Free Republic

Republican Ryan Zinke, who served as the Interior Secretary during the Trump administration, is projected to win a seat in Congress. The Associated Press called the race at 10:31 a.m. ET. Zinke defeated Democrat Monica Tranel, an attorney, in the contest for Montana’s 1st Congressional District. The representative-elect oversaw a number of efforts to increase energy development and roll back Obama-era environmental restrictions.

HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – Former Congressman and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has officially announced that he will be running for one of Montana’s two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Zinke, a Republican, was elected to Montana’s at-large seat in the House in 2014 but stepped down after being named President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary. Zinke resigned from that role in January 2019 and has been the subject of numerous federal investigations into potential ethics violations. Zinke denies any wrongdoing. Montana gained a new Congressional district due to the state’s increase in population, and Zinke says once...

A Billings Republican legislator said Saturday he believes the U.S. Constitution calls for the shooting or jailing of those who identify as socialists. State Rep. Rodney Garcia, from House District 52 on the South Side, first made a statement in the form of an unprompted question at a state party gathering in Helena Friday meant to kick off election season and offer training for party members and candidates. In his question after a speech by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who was Montana’s representative in the U.S. House for two years, Garcia said he was concerned about socialists...

The latest hot rumor (well… more than just a rumor since the President confirmed it) in White House personnel shakeups is that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be submitting his resignation this week. While the two-year mark in any administration is a time when cabinet members tend to pack it in if they don’t plan to stay for a full term, there were signs that this might be coming for the past several months. There’s been an obvious and concerted effort to gin up any sort of “scandals” they could find surrounding Zinke, much the same as with other Trump...

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will depart the administration amid growing controversy over allegations that he violated ethics rules, President Trump announced Saturday. Trump tweeted early Saturday that Zinke "will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years." "Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation," Trump wrote. He did not specify whether Zinke resigned or was fired, and said he will announce a new secretary next week. Whoever Trump nominates will likely have to go through Senate...

“Ryan Zinke needs to resign immediately as Secretary of the Interior.” That’s how Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) began his USA Today op-ed Friday. His reasoning? “Zinke is embroiled in scandals and nepotism.” Here’s where Grijalva claims Zinke erred: As has been widely reported, an Interior Department inspector general investigation of Mr. Zinke — one of at least 17 publicly known formal probes of either him or his department since he took office — was recently referred to the Justice Department. The referral centers on a land development project called 95 Karrow in Mr. Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Mont., involving David...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ripped into Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva on Friday and accused him of past “drunken and hostile behavior” after the lawmaker called for the Cabinet member’s resignation earlier in the day. In a remarkably scathing Twitter post, Zinke referenced past news reports that Grijalva in 2015 paid a female aide on Capitol Hill nearly $50,000 in a taxpayer-funded settlement after she complained about his drinking and office environment. “It is hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” Zinke said of Grijalva. “This is coming from a man who used nearly $50,000...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blamed “radical environmentalists” Tuesday for blocking federal forest-management efforts and causing dangerous conditions that lead to deadly wildfires such as the blaze that killed dozens last week in northern California. “When lawsuit after lawsuit by, yes, the radical environmental groups that would rather burn down the entire forest than cut a single tree or thin the forest, then it’s easy to find who is suing and who promulgates these destructive policies,” Mr. Zinke said. “Take a look at who’s suing — every time there’s a thinning project. The density of dead and dying trees is higher.”...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says the U.S. Navy can blockade Russia if needed to keep it from controlling energy supplies in the Middle East as it does in Europe. "The United States has that ability, with our Navy, to make sure the sea lanes are open..." Zinke said on Friday at an industry event in Pittsburgh hosted by the Consumer Energy Alliance. He was there to explain why hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the shale energy boom has given the U.S. an edge over its rivals Russia and Iran, by making the U.S. less dependent on foreign sources of energy....

Headquarter the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah? Absolutely. Just don’t start thinking it will be the Utah Bureau of Land Management.
With the encouragement of Rep. Rob Bishop and Gov. Gary Herbert, Acting Assistant Secretary of Interior Susan Combs came to town this week to discuss a possible move to either Salt Lake City or Ogden. Her boss, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has pushed the idea of moving more of Interior’s work to the western United States where most federal lands are.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is seizing on California’s wildfires to promote a policy long-supported by Republicans — that fires could be stopped if forests were logged. The former Montana congressman is poised to push the benefits of what’s known as forest management at an event with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in California on Monday next to the state's largest forest fire in history. Yet it's not just the blaze that makes the trip important for Zinke and Perdue. Galvanized by President Trump's recent tweets on the issue and a looming farm bill vote in the House that carries a number...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is moving two agencies and roughly 700 federal employees out of Washington, D.C., to save money and improve the department’s service to taxpayers. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will be fully moved out of the nation’s capital by 2020, according to the USDA. A location hasn’t been picked yet.“It’s been our goal to make USDA the most effective, efficient, and customer-focused department in the entire federal government,” Perdue said in a statement. “In our Administration, we have looked critically at...

BILLINGS, Mont. — Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent said Friday that he plans to retire next year from a job he called “the best in the National Park Service” and dismissed speculation that the Trump administration pushed him out for political reasons. Superintendent Dan Wenk told The Associated Press that he decided last fall he would retire in early 2019 after more than four decades with the National Park Service. His seven years leading one of the premier national parks have been marked by an explosion in visitor numbers; tension with neighboring states over wild bison slaughters, wolf hunting and grizzly...

The Trump administration wants to ease restrictions on oil and gas leasing and other activities across a huge swath of the American West that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird. The move involves conservation plans for greater sage grouse approved in 2015 under former President Barack Obama. Trump has vowed to increase U.S. energy production and open more lands to drilling. Conservation groups critical of Trump’s energy policies warned Wednesday’s proposal could unravel a years-long effort to shore up the bird’s struggling population. Interior Department officials said the revisions to the Obama-era plans were aimed at increasing...

King Cove, Alaska I watched my daughter nearly die in a plane crash—because of a misguided view of how best to protect nesting swans and foraging bears. She was in a single-engine plane with four others in 2010, when it was forced to the ground by a sudden downdraft while approaching our town’s little airstrip. Imagine standing by helplessly as your child’s plane collides with the runway. Thankfully, the pilot was able to pull the nose up at the last moment, which prevented a catastrophe and saved all on board. Almost every family here has a similar tale of a...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke downplayed the importance of diversity in the workforce and at his department on multiple occasions, CNN reported Monday.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is taking heat for allegedly telling staffers he would focus on “excellence” and finding the “best people” to work at the department, not “diversity.” Zinke’s lack of concern over “diversity” at the Interior Department angered some staffers, who rushed to tell CNN. The news network on Monday ran with the chyron: “Zinke angers many by saying it’s more important to find best people; Dept denies.” Each time Zinke was asked about diversity, he would respond, “what’s important is having the right person for the right job,” or “I care about excellence, and I’m going to get...

An operative for American Bridge 21st Century (Founder DAVID BROCK), a pro-Democrat political action committee, has been charged with assaulting a staffer working for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to the Associated Press. Wilfred Stark was charged with simple assault after he allegedly approached Zinke, yelling at him, outside of a hearing. Stark then “used his full body to push” Zinke's spokeswoman, Heather Swift, as she moved to leave the room, according to the police report cited by the AP. “He is a big guy. He came up behind me fast, aggressive and very physical,” Swift said in a statement...

An operative for a political committee that supports Democrats has been charged with assault following a confrontation with a staffer for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke outside a congressional hearing. Capitol Police charged Wilfred M. Stark, 49, of Falls Church, Virginia, with simple assault following a confrontation with Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for Zinke. Stark works for American Bridge 21st Century, a group that supports Democratic candidates. According to a police report, Stark approached Zinke after a House hearing Thursday and started yelling at him. Zinke continued walking out of the hearing room at the Longworth House Office Building and Stark...