By CLAIRE SAVAGE and ALEXANDRA OLSON (Associated Press)

CHICAGO (AP) — A lawsuit filed by 17 states challenging federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions lacks standing, a federal judge in Arkansas ruled on Friday.

Republican attorneys general from each state, led by Arkansas and Tennessee, sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April, days after the agency published rules for employers and workers to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a 2022 law requiring many employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant or postpartum employees.

In addition to more routine pregnancy workplace accommodations like time off for prenatal appointments, more bathroom breaks, or permission to carry snacks, the rules say that workers can ask for time off to obtain an abortion and recover from the procedure.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Arkansas argued the regulations go beyond the scope of the 2022 law that passed with bipartisan support.

Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall, Jr., who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, denied the states’ request for a nationwide preliminary injunction on the federal rules, which are scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday.

“The States’ fear of overreach by one branch of the federal government cannot be cured with overreach by another,” Friday’s ruling says.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement provided by a spokesperson that he is “disappointed in the court’s ruling” and “am considering all legal options and remain confident we will ultimately be successful.”

The other states that joined the lawsuit are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

The EEOC regulations are also being challenged in another federal lawsuit in Louisiana that is still awaiting a ruling. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with other religious groups, have filed a separate lawsuit over the abortion provision in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. That case has been consolidated with a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, which also asks the judge to postpone the enforcement of the EEOC rules pending the outcome of the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union and more than 20 labor and women’s advocacy groups, including A Better Balance, a non-profit that spearheaded the 10-year campaign for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act’s passage, filed amicus briefs in both cases arguing the EEOC rules should take effect as scheduled, calling them key to the successful implementation of law.

“Today’s ruling in Tennessee v. EEOC is a victory for millions of pregnant and postpartum workers across the country, because it allows the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) regulations to go into effect next week, providing important clarity about how the law works in practice,” said Dina Bakst of A Better Balance.

In their briefs, the groups cited dozens of examples of pregnant workers who have reached out to advocacy groups or filed lawsuits claiming that employers have continued to deny them accommodations in violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

“The relief sought in this case is completely overboard and would have harmed literally millions of people,” said Gillian Thomas, a senior staff attorney in the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, referring to the lawsuit in Arkansas. “The law has been in place for a year and employers are violating it in the most egregious way right and left and clearly need guidance.”

The EEOC in its regulations said it was conforming to decades of legal precedent establishing that pregnancy anti-discrimination laws include abortion.

Abortion rights defenders have also hailed the protection under the EEOC rules as especially critical in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Women in states with strict abortion restrictions increasingly have to travel far to obtain the procedure, needing time off to do so.

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The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A motorist who struck and critically injured a 40-year-old man who was on a downtown St. Paul freeway last year told an investigator the next day he thought he had hit an animal so he did not return to the scene of the crash.

Anthony John Cuchetti, a 49-year-old musician from Red Wing, has been charged with felony failing to stop at a traffic collision resulting in injury in connection with the crash, which happened on Interstate 94 near Jackson Street just before 11 p.m. on May 18, 2023.

A certified crash reconstructionist determined the collision and injuries to Jeffrey Allen Welage Jr., of Mounds View, could “primarily be attributed to (Welage), who was walking or standing in the lane of a controlled-access highway in a location and under conditions of limited visibility,” says a criminal complaint filed against Cuchetti last week.

Jeffrey Allen Welage Jr. (Courtesy of family)

Cuchetti did return to investigate what he hit as required by law and it “is unknown exactly how long (Welage) was on the roadway, after being struck, before his condition was reported and he began receiving medical treatment,” the complaint says.

Welage survived his injuries. However, in a tragic turn of events, his father said this week, Welage was found dead this month in a bathtub at his girlfriend’s downtown St. Paul apartment, where he’d been staying of late.

“We’re trying to make sense of it,” Jeff Welage Sr., of Mounds View, said, adding he did not want to speculate what caused his son’s June 1 death.

The cause of his death will be determined after results of toxicology tests are complete, St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster said this week.

‘Saw something come out’

According to the criminal complaint, the State Patrol responded to a report of a man lying face down on the right shoulder of eastbound Interstate 94 just east of Jackson Street. Welage was unconscious and badly injured, and taken to Regions Hospital.

Around 10 a.m. the next day, Cuchetti called the State Patrol. He told an investigator he saw a news story about the incident that morning and believed he was the motorist who struck Welage.

He said the night before he had performed as a musician at a private party for a company in Minneapolis. He said he had consumed one to two beers during the night.

A blood draw for toxicology testing was not obtained from Cuchetti, State Patrol Lt. Jill Frankfurth said this week.

While driving home on eastbound I-94 in the area of downtown St. Paul, Cuchetti “saw something come out,” which he thought was an animal, he told the investigator.

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Cuchetti said that because of traffic he was unable to swerve to avoid a collision, which “jolted the car,” the complaint says. He said he had hit a deer before and that it felt the same, adding: “It didn’t cross my mind that it could have been a person because I was on the highway, and I was like, ‘What would someone be walking across the highway for?’”

