald Trump that left the question up to states and counties. In January, the commission voted 3-2 not to put the question of future refugee resettlement before voters in the form of a nonbinding straw poll. State law limits recall petitions to one official. Recall organizer Robert Field said Jones “was the easiest target.” Jones, who has served since 2014, believes she is being targeted because of her gender.

Ohio

Columbus: The Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame is seeking nominations to honor people who have continued to contribute to their communities after their military service. Nominees must be current or past Ohio residents who have been outstanding in volunteerism, advocacy, professional distinction, public service or philanthropy. Each year, the Hall of Fame inducts up to 20 former members of the U.S. Armed Forces based on recommendations from a statewide executive committee of veterans and approval by the governor. Nearly 900 veterans have been inducted since the hall’s 1992 inception. They include astronaut Neil Armstrong, actor Paul Newman and fast-food entrepreneur Dave Thomas. The state Department of Veterans Services encourages people to submit nominations before a deadline of June 1, 2020.

Oklahoma

Tulsa: The city will conduct a test excavation at an area cemetery as part of an ongoing effort to find remains of victims of a 1921 race massacre, officials say. The test excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery, planned for April, was announced during the city’s Mass Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee meeting Monday, the Tulsa World reports. The meeting came a little more than a month after investigators announced that geophysical surveys conducted in October had found anomalies consistent with possible graves. “We would see this as an intermediate step,” says Kary Stackelbeck, a state archaeologist. The massacre happened over the course of 16 hours, from May 31 to June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses. As many as 300 people were killed, hundreds more injured and thousands left homeless. Tulsa’s prosperous black business district known as Black Wall Street was destroyed.

Oregon

Salem: A state senator told demonstrators opposed to a plan to build a natural gas pipeline and marine export terminal in Oregon that he expects the battle to go to the courts if the Trump administration tries to ram the project through despite a lack of state permits. Gov. Kate Brown’s office said late Tuesday that she “would consider all available options” if the federal government tried to preempt state permitting processes. Demonstrators gathered outside the Department of State Lands on Tuesday to thank its director, Vicki Walker, for refusing to grant another extension to Pembina, an energy company based in Calgary, Canada, for a decision on a removal-fill permit. The permit is required to dredge sediment out of Coos Bay, on Oregon’s southern coast, for the marine export terminal and to construct a 230-mile feeder pipeline through and under waterways in southern Oregon.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: A bill that would provide millions in tax breaks for new construction of facilities to use natural gas extracted in the state to make fertilizers and other chemicals will be vetoed by the governor, his spokesman said Wednesday. The bill, which passed both legislative chambers this week by veto-proof majorities, authorizes the “energy and fertilizer manufacturing tax credit” for projects that require at least $450 million in construction and startup costs and create at least 800 jobs. The Revenue Department estimates the tax credit would be worth about $22 million annually, per plant. The tax break would expire at the end of 2050. Wolf “believes such projects should be evaluated on a specific case-by-case basis,” said his press secretary, J.J. Abbott. “However, if there was a specific project, he would be open to a conversation.”

Rhode Island

Providence: Inspectors found no evidence of black mold days after a General Assembly office was evacuated. The Joint Committee on Legislative Services offices were cleared after an employee reported finding mold under her desk, and aides to House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said last week that renovations began as a result. The work, which included the removal of filing cabinets, raised concerns because it coincided with a lawsuit involving the committee and a state police investigation. When the committee revealed that no official test had been done to check for black mold before the work began, state officials ordered one. The report, which was released Monday, found no black mold. The report did find a “moderate” level of mold spores in air samples from the office, but the technician who conducted the test told WPRI-TV it did not indicate a cause for concern.

South Carolina

Charleston: Several downtown streets were closed Wednesday after construction crews found a Civil War artillery shell, police said. The crew called 911 about 10 a.m. to report the shell in downtown Charleston, just over a block from the Old Slave Mart where dozens of vendors sell merchandise, Charleston police said. The police department called the U.S. Air Force to dispose of the shell and closed several nearby roads for about three hours as a precaution. Investigators initially said the shell appeared to be newer than the Civil War, but after further investigation, they concluded it was left over from the war between the Union and the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865, police spokesman Charles Francis said in a statement. No injuries were reported.

South Dakota

Pierre: Small towns in the state say they are strapped for cash after historically bad flooding last year and are asking the Legislature to let them use money from gas taxes for road repairs. A bill from Sen. Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, would use money from the state’s motor fuel tax and the Department of Transportation to create a $2.4 million fund that townships could tap for road repairs. But cities, counties, the Department of Transportation and other programs argue that it would take money away from repairs they need to make. The Senate Local Government Committee passed the bill on a 4-3 vote Wednesday. The bill would designate the funds for repairing culverts and small structures like bridges. Lawmakers said they want the full Senate to consider the proposal, hoping it would spark further discussion on how to help towns fund road repairs.

Tennessee

Nashville: A Republican-led legislative panel has decided not to decide, for now, whether it thinks a bust of a former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader should be removed from the Capitol. The House committee on Naming, Designating, & Private Acts voted Tuesday to delay consideration of the nonbinding resolution that favors removing the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest until the panel’s last meeting, likely months away. Republicans said the delay allows Tennessee’s Capitol Commission to weigh in first. The commission meets Feb. 20 and will allow public testimony on the bust, but officials don’t plan to hold a vote at that meeting. Removing the bust would require approval from the Capitol Commission and then the state’s Historical Commission, as laid out by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act.

