Free Republic

According to an email sent May 13, 2025, by Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Gibbs, Nicole Rosmarino is the sole finalist for the director of the State Land Board, which is the state’s second largest landowner with 2.8 million surface acres and 4 million mineral estate acres. Gibbs said, per statute, the board provides public notice for 14 days prior to a formal appointment which will occur at the next regularly scheduled public board meeting, which is June 11 and 12 in Denver. An email sent to DNR confirmed the hire Friday. The mission of the State Land Board...

Washington — The Trump administration on Monday urged a federal district court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration's actions expanding access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing with the U.S. district court in Amarillo, Texas, that the three states pursuing the lawsuit — Missouri, Idaho and Kansas — should not be able to do so in that court. The administration is pursuing a request initially made by the Biden administration last year in the closely watched challenge to mifepristone, a drug used to terminate an early pregnancy, that...

House Republicans are planning to include several of President Trump’s campaign promises in the first draft of the bill, which they hope to release soon.It was easy to miss, but last weekend President Trump floated a fundamental rewrite of the American tax code. In a social media post, and again in remarks to reporters, Mr. Trump suggested the United States could stop taxing income under $200,000 and instead rely on revenue from his extensive tariffs. “It’ll take a little while before we do that, but we’re going to be cutting taxes, and it’s possible we’ll do a complete tax cut,”...

If you watched Donald Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, you may have seen Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hold up a photo of the Maude family of South Dakota. I'd heard a little bit about the fifth-generation ranching family before that, but I decided to learn more because I couldn't believe the story Rollins told about how the Joe Biden administration treated them. It's unbelievable. Or maybe it's not, given all we're learning about the last four years. ... Trump Admin is reversing Biden-era failures in 100 days! The U.S. Gov has dropped charges against the Maude family, victims of...

(College Station, T.X., April 29, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins today announced a second round of payments coming this week for specialty crop producers through the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program, providing up to $1.3 billion in additional program assistance. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) already delivered just under $900 million in first round payments to eligible producers.

Governor Brad Little signed an executive order that aims to ramp up timber harvests during a visit to Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday. Titled the “Make Forests Healthy Again Act,” the executive order directs the Idaho Department of Lands to expand on its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk in Idaho’s federally managed forest lands. Active management activities include “increasing timber harvest, restoring watersheds to support the industry, protecting communities, and making our forests healthier, more resilient and resistant to catastrophic wildfire,” said IDL director Dustin Miller. Sixty percent of Idaho’s land is owned and managed by...

An Idaho woman filed a notice of tort claim Monday with the Kootenai County clerk saying county officials and others violated her constitutional rights when she was removed from a town hall meeting in February. “Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech,” Teresa Borrenpohl said in a press release. The tort claim says Borrenpohl is seeking damages of at least $5 million. Wendy Olson, an attorney for Borrenpohl, said...

City prosecutors have filed criminal charges against six men involved in a chaotic legislative town hall, including the private security guards who dragged a Post Falls woman out of the Coeur d’Alene High School auditorium. Paul Trouette, Russell Dunne, Christofer Berg and Jesse Jones, all of whom are associated with the security firm Lear Asset Management, are charged with the misdemeanor crimes of battery and false imprisonment. The five men and Alex Trouette were also cited for security agent uniform violations and security agent duties violations. Post Falls resident Michael Keller is also charged with battery, a misdemeanor. The charges...

Vermont socialist has spent millions on private jet travel over the years.. Sen. Bernie Sanders has crisscrossed the country on his nationwide Fighting Oligarchy Tour to rail against billionaires and supposed "oligarchs" like Elon Musk—while traveling like an oligarch himself. Campaign expenditures released Tuesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show Sanders's main campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spent $221,723 chartering private jets during the first quarter of 2025, with the first payment coming just days before the launch of his tour in February. "We will not accept a rigged economy where working people struggle while billionaires become...

The Defender’s Big Pharma Watch delivers the latest headlines related to pharmaceutical companies and their products, including vaccines, drugs, and medical devices and treatments. The views expressed in the below excerpts from other news sources do not necessarily reflect the views of The Defender. Our goal is to provide readers with breaking news that affects human health and the environment.Idaho Capital Sun reported: Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill to let ivermectin be sold as an over-the-counter medicine — without a prescription or consultation with a health care professional. Typically used to treat parasites in humans, ivermectin...

