Midwest
Biden DOJ sides with Native American tribe in court filing ripping Canadian pipeline as trespassing
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice sided with a Native American tribe in claiming a massive underground pipeline carrying fuel from Wisconsin to Canada is trespassing on tribal lands.
In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, DOJ lawyers agreed with the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians in arguing that Enbridge Energy Company, is “liable for trespass” due to its operation of Line 5, a pipeline that moves millions of gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids each day between Superior, Wisconsin and Sarnia, Ontario,
Roughly 12 miles of Line 5 cross into the Reservation of the Bad River Band in northern Wisconsin, and the pipeline was constructed along “rights-of-way” obtained by the Department of Interior in the 1950s and renewed multiple times over the following decades. Enbridge’s rights-of-way for 12 parcels of land that are at the center of the lawsuit expired in 2013, and the tribe did not consent to their renewal. After the tribe sued in 2019, the Department of Interior denied the energy company’s request for renewal in 2020.
“Since Enbridge has not obtained renewed rights-of-way, it lacks any legal right to remain on those lands and thus is in trespass,” the brief says. A lower court, the Western District of Wisconsin, “correctly rejected Enbridge’s arguments that the Administrative Procedure Act or the 1992 agreement authorizes it to remain on these lands,” Biden administration lawyers wrote.
BIDEN ADMIN OKS MAJOR PACIFIC NORTHWEST GAS PIPELINE IN BLOW TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS, DEMS
The Enbridge oil refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Jason Franson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Justice Department added that the district court did not properly consider “the potential removal or rerouting of an active international pipeline that falls under a treaty between the United States and Canada regarding transit pipelines.”
Under the Pipeline Safety Act, “Congress directed the Department of Transportation to adopt and enforce nationwide safety standards for pipeline transportation and facilities, including standards to prevent and mitigate potential environmental damage pipeline operators may cause,” the brief says. The DOJ argues the appeals court should reevaluate Judge William Conley’s decision to close the pipeline by 2026.
Enbridge Inc., a multinational pipeline company headquartered in Calgary, seen on Jan. 25, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The United States also has a strong interest in ensuring that courts properly consider whether injunctive orders affecting the operation of Line 5 may risk exposing the United States to claims that it has violated its obligations under the Transit Pipeline Treaty and that seek potentially substantial monetary damages, and may affect the United States’ trade and diplomatic relations with Canada — in addition to considering the implications of the Band’s treaty rights,” the brief says.
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The Biden administration supported a total restitution award of roughly $5 million “for a nearly ten-year trespass – while in the same period Enbridge earned well over $1 billion in net profit from Line 5.” “The intricacy of the equitable factors associated with injunctive relief in this unique case make it all the more important that the court’s monetary award adequately serves the goals of restitution,” the brief says.
The Enbridge Terminal and Pipelines next to the Suncor Energy Refinery, on August 23, 2023, in Sherwood Park, Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“We are grateful the US urged the court not to let Enbridge profit from its unlawful trespass. But we are disappointed that the US has not unequivocally called for an immediate end to Enbridge’s ongoing trespass, as justice and the law demand,” Bad River Band Chair Robert Blanchard said in a statement. “Enbridge should be required to promptly leave our Reservation, just like other companies that have trespassed on tribal land. We are hopeful that the appeals court will put an end to Enbridge’s shameful decade of trespass and not condone its exploitation of our land and sovereign rights.”
“Shutting down Line 5 before relocating the pipeline outside the Reservation would violate the 1977 Transit Pipeline Treaty between the U.S. and Canada. The Government of Canada has made its position clear,” a spokesperson for Enbridge told The Hill. “Such a shutdown is not in the public interest as it would negatively impact businesses, communities and millions of individuals who depend on Line 5 for energy in both the U.S. and Canada.”
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South Dakota
SD Lottery Powerball, Lotto America winning numbers for March 4, 2026
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at March 4, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from March 4 drawing
07-14-42-47-56, Powerball: 06, Power Play: 4
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from March 4 drawing
33-38-39-47-51, Star Ball: 07, ASB: 02
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Dakota Cash numbers from March 4 drawing
02-18-22-30-32
Check Dakota Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 4 drawing
12-13-36-39-58, Bonus: 03
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Wisconsin
Carrington scores 18 points to lead Wisconsin’s 78-45 throttling of Maryland
MADISON (AP) — Reserve Braeden Carrington scored 18 points, John Blackwell scored 14 points and Wisconsin poured it on in the second half to dismantle Maryland 78-45 on Wednesday night.
