Free Republic

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, flew from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for a 10-hour mission, flying in the vicinity of Kyushu, Japan, the East China Sea, and the Korean peninsula Ellsworth B-1s were last deployed to Guam in August 2016 when they took over CBP operations from the B-52 Stratofortress bomber squadrons from Minot AFB, North Dakota, and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. “How we train is how we fight and the more we interface with our allies, the better prepared we are to fight...

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, under the command of U.S. Pacific Air Forces, joined their counterparts from the Republic of Korea and Japanese air forces in sequenced bilateral missions, August 7. This serves as the first mission for the crews and aircraft recently deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota in support of U.S. Pacific Command’s Continuous Bomber Presence missions. After taking off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, the B-1s assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, flew to Japanese airspace, where they were joined by Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self Defense Force) F-2 fighter jets. The...

Roy Eykamp is 99 years old.  He made his first gun when he was seven years old. It was a crude pistol made from a barrel he salvaged from the trash, fired with a hand held hammer, and later, strong rubber bands cut from inner-tubes and a breechblock. He used it to start his lifelong talent for making money. He shot gophers with it, using .22 shorts.The government paid a 5 cent bounty for each gopher. He made enough money shooting gophers, that when his mother confiscated his homemade gun, he was able to buy a factory one with...

The Senate has confirmed Heather Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. Senators approved Wilson’s nomination 76-22, making her President Donald Trump’s first service secretary nominee to be approved by the GOP-led chamber. ... Wilson is a former Republican congresswoman from New Mexico. She had faced scrutiny from several Democrats for defense industry consulting work she did after leaving Congress in 2009. She is the first graduate of the Air Force Academy to hold the service’s top civilian post.

A conference held on April 9 on Christian and conservative issues in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was threatened by a Muslim man carrying multiple firearms. He attended the conference and posted numerous videos on his Facebook page, including a display of the multiple assault-style rifles, pistols and ammunition he was carrying on his person and in his van. He has not been arrested. The man, Ehab Jaber, posted numerous Facebook videos of himself both in the event and in his van in the event parking lot. In his van he shows off all his weapons, saying: “And now if you...

As the national manhunt for alleged Facebook killer Steve Stephens comes to a close, another disturbing Facebook Live video has surfaced showing a self-described Muslim man making apparent threats toward attendees at a Christian conference. A video posted April 9 by Ehab Jaber shows a man believed to be Jaber filming a copy of the Koran before scanning the crowd with his camera during a portion of the Worldview Weekend rally in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. According to event organizer Brannon Howse, an off-duty police officer confronted Jaber and asked him to stop filming in compliance with the event’s policies....

Energy Transfer Partners, the developer behind the so-called DAPL, is scheduled to start delivering oil on May 14 to Illinois, according to filings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The oil project is expected to transport more than 500,000 barrels of oil a year across the eastern section of the country. ... The Obama administration rejected the previously approved pipeline last December ... President Donald Trump eventually issued orders approving the DAPL in January ... many demonstrators have begun diverting their attention to the equally contentious Keystone XL Pipeline, another oil pipeline Trump approved through executive order. Obama originally rejected...

Representatives from 13 states including 12 state attorneys general and one governor filed a motion in support of President Trump’s temporary travel ban. From the Dallas Morning News: Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday led a coalition of 13 states in filing a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals defending President Donald Trump’s revised immigration order.In the brief, Paxton and representatives from 12 other states argue that the Trump administration’s new order is legal and falls under the president’s power over foreign affairs and national security. Those joining the brief included Paxton plus AG’s in the...

The company which built the Dakota Access Pipeline says there have been “recent coordinated physical attacks” on the completed pipeline which is ready to begin delivering oil this week. At least two attacks taken place within the past month. Last week, someone took a blowtorch to an above-ground section of the pipeline in South Dakota. From the Duluth News Tribune: In South Dakota, authorities received a report on March 17 that someone burned a hole through an above-ground section of an oil pipeline at a valve site just south of Sioux Falls, according to Chief Deputy Chad Brown of the...

South Dakota has landed on San Francisco's list of places where city workers aren't allowed to go on official business because the state passed a law allowing religious-affiliated adoption agencies to not place children with unmarried or same-sex couples.South Dakota has landed on San Francisco's list of places where city workers aren't allowed to go on official business because the state passed a law allowing religious-affiliated adoption agencies to not place children with unmarried or same-sex couples.

PIERRE | South Dakota's Republican governor on Friday vetoed a pair of bills that would have loosened restrictions on carrying concealed guns in the conservative state. Gov. Dennis Daugaard had warned he would veto the bills — one to let people carry concealed handguns without a permit, the other to allow concealed weapons in the Capitol building. Daugaard has said the state's current gun laws are reasonable. "As a longtime member of the NRA, I support the right to bear arms," Daugaard said in his veto letter for the permitless carry bill. "It is paramount that our state protect the...

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it arrested 86 foreign nationals across five Midwestern states last week, including 26 in Minnesota. In a release Wednesday, the department said the operation targeted immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens over a three-day span. The operation included 32 arrests in Nebraska, 26 in Minnesota, 23 in Iowa, four in North Dakota and one in South Dakota. ICE said 52 of those arrested had prior convictions in addition to an undocumented status. Twenty-three had previously been deported and returned, which constitutes a felony. 

PIERRE | After a strong debate about safety, both with more guns and without, the state Senate on Monday voted to allow people with enhanced carry permits to bring their pistols into the state Capitol. Some senators argued that allowing guns into the Capitol would make things safer from potential attack, while others said having concealed weapons inside the halls of government opens the door to potential accidents and safety issues. The vote was 19-15 in favor of House Bill 1156. It now goes to the governor for his decision whether to sign it into law or return it to...

PIERRE | The state House approved a bill Thursday that would allow people who can legally carry a concealed handgun in South Dakota to do so without a permit. South Dakota representatives voted 37-30 to send the bill to the Senate. It's currently a misdemeanor for someone to carry a concealed pistol or to have one concealed in a vehicle without a permit. Republican Rep. Lynne DiSanto, the main sponsor, said her measure is about freedom, adding that requiring a permit penalizes only legal and rightful gun owners.

Dakota Access Pipeline protester Chase Iron Eyes was arrested this week and has been charged with inciting a riot, which is a felony. Iron Eyes allegedly led a group of several dozen protesters who set up a new camp on higher ground that would be out of the flood plain where the current camp sits. The only problem: The property the new camp was set up on is owned by the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline. From the Associated Press: Chase Iron Eyes could face up to five years in prison if convicted on the felony charge. He...

It’s no secret that millions have been funneled into the six-month-old demonstration via crowdfunding websites, and that more than 30 environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, Indigenous Environmental Network, Food and Water Watch, 350.org and Greenpeace, have backed the protest. If national environmental organizations are paying protest personnel, they’re not saying so publicly. Still, Mr. Rauschenberger said red flags will be raised if he doesn’t start seeing W2 or 1099 tax forms from those affiliated with the protest arriving at his office. “It’s something we could possibly pursue if we don’t see 1099s coming in for the activity,” Mr. Rauschenberger...

The Native American tribe at the center of the controversy over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has vowed to take legal action against a presidential memorandum by President Trump pushing pipeline construction. After several months of protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux, the Army announced in early December that it would not approve an easement to let construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline proceed along its planned route. In a statement then, Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said alternate routes needed to be explored. Members of the tribe argue that the pipeline, which would carry...

January 24, 2017 It is just day two of his presidency, and already Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the Obama legacy: in his latest move reported moments ago by Bloomberg, president Trump intends to sign two executive actions today "that would advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines", putting a spoke, so to say, in the train wheels of Warren Buffett's train-based oil transportation quasi-monopoly. Keystone was rejected under former President Barack Obama. Trump’s move on Energy Transfer Partners LP’s 1,172-mile Dakota Access project aims to end a standoff that has stalled the $3.8 billion project...

President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Heather Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. A White House statement said Monday that Wilson, a former New Mexico congresswoman and president of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, would be the first Air Force Academy graduate to hold the position, if confirmed. Wilson served in Congress from 1998 to 2009, where she was a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and chaired the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence.

A South Dakota newspaper that failed to report on the case of a Somali man convicted of trying to molest a severely handicapped woman, changed gears Wednesday after being outed by WND and decided to publish a story about the crime. The story ran on page three of the Aberdeen American News under the headline “Sentencing later this month for a man convicted of attempted sexual contact.” But the newspaper left out an important detail. The convicted sex criminal, 39-year-old Liban Mohamed, was a recently arrived refugee brought to the state from Somalia at the invitation of the U.S. government....