Free Republic

BOZEMAN — The number of Montana residents with concealed weapons permits has more than doubled since 2008.

To judge by the headlines and media chatter, the only important issue involving American Indians in Washington these days has to do with changing the name of the local pro football team. Those who care about real-world Indians might want to focus instead on how the Obama administration's hostility to the coal industry does more harm to Native Americans than any NFL franchise ever will. The Environmental Protection Agency recently ramped up its attack on coal by issuing stringent limits on carbon-dioxide emissions from new coal-fired generating plants, and the agency has more regulations in the works for existing power...

The Obama administration has turned bureaucrats at environmental agencies into armed SWAT teams to conduct unprecedented raids on small mining operations for what used to be simple reviews of clean water permits. That’s according to Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on energy and mineral resources, who held a hearing Thursday that examined the August raid of armed federal officials including the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicken, Alaska. Lamborn said the “EPA SWAT team of heavily armed and armored agents conducted paperwork inspections on small mining operations, in what appears nothing more than an...

The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. would make "OPEC obsolete," billionaire energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens told CNBC on Wednesday. "Canadians say they have 250 billion barrels [of oil]. That's exactly what the Saudis claim they have," he said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "You're sitting there with the same amount of oil available to the United States from Canada … as Saudi Arabia." "But when you move the oil through the Strait of Hormuz everyday, it's 17 million barrels," Pickens said. "The Navy is shepherding a cartel daily through the Strait of Hormuz. And...

Heidi Mayer Kruse has lived in Fargo, N.D. and eastern South Dakota, but she says she has never experienced a storm such as the one that buried their Blucksberg-addition home Friday. "It's chest deep consistently over our driveway," she said. Kruse and her family were without power most of Friday and into Saturday. "It was 39 degrees in our living room before power came back on this morning," Kruse said Saturday... Kruse, like many of her neighbors in the subdivision south of Sturgis, is amazed at the ferocity of the storm. "Having lived in areas that experience rough winters, I...

Montana’s marketplace hasn’t worked well its first week, beset by long waits, error messages and other stumbles that prevent consumers from using it successfully. Frank Cote, director of sales for Blue Cross and Blue Shield, said the company had sold “more than one” policy, but he didn’t know the exact number. Todd Lovshin, vice president for PacificSource, said the insurer has not received any report from the federal government on people who’ve purchased policies from PacificSource. Jerry Dworak, CEO of the Montana Health Co-op said he knew of no consumer who had used it to buy a policy. “We’ve not...

Faculty members expressed alarm at new sexual harassment policies at the University of Montana approved by the Departments of Justice and Education. Of special concern is a requirement that those professors who fail to complete training are being reported to the federal government. Faculty members questioned exactly what information the university felt obliged to report to the DOJ and asked how the agency plans to use the information in a letter to University of Montana President Royce Engstrom, the Missoulian reported last week. They also asked what additional information the university would provide to the DOJ if the agency asked...

In his 63 years ranging cattle at Pine Butte Ranch in Wycliffe, Ray Van Steinburg has never had grizzly bears take down a cow. That is, until earlier this month, when he and other ranch workers found the carcasses of two cows about 100 feet apart on the 15,000 hectare property. The cows weigh about 1,400 pounds each. They set up a motion-detected camera at the site of one of the kills and caught amazing footage of not one but two grizzlies approaching the kill, feeding on it, and even wrestling with each other. Van Steinburg said that while his...

A former high school teacher in Montana was released from prison on Thursday after serving just one month for the rape of a 14-year-old student who later killed herself, a corrections department spokeswoman said. The surprisingly lenient term given Stacey Rambold, 54, for the 2007 rape of Cherice Moralez drew a firestorm of public outrage. The state attorney general has appealed for a longer sentence to the Montana Supreme Court, and several groups are seeking the ouster of District Judge G. Todd Baugh, who handed down the sentence. The outcry from women's groups was further inflamed by remarks Baugh made...

BILLINGS, Mont. — A former high school teacher has been released from a Montana prison after completing a 30-day sentence for rape handed down by a judge who is under fire for both the sentence and his remarks about the 14-year-old victim. Fifty-four-year-old Stacey Rambold left the Montana State Prison on Thursday after completing his term for the 2007 rape of Cherice Moralez. Prosecutors are appealing District Judge G. Todd Baugh’s sentence, and a complaint has been filed by advocates seeking Baugh’s removal. Rambold is on probation and must register as a sex offender.

