Free Republic

Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in daily fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Donald and Evelyn Knapp, two ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene. “Right now they are at risk of being prosecuted,” attorney Jeremy Tedesco told me. “The threat of enforcement is more than just credible.” The wedding chapel is registered as a “religious corporation” limited to performing “one-man-one-woman marriages as defined by...

An Idaho homeowner declares he welcomes criticism of the Halloween display he set up in his front yard near Boise. “I’ve got the Grim Reaper on the ATV, and Obama’s head is on the spear and he has been decapitated,” Richard Piersol proudly tells KBOI-TV. A rubber Obama mask is indeed perched on a wooden pole in front of an effigy of the Grim Reaper. Peirsol revealed that he was inspired this year by his opposition to President Obama and the videos of ISIS beheadings. “It’s like free speech. I am pretty much saying I don’t like his politics, and...

Recently, Raul Labrador pledged to make legalizing 40 million of the most liberal, most anti-gun, least educated that South America has to offer the GOP’s #1 priority in 2015. How times have not changed… "2010 Walt Minnick Campaign Ad - Illegal Immigration Good for Business" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElHqWA7LdjI Did Raul Labrador Retriever really run a website called rapidimmigration.com, with “easy to understand advice for illegal immigrants seeking amnesty”? Actually, yes… Labrador, in his role as president, created an assumed business name of rapidimmigration.com on Feb. 2 of (2005). On the website, the company sold kits that varied in price for books and...

Law360, Los Angeles (October 10, 2014, 8:14 PM ET) -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to grant an emergency stay preventing Idaho from issuing marriage licenses and recognizing same-sex nuptials from out of state, greenlighting the Ninth Circuit to enter an order allowing its ruling to go into effect. The short order included no reasoning for the decision, stating simply that the Idaho governor's application for a stay, which had been granted by Justice Anthony Kennedy on Wednesday, was denied, and that Justice Kennedy's order was vacated.

BOISE - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Monday lifting the stay that blocked same-sex marriage from starting in Idaho - effective Wednesday morning. Marriage licenses can legally be issued to same-sex couples statewide starting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Deborah Ferguson, attorney for the four couples who sued to overturn Idaho’s ban on gay marriage, hadn’t even filed her reply to the state’s latest legal filings when the order came out mid-day Monday. “I guess they kind of knew what we were going to say,” she said. Ferguson filed the case on behalf of four Idaho...

<p>The Supreme Court on Friday night allowed same-sex marriages to begin in Idaho, ending a dramatic week in which the right of gay couples to marry expanded dramatically across the nation.</p> <p>In a one-sentence order, the justices denied a request from Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter (R) to delay the unions so the state could continue its appeals. The court gave no reason for the action nor were there recorded dissents.</p>

First Lady and school nutrition advocate Michelle Obama’s stringent lunch guidelines are limiting children to just one ketchup packet per meal. A recent EagNews.com article profiled unhappy Idaho customers of the Obama administration’s revisions to the National School Lunch program, including a parent who called school lunches “not edible” and kids who have stopped eating lunch completely. “Kids can’t take two ketchup packets [for burgers] because that would set them over on calories,” said a Burley, Idaho “district food-service secretary.”

BURLEY, Idaho – Burley High School has seen a 25 percent decrease in participation since changes to the National School Lunch Program went into effect. Michelle Obama hand on student 337x244Those students now “bring sack lunches, dash off campus for fast food or skip the meal altogether,” according to the Times-News. “It was not edible. It was a greasy little hot pocket,” parent Steve Wells says. “When we were little, everything at school was homemade.” The school lunch “doesn’t taste as good,” student Ana Inzunza tells the paper. “It’s missing flavor and tastes plain.” “There are a lot of challenges,”...

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has temporarily blocked an appeals court ruling that declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada. The order came minutes after Idaho on Wednesday filed an emergency request for an immediate stay. The state's request said that without a stay, state and county officials would have been required to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples at 10 a.m. EDT. Kennedy's order requested a response from the plaintiffs involved in Idaho's gay marriage lawsuit by the end of day Thursday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada...

