Montana Lawmakers and Others Flex Their States' Rights Muscles
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has never been shy about giving the federal government a piece of his mind. But the new state legislature is taking it a step further. It is considering a dozen bills that aim to nullify various federal laws within Montana's borders -- bills Schweitzer considers "un-American." Montana certainly isn't alone in challenging Washington. In the wake of health care reform passed a little less than a year ago and midterm elections that installed conservatives at all levels of government, the states' rights movement is enjoying a Renaissance. The recharged anti-federal ...
Montana Governor Schweitzer Bars Park Service From Slaughtering Bison
The U.S. Department of Interior may use the image of a wild American bison for its logo, but the agency isn't doing much to help the beast itself. Or so says Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the man who on Tuesday afternoon saved hundreds of wild bison from imminent slaughter at the hands of federal agencies. Schweitzer's surprise executive order overruled the decision of a federal judge just one day earlier that had cleared the way for the National Park Service to execute hundreds of bison, or buffalo -- half of which are believed to be carrying the disease brucellosis. They currently are ...
12 States to Vote on Health Care Nullification
It's not every day that politicians and professors fight over the legacy of John C. Calhoun. But as Republican lawmakers in 12 states introduce protest bills to nullify the federal health care law, the 200-year-old theories fueling their efforts are being called into question, and the ideas of the man who some view as the spiritual godfather of state secession are having an unlikely re-emergence in American politics. The concept behind nullification -- that states can claim legal supremacy over the federal government -- dates to the nation's founding. But successive attempts to invoke state ...
Second Amendment Case: Law Student Sues Idaho University to Keep Guns
The University of Idaho sits on a picturesque, tree-lined campus in the rolling hills of the northwestern Palouse. Just one mile from the Washington State border, the state's oldest university has the tranquil feel of a bricks-and-ivy, New England college. But one student here is fighting for his right to keep a bit of the Wild West alive on campus. And his case is just one skirmish in a raging national debate over guns, gun control and the legal and moral codes that guide the role of firearms in public places. Aaron Tribble is the 36-year-old, second-year law student making national ...
Idaho GOP Pushes Bill to Make Health Care Reform 'Null and Void'
Republican lawmakers in Idaho are staying in front of the conservative campaign to roll back the federal health care overhaul. Votes fell along party lines Wednesday morning in Boise as the House State Affairs Committee voted 15-4 to introduce a "state sovereignty" bill to the full legislature that would render the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "null, void and of no effect regarding any Idaho citizen." State Sen. Monty Pearce, a 10-year veteran lawmaker from southwestern Idaho, is a co-sponsor of the bill, and he sees the effort as fulfilling a responsibility to his ...
Feds Surge Forward on Solar Projects in the Southwest
In the West, fighting the federal Bureau of Land Management is a time-honored tradition. But as today's agency focuses on renewable solar energy projects, the BLM is looking more friend than foe to recession-stricken southern Nevada. Ever since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 set the tangible goal of 10,000 megawatts of non-hydropower renewable energy by 2015, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior and the BLM have been working in tandem to facilitate large, utility-scale solar projects in the desert Southwest. The BLM, whose land conservation policies made it a constant ...
Former Idaho Gubernatorial Candidate Charged with Elk Poaching
HAILEY, Idaho -- Rex Rammell made national headlines when he joked at an August 2009 Republican fundraiser about buying "Obama tags" to hunt the president. Now the former Republican candidate for governor is accused of illegally killing a female elk near his eastern Idaho home. Each year, the Idaho Fish and Game agency issues tags that specify the dates and geographic zones where certain animals can be legally harvested. When Rammell was stopped on November 30 (a Fish and Game officer saw him dragging a dead elk with a snowmobile), he allegedly produced an expired tag for a zone 200 miles ...
Patty Murray Holds Slim Lead Over Dino Rossi in Washington Senate Race
Washington State is developing a pattern of too-close-to-call elections. With 62 percent of the state's precincts reporting and tens of thousands of mail-in ballots still outstanding, incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray held a narrow lead -- 1 percentage point -- over her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, early Wednesday morning. For Rossi, yet another close election brings unpleasant memories of 2004, when he lost one of the narrowest elections in American history to Gov. Chris Gregoire by just 133 votes. He lost to Gregoire again in 2008, but in this, his third consecutive campaign, ...
Republican Raul Labrador Upsets Blue Dog Walt Minnick in Idaho
BOISE, Idaho -- In an upset win in one of the most unusual House races in the country, underdog Republican Raul Labrador has won Idaho's 1st congressional district over the favored incumbent, Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Walt Minnick. At 12:55 a.m., Minnick conceded on Twitter. The Associated Press in Boise called the race for Labrador minutes later. In a statement Wednesday, Minnick said he phoned Labrador and "wished him every success... I, in particular hope he can be successful in working with the administration and his colleagues of both parties in the exceedingly important task ahead of ...
Chris Dudley Leads, Barely, as Oregon Gubernatorial Race Goes Into OT
In Oregon, Democrat John Kitzhaber looked to join Jerry Brown as another former West Coast governor to reclaim an office he held years before. Standing in his way early Wednesday was the formidable 6-foot-11 frame of former NBA center and Republican challenger Chris Dudley. At 12:30 a.m., with 81 percent of the state reporting, Dudley led by roughly 15,000 votes, or about 1 percent. Whatever the eventual outcome, this will be the closest election since 1956, when Democrat Robert Holmes defeated Republican Elmo Smith by just 8,599 votes. As in recent statewide elections, rural areas in ...
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
Follow Politics Daily
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- Irked Senate Panel Votes 30-0 to Cut Pakistan Aid
- GSA Bash Organizer Steps Down
- More Stories »
- Know Your Enemy
- Obama’s Challenge in Egypt
- The Edwards Waiting Game
- Are Doctors Doing Too Much?
- The Pagan Cult of Reagan
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
- Romney Challenged on How Much Class Size Matters
- Simpson Tells Seniors, 'Help Me' With Social Security
- Biden Focuses on Future Challenges at West Point Commencement
- Obama's Address: Honor Our Fallen Heroes
- Romney Surrogate Donald Trump Doubles-Down on Birther Nonsense While Romney Campaign Stays Mum
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics