Free Republic

You may recall, Readers, that I penned a couple of pieces detailing the CKST (Confederated Kootenai & Salish Tribes) Water Compact last March in 2015. To refresh in brief, the Water Compact gives the Indian Tribes the water rights to all surface and subsurface water in almost all of Western Montana, to include Flathead Lake. The problem: these water rights are all off-reservation. That’s right. The Democratic-controlled State Senate, House of Representatives, and Governor of Montana voted this into law. Everyone is to receive a water meter on their well. All revenues will go to “the Tribes” as stipulated by...

First ladies generally are allowed considerable immunity from criticism, because they generally stick to feel-good issues, like literacy, roadside beautification, and other subjects most people can agree on. But not Michelle Obama, who has enjoyed some of the most unrealistic flattery in the history of first ladies, such as the concerted effort to convince the public she is a fashion icon.After becoming the national food and exercise scold, provoking vast waste and mass starvation as public school students discard the unappetizing and skimpy lunches she has forced on school cafeterias, she has now turned toward outright slander of those who...

The White House’s Clean Water Act requires property owners to surrender possession of land that falls under its jurisdiction. The law, which has frustrated landowners for 40 years, was expanded last year when the Obama administration issued new rules for which bodies of water can be claimed as government property. Hawkes Co., Inc. was one of the businesses affected by the White House’s environmental guidelines. The company, which provides peat for golf courses, was prevented from using property in Marshall County, Minnesota, because it had been deemed federally controlled wetlands by the United States Corps of Engineers. The Supreme Court took up...

A forestry company filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit against Greenpeace Tuesday for misrepresenting the company’s environmental record to raise funds and promote its agenda. Greenpeace knowingly and deliberately made false claims about the company while fundraising, and fabricated evidence of Resolute’s alleged environmental malfeasance, according to the forestry and paper company Resolute Forest Products. RICO is an anti-mafia law designed to combat organized crime. Greenpeace’ is a global fraud,” states the 124-page legal complaint. “For years, this international network of environmental groups collectively calling themselves ‘Greenpeace’ has fraudulently induced people throughout the United States and...

With a broad new class of workers becoming eligible for overtime, many small businesses are scrambling to figure out how to factor the regulations into their bottom line. The Obama administration on Wednesday announced the final details of new labor rules to increase the salary cutoff for overtime pay. Although the plan was outlined a year ago and employers have several months to comply, many say the change will be a challenge to small businesses that pride themselves on a scrappy, entrepreneurial culture. “We are pretty flexible,” said Kelli Glasser, who is president and chief executive of Exhibit Concepts, a...

The Lee Amendment to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation failed in the Senate yesterday because not enough Republicans backed it. The Amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-37. Jeremy Carl aptly describes this vote as a defeat for conservatism, community control, and common sense. It is a victory, as Carl says, for turning the federal government into a National Zoning board, forcing high density housing on unwilling cities and towns, and letting bureaucrats decide the racial, ethnic and income balance of local communities.

One of the main reasons why America was so attractive to hard-working people used to be that if you were successful, you could enjoy your rewards and use your property as you thought best. Sadly, that is less and less true. One immigrant who can testify to that is Hinga Mbogo, who is about to be forced to close his auto repair business in Dallas. He came to the United States from Kenya in 1974 with some skill in repairing machinery and found a job working as an airplane mechanic. By 1985, he had accumulated the capital necessary to open...

$16 million in fines dropped, threats canceled. A Wyoming rancher threatened by the Environmental Agency with $16 million fines for getting a state permit and building a stock pond on his ranch has reached a settlement that will have the fines go away and he’ll keep his stock pond. WND reported in 2015 on a lawsuit filed on behalf of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, rancher Andy Johnson by officialsl with the Pacific Legal Foundation seeking to vindicate his property rights. The lawsuit explained federal law clearly exempts stock ponds from the rules of the EPA, which had filed a compliance order...

In 2005, the Fort Trumbull area of New London Connecticut was a growing middle class neighborhood. The people there were hard working and spent much of their lives building their homes and living out prosperous lives. That came to an end in 2000 when Liberal Fascist Democrats in City hall and in the state capitol of Hartford made a deal with Pfizer corporation to allow them to build a research laboratory and upscale housing in Fort Trumbull. According to estimates by the same lying fascists, over 5000 new jobs would be created. Connecticut was one of the states hardest hit...

<p>Billionaires George Soros and Michael Dell have been dragged into a nasty lawsuit against former NBA great Magic Johnson over his prepaid credit card, the Magic Card.</p> <p>The moguls are principals of OneWest Bank, which entrepreneur Reed Wallace is accusing, along with the former NBA great Johnson, of stealing his concept for a Magic-backed credit card.</p>

A shocking new survey has found that support for capitalism is dying in America. In fact, more than half of all adults in the United States under the age of 30 say that they do not support capitalism at this point. You might be tempted to dismiss them as “foolish young people”, but the truth is that they are the future of America. As older generations die off, they will eventually become the leaders of this country. And of course our nation has not resembled anything close to a capitalist society for quite some time now. In a recent article,...

