• Senate committee approves EPA nominee
• EPA nominee faces tough Senate confirmation hearing
• Bush sets new EPA chief to work on 'Clear Skies' bill

[W]e conclude as follows. First, since the effective date of Measure 36, marriage in Oregon has been limited under the Oregon Constitution to opposite-sex couples. Second, Oregon statutory law in existence before the effective date of Measure 36 also limited, and continues to limit, the right to obtain marriage licenses to opposite-sex couples. Third, marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in Multnomah County before that date were issued without authority and were void at the time that they were issued, and we therefore need not consider the independent effect, if any, of Measure 36 on those marriage licenses. In short, none of plaintiffs' claims properly before the court is well taken. Finally, the abstract question whether ORS chapter 106 confers marriage benefits in violation of Article I, section 20, of the Oregon Constitution is not properly before the court.

• The SEC [official website] announced enforcement director Stephen Cutler will step down in a month to return to private practice as a lawyer. Cutler headed the SEC unit which brought civil actions against securities law violators since 2001. His unit led the investigations into companies including Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Qwest, Tyco, and HealthSouth. Read the SEC press release. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Energy company Kerr-McGee Corp. [corporate website] headed off a proxy battle with billionaire investor Carl Icahn [Wikipedia profile] by authorizing a tender offer to buy back $4 billion in stock, sell some assets and expand its hedging. The action is a result of talks between the two sides. Read the Kerr-McGee press release. Kerr-McGee will also drop its federal lawsuit against Icahn and his associates which alleged violations of federal antitrust laws and the company's bylaws in their efforts to buy more stock in Kerr-McGee and nominate their own directors to the company's board. Read the Kerr-McGee press release. AP has more.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal is reporting [subscription req'd] British financial giant HSBC PLC [corporate website] has notified at least 180,000 people who used MasterCard credit cards to make purchases at Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. [corporate website] that criminals may have obtained their credit-card information. HSBC said the General Motors Corp.-branded MasterCard [corporate website], which is one of the most widely held credit cards in the US, should be replaced. This is the latest incident where personal information has been stolen from financial institutions. Dow Jones has more.
  
  
• Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) [official website] said it will investigate the Austrialian unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s [corporate website] General Re over its reinsurance practices. Specifically, the agency will investigate General Re's complex financial products in relation to financial and finite reinsurance and the marketing and promotion of those products. US regulators are already investigating General Re [corporate website] in connection with a reinsurance transaction with American International Group [corporate website]. Read the APRA press release. Reuters has more.
  
  
• GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) [corporate website] could face an investor class-action lawsuit over allegations that the company covered up problems with its antidepressant drug Paxil [informational website], hurting some shareholders. The suit seeking class-action status will be filed in the US Distric Court for the Southern District of New York on the behalf of people who bought GSK shares between February 21, 2001 and August 5, 2004. Reuters has more.

• Two journalists for the UK-based paper The Daily Telegraph [media website] were ordered to be released from state custody in Zimbabwe [government website] Thursday after a court held that the men were not operating as illegal journalists. Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds were arrested in Zimbabwe in March for alleged covering the national elections without a journalist license. Counsel for the two men asserted that they were acting as ordinary tourists who kept a travel journal and took photographs. Magistrate Never Diza held that the government had not established a case against the two men, but said that there was still the question of whether they had overstayed their visas. Zimbabwe's restrictive foreign press laws forbid permanent foreign journalist coverage and require all journalists to have specialized, state-approved licenses. Diza ordered the two released, overriding a previous government order that had stayed the earlier ordered release of the two men. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive]. BBC News has local coverage.
  
  
• South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun [official profile] Thursday warned against using economic sanctions against North Korea [government website] as a tool to force the nation to participate in the Six-Party Nuclear Disarmament Talks at a meeting Thursday in Germany. Roh warned that adding pressure to the intransigent nation could only lead to more hostility, stating that sanctions should only be used when there was no hope left of N. Korea voluntarily returning to the table. Roh said that China's current pressure on N. Korea to participate was a sign of hope, and that the real difficulty lay in resolving the lack of trust between the US and N. Korea. Roh has expressed caution about the use of sanctions before, but this is the first time he has expressly denounced them. The US has said that it would petition the UN Security Council to impose sanctions if N. Korea refuses to participate in the negotiations. Chosun Ilbo has local coverage.
  
  
• Indonesia [government website] has taken South Korea [government website] to the World Trade Organization [official website] over allegations made by South Korea that Indonesia was exporting its wood-free copy paper products at dumping [Wikipedia entry] prices. South Korea instituted a percentage fee for all paper products entering the country from Indonesia, a move Indonesia claims has resulted in a $35 million (USD) loss in profits. The Dispute Settlement Body [WTO backgrounder] of the WTO hears commercial disputes between nations and makes rulings that are binding on parties. The DSB is expected to comment on Indonesia's alleged dumping this August. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.

• The European Parliament [official website] approved rules [EU press release] Wednesday that will require computers, stereo systems, washing machines, lights, air conditioning and boilers to be designed with a focus on conserving energy. The new rules come after discussions between legislators and various manufacturers of the household appliances, and will take effect across the EU in 2007. Reuters has the full story.
  
  
• The Washington State Senate [official website] has passed a bill [text] that would impose tighter restrictions on emissions of toxic and smog-causing chemicals from new cars and would force fuel-efficiency improvements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new cars sold in Washington state starting in 2009. The bill adopts many of the new California rules of automobile emissions, but unlike the CA rules does not impose a sales quota on clean or hybrid cars for auto dealers. The Seattle Times has the full story.
  
  
• The California State Assembly's Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee [official website] has approved a bill (AB 289) [text] that would require manufacturers to provide the state with the analytical methods for detecting their chemicals in air, water, soil, and the human body. Currently, manufacturers may put chemicals on the market before detection methods have been developed, and government agencies are forced to develop these methods themselves. The bill now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Environment California has a press release.