Megaload Protesters Arrested Sunday Make Innocent Pleas

Posted on March 6, 2012 by WIRT

MOSCOW – Two Moscow men pleaded innocent to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer after they allegedly attempted to block three megaloads traveling through their city.

Police Chief David Duke said officers arrested Cass Davis, 47, and James Prall, 67, Sunday night after they re-entered the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 95 in Moscow shortly after 11 p.m.

Four protesters – Davis, Prall, and two women – initially entered the roadway in an effort to block the giant Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil refinery equipment modules headed for a tar sands oil extraction project in Canada, Duke said. Continue reading →

Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested

Posted on March 5, 2012 by WIRT

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists blocked three colossal tar sands “megaloads” when they linked arms and sat together on Washington Street in Moscow, Idaho, on Sunday, March Fourth! Listen to between 26:10 and 13:18 of the Monday, March 5, Evening Report, Two Megaload Blockers Arrested, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow, for announcements of the last passage of these shipments in Two Final Megaloads from Lewiston Due Tuesday Night and for on-the-scene reportage of the WIRT protest, civil disobedience, and subsequent arrests in Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested.

Breaking: Two Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Idaho

Posted on March 5, 2012 by WIRT

News from Moscow, Idaho: two arrested blockading ExxonMobil’s megaload trucks with tar sands equipment bound for Alberta.

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Moscow, Idaho

PRELIMINARY NEWS RELEASE

March 5, 2012

(Drawn from a Wild Idaho Rising Tide media release and photos published by Scott Parkin in It’s Getting Hot in Here)

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Moscow, Idaho

Posted on March 5, 2012 by WIRT

Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all. As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4. Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed. The women did not appreciate the discrimination. In a video by Joshua Yeidel of a KRFP Radio Free Moscow interview, We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow ID, March 4, 2012, one of the dismissed women explained her and her many allies’ motivations for marching, chanting, and even obstructing megaloads and risking arrest in cold and dark winter conditions. “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…” Continue reading →

We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow, Idaho 3-4-12

Posted on March 5, 2012 by WIRT

Among three other protesters who sat in Washington Street on Sunday night, March 4, Jeanne McHale blocked three enormous ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads of processing equipment moving through downtown Moscow, Idaho, toward the devastating Alberta tar sands project in Canada. City and state police jailed the two male blockaders but refused to arrest the two females whom they also dragged out of the road and detained. In a brief interview with a KRFP Radio Free Moscow reporter, Jeanne explained why she and many others are marching, chanting, and even willing to risk arrest after protesting for numerous nights in the dark winter cold of Idaho, while contributing several supportive roles to Wild Idaho Rising Tide. “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…”

(By Sharon Cousins)

Has the Megaload Saga Finally Come to a Close?

Posted on March 1, 2012 by WIRT

The Idaho Department of Transportation caused a flurry of excitement for activists in Moscow, Idaho early Tuesday, Feb. 28. The agency said the shipping company Mammeot would be transporting three of the last megaloads that night. The alert changed later that afternoon, stating it would be just one.

Has the megaload saga finally come to a close?

(By Alex Sakariassen, Missoula Independent)

Final Three Mega-Loads (At Least For Now) Roll Tonight

Posted on February 28, 2012 by WIRT

[Website Editor’s Note: The last three Highway 95 megaloads referenced in this article actually number five and will likely depart the Port of Lewiston around March 6 to 8.]

Tonight marks a milestone in the saga of the Idaho mega-loads.

In early 2010, Boise Weekly first began telling you about ExxonMobil’s plans to haul giant rigs of oil equipment across the Pacific Ocean from South Korea, up the Columbia River, through the Port of Lewiston, and slowly across Idaho highways hugging the Clearwater and Lochsa rivers along U.S. Highway 12.

When most northern Idaho citizens first got wind of the plans in June 2010, they began pushing back, taking Big Oil and the Idaho Department of Transportation through legal tussles in front of District Courts, the Idaho Supreme Court, and lengthy ITD hearings.

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Citizens Give First-Hand Account on Monitoring Megaloads

Posted on February 23, 2012 by WIRT

Besides the much appreciated, ongoing, thorough coverage of Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) protests and court cases by KRFP Radio Free Moscow posted on our website, our tar sands transport monitoring activities garnered some rare regional television exposure in mostly pro-megaload Lewiston with the KLEW TV story Citizens Give First-Hand Account on Monitoring Megaloads. The brief video and reportage by Cindy Cha features Rob Briggs and Paul McPoland as megaload monitors gathering evidence for a potential administrative court case and spin-off monitor and accident victim misdemeanor trials. The KLEW camera also captures our approximately fortieth WIRT protest and organizer Helen Yost in the cold wind outside Moscow City Hall, where most officials have largely welcomed the perceived economic benefits of their complicity.

(By Cindy Cha, KLEW TV Lewiston)

Megaload Monitor Motion to Throw Out Seatbelt Misdemeanor Rejected

Posted on February 20, 2012 by WIRT

On Friday, February 17, Kootenai County Judge Clark Peterson dismissed a motion to suppress the charge of resisting and obstructing an officer imposed on Wild Idaho Rising Tide organizer Helen Yost. Idaho State Police arrested and jailed Cici Claar and Ms. Yost on August 26, 2011, when they refused to provide identification after trooper accusations of not wearing safety belts in the back seat of a parked vehicle, as they monitored Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil tar sands megaloads south of Coeur d’Alene. We anticipate plenty of arguments about civil rights, constitutional case law, and corporate police states, along with regional media coverage, when a jury trial of both defendants occurs in April or May. Listen to the KRFP Radio Free Moscow story and interview of megaload monitor Helen Yost between 21:00 and 13:11 on the Monday, February 20, Evening Report: Megaload Monitor Motion to Throw Out Seatbelt Misdemeanor Rejected. For further background on this situation, see the Moscow-Pullman Daily News article Megaload Monitors Arrested Saturday for Obstruction Outside Coeur d’Alene and The Spokesman Review piece Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene.

District Judge Sends Kearl Megaloads Back to MDT for Environmental Review

Posted on February 18, 2012 by WIRT

Late Friday, February 17, 2012, Montana District Judge Ray Dayton upheld his July 2011 preliminary injunction against Imperial Oil/Exxon Mobil’s plan to move megaloads of equipment to the Alberta tar sands via U.S. Highway 12 and Montana Highway 200 in western Montana. He ordered the Montana Department of Transportation to pursue a more extensive environmental review considering alternative routes, the permanence of… two-lane highway turnouts (constructed to clear traffic around megaloads within 10-minute limits), and thus the ultimate impacts of a possible high-wide industrial corridor. As the last few megaloads travel Highway 95 soon, hundreds of these transports are still traversing Interstates 395, 90, and 15 through the Northwest.

Read District Judge Sends Kearl Megaloads Back to MDT for Environmental Review by Kim Briggeman, Missoulian, Montana.

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