North Dakota

Officers’ spouses terrorized by threats of murder, rape during Dakota Access pipeline protest

There reached a point when the Dakota Access protest became less about debating the merits of pipeline routes and more about mixing it up with cops. That’s when the danger spiked for officers and their families. While protesters were fueling worldwide outrage and fundraising over allegations of police brutality, an aggressive cohort of agitators was terrorizing the families of law-enforcement officers with threats of death, rape and arson. “There were threats made to us, mostly that they were going to come burn down our houses or rape us while our husbands were gone,” said Allison Engelstad, who’s married to Jon Engelstad, a sheriff’s deputy in Morton County, North Dakota. She had good reason to fear that protesters knew where they lived. The North Dakota State and Local Intelligence Center compiled a 41-page document of social media posts with threats along with photos, names, addresses and contact information for officers involved with the protest. “Every one of these cops has familys [sic] … Make there [sic] family pay,” read one Facebook post. A live video feed taken from a January protest on the Backwater Bridge includes the voice of an activist shouting, “We’re going to gang-rape,” “Watch your family,” and “We’re going to kill your daughters, your mothers, your fathers, your grandparents, even you!” For Ms. Engelstad, the threats hit home the night before Thanksgiving, when her husband called and urged her to leave, saying protesters had threatened to set fire to the houses of law enforcement locked in a late-night standoff at the bridge near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Ms. Engelstad woke up their three boys and drove across town to her parents’ house. One of the boys brought with him a baseball bat for protection. “No one was going to hurt his family as long as he had anything to say about it,” she said.

What a great kid!  Hi mom raised him right.  Hopefully these disgusting domestic terrorists will be identified publicly, shamed, arrested, and charged accordingly.  There is NO reason why those in law enforcement, and their families, should have to endure this sorta crap.

Dakota Access protest camps cleared after $1.1 million federal cleanup; four more dogs rescued

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrapped up its $1.1 million cleanup of the Dakota Access pipeline protest camps on federal land in North Dakota, hauling away 835 dumpsters of remaining trash and debris. The site, once occupied by thousands of environmental demonstrators, is now vacant. The federal cleanup at the last of the three camps, Sacred Stone, was declared finished Thursday. A Florida sanitation company completed work that began Feb. 23 to hasten the massive restoration project started in late January by the Standing Rock Sioux. Meanwhile, a local animal shelter rescued four more dogs found at the North Dakota encampment, bringing the total number of dogs found after the last of the protesters evacuated to 12. “We are happy to report that all animals have been accounted for throughout the Dakota Access Pipeline protest sites,” Furry Friends Rockin’ Rescue of Bismarck-Mandan said in an online post. The tribe, aided by state and local agencies as well as some protest volunteers, launched the cleanup over concerns that snowmelt would inevitably wash tons of garbage and waste left by protesters into the Cannonball River. Corps Capt. Ryan Hignight said a total of 8,170 cubic yards of debris was removed from the three camps — Sacred Stone, Oceti Sakowin and Rosebud — all within the flood plain on federally managed land. “In total, there were 835 roll-off dumpsters of trash and debris removed from the three camps together,” Capt. Hignight said in an email. Some items, including propane tanks and lumber, were set aside for recycling, The Associated Press reported. The crew cleaned up only garbage on federal land. Sacred Stone, where 2,160 cubic yards of debris were removed, is partially on tribal land. “I am unable to confirm if the camp not located on corps-managed land is clean,” said Capt. Hignight. The protesters descended on the area by the thousands last year in a show of opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline, a 1,172-mile, four-state project expected to be completed and ready to flow oil as early as this week.

It’s about time!!  These Woodstock hippie wannabees destroyed this federal land, and instead of we-the-taxpayers being stuck with the $1,1 MILLION dollar cleanup bill, they should find all of these losers and divvy the bill among them!  Their self-righteous, hypocritical arrogance is truly breathtaking.  Here they were protesting damage to the environment, while dumping 835 DUMPSTERS full of garbage on federal land (that we know of)!  Unreal..

Dakota Access Pipeline expected to bring $100M a year to North Dakota

North Dakota is expected to gain $100 million or more annually in tax revenue once crude oil begins flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to an Associated Press report released on Thursday. That’s money the sparsely populated northern state, which struggles with declining tax revenue, can use. North Dakota has a police bill of $33 million from the cost of dispatching officers and security personnel to the pipeline site to respond to sometimes violent protests. As soon as next week, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline could begin shipping crude oil on the more-than 1,000-mile journey to Illinois. North Dakota gains tax revenue from every barrel of crude that flows through the pipeline. Besides oil tax revenue from the pipeline, the state can expect more than $10 million annually in property taxes related to the pipeline. North Dakota’s state budget analysts expect to release a new revenue forecast next week that reflects the anticipated tax revenue increase, said State Budget Director Pam Sharp. While the revenue the state expects to gather in just one year will far exceed North Dakota’s higher police expenses, experts say the extra revenue shouldn’t be considered a payoff. “This is just one benefit a state gets if it is able to make these pipelines work,” Nick Loris, research fellow in energy and environment policy at the Heritage Foundation, said..

