Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY - A Utah soldier fatally shot at Fort Hood was proud to serve and felt keenly the responsibility of representing his nation and his family, his uncle said. Michael Blades of Helena, at a news conference Saturday in Utah, said Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka of the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan had a tremendous love for his family and a deep sense of duty. Blades cited several of Nemelka's relatives who were in the military, including a grandfather who served in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart. "He felt it was his duty...

I thought I'd be domestic for a bit and explore state parks in Montana. Obviously it's a state famous for mountains and glaciers and geysers (well, most of those are in Wyoming, but still), so I wondered what would be at the "state park" level. Found some next stuff. Each picture comes with a link to the page on the Montana state parks Web site. 1. Giant Springs State Park 2. Medicine Rocks State Park (click this one for full-size 3. Lewis and Clark Caverns (Montana's first state park) A very good image of the caverns (I can't share this...

A husband and wife team of paleontologists has discovered a newfound species of armored dinosaur that lived 112 million years ago in what is now Montana. The duo, Bill and Kris Parsons of the Buffalo Museum of Science in New York, spotted the dinosaur's skull on the surface of a hillside in Montana in 1997. Over the next few years, they retrieved more of the now nearly complete skull along with skin plates, rib fragments, a vertebra and a possible limb bone from the dinosaur species. Now called Tatankacephalus cooneyorum, the beast is a type of ankylosaur, or a group...

HELENA, Mont. -- A jury on Wednesday found that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers the product can pose, awarding a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son in a baseball game. The family of Brandon Patch argued that aluminum baseball bats are dangerous because they cause the baseball to travel at a greater speed. They contended that their 18-year-old son did not have enough time to react to the ball being struck before it hit him in the head while he was pitching in an American Legion baseball game...

As Montana bars dealt with their first smoke-free weekend since the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect, ingenuity ruled. In Missoula, according to a great piece by Michael Moore in the Missoulian, the Rhino Bar gave smokers their very own place to light up: a Butt Hutt, created by Dave Golden of Well Done Welding and Jim Bell, a general contractor. Moore describes the hut as a 4-by-8-foot “metal smoking dugout” in the alley behind the Rhino in Missoula. The no-smoking laws spark the type of debate that never seems to get extinguished. Pro-smokers argue that the bans hurt...

Every now and then, you stumble upon a town that's gotten everything right—great coffee, food with character, shop owners with purpose. These 10 spots have it all, in perfectly small doses.

An odd story is developing out in the tiny city of Hardin, Montana. A private security company has taken over a jail and seems intent on creating a police department there. American Police Force, a little known company which claims to specialize in training military and security forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural Montana town’s nonexistent police force. After arriving in this tiny city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a police department that has never existed, representatives of the obscure California security company said preparations were under...

In this Friday, Sept. 24, 2009 picture, Albert Peterson with the Two Rivers Authority stands outside an empty jail that Hardin, Mont. built for $27 million. The authority wants a California security company, American Police Force, to take over the facility. Michael Hilton pitched himself to the city as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur - a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow. But now a much different picture of Hilton is emerging from public documents and interviews with his associates and legal adversaries. (AP...

BILLINGS - American Police Force officials showed up in Mercedes SUV's that had "Hardin Police" stenciled on the vehicles. The twist, the city of Hardin doesn't have a police department. Two Rivers Authority officials say having APF patrol the streets was never part of their agenda. "I have no idea. I really don't because that's not been a part of any of the discussions we've had with any of them," said Two Rivers Authority's Al Peterson. As it stands now the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department is contracted to patrol the city and APF has no jurisdiction. If that was...

Tons of readers are asking about the American Police Force jail contract in Hardin, Montana.Neil Katz at CBS News reported: This is the strange story of how American Police Force, a little known company which claims to specialize in training military and security forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural Montana town’s nonexistent police force.After arriving in this tiny city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a police department that has never existed, representatives of the obscure California security company said preparations were under way to take over Hardin’s...

President Barack Obama's administration put the brakes on 79 applications for surface coal mining permits in four states Wednesday, saying they would violate the Clean Water Act. The action is the administration's latest attempt to curb environmental damage from a highly efficient but damaging mining practice known as mountaintop removal. Each permit likely would cause significant damage to water quality and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) –Max Baucus and Jon Tester are teaming up with a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, pushing the U.S. Secretary of Defense not to cut the number of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls operates, maintains and guards 150 ICBMs. The long-range nuclear missiles are housed in silos throughout central Montana.

