The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is threatening to revoke an essential permit for a long-running metal foundry on St. Paul’s East Side.

The MPCA has given Northern Iron until May 8 to provide key information related to its operating permit and efforts to capture emissions from its Forest Street foundry. Frank Kohlasch, assistant commissioner for air and climate policy at the regulatory agency, said if company does not provide the requested “building capture” data by that deadline, the agency will begin to revoke its permit.

Northern Iron, which was acquired in August 2022 by Lawton Standard of De Pere, Wis., has maintained a foundry near Phalen Boulevard and Arcade Street in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood since 1906. It employs about 80 United Steelworkers manufacturing metal casings and machine parts.

The company was fined $41,000 by the MPCA in October 2023 for permitting and air-quality monitoring violations that occurred over the course of 15 years. Since then, Northern Iron and the regulator have warred in court over whether the company is making a good-faith effort to meet state emissions and air quality monitoring standards written out in a 2023 stipulation agreement.

Requests for data

MPCA officials said they had made multiple requests for building data related to operations and emissions at the facility itself, mostly recently in a March 6 letter. The company, they said, refused to provide data related to a requirement that it maintain 100% “building capture,” and did not implement its own “building capture” plan.

“Northern Iron failed again to provide the information MPCA has been requesting for months and what little information was provided remains deficient,” said Kohlasch, in a written statement issued Thursday. “Minnesota law requires that the MPCA be satisfied the permitee will achieve compliance, that the applicant will maintain compliance with all conditions of the permit, and that all laws … have been fulfilled. Once again, based on the information Northern Iron has provided to date, the MPCA cannot make the determination that Northern Iron has met those conditions.”

In addition to the building capture data, the MPCA has demanded that the company complete stack testing and submit a plan to support that testing, with the goal of improving lead detection. Hood evaluations and certifications also must be completed.

Multiple court actions

In the past three years, the MPCA has maintained that the company’s own modeling information showed emissions levels of three different pollutants far above acceptable levels established by the Clean Air Act. Lead emissions, large particulate matter and fine particulate matter have all at times registered many times above the national standard for ambient air quality.

The company, in response, has maintained that those errors took place under previous ownership, or readings near the foundry came in high on days the foundry was not in operation, such as during the Fourth of July or Canadian wildfires. Northern Iron presented to the courts readings from 10 company and MPCA air-quality monitors showing air particulate matter to hover around 30% of national air-quality standards, or 70% below limits.

Calling the company’s PurpleAir testing equipment outdated, the MPCA issued an April 2024 order limiting Northern Iron’s material processing to 10 tons per day, or roughly a third of its normal 25- to 30-ton production. That limit, which reduced the company’s workforce, held until a July 2024 decision from Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro lifted it.

The company’s petition to the court, filed in May of last year, called MPCA pollution modeling assumptions off base and computed on a 24-hour production schedule rather than on actual output. The company offered alternative compliance plans, which the MPCA rejected.

State regulators have maintained the company is still responsible for removing and replacing emission units and control equipment, failing to recertify hoods after making changes, and operating some of its pollution-control equipment out of permitted ranges. In its previous permit applications, Northern Iron also failed to fully list the facility’s activities that would have required it to conduct ambient air-quality modeling, according to the MPCA.

Class action lawsuit

In March, residents in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood filed their own class action lawsuit, claiming emissions have lowered their home values, damaged property and left homes coated in soot and dust.

The civil action, filed in Ramsey County District Court, seeks unspecified damages and names the Lawton Standard Co., Northern Iron LLC and Specialty Metals Holdco, LLC as defendants.

The lawsuit notes that an MPCA investigation tested soot collecting on homes near the foundry and found toxic heavy metals such as lead, chromium and manganese, which the suit calls evidence it originated from the Forest Street metal plant.

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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump ordered his administration to facilitate the return of a man who was deported to El Salvador last month despite having a pending asylum application.

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U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland ruled Wednesday that the government violated a 2019 settlement agreement when it deported the 20-year-old man, a Venezuelan native identified only as Cristian in court papers.

Gallagher cited another federal judge’s order for the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland and was accidentally deported to his native El Salvador on March 15, the same day as Cristian.

Gallagher, who was nominated by Trump in 2019, said she recognizes that her ruling in Cristian’s favor “puts this case squarely into the procedural morass that has been playing out very publicly, across many levels of the federal judiciary,” in Abrego Garcia’s case.

Gallagaher said she was guided by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ ruling that Trump’s Republican administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.

“Standing by and taking no action is not facilitation,” Gallagher wrote. “In prior cases involving wrongfully removed individuals, courts have ordered, and the government has taken, affirmative steps toward facilitating return.”

Gallagher said her order requires the government to make “a good faith request” for the government of El Salvador to release Cristian to U.S. custody.

