Free Republic

...The founding fathers created a unique and beautiful system of government with checks and balances that they hoped would make it impossible for a dictator to emerge because Congress would recognize a dictator. They could not have foreseen that Congress would aid and abet him...

Bowie Resources Partners’ purchase of Peabody Energy Corp.‘s Twentymile Mine in Routt County has fallen through, and Peabody has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Peabody, the world’s largest privately owned producer of coal, joins other major coal companies including Arch Coal, owner of the West Elk Mine in the North Fork Valley, in going bankrupt. Arch Coal also is in Chapter 11 reorganization. Bowie, owner of the Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia, had agreed to buy Twentymile and two mine properties in New Mexico for $358 million. But Peabody previously had said Bowie was still trying to find...

the U.S. Supreme Court .. issued an injunction blocking the EPA from implementing its Clean Power Plan, which would end America’s use of coal, its cheapest and most abundant source of electricity. ... Western Colorado’s economy is so dependent on coal. It employs more than 2,000 people and generates $58 million in federal and state royalties, $28 million in private landowner royalties, $4.5 million in reclamation funds, and pays $28 million in property, severance, and sales taxes — all of it on the Western Slope. EPA has never tried anything so unpopular in its 45-year history, and that is saying...

The U.S. Department of Housing has just determined that refusing to rent to a convicted felon may be a violation of the Fair Housing Act, and National Public Radio seems to approve. Felons are not a protected class (yet) under the Fair Housing Act, but since the American justice system disproportionately affects persons of color, it's racist to deny felons housing. Note that HUD says may violate the act. That means, all you have to do as a landlord is ignore HUD and then battle it out in court. Feeling lucky? Roll the dice: 40% of the federal judiciary has...

The Federal Communications Commission has announced plans to fine a mobile provider $51 million for defrauding its Lifeline program, which subsidizes wireless service for low-income Americans. The FCC accused California-based Total Call Mobile of fraudulently enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers in the Lifeline program. The company received an estimated $9.7 million dollars in improper payments since 2014, according to the FCC. In the fourth quarter of that year, 99.8% of the company's enrollments allegedly involved overriding a system designed to stop the registration of duplicate customers.

Steve Miller spoke this morning at the Donald Trump town hall in Racine, Wisconsin. Miller destroyed Ted Cruz on the senator’s immigration and trade record. Miller pointed out that Ted Cruz supported the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal that will cost the US millions of jobs. Cruz also pushed to expand Muslim immigration into America. This is despite the fact that Obama has issued 68o,000 green cards to immigrants from Muslim countries in the last five years. The Cruz amendment would have doubled the number of Muslim immigrants to America to up to 1.35 million. Steve Miller added, “Why is it that...

Homeless U.S. military veterans stand in line for free services at a "Stand Down" event hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs on November 3, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. A week ahead of Veterans Day, more than 500 homeless veterans were expected to attend the event, where they received free medical care, winter clothing, employment assistance and were able to see a judge to resolve legal issues. Organizers say the homeless veterans population has surged in recent years with the high national unemployment rate. Stand Down is a military term that means a temporary stop of offensive military action. (Photo...

According to the venerable Encyclopædia Britannica, the word cabal is defined as a private organization or party engaged in secret intrigues. In the wake of Donald Trump's near clean sweep of the March 8 GOP primaries and caucus, the anti-Trump secret meeting recently held in Georgia certainly fits the definition. In what may be the most curious presidential race in the history of the United States, Anusha Asif of Tech News Today reports on Mar. 8, 2016, many of the Congressional leadership of the Republican Party have met on March 7 with a who's who of liberal billionaires behind closed...

Railroads would be required to have at least two crew members aboard freight trains when they are traversing the state under a bill that won preliminary approval in the Colorado House . ... Minority Leader Brian Del Grosso, R-Loveland, took the Democrats to task over the bill, saying it is a poor way to deal with a problem he said they created. He said over the past several years, Democrats have made policy decisions that have contributed to the slowdown, and even closure of coal mines, citing the recent closure of the Bowie No. 2 mine near Paonia specifically. That...

