The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says it is moving away from its CodeRED emergency system following recent cyberattacks and data breaches nationwide.

CodeRED is a critical notification system used to deliver time-sensitive alerts during severe weather events, public safety threats and other emergencies. CodeRED has reported that information such as names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and possibly passwords for profiles may have been compromised.

“If the same password is used by system users for any other personal or business accounts, those passwords should be changed immediately,” county officials said.

During this transition, partner agencies with emergency alerting capabilities will issue public alerts on Washington County’s behalf.

The county is encouraging residents who use the system to do the following:

• Change any usernames or passwords to other personal or business accounts similar to those used for CodeRED profiles.

• Ensure Emergency Alerts are turned on in phone settings.

• Follow Washington County Sheriff’s Office and local public safety agencies on social media.

• Maintain multiple ways to receive alerts, such as NOAA Weather Radio and local news outlets.

The county said CodeRED has reported there is no evidence that any user information has been used to carry out identity theft or fraud.

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Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on Tuesday ordered the Justice Department to tell him what materials it plans to publicly release that were subject to secrecy orders in the British socialite’s case.

The deadline: Noon on Wednesday.

Engelmayer’s order came after the Justice Department on Monday asked for his permission to release grand jury records, exhibits and discovery materials in the Maxwell case.

Engelmayer said government lawyers must file a letter on the case docket describing materials it wants to release “in sufficient detail to meaningfully inform victims” what it plans to make public.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Epstein, a millionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, killed himself in jail a month after his 2019 arrest.

Engelmayer had already notified victims and Maxwell that they can respond next month to Justice Department’s request to release materials before he decides whether to grant it.

The Justice Department said it was seeking the court’s approval to release materials to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress and signed into law last week by President Donald Trump. It calls for the release of grand jury and discovery materials in the case.

The request, along with an identical one for grand jury transcripts from Epstein’s case, was among the first public indications that the Justice Department was trying to comply with the transparency act, which requires it to release Epstein-related files in a searchable format by Dec. 19.

Engelmayer did not preside over the trial, but was assigned to the case after the trial judge, Alison J. Nathan, was elevated to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Discovery materials subject to secrecy orders are likely to include victim interviews and other materials that previously would have been only viewed by lawyers or Maxwell prior to her trial.

Engelmayer said in an order Monday that Maxwell and victims of Maxwell and Epstein can respond by Dec. 3 to the government’s request to make materials public. The government must respond to their filings by Dec. 10. The judge said he will rule “promptly thereafter.”

Lawyers for victims did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. A spokesperson for federal prosecutors declined to comment.

Judge Richard M. Berman, who presided over the Epstein case before his death, issued an order on Tuesday allowing victims and Epstein’s estate to respond to the Justice Department’s unsealing request by Dec. 3. He said the government can respond to any submissions by Dec. 8.

Berman said he would make his “best efforts to resolve this motion promptly.”

The city of Grant has hired longtime area city administrator Kristina Handt to be its new interim city administrator and treasurer.

Her first day on the job was Monday.

Handt takes over the position from Kim Points, who had held the position for 20 years.

The Grant City Council and Points mutually agreed earlier this month that her last day of employment would be Dec. 31, said Mayor Jeff Giefer. Giefer said Tuesday that he could not give details surrounding the separation agreement.

Handt, the former interim city administrator in Forest Lake, most recently served as interim finance director in Oakdale. Her last day was Friday.

Kristina Handt (Courtesy photo)

In addition to her duties as city administrator, Handt will be serving as city treasurer. The Grant City Council plans next month to adopt a resolution to combine the city administrator and city treasurer roles, Giefer said.

“We look forward to the skills and experience Kristina brings to the position,” Giefer said.

Handt and the city entered into a six-month contract for the interim position; her salary for the six months is $60,000, Giefer said. At the conclusion of her six-month contract, both parties may choose to enter into a permanent position/contract, he said.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to serve a small, rural community like Grant, which offers unique strengths and has a strong sense of place,” Handt said. “I look forward to supporting the mayor and council in advancing their priorities of good governance, transparency and making sure essential services, including public safety and road infrastructure, are delivered effectively.”

The Forest Lake City Council voted last year to dismiss Handt from the interim city administrator position. She had previously served as city administrator in Lake Elmo and Scandia.

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By GENE JOHNSON and CEDAR ATTANASIO

SEATTLE (AP) — Oil company BP has found the source of a leak in a major Pacific Northwest pipeline system, allowing it to restart the flow of jet fuel to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Tuesday and help avoid any major disruptions to Thanksgiving travel.

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Separately, Washington state regulators announced they were fining the company $3.8 million for a 2023 spill from the same pipeline system nearby.

The 400-mile-long Olympic Pipeline is the backbone of the region’s system for moving gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products from refineries near the Canadian border to distribution terminals in the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades, including major cities in Washington and Oregon.

BP shut the pipeline system down on Nov. 17 following intermittent shutoffs after a farmer discovered a gas sheen in a drainage ditch on a blueberry farm near Everett, north of Seattle, on Nov. 11. That prompted Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson to declare an emergency last week, lifting restrictions on how long truck drivers could work to enable them to deliver fuel to Sea-Tac by road. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek issued a similar order Monday.

But late Monday, after excavating in an area where two pipes run alongside each other — one that carries gasoline and another that carries jet fuel — BP said it found the leak in the gasoline pipeline. That allowed it to restart the flow of fuel to the airport and to begin devising a repair plan for the gas pipeline.

Officials and BP are still assessing how much gasoline leaked. Responders have set out recovery equipment to contain and clean up the spill, and no gasoline has been observed outside the area of the response, BP said.

“It will take a couple of days to replenish fuel reserves at the airport, but early indications suggest that travel will not be impacted,” Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell said in a statement. “This is why we need strong pipeline safety oversight and better leak detection technology.”

In a letter to BP last week, Cantwell said the fact that the company didn’t notice the leak before the blueberry farmer did raised serious questions about its inspection, maintenance and leak-detection capabilities.

Delta and Alaska Airlines, which had added fuel stops to some flights, said Tuesday they were resuming normal operations while continuing to truck in some fuel until the airport’s reserves are replenished.

Previous shutdowns of the pipeline have prompted gas prices to spike in Washington and Oregon.

The pipeline has a lengthy history of leaks, including a 1999 fireball that killed three young people recreating along a creek in Bellingham, Washington. The accident led to an overhaul of federal pipeline regulation.

In 2023, a 25,000-gallon spill near Conway, north of Seattle, sent fuel into nearby streams and wetlands.

The state Ecology Department on Monday announced that the cause of that leak was a corroded carbon-steel nut on an assembly used to monitor the pipeline’s pressure. The company’s inspections failed to identify the nut as a problem, though it shouldn’t have been used due to the likelihood of corrosion, the department said.

The department said it was seeking more than $4.6 million from BP for that spill — $3.8 million in fines plus $822,000 in response costs.

The company, which has until Dec. 18 to appeal, said it is reviewing the department’s findings.

“As noted by the Washington Department of Ecology, our collaborative, robust response with our partners limited the affected area, reduced environmental impacts and prioritized public health,” BP said in a statement.