Legalectric

A wind energy company has pleaded guilty after killing at least 150 eagles

What’s really odd about this is that most of the projects that I’ve been dealing with in permitting have secured eagle take permits — I thought. In this case, NextEra seems as a policy not to have take permits. HUH?

I am remembering resistance to developers answering questions about eagle take permits, and I think that it comes down to whether USFWS requires them to get one.

Here’s USFWS info on eagle permits here in the Midwest – it appears that there are only three eagle take permits issued for Minnesota wind projects, Red Pine, Getty/Black Oak, and Pleasant Valley/Grand Meadow:

Midwest Region- NEPA Documents for Eagle Permits

This seems to say that there are only FIVE eagle take permits? Here’s the application for one project that I’d worked on:

Black Oak/Getty Wind Farm Eagle Take Permit Application

For the Freeborn Wind project, we entered information about locations of nests and photos of eagles foraging, nests and foraging territory being, supposedly, two criteria examined in siting of wind projects and consideration of need for take permits:

See Freeborn Wind ALJ Recommendation, and search for “eagle” in the Recommendation.

Methinks this will have significant impact, but sentencing a company to probation — but how does that work?

Doug Wardlow (he represents the “My Pillow” guy and is pushing defamation suits!) should not be Minnesota’s Attorney General. And he’s not the only one…

IN RE: Petition for DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST Lynne A. TORGERSON

STrib photo in “Minnesota GOP split: Confront disinformation, embrace it or ignore” published today:

Her politics, platform, are even scarier than that photo. Her views: ISSUES (worth a read just to see how dreadful her writing is, matches the positions she’s marketing).

From her campaign site:

The same photo above shows up in her practice web page and google maps ad for Lynne Torgerson Criminal Defense with date of 2019 — must be from when she opened up her practice 20+ years ago:

And also from the STrib article:

I know 25+ years as sole practitioner is a really rough road, but there ought to be some truth in advertising!

It’s time to call for impeachment — here’s how to find your U.S. Representative (if they’re not on speed dial already): https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Not a new idea: The Case for Impeaching Clarence Thomas

But now there are even more reasons:

The Corruption of Clarence and Ginni Thomas

… and…

Ginni Thomas Pressed Trump’s Chief of Staff to Overturn 2020 Vote, Texts Show

From the article:

Justice Thomas has been Mr. Trump’s most stalwart defender on the court. In February 2021, he wrote a dissent after the majority declined to hear a case filed by Pennsylvania Republicans that sought to disqualify certain mail-in ballots. And this past January, he was the only justice who voted against allowing the release of records from the Trump White House related to the Jan. 6 attack.

In USA Today:

Reports: Jan. 6 committee reviewing texts between Virginia Thomas and Mark Meadows

And the Guardian:

Ginni Thomas urged Trump’s chief of staff to overturn election results

This overview from Heather Cox Richardson, March 24, 2022:

More explosively, tonight Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and Robert Costa of CBS broke the story that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, Virginia, a right-wing activist who goes by the name Ginni, exchanged at least 29 texts with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows about the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, 21 from her, 8 from Meadows.

The messages were among the 2320 messages Meadows provided to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol; the aides and committee members to whom Woodward and Costa spoke indicated their belief that there were more messages between Ms. Thomas and Meadows than just the 29.

The messages show that Ms. Thomas bought into the conspiracy theories that the election was stolen, including the extreme theories pushed by QAnon. “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!” she urged Meadows on November 10, after the results were in. “The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.” (Biden won the election by more than 7 million votes, and by a vote of 306 to 232 in the Electoral College.) On November 24, Meadows wrote, “This is a fight of good versus evil…. Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues….”

In January 2022, Ms. Thomas’s husband, Justice Thomas, was the only member of the Supreme Court to vote against permitting the January 6 committee to see a different cache of documents concerning the fight to overturn the election. Trump had claimed executive privilege over documents stored as part of the presidential records archive at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); by a vote of 8 to 1, the Supreme Court agreed that the committee’s subpoena must be enforced.

Considering that his wife might have communications in that NARA cache, it was likely a conflict of interest for him to participate in that decision.

Neither Thomas responded to requests for comment. The Supreme Court announced Sunday that Justice Thomas, 73, had been hospitalized with an infection that is not Covid-19 and that he was expected to be released Monday or Tuesday. Thomas was not in court Wednesday, and the court has provided no further updates.

This is just too weird:

Capitol riot suspect is granted refugee status in Belarus after fleeing US

Evan Neumann: US Capitol riot suspect gets asylum in Belarus

In the Northfield News today:

Northfield’s responsibility for impacts of drainage is nothing new

To the editor:

Due to complaints of flooded basements, the City of Northfield is looking at its responsibility for drainage and impacts. The City Council, Planning Commission, Engineering, and City staff need to know that drainage issues are not new. Much of Northfield is built on swampland.

Over 20 years ago, when Presidential Commons was proposed and platted, the plan was to move “Grant Park” and build townhouses over the swale and Grant Park. Grant Park was supposed to have been deeded to the City, a green space condition of approval of a prior development, but that parkland dedication didn’t happen. Next, the developer wanted to build over the park, which the City allowed. This platting would move the park, change drainage patterns, and have a significant impact on pre-existing homes.

Thankfully, an affected homeowner challenged that plan, exposed the Grant Park move and detailed impacts of building over the drainage swale. The City and developer withdrew two lots on the north end of the development and added a berm and walkway to direct drainage toward the pond in the new Grant Park.

Now the City is again looking at drainage issues, mostly in terms of mitigation. Northfield, take a broader view. Based on past experience, it’s a systemic planning issue. The City needs to adequately plan for drainage, and must also revise the city’s process for review of development proposals and plan infrastructure updates necessary to address weather extremes. Has the City been platting where homes don’t belong, without adequate consideration of drainage needs and water issues?

As the City addresses these material drainage problems, the City must establish preventative planning and platting to avoid this need for costly mitigation.

Carol Overland

Red Wing