<p>Font Size:Default font sizeLarger font size BOB ZELLAR/Gazette Staff Hardin officials began construction on the $27 million Two Rivers Detention Facility in June 2006, and it was completed in September 2007. . .Related Links Related: American Police Force The Two Rivers Detention Center was promoted as the largest economic development project in decades in the small town of Hardin when the jail was built two years ago. But it has been vacant ever since.</p>

HARDIN - Officials from American Police Force, a California security company working to lock down a contract with Two Rivers Authority to fill and operate Hardin's new but empty jail, provided more details Saturday of how the finished facility will look and operate. At a Saturday morning press conference, Becky Shay, APF's new public-relations director, said the company hopes to build a 30,000-square-foot military-style training facility northeast of the jail and a 75,000-square-foot dormitory for the trainees to the southeast, all on a 50-acre plot of land. She said the buildings would be paid for by APF's "business activities," including...

I recently received e-mails from friends showing mother cows with their rectums and female organs torn from their bodies by the wolves. These cows were lying down and the blood and raw meat trailed down on their legs. You could tell they were in awful pain. I am sure hundreds of our deer and elk are suffering the same way. All you wolf lovers should take a good look at these pictures and share them with your families and your children, show them what these savage animals are really all about. Anyone that supports these evil acts are evil themselves....

I guess we know what the editor of the Montana Standard of southwestern Montana thinks about conservative members of the media; he doesn’t think much of them. In the Standard’s announcement of the addition of columnist Byron York for a-once a-week column, Editor Gerry O’Brien was excited to tell his readers about their newest conservative columnist with some lovely praise of York’s style. York, O’Brien says, is wonderful because he doesn’t resort to “cheap personal attacks on President Obama” like all those other conservative columnists. York, a staunch conservative, presents his arguments in a thoughtful, measured fashion, rather than resorting...

Today, The Montana Standard launches a new weekly columnist for its editorial page Byron York will serve as a conservative voice every Tuesday... York, a staunch conservative, presents his arguments in a thoughtful, measured fashion, rather than resorting to cheap personal attacks on President Obama and others in the Democratic Party that seem to be the hallmark of the GOP these days, said Standard Editor Gerry O'Brien.

A federal education grant will soon be used to introduce Arabic language and culture into Missoula high schools. The five-year, $764,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education comes to Missoula schools with the help of University of Montana.

Border agents in north-central Montana say they caught 39 pounds of cocaine being smuggled into Canada.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the fall wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana can proceed, denying a legal effort by environmental groups to stop them. The Montana and Idaho wolf hunts will not irreparably harm wolf populations and may proceed, according to a ruling filed last night by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Molloy on Aug. 31 heard arguments from environmental groups seeking to halt the fall wolf hunts—the first of their kind in the lower 48—on the grounds that the killings would irreparably harm the species, which was on the Endangered Species List until just this...

As of this week- Stimulus Spending is at: $20,726,309,285.22 At the link on the upper right will be a listing: *American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Report* Updated as of 9/4/2009. New contracts signed this week are for design and construction of 10 land port of entry buildings for customs and border protection. 6 In North Dakota,1 in Vermont, New Mexico and Montana (The one in Vermont isn't even near the border, in Killingly.)

In a last effort to give the Senate a bipartisan health care bill, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee circulated a comprehensive proposal on Sunday to overhaul the health care system and proposed a new fee on insurance companies to help pay for coverage of the uninsured. ... The proposal by Mr. Baucus does not include a public option, or a government-run insurance plan, to compete with private insurers, as many Democrats want. ... It remains to be seen how Mr. Baucus’s plan might mesh with any proposals Mr. Obama lays out as he tries to pump up support...

The 48-year-old female was visiting from California ... She was unfamiliar with the area and did not carry water, bear spray, a map or a cell phone with her. She became lost and had jogged to the Idaho/Montana border before turning around. The Sheriff's office reminds the public that recreating alone in unfamiliar areas can be hazardous, and carrying the appropriate equipment ...can save your life.

This is from an e-mail I received. I can not attest to it's truthfullness, can you? Anyway, take it with a grain of salt: Hello All, By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask...

