BREAKING: The Coast Guard and others are responding to an exploding drilling platform off the Louisiana Coast.

The Associated Press is reporting this morning that an offshore oil rig, eighty miles south of Vermillion Bay, Louisiana, has exploded. The site is reportedly to the west of the Deepwater Horizon platform that blew up in April, causing several deaths and widespread oil contamination. The Coast Guard told AP that all 13 workers from the rig were in the water, but that there were no fatalities, at least thus far.

The Lewiston Tribune is reporting on its website this afternoon that Judge John Bradbury has denied permits that would have allowed the ConocoPhillips oil company to start shipments of enormously over-sized loads of oil equipment on Highway 12. According to the newspaper, the judge found that the issuance of the permits by the Idaho Transportation Department was contrary to state rules and represented a decision that was arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of the agency’s discretion. The permits were issued last Friday, but were withheld by the agency, pending the outcome of today’s decision. In a related development, the Missoula, Montana Missoulian is reporting that the state of Montana has not yet reached its own decision on whether to allow the vastly over-sized loads into Montana.

CFJ board member Peter Grubb is one of three successful plaintiffs in the Idaho action.

Idaho judge blocks shipment of massive oil field equipment along U.S. Highway 12–for now.

Idaho District Judge John Bradbury on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order to stop the Idaho Transportation Department from issuing permits to the Conoco Phillips oil company that would have allowed the oil giant to begin moving massive oil field equipment out of the Port of Lewiston. The order sets the stage for a Friday hearing in Grangeville, where the judge is being asked to grant a permanent injunction against the shipments because, according to the plaintiffs in the case, the transportation department abused its discretion and violated state law in approving the project.

The three plaintiffs in the case include Peter Grubb, the founder of ROW Adventures and a Center for Justice board member. ROW is a commercial rafting company that takes customers down the Lochsa River, along which Highway 12 travels for much of its length toward Lolo Pass and the Montana border. Grubb and his wife also own the River Dance Lodge on Highway 12 in Syringa, Idaho. The other two plaintiffs in the case are Linwood Laughy and Karen Hendrickson who live on Highway 12 near Kooskia and whose business depends, in part, on local tourism.

Oil equipment awaiting shipment in Lewiston

A central feature of this controversy is the size of the equipment that was shipped from the Far East and barged into Lewiston. It includes 300 ton coke drums that arrived via barge in Lewiston in May and which dwarf even the trucks that would haul them out of the port. Highway 12 is a relatively narrow, two-lane, scenic highway, and the loads are so large that no traffic can pass in either direction while the shipments are moving on the highway. The only way other traffic can move is when the enormous loads pull over at regular intervals to allow the traffic to flow around the loads.

The plaintiffs, represented by the Advocates for the West law firm in Boise, argue that the shipments will deter tourists from using Highway 12, and cause safety as well as potential security problems because the shipments would impede emergency vehicles such as ambulances.

“Moreover,” the plaintiffs contend, “the Conoco shipments are the first wave of over 200 heavy haul loads planned by the oil industry to take massive equipment up Highway 12 through the Clearwater/Lochsa river canyon, and over Lolo Pass to distant locations–such as the Alberta tar sand–thereby creating a new ‘high and wide’ industrial transportation corridor along Highway 12.”

The plaintiffs, in their petition to bar the shipments, argue that the Idaho Transportation Department has been working closely and quietly with oil companies for the past couple years to facilitate the shipments which, state officials contend, will bring much valued revenue to the Port of Lewiston.

But the plaintiff’s main arguments are that the shipments are illegal under Idaho law because the law limits the ITD’s discretion to issue special permits for loads that are above and beyond what Idaho normally allows for loads on state roads–which the oil equipment shipments clearly are. In issuing such special permits, they argue, the ITD is violating state regulations that require the agency to put the safety and convenience of the general public and the preservation of the highway system above all other concerns.

In issuing the temporary restraining order on Tuesday, Judge Bradbury wrote that it was based on the plaintiff’s “prima facie showing that they may suffer great damage that would not be recoverable from Conoco Phillips if the transportation of the equipment is permitted by the Department and that by issuing the permits for the transportation of the equipment the Department may be violating its own regulations.”

But the judge also required the plaintiffs to post a $3,000 bond “to cover potential costs to the Department in the event this order has been improvidently issued.”

–CFJ

Spokane County Commissioner and former Neighborhood Alliance director Bonnie Mager is running

Bonnie Mager (right) speaking with Paul Haeder on Earth Day 2010.

far ahead of each of her four challengers in primary election results counted Tuesday night. With about 70 percent of Spokane County ballots tabulated, Mager has a little more than 47 percent of the votes cast, with her nearest rival, former Spokane City Councilman Al French, gathering less than 18 percent. Yet, because all four of Mager’s challengers identified themselves as Republicans, it appears that the November race between Mager and a Republican challenger, most likely French, will be hotly contested.

