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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The green-cross storefronts of medical marijuana dispensaries are common in much of Washington, and the state is plowing ahead with licensing people to grow and sell recreational pot to adults. But a federal trial scheduled to begin in the coming weeks for five people in Spokane suggests not all is OK with weed in the state. Larry Harvey, a 70-year-old medical marijuana patient with no criminal history, three of his relatives and a family friend each face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison after they were caught growing about 70 pot plants...

Agency officials coached tribes on how to oppose Alaska’s Pebble Mine. Obama has repeatedly urged that science guide environmental decisions, regulators inside the Environmental Protection Agency secretly worked with tribal and environmental activists to preempt a full review of an Alaskan mine and veto the project before the owners’ permits could be considered, internal memos show. Charged with being neutral arbiters, EPA officials instead began advocating for a preemptive veto of the Pebble Mine project in western Alaska as early as 2008, long before any scientific studies were conducted or the permit applications for the project were even filed, ......

<p>WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency came under fire Thursday after new emails surfaced that allegedly show government officials worked in secret with tribal leaders and other environmental groups to preemptively oppose the controversial Pebble Mine project in Alaska before a review was even conducted.</p>

Former Bundy guard Frank Lindysthe says it is all very troubling. "They are now calling for militia. They're not in dug in positions, they are sitting on top of ridges. They don't have night vision capability," he said. Lindysthe left the ranch in the middle of the night after at least two men tried joining the guard. He said the men made him uncomfortable. "The people that are up there, they have a certain look about them. These are military. My belief is federal agents," he said. Lindysthe feels the alleged federal agents are there to gather information on militia...

This story of the MacDonald family fight against taking their ranch has similarities to Bundy

(Reuters) - The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters. The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates. Financial institutions that operate...

There was a brief blurb on the morning news about an increase to the tax on pipe tobacco, which many people are using for roll your own cigarettes. Does anyone have more info? I thought I heard them say it goes into effect tomorrow. I can't find info if it is a change to state law or federal law. Anybody know more about this?

As the world awaits the Supreme Court's ruling on ObamaCare, there's a larger story that the pundits are missing: the court's rejection of the Obama administration's increasingly extreme claims on behalf of unlimited federal power. This term alone, the high court has ruled unanimously against the government on religious liberty, criminal procedure and property rights. When the administration can't get even a single one of the liberal justices to agree with it in these unrelated areas of the law, that's a sign there's something wrong with its constitutional vision.

In Arizona, it's no surprise that water can be hard to come by, but why is the federal government is cutting off the water supply to the famous Old West town of Tombstone?   Nearly a year ago, Tombstone's water supply lines were heavily damaged in a flood after a heavy rain due to a massive wildfire leaving loose soil in the area. (Read this article to find out why we can thank the Forest Service for catastrophic wildfires) Since the damage, Tombstone residents have been fighting to repair the water lines, but because they run through a wilderness area,...

April 28,2012 DOJ ASKED TO INVESTIGATE HOW OBAMA CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR OBTAINED STOLEN IRS TAX RETURN Robert Bluey The National Organization for Marriage is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute the individuals responsible for leaking the organization’s confidential U.S. tax return and then illegally publishing it. The stolen tax return was first published by the Human Rights Campaign and subsequently the Huffington Post. HRC is led by Joe Solmonese, who also serves as a co-chairman of President Obama's reelection committee. In an April 25 letter to Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general for DOJ’s tax division, NOM President...

Obama fearing a revolution against him by the states, has moved swiftly by nationalizing nearly all National Guard Forces in multiple states; Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina – to name a few. The Governors of the Great States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia still have under their Command-and-Control the State Defense Forces to go against U.S. Federal forces should the need arise. Also important to note: There are NO U.S. laws prohibiting National Guard troops from also joining their State’s Defense Forces. This dilemma occurred during the Civil War with many...

