Firm seeks $15B over pipeline rejection
WASHINGTON -- TransCanada Corp. has filed a claim seeking to recoup $15 billion for the rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The Calgary-based pipeline operator filed papers late Friday seeking arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement, arguing that TransCanada had every reason to believe it would win approval to build Keystone XL.
President Barack Obama in November determined that the pipeline, which would have carried Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf, was not in the national interest. In response, TransCanada in January vowed to use arbitration provisions in Chapter 11 of the trade agreement to recover costs and damages.
The company said the U.S. spent seven years delaying a final decision on the project with multiple rounds of "arbitrary and contrived" analyses and justifications.
"The rejection was symbolic and based merely on the desire to make the U.S. appear strong on climate change," TransCanada said in Friday's filing.
The company also is arguing that Obama did not have the authority to block the project in a separate lawsuit filed in a Texas-based federal district court.
Arizona drops drug used in executions
PHOENIX -- Arizona has eliminated its use of the sedative midazolam as one of the drugs it relies on in carrying out executions.
Lawyers for the state said in a court filing Friday that its current supply of midazolam expired on May 31 and that Arizona's sources of the drug have dried up because of pressure from opponents of the death penalty.
That leaves Arizona with other lethal-drug combinations, but the state's lawyers said they can't currently carry out executions because it has no access to supplies of pentobarbital and sodium thiopental.
The status of the state's lethal-injection drug supplies were revealed Friday in a court filing in a lawsuit that challenges the way Arizona carries out the death penalty.
Executions in Arizona were put on hold after the July 2014 death of Joseph Rudolph Wood, who was given 15 doses of midazolam and a painkiller and who took nearly two hours to die.
The state argued in its filing Friday that the lawsuit is moot now that midazolam is off the table.
Pentagon to repeal transgender ban
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon next month will announce the repeal of a policy banning transgender people from serving openly in the military, Defense Department officials said, moving to end what has widely been seen as one of the last barriers to service.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has called the regulation outdated and harmful to the military. A year ago, he directed officials from all the military branches to determine what changes would be needed to lift the ban, in a tacit recognition that thousands of transgender people were already in uniform.
Under the Pentagon's plan, first reported by USA Today, each branch will put in place new policies covering recruiting, housing and uniforms for transgender troops.
Military officials have been "making great progress, holding multiple meetings and working hard to come up with a policy that balances the needs of soldiers with mission readiness," said Eric Pahon, a Defense Department spokesman. "They're trying to come up with something that fits the needs of all of the different services."
Estimates of the number of transgender people in the 1.2 million-member military range from 2,000 to more than 15,000.
Ferguson teen's records open to some
CLAYTON, Mo. -- Attorneys for the city of Ferguson and other defendants in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Michael Brown's parents can have access to juvenile records involving the black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer in 2014, a judge ruled.
The judge said those who are granted access to the records can't disclose the confidential information, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Also, the unredacted parts can't be transmitted electronically.
The ruling last week from St. Louis County Circuit Judge Thea Sherry said permitted viewers include attorneys, clerks, paralegals, legal secretaries, investigators, people present at depositions and consulting experts. The information must be kept locked in lawyers' offices.
Ferguson's lawyers argued that any such information "is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence" in the lawsuit against the St. Louis suburb, former Police Chief Thomas Jackson and Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed the unarmed Brown during an August 2014 confrontation.
Police have said Brown had no adult criminal record. Juvenile records are confidential in Missouri, although being charged with certain violent crimes removes those privacy protections.
A Section on 06/26/2016