Western wildlife trafficking ring has killed at least 118 eagles, prosecutors say | FROM THE WEST ROUNDUP | Colorado politics

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MONTANA

Ring accused of killing at least 118 eagles

BILLINGS – A man helped kill at least 118 eagles to sell their feathers and body parts on the black market as part of a long-running wildlife smuggling ring in the western U.S. that authorities say killed thousands of birds, as evidenced by court cases.

Travis John Branson was scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on September 18 for his role in the human trafficking ring that operated on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and elsewhere.

Prosecutors say the Cusick, Washington man made between $180,000 and $360,000 between 2009 and 2021 by illegally selling bald and golden eagle parts.

“Branson not only killed eagles, but he dismembered them to sell them for future profits,” prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana said in a court filing.

Prosecutors asked Judge Dana Christensen to sentence Branson to “significant prison time” and restitution totaling $777,250.

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Branson’s attorney disputed prosecutors’ claims, saying they had overestimated the number of birds killed. He asked for probation.

Bald and golden eagles are sacred to many Native Americans. U.S. law prohibits anyone without a permit from killing, injuring, or disturbing eagles or stealing their nests or eggs.

Members of federally recognized tribes can legally obtain feathers and other bird parts through the National Eagle Repository in Colorado and non-governmental repositories in Oklahoma and Phoenix. There is a years-long backlog of requests at the national repository.

NORTH DAKOTA

Judge lifts state’s abortion ban

BISMARCK — A state judge struck down North Dakota’s abortion ban on Sept. 12, saying that broad guarantees of personal freedom in his conservative, Republican-dominated state’s constitution create a fundamental right to an abortion before a fetus is viable.

The Republican Party’s attorney general vowed to appeal the decision, which would take effect in a few weeks. North Dakota no longer has abortion clinics, but legalizing abortion again would impact doctors at hospitals who believe an abortion is necessary when a pregnant patient faces a medical emergency.

District Judge Bruce Romanick not only ruled that the state constitution protects access to abortion, but also said the law is unconstitutional because it is too vague to be fairly enforced. He agreed with critics who said the law was unclear how the limited exceptions applied — allowing doctors to be sued if other colleagues later disagreed with their medical decisions.

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North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said in a statement that the judge’s decision contained “flaws in his analysis.”

North Dakota’s only abortion provider was the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, but it moved a few miles to Moorhead, Minnesota, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, when a state law banning abortion was passed. effect. The clinic has filed a lawsuit, as have several doctors in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine.

In 2023, North Dakota’s Republican-controlled legislature revised the state’s abortion laws, making abortion legal during pregnancies caused by rape or incest, but only in the first six weeks of pregnancy. Under the revised law, abortion later in pregnancy was permitted only in specific medical emergencies.

NEW MEXICO

According to the lawsuit, Snapchat allows child sex extortion

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New Mexico’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the company behind Snapchat, alleging the site’s design and policies promote the sharing of child sexual abuse material and facilitate child sexual exploitation.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the lawsuit against Snap Inc. filed Sept. 5 in state court in Santa Fe. In addition to sexual abuse, the lawsuit alleges that the company also openly promotes child trafficking, drugs and weapons.

Last December, Torrez filed a similar lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, for allowing predators to traffic child sexual abuse material and solicit minors for sex on its platforms. That lawsuit is still pending.

“Snap has tricked users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold and stored indefinitely” , said Torrez.

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In a statement, Snap said it shares Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people and has invested heavily in online safety features.

Before the lawsuit, New Mexico conducted a months-long undercover investigation into child sexual abuse images on Snapchat. According to Torrez’s statement, the investigation uncovered a “vast network of dark websites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap,” finding more than 10,000 records related to Snap and child sexual abuse material.

WYOMING

Bills would allow localities to invest in the stock market

CHEYENNE – State lawmakers are considering two bills that would allow local cities, counties and towns to invest a portion of their reserve funds in stock markets and local stocks.

The Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments discussed two bills during their Sept. 6 meeting in Casper. Each bill proposes different structures that allow local municipalities to invest money, such as reserves, in shares.

One bill would allow local governments to autonomously invest directly in stocks and shares, within specified terms set forth in the bill, said Brian Fuller, senior attorney for the Legislative Service Office.

The other bill would allow local governments to pool their funds for the purpose of investing in stocks, Fuller said.

The two bills originally included language that would allow local governments to create their own investment advisory committees to “adopt and review local government investment policies and procedures” and report on those policies to the local governing body.

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State Treasurer Curt Meier advised lawmakers not to “get prescriptive” when considering an investment pool structure.

“I think there needs to be a lot of education, especially around liquidity,” Meier said. “If you put everything into stocks and you have a severe recession, you run out of dry powder to actually buy when the market is low.”

It’s difficult to legislate the construction of an investment portfolio, Meier said, but “you can put dressers around it.”

Both bills were forwarded for further discussion at the committee’s next meeting in Cheyenne on October 30.

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