Free Republic

TWIN FALLS • The College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center is expecting an influx of Syrian refugees starting in October. Projections show the center will likely receive 300 refugees from around the world during the upcoming federal fiscal year. That’s the same number as this year. Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama anticipates the biggest populations of newcomers will be from Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “That can change at any time depending on what’s out there,” he said. The U.S. Department of State approves the number of refugees coming to Twin Falls. There aren’t any Syrians in...

Republican Sen. David Vitter’s bid to subpoena details about Congress’s treatment under Obamacare bitterly divided his own party Thursday, with five GOP senators balking at his attempt to force the D.C. health exchange to name who signed off on Capitol Hill’s use of the city’s insurance portal. Mr. Vitter, of Louisiana and chairman of the Small Business Committee, swiftly condemned his colleagues for voting with committee Democrats to reject his maneuver, 5 to 14. He said Congress’s arrangement with the city’s small-business exchange, or “SHOP,” provides lawmakers and staff with financial perks above and beyond what regular Obamacare customers can...

The federal government and many states have offered car buyers incentives to venture into the electric car market. But now some states are going in a different direction -- they’re charging owners more. Idaho recently approved one of the country’s highest fees for electric cars. Here’s the problem: states traditionally fund highways with a gas tax. But you only pay that if you buy gas. Last week, Idaho lawmakers voted to charge electric vehicle owners an extra $140 annual registration fee. … which was news to Cleve Buttars. "Wow. Well, um ..." Buttars lives in Twin Falls and drives a...

POST FALLS, Idaho — It took five years for negotiators to work out the details of a multinational treaty on child support that would make it easier to track delinquent parents around the world. It took only a couple of minutes for a committee of the Idaho Legislature to endanger America’s participation. In a 9-to-8 vote in the closing hours of the legislative session, the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee killed a bill that state and federal officials had said was crucial to the finely crafted choreography of the child support treaty reached at The Hague. All 50 states...

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy. The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration. The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar...

The brown and white border collie had caught Beth Stenberg’s attention several times as she drove her two sons to hockey practice in Idaho Falls in February. The lone female dog was a frequent sight on the edge of Interstate 15 between Fort Hall and Blackfoot.

The Western Governors' Association released a report today highlighting the voluntary efforts in 11 states to conserve the habitat of sage-grouse as part of an effort to avoid a federal listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The association, which represents the governors of 19 Western states, said that “the breadth and depth of voluntary conservation efforts across the region, if allowed to run their course, will provide the bird with the necessary habitat to live and thrive.” The greater sage grouse is found in 11 states and its habitat encompasses 186 million acres . The U.S....

AMMAN, JORDAN – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of senior lawmakers met with His Majesty King Abdullah II on Sunday during a visit to Jordan where talks focused on Iranian-backed violence in the region and the growing terrorist threat. King Abdullah hosted the delegation for a luncheon at Beit al-Urdun Palace. Lawmakers also met with U.S. Ambassador Alice Wells, Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, as well as senior embassy officials. Discussions focused on two major trends in the region: the violence caused by Iran’s allies and proxies, and the spreading of the terrorist threat. There was also...

It’s hard to say who comes off worst in this story; Sultan Bamoallem, a Saudi student who kept trying to assault women (and possibly men) on campus… or the university and cops who let him go to do it again. An ISU student is accused of entering multiple dorm rooms and inappropriately touching the occupants over a two-week period.Sultan Bamoallem, a freshman finance major from Saudi Arabia, faces multiple misdemeanor charges including trespassing, battery and stalking.Pocatello police said on Feb 23, Bamoallem entered a female student’s dorm in Turner Hall. Police said the student woke up to a partially-clad...

When some Idaho parents learned last week that a transgendered student was sharing the same bathroom with their teenage daughter, the news didn’t sit well with them. Jacob Smith and Pauline Adams approached the Boise school district, concerned for their daughter’s privacy and safety. According to KIVI-TV: “The Boise School District explains that under federal law, the district is required to provide access to public facilities consistent with the student’s gender identity.”

predation, not human activity, has reduced bird’s numbers. A coalition of rural Western counties and business interests is contesting the science being used to decide whether to list the Greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened, accusing the Obama administration of relying on “selective, false and biased” research. Denver attorney Kent Holsinger filed three Data Quality Act challenges Wednesday with the Department of the Interior on behalf of the coalition, which includes the Western Energy Alliance, ranchers, mining and drilling companies and 19 counties in Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Utah. “We’ve documented real issues with transparency and scientific integrity ... The...

The conservative Club For Growth released its annual scorecard for 2013 on Monday, bestowing two Republican U.S. senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah — and four GOP congressmen with 100 percent ratings for their voting records “based on issues relating to limited government and economic growth.”The four congressmen with perfect ratings for 2013 are Republican Reps. Matt Salmon, Trent Franks and David Schweikert of Arizona and Tom McClintock of California. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan got a 99 percent rating in 2013 “but because of rounding has a 100 percent LifeScore,” the group said.“2013 saw...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

Constitutional Carry is currently available in five States.  Fourteen States have active legislation pending to move the State to a Constitutional Carry model, including Maine, New Hampshire and Colorado.  Idaho’s legislation (HB89) has been blocked and declared dead by an ad-hoc secret committee. This ad-hoc secret committee has no published members, no scheduled meetings, and no public hearings on bills being voted on.  This committee has handles all bills introduced that cover firearms in the State of Idaho.  It is rumored it is a joint House and Senate committee. Idaho’s multiple concealed carry levels Idaho currently has multiple levels of...

In America, 43 of the 50 U.S. states confer some type of civil or criminal immunity on parents who injure their children by withholding medical care on religious grounds. If your child has diabetes or a severe infection, and you pray for her instead of giving her insulin or antibiotics, she’ll probably die, but you’re largely off the legal hook. But that immunity doesn’t apply if you injure your child by withholding medical care for nonreligious reasons; for that, you can be prosecuted for neglect, abuse, or even manslaughter. This privileging of religion is dangerous to children—and has killed many...

<p>FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Three northern Indiana preschools and an elementary school will participate in a pilot program that will monitor children through third grade to help improve early learning.</p> <p>The program will track students entering kindergarten this fall and send scores from a variety of screening tests back to their preschools to help them improve educational programs, The Journal Gazette reported.</p>

Idaho is one of the many states now considering a repeal of the requirement for a concealed carry permit in order to carry a firearm in public. Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler supports the move, suggesting the 2nd Amendment acts as citizens’ concealed carry permit.

BOISE – A North Idaho senator is objecting to allowing a Hindu prayer as the opening invocation for the Idaho Senate on Tuesday morning, and says he’ll walk out. Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, said, “They have a caste system. They worship cows.” He acknowledged the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows any kind of prayer, but said he thinks the Hindu one shouldn’t be allowed to open the Senate, as the United States was “built on the Judeo-Christian not only religion but work ethic, and I don’t want to see that undermined.”

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse. Mesa County decided to follow with its...

Marguerite Haragan, 58, harassed the Jewish woman identified in a court hearing on Feb. 12 as AG first by phone calls and then by showing up at her home in Ada County. Haragan, 58, has been charged with two counts of malicious harassment in the attack, which police have labeled a hate crime, local television station KTVB reported. She could face up to five years in prison for each count.