Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — As many as a million Americans will be kicked off food stamps this year thanks to the return of federal rules targeting unemployed adults without children.

That’s according to a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington, D.C. think tank, which finds that no fewer than 500,000 people will lose benefits.    Continue reading “Don’t Expect Food Stamps If You’re Unemployed And Childless”

Fox 5 Atlanta

Atlanta, GA – A Georgia State Senator wants to make it harder for certain people going through a divorce to buy a gun.  State Senator Doc Rhett, Democrat from Marietta, said SB250 would prevent a person who is going through a divorce and has a violent history or a restraining order, from buying a gun without a judge’s permission. SB250 would not pertain to a spouse who wants a gun for protection.  “If they want to purchase a gun to protect themselves, that’s fine because they’re not the aggressor,” said Sen. Rhett.    Continue reading “Ga Senator Wants New Gun Laws For People Going Through Divorce”

CNN

Ammon Bundy, a leader of the armed protesters who took over a federal building in Oregon, and his family are known for battling the federal government.

But Bundy told CNN on Tuesday that he’s not opposed to government and said that taking a six-figure loan from the Small Business Administration doesn’t conflict with his political philosophy.   Continue reading “Leader of armed protesters in Oregon took out $530,000 federal loan”

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Jim Stone Freelance – by Christian Yingling

Ok …Everybody… please gather around and listen to what I am about to say..Then either shut your mouth, or share this far and wide. If you have ANY faith in me as a leader you will heed what I am about to say. If not..I want nothing to do with you. simple as that.   Continue reading “Here is real word from the Oregon standoff”

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

SALT LAKE CITY —  In response to news media inquiries, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement Monday, January 4 (for more context on this issue, see this story from the Washington Post):    Continue reading “Mormon Church and Cattlemen’s Association Condemn Actions in Harney County, Oregon”

Huffington Post

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — A Jacksonville man is facing a 120-year sentence for firing two shots that caused no injuries, The Florida Times-Union reported on Sunday.

The trial of Army Veteran Randal Ratledge, 58, is scheduled to start with jury selection on Monday. Defense attorneys have asked the judge to waive the mandatory guidelines, but court officials said Judge Jack Schemer is bound by the state law.
Continue reading “Army Veteran Faces 120-Year Sentence For Firing 2 Shots Into Air”

Fuel Fix

BEMIDJI, Minn. — Enbridge Energy will pay the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota $18.5 million to settle a nearly decade-long dispute over unauthorized use of a small parcel of tribal land.

In a split vote, the Red Lake Tribal Council accepted the Enbridge settlement in late December. The settlement pays for less than a half-acre of land and restitution for 65 years of unauthorized use, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.   Continue reading “Enbridge settles pipeline dispute with Red Lake for $18.5M”

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Investor’s Business Daily

Skirting Congress once again, President Obama seeks to admit another 100,000 foreigners to work here when jobs are few and labor-market participation is low. Whatever this is, it’s not in the interest of U.S. workers.   Continue reading “Obama Floods The U.S. Job Market With Foreign Competition”

Seattle PI – by Geoff Mulvihill

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Laws taking effect at the start of the new year show states diverging on some hot-button issues.

Restrictions on carrying guns eased in Texas, for example, but got tighter in California. It is easier to register to vote in Oregon, but there is another step to take at the polls in North Carolina.   Continue reading “New laws in 2016 show states are diverging on guns, voting”

Times of Israel

One person is dead, as many as five are in critical condition and at least one is seriously hurt in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv just before 3 p.m. Friday.

Initial reports say the shooter may have been caught, but authorities could not confirm the report. A police manhunt remains underway for the attacker, with roads around the attack site closed by police.   Continue reading “One dead, one critically hurt among 10 casualties in Tel Aviv shooting”

Yahoo News – by Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – Nearly 200 workers, mostly Somali immigrants, have been fired from a meat-packing plant in Colorado after staging a walkout to protest what they said were insufficient prayer accommodations, the company and Islamic advocacy groups said on Thursday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the workers were treated in a “discriminatory manner” by managers at the Cargill Meat Solutions [CARGIL.UL] facility in Fort Morgan, about 75 miles northeast of Denver.   Continue reading “Somali workers fired at Colorado packing plant in prayer dispute”

