Free Republic

After an extensive investigation lasting well over a year, NPR's ombudsman has concluded the network's series on South Dakota's efforts to put Native American in foster care was fundamentally flawed. The network and the ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, who is paid to critique NPR's news coverage, have split sharply over his findings. The series, which appeared in October 2011 on All Things Considered, alleged that the state of South Dakota took Native American children and separated them from their families and tribes at an alarming rate. The series won national awards and helped inspire federal and state reviews of such policies....

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...

A pro-gun control group of mayors started by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has scheduled an event in Fargo on Monday, but Bloomberg himself is not expected to attend. Neither is Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker, who said he’s gotten nothing but flak from the tri-state area since announcing his membership in Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns group years ago. “I’ve never resigned, but I’m not an active member either. So I don’t plan on attending,” Walaker said, adding that he hadn’t heard of the event until he was contacted by a reporter. Walaker is the only North Dakota mayor...

As the philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Hopefully, in this case, Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, doesn’t have the political clout or backing to reprise Jimmy Carter’s grand blunder in 1980. Graham last week suggested the U.S. should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t hand over leaker Edward Snowden. “I love the Olympics, but I hate what the Russian government is doing throughout the world,” Graham said. “If they give asylum to a person who I believe has committed...

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...

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the attorneys general of 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday, demanding that the agency turn over documents the states allege will show the agency cooperates with environmental groups as part of a "sue and settle" legal strategy to develop regulations. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleges that binding consent decrees between the EPA and environmental groups that have sued the agency over the years have led to new rules and regulations for states without allowing their attorneys general to defend their interests and those of its...

Johnny Depp has announced that he wants to buy Wounded Knee, a national historic landmark, and give it back to the Indian people. In an interview with the Mail On Sunday, the actor revealed that he is ready to spend millions in order to give the Native American people control of the land that was the site of a brutal 1890 massacre. ‘It’s very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there,' he said in the interview. 'And in the 1970s there was a stand-off between the Feds (Federal government) and the people who should own that...

State Sen. Larry Rhoden, a longtime leader in the South Dakota Legislature, said Tuesday he will challenge former Gov. Mike Rounds for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate next year....

For one group of women, Saturday was the first time they ever shot a gun, but it was for a good reason! A special group was in Humbolt to help teach the group about self-defense when using a firearm. At Hunter's Point Shooting Club, over 50 women of all ages were taking safety to a whole new level. “I don't want to be scared, I want to be prepared,” said Kara Williams, Brandon. Williams and her friend Candace Berndt were just two women taking part in Saturday's firearms self-defense class. The woman said they've wanted to learn how to safely...