Over the past couple of years, American’s have been able to look inside ‘polygamist’ arrangements with shows like Home Box Offices’, “Big Love,” and Discovery’s, “Sister Wives,” and “My Five Wives.” Disney also introduced a female homosexual couple on the series “Good Luck Charlie,” as well as a male homosexual couple on “Modern Family.”

These shows have desensitized society, changing how we respond to news and entertainment.

For instance, three lesbian women in Massachusetts recently “married” each other after exchanging vows in a wedding-style ceremony last year. They claim they are the world’s first “throuple.” Although Massachusetts recognizes same-sex marriages, the state does not recognize polygamous ones. Nevertheless, the three women named Brynn, Doll, and Kitten still entered into the three-way relationship.

Brynn told The Sun newspaper: “In our eyes we are married. We had specialist lawyers draw up paperwork so our assets are equally divided.”

Doll says, “As far as we know, there aren’t any three women married like us,” she adds, “I had always dated girls, who — although they had boyfriends or girlfriends — were also allowed to date me. I never thought that much about it and I had never really come out as poly to my friends and family. To me, it was just how I was.”

Brynn insists that, despite their novel lifestyle arrangement, that they are “very traditional people” and “perfectly normal.” The three women would also like to raise three children using anonymous sperm donors-one for each of them.

Massachusetts officials will allow the “throuple” arrangement to stand without interference.

Meanwhile, a star in NBC’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” is in hot water for a sermon she recently preached. Porsha Williams encouraged members of her congregation to reach out to individuals needing “saving” — among them drug dealers, sex workers, people who have attempted suicide and gays and lesbians.

“I woke up this morning disturbed and I felt that my heart was heavy and it was imperative for me to address the issue at hand. First let me say that God loves all his children.” Williams said in her sermon. “And although discriminate against other because of their race, their religion, their sexual orientation, their status in life, that we’re all worthy of God’s love.”

Williams explains in her apology: “The sermon that was shown was shown not in its entirety therefore the message was omitted. I apologize that those words hurt the LGBT community, my fans and my supporters. Life is a journey and I’m growing every day. And I continue to encourage everyone to love each other unconditionally.”

Her co-star Cynthia Bailey recently criticized the anti-gay comments made by Williams noting, “To put gays and lesbians in the same category as drug dealers, hookers, and people who attempt suicide is ignorant and insensitive. Especially when she just recently profited from performing at a popular gay club in NYC.”

Now, the Home & Garden Television (HGTV) network, owned by Scripps Networks Interactive, has decided to pull the plug on an upcoming real estate reality show amid a firestorm of controversy from gay rights activists who accused the evangelical Christian hosts of being anti-gay and pro-life. Twins David and Jason Benham had been in production for “Flip it Forward,” a show that was to début in October.

After the network announced the show was on the fall lineup, the group Right Wing Watch (RWW) labeled David Benham, son of well-known evangelical pastor Flip Benham an “anti-gay extremist” and reported on comments he made about homosexuality, abortion and divorce.

“As leader of OSA (Operation Save America,) Benham has  condemned the interfaith Sandy Hook memorial,  protested in front of mosques while shouting ‘Jesus Hates Muslims’ and  blamed the Aurora shooting on the Democratic Party, which he said promotes a ‘culture of death,’” write Brian Tashman, whose with RWW

Tashman continues, “He has also protested LGBT pride events, interrupted church services during a sermon by ‘sodomite Episcopalian bishop’ Gene Robinson and was found “guilty of stalking a Charlotte abortion doctor after passing out hundreds of ‘wanted’ posters with the physician’s name and photo on it.” Benham even blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on abortion rights…”

The Benhams, who are graduates of Liberty University, said it saddened them to hear about HGTV’s decision.

“If our faith costs us a television show then so be it,” they wrote. “With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television, you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical principles, and dedicated professionals.”

HGTV refuses to say why they decided not to go forward with the show.

This isn’t the first time Scripps Networks Interactive has garnered publicity of this kind. In the January 2014 issue of GQ, the magazine asked Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson what he believed to be sinful.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there,” he answered.

And if you don’t think the TV has power over your life, consider the fact that the networks spend nearly 28 minutes on Global Warming news and only 15 seconds on the Lois Lerner contempt vote. By the way: The House voted to hold the former IRS head in contempt of Congress.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the government’s roundup of more than 1,600 wild horses along the Nevada-California line in 2010. The ruling, by the three judge panel in San Francisco rejected an appeal by horse advocates accusing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management of gathering too many mustangs which violates the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.

Judge Carlos Bea concluded in the majority opinion that the BLM completed the necessary environmental reviews for the Twin Peaks roundup not far from the Oregon line, and that the court must defer to the agency’s expertise.

“In sum, the BLM’s actions fell within the discretion which courts have recognized the BLM has to remove excess animals,” he wrote.

