Free Republic

A federal judge handed a landmark victory to Kane County and the state of Utah on Wednesday in a years-long dispute with the federal government over whether some rural routes should remain in use as roads, or if they should be closed to the public. In two decisions, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups found he had jurisdiction to hear Kane County's claim, gave parameters for "reasonable" right-of-way widths on some routes and determined that 12 of 15 routes in dispute were roads and therefore accessible by the public. The distinction hinged on an 1866 law through which Congress sought to...

(CNSNews.com) – At a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation on Thursday, ranchers from Western states testified that they are routinely threatened and bullied by federal land management officials, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife. “I sit before you today to let you know what’s going on up there, and I hope that we can come to some kind of agreement on what needs to be done and move forward on it, because enough is enough when it comes to bullying people that have been on this land for...

Despite an eleventh hour interjection from the U.S. Forest Service, the Ouray County Commissioners made history this week, unanimously voting to adopt a new county road map that brings it into the 21st century. The last time an official county road map was prepared in Ouray County was in 1961. Proposed revisions to this 1961 iteration of the map took place over the past five years, first through the work of the collaborative, multi-jurisdictional Public Access Group and later through two years of intensive work by Ouray County IT/GIS Manager Jeff Bockes, who integrated modern computerized mapping techniques (including GoogleEarth)...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —In recent years, gun sales have gone through the roof out of fear gun laws would drastically change, but they didn’t.

BATTLE MOUNTAIN — Once again ranchers who run cattle on the Argenta Allotment in Lander County were told Wednesday that due to drought a number of areas would be closed to livestock. Pete and Lynn Tomera were told by the Bureau of Land Management they had a week to remove cattle from nine segments of the allotment ... We have 7 days to ride the entire mountain and have the cattle off. We are right in the middle of haying and are forced to drop everything and begin gathering cattle,” the Tomeras wrote. “We are forced to put the cattle...

The couple had been on the road for 18 days since leaving El Salvador, but when they heard the news about presidential prospect Perry's move to send 1,000 National Guard reservists to the already tightly guarded border, they decided to ditch their plan to cross at Eagle Pass, Texas, and take an even longer route. "A friend told me he crossed in New Mexico. Nobody goes there. It's very far, very high and you have to walk about three days through the desert," said Edwin, 36, who lived for years in Dallas and has done this all before.

A new study shows the lesser prairie chicken population has exploded by 20 percent prompting concern by western lawmakers that the Obama administration acted hastily when it listed the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The aerial survey conducted last month by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies showed the grouse species numbers jumped from 18,747 to 22,415. That study plus the Agriculture Department’s tardiness in reporting conservation efforts to Congress as required by law prompted a letter from lawmakers including Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton demanding the report. “We request that your department provide this...

White House Reports Drop in Minors Crossing Border Associated Press and ABC News WASHINGTON — Jul 21, 2014, 9:02 PM ET The White House says the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is dropping significantly. White House press secretary Josh Earnest says about 150 children daily — on average — were apprehended along the Rio Grande border in the first two weeks of July. He says that's down from an average of 355 per day in June ...

This is a chilling interview with Retired Border Patrol Officer Zach Taylor about the surge of illegals coming across the U.S. border right now. If you haven't watched the interview, read this transcript: My name is Zach Taylor. I'm a retired Border Patrol officer. My main job was understanding and having intelligence capabilities about drug smuggling across the U.S. border and human smuggling across the U.S. border to bring contraband and people into the United States. That's what I did for twenty-six years. National security is a component of the immigration laws and the reason that immigration officers exist. Because...

The battle over where New Mexico’s electricity will come from after Public Service Company of New Mexico shuts down half of the coal-fired units at San Juan Generating Station near Farmington is growing. Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates adamantly oppose a PNM proposal to increase its share of coal-generated electricity from San Juan by 132 megawatts after some of the plant’s other co-owners abandon it. They fear PNM is committing New Mexico consumers to another two decades of coal-fired electricity despite rising costs from federal environmental regulations, while squandering an opportunity to double down on renewable energy for the future....

White House reportedly dismissed border crisis as 'local problem' in 2013 Published July 20, 2014 FoxNews.com The Obama administration ignored a report to the Department of Homeland Security last year which predicted that a large number of unaccompanied children would arrive at America's southern border in the coming months, according to a published report.  The Washington Post reported Saturday that a team of experts from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) submitted the 41-page report in August of 2013 after discovering a makeshift transportation depot manned by Border Patrol agents at the Fort Brown station in Brownsville, Texas....

Here are a couple of links to talks with Zack Taylor, the Chairman National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers and former Arizona Border Patrol Officer. The second video has some graphic content, but is still very much worth seeing. He brings up a very good point that the border agents are being pulled off the border to deal with these "kids." It isn't necessarily these people that are the problem, but the ones who now have unrestricted access coming through other areas and are not being caught. Zack Interview-Security on the border between USA and MexicoTREASON! Ret Border Patrol...

Human smugglers in Mexico routinely give young illegal immigrant girls birth control for their trip through Mexico. The odds are they will be raped.

Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze said that increased drilling and a shortage of staff are behind his agency’s request for a fee system to increase the agency’s inspection capacity. ... BLM is focused on a range of inspections, including drilling and production inspections. ... Irregular and declining budgets have hindered our ability to move out aggressively in this area. Through the President’s 2015 budget proposal, we are now seeking to fund inspections through a fee system that will allow us to be much more responsive to the needs of industry and, importantly, to meet the foundational safety and...

Albuquerque police’s new chief says the latest officer involved shooting that killed a homeless man in the foothills is justified. But new video police released Friday is raising a lot of questions about how it all played out. The release came Friday as APD’s first press conference since the shooting. http://krqe.com/2014/03/21/apd-officer-involved-shooting-was-justified/ Read more at

Mesa County Commissioners approved a resolution on Monday to oppose the nationwide Clean Water Act, commonly referred to as Waters of the U.S. ... The proposed nationwide rule would expand the jurisdiction of what waters would be regulated by the federal government. This expansion would include dry washes, roadside ditches, and drainage ditches throughout Mesa County. ... the board of commissioners also expressed their concern since they see no apparent public benefit from the proposed rule

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will visit a temporary immigration detention center in southeastern New Mexico on Friday and meet with officials in Texas about the ongoing humanitarian immigrant crisis, the department said Thursday. During his visit, officials said Johnson will tour the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, then meet with officials in Weslaco, about the surge of Central American immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. Last month, the Obama administration announced plans to convert the Artesia facility into one of several temporary sites being established to deal with the influx of women and...

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment laboratory yesterday [8 Jul 2014] identified pneumonic plague in a Colorado resident. Investigation revealed the family dog had recently died unexpectedly. The carcass was recovered and tested at the Colorado State University Veterinarian Diagnostic Laboratory, where tests were positive for plague. ... Even though it doesn't kill people in large numbers like it once did, it is a serious disease ... There are 3 types of plague; all can be potentially deadly, if not treated. The 1st is bubonic, which causes lymph nodes to swell. There is also septicemic, which comes about...

Whether measured by the number of criminal cases filed by U.S. attorneys or the number of guilty verdicts they ultimately secured in cases in U.S. district courts, 40 percent of the federal crimes documented by the Justice Department in fiscal 2013 took place in the five U.S. court districts (out of the total of 94 U.S. court districts) that sit on the U.S.-Mexico border. These five U.S. court districts contiguous with the Mexican border were also the five where the largest numbers of individuals were convicted of federal crimes in fiscal 2013. In the Western Texas district alone--which saw more...

Police: Inmate hid in laundry basket to escape ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities say a New Mexico inmate has been captured after he escaped from jail by hiding in a laundry basket. Officials say 28-year-old Kevin Matthew Perkins packed himself in the basket on Monday to get away from the Metropolitan Detention Center. Authorities say the laundry basket was headed to another facility. When an officer opened a truck door, officials say Perkins jumped out of the basket and ran. Albuquerque police later received a breaking and entering call at an assisted living complex. That's where they found broken glass from...