Free Republic

The Donald Trump administration approved New Hampshire’s waiver, becoming the fourth state to implement work requirements for Medicaid. New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement on Monday: Work requirements help lift able-bodied individuals out of poverty by empowering them with the dignity of work and self-reliability while also allowing states to control the costs of their Medicaid programs. They help people gain the skills necessary for long-term independence and success. Sununu added, “Today’s announcement by CMS authorizing New Hampshire’s Medicaid work requirements is a transformative step towards a more thriving workforce.” New Hampshire became the fourth state...

A school district superintendent in Idaho, who had resisted calls to leave his post, finally agreed to step down when an anonymous donor reportedly gave him $400,000 to get out. New Plymouth Superintendent Kevin Barker agreed to resign from his position last Wednesday during a special school board meeting, the Idaho Statesman reported Monday. Barker, who was dubbed a "bully" by some critics, is accused of creating a hostile environment for teachers. He initially didn't want to leave -- but then Barker got an offer he couldn't refuse. An anonymous third party stepped up and offered Barker $400,000 to leave,...

Enzymatic liquid membrane design and mechanism of carbon dioxide capture and separation. The Sandia/University of New Mexico membrane is fabricated by formation of 8-nanometer diameter mesopores. Using atomic layer deposition and oxygen plasma processing, the silica mesopores are engineered to be hydrophobic except for an 18-nm-deep region at the pore surface which is hydrophilic. Through capillary condensation, carbonic anhydrase enzymes and water spontaneously fill the hydrophilic mesopores to form an array of stabilized enzymes with an effective concentration greater than 10 times of that achievable in solution. These catalyze the capture and dissolution of carbon dioxide at the upstream surface...

A Republican candidate for Idaho’s lieutenant governor said women who get an abortion should receive the death penalty if abortion becomes illegal in the state. State Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, said at a candidate forum hosted by the Christian podcast CrossPolitic that women getting an abortion should be punished. Moderators asked him if he supported including the death penalty as a possible punishment, and Nonini nodded in response, according to the Associated Press.

A new Idaho law, signed Thursday by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, will provide better information about how many women are injured by abortions in Idaho each year. State House Bill 638 establishes a new state reporting system to track abortion complications and other abortion-related data in Idaho, Fox News reports. The data, which also will include the woman’s age, race and number of children, will be collected by the state Department of Health & Welfare and published in an annual report. Idaho Chooses Life celebrated Otter’s decision to sign the law. “We believe this is landmark legislation because, in coming...

....Algorithmic tools like the one Arkansas instituted in 2016 are everywhere from health care to law enforcement, altering lives in ways the people affected can usually only glimpse, if they know they’re being used at all. Even if the details of the algorithms are accessible, which isn’t always the case, they’re often beyond the understanding even of the people using them, raising questions about what transparency means in an automated age, and concerns about people’s ability to contest decisions made by machines. {snip} ...Arkansas has said the previous, human-based system was ripe for favoritism and arbitrary decisions. “We knew there...

We're standing in line for coffee when out of nowhere, I get honked. The lady behind us reached up, wrapped me up in her grubby paw and squeezed. "Your man bun is so soft," she says to the man to whose head I'm affixed with a black elastic hair tie. "I've never touched one before." An innocent compliment to most, but to me this violent assault is just another example of the indignities of my existence. I'm just a bun, after all. I didn't choose to be tied to a man. Women gawk and stare. Sometimes they'll shout: "Nice man...

After several years of often rancorous debate—and more back-and-forth action than a beach restoration project Idaho lawmakers finally have decided that climate change will be taught in Idaho schools. “It’s a wonderful thing for for our state and its students!” said Coeur d’Alene environmental science teacher Jamie Esler, who served on a state committee of award-winning educators, parents, and scientists that developed the K12 science standards.The science standards developed by the highly qualified committee, over painstaking months of work, maintain “integrity around the science of climate,” and will enable Idaho science teachers to fully educate their students about human-caused climate...

Somewhere in the process of digging down through 7 feet of snow near the top of a mountain, measuring the snowpack and jotting down numbers, Cheyenne Kiecker discovered something that, for her, felt impossible: Maybe she does like science after all. In February, Kiecker and her classmates studied the snow at Lookout Pass in North Idaho. She learned how the snow impacts the runoff into streams and rivers and lakes, how it affects the fish and the spring foliage, how it changes the wildfire season. And she's learned that in recent decades, the snowpack in the very spot she and...

As part of its exclusive series on Libya during the rule of late leader Moammar al-Gaddafi, Asharq Al-Awsat examines the regime’s ties with local and foreign powers, including its attempts to finance western presidential campaigns, particularly in France, the United States and Ukraine. Witnesses from the former regime said that Tripoli had spent some 50 million euros in 2007 to fund the campaign of French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Lebanese businessman Ziad Takeieddine, who was present at Sarkozy’s meetings with Gaddafi revealed that the “figures were much higher than that.” Tripoli also pumped 5 million dollars in the presidential campaign...

