Free Republic

A key Senate committee is vowing to press forward with its investigation targeting former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, despite logistical challenges posed by the global coronavirus pandemic. The probe, which Democrats vigorously oppose, has fueled tension among the Senate’s ranks, even breaking out into a rare and previously unreported verbal altercation between senators during a classified briefing. **SNIP** Democrats have said the investigation targeting Hunter Biden threatens the integrity of the 2020 election and undermines U.S. national security, saying it could aid Russian intelligence. The briefing also featured several back-and-forth interactions between senators, which is highly unusual for...

A video from a reporter in Montana has gone viral after the reporter spots a herd of bison coming toward him while setting up for his shot. “Three, two, oh my god. I ain’t messing with you. Oh no. I’m not messing with you,” Deion Broxton says. Deion Broxton KTVM ✔ @DeionNBCMT There was a herd of bison walking right toward me at @YellowstoneNPS today! Embedded video 364K 1:25 PM - Mar 25, 2020 Broxton was doing a story at Yellowstone Park when he spotted the bison. He then packed up and got out of there. Then once he was...

The Washington Post and Vox are two left-wing media outlets that published stories this week claiming that a Montana-based NIH scientist is appealing to the Trump administration to end its ban on federal funds for research that uses fetal tissue from the body parts of aborted babies so he can develop a treatment for the infection caused by the coronavirus.

The story of the coronavirus ahead but first.... The Pentagon says that two aircraft carrier battle groups will be in the Persian Gulf region to counter the threat to US forces in Iraq...... Iran rejecting the United States assertion of Iranian involvement in the attack on a US base in Iraq this week that killed two Americans and a Briton... The US announced air strikes yesterday on targets related to an Iraqi militia group with ties to Iran.... The US airstrikes condemned by the Iraqi military..... Russia's Reconciliation Center in Syria says that in the 24 hours ending Friday there...

Montana Governor Steve Bullock is making plans to run for U.S. Senator

by Lynn Foster So much for being judged "by the content of one's character." The University of Montana has very few black students. Which is understandable, because the state of Montana has very few black people. This demographic profile created some issues, however, when the school sponsored a Martin Luther King Jr. Day essay contest and four white students were announced as the winners. Students and other observers (most of them white themselves) got very upset. "Jesus Christ this is shameful and embarrassing, and I say that as a pasty ass white girl," wrote Nika Martignoni on a Facebook post...

After four white students won the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day essay contest at the University of Montana, a flood of outrage poured resulted, condemning school officials as racist. No pleasing social justice warriors It was found this had much more to do with Montana’s demographics than racial “elitism.” “The University of Montana has very few black students, which is understandable, because the state of Montana has very few black people,” TheBlaze reported. “The fact that white students were the only winners wasn't due to racism by the judges, though. It turns out, no black students entered the contest at...

A Billings Republican legislator said Saturday he believes the U.S. Constitution calls for the shooting or jailing of those who identify as socialists. State Rep. Rodney Garcia, from House District 52 on the South Side, first made a statement in the form of an unprompted question at a state party gathering in Helena Friday meant to kick off election season and offer training for party members and candidates. In his question after a speech by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who was Montana’s representative in the U.S. House for two years, Garcia said he was concerned about socialists...

An Idaho state legislator plans to introduce a bill that would require biologically male athletes to compete on boys sports teams, regardless of whether they identify as a transgender girl or not. Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt is the latest Republican lawmaker across the country to introduce legislation ensuring girls aren’t forced to compete against biologically male athletes. The wave of proposed legislation comes as biological males have piled up victories in female athletics. “Boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it’s not fair. We cannot physically compete against...

The Supreme Court returned Monday for oral arguments after a lengthy holiday break. During the court’s January sitting, the justices will hear arguments in eight cases, including ones dealing with school choice and the “Bridgegate” scandal. The justices already have heard arguments in cases involving the Second Amendment, Obamacare, and whether federal law covers claims of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Later in the term, the court will take up cases involving the president’s ability to fire the head of an “independent” agency, regulation of abortion providers, and the dispute over a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s...

They use it to call it "voting with their feet" or something like that.  Indeed, people are voting with their feet by trading in their old blue shoes for shining red shoes. This is from Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas: According to an Election Data Services analysis of the Census Bureau report, "The population projections point toward a ten [congressional] seat change over 17 states across the nation by year 2020." Seven states are projected to gain one or more congressional seats after the 2020 election; 10 states are projected lose one...