BLM maintains the term “remove” should be interpreted to refer to the permanent removal of animals, not the temporary gathering of animals to decide which ones should be euthanized and which should be made available for adoption. The agency claims that if left unchecked, the herds could exceed 6,000 to 8,000 animals within a decade.

‘In Defense of Animals,’ argued the act prohibits the removal of any mustangs from horse management areas on the range before the agency first identifies old, sick or lame animals to be destroyed humanely, to which Judge Johnnie Rawlinson agreed in her dissent.

“The act couldn’t be clearer,” she wrote. “It is only after old sick or lame animals are destroyed that the act provides for additional excess wild horses to be captured.”

Two days before the ruling, a group of Utah residents rode all-terrain vehicles onto federally managed public lands to protest the BLM’s closing off of the area in Blanding. The protesters and their supporters say the agency has unfairly closed off a prized area, cheating them of outdoor recreation

However, federal officials say the region, known for its archaeological ruins, is in danger from overuse.  BLM Utah State Director Juan Palma, in a statement, said the riders may have damaged artifacts and dwellings of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.

“The BLM was in Recapture Canyon…collecting evidence and will continue to investigate,” Palma said. “The BLM will pursue all available redress through the legal system to hold the lawbreakers accountable.”

Recapture Canyon is home to dwellings, artifacts and burials left some 2,000 years ago. The BLM closed the canyon to motor vehicles in 2007 after two men created ‘an illegal’ seven-mile trail, while hikers and those on horseback are still allowed there.

Bureau of Land Management officers recorded and documented protesters who traveled into the closure area. About 30 deputies and a handful of BLM law enforcement officers watched as protesters drove past a closure sign and down the canyon some 300 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said between 40 and 50 people, many of them waving American flags drove about a mile down the canyon, then turned around. Hundreds attended a rally at a nearby park before the protest.

“It was peaceful, and there were no problems whatsoever,” the Eldredge told The Associated Press.

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman organized the ride. The Commissioner and his supporters want the BLM to act more quickly on a years-old application for a public right-of-way through the area.

Earlier, BLM officials notified Lyman that any illegal travel in the area would bring consequences such as citations and arrest.  The protest comes weeks after Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s successful standoff against the agency over grazing rights.

As for the Bundy stand-off, the FBI is investigating whether anyone broke federal laws during the April 12th standoff, including threats against law enforcement officers and the use of illegal weapons.  Authorities say that while thy don’t want to inflame the situation, reports of people pointing weapons at law enforcement need to be investigated.

Las Vegas’ KLAS TV reported that the FBI is looking at pictures and videos taken during the standoff and questioning law enforcement officers who were a Bunkerville. They are also concerned about the possible involvement of anti-government groups.

The FBI has yet to name those groups publicly.

An estimated 300 people joined Bundy when the BLM began to round-up his cattle after he refused to vacate federally owned land and pay more than $1 million in fees. The faceoff that began last month is part of a two-decade-long fight between Bundy and the BLM.

The BLM halted the cattle roundup and is considering what to do next, including arresting Bundy for failing to follow the law, seizing his assets through the Treasury Department or sending the case to the Department of Justice.

But the battle isn’t contained to just Western States as the group, Patriot for America marched on Washington. Organizers had planned to call for the removal of Barack Obama, John Boehner, Eric Holder, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and anyone else who had ‘trampled on the constitution.’

“We are calling for (their) removal…as a start toward constitutional restoration,” said retired Army Colonel Harry Riley.’ “They have all abandoned the U.S. Constitution, are unworthy to be retained in a position that calls for servant status.”

The group expected between 10 million and 30 million people to meet them in the capital for a rally billed as “Operation American Spring,” however only around 250 supporters showed up.

During his radio program the day of the march, commentator Glenn Beck warned against the dangers of “spring-like” movements.

“So anybody who wants the American Spring, no thank you. I see how it’s worked out oh so well for those people in Egypt. No thank you,” Beck said.

“Look…what the government did in the Great Depression, before World War II,” he added. “Look at what they did to all of the veterans who were protesting in Washington for benefits — don’t think that they won’t turn your guns on you because they will. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.”

Occupy Wall Street is feeding the propaganda machine of Progressivism with yet another Facebook Meme. This one claims a $16 wage helped Australia “dodge the global recession.”

Over the past year, increasing amounts of fast food and retail workers have been on strike demanding $15 an hour and better benefits and working conditions. Their struggle has spread nationwide, and their demands have been hotly debated in the media.

That being stated, Australia is currently heading into a recession all its own.

An out of control debt is leading Australia’s government slash welfare, cut public service jobs and raise taxes to cut a deficit forecast to reach $47 billion dollars in the current fiscal year ending June 30. This also includes cutting 16,000 government workers and freezing welfare payments for two years.

