Free Republic

Imagine an election in which the presidential candidate from the opposing party doesn't even appear on the ballots of the most states. Colorado’s Democrats announced that they get to determine who the Republican presidential candidates can and can’t be. California is trying to follow suit. California may be the next state to ban former President Trump from its primary ballot over 14th Amendment concerns. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D) requested Wednesday the state look into “every legal option” to do just that. “Based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling … I urge you to explore every legal option to remove...

Two wolves released on Dec. 19, 2023, in Grand County, Colorado, 2302-OR, a juvenile female, black color, 68 pounds, and 2303-OR, a juvenile male, gray color, 76 pounds, come from the Five Points Pack. According to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Livestock Depredation Investigations, Five Points pack wolves injured one calf and killed another in separate depredations in July of 2023; killed a cow on Dec. 5, 2022; and injured a 900-pound yearling heifer on July 17, 2022. ... On July 21, OFW authorized the killing of up to four wolves from the Five Points Pack after two attacks...

The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday invalidated the state's landmark Climate Protection Program (CPP), which aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel companies by 90 percent by 2050. The state's rulemaking failed to "substantially comply” with the requirements for disclosure when adopting rules under the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, a three-judge panel of the state appeals court said. "We conclude that the CPP rules are invalid," reads the ruling, authored by Judge Jacqueline Kamins. The ruling follows a legal challenge by farmers, fossil fuel companies, and others, and comes as a setback to the Oregon...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch, following the release of the Biden administration’s Columbia River Basin announcement, doubled down in his opposition to dam breaching and reiterated that it is solely Congress that could remove the federal dams in the Columbia-Snake River System. “Congress—and Congress alone—can authorize removal of the dams on the lower Snake River. Bureaucrats, activist litigation, nor this administration’s radical agenda will determine the fate of any of the Northwest’s federal dams,” said Risch. “This litigation effort was useless: It occurred behind closed doors, between two parties who wanted the same end result—to tear out our dams,...

The recent agreement between the Biden Administration and the states of Washington and Oregon and the tribes on dam breaching represents a missed opportunity. Instead of working together to find common ground, the signatories to the agreement pandered to their political supporters and paid no attention to the REAL impacts dam removal would have on Idahoans. As Idaho state leaders, we are united in our strong opposition to removing the dams because it would eliminate a clean source of energy (hydropower) that powers the entire region, harm agriculture, and fundamentally change our economy for the worse. Sustaining healthy salmon and...

The White House has announced that an agreement has been reached with Oregon, Washington, and four Pacific Northwest Native American Tribes regarding the Lower Snake River dams of the Columbia River Basin. The Biden Administration calls the agreement a partnership and says the plans and goals are to “restore wild salmon, expand clean energy production, increase resilience, and provide energy stability” for the region. The Tribes involved in the agreement include the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the...

After years of trying to “protect democracy” and “fortify democracy”, Democrats finally succeeded in Oregon where they banned Republicans from running for office. That’s what the Democrat flavor of democracy looks like. When the Tennessee House of Representatives temporarily expelled two Democrats who had taken part in an insurrection on its grounds, the media quickly turned it into a national story. The move by the Republican majority was an “attack on democracy”. But when the Democrat majority in Oregon banned half the Republican Senate delegation from running for reelection, that has been treated as a local story. And not an...

A federal narcotics agent accused of blowing through a stop sign and hitting and killing a bicyclist while on a surveillance mission in Salem has successfully moved the criminal case from state to federal court. In federal court, he can assert immunity from prosecution on the criminal charge of negligent homicide, a defense not available to him in state court. Lawyers for the state objected to removing the case from Marion County Circuit Court. They argued that the agent’s alleged “grossly negligent actions” were not a necessary part of his federal law enforcement work. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane...

After years of trying to “protect democracy” and “fortify democracy”, Democrats finally succeeded in Oregon where they banned Republicans from running for office. That’s what the Democrat flavor of democracy looks like. When the Tennessee House of Representatives temporarily expelled two Democrats who had taken part in an insurrection on its grounds, the media quickly turned it into a national story. The move by the Republican majority was an “attack on democracy”. But when the Democrat majority in Oregon banned half the Republican Senate delegation from running for reelection, that has been treated as a local story. And not an...

As we discussed yesterday, state and local officials have come up with a new plan to revive the city of Portland. One of the top items on their agenda is to reign in open-air drug use, something the voters of Oregon decriminalized back in 2020. But we may have a ways to go before Portland can be rescued from the poor decision making of its own elected officials, at least we do if this story is any guide. Portland-area law enforcement officials made one of the biggest fentanyl busts in state history last Thursday. At the time it seemed like...