A group of immigrants who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied children and had been living in the U.S. illegally sued in July 2019. Their class action lawsuit claims the government unlawfully modified policies governing asylum applications by unaccompanied children.

Gallagher signed off on a settlement last year in the lawsuit that named Christian and three others as plaintiffs. The judge said Cristian and anyone else covered by the settlement must be returned to the U.S. to await a decision on the merits of their asylum applications by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Justice Department attorneys argued that Gallagher doesn’t have the jurisdiction to review Cristian’s removal or compel his return to the U.S. They also deny that his deportation violates the 2019 settlement.

“As a threshold matter, the Court should reject Plaintiffs’ blatant attempt to recast the parties’ filed and ordered settlement agreement to include claims and disputes never before raised in the litigation,” government lawyers wrote before Gallagher ruled.

Cristian and dozens of other people were flown from the U.S. to El Salvador the day that Trump issued a proclamation calling for the arrest and removal of Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the Trump administration is trying to circumvent the settlement agreement “because they no longer wish to be bound to its terms.”

“Simply put, the AEA does not allow Defendants to disregard the binding commitments it made,” they wrote.

Government lawyers said Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act because they determined that members of the Tren de Aragua gang are part of an “invasion” and pose a threat to the U.S.

“Given the strong public interest in ensuring the national security of the country from foreign invasion and terrorist organizations, any contract that purports to limit the President’s ability to invoke and apply the AEA in support of such public interest must be treated as void,” they wrote.

Gallagher said the government has presented no evidence that Cristian poses a threat to public safety.

By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org

Opponents are turning to legal challenges to try to block or delay major public transit expansions — even after voters approve them.

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Recent lawsuits in Arizona, Tennessee and Texas have attempted to slow voter-passed projects.

In Nashville, voters passed a $3.1 billion referendum in November to raise the city sales tax half a cent and fund expanded bus service, pedestrian improvements and 54 miles of “all-access” transit corridors. But a Tennessee court, while upholding most of the project, ruled last week that the city could not use the funds raised to purchase land for affordable housing or parks.

The ruling affects only 1% of the total revenue, the court said. But it was a signal that even well-funded, voter-backed transit efforts are vulnerable to some legal roadblocks.

After voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, last year approved an extension of a half-cent sales tax for transportation, the county GOP sued to try to invalidate the results, arguing the vote didn’t meet a 60% supermajority.

In Austin, Texas, a 2024 class-action lawsuit attempted to block the city from collecting property taxes unless it excludes a tax approved by voters in 2020 to fund Project Connect — a major transit expansion. But a judge dismissed the lawsuit late last year.

Public support for expanded transit is surging across the United States. In 2024 alone, voters approved 46 of 53 transit-related ballot measures, unlocking over $25 billion in new funding for transit projects and improvements, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

But despite support at the ballot box, cities often face legal, zoning and political barriers.

Nashville, in particular, is becoming a case study in both momentum and resistance to transit investment and development, according to researchers at the Urban Institute.

“There’s been a sea change,” said Gabe Samuels, a research analyst in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute. “Nashville had two failed transit referenda in the past decade. This time, it passed decisively. Voters want alternatives to sprawl and traffic.”

But transit-oriented development — the strategy of clustering housing and businesses near high-quality transit — is often hindered by outdated zoning, Samuels and colleague Yonah Freemark told Stateline.

According to an Urban Institute study, more than 90% of Nashville’s residential land is zoned for single- or two-family homes, a pattern common in Southern and Midwestern cities. That zoning limits the density needed to support high transit ridership, the report said. Currently, only 13% of Nashville’s housing lies within a quarter-mile, what the report calls easy walking distance, of its planned transit corridors.

“You’re investing millions — sometimes billions — into transit systems,” said Freemark. “If you’re not thinking about land use and density alongside that, you’re wasting the opportunity.”

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MATT O’BRIEN, AP Technology Writer

Ashley Dayer’s dream of winning a National Science Foundation grant to pursue discoveries in bird conservation started when she was an early-career professor with an infant in her arms and a shoestring laboratory budget.

Competition is intense for NSF grants, a key source of funding for science research at U.S. universities. It took three failed applications and years of preliminary research before the agency awarded her one.

Then came a Monday email informing Dayer that President Donald Trump’s administration was cutting off funding, apparently because the project investigating the role of bird feeders touched on themes of diversity, equity and inclusion.

“I was shocked and saddened,” said Dayer, a professor at Virginia Tech’s department of fish and wildlife conservation. “We were just at the peak of being able to get our findings together and do all of our analysis. There’s a lot of feelings of grief.”

Hundreds of other university researchers had their National Science Foundation funding abruptly canceled Friday to comply with Trump’s directives to end support of research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation. It’s the latest front in Trump’s anti-DEI campaign that has also gone after university administrations, medical research and the private sector.

