Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes has a Republican primary opponent. His name is Ron Estes. Ron Estes — not the congressman, the other one — said Thursday he plans to run against the better-known Estes. The nonelected Estes, who filed as Ron M. Estes, lives in Wichita and is a first-time candidate. He said in a statement he is running because “our status quo elected leaders” refuse to represent the congressional district by avoiding town halls and constituents. His campaign website calls him “The Real Ron Estes.”

ASHEVILLE, NC (FOX Carolina) - Asheville Police said they detained a person of interest after an explosive device was found at the Asheville Regional Airport. Michael Christopher Estes, 46, was detained Saturday morning along Airport Road after federal authorities said a tipster recognized him. Authorities told FOX Carolina that a suspicious device was found on a curb outside the airport's baggage claim area Friday morning. Police later confirmed the package was, in fact, explosive and had been rendered safe by the bomb squad. The airport was briefly evacuated, but the terminal reopened just before 9 a.m. The FBI released a statement about...

Republican Ron Estes defeated his Democratic rival in a high-profile special congressional election in Kansas Tuesday that had been seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump. But the narrower-than-expected outcome may worry Republicans across the country as they try to decipher how much Trump's low approval ratings might hurt his party's candidates. Trump and former Rep. Mike Pompeo, who vacated the seat to become CIA director, had both won the district by nearly 30 percentage points in November. But Estes appears to have dramatically underperformed that margin, with early returns showing him leading Democrat James Thompson by just about...

Kansas state Treasurer Ron Estes held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democratic civil rights attorney James Thompson Tuesday night as the GOP won the first special congressional election since President Trump's inauguration. The election was held to fill the House seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a former three-term representative of Kansas' 4th district. With 94 percent of the precincts reporting, Estes had won 52 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Thompson. The Republican's margin was just under 6,500 votes. By contrast, Pompeo's narrowest victory, in 2014, was by just under 70,000 votes. The race had been...

Poll results are available there. Ron Estes (Republican) James Thompson (Democratic)

You don’t know Ron Estes? Most people don’t. But President Trump does. In fact, the new president has already recorded a robocall to help Estes win big in today’s special election in Kansas’ Fourth Congressional District. And so has Vice President Mike Pence. And Speaker Paul Ryan is raising money for him. And Sen. Ted Cruz campaigned for the Estes there last night. “Our enemy right now is complacency,” said Cruz. What’s this all about? Well, it’s really a problem of Trump’s own making. The district’s popular congressman, Mike Pompeo, isn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto. Trump snatched him out of...

This week financial news organization CNBC gave some mainstream attention to the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History, in which “Banksters” and their U.S. racketeering partners are being accused of laundering of 43 trillion dollars worth of ill gotten gains. The lawsuit is said to involve officials located in the highest offices of government and the financial sector. Since this information was surprisingly revealed by the mainstream news organization there has been a very suspicious and deadly fallout at the CNBC headquarters. Within hours the original page for the article was taken down, and CNBC senior...

Billie Sol Estes, a flamboyant Texas huckster who became one of the most notorious men in America in 1962 when he was accused of looting a federal crop subsidy program, has died. He was 88... One of the strangest episodes in his life involved the death of a U.S. Department of Agriculture official who was investigating Estes just before he was accused in the fertilizer tank case. Henry Marshall's 1961 death was initially ruled a suicide even though he had five bullet wounds. But in 1984, Estes told a grand jury that Johnson had ordered the official killed to prevent...

...Adds Kenneth Katzman, an Iranian-military expert with the Congressional Research Service: "It is likely to have virtually no actual military value." The gold-colored, 13-ft. (4 m) drone appears to be powered by a single turbojet engine with a 250-lb. (110 kg) bomb slung underneath its belly. It purportedly can carry a bomb weighing up to 450 lb. (200 kg) and has a range of about 600 miles (960 km), which is still short of reaching Israel. The design has left U.S. experts scratching their heads. "Is Estes the prime contractor?" asked one blogger on an aviation website, referring to the...

Hundreds of Islamic centers in the United States have become a hot-bed of extremist activity; they promote violence, terrorism and hatred against America. “Our initial investigation has concluded there are between 400 to 500 radical Islamic centers in the U.S.,” said David Gaubatz, the director of counterintelligence and counterterrorism for the Society of Americans for National Existence. “In those places, they preach an extreme version of Islam that says America and the West is the enemy. They espouse violence, hatred and the need for terrorism.” Gaubatz is a former senior U.S. intelligence official, who now works for the Mapping Shari’a...

Estes Park - Voters on Tuesday night recalled a town trustee over his refusal to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance before board meetings. The vote to boot David Habecker, 59, off the town board was 903-605. Voters also chose 60-year- old businessman Richard Homeier to replace him. The recall election garnered state and national attention. Habecker, an agnostic, claimed saying the phrase "under God" in the Pledge violated the separation of church and state. Habecker, a hotel owner, said the vote was upsetting. "All the things I was taught as a child about this country, including religious tolerance,...

DENVER -- Voters in Estes Park, Colo., removed town trustee David Habecker from office Tuesday in a recall election that hinged on his refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at town meetings. Mr. Habecker, who lost by a vote of 903-605, said he is considering whether to pursue further legal action to overturn the recall outcome, arguing that the voters had infringed upon his First Amendment rights. A 12-year trustee and self-described agnostic, Mr. Habecker refused to stand for the Pledge because he objects to the words "under God," which he described as unconstitutional and "un-American." "It was a...

DENVER (AP) - A judge ruled Wednesday that a town can hold a recall election to decide whether to oust a trustee for remaining seated during Pledge of Allegiance at Town Board meetings. U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham ruled that citizens have a right to disagree with Estes Park Trustee David Habecker and that recall organizers did nothing wrong when they gathered more than 200 signatures supporting the effort. The judge withdrew a temporary injunction that had blocked a recall election that had been scheduled for Feb. 15. The injunction was issued after the trustee filed a lawsuit to stop...

In Estes Park, there's discomfort on all political sides that the flap over a town trustee's refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance is redefining the community. "Estes Park is becoming known as a town that wants to recall someone instead of as a tourist attraction," said Linda Wagner, a 12-year resident.

“It is the heart of the problem we face. Because if manufacturers like Estes can’t get rocket motors delivered to stores, the hobby is completely dead,” Van Milligan said. © 2003 Space.com. All rights reserved