Wyoming Officials Take EPA to Court After Ruling Gives Land (including Entire City) to Tribes

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Photo Credit: Fox News Wyoming officials are taking the Environmental Protection Agency to court in a bid to reverse a sweeping agency ruling that transferred more than 1 million acres of land — including an entire city — to Native American tribes.

Wyoming Attorney General Peter K. Michael filed his state’s appeal Friday morning before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The state wants either the EPA to reverse, or the courts to overturn, a December ruling on a request from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.

The tribes had sought “state status” in order to administer air quality monitoring. The EPA, in the course of reviewing the request, determined the land in question actually belongs to the Wind River Indian Reservation and has for more than a century, despite a 1905 law opening it to non-tribal members.

The decision, which encompassed the city of Riverton, caused intense controversy as officials warned about a range of disruptive consequences, including the possibility that jailed tribal members could now challenge their convictions.

Offering some relief, the EPA earlier this week agreed to put its own decision on hold at the request of the state and the tribes themselves. The state was the first to ask for a stay, calling the decision “arbitrary” and “wrong.” But the tribes followed suit, in the interest of soothing tensions.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dirty Dozen: 12 Senate Republicans Who Voted to Silence Ted Cruz

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Photo Credit: D.C. Clothesline Everyone knew that the debt-ceiling deal would pass through the Senate on Wednesday. Even Ted Cruz had to know it. As soon as the House passed the deal on Tuesday, the writing was on the wall.

Even so, Ted Cruz promised to fight for America once again and filibuster the legislation. Would that have changed things? More than likely it would not have changed the vote. But Ted Cruz is the voice of a lot of Americans who are fed up with the Washington D.C. “business as usual” crowd. Evidently tee times and the beltway bar scene are more important than listening to the voice of an elected representative, because 12 republicans turned on Ted Cruz Wednesday including his own Texas sidekick, John Cornyn.

This morning I feel like my own tongue was cut out, because there are few in the Senate who speak for me and Ted Cruz is one of them.

The Senate vote for cloture passed 67-31 and could not have passed without republican votes. 60 votes were needed. These are the 12 who voted to silence Ted Cruz as reported by The Hill:

The Republicans who voted in favor of ending debate were McConnell, Cornyn, Hatch, McCain, Corker and Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John Barasso (Wyo.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Thune (S.D.). Thune and Barasso are also members of leadership.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Calls Out Begich for Promoting IRS Tyranny

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Photo by Joshua DoubekJoe Miller called out Mark Begich today for the Senator’s support of new IRS rules that would grant the agency even more power to shut down the political speech and the political involvement of tea party and other conservative groups.

“After all we have learned about the egregious acts by the IRS against Americans’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, that Mark Begich would come out in support of granting the agency even more power to target political groups demonstrates he is no longer willing to offer even the pretext of protecting the rights of all Alaskans,” said Miller.

While President Obama initially labeled the IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups as “outrageous and unacceptable,” in a recent interview he stated there was not “a smidgen of corruption” found in the actions of the agency. However, the public learned that the subsequent DOJ investigation of the IRS is being conducted by a high-dollar campaign contributor to the President. Apparently, there is no known public record of any of the targeted tea party groups being interviewed in this supposed months long “investigation.”

“If Mark Begich is willing to not only condone, but advocate the use of the IRS in this capacity, he has shown he does not want to represent all Alaskans and no longer deserves to hold his office,” said Miller.

Miller concluded, “We have to ask ourselves, what kind of nation do we want to be? One in which the President unilaterally changes laws and uses executive agencies to spy on Americans and to shut down political speech, or one in which our constitutional liberties are secure and all are free to engage equally in the political debate? We must protect against this abuse of power, whether it is exercised against the political right or left.”

Court Overturns Concealed-Carry Rule in Blow to California Gun Law

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Photo Credit: ReutersBy Dan Whitcomb.

A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a requirement by San Diego County that residents show “good cause” to carry a concealed firearm, a ruling that could force local governments across California to revisit the way they license handguns.

A three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, acting on a 2009 lawsuit, ruled in a 2-1 decision that San Diego County’s restrictions amounted to an unconstitutional infringement on citizens’ Second Amendment rights to bear arms.

Coupled with a California state law that largely bans the open carrying of firearms in public, San Diego County’s “good cause” rules on concealed weapons effectively bar residents from carrying a gun altogether, the panel said.

“In California, the only way that the typical, responsible, law-abiding citizen can carry a weapon in public for the lawful purpose of self-defense is with a concealed carry permit. And, in San Diego County, that option has been taken off the table,” Justice Thomas O’Scannlain wrote in the 77-page opinion for the majority.

California, which has enacted some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, allows residents to carry a concealed weapon if they meet several requirements, including completing a training course, demonstrating good moral character and establishing “good cause” to have the gun.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ReutersCalif. concealed weapon law tossed by fed appeals court

By Associated Press.

A divided federal appeals court on Thursday struck down California’s concealed weapons rules, saying they violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

By a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said California was wrong to require applicants to show good cause to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

“The right to bear arms includes the right to carry an operable firearm outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote for the majority.

Judge Sidney Thomas dissented, writing that the good cause requirement limited the number of people carrying concealed handguns in public to those legitimately in need.

“It limits the risk to public safety by reducing the number of guns in public circulation, but allows those who will most likely need to defend themselves in public to carry a handgun,” Thomas wrote.

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Alaska Tops Standard of Living Index

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Photo Credit: Jessica Lynn Culver / Getty ImagesResidents of Alaska are the more satisfied with and optimistic about their standard of living than Americans in any other state, while people in West Virginia are the least satisfied, according to a new poll.

