Free Republic

After the federal Bureau of Land Management agents backed down from their intimidating stance at the Bundy Ranch last weekend, ample evidence has surfaced indicating the standoff between the government and the Nevada ranching family is far from over. Throughout the weeklong stalemate, members of the Bundy family were physically assaulted by armed officers, numerous cows were shot dead, and protesters faced threats of gunfire for merely expressing their outrage. Immediately after what many considered a victory against a tyrannical federal agency, a number of leftist voices – most notably, Sen. Harry Reid – indicated the action against this family...

Hundreds of low-level and medium-sized earthquakes have struck central Idaho since last month, puzzling geologists who wonder whether the ruptures portend a much larger temblor to come or are merely the rumblings of a seismic fault previously thought to be dormant. The recent earthquake swarm, beginning on March 24 and climaxed by a 4.9 magnitude tremor on Saturday, has produced no reports of injuries or severe damage but has rattled nerves in a region where Idaho’s most powerful known quake, measured at 6.9, killed two children in 1983. Saturday’s earthquake was the strongest recorded in the state since 2005 and...

The events in Nevada this week have made a number of things crystal clear: 1) Our government, at least at the upper management/executive service level, is incredibly corrupt. 2) Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority Misleader, is incredibly corrupt. 3) Obama’s Executive Branch, which allowed this situation to take place in the way that it did, is incredibly corrupt. 4) The judicial branch that has consistently allowed “environmentalists” to dictate public land policy is incredibly corrupt. 5) The “environmentalists” and their co-conspirators in Congress who foisted the so-called “Endangered Species Act” and numerous other extreme laws on us, and turned...

ST. GEORGE – Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Assembly Bill 227 into Nevada law Tuesday, approving the creation of the Nevada Land Management Task Force. The signing of AB 227 makes Nevada the fifth state to look into the movement initiated by Utah lawmakers that urges the federal government to transfer management of public lands over to state control. In a press release issued by the American Lands Council, Nevada Assemblyman John Ellison, the primary sponsor of AB 227, said, “Gov. Sandoval and our state legislature have taken the first step in fulfilling our responsibility to our children and for the...

Controversial housing finance reform legislation making its way through the Senate Banking Committee was co-written by a former mortgage trader for Countrywide Financial and Wachovia, two of the subprime mortgage behemoths at the center of the housing market crash in 2007.Michael Bright, the senior financial adviser to Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), worked as a trader and member of the loan-pricing desk at Countrywide Financial from 2002 to 2006, and as a senior trader for Wachovia from 2006 to 2008.Bright joined Corker’s office in 2010, and has been a key figure in crafting the Corker-Warner housing reform bill and the...

Coldwater Creek Inc., CWTR -27.68% a women's clothing and accessory retailer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware Friday with a plan to liquidate its inventory and close its stores after failing to attract a buyer. The retailer said it had considered several strategic alternatives over the past six months, including a sale, although it couldn't find a buyer or raise enough capital to fund its business. Coldwater, which operates a catalog business, retail and factory stores, as well as an e-commerce website, expects to start going-out-of-business sales to liquidate its inventory in early May. Like much of the...

For 20 years, a tough-as-leather Nevada rancher and the federal government have been locked in a bitter range war over cattle grazing rights. This weekend the confrontation got worse, when the feds hired contract cowboys to start seizing Cliven Bundy's cattle, which have been grazing on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The government officials brought a show of force that included dozens of armed agents in SUVs and helicopters. Bundy, 67, who has been a rancher all his life, accuses BLM of stampeding over on his rights. “This is a lot bigger deal than just my...

Even worse, the U.S. Senate is poised give us Fannie–Freddie 2.0 in the new housing reform bill that Senators Tim Johnson (D., S.D.) and Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) have released. The Johnson-Crapo bill would wind down the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but would also replace them with a new government agency that expands the federal government’s grip on the housing market. If the Johnson-Crapo housing bill is adopted, the federal government will have effectively taken over the U.S. mortgage market.

Attorney Bryan Smith went on the air with a new television ad calling his primary rival, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, a “liberal.” Smith is challenging Simpson, an eight-term incumbent and top ally of Speaker John A. Boehner, for the 2nd District in one of the cycle’s top primary battles. Smith also boasts the backing of several conservative outside groups, including the Club for Growth and Senate Conservatives Fund. The spot features an edited clip of Simpson saying, “Let me tell you about earmarks. I’ve always been a supporter of earmarks.” The Smith campaign has reserved $25,000 in the Twin Falls...

John Kerry Defends His Diplomatic Efforts: ‘I May Fail – I Don’t Care’ By Ali Weinberg Apr 8, 2014 4:03pm Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry defiantly defended his diplomatic efforts, saying that while ambitious, they were better than doing nothing. While the purpose of Tuesday’s hearing was to pick through the State Department’s budget, it was Kerry’s record that came under scrutiny as his old colleagues on the committee accused him of taking on too many responsibilities with too few results. “I think you’re about to hit the trifecta,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,...