Indeed..  This pipeline will really benefit N. Dakota and help us toward more energy independence.  It’s not the end all be all, of course.  But, it’s a great first step!  To read the rest of this article, click on the text above.

Animal rescue finds dogs left behind amid tons of trash at Dakota Access protest camp

Along with tons of garbage left behind at the Dakota Access protest camp, at least eight dogs have been discovered since protesters departed last week under a federal evacuation order. The canines — two adults and six puppies — were picked up by volunteers with Furry Friends Rockin’ Rescue after the last of the protesters exited the Oceti Sakowin camp, allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to join the massive cleanup effort. “Yesterday a group of volunteers headed down to the DAPL campsite and surrounding area and brought back some of the animals,” said the Bismarck rescue Saturday on its Facebook page. “They received immediate vet care, were given a bath and love, and will now remain in quarantine until we know they are healthy enough to be with other animals.” Julie Schirado of Furry Friends said the rescue effort has been made more difficult by conditions at the muddy, debris-strewn camp. A Florida-based sanitation company, hired by the corps on a $1 million contract, has moved in with dump trucks, loaders and other equipment to clear the encampment located on a federal floodplain before the snowmelt washes the trash into the Cannonball River. “It’s a mess down there, so it’s really, really hard to find these animals and get them,” Ms. Shirado told KFYR-TV in Bismarck. The protesters have come under criticism for abandoning the animals, but several commenters on the rescue’s Facebook page said that the dogs could have been strays that wandered into the camp on their own during the protest. Rescue workers have asked anyone who believes they own the dogs to contact the facility. Photos of the dogs are posted on the Furry Friends Facebook page.

Gotta love the breathtaking hypocrisy of these extreme lunatic liberal losers who are there, ostensibly, to protest in defense of the environment, and yet they leave TONS of garbage behind when they leave.  Of course the dominantly liberal mainstream media doesn’t report this side of the Dakota Access story, as it would undermine their extreme liberal environmental agenda.  But, I digress…  At the very least, the local authorities should write misdemeanor littering citations to these oxygen thieves; just add that to whatever else these maggots get charged with.  Then, on top of that, we find out that some poor critters have been abandoned.  To be fair, some MAY have wandered into the campsite.  But, c’mon..   None of these bleeding hearts were ready to take them in?  Guess not..  Liberals love to whine, protest, and so on…oh..and spend everyone else’s money..but don’t want to take any personal responsibility of their own.  Typical..

Massive cleanup underway after Dakota Access protesters leave behind environmental mess

Clean-up crews are racing to clear acres of debris at the largest Dakota Access protest camp before the spring thaw turns the snowy, trash-covered plains into an environmental disaster area. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that the camp, located on federal land, would be closed Feb. 22 in order to “prevent injuries and significant environmental damage in the likely event of flooding in this area” at the mouth of the Cannonball River in North Dakota. “Without proper remediation, debris, trash, and untreated waste will wash into the Cannonball River and Lake Oahe,” the Corps said in its statement. Those involved in the clean-up effort, led by the Standing Rock Sioux, say it could take weeks for private sanitation companies and volunteers to clear the expanse of abandoned tents, teepees, sleeping bags, blankets, canned food, supplies and just plain garbage littering the Oceti Sakowin camp. “It’s unfortunate. Again, that just goes against what they’re fighting against, is leaving that stuff and abandoning it and obviously the environment the river,” Scott Davis, North Dakota Commissioner for Indian Affairs, told KFYR-TV in Bismarck. Local media outlets posted video and photos of Bobcat bulldozers pushing mounds of debris and snow to be deposited into massive Dumpsters and hauled to the Bismarck landfill. Officers are inspecting the loads before they wind up in the landfill for “contraband — anything that might be illegal,” said Rob Keller, spokesman for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. “When all the campers vacated with that first snowstorm, they just kind of left a lot of items behind, and we don’t know what’s under the snow,” said Morton County emergency manager Tom Doering. “There’s a lot of snow being hauled away with these Dumpsters also.”

Soo..  To be clear..  These self-righteous, lunatic (mostly millennial), liberal, environmental wackos are just destroying the federal lands they’re staying on with their garbage, feces, drugs, and on and on.  It’s the same problem their predecessors did to Woodstock.  Here they are protesting ostensibly in defense of the environment…while destroying the environment they’re in.  And, neither they, nor the members of the dominantly liberal mainstream media, see their breathtaking, brazen hypocrisy.