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The Great Recession – by David Haggith

When I predicted the economic apocalypse would begin for the US this month, I said the stock market would rise euphorically after the Fed raised its interest target. Rise it did. Steeply, too. I also said it would fall shortly after. Fall it did. Quickly, too. Now I’m saying the Epocalypse is here.   Continue reading “Epocalypse Now: The Economic Apocalypse is Here”

Sent to us by the author John Trowbridge: ….. ALL the documents are here, to help YOU avoid Federal entanglements and to help YOU escape their clutches if you’re “already in court” — This newest posting summarizes the cases and gives you the framework to understand the issues!

Supreme Court Case

The Union is the collective of the 50 respective commonwealths united by and under authority of the Constitution, and the geographic area they occupy.   Continue reading “Criminal complaint filed with military authorities against all Lufkin Federal actors”

Sent to us by Clay.

CBS Sacramento – by Kelly Ryan

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A new ban on concealed handguns on college and school campuses will go into effect in California on Friday, as the state joins 19 others with similar bans.

It was just a week after this school shooting in Oregon last October where a gunman killed nine people at a community college when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to ban the concealed carry of handguns at colleges and school campuses.   Continue reading “Gun Control Opponents Say Campus Firearm Ban Won’t Make People Safer”

Yahoo News

An Ohio Grand Jury has declined to indict two police officers in the death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was shot dead by a Cleveland police officer last year, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said today.

McGinty said he also recommended that no charges be filed.   Continue reading “Grand Jury Declines to Indict Officers in Tamir Rice Case, Prosecutor Says”

Tulsa World – by Michael Overall

In a ruling that could affect virtually every well drilled in the past 45 years across Osage County, a federal judge has invalidated an oil and gas lease for not including a site-specific environmental assessment.

The lawsuit, Hayes v. {span}Chaparral Energy and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, specifically mentions only one lease and two drilling permits. But it could serve as a test case for a pending class-action lawsuit that, if decided the same way, would have a much wider impact.

Both cases involve the National Environmental Policy Act and whether it requires the BIA to consider the potential environmental impact of each specific well site. The BIA has generally granted drilling permits based on an environmental assessment of the whole county conducted in 1979, but U.S. District Chief Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled that the countywide assessment is too generic and outdated to satisfy the law.

“Unlike 1979,” the judge wrote, “today virtually every drilling operation in Osage County involves hydraulic fracturing.”

The logic of this ruling, if applied to a 2014 class-action lawsuit known as the Donelson case, could invalidate nearly every lease signed since NEPA was enacted in 1970, said attorney Donald Lepp, who is representing the plaintiffs in both cases. Although, as Lepp noted, the courts will also have to decide whether a statute of limitations would protect leases signed more than several years ago.

“The BIA ignored its duties under NEPA when it approved the lease and drilling permits,” Lepp told the Tulsa World. “As virtually every lease and permit approved by the BIA in Osage County were handled similarly, the ruling will have impact beyond just this case.”

This week’s ruling poses yet another problem for an Osage oil industry that has been in turmoil for more than a year. The BIA, partly in response the Donelson class-action lawsuit, has made it more difficult and time-consuming to get drilling permits, and producers took the BIA to federal court to block stricter environmental standards that they say would have made oil production virtually impossible in the county.

If BIA regulations haven’t been in compliance with NEPA, oil producers aren’t to blame, said Jamie Sicking, an attorney for the Osage Producers Association.

“The real bad actor here again is the BIA,” he said. “The producers have to trust that the BIA is doing their job correctly.”

Sicking finds hope for the future of the Osage oil industry in one of the judge’s footnotes, acknowledging that federal regulators could go through the process of issuing a “categorical exclusion” for the county, relieving at least some of the environmental burdens imposed by NEPA. But in the meantime, “we’re all caught in a very scary situation right now,” he said.

BIA officials could not be reached for comment.

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Michael Overall 918-581-8383

michael.overall@tulsaworld.com

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/court-ruling-could-have-big-impact-on-osage-oil-industry/article_66aa0f47-362c-5260-aef1-3cf30dfca6d0.html