Free Republic

FAIRBANKS - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney maintained a strong lead with most of the results counted in the Alaska Republican presidential preference poll held today. With 4,225 votes, the former Massachusetts Governor took 32.6 percent of the statewide vote. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum took 29 percent, Texas congressman Ron Paul took about 24 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took 14 percent. At 10:30 p.m., 95 percent of the vote had been counted. Alaska was one of 10 states to participate in the Republican nomination process today and will divvy up 24 of its delegates according to...

<p>WEST CHESTER, Ohio (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has told supporters in Ohio that he thinks he can win delegates in the Buckeye State.</p> <p>Gingrich spoke Saturday morning at the Back Porch Saloon, a restaurant-bar in suburban West Chester Township, about 25 miles north of Cincinnati.</p>

A collective gulp was almost detectable this week when California Fish and Game Commission President Daniel Richards defiantly declared to outraged legislators that he not only gunned down a mountain lion and held the carcass like a trophy, but he then ate big cat for dinner. The revelation that Richards complied with the backcountry rule that you eat what you shoot didn't do much to quiet calls in the Capitol for his head, but the perfectly legal shooting and consumption of puma meat certainly raised questions about his diet. As odd and unappetizing as the dish may sound, it isn't...

Democratic lawmakers may attempt to oust California Fish and Game Commission President Daniel Richards as early as next week following outrage over his legal killing of a mountain lion on a recent Idaho hunting trip. Assembly Democrats on Wednesday were looking into the possibility of a legislative resolution that would remove him from the board, one day after Richards sent a letter to the Legislature, the governor and other state officials defiantly defending the killing, mocking critics for their outrage and saying that - contrary to beliefs that the shooting was purely a trophy kill - he did, in fact,...

Three of the four major Republican presidential candidates will be in Washington state Thursday and Friday seeking support in advance of the Washington caucuses on Saturday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, coming off an easy win in Arizona and a narrow victory in Michigan, has long been scheduled to hold a $1,000-per-person fundraiser in Bellevue on Thursday evening. UPDATE: The Romney campaign announced a "Meet and Greet with Mitt" at 8 a.m. Friday in Bellevue. Romney will appear at a Thursday afternoon rally in Idaho Falls. Idaho will hold its own presidential caucuses on Tuesday and Romney is expected to...

Dan Richards, who chairs the California Fish and Game Commission, is under fire in the Capitol because he killed a mountain lion in Idaho and posed with his trophy for a picture that was later published on a hunting publication website. Forty Democratic legislators signed a letter to Richards saying he should resign. "Your actions raise serious questions about whether you respect the laws of the people of California and whether you are fit to adequately enforce those laws," the lawmakers told Richards. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom later joined the chorus. So let's get this straight.... Mountain lion hunting is...

California Fish and Game Commission President Daniel Richards said Tuesday that there is "zero chance" he will resign over a photograph showing him grinning as he holds up the body of a mountain lion he shot, killed and ate in Idaho recently. In a letter addressed to Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, one of dozens of public officials who called for Richards' resignation in recent days, Richards blasted lawmakers and others for their criticism of his hunting expedition and mocked their condemnation of the kill. Richards wrote that he did eat a cougar for dinner, did not use a high-powered...

COEUR D’ALENE— GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich followed the campaign trail to the Inland Northwest Thursday to address voters. Voters are just one week away from picking who they want as a Republican presidential candidate. Gingrich talked about hot topics in front of hundreds of people in North Idaho. He focused on gas prices, national security, and the differences between Democrats and Republicans. He said the main goal is for the GOP party to beat President Barack Obama in the next election. Gingrich is scheduled to head to Western Washington Friday to meet with supporters in Olympia.

BOISE - Another presidential hopeful is coming to Idaho. Newt Gingrich will be in Idaho on Thursday. He is holding a fundraiser in Harrison, Idaho. The cost is $1,000 per person. Thursday night, Gingrich will also hold a town hall in Coeur d'Alene. The exact time and location are still being worked out at this time. Gingrich is the fourth major Republican presidential candidate to visit Idaho in the past week and-a-half.

The divide between those who live in rural areas and those from cities ruptured wide this past weekend across America in a debate over a provocative photo of California Fish and Game Commission President Dan Richards and a huge mountain lion he shot legally after an 8-hour hunt in Idaho. Some comments on Facebook suggest that Richards should be the one hunted and shot, that he should be jailed, that is unethical to shoot anything you do not eat, and hunting of any kind is barbaric.Most from rural backgrounds would see nothing wrong with the photo. Mountain lions are predators...

