Free Republic

Hey, remember Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the guy who threw needless layers of bureaucracy at SpaceX because the private space company was doing its job of launching rockets into space a little too well? Well, it looks like he’s being joined by gentlemen from the other side of the Capitol: Three congressmen are trying to do the same thing.

An Arvada woman charged with aiding a foreign terrorist organization has agreed to change her plea to guilty. Conley, 19, is charged with conspiracy to provide support to ISIS, or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Jeff Dorschner said in a statement released Monday morning that a plea hearing has yet to be scheduled in the case. Court documents claim Conley joined the Army Explorers to be trained in U.S. military tactics and firearms, and that she told the FBI she wanted to wage Jihad and to go overseas and fight. She attended middle school...

The University of Colorado is moving to fire a tenured faculty member after the Boulder campus paid $825,000 this week to settle a graduate student's allegations that the philosophy professor retaliated against her for reporting she was sexually assaulted by a fellow student. Chancellor Phil DiStefano recently issued a notice of intent to dismiss associate professor David Barnett, campus spokesman Ryan Huff confirmed to the Daily Camera. If fired, Barnett would be only the fourth tenured professor ever dismissed by the university in its 138-year history. Barnett is accused of compiling a 38-page report painting the victim as "sexually promiscuous"...

During the August recess, the Congressman had scheduled a number of “town hall” meetings at various locations in his district. One of those meetings was held in Loveland, Colorado on Saturday, August 9th. About 60 people showed up for this event. It was a mixed crowd of mostly older men and women, with an odd sprinkle of 20-somethings seated in the first row. An intense looking woman in her 70s brought in a placard exclaiming “End US Aggression Now”. An equally intense looking man in his 50s, wearing motorcycle leathers, and a spectacular moustache, was sporting a black T-shirt that...

Teen marijuana use has fallen in Colorado since the state legalized the drug in 2012, according to a new report, bucking a nationwide trend of overall increases in teen use. “Thirty-day marijuana use fell from 22 percent in 2011 to 20 percent in 2013, and lifetime use declined from 39 percent to 37 percent during the same two years,” according to an emailed press release from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Colorado legalized marijuana for adults in 2012 and statewide retail sales of the drug — which is still illegal under federal law — began in January....

Denver County Fair officials confirmed they are investigating at least three separate cases of people who said they were drugged after eating a Full Melt Chocolate bar that contained THC at the Denver County Fair's Pot Pavilion.Denver County Fair Spokesperson, Dana Cain said at least two of those people went to the hospital after they became dizzy, sick and confused.  They tested positive for THC."I was given one of these, it looked just like that," Richard Jones said as he pointed to a picture of a Full Melt Chocolate bar on his computer screen.The Pot Pavilion was new to the...

A Denver bar has been cited by the state's Division of Civil Rights for discrimination because it refused to let a gay man dressed in drag enter. The bar is the Denver Wrangler, and despite what its name might suggest, it is not some Country Western joint. It is, in fact, a gay bar. So the state has determined that a gay bar has discriminated against a gay person. What happened last summer is that a gay man named Vito Marzano, dressed in drag from a fundraiser elsewhere, wanted to enter the Wrangler. He was denied entry. The bar claims...

When Jared Polis arrived Tuesday evening to host a small town hall-style meeting in Boulder, he was met by dozens of furious constituents demanding answers about the congressman's part in a new compromise on state oil and gas drilling. On Monday, Polis, D-Boulder, stood by Gov. John Hickenlooper for a joint news conference announcing the dissolution of four measures, two of which Polis had helped garner nearly 300,000 petition signatures for. The first would have required drilling rigs to be set back at least 2,000 feet from homes. The second aimed to increase local control by adding to the state...

U.S. Air Force Academy cadet athletes flouted the sacred honor code by committing sexual assaults, taking drugs, cheating and engaging in other misconduct at wild parties while the service academy focused on winning bowl games and attracting money from alumni and private sources in recent years, a Gazette investigation has found. The findings are egregious enough that academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson told The Gazette that she has called for an Inspector General's investigation of the athletic department.