The mining boom that helped Australia’s economy for the last ten-years, paying for a series of personal income tax cuts, has fizzled in the past two years, wiping billions of dollars from the government’s tax revenue. And while the government reduced its net debt to zero before the 2008 financial crisis, but since then it’s has reached a 20 percent of GDP level.

The government also plans to strip $80 billion from hospitals and schools over the next ten-years, shifting the costs to the states to pick up and raising the prospect of an increase in Australia’s 10 percent consumption tax. Those on high salaries will face a temporary extra tax on their incomes.

The austerity plan is to cut the deficit to Australia’s $29.8 billion next year and $2.8 billion in 2017-18. The hope is to create a surplus by 2018-19.

In fact, Australia’s ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported in January 2012 that the country’s economy shed 100,000 jobs in 2011, the first time more jobs were lost than created in any year since 1992.

By 1854, the population of Crescent City numbered over eight hundred inhabitants.  That same year,  Father James Croke, who first visited our little town in 1853 had “not yet discovered many Catholics” but wrote to the Archbishop of his plans to build a church in Jacksonville, Oregon.

This church, he wrote, would serve “all mining districts for sixty to seventy miles around.”  In the years to follow, Croke would periodically offer Mass while on his way to Oregon.

During the first decade of the city’s development, several priests passed through town, offering Mass either in the old courthouse or in private homes.  During the early to mid-1860s, Father Thomas Crinnian, a pastor in Eureka, would make the three-day trip on mule-back to offer Mass once a month and then return to his parish.

By November 1868, Father Maurice Hickey, the new pastor in Eureka, along with Catholic pioneer Maurice Wenger, purchased an abandoned Methodist Church and in 1869, Crescent City had its first Catholic Church.  By October, Father Leon Haupts became the first resident pastor of the new parish and, along with Father Rooney, Haupts conducted regular services in Trinidad and Smith River.

In November 1873, Father Michael Walwrath replaced the old church with a new and larger one that provided enough room in the back for school classes, which included education for the poor and Native American children.  Walwrath was so devoted that he became known as the “Indian Missionary”.

Shortly after Father Nolan arrived in 1915, the church burned down and another was soon built, however, in April 1932 that church burned down as well.  On April 27, 1935, the fourth Catholic church was dedicated by Bishop Armstrong.

When Nolan passed away in August 1944, Monsignor P.L. O’Loughlin was sent as a replacement.  The Monsignor was no stranger to the area as in 1941 he began the construction of Saint Robert and Anne in the townsite of Klamath.

President George W. Bush is not one of my favorite commanders-in-chief. In all honesty, I view him as ‘Progressive,’ as Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, his father George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

That being said, there is a Facebook meme being reposted calling ten attacks on U.S. soil overseas jus’ like that which occurred in Benghazi in 2012. In that attack, two contractors, a state department employee and a U.S. Ambassador were killed.

This particular meme is incorrect and the record needs to be straight.

1. January 22nd, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen attacks the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed. None were American.
2. June 14th, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12. None were American.
3. February 28th, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Two police officers and a civilian are killed outside the U.S. Consulate. None were American.
4. June 30th, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. No attacks took place on the date listed, however, two Uzbek security guards died in an attack on the U.S. Consulate July 30, 2004. No American’s were killed.
5. December 6th, 2004: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A U.S. consulate is attacked with explosives and machine guns, killing four security guards. None were American.
6. March 2nd, 2006: Karachi, Pakistan. A suicide bomber kills four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy near the U.S. consulate.
7. September 12, 2006: Damascus, Syria. Four terrorists attack the U.S. Embassy killing a Syrian security guard. No Americans were killed.
8. March 18th, 2008. Sana’a, Yemen. the U.S. Embassy is attacked by mortar fire, which misses the embassy, but hits a nearby school killing two. None were American.
9. July 9th, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed. None were American.
10. September 17th, 2008. Sana’a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with weapons and two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband. This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months and was immediately called a ‘terrorist attack.’

There are other graphics with lists on the web as well, including a couple listing attacks that never happened, and are being used to show a lack of outrage on the GOP’s part during Bush’s presidency. And while Bush did a number of things wrong, he didn’t lie in order to try and cover up the deaths of four Americans.

Governor Frank Bell was the sixth governor of Nevada and a distant cousin of Alexander Graham Bell. He was born in Toronto, Canada on January 28, 1840.

Bell came to the U.S. as a construction supervisor for a telegraph company that ran lines from Utah to California. He claimed to have helped telegraphed the Nevada constitution to President Lincoln in 1864 and was the first person to demonstrate the telephone in Nevada.

Bell did however, installed some of the first telephone lines in the state at the Virginia City mines and in the city itself.

Bell first entered public service as warden of the Nevada prison, a position he held from 1883 to 1887. He also served as lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1889 to 1890.

