Free Republic

Hundreds of Amazon employees briefly walked off the job Wednesday, calling on the company to reconsider its return-to-office mandate and curb its greenhouse gas emissions. Outside Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, standing underneath a banner that urged the company to stop its “short-term thinking,” Pamela Hayter told her colleagues she wasn’t nervous about speaking out anymore. “We’re here today because it’s the right thing to do,” the Seattle-based program manager said. “I’ve not been nervous. I’ve been fired up.” On Wednesday, nearly 2,000 Amazon employees joined the walkout, according to organizers who gathered pledges before action took place. Of those pledges, roughly...

The Supreme Court on Thursday established a more stringent test to determine whether the Clean Water Act applies to a wetland. The ruling was a setback for the Environmental Protection Agency and a victory for an Idaho couple, Michael and Chantell Sackett, who have been battling with the federal government for over 15 years in their efforts to build a house on an empty lot near a large lake.

Smithers' remains were discovered on April 27, 2023 in a wooded area in Stroudsburg approximately 30 miles from the Kohbergers’ home. The parents of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger have reportedly been called to testify in the case of a 45-year-old Pennsylvania woman who disappeared in 2022 and was later found dead in the same county where he lived. According to the Daily Mail, Michael and Maryann Kohberger are scheduled to appear in front of a grand jury in connection with the May 28, 2022 disappearance of 45-year-old Dana Smithers. Investigators are looking to determine if the Kohbergers’ son was...

A judge on Monday entered not guilty pleas for the man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death last year. Bryan Kohberger, 28, has been charged with burglary and four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the November 2022 deaths. He declined to enter pleas on his own, and the judge in Latah County District Court entered them on his behalf. Kohberger, who was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University at the time of the killings, was arrested and charged last year and indicted by a grand jury last week.

Extremism is when someone is so invested in their rigid belief in a cause or ideology that they reject any other viewpoint and are willing to use abusive and harmful tactics to shut down those they believe to be in their way. Aggressive defense of their ideology may include violence to enforce their belief system.

The new BLM rule introducing so-called conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s vehicle for locking up federal property. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to fundamentally reshape how public lands are managed without congressional approval. In March, the agency unveiled a sweeping proposal to establish a framework for “conservation leases” that places a newfound priority on preservation. The new Public Lands Rule presents a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” Congress outlined for the agency in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). New Rules Are a ‘Game Changer’.. FLPMA requires federal lands...

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) doesn’t seem very interested in hearing from constituents who live near public land. On Wednesday, the agency released its schedule for a tour of Western high mountain states during which BLM officials will present sweeping new regulations on public lands. The proposed Public Lands Rule, published at the end of March, threatens to undermine the multiple use mandate and jeopardizes grazing rights for ranchers. The bureau, which manages 245 million acres primarily across 12 Western states, is preparing to implement conservation leasing and cut off ranchers’ access to public lands.The states to entertain a...

It was a dream come true—or rather about to come true—when the Halls bought their forever home. It had everything they needed and more: five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a family room, a dining room, a roomy garage, good schools, and a good neighborhood. Sure, a fixer-upper, but they felt up to it. Prentiss Hall, a home improvement contractor, made it his life project, and everybody lent a hand—his wife, Tawanda, and six children, cousins, and friends. “We were really excited,” Tawanda told The Epoch Times. They negotiated the price down to $67,000—a bargain, perhaps, but the home demanded a daunting...

Illinois, New York and California continued their streak as the nation’s biggest losers of residents and their wealth to other states, according to a Wirepoints analysis of newly-released Internal Revenue Service migration data. Texas and Florida continued to be the nation’s big winners.The latest IRS state-by-state migration data is based on tax returns filed in 2020 and 2021, covering taxpayers (tax filers and their dependents) who moved from one state to another between 2019 and 2020 (see appendix for changes in our reporting methodology). Florida, the nation’s perennial winner, gained in 2020 the most net people, 256,000, and the most...

A new group is taking shape in Idaho to push back on what they call “extremism” and “political violence.” Idaho Leaders United refers to their business members as “messengers,” and calls on these messengers to help end political speech the group does not approve of. Their website explains, “ILU messengers leverage their personal and professional networks to speak out against bigoted and violent appeals and remind fellow Idahoans that we are better off when we work together across divides without resorting to extremism.” Leaders of the group include Tommy Ahlquist – CEO BVA Development, Doug Gross – Gross Farms, Odette...

