National Roundup

Louisiana
Appeals court revives WTC contract lawsuit

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A lawsuit over future development of the riverfront World Trade Center building has been restored by a state appeals court after a judge dismissed the case.

NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Orleans Civil District Judge Tiffany Chase should not have required a company bringing the lawsuit to post $750,000 in security before going to trial in October.

The city selected a development team led by Carpenter & Co. and Woodward Interests to lease and renovate the vacant 33-story tower into a $360 million Four Seasons hotel and condos.

A losing bidder on the lease, Two Canal Street Investors, sought to block that deal and filed a lawsuit in April 2015.

North Dakota
Fertilizer dealers get reprieve from policy change

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A federal appeals court has ruled that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration didn't follow the proper procedures when it imposed stricter regulations on farm fertilizer dealers, meaning the policy change won't go into effect Saturday as scheduled.

The OSHA policy change announced last year would have regulated retail fertilizer dealers under the same standards as manufacturers, meaning dealers of fertilizers, including anhydrous ammonia, would have to instigate changes such as installing new storage tanks. The policy change came after a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer facility in West, Texas, which killed 15 people and leveled part of the town. President Barack Obama issued an executive order calling for steps aimed at preventing such incidents.

The Agricultural Retailers Association and The Fertilizer Institute sued a year ago, saying the proposed changes would impose a more than $100 million burden on 3,800 fertilizer retailers nationwide.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday that the change amounted to the creation of a new standard that requires a formal rulemaking process, which would give the industry an opportunity to have a say.

"This administration has broadly and unjustly avoided proper procedure to construct and reinterpret myriad federal regulations without public input," said Daren Coppock, president and CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association. "The court's decision in this case affirms the importance of regulatory agencies following proper notice and comment rulemaking procedure."

However, the three-judge panel also noted that "nothing in our decision necessarily calls into question the substance of OSHA's decision."

The ruling "sends OSHA back to square one to ensure that producers are heard," said U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. "That's essential not only because the regulation would be a hardship for farmers, but also because consumers will ultimately foot the bill paying higher food prices."

Hoeven said legislation in Congress would prevent any changes in fiscal 2017, which runs through next September. Congress weighed in once before, including a provision in a year-end funding bill late last year that suspended the change until this Oct. 1.

Louisiana
Court asks judges to respond to sheriff's claims

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A federal appeals court is asking two judges to respond to a petition by a Louisiana sheriff who claims another judge was improperly removed from his criminal case without explanation.

A letter Monday from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Chief Judge Dee Drell of the Western District of Louisiana and U.S. District Judge Donald Walter are "invited" to file written responses by Oct. 6.

The appeals court also asked two federal prosecutors to respond to Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal's claims.

In a court filing Friday, Ackal's attorney argued that U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi's mysterious removal from the sheriff's case in March violated court rules and apparently was done without her consent.

Ackal awaits trial next month on charges over the alleged beatings of jail inmates.

Pennsylvania
Old graves being exhumed in effort to ID victims

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - Working with state police, an anthropologist is leading a team exhuming the bodies of four unidentified homicide victims in northeastern Pennsylvania, including a woman who'd been doused in sulfuric acid and a newborn boy.

The hope is that scientists will be able to give the victims a name - and lead police to their killers.

The exhumations are underway Monday at two cemeteries near Wilkes-Barre.

Pennsylvania State Police cold case investigators are working with forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle of the University of South Florida, who previously led an effort to exhume more than 50 old graves at a shuttered reform school in Florida.

The team hopes to do facial reconstructions, perform chemical isotope testing and collect DNA samples that will be sent to a national database.

Alabama
Inmate on death row for murder files appeal

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A 74-year-old Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed in November is asking an appellate court to review his claim that Alabama's lethal injection procedure is inhumane.

Lawyers for Thomas Arthur filed the appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Arthur's attorneys argued a federal judge prematurely dismissed Arthur's challenge and had misapplied a requirement for inmates to name an alternate execution method. Arthur suggested a firing squad and another lethal injection drug.

Arthur is scheduled to be put to death Nov. 3 for the 1982 murder-for-hire of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker.

Arthur had been scheduled for execution on six previous occasions, but was given court-issued reprieves. Alabama asked for an expedited execution after the judge dismissed his lawsuit in July.

Tennessee
Young man gets 30 years for killing father

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A young man has pleaded guilty to killing his father as jury selection was set to begin for his trial in East Tennessee.

The Greeneville Sun reports 18-year-old Zachary Thomas Blanchard was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Blanchard was 16 when police said he shot 36-year-old Robert J. Blanchard at their home in Greene County.

Police said he took his father's van, money, several guns and ammunition. He and three other teens were arrested after a 10-hour search in 2014 in South Carolina, where they were apparently headed for Myrtle Beach.

Published: Tue, Sep 27, 2016