A new report just released by the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has offered shocking new insights into the full extent of the FBI’s efforts to use government power and resources to target, intimidate, and harass Catholics, pro-life activists, and other members of the religious community. The December 4 report found, among other disturbing revelations, that the FBI “abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists” when agency operatives in Richmond, Virginia, circulated a memo designating so-called “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” as potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.” “The Committee and Select Subcommittee...

Passing the bar exam is no longer the only way to become a lawyer in Oregon. Students at the state’s three law school can now bypass the grueling two-day test by logging hundreds of hours at a law firm and then submitting samples of their work for review under a new system approved last week by the Oregon Supreme Court. The Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination makes Oregon the first state in the nation to allow students to become lawyers through a post-graduation apprenticeship, though backers believe it won’t be the last.

The district said it wanted to solve the problem that non-white students were suspended too often, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Black, Native American, and other students of color are referred out of class significantly more often,” the district’s Collective Bargaining Team said in a letter to families last month. “Students receiving special education services also bear the burden of disproportionate discipline. This ‘discipline’ is far from the root of the term ‘discipline’: to instruct, train, and educate,” the letter said. The new collective bargaining agreement requires that when a student exhibits “continuous disruptive behavior,” a “support plan” must be...

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has been working with Idaho Senator Ron Crapo on creating a digital service tax somewhat modeled after Europe. Within Europe there are different models and proposals that target different digital services such as streaming, digital products, software, advertising and collecting consumer information. This means Wyden’s proposal could end up taxing Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Disney+ for providing digital streaming services to customers. This would be an interesting tax question for how it applies to Amazon Prime, which is primarily a delivery discount service that offers free videos and movies as a secondary benefit to signing...

A lawsuit against the city of Newport has caused a ripple affect across Oregon that has municipalities checking their hole card to decide whether they want to heed the advice of their insurer and close public trails or gamble on a legislative fix before their hand is called. “On July 6, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued an opinion affectively ending recreational immunity for improved trails,” according to an assessment by CIS Oregon, the insurance provider for the majority of cities in Oregon. Based on the court’s ruling, CIS advised cities in early November to close improved trails that provide...

Anyone else watch that great UW/UO PAC12 Championship game in Las Vegas tonight?This UW Alum rejoices at the win, onto the College playoffs.Oregon looked good with QB Bo Nix but they just couldn't pull out the win.How about them Huskies!?Watch out Georgia, watch out Michigan, this is the year of the Husky!

Four Northwest Republican lawmakers asked the federal government to share details of “secretive negotiations” between the government and environmental groups that have called for the removal of dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. In a Nov. 20 letter to Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality, the lawmakers reminded the White House that Congress has the authority to weigh in on President Joe Biden’s potential removal of dams in the Columbia River Basin to rebuild salmon runs. “In addition to expecting the immediate transmittal of the proposed USG commitments, we find it necessary to remind you Congress...

Three years after Oregon voted to de-criminalize drug offences - residents are now begging to reverse their decision after seeing an astonishing number of deaths from opioid overdoses. In 2020 - Oregon voters approved a measure to decriminalize the possession of all drugs including heroin and cocaine. The proposal, known as Oregon Ballot Measure 110, passed with 58.8 percent support. Now residents of the liberal state are crying out to their politicians to do something about the open-air drug markets that their cities have turned into. Opioid deaths in Oregon have gone up from 280, before the de-criminalization was voted...

On Tuesday, a judge in Harney County declared that the gun safety law Measure 114 passed by Oregon voters was unconstitutional. Circuit Court Judge Robert S. Raschio imposed a permanent injunction against Measure 114, essentially putting it on hold until further notice. Since M114 was narrowly approved by voters in November 2022 it has been pending in federal and state courts. Under the law a person must pass a gun safety course and have their criminal history checked before they can buy a gun. Also, magazines with a capacity greater than ten rounds are prohibited. Those in support of the...

Oregon’s first-in-the-nation law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs in favor of an emphasis on addiction treatment is facing strong headwinds in the progressive state after an explosion of public drug use fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl and a surge in deaths from opioids, including those of children. “The inability for people to live their day-to-day life without encountering open-air drug use is so pressing on urban folks’ minds,” said John Horvick, vice president of polling firm DHM Research. “That has very much changed people’s perspective about what they think Measure...