Free Republic

If you live within the reddish or pinkish shaded areas of the corridor shown on the accompanying map … you just might be among the first to feel the bite of the United Nations’ pipedream known as Agenda 21. What this map shows is one Agenda 21 installment of The Wildlands Network, known as the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. This is a collaborative effort of more than a hundred environmental groups, organizations and related agencies. One of those “radical” agencies just happens to be MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks which is listed as a collaborating partner of this plan...

SEATTLE (AP) - Washington state lost a major legal battle Friday, which could force it spend nearly $2 billion to restore salmon habitat by removing barriers that block fish migration. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year affirmed a lower court’s 2013 ruling ordering the state to fix or replace hundreds of culverts - large pipes that allow streams to pass beneath roads but block migrating salmon. Idaho and Montana joined Washington state in asking the appeals court to reconsider the case. Washington had sought a rehearing, arguing in part that the court’s decision forces...

In a first and significant step towards the remonetization of Gold and Silver, Idaho voted tonight to remove income tax on precious metals. This is the first step in what will likely be a cascade of other states following suit. Last week we discussed here the Arizona Senate Finance and Rules Committees' calling out the Fed on Gold Taxation by considering legislation (HB 2014) officially defining gold, silver, and other precious metals as legal tender. The bill also exempts transactions in precious metals from state capital gains taxes, thus ensuring that people are not punished by the taxman for rejecting...

Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador, who made headlines over the weekend for his comment at a town hall that "nobody" dies from a lack of health care, is running for Idaho governor. The fourth-term congressman filed paperwork Tuesday morning with Idaho's Secretary of State. Labrador, a conservative Republican and founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, faced immediate backlash over the weekend after claiming "nobody dies because they don't have access to health care" at a town hall in Idaho. Later, the Republican issued a statement to reporters acknowledging his answer "wasn't very elegant," but he was "responding to the...

An Idaho high school had altered the traditional boys vs. girls competitions for its spirit week in order to be accommodating to its “gender variant” students, but the change still ended up causing a big controversy. The Twin Falls High School student council altered the activities’ monikers to “blue vs. pink,” but apparently there’s little substantive difference between the traditional gender colors … and the genders themselves. According to MagicValley.com, a group of students — “including some who are transgender” — complained of harassment and say they felt targeted after wearing purple shirts to school instead of blue or pink....

Greek yogurt giant Chobani is suing far-right radio host Alex Jones, accusing the conspiracy theorist of publishing false information about the company. Chobani alleges that Jones and his InfoWars website posted fabricated stories earlier this month that linked Chobani owner Hamdi Ulukaya and the company to a sexual assault case involving refugee children. The complaint says InfoWars released a video on April 11 falsely claiming that Chobani was “importing migrant rapists,” with the goal of causing customers to boycott its products.

President Trump told the Washington Examiner that he is "absolutely" thinking about breaking up the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump criticized the heavily liberal court that blocked his executive order calling for a Mideast travel ban. He suggested it would likely uphold the injunction against his withholding of sanctuary cities' federal funds if the Justice Department appeals that ruling. Trump said that "many people" would support breaking up the "outrageous" bench, adding that he is "absolutely" considering the possibility.

Montana Democrat Rob Quist, a locally famous musician, is a frequent performer at the Sun Meadow Resort, Idaho's premier nudist resort for guests seeking a "family nudist experience." ... Some of Quist's concerts at Sun Meadow came during a period when he claimed he was "unable to work" due to "significant health problems" caused by a botched gall bladder surgery in 1996. He previously blamed financial troubles for his inability to perform at all in 2011.

After years of creating headaches for the oil-and-gas industry, the greater sage grouse is now standing in the way of renewable energy. The U.S. District Court in Portland on Wednesday killed a major wind-energy project slated for southeast Oregon over concerns about its impact on a local sage grouse population in a victory for environmental groups, which had fought the proposal for years. The 104-megawatt project, which would have spread up to 70 wind turbines and a transmission line across 10,500 acres in rural Harney County, was decried by environmentalists as an “industrial scale wind development” that would have disrupted...

The deranged gunman who randomly executed an elderly Cleveland resident and posted footage of the killing on Facebook has possibly fled the city — and may be on the loose in another state, cops say. Police warned early Monday that residents in Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan should be on the lookout for 37-year-old Steve Stephens, who is driving a white Ford Fusion and is believed to be armed and dangerous. “Suspect may be out of state at this time,” officials said in a statement. “Those outside of Northeast Ohio: Contact Local Authorities.”

