A St. Paul couple says they’re talking with an attorney about a possible lawsuit after a SWAT team killed the family’s two pit bulls while executing a search warrant, the Pioneer Press reports. Camille Perry, who is eight months pregnant, told the newspaper she threw...
Firm News
Feds say Mexican drug cartels operating in Bakken oil towns
GLENDIVE – Jails in the Bakken area are overbooked and law enforcement is maxed out as drug-related crime surges in Montana and North Dakota oil patch communities. Deputies, prosecutors and local drug counselors made the case Friday for more federal help during a...
Trial by Fire: Junk Science Sent Dad to Prison for Killing Wife, Kids
For the 26 years David Lee Gavitt sat in a Michigan prison, he told everyone who would listen that he did not set the fire that killed his wife and two baby girls. Nearly 25 years would pass before some of the nation’s top fire experts would tell him they believed...
Breathalyzer selfies paint a picture of U.S. drinking habits
The first data from breathalyzer selfies – measurements of blood-alcohol content by a new smartphone app – show that users drank the most on the weekend of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. San Francisco-based breathalyzer manufacturer BACtrack...
North Dakota’s Downside to the Oil Boom: Traffic Deaths
Nowhere has the U.S. oil boom wrought as much change as in western North Dakota, where an influx of people chasing a gusher of well-paying jobs has led to some of the nation’s highest apartment rents. But the energy rush has also created a sharp jump in fatalities as...
Florida Judge Tells Attorney ‘I’ll Beat Your Ass,’ Allegedly Does Just That
A war of words between a judge and attorney in Florida ended after the judge allegedly punched the attorney in the head. Judge John Murphy of Brevard County, Florida, challenged veteran public defender Andrew Weinstock to a fight on Monday, and it was all caught on...
Bismarck police investigating body found
BISMARCK, N.D. — Police are investigating a body found Thursday in northwest Bismarck, but they are releasing few details. Police Lt. Dwight Offerman said the body of a white male was found at 2:35 p.m., but did not have any identification. He said it was found by...
In North Dakota, there will be blood
Life is cheap in North Dakota, where a new study (PDF) finds that workers are being killed on the job at five times the national rate. Deaths on the job in North Dakota more than doubled from 2007 to 2012, rising from 25 to 65, as reported by Al Jazeera America’s...
North Dakota Is the Deadliest State to Work In
Fracking has done some incredible things for North Dakota: It has the fastest-growing economy and lowest unemployment in the nation, and it is second only to Texas in churning out oil. But as with any gold rush, the boom comes with a human cost for those...
Study: ND oil worker death rate 6 times US average
WILLISTON, N.D. — The country’s largest labor federation says North Dakota’s death rate in the oil, gas and mining sector was more than six times the national average in 2012. AFL-CIO says North Dakota had 104 deaths per 100,000 workers in the oil, gas and mining...
