Free Republic

Despite years of acrimonious delay, the Keystone XL pipeline project is increasingly likely to receive the green light from the U.S. government sometime this year. ... In the end, intense pressure from constituencies close to the Obama Administration will force the President to align himself with the project. Here are the top five reasons why the government will finally be compelled to take action on this hot-button issue and why it will probably happen sooner rather than later. 1) The U.S. Midterm elections - Nothing changes policy faster than an election and this year it looks like several members of...

A state lawmaker from Perkins County (South Dakota) wants to require that first- and second-grade students show they are proficient at reading before they can advance to the next grade. “I brought the bill at the request of my school board in Eagle Butte,” Rep. Betty Olson, R-Prairie City, said. The House Education Committee hasn’t scheduled a hearing yet for HB 1067. The bill doesn’t name a specific assessment or test that should be used. “They’ll have to figure that out,” Olson said.

Among Washington's most important but rarely covered realities is the daily close coordination among Democratic politicians, executive branch bureaucrats and the left side of the non-profit activism community. Emails obtained recently through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute exposed a slice of that coordination in the campaign to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The emails show, according to Fox News correspondent John Roberts, "senior policy officials at the EPA working closely with environmental groups in what appears to be an effort to kill the pipeline."...

Inquiring minds are digging into a George Washington University paper on State Fiscal Conditions, a ranking of 50 states, by Sarah Arnett. PolicyMic Produced this Chart of State Fiscal Conditions based on the working paper. Highlights and Lowlights Let's return to the original working paper for some highlights and lowlights. At the bottom of the rankings are New Jersey and Illinois. New Jersey faces long-run solvency problems due in part to nearly 15 years of underfunding its state and local pensions. It has an estimated unfunded pension liability of around $25.6 billion as well as $59.3 billion in unfunded liabilities...

The facts 1. There are 21 US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2014 election. 2. There are nine US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2016 election. This is likely to be 10 due to a special election in HI in 2014. 3. Republicans need to pick up six senate seats to have a majority. The Analysis The failures of ObamaCare and broken promises by Democrat senators create a target rich environment in 2014. This is a year Republicans have to do well. Winning a majority in the senate by only one seat or maintaining the status...

Where crude oil is concerned, Canada waits for no country. It doesn’t matter how wealthy or how friendly that country is -- or whether that country is the United States. With the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline stuck in limbo on the U.S. side, Canada’s Energy Board recently gave a thumbs up to a $6.5 billion pipeline designed to carry 525,000 barrels of oil per day from the oil sands of Alberta to ships on the British Columbia coast. The final destination is most likely Asia. The development has the U.S. oil industry attacking the Obama administration over its drawn-out process....

It doesn't take long to see that South Dakota is gun country. Rifles rest on racks in pick-ups; hunters fire at everything from ducks to deer to mountain lions; and state lawmakers last year allowed school districts to arm teachers. It's a state that understands firearms and their place in civilization. The state is a natural leader when it comes to making guns and ammunition. Toss in a low tax rate and an overall favorable economy, and state development officials are eager to expand South Dakota's firearm employment base. "The industry fits South Dakota, and South Dakota fits the industry,"...

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said he thinks President Obama will approve the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. In the wake of multiple crude-by-rail train accidents in North Dakota -- leaving railcars ablaze and nearby residents at risk --Hoeven said on "Platts Energy Week" that the U.S. needs more pipelines. The U.S. needs pipelines "not only to improve conditions in terms of rail, but trucks," Hoeven said on Sunday. "With the Keystone pipeline, we'd take 500 trucks a day off our roads in western North Dakota." "So clearly pipelines are a part of the solution. But also we have to do everything...

A Roanoke Rapids man with a history of violence recently released from prison has been shot while robbing a local business and is in critical condition. Halifax County Sheriff Wes Tripp said deputies responded to a business in the Roanoke Rapids area around 11:40 p.m. Friday in reference to a shooting. Upon arrival, Tripp said, deputies found Cul Priest Jones, 40, lying in the parking lot suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Tripp said the business owner, who also resides at the business, was awakened during the night and when he went to investigate, found the suspect behind the cash register...

Dr. Annette Bosworth on the Issues "My agenda is straightforward. I pledge to represent South Dakota with Conservative values. Here is my contract with you the voters." --Dr. Annette Bosworth Annette’s 10 Point Pledge 1. Repeal Obamacare and replace it with a patient-centric, market based healthcare system that we can afford. Obamacare is a disaster. We need to replace it with a system that does not add to the deficit, fixes Medicare and Medicaid, promotes tax cuts that expand private insurance coverage, and protects the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship. 2. Stop out of control spending: cut, cap, and balance...

