Free Republic

A federal biologist yesterday denied any attempt to skew results of a survey for threatened wild lynx as outrage mounted in Congress over hair samples from captive cats sent to a lab. The surveys are used by federal scientists looking for the presence of wild Canada lynx, a threatened species that came under federal protection in March 2000. In turn, the survey helps determine whether logging and wintertime motorized recreation should be restricted to protect the animals. Two congressmen yesterday called for immediate termination of the seven employees involved, an investigation of the incident by the General Accounting Office and ...

PORTLAND — A draft proposal by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden would set aside $175 million over five years as a long-term solution to help fix the Klamath Basin's water woes. The Oregon Democrat said he is in touch with California's senators about trying to attach it to a major farm bill this week. The proposal was circulated privately last week to congressional offices and interest groups for comment. According to a copy obtained by Newhouse News Service, the plan would create an interagency task force charged with developing, within six months, a comprehensive plan for agriculture and wildlife in the ...

This week, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration banned all food manufactured with hemp grain, delivering a shocking blow to consumers and producers of hemp foods. According to DEA notices published in the Federal Register on October 9, 2001, any product that contains any amount of THC is, and always has been, a Schedule I controlled substance. The DEA published this notice as an "interpretive rule", not as a new rule, thereby bypassing the usual requirement for public notice and comment. The DEA is stating that hemp food products have always been illegal and that they are just clarifying that fact ...

In his latest videotaped announcement, terrorist Osama bin Laden leaves little room for anyone to still imagine he played no role in the ruthless New York and Pentagon massacres of September 11, of his fanatical justification for and lack of regret for the outcome, or of his intention to continue recruiting the misguided faithful to his banner, the better to conduct his ongoing jihad against all Americans, and all things American. "This is America filled with fear from the north to south and east to west, thank God," bin Laden says. "There are civilians, innocent children being killed every day ...

Hundreds of thousands of acres of the Klamath Valley in southwest Oregon have gone without irrigation water this summer; most of the 1,500 affected farm families have suffered total crop loss and those losses may total $250 million -- dwarfing a $20 million emergency federal aid package. But the problem isn't drought -- there's plenty of water behind the dam which the federal government built in 1909, thereafter holding "land lotteries" for veterans of both the First and Second World Wars, encouraging the winners to settle the valley and set up farms by signing contracts which promised irrigation water would ...

Big spenders spot their chance Statists race to dance on convenient pile of corpses Even the $15 billion "bailout" of the American airline industry following the savage attacks of September 11 is hardly an unalloyed example of economic wisdom and common sense. Already economically troubled, "Lucky were the airlines to be a convenient and plausible object of pity just as Washington was casting around for a way to seem in charge and armed with bottomless resources from saving the economy," mused Holman W. Jenkins Jr. in his "Business World" column in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. "What are our policy ...

Rules of Engagement: Don't disarm Soldiers on the Battlefield (Defensive Battle Plans for the Next War) by J.J. Johnson 09.14.01 As we're still digging bodies from the rubble, we are asked to come together as a people. We are asked to stand behind our leadership and show a united front. The Federal Aviation Administration has laid out new guidelines for airport and aircraft security. As a frequent flyer, it is obvious the FAA took no input from those with the most experience - air travelers. The knee-jerk reaction of the FAA shows a pattern of arrogance and ignorance that ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Marijuana is as much a part of Jamaica's culture as reggae and Blue Mountain coffee, and a national group wants it to become just as legitimate. The aptly named National Commission for Ganja — the Hindi word for marijuana — has recommended that the government legalize the private use and possession of small amounts of marijuana. Between 20 and 40 percent of the country's 2.6 million people are believed to smoke marijuana, many openly. "It is a welcome step, but it is far short for a country where thousands of people use ganja," said Paul Burke, a ...

Petitions and politics were almost as prominent as silk marijuana leis at the 10th annual Hempfest at Myrtle Edwards Park yesterday. Seattle's Hempfest, a celebration of hemp and a marijuana-legalization rally, has become the largest event to promote drug-policy changes in the nation, according to organizers. They expected more than 100,000 people over the weekend festival. Last year's attendance was about 90,000. With the increased crowds came increased calls to relax the rules on pot. Among the most prominent was Initiative 73, which would make arresting and prosecuting adults possessing less than 40 grams of marijuana the Seattle Police Department's ...

At the gates July 15/16: The water was flowing when we arrived Sunday evening. Sign on the fence of the FedGov Compound. Above: FedGov agents on display in their compound. Monday morning -- the Feds want to inspect the farmers' pumping equipment, to make sure no suckerfish can get through the screen. One of the farmers remarks that the power company turbines at the dam don't have any screens at all and fish are shredded in them all the time. Also, someone mentions that the power company has a contract to supply power to the farmers to run their ...

Klamath refuges go thirsty Critical wetlands for migrating birds are drying up at alarming rates Friday, July 13, 2001 By Michael Milstein of The Oregonian staff TULELAKE, Calif. As supervisor of the renowned national wildlife refuges of the Klamath Basin, home to bald eagles, sandhill cranes and myriad waterfowl, Phil Norton now has the task of managing some of America's premier wetlands "without the wet part." Although they're a first stop for birds and birders along the great western migration corridor known as the Pacific Flyway, the 180,000 acres of federal refuges that straddle the Oregon-California border are last in ...

The purpose of the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act seemed clear enough to the sponsors -- Congress merely sought to bar public schools from releasing students' academic records to third parties without parental consent. At least, that's what the congressmen thought their bill was for. But that was before the trial lawyers got involved. Now comes the question: If teachers ask kids to pass their papers to each other after snap quizzes in the classroom, instructing each child to grade the paper of his or her neighbor, does that constitute a "release of academic records" in violation of ...

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - Farmland here is so dry it crumbles like old cement, but tensions in this drought-desiccated valley are boiling over. Three times in five days last week, protesters frustrated at the government's refusal to release irrigation water from nearby Upper Klamath Lake used saws or a blowtorch to open headgates and release water from behind a dam. Meanwhile, residents unsuccessfully begged reluctant county officials to pass unorthodox laws to wrest more control of water from Washington, D.C. The FBI is in town. County commissioners are worried. The sympathetic sheriff is under fire for not taking action. And ...

TULELAKE, Calif. - Instead of potatoes and mint, many of the fields here sprout weeds and pointed signs: "No Water. No Farms. No Food." "Federally Created Disaster Area." In the Klamath Basin along Oregon's border with California, the feds have done what once was unthinkable: In a drought-year effort to protect endangered and threatened fish, the Bureau of Reclamation shut off 80 percent of the irrigation water that flows to some 1,200 farms. The cutoff has hit with sledgehammer force in small farm communities sagging from years of low crop prices, and residents feel betrayed. "Klamath Basin people are the ...

Even liberal Michael Kinsley, formerly of the New Republic and now editor of "Slate," expresses astonishment at the way the Republican Party -- onetime purported champion of limited government -- is going along with the heavy-handed notion of a "Patients' Bill of Rights." "Republican complaints about the Democratic bill are limited to the issue of lawsuits. It's hilarious -- and, I suppose, inspiring -- that no major Republican is out there saying, 'No. This violates my most basic free-market principles. Insurers should be free to offer any deal they want and consumers should be free to take it or leave ...

The dust is settling in Sandpoint Idaho after the June 11 “Rally for the Family”, held on behalf of JoAnn McGuckin and her children. The rally shortly after 10 a.m. The courthouse sits on I-95, and the protesters line both sides of the street. Our FReeper contingent, consisting of GrandmaC, Washington_minuteman and myself, observed the scene of the rally for most of the morning. However, after much agonizing on all our parts, we decided not to join in the protest. There was a definite police presence throughout the event. We first spotted these officers, from our observation post at the ...

The dust is settling in Sandpoint Idaho after the June 11 “Rally for the Family”, held on behalf of JoAnn McGuckin and her children. The rally shortly after 10 a.m. The courthouse sits on I-95, and the protesters line both sides of the street. Our FReeper contingent, consisting of GrandmaC, Washington_minuteman and myself, observed the scene of the rally for most of the morning. However, after much agonizing on all our parts, we decided not to join in the protest. There was a definite police presence throughout the event. We first spotted these officers, from our observation post at the ...

Join us in Sandpoint, Idaho next Monday, June 11th, to show your support for the McGuckins. Here is a list of links to the threads regarding the recent McGuckin incident. If I have missed your thread please add it to the list. June 7 threads: McGuckin kids now with foster family [posted by hcmama] Idaho Standoff Kids Get New Home [posted by kattracks] Idaho Kids Move Into Foster Home (Free Mom & Give Her Kids Back! Not Socialist Services Gestapo!) [posted by t-shirt] The Real McGuckin Story [posted by nemo] June 6 threads: "Still More Lies Exposed - McGuckin Prosecutor ...

Here is a list of links to all the threads I could find regarding the recent McGuckin incident. If I have missed your thread please add it to the list. June 6 threads: The Memorial Service For The Death Of Public Outrage At Sagle, Idaho [posted by Starmaker] Charges against JoAnn McGuckin are not clear-cut [posted by nunya bidness] The McGuckin's Idaho Property -- Blatant Land Grab [posted by ex-Texan] June 5 threads: Call to Action for the McGuckins Officials want to keep McGuckin kids in Foster Scare McGuckin: Crazy Woman or the Next American Heroine? [posted by nunya bidness] ...

"At least they're not shooting at me this time." That's about the only good thing World War II veteran Paul Christy has to say in comparing his experiences as a fighter pilot 55 years ago with what he and his fellow veterans-turned-farmers are experiencing today at the hands of their own government in Klamath Basin. Christy and 213 other war veterans came home from defending their country in the mid-1940s and were lured by the U.S. government to Klamath Basin, a high desert area that straddles the California-Oregon state line, by promises of a homestead including irrigated farmland with guaranteed ...