News

An indictment was unsealed charging 11 defendants from across the United States for their alleged involvement with online groups dedicated to creating and distributing videos depicting acts of extreme violence and sexual abuse against monkeys.

Ruben Montes, of Calexico, California, was sentenced in federal court to 16 months in prison and ordered to pay $12,710 in forfeiture for conspiring to smuggle and distribute more than $3 million worth of Mexican pesticides and veterinary drugs that are not approved for use in the United States.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department today filed complaints against the states of New York and Vermont over their “climate superfund laws.” In separate actions, the Justice Department yesterday filed lawsuits against the states of Hawaii and Michigan to prevent each state from suing fossil fuel companies in state court to seek damages for alleged climate change harms. 

Onill Vazquez Lozada of Providence, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty today to two counts of possessing, sponsoring, and exhibiting birds in an animal fighting venture in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

A federal judge in Oregon sentenced the two companies responsible for the operation of the J.H. Baxter wood treatment facility in Eugene, Oregon, and their president, for hazardous waste and Clean Air Act violations. Collectively, they were ordered to pay a total of $1.5 million in criminal fines. In addition, the court ordered the companies to serve five years of probation and the companies’ president, Georgia Baxter-Krause, of Deschutes, Oregon, to serve 90 days in prison and one year of supervised release.

Aghorn Operating Inc., an oilfield company, Trent Day, an executive of Aghorn, and Kodiak Roustabout Inc., entered guilty pleas and were sentenced in relation to criminal worker safety and federal clean air and safe drinking water violations. According to court documents, Aghorn owns and operates oil wells in and near Odessa, Texas. Odessa is in the Permian basin where oil reserves are “sour,” meaning they have high hydrogen sulfide content. Hydrogen sulfide gas can be deadly at high concentrations.