Free Republic

Two relatively minor quakes hit Southern California in Newport Beach Thursday evening. The first quake, magnitude 3.6, hit 1 mile ENE of Newport Beach at 4:52 pm local time. A second quake, magnitude 3.4, hit 2 miles ENE of Newport Beach at 5:05 pm local time. Shaking was felt in Orange County, parts of the Inland Empire and Los Angeles County. Good afternoon Southern CA. Did you feel the magnitude 3.6 quake about 1 mile northeast of Newport Beach at 4:52 pm? The #ShakeAlert system was activated. See: https://t.co/F7JgX4qbAv @Cal_OES @CAGeoSurvey pic.twitter.com/EIs5b003kB — USGS ShakeAlert (@USGS_ShakeAlert) June 7, 2024 A...

On Monday, May 27, a cinnamon color phase of the common black bear entered the home of a long-time resident of Lake Tahoe, California. The bear has been reported to be a yearling. Yearling bears, recently separated from their mothers, have a difficult time establishing a territory of their own. Sometimes, sows, cubs, and young bears will keep close to human habitations to avoid being killed and eaten by adult male bears. A majority of young bears who do not reach adulthood are killed by mature male bears. It appears this young bear disputed the ownership of the house with...

Rubio’s Coastal Grill, a beloved restaurant chain known for its fish tacos, is indeed closing 48 locations in California due to the “rising cost of doing business.” These closures represent about a third of the Rubio’s locations in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Here are the key points: Reason for Closures: The decision to close these locations was influenced by the increasing costs associated with operating in California. Minimum wage hikes, such as the recent increase from $16 to $20 per hour, have put additional pressure on businesses like Rubio’s. The rising costs, combined with other financial challenges, led to the...

The state of California incorrectly claimed millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding for health services that were provided to illegal immigrants, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General . The OIG released an audit last month that alleged the California Medicaid program didn't use proper methodology to evaluate reimbursements for resources given to noncitizens who aren't eligible to be fully covered by Medicaid. "States are generally prohibited from claiming Federal reimbursement for Medicaid services, other than treatment of an emergency medical condition, provided to certain noncitizens with unsatisfactory immigration status (UIS)," the office...

On May 9, 2024, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit published a split decision vacating the conviction of Steven Duarte for violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) makes it a crime for any person to possess a firearm if he has been convicted of an offense “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Steven Duarte, who has five prior non-violent state criminal convictions—all punishable for more than a year—was charged and convicted under § 922(g)(1) after police saw him toss a handgun out of the window of...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from California corrections officials who sought immunity from lawsuits claiming they acted with deliberate indifference when they caused a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at one of the world’s most famous prisons four years ago. The justices turned down the appeal without comment or dissent. The lawsuit stemmed from the botched transfer of infected inmates in May 2020 from a Southern California prison to San Quentin, which at the time had no infections. The coronavirus then quickly sickened 75% of inmates at the prison north of San Francisco, leading to the deaths of...

On March 11, 2024, Judge William Q. Hayes of the United States District Court, Southern District of California, granted a summary judgement in the case of Nguyen V. Bonta. The case is a challenge to California’s one gun a month law. Judge Hayes ruled the law violated the text of the Second Amendment and there were no reasonable analogies in the relevant legal history of the United States. Judge Hayes granted one month for an appeal to be filed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case was sent to a three judge panel of the Ninth...

The City Council of Long Beach, California has authorized a public health emergency in response to a local outbreak of tuberculosis. The city's health officer, Dr. Anissa Davis, declared the emergency last week, after its health department detected 14 tuberculosis cases at a single-room occupancy hotel. The City Council vote on Tuesday night served as the final approval for the declaration. Nine tuberculosis patients have been hospitalized and one has died, according to the health department. As of Monday, about 175 people had been exposed to tuberculosis as a result of the outbreak. In a news release last week, the...

Today a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the U.S. Department of Justice's petition for a writ of mandamus seeking dismissal of Juliana v. United States, the so-called "Kids Climate Case." The brief order was short and direct. It noted that the Ninth Circuit had previously concluded that the plaintiffs lacked standing and ordered the case dismissed. Contrary to the plaintiffs' claims, no intervening decisions changed that fact, and that there was no basis for the district court to allow the plaintiffs to amend the complaint. This decision should not have been a...

