Free Republic

Ted Cruz says his hard-line strategy to defund Planned Parenthood and risk a government shutdown is about doing the “right thing” and following through on Republicans' vows to conservative voters. But many of his Republican colleagues say it’s really all about Cruz. Even some of his closest allies from past battles— fellow tried and true tea party Republicans like Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — aren’t exactly jumping to join Cruz’s latest crusade. Same goes for Cruz’s onetime allies-turned-presidential rivals, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky. As the Texas Republican prepares for a potentially decisive month...

STURGIS, S.D. — A South Dakota saloon that billed itself as the “world’s largest biker bar” and was the subject of a reality TV show was destroyed early Tuesday by a fire that may have gained momentum when it hit an adjoining distillery containing 500 gallons of grain alcohol. Volunteer firefighters found heavy smoke when they responded to the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis around 12:30 a.m., and the main building was gutted less than three hours later. No injuries were reported. The bar, which featured such amenities as zip lines, musical stages and rental cabins, had been the subject...

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee snagged the endorsement of Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, Huckabee's campaign announced Tuesday.

Students in South Dakota will now graduate from high school without studying early American history, under new teaching guidelines adopted by the state. After a year of deliberations, the state Board of Education adopted new curriculum standards that no longer require instructors to teach the first 100 years of U.S. history. Such milestone events and developments as the Revolutionary War and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution could be completely ignored. Cutting out early U.S. history in 11th grade hurts the ability of students to “think historically” when they reach higher education, according to a letter sent to the state...

The very same crew which recently dumped three million gallons of toxic sludge out of an abandoned mine and turned the Animas River in Colorado the color of a yellow banded poison dart frog for roughly a week has just issued a whole new set of rules to “protect” small pools of water. They would also like you to know that these rules are going into effect even though a federal judge put them on hold in 13 states, too. This new batch of regulations is going to “protect” bodies of water which may include the ditch in front...

Port Clinton, Ohio, Police Chief Robert Hickman was seen in photos wearing a Confederate flag vest while on vacation in South Dakota.An Ohio police chief isn’t really addressing the controversy that has unfolded since he was seen in photos wearing a Confederate flag vest while vacationing in South Dakota, WKYC reports. Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman said that he doesn’t “look at the Confederate flag as a racist symbol,” with some residents defending him, saying he doesn’t have a “racist bone” in his body. “I think he was just wearing a shirt,” Port Clinton resident Bryan Meek told the...

Republican legislators have gotten their messaging instructions from their top leaders: Tout unpopular free-trade measures during the August recess, ignore popular curbs on the migration that saps Americans’ wages. Breitbart News has exclusively obtained an internal August recess messaging instruction set for Republican legislators produced by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) 52% , who orchestrates the GOP Senators’ PR pitch. This 20-page messaging instruction manual seems to confirm prior reports by Breitbart News that Republican Congressional leadership has no plans to enact popular immigration reforms to curb large-scale migration. Each August, Senators and Congressmen return home to listen to constituents’ concerns...

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota on Thursday blocked a new Obama administration rule that would give the federal government jurisdiction over some state waterways. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson of North Dakota issued a temporary injunction against a the rule, which gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers authority to protect some streams, tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The rule was scheduled to take effect Friday. “The risk of irreparable harm to the states is both imminent and likely,” Judge Erickson said in blocking the rule from taking effect....

A Florence man charged with setting a series of fires nine years ago in Ravalli and Missoula counties that cost millions of dollars to fight was back in a Ravalli County court Wednesday. Jonah Mica Warr, 28, was recently released on probation after serving seven years of a 10-year federal prison sentence for setting the fires in 2006. Warr’s court troubles in Ravalli County date back to 2004 when he pleaded guilty before District Judge Jeffery Langton to a number of felony charges for possession of explosives and criminal mischief for blowing up mailboxes in the Florence and Stevensville areas....

