Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, Other Groups Win Victory Against Fracking in Idaho

for Earth First! Newswire

BOISE, Ida.— The Trump administration has halted an oil and gas lease sale near eastern Idaho’s Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge in response to protests from conservation groups.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and other groups filed formal protests to the 800-acre lease sale, scheduled for March, because fracking and drilling would threaten the imperiled greater sage grouse and violate federal conservation plans for the bird. The protest also noted that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider potential harms from fracking and drilling to other wildlife and other land uses in eastern Idaho.

“This is an important victory for Idaho’s imperiled sage grouse and other wildlife threatened by fracking and drilling,” said Michael Saul, a senior attorney at the Center. “Fracking destroys wildlife habitat and pollutes air and water, so halting this sale was the right decision. It’s good to see the Bureau of Land Management acknowledging the risks and uncertainties of turning this land over to the oil industry.”

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US Attorney Drops 129 Trump Inauguration Protest Cases, 59 Still Face Prison

from Unicorn Riot

EF!J Editor’s Note: Content Warning: mention of sexual violence

Washington, DC – A legal filing submitted today by the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) indicate that the federal government has drastically reduced the scope of the prosecution of people mass arrested during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on January 20 , 2017 (J20). The government will no longer bring charges against 129 of the almost 200 people previously indicted based on their presence at an ‘anti-capitalist and anti-fascist’ march that was violently herded into a police trap. 59 people still have trial dates scattered throughout this year and face charges carrying up to 60 years in prison.

The motion filed by Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff claims that the smaller remaining group of defendants still face charges due to their alleged involvement in “identifiable acts of destruction, violence, or other assaultive conduct.” 

The superseding indictment behind the case contains little to no particularized evidence against named defendants, and instead asserts collective guilt based on black clothing, anti-capitalist chants, and the fact that the protest march was “moving as a group.” 

This claim of collective guilt was contested by defendant Elizabeth Lagesse, who said she was “a little bit confused that i’m still on the list. I don’t fit any of the criteria that they listed and I have absolutely no idea what their justification is.” 

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Two Indigenous Activists Lock Shut Doors of Department of Fisheries and Oceans Office

from Warrior Publications

Tsastilqualus Ambers Umbas and Shawna Green have been arrested for refusing to remove themselves from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) office, situated on unceded WSANEC territories (near Victoria, BC).

After a complete dismissal of their demands for justice from the federal and provincial governments, they have said enough is enough. This action was carried out in solidarity with the many indigenous nations opposing the illegal fish farms, which are contaminating their unceded territories and destroying wild salmon populations at a devastating rate.

Meanwhile, along with other constitutional violations, the DFO are currently in direct violation of a 2015 Supreme Court order mandating they stop allowing the transfer and foreign holding of diseased Atlantic fish in the migratory backeddies of wild pacific salmon, which they have a duty to protect.

Water Protector Red Fawn Fallis Back in Jail After Thursday Arrest

from Native News Online

FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA — Red Fawn Fallis, the woman arrested for allegedly firing three shots at Standing Rock during a confrontation with law enforcement in October 2016, is back in jail on Thursday night.

Fallis, who reportedly will enter a plea agreement on Monday for the 2016 incident at Standing Rock, was arrested by U.S. Marshalls at Centre, Inc. in Fargo, North Dakota for allegedly not being where she was supposed to be earlier in the day, according to sources.

She was arrested without incident after about 5:00 p.m. after a federal warrant was issued.

The warrant was issued based on a petition filed by Fallis’ pretrial services officer late Thursday afternoon. The petition states “The defendant signed out of Centre Inc. at 8:05 this morning to attend her GED courses at the Adult Learning Center located at 1305 9th Ave South in Fargo, North Dakota.”

At 2:24 p.m., Centre staff went to the Adult Learning Center and the defendant was not present. Centre staff asked the Adult Learning Center staff if the defendant was present on Thursday and were told that the defendant did not attend class. A source tells Native News Online, there was a miscommunication between Fallis and Centre officials.