President Obama endured a terrible 2013, raising GOP hopes of a Senate takeover in next year’s midterm elections that would turn him into an early lame duck. The GOP needs to win six seats in the upper chamber to take a 51-49 edge, something clearly obtainable with Democrats defending difficult seats in South Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana and North Carolina. With the Senate and House in GOP hands, Obama would have little if any hope of moving his legislative agenda, and would be left to play defense against a GOP Congress in his final two years in...

Past experience in Idaho, northeastern Oregon and Washington state illustrate that it's time to take gray wolves completely off the federal list of endangered species. The West’s wolf problem started in 1995 and 1996. That’s when 66 wolves from Canada were reintroduced in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. Those wolves multiplied and spread into Wyoming, Utah and Oregon. They also took up residence in Washington state and Montana, where other wolves from Canada already lived. Today at least 1,674 wolves live in 321 packs within the region, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s in addition to the...

If he runs at all, former Sen. Larry Pressler’s, R-S.D., bid for Senate as an independent won’t look like your traditional campaign.He said his campaign is running on an “idealistic concept” in a Wednesday phone interview with CQ Roll Call. Pressler, 71, referred to a famous line by William F. Buckley about his third-party bid for New York mayor in 1965.“If I win, I might demand a recount,” Pressler told CQ Roll Call.Pressler wasn’t even his own first choice to run, but everyone he’s spoken with about it has declined to step forward. Asked if he would be hiring a...

WILLISTON, N.D. – The entire U.S. Williston Basin produced more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in September, driven by another record month of North Dakota oil production. North Dakota produced 931,940 barrels per day, a 2 percent increase over August, according to preliminary numbers released Friday by the Department of Mineral Resources. The U.S. Williston Basin also includes portions of South Dakota, which produced 5,017 barrels per day in September, and Montana, which produced 75,460 barrels per day in August. ... Bakken oil production in North Dakota and Montana is projected to top 1 million barrels of...

Nashville, TN – Today, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham introduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The legislation currently has 33 cosponsors – but Senator Alexander is not one of them. Conservative Senate candidate Joe Carr called on Senator Alexander to change his stance and add himself as a co-sponsor. “I’m strongly pro-life and believe it’s imperative the Senate pass this important piece of legislation. When Senator Graham announced his co-sponsors and Senator Alexander’s name was missing, I was disappointed. I am hoping Senator Alexander will change his stance and add himself as a co-sponsor. This legislation is too...

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander (R) Montana Senator Max Baucus (D) Alaska Senator Mark Begich (D) Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran (R) Maine Senator Susan Collins (R) Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) Massachusetts Senator William "Mo" Cowan (D) Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R) Minnesota Senator Al Franken (DFL) South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R) North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan (D) Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D) Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R) Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns (R) South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson (D) Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D) Kentucky...

Three environmental groups petitioned the federal government Monday to block new oil and gas development in an area of key sage grouse habitat near Douglas. The petition came a month after Gov. Matt Mead announced a plan with Chesapeake Energy to allow drilling in what is known as the Douglas Core Area and represented an effort by environmentalists to counter what they see as an erosion of state sage grouse protections. ... WildEarth Guardians, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and American Bird Conservancy petitioned the Department of Interior and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to prohibit construction of new wellpads and...

Remember way back in the distant past - like, two weeks ago - when every Democrat on Capitol Hill was united in the determination that ObamaCare must not be changed, not be delayed, not be modified in any way, because to do so would be a dirty, nasty, right-wing Republican trick? My. How things change. Dana Bash of CNN tweets that the 13 Democrat senators up for re-election in 2014 are suddenly singing a very different tune: new: senior dem source tells me to expect every sen dem running in 2014 to back @JeanneShaheen proposal to delay #ACA enrollment deadline...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will host a meeting of aides to Senate committee leaders on Thursday seeking to persuade lawmakers to hold off on a package of tough new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, a senior Senate aide said. The White House will press for another delay on a sanctions bill that had been expected to come to a vote in the Senate Banking Committee last month, but was held back after appeals from President Barack Obama's administration to let negotiations on Iran's nuclear program get under way. The aide said Republicans would resist further delay,...

A South Dakota tea party group has sponsored a television ad comparing the president's health care law to Soviet-era communism. The Daily Republic in Mitchell reported Thursday ( http://bit.ly/1igYD6d) that the ad is sponsored by Tea Party SD, headed by Allen Unruh, of Sioux Falls. It shows a newscaster speaking with a Russian accent who says he is a "spokesman for Obamacare." Over his right shoulder is a photo of President Barack Obama. Over his left is a photo of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. "Greetings, comrades," he begins. "I have special message for those of you who are paying...