Texas

Fort Worth: An appeals court heard arguments Tuesday in the case of a mother who does not want a hospital to end life-sustaining treatment for her 1-year-old daughter. Texas’ Second Court Court of Appeals in Fort Worth is considering the case after a lower court said Cook Children’s Medical Center could remove Tinslee Lewis from life support. The appeals court has said the child will remain on life support until it makes a final ruling in the case. Doctors at the Fort Worth hospital have said Tinslee is in pain and will never recover. Her 20-year-old mother, Trinity Lewis, has said she doesn’t think Tinslee, who turned 1 on Saturday, is suffering. Lewis’ attorney, Joe Nixon, told the three appellate judges that Lewis has the right to decide whether her daughter lives or dies. Amy Warr, an attorney for Cook Children’s, said doctors have a right to decline care for a patient if that care “causes suffering without medical benefit.”

Utah

Salt Lake City: A resolution encouraging consideration of later high school start times has earned unanimous support from a state legislative committee. The nonbinding resolution was presented to the House Health and Human Services Committee by Democratic Rep. Suzanne Harrison, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The resolution will proceed to the full House for a vote. Harrison, a physician, offered research at the hearing showing the circadian rhythms that regulate the waking and sleeping cycles of teenagers are different from those of children and adults. While adults typically begin winding down about 9 p.m., the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin is released about two hours later in teenagers, which is why their most productive sleep period is between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., Harrison testified.

Vermont

Montpelier: The Democratic-led state House failed by one vote Wednesday to override a veto by Republican Gov. Phil Scott of a bill that would have established a paid family leave system in the state. The vote of 99 in favor of overriding the governor to 51 against came less than a week after Scott vetoed the bill because the plan included a $29 million payroll tax. Scott prefers a voluntary program. The bill would have guaranteed up to 12 weeks of paid parental or bonding leave and up to eight weeks of paid family care leave. Proponents have said the bill was needed to help recruit and retain workers in Vermont. When the bill passed the House last week, it was 11 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the governor’s veto. But some of those who voted “no” before changed their votes Wednesday.

Virginia

Richmond: The capital city recorded a 10% increase in its homeless population during a winter survey, according to preliminary data from the count. The number of people sleeping in shelters or outside grew from 497 people in January 2019 to 549 last month, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, citing a regional survey conducted biannually. It’s the first such increase since 2011, the newspaper says. “The focus on serving households with more complex needs and higher barriers to housing is the primary driver of this increase,” Kelly King Horne, a director of the region’s homeless services, told the newspaper. Still, the numbers are a little under half of what was recorded a decade ago, when 1,150 people were counted as homeless, according to data from 2009.

Washington

SeaTac: The city will no longer issue exorbitant bills for free-speech demonstrations. An immigrant rights group called Families Belong Together-Washington Coalition sued SeaTac in 2018 after the city sent it a $37,000 bill for public safety costs related to a protest of President Donald Trump’s separation of migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border. The official who issued the bill said the city code required him to charge Families Belong Together for the actual costs of the event, which drew about 10,000 people June 30, 2018. Dozens of mothers who had been separated from their children were detained at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac at the time. But organizers said such a policy unlawfully chilled free speech rights under the U.S. and Washington Constitutions. The new policy says the city will not charge more than $500 for public safety costs and will waive the fees entirely if organizers demonstrate they are not able to pay.

West Virginia

Charleston: A resolution to prohibit the state’s court system from interfering in ongoing legislative action failed in the state Senate on Wednesday, the latest unsuccessful attempt to address a 2018 ruling that halted impeachment proceedings against several Supreme Court justices. The vote in the Senate was 20-13, but the resolution did not receive the required two-thirds support for passage. If it had passed both houses, the resolution would have gone before voters. Last October the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a decision by five acting state Supreme Court justices that prosecuting then-Chief Justice Margaret Workman in the state Senate would violate the state constitution’s separation of powers clause. That ruling was later applied to also halt impeachment proceedings against two other sitting justices who have since left the court: Robin Davis and Allen Loughry.

Wisconsin

Madison: Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and advocates for victims of sexual assault made a last-ditch effort Wednesday to save a pair of bipartisan bills intended to prevent a backlog of untested rape evidence kits, blasting Republicans’ divisive substitute proposal as a partisan attempt to ensure nothing becomes law this session. The Republican-backed bill adopts the same kit submission and tracking protocols laid out in the original bills but contains provisions requiring police notify immigration officials if attackers are in the country illegally and allowing students assaulted by other students or teachers to enter the state’s school choice programs. Both proposals are nonstarters with Democrats. Gov. Tony Evers would almost certainly veto the legislation if it reaches him. “This bill is a mess,” Kaul told Republicans on the Assembly Health Committee during a hearing on the measure.

Wyoming

Casper: Project leaders are seeking names to include in a new memorial honoring military veterans from within the Wind River Indian Reservation. All military veterans who have lived within the boundaries of the Wyoming reservation could have their names included, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. That includes veterans from Riverton, a city of about 11,000 people that is encircled by the reservation but is not part of it. The “Path of Honor” memorial will be located outside the Frank B. Wise Business Center building in Fort Washakie and include a garden walkway and four massive stones listing the names of the veterans, organizers said. The four stones will form the shape of a buffalo, organizer and Eastern Shoshone Vietnam War veteran Scott Ratliff said. Organizers hope to complete the memorial sculpture garden by the summer. The deadline for submitting veterans’ names is Friday.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports