Free Republic

Adopts Conforming Ordinance The Raleigh City Council today adopted an ordinance that members hope will be short lived. The vote brings the City Code into compliance with North Carolina State Enabling Laws. The newly adopted State law that went into effect Dec. 1, allows the carrying of concealed weapons essentially everywhere, with the exceptions of some City-owned parks and recreational facilities. The City Council has asked the City Attorney’s Office to pursue an exemption for Raleigh during the General Assembly’s short session. "While the City Council will comply with the new law, the Council members unanimously believe it is bad...

CARSON CITY – A regulation eliminating a prohibition on carrying firearms in state parks has been approved by the Legislative Commission. The regulation still prohibits the discharge of a firearm in a state park with some limited exceptions, such as designated target shooting areas. But a provision included in the original draft regulation to specifically recognize the right to self defense in a state park was not part of the final changes approved Wednesday by the panel of state lawmakers. A state lawmaker who supported the regulation said the ability to use a weapon for self defense is covered elsewhere...

-----SNIP------ For more than 60 years, the National Park Service has been trying to reach out to African Americans and Latinos. But its 395 parks, monuments, waterways, historic places and recreational areas remain largely the province of white Americans and tourists from around the world. In an interview, Park Service Director Jon Jarvis reiterated an old lament: Parks must attract a more diverse slice of the American public or eventually risk losing taxpayer support. Yet only about 1% of the nearly 4 million people who visit Yosemite each year are African Americans. So officials were elated earlier this month when...

I've been tuning in to Andy Parks' radio show, Andy Parks Live from the Washington Times since it began seven weeks ago. By now, it seems Andy's settling in to the show quite nicely. I enjoy the drive home, and he mentioned today that he'll be taking calls soon; up to this point the show was mostly news and commentary, with guests from the Washington Times reporters and columnists. Unfortunately, I was behind the wheel when he gave out his new call-in phone number. You can download the latest program podcasts at his show website. What was also nice...

Occupy Seattle leaves behind big mess for Seattle parks workersChris Egert KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Updated: 12:35 pm PDT October 11, 2011 SEATTLE -- Should Occupy Seattle protesters have to clean up after themselves? A KIRO 7 overnight news crew shot video of some of the mess left behind in Westlake Park. City Parks and Recreation crews have spent mornings cleaning up from 11 days of Occupy Seattle demonstrations. Along with rain-soaked signs, KIRO 7 crews counted at least four parks workers taking every sign and piece of tape off the columns at Westlake Park. The garbage has filled about...

While such parks normally are bustling with people - and have facilities to serve them - the relative seclusion appears to have emboldened some to do their business along trails and other areas where no Minnesotan would normally dare to squat. "People are taking it upon themselves to go out in the woods and relieve themselves, and without the presence of employees and others, they're not picking up after themselves," Konrad said. "People are also having a tendency not to pick up after their pets."

OTTAWA — Canada may not have the second amendment, but the government will soon allow some people to bear arms in national parks with polar bears. Parks Canada announced it will be loosening restrictions in nine of its parks to allow specially licensed individuals to carry firearms for protection from polar bears. At the moment, there are significant restrictions on who may carry firearms in national parks. "There's lots of places where people should never be in Canada as a whole without a firearm. If they need to be, or want to be, in these areas . . . it...

In addition to the new gun laws which take effect in Virginia on July 1st, there is an important administrative code change that will take effect on July 7th. The change, published in Volume 27 Issue 20 of the Virginia Register of Regulations, modifies 4VAC10-30-170 to remove the prohibition against both open and concealed carry on land under the ownership and management of the Department of Forestry.

Clark County commissioners amended a code Tuesday to make it legal to carry guns in parks. It remains illegal to discharge a weapon, except under specific circumstances, such as in self-defense. The county code regarding guns in parks now aligns with state law, which says people may openly carry firearms in a nonthreatening manner. Last summer, Vancouver resident Joe Winton, a member of a national gun advocacy group, went before the commissioners to ask that the code be updated. The county code pre-dated the state’s open-carry law. Nobody testified Tuesday before the commissioners voted to update the code. Clark County...

The TSA isn’t the only one with grabby hands. I’ve been reporting on the stealth Obama land and ocean grabs for the past several months now — and there is another new, under-the-radar-screen development that deserves your attention. Quick review: In August, I told you about the “Great Outdoors Initiative” to lock up more open spaces through executive order. This came on top on top of a separate, property-usurping initiative exposed by GOP Rep. Robert Bishop and Sen. Jim DeMint earlier this spring. According to an internal, 21-page Obama administration memo, 17 energy-rich areas in 11 states have been targeted...

One year ago today, on February 22, 2010, the National Park Service lifted the ban on carrying concealed weapons in the parks for those who have permits to do so. The change came about when the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act was signed into law on May 22, 2009. The bill contained a line item added at the last moment by a Republican senator, specifically allowing people with concealed carry permits to carry their guns into national parks in the states covered by their permits. At the time, critics predicted that the new rule would frighten families away...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Smokers have just one message to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members: butt out of our business. “We’re outside. We should have freedom to smoke,” City Hall Park smoker Harvey Forbes told CBS 2’s Magee Hickey. By a vote of 36 to 11 on Wednesday the City Council approved a bill to ban smoking in all city parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas. “People who have made the decision not to smoke have civil liberties too and their health and their lives should not be negatively impacted because other people have decided to smoke,” Council Speaker...

Attention Times Square denizens and those out for a stroll in Central Park: It will soon be time to put out your smokes — forever. The New York City Council is slated Wednesday afternoon to approve a ban on smoking in parks, beaches, marinas, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas like Times Square. The legislation marks the most ambitious expansion of the city’s antismoking laws since Mayor Michael Bloomberg convinced the city lawmakers to approve a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces and park playgrounds in 2003. “When this legislation is passed, all New Yorkers will be able to enjoy a walk...

Two high-profile attacks on joggers in Seattle parks over the past couple of months, the most recent being Wednesday afternoon, underscore why gun rights organizations and five individual citizens challenged the City of Seattle’s attempt to ban firearms in park facilities, an illegal act under this state’s preemption statute. Yesterday's attack occurred in Colman Park. The earlier incident happened in October in Seward Park, and in that attack, the unidentified perpetrator was armed with a knife, according to the on-line Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The man, armed with a knife, then grabbed the woman from behind and threw her to the ground....

The cities of Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach ban the possession of guns in parks. The Redondo Beach ordinance was passed this May. The Hermosa Beach ordinance seems to date back to the 1990s. These are the only two cities in the South Bay of Los Angeles which restrict the possession of firearms in parks. The City of Hermosa Beach claims its beach is a park and as such, is the only public beach in the County of Los Angeles where the possession of firearms is prohibited. The old railroad tracks which were converted into green space a couple of...

The Battle of Juarez is showing signs that the good guys are not prevailing. The Juarez newspaper, El Diario de Juarez, has cried uncle in its mixed stance of reporting the progress of the war. In the front page editorial that appeared recently, the editor waved the white flag and asked the cartels publicly what they want from him. The murder of a photographer and another reporter in the recent past are hitting far too close to home for him to continue to be a brave purveyor of the truth. In a city ravaged by nearly 7,000 deaths since 2006...

This is how much budget trouble the state of California is in: It's about to run out of toilet paper in its rural parks. California's red ink budget is immensely complicated because of voter-approved ballot initiatives, federal rules and court decisions. But this internal e-mail within Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Finance Department is plenty simple: "Bottom line: Remote rural state parks will likely run out of toilet paper by early October." Pressing a deadline, I was unable to dig deep enough to learn precisely which parks, let alone privies… I did learn that the problem involves banks canceling a state credit...

New York City officials want to take their smoking ban outdoors. City officials announced new legislation on Wednesday that would outlaw smoking in parks, beaches, marinas, boardwalks That means no smoking in Central Park or on the Coney Island boardwalk. Violators could be issued quality-of-life summonses by the parks department and pedestrian plazas throughout the city.

According to the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, 61-year-old Eddie M. Campbell from Belle was caught at Booker T. Washington Memorial Park in Malden with his shirt off and his pants around his ankles.

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

In an insane case of political correctness, a federal government agency has classified an illegal immigrant arrested for cultivating marijuana in a national forest as a “displaced traveler from Michoacán Mexico.” The illegal alien (Gauldry Almonte-Hernandez) was recently busted during a U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Operation raid of illegally grown marijuana plants in northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. So far this month, the feds have eradicated more than 92,000 marijuana plants throughout the 2.1 million acre national forest that encompasses five wilderness areas and hundreds of mountain lakes. In the first few days of July alone, about 50,000 plants...

Crime is on the rise in California's state parks, up nearly threefold in the past decade, according to Department of Parks and Recreation data analyzed by The Sacramento Bee Marijuana cultivation in the parks also is increasing. In 2009, 35 incidents were reported, up from 30 the previous year and only four in 1999. Visitors to state parks seem to have noticed the growth in crime. A 2007 survey by the state Parks Department found people citing gang activity, alcohol and drug use, and concerns about personal safety as reasons to stay away. At Millerton Lake State Recreation Area near...

Senator Hugh T. Farley (R,C,I – Schenectady) joined business and environmental groups in criticizing the legislation that promised to open State parks only if the Legislature agreed to impose millions of dollars in new taxes and fees while also sweeping a tremendous amount of money out of the Environmental Protection Fund, which supports numerous environmental, agricultural and local government programs. “New York has some of the most beautiful natural and historic resources in the entire nation, and we have been fighting all year long to save the 55 state parks and historic sites that Governor Paterson unilaterally decided to close,”...

Residents Not Pleased With Gov. Paterson's Latest Attempt To Get Legislature's Attention On Overdue Budget HARLEM (CBS) -- Even as the governor cut the ribbon Monday he slashed hours and services at many New York State parks – and outright closed a number of them. David Paterson admitted it's a desperate measure to save money, with the state budget deep in the red and long overdue. Marion Murray is a Riverbank State Park regular one of thousands who work out, enjoy a family picnic or take in the Hudson River views at what many consider West Harlem's backyard. "It is...

A bill has been introduced in the Louisiana legislature that can capitalize on the momentum from the national parks rule change by updating their law to allow for carry in state parks. On Friday, State Senator Troy Hebert submitted SB534: "PARKS: Allows the possession of firearms on certain state lands.�" It will amend the existing Title 56 that deals with state parks as follows: A person who lawfully possesses a firearm may possess or transport such firearm within the boundaries of a state park, state historic site, state preservation area, or other lands under the jurisdiction and control of the...

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today suggested combining the Big Bend National Park in west Texas with the Monumento Natural del Rio Bravo across the river in Mexico, to form the Big Bend/Rio Bravo International Park. "The United States and Mexico are neighbors sharing a beautiful treasure," Salazar said today during a tour of the Big Bend. "Our two nations could and should engage in an even higher level of cooperation to conserve this remarkable area and its wildlife, while providing more opportunity for visitors to enjoy it." Actually, the idea of combining the two parks is not new...it was...

DELHI — The Delaware County Board of Supervisors passed resolutions Wednesday opposing proposed antigun owners legislation and protesting the closing of Oquaga Creek State Park. Delhi Supervisor Peter Bracci presented a resolution opposing bills passed in the state Assembly that he said would have a detrimental effect on hunters, sportsmen and legal gun owners and would curtail rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The list included 11 bills that include provisions requiring the renewal of firearms licenses after five years, stringent restrictions on firearms dealers, new training requirements, banning the sale of weapons that are .50-caliber or larger, and others....

Anthony Bries lends new meaning to the term "weekend warrior." During the week, he works as a home inspector in his town of Baraboo, Wisc. But on weekends for the past two years, he has indulged his passion: teaching anyone who wants to know how to shoot military-style rifles – such as the AR-15, prized for its low recoil. As a senior instructor with the grassroots, three-year-old U.S. rifle instruction program The Appleseed Project, Bries teaches shooting techniques usually encountered only in the police or military. He isn't paid for his trouble, but he doesn't care. To him, if he...

