OKLAHOMA

Governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on May 25 signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was passed last year. The law takes effect immediately upon the first-term Republican’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the procedure as soon as the bill is signed.

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority might further restrict the practice.

The bills come on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high court that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma law are to save the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus.

The law also does not apply to the use of morning-after pills such as Plan B or any type of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics already stopped providing abortions after the governor signed a six-week ban earlier this month.

The third Oklahoma bill is to take effect this summer and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.

WYOMING

Police working with FBI to investigate possible arson at clinic

Casper police are working with the FBI to investigate suspected arson at a Casper clinic that planned to open and provide abortions starting in June.

Investigators found “several areas” inside the clinic where an “accelerant,” like gasoline, was used in the fire, according to a May 26 statement. The incident is still under investigation, and surveillance images cannot yet be released.

On May 25, police said they received a report around 4 a.m. from someone living nearby that a person with a “gas can and black bag” was seen fleeing the building. The caller also told police they heard glass break.

Officers arrived and saw smoke coming from the clinic, and called fire crews. Casper Fire Deputy Chief Devin Garvin said the fire was relatively small, and police said it was “quickly extinguished.”

Police on the scene said there was extensive smoke damage inside. According to authorities, the fire was on the building’s west side – the side nearest to the Sinclair gas station next door.

No one was inside the building at the time, and no injuries were reported.

Burkhart said the clinic’s setup was in the final stages, and her team was planning to start training staff.

In addition to the FBI, Casper police are also working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the cause of the fire.

Utility gets nod to build 416-mile wind power line across West

CHEYENNE- U.S. land managers on May 26 said they’ve given final permission for a 416-mile transmission line that would connect wind farms in eastern Wyoming with customers in Utah and elsewhere across the West.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said it has notified Portland-based PacifiCorp it can proceed with its Energy Gateway South Transmission line. It will run from the Medicine Bow, Wyoming area, across northwestern Colorado and end near Mona, Utah, south of Salt Lake City.

The Biden administration has promoted renewable energy in the West but delivering that power to customers will require major upgrades to the nation’s aging electrical grid.

Gateway South is part of a broader plan by PacifiCorps to install roughly 2,000 miles of new transmission lines across the West at an estimated cost of $8 billion.

Construction on Gateway South is expected to begin in June. In August PacifiCorps expects to start work on part of another line, known as Gateway West, that would stretch across 75 miles in eastern Wyoming. said utility spokesperson Tiffany Erickson. The two projects combined will cost an estimated $2.2 billion and they are expected to be in service by late 2024, she said.

ARIZONA

Cops: 500,000 fentanyl pills seized in traffic stop

CASA GRANDE – Two women were arrested after about 500,000 fentanyl pills were found in an SUV pulled over for speeding on Interstate 10 in Arizona, police said.

The pills that were seized were discovered concealed in collagen supplement bottles on May 23 during a search that also turned up a handgun and a large amount of cash, police from the small city of Casa Grande south of Phoenix said in a statement.

U.S. overdose deaths have risen most years for more than two decades. The increase began in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and – most recently – illicit fentanyl.

Last year, overdoses involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, up 23% from the year before. There also was a 23% increase in deaths involving cocaine and a 34% increase in deaths involving meth and other stimulants.

Over a two-month period in Arizona late last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration working with Arizona law enforcement agencies made seizures of more than 3 million fentanyl pills, 99 pounds of fentanyl powder and 35 firearms.

In the Arizona traffic stop, two children in the vehicle were turned over to state child protection officials, police said.

NEW MEXICO

Firefighters rescue ‘Cinder’ the elk calf from fire’s ashes

SANTA FE – Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nation’s largest wildfire as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West.

Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink said on May 24 that he happened upon the motionless elk calf on the ground of a fire-blackened New Mexico forest as he patrolled and extinguished lingering hot spots.

“I didn’t think it was alive,” said Sink, who was deployed to the state to help contain a wildfire that by May 25 had spread across 486 square miles and destroyed hundreds of structures.

It was one of five major uncontained fires burning in New Mexico amid extremely dry and windy conditions.

Wildlife officials in general discourage interactions with elk calves that are briefly left alone in the first weeks of life as their mothers forage at a distance. Sink says he searched diligently for traces of the calf’s mother and found none.

The 32-pound, singed bull calf, dubbed “Cinder,” was taken for care to a nearby ranch and was regaining strength at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Espanola, north of Santa Fe.

Veterinarian Kathleen Ramsay at Cottonwood Rehab says she paired Cinder with a full-grown surrogate elk to be raised with as little human contact as possible.

“They do elk things, they don’t do people things,” said Ramsay, noting Cinder arrived at a tender days-old age with his umbilical cord still attached.

Ramsay said the calf hopefully can be released into the wild in December after elk-hunting season.