Sixteen-year-old Noah Graham of Solway is lucky to be alive after being attacked without warning by a wolf while sitting at a campfire with friends last month on Lake Winnibigoshish near the town of Bemidji in far northern Minnesota. ... the willingness of the Clinton administration to accede to the demands of DOW and other environmental groups, wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1994 and quickly spread over a 500-mile radius to all corners of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Earlier this month, a pack of wolves stampeded 176 sheep — two were bitten and killed; one was half...

Thursday, a federal judge released the newlywed Montana bride accused of pushing her husband off a cliff to his death. Judge Jeremiah Lynch released Jordan Linn Graham on her own recognizance, ordering her to electronic monitoring at her parents’ home until her second-degree murder case goes to trial. "Because the government concedes that Graham does not pose a risk of flight, and has not met its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community, the court concludes that Graham must be released," reads the order...

As the 2013 season of devastating wildfires continues to rage across the American West, the question of arson as a form of major terrorism is again being raised. Already this year, 35,440 reported fires have burned a total of 3.9 million acres, with a quarter-million acres scorched the iconic Yosemite National Park. Large blazes continue to burn in several states, with six alive in Idaho, five each in California and Montana, and one each in Alaska, Louisiana, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, says at this time last year, 45,278 fires had burned 7.9...

MISSOULA, Mont. – A federal judge has ordered a Montana newlywed to be released from jail on her own recognizance while awaiting a murder trial in the death of her husband in Glacier National Park. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch said Thursday that Jordan Linn Graham, 22, of Kalispell did not pose a flight risk because of her strong community ties and did not appear to be a danger to others. Graham allegedly pushed Cody Lee Johnson, 25, face-first off a cliff to his death in the national park on July 7 after the two argued. Earlier that day, prosecutors...

They were newlyweds, but she was having second thoughts about the 8-day-old marriage, court documents say. The couple drove the short distance from their Kalispell home to Glacier National Park, where they got into an argument. He grabbed her by the arm, but she pulled away and shoved him face-first off a cliff to his death. Federal prosecutors have given their version of what happened to Cody Lee Johnson, 25, two months after his body was found in an area of the park so steep and rugged that a helicopter had to be used in the recovery. Jordan Linn Graham,...

Montana's Supreme Court on Friday blocked a judge from resentencing a former teacher who got just 30 days in prison for raping a 14-year-old student, a sentence that was widely criticized after the judge said the victim was "older than her chronological age." Justices said Judge G. Todd Baugh lacks authority to reconsider the sentence he gave former Billings teacher Stacey Rambold, 54. An appeal of the case already was pending, but Baugh had been seeking to possibly undo the sentence that was panned after his remarks. Baugh also commented that victim Cherice Moralez was "as much in control of...

The right to keep and bear arms may have been stolen by the Colorado state legislature, but a posse of local lawmen is riding to the rescue. ... Elected sheriffs, as the top law enforcement officers within their counties, work for the citizens and taxpayers in their jurisdictions, not the federal government. Even the Supreme Court ruled that sheriffs cannot be compelled to follow federal dictates or mandates in a landmark case on gun control. Now, with Obama pushing hard for new restrictions on gun rights — finding strong support from some anti-Second Amendment Democrats in Congress and much of...

Jesse Marcel Jr, who said he handled debris from the 1947 crash of an unidentified flying object near Roswell, New Mexico, has died at the age of 76. Denice Marcel said her father was found dead at his home in Helena, Montana, on Saturday, less than two months after making his last trip to Roswell. He had been reading a book about UFOs. Over the past 35 years Marcel appeared on TV shows, documentaries and radio shows, was interviewed for magazine articles and books and travelled the world lecturing about his experiences in Roswell. His wife, Linda, said: "He was...

BILLINGS, Mont. — A Montana judge on Wednesday stood by his decision to send a former teacher to prison for 30 days for raping a 14-year-old girl who later killed herself, but said he "deserved to be chastised" for his comments about the young victim. District Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold to 15 years, then suspended all but 31 days and gave him credit for one day already served. In handing down the sentence Monday, Baugh said the teenage victim was "older than her chronological age" and had as much control of...

