Free Republic

On Thursday, the Biden administration restored rules to protect imperiled plants and animals that had been rolled back under former President Trump. Among the changes announced, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened. That means officials won’t have to craft time-intensive plans to shield each individual species while protections are pending, as has been done recently with North American wolverines and alligator snapping turtles in the southeastern U.S. and spotted owls. The blanket protection regulation was dropped in 2019 as part of a suite of changes...

The bar exam will no longer be required to become a lawyer in Washington, the state Supreme Court ruled in a pair of orders Friday. The court approved alternative ways to show competency and earn a law license after appointing a task force to examine the issue in 2020. The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys and is “at best minimally effective” for ensuring competency, according to a news release from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts. Washington is the second state to not require the...

A Fremont Vietnamese restaurant has closed its doors due to a neighbor’s complaints about the restaurant’s smell. Pho Gabo, which operates three locations in the Portland area, has closed its Fremont and Northeast 73rd location indefinitely due to “the city’s and the neighborhood’s complaints about the smell of the food that we grill and the foods that we serve customers,” according to a sign posted to the restaurant’s door. Willamette Week reports that the restaurant has been hit with complaints since September 2022, five years after the restaurant opened. A presumed neighbor has been filing complaints with the city about...

A Thurston County judge ruled against a motion that would bar former President Donald Trump from being on Washington presidential primary ballot. Judge Mary Sue Wilson heard arguments Thursday morning at the county courthouse before deciding the state statute the lawsuit cited in its motion does not apply to her jurisdiction. The motion was filed by a group of eight Kitsap County voters, with their representative arguing to the court that Trump should be disqualified to run for office under a section of the U.S. Constitution due to his involvement with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol....

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Customers are thrilled the original Jim's West Steaks & Hoagies in West Philadelphia is back in business, and they formed a line around the building. "I'm so excited," said Nitah Dunham from West Philadelphia. "The food has always been good." "In my opinion, it's the best cheesesteak in town," said William King from West Philadelphia. But now, customers can expect to see armed agents out front. "The violence has spiked," said Co-owner Cortez Johnson. "It goes up and down. You want people to feel safe and be safe. So when they come out and eat, they don't...

Please watch to the end. The officer used a very creative way to flush out the teen car theives.

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. – San Juan County has announced that it is adopting a 32-hour work week for its employees. The County lists fiscal health, staffing challenges and the well-being of islanders as the reasons for the change, citing a 10 to 15 percent job vacancy rate across many key departments. They aim to hold wages and productivity constant while reducing the work week by eight hours for union workers. County officials say it comes as an alternative to the “last resort” option of increasing taxes as the island struggles to remain a competitive employer. The schedule change will take...

I saw this interview of Paul Tibbets who piloted the plane that did it. Interesting (to me at least) what led up to August 6 for him with the B-29's development and his preparation for the bomb drop. These are about 20 minutes each. Part 1 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG2n3EmNtqY&t=159s Part 2 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelE357z58M

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s underage accuser was much younger at the time of their relationship than was first thought, her father tells The Chronicle. Some in the public discourse pegged the accusor at 17 years old. That is inaccurate. “She was much, much younger than that,” the wealthy Canadian businessman told The Chronicle yesterday. He was not a party to the $2.25 million mutual non-disclosure non-disparagement agreement that she signed, in exchange for her continued silence, on the Wednesday evening of October 9th. The terms of that agreement prevent both the accuser and Trudeau from acknowledging “any aspect” of that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz19y9a9bsQ

John Kerry attended the Coronation wearing medals. I thought he threw these over the White House fence

Bill Gates, who takes frequent flights on private jets, is funding another venture to address the problem of methane emissions from cow burps. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a $4.8 million grant this month to London-based Zelp, a company developing a face mask for cattle designed to capture the methane produced by animal burps and turn it into carbon dioxide. Cutting Edge Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the gas coming out the back end of a cow that’s a problem for the planet. Most of a bovine’s methane is belched. According to Zelp’s website, a device attached...

A Gillette woman won an argument with her boyfriend last week by dropping him off at the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, where authorities arrested him on three outstanding warrants. A 27-year-old woman on Feb. 27 was driving her car while her 32-year-old boyfriend, Levi Wazelle, yelled at her, according to the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office. Lt. Paul Pownall told Cowboy State Daily that Wazelle was yelling at the woman and would not get out of her car – so she drove him to the sheriff’s office. While the girlfriend met with deputies, Wazelle fled on foot. There were three municipal...

As more wind farms are being planned and constructed across southern Wyoming, more people are raising concerns about the impact to wildlife, especially eagles. Mike Lockhart, a wildlife biologist specializing in eagles who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years, told Cowboy State Daily the impacts to eagle populations from Wyoming’s wind farms is being underreported and downplayed. The projects now in development include the Boswell Springs Wind Project, the Two Rivers Wind Project, the Rail Tie Project, and the Rock Creek I and Rock Creek II projects, and the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre...

Dubbed the “dirtiest player” in the NFL over his 10-year career with three teams, Conrad Dobler, 72, died Monday in Pueblo, Colorado. After a standout career playing for the University of Wyoming from 1969-71, Dobler was a fifth-round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals. He started all but four of the 129 games he played over a decade in the NFL for the Cardinals, New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills, and was named to three Pro Bowls. He also earned a reputation of doing whatever it took to protect his quarterback – whether it was allowed within the rules or...

A man serving between 50 years and life in the Wyoming prisons system for murdering a man and confining and sexually assaulting a woman is suing the director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections and certain staffers for taking away his PlayStation and not giving it back. John Hereford, 34, is an inmate at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, according to a legal complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming. Started With A Shakedown Hereford alleges that he was subject to an “all facilities shakedown” search the evening of June 15, 2021. A detention staffer told...

Dood Jaussaud may have been born decades too late. Instead of being a tech junkie and up on the latest trends, the 22-year-old Thermopolis police officer lives vicariously in the past – at least as far as what he drives is concerned. Three years ago, Jaussaud began working on a classic 1957 Chevy Bel Air he bought in Columbus, Montana. Then earlier this year, Jaussaud was tipped off about a guy who might have some parts for his Chevy. “I got ahold of this guy, and he goes, ‘I don’t know anything about cars, and I don’t really have parts,...

The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing a new rule that would require all commercial trucks used for interstate commerce to install tracking devices that would transmit location data and other personal information to police whenever law enforcement requests it. Roger King, owner of Cowboy State Trucking in Kemmerer, said it’s hard enough to find drivers, and putting federal tracking devices on trucks would be one more reason for people to find other jobs. “Nobody likes Big Brother looking at your every move,” King said in reference to the government surveillance figure in the George Orwell novel “1984.” King said...

Biden’s war on fossil fuels may reduce funding for America’s national parks, according to the Western Energy Alliance, a nonprofit energy industry association for the U.S. West. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), which was passed in August 2020, provides $1.9 billion for public lands and national park restoration, primarily from onshore oil and gas development on federal lands. The act combined the restoration and Land and Water Conservation funds, which supplies $900 million in matching grant money for state and local parks. No Federal Oil Biden campaigned on a promise that he was going to eliminate the oil industry,...