WASHINGTON—The San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday struck down same-sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada, setting the stage for legal gay marriages in five more Western states. The unanimous decision comes a day after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand lower-court rulings that ended bans in five other states, a move that effectively expanded the right to gay marriage to 30 U.S. states. The Ninth Circuit decision will apply to five states with marriage bans in that appellate circuit, likely expanding to 35 the number of states with legal same-sex marriage.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued a statement Tuesday saying that he expects the state to seek a stay of Jackson’s decision. He said the state will seek an emergency rule from the Fish and Wildlife Service to allow continued state wolf management. ... Wyoming took over wolf management in late 2012 after the federal government ruled that wolves no longer needed protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Kansas – A federal judge has decided a lawsuit challenging increased federal regulation of economic activity and land use in the area that is habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken will be litigated in Oklahoma and not transferred to Washington, D.C., Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today. The decision yesterday by U.S. District Judge James H. Payne is the second time in the last two months that the federal judiciary has rejected an attempt by the federal government to move the litigation from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. “This is good news for Kansas,” Schmidt said. “It means our case...

The Senate approved a continuing resolution for the budget which included a provision authorizing President Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels for the purpose of combating Islamic State terrorists. The legislation passed 78-22. Of the 22 Senators that voted no, here are the 12 Republicans that voted against the provision: John Barrasso (WY) Tom Coburn (OK) Michael Crapo (ID) Ted Cruz (TX) Mike Enzi (WY) Dean Heller (NV) Mike Lee (UT) Jim Moran (KS) Rand Paul (KY) James Risch (ID) Pat Roberts (KS) Jeff Sessions (AL)

Rod Coronado, a convicted eco-terrorist, is the leader of the controversial “Yellowstone Wolf Patrol,” a new environmental group that plans to shadow legal Montana wolf hunters during the state’s fall and winter wolf season and document the hunts with a video camera. Coronado, a resident of Michigan, is a radical environmentalist who “sank whaling ships nearly 30 years ago in Iceland and later went to prison after torching a Michigan State University lab in 1992 for conducting research for the fur industry” according to The Buffalo News of Buffalo, NY. He also serves as a spokesman for the radical, militant...

BOISE, Idaho – A SUV full of teenagers crashed in Idaho after one of the passengers lit the driver's armpit hair on fire with a lighter, authorities said Wednesday. All five young people in the Ford Bronco were hurt in the crash Sunday and received medical treatment, the Ada County Sheriff's Office said. Two of the passengers, ages 15 and 16, were thrown from the vehicle, but none of the five suffered life-threatening injuries.

A follower of a breakaway Mormon polygamous sect who came under public scrutiny after eight boys were taken from his Idaho home in a police raid will plead guilty to child-injury offenses in a plea agreement, prosecutors said on Wednesday.Nathan Jessop was cited with three misdemeanor counts of injury to a child last month for confining one of the boys in a tiny furnace room as punishment for alleged misbehavior and for failing to report two teens as runaways after they fled his home.Under the plea deal that must still be approved in court later this month, Jessop would serve...

More than a half-million acres of land across nine Western states is being proposed for designation as critical habitat for the yellow-billed cuckoo. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 546,335 acres of critical habitat is up for listing in 80 separate units in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. The bird is a neotropical migrant that winters in South America and nests along rivers and streams in western North America. ... The Service is seeking information concerning the western yellow-billed cuckoo’s biology and habitat, threats to the species and current efforts to protect...

Hacktivist Group Anonymous Steps up Threats Against Coeur d'Alene Police Department Over Fatal Dog Shooting The Internet activist group Anonymous is stepping up its threats against the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, demanding a full investigation of the shooting of a 2-year-old black Lab named Arfee by an officer. In a video released Aug. 9, Anonymous accused the department of not adequately investigating the shooting, which took place in the parking lot of a coffee shop July 9. According to reports, the officer fired on the dog after he allegedly lunged from the window of a parked vehicle. "To the Coeur...

Large turnouts are expected at two upcoming public hearings on proposed changes to the Mexican wolf management plan, including expansion of the wolf-management areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The hearings, Aug. 11 in Pinetop, Ariz., and Aug. 13 in Truth or Consequences, N.M., will be the final opportunity for verbal testimony on proposed changes to management of the endangered Mexican gray wolf population in the two states. Public hearings last year in Albuquerque and Pinetop drew a total of around 1,000 people, most of whom were not allotted time to speak. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to...

Hurricane Sandy victims were improperly denied grant money to rebuild. Criminals escaped from halfway houses and committed murder and assault. Case managers for people with developmental disabilities failed to file accurate reports about their visits with clients. Those were some of the findings of a recent Rutgers University study, which concluded that for years, New Jersey officials did a poor job overseeing state contracts with outside firms. The review, which examined how New Jersey procured and monitored contracts, determined that oversight failures not only wasted taxpayers’ money but put some of its most vulnerable residents at risk. ... shocked by...