BISMARCK, N.D. – Munitions were set to be detonated as attorneys attempt to gather evidence in a federal lawsuit by a Dakota Access pipeline protester who claims she was injured in a skirmish with law enforcement officers. Sophia Wilansky claims police targeted her with a concussion grenade in November 2016. Law enforcement maintains she was injured by a propane canister that…
MADISON, Wisc. – Some Midwestern farmers are suing the federal government alleging they’re ineligible for a COVID-19 stimulus loan forgiveness program because they’re White. The farmers are from Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio. They argue that the Biden administration’s stimulus plan provides loan forgiveness to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, defined as as Black, American Indian, Hispanic or…
MINNEAPOLIS – The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $27 million to settle a civil lawsuit from George Floyd’s family over the man’s death in police custody. The settlement was announced Friday as jury selection continued in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white former officer charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Floyd family attorney Ben Crump…
MORTON CO., N.D. — A violent protest four years ago between Dakota Access Pipeline protesters and law enforcement is still being investigated. One protester has recently been jailed for refusing to provide grand jury testimony. No one has been criminally charged in the November 2016 clash, which severely injured 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky of New York City. She has sued law…
WILLISTON, N.D. – A dozen people identifying themselves as pit bull owners have filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the city of Williston end its nearly 24-year-old ban on the dogs. The city’s ordinance, which went to effect in March of 1987, prohibits anyone from owning or keeping a pit bull in the city limits. It bars four specific breeds…
BISMARCK, N.D. – A judge has struck down a North Dakota’s law that landowners say takes away their property rights. The pore space law passed the Legislature in 2019 after supporters sought clarification on the use of cavities in rock or soil. Pore spaces are used when the petroleum industry injects saltwater from oil and gas production underground for permanent…
MINNEAPOLIS – A federal judge has ordered a Florida company accused of selling counterfeit N95 face masks with 3M’s name on them to stop using the Minnesota company’s trademarks and representing itself as a distributor or authorized retailer for 3M. 3M sued Nationwide Source Inc. in late December. The complaint accused the company of selling more than 10,000 of the…
BISMARCK, N.D. – A federal judge in North Dakota has thrown out another lawsuit alleging officers used excessive force during the Dakota Access Pipeline protest in 2017. The lawsuit by Eric Poemoceah is the second such lawsuit to be dismissed in recent weeks. The complaint, filed last April, said the Oklahoma man was tackled while running from law enforcement and…
WINNEBAGO, Minn. – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says he wants to shut down a planned New Year’s Eve party in Winnebago he because it violates Gov. Tim Walz’s executive order on activities that could spread COVID-19. Ellison said in a release that the Carlson Event Center in the southeastern Minnesota town advertises the event as a “big new year’s…
BISMARCK, N.D. – A federal judge has thrown out the lawsuit of an Arizona man who claimed North Dakota law enforcement officers injured him and violated his civil rights during the Dakota Access pipeline protests. U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor ruled that 24-year-old Marcus Mitchell placed himself where he knew less-than-lethal weapons were being used and failed to show that…
