Free Republic

In the desert of California, the deeply disturbing beginning stages are already underway. A few days ago, The Daily Caller released its first investigative documentary: Cartelville USA. The film is short — only 36 minutes — and you can watch it here with a subscription or free trial. There is also an interview on the Federalist Radio Hour with the director, Jorge Ventura, which is nearly as long as the documentary itself. In case the title doesn't give it away, the topic of Cartelville USA is a string of communities in the California desert that have been taken over by...

Gascón ally calls the actions "symbolic, pointless, and partisan attempts to aid a floundering recall effort.”. As organizers of an effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón say they are working closely with county officials to finalize the petition, three more cities declared “no confidence” in the progressive prosecutor this week. “City leaders are beginning to see what citizens and victims have known: George Gascon threatens the safety of our communities with his pro-criminal policies and actions,” read an email blast from Victims of Violent Crime for the Recall of District Attorney Gascón. “Together, we can recall...

Officials with the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster never thought they'd have to warn people not to land a helicopter in the middle of the fields -- that is, until one actually did. "We never thought it would be explicitly necessary to state that it is illegal to land a helicopter in the middle of the fields," the post stated. "We were wrong." Apparently, a couple landed the helicopter in the field and began hiking off a nearby trail. The hike didn't last long however, as law enforcement immediately intervened, according to post. They tried to contact the...

Escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman ordered his young wife, Emma Coronel, herself a U.S. citizen and daughter of another Mexican drug lord, to give birth in California to secure U.S. citizenship for his children. The Daily Mail reports that the feds didn’t thwart the Mexican drug cartel anchor baby scheme: “Federal agents wanted to stop her, but had no formal charges to file so had to let her go free.” Another immigration success story — despite the $5 million bounty placed on El Chapo’s head in Mexico, Coronel gave birth to twin daughters on August 15, 2012....

PALMDALE (CBSLA.com) — Authorities were searching for what were described as “vicious” pit bull dogs Thursday after a woman was fatally attacked in Antelope Valley. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in Palmdale announced a search was underway along 155 Street East and Avenue S in the city of Littlerock. The search comes after Los Angeles County Fire officials responded to a report of a female adult attacked by as many as four dogs around 9:30 a.m. near 110th Street East and Avenue S, according to Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Scott Miller. The victim reportedly passed away while being transported...

In 2006 California’s Senate Bill 107 codified a requirement that by 2010 all electricity retailers in the state were to procure 20% of their electricity from “renewables.” That same year L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich established Nuisance Abatement Teams that started combing the Mojave desert hitting isolated residents with ever-expanding lists of code violations, imposing whatever it took to drive residents out, and they made their intentions perfectly clear . . . . . . Apparently it is not enough that our green crony capitalists are getting billions in taxpayer subsidies, or that that rate-payers are forced to buy their...

In a flight test reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, the X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52H Stratofortress. The "captive carry" test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the...

The US Air Force Research Laboratory's X-51A WaveRider scramjet engine demonstrator completed its first captive-carry flight under the wing of its B-52H mothership from Edwards AFB on Dec. 9. The first free flight is planned for mid-February. The B-52 climbed to the planned launch altitude of 50,000ft during a 1.4h flight that checked out systems and telemetry. The next flight, planned for mid-January, will be a full dress-rehearsal for the first of four planned X-51A hypersonic test flights. The Boeing-built X-51A will be released at 50,000ft over the Pacific and accelerated to Mach 4.5 by a solid rocket booster. The...

A test-firing of a high-energy laser beam aboard a modified Boeing 747 has been called a success, the Missile Defense Agency said. A team from Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin conducted the Airborne Laser (ABL) test Tuesday over the California High Desert. The laser was fired into an onboard calorimeter, which captured the beam and measured its power. The test is preparation for an upcoming demonstration in which the laser will be fired through a nose-mounted turret on the aircraft toward the target. In a test Aug. 10, a low-power laser beam hit an instrument-equipped missile. "This test shows...