Two dozen Christian pastors in York County have joined together to publicly call on members of their faith to embrace Muslims as their brothers and sisters. The Rev. Sam McGregor, pastor at Allison Creek Presbyterian Church near Lake Wylie, said he has jump-started the local effort because of recent threats against Muslims in the United States that came to light during the trial of Robert Doggart. Doggart, a failed congressional candidate from Tennessee, pleaded guilty this month to plotting to kill Muslims who live in a religious community in New York. The FBI uncovered and stopped Doggart’s plan. A similar...

Oil and gas producers in one of the most active drilling areas in the country have had to make concessions to not disturb species such as the lesser prairie chicken and the dunes sagebrush lizard. Now industry officials in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico may have four other species to contend with: make way for the Cascade Caverns salamander, the Arizona toad, the alligator snapping turtle and the Rio Grande cooter. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday it is giving what it calls “status reviews” to the four amphibians and reptiles found in the Southwest as...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush drew 240 people in his first Sioux City campaign stop, where he vowed to deliver "competency and conservative principles" to lead the U.S. to a new era of growth. "I want to win... I will run with heart, I will run with conviction," Bush said.

Today, many are cheering the end of an era in the South. As The New York Times reports, many see the lowering of the Confederate flag from outside South Carolina’s State House as “closing a chapter on a symbol of the Deep South and its history of resistance and racial animus.” [snip] Mohammed Elibiary: "Today is a new day in the South. Gone will be the Confederacy as we create the New South. Federalism & individual rights, no states' rights." [snip] Mohammed Elibiary: "States' rights was defeated with the Confederacy in the Civil War. USA has federalism and individual rights,...

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...

Ben Wattenberg died this week at the age of 81. He gave me my first job in Washington, as his research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. (I returned to AEI as a fellow a few years ago, my office just a few doors down from where Ben used to work.) Ben was one of the last star pundits of what might be called the Old Order, before cable news and the Internet transformed the landscape. When everyone was rushing to CNN to shout at each other on "Crossfire," he launched a PBS show called "Think...

NCBA will engage EPA in lawsuit alleging overreach in Waters of the U.S. rule, group says. Concerns of cattlemen regarding the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Waters of the U.S. rule released last month are coming true, National Cattlemen's Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall said Tuesday, but that's actually generating more support for repeal efforts. We just got some more feedback this last weekend that it's the determination of the EPA that any stock tank or pond that runs around in a flooding type event would be considered a 'water of the United States,'"...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), part of the Interior Department, will decide by September 30 whether to list the greater sage-grouse as an endangered or threatened species under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).The stakes are huge: Greater sage-grouse (or prairie chicken) habitat covers 165 million acres across 11 western states, but that is only half of what it used to be, the federal government says. At one time, the greater sage-grouse population likely numbered in the millions, but it is now estimated to be in the 200,000 to 500,000 range.The enormous sage grouse habitat also is home to...

A conference to discuss and analyze Islam that began Friday continues today in Rapid City. Today's schedule for the Answering Islam Conference begins at 9 a.m. in the Rushmore Room at the Ramkota Hotel and Convention Center. Topics include "How to Reach Muslims for Christ," "How has Islam infiltrated American Politics" and "How to Refute Islam." Speakers include Shahram Hadian, who is described on a promotional poster as a former Muslim who became a Christian pastor, and Tom Wallace, founder of the "Fortress of Faith" radio show. There is no charge for admission. The event has a number of local...

The proposed adoption of $300,000 worth of reading materials for Cody, Wyoming students stalled this week amid criticisms about the curriculum’s “very liberal, very slanted view of the world.” School board and community members spoke out against a slate of proposed materials for K-12 students that cover topics like global warming, evolution and race. The materials are published by education giant Pearson and Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ... that aligns with the national Common Core standards. But many in the community are concerned about how the texts address issues like global warming, which is treated as settled science ......

Exactly two months after the latest Warren Buffett-owned BNSF train derailed near the spot where the Galena river meets the Mississippi, resulting in a huge fire and the evacuation of all homes in a one mile radius, moments ago another of Buffett's BNSF oil trains derailed, this time near the town of Heimdal, North Dakota, resulting in the same outcome. According to the Bismark Tribune, the town in Wells County was evacuated Tuesday morning after a train full of oil tanker cars derailed and burned about a mile and half east of here. ... For those concerned that these countless...