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National

First piece of disputed Keystone

XL pipeline finished

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Canadian company has built the first piece of the disputed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S. border and started work on labor camps in Montana and South Dakota. But it has not resolved a courtroom setback that would make it hard to finish the $8 billion project.

The 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska was stalled for much of the past decade before President Donald Trump was elected and began trying to push it through to completion.

Environmentalists and Native American tribes are bitterly opposed to the line because of worries over oil spills and that burning the fuel would make climate change worse.

Work finally started in April at the border crossing in remote northern Montana. That 1.2-mile section has now been completed except for some site reclamation activity, TC Energy spokeswoman Sara Rabern said.

The Calgary-based company has started site work for labor camps near Baker, Montana, and Philip, South Dakota, but it has not set a date to occupy them.

Harley-Davidson restarts US

production, faces ‘new normal ‘

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Harley-Davidson Inc. is resuming production at its U.S. manufacturing plants after suspending production for about two months.

The Milwaukee-based motorcycle company shut down production in March after an employee at its factory in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, tested positive for the coronavirus. Harley-Davidson also saw motorcycle sales drop in the economic fallout from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the Wisconsin factory where the worker tested positive for the coronavirus is expected to return to full staffing after Memorial Day weekend. The engine and drivetrain facility employs about 1,000 people.

The Menomonee Falls factory plans to bring all hourly employees back after the Memorial Day weekend for full production, Ross Winklbauer, a Steelworkers subdistrict director, said Thursday. Currently, about 125 U.S. Steelworkers union members are back at the plant.

The company has staggered work start times and installed barriers between work stations to address the coronavirus.

“It’s going to be a new normal for them,” Winklbauer said.

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