National Roundup

California
Parents of 545 children can't be found after separation
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Court-appointed lawyers said Tuesday that they have been unable to find parents of 545 children who were separated at the U.S. border with Mexico early in the Trump administration.

The children were separated between July 1, 2017, and June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents.

Children from that period are difficult to find because the government had inadequate tracking systems. Volunteers have searched for them and their parents by going door-to-door in Guatemala and Honduras.

More than 2,700 children were separated from their parents in June 2018 when U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered an end to the practice under a "zero-tolerance" policy to criminally prosecute every adult who entered the country illegally from Mexico. The administration sparked an international outcry when parents couldn't find their children.

While those families were reunited under court order, authorities later discovered that up to 1,556 children were separated under the policy going back to the summer of 2017, including hundreds during an initial run at family separation in El Paso, Texas, from July to November 2017 that was not publicly disclosed at the time.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the practice, said a court-appointed steering committee located parents of 485 children, up 47 from August. That leaves 545 still unaccounted for among the 1,030 children for whom the steering committee had telephone numbers from U.S. authorities.

About two-thirds of parents of those 545 children are believed to be in their countries of origin, the ACLU said.

Volunteers have "engaged in time-consuming and arduous on-the-ground searches for parents in their respective countries of origin," the ACLU said in a court filing. Those searches were suspended after the coronavirus outbreak but have resumed in a limited way.

The steering committee has also promoted toll-free phone numbers in Spanish to reach families.

The judge has scheduled a hearing on Thursday to discuss status of reunification efforts.

Montana
Candidate for governor violated campaign finance laws
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana gubernatorial candidate and Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte violated campaign finance laws by moving money from his primary election account to his general election account before paying all of the debts owed by his primary campaign, the commissioner of political practices found Tuesday.

Gianforte then continued to raise money to repay primary debts, including loans he made to his campaign, another violation, commissioner Jeff Mangan found in a complaint filed two weeks ago by the Montana Democratic Party.

The investigation found Gianforte's campaign transferred nearly $181,000 from his primary to his general election campaign on June 15 while his primary campaign still had $1.58 million in debts, including $1.55 million in personal loans made by Gianforte to his campaign.

A campaign must show that all primary debts are paid before any leftover primary funds can be used for general election expenses, the Montana Democratic Party noted in its complaint.

Under Montana campaign finance rules, candidates may continue to accept primary election contributions only if the campaign still has outstanding primary debts and only uses the contributions to pay off primary campaign obligations.

Gianforte's campaign said it moved the remaining candidate loan proceeds from the primary to the general account, so it had no further primary expenses to pay. However, the campaign continued to raise primary election contributions and didn't report the loans as being forgiven, Mangan said.

"The campaign's response seems to indicate they do not view the candidate loans as a primary (election) obligation," Mangan wrote. "Without that obligation, however, the Gianforte campaign would be unable to solicit and accept primary election contributions."

Mangan said the campaign must either apply the $181,000 to his primary campaign or refund all primary campaign election contributions received after the primary, for a minimum total of $137,000.

The campaign has 14 days to decide, Mangan said.

"We'll respond to the commissioner by the deadline and amend any reports as needed," said Travis Hall, Gianforte's campaign spokesman, who confirmed Gianforte was raising money to pay back loans to the campaign.

A finance report filed by Gianforte's campaign on Tuesday revealed the candidate loaned $4 million to his campaign in the last month. That brings the total sum Gainforte has loaned to his campaign to $7.5 million.

Gianforte is running against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney in the Montana gubernatorial race.

"After dumping more than $7.5 million of his personal fortune into his campaign, Greg Gianforte intentionally tried to skirt Montana's campaign finance limits — and he just got caught breaking the law, again," Cooney for Montana Campaign Manager Brad Elkins said.

Cooney has been found to have violated campaign laws twice, once for participating in a Democratic Governors Association strategy meeting while in his state office and then for accepting website design by the DGA without reporting it as an in-kind donation.

West Virginia
Newspaper sues university over closed meetings
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia newspaper has sued a university saying its leaders violated the state's open meetings law.

The  Charleston Gazette-Mail reports it filed suit Monday against West Virginia University, claiming the school's Board of Governors met five times in private to discuss COVID-19, social justice and other topics.

The state's open meetings law allows the boards of publicly funded universities to meet privately, but only for specific topics such as litigation or personnel matters.

The lawsuit filed in Monongalia County Circuit Court says the board discussed subjects in the five meetings that aren't exempted from the state's open meetings law. For example, it says on June 19, the board discussed a variety of topics during a session that was closed to the public.

The university did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

The Gazette-Mail is asking the court to order the board to discuss campus issues in sessions that are open to the public.