DOJ threats over noncitizen voters and more news for the states

Welcome to Wednesday! This morning, we’re starting off our lineup with environmental news from around the states.

A coalition of environmental groups is asking Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to address the risks of orphan wells, citing a new report detailing thousands of abandoned drilling sites throughout the state. The groups asked the governor if he would meet with them to discuss his vision for tackling what they see as a looming threat to the state’s vulnerable coastal areas and the ecosystems.

In Idaho, the federal government has filed a lawsuit against the state, seeking to block officials from curtailing water use at the Idaho National Laboratory and from administering federal water rights, court records indicate.

And in New Mexico, hundreds of students from New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque walked out of classes and joined protests organized against data centers, pipelines and fossil fuel projects.

Keep reading for more news on immigration enforcement, environmental policy, reproductive rights and more. See you back here tomorrow. 

National: Attorneys general in 20 states are suing Dollar General for allegedly overcharging customers. The bargain retailer is accused of raising prices for products at the register without updating sticker prices on shelves.

Wisconsin: An Oshkosh middle school teacher has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that on Oct. 14, ICE arrested Wendy Mendez, a Spanish teacher at Vel Phillips Middle School.

Washington: Advocates gathered in Seattle to continue their push for state officials to do more to restrict the ability of the feds to get information from the license plate database. Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson noted his administration has acted to curb unfettered access to the state’s data.

Tennessee: The state hosted its first gubernatorial forum in eight years, but U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican nominee and favorite to win the race, declined to participate. It’s a continuing trend among GOP candidates of avoiding appearing on stage against their campaign opponents.

New Jersey: Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation allowing candidates and some other fundraising committees to use political contributions to pay for security upgrades needed because of a campaign.

See the rest of the news of the day from all 50 states, plus our D.C. Bureau and Stateline, on News From The States.

The U.S. Department of Justice in a federal court hearing warned California election officials could be prosecuted if they count ballots cast by noncitizen voters, in a case brought by the Trump administration demanding that the state set aside the ballots of 20,000 suspected noncitizen voters, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

The remark by a Justice Department lawyer about “criminal liability” for election officials who process ballots drew a sharp rebuke from the judge presiding over the hearing.

“This court believes it would be wise — it would be wise that any threats to the state, county elected employees cease immediately,” Judge David Carter said from the bench.

The extraordinary argument from the DOJ came as President Donald Trump’s last-minute push to assert authority over voting encounters skepticism and resistance from federal judges less than a week before Election Day. Trump faces political defeat if Republicans lose one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

Carter, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, held the hearing in the Justice Department’s lawsuit, which seeks to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from the list of 20,000 voters unless they can prove their citizenship. 

Carter adjourned an hourslong hearing in Los Angeles by promising a decision Wednesday. Before adjourning, he urged the Justice Department to drop the menacing rhetoric.

Once a new renewable natural gas facility is completed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, developers say the flush of a toilet could help power homes across the Hampton Roads region, Virginia Mercury reports.

Hampton Roads Sanitation District has partnered with Virginia Natural Gas, which provides power for about 315,000 homes in the area, to build technology that captures the gas that emanates off of wastewater when it is treated.

Currently, biogas is created during normal wastewater treatment operations called anaerobic digestion, when organisms break biosolids down without oxygen. Once the gas is produced, a flare is used to burn off the methane, CO2 and other gases. 

With the new system, instead of burning the gases, machinery will purify the gas, which can then be used for energy generation. A 200-foot interconnection pipe will be built from the HRSD facility property to existing VNG lines.

This is not the first facility of its kind in the state. In 2022, Western Virginia Water Authority and Roanoke Gas Company partnered to build a smaller-scale renewable natural gas facility at the Roanoke Regional Water Pollution Control Plant. The plant became fully operational in 2023 and is able to provide enough gas power for 500 homes in the region.