Free Republic

Warning follows threat from Harry Reid that grazing dispute 'not over' The chief of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association says his sources inside the federal government are warning that Washington’s weekend retreat in a dispute over grazing land in Nevada was just to distract and defuse – because a raid on the family’s ranch still is being strategized. And there probably would be violence involved, said Richard Mack, the former sheriff of Grisham County, Ariz. “I don’t think it would be possible” to launch a raid without violence, he told WND Monday. “I don’t the Bundys would lie...

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday released a scathing report in response to a series of deadly police shootings that pointed to patterns of excessive force by the Albuquerque Police Department, serious constitutional violations and a lack of training and oversight of its officers. After more than a year of reviewing hundreds of cases handled by the Albuquerque police, the federal agency found that officers too frequently used deadly force on people "who posed a minimal threat" and used a higher level of force too often on those with mental illness.

New figures by the Congressional Budget Office released on Monday reveal that over the next 10 years the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will double to 78%. Over the last four decades America's average debt-to-GDP ratio was 39%. At the end of 2007, federal debt was just 35% of GDP. The CBO report says gross federal debt will soar from $17.7 trillion to $27 trillion over the next ten years. CBO warned of the dire consequences the nation's debt will have if gone unchecked. "Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences," says the report. "Federal spending on interest payments...

The United Nations (UN) has delivered its latest verdict on the measures necessary to save the world from global warming and the news is as grim as it is predictable and wearisomely familiar: More regulation from "experts", technocrats and bureaucrats at supranational organisations, such as the one whose initials begin with U and end with N.More taxpayer subsidies for expensive, inefficient renewable energy.More nuclear power (with shale gas used as a transitional fuel to replace coal). The abandonment of fossil fuels. Less meat consumption.A single, globally-regulated price for carbon dioxide. More local-government-enforced walking, cycling and public transportation. More back-door wealth...

Pro-Russia separatists who said they were part of a new “Donetsk People's Republic” in eastern Ukraine appealed on Monday for Russian President Vladimir Putin to help defend them against Ukrainian government forces. Speaking at a news conference at the headquarters of the city administration of Slovyansk, a separatist leader asked Putin “to personally direct your attention to the unfolding situation and help us as much as you can.” The plea for help came hours after a Kyiv-set deadline expired under which separatists occupying government building in eastern Ukraine were to disarm or face an assault by Ukrainian security forces. Meanwhile,...

Notice of Temporary Closure on Public Lands in the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, and Bunkerville Flats Areas in the Northeastern Portion of Clark County, NVAGENCY: Bureau of Land Management,Interior. ACTION: Notice of Temporary Closure. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that a temporary closure to public access, use, and occupancy will be in effect for the dates and times specified in this Notice on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Southern Nevada District Office, Las Vegas Field Office, within the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, and Bunkerville Flats Areas in the northeastern portion of Clark County, Nevada. This...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said little as federal agents seized and then released cattle last week from the Bundy ranch, but there is little doubt that the highly charged episode was threatening to become a political headache for the Nevada Democrat. The Bureau of Land Management is headed by former longtime Reid aide Neil Kornze, who was confirmed by the Senate as BLM director on Tuesday, just as federal authorities descended on the cattle ranch outside Mesquite, Nev.

Ukrainian officials say that Russia coordinated the takeovers of several Donetsk Oblast government buildings seized over the weaken by heavily armed and masked men in military uniforms. “We have all concrete proof of Russia's secret agency involvement in the separatist insurgency and takeovers of government buildings in eastern Ukraine. The evidence and witness testimonies will be presented to the international community on April 17 in Geneva,” Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 13.Former Vladimir Putin's adviser Andrei Illarionov, expressed a similar conviction to Ukraine's Gordon.ua news website.“I have to stress, this is an intervention, an insurgency of Russian special forces, not a...

(Reuters) - Following are main findings by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a report on Sunday saying that time is running out to keep global warming within agreed limits. The 33-page summary, by leading scientists, is meant to guide almost 200 governments which have promised to work out a deal by the end of 2015 to slow climate change. Nations have promised to limit warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times, seen as a threshold for more heat waves, droughts and rising seas - temperatures have already risen about 0.8C (1.4F).

A mention of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), a potential 2016 presidential contender, brought boos from a conservative crowd in New Hampshire on Saturday. Speaking at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, a gathering of conservative activists and figures organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United, billionaire Donald Trump said Bush’s recent comments on immigrants coming to the U.S. as an “act of love” were “out there.” “You know, I heard Jeb Bush the other day,” he said, with quiet boos and angry murmurs erupting from the crowd at the mention of Bush’s name.

