Free Republic

Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA) called on Congressional leaders to reauthorize a program that provides key support to rural communities. Representatives Kilmer, Chris Stewart (R-UT), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) led a letter urging the swift renewal of Secure Rural Schools (SRS) to help counties with national forests. Since national forest land cannot be taxed by counties or states, for more than 100 years the Forest Service has shared revenues from timber harvests on federal lands with the nearby communities. In the letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi the members pointed out that SRS...

Flathead, Lincoln counties could lose millions if Secure Rural Schools is not reauthorized. Congress recently passed a $1 trillion spending bill to keep the United States government in operation, but missing from that bill are the funds that many counties in Montana have come to rely on in their annual budgets. The budget bill dropped $330 million in funding from Secure Rural Schools, a federal program run through the U.S. Forest Service providing funding for counties and schools. Last year, Flathead County received just over $1.6 million in SRS funding; roughly $1,067,000 went toward the county’s road department, and the...

Looking back at our popular culture in 2014, it appears that Hollywood's power is on the wane. Politically, the leftist celebrities and the "Rock the Vote" gang couldn't help dig the Democrats out of their rut. Even that paragon of permissiveness Sandra Fluke couldn't exploit her Limbaugh-victim aura to win a state Senate seat in libertine California. The year's biggest loser was Sony, which looked pathetically powerless in the wake of an alleged North Korea's hack attack. Worst yet were the people involved. A clearly frustrated George Clooney announced there was no one in that industry willing to sign a...

The Washington Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed gun convictions and exceptional sentences issued to two people who helped Maurice Clemmons after he gunned down four Lakewood police officers in a coffee shop in 2009.

I left Washington state about 20 years ago for Arizona. A Washington native, I had become fed up with the left-wing politics of Seattle. A couple of years ago, I moved back to the Pacific Northwest. A lot had changed while I was gone, and very little for the better. The only “improvement” I noticed was more greenery everywhere. The environmentalists had gotten so many restrictions passed on logging and burning dense forestation that the Evergreen State had started to look like a jungle. Everything else had gone downhill. The roads and traffic had become horrendous, especially in the Puget...

In Washington State, gun control activists are already vowing that the recently-passed anti-gun Initiative 594 is just their first step toward dismantling gun rights. In fact, they are promising to dump more anti-gun bills at the legislative session next month.

Protester rallied at the state Capitol in Olympia to denounce an expanded initiative on gun-purchase background checks that voters widely approved last month. Following a tradition going back to at least the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, demonstrators gathered here Saturday afternoon at the Capitol to protest the tyranny of what they consider unlawful American government. But instead of decrying a tax on distilled liquor such as Pennsylvanians did just years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, demonstrators here at the “I Will Not Comply” rally denounced a law expanding gun-purchase background checks that was approved last month...

A lawsuit is moving forward against a Washington State florist who refused to supply floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding ceremony based on her religious objection, which could put her at risk of serious financial loss and the loss of her business. Baronelle Stutzman, who owns and operates Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington, is being sued by the Washington State attorney general's office for refusing to supply flowers for a same-sex couple's wedding ceremony. Instead, she referred the couple to another nearby florist who could supply flowers for their wedding. The attorney general's office filed its lawsuit against Stutzman in...

The mortal stabbing last month of a Linfield College student at a 7-Eleven near the McMinnville campus appears to be a random attack, and three officers were cleared in the fatal shooting of the assailant minutes later, the Yamhill County District Attorney's Office announced Monday. Authorities released more than 170 pages of police reports detailing interviews from investigations into the Saturday, Nov. 15, stabbing of Parker Moore, 20, of Woodinville, Washington, and the officer-involved shooting of Joventino Bermudez-Arenas, 33, of McMinnville. No motive has been determined for the stabbing of Moore, a Linfield College football player, by Bermudez-Arenas, a tree-farm...

