In brief: Coeur d’Alene seeks dismissal of Hitching Post lawsuit

The city of Coeur d’Alene is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the owners of the Hitching Post wedding chapel who claim the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance violates their religious right to refuse to marry gay couples.

Hitching Post Weddings, owned by Donald and Evelyn Knapp, is a religious corporation that is exempt from the nondiscrimination ordinance, a Boise law firm argued in the city’s motion this week to dismiss the suit.

The Knapps and their business “will not be in violation of the ordinance if they refuse to perform same-sex weddings,” attorney Kirtlan Naylor wrote in the filing.

The Knapps sued the city in October. Both sides discussed a possible settlement over the past couple of months but could not come to a resolution.

“We exchanged some proposals but there was nothing that we could agree on,” City Attorney Mike Gridley said Tuesday.

Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel for Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the Knapps, said the government “can’t tell ministers they must perform same-sex marriages under threat of jail time and crippling fines. And that’s exactly what the city did to Pastor Knapp and what the ordinance allows the city to do to others. In the absence of a settlement agreement, we look forward to vindicating our client’s freedom in court.”

EDIT: This news item has been updated to include the comment from Alliance Defending Freedom.

Bloomsday expects to draw 50,000

More than 8,000 runners have registered so far for Bloomsday, and organizers expect some 50,000 will pack downtown Spokane the morning of May 3.

There’s a handful of new happenings this year, including a social media photo share, Bloomsday officials announced during a Tuesday news conference.

If participants include #BloomsdayRun in the description of their Twitter or Instagram accounts, Photoboxx will print them from their booth for participants to take home .

Late night fireball over West identified

The American Meteor Society says a fireball widely seen Monday over the West was the remains of a Chinese rocket piece re-entering the atmosphere.

Eyewitnesses reported a bright streaking object about 10 p.m. Pacific time from as far south as Arizona to as far north as Eastern Washington.