The Gallup survey released Thursday put Alaska in first on a broad measure of satisfaction. Throughout 2013, the pollster asked almost 180,000 adults in all 50 states two questions: how satisfied they are with their standard of living and whether they feel that standard is getting better or worse. Out of a maximum score of 100—achieved only if 100 percent of respondents say they’re happy with their standard and it’s getting better—Alaska came in first at 53, followed closely by the oil-rich land of North Dakota and the sunny state of Hawaii. Residents of West Virginia scored a last-place 22, followed by glum Maine at 31 and gloomy Rhode Island at 32.

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Stockman’s Reasons for Challenging Cornyn: ObamaCare, Cruz, Rubio, and Miller (+video)

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Photo Credit: WND The GOP establishment has targeted him. But Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, has a strategy to knock off the second-most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. It’s the same strategy that propelled big underdog Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to victory in 2012: Keep the entrenched incumbent below 50 percent in the primary election; then knock him off in a runoff…

His voice rising to demonstrate his conviction, Stockman declared, “I gave up my safe U.S. House seat to run against John Cornyn for U.S. Senate because I don’t want to see the Obamacare repeal movement defeated. I am willing to risk everything to see Obamacare repealed.”

The congressman maintained it is one thing to face a Democrat as a clearly defined opponent, but quite another when you have a Republican who consistently works against other Republicans, saying that Cornyn worked against Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, Senate candidate Joe Miller in Alaska and even against his fellow Texas senator, Cruz.

In fact, when Stockman broke the news to WND in December that he would challenge Cornyn, the congressman cited as his top reason how the incumbent GOP senator “undermined Sen. Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Vulnerable Dems Seek More Aggressive IRS Crackdown on Conservative Groups for 2014 Elections

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Photo Credit: AP/Jacquelyn MartinEven with so many unanswered questions still surrounding the Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal, Democrats are demanding the tax agency be even more aggressive in monitoring spending from outside groups going into the 2014 midterm elections.

“There are two things you don’t want in political money, in the fundraising world and expenditure world,” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told The Hill newspaper. “You don’t want secret money, and you don’t want unlimited money, and that’s what we have now.”

Pryor is considered among the most endangered Senate Democrats up for re-election this year.

But that’s no reason to attack the First Amendment rights of citizen groups, said Washington attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is suing on behalf of several conservative organizations given extra scrutiny by the IRS in the 2012 election cycle.

“It is absolutely outrageous that these elected officials are distressed about having a citizens group discuss their voting records – and then calling on the IRS or any agency of government to ‘protect’ them from having to explain, justify or defend their voting records in Congress,” Mitchell told TheBlaze.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Blasts Begich, Big-Government Republicans for Surrender on Debt Ceiling

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Photo Credit: APMark Begich and the Washington Establishment claimed victory after yesterday’s vote to raise the debt ceiling blocked a filibuster attempt by Senator Ted Cruz, who was hoping to gain some spending concessions in exchange for more debt authorization. 

“In the face our staggering national debt, it is simply unconscionable that Mark Begich and his big government friends continue to play politics with our future,” Miller said. “Washington is declaring victory, but unfortunately this is a zero-sum game. For Washington to win, America must lose.”

Some in the mainstream press are describing the bipartisan Senate vote to kick the can down the road until after the mid-term elections as part of the Republican Establishment’s war on the Tea Party. 

CNN quoted New York Senator Chuck Schumer as stating that the vote was a sign that “the American political world is moving in our direction. Republicans are trying to put Tea Party politics in the rear view mirror.”

Senate Republican leadership, along with senior Senator Lisa Murkowski who called the deal “a good outcome,” voted to allow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling while opposing final passage.

“Alaskans are sick and tired of this kind of duplicity,” Miller continued. “There’s a reason my Republican opponents have the blessing of the Washington Establishment. While they will criticize Mark Begich all day long for a vote like this, they’ll never take on the party bosses. Mr. Begich needs to be replaced, but the last thing we need in Washington is another feckless Republican.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual rights, private property, and free markets.

‘Catch Me If You Can’: Wanted Biker Taunts Cops With Extreme Video

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsPolice in San Antonio are on the hunt for a motorcyclist who taunted the department in a video posted to Facebook. Authorities say Alberto Rodriguez is the biker who was filmed weaving through rush-hour traffic on I-35 at speeds of over 100 mph.

He posted the video to his Facebook page along with the caption “catch me if you can,” and it has now made its way to police. The video was reportedly shared thousands of times since it was posted last May.

Read more from this story HERE.

Where’s the Snow? On the Ground in 49 of 50 States (+video)

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Photo Credit: @Falcon_2_Shark via TwitterBy Doyle Rice.

Snow is on the ground in 49 out of the 50 states — only the Sunshine State of Florida is completely snow-free, according to a map produced Thursday morning by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(This doesn’t mean that those 49 states are snow-covered, of course, only that some part of each state has snow.)

Although this map doesn’t show it, there is snow in Hawaii, where webcams are showing snow on the high peaks of the mountain volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

The map also doesn’t include Alaska, but it’s a given that most of that state is snow-covered this time of year. A quick check with the National Weather Service forecast office in Fairbanks found 19 inches of snow on the ground there.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ** RCB **Florists Rushing To Get Valentine’s Day Arrangements Finished Before Next Storm Hits

By Syma Chowdhry.

Roses are red, violets are blue, the Nor’easter is a pain for everyone, even florists too!

Another snow storm is hitting us in time for Valentine’s Day.

Rick Pannepacker is the owner of Penny’s Flowers in Glenside.

“Today is a hectic day because we are trying to get so many pieces out there that were scheduled for tomorrow let alone Friday, everything has been pushed back,” he explained.

It is becoming a major thorn in his side as the shop tries to get fresh flower arrangements done and delivered.

Read more from this story HERE.