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rats and all 45 Republicans voted yes.
• For four years, environmentalists and others have tried to derail the project, saying extracting the oil from Alberta tar sands would increase global warming. President Barack Obama has thwarted it twice, and Nebraska officials objected initially that the route would jeopardize ecologically sensitive lands.
• But the Nebraska route has been changed, and project supporters have won more backing by arguing it would create thousands of jobs. A recent State Department report raised no major objections to the project.
• North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven sponsored the measure.
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Judge finds candidacy lawsuit malicious, frivolous
CHET BROKAW,Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A judge on Friday found that a lawsuit challenging the candidacy of a state lawmaker was frivolous and was filed for malicious purposes.
• Rapid City businesswoman Stephanie Strong, who acted as her own lawyer, earlier lost a lawsuit that sought to remove Rep. Brian Gosch of Rapid City from the November ballot. Strong had argued that Gosch should be taken off the ballot because he notarized a part of his own nominating petition in early 2012.
• Gosch stayed on the ballot, won re-election and was elected by other representatives as speaker of the House of Representatives.
• In a hearing Friday, Circuit Judge Kathleen Trandahl said the timing of Strong's lawsuit and her actions in delaying the proceedings indicated she filed the lawsuit in a political attempt to prevent Gosch from being elected, not to protect voters' rights.
• "The court finds the lawsuit was brought for the purpose of maliciousness and it was frivolous. It had no chance of success," Trandahl said.
• The judge said she will consider Gosch's request to have Strong pay for his cost of defending himself against the lawsuit. She also indicated she intends to have Strong pay Gosch's costs for at least the part of the lawsuit handled in Rapid City because Strong knew she should have filed the lawsuit in Pierre, where such lawsuits against the state are handled.
• The lawsuit was eventually transferred to circuit court in Pierre.
• The state is not seeking attorney's fees for its cost of defending Secretary of State Jason Gant, who was also named in the lawsuit.
• Strong did not appear at Friday's hearing, even though the judge and attorneys for Gosch and Gant said they made many phone calls and sent messages reminding her of the hearing. Strong did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press seeking comment Friday.
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