Free Republic

Another big battle is brewing over Syrian "refugees" sweeping into small-town America. Rural folks in Montana are pushing back against plans by urban elites to plant hundreds of Muslims from the Third World into Helena and Missoula. They plan a protest rally at 10 a.m. Monday in front of the county courthouse in Missoula. And if the pattern holds of similar rallies in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Fargo, North Dakota, a contingent of pro-refugee people will show up to counter protest. Of all the 50 states, there are only two that have not received their "share" of the nearly 1...

<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- A Montana man is charged with threatening to shoot a boy for sharing information about a subplot of the new "Star Wars" movie during an online conversation.</p> <p>Arthur Charles Roy, of Helena, was charged with felony assault with a weapon Monday during an appearance in Lewis and Clark County Justice Court. He remains jailed with his bail set at $10,000.</p>

Several veterans in Montana are outraged after the LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) pride flag was reportedly flown at the Fort Harrison VA near Helena, Montana earlier this week. The flag was apparently taken down by an outraged veteran, but has now been replaced and is flying right outside the administration building where the Montana VA Director's office is located.

A reporter is under fire for texting during the National Anthem and refusing to apologize. Helena Andrews, who writes the Reliable Source gossip column for The Washington Post, was caught on video using her cell phone as the "Star Spangled Banner" played Saturday at the 2015 White House Correspondents dinner. Andrews appeared to be typing with her head down, glued to her smartphone's screen, while other attendees stood solemnly with their hands over their hearts until the patriotic song finished.... "Apparently someone saw me on TV 'texting' during the dinner. FTR (For The Record) I was taking notes. On my...

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, a hidden gem in Rome full of holy relics. Nave looking east to the altar. Mosaics on the vault. Chapel of St. Helen on the lower level. Latin inscription. Written prayers on a stone in the Chapel of St. Helen. Chapel of the Holy Relics. Titulus Crucis brick set into a wall of the Chapel of Holy Relics. Important relics displayed in Santa Croce, including the Titulus Crucis. Reliquaries and relics on the top shelf. Full-size replica of the Shroud of Turin. Location map and aerial view of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. For a larger...

HELENA, Mont. — Recently released documents show the Obama administration was getting ideas from environmental groups about setting aside millions of acres in the West, drawing the ire of land users who said discussions were being developed behind their back. In the documents — most of which are e-mail messages — the environmental groups suggest various ways to protect land, such as by creating national monuments, buying private land or through conservation easements.

Sen. Max Baucus and his wife, Wanda, may be splitting after 25 years... Baucus, a Democrat who is running for his sixth six-year term this fall... "In 25 years of spirited marriage, it is natural for differences of opinion to arise..."

Registry not appropriate for all states. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton told Montana reporters Friday that she no longer favors national handgun registration and licensing, even as she supports such measures in her adopted state of New York. "What I came out for was the New York law," the U.S. senator said in a noon conference call Friday. "I don't think there is any contradiction between defending Second Amendment rights and trying to keep guns out of the hands of" criminals and the mentally ill. In 2000, as she was beginning her campaign for senator from New York, Clinton...

Montana still relies more heavily than do other states on property taxes for revenue, but the actual tax levels are not abnormally high... Doug Young, professor of economics at MSU-Bozeman, also told a meeting of Montana business and political officials that residential and commercial real estate is shouldering a greater share of the property tax burden in the state. Young spoke in Helena at the annual meeting of the Montana Taxpayers Association, a group that primarily represents business taxpayers. Property taxes account for 37 percent of tax revenue in Montana, while the national average for states is 31 percent... Income,...

Nick Dole has set up a hunting camp in the same area of the Lewis and Clark National Forest every year since 1982 and stayed there for up to five weeks at a time, so it bothers him that the U.S. Forest Service stands to break his tradition by enforcing a 16-day limit on camping. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., also finds the decision disturbing and wants the regional head of the Forest Service to intervene. "Our personal camp has been -- what, a 20-some-year situation -- and they want to change it," Dole said Monday from the camp he and...

In his historical novel Helena, Evelyn Waugh paints the mother of the Emperor Constantine as a Briton, the daughter of King Cole of Colchester, and a tardy convert to Catholic faith. She is already an old woman by the time she begins her search for the True Cross in Jerusalem, and by Christmastide is fatigued by her labors almost to the point of delirium. During the lengthy Epiphany Mass her exhaustion causes a semi-swoon that is part meditation, part reverie. At a time when many Catholic statesmen, and their chaplains, beamingly connive at assassination of the unborn and elderly, at...

Defeated U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., refused to concede Wednesday saying there remain votes yet to be counted in his tight race against the declared winner, Democrat Jon Tester. Burns, who has not commented to reporters on the race since the votes were counted Tuesday night, released a statement at 1:47 p.m. “Jon Tester ran a good race and has the lead right now, but it is extremely close,” Burns said. “The state of Montana has a process in place, and it is our obligation to see it through. There are still votes out there that deserve to be counted....

State Sen. Mike Cooney, a well-known name in Montana Democratic politics, recently accepted an unadvertised $72,000-a-year job in state government. Cooney said the job had nothing to do with political patronage and ... Kelly also brushed aside the suggestion that Cooney got the job because he's a prominent Democrat. Cooney, who served as secretary of state for 12 years ending in 2000, will begin work as head of the Department of Labor's Business Standards Division on July 10, said Keith Kelly, the state labor commissioner who heads the department. Kelly, a Democrat appointed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, said he approached...

Public meetings are scheduled next month in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming on the federal government's plans to remove federal protections for grizzly bears surrounding Yellowstone National Park. The move would put management of bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem into the hands of the three states and give them greater flexibility. It also could clear the way for limited hunting. Public meetings on the proposal are scheduled Jan. 9 at the Holiday Inn in Bozeman; Jan. 10 in Cody, Wyo.; Jan. 11 in Jackson, Wyo.; and Jan. 12 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Information on the plan will be provided, and...

HELENA -- Lawmakers in the Montana House of Representatives collectively thumbed their noses at the federal government Monday by approving two bills exempting guns from federal regulations and driver's licenses from national standardization requirements. The bills by Reps. Diane Rice, R-Harrison, and Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman, do different things but are driven by the same concern: the erosion of personal liberties by the federal government. Koopman said Monday his gun bill, House Bill 366, would inspire a home-grown industry of gun-makers who produce firearms to be sold in Montana. It also sends a message reaffirming states' rights. "In that regard, this...

HELENA -- Opponents of a proposal to issue death certificates for abortions accused Rep. Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman, on Thursday of wanting to psychologically harm women. "It is meant to create suffering and trauma, and maybe that is what (Koopman) believes women who get abortions deserve," said Kate Cholwea of NARAL, a pro-choice group. Koopman is sponsoring House Bill 617, which would require death certificates for any fetus that is aborted before it is 20 weeks old. A hearing on the bill was held Thursday, which drew a small but emotionally charged crowd. "It certainly is a life in a mother's...

HELENA - A new member of the Montana House is sponsoring a bill that would require death certificates to be filed for all abortions that occur in the state. But abortion rights advocates called Rep.-elect Roger Koopman's bill "mean-spirited" and predicted it will be defeated. Koopman, a Bozeman Republican elected to the House in November, said he is introducing the measure because he believes women who choose to get an abortion should be made aware of the consequences. "It's a small way for our society to acknowledge that a life did exist, even if they didn't get to see a...