Free Republic

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...

A bombshell report from the America First Policy Institute has exposed a staggering $100 million in foreign dark money laundered through the Sixteen Thirty Fund to bankroll radical ballot initiatives across 25 states. The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a notorious hub for progressive causes, has been caught funneling foreign cash into state ballot measures targeting divisive issues like abortion, election law, and drug policy. According to the America First Policy Institute: Non-citizens can influence U.S. elections and domestic policy through donations to ballot initiatives. Instead of the ballot initiative process being decided by state residents who are affected by the result,...

The Keystone Pipeline in North Dakota was shut down Tuesday morning after reports of a "bang" and spilled oil, according to officials. In the hours before 7:45 a.m. local time, an employee at a pump station "heard what was described as a mechanical bang," Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager with North Dakota's Department of Environmental Quality, told CBS. The cause of the ruptured pipe and the volume of spilled oil was not immediately clear. He added that the unidentified employee then shut down the pipeline and notified emergency personnel and it was then isolated with containment resource deployed to...

A fire blazing at a Tesla charging station in Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday is believed to be intentionally set, the city’s battalion chief said. Acts of domestic terrorism against Tesla continue despite the federal government threatening arsonists and vandals with heavy prison fines. Fargo firefighters, who responded to a 3:15 a.m. fire at the Tesla charging station in the parking lot of Scheels on 45th Street South, revealed they found burned wood chips and a gas can near the scene of the incident, according to a report by InForum. One of the charging stations was smoking while a small...

While Greenpeace denied it played more than a peripheral role in the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the pipeline owner claimed the group organized a campaign of misinformation and direct training to the protesters... ANorth Dakota jury on Wednesday found Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages over its role in months-long protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. After two days of deliberation, the New York Times reported, the jury returned the verdict. Energy Transfer, the owner and operator of the pipeline, filed the lawsuit in North Dakota state court against...

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota jury on Wednesday found Greenpeace liable for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The nine-person jury awarded Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts. When asked if Greenpeace plans to appeal, Senior Legal Adviser Deepa Padmanabha said, “We know that this fight is not over.” Padmanabha added that...

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Senate on Thursday rejected a measure that would have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. A vote to approve would have made North Dakota the first state to make such an overture to the high court, after the state House passed the measure last month. The resolution failed in a 16-31 Senate vote after about 10 minutes of debate. Democratic Sen. Josh Boschee said in opposition, “I understand that this puts us all in a tough spot, but I ask you to think...

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) took a hard fall in his home state after slipping on ice Sunday, suffering “a severe concussion, a seizure, and a slight brain bleed,” and is taking it “day to day” before returning to his congressional duties. Cramer, 64, revealed in a Monday Facebook post that he slipped on a frozen hill in his backyard while doing some cleanup around his lake house. “While walking on the hill down to the dock, I stepped on ice and evidently fell hard, hitting the back of my head,” he said. The Republican said he blacked out until he...

There is a private property rights battle brewing in rural parts of southeastern Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma and portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska and five Tribal Nations. The U.S. Department of Energy has plans to establish the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors or NIETCs, in these areas and the corridors span five to 15 miles in width. If approved, in New Mexico about 2 million acres of mostly private property would be transferred to the control of the federal government potentially via eminent domain. In Colorado, farmers, ranchers and rural residents stand to lose control of 325,000 acres in...

The state of North Dakota will keep fighting in court to uphold its abortion ban that saves babies from abortions. Yesterday, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that the state’s abortion ban will remain unenforced while the state appeals a prior decision declaring the law unconstitutional. This decision means that, for now, abortions in North Dakota are permitted only in cases where the life of the mother in in jeopardy and must be performed in a hospital setting. The legal journey of North Dakota’s abortion legislation has been complex. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v....

With all this talk about the Chinese government infiltrating the United States through TikTok, many have asked: Aren't the Chinese already doing so through the purchase of U.S. farmland? About a year and a half ago, Georgia Rep. Mike Collins delivered a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives, citing a 2021 report that China owned 384,000 acres of American agricultural land at that time — a 30% jump between 2019 and 2020 — and some of that land surrounded an Air Force base in North Dakota, making it a clear threat to national security. Grand Forks, N.D., apparently ended...