A Montana judge said he regrets controversial comments he made when he sentenced a former teacher to only 30 days in jail for raping a 14-year-girl who later committed suicide. District Judge G. Todd Baugh has been the subject of widespread backlash after he said in a Billings, Mont., court that the victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much control of the situation" as the teacher, according to the Billings Gazette. "I don't know what I was thinking or trying to say," Baugh later told The Billings Gazette. "It was just stupid and wrong." Though he voiced...

A judge’s conclusion that a 14-year-old Billings rape victim was “as much in control of the situation” as her schoolteacher rapist has sparked outrage across the nation. Organizers have scheduled a Thursday rally and a petition drive against District Judge G. Todd Baugh, who Monday handed down a net sentence of 30 days in jail to former Senior High teacher Stacey Rambold, 54, who raped 14-year-old Cherice Moralez. The sentence came after Rambold, 54, failed to meet sex offender treatment requirements and other conditions that would have ended the now six-year-old case. Moralez killed herself weeks before her 17th birthday...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A former Billings Senior High School teacher who pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old student who later killed herself has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by a judge who said the victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher. District Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse without consent, with all but 31 days suspended. He gave Rambold credit for one day already served, The Billings Gazette reported. The girl's mother repeatedly screamed, "You people...

Another day, another law disregarded by the Obama camp. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and representatives from nine other states have signed a letter to the Obama Administration demanding the administration pay up on mineral lease revenues owed to the states under the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act. This nearly century-old contract requires a certain percentage of the royalties collected by the federal government to be returned to the states where the minerals were produced. The administration now is trying to trim these payments under the guise of sequestration, saying that these royalties are subject to across the board spending cuts...

Our most recent rating of Republican presidential contenders features a top tier of three notably different candidates: A Midwestern governor (Scott Walker) who is known best by the activists who will help decide the nomination; a leading national figure (Chris Christie) who has irked conservatives; and a firebrand senator (Rand Paul) with devoted supporters who would shake up the party’s platform and, perhaps, identity.Chart 1: Updated Crystal Ball Republican presidential rankings First Tier Candidate Key Advantages Key Disadvantages Since Last Update Scott WalkerGovernor, WI •Midwest GOP gov. in Obama state •Heroic conservative credentials •Shown political durability •Too bland? Next Pawlenty?...

Allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to move forward would cut into the revenue of rail freight operators that transport oil and other liquids, but there would still be plenty of growth opportunities for cost-conscious operators, BNSF Railway CEO Matthew Rose said Wednesday. Rose told a lunch gathering at the annual Summer North America Prospect Expo at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston that pipelines present increasing competition to his company and his peers. “We know that rail on the surface is without a doubt the most efficient and lowest price, but we know that when we compete with...

The Bureau of Land Management is currently considering several Resource Management Plan proposals in Montana, with one major objective ostensibly aimed at conserving sage grouse habitat to bolster population growth. However, one look at the management plans clearly shows that the stated intentions are very different from what the plans would actually accomplish. In reality, these RMPs are one of the biggest threats to private property rights and natural resource development that our state has seen in years. The RMPs would effectively shut down BLM-managed land, as well as some privately held land, to development by eliminating grazing permits, restricting...

Energy Policy: The Environmental Protection Agency declines to have outside experts review its study claiming water contamination from fracking in Wyoming. Why confuse an analysis based on ideology with the facts? As we noted in December 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from environmental groups, tried to manufacture a crisis in which hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was said to have contaminated test wells in Pavillion, Wyo. Those claims and others made in the six-decade history of the technology's use have repeatedly proved groundless. In 2011, the EPA released the non-peer reviewed report on Pavillion in which the agency publicly...

U.S. President Barack Obama has called into question the number of jobs that would be provided from the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in a New York Times interview over the weekend. Republicans have frequently stated that there would be a large number of jobs created if the pipeline is approved for construction, Obama said, adding that he disputes their premise. “Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator,” Obama said in the interview. “There is no evidence that that’s true. The most realistic estimates are this might maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the...

The Associated Press (AP) is refusing to comment on why it requested that the Montana Department of Justice (MDOJ) give it a list of the names and personal information of every concealed weapons permit (CWP) holder in the state... Montana’s Republican Attorney General Tim Fox had denied requests by the AP and a Boston media outfit called MuckRock News for all information pertaining to the state’s CWP holders. Fox cited concerns that the width and breadth of the requests violated CWP holders’ “reasonable expectation of privacy” guaranteed by the Montana Constitution... AP reporter Matt Gouras formally requested the information on...