Tech workers in San Francisco plan to create a square-mile downtown 'commune' that allows people to 'live, eat and work' all within a 15-minute walk A utopia-like space is set to be launched on March 11 in downtown San Francisco City Campus was created by four community builders' It is supposed to have everything that people need within a 15-minute walk Tech workers in San Francisco have planned to create a downtown 'commune' that will allow people to 'live, eat and work' all within a 15-minute walk. Set to be launched on May 11, City Campus, a nonprofit, plans to...

Fights were reported on the UCLA campus on Sunday where Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israel supporters gathered.

In a Supreme Court showdown Monday over whether the homeless have a "right" to camp in public, almost no one mentioned the actual victims of that crazy idea. Homeless advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, told the court that living on the streets is a "victimless" crime. Victimless? Everyone who has to step over needles and human poop and navigate around half-conscious humans while walking to work or taking their kids to school is a victim. Every store owner whose entrance is blocked by makeshift cardboard shelters is a victim.

On April 11, 2024, a lawsuit was filed against Rob Bonta in his capacity as the Attorney General of California. The lawsuit contends California infringes on the rights protected by the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights by prohibiting United States citizens who are non-residents of California from exercising rights protected by the Second Amendment in the state. 2. California, however, prevents law-abiding citizens of the United States who do not reside in California from exercising their constitutionally protected right to carry loaded, operable firearms in public. State law generally prohibits individuals from carrying firearms either openly or concealed...

The dramatic moment cops raced to save K9 Enzo who was stabbed in the line of duty by a violent murder suspect has been revealed in new bodycam footage. Three-year-old Belgian Malinois, Enzo, was stabbed multiple times by suspected murderer Thurman Lowe, 64, in downtown Las Vegas on March 29. The dog's Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department handler can be heard on bodycam reassuring him, 'you did so good, buddy. You're a good boy.' Enzo was rushed to a vets and then flown by helicopter to another hospital where he could receive more specialist care. He survived the attack and...

A brazen Los Angeles cash heist on Easter weekend in which thieves cracked a safe and got away with as much as $30 million is believed to be one of the largest such heists in U.S. history. The heist has triggered rampant speculation among a public long infatuated with daring burglaries and hefty criminal paydays. L.A. police and the FBI were tight-lipped Friday about any new developments in their joint investigation, but police Cmdr. Elaine Morales told The Los Angeles Times, which broke news of the crime, that thieves were able to breach the money storage facility in the suburban...

Magnesium is a mineral critical to a wide range of biological functions, and a new study takes aim at how it's transported to address cardiac dysfunction and other diseases, opening new possibilities for treatment. The study charts a new course in explaining how a novel protein called ERMA—a long-time mystery—functions as a precision-engineered pump in guiding magnesium. The investigation reveals how disruptions in ERMA's function can lead to significant disturbances in how heart cells manage calcium, crucial for the rhythmic contractions of the heart muscle. These imbalances can lead to cardiac dysfunctions, particularly affecting the heart's relaxation phase and its...

California restaurants are reportedly laying off staff and reducing hours for other team members in an effort to cut costs ahead of a California state law taking effect on April 1 that will raise fast-foot workers’ hourly wage to $20. In the months leading up to the wage mandate, California eateries, particularly pizza joints, have established a plan to cut jobs, according to state records obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza — a Menlo Park, Calif.-founded chain of 400 pizza parlors, mostly on the West Coast — have said they plan to lay off...

California's primary was held a week ago today. In the Senate race only 77% of the votes have been counted as of 6:00 p.m. EST. In this day and age, a week to determine the results of an election is obvious signs that both incompetence and fraud are involved. At the moment Garvey is leading:Garvey 1,987,171 +33.5%33.5% Schiff 1,782,119 +30.0%30.0

The Golden State cannot limit how many firearms a lawful buyer can purchase in a month. That’s the ruling U.S. District Judge William Q. Hayes handed down on Monday. In his ruling, he struck down California’s one-gun-a-month (OGM) restriction. He found it fell outside the scope of the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation and, therefore, violated the Second Amendment. “Defendants have not met their burden of producing a ‘well-established and representative historical analogue’ to the OGM law,” Judge Hayes, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in Nguyen v. Bonta. “The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs are entitled to summary...

On February 28, 2024, the US District Judge for the Northern District of California granted summary judgment to three individuals whose Second Amendment rights were unconstitutionally violated by the State of California. The case began over five years ago.On December 20, 2018, the case of Linton v Bonta (originally Linton v Becerra, the California AG at the time) was filed. Individual plaintiffs and several organizations, including Calguns, Firearms Policy Foundation, Madison Society Foundation, and SAF, sued the state of California for flagrantly denying the exercise of Second Amendment rights, the legal judgments of other states, the Full Faith and Credit...