Free Republic

A power failure knocked out the security system at a federal germ lab in Fort Collins for 13 hours Monday and disabled freezers housing thousands of vials of plague and other potential bioweapons. A backup generator kicked on when the power failed. But an electrical short prevented the backup power from being routed through the building, said Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory was without power for 13 hours, beginning at 3:07 p.m. Monday, Bohlander said. CSU owns the building and leases it to the government.No germ collections were...

A former U.S. senator in Colorado sees parallels between billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer’s meddling in current Senate elections in the state and his hedge fund’s efforts to drain a small Colorado town’s water supply and sell it to the highest bidder. Former Sen. Wayne Allard (R., Colo.) ... In 1995 Tom Steyer descended on Colorado, standing to make millions by exporting the water under the San Luis Valley and selling it to the highest bidder. Draining this particular aquifer would have had disastrous consequences for farms, wetlands and the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Impact from Steyer’s plan would have...

For the first time in years, there is an emerging consensus that the biggest racket in national politics deserves to end. Earlier this month, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and 10 other Republican senators held a luncheon summit at the White House with President Trump with the goal of drastically reforming the Renewable Fuel Standard, the federal mandate that annually funnels $13.5 billion from the wallets of American fuel and food consumers into the coffers of agribusiness giants. Before the national nightmare of Obamacare, there was the RFS, the most sweeping and intrusive federal intervention in the American economy undertaken in...

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard still isn't sure how he'll vote when the financial bailout bill comes up in about four hours. Allard said he's concerned about unrelated measures being tacked onto the measure. One proposal would mandate mental health coverage as part of health insurance policies. Allard called that proposal "a very expensive bill." U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar said he plans to hold a news conference in a few minutes to explain his position. The latest version of the bailout proposal is better than the original measure introduced last week. The bill now includes an inspector general to oversee the...

While senators gravely speak about the nation's fiscal health all day during the Senate budget debate, they're not above making purely political points aimed at embarrassing one another. To wit: Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican from Colorado, has crafted a massive budget amendment that claims to fund every policy proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on the presidential campaign trail. Allard's amendment — doomed to fail by a significant margin — includes $1.4 trillion in spending over five years by proposing Obama's universal health care program ($65 billion a year), expanding the Army ($6.6 billion a year) and eliminating income...

Why return to the Air Force Academy after Winter Break? So after our sunburns have faded and the memories of our winter break have been reduced to pictures we've pinned on our deskboards, and once again we've exchanged T-shirts and swim suits for flight suits and camouflage, there still remains the question that every cadet at U.S.Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has asked themselves at some point: Why did we come back? Why, after spending two weeks with our family would we return to one of the most demanding lifestyles in the country? After listening to our 'friends' who...

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar expressed disappointment this morning at the demise of the immigration reform bill, blaming "poison stemming from some members of the Senate" and predicting continuing crisis for the country's "broken" immigration system. Colorado's other U.S. senator, Republican Wayne Allard, issued a statement calling the bill as proposed "amnesty in its simplest form," and said the American people "demand and deserve better." Allard voted with the majority ... With the bill's collapse, Allard called for a greater focus on border security. "Porous borders and lax enforcement present major security risks to our country," Allard said. "Instead of enacting...

A senator sees it as a fair trade: a Korean battle flag captured in the 19th century for the USS Pueblo, taken in 1968. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., reintroduced a resolution Wednesday demanding that North Korea return the Pueblo, and he sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggesting she look into his proposed exchange. "Since the USS Pueblo bears the name of the town of Pueblo, Colorado, many in our state want to see the vessel returned to its proper home," Allard wrote. "North Korea continues to hint at the possible return of the captured U.S. Navy...

A year ago, Dick Wadhams never thought he’d be back in Colorado full time trying to resurrect the state Republican Party. Wadhams, the silver-tongued Las Animas native who has led upset campaigns across the country, expected to be getting Virginia Sen. George Allen prepped for his presidential run. That was before Allen made his infamous “macaca” remark amid what should have been an easy reelection bid, and suddenly both he and Wadhams, his press secretary, found themselves out of their jobs. One week after that debacle, Wadhams fielded a call from Colorado Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, who suggested that...

Ex-congressman files paperwork, says unity is key. Former Colorado Rep. Scott McInnis took a first formal step Monday toward running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard... The Grand Junction Republican announced he is forming an exploratory committee and has filed necessary paperwork. He said he does not expect to make a formal announcement until later this year. "We're at the very beginning of this,"... McInnis said he is starting to assemble a campaign... McInnis has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the seat since Allard announced in January that he would keep a term-limit pledge...

Republicans allege two members of Michigan's Stryker family may have links to a fraud case in South Dakota involving Medicare and the Stryker Corp. Stryker is a medical products company. Jon Stryker has contributed to groups protecting gay rights. Anti-gay rights U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., has called for an investigation into the fraud case to see if it extends further... The fraud case reportedly involves a medical clinic in South Dakota and the Stryker Corp. aggreeing to repay Medicare $345,000. The government says the clinic took money from the Stryker Corp. in exchange for using the company's orthopedic products....

Colorado's two U.S. senators have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate a dispute between DIRECTV and EchoStar over network channels. News Corp., DIRECTV's parent, last week asked a federal court to stop EchoStar from providing 'distant' network signals to nearly one million subscribers. The signals, which originate from New York and Los Angeles, include both analog and High-Definition TV feeds. EchoStar says it will pay $100 million to local stations to settle the nine-year-old legal battle over 'distant' network TV signals. The local stations are concerned that EchoStar's subscribers will watch the national signals instead of their feeds. However,...

...Time spoke to dozens of academics, political scientists and current and former Senators...

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., visited Boulder Tuesday as part of a series of statewide town meetings and a heavily liberal crowd disagreed with the conservative Allard early and often. Allard gave a brief introductory statement to a nearly full-house crowd of perhaps 150-200 about issues he's likely to address in the near-term, including the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito. “Hopefully we'll have a vote on him pretty quickly,” said Allard, and opened up the meeting to questions from the audience. Allard faced numerous questions about U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first came from a man...

Statement by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) Regarding(title was incomplete so I finished it)WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) issued the following statement: "John Kerry may have been born in Colorado, but he learned his priorities in Massachusetts. Kerry is trying to pull off an extreme makeover of his votes for higher taxes and opposition to President Bush's plan to guarantee affordable drugs for our nation's seniors, which helped earn him the ranking of the Senate's most out of the mainstream member. Kerry voted in favor of the Iraq War and then voted against $87 billion in funding to...

And so it begins.....

Senator Hatch: Provoking A Split Within Conservatism…Again Paul Weyrich Monday, Apr. 05, 2004 The year was 1976. Ronald Reagan had lost the GOP's presidential nomination to Gerald Ford. The prospects for conservative victories in Congress were not very promising. But I was sure I had found a rising star. He was articulate. He was charismatic. He claimed to be a principled conservative. I thought of him as a potential presidential candidate. As chairman of the Free Congress PAC, I backed him at the state convention (In his state you have to get a certain percentage of the convention vote to...

DENVER (AP) - Forecasting a tight presidential contest in Colorado, Gov. Bill Owens and other state GOP leaders said Saturday they will focus on promoting their view that President Bush is the country's best leader during difficult times. Owens will serve as the campaign's Colorado chairman, campaign officials said Saturday. Co-chairs include Sens. Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. Bush defeated Democratic Vice President Al Gore in Colorado in the 2000 presidential election by 51 percent to 42 percent, continuing a GOP tradition. Only twice since 1952 has Colorado supported a Democrat for president, including...

Allard fields immigration, job worries In his first town meeting of the year, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., addressed heated concerns regarding immigration, free trade and jobs. About 30 residents of Broomfield and surrounding cities Wednesday questioned Allard most extensively on President Bush's recently released immigration plan and other related issues. The two-term Republican senator said he needed to research the details of the plan, which would allow illegal immigrants to register with the government and obtain three-year work periods. Several in the audience bashed the plan and urged Allard to oppose it, calling it everything from part of a war...

Support the Religious Liberties Restoration Act introduced by Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado Ask your senators to co-sponsor S. 1558. Dear Friend, Finally, a U.S. Senator has given Americans a method to restore our religious liberties. He has introduced a bill, S. 1558, The "Religious Liberties Restoration Act", which does exactly that. S. 1558 is not a constitutional amendment, but a legislative statute which would remove from federal court review the displaying of the Ten Commandments, the National Motto and the Pledge of Allegiance. Click here to urge your two senators to co-sponsor this bill! Using this approach, a constitutional...