– Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Charged With Trespassing in Keystone XL protest (Washington Post, oct 31, 2012):
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested Wednesday morning in east Texas while attempting to bring food and Halloween candy to protesters camping out in trees to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, according to anti-pipeline activists.Stein was taken to the Wood County jail and charged with criminal trespassing, a class B misdemeanor, said Kim Huynh, a spokesman for the Tar Sands Blockade.
Opponents of the pipeline have climbed some trees in the path of the pipeline in Winnsboro, Tex., and have been there for 38 days.
Stein’s Web site said she and three other women were attempting to deliver “fresh fruits and vegetables, canned proteins, trail mix, and Halloween candy.” The site said Stein was handcuffed by officers who did not identify themselves as police. It was the first arrest for the Green Party candidate, a 62-year-old physician.
Before her arrest, Stein said in a statement that “the climate is taking this election by storm, breaking the silence of the Obama and Romney campaigns that have been bought and paid for by the oil, coal and gas companies.” She added, “Hurricane Sandy is just a taste of what’s to come under the climate destroying policies of Romney and Obama.”
Pipeline owner TransCanada already has the permits it needs for construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL that will run from Cushing, Okla., to the Texas Gulf of Mexico coast. The State Department is still weighing whether to approve the portion of the pipeline that would go from the Canadian border to Steele City, Neb.