Author Archives: Doug Knowles

Diverse “transparency” coalition in Nevada holds government accountable

Sunshine Week is dedicated to celebrating the principles of a transparent and accountable government, which makes it the perfect time to announce the launch of the Nevada Open Government Coalition.

The ideologically diverse Coalition was created to continue the success of our efforts to update the Nevada Public Records Act (NPRA) in 2019, and ensure that governments are transparent with the public as we seek information in the pursuit of accountability. The law aims to “foster democratic principles” by requiring that “all public books and public records of a government entity” are open to the public.

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Cliven Bundy attorney: Resurrecting case over Bunkerville standoff has ‘zero chance’ | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Federal prosecutors have been waiting 16 months for an appeals court to decide whether to resurrect the criminal case against Cliven Bundy and several co-defendants.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments sought by prosecutors in the high-profile case for March.

In a stunning decision on Jan, 8, 2018, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro tossed out the criminal charges in the middle of the trial because of what she called “flagrant” misconduct by prosecutors.

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The Need For Effective Civil Disobedience

Virginia/United States – -(AmmoLand.com)-When advocacy fails, Second Amendment supporters are then faced with the hard choice: Do they comply with laws that are clearly unconstitutional, or do they disobey them? Civil disobedience is a grave step to take: Those choosing that path are risking a criminal record by defying unjust laws – and make no mistake about it, laws like semi-auto bans are unjust on both the constitutional level, as well as based on the facts.

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Ninth Circuit vacates Joe Robertson’s Clean Water Act conviction | Pacific Legal Foundation

July 10, 2019: Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the conviction of Navy veteran Joe Robertson, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $130,000 in fines after he dug fire-fighting ponds near his home in Montana. Sadly, Joe passed away in March, but his wife, Carri Robertson, continued his legal battle.

“We are very pleased that the Ninth Circuit agreed that Joe’s convictions should be vacated and very pleased for Carri, who will no longer have a $130,000 federal judgment hanging over her head,” said Tony Francois, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “It has been an honor to represent Joe and now to be able to complete his vindication on behalf of his wife, Carri.”

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Interior docs: ‘We could be in for a little bit of a siege’

Within days of the 2016 armed occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell pressed President Obama to prosecute the anti-government activists leading the siege, saying “bringing these people to justice” was critical to the safety of federal land managers.

The comments were included in 2,500 pages of newly released emails E&E News reviewed between top Interior aides and officials during the 2016 incident when Nevada ranchers Ryan and Ammon Bundy led anti-government activists in a 41-day siege of a remote federal site in eastern Oregon.

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Idaho 3 Percenters seek ‘friend of the court’ status in Oregon refuge occupiers’ appeal of federal convictions

Montana resident Roger L. Roots, a convicted felon who was allowed to serve as a volunteer paralegal for Ryan Bundy in the Oregon standoff case, filed the friend-of-the-court motion on behalf of the “Real 3% ers of Idaho,’’ and the “Idaho Political Prison Foundation.’’

The Idaho Political Prisoner Foundation provides money, obtained through donations, to inmates in jail or prison resulting from what it calls “non-violent Constitutional protest and activism,’’ according to the motion.

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WVU Professor’s Book ‘Up In Arms’ Takes a Look At Militia Uprisings | The Intelligencer

“People in the mainstream were like, “What the hell? These people are crazy,’ is the first reaction I get,” Temple said. “That’s just a very dismissive way to look at it. You’re never going to understand someone else’s viewpoints if you don’t ask the question, ‘Why are they doing this?’”

Temple, 49, who also wrote about the opioid crisis with “American Pain” that was released in 2015, offers another unflinching view of the state of the country with “Up In Arms.”

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Judge temporarily halts grazing on federal public land near Burns

A federal judge Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order that bars Hammonds Ranches Inc. from livestock grazing on federal public land near Burns during June.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon ruled from the bench, noting a written order would follow. He also has scheduled another hearing for June 28 to consider a motion by three environmental advocacy groups for a preliminary injunction barring further grazing at the sites.

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INTERIOR: Whistleblower: BLM ignores illegal grazing after Bundy fiasco

A career Bureau of Land Management official who was fired last month says the Trump administration is refusing to enforce federal laws and regulations governing livestock grazing in Nevada out of fear of sparking another armed standoff like the one five years ago involving rancher Cliven Bundy.

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Newspaper column: Trump immigration plan merits consideration « 4TH ST8

Minutes after President Trump announced in the Rose Garden this past week a plan to revise the priorities under which immigrants are accepted into the United States, Democrats and media outlets were calling his proposal dead on arrival, having no chance of being approved by Congress.

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Environmental groups sue BLM to block renewal of grazing permit for Hammond Ranches

Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity and Wildearth Guardians filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Pendleton against the interior secretary, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the district manager of the land bureau’s Burns District office.The three groups argue that then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s renewal of the grazing permit after the Hammonds were issued pardons violated federal administrative regulations because it failed to consider the Hammonds’ unsatisfactory record.

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Lawyer says rancher Cliven Bundy will appeal lawsuit dismissal

Cliven Bundy speaks with media outside the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse after Scott Drexler’s court hearing in Las Vegas, Aug. 9, 2018. (Marcus Villagran/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @brokejournalist A lawyer for Cliven Bundy said Wednesday that he plans to appeal a […]

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Cliven Bundy Uninvited to Spring Planting Festival

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been uninvited to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds’ annual Spring Planting Festival, slated for May 5 and 6 near Mansfield, MO.