Add the Department of Energy to the list of Obama administration offices publicly bemoaning compliance requirements arising from House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigation requests. In response to a criticism by Chairman Darrell Issa that providing paper copies instead of electronic documents wastes taxpayer money, an administration source dismissed his concerns. “In reality, the VAST majority of the cost of complying isn't the printing, but rather the enormous amount of attorney time that it takes to collect, review and prepare the responses,” a Friday report in The Hill quotes an administration source replying. “The Department’s response has required...

Gangster Government, and Sakharov's Immunity Matthew Bracken, February 29, 2012 * * 1 * * For over a year now, the Department of Justice has been stone-walling the House committees investigating Operation Fast And Furious, wherein thousands of semi-automatic rifles ("assault rifles" in the liberal vernacular) were deliberately allowed to "walk" into Mexico, straight into the hands of drug cartel killers. One of those weapons was used to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry a dozen miles inside of U.S. territory. The actual killer is believed to be an FBI "informant." In other words, a cartel assassin in his own...

Guest Post by Willis EschenbachWell, I woke up to some bad news this morning. It turns out that the GAO, the US General Accounting Office, says US has been secretly hiding their funding of the IPCC for the last decade.They were already told not to do that by the GAO. In the 2005 GAO report with the swingeing title of “Federal Reports on Climate Change Funding Should Be Clearer and More Complete”, the GAO said … well, basically what the title said. But noooo, those sneaky bureaucrats didn’t do that at all.The latest 2011 GAO Report says the US government...

Will it be enough to rein in FDA’s outrageous power grab? ANH-USA, together with a number of supplement trade organizations, went to Capitol Hill to plead our case about the FDA’s profoundly flawed NDI (new supplement) draft guidance in the offices of two powerful senators and longtime friends of natural health, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Our visit was preceded by all the letters you have been sending to Congress, which have immeasurably increased the visibility of this issue. As you know, if this draft guidance stands, it would allow FDA to arbitrarily deny the sale...

Yesterday, my entire afternoon got eaten by my panic over shortages of Adderall, the drug that changed my writing life from daily torture that I slogged through because I'm a hard worker to sometimes-hard work I love. Instead of writing, I wasted my time on the phone to a bunch of local pharmacies, and emailing my very good-natured doctor multiple times ("Can you prescribe in Mexico?"), and searching for Canadian pharmacies -- maybe one in Windsor where maybe I could get Gregg to pick me up 10 or 20 or maybe even 30 pills...in all the spare time he has....

We know that Eric Holder is a liar and a criminal facilitator based on what we have learned about his conduct in the Fast and Furious crimes. We are now finding out Holder has been a Democrat “cleaner” and cover up artist for as far back as the Oklahoma City bombing and maybe Waco and Ruby Ridge as well. Holder is a despicable excuse for a human being and that is why Obama appointed him. We should have recognized this lowlife’s traits when he not only refused to prosecute “his people” the armed Black Panthers who intimidated Whites attempting to...

President Barack Obama and the DNC plan to return $71,600 donated by disgraced former MF Global head Jon Corzine and his wife, a source confirmed to POLITICO. The money was split between the DNC Victory Fund and the reelection effort. But Corzine was not just a donor but also a bundler, including from other MF Global employees. The source said the other donations from employees will be looked at case by case and, if the facts warrant it, returned. The news came late on the Friday before Christmas, generall

So, the latest whispers are that the DOJ was shocked that an email their San Diego US Attorney wrote one afternoon ended up moving at the speed of shit through a goose to the Issa Committee and, here, featured in the pages of Sipsey Street the next morning. Pursuant to this outrage, I am told that I will be the focus of a forensic email audit to find out who tipped me off. Although, I must add, whether or not they have obtained a court order to do this remains unclear at this hour. But then the wiretaps mentioned in...

PHOENIX (AP) — The federal government issued a scathing report Thursday that outlines how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office has committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including a pattern of racial profiling and discrimination and carrying out heavy-handed immigration patrols based on racially charged citizen complaints.