Free Republic

A man who was stopped along a road on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation gunned down a family who tried to help him Wednesday, killing the couple and wounding their daughter. Tana Shane, 50, and her husband Jason, 52, who have seven children, were killed, and daughter, Jora, 24, was shot in the head and back, after they assisted 18-year-old suspect Jesus Deniz Mendoza in Pyror, Montana. Jorah survived and managed to run to a local school to get help before returning to the scene. She was then taken to hospital and is said to be 'incoherent'. Mrs Shane drove past...

Boise, Idaho. Did the citizens of Boise “provoke” Fazliddin Kurbanov? Did they draw cartoons of Muhammad? Did they “poke Muslims in the eye”? “Informant: Terrorism suspect named Boise as possible attack target,” by Katie Terhune, KTVB, July 27, 2015: BOISE –A confidential FBI source testified Monday that Boise may have been among the intended targets of terrorism suspect Fazliddin Kurbanov. The informant met Kurbanov in January 2013 at a truck-driving school in Salt Lake City, Utah. The suspect had gone there in hopes of getting a job, while the informant had been planted in the class by the FBI. The...

In Whitefish, Montana, the spectacular view from anywhere on Big Mountain up to its summit over 6,800 feet overlooks placid Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, and the Valley below, while its slopes have attracted skiers for decades. Near Glacier National Park, this hardly seems a place where a battle goes on over a statue called “Big Mountain Jesus.” The statue has stood on a tiny 25-foot-by-25-foot piece of leased land high up on the mountain for over 60 years as a memorial honoring soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division who lost their lives fighting...

In a way, Rachel Dolezal is a living embodiment of racial progress. In the 1961 book, Black Like Me, white journalist John Howard Griffin pretended to be black in order to show the indignities blacks endure. This year, we learned that Rachel Dolezal pretended to be black in order to obtain affirmative action benefits. Writer Dan Flynn, my predecessor at Accuracy in Academia, summarizes the Dolezal story nicely: “Before re-emerging as an Africana studies adjunct professor, NAACP chapter leader, Historically Black College graduate, and all-around Nubian princess, Dolezal grew up as a blue-eyed blonde on the mean streets of Troy,...

Attorneys general from thirteen states filed a lawsuit Monday challenging EPA's new rule defining the waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), asserting that the rule expands the scope of clean water regulations to lands that are dry much of the year and increases the federal government's authority over land use. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who joined in the lawsuit, noted that 35 states have filed comments in opposition to the rule and several other attorneys general are considering filing challenges. The EPA is overstepping...

I wonder what took them so long. Three business days after the Obergefell decision that recognized same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, Nathan Collier decided to demand that the Montana state government recognize that love is love … is love. And if they don’t issue a marriage license to formally recognize his plural arrangement, Collier says he intends to sue: A Montana man said Wednesday that he was inspired by last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage to apply for a marriage license so that he can legally wed his second wife.Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria...

HELENA, Mont. - A Montana man said Wednesday that he was inspired by last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage to apply for a marriage license so that he can legally wed his second wife. Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria and Christine applied at the Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings on Tuesday in an attempt to legitimize their polygamous marriage. Montana, like all 50 states, outlaws bigamy - holding multiple marriage licenses - but Collier said he plans to sue if the application is denied. "It's about marriage equality," Collier told The Associated Press Wednesday. "You can't...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man said Wednesday that he was inspired by last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage to apply for a marriage license so that he can legally wed his second wife. Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria and Christine applied at the Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings on Tuesday in an attempt to legitimize their polygamous marriage. Montana, like all 50 states, outlaws bigamy — holding multiple marriage licenses — but Collier said he plans to sue if the application is denied. “It’s about marriage equality,” Collier told The Associated Press Wednesday. “You...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)BILLINGS - Given the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, a Lockwood family is now looking to solidify rights of its own. We first told you about the Colliers in January of 2015 when the polygamist family appeared on an episode of the TLC show, "Sister Wives."The polyamorous movement is a national push to allow marriage between multiple partners. Nathan Collier and his two wives, Vicki and Christine, said Tuesday that they are simply looking for equality. Nathan is legally married to Vicki, but also wants to legally wed Christine. On Tuesday,...

I just love it when someone slips up, and tells us country folk what’s really being planned for us. Rural cleansing is the purposeful removal of rural citizens from the countryside and the relocation of rural populations into urban areas. Many public officials and media pundits scoff at the mere suggestion that rural cleansing is taking place, but the problem, you see, is that there are people who have inadvertently left tell-tale clues we can use to piece together things for ourselves. One of the most startling clues I’ve run across lately comes from a July 1, 1998 newspaper article...

