Free Republic

The sage grouse's potential addition to the endangered species list is a problem of epic economic consequences to states in the West, with Herbert explaining that the impact in lost economic development in Utah tops $41 billion for the oil and gas industry alone. "The negative impacts are not acceptable to me and should not be acceptable to anyone here," Herbert told the crowd. The event at the Utah Department of Natural Resources' auditorium is actually a precursor to a national summit that will be held in Salt Lake City this fall. ... a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision...

Federal designation of the Greater Sage-grouse as threatened or endangered could result in the withdrawal of over 17 million acres from mining ... Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service of making an unprecedented attempted to limit multiple use on public lands through use of “the Spotted Owl on Steroids”—the Greater Sage-Grouse. ... BLM and Forest Service’s real purpose “is NOT sage-grouse conservation.” “Rather, the so-called conservation measures are designed to: Find another way to implement the draconian land use restrictions in the aborted Wild Lands Policy and Secretarial Order 3310; Dramatically reduce and even prevent mining, energy...

Lawmakers in Utah and Colorado are promoting legislation to raise the legal age for tobacco use to 21, a higher standard than imposed by any other state, saying they want to discourage young people from picking up a lifelong smoking habit. Supporters say keeping tobacco out of the hands of young adults will save thousands of lives, even as critics complain that Americans who are old enough to vote and serve in the military should not be deemed too young to decide on their own if they should smoke. In a dramatic display of the risks of smoking, lawmakers in...

A bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to customers based on personal, religious beliefs is now on the desk of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, as protests continue. The state legislature passed the bill late Thursday, but not without a fiery debate. "This is simply protecting religious freedom that is recognized and defended and supported in the First Amendment that the founders wanted, nothing else," said Republican Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, who sponsored the bill. "There's only type of equality," said House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, a Democrat. "And it's equal." Brewer, a Republican, vetoed a similar bill last year...

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office is expected to consider Thursday afternoon whether to file charges against a lawyer with the city police department. James Wesley Robinson, 50, was arrested Wednesday at his Salt Lake home in the Wasatch Hollow neighborhood for investigation of drug possession, drug distribution and illegal possession of firearms. Robinson's two sons, Alexander Jordan Robinson, 21, and Zachary Ryan Robinson, 18, were also arrested. Alexander Robinson remained in the Salt Lake County Jail Thursday along with his father. He was booked for investigation of drug distribution and possession of drug paraphernalia....

SALT LAKE CITY, February 12, 2014–Can Utah shut down the new NSA data center by turning off the water? A new bill introduced by state Rep. Marc Roberts seeks to do just that. The legislation drafted by a transpartisan coalition organized by the Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) called OffNow Coalition. The Utah Fourth Amendment Protection Act would expressly prohibit state material support, participation, and assistance to any federal agency that collects electronic date or metadata without a search warrant “that particularly desribes the person, place and thing to be searched or seized.”...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has backed off plans to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list. ... The government plan would have allowed gray wolves in the lower 48 United States to be hunted or killed. They have been under federal protection since 1967. The Mexican gray wolf, found only in the Southwest, retains protection.

Old Mexico Lives On Feb 1st 2014 On February 2nd 1848, following a short and one-sided war, Mexico agreed to cede more than half its territory to the United States. An area covering most of present-day Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, plus parts of several other states, was handed over to gringolandia. The rebellious state of Tejas, which had declared its independence from Mexico in 1836, was recognised as American soil too. But a century and a half later, communities have proved more durable than borders. (snip)

One of Utah's biggest school systems apologized Thursday and told angry parents it was investigating why dozens of elementary school children had their lunches seized and thrown away when they didn't have enough money in their accounts. "This was a mistake," said Jason Olsen, a spokesman for the Salt Lake School District. "There shouldn't have been food taken away from these students once they went through that line." The district came under national criticism after as many as 40 kids were given fruit and milk and their real lunches were thrown away Tuesday at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City.

School officials in the US state of Utah have apologised after an employee confiscated and discarded the lunches of about 30 children whose parents were said to be in arrears on meal payments. Outraged parents in Salt Lake City said the students at Uintah Elementary primary school had been humiliated. The school system has launched an inquiry into the Tuesday incident, blamed on a sole "nutrition manager". The children whose meals were put in the rubbish were given fruit and milk. "This was a mistake. This was handled wrong,'' Jason Olsen, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City school system...