What’s the outlook for the 2014 Senate elections? As in 2010 and 2012, the Republicans once again have a chance to overturn the Democrats’ majority. Much attention has been focused on whether Republicans this time will nominate candidates capable of winning key races, which they failed to do in the two previous election cycles. But another interesting question is how Democrats will try to hold onto seats in Republican-leaning states even as Barack Obama maintains his strong tilt to the political left. The lineup is certainly favorable to Republicans. Assuming the New Jersey seat now held by Republican appointee Jeff...

HELENA - The Associated Press isn't giving reasons for requesting the personal information of all conceal carry permit holders in Montana. On March 18, 2013, the AP requested a comprehensive list of information from the office of Montana Attorney General Tim Fox (R). "Everything from their date of birth to their driver's license to their address, every piece of information without limitation," Fox explained in an interview with MTN News. The request came just five days after the Montana Legislature passed a bill which makes all this information confidential. The bill was signed by Governor Steve Bullock (D) ten days...

President Obama talked earlier this year of a Democratic takeover of the House, but instead his party is now in danger of losing the Senate. The latest blow to their hopes of keeping the upper chamber came from former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D),who opted out of a race to replace retiring Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) ---- That party seems likely to lose seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia, where it cannot find find strong candidates.

From funding cuts precipitated by the federal sequester to changes in the rules for Pell grant recipients, tribal colleges face many challenges, but one of the most serious for colleges in the Northern Great Plains comes from a surprising source—the Bakken oil fields. The oil fields cover about 200,000 square miles of the subsurface of the Williston Basin underlying parts of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In a report issued April 30, the United States Geological Survey estimated that the U.S. section of the Bakken formation holds 3.6...

Following former Gov. Brian Schweitzer's decision not to run for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat this weekend, New York Times polling guru Nate Silver predicted Monday that Republicans will hold 50 to 51 seats in the upper chamber after all ballots are counted in the 2014 Congressional mid-term elections.

<p>Most political observers had assumed that former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer would seek the Senate seat being vacated by Max Baucus, who is retiring. Had Schweitzer decided to run, the seat would probably lean toward a Democratic hold, and the GOP would have only an outside chance at taking back the upper chamber.</p>

To f*** up, if we learned anything from 2012. With Schweitzer out, Montana Democrats are scrambling to find a means of holding a seat they have held since 1913. That's right: the Class 2 Senate seat being vacated by Max Baucus has been held by Democrats for a hundred years. With other salivating pick-up opportunities in South Dakota and West Virginia, along with vulnerable Democrat incumbents in Alaska, Arkansas, and North Carolina, Republicans have their third chance in three straight elections to win back control of the Senate. So that means only one thing: I have 100% confidence in this...

Popular former Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Saturday morning that he will not run for Montana's open U.S. Senate seat in 2014, an announcement that complicates Democratic efforts to retain their majority in next year's elections. Schweitzer told The Associated Press that he doesn't want to leave Montana and go to Washington, D.C. He had been considered the Democrats best candidate for holding onto the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus next year. Schweitzer said he felt compelled to consider the race only because many in his party said they needed him to run.

Former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Saturday he won’t run for the Senate in Montana — a surprise development that imperils Democrats’ chances of holding the seat in 2014.

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Vice Chairman Rob Portman (Ohio) will headline a Capitol Hill fundraiser this month for Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), according to an invitation for the event obtained by The Hill. The event is the latest sign that Daines is seriously considering a run for the Senate — and that national Republicans are hoping he'll mount a campaign. Daines has been giving the race serious consideration ever since Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced his retirement in late April, and Montana Republicans say they see him as their most likely standard-bearer for the seat. The freshman lawmaker has...

Good news from Arkansascarry.com: In July, 2013, Arkansas will become the fifth state in the United States to enact “Constitutional Carry” into law. Act 746 of the 2013 General Assembly was signed into law by Governor Mike Beebe on April 4th, 2013, after receiving only one “nay” vote from the legislature. Constitutional Carry occurs in a state when no laws exist that generally restrict the carry of handguns (open or concealed) for self-defense purposes. Arkansas law 5-73-120 currently prohibits the possession of a handgun if it is possessed “readily available for use with a purpose to employ the handgun… as...