Three refugees, ages 14, 10 and seven, pled guilty to sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl in Idaho. The boys, one from Iraq and two from Eritrea, entered their guilty plea last week but the case’s resolution received almost no national attention. “We agreed to the plea bargains. That by no means implies my clients were, or are, fully satisfied with the outcome of these cases or the prosecuting attorney,” Mark Guerry, the attorney for the girl’s family told the Idaho Statesman. “After 10 months their right to some form of justice was long overdue.” “They were prepared to testify at...

Three boys from Iraq and Sudan who were invited into the country via refugee programs pled guilty to charges of sexually brutalizing a five-year-old American child in Twin Falls, Idaho, last year. A seven-year-old Iraqi boy, plus 14-year-old and 10-year-old Sudanese boys, reportedly cornered the tiny victim in a laundry room at the Fawnbrook Apartments in Twin Falls, Idaho, on June 2. They stripped her naked, sexually assaulted her, urinated all over her body and in her mouth, and videotaped the attack... The attack sparked another national uproar among Americans — but only dismissive responses from managers in resident Barack...

An expensive solar road project in Idaho can’t even power a microwave most days, according to the project’s energy data. The Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways project generated an average of 0.62 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day since it began publicly posting power data in late March. To put that in perspective, the average microwave or blow drier consumes about 1 kWh per day. On March 29th, the solar road panels generated 0.26 kWh, or less electricity than a single plasma television consumes. On March 31st, the panels generated 1.06 kWh, enough to barely power a single microwave. The panels...

Vista is the corporation that owns CCI and Federal brands. They have been increasing production of .22 rimfire ammunition. It was expected to be ramped up 20% this year.Following the election of President Trump, demand for ammunition has dropped. According to an article from Lewiston, Idaho, Vista has laid off employees in both the Lewiston and the Anoka, Minnesota ammunition plant locations.  From the postregister.com: The number of people who work at Vista Outdoor’s ammunition-making operations has been shifting since February. A month-long voluntary, temporary furlough for about 100 Lewiston employees ends Thursday and will bring the number of...

In the last 30 years, the amount of federal timber available for sale in most of America’s national forests has been reduced between 70 and 99 percent. A University of Idaho study suggests that forest and wood product production jobs in this state have diminished from nearly 20,000 in 1991 to 12,479 in 2016. An unreliable and constricted supply of logs has been the largest factor forcing mill closures in Idaho towns like Kamiah, Orofino, Coeur d’Alene and Elk City. Over that quarter of a century, some 7,500 Idaho forest-dependent families have lost the employment, homes and lifestyle they once...

A proposal to spend $10 million next year to provide health care to 15,000 of the most chronically ill members of Idaho’s health coverage gap population failed in the Idaho Senate on Monday after nearly two hours of debate. The bill, proposed by Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, who co-chaired an interim legislative working group that examined options for the state’s gap population, failed on a 13-22 vote. Those in the gap are the estimated 78,000 Idahoans who earn too much to qualify for Idaho’s limited Medicaid program, but not enough to qualify for subsidized insurance through the state’s health insurance...

A religious-based charity has received nearly $18 million in federal grants to help refugees and immigrant children who entered the country illegally since Donald Trump was elected president.. The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) has received nine federally-funded awards since Nov. 8, all of which came from the the Department of Health and Human Services ... Seven of those – worth over $13 million – were awarded under the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program, and the remaining two – worth $4.5 million – were used to helped refugees. ... LIRS ultimately raked in $60 million total for fiscal 2016 –...

The truth is being revealed, as we all prayed that it would. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Agent Daniel P. Love has been breaking the law for years. Using and abusing his authority to run his own personal fiefdom. Bullying citizens until they commit suicide. All while believing he was above the law. Or so a report released last month seems to indicate. ... On February 14th, a letter from U.S. Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, named Daniel P. Love and questions an investigation that points to the deletion of hundreds of documents the day before a...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is weighing the appeal of President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, is the federal appeals court conservatives have long ridiculed as the "nutty 9th" or the "9th Circus." Covering a huge swath of territory — nine western states plus Guam — the San Francisco-based court handles far more cases than any other federal appeals court, including some rulings that have invoked furor from conservatives over the years. Among them: finding that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional, that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays...

Republican lawmakers in Idaho again are pushing legislation designed to prevent state courts or government agencies from making decisions based on Islamic religious law or other foreign legal codes. The bill was introduced Wednesday in a House committee a year after a similar proposal made it to the House floor but died. There are no known cases in which an Idaho judge has based a ruling on Shariah law. Fears over Islamic religious law and Muslim immigration have been growing in Idaho and reinforced inside the deeply conservative Statehouse with President Donald Trump’s order temporarily banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority...