Free Republic

SUPERIOR, MT -- A train derailed near Superior Thursday, sending Boeing aircraft fuselages into a river. Nineteen cars on the westbound train derailed. Three of the cars contained aircraft parts and ended up in the Clark Fork River. Boeing said the train was headed from Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita to the Boeing final assembly plant in Renton. No one was hurt. The cause is under investigation. Boeing said the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train was carrying six 737 fuselages, fuselage panels and a lower lobe for the 777, and a leading edge flight surface for the 747. Boeing says it...

"The Billings Gazette," a Montana newspaper that endorsed President Obama over John McCain in 2008 (but went with Romney in 2012) admitted Friday that they were wrong -- Obama is in fact worse than his predecessor, George W. Bush. Apparently, the potential collapse of Iraq (and the disastrous worldwide consequences sure to follow) was the last straw. "[W]e were wrong," the editorial page notes,"We said things couldn't get much worse after the sub par presidency of George W. Bush. But, President Barack Obama's administration has us yearning for the good ol' days when we were at least winning battles in...

Wildlife advocates want a federal judge to order faster action on a recovery plan for imperiled Canada lynx. ... Officials also say that lynx face a relatively low degree of threat compared to other protected species. The Fish and Wildlife Service was forced to come up with a timeline on the recovery document when Molloy last month expressed frustration with the government's progress. The judge said the "stutter-step" approach by federal officials necessitated court intervention. The lawsuit pending before Molloy was brought by Friends of the Wild Swan, Rocky Mountain Wild, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and the San Juan Citizens Alliance....

A Montana judge has struck down most of a voter-approved law requiring government officials to conduct immigration checks on anybody seeking services from unemployment benefits to crime-victim assistance. The law aims to deny services to people who are in the U.S. illegally. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock says in his Friday order the law makes up its own definition of "illegal alien" and conflicts with federal immigration laws.

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s searing criticism of Former Montana Governor Schweitzer’s ridiculously sexist comments inspired some pretty damning headlines yesterday. But, Coffman’s opponent, Andrew Romanoff, was silent on the matter. And, now we know why – Schweitzer was in Colorado seven months ago stumping for Romanoff. ... Calling Diane Feinstein a prostitute-turned-nun is probably not the way to win friends and influence people, so we have to ask – will Romanoff denounce his fundraiser buddy’s comments? We’ve reached out to his campaign for comment. They responded with [drum roll] silence. ... They say you are who your friends are. Perhaps...

Brian Schweitzer, the former Democratic governor of Montana and aspiring 2016 presidential candidate, made some rather off-color remarks .. Schweitzer going after Senator Dianne Feinstein on surveillance issues by likening her to a prostitute on a street corner. Schweitzer found it amusing how Feinstein has been a champion of the intelligence community, and has now turned on the CIA for spying on congressional staffers. He said, “She was the woman who was standing under the streetlight with her dress pulled all the way up over her knees, and now she says, ‘I’m a nun,’ when it comes to this spying!…...

Crescent Point’s Torquay Discovery Reignites Southeast Saskatchewan. Just when you thought The Bakken couldn’t get any better—it does. Oil producers are now “cracking the code” on the Torquay, or Three Forks formation below the Bakken, and coming up with incredible economics—these wells are paying back in only seven months. This news has completely re-invigorated the Canadian side of the Bakken. And on the US side, the Three Forks is causing industry to leap-frog estimates of the amount of recoverable oil available–by about 57%! It’s hard to imagine that the #1 oil play in all of North America could have such...

Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is many things, but circumspect is apparently not one of them. Schweitzer, a Democrat who's said he's mulling a presidential bid in 2016, offered a colorful appraisal of Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the soon-to-be former House majority leader who was defeated in a primary election last week. "Don't hold this against me, but I'm going to blurt it out. How do I say this...men in the South, they are a little effeminate," Schweitzer told National Journal's Marin Cogan in an interview the night of the election. "They just have effeminate mannerisms. If you were just...

The U.S. Senate Energy Committee advanced a bill on Wednesday that would force congressional approval of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project, but the measure seems unlikely to be taken up by the full Senate. The bill, the latest effort by lawmakers to breathe life into the long-delayed pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast, will languish without a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring it to a vote. The measure, from Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, would take a decision...