On September 21, 1890 Governor Charles Stevenson died in office, and Bell, who was the lieutenant governor at the time, assumed the duties of the governorship. During his short tenure, he continued to carry out the programs and policies of the Stevenson administration.

He served only four months in office. However when the Republicans held their convention in Virginia City on September 4, 1890, he received neither the nomination for lieutenant governor nor governor.

Some believed Bell did not seek the governor’s position because his brother-in-law, C.C. Powning, aspired to be governor.

After leaving office in January 1891, Bell continued to stay politically active. From 1893 to 1895 he served again as warden of the state prison, and from 1905 to 1909 he served as Reno justice of the peace.

Governor Frank J. Bell passed away at the age of 87 in California on February 13, 1927, and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Reno, Nevada. The city of Reno honored him by naming Bell Street after him.

While many well-meaning people, including First Lady Michelle Obama, hold up signs reading, “Bring Back Our Girls,” Islāmic terror group Boko Haram has kidnapped eight more young girls from the northeast Nigerian town of Warabe. Earlier in the month the terrorist kidnapped almost 300 young women from a school in Chibok, west of Maiduguri, some 600 miles from the capital of Abuja.

In a video message, the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said the schoolgirls are now slaves. There are reports that many of the girls have already been sold as slaves in neighboring countries, some for as little as $12.

“I abducted your girls,” he taunts. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell.”

A Whitehouse Spokesman called it a tragedy and pledged to help.

“We are working with the Nigerian government to strengthen its criminal justice system and increase confidence in the government by supporting its efforts to hold those responsible for violence accountable,” press secretary Jay Carney said.

A team of FBI, DOJ, State Department and military personnel are in Nigeria to help in the search using ground teams and unmanned aircraft. But the task of recovering the girls appeared to grow more complicated with news that U.S. intelligence believes the 276 girls have been split up.

“We do think they have been broken up into smaller groups,” U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said.

He declined to say how officials came to the conclusion, but it is a sentiment that has been echoed by a number of others, who believe the girls already have been moved out of Nigeria and into neighboring countries. Also, this isn’t the first time the militant group has attack students.

In February of this year, dozens of Nigerian secondary school students were killed by Boko Haram as they slept. In the attack explosives were thrown into buildings and rooms sprayed with gunfire.

Boko Haram gunmen also attacked a wedding convoy November 3rd, killing more than 30 people including the groom. The month before, the extremists attacked a military checkpoint, reportedly killing at least four members of the security forces.

A bomb attack in August 2011, on the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria killed 23 people and left 76 wounded. It was carried out by Boko Haram demanding the release of prisoners and an end to a security crackdown to prevent further bombings.

The latest attack by the group occurred April 5th when, Boko Haram attacked Gamboru Ngala, a remote state capital near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon that has been used as a staging ground for troops in the search for the girls. Some of the at least 310 victims were burned alive.

The assault fits a pattern of ‘revenge-seeking’ by Boko Haram against those perceived to disagree with the group or those who have provided aid to the Nigerian government.

While President Barack Obama called Boko Haram, “one of the worst regional or local terrorist organizations,” his State Department under Hillary Clinton, for two years, refused to add the group with known links to Al Qaeda to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

U.S. lawmakers — who had written letters to Clinton while she was serving as chief diplomat — and former administration officials believe the delay in adding Boko Haram to the terrorist list may have thwarted the U.S.’s ability to help Nigeria fight the insurgents.

“The delayed designation of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization cost us two years of increased scrutiny of the group’s activities and leadership,” Congressman Patrick Meehan said. “Boko Haram met the statutory requirements for the designation as early as 2011, but the State Department’s delay has left us with fewer resources and less intelligence on an Islāmic terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda that is clearly destabilizing the region.”

Though she has yet to comment on the delay in designating Boko Haram a terrorist group, Clinton has spoken out, about the mass kidnapping calling it, “abominable,” adding, “It’s criminal, it’s an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible, first and foremost from the government of Nigeria.”

This delay may go beyond the State Department as recently uncovered documents show that last fall, Nigeria hired a Washington lobbying firm to press the Obama administration to supply non-lethal equipment to be used in the hunt for the extremists, however the administration continues to claim the Nigerian government refused U.S. aid in tracking down the kidnappers.

“And you can offer and talk, but you can’t do (anything) if a government has its own sense of how it’s proceeding,” Secretary of State John Kerry said. “I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort.”

Early this week, Boko Haram released a new video claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging the teens had converted to Islam and warning that they would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. It shows about 130 girls wearing full veils, reciting the first chapter of the Qur’an and holding their palms upwards in prayer.

The video also shows leader Abubakar Shekau, who claims he will release the girls in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners.

“… (T)hese girls you occupy yourselves with…we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” he said. “We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren. Here I mean those girls who have not submitted (converted to Islam.)”

