MONTANA

Train derailment spills beer and clay

PARADISE – Crews faced a difficult cleanup task after a 25-car train derailment spilled powdered clay and cases of beer beside a scenic western Montana river, leaving some cars off the tracks in a narrow, century-old tunnel with limited access, officials said.

Montana Rail Link has said nobody was hurt and no hazardous materials spilled on April 2 in the derailment that left some cars precariously close to the banks of the river and some slightly dipping into the water in the mountainous area.

Seven cars are believed derailed in the narrow tunnel where it will be hard to extricate them, Bill Naegeli, manager for Sanders County Disaster and Emergency Services, said.

The train derailed across the river from Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort in Paradise, spilling the clay and cases of Coors Light and Blue Moon beer, in cans and bottles, the Missoulian reported.

Directly across the winding river, Some of Quinn’s guest cabins were evacuated as a precaution, the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District said in a social media post.

Denise Moreth, the resort’s general manager, told the Missoulian that front desk workers heard a “loud, rumbling crash, and then they heard the train derailment.”

A tanker car carrying butane was on its side, but it did not leak, Naegeli said.

The derailed area can only be reached by vehicles traveling on the blocked railroad track or by taking a boat across the river, Garland said.

The cause of the derailment was still under investigation, officials said.

NORTH DAKOTA

Judge orders US to resume oil lease sales in state

BISMARCK – A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to resume regular oil and gas lease sales on federal lands in North Dakota, even as a legal battle continues over the Biden administration’s suspension of the leasing program two years ago in an effort to combat climate change.

Hailing the ruling as a victory, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said canceled lease sales have cost North Dakota over $100 million in revenue each year and deprived the nation of “much-needed access to oil and gas during these difficult times of high inflation and threats to our energy security,” the Bismarck Tribune reported.

But U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor also denied the state’s request to force the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency, to hold sales that were canceled in 2021 and 2022.

Last year’s federal climate law included a political compromise among Democrats that was meant to ensure oil and gas lease sales by linking them to the renewable energy development that Biden has promoted. Citing that law, federal officials have proposed a June lease sale totaling 21,000 acres in North Dakota and Montana.

U.S. Department of Justice Senior Attorney Michael Sawyer said in court documents that North Dakota’s push to resume quarterly lease sales before the lawsuit was decided would be a “rush to judgment” and would subject the Bureau of Land Management to increased litigation risk from environmental conservation groups.

North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said in a statement that he applauds the judge’s decision to require the bureau to resume “their lawfully required quarterly oil and gas lease sales.”

The state is one of the nation’s largest oil producers, behind Texas and New Mexico.

NEW MEXICO

Governor signs bill to keep guns away from children

SANTA FE – New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill on March 10 that makes it a crime to store firearms in places that children could access.

The new law takes effect on June 16. Earlier this year, a 6-year-old student in Virginia shot his teacher, which added to debates across the country about gun control and school safety.

The New Mexico bill would make it a crime to store a firearm in a way that negligently disregards the ability of a child or teenager under age 18 to access it.

Criminal charges could be brought only if the minor later brandishes or displays the firearm in a threatening way, or uses it to kill or injure someone. The proposal would establish both misdemeanor and felony crimes, with penalties of up to 18 months in prison.

Criminal provisions do not apply if a child accesses a gun with authorization of a parent or guardian for lawful purposes including hunting and recreation. The law also includes exceptions when a child accesses a gun for self-defense or to defend others.

Sponsors of the initiative hope it will reduce gun-related deaths and injuries among youths. New Mexico is among the top 10 states for firearms deaths per capita.

IDAHO

Governor signs firing squad execution bill into law

BOISE – Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a bill allowing execution by firing squad, making Idaho the latest state to turn to older methods of capital punishment amid a nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs.

The Legislature passed the measure March 20 with a veto-proof majority. Under it, firing squads will be used only if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.

Pharmaceutical companies increasingly have barred executioners from using their drugs, saying they were meant to save lives. One Idaho death row inmate has already had his execution postponed repeatedly because of drug scarcity.

Some states began refurbishing electric chairs as standbys for when lethal drugs are unavailable. Others have considered – and, at times, used – largely untested execution methods.

Idaho Sen. Doug Ricks, a Republican who co-sponsored that state’s firing squad bill, told his fellow senators on March 20 that the state’s difficulty in finding lethal injection drugs could continue “indefinitely,” that he believes death by firing squad is “humane,” and that the bill would help ensure the rule of law is carried out.

But Sen. Dan Foreman, also a Republican, called firing-squad executions “beneath the dignity of the state of Idaho.” They would traumatize the executioners, the witnesses and the people who clean up afterward, he said.

The bill originated with Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, prompted in part by the state’s inability to execute Gerald Pizzuto Jr. late last year. Pizzuto, who now has terminal cancer and other debilitating illnesses, has spent more than three decades on death row for his role in the 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors.

The Idaho Department of Correction estimates it will cost around $750,000 to build or retrofit a death chamber for firing squad executions.

Agency Director Jeff Tewalt has said he would be reluctant to ask his staffers to participate in a firing squad.

UTAH

Towering Monument Valley buttes display sunset spectacle

MONUMENT VALLEY – A sunset spectacle featuring two mitten-shaped rock formations played out in late March at Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation along the Arizona and Utah border.

Twice a year, in late March and mid-September, spectators, photographers and videographers get a visual treat. As the sun sinks, the West Mitten Butte’s shadow crawls across the desert valley floor before climbing up the side of the East Mitten Butte.

The spectacle draws people from around the world to Monument Valley Tribal Park, which already is popular with tourists.

TV and movie critic Keith Phipps once described Monument Valley as having “defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West.”

It is a frequent filming location, including a number of Westerns by the late American film director John Ford, as well as the 1994 Oscar-winning film “Forest Gump.” In the movie, the character played by Tom Hanks is seen running on the road to Monument Valley, the park’s impressive landscape in the background.