The introduction of an Obamacare replacement plan by Republican senators Richard Burr (N.C.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), and Orrin Hatch (Utah) has given Obamacare’s apologists — who admittedly have had very tough duty over the past four years — a rare opportunity to get out of their defensive crouches and go on the attack. Not surprisingly, fast out of the gate has been Ezekiel Emanuel, who has a piece up at the New York Times website claiming that the fatal flaw of the Republican senators’ plan is that it would raise taxes on millions of American households. There are a couple...

It’s no coincidence that sage grouse habitat also happens to intersect both the largest untapped coal deposits in the country as well as large parts of the Bakken oil field. It’s clear the primary motivation to focus on sage grouse for ESA listing is to provide yet another tool for special interest groups to block energy development. And in this obstructionist toolbox, there’s no heavier sledgehammer than the Endangered Species Act. What an interesting irony, then, that so much effort is going into “protecting” one bird from energy development, when the Obama administration is turning a blind eye to hundreds...

A federal judge on Monday sentenced eco-saboteur Rebecca Rubin to five years in prison -- less than what prosecutors sought for the former fugitive from Canada. Rubin, voice shaking, apologized to her family, the court, firefighters as well as targets of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. "I was so convinced at the righteousness of my beliefs, that I chose to ignore my own wrongdoing," Rubin said. Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, who presided over the sentencing hearings in 2007 of Rubin's co-conspirators in Eugene, praised Rubin's statement, calling it "the most thoughtful, well-stated, honest, unvarnished apology/explanation."...

Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Alex Lepley imagines a scenario where a man has barricaded himself, fired a gun at police officers and placed bystanders in peril. Enter UHP’s new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, “MRAP” for short. Or at least that’s what the U.S. Army called it. The U.S. Department of Defense recently gave a surplus MRAP to the highway patrol. The law enforcement agency plans to use it to carry troopers to dangerous crime scenes and to keep those troopers safe while protecting civilians. […] The Defense Department has provided the weaponry and equipment through what it calls the 1033...

In eight years, Utah has quietly reduced homelessness by 78 percent, and is on track to end homelessness by 2015. How did Utah accomplish this? Simple. Utah solved homelessness by giving people homes. In 2005, Utah figured out that the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for homeless people was about $16,670 per person, compared to $11,000 to provide each homeless person with an apartment and a social worker. So, the state began giving away apartments, with no strings attached. Each participant in Utah’s Housing First program also gets a caseworker to help them become self-sufficient, but they...

The Tea Party Express has announced that Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will deliver the official tea party response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address following the Republican response. The Tea Party Express, a political action committee, has hosted a response since 2011 when Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., gave the response. Former presidential candidate Herman Cain gave the response in 2012 and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., gave the response in 2013.

Senator Mike Lee to deliver Tea Party response to President Obama's State of the Union We have some great news to share with you!  Tea Party Express, the nation's largest Tea Party political action committee, will host the official Tea Party response to President Obama's State of the Union Address directly following the Republican response. Senator Mike Lee will deliver the Tea Party response at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and will focus on issues that are important and unique to you and me. Senator Mike Lee to deliver the official Tea Party response to the State...

When Republican delegates nominate their presidential candidate this week, they will be doing it in a city where residents who support George Bush have, for all practical purposes, already been disenfranchised. Barring a tsunami of a sweep, heavily Democratic New York will send its electoral votes to John Kerry and both parties have already written New York off as a surefire blue state. The Electoral College makes Republicans in New York, and Democrats in Utah, superfluous. It also makes members of the majority party in those states feel less than crucial. It's hard to tell New York City children that...

Sybrina Fulton, who's 17-year-old son Trayvon Martin was shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in 2012, visited the University of Utah on Thursday to discuss racial profiling. Hundreds attended the Martin Luther King Week event, in which Fulton said that an "upside" to her son's death was the "opportunity to save someone else's child." "Don’t think for one second racial profiling doesn’t happen. Don’t think for one minute even in your community of Salt Lake City it doesn’t happen," she said. "Racism is still alive. Racial profiling is still alive. Injustice is still alive." Fulton said that the circumstances of...

what is viewed as a rush to the exits in the face of the Obamacare disaster and the Obama scandal machine bleeding into the 2014 mid-term elections, three prominent democrats in the U.S. Congress have announced their retirement this week. On Monday, 40-year Capitol Hill veteran and Pelosi Democrat, George Miller (D-CA) called it quits. Miller, 68, has been in the House since 1974, the year of Watergate. Miller stated that he looked “forward to one last year in Congress, fighting the good fight and then working in new venues on the issues that have inspired me.” Miller also indicated...