Vermont
Two in custody, two on the run after drug and weapons raids in rural Vermont
WASHINGTON — A number of legislation enforcement businesses descended on two residences within the Orange County city of Washington early Friday morning.
Two folks have been arrested on federal expenses — one accused of drug-dealing, the opposite of knowingly permitting drug dealing on his property.
By noon, police have been looking for two others who remained on the run. A large air and land search gave the impression to be underway within the Washington space into the early afternoon, with police and federal brokers swarming the small rural neighborhood.
Vermont State Police cruisers, a police canine from the Barre City Police Division, a tactical car and unmarked automobiles carrying legislation enforcement personnel patrolled Route 110, whereas a helicopter flew overhead.
Police on the scene wouldn’t remark concerning the search or its targets.
By 2 p.m., the police presence dwindled, and the helicopter now not circled the city.
Courtroom filings unsealed Friday stated 15 weapons and portions of fentanyl and crack cocaine have been seized on the two residences.
Nichole LeClair, 34, was charged with distribution of crack cocaine and fentanyl, whereas Christopher Emmons, 51, faces a cost that he “used and maintained a residence for the aim of distributing fentanyl and cocaine,” in response to courtroom paperwork.
The costs stemmed from search warrants executed at 7 Linnea Lane, described as LeClair’s residence, and a house on Route 110 in Washington the place Emmons lived, in response to courtroom filings.
Each LeClair and Emmons are scheduled for appearances Monday in federal courtroom in Burlington.
Gadgets seized at LeClair’s residence included about 40 “Ferrari” stamped baggage of suspected fentanyl; about 130 “bigger inexperienced baggage” of suspected fentanyl; roughly 5 grams of suspected crack cocaine; and a semiautomatic pistol, in response to courtroom filings.
The raids adopted a collection of “managed purchases” of unlawful medicine by confidential informants working with authorities in March and April, in response to courtroom filings.
LeClair is already on situations of launch in two prison circumstances introduced in Washington and Orange counties, courtroom data point out. She had been charged with promoting cocaine in Orange County, and with cocaine possession and possession of a “depressant, stimulant/narcotic” in Washington County, in response to prosecutors.
These expenses are nonetheless pending, and she or he had been launched on a number of situations, together with that she abide by a 24-hour curfew and that she not possess any regulated medicine.
Prosecutors, in search of to carry Emmons in custody, wrote that police seized unlawful medicine and a set of weapons from his residence. They listed 14 firearms, together with a sawed-off shotgun that prosecutors wrote “seems to be a firearm restricted by the 1934 Nationwide Firearms Act,” plus about 28 grams of suspected crack cocaine and 400 baggage of suspected fentanyl.
In a press launch issued Friday afternoon, federal prosecutors alleged that two different males, Justin Llano and Glendon Parrish-Cambell, had been dealing unlawful medicine, together with heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine, from Emmons’ residence. Arrest warrants had been issued for each on drug-related expenses; as late Friday afternoon, they remained at giant.
On one event in March, in response to the press launch, a confidential informant tried to purchase medicine at Emmons’ residence, however Emmons instructed the person who the “drug traffickers had left the residence as a result of legislation enforcement was conducting visitors stops within the space.”
In an announcement issued early Friday morning, state police stated they have been joined by members of three federal businesses — the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Homeland Safety Investigations — and two native police departments, Barre Metropolis and Montpelier, within the raids.
The operation was a minimum of the second such coordinated effort to focus on drug trafficking in central Vermont lately. A 2018 investigation involving the identical businesses in neighboring Washington County resulted in 25 arrests on expenses of promoting heroin and crack cocaine.
Final yr, ATF brokers arrested a Connecticut man at a park-and-ride in close by Northfield. Federal prosecutors alleged he was planning to promote giant quantities of crack cocaine and fentanyl.
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The US Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute – representing the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world – are suing the State of Vermont over its new law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the state’s damage caused by climate change.
The lawsuit, filed last Monday in the US District Court for the District of Vermont, asks a state court to prevent Vermont from enforcing the law passed last year. Vermont became the first state in the country to enact the law after it suffered over $1 billion in damages from catastrophic summer flooding and other extreme weather.
Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office said as of Friday, Jan. 3, they had not been served with the lawsuit.
The lawsuit argues that the U.S. Constitution precludes the act and that the federal Clean Air Act preempts state law. It also claims that the law violates domestic and foreign commerce clauses by discriminating “against the important interest of other states by targeting large energy companies located outside of Vermont.”