Bowie Resources Partners’ purchase of Peabody Energy Corp.‘s Twentymile Mine in Routt County has fallen through, and Peabody has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Peabody, the world’s largest privately owned producer of coal, joins other major coal companies including Arch Coal, owner of the West Elk Mine in the North Fork Valley, in going bankrupt. Arch Coal also is in Chapter 11 reorganization. Bowie, owner of the Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia, had agreed to buy Twentymile and two mine properties in New Mexico for $358 million. But Peabody previously had said Bowie was still trying to find...

BREWER, Maine — When Ken and Jo-Ann Arbo moved into their home in Eddington 22 years ago, they thought they found the perfect place to live.“I hunt right there. I fish out there. I snowmobile out there,” Ken Arbo said of the woods and fields near the couple’s home. “That is why we moved out there.”Now the Arbos face the real possibility of moving again.Their Lambert Road home is within the path of the controversial I-395/Route 9 connector, a proposed two-lane road from Brewer to Eddington meant to ease heavy truck traffic and improve safety on nearby routes 46 and...

Recent economic reports, including some by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), have delved into the devastating damages done to the American economy because of our sky-rocketing trade deficit. It’s no secret that the U.S. trade deficit is high. After all, our trade deficit is responsible for the transfer of over $1 billion a day to foreign countries. The EPI report took it a step further and claimed that our trade deficit increased our budget deficit by between $78.8 billion and $165.8 billion in 2012. Our trade deficit warrants attention because it is a devastating problem that is hurting not only...

The Republican chairman of a congressional panel investigating a 3-million-gallon spill of toxic wastewater from an inactive Colorado gold mine said Tuesday the mine was purposely breached by a government cleanup team. The assertion by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop of Utah contradicts claims by the Obama administration that the cleanup team was doing only preparatory work at the Gold King mine. Once it was breached, wastewater loaded with lead, arsenic and other contaminants fouled downstream rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Bishop cited an email in which an Interior Department official said the spill last August...

The North Fork Valley is now down to one operating coal mine after Friday’s announcement that the Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia is being idled. Kentucky-based Bowie Resource Partners said in a news release that the action is occurring “as a result of continued market deterioration.” “The mine will remain idle while the market for Bowie No. 2 coal is evaluated,” the company said. The mine employs 108 full-time employees and one contractor. Bowie said it expects that 68 positions will be eliminated ... Just a few years ago, Bowie No. 2 employed more than 300 miners ... Another...

After Saturday's very important South Carolina Republican Primary, the presidential nomination process kicks into a whole new gear.Three days later, on Tuesday, Republicans in Nevada will gather for their caucus. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) isn't waiting for Saturday night's results from the Palmetto State to launch his efforts in the Silver State. He unveiled his first Nevada-specific ad on Thursday afternoon.The 30-second spot, titled "Nevada Land," continues the Cruz campaign's attacks on Republican front-runner Donald Trump over the issue of eminent domain and federal ownership of land. It features Cruz speaking directly to the voters:"Eighty five percent of Nevada is owned...

Obama on federal coal mining is a throwback to Carter administration failings. resident Obama's plot to use the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to kill federal coal mining with a thousand paper cuts is not the first time he has used NEPA to try to end energy development. Disturbingly, his scheme is a throwback to President Carter and a decade-long moratorium that ended only when President Reagan took office. Meanwhile millions of Americans, vast regions and the nation's economy will suffer. In 2009, the Obama administration settled a "sweetheart lawsuit" by environmental groups by agreeing to a NEPA study on...

California, Oregon and the federal government are working on a way around congressional barriers to the removal of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. The states, the U.S. Interior Department and the owner of the dams, PacifiCorp, announced Tuesday that they have agreed in principle to pursue removal through the federal dam relicensing process. The move comes after a complex deal to decommission four hydroelectric dams and restore portions of the historic salmon river fell apart when Congress failed to act on a crucial piece of the pact by a Dec. 31 deadline. Republican members of Congress and local elected...

Fact Finding Mission to Harney County Legislators and grassroots leaders from the Coalition of Western States (C.O.W.S.) traveled to Harney County Oregon last week, and met with the Harney County Under Sheriff, the County Judge, District Attorney, and a representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, at the Courthouse in Burns and later protest leaders at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, regarding the ongoing standoff and the continuing complaints about Bureau of Land Management’s treatment of local ranchers. During the visit members of the Coalition asked and were assured several times by officials that no violent action was intended against...