Free Republic

April 6, 2016 In one of the largest river restoration efforts in the nation, state and federal officials, along with private industry, have agreed to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, potentially returning the river’s historic fish runs and advancing their recovery. The agreement, signed today by the governors of California and Oregon, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, and the president and CEO of Pacific Power, was characterized as an initial step in the long-term goal of restoring the river basin. The agreement supports efforts to recover fisheries and sustain the region’s farmers and ranchers,...

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EPA proposes greenhouse gas rule for new coal-based power plants On March 27, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed its New Source Performance Standard (NSPS), a long-delayed proposed regulation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-based power plants. The new rule requires coal-based generating sources to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour, which is a level met by natural gas-combined cycle power plants. Conventional lignite-based plants produce more than twice that amount. The proposed rule, which goes into immediate effect, means any new lignite-based plants would be required to install technology to capture...

John Boehner thinks net neutrality rules are a threat to freedom in the United States (paraphrased, but that’s the thrust; click the link at left to see him in his own words). It’s a weird concept, given that Capitalism is replete with restrictions on freedom. I’m not free to borrow my neighbor’s car without asking, and when I sign a contract that I break, my freedom is greatly impinged by the full force of the legal system that will fall upon my rule-breaking head. I can’t reprint the latest Stephen King novel and sell it in a book store, and...

Saving America from Corporate-Statism Nelson Hultberg April 28, 2010 As America sinks deeper into the tyranny of bureaucratic corporatism via today's incestuous relationship between Washington and Wall Street, it is inspiring to see thousands of Tea Parties spring up to express outrage. Unfortunately the "new deal" campaign approach still works as it has been malefically doing for over 70 years since FDR came to visit us. Every election season artful political pitchmen hit the hustings to call for "change" and "more prosperity for the people," in which millions get swept up. The promise of change is, of course, a con....

This December 15th, we'll be delivering your comments to ski resort owner Dick Bass asking him to divest his money from the proposed Chuitna Coal Strip Mine. This is the largest proposed coal mine in Alaska and will contribute significantly to the global warming from which Utah's ski industry is already feeling the impacts.

Ski resorts across the country are using the Thanksgiving weekend to jump start their winter seasons, but with every passing year comes a frightening realization: If global temperatures continue to rise, fewer and fewer resorts will be able to open for the traditional beginning of ski season. Warmer temperatures at night are making it more difficult to make snow and the snow that falls naturally is melting earlier in the spring. In few places is this a bigger concern than the American West, where skiing is one of the most lucrative segments of the tourism industry and often the only...

Washington » The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate. Speaking from the Rose Garden about 14 hours after the late Saturday vote, Obama urged senators to be like runners on a relay team and "take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people." The problem is that the Senate won't run with it. The government health insurance plan included in the House bill...

Tea Party Express visits, front page news in Helena. Bozeman was a little busy with the peace parade.

Look for the online poll in the right column on the home page question 2 a load of crap.

Climate change: U.S. ignores science at its peril Tribune Editorial Climate change has the Earth going to extremes, and the engine driving it runs on oil and coal. These fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases that trap infrared radiation in the atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise on land and sea, and with them the possibility of an unprecedented global disaster. The evidence for the above is not in dispute among the array of experts who publish their findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals. So why isn't there universal recognition that we must meet the challenges of this new reality with cleaner fuels,...

People who live in mud huts should not throw mud, especially if it comes from their own roofs. As Scripture says, don't point to the speck in your neighbor's eye when you have a piece of kindling in your own. I see by the papers that the Republicans want to make an issue of Nancy Pelosi in the congressional races this fall: Would you want a San Francisco woman to be speaker of the House? Will the podium be repainted in lavender stripes with a disco ball overhead? Will she be borne into the chamber by male dancers with glistening...

A society always gets more of whatever it subsidizes, whether it's corn, tobacco or the idle rich. And subsidizing spoiled heiresses at the expense of, well, everyone else is the goal of those members of Congress who are pushing to greatly reduce, or even repeal, the federal estate tax. Despite reams of data that show that the estate tax only touches the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers, and despite the fact that the Mom and Pop businesses and family farms of the sort that earn our sympathy simply are not affected by this tax, the repeal has already passed...

Some of you already know that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is such a regular customer at a coffee shop near his office that they named a drink after him: Judge Alito's Bold Justice Blend. What you don't know is that married waitresses have to have their husbands' permission to wait on him. OK, I made that up. But Alito's 1991 ruling on a section of Pennsylvania's abortion law was nearly that repressive. He upheld the provision that required married women to notify their spouses before they could get an abortion. The two other judges on the three-judge federal panel...

Everyone wants a shot at raising little Anthony By Elizabeth Neff The Salt Lake Tribune Surrogacy in Utah: Parenthood by Proxy Senior lawmaker, Utah mom helping childless couples, 1-23-05 Utahn braces for surrogate motherhood, 1-23-05 Surrogacy: About the Series , 1-23-05 For those wanting kids, legal risk never too high, 1-23-05 Everyone wants a shot at raising little Anthony, 1-23-05 For legal information on surrogacy, 1-23-05 Parenthood by Proxy: Providing the medical service, 1-23-05 Egg donors are in great demand, 1-23-05 In vitro in Utah, 1-23-05 Photo Gallery Parenthood By Proxy: Day One Who should raise 6-month-old Anthony? The boy's...

Melting Glaciers Said Threatening Everest LONDON (AP) - Melting glaciers caused by climate change pose an urgent threat to Mount Everest's unique environment, activists said Wednesday, launching a campaign to protect the Himalayan mountain range and the world's highest peak. Lakes have swollen from runoff, and unless urgent action is taken, many lakes could burst, threatening the lives of thousands of people and destroying the environment, said the campaigners - a collection of mountaineers, Nepalese climbers and the Friends of the Earth, an environmental lobbying organization. The group will present a petition Thursday asking in Paris asking UNESCO, the United...

It is considered bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I will make an exception for Yassar Arafat, the pathetic embodiment of all that went wrong in the Third World after the demise of the European empires.

GOP eyes American Indian vote in traditional Democratic stronghold By Carson Walker, Associated Press Writer Bruce Whalen is a college student who speaks his beliefs with conviction, but his message aims to turn the political status quo on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on its head. The Pine Ridge man's mission is to persuade people to do something they don't do here: Vote Republican. In Kyle, Karlene Hunter has the confidence of someone who has had to fight for what she has. Hunter, last year's National Indian Businesswoman of the Year, dresses casually but carries herself with a Wall Street professionalism...

Now playing for your edification. A real debate, with real questions, by real people, to real candidates, who may not have a realistic chance of winning, but never-the-less, deserve to be heard, and would be heard if not for the closed election process we now enjoy, thanks to the two party system now in power.