There are more than 4,000 Boko Haram members in detention. Talks are underway between Nigerian officials and the senior leadership of Boko Haram, meanwhile the Obama administration is calling for additional United Nations sanctions against the group.

Along with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Congressman Steven Horsford does not support those who support Cliven Bundy against federal agents they believed were using excessive force.  Despite a lack of evidence to back up his claim, Horsford has publicly said militia members have established armed checkpoints and are routinely harassing locals.

His latest call to rid the area of Patriots and Minute Men came during a local pancake breakfast in Mesquite, Nevada. According to Horsford, an unidentified fifth grader told him Bundy suffers from a “sense of entitlement,” which prompted the Congressman to once again for the removal of armed citizens in his district.

“And that is why I am calling on Brian Sandoval, Senator Dean Heller, the sheriff and any other elected official in Nevada to do their part to get rid of these armed separatists.”

Despite the fact Nevada law allows individuals to carry firearms, Horsford wants local law enforcement to force these citizens out of the community. Furthermore, he has called for a federal investigation into the activities of the remaining protesters.

In a February 2013 Gannett News Service article, it came to light that “all but one member of Nevada’s congressional delegation own guns…”  The USA Today survey of lawmakers showed that 119 Republicans and 46 democrats identified themselves as gun owners.

But gun ownership in the Nevada delegation is more of a bipartisan affair. Senator’s Harry Reid and Dean Heller both own guns. Congressman Mark Amodei, who represents the Reno area, owns several guns as does Congresswoman Dina Titus and Congressman Joe Heck.

The only lawmaker from Nevada’s six-member congressional delegation who does not own a gun is Horsford.  At 19, his father died after being shot during a drug deal-gone-wrong.

In November 2009, Horsford illegally parked his SUV with his Senate license plate visible in a handicapped parking space at a park for six hours. Subsequently, Horsford pledged to work harder on disabled rights issues.

In the summer of 2010, Horsford again garnered unwanted media attention when a fundraising letter from his PAC soliciting donations in exchange for private meals or receptions to meet with various Democratic legislative leaders and Senate committee chairs. Following criticism that the letter amounted to “pay to play,” Horsford rescinded the letter, discontinued the solicitation program and refunded all donations made in response to the letter.

On April 7, 2011 a report came out that web poker giant PokerStars treated Horsford on a lobbyist-paid trip to the Bahamas before introducing legislation that would benefit the online gaming industry. Horsford said of the trip, “It was productive. They made a good presentation.” Horsford received $37,500 in campaign contributions from PokerStars.

Forty-eight Nevada legislators accepted PokerStars campaign contributions. Horsford later returned the campaign contributions.

During the Washington Naval Yard Shooting, September 20, 2013 Horsford staffer Don Andres who took pictures of a guy on laying on the sidewalk and being worked on by first-responders of the road and sent them to his boss, Tim Hogan.

Then Hogan Tweeted the photos in which every single major press outlet grabbed up and retransmitted in their stories about the event. In the end, the Associated Press pulled the photos and issued the following statement: “The Associated Press has been unable to confirm that the incident shown in this picture is directly connected with the shooting at the Naval Yard in Washington.”

Incidentally, Horsford is on the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security and supports a nationwide enhanced background check for gun purchasing.

Later that same month, Horsford failed to attend a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in which several Democrats walked out. The hearing allowed the parents of Benghazi victims Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods to testify about their sons’ lives and deaths.

Horsford’s spokesman Tim Hogan claimed, “He was unable to attend the hearing due to conflicting obligations.

As for his involvement in the Bureau of Land Managements attempted land grab and the Cliven Bundy stand-off, Horsford is no stranger to the situation. On April 18, 2013, Horsford filed a bill bringing the Lyon County Economic Development and Conservation Act before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation (HR-696) for an initial hearing.

“There are a number of public lands bills that will benefit a number of projects throughout the State of Nevada,” Horsford said.

The bill that he filed, commonly called the Yerington Land Act, is one of six that involve land projects in the Fourth Congressional District that he represents.

“The Lyon County Land Bill will allow the City of Yerington to buy, at fair market value, about 10,000 acres for commercial and economic development including a copper mine,” Horsford explained.

He estimated 2,000 to 3,000 jobs could be created along with the economic development. Lyon County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the State. The Land Act will also create 48,000 acres of wilderness area, known as the Wovoka Wilderness Area.

Another bill, the Multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan Implementation Act, H.R. 1744, came before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation in February of this year. The legislation amends current law to provide the City of Mesquite with greater opportunity for long-term economic development.

Under current law, the City of Mesquite had to let the BLM know by November 13, 2009, if it wanted to purchase the last parcel of land made available by the Mesquite Lands Act and to close the purchase of the deal within one year.  This bill takes legislative action to extend the timeline for Mesquite to purchase this land for commercial and industrial development, including a potential airport.