Continental Resources, the Williston Basin’s largest producer and one of the region’s most active and experienced explorers, has all but officially declared a significant increase in the amount of oil it believes can be recovered from the massive Bakken petroleum system. Its estimate today stands at 24 billion barrels of oil equivalent, already far exceeding the federal government’s official estimate, which it recently doubled. Continental’s recoverable calculation for the U.S. portion of the Bakken is based on a dated oil in-place estimate of 577 billion boe. Last year the company raised that in-place estimate to 903 billion boe without increasing...

American taxpayers will be tremendously relieved to know that the U.S. government is hard at work trying to get official endangered status for ... the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and the feds want to designate it a critical habitat protected under the Endangered Species Act, the 1973 law signed by President Richard Nixon to protect species from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.” The federal government’s list of more than 1,300 threatened or endangered species ... The Service is proposing to designate around 14,561 acres of critical habitat along streams...

An ongoing Media Trackers investigation into the D.C.-based, left-wing political firm Hilltop Public Solutions continues to yield evidence of that organization’s influence in Montana politics and the Montana Democratic Party. The firm is currently the subject of a Montana Office of Political Practices complaint which alleges that the group illegally coordinated expenditures on behalf of Gov. Steve Bullock’s election campaign, using funds provided by left-wing dark money groups and Political Action Committees. Furthermore, Hilltop partner Barrett Kaiser has close ties to former Baucus Chief of Staff and President Obama’s 2012 Campaign Manager, Jim Messina. Messina now heads the president’s political...

While attempting to attack an amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that would require a fence be built along Mexico’s border with the U.S. before legalization, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) made a significant geographical gaffe. Landrieu, who represents Louisiana in the U.S. Senate, was trying to undermine the amendment Sen. John Thune (R-SD) offered. In doing so, she tried to argue Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was more qualified to talk about border issues than Thune because McCain represents Arizona. “A smart fence, which is what Senator McCain and I want to build--since he’s from Arizona, I think he...

To paraphrase William Shakespeare, there’s something rotten in Washington, and the odor is emanating not just from the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department. It’s also coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies accused of colluding with radical environmental groups to write regulations that are threatening the livelihoods of millions of Americans. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce study has found that the EPA has given green groups a seat at the table when drafting environmental regulations, but it has excluded the people and industries most likely to be affected. The Sierra Club has participated in “closed-door...

The party has an outside chance of winning the five or six seats it needs to retake control, but needs to find top-tier recruits in several states and is running out of time to do so. ....Here are five states where the party needs to land strong candidates to broaden the battleground and have a hope of winning back the Senate. Michigan Iowa Montana Arkansas New Hampshire

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this morning on a measure that will effectively end debate on the misnamed “farm” bill, cutting off opportunities to fix the deeply flawed legislation. At a cost of a nearly $1 trillion — 80 percent of which goes to the food-stamp program — American taxpayers deserve a robust debate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) won’t let that happen. This isn’t the first time Reid has pulled this stunt. His iron-fisted approach to running the Senate is one reason Americans hold Washington in such low regard and have a strong distrust of politicians....

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s long-anticipated plan for the Oregon & California Railroad trust lands amounts to a bold call for — input. Anyone who thought that Wyden would propose something specific has to be disappointed. Nevertheless, people as prominent and impatient as Gov. John Kitzhaber dutifully issued stilted remarks thanking Wyden for his “leadership.” Tongues had to be firmly in cheek. No one dared point out that the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had again failed to do anything to help the people who inhabit a large part of his state. Instead of legislation, Wyden offered...

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is nullification — the idea that states can limit the enforcement of federal laws within their borders. --snip-- They’ve wiped the dust from the 10th Amendment with state laws seeking to nullify federal statutes. Over a dozen states, with South Carolina being the most recent, have passed legislation aimed at preventing the Obamacare health care mandate from being enforced in their jurisdictions. South Carolina’s goes the furthest by proposing to grant taxpayers a state tax deduction equal to the federal penalty for failing to purchase health care. Montana, Kansas and...

After wandering away from the Montana Veterans’ Home in Columbia Falls last June, a 77-year-old Korean War veteran suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease was tased by police, fell face-first to the pavement where he struck his head and died later due to injuries from the fall, according to a lawsuit filed last month by a family member representing his estate. Tamara Downen of Columbia Falls filed the lawsuit on April 5 in Helena’s Lewis and Clark County District Court, claiming that her grandfather, Stanley Downen, died as a result of negligence by the Montana Veterans’ Home, Columbia Falls Police Department...