A state official with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks confirmed Friday morning that Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., and four other individuals were injured Thursday night when their 22-foot motor boat ran aground on Flathead Lake. "There was a serious boating accident near Wayfarers State Park between 10 p.m. and midnight," said Jim Satterfield with FWP. "There were five occupants on the boat, including two public officials." The occupants of the boat included Rehberg and state senator Greg Barkus, a Kalispell Republican. Satterfield said nearby campers heard the crash when the boat hit rocks at Wayfarers State Park near Bigfork. All...

Kathy Konen has lost guard dogs to wolves in the past, but nothing prepared the Dillon rancher for the killing of 120 buck sheep last week. "They were in the sagebrush, on the creek bottom - just all over the pasture," Konen said Thursday. "It's a terrible loss to our livestock program." Konen said they discovered the attack Aug. 16 while checking their sheep in the Rock Creek drainage of the Blacktail Mountains south of Dillon, where they pasture buck sheep in summer. She said they check their sheep every two or three days, so the attack was recent. She...

Wolves killed 11 sheep and injured five more Thursday south of Two Dot, USDA Wildlife Services officials confirmed Friday. "It's quite gruesome," said Tonya Martin, the sheep rancher whose stock was raided. A wolf killed five sheep and injured another five last March on the Martin ranch on Big Elk Creek. Efforts to capture the wolf were unsuccessful. The Martins told officials that four wolves were seen in the area. An adjacent landowner also reported that their cattle had been run through a fence Thursday... Wolves in Montana are federally protected...

WASHINGTON – A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day will get $15 million under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. A government priority list ranked the project as marginal, but two powerful Democratic senators persuaded the administration to make it happen. Despite Obama's promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of...

Hello All, By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on. On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be...

STAGED OBAMA TOWN HALL MEETING IN MONTANA By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Joe and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on. On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally...

This is a real letter a very good friend of mine got from a friend of hers who attended the Town Hall in Montana. Neither wanted to have their names on the internet and I am respecting that. Given what this former Obama supporter(yea really, and she was pretty hard core over the moon for Obama as well) I take her account even more seriously. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hello All, By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since XXXXX and...

spot report of current president's visit to Montana Hello All, By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since [Fred] and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on. On Wednesday, August 5th it...

Poll: Montana Dems down on Baucus By: Jonathan Martin August 21, 2009 08:14 PM EST A new poll aimed at pressuring Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) shows 55 percent of Montana Democrats disapprove of their state's longtime senator's actions on health care, while just 34 percent approve. Thirty-six percent of Democratic voters said they would likely vote against Baucus if he opposed a public plan, while just 12 percent said his opposition would make them more likely to win their support. Fifty-two percent said it would have no impact on their decision. Overall, Montanans were split, with 47 percent saying they...

Scars linger from killer Montana earthquake of '59 By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press Writer GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST, Mont. (AP) -- Just before midnight under the moon's gray light, the world tilted and tore off a Montana mountainside. Sliding rock buried 19 campers alive, their bodies never found, and 80 million tons of rock and trees tumbled into Madison River Canyon, leaving rubble piled more than 200 feet deep.

Caption these groupies at the Montana "town hall."

Click to view :15-:21 "Im a proud NRA member. (3 people clap...IN MONTANA) :21-:27 "I believe in our constitution" (2 people clap...IN MONTANA) :28-36 "I get my news from the cable networks because I don't like the spin that comes from those other places"( 1 person claps)...IN MONTANA Either Montana is not a big NRA and constitution supporting state...(but loves network news) OR Its pretty obvious the crowd was stacked.

There is no guarantee that President Barack Obama will be able to avoid critics of his healthcare proposal when he hosts a town hall meeting in Belgrade, Mont., on Friday. Local officials in Belgrade and neighboring Bozeman personally oversaw the handing out of passes Thursday in much the same fashion that a venue would dole out tickets to a rock concert. Hundreds of people seeking to attend the president's event began lining up Wednesday afternoon, and camped out overnight in the parking lots of the two local municipal buildings. . Gibbs said he believes the media have been disappointed that...

