Free Republic

Environmental organizations that offered more than 150,000 comments calling on the U.S. Forest Service to reject an agreement to allow additional mining in the North Fork area said the response demonstrated strong public opposition. More like "stuffing the ballot box," said an industry spokesman who noted that the environmental opposition would undermine a bargain fashioned over five years of talks. The Forest Service proposes reinstating the North Fork coal-mining exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule. The exception would allow Arch Coal to extend the West Elk Mine near Somerset below the roadless area. The roadless exemption would allow construction of...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz arrived Jan. 4 at the first stop on a six-day tour of Iowa. The Republican presidential candidate was set to visit 28 counties by bus. (Photo by Patrick Svitek) WASHINGTON — In the more than 200 events he's held since launching his campaign for the White House 10 months ago, Ted Cruz has tested out an unorthodox strategy, one that could rewrite the rules of Republican presidential politics.Since the Texas senator declared his candidacy in March, 40 percent of his public events have taken place in Iowa, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of his travel schedule as of Saturday. But...

Cave skeleton is European, 1,300 years old, man says Archaeologist group wants a look at evidence Sunday September 29, 2002 By Rick Steelhammer STAFF WRITER MORGANTOWN — The man who first advanced the theory that markings carved on in a Wyoming County cave are actually characters from an ancient Irish alphabet has found human remains at the site, which tests indicate are European in origin and date back to A.D. 710, he maintains. Robert Pyle of Morgantown says that a DNA analysis of material from the skeleton’s teeth roots was conducted by Brigham Young University. That analysis, he says, shows...

Unlike many of the Republican Party's leaders and presidential candidates, Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) is willing to both bash Donald Trump and rule out supporting him if he becomes the party's nominee. "My first oath is to the Constitution of the United States. Donald Trump has taken positions contrary to that document, so I could not support him and uphold my oath," Ribble told "So That Happened," the HuffPost Politics podcast.

I recognize the personal nature of the Sikh Temple tragedy for Oak Creek Mayor Stephen Scaffidi and the emotional response that the San Bernardino mass murders evoke. In his commentary on Thursday, Scaffidi offered: "I am a gun owner. But I have to believe that one of the popular responses to mass shootings — arm everyone and encourage individual and aggressive action against a mass shooter — is at best naive, and at worst, dangerous. Law enforcement professionals are highly trained and understand through direct experience that carrying a gun is a powerful responsibility and doesn't guarantee that a shooter...

Sandbar Lounge, a downtown Casper institution, will close for good Saturday, and its owner says the city's recently imposed smoking ban is to blame. “The smoking ban destroyed the bar, as I foretold it would,” Nancy Goddard wrote Monday in a post on the Sandbar's Facebook page. “I have cried a million tears and will probably cry a million more again. I apologize. I tried and failed. God bless.” Casper residents voted Nov. 3 to reinstate a 2012 smoking ban on bars. More than 6,000 voters cast ballots, with 54 percent voting in favor of the ban. Ban supporters, such...

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday. "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are...

Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis, a Republican who has represented the entire state of Wyoming in the House since 2008, said she will not seek re-election in 2016.In a statement, Lummis, said that representing the state “is a great honor and a serious responsibility,” but, “after much thought,” she has decided not to seek a fifth term. “I used my political capital in Washington to bring about reform and to represent the best interests of Wyoming. Now it is time for a new face to take on this important task for Wyoming,” she said.The sole woman member of the House Freedom Caucus, Lummis praised the body’s election...

While everyone was voting in Colorado elections Tuesday, scant attention was paid to how our U.S. Senators voted on a measure that is extremely important to our entire way of life. We'll give you a hint - it's water. A bill by our Wyoming neighbor, Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, would have required the EPA to rewrite the egregious Waters of the United States rule to give states and the agriculture industry more protection. WOTUS, as it's known, is the latest and worstest regulation issued by the Obama administration to regulate ponds and ditches in neighborhoods and farms as navigable...

Judge stalls approved Montana coal mine expansion in 2nd successful suit citing climate change. The U.S. Interior Department should not have approved the expansion of a southeastern Montana coal mine without taking a closer look at its effect on the environment, a federal judge said about a lawsuit arguing the government ignored coal's contributions to climate change. Environmental groups sued the Interior Department after it approved an expansion of the Spring Creek Coal mine in 2012. The case marks the second time conservationists have used worries over climate change to successfully challenge approval of a coal mine after it had...

A U.S. judge on Friday approved a deal between conservationists and Montana officials to restrict road-building and logging in roughly 22,000 acres of state forest lands that make up core habitat for federally protected grizzlies. The agreement resolves a lawsuit brought by conservationists after the state had sought to open 37,000 acres , mostly in the Stillwater State Forest, to timber harvesting despite what environmentalists said would be the destruction of prime grizzly bear territory. ... U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy in a decision last year found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by...

The greatest revolutions come out of the most unlikely places. Consider the brave administration at Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming. Proving that there is a razor-thin line between nonsense and cataclysmic brilliance, the administrators there have decided to cancel “America Day” on behalf of a suffering student body. America Day is a longstanding tradition at the high school, celebrating homecoming in a way that doubles as a celebration of patriotism. Students wear red, white, and blue colors to class, wave American flags around, and generally take pride in their country. Awful, right? “Many different students could have felt singled...

Every year, Jackson Hole High School has celebrated “America Day” around homecoming time — and it’s become quite the spectacle. The tradition includes students wrapping American flags around their shoulders, wearing American flag attire and driving a diesel truck around the parking lot with the stars and stripes waving in the wind. But this year turned out to be different for the students in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Jackson Hole High principal Scott Crisp blamed the results of a student survey and his concerns that some students may feel excluded if they see an American flag for the administration’s decision to cancel “America Pride Day.”

Bowie Resource Partners plans to lay off nearly 100 people at its Bowie #2 Mine near Paonia in the latest setback to coal employment in the North Fork Valley. The company said Tuesday that it anticipates laying off 78 workers and 19 contractors from the mine, where 181 full-time employees and 19 contractors work now. ... it is continuing to evaluate the market for the mine’s coal after losing a contract to sell to the Tennessee Valley Authority a year ago. The loss of that contract caused Bowie to eliminate about 150 jobs at that time. Bowie operates three underground...

--snip-- In a January 2014 violation notice, the agency said Mr. Johnson had violated the Clean Water Act by digging out Six Mile Creek and dumping in tons of river rocks without getting necessary federal permits. The agency ordered him to take steps to restore the creek under the supervision of environmental officials, or face accumulating fines of as much as $37,500 a day. Mr. Johnson refused. He argued that he had gotten full approvals from Wyoming officials, and said the federal government had no business using national water laws to make decisions about the creek that meanders through the...

A second northwestern Colorado coal mine will undergo a review of the mine's environmental impact following an agreement reached by the federal government, the mine's owners and WildEarth Guardians.. The agreement between the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM), Trapper Mining Inc. and WildEarth Guardians was filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Denver. The agreement gives the federal government until the end of April to complete a new review of the mine’s operations. ... Our miners must be allowed to keep working to supply Craig Station with the coal that’s needed to supply the grid...

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...

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....