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NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
North Dakota pipeline construction
halted until court hearing next week
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Devel-
opers of a four-state oil pipeline have
agreed to halt construction of the project
in southern North Dakota until a federal
court hearing next week in Washington,
D.C. The temporary construction
shutdown comes amid growing protests
and increased tension over the Dakota
Access Pipeline that is intended to cross
the Missouri River near the Standing
Rock Sioux reservation that straddles
the North Dakota-South Dakota border.
Some things to know about the pipe-
line and the protest:
WHAT IS THE DAKOTA
ACCESS PIPELINE?
Dallas-based Energy Transfer Part-
ners’ Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.8
billion, 1,172-mile project that would
carry nearly a half-million barrels of
crude oil daily from North Dakota’s oil
ields through South Dakota and Iowa to
an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois,
where shippers can access Midwest and
Gulf Coast markets.
WHY THE PROTEST?
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is
suing federal regulators for approving
the oil pipeline that would be the larg-
est-capacity one carrying crude out of
western North Dakota’s oil patch. The
tribes’ lawsuit iled last month in federal
court in Washington challenges the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to
grant permits at more than 200 water
crossings in four states for the pipeline.
The tribe argues the pipeline that would
be placed less than a mile upstream of
the reservation could impact drinking
water for the more than 8,000 tribal
members and the millions who rely on
it further downstream. The lawsuit, iled
on behalf of the tribe by environmental
group Earthjustice, said the project
violates several federal laws, including
the National Historic Preservation Act.
The tribe worries the project will disturb
AP Photo/James MacPherson, File
In this Aug. 12 photo American Indians protest the Dakota Access oil pipe-
line near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in southern North Dakota.
ancient sacred sites outside of the
2.3-million acre reservation. The hearing
on the tribe’s request for a temporary
injunction is slated for Wednesday.
WHO ARE THE PROTESTERS?
Mostly members of the Standing
Rock Sioux tribe, but they’ve been
joined by other American Indians and
non-Native Americans from across the
country. “Divergent” actress Shailene
Woodley was part of the protests last
week.
HAVE THERE BEEN ARRESTS?
American Indians have for months
been staging a nonviolent protest at a
“spirit camp” at the conluence of the
Cannonball and Missouri rivers in the
path of the pipeline. More than a dozen
young people from the reservation also
ran from North Dakota to Washington
to deliver 140,000 petition signatures
to the Corps to protest the pipeline. The
protest took a turn last week when law
enforcement was called to keep the
peace between protesters and armed
security guards hired by the company.
Twenty-eight people have been arrested
since then and charged with interfering
with the pipeline construction, including
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman
David Archambault II. Developers on
Monday sued in federal court to stop
protesters, alleging the safety of workers
and law enforcement is at risk.
WHY THE NEED?
Energy Transfer Partners announced
the Dakota Access pipeline in 2014,
a few days after North Dakota Gov.
Jack Dalrymple urged industry and
government oficials to build more
pipelines to keep pace with the state’s
oil production, which is second only
to Texas’. Supporters said the pipeline
would create more markets for the
state’s oil and gas, and reduce truck and
oil train trafic.
U.S. defends $400M payment to Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama
administration on Friday defended its deci-
sion to make a $400 million cash delivery to
Iran contingent on the release of American
prisoners, saying the payment wasn’t
ransom because the Islamic Republic would
have soon recouped the money one way or
another.
In a conference call with reporters, senior
administration oficials said it made no sense
not to use the money as leverage to ensure
that four U.S. citizens were freed, especially
as Washington was uncertain until the very
moment their plane left that Iran would live
up to its word.
The administration’s defense came after
the State Department outlined for the irst
time that the Jan. 17 repayment of money
from a 1970s Iranian account to buy U.S.
military equipment was connected to a
U.S.-Iranian prisoner exchange on the same
day. Previously, President Barack Obama
and other oficials had denied any such
linkage.
The acknowledgement kicked off a torrent
of Republican criticism, who declared it
evidence of a quid pro quo that undermined
America’s longstanding opposition to
ransom payments.
“He denied it was for the hostages, but
it was,” Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump said in a speech Thursday
night in Charlotte, North Carolina. “He said
we don’t pay ransom, but he did. He lied
about the hostages, openly and blatantly.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said
Obama “owes the American people a full
accounting of his actions and the dangerous
precedent he has set.”
The money came from an account used
by the Iranian government to buy American
military equipment in the days of the U.S.-
backed shah. The equipment was never
delivered after the shah’s government was
overthrown in 1979 and revolutionaries took
American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran. The two sides have wrangled over
that account and numerous other inancial
claims ever since.
The Jan. 17 agreement involved the
return of the $400 million, plus an additional
$1.3 billion in interest, terms that Obama
described as favorable compared to what
might have been expected from a tribunal set
up in The Hague to rule on claims between
the two countries. U.S. oficials have said
they expected an imminent ruling on the
claim and settled with Tehran instead.
At an Aug. 4 news conference, Obama
said nothing nefarious occurred.
“We do not pay ransom for hostages,” he
said.
In a conference call with reporters, two
senior administration oficials intimately
involved with the inancial and prisoner nego-
tiations sought to refute what they described
as false reports about what happened. They
weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the
matter and demanded anonymity.