Protesters plan a big rally Friday at President Barack Obama's town hall meeting in Belgrade. The President is scheduled to focus on a provision that would prevent insurance companies from dropping or limiting insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill. A national group called Patients First is running a campaign against Congressional efforts at healthcare reform, and expects as many as 500 people at its rally outside of the Belgrade airport. Advocates for a government-run health care system who have been protesting Senator Max Baucus' opposition to their ideas are hoping to get inside. And as we told you...

SPREAD THE WORD TO PATRIOTS IN MONTANA ASAP, NOW!!!!! Obama Montana Town Hall Tickets Being Given Out Locally NOW!!!!!! PATRIOTS, GET IN THE FRONT OF THE LINE, CAMP OUT OVERNIGHT, GET THEM NOW. THE RELEASE DOES NOT LIST THE LOCATION SO FIND OUT LOCALLY WHERE THIS IS HAPPENING. IF SOMEONE IN MONTANA KNOWS POST THE LOCATIONS ASAP.

The Obama administration is raising the stakes in a fight over states' rights and firearm ownership by arguing that new pro-gun laws in Montana and Tennessee are invalid. In the last few months, a grass-roots, federalist revolt against Washington, D.C. has begun to spread through states that are home to politically active gun owners. Montana and Tennessee have enacted state laws saying that federal rules do not apply to firearms manufactured entirely within the state, and similar bills are pending in Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, and South Carolina. Yet the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives now claims that...

GM wants to cancel its contract with the Stillwater mine as part of its bankruptcy reorganization that infused the company with $50 billion in government loans. Platinum is mined in just two other countries — Russia and South Africa — and Schweitzer says canceling the contract would put the United States at a strategic risk and hurt the mining industry.

Just go to the LINK here, hit the little arrow below the photo, and video will stream from Japanese TV today. Takes a few seconds to load.Lots of action.Link will be good for another 24 hours or so.Goes inside the command/control center for nuclear launch of ICBMs from Montana (Malmstron AF Base, US Air Force) and also shows US commandoes in action in anti-nuke terrorist training. A "don't mess with us" statement is also issued by a US nuke command military spokesman--thankfully so.Eagles Up.

A United Nations delegation will travel to Glacier National Park and the North Fork to see for itself the threats of mining and coal bed methane development could have on the Park. Meeting in Spain last week the 21-member United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee voted unanimously to send a mission to Waterton-Glacier and the Canadian Flathead. American and Canadian interests were in Spain last week to lobby UNESCO to list Glacier as a "World Heritage Site in Danger" — a dubious distinction as Glacier nears its 100th birthday. Will Hammerquist, the Glacier representative of the...

BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana and Idaho are moving to host the first open gray wolf hunts in the lower 48 states after the animal's removal from the endangered list across much of the Northern Rockies.

The city of Bozeman, Mt is asking potential employees for any web chat rooms or sites they belong to along with the passwords. Yikes. Bozeman demands Internet passwords By MATT GOURAS Associated Press HELENA - Job applicants with the city of Bozeman are finding that those private Internet discussions and pictures may not be so private after all. The city is asking job seekers for the user names - and passwords - to Internet social networking or Web groups they belong to. The decision is sparking an outcry from those who say the policy goes way too far. “I liken...

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency for the first time has declared a public health emergency in a contaminated community, targeting a Montana town Wednesday for immediate federal attention. The declaration by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson involving Libby, Mont., will not result in an evacuation, but will require an extensive cleanup and better health protections for residents with asbestos-related illnesses. -- Asbestos contamination from a now-closed vermiculite mine near Libby has been cited in the deaths of more than 200 people and illnesses of thousands more. Jackson said the public health emergency declaration was the first time the EPA has...

A Wild West cattle town is desperate to boost its ailing economy by offering its jail as a new home for the inmates of Guantanamo Bay. Senators and congressman from across America have insisted that their states will not accept terrorist suspects in the homeland, but the folk of Hardin, Montana (population: 3,384) are made of sterner stuff. Greg Smith, Hardin's economic development director, volunteered its state-of-the-art prison to the federal government. "This is a dying town," he said. "Businesses here are struggling like there's no tomorrow. But here is a solution that would help us, help the United States...

Just when Glenn seems to have outdone himself he does another show. On Wednesday, he had a hilarious exchange with a representative for ACORN, and can be found on youtube (watch for at approximately the 7:13 mark.) Now, Glenn has a segment in which we might finally see a silver lining in the Marxist usurpation of the presidency - the states are fighting back.