Legalectric

Stearns County tabled its E.O. 13888 Consent agenda item until the next meeting, a request for a letter from county consenting to refugee settlement. In Stearns County, there have been 662, 22 in 2019, and 12 in 2018. The County documents are below.

Stearns County Board – Video – Refugee Settlement begins at about 19 minutes in: VIDEO HERE

There’s quite a discussion here in Red Wing about Goodhue County’s upcoming decision whether the County will continue to allow refugee resettlement in the County. This decision is necessary due to Trump’s issuance of Executive Order 13888, which prohibits resettlement of refugees unless the Governor of the state and the head of the local governmental unit have consented in advance to refugee settlement.

That means that for refugees to be able to settle somewhere, there must be an affirmative YES! to allow settlement. Minnesota’s Gov. Walz has given his consent and has welcomed refugees to Minnesota:

Governor Walz to Trump Administration: ‘The Inn is Not Full in Minnesota’

In Minnesota, that means that local governments now also must consent to be able to settle refugees in the area. County by County, here are the numbers for Minnesota counties that admitted any refugees, ones not listed, such as Goodhue County, admitted ZERO. NONE! NADA!

Goodhue County will be discussing this in a Committee of the Whole meeting tomorrow, here’s my post on that:

Refugee Resettlement in Goodhue County

In the meantime, there a federal case working its way through Maryland Southern District — keep in mind that the tRump administration is not doing well in federal challenges of its immigration Executive Orders, tRump has lost most, if not all of them (so many, it’s hard to keep track!). Here’s the Complaint and Amici filings available online:

This is everything I can find, and I need to call PACER to get into my account (new computer, AAAAAAAAAARGH!) and look at the filings in the docket, so there may be more. I can’t find the Administration’s Answer, which should have been filed in December. I’ll be digging for that and more when I can get into the court’s docket file.

4 p.m. Tuesday at Goodhue County Board Room, 3rd Floor.

This is Committee of the Whole discussion of continuation of existing Goodhue County policy to allow refugee resettlement, necessitated by tRump’s E.O. 13888 requiring prior consent of local governments.

Intent? How divisive can you get? There have been ZERO refugees resettled in Goodhue County in last 5 years.

Trump’sExecutive Order 13888 turned refugee resettlement on its head by prohibiting resettlement of refugees in an area unless both the state and local government have consented prior.

Gov. Walz to Trump Administration: “The inn is not full in Minnesota.”

Tomorrow, Tuesday 1/7,at 4:00 p.m., the Goodhue County Board, as Committee of the Whole, will address refugee resettlement:

1. Refugee Resettlement in Goodhue County

Documents:

1. Refugee Resettlement Presentation.pdf
2. Refugee Resettlement Additional Information.pdf

The meeting was announced on a facebook group here in Red Wing, and also the Red Wing Tea Party page. I cannot believe the vitriolic, hateful, and just plain ignorant comments being made.

What are people afraid of?

That’s an essay question that’ll take some thoughtful writing, an LTE perhaps, for another day. But in short, it’s about white folks seeing that the world is changing, that privilege as majority isn’t a given, and knowing how the majority has treated minorities, a fear that a reverse Golden Rule karma may be in the future. A similar issue are the cries of Sharia Law by those pushing a “Christian” theocracy, and failure to observe that U.S. is a country of agnostic laws based on the Constitution, particularly the 4th Amendment, by those coming here fleeing religious persecution.

It’s a mess – the BNSF derailment at Bonners Ferry, Idaho on Friday means that not just BNSF isn’t moving, but Amtrak can’t get through either. But maybe Amtrak will be getting through soon.

Amtrak is twitting about it:

Empire Builder Train 8/28 which departed from Seattle (SEA)/Portland (PDX) on 1/3 is currently stopped at (WTN) due to earlier vehicle on the tracks and track work. We will update when more information is available.

Empire Builder Train 7/27 which departed Chicago (CHI) on 1/2 is currently operating approximately 11 hours 40 minutes late due to holding for the bus bridge into Spokane (SPK).

From the local press:

BNSF line is back open (published 4p 1/4/2020)

Derailment appears to have been caused by rock slide

County issues Kootenai River water quality advisory

County update on derailment cleanup

The Environmental Quality Board has forwarded Association of Freeborn Landowners’ Petition for Environmental Assessment Worksheet to the Public Utilities Commission. YES!

They zipped it, listed as “FreebornWind.zip” on the ftp site (ftp://files.pca.state.mn.us/pub/tmp).

Next step – the PUC needs to determine whether an EAW is necessary, the transmittal letter lays out the process. In the meantime:

Onward. Potential for Environental review of a wind project in Minnesota — what a concept!