They asked for a hearing. Didn’t they ask EPA for a hearing on whether their lands fell within the statute? They did ask for a hearing, and EPA said no.” Those were the words of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during U.S. Supreme Court oral argument last month in Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She wasn’t the only justice to express impatience with the EPA’s treatment of Mike and Chantell Sackett, the couple from Priest Lake, Idaho, who face staggering federal fines after the EPA declared their small parcel to be “wetlands.” As the Washington Post reported, “Justices across the...

In an obvious tongue-in-cheek propostion, Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter has sent Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber an offer to "replace" the collared wolf from Oregon that was shot by a hunter in Idaho. "I am offering to send you 150 wolves from Idaho," Otter wrote. "Idaho has more than a sufficient number, in fact many more than the federal government originally required we have, and can spare a few." Washington Times.

Wyoming lawmakers appear ready to change the state’s wolf management law to accommodate an agreement that Gov. Matt Mead and U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar reached last year on ending federal protections for the animals in the state. Under the agreement, wolves could be shot on sight in much of the state. The Republican governor has made wolf management a priority, saying the animals threaten agricultural interests and other wildlife. Officials say there are about 300 wolves in the state, and Mead has said the population grows by 10 percent every year. Under the deal, Wyoming would commit to...

Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum visited Boise tonight to a packed house at Capitol High School. More than 30 minutes before the speech started, the 1300 capacity auditorium was full and any new arrivals were sent to a spillover gym across campus. Santorum started his speech speaking about his family. There was applause when he spoke about his seven children, ranging in ages from 3 to 20. He said “Last time I said I had 7 children, I was in NY, and there wasn’t applause. I bet a lot of you have that many children.” He also used his family...

LAS VEGAS — Newt Gingrich is wooing NASCAR voters. As he charts a possible course to the Republican nomination, aides say Gingrich will paint frontrunner Mitt Romney as the candidate of the PGA golf tour while the former House speaker pursues the blue collar mantle of Dale Earnhardt. It’s a strategy that exploits the class warfare Gingrich professes to oppose. Still, it could pay dividends once the GOP race again swings South. Gingrich sees delegate-rich Texas as a firewall in April. But he must slog through more than 30 contests before that....

The head of memory chip maker Micron, long known for taking risks in stunt piloting, died Friday when a small experimental plane he was piloting steeply banked, stalled and crashed near an Idaho runway. Steve Appleton, who survived a similar crash eight years ago and had a reputation as a hard-driving daredevil, was the only person aboard the plane when witnesses said it crashed shortly after its second take-off attempt in Boise, according to safety investigators.

BOISE -- With a bill aimed at getting rid of the Occupy Boise encampment making its way through the Idaho Legislature, new pictures of people identified as Occupy members may not do much to help their cause. The pictures don't reveal any crimes, rather the Department of Administration says they are violations of the good neighbor policy, meaning it shows Occupy members taking things and using things they shouldn't. Since Occupy Boise set up camp in early November, the Director of the Department of Administration, Teresa Luna, says they have dealt with vandalism, violence, trespassing and theft. Earlier this month,...

A mother is suing the obstetrician who she claims misdiagnosed her pregnancy as ectopic and injected her foetus with an abortant, resulting in birth defects. Thirty-five-year-old Rachel Schoger of Caldwell, Idaho, says she was four weeks five days pregnant with her daughter, Seraphine, when her doctor injected her foetus with chemotherapy drug methotrexate in 2006. Two weeks later, the baby was found inside the uterus. And against all odds, Seraphine made it through term. But the little girl will never lead a normal life, her mother says, after she was born without reproductive organs or a rectum as a result...

The poll is on the right side of the screen, half way down. It is rather ambiguously worded, as it makes no differenciation between legal or illegal. However, the Second Amendment is pretty clear.

Justice Samuel Alito seemed none too pleased last week with the government’s argument in a case pitting property owners against the Environmental Protection Agency. Four years ago, Mike and Chantell Sackett bought property to build their dream home near a lake in Idaho. After obtaining local permits the Sacketts began work, pouring in some land fill. But their work came to a screeching halt when they were visited by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency. The couple was slapped with a compliance order asserting that the land is subject to the Clean Water Act and that they had illegally placed...