Cuchetti said he continued on I-94 to southbound U.S. 61, where he felt safe to pull over. He said he saw damage to the right headlight of his Honda Pilot, but that the SUV was otherwise drivable, so he decided to contact his insurance company in the morning.

Cuchetti said he did not return to the site of the collision because he believed that he had struck an animal.

The investigator contacted a manager at the company where Cuchetti had performed the night of the crash. He said that he doubted that Cuchetti had much to drink there, the complaint says.

The damage to Cuchetti’s SUV matched debris found at the scene.

He underwent 10-plus surgeries

At the time of the crash, Welage had been using methamphetamine and staying at the Union Gospel Mission and Dorothy Day homeless shelters in downtown St. Paul, his father said.

He said his son had no memory of the crash or why he was on the highway that night.

Welage was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and had compound fractures to both his legs and injuries to his arms, shoulder, pelvis and face, his father said. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t know if he would make it,” he said.

Welage underwent more than 10 surgeries and remained in the hospital, with a tracheostomy tube, for several weeks. He then spent two months recovering at his father’s home before moving to a group home in Anoka.

His father said he was prescribed medication to treat seizures that he began having after the crash.

Cuchetti is scheduled to make a first court appearance on the charge June 24. He referred comment Friday to his attorney, Nicole Kettwick, who said “he was deeply distressed about what he learned when he was driving that night. Never in his wildest dreams would he imagine that a person was on the highway.”

Kettwick was unaware of Welage’s death until a reporter informed her, and she said Cuchetti also did not know of his passing. “On behalf of Mr. Cuchetti, he expresses his deepest condolences to the family,” Kettwick said.

 

Aiden Bale and Tyler Guerin each hit two-out, run-scoring singles in the eighth inning, and Nate Edelman worked around a one-out triple to send Mounds View into the Class 4A state championship with a 5-4 victory over top-seeded Wayzata on Thursday at CHS Field.

Guerin started the game on the mound for the Mustangs and scattered eight hits over seven innings. He was one out away from victory when Gaard Swenson singled in the tying run in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings.

Edelman gave up a triple to Adam Deselich and RBI single to James Hansen before Bale ranged from the second base to snare a diving catch of a foul ball for the final out.

Isaac Beseman and Jack Glancey drove in runs for the Mustangs (20-8), who will meet Suburban East Conference rival East Ridge for the title Monday at Target Field. The teams split a pair of regular-season games this season.

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For the fourth straight season, Mahtomedi and Grand Rapids met in the state baseball tournament. Mahtomedi has enjoyed the matchup, winning three times.

The latest was a 5-3 heart-racing triumph in a Class 3A semifinal on Friday at Chaska Athletic Park.

“It’s still spiking,” Andrew Sokoll said of his heart rate a few minutes after the win. The junior pitched 3 2/3 innings in relief of Max Strecker, including a nerve-wracking seventh inning.

Grand Rapids loaded the bases with one out and got within two on a sacrifice fly, but Sokoll struck out a Thunderhawk looking with a nasty slider containing plenty of movement.

Sokoll, who missed the first half of the season with an elbow injury, spiked his glove down in joy.

“Everything was just lifted off my shoulders, all the pressure was off.”

And it means the second-seeded Zephyrs will face No. 4 Totino-Grace or No. 1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Target Field for the title. Mahtomedi lost 5-3 to New Prague in last year’s championship game at CHS Field.

In the tournament for the ninth time since 2014, the Zephyrs (22-4) seek the school’s second title in four years and third since 2018. The 2021 title came via a 20-3 win over Grand Rapids.

Mahtomedi also beat Grand Rapids 3-2 in a semifinal last year; a year after Grand Rapids won a quarterfinal matchup. Like this year, both those games were also played on June 14.

“(Mahtomedi coach) Rob (Garry) said yesterday when we were flipping a coin, we should just schedule a semifinal date every year because that’s how it ends up,” Grand Rapids coach Bill Kinnunen said.

From the third-base coaching box, he and Mahtomedi third baseman Tommy Becker were also noting the familiarity. That was before a fielding gem by the senior was the play of the game.

Down 4-2 with one out in the fourth, Grand Rapids had the bases loaded. Becker gloved a high hopper, took a couple steps to get his foot on the bag and threw across the diamond to first base where Jack Erickson made the clutch scoop.

“I skipped it over, but he got the job done,” Becker said with a smile as Erickson stood a couple feet away. “It was game-changing, it moved the momentum back to our side.”

Like last year’s contest, Mahtomedi jumped out to a 3-0 lead. This year, it all came in the first inning.

On a sun-drenched afternoon, Strecker walked, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored two batters later on a groundout. A sharp single by Erickson plated Austin Felling, who singled. Erickson later reached third on a throwing error and scored on a passed ball.

Strecker added an RBI single in the second. Erickson scored on a squeeze play in the sixth.

Grand Rapids (17-9) left two men on in the first and the bases loaded in the second. A Dominc Broberg double scored one for the Thunderhawks in the third, but Strecker got a fly out and then struck out two batters to strand Broberg.

“We couldn’t get the big hit. In these big games, that’s what’ll cost you,” Kinnunen said. “And we made some key errors and mistakes. That comes back to haunt you when you’re playing outstanding programs like you get when you get to this level.”

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