National Parks are reserves that display America's natural beauty to the public. Some people find them places of solitude, where they can go sightseeing, vacation, and camp out in the wild. A visit to a national park is considerably cheaper than the conventional family-of-four vacation. But while protecting your wallet, you might also want to protect yourself. Being alone or even with a small group out in the wild can be frightening. Considering the many violent events that have and can occur in national parks, and also to honor current rights according to visitors' home state, Congress recently lifted a...

Hold up on those plans to re-take Fort Sumter -- it's not going to be as easy as it sounds. On Monday, a federal rule went into effect that allows folks to carry loaded guns inside national parks. This has been a political football for years, but finally was signed into law last year by President Barack Obama. Who knew he was such a gun enthusiast? There's a catch, however. Bob Dodson, superintendent at Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, says gunslingers still can't pack heat inside the actual forts. Or their visitors centers. Or on the boat out to Sumter....

Beginning today, law-abiding gun owners can possess guns in national park and forest lands. But the anti-rights movement is pulling out their propaganda guns in an attempt to confuse and disparage gun owners. Last May, Senator Coburn attached an amendment to the credit card reform bill making its way through Congress. Despite some voting rules attempting to remove the amendment, it survived even President Obama’s veto power. (For the story behind the story, see my special report.) Now, state laws on gun possession and concealed carry are in force when you enter national parklands. For example, if you have a...

The fact that a new law allowing loaded guns in national parks went into effect on the same day (today) as rules imposing restrictions on credit card companies is no coincidence: In a nice illustration of the way things work in Congress, the guns bill was attached as an amendment to the (completely-unrelated) credit card legislation back in May. The new rule allows people to carry firearms, including semi-automatic weapons, in most national parks and wildlife refuges, so long as they follow the gun laws of the state. (That could get a little complicated, as more than 30 parks occupy...

A two-decade-old ban on loaded guns in national parks ends today. Loaded guns will be allowed in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and other national parks. Guns will still be prohibited in some areas in the parks, federal facilities that are regularly staffed by National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees, but everywhere else they will be allowed. “You're raising the level of risk in the parks, and the chance that people will use the parks less than they have in the past,” Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign gun control group warned during...

Area State Parks on the closure list02/20/2010 02:00:00 pm StaffReport ALBANY, Feb 20, 2010--- In an effort to offset an $8.2 billion state budget deficit, Governor David A. Paterson has announced a list of State Parks that will be closing as part of an effort to save some $35 million. On Friday, the Office of Parks and Recreation put forward a recommended list of closures and service reductions to help address the State's historic fiscal difficulties, and five local parks and sites are on the list. The Oriskany Battlefield in Oriskany and the General Herkimer Home in Herkimer are among...

The St. Augustine local news desk has learned that a new law will take effect on February 22nd concerning the possession of firearms and ammunition in national parks. The law repeals a National Park Service rule that has long prohibited Americans from lawfully possessing firearms in national parks for self-defense. The new law, passed last spring by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the U.S. Senate, will allow people to possess, carry and transport firearms in national parks, in accordance with state law. However, many details remain to be worked out, according to the National Rifle Association of America, Institute for...

A group of retired U.S. Park Service employees is warning that visitors at national parks will soon be seeing handguns and rifles at the nation’s parks because of a law sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, last year. The law, which goes into effect in less than two weeks, will allow people to carry firearms in parks located in states that permit the carrying of concealed weapons. Coburn’s controversial amendment was included on a bill to put new restrictions on credit card companies. Here’s a quote from Coburn from last May: “It’s not about guns. It’s about states’ rights —...

A teenage airplane passenger using a Jewish prayer object caused a misunderstanding that led the captain to divert a Kentucky-bound plane to Philadelphia and prompted a visit from a bomb squad. A 17-year-old boy on US Airways Express Flight 3079 from New York to Louisville was using tefillin, a set of small black boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, said Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore. When used in prayer, one box is strapped to the arm while the other box is placed on the head. "It's something that the average person is not going to see...

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the beauty of nature and background music. Picture will change every few seconds.

Next week we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming, but for now let's take a look at the top ten Cleveland GRE articles as determined by the number of comments they received. #10 Gun nuts right, armed self-defense works A look at several instances of an armed citizens prevailing over a criminal attacker. #9 In Texas, police worried about losing gun permit notification A change in Texas law removed the duty to notify law enforcement that you are carrying a concealed firearm, and issue relevant to Ohio since we currently have such a requirement. #8 Personal Rights vs. Property Rights...

