WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that states have the power to tax fuel sold on Indian reservations.
In a 7-2 vote, the high court said Kansas can tax distributors who sell fuel at an Indian-owned and operated gas station near the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe’s casino. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong in ruling that the tax violated tribal sovereignty.
The tribe had argued that it already collects taxes on fuel to pay for maintaining the reservation’s roads, which are among the worst in the nation.
Civilian worker identities kept secret
Breaking a tradition of openness that began in 1816, the Bush administration has without explanation withheld the names and work locations of about 900,000 of its civilian workers, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group that filed the suit, has posted since 1989 an Internet database with the name, work location, salary and job category of all 2.7 million federal civilian workers except those in some law enforcement agencies. The data are often used by reporters and government watchdog groups to monitor policies and detect waste or abuse.
Changes for U.S. citizenship test
Questions on the nation’s citizenship test will be revised to focus on basic civics and won’t be the sort that would stir academic debate, Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship, said Tuesday. The test won’t delve into topics such as how the Second Amendment of the Constitution affects gun laws or who were the original Americans, he said.
California: Exxon Valdez appeal
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced it will hear arguments Jan. 27 in San Francisco over whether plaintiffs should get $4.5 billion plus interest in punitive damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound.
Exploding pens appearing in schools
Booby-trapped pens have exploded and injured three people at high schools in Los Angeles County, causing minor burns and scratches on their hands and faces. The pens were found lying on the ground and blew up when people pulled off their caps. Detective Gary Spencer of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s bomb squad believes the devices are homemade.
Florida: Acquittal in terror charges
In a stinging defeat for federal prosecutors, a former Florida professor accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel was acquitted on nearly half the charges against him Tuesday, and the Tampa jury deadlocked on the rest. The indictment in 2003 of Sami Al-Arian, 47,was hailed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as one of the first triumphs of the Patriot Act, which was enacted in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001. Al-Arian will return to jail until prosecutors decide whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges.
Colorado: Western cold front hits
A storm front creeping south since the weekend has driven down temperatures from Montana to the Midwest. With a brisk wind, it felt like 15 below zero Tuesday in Sioux Falls, S.D., where today’s forecast high was a miserly 5 degrees. Jackson, Wyo., was expecting an overnight low of minus 17 while the forecast for Bozeman, Mont., was minus 13. The mercury dropped below zero before sunset in Casper, Wyo., and forecasts called for a low of minus 25 in the Colorado ski resort town of Steamboat Springs.
Louisiana: Booking in dryer death
An 18-year-old mother was booked on a charge of first-degree murder for allegedly placing her 3-month-old son in a clothes dryer Monday and turning it on. The infant had third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body and suffered blunt force trauma to the head, the St. Tammany Parish coroner said.
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