“Mesquite’s opportunity for economic growth has been restricted unnecessarily,” said Horsford. “This legislation provides Mesquite the flexibility it needs to create jobs and grow. The legislation before the subcommittee is also an example of economic development and environmental stewardship working hand in hand.”

This legislation also corrects an omission in the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002 which established the use of the Virgin River Habitat Conservation and Recovery Plan and the Hydrologic Monitoring & Mitigation Plan.

Following up on a plan Senator Harry Reid first introduced involving 350,000 acres in the Gold Butte area, Horsford reintroduced a like-minded bill in June 2013. It’s aim would have created the Gold Butte National Conservation Area to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management in a way that “conserves, protects and enhances” its natural, historical and scenic resources.

“Congressman Horsford really listens to local citizens and has demonstrated that in this legislation,” said Nancy Hall, executive director of Friends of Gold Butte.  “We are hopeful that the local stakeholders will join us at the table to ensure its swift passage.”

Gold Butte would become the third National Conservation Area in Clark County, joining Red Rock Canyon which created in 1990, and Sloan Canyon, created in 2002. Additionally, 92,000 acres would be designated as wilderness within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

It is in the Gold Butte area, in which Bundy has allowed his cattle to graze over the years.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has released a complete list of the Obama administration’s abuses of power, titled: “The Legal Limit Report No. 4”

“Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat,” Cruz stated in the report’s introductory remarks.

“Rule of law doesn’t simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws,” wrote Cruz. “Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. No one — and especially not the president — is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

