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Legislation Finalizing Sealaska Land Claims Advances in U.S. Senate

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Photo Credit: SitNews

Photo Credit: SitNews

The Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Act (S. 340) was approved Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by unanimous voice vote. The bill now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.

The measure provides Sealaska Corp., the Alaska Native regional corp. for Southeast Alaska, with 70,075 acres to finalize transfer of land owed to the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

“It has taken six years, but today we’ve taken a major step toward fulfilling the promise made to Southeast’s 20,000 Alaska Natives more than four decades ago,” U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said. “This has been a difficult process because every acre of the Tongass is precious to someone, but we have worked tirelessly with all of the stakeholders to address their concerns. I truly believe that all of that work has resulted in the best bill possible. It will help the region’s timber industry grow, while at the same time protect more than 150,000 acres for fisheries and habitat.”

Under ANCSA, which extinguished aboriginal land claims in Alaska, Sealaska was entitled to an estimated 375,000 acres of the 16.9-million acre Tongass National Forest to help improve the livelihoods of its shareholders. The government never made good on its promise.

Sealaska is currently owed some 85,000 acres, but under the compromise worked out in Murkowski’s bill it will accept about 15,000 acres less in exchange for 68,400 acres for timber harvesting, 1,099 acres for renewable energy resource and recreational tourism projects, and 490 acres of Native cemetery and historic sites.

Read more from this story HERE.

Recall Election for Colorado’s Pro-Gun Control Senate President Moves Forward, Anti-Gunners Plead for Out-of-State Money

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Photo Credit: Ed Andrieski

Photo Credit: Ed Andrieski

The first-ever recall election of a Colorado state legislator moved closer to fruition Tuesday after it was announced that there are sufficient valid signatures to proceed with the recall of Senate President John Morse.

Secretary of State Scott Gessler said the El Paso Freedom Defense Committee had gathered 10,137 valid signatures, well in excess of the 7,178 needed to qualify for the recall ballot. The recall committee submitted more than 16,000 signatures two weeks ago…

Colorado gun-rights advocates launched the recall drive in reaction to Mr. Morse’s support for a package of gun-control bills that were signed in March by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Meanwhile, Mr. Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, released a statement Monday on his Facebook page asking for out-of-state help from those in traditionally liberal cities to help fight the recall effort. Read more from this story HERE.

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Magpul offers soon-to-be illegal weaponry to Colo. gun buyers

Colorado gun owners stocking up on magazines before the state’s ammunition restrictions hit July 1 received an assist Monday from Magpul Industries.

Magpul announced that it would reserve a number of 40-round magazines for Colorado residents as part of its Boulder Airlift Program in response to the state legislature’s recently enacted firearms restrictions.

“Also, to beat the July 1st deadline for ownership in Colorado, a small portion of the first batch of PMAG 40s will be available from the Boulder Airlift Program for direct sale to CO residents, regardless of previous orders,” said Magpul in a Facebook post. Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Cornyn Receives 3 Public Pensions Plus Senate Salary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn last year supplemented his Senate salary with three public pensions, bringing in some $65,383 in public retirement benefits to add to his $174,000 a year salary for serving as senator….

His largest pension, for $48,807, came through the Judicial Retirement System of Texas, earned while serving on the state Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997.

Cornyn, 61, reported another $10,132 in pension benefits from the Employees Retirement System of Texas, a fund for state elected officials and workers, after serving as attorney general from 1999 to 2002.

Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, disclosed in a series of amendments he began filing last year that he had been collecting the $10,122 pension since 2006, but had not listed it on his original disclosure reports from 2006 through 2010.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Proposed Immigration Bill is a Sham if it Doesn’t Secure Our Borders First

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Photo Credit: Irish Central

Photo Credit: Irish Central

There is a one thousand page immigration bill working its way through the US Senate. Buried in those many pages is vague wording that “some day” our borders will be secure….We promise.

We have already seen how this current administration respects our immigration laws, by issuing executive & stand down orders to bypass current law that it doesn’t agree with.

So what will be any different if after amnesty is granted to 11 million illegals, that this administration or the next one will decide to leave the borders alone and unsecured?

We have billions of dollars in illegal drugs being shipped in through our southern border AND it can be crossed at will by anyone that wants to pay a “coyote” to guide them in, or in many places, just walk in.

Of course our borders are pierced illegally in other ways as well, like over staying visas, coming in through the northern border and by ship along our coasts.

But the visible symbol of being serious about illegal immigration is the securing of our porous southern border. Until that border is secure, it is a slap in the face to all American citizens that an immigration bill is even being considered.

The politicians can promise all they want, but we’ve been down this road before.

When it comes to immigration reform, Americans want their borders secured first before anything else on immigration is deployed.

Just like President Reagan said: Trust….But verify

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Support for Carbon Tax Growing in US Senate

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Montana Democrat Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that interest in a carbon tax is “creeping up” and that “everything is on the table.”

“There are more members of the Senate now who openly talk about that than I have experienced. It is creeping up a little bit. Is that going to rise to the level of where it is a very strong, serious provision? I don’t know. But I am not going to pre-judge it,” Baucus said at a Christian Science Monitor event…

Next month, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will take up carbon tax legislation introduced by California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. Their bill would put a gradually rising tax on carbon dioxide emissions to help fund green energy projects.