The news of a plea agreement was announced on Tuesday.

Fallis is being held in the Cass County Detention Center pending an appearance in court.

A Statement From Some Squatters of the ZAD

submitted to Earth First! Newswire

Letter to the local committees, the supporters of this movement, and to all those who recognize themselves in the movement against the airport and its world

Monday, January 15, 2018

We are witnessing these last weeks a stream of media statements about the zad in notre-dame-deslandes, france and its future – airport or not, evictions or not, new Larzac or not, blah blah. Suffice to say that we do not necessarily find ourselves in these statements, or not at all, or our ideas are on the contrary. Some feedback lead us to believe that it is not always very clear, for the members of the local committees, the supports and the sympathizers, especially those who are far away, geographically, from the zone. This letter is addressed to you, because we want to explain what we understand about the situation, and also to carry a different voice than those most heard in the média. WE, we are a bunch of inhabitants / squatters, of different places of the zad, who do not always have the same positions, but often meet on the common ground that the zad retains a certain radicality which is not only of image, keeping it a place where everyone can find their place in what is happening there.

Where we are?

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Bison Escape Quarantine Facility, BFC and Tribal Members Respond

From Native News Online

GARDENER BASIN, MONTANA –  Fifty-two bison have escaped a recently converted quarantine facility inside Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek bison trap.  News articles about the escaped buffalo started appearing Tuesday evening.

Even though Yellowstone’s proposed fifty-year quarantine plan has not yet been approved, Yellowstone initiated capture for quarantine beginning in 2016, at their Stephens Creek trap.  The first group of 24 buffalo have been in the quarantine pens since March 2016, while the other group of 28 buffalo have been held there since March 2017.  All of the female buffalo who had been part of that capture-for-quarantine were shipped to slaughter last year when Yellowstone opened the trap to begin slaughter operations.  All of the buffalo who remained in the then-unapproved quarantine facility were bulls.  Seven of these bulls have been shipped to slaughter or have died due to human handling.

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Durham, NC: “NO WALL NO BORDER” Graffiti in Solidarity with #J20 and FL Prison Strikers

From It’s Going Down

The following short report was sent anonymously to It’s Going Down:

A group of friends spent a casual and soon-to-be snowy evening decorating a huge wall in view of Durham’s highway 147. We hope this can warm the hearts of friends and comrades facing repression on both sides of the wall. Winter is coming!

Two Paychecks Podcast: Blockade Against McKenzie Forest Logging

From It’s Going Down

In Oregon, Cascadia Forest Defenders are resisting the logging of public lands of the McKenzie Forest by by setting up blockades and occupying treesits. Logging the McKenzie would be harmful to the water table for surrounding communities, it is also one of the last bits of unlogged forest. Resistance to this is crucial. We got to talk to Cooper who was on the ground at the occupation.

Listen to the podcast here!

France: ZAD Declares Victory as Airport Plan Dropped!

Red Fawn Fallis Reaches Non-Cooperating Plea Agreement

from Water Protector Legal Collective

One Charge Dropped:

Government to Recommend a Maximum of 7 Years

Mandan, ND: Attorneys for Red Fawn Fallis today notified the court of a change of plea pursuant to an agreement with prosecutors. If the judge accepts the plea, the government will drop the most serious charge and recommend a sentence of no more than seven years for the remaining two charges.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, Ms. Fallis would plead to Counts 1 and 3 of her indictment (Civil Disorder and Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition by a Convicted Felon) and the government would drop Count 2 (Discharge of a Firearm in Relation to a Felony Crime of Violence). This latter charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and the possibility of up to life in prison.

The next step is a hearing on Monday January 22, 2018 in Bismarck at which time the plea will be tendered to the court and a later date will be scheduled for when the judge will sentence Red Fawn on the remaining two charges.

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