There was no way that Washington could
have avoided repaying the money to Iran in
the short-term, one of the oficials insisted.
The 1981 Algiers Accord between the
U.S. and Iran that set up the tribunal made
repayment mandatory, and allowed for either
claimant to seize assets in international
courts if the other reneged on a ruling, the
oficial said.
BRIEFLY
More people go home as
progress made against
California ire
PHELAN, Calif. (AP) — More people
returned to their homes Friday as ireighters
made signiicant progress against a huge
wildire burning in Southern California’s
San Bernardino National Forest, but that
was tempered by the announcement that at
least 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were
destroyed.
Johanna Santore was among those
left homeless. She was running an errand
Tuesday when the ire charged through her
neighborhood. She tried to rush home to
rescue the family’s four dogs, six cats and
hamster but was blocked by closed roads.
Frantic for answers, she posted messages
about her pets on Facebook. A group of
animal rescue volunteers saw her pleas and
offered to check on the animals.
They found the house in smoldering ruins
— with no signs of the pets.
“I’m actually feeling numb,” said
Santore, who led with her husband and
granddaughter to an evacuation center. “It’s
like a nightmare.”
Thousands of residents chased from their
mountain and desert homes were slowly
beginning to take stock of their losses as
the preliminary damage assessment was
released for the blaze that erupted Tuesday
in drought-parched canyons 60 miles east of
Los Angeles.
Fireighters initially struggled to get the
towering lames under control but later made
dramatic progress in corralling the ire that
scorched nearly 58 square miles and was
26 percent contained. Plans were underway
to demobilize some of the nearly 1,600
ireighters.
Yellowstone River closes after
tens of thousads of ish die
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana
wildlife oficials indeinitely closed a
183-mile stretch of the Yellowstone River
and hundreds of miles of other waterways
Friday, barring all ishing, rafting and other
activities to prevent the spread of a parasite
believed to have killed tens of thousands of
ish.
Fishing guides and rafting operators who
run businesses along the river said the move
could be catastrophic to the area’s sizable
outdoor industry, which depends heavily on
the busy summer season.
The closure could last for months if river
conditions don’t improve and ish keep
dying, according to oficials from Montana
Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It extends to
hundreds of miles of waterways that feed
into the Yellowstone, including the Boulder,
Shields and Stillwater rivers.
Even when the river reopens, there are
fears the ish die-off could deal a lasting
blow to the Yellowstone’s reputation as a
world-class trout ishery that draws visitors
from around the world.
“This kill is unprecedented in magnitude.
We haven’t seen something like this
in Montana,” Fish, Wildlife and Parks
spokeswoman Andrea Jones said.
By Friday, roughly 4,000 dead ish
had been counted, but the total number is
estimated to be in the tens of thousands,
including ish that sank to the bottom,
oficials said.
Most have been mountain whiteish, a
native game species, but reports emerged
that the die-off has affected some rainbow
trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout —
species crucial to the ishing industry.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Touring looding, Trump
moves ahead with
campaign turnaround
BATON ROUGE, La.
(AP) — Offering conso-
lation, expressing regret,
cutting ties with a contro-
versial aide. Donald Trump’s
campaign turnaround plan on
Friday featured the unorth-
odox candidate acting much
like a conventional politician
struggling to revive a presi-
dential bid on the ropes.
Trump
headed
to
lood-damaged
Louisiana
to express solidarity with
residents cleaning up after
devastating looding that
left at least 13 people dead.
The trip made for a pointed
contrast to President Barack
Obama and Democratic
nominee Hillary Clinton,
who both have yet to go,
although Obama announced
that he would visit next
week.
The typically brash and
spotlight-seeking billionaire
offered notably restrained
remarks as he surveyed the
waterlogged wreckage.
“Nobody
understands
how bad it is,” Trump
told reporters, after briely
helping unload a truck of
supplies while cameras
captured the moment. “It’s
really incredible, so I’m just
here to help.”
Yet the trip did little
to obscure the turmoil in
Trump’s campaign, punc-
tuated early Friday when
Trump announced that he’d
accepted campaign chairman
Paul Manafort’s offer to
resign.
Manafort’s
departure
followed a string of reve-
lations about his work for a
pro-Russian political party in
Ukraine. The damaging news
included an Associated Press
report Thursday describing a
covert Washington lobbying
operation run by Manafort’s
irm. Manafort and his
deputy, Rick Gates, never
disclosed their work as
foreign agents as required
under federal law.
Trump, in a statement,
praised Manafort’s work on
the campaign and called him
a “true professional.” But his
son, Eric Trump, made clear
the controversy was behind
the resignation. His father
didn’t want to be “distracted
by whatever things Paul was
dealing with,” the younger
Trump told Fox News.
Campaign
spokesman
Jason Miller said Gates
would have a new role as
liaison to the Republican
National Committee, which
has had a turbulent relation-
ship with its nominee this
year.
Clinton’s campaign called
the resignation an admission
of the Trump campaign’s
“disturbing”
connections
with allies of Russian
President Vladimir Putin in
Russia and Ukraine.
“You can get rid of
Manafort, but that doesn’t
end the odd bromance Trump
has with Putin,” campaign
manager Robby Mook said
in a statement.