The Bureau of Land Management vowed Saturday that it would continue its legal fight to remove illegal cattle from a rural Nevada range after ending a tense weeklong standoff with a rancher and his supporters. "After 20 years and multiple court orders to remove the trespass cattle, [rancher Cliven] Bundy owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million. The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially," a statement from the bureau said. "We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service...

BUNKERVILLE, Nevada (Reuters) - U.S. officials ended a stand-off with hundreds of armed protesters in the Nevada desert on Saturday, calling off the government's roundup of cattle it said were illegally grazing on federal land and giving about 300 animals back to the rancher who owned them. The dispute less than 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas between rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had simmered for days. Bundy had stopped paying fees for grazing his cattle on the government land and officials said he had ignored court orders. Anti-government groups, right-wing politicians and gun-rights activists...

Russia might very soon do something rather counter-intuitive: nothing at all. All the signs are that the freaks in Kiev have decided to put down the demonstrations in Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk by force. YouTube is full of amateur footage showing all sorts of militarized units, APCs and even artillery pieces being moved towards these cities. Local people have tried to stop them, but without success. It appears that the attacking force will include loyal cops from other cities, regular military units, private contractors hired by the oligarchs, riot police, "anti-terrorist" units of the SBU and volunteers from the Right...

A Nevada cattle rancher appears to have won his week-long battle with the federal government over a controversial cattle roundup that had led to the arrest of several protesters. Cliven Bundy went head to head with the Bureau of Land Management over the removal of hundreds of his cattle from federal land, where the government said they were grazing illegally. Bundy claims his herd of roughly 900 cattle have grazed on the land along the riverbed near Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, since 1870 and threatened a "range war" against the BLM on the Bundy Ranch website after...

The son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Rory Reid, is the primary representative for ENN Energy Group, a Chinese energy company seeking to build a $5 billion solar panel plant on a 9,000-acre Clark County desert plot in Laughlin, Nevada. ENN scored big when Clark County commissioners unanimously voted to sell the Chinese company the public land for just $4.5 million, despite the fact that it was appraised at $38.6 million. Sen. Reid has been one of ENN’s biggest supporters, having recruited the company during a 2011 trip to China. According to Reuters, last month Sen. Reid tried...

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A natural resource manager who grew up in Elko has been named director of the Bureau of Land Management. The U.S. Senate voted 71-28 on Tuesday to confirm the appointment of Neil Kornze to the post. Kornze was raised in Elko and is a former senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He joined the BLM in 2011 and has been leading the agency as principal deputy director for the past year.

RENO, Nev. — A Nevada powerbroker who headed a billion-dollar real estate company and pulled the strings of state politics as a prominent lobbyist for more than a decade was convicted Wednesday of making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. Harvey Whittemore, 59, could face up to 15 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after a federal jury returned guilty verdicts on three counts tied to nearly $150,000 illegally funneled to Reid's re-election campaign in 2007. Later in the day, U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks declared a mistrial on a count of lying...

VATICAN CITY, April 11, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Human life is “sacred and inviolable” and “every civil law is based on the recognition of the first and most fundamental right, the right to life,” Pope Francis told an Italian pro-life organization today. The pope thanked the Movimento per la Vita, one of Italy’s leading political pro-life groups, for their work, urging them to continue “with courage and love” for life “in all its phases.” “It is therefore necessary to reiterate the strongest opposition to any direct attack on life, especially innocent and defenseless, and her unborn child in the womb...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s decades-long battle against the federal government over grazing rights has heated to the point where militia groups have joined in and taken up spots against the feds who’ve circled his land — and talk is, they’re not afraid to open fire. A spokesman for the one of the militia groups said as much to local 8 News Now: I’m not “afraid to shoot,” he said. Margaret Houston, Mr. Bundy’s sister and a cancer survivor, said at a town hall gathering this week that the situation “was like a war zone” and that she felt “like I...

In a Thursday appearance on Sean Hannity's radio program, Cruz said Holder should be impeached for "defying Congress and the rule of law." He said Holder's actions were not in the spirit of the Department of Justice, which Cruz said has "a bipartisan tradition of resisting partisan pressure and upholding the rule of law." Cruz cited examples of Holder's predecessors (Janet Reno and Elliot Richardson, respectively) from Bill Clinton's and Richard Nixon's administrations. Cruz said he was "very pleased" that Lerner was held in contempt by the House Committee but noted that the Justice Department has not indicted one person...