Democrats have been selling the carbon tax to conservatives as a way to address global warming and reduce the deficit. According to the CBO, the Boxer-Sanders bill would raise $1.2 trillion over the next decade and 60 percent of that revenue would be used to offset higher energy bills…

[Critics see it differently:] “It’s not just energy prices that would skyrocket from a carbon tax. The cost of nearly everything built in America would go up,” said Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter. “Let’s not lose sight of how big of a dud cap and trade was in 2009, or as it came to be known, cap and tax. This is really no different.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Biden: Al Gore ‘Was Elected President of the United States’

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Photo Credit: AP

Vice President Joe Biden praised former Vice President Al Gore at a Washington fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Ed Markey after stating that Gore actually won the 2000 presidential election.

“This man was elected president of the United States of America,” Biden said, according to the media pool report. “No, no, no. He was elected president of the United States of America. But for the good of the nation, when the bad decision, in my view, was made, he did the right thing for the nation.”

Biden, a potential 2016 presidential candidate himself, complimented Gore’s acceptance of the Supreme Court decision to halt recounts in Florida, a decision which effectively gave the election to his Republican George W. Bush.

“I can’t think of very many who would put his country first like that, at a really, really, really difficult time,” he said, according to Yahoo News. “There’s an awful lot of folks Al and I both know who have run for president and still haven’t gotten over it.”

Before turning his attention to Markey, Biden remarked that history would favor Gore over Bush.

Read more from this story HERE.

Joe Miller Moves Forward With Senate Bid, Appears on Cavuto (+video)

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Tea party favorite Joe Miller has filed Federal Election Commission papers to challenge incumbent Sen. Mark Begich, one of several sitting Democrats seen as vulnerable by the GOP.

“Support from the grass roots has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are moving forward within those guidelines organizing, fundraising, and coordinating with our volunteer base,” Mr. Miller said in a statement when Politico.com broke the news Tuesday.

Miller is best known for challenging incumbent Republican US Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2010. With the backing of national tea party groups and Sarah Palin, he beat Senator Murkowski in the GOP primary by 2,006 votes out of 109,750 cast.

But Murkowski, a moderate Republican, came back to wage a write-in campaign backed by native corporations, political action committees, and some unions, dashing Miller’s hopes and holding onto her seat – the first time in more than 50 years that a US Senate candidate had won a write-in campaign.

Miller did not go down without a fight, however, challenging the election results up the Alaska state court system until a federal judge finally dismissed Miller’s suit and Murkowski was certified as the winner two months later.

Read more from this story HERE.

Key Sen. Reid Supporter Convicted of Approx. $150k of Illegal Contributions to Senator’s Campaign

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Photo Credit: AP

A former Nevada powerbroker was convicted Wednesday of making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.

A federal jury reached the verdict in the case against real estate developer and once powerful lobbyist Harvey Whittemore.

The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on charges of making excessive campaign contributions, making contributions in the name of another and causing a false statement to be made to the Federal Election Commission.

Whittemore faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

The jury was deadlocked on a fourth charge of making a false statement to the FBI.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senators Block Gosnell Resolution

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller A Senate resolution aimed at investigating and correcting the policies which led to the illegal abortion practices of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell was blocked Monday evening.

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee attempted to hotline the resolution to express “the sense of the Senate that Congress and the States should investigate and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices” Monday evening, but an unknown senator objected to its unanimous passage, according to Lee’s office.

“It is difficult to imagine why anyone would object to a non-binding resolution calling on Congress to investigate these alleged disturbing, horrific, and illegal abortion practices committed by Kermit Gosnell and others,” Lee said in a statement.

“With numerous reports of similar instances surfacing around the country, the need for greater regulatory oversight of these so-called clinics is so plainly obvious it strains the limits of disbelief to think all members of the Senate would not agree,” he added. “The resolution is simply an affirmation that we as a country — a moral and compassionate society — have an interest in acting to save the lives of innocent women and children, and to prevent these kinds of heinous acts from happening to anyone again.”

Lee’s resolution, which has 11 co-sponsors, highlighted the crimes alleged against Gosnell, who faces more than 250 criminal charges, including first-degree murder charges for the deaths of four babies born alive in attempted abortions and a third-degree murder charge for a woman who died in 2009 during an abortion from a drug overdose.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Left's 'Crusade to Destroy the Christian Church'

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Photo Credit: BreitbartThe Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has just been re-introduced in the Senate and specifically bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The bill has been around for the last couple of decades and its new supporters (two Republicans and three Democrats) probably believe that polls showing movement in favor of same-sex marriage mean that the iron is hot for striking.

From what I can gather, ENDA will offer the LGBT workers the same federal protections against employer discrimination as there are now in the categories of age, race, gender, religion, and disability. As the bill is written now, it would exempt employers with fewer than 15 employees, religious institutions, and religious-affiliated employers, such as Presbyterian hospitals, Catholic adoption agencies, etc.

Let’s leave the debate over the overall bill for another time. The development I want to focus on is brand new. There is now a push underway to remove the exemption for religious-affiliated employers by no less than the ACLU and a number of LGBT legal organizations…

This harkens back to something I have been trying to sound the alarm over all year — that the goal here has nothing to do with gay rights and everything to do with the left’s ongoing crusade to destroy the Christian Church.

Read more from this story HERE.