Colorado Starts Issuing Driver's Licenses To Undocumented Migrants Thousands will be eligible for state licenses and ID cards available to immigrants regardless of their legal status 1 August 2014 07 Adriana Gaytan, center, who came to Colorado in 1997 from Mexico, will get a driver’s license when Colorado begins its rollout. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP Colorado will begin issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards to immigrants on Friday regardless of their legal status, underscoring a sea change in a state that less than a decade ago passed strict immigration enforcement laws. Now, thousands of immigrants are waiting to get cards they...

Colorado will begin issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards to immigrants Friday regardless of their legal status, underscoring a sea change in a state that less than a decade ago passed strict immigration enforcement laws. Now, thousands of immigrants are waiting to get cards they hope will add a degree of legitimacy to their residency in Colorado. About 9,500 people are signed up for appointments through the next 90 days to get the documents, with more getting scheduled every day. Both people in the country illegally and those who have temporary legal status will qualify. The demand for the licenses...

DENVER — The attorney for Anthony Waller, the shackled inmate who was seen on surveillance cameras being slammed into a wall by a Denver Sheriff’s deputy during a hearing before a judge in 2012, has filed a lawsuit over the incident. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court names the city and county of Denver, Deputy Brad Lovingier, Capt. Gina McCall and the Denver Sheriff’s Department. A news release sent by attorney Kenneth Padilla on Wednesday says Waller was “shackled in handcuffs, leg irons, and belly chain” when Lovingier “without provocation, grabbed Mr. Waller by his shackles, spun him around and...

The teachers’ union representing the Douglas County school system has lost one-quarter of its membership since last year, signaling a growing frustration within the ranks that dues are used to finance politics instead of professional development. The significant drop in membership of the Douglas County Federation (DCF) was revealed in a July 21 letter from the board of education to Courtney Smith, union president, and was based on the union’s most recently released tax returns. The letter pointed to the drop in membership as undeniable proof that teachers had chosen the district over the union and the need for major...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Republican state Sen. Steve King is facing three felony charges alleging he falsified time cards and defrauded two former employers out of thousands of dollars.

(CNSNews.com) – At a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation on Thursday, ranchers from Western states testified that they are routinely threatened and bullied by federal land management officials, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife. “I sit before you today to let you know what’s going on up there, and I hope that we can come to some kind of agreement on what needs to be done and move forward on it, because enough is enough when it comes to bullying people that have been on this land for...

Despite an eleventh hour interjection from the U.S. Forest Service, the Ouray County Commissioners made history this week, unanimously voting to adopt a new county road map that brings it into the 21st century. The last time an official county road map was prepared in Ouray County was in 1961. Proposed revisions to this 1961 iteration of the map took place over the past five years, first through the work of the collaborative, multi-jurisdictional Public Access Group and later through two years of intensive work by Ouray County IT/GIS Manager Jeff Bockes, who integrated modern computerized mapping techniques (including GoogleEarth)...

Formation of district and imposition of assessments 'invalidated' by ruling . Boulder County commissioners didn't have the legal authority to establish a Local Improvement District created to charge rural residential subdivision property owners the bulk of the costs of rehabilitating those subdivisions' paved county roads, according to a Friday Boulder County District Court ruling. The Board of County Commissioners "exceeded its jurisdiction and abused its discretion in authorizing and forming the Subdivision Paving Local Improvement District and imposing assessments on properties within the District," Senior District Court Judge J. Robert Lowenbach wrote. ... The judge further ordered Boulder County to...

Speaking at a high-level security conference in Aspen, Colorado, outgoing US Defense Intelligence Agency head Michael Flynn warned against the dangers of toppling Hamas, saying what may replace the Islamist group could be even worse. “If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse. The region would end up with something much worse,” Flynn, a lieutenant general, told the conference Saturday, according to Reuters.He warned that with Hamas out of the picture, the Islamic State, or something like the brutal Islamist group ruling over parts of Syria and Iraq, could take its place.Flynn also said...

To those who knew her, Shannon Maureen Conley was a bright teenager lost in middle-class suburbia who went searching for love and purpose. She thought she found it half a world away with a Tunisian man 13 years her senior who promised marriage and holy war. The plan went only as far as Denver International Airport, where Conley was arrested in April as she tried to board a plane to support Islamic fighters in Syria. Conley told the FBI she was determined to be "defending Muslims on the Muslim homeland against people who are trying to kill them." If that...

For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.