(Reuters) - Yellowstone National Park, which sits atop one of the world's largest super-volcanoes, was struck on Sunday by a magnitude 4.8 earthquake, the biggest recorded there since February 1980, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. The tremor, a relatively light event by seismic standards, struck the northwest corner of the park and capped a flurry of smaller quakes at Yellowstone since Thursday, geologists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said in a statement. The latest earthquake struck at 6:34 a.m. near the Norris Geyser Basin and was felt about 23 miles away in two small Montana...

Boise, Idaho (CBS SEATTLE) – An Idaho state trooper arrested and fully searched a 70-year-old Washington man’s vehicle solely because he had a Colorado license plate – a state where marijuana is legal – a federal “license plate profiling” lawsuit alleges. Darien Roseen was driving along I-84 between his second home in Colorado and Washington state on Jan. 25 when Idaho State Trooper Justin Klitch “immediately” pulled out from the Interstate median and began “rapidly accelerating” to catch up to Roseen, according to the complaint in a Courthouse News Service report. Exiting at a designated rest area, Roseen says he...

Will Obama use two small birds to limit oil drilling in the West? Almost half the land west of the Mississippi belongs to the federal government, including 48% of California, 62% of Idaho and 81% of Nevada. No surprise that the Obama Administration wants to control more. But the result could be to suppress the country's booming oil and gas development. In partnership with green activists, the Department of Interior may attempt one of the largest federal land grabs in modern times, using a familiar vehicle—the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A record 757 new species could be added to the...

Idaho Republican Mike Simpson’s influence with fellow members of Congress is what makes him a key player in this year’s election, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Rob Engstrom said Thursday. Besides earning high marks on the chamber’s rating scale, Engstrom said, Simpson has the trust of dozens of men and women in Congress. That makes him valuable to the chamber, which can’t individually reach out to each member, Engstrom said. Simpson is being challenged in this year’s election by Idaho Falls Republican Bryan Smith, who has the endorsements of groups such as Club for Growth, The Madison Project...

Agenda 21 is alive and well in Klamath County, Oregon. Klamath Basin farmers are feeling the wrath of the Klamath Tribes in collusion with the Federal and Oregon state governments. Water is now basically off limits to ranchers unless they get approval from the tribes, and approvals are few and far between. ... The success of this plan spells disaster for not only the Klamath Basin family farmers, but for all family farmers, as it will be a precedent. Without locally grown produce and animal feed, we will be even more dependent on imported food at a much higher price....

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney this week campaigned in Idaho for Gov. Butch Otter and Rep. Mike Simpson, who have primary battles against tea party challengers, to prevent the GOP from veering "wild right." "I'm here today in Idaho . . . to make sure people understand that the people I'm standing with right here are the right team of conservative leaders to help the people of Idaho," Romney said, according to NPR. -SNIP- According to David Adler, director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, Romney's purpose in the state is to help with voter...

Tuesday, 25 March 2014 16:35 Declaring an Emergency, Idaho Governor Signs Gun Grab Nullification Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. On Wednesday, March 19, Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed a powerful protection against the federal gun grab into law in the Gem State.The bill, SB 1332, came to Otter’s desk after being passed unanimously (with three abstentions) by the state House and Senate.The published purpose of SB 1332, the Idaho Federal Firearm, Magazine and Register Ban Enforcement Act, makes clear the intent of state lawmakers:This legislation is to protect Idaho law enforcement officers from being directed, through federal orders, laws,...

Wyoming has spent $7.9 million on sage grouse conservation since 2005. That was the finding of a new report by the Western Governors Association, which inventoried the efforts of 11 western states to protect the bird and its habitat. The report comes in advance of an expected 2015 ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over whether to add the species to the endangered species list. The sage grouse's listing could curtail energy development throughout the West. ... Utah, by comparison, spent $8.8 million on improvements to sage grouse habitat in 2013 alone.

Mitt Romney waded into the crowded Iowa Senate race Wednesday, throwing his support behind state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) in the contested GOP primary. "As a mother, soldier and proven conservative, Joni has the kind of experience, skillset and discipline it will take to not only win this important seat, but to also take Iowa values to help turn around the mess in Washington," Romney wrote in a fundraising e-mail sent Wednesday morning... This is not Romney's first endorsement of the 2014 cycle. He is also backing Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who faces tea party challenger Bryan Smith (R).

BOISE, March 21, 2014 – On Thursday, Idaho Governor Butch Otter (R) signed a bill, which would effectively nullify future federal gun laws, by prohibiting state enforcement of any future federal act relating to personal firearms, a firearm accessories or ammunition. S1332 passed the house by a vote of 68-0 and the senate by a vote of 34-0. Alaska and Kansas have also passed similar laws. Erich Pratt, Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America, cheered the governor’s action. “By signing this nullification bill into law, Idaho has joined an elite class of states that are telling the feds...