The Republican chairman of a congressional panel investigating a 3-million-gallon spill of toxic wastewater from an inactive Colorado gold mine said Tuesday the mine was purposely breached by a government cleanup team. The assertion by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop of Utah contradicts claims by the Obama administration that the cleanup team was doing only preparatory work at the Gold King mine. Once it was breached, wastewater loaded with lead, arsenic and other contaminants fouled downstream rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Bishop cited an email in which an Interior Department official said the spill last August...

Published on Feb 29, 2016 Diamond and Silk give their take on David Duke, the Democrats and the KKK www.DiamondandSilk.com

The North Fork Valley is now down to one operating coal mine after Friday’s announcement that the Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia is being idled. Kentucky-based Bowie Resource Partners said in a news release that the action is occurring “as a result of continued market deterioration.” “The mine will remain idle while the market for Bowie No. 2 coal is evaluated,” the company said. The mine employs 108 full-time employees and one contractor. Bowie said it expects that 68 positions will be eliminated ... Just a few years ago, Bowie No. 2 employed more than 300 miners ... Another...

After undercover videos released in July showed that Planned Parenthood was involved in the trafficking of aborted baby body parts, Donald Trump said he wasn't sure if the Planned Parenthood should lose all of its federal funding. He later shifted, saying: "I wouldn't do any funding as long as they are performing abortions." Trump has stuck to that line, but he has also offered a lot of aid and comfort to Planned Parenthood by arguing it does "wonderful things." At Thursday night's debate, Trump said that "millions and millions of women — cervical cancer, breast cancer — are helped by...

There's no legal restriction preventing him from releasing his tax returns, even if he's being audited...

Either Donald Trump suffers from memory loss or he is completely lying about his healthcare plans. During Thursday night's debate Ted Cruz simply asked Trump, "True or false, you said the government should pay for everyone's healthcare?" Trump emphatically denied, claiming the accusation was completely false. To those watching who have been keeping up with this election cycle, the claim seemed dubious. After the debate, Cruz's campaign helped Trump and the rest of America understand the truth behind the spar: ...

If you like to hunt and fish you better pay attention to this proposal. The feds are creating their own little fiefdoms on Alaksa refuge lands. The proposed regulations grant too much authority to refuge managers. They literally have dictatorial powers. It certainly sets up the right environment for corruption. They are even trying to make it difficult for the public to testify. The environmental extremists showed up at the Fairbanks meeting in force. It appears their plan is to get these regs passed and install their man as manager. (It makes one wonder what the Bundy's issues were in...

DEBRA J. SAUNDERS -- Clinton Should Free The Chicago 2 Debra J. Saunders 1996-08-28 Chicago -- ON THE SECOND DAY of the Democratic convention, as Democrats were celebrating the fact that most of the Chicago 8 had been co-opted into the party, Patricia and Glenn Mendoza went to court, where they faced charges for their protest against President Clinton. The more things change, the more they stay the same. While Patricia, outfitted with a white dress, white purse and white pumps, nervously appeared before Judge Robert Lopes, Tom Hayden, a former Chicago 8 member who now serves in California's state...

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz has released a video called "Defend the Right to Life," making a definitive statement on why protecting the right to life is the single most important issue position for any candidate running for office, period. Watch: ...

Across all sectors of Colorado the cost of electricity has skyrocketed more than 67 percent between 2001 and 2014, easily exceeding median income growth and the expected rate of inflation . ... For all sectors between 2001 and 2014, the cost per kilowatthour jumped from just over 6 cents to more than 10 cents, or 67.11 percent. ... the data for the remaining sectors emphasizes the double impact that increased energy costs have in the form of rapidly escalating electricity rates on Colorado ratepayers, who see not only their own personal energy costs rise, but are hit a second time...

1. Trump, A+ -- Fought like a champion. Finally, someone with the guts to call out our nation for being 15 years at war, still killing our sons and daughters so politicians can put a feather in their cap, and most of them calling for more war. Bush wants BWIII, Bush War III 2. Carson, A-, quietly but effectively said that he was in it for the people, that he'd been asked to run, and that he wasn't there for any other reason. Outstanding. 3. Rubio, B+, Say what you like, but Rubio wiped the floor with Cruz on the...