MONTANA

Clean-up begins on train derailment in Yellowstone River

HELENA- Work was underway to clean up rail cars carrying hazardous materials that fell into the Yellowstone River in southern Montana after a bridge collapsed over the weekend, officials said on June 26.

Montana Rail Link was developing a cleanup plan and working with its unions and BNSF Railway to reroute freight trains in the area to limit disruption of the supply chain, Beth Archer of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said in a joint statement issued by Montana Rail Link and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Some rail cars that did not go off the tracks were removed from the area, and two cars carrying sodium hydrosulfide had their contents transferred to other cars and moved to safety, Archer said.

Sixteen cars derailed, and 10 of them ended up in the river downstream from Yellowstone National Park on June 24.

Six mangled cars that carried hot asphalt, three holding molten sulfur and one with scrap metal remained in the rushing water on Monday in an area surrounded by farmland near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles west of Billings.

The asphalt and sulfur solidified and sank in the cold water, officials said. Some asphalt globules were found downriver, but they are not water soluble and are not expected to impact water quality, the statement said.

Initial water testing on behalf of the EPA and DEQ did not show any petroleum hydrocarbons or sulfur impacts to the water quality or any threats to drinking water, DEQ spokesperson Kevin Stone said Sunday.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation. Part of the train had crossed the bridge before it failed, and some cars at the back remained on stable ground at the other end. No injuries were reported.

KANSAS

State pauses enforcement of new law on medication abortions

TOPEKA – Kansas officials agreed not to enforce a new restriction on medication abortions for at least five weeks before a state court judge decides whether to put it on hold until he decides a lawsuit challenging it and other existing rules.

Providers and their attorneys announced the agreement on June 20. Under the agreement, providers won’t have to tell patients that they can stop a medication abortion using a regimen that providers and major medical groups consider unproven and potentially dangerous. The new rule was set to take effect July 1.

The agreement, filed in Johnson County District Court in the Kansas City area, does not prevent the state from enforcing other, existing restrictions the providers have challenged, including a requirement that patients wait 24 hours after seeing a doctor in person to terminate their pregnancies. District Judge K. Christopher Jayaram has set an Aug. 8 hearing to consider whether the newest restriction or others should be blocked while the lawsuit is pending.

The providers – a clinic in the Kansas City suburbs in Johnson County operated by Planned Parenthood Great Plains and another nearby clinic and its two doctors – hope to overturn all of the state’s requirements for what providers must tell patients.

The new Kansas law was set to take effect less than a year after a decisive August 2022 statewide vote affirming abortion rights. The Republican-controlled Legislature enacted it over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.

NEW MEXICO

Telephone hotline launched for women seeking abortions

SANTA FE – New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in late June that her administration has set up a new telephone hotline for women seeking access to abortion clinics plus transportation and other assistance.

The hotline was already live but is still being built out, according to Lujan Grisham. The number is (833) 767-3776.

It will be staffed by registered nurses with the state Department of Health and paid for using existing resources.

New Mexico has seen a surge in abortions, driven largely by residents from Texas and other states that have enacted abortion bans.

According to state data, there were more than 11,000 reported abortions statewide last year compared with nearly 4,900 abortions reported in 2021.

So far this year, there have been almost 5,300 abortions performed in New Mexico, which currently has 19 abortion providers.

Six of those providers offer surgical abortions, with the rest providing medical abortions.

The hotline will also include advice on other maternal health issues and could end up convincing more out-of-state providers to relocate to New Mexico, Lujan Grisham said.

UTAH

School district returns the Bible to shelves after outcry

SALT LAKE CITY – Bibles will return to the shelves in a northern Utah school district that provoked an outcry after it banned them from middle and elementary schools in May.

Officials from the Davis School District, which educates 72,000 students north of Salt Lake City, said at a board meeting on June 20 that the district had determined the sacred text was age-appropriate for all district libraries. In allowing the Bible to be accessible to students regardless of their grade level, the board sided with 70 people who filed appeals after it was banned.

The committee’s reversal is the latest development in the debate over a 2022 Utah law allowing parents to challenge “sensitive materials” available to children in public schools.

The effort to ban the Bible in Utah reignited debate about the standards used to judge the content in books. The initial challenge was filed by an unnamed person who criticized the conservative parents’ activists clamoring to remove books from libraries and the standards they have lobbied the state to adopt.

The committee’s decision to remove the Bible vexed advocates for expanding local control and parents’ ability to challenge books. Republican Ken. Ivory, the lawmaker who sponsored the state’s “sensitive materials” law at first opposed the Bible’s removal and called the challenge “a mockery.” He later said the text was best read at home but ultimately pushed for its return to schools and attacked the process that removed it from Davis County schools.

ARIZONA

Republican election official sues Kari Lake for defamation

PHOENIX – A top Republican election official in Arizona filed a defamation lawsuit on June 22 against Kari Lake, who falsely claims she lost the 2022 race for governor because of fraud.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of lies spread by Lake, including death threats and the loss of friendships.

Lake is a former Phoenix television news anchor who quickly built an enthusiastic political following as a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump and his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She went on to narrowly lose her own race for Arizona governor last year along with a lawsuit challenging the results.

Despite her losses in court, she continues to claim that Richer and other Maricopa County officials interfered in the election to prevent her from winning.

A spokesperson for Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She is openly considering a run for U.S. Senate and is a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 presidential campaign.

In addition to unspecified monetary damages, Richer is seeking a court order declaring Lake’s statements false and requiring her to delete them from social media.

Richer’s lawyers wrote in their complaint that Lake has the right to criticize Richer but not to spread lies that bring him harm.

The suit says Richer has faced death threats, including one that was prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department, and has spent thousands of dollars on home security.