The Chamber and the American Petroleum Institute argue that the federal government is already addressing climate change. Because greenhouse gases come from billions of individual sources, they claim it has been impossible to measure “accurately and fairly” the impact of emissions from a particular entity in a specific location over decades.
“For too long, giant fossil fuel companies have knowingly lit the match of climate disruption without being required to do a thing to put out the fire,” Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement. “Finally, maybe for the first time anywhere, Vermont is going to hold the companies most responsible for climate-driven floods, fires and heat waves financially accountable for a fair share of the damages they’ve caused.”
The complaint is an essential legal test as more states consider holding fossil fuels liable for expensive global warming-intensified events like floods, fires, and more. Maryland and Massachusetts are among the states expected to pursue similar legislation, modeled after the federal law known as Superfund, in 2025.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a similar climate bill into law – the Climate Change Superfund Act- on Dec. 26, pointing to the need to fund climate adaptation projects.
Downtown Montpelier, Vermont was under water on Monday, July 10, 2023 caused by the flooding of the Winooski River.
(Photo: John Tully for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Heavy Rains Cause Catastrophic Flooding In Southern Vermont
(Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Flooding is seen in downtown Montpelier, Vermont
(Photo: John Tully for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Albuquerque –
Just after 5:25 PM, a shot rang out in near Central and Vermont. A person reported being shot in the 8310 block of Central Ave NE. Officers from the Albuquerque Police Department were dispatched, but fortunately, the New Mexico State Police happened to be in the vicinity and arrived promptly. Officers promptly rendered life saving measures, while Albuquerque Fire Rescue dispatched a rescue unit from Station 5 to the scene.
The man, who was shot in the leg, will be transported to a local area hospital by AFR. Presently, their condition is not known, but if we learn more, we will update you.
APD’s gun violence reduction unit (GVRU) is being called out to investigate this shooting.
Vermont
U.S. Chamber, Oil Industry Sue Vermont Over Law Requiring Companies To Pay For Climate Change Damage
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a top oil and gas industry trade group are suing Vermont over its new law requiring that fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused over several decades by climate change.
The federal lawsuit filed Monday asks a state court to prevent Vermont from enforcing the law, which was passed last year. Vermont became the first state in the country to enact the law after it suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. The state is working to estimate the cost of climate change dating back to Jan. 1, 1995.
The lawsuit argues the U.S. Constitution precludes the act and that the state law is preempted by the federal Clean Air Act. It also argues that the law violates domestic and foreign commerce clauses by discriminating “against the important interest of other states by targeting large energy companies located outside of Vermont.”
The Chamber and the other plaintiff in the lawsuit, the American Petroleum Institute, argue that the federal government is already addressing climate change. And because greenhouse gases come from billions of individual sources, they argue it is impossible to measure “accurately and fairly” the impact of emissions from a particular entity in a particular location over decades.
“Vermont wants to impose massive retroactive penalties going back 30 years for lawful, out-of-state conduct that was regulated by Congress under the Clean Air Act,” said Tara Morrissey, senior vice president and deputy chief counsel of the Chamber’s litigation center. “That is unlawful and violates the structure of the U.S. Constitution — one state can’t try to regulate a global issue best left to the federal government. Vermont’s penalties will ultimately raise costs for consumers in Vermont and across the country.”
A spokesman for the state’s Agency of Natural Resources said it had not been formally served with this lawsuit.
Anthony Iarrapino, a Vermont-based lobbyist with the Conservation Law Foundation, said the lawsuit was the fossil fuel industry’s way of “trying to avoid accountability for the damage their products have caused in Vermont and beyond.”
“More states are following Vermont’s lead holding Big Oil accountable for the disaster recovery and cleanup costs from severe storms fueled by climate change, ensuring that families and businesses no longer have to foot the entire bill time and time again,” Iarrapino added.
Under the law, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, is to issue a report by Jan. 15, 2026, on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024. The assessment would look at the effects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas. The state would use federal data to determine the amount of covered greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a fossil fuel company.
It’s a polluter-pays model affecting companies engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil attributable to more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during the time period. The funds could be used by the state for such things as improving stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings. It’s modeled after the federal Superfund pollution cleanup program.
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The approach taken by Vermont has drawn interest from other states, including New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law a similar bill in December.
The New York law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change. The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases between 2000 and 2018 would be subjected to the fines.
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