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A review of lawsuits on livestock grazing  Hammond grazing permits On December 20 of 2019, federal judge Michael H. Simon revoked the grazing permit for Hammond Ranches Inc., finding that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s order renewing it earlier this year was an “abuse of discretion.'' Background: The Hammonds had 4 different grazing permits on BLM lands. In June of 2012 Steve and Dwight Hammond were convicted of intentionally setting fires on BLM land. On Oct. 30, 2012 federal judge Michael. H. Hogan sentenced Steve Hammond to 12 months and one day of imprisonment and 3 years of supervised...

Over the objection of a prosecutor, a defense lawyer Wednesday asked Oregon's recently retired top FBI agent about his reaction to the jury verdict from the first trial in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. "You do not believe the participants that went to trial in the fall of 2016 were held accountablem that's correct?" asked Michele Kohler, representing defendant Duane Ehmer. After some hesitation and direction from the judge to answer the question, retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing replied, "That's correct." Kohler pointed out that Bretzing didn't testify during last year's trial of the...

BURNS--A knock on the front door awakened Susie Hammond.... She struggled out of bed, hobbled by an aching right hip, and limped to the front of her small house..... "Susan?" one of them said. "My name is Ammon Bundy." So began Hammond's passage from 75-year-old matriarch of an eastern Oregon ranching clan to reluctant symbol of the rural West's revolt against federal ownership of vast resource-rich rangeland. Bundy often invoked the story of Hammond's husband, Dwight Jr. and their youngest son Steven, convicted of setting fires on public lands and ordered back to prison to serve out five-year sentences..... Susie...

Jeff Banta, who was one of the last four holdouts at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation and is now one of seven defendants on trial in the federal conspiracy case, sat quietly beside his lawyer, taking notes during three days of jury selection last week. With each of four panels of jurors questioned, the judge recited the charges against each defendant. But US District Judge Anna Brown each time left out Banta as one of the five defendants charged with Count 2, possession of a firearms in a federal facility. No one in the courtroom corrected the judge in...

A new six-count indictment unsealed Wednesday adds one more defendant and more charges in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns. The indictment now charges 26 people, including an unnamed defendant, with federal conspiracy. It also charges 20 of the defendants with possessing firearms and dangerous weapons at the federal refuge, nine with use and carry of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, three with theft of government property and two with depredation of government property..... Seventeen defendants entered not guilty pleas in court Wednesday. They sat in three rows beside their...

"What can I do to help the patriots? Lets talk about that, I'm going to give you three things right now that you can do to help the patriots" Gavin Seim in his "How to HELP the Oregon Patriots" video. Gavin Seim, who helped the protestors in Oregon communicate with the outside world during the FBI siege, is out with a new video on how the rest of us can help those who are now prisoners in Oregon and charged in connection with the protest. He makes three points. 1. "Get The Narrative Straight And Stop Deceiving Ourselves" "Let's stop...

"(at :02) MICHAEL EMERY: This is Michael Emery with The Voice of Idaho and we're out here at the Malheur Wildlife Reserve and I'm standing here with Lisa Bundy and Lisa how are you doing? LISA BUNDY: I'm good, thanks. MICHAEL EMERY: So what is going on today? LISA BUNDY: Well my lawyers came out....

"Are you participating in the protest" Assistant who worked for me on the 2-way radio as I worked arranging coverage of an "Operation Rescue" blockade of an abortion clinic "I felt uncomfortable knowing that I had to relay vital and confidential information to someone who may not be trustworthy." 911 dispatcher in Grant County, Oregon speaks about radio traffic with Sheriff Glenn Palmer on January 26, 2016 when LaVoy Finicum was killed south of a roadblock set up in the county There have been complaints aimed at Grant County, Oregon Sheriff Glenn Palmer after Palmer expressed sympathy for the views...

Forget China, guns or immigration. Donald Trump is taking on a new issue: federal land ownership. In a new op-ed for the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Republican presidential front-runner rails against the "draconian rule" of the Bureau of Land Management and the Obama administration's "land grab" in the western United States. "The BLM controls over 85 percent of the land in Nevada," Trump explains. "In the rural areas, those who for decades have had access to public lands for ranching, mining, logging and energy development are forced to deal with arbitrary and capricious rules that are influenced by special interests that...

at :35 PROTESTOR "I came out here because what has happened to the Hammond's can happen to any American family. I came out here today because of the corruption because the government is trying to break the Hammonds so they can no longer have a voice, be on their ranch, no longer support themselves and therefore the ranch belongs to BLM, Steve Grasty (Harney County, OR judge) and David Ward (Sheriff) have done whatever they can to put these innocent Americans in jail...at 1:13 QUESTION: Do you think the Hammond's have received justice? PROTESTOR: No. Of course not. You go...