• Disregarded 1996 welfare reform law in granting broad work waivers for work requirements of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
• Implemented portions of the DREAM Act, which Congress rejected, by executive action.
• Ended some terror asylum restrictions, by allowing asylum for people who provided only “insignificant” or “limited” material support of terrorists.
• Allowed immigrants in the U.S. illegally, who are relatives of military troops and veterans, to stay in the country and get legal status.
• Extended federal marriage benefits by recognizing, under federal law, same-sex marriages created in a state that allows same-sex marriage even if the couple is living in a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.
• Recognized same-sex marriage in Utah, even though the Supreme Court stayed the court order recognizing same-sex marriage in Utah and Utah said it would not recognize same-sex marriages performed before the stay.
• Refused to prosecute violation of drug laws with certain mandatory minimums.
• Issued signing statements, refusing to enforce parts of congressional-enacted statutes.
• Illegally refused to act on Yucca Mountain’s application to become a nuclear waste repository.
• Falsely portrayed the Benghazi terrorist attack as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim YouTube video, and then lied about the White House’s involvement.
• Illegally revealed the existence of sealed indictments in the Benghazi investigation.
• Failed to enforce the Magnitsky Act as required by law, by not adding Russian human rights abusers to a list of people not permitted to travel to or do business in the U.S.
• Killed four Americans overseas in counterterrorism operations without judicial process.
• Continued to give Egypt aid after the military took over its government, even though federal law prohibits aid to Egypt in the event of a coup.
• Granted a “hardship” exemption from the individual mandate for people whose health plans were canceled because their plans weren’t Obamacare compliant.
• Delayed the individual mandate for two years.
• Allowed individuals to buy health insurance plans in 2014 that did not comply with Obamacare.
• Extended this delay until 2016 — past the mid-term elections.
• Extended the deadline to enroll in Obamacare.
• Illegally granted businesses a waiver from Obamacare’s employer mandate. Twice.
• Illegally continued the Obamacare employer contribution for congressional staffs.
• Illegally delayed the Obamacare caps on out-of-pocket healthcare payments.
• Illegally delayed Obamacare verification of eligibility for healthcare subsidies.
• Illegally required people to violate their faith via the Obamacare contraception mandate.
• As of May 2011, over 50 percent of Obamacare waiver beneficiaries were union members (who account for less than 12 percent of the American work force).
• Ordered Boeing to fire 1,000 employees in South Carolina and shut down a new factory because it was non-union.
• Implemented a moratorium on offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill without statutory authority, and continued to enact new versions after federal courts repeatedly invalidated the moratorium.
• Treated secured creditors worse than unsecured creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy.
• Terminated the pensions of 20,000 non-union Delphi employees in the GM bankruptcy.
• Had SWAT teams raid a Gibson guitar factory and seize property, on the purported basis that Gibson had broken India’s environmental laws — but no charges were filed.
• Government agencies are engaging in “Operation Choke Point,” where the government asks banks to “choke off” access to financial services for customers engaging in conduct the Administration does not like — such as “ammunition sales.”
• Made illegal “recess” appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board when Congress wasn’t in recess.
• Ignored the rulings of three federal courts of appeals that held those nominations unconstitutional.
• Appointed czars to oversee federal policy specifically because czars do not require Senate confirmation, earning criticism from stalwart Democrats such as West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold.
• As of January 2012, 36 of the President’s executive office staff owed $833,970 in back taxes.
• As of 2011, 311,566 federal employees or retirees owed $3.5 billion in taxes.
• Illegally targeted conservative groups for heightened IRS scrutiny.
• Circumvented the Freedom of Information Act, by requiring White House Counsel review all documents to be released under the Freedom of Information Act that the Administration believed pertained to “White House equities” — and then delayed in producing many of these documents by FOIA’s statutory deadline, or didn’t produce them at all.
• Got secret permission from the FISA Court to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and emails, permitting the NSA to search American’s communications in its databases.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking to monitor about 80 percent of U.S. credit card transactions.
• Targeted Fox News reporter James Rosen by falsely labeling him a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a new leak.
• Secretly obtained phone records from staff at the Associated Press.
• Had meetings with lobbyists in coffee shops near White House to avoid disclosure requirements.
• Aided drug cartels instead of enforcing immigration laws — as found by a federal judge. Border Patrol agents, multiple times, knowingly helped smuggle illegal immigrant children into the U.S.; “the DHS is encouraging parents to seriously jeopardize the safety of their children.”
• Illegally sold thousands of guns to criminals, in the operation known as Fast and Furious, and then refused to comply with congressional subpoenas about the operation.
• Dismissed charges filed by Bush Administration against New Black Panther Party members who were videotaped intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling station during the 2008 election.
• Argued for the expansive federal powers in the Supreme Court, which has rejected the Administration’s arguments unanimously nine times since January 2012.
• Sued Louisiana to stop school vouchers and keep low-income minorities trapped in failing schools.
• Threatened to arrest military priests for practicing their faith during the partial government shutdown.
• Muzzled the speech of military chaplains.
• Sued fire departments saying their multiple-choice, open-book written employment tests were racially discriminatory.
• Gave 23,994 tax refunds worth more than $46 million to aliens here illegally using the same address in Atlanta, GA.
• Released a mentally ill Guantanamo detainee, who had been a high-risk al Qaeda fighter in jihad combat since the 1980s.
• Backed release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.
• President Obama told NASA administrator to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim
• Claimed the Fort Hood shooting was “workplace violence” rather than terrorism.
• Signed a stimulus bill that spent money on bonuses for AIG executives, and then acted shocked and outraged at the bonuses.
• Gave $535 million to Solyndra, which went bankrupt; Solyndra shareholders and officials made substantial donations to Obama’s campaign.
• Reneged on a campaign promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
• Increased the national debt more in one term than President Bush did in two terms.
• Extended mortgage assistance to people who bought multiple homes during the housing bubble.
• Proposed rules that would have decimated family farms, by prohibiting children under 18 from doing many forms of farm work.
• Former “safe schools czar” has written about his past drug abuse and advocated promoting homosexuality in schools.
• Nominated Timothy Geithner — who had significant tax issues — to head the Treasury Department, which enforces tax laws.
• Reneged on campaign promise to broadcast healthcare reform negotiations on C-SPAN.
• Reneged on a campaign promise to wait five days before signing any non-emergency bill (at least 10 times during first 3 months in office).
• Unilaterally, increased the minimum wage for federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10, via executive order.
• Cancelled all White House tours after sequestration — purportedly saving $18,000 per week — even though President Obama had spent more than $1 million in tax money to golf with Tiger Woods one weekend a few weeks before.
• Adopted pro-union “ambush election” rules.
• Pressured Ford to pull an anti-auto-bailout TV ad.
• Actively, aided in George Zimmerman protests.
• Tried to seize a privately owned motel when guests used illegal drugs at the motel.
• Shut down the Amber Alert website, while keeping up ‘Let’s Move’ website, during the partial government shutdown.
• Gave supervised release to a convicted criminal (an alien here illegally) who later killed a nun in a DUI.
• Shut down an Amish farm for selling fresh unpasteurized milk across state lines.
• Spent $7 million per household in “stimulus funds” to connect a few Montana households to the Internet.
• Spent $205,075 in “stimulus” funds to relocate a shrub that sells for $16.
• Fired an inspector general after investigating an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant received by a nonprofit run by former NBA star and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson (now mayor of Sacramento).

Cruz spoke recently at the Federalist Society’s annual Executive Branch Review Conference, where he said that that “rather than any particular tree” the report “focuses on the entire forest” of Obama’s lawlessness.

“President Obama is not always going to be president,” Cruz stated. “There will come another president and in time, there will even come a Republican president. And I ask all of those on the left who were so hacky about this how exactly they would feel about a Republican president exercising this power.”

Parents in El Paso, Texas are outraged over an “inappropriate” homework assignment given to fourth graders at Pasodale Elementary School. Students were asked to read passages about a wife discovering her husband cheated and a mother finding out her military son was killed.

