Free Republic

Transfer of Public Lands Act’ demands Washington relinquish 31.2 million acres by Dec. 31. In three weeks, Utah intends to seize control of 31.2 million acres of its own land now under the control of the federal government. At least, that’s the plan. In an unprecedented challenge to federal dominance of Western state lands, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 signed the “Transfer of Public Lands Act,” which demands that Washington relinquish its hold on the land, which represents more than half of the state’s 54.3 million acres, by Dec. 31. ... With the 2012 law, Utah placed itself on...

Rep. Raúl R. Labrador has a message for Republican leadership as they decide how to respond to the president’s executive action on immigration and funding the government beyond Dec. 11: Keep a government shutdown as an option. “I don’t think anything is off the table,” Labrador told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. “I don’t think anybody is thinking about a shutdown, but, in negotiations, you never take anything off the table. That’s the first rule of negotiating, and apparently it’s not one that’s been learned in Washington, D.C.” Asked if leaders are too “gun shy” about a government shutdown, the...

Sales of leases on 8.1 million acres of federal oil and gas parcels — an area larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined — are on hold because of worries that drilling could harm greater sage grouse... the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s delay on the parcels underscores just how much is at stake for an industry that finds its future inextricably intertwined with a bird once known primarily for its elaborate mating display. The grouse’s huge range, covering portions of 11 states and an area more than four times as big as New England, includes vast oil, gas and...

REPRESENTATIVE RAUL LABRADOR (R-Idaho): Well, there's several things that we need to do. Number one, it was illegal for the President to do this. He has been saying it for the last three years that he did not have the authority to do it and now he changed his mind. (SNIP) And finally, and I think this is the most important part, we can't take the bait from-- from the Democrats. We can't say we're not going to do immigration reform. We need to tell the American people what we're for. And we need to show them the step-by-step approach...

As Republicans challenge the legality of President Obama's unilateral action on immigration, Democrats are firing back with a challenge of their own. "It is clear that they can complain, they can threaten, they can talk about lawsuits, cutting off funding, shutting down the government, in the extreme, even impeachment. But the real question is: Can they govern? Can they govern?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. The GOP is weighing their options to undo the president's moves - "a bit of a threat to our democracy," as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas,...

BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) - The members of Idaho's congressional delegation have issued their responses to President Obama's plan to defer deportation for certain qualifying illegal immigrants. Senator Mike Crapo "Rather than listening to the American people and respecting their voices in the last election, the President will instead impose his deliberately divisive action on the important issue of illegal immigration," said Crapo. "This unfortunate choice by the President will, most importantly, hurt immigrants in the long run and undercut future prospects for lasting immigration reform. In addition, the President has done an about-face on his executive role. Just last year,...

One voice chiming in against President Obama's expected immigration announcement is Rep. Raul Labrador, a Republican from Idaho. Labrador is backed by the Tea Party, part of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, and a former immigration lawyer who represented undocumented residents fighting deportation. He spoke with NPR's Melissa Block ahead of the president's speech, in which Obama is set to announce executive action granting temporary relief to some of the more than 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Interview Highlights On how he feels Republicans should respond to the president's action The first thing we need to explain...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Idaho was among seven states where the number of unauthorized immigrants increased between 2009 and 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. The report also found the number of unauthorized immigrants decreased in 14 states, including Oregon, in that time period. The number stayed relatively stable in the remaining states, including Washington. Nationally, the number of unauthorized immigrants remained stable at 11.2 million between 2009 and 2012, the report found. The number of such immigrants peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million, the report said. But changes occurred within states. Idaho, for...

Federal wildlife officials have granted protection to the Gunnison sage grouse, a move that could to bring restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other land uses to preserve the bird's habitat in Colorado and Utah. ... They're related to the greater sage grouse, which is at the center of a separate and larger debate over federal protection across 11 Western states.

A celebration in Bowe Bergdahl's hometown of Hailey, Idaho, planned for later this month has been cancelled in the wake of a firestorm of controversy over how the Army sergeant wound up as a Taliban captive. **SNIP** Town officials on Tuesday told NBC News that they had been deluged with hateful calls from people who don't think Bergdahl should be celebrated as a hero. In the Wednesday statement, the town said they had received about "100 correspondences" per day on the issue, both positive and negative. Hailey officials say they aren't cancelling because of any threat, but because of the...

On Friday, city officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, informed Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers and proprietors of the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, that they would be required to perform gay weddings or face fines or possibly jail time under the city’s “public accommodations” statute. Their religious views are expected to adjust to the edicts of the state. So it’s official: a new religious orthodoxy is sweeping across the nation, imposed by government and backed by force. It’s a religious orthodoxy required by secular authorities for a secular purpose, but no matter. Heretics will be found out and forced...

Authorities in Coeur d'Alene Idaho have buckled under the pressureof nationwide outrage at their threat to jail two ordained ministers for not performing gay marriage in their wedding chapel and declared the "Hitching Post" wedding chapel exempt from their "non-dsicrimination" law. Boise Public Radio: The city has been embroiled in controversy ever since the owners of the Hitching Post sued the city. They say a city anti-discrimination law threatened to force them to marry same-sex couples now that gay marriage is legal in Idaho. The story lit up conservative and gay-rights blogs. Wedding chapel owners Donald and Evelyn Knapp...

Public Enemy No. 1 for rural Utah sheriffs just happens to be a fellow peace officer: Dan Love, the Bureau of Land Management’s special agent in charge. Elected law enforcement officers from Nephi to Blanding call him an arrogant and dishonest bully who has little regard for local authority and dodges accountability, derailing a collaborative approach to police work on the state’s federal lands. Love reportedly just laughed when Garfield County Sheriff James "Danny" Perkins relayed ranchers’ complaints about federal officers removing plastic feed tubs from the range and threatening the ranchers with litter citations. He drew early controversy during...

BOISE – Idaho Gov. Butch Otter wants a larger group of judges to reconsider the recent decision that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. “I will continue defending Idahoans’ self-determination and the will of Idaho voters who decided that traditional marriage is a core principle of our society,” Otter said. The governor on Tuesday announced that he would file a petition seeking a review at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by an 11-judge panel. A three-judge panel made the earlier decision ruling that Idaho’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Otter and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden...

Where are all the atheist freedom lovers we always hear about? It's time for them to start standing up for religious liberty. The left and militant gay movement are getting bolder and bolder, and too many Christians are stewing in their apathy. It seems that with each passing month, this senseless tyranny advances. The latest is that two Christian ministers in Idaho, Donald and Evelyn Knapp, have allegedly been ordered to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies at their chapel or face fines or jail sentences. This nightmare began Oct. 7, when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated Idaho's marriage...

<p>Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.</p> <p>Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Donald and Evelyn Knapp, two ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene.</p>

Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to a $1,000 fine, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene.

…and the distinction between gay rights and religious persecution just vanished. It begins with equality and ends with everyone losing their freedom.But I love all these new freedoms we’re getting. We now have the freedom to do what various pressure groups want or go to jail. I hope we don’t get too many more new freedoms or we’ll run out of jail cells. Officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, are threatening an elderly couple who run a wedding chapel with jail time unless they perform wedding ceremonies for gay couples.Donald Knapp and his wife, Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching...

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved...

How far is the tyranny over gay marriage going to go? Reasonable people can differ on gay marriage. But forcing people to go against their religious views in order to comply with one viewpoint is nothing more than harassment.  According to Todd Starnes at Weasel Zippers, Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in daily fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.