In March, federal prosecutors expect to file another indictment against alleged conspirators in the armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon that may add new charges and additional defendants. The potential for new charges in a superseding indictment and naming other defendants will depend on the federal government's ongoing investigation, according to court records filed late Friday......

"Hi everyone this is Gina Harden with Liberty Grows we're out here protesting standing with some great patriots today we're out in front of the Terminal Island prison in San Pedro, California where Dwight and Steven Hammond are, have been imprisoned they've been charged as terrorists but we know they're not they're hard working ranchers just tyring to provide for their family, provide meat for our hamburgers....."

(at 1:57) Mark Connors: ....you're going to be covering something and it has to do with the Hammonds, you're gonna be I guess in San Pedro doing a San Pedro protest for the Hammonds is that correct...Guest-Gina: That's correct you know the Hammonds, Dwight and Steven turned themselves in to the prison right here on Terminal Island in San Pedro on January 4th.....(at 8:00) Mark Connors: Tell us what's going to happen Saturday at 2pm. Gina: Ok, this Saturday....this Saturday at 2pm on February 20th we are going to be gathering to protest the BLM's cruelty of Dwight and Steven...

The dispatcher at the John Day 911 center hesitated when Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer radioed for information about a roadblock after state police shot and killed Robert "LaVoy" Finicum. Palmer was on his way south from John Day on Jan. 26 after hearing reports of the traffic stop and shooting, triggered when authorities moved in to arrest leaders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover. The veteran sheriff had been left out of the planning for the stop on U.S. 395 about 20 miles north of Burns in Harney County and now he wanted his dispatchers to fill him...

There were two indictments unsealed in connection with the protest-occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. Newly charged were Geoffrey Stanek and Travis Cox. Stanek has been arrested, Cox has not yet been arrested at last report. There are now 25 people charged in connection with the protest. Back in 1968 when anti-Vietnam War protestors violently disrupted the Democratic National Convention, with f-bombs coming from their mouths and throwing excrement at the authorities, their leaders were charged. Their supporters and the mainstream media dubbed them "The Chicago Seven". Those now accused of protesting non-violently in Oregon may need a...

"In 1775 when the Redcoats attacked the Patriots, they didn't have a livestream..." Gavin Seim, coordinator of the livestream from the FBI siege in Oregon last night. It all started coming down around 4:30 pm Oregon time yesterday when David Fry was on his daily ATV ride around the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters when the FBI tried to stop him and armored vehicles moved in close to the camp in the parking lot (Camp Finicum). Agents were yelling at the four people still there (David Fry, Jeff Banta, Sean and Sandy Anderson) to give up. The FBI claimed to...

SANDY ANDERSON: "We were peacefully protesting the injustices that were inflicted on the Hammonds and...SEAN ANDERSON Exercising our First and our Second..hey peace..SANDY ANDERSON:...Second Amendment exactly, so SEAN ANDERSON: So if that's possible, then the FBI just keeps lying to us because they want to make us give up um you don't give up on what's right..." 'Sean and Sandy speak' video posted 2/9/2016 on "You Tube" at "DefendYourBase" Four new videos were posted from inside the FBI siege at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge yesterday from the site labeled "Camp Finicum" located in the parking area of the refuge....

When Dr. Martin Luther King was jailed in Birmingham in 1963, he wrote answers to his critics printed as "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". In the early 1980's Nebraska Pastor Everett Sileven Ramsey wrote from jail when he was imprisoned for operating an illegal Christian school. Ammon Bundy is now recording his messages from jail through his lawyers, who released his latest yesterday in what appears to be an emerging campaign. Bundy is calling on state legislators to come to Oregon and visit him and the other prisoners from eight different states. The Ammon Bundy statement reads in part: "....It...

Nearly 40 days into the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, both sides appear to wearing thin on patience. In a series of videos released Sunday one of the remaining militants inside the refuge called on federal authorities to leave the state and people to take up arms and join their cause. "The feds, if you're watching this, p*** off. Do your job. Get the hell out of Oregon, get the hell out of all of the states," David Fry said. Meanwhile, the law enforcement roadblock around the refuge appeared to take on a...

"In the light of recent events that took place today and conversations with the FBI and the people at the refuge, we have decided to stand down our PPN Call to Action" Pacific Patriots Network "OFFICIAL STAND DOWN" 2/5/2016 "When the night sky glows with the red fires of war and the threat of annihilation pounds at your door you don't have to pretend its true got no nerves of steel to believe that the Love of the Lord is actual and real in this world thunder rocks in the darkness Out in the eye of the storm the friends...