BOISE, Idaho (LifeSiteNews) — The governor of Idaho has signed into law a bill law prohibits so-called “gender transitions” for minors in his state. On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Brad Little signed the Vulnerable Child Protection Act in a major victory for children and families, effectively banning the use of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and mutilating surgeries in the name of “gender affirmation.” “These experimental, irreversible, and medically unnecessary pharmaceutical and surgical interventions violate the Hippocratic oath, taken by physicians for millennia, to ‘do no harm’,” the bill states. “Therefore, the state of Idaho has a compelling government interest in...

An Idaho couple convicted of starving their adopted daughter before she went into cardiac arrest won’t serve any prison time for the sickening crime, a judge reportedly ruled last week. Byron and Gwendalyn Buthman were slapped with four years of probation and 300 hours of community service last Tuesday by Judge Darla Williamson, who ruled that jail time would hurt the four adoptive kids they still have. The judge additionally withheld judgment, which means if the couple follows the rules of probation their conviction could be vacated — a ruling that led to some gasps in the courtroom, the Idaho...

Bryan Kohberger’s two sisters were fired from their jobs over their familial relationship with their alleged killer brother, according to a report. Melissa and Amanda Kohberger were canned in the months after their brother’s arrest for the quadruple slayings of four University of Idaho students last year, NewsNation reported. “Both of Kohberger’s parents are retired and I’m told the family is in very, very bad shape financially right now especially because the sisters are now unemployed,” anchor Dan Abrams said Monday. Kohberger was given a television inside his private cell and has the freedom to choose what he watches.

Smart Growth is a set of principles that guides development into more compact, interconnected, mixed use patterns. This pattern produces more vibrant communities, healthier land and has proven to be more sustainable. Smart growth development has been shown to reduce the number of miles that people travel by vehicle every day and it has also proven to use less energy overall than more sprawling communities. Compact development does not mean exclusively high-rise or even uniform high density. It does mean higher average densities from a mix of housing types. Compact development features a mix of land uses, strong population and...

Thomas Francis holds up the record pike he pulled from Hayden Lake on Tuesday. Photo by Taylor Hale. Thomas Francis knew it was no ordinary pike at the end of his line in Hayden Lake on Tuesday. “It was like a freight train,” he said. “She hit it good.” He was used to catching 20 or 30 pounders and they put up a good fight. But this was different. “She dug herself into the bottom and didn’t want to come up,” Francis said. Slowly, she did. In another five minutes, the pike was netted and on board. Francis took...

It’s been 30 years since the ATF-FBI siege on the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas in 1993. The government siege led to a massacre of 76 people including 25 children. The deadly assault on David Koresh’s Branch Davidian compound took place from February 28 through April 19, 1993, over suspected weapons violations. The ATF had attempted to raid the compound and a gun battle ensued, leaving four government agents and six Branch Davidians dead. For the next 50 days, the government would use psychological warfare, such as playing the sound of animals being slaughtered, until ultimately the compound was...

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., joined forces with 18 GOP governors to reject President Joe Biden's environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) "agenda," claiming the push is a "direct threat" to the economic freedom of American retirees. Governors in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming formed the alliance Thursday in what they described as an effort to ensure American retirement funds are not used for "woke" investments. "Yet again, President Biden put his political agenda above the wellbeing and individual freedoms of hardworking Americans,"...

Republicans in the Idaho legislature are looking to approve a resolution that would ask President Joe Biden, as well as Congress, to flood the United States labor market with more foreign workers as well as to grant an amnesty that would give green cards to millions of illegal aliens holding American jobs. A resolution, authored by State Sen. Jim Guthrie (R) and cosponsored by State Sens. Treg Bernt (R), Linda Hartgen (R), and Chuck Winder (R), asks the federal government to stem the flow of illegal immigration by requiring E-Verify for employers, among other things, while also expanding the number...

Just when we thought the Idaho Senate couldn’t get any more left-of-center, two actions on Monday make us reconsider. One has to do with illegal immigration, and the other has the state funding abortions, transgender “medicine,” and social justice. First, immigration: Last Friday, when most in the Idaho Legislature took time off to honor the life of former Governor Phil Batt, a handful of legislators pushed through a resolution calling for amnesty for illegal immigrants! Sens. Treg Bernt, Linda Hartgen, Chuck Winder, and Reps. Judy Boyle, Chenele Dixon, Rod Furniss, Stephanie Mickelsen, Jack Nelson, and Jerald Raymond co-sponsored Senate Joint...

School leaders in rural northwest Oregon are worried about big budget cuts. The Oregon Department of Forestry is working on a plan to protect habitats for endangered species across 640,000 acres of state forest. The loss of timber revenue will affect local schools. The Jewell School District expects to be the most heavily impacted because it gets almost all of its funding from timber revenue. It could see budget cuts of 40 percent. The Jewell School District has about 150 students and a budget of $5 million. District superintendent Cory Pederson estimates the cuts will bring his annual budget down...