According to a published report in the Springfield News-Leader, Bundy was announced last Thursday as a guest speaker at the annual festival. However, on Monday Baker Creek posted the cancellation notice to its Facebook page, saying it was a mutual decision.

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Christensen urges resistance to tyranny at Boise rally

A local lawmaker was among the speakers at a rally on the Capitol steps in Boise on Friday, where he decried what he sees as the erosion of freedom and urged people to resist.

The rally, which commemorated Patriots’ Day, the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, was hosted by the Real III Percent of Idaho, a right-wing group that emphasizes gun rights and what it views as threats to the Constitution.

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BLM Now Hopes Hammond’s Cattle Can Reduce Fire Risk

In a most ironic twist in a western saga that has featured more than a few twists, the Bureau of Land Management hopes cattle from Dwight and Steven Hammond – ranchers the U.S. government prosecuted for starting range fires – can reduce a fire risk on the high desert of eastern Oregon.The Hammond’s long-running dispute with the federal government ended with prison sentences for arson — and later inspired the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation. President Trump pardoned the Hammonds in July of last year.

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Supreme Court Moves to Overturn Conviction of Joe Robertson, Fined and Jailed for Digging Ponds on his Rural Montana Property

SCOTUS overturned decision upholding Robertson’s conviction and remanded the case so that the indictment could be dismissed and the lien cancelled(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned a lower court decision affirming the conviction of Joseph Robertson, a 78-year-old veteran now deceased who was sentenced to prison for digging ditches on his rural Montana property to protect the area surrounding his home from wildfires. Judicial Watch had filed an amicus curiae brief jointly with the Allied Educational Foundation supporting Robertson and urging Supreme Court review and reversal of the lower court decision. Robertson served 18 months in prison and died while serving probation. He was also fined $130,000, a liability inherited by his estate.

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Legal complaint: lobbyist submitted false testimony to aid in bill’s passage

Nevada Policy has alerted Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Rick Combs and the attorney general’s office to what appears to be a clear violation of NRS 218E.085(2) — the state law that makes it a crime to knowingly misrepresent any fact when testifying before a legislative committee.The false statements were made by lobbyist Marlene Lockard during the March 1, 2019 Senate Government Affairs Committee hearing on SB224 — the PERS secrecy bill.

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PUBLIC LANDS: Cliven Bundy to appeal lawsuit judge calls ‘delusional’ 

In an eight-page ruling (See Below), Nevada state Judge Jim Crockett rejected Bundy’s assertion that only individual states — rather than the U.S. government — can own public lands.”It is simply delusional to maintain that all public land within the boundaries of Nevada belongs to the State of Nevada,” Crockett wrote in the decision dated April 1 and published yesterday.

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Judge tosses Cliven Bundy’s claim that state owns all public lands | Las Vegas Review-Journal

District Judge Jim Crockett’s decision was handed down in response to court papers filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation group, which had intervened in the case. The judge’s decision followed previous court decisions against Bundy, who has claimed the federal government should not own land.“It is painfully obvious that the claims asserted by Bundy in the instant matter rest upon a fundamentally flawed notion advanced by Bundy since 1998 regarding ownership of federal public lands,” Crockett wrote in an eight-page decision.

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PUBLIC LANDS: DOJ seeks dismissal of Bundy ‘malicious prosecution’ suit

The Justice Department yesterday moved to dismiss the “malicious prosecution” lawsuit filed by Nevada rancher Ryan Bundy and refuted claims that federal officials violated Bundy’s constitutional rights during a 2014 armed standoff with Bureau of Land Management agents near Bunkerville, Nev.Bundy, who is represented by attorney Larry Klayman, filed a lawsuit last year against former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder as well as former BLM Director Neil Kornze and former FBI Director James Comey.

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Reporters Committee secures FOIA win in case to uncover details on FBI impersonation of documentary filmmakers

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled the Federal Bureau of Investigation must search for and produce records related to the agency’s impersonation of documentary filmmakers during investigations in response to a request from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for more information about the practice.

After learning the FBI impersonated a documentary film crew to investigate Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his followers following a 2014 armed standoff between Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Reporters Committee requested access to records related to this practice under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI issued what’s known as a Glomar response, refusing to confirm or deny the existence of records responsive to the Reporters Committee’s request. The Reporters Committee challenged that response, arguing that it was improper, and the D.C. District Court agreed.

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Newspaper column: Assisted suicide bill creates perverse incentives

Sometimes good intentions can create more problems than they solve. Take Senate Bill 165 for example.

Nevada lawmakers held hearings recently on this bill that would legalize and tightly regulate physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. The bill would allow competent adults diagnosed to be within six months of death, as diagnosed by two physicians, to be prescribed medication that the patient could self-administer to “peacefully end his or her life.”The problem is that the 28-page bill goes far beyond that simple, seemingly liberating and decriminalizing notion by opening up the potential for widespread abuses and unintended consequences.

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Malheur occupation figure Jason Patrick agrees to get job, carry ID to avoid returning to prison

Patrick said among the problems during his early supervision was his probation officer’s rejection of Patrick’s job as a “spiritual guidance counselor” through a company set up by occupation supporter Maureen Peltier, who Patrick now calls his wife.He said he received a “cease and desist order” from his probation officer regarding the work and was instructed to get legal employment. He said he plans to do more roof and construction work.As for filing an income tax return, Patrick said he may submit a form that says “Income Tax Return” with a notice that says he didn’t provide the government anything and doesn’t expect anything in return, he said.

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