Billions seized from people not charged

The Drug Enforcement Administration takes billions of dollars in cash from people who are never charged with criminal activity, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

Since 2007, the report found, the DEA has seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of involvement with the drug trade. But no civil or criminal charges were brought against the owners of the cash in 81 percent of those seizures, totaling $3.2 billion. And no judicial review of the seizures occurred.

The seizures are legal under the controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows authorities to take cash and other property from people suspected of crime but does not require authorities to obtain a criminal conviction. It allows departments to keep seized cash and property for themselves.

Critics across the political spectrum say this creates a profit motive, incentivizing police to seize goods not for the purpose of fighting crime, but for padding department budgets.

Law enforcement groups say the practice is a valuable tool for fighting criminal organizations, allowing them to seize drug profits and other ill-gotten goods.

Dela., Phila. chaos

Authorities say a man who died after a struggle with Delaware police in which shots were fired had been shot earlier in the day by Philadelphia police.

New Castle County Police in Delaware said in a statement that the 28-year-old man got into a car and tried to flee as officers approached him Wednesday evening. Police say an officer tried to arrest the man and shot at him, but it’s not known whether he was hit.

The car and the man were found in a park. Officers say he was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Philadelphia police say an officer there shot the man earlier Wednesday when he hit an officer with a car and fled.

Pipeline challenged

OMAHA, Neb. — A coalition of environmental groups challenged the federal permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline in court Thursday because the groups say additional environmental scrutiny is needed.

The Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups say the initial environmental review completed in 2014 is inadequate and outdated and it underestimated how much the pipeline would encourage tar sands oil production in Canada.

The U.S. State Department issued a permit for the project this month, although Nebraska regulators still must review and decide whether to approve the proposed route through their state.

Also in the nation …

A Mexican man who spent more than six weeks in immigration detention despite his participation in a program designed to prevent the deportation of those brought to the U.S. illegally as children was released from custody Wednesday in Tacoma, Wash., pending deportation proceedings. … Law enforcement officials from two departments say they received phone calls Wednesday about a pickup driving erratically shortly before a collision between a truck and church bus in Texas that killed 13 people returning from a retreat. … Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has vetoed legislation that would have expanded Medicaid to cover 150,000 low-income Kansans amid speculation that he will take a job in President Donald Trump’s administration.