State Representative Eric Redman of Idaho, a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Air Force, is the latest elected leader in the USA to author American Laws for American Courts legislation. Sadly–and predictably–Representative Redman has now had to endure vicious attacks and an organized disinformation campaign engineered by radical Leftist organizations, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Muslim Brotherhood, in the form of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). While patriotic, educated Americans should view opposition from the SPLC and CAIR as a sign that American Laws for American Courts is well worth supporting, the recalcitrant...

After rightly rejecting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion for several years, Idaho officials have now concocted a new version of Obamacare expansion. While some supporters have rallied around the plan’s uniqueness, it’s important to examine exactly what distinguishes this expansion plan from the rest: It’s worse. First, the truly needy already qualify for Medicaid in Idaho. Supporters of Idaho’s Obamacare plan want the public to believe that this plan is essential to the survival of Idaho’s neediest residents. But the truly needy already qualify for Medicaid in the Gem State. Idaho’s Medicaid program already covers low-income kids, pregnant women, seniors, individuals with...

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The 25 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Friday saying they support his recent comments that he may consider U.S. participation if the 11-nation Asia-Pacific pact is improved.

Congressional Republicans failed to repeal or replace Obamacare. But one state has come up with a way to get around it. Idaho is dealing with Obamacare by just blowing it off. If it works, other states seem likely to follow. Idaho’s Republican governor, Butch Otter, signed an executive order last year paving the way for non-Obamacare-compliant health insurance plans to be sold in his state, and Lt. Gov. Brad Little has since cobbled together what is sure to be the nation’s most controversial healthcare initiative. Their principal intention is to give the people of their state a way of avoiding...

The political fight over global warming has extended to science education in recent years as several states have attempted to weaken or block new teaching standards that included information about climate science. But only in Idaho has the state legislature stripped all mentions of human-caused climate change from statewide science guidelines while leaving the rest of the standards intact. Now teachers, parents and students are pushing back, hoping to convince the Republican-controlled Idaho Legislature to approve revised standards, which science proponents say are watered down but would still represent a victory for climate change education in the state. The Idaho...

House Speaker Scott Bedke just announced “some bad news” to the House: “Former Rep. Brandon Hixon has tragically taken his own life. Our thoughts go first to family and friends who are suffering from this loss.” Bedke said, “We should … support those who are close to us when they are struggling. Please remember Brandon’s family in your prayers.” Hixon resigned from the House in November amid a criminal investigation into sexual abuse, though no charges were filed; he subsequently was twice arrested for driving under the influence, with the first arrest also including a charge of resisting arrest. Hixon,...

The Northgate project that involves constructing an interchange on Interstate 15 north of Pocatello and is expected to trigger a landslide of development simultaneously took one step forward and another backward last week. The Pocatello City Council unanimously approved the annexation of nearly 300 acres of land north of East Chubbuck Road on Thursday, but the Idaho Transportation Department also learned the construction cost of the interchange alone has increased by about $4 million. There has been some speculation that the increased costs could negatively impact the project, but the ITD board is scheduled to meet on Thursday at its...

Idaho is Nation’s Fastest-Growing State, Census Bureau Reports December 20, 2017 Release Number: CB17-210 Idaho in Nation's Fastest-Growing State DEC. 20, 2017 — Idaho was the nation’s fastest-growing state over the last year. Its population increased 2.2 percent to 1.7 million from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s national and state population estimates released today. Following Idaho for the largest percentage increases in population were: Nevada (2.0 percent), Utah (1.9 percent), Washington (1.7 percent), and Florida along with Arizona (1.6 percent). “Domestic migration drove change in the two fastest-growing states, Idaho and Nevada,...

<p>Contrary to popular perception, Al Franken did not resign yesterday.</p> <p>"[T]oday I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as member of the United States Senate. I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of...sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party."</p>

Check out the full Kate’s List below: Kathy Steinle Kathy Steinle Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA) (202) 225-4215 (Facebook) Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) (202) 225-5816 (Facebook) Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) (202) 225-2371 (Facebook) Rep Mark Amodei (R-NV) 202 225-6155 (Facebook) Rep Mike Coffman (R-CO) (202) 225-7882 Facebook Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA)(202) 225-4540 (Facebook) Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) (202) 225-3011 (Facebook) Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) (202) 225-4276 (Facebook) Rep. Peter King (R-NY) (202) 225-7896 (Facebook) Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) (202) 225-2778 (Facebook) Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA) (202) 225-4315 (Facebook) Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) (202) 225-3761 (Facebook) Rep. John Faso (R-NY) (202) 225-5614...