Officials have begun the process of changing out signs in Glacier National Park in Montana declaring that the glacier would be gone by 2020. Gina Kurzmen, a spokeswoman for the park, said the signs were added more than 10 years ago to reflect the effects of climate change forecasts at the time. They change will more accurately reflect the fate of the glaciers now, she added. The new signs will reportedly read, “When they will completely disappear depends on how and when we act. One thing is consistent: the glaciers in the park are shrinking.” Kurzman said park officials were...

Roughly a dozen GOP senators want to change the Senate’s rules and allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the resolution on Monday, arguing the Senate's impeachment rules do not envision a scenario where the House would delay transmitting articles against a president, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has done. "The Constitution gives the Senate sole power to adjudicate articles of impeachment, not the House. If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress...

The rate of farmer suicide has been on the rise across the United States and Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) recently introduced the Seeding Rural Resilience Act to curb it. The senators want to spread awareness about mental health on the farm. “Our bipartisan bill would empower people who are in a position to identify farmers who need help to get them help,” said Grassley in an op-ed on his website on Dec. 26. The Iowa lawmaker said farming is full of uncertainties as it is at the “mercy of Mother Nature” and leads to sleepless nights...

William Ebeltoft shipped off to Vietnam a state championship-winning trap shooter, a quick-witted lover of parties and Schlitz beer, and able to relate as readily to gruff ranchers as he did to teens who watched him work on his motorcycle and clean his shotguns. He came home a different man. Every so often, a newspaper publishes an obituary that will break your heart. One of those ran this week, in Dickinson, N.D. (pop. 22,000) William Ebeltoft, 73, was a war hero who "died 50 years after he lost, in Vietnam, all that underpinned his life."https://t.co/44JljzDSaG — Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) December...

Democratic senators are using derogatory statements from a Montana Justice Department official to justify their opposition to Lawrence VanDyke, President Trump’s nominee for the Ninth Circuit, without disclosing that the official has donated nearly $30,000 to Democrats running for federal office nor the background that he and VanDyke are longtime political foes. Michael Black, who served as the chief of the Civil Services Bureau of the Montana Department of Justice when VanDyke (pictured) was the state solicitor general, has made no secret of his personal and professional disdain for VanDyke. (snip) Earlier this week, conservative judicial advocacy groups revealed that...

The first day of fall may have just been on Monday, but winter is already well on its way to parts of the northern Rockies, where a potentially "historic" winter storm is setting up for this weekend. The National Weather Service's prediction center said an upper low-pressure system dropping into the Pacific Northwest late Friday is forecast to bring what's expected to become a "significant and possibly historic" early-season snowstorm across portions of the northern Rockies. "Snow, lots of it across the northern Rockies and the northern Plains, it's coming," Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said on "Fox &...

n a major win for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court issued an order late Wednesday ending all injunctions that had blocked the White House's ban on asylum for anyone trying to enter the U.S. by traveling through a third country, such as Mexico, without seeking protection there. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals – long a liberal bastion that has been aggressively reshaped into a more moderate court by the Trump administration – handed the White House a partial victory in the case on Monday by ending the nationwide injunction. But the 9th Circuit kept the injunction alive within...

A Missoula-based in-home health care company has been chosen to administer $500 million in spending by the state of Washington for overseeing providers of in-home personal care and respite. Consumer Direct Care Network was chosen last week by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services for the contract. “We deal in Medicaid-based home care, and how this works is essentially we are one of two awarded,” explained Ben Bledsoe, the president and CEO of Consumer Direct Care Network. “It’s a big deal for us. It puts us in a new category.” The company employs about 325 people in...

SoClean, an international medical supply company, is opening its second North American location in Kalispell in October and eventually anticipates having a workforce of “upwards of 250 or more employees.” Operations in the new Kalispell facility will include “in-bound sales, customer service, information technology support, marketing, programming, different executive levels…and human resources,” according to SoClean Chief Executive Officer Bob Wilkins. “It’s the whole gamut of how you’d see a company run. “We’re coming here because both [Chief Information Officer] Keith Brown and I have experience with building companies here in the valley,” Wilkins said. The head of the Peterborough, New...