Idaho’s chief lawyer has asked the city of Boise to comply with a new law that limits what flags may be flown by government buildings and warned that the state may try to withhold sales tax revenues if the city refuses. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador wrote a letter to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean on Tuesday requesting that she take down the prohibited flags outside city hall — as of Wednesday morning, the city displayed a Pride flag and a flag honoring organ and tissue donors, along with an American flag, city of Boise flag, state of Idaho flag and...

WEST LA FAYETTE, Ind. — A crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 people turned out to hear Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk speak on Thursday at Purdue University, with many eager to ask the conservative commentator a question. Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of the conservative student group, visited West La Fayette as part of his “American Comeback Tour.” The tour included stops this week at Illinois State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A campus police officer provided The College Fix with an estimate on attendance near the end of the event. Hundreds of students lined...

Republican Idaho Governor Brad Little passed a law last week granting judges and juries the power to sentence convicted pedophiles to the death penalty. The news came a month after Little made firing squads the Gem State’s primary method of execution for child sex abusers. Upon ratifying the legislation, Little said: “Just like capital murder destroys lives, aggravated sexual abuse of a young child devastates victims and families for generations. The sexual abuse of children is sickening and evil, and perpetrators convicted of these crimes deserve the ultimate punishment.” Idaho House Bill 380, sponsored by Republican state Reps. Bruce Skaug...

An Idaho gun owner from Kuna was found not guilty by a jury of his peers recently in a case that some are questioning why the gun owner was charged in the first place. What’s Happening: Theron Cameron, a Blackhawk helicopter pilot who does search and rescue missions, a combat veteran, and former sheriff’s deputy, rushed to his child’s bus stop after his wife called, terrified. A man had attempted to kill himself and was threatening kids and Theron’s wife, according to testimony in court. Theron eventually drew his weapon in a low-ready stance after the man was running at...

MERIDIAN, Idaho — On Saturday at approximately 1 p.m., a protest in front of the Tesla dealership on Franklin Road in Meridian turned violent when one protester struck another counterprotester with their vehicle. According to a release from the Meridian Police Department, 70-year-old Christopher Talbot of Meridian made an "obscene gesture" towards a 49-year-old before hitting the same person with their car. The victim had just parked his truck, which was adorned with pro-Trump flags, and exited the vehicle when Talbot hit him with his car. After being hit, the 49-year-old transported himself to a nearby hospital, where he was...

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill into law on Thursday requiring public schools in the state to utilize a prenatal development educational curriculum in their classrooms. Idaho is the third state to implement a prenatal development curriculum, following North Dakota and Tennessee. Currently, 20 states are considering similar legislation, despite pushback from pro-abortion groups such as SIECUS and Planned Parenthood — with the latter claiming that prenatal development education for teens could “stigmatize” abortion. According to the law — Human Growth and Development Instruction in Public Schools — the curriculum will “include instruction on human growth and development” to...

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 59 into law on Wednesday — a measure that would safeguard conscience rights for pro-life medical professionals. The bill, which had been sent to the governor’s desk earlier in the month, aims to protect healthcare professionals from being compelled to perform non-emergency procedures like abortions that conflict with their religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. Supporters argue that it safeguards the conscience rights of medical providers. The Medical Ethics Defense Act applies to a wide range of healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and psychologists. Under the new law, these professionals cannot be forced...

One of the coeds butchered at the University of Idaho in 2022 had DNA from three different people under her fingernails, according to bombshell newly unsealed court documents. However, lawyers for murder suspect Bryan Kohberger say a test to match the traces to their client came back with inconclusive results. As a result, the evidence should be excluded from his trial, they argued in a court filing that was made public on Tuesday The samples taken from the fingernails of 23-year-old Madison Mogen offer yet another twist in the case of the four students who were horrifically stabbed to death...

Canadian wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and central Idaho in 1996 — but within a few years their territory and numbers had greatly expanded, along with their negative impact on livestock and elk herds.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A legislative town hall meeting hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) descended into violence on Saturday when three unmarked men forcibly removed a woman from the auditorium. Leading to her receiving a citation which has since been rescinded. The Coeur d'Alene Police confirmed Lear Asset Management was the company that employed those three men. Teresa Borrenpohl was at Coeur d'Alene High School, where Republican legislators had gathered to provide updates on the current legislative session. The KCRCC and the Coeur d'Alene Police confirmed that the KCRCC hired the private security company. According to...