A group of Saudi students caught in a cheating scandal at a Montana college were offered flights home by their kingdom's diplomats to avoid the possibility of deportation or arrest, according to a cache of Saudi Embassy memos recently published by WikiLeaks and a senior official at the school involved. The students were in a ring of roughly 30 alleged cheaters at Montana Tech accused of having systematically forged grades by giving presents to a college employee. The cheating was discovered — and the staffer was fired — following an investigation made public in early 2012, but the memos reveal...

Senate advocates for an overhaul of National Security Agency surveillance programs sound confident they have the votes to advance the USA Freedom Act. It’s just a matter of time. “I think we’ll get it passed on Sunday night,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told CNN Saturday, making a bullish prediction on the timing. “Now, by the rules of the Senate, with objections and so forth … the Patriot Act may very well expire Sunday night, but we’ve got to start moving forward here. We could have done this a week ago. And this is the nature of Washington, D.C., is always...

As a public service, we try to track the progress, or lack thereof, of the latest top-down education reform concocted by elites and insiders—Common Core. We are aided immeasurably by the Heartland Institute which publishes updates on Common Core’s setbacks and advances in School Reform News. In the May issue, we learn that: • The governor of Mississippi vetoed a commission on Common Core; • “Ohio may soon give certain school districts the option of creating their own exams;” and • Montana parents went to court to repeal Common Core. Meanwhile, parents fighting Common Core still face uphill struggles in...

A plan that will close nearly 2,000 miles of public roads that have previously been open for use by the people of Mesa County is creating a public backlash against the Grand Junction field office of the federal Bureau of Land Management. The BLM’s resource management plans (RMP) regulate the access and types of traffic allowed on roads on public lands. Road maintenance and seasonal closures are also detailed in such plans. But the most recent RMP in Mesa County indicates the BLM’s intent to limit access to public roads which have traditionally been open to motorized, horse, and foot...

In a new video released by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, tourists at Yellowstone National Park learned the hard way why you should never approach a black bear sow with her cubs. The video was shot Wednesday night on Highway 212, southeast of Gardiner. FWP Information Officer Vivaca Crowser was driving home with a colleague that night after a meeting in Yellowstone when she saw what's known in Montana as a "bear jam." Dozens of tourists were pulled off on the side of the road for a close-up look of the sow and her three cubs. "People were just trying...

Garfield County officials said Monday the Bureau of Land Management is considering even-stricter measures to protect greater sage-grouse than previously contemplated, rather than listening to concerns the county and others have raised. As a cooperating agency, the county got an advance look Friday at the revised proposal the agency is now considering. “It is very dramatic in terms of the changes (from a draft BLM proposal) that are being proposed,” Fred Jarman, the county’s community development director, told county commissioners Monday. Jarman and Garfield Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said the proposed measures are the result of directives coming from Washington, D.C....

A 23-year-old Montana man sought for theft and forgery was arrested after he “liked” his own online wanted poster on the Cascade County Crime Stoppers Facebook page. Levi Charles Reardon, who was featured on the page as an April “most wanted” suspect, was arrested Friday. He faces felony charges for allegedly forging checks in a case involving the theft of a wallet and personal checks.

U.S. crude oil production fell at least 135,000 barrels of oil per day in January 2015 compared to December 2014 according to the EIA (Figure 1). Bakken Shale production fell the most of any play or jurisdiction losing 37,000 barrels per day in North Dakota and 4,000 barrels per day in Montana for a total of 41,000 barrels of oil per day (Figure 2). Production in California, the offshore Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and Wyoming also declined significantly. Figure 3 shows Bakken production based on DrillingInfo data. The 42,000 barrels of oil per day drop in January production is completely...

A Montana judge who was censured by the state's high court for his comments about a 14-year-old rape victim has been chosen for a lifetime achievement award by his local bar association. Yellowstone Area Bar Association President Jessica Fehr said Thursday that former state District Judge G. Todd Baugh of Billings was chosen for the award by the group's board of directors. Baugh, 73, sparked widespread outrage in 2013 over comments suggesting that a 14-year-old girl shared some responsibility for her rape by a teacher. Baugh sentenced former teacher Stacey Rambold to just one month in prison in the case....

Parliamentary maneuvering and a strategic partnership between moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Montana State legislature have provided Democrats with de-facto control over the House of Representatives on two key issues this session. In a move reminiscent of the underhanded wrangling by national Democrats used to pass Obamacare in 2010, a handful “moderate” Republican legislators joined with Montana Democrats to bypass opposition by changing chamber rules to pass a state Medicaid expansion plan (SB 405) and the controversial CSKT Water Compact (SB 262). SB 405 passed the House earlier this month on a 54-42 vote. SB 262 passed 2nd reading...