"Here's to the Heroes," a program sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, provides free admission in 2010 for any active duty, active reserve, National Guardsman or ready reserve servicemember representing any of the five service branches and as many as three of his or her direct dependents

According to a piece in the Everett Herald recently re-elected council member, John "Freedom County" Koster, doesn't think there are enough venues for gun owners in Snohomish County and is hoping to repeal the county's current ban on firearms in the county's parks. Herald reporter Noah Haglund writes, "If a new law passes, you could feel free to tote a legally owned firearm into county parks. Just don’t shoot it, unless it’s in self-defense. County code, as it reads now, prohibits people from carrying or discharging guns in county parks. Lifting the long-standing ban is mostly a house-keeping measure to...

According to National Park Spokesperson Phil Selleck, the Park Service is not going to go through any formal rulemaking process for each park. Instead said Selleck, the Service is going to work to "educate the public" and park employees on the gun carry rights in each park. Selleck said that federal law at 18 U.S.C. 930 continues to ban gun carry in "federal facilities," but advised that the Park Service does not consider unattended structures such as "outhouses" to be federal facilities because "employees are not regularly present there to perform official duties."

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...

But amid the breathtaking views, she noticed a glaring omission. Under the pristine blue skies, there were hardly any people of color. "At Yellowstone, it occurred to me -- how come there are no black people around?" Peterman said. Why? she wondered. Why weren't they enjoying the parks they helped create, the public lands that belonged to them as well? Peterman embarked on a crusade to address the problem.

TV's `Burn Notice' sets up explosion at Arch Creek East Nature Preserve in North Miami It started with a deafening boom. Then came the powerful flames taking over the wooden planks of a North Miami bridge. Before long the fire was under control. With that, Burn Notice -- a show that revolves around a CIA operative working in Miami -- finished up shooting an action-packed scene in North Miami's Arch Creek nature preserve on Aug. 17. The episode, which is part of the show's third season, will air in February or March. ``It was a very controlled explosion,'' the show's...

First, just a striking view of the Capitol Reef National Park from space. The picture below is labeled; the linked picture is bigger and isn't labeled. The link goes to the explanatory article. Big Thomson Mesa, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Second, a couple of amazing photos from the Oasis Room in the unreal Lechuguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Somewhere out there there's a 360-degree picture of this room. (Someone find it, post the link here.) There's more pictures at the link. 360 Degrees Of Lechuguilla Cave: Photo Shoot at Oasis

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - If Murfreesboro decides to allow guns in parks it could cost the city the annual Spring Fling event and the $3.5 million it brings in from tourism. The executive director of TSSAA said there is no way they would allow the week-long high school sport state tournaments to be played at a park where guns are allowed. A state law allowing people with carry permits to bring guns in parks goes into effect September first. However, local governments can opt out. Murfreesboro's City Council decided last week to postpone voting on a measure to uphold its ban...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California governor's office says federal officials are threatening to seize six state parks if they are closed to help balance the state's budget. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing 220 state parks. But the National Park Service warned in a letter to Schwarzenegger that six of those parks are on former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government if they are not kept open as parks.

This is my third column about the infamous administrative rule to allow loaded, concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges, which has evolved into a symbolic and high priority political battle. Both pro-gun and anti-gun advocates seized on it as a way to find out who has the power. And now we know. The gun lobby wins, easily, which is no surprise to me. I view the passage of HR 627, a credit card reform bill with the highly publicized national park gun amendment attached, as valuable testimony for my past claims that the war to preserve the sanctity...

SACRAMENTO — In a bid to avoid mass closures of state parks, Assembly Democrats on Monday offered a financial trade-off: Pay an additional $15 to register your car, and in return, the state will waive vehicle entry fees at all state parks for anyone with a California license plate. The proposal, outlined by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is part of a sweeping budget plan Democrats aim to unveil this week and vote on as early as next week. ... But Bass said the majority party would also push for at least a handful of tax increases. In addition...