In other Spokane County results Democrat Andy Billig and Republican Dave White were leading by a good margin over Spokane city councilman Bob Apple and challenger Louise Chadez (both Democrats) in the race for state representative in District 3, position 1. Incumbent Timm Ormsby leads by a wide margin in the race for District 3, position 2. Republican Michael Baumgartner held a narrow (51.37% to 48.63%) lead over incumbent Chris Marr for the District 6 state senate seat. In the state representative, position 2 seat in District 6, John Discoll, was leading each of his challengers by a wide margin, yet capturing only 41.5 % of the vote against the two Republican challengers.

In the race for Spokane County Prosecutor, incumbent Steve Tucker trails Democrat Frank Malone, Tucker receiving 26.75% of the vote, against Malone’s 29.84%.

In the statewide U.S. Senate race, Republican Dino Rossi is handily surpassing fellow Republican Clint Didier to secure a spot on the ballot against incumbent Patty Murray in the fall. Murray was gathering just over 46 percent of the vote statewide, with Rosse near 34 percent and Didier at just under 12%.

To see the most up to date primary election results, go here.

In the latest twist in the legal battles over California’s Proposition 8–prohibiting gay marriage in the state–the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has extended a stay that will prevent such marriages from occurring, at least for a few months.

The stay was issued in response to federal District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s August 4th ruling that the state referendum barring gay marriage is unconstitutional because it violates guarantees of equal protection.

In his ruling, Walker stayed his own ruling until last Thursday, and even then gave  the Ninth Circuit six more days to review it before same-sex marriages could begin again in California.

Now, the earliest gay marriages could resume would be when the appeals court decides the case later this year, or early next year.

You can read the Ninth Circuit order here. You can read the New York Times story on today’s stay here.

Last week we ran a news story in this column regarding what we thought was a new development in the protracted legal dispute over Columbia River salmon recovery. Everything about the story was true, except the letter from U.S. District Court Judge James Redden was written last year, and not last week.

The mistake was mine and I’m not actually sure how it happened. Apparently I had changed the search fields on my email in box, and it pulled up a Seattle Times email from last May, whereupon I promptly mistook it for the one I usually receive before dawn every day. In retrospect, I should have at least finished my coffee and checked it against feeds from other news outlets, before posting it live on our site. It’s more than a little embarrassing and I apologize for sowing confusion into a subject that is confused enough as it is.

To set the record straight, Judge Redden is still tasked with having to render yet another opinion on whether the federal government’s biological opinion on what is necessary to protect endangered Columbia/Snake River wild salmon runs is sufficient to comply with the Endangered Species Act. Ultimately, his opinion will affect, if not determine, the fate of the controversial dams on the lower Snake River.

The Obama Administration provided a supplement to the biological opinion on May 20th of this year and, to put it mildly, the document was sharply criticized by conservation groups for adding little to the science that Judge Redden has already found to be inadequate.

A good reference point in this important issue is Daniel Jack Chasan’s story, Salmon or Political Games? which was published on May 26th.

–Tim Connor

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton has issued an order that stops the state of Arizona from taking actions to enforce the most controversial parts of a new law that is scheduled to go into effect tomorrow.

Among the provisions Judge Bolton has iced are those requiring that law enforcement officers check a person’s immigration status in the course of enforcing other laws, and that requiring immigrants to carry their immigration status papers at all times.

You can read the Washington Post story about today’s ruling here, and the New York Times story here.

Marianne Torres, one of eastern Washington’s most eloquent and visible social activists, landed in Jerusalem earlier today. Torres, whose many passions include advocating for justice and self-determination for Palestine, will be working with the Christian Peacemaking Team, a Mennonite project that has worked in Palestine for the past 15 years.

Among other things, the Christian Peacemaking Team monitors the treatment of Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints, protects Palestinian schoolchildren in their walks to and from school, and works with Israeli peace organizations to replant olive groves destroyed by Israeli settlers.

Marianne Torres speaking at an event earlier this month in Spokane.

Although Torres has been outspoken for Palestinian justice for many years, this is her first trip to the region. She will be there for the next two weeks and plans to speak about her experience upon her return later this summer.

Closer to home, Torres has been a key player in the Spokane citizen coalition that has been working to reform civilian oversight of Spokane area law enforcement. Her forceful testimony and public questioning of Spokane officials is credited by many as being instrumental in persuading the Spokane city council to enact an ordinance last month to overhaul the city’s police ombudsman office.

–CFJ

Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court passed a first test this morning when the Senate Judiciary committee voted 13-6 to forward her name to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. As was the case with President Obama’s first selection to the court–Justice Sonia Sotomayor–only one Republican joined with the 12 Democrats on the committee to endorse Obama’s nomination of Kagan. That was Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

You can read the New York Times account of the vote here. You can read the Washington Post account here.