With that law now in effect, organizers are focusing their attention on other measures to limit access to firearms in hopes of combating gun violence. They include increasing the list of misdemeanors — such as for domestic violence — that result in barring gun rights, establishing criminal penalties for those who have their unsecured guns fall into the hands of children who use them and challenging perceived public health risks from lead at shooting ranges. On top of these, the group also wants to move on the new tactic of gun violence protection orders.

On Tuesday, USA Today reported that anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety – a heavy financial supporter of I-594 – is now active in at least a dozen states, emboldened by what the newspaper said was a “string of victories” last month. The story noted that, “Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety also is weighing similar background-check initiatives in Arizona and Maine, and is backing one already underway in Nevada.

Transfer of Public Lands Act’ demands Washington relinquish 31.2 million acres by Dec. 31. In three weeks, Utah intends to seize control of 31.2 million acres of its own land now under the control of the federal government. At least, that’s the plan. In an unprecedented challenge to federal dominance of Western state lands, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 signed the “Transfer of Public Lands Act,” which demands that Washington relinquish its hold on the land, which represents more than half of the state’s 54.3 million acres, by Dec. 31. ... With the 2012 law, Utah placed itself on...

Federal prosecutors have charged a Kirkland man with making interstate threats against the life of the former Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson and his family.

Lawmakers have enough work to do without wasting time on misguided NRA attempts to curb Initiative 594.

<p>Jaleel Tarik Abdul-Jabbaar, from Washington, was arrested in Seattle for making repeated threats on Facebook to kill Darren Wilson and white police officers.</p> <p>Abdul-Jabbar wrote, “I would love to smoke a white motha f*cking cop.”</p> <p>A Kirkland man with a criminal history was arrested in Seattle after making repeated threats on Facebook to kill white police officers in Ferguson, Mo., including former FPD officer Darren Wilson.</p>

SEATTLE - Federal officials have arrested a Washington state man for allegedly posting Internet threats to kill the police officer who shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. The U.S. Attorney's Office says Jaleel Tariq Abdul-Jabbaar, 46, of Kirkland was arrested early Tuesday at his home. According to court documents, he began posting threats to kill the officer and members of his family on a Facebook page soon after the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown. The criminal complaint only refers to former officer Darren Wilson as D.W. He has since resigned from the police department.

A caffeinated gang of annoying white hipsters in Seattle did their level best to ruin Christmas this year by surrounding the city’s annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, chanting and making a bunch of little kids cry. The young, well-heeled, largely white crowd of demonstrators was protesting in response to Monday’s announcement that a grand jury in Missouri had refused to indict white police officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male, on Aug. 9. Friday’s incident in Seattle occurred at Westlake Mall, according to local NBC affiliate KING-TV. Westlake Mall is some 2,119 miles away from Ferguson, Mo.,...

Among the feats many Michael Brown protesters pulled off as they stormed Seattle’s Westlake Mall on Black Friday was targeting a children’s choir set to sing Christmas carols, KING-TV reported as part of a video segment. A journalist with KING, Mark Wright, wrote this on his Facebook page: Some of you may know that tonight’s tree lighting at Westlake Center was cut short by protesters. I feel really bad for a group of children from the 5th Avenue Theater. They came tonight, excited to sing. When the protesters overtook the balcony, the children were absolutely terrified. I helped usher them...

About 100 people are marching in downtown Seattle to protest the decision by a Missouri grand jury to not indict a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teen. Shouting “No justice, no peace,” the marchers are headed from Westlake Park, site of an earlier rally, down Fourth Avenue and then looping back to Westlake Park. Dozens of Seattle police  bicycle officers are stationed along the streets, watching the crowd, which has thus far been peaceful.

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant said Thursday that even though she spent five hours in jail the previous night, after a protest outside Alaska Airlines headquarters in SeaTac, her push to raise the minimum wage for airport workers to $15 will continue. Speaking from her office, Sawant said “last night’s action was really inspiring for everybody.” “We have to keep up the pressure,” Sawant said. “We’ve seen how big business has been on the offensive against workers rights. We need to defend our victories and fight for $15 an hour for all workers.” Sawant was booked into the South Correctional...