I went to dinner with friends and when I returned to my computer, I discovered that two things happened in my absence:

1. The blog picked up three new trolls who arrived either to insult me in my living room and/or to inform us that Trump is a great man, not an “unhinged lunatic” (to use Lawrence O’Donnell’s apt phrase.

2. The Justice Department intervened immediately after a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction to stop the construction of the pipeline on Sioux lands.

Ellen Lubic wrote to bring the news:

From VOX…

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

“• The Obama administration issued an order late Friday blocking construction work for the Dakota Access Pipeline on federal land (and asking the company building the pipeline to suspend work on nearby land as well). [Reuters / Ruthy Munoz]

• The move follows several weeks of protests over the proposed pipeline, led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe — whose reservation is a half-mile south of the proposed pipeline route. [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• The protests are driven both by concerns about climate change (not to mention potential pollution) and its disparate impact on native peoples, and by objections that the pipeline’s construction violated the US government’s obligation to deal with the Standing Rock Sioux as a sovereign government. [Vox / Victoria M. Massie and Aura Bogado]

• Earlier Friday, a federal judge denied the request of the Standing Rock tribe — and 200 other native groups — to judicially halt construction, so the executive branch’s order was both well-timed and surprising. [CNN / Ray Sanchez and Holly Yan]

• On the merits, the Standing Rock Sioux have a strong case that the federal government didn’t consult them as equals in approving the pipeline. But as the case grinds through the courts, the archaeological sites the tribe is trying to protect — directly in the pipeline’s path — might already be in the midst of destruction. [The Atlantic / Robinson Meyer]

• Meanwhile, protesters haven’t always been treated gently. Private security guards were so aggressive in their use of dogs on protesters that a state accreditation board is now looking into the firm. [Bismarck Tribune / Caroline Grueskin]”