Nick Boyd scored 13 points and reserve Austin Rapp scored 11 points for Wisconsin (21-9, 13-6 Big Ten), which had 11 players enter the scoring column.
The Badgers’ Andrew Rohde passed out six of Wisconsin’s 15 assists and didn’t commit a turnover. Wisconsin turned it over only three times.
Andre Mills scored 14 points and Elijah Saunders scored 11 points for Maryland.
Wisconsin turned an already commanding 34-21 first-half stranglehold into a 21-point lead 5 1/2 minutes into the second half. The Badgers shot 48% (27 of 56) and made 42% (13 of 31) from 3-point range. The Badgers scored 44 second-half points.
It was the fewest point Maryland (11-19, 4-15) has ever posted against Wisconsin in the shot-clock era. It was also Maryland’s lowest point total of the season.
Wisconsin has won five of its last seven. Maryland has lost five of its last six.
Up next
Maryland wraps up the regular season hosting 11th-ranked Illinois on Saturday.
Wisconsin ends the regular season at No. 15 Purdue on Saturday.
Midwest
Gun rights expert says Minnesota Dems tried to block her testimony on firearm bills to ‘avoid’ policy debate
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A Second Amendment expert is accusing Minnesota Democrats of attempting to sideline policy advocates as they push for passage of a pair of gun control bills, arguing the lawmakers are leaning on emotional appeals instead of debating the measures’ real-world impact.
Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom who specializes in gun policy, told Fox News Digital in an interview that Democratic members of a Minnesota House panel appeared to arbitrarily reject her written testimony ahead of a key hearing on the bills and resisted allowing her to testify in person. Swearer was ultimately able to testify for about two minutes.
“I think really at the core of it, that’s what they wanted to avoid, to the extent that they could keep this focused on the Annunciation shooting, and to prevent people like myself from coming in and saying, well, first of all, these policies would not have prevented a single death,” Swearer said.
Displays of rifles at the gun show held Sunday at the Stillwater armory. (Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Democratic offices of the committee did not respond to multiple requests for comments since Friday.
The hearing included heavy moments during which parents of victims and victims themselves of last year’s shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis testified in support of the bills. The shooter, who later died by suicide, killed two young children and injured more than two dozen others.
“Parents in our community don’t sleep all the way through the night anymore,” Jackie Flavin, who lost her 10-year-old daughter Harper in the shooting, testified. “Because when we send our children out into the world, we know that there are weapons out there capable of turning an ordinary morning into something unthinkable in seconds.”
In reaction to the mass shooting in Minneapolis at Annunciation Church, students rally at the capitol demanding state and federal lawmakers pass bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The two bills, as they are currently written, are stalled in committee after receiving a 10-10 tie vote along party lines at the close of the contentious hearing.
Swearer said the committee rejected her written testimony, which included an analysis of multi-victim shootings in the state, because it contained hyperlinks, which was against committee rules. She accused Democrats on the committee of selectively enforcing that rule against her but not against others.
“I want to be clear, that was very emotional. It was difficult. These were grieving people, and understandably so, but that I think very clearly is what the Democrats wanted to focus on, the emotion of it,” Swearer said. “They did not want this to turn into a battle of actual experts on policy.”
The bills were part of a sweeping gun control package introduced by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in response to the church shooting.
One of the bills would broadly ban future sales of many “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons” by redefining the firearms under state law and would impose new restrictions on current owners of such guns. The other would prohibit the manufacture, sale, transfer, and possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, which the bill defines as those with more than ten rounds.
Swearer, who was invited to the hearing by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said the bills were unconstitutional.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center Oct. 1, 2024, in New York City. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“They’re problematic from start to finish,” she said, adding that the first bill was “one of the most restrictive gun bans I have ever seen in terms of the definition.”
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The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus’s director of governor relations, Anna Leamy, also testified against the bills during the hearing and noted that Swearer and other “national experts and everyday Minnesotans” were limited from participating, which Swearer said “goaded” Democrats into allowing her to speak for two minutes.
The National Foundation for Gun Rights said its executive director, Hannah Hill, was also told she could not testify. Committee chairs typically limit witness participation at hearings for time purposes, but those restrictions can spur accusations of selectively suppressing certain voices.
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