Republican Congressman Steve Daines has moved to an 18-point lead over interim Senator John Walsh in the U.S. Senate race in Montana. Daines now picks up 53% up the vote to Walsh’s 35%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Montana Voters. Three percent (3%) like some other candidate in the race, while nine percent (9%) are undecided.

The Mount Vernon Assembly – Indianapolis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Skip Brown skip.brown@iga.in.gov 317-232-9521 The Mount Vernon Assembly to Meet at Indiana Statehouse June 12 and 13 INDIANAPOLIS (June 9, 2014) – More than 100 state legislators representing 33 states will meet at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on June 12 and 13 to continue establishing the rules and procedures needed for a future state-led convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as authorized by Article V of the Constitution. The meeting is a continuation of efforts that began in December 2013 at George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate...

You really have to watch Brian Schweitzer in action to get just how much of a blowhard he is. By the end of his appearance on today's Morning Joe, even Mika Brzezinski seemed mortified by the antics of her fellow Democrat. And Bill Kristol's expression of utter disdain for the former Montana governor was worth the price of admission alone. In the course of his appearance, Schweitzer--defending President Obama's deal for the release of US soldier Bowe Bergdahl--declined to call the five senior Taliban members released either terrorists or war criminals. Even the Daily Beast, in the person of reporter...

Labor unions are beseeching senators to pass legislation that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline by circumventing a government review process that threatens to stretch into 2015. In a letter to senators today, five unions, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute say the bill is essential to free the pipeline from “political limbo.” “After nearly six years of countless polls and five exhaustive federal reviews stating the pipeline is safe to build and will create thousands of jobs, we have unfortunately seen political rhetoric and gamesmanship take precedence over policy and leadership,” the groups say. The...

The Keystone XL pipeline may be stalled, but it's pumping a steady flow of cash into Washington — where inertia is a multibillion-dollar industry. The pipeline debate has become a money-making machine for lobbyists, advertisers, NGOs and political fundraisers in the U.S. capital, where tens of millions of dollars are being spent on the issue. The spending deluge will continue indefinitely, thanks to the two latest non-developments: the Obama administration has delayed a decision on the pipeline, and a congressional effort to speed up the process appears to have collapsed this week. The Washington insider news outlet, Politico, described the...

Militiamen and woman camping on Cliven Bundy’s cattle ranch are packing up and heading to Utah where another protest against the Bureau of Land Management will happen Saturday. Ryan Payne, a Montana resident who had been staying at the ranch for a month, said he drove eight hours to arrive in the eastern Utah town this morning. Three militia members from the ranch and a handful of people from a group called Citizens Action Network came to Utah, too, he said. ... At Recapture Canyon, federal officials aren’t planning to send armed federal agents to the Utah protest like they...

THIS IS FOR THE MOUNTAIN WEST (Rest of the country is in separate threads and Pacific Coast coming later, see links below) There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. Nevada: NIGER INNIS, NEVADA-4, June 10th .... winner...

Search warrant: Missoula man may have been high when German student shot Markus Kaarma may have been under the influence of marijuana when he shot and killed German exchange student Diren Dede, according to a search warrant requested by Missoula police. The search warrant also indicates that during previous burglaries of the Missoula home, unknown suspects had taken all the marijuana and marijuana pipes out of the garage. Kaarma, 29, is charged with deliberate homicide for the shooting of the foreign exchange student, who was finishing his junior year abroad at Big Sky High School. According to the affidavit, Kaarma...

The attorney for a Montana man charged in the death of a 17-year-old German exchange student says the teen and a companion had broken into homeowners’ garages three of four times before the shooting. Paul Ryan represents Markus Kaarma, who is charged with deliberate homicide in the April 27 slaying of Diren Dede in Missoula. […] Ryan says the Ecuadorian student told police the boys started “garage hopping” after learning about the practice from other students at their high school. …

The vote to authorize immediate construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline may come to a crucial head next week, as two Senators introduced a bill on Thursday calling for binding legislation.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Magma levels are slowly rebuilding inside Mount St. Helens, a volcano in Washington state that erupted in 1980 and killed 57 people, although there was no sign of an impending eruption, U.S. scientists said. ... "The magma reservoir beneath Mount St. Helens has been slowly re-pressurizing since 2008," the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement on Wednesday. "It is likely that re-pressurization is caused by (the) arrival of a small amount of additional magma 4 to 8 km (2.5 to 5 miles) beneath the surface." The USGS said this is to be expected with an active...