Then they had to answer questions about the adult-themed topics in the assignment below:

“Valerie opened up the letter from the military department. She felt the pit of her stomach drop to the bottom of the earth before she even opened it. She knew it was news about John. As she read the first line, she thought of all of the lunches she had packed him and all the nights she tucked him in his bed and warded off the nighttime monsters. The man carrying the flag put his hand on her shoulder. She thought of the day that John signed up for the military. Her tears wet the letter. She stopped reading after the first line.”

What does the letter say?

What is Valerie’s relationship to John?

Ruby sat on the bed she shared with her husband holding a hairclip. There was something mysterious and powerful about the cheaply manufactured neon clip that she was fondling suspiciously. She didn’t recognize the hairclip. It was too big to be their daughter’s, and Ruby was sure that it wasn’t hers. She hadn’t had friends over in weeks but there was this hairclip, little and green with a few long black hair strands caught in it. Ruby ran her fingers through her own blonde hair. She had just been vacuuming when she noticed this small, bright green object under the bed. Now their life would never be the same. She would wait here until Mike returned home.

Why is Ruby so affected by the hairclip?

How has the hairclip affected Ruby’s relationship?

Parents became aware of the in-class assignment after some kids didn’t finish it in time and brought it home. The school has since apologized and promised to investigate.

Last year in Arizona, students at Playa Del Rey Elementary School were asked to read the same passages. In that instance, the teacher hadn’t read the assignment and immediately apologized.

A middle school sex education book has some parents in Missouri outraged. The book called, “It’s Perfectly Normal,” is for kids 10 and up, featuring cartoon illustrations of people involved in sexual acts.

The American Library Association ranked it the most challenged book of 2005. A father with two children at Francis Howell School District has filed a formal complaint, but the book remains at the school’s library.

Local parent Tim Schmidt says there are explicit drawings and illustrations of people having sex.  Schmidt filed a formal complaint requesting that the material be removed from the library.

School administrators say the book is only available through the library and only in eBook form.  They stress that this book is not a part of the regular curriculum.

District officials say “it was determined to keep the e-book available as a resource for check-out in the library. If a parent determines that he/she does not want to their child to have access to certain materials, we honor that request.”

Not all parents were upset by the book.  June Tiller says she is glad that the students have access to material that will “help keep them safe”.

In August of last year, the Washington Post published an opinion piece advocating decriminalizing of student-teacher sex. Betsy Karasik’s op-ed, “Sex Between Students and Teachers Should Not be Illegal” goes so far as to claim that a Montana teacher’s 30 days in jail for raping a 14-year old student was unfair to the teacher

“As protesters decry the leniency of (Stacey) Rambold’s sentence — he will spend 30 days in prison after pleading guilty to raping 14-year-old Cherice Morales, who committed suicide at age 16 — I find myself troubled for the opposite reason. I don’t believe that all sexual conduct between underage students and teachers should necessarily be classified as rape, and I believe that absent extenuating circumstances, consensual sexual activity between teachers and students should not be criminalized.”

That means ending the laws that bar “inter-generational” sex: “Laws related to statutory rape are in place to protect children, but the issue of underage sex, and certainly of sex between students and teachers, may be one in which the law of unintended consequences is causing so much damage that society needs to reassess.”

Karasik doesn’t explain how society is “damaged” by protecting children from predatory teachers other than to imply that Morales might not have committed suicide had the criminal case not been pending.

But the news isn’t all bad…

!4-year old Marina Baer watched her father get dragged away by a police officer after he violated the two-minute rule at a school board meeting in Gilford, New Hampshire. The dad, William Baer, was speaking out against the sexually graphic content found in a book assigned to his young daughter.

“I just watched my father get arrested because he broke the two-minute rule, at a board of education meeting,” she said. “This just shows that you resort to force at the first turn of conflict and I am appalled. So I don’t trust you — I haven’t and I honestly don’t feel safe around you people.”

The book in question, Jodi Picoult’s ‘Nineteen Minutes,’ is set in a small town, and tells the story of the events leading up to a shooting and what followed, but Picoult’s book also depicts a rape scene on page 313 from beginning to end.

“‘Relax,’ Matt murmured, and then he sank his teeth into her shoulder. He pinned her hands over her head and ground his hips against hers. She could feel his erection, hot against her stomach. ”

… She couldn’t remember ever feeling so heavy, as if her heart were beating between her legs. She clawed at Matt’s back to bring him closer. “‘Yeah,’ he groaned, and her pushed her thighs apart. And then suddenly Matt was inside her, pumping so hard that she scooted backward on the carpet, burning the backs of her legs.

… (H)e clamped his hand over her mouth and drove harder and harder until Josie felt him come.

“Semen, sticky and hot, pooled on the carpet beneath her.”

The Gilford School Board later apologized for the “discomfort” the controversial book assignment caused and vowed to allow parents to “accept” material rather than “opt out.”