Legalectric

Monday I left on a whirlwind trip to California to pick up an old German Shepherd to be our hospice dog for the rest of her life.  She’d been dumped in a high-kill shelter at 12 years old.  That’s pretty much a death sentence and it was surprising that she was still there in a kennel after more than two weeks later.  So I made an impulsive decision, got on the internet and the horn, and arranged to have her pulled from the Lancaster shelter and boarded.

The bad news is that she died yesterday, just a few hours after we’d made it home.  We’re suspecting distemper, the symptoms fit, within hours she was down for the count.  From the beginning, she had neuro issues with apparent field cut when looking at something, leaning and circling,  and it increased, mostly her last day, with head tremors, motor issues as legs gave out, first rear then front legs, loss of appetite, fever, respiratory coughing, labored breathing, really gross nose gunk, and vet was talking about seizures and she may have had petit mal at home, had tremors for sure.  She had 108 temp when we got to the ER vet.  We gave her our best, but she went downhill so fast, and didn’t survive — she died moments after we got in the door at the emergency vet.

Here she is Thursday morning when I picked her up in CA:

And locked and loaded, here we go, heading to Minnesota:

Off we went, back to Minnesota. I HATE LAS VEGAS – construction on I-15 was such a mess:

A quick pit stop in Cedar, UT — easy to find her a cheezeburger, but not easy to find green grass in Cedar, Utah:

When we got further north, this white cloud appeared, I was wondering what on earth had blown up, and it turns out it was the “Poal Creek” fire, and as we went through Provo, I could see the flames and dark brown particulate matter hanging in the air, both of us were coughing and hacking through that, and the air was like that until the Wyoming border, where it was blowing north of our route:

Another surprise was the Echo reservoir, which was almost dry.  Back when I was driving, this was full of BIG boats cruising around, huge marina, a major tourist attraction.  Not any more.

And ready to hit the road again Friday morning in Wyoming — I was thrilled when she barked in the middle of the night, never knew a poop could be so thrilling (she hadn’t pooped yet, WHEW, glad to get that over with.  She appeared to be house/car trained, would bark to go.):

And checking out the depleted reservoir in Avoca, WY:

Here she is just after we got home:

I was so tired, haven’t been a truck driver in a long time and out of practice, and so right after we got in, I took a nap.  Alan made her a bed in the living room (that “Kenya bed” is 1/2 a futon!) and got a rotisserie chicken for her homecoming.  She wouldn’t eat.  When I got up two hours or less later, I came down the stairs and saw her, and it was clear she was dying.  WHAT?!?!  But there was no doubt.  We called the emergency vet and headed in.  She was dead 5 minutes, maybe 10, after we hit the door.  Distemper is suspected, it fits the symptoms she presented, the fastness of her decline, and the vet’s questions about seizures and her ultra-high temp and immediate shutdown and death.

And that’s how I want to remember her, a dear dog with a smile on her face… what a trip we had.  She died knowing she had arrived at home and was loved.  This post I’ll file in “Disasters.”

The MPCA filed a letter a couple days ago that clearly states that when measuring wind noise for permit compliance, AMBIENT NOISE IS TO BE INCLUDED.  They also admitted that this has not been properly interpreted for wind permit siting for past permits.

MPCA Letter from Frank Kohlasch_20189-146351-01

MPCA filed this in the Freeborn Wind docket, PUC docket 17-410, which is on the PUC’s agenda for September 20, 2018.  This will be interesting.

Here’s the perjury Complaint to Dept. of Justice following Kavanaugh’s testimony:

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4840582/BRETT-KAVANAUGH-CRIMINAL-COMPLAINT-to-DEPARTMENT.pdf

Will anyone pay attention?

The tRump administration is at it again, this time a rule proposal from Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services to circumvent a rule that limits detention of immigrant children to 20 days, and instead, detain them indefinitely, and to make it easier to detain families indefinitely as their cases are pending rather than release on probation.  The proposed rule is open for comment for 60 days, so due November 5 or 6, depending on when it is published in Federal Register.  Info on how to comment is below.

In Fortune:

Trump Administration Proposes Indefinite Detention of Child Migrants

Here’s the proposal, DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-19052.pdf

If/when adopted, the rule would terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement. From the rule:

But the practical implications of the FSA, and in particular the lack of state licensing for FRCs and the release requirements for minors, have effectively prevented the Government from using family detention for more than a limited period of time, and in turn often led to the release of families. That combination of factors may create a powerful incentive for adults to bring juveniles on the dangerous journey to the United States and then put them in further danger by illegally crossing the United States border—in the hope, whether correct or not, that having a juvenile will result in an immediate release into the United States. At the same time, the second choice—that of separating family members so the adult may be held in detention pending immigration proceedings—is to be avoided when possible, and has generated significant litigation. See Ms. L v. ICE, No. 18-428 (S.D. Cal.).

…

The expectation that adults with juveniles will remain in the United States outside of immigration detention may incentivize these risky practices.

Of course the practice of separating parents and children, and jailing children as they have, DOH, it would generate significant litigation.  But really, “a powerful incentive” “expectation” that to bring children with would facility entry and that’s why they’re bringing their kids? Really, drag kids along on this arduous journey as a “get out of jail free” card?  This is DHS’ position?

Read it.

You may submit comments on all or part of this proposed rule, but be specific, cite to page number, language, the more specific the better, and propose alternative language, or jettisoning of the whole damn thing.  Put the docket number at the beginning of your comment: DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002

Send your comment by any one of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal (preferred by DHS):
https://www.regulations.gov

Follow the website instructions for submitting comments.

via E-mail: ICE.Regulations@ice.dhs.gov. Include DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-
0002 in the subject line of the message.

By Mail: Debbie Seguin, Assistant Director, Office of Policy, U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, 500 12th Street SW,
Washington, DC 20536.

Remember, include DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002 in your correspondence.

tRump’s “Affordable Clean Energy Rule” would be quite the legacy (though he leaves so many, how to choose).

EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule page

Here are the fact sheets from that page:

Fact Sheets (these are links below!):

• Overview of the proposed ACE rule
• CO₂ emissions trends
• Costs and benefits 
• Legal overview
• Permitting improvements under New Source Review program
• Side-by-side comparison of ACE and CPP

And the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register yesterday:

Affordable Clean Energy Rule-Federal Register-8-31-2018-18755

It’s 68 pages long, and intense.

Comments due October 30 — how to comment?  From their site: