Free Republic

Petition Endorsed This petition is the only official petition endorsed by the LaVoy Finicum family regarding the assassination investigation. Your email address and phone number will not be shared with the members of Congress who will receive this petition.......

In the face of an expected appeal, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones Wednesday modified his gag order against Oregon standoff defendant Shawna Cox, limiting the restrictions on her public speech. In his new order, Jones wrote that Cox should refrain from any conduct or speech that would incite others to trespass on or destroy federal government property, or incite unlawful violence. It marks a step back from his earlier March 29th much broader restriction tha she not make 'any public comment' about her case, co-defendants 'or any future protest movements.'..........

As Cleveland prepares to host the Republican National Convention this summer, it's bidding on millions of dollars of security equipment and tactical gear for its police.

(at:02) Gavin Seim: "you don't work for the people, you work for a corrections corporation..Voice: "There you go" Gavin Seim: "First of all I'm not threatening you at all I'm saying you guys are supporting. Voice: By God you did threaten me. Gavin Seim: treason. So don't play your games with me. It won't work. You're little cop bully tactics won't work. You guys need to have some honor and some principle. You need to realize you're working for evil people that are abusing people and you need to get a conscience. Now I know you're keeping me on the...

Peruvian natural resource managers have questions about how to protect their country’s forests, and they came to Summit County for answers. A U.S. Forest Service division called International Programs, which promotes sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation in foreign countries, brought top-level Peruvian officials for an educational tour that started Monday in Washington D.C. and ends Friday in Denver. ... In 2009, a U.S-Peru free trade agreement stipulated that Peru must curtail illegal logging, which undercuts the U.S. timber sector, and sustainably manage natural resources, said Erin Carey, who worked with the Forest Service International Programs for the last five...

Attorney Joel Hansen referred to Bundy as a "political prisoner" and said the government does not want to release him for fear it would lose if the case is ever heard before a jury. ... "The government seems to be afraid that it might lose in a jury trial, so it wants to keep him in prison, in solitary confinement, as long as it can because he, like Nelson Mandela, is a political prisoner," Hansen wrote. "There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution allowing the federal government to hold political prisoners without a trial. Nothing." ... Does Mr. Bundy have...

vlcsnap-2016-04-08-03h23m30s234It was utter chaos at Portland State University Thursday evening, as over 100 wackjob commie students crashed the forming meeting for Students For Trump. Fights nearly broke out, doxing and vandalism threats were issued to Trump supporters, Latino students were shoving the Trump students out of the way, another student encourages others to join anti capitalist groups, they shut down and silenced the pro Trump group, mocking their talking points, whined about TRUMP chalk on the sidewalk, and it ends with the socialist students gloating about shutting it down and promising to come back if Students For Trump holds another...

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is reportedly hoping the federal government — specifically resident Barack Obama’s administration — will grab a stretch of land in Southern Nevada near the infamous Bundy Ranch, now that many in the Bundy group are in federal custody. The reason that the resident hasn’t had an opportunity to look at that very closely is that is where the Bundy family raised the hell that they did. Now most of them are in jail so maybe we can move forward on that,” Reid said, according to a Nevada political observer, Jon Ralston. ... Nevada...

On Tuesday I published a short post about the key arguments of climate-change skeptics while also pointing out that some 98 percent of published scientists in the field believe human-caused climate change is indeed happening and must be addressed. For years the two sides have been talking - or yelling - past one another, which benefits none of us. As expected, the post brought forth a wave of comments from readers. Many lambasted me for providing a forum for the "lunatics" who deny human-caused climate change. Climate skeptics, on the other hand, chastised me for only presenting their more simplistic...

Beginning in 1478, the Spanish Inquisition systematically silenced any citizen who held views that did not align with the king’s. Using the powerful arm of the government, the grand inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada, and his henchmen sought out all those who held religious, scientific, or moral views that conflicted with the monarch’s, punishing the “heretics” with jail sentences, property confiscation, fines, and in severe cases, torture, and execution. One of the lasting results of the Spanish Inquisition was a stifling of speech, thought, and scientific debate throughout Spain. By treating one set of scientific views as absolute, infallible, and above...

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz promised Nevada voters he will transfer control of federally-held lands back to the states if he's elected. "If you trust me with your vote," Cruz says in a new ad revealed Thursday. "I will fight day and night to return full control of Nevada's lands to its rightful owners, its citizens." Cruz criticizes fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump for his reluctance to champion state control of federal land. The ad begins by lamenting the fact that the federal government currently controls 85 percent of the land in Nevada, including the Lake Mead National...

A Nevada judge has refused to let a nationally known conservative lawyer join Cliven Bundy’s defense team because of ongoing disciplinary proceedings against him in Washington, D.C. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro wrote in a three-page order that she didn't think Larry Klayman has been candid about the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings. Klayman disclosed in court documents that no disciplinary action had been taken and the proceedings would likely soon be resolved in his favor, which Navarro said was “misleading and incomplete.” Navarro ruled that Klayman can reapply to represent Bundy if he...

Unable to pass new gun-control bills this year, months after the state's deadliest shooting, Oregon Democrats are diving into campaign season with promises to try again in 2017. House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, wants to revive a measure that would limit default gun sales when background checks take longer than expected, after the bill earned tepid support and died in the Senate last month. Advisers for Gov. Kate Brown and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum huddled with advocates in separate meetings Thursday to hear about executive actions they might take without legislative approval. Brown, up for election this year, had...

Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing has been providing press conferences in the wake of the Oregon standoff and the murder of LaVoy Finicum. However, it has come to my attention that Mr. Bretzing has also been linked to the lead agent at Bundy Ranch, as well as wrongful deaths related to a 2009 Indian Artifact Investigation. The Los Angeles Times has the complete story of what took place in Utah during the artifact investigation. It's a horrible story of entrapment that led to several suicides, including Dr. James Redd and an undercover agent. ... the wrongful death suit that...

California and New York — where almost 1 in 5 Americans live — are on their way to raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the activists who spearheaded those efforts are now setting their sights on other similarly liberal, Democratic-led states. Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington are among the states with active “Fight for $15” efforts, and even economic experts who oppose the increased rate see it gaining momentum. “There is lots of pressure to do this,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who is now president of...

A federal judge Tuesday agreed to lift Shawna Cox's home detention and replace it with a curfew, but cautioned the 59-year-old defendant in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge not to make public comments about the pending case. "She's not going to make any public comment, at all, period, or she could sit in jail," U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones ordered. Cox has been out of custody since her Jan. 29 release and listened to Tuesday's hearing via speaker phone from her home in Kanab, Utah. The judge told Cox she must refrain from making any...

Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, sports a series of murals painted in its main entrance that feature communist and La Raza/Aztlan propaganda. Take a gander at these! Note the American flag with the hammer and sickle in place of the stars, the white arms in shackles with what appears to be Fidel Castro with the Cuban flag behind him, men with guns, an image of Che Guevara, dollar bills, and what appears to be missiles popping up from silos. Perhaps this is some kind of imagery of strong border control?

A group managed by the Portland Business Alliance plans to replace a controversial downtown billboard that critics argued stereotyped homeless people as drug addicts. The billboard, at Southwest Fourth and Morrison, shows a person holding a cardboard sign that reads "Your spare change funds my addictions." The sign was put up March 1 by Clean and Safe, the nonprofit overseen by the Portland Business Alliance. It is part of an ongoing campaign by the chamber of commerce to discourage people from giving to panhandlers, whose presence can hurt businesses when they set up outside their doors, the chamber said. The...

A federal judge in Portland ruled Tuesday that Ammon Bundy and four other men indicted in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon can be flown to Las Vegas to face criminal charges in the 2014 standoff near the Bundy ranch in Nevada. Attorneys for the five defendants told U.S. District Judge Anna Brown that they don't think federal prosecutors in Oregon and Nevada should pursue criminal charges at the same time. Splitting time between courtrooms and jail cells in Oregon and Nevada would severely compromise their ability to meaningfully communicate with their defense attorneys...

A Linn County man who farms near Albany could face big daily water-pollution fines from the federal Environmental Protection Agency because he has failed to remove or get permits for a massive rock and earthen dike he built along the North Santiam River. William Case, 77, could be fined $37,500 a day for violations to the federal Clean Water Act, according to a lawsuit the EPA filed last month in U.S. District Court in Eugene.