76 protesters arrested at Dakota pipeline site

Seventy-six people were arrested Wednesday during renewed clashes over the Dakota Access Pipeline, as the Trump administration moves to speed the pipeline-approval process. The people were attempting to create a new campsite on private property as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, along with the North Dakota Governor’s office and local law enforcement, worked to clean up the main protest site before spring floodwaters rise and wash trash and other debris into the Missouri River. The cleanup is being overseen by the tribe and is expected to take several weeks. A day after cleanup began, however, tensions rose anew when the Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer told Republican North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven that he had directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with the final permit necessary to finish the pipeline. A final decision on the permit hasn’t yet been made but is expected soon.Thousands of people have gathered there since August to protest the $3.8 billion oil pipeline, which the Standing Rock Sioux say threatens sacred sites and drinking water supplies. Nearly 700 people have been arrested in clashes between law enforcement and protesters. On Wednesday, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s office said a “rogue group of some of the more aggressive elements of the protest camp” clashed with law enforcement while trying to build the new campsite. “In spite of the actions of this rogue group, we will strive to continue efforts on both sides to move forward and find common ground as steps are taken to ensure public safety and begin healing the relationships that are so important to the region and our state,” Mr. Burgum said in a statement.

 

Senator: Army Corp told to approve Dakota pipeline easement

The Acting Secretary of the Army has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with an easement necessary to complete the Dakota Access pipeline, North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said on Tuesday. Hoeven issued a statement late in the evening after he said Acting Army Secretary Robert Speer informed him of the decision. Hoeven said he also spoke with Vice President Mike Pence. A spokesman for the U.S. Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. Hoeven spokesman Don Canton says that Speer’s move means the easement “isn’t quite issued yet, but they plan to approve it” within days. The crossing under Lake Oahe, a wide section of the Missouri River in southern North Dakota, is the final big chunk of work on the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois. President Donald Trump on Jan. 24 called on the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider its December decision to withhold permission until more study is done on the crossing. The move is likely to be challenged in court by the Standing Rock Sioux, who have spent months protesting the project along with supporters from around the country. The tribe gets drinking water from the river and worries a pipeline leak would pollute the water. The developer, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, says the pipeline is safe. An environmental assessment conducted last year determined the crossing would not have a significant impact on the environment.

Of course it won’t!  This is just liberal, agenda-driven nonsense getting in the way of energy independence.  Glad to see this is getting back on track!  To read the rest of this article, click on the text above.

Donald Trump Supports Construction of Dakota Access Pipeline

President-elect Donald Trump supports the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has come under scrutiny recently as thousands of activists have protested against it. “That’s something we support construction of and we’ll review the full situation when we’re in the White House, which will be the appropriate determination of that time,” Trump’s spokesman Jason Miller tells reporters. Thousands have protested the pipeline for months, arguing that it could damage land and contaminate Native American tribes’ water supply. The Dakota Access Pipeline would be 1,172 miles long. On Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected the application, ordering that the pipeline cannot run through Lake Oahe. Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners responded late Sunday, calling the federal government’s decision a “political action.” According to Reuters, they plan to complete the project without rerouting it.

Soo..  Before all of these idiot protesters start celebrating (I know..too late), someone oughtta let them know that team Trump plans to complete this thing, as well they should.  It’s over 92% completed, and is just one of the many things we need to do for energy self-reliance.  And, hey, if that upsets a few hippies, oh well..  The pipeline needs to be completed, and we need to be encouraging domestic energy production on a variety of levels (i.e., clean coal, drilling for oil, fracking, nuke, etc.).

Obama administration under fire for intervening in North Dakota pipeline case

The Obama administration is coming under increasing pressure from lawmakers and oil industry groups to stand down after intervening in yet another pipeline dispute – this time, by temporarily suspending construction on the controversial North Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been fighting the pipeline for two years, arguing it could traverse sacred ground and burial sites and pose health problems. Their bid to block the four-state, 1,172-mile pipeline got a boost Friday from the administration, which temporarily halted the project just minutes after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled against the tribe. The decision to put on hold the $3.8 billion project set off a firestorm among industry leaders and lawmakers who say the administration has overstepped its authority. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., called the reversal “fundamentally unfair” and said it “does nothing to ensure certainty or calm, but rather adds further confusion.” “It seems more than a little confusing that moments after a federal judge issued an order stating, among other things, that the Corps of Engineers and the pipeline company did everything the law requires of them and more, the Obama Administration decides to change the rules,” Cramer said in a written statement. According to court records, the company has changed the route on its own dime — 140 times alone in North Dakota — to avoid building over burial sites. Ninety-nine percent of the pipeline route, roughly half of which has been completed, crosses private land. American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard said the pipeline should move forward. “The administration’s recent attempts to change the rules, in the middle of the game, set a dangerous precedent for our country that could threaten other infrastructure projects like bridges, roads and electricity transmission,” Gerard said..

Agreed!!  But, this is Obama we’re talking about.  And, Obama doesn’t give a damn about jobs, the cost of our energy bill, etc.  He only cares about pushing his extreme, anti-energy, liberal, enviro-wacko agenda….no matter the consequences.  It’s what he’s done for over 7 years.  Unreal..