More than 380 grant projects have been cut so far, including work to combat internet censorship in China and Iran and a project consulting with Indigenous communities to understand environmental changes in Alaska’s Arctic region. One computer scientist was studying how artificial intelligence tools could mitigate bias in medical information, and others were trying to help people detect AI-generated deepfakes. A number of terminated grants sought to broaden the diversity of people studying science, technology and engineering.

NSF, founded in 1950, has a $9 billion budget that can be a lifeline for resource-strapped professors and the younger researchers they recruit to their teams. It has shifted priorities over time but it is highly unusual to terminate so many midstream grants.

Some scientists saw the cuts coming, after Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz last year flagged thousands of NSF-funded projects he says reflected a “woke DEI” or Marxist agenda, including some but not all of the projects cut Friday.

Still, Dayer said she was “incredibly surprised” that her bird project was axed. A collaboration with other institutions, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it tapped into Project Feederwatch, a website and app for sharing bird observations.

Dayer’s team had collected data from more 20,000 Americans on their birdwatching habits, fielding insights on how outdoor feeders were affecting wildlife, but also people’s mental well-being.

The only mention of the word “diversity” in the grant abstract is about bird populations, not people. But the project explicitly sought to engage more disabled people and people of color. That fit with NSF’s longtime requirement that funded projects must have a broad impact.

“We thought, if anything, maybe we’d be told not to do that broader impacts work and to remove that from our project,” Dayer said. “We had no expectation that the entire grant would be unfunded.”

NSF and DOGE say they were “wasteful DEI grants”

On the day the grants were terminated, Sethuraman Panchanathan, the NSF’s director since 2020, said on the agency’s website that it still supported “research on broadening participation” but those efforts “should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”

The NSF declined to share the total number of canceled grants, but Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, posted on X that NSF had canceled “402 wasteful DEI grants” amounting to $233 million. It didn’t say how much of that had already been spent. Grants typically last for several years.

Caren Cooper, a North Carolina State University professor of forestry and natural resources, said she expected her work would be targeted after it made Cruz’s list. Her grant project also sought to include people of color and people with disabilities in participatory science projects, in collaboration with the Audubon Society and with the aim of engaging those who have historically been excluded from natural spaces and birdwatching groups.

One doctoral student had left her job and moved her family to North Carolina to work with Cooper on a stipend the grant helped to fund.

“We’ve been trying to make contingency plans,” Cooper said. “Nonetheless, it’s an illegal thing. It’s violating the terms and conditions of the award. And it really harms our students.”

Cutting misinformation work

Along with eliminating DEI research, NSF said it will no longer “support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation’ that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advances a preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”

Several researchers said they weren’t sure why their funding was terminated, other than that their abstracts included terms like “censorship” or “misinformation.”

“The lack of transparency around this process is deeply concerning,” said Eric Wustrow, an engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder whose grant aims to study and combat internet censorship in countries like China and Iran. “Did they just Ctrl+f for certain words, ignoring context?”

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NSF said on its website that “there is not a list of words” to avoid, but that misinformation research is no longer aligned with NSF’s priorities.

Wustrow said his research supports free speech and access to information around the world, and he plans to appeal the decision to terminate the funding. Meanwhile, he’s looking at potentially working for free this summer without a grant to fund his salary.

Even for those who did intend to address misinformation, the cuts seemed to miss the point.

Casey Fiesler, of the University of Colorado Boulder, had a project focused on dispelling AI misconceptions and improving AI literacy — also a priority of Trump’s education department. Cornell University’s Drew Margolin said his work set out to help people find ways to combat social media harassment, hate speech and misinformation without the help of content moderators or government regulators.

“The irony is it’s like a free speech way of addressing speech,” Margolin said.

Are more cuts coming?

The NSF declined to say if more cuts are coming. The terminated funding mirrors earlier cuts to medical research funding from the National Institutes of Health.

A group of scientists and health groups sued the NIH earlier this month, arguing that those cuts were illegal and threatened medical cures.

The cuts at NSF so far are a tiny portion of all of the agency’s grants, amounting to 387 projects, said Scott Delaney, a research scientist at Harvard University’s school of public health who is helping to track the cuts to help researchers advocate for themselves. Some received termination letters even though their projects had already ended.

“It is very chaotic, which is very consistent with what is happening at NIH,” Delaney said. “And it’s really unclear if this is everything that’s going to get terminated or if it’s just the opening salvo.”

Dayer is still figuring out what to do about the loss of funding for the bird feeder project, which cuts off part of summer funding for four professors at three universities and their respective student teams. She’s particularly worried about what it means for the next generation of American scientists, including those still deciding their career path.

“It’s just this outright attack on science right now,” Dayer said. “It’s going to have lasting impacts for American people and for science and knowledge in our country. I’m also just afraid that people aren’t going to go into the field of science.”

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.