Free Republic

Updated 6:37 p.m. | Sen. Ted Cruz gathered a group of House conservatives in his office Tuesday night, talking about immigration and House GOP leadership elections slated for after the midterm elections. As CQ Roll Call first reported last October, Cruz held a secret meeting with members at Tortilla Coast during the height of the government shutdown drama. Many of these same Republicans are the agitators who aren’t happy with Speaker John A. Boehner. The Texas Republican gathered roughly 10 members of the GOP Conference at 8 p.m. Tuesday for a 90-minute session that included candy bars, crackers and soda....

Frustrated with President Barack Obama’s reaction to Russian action in Ukraine, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation outlining a more muscular response. “What we’ve seen from the administration is a lot of rhetoric,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. The White House has been dealing “with the situation after something bad has already occurred,” he said. Earlier this week, violence flared up in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police...

Governor Brewer has been considered a friend of second amendment supporters.   When she was under threat of reelection, she signed constitutional carry into law.  Under her watch, Arizona has taken the lead as the most advanced state in the union when scored on restoring second amendment rights. Other states are striving to catch up.  Kansas passed a bill to make sure that public buildings would only ban people carrying guns if they effectively did so for legally armed citizens and criminals alike.  Indiana passed a law ending their "roaming school zones", where legally armed citizens could be turned into...

A new report analyzing the financial ramifications of a takeover of some of Nevada’s millions of acres of federal lands suggests the state would benefit from such a transfer. A transfer of 4 million acres of U.S. Bureau Land Management land could bring in anywhere from $31 million to $114 million a year, based on a review of four Western states that have significant amounts of trust lands under their control, the report says.

MOSCOW, Idaho--One local man said he dedicates his free time to collecting copies of the movie Speed. Ryan Beitz, of Moscow, wants to be the sole owner of every VHS copy of the 1994 thriller starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. “One time I bought 30 copies from a store,” said Beitz. What started as a joke, when Beitz bought six copies from a pawnshop seven years ago, turned into a campaign. “We're running a Kick-Starter to get the van fixed up and painted like the bus from the movie Speed. It's so we can travel the country, come to...

The 60 Plus Association today released TV and radio advertisements in seven states targeting Senate Banking Committee Members who are sponsoring recently introduced legislation that will allow the government to take over the mortgage industry in an action 'disturbingly similar' to Obamacare. 60 Plus targeted three Democrat and four Republican U.S. Senators supporting this government take-over, including Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Jerry Moran (R-KS).

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...

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...

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.

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.,...

You should be able to drive across the Northwestern part of the United States a little more quickly in the coming months. Idaho and Wyoming have just passed laws to raise some interstate speed limits to 80 miles per hour. The Idaho law goes into effect on July 1, but there could be a delay because the Idaho Transportation Department is still conducting safety surveys to decide where to raise limits. It might be late summer before drivers actually see a change. According to a report from local television news station KMVT, the department actually opposed the bill, but it...

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...

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,...

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).

The poll is at the top of the page.

When he was still a member of the U.S. House, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., spent years forcing his colleagues to vote on dozens and dozens of amendments stripping earmarks -- that is, special funding provisions for individual projects -- out of appropriations bills. He nearly always failed. It was a long, lonely fight that infuriated many of his colleagues, but Flake eventually won. His crusade shamed the Republican leadership into banning earmarks in 2011, after they took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. That ban remains in place today. It all seems like a distant memory now. But the...

Former U.S. Rep. Richard Stallings will once again seek Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District seat. Stallings held the post for four terms as a Democrat from 1984 to 1992. Following that, he ran for U.S. Senate but lost against Republican Dirk Kempthorne, a two-term mayor from Boise. Stallings is the only Democrat to file for the second congressional race. He will face either GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson or first-time runner Bryan Smith in the November general election, depending on the outcome of May’s GOP primary. Stallings said his experience working on both sides of the aisle will be appeal...

BOISE -- A controversial bill to allow guns on Idaho college campuses has been signed into law by Gov. Butch Otter. The legislation allows a limited group of people to carry concealed weapons on college and university campuses. Supporters say the bill protects people's Second Amendment rights. In his approval letter, Otter stated that he has a sworn responsibility to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, and this legislation fulfills that charge. He vowed to carefully monitor the situation to alleviate any safety concerns. Senate Bill 1254 garnered a lot of opposition from college professors, university administrators and students. Multiple...

BOISE, Idaho — TO the chief counsel of the Idaho State Legislature: In light of the bill permitting guns on our state’s college and university campuses, which is likely to be approved by the state House of Representatives in the coming days, I have a matter of practical concern that I hope you can help with: When may I shoot a student? I am a biology professor, not a lawyer, and I had never considered bringing a gun to work until now. But since many of my students are likely to be armed, I thought it would be a good...