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee pushed the confirmation hearing scheduled for Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum from Tuesday to Thursday because the chamber has yet to receive required ethics paperwork. Sen. Mike Lee, the panel’s chairman, said Mr. Burgum promptly submitted his paperwork to the Office of Government Ethics, which has yet to complete its review. “This bureaucratic delay is unacceptable,” the Utah Republican said. “To ensure transparency and uphold the integrity of this process, the committee will postpone Governor Burgum’s hearing until Thursday. However, we expect OGE to act with urgency and complete its review without further...

At least 17 military bases adjacent to Chinese-owned farmland across the US have experienced a rash of drone sightings in recent weeks... Mysterious drones have been reported near military bases in Hawaii and by installations in Utah, California, Maine and Florida — among other facilities scattered throughout the country. The Post previously identified 19 military bases that lie in close proximity to farmland bought up by Chinese-owned companies — a situation that has worried China analysts, who feared the Communist country would use the land to spy on US military operations. All of those facilities apart from Grand Forks Air...

The Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua has now made its mark in 17 US states after at least one member was arrested in one of the smallest and most remote states in the US. Local cops in West Fargo, North Dakota, arrested Dallas-based suspected gang member Henry Theis, 25, early last month, according to local news reports. Police originally pulled over Theis for a broken taillight, but soon discovered more than $24,000 in cash he allegedly stole from a nearby bank, two facemasks, black latex gloves, wires and a computer keyboard, according to KXLG.

Both Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump want to revive the long-dead cross-border Keystone XL pipeline project, but is that feasible? A major challenge in resuscitating the project will be ginning up enough political will and corporate determination to wade through the legal and regulatory requirements to begin construction, not to mention tackling the growing anti-fossil fuel advocacy across the continent. Former owner TC Energy terminated the project in June 2021. The pipeline system is now part of the spinoff company South Bow, and that adds to the challenges of resurrecting the Keystone XL expansion. On Nov....

MOORHEAD — A warrant filed in Clay County Seventh District Court for the suspect in the death of a 14-year-old Moorhead girl earlier this week showed the two were quarreling over a recently-ended romantic relationship before he stabbed her multiple times. About 90 minutes later Walker's mother filed a missing person report with Moorhead police and directed officers to look for her daughter in a wooded area near a bike trail on Elm Street and Sixth Avenue using Snapchat location services. Officers found Walker's body in that location. There were "substantial sharp force injuries to her back, torso and neck,"...

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Rick Becker, the driver of the statewide measure to essentially abolish property taxes, said he sees the fundraising efforts of the “vote yes” and “vote no” camps as a classic David-and-Goliath matchup. Supporters of Measure 4 have raised just over $105,000 for a group called End The Unfair Property Tax. The coalition opposed to Measure 4, Keep It Local, has raised more than $1.8 million, according to campaign finance reports available as of early Friday afternoon. Becker described the donors supporting Measure 4 as “regular North Dakota folks.” [snip] Education-related groups have made the...

Voters in North Dakota have a chance to put an end to property taxes. A ballot measure in North Dakota will give voters a choice to end property taxes in the Peace Garden State. Steve Moen, one of the many voices calling for property taxes to be abolished, shared, “The way our taxes are going, if this doesn’t pass, there’s going to be a lot of elderly citizens losing their homes.” Rick Becker, the chair of the organization, that helped put the measure on North Dakota’s state ballot, shared, “property taxes are the most egregious and least moral of all...

WEST FARGO, ND — Prosecutors say a West Fargo Teacher will not face charges after fatally shooting a man in self-defense.The decision to not charge Donald Barron in the shooting was made public in a memorandum released to WDAY Radio. The August 17th shooting was detailed in the document, which describes 25-year-old Austin Strom attempting to gain access to Prairie Heights Church. Strom was confronted by 66-year-old Kent Hodges, who recorded the incident. Authorities say the cell-phone video ends when Strom attacked Hodges.Barron was parked in a nearby parking lot when the attack began according to authorities. Sometime during the...

'There still remains significant gaps in our national security screening regime for land purchases,' lawmakers say.. China and other foreign adversaries are still permitted to purchase U.S. land near sensitive Coast Guard facilities, ports, and Energy Department labs, exposing national security gaps that lawmakers say enable hostile regimes to conduct espionage operations on American soil. The Treasury Department's Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the central body responsible for approving land sales to foreign entities, moved to "significantly expand" its jurisdiction in July, allowing it to review real estate transactions near 50 military and other sensitive sites....