EDWARDS AFB - A veteran Lockheed Martin test pilot died in an F-22A crash after nearly losing consciousness during a high-speed, high-g test maneuver, according to an Air Force accident investigation report released Friday. The $140 million jet, assigned to Edward Air Force Base's 412th Flight Test Wing, crashed during a mission to test the effects of carrying weapons on the aircraft's performance. These tests involved a series of high-speed, high-performance maneuvers in which the pilot experienced several times the force of gravity. The accident investigation concluded that Cooley experienced such disorientation brought on by the high g-forces, and recovered...

EDWARDS AFB - Some 120 representatives of solar energy firms turned out Tuesday to learn about an opportunity to lease as much as 3,280 acres of Edwards Air Force Base property for a solar power plant. The industry day, in which participants toured the site at the northwest corner of the base and learned about the lease procedures and project requirements, is the first step of a lengthy process that officials hope will result in a utility-grade solar power plant to supply energy to the public electrical grid. The project would operate under the Air Force's enhanced-use lease program, which...

PALMDALE - As even the chief test pilot admitted Friday, the concept of a flying wing bomber, an airplane without a tail or fuselage that would be invisible to radar, seemed impossible. But the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber proved them all wrong when the batwinged wonder took off for the first time from Northrop Grumman Corp.'s facility at Air Force Plant 42 on July 17, 1989. The moment marked "the dawn of a true revolution in air power," said Dave Mazur, Northrop Grumman's B-2 program manager. "It's an aircraft like no other." The bombers - and those who designed, built...

The latest version of the Global Hawk unmanned spy plane, equipped with more sophisticated and capable sensors, was unveiled Thursday to great fanfare by builder Northrop Grumman Corp. and the Air Force at the manufacturing site at Air Force Plant 42. "There's a demand that continues for unmanned systems, and we feel we're leading the way," said George Guerra, Northrop Grumman vice president of High Altitude Long Endurance Systems and site manager for unmanned systems. "Global Hawk has really transformed itself since it began as an advanced development concept in the mid-1990s," he said. "I believe Global Hawk is going...

The first phase of testing for the rocket motor that will propel SpaceShipTwo into space is successfully completed, officials announced Thursday. Spacecraft developer Scaled Composites and rocket motor subcontractor SpaceDev completed the first test firings of the hybrid nitrous oxide propulsion system at a San Clemente test site, according to a release by commercial spaceline operator Virgin Galactic. Once operational, Space­Ship­Two will carry paying passengers as high as 360,000 feet above the Earth, offering a few minutes of weightlessness so the six passengers can float about a roomy cabin. The carrier aircraft that will air-launch the rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo, the White­KnightTwo,...

MOJAVE - The newest denizens of the Mojave Air and Space Port are an impressive sight, even for an airport accustomed to a variety of flying machines. A quartet of F-16 fighter jets - soon to be joined by a fifth - have taken up residence in a hangar located at the center of the flightline, a stone's throw from the popular Voyager restaurant. The jets form the test fleet of a new enterprise at the airport, Calspan BicycleWorks , a firm specializing in flight test and rapid prototyping. The company was founded about a year ago by Paul Nafziger,...

MOJAVE - The ear-splitting chorus of enthusiasm from more than 700 elementary school students echoed Friday across the Mojave Air and Space Port, punctuated periodically by the "whoosh" of a model rocket launch as participants cheered their entries in the Intermediate Space Challenge. The annual challenge pits teams of fourth- through sixth-grade classes in a competition to build a model rocket that reaches the highest point during launches conducted in the culminating event at the airport. Teams also are judged on their essays written on futuristic space-based businesses, banners and marketing strategy and team spirit. Joshua Middle School in Mojave...

LANCASTER [California] - A 230-megawatt solar power facility has been proposed on 2,100 acres of fallow farmland 1½ miles north of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Environmental studies overseen by Los Angeles County planning officials have started on the project, which is proposed at 170th Street West and Avenue D by San Francisco-based NextLight Renewable Power and which is planned to tie into Southern California Edison power lines that cross the Antelope Valley. A meeting to describe the proposal and to solicit suggestions from the public and local organizations on what environmental issues should be examined is scheduled for...

MOJAVE - In addition to being the home for cutting-edge aerospace development, the Mojave Air and Space Port has a history as a location for filming, one it plans to promote further. Staff from the East Kern Airport District, which governs the airport, recently visited the Association of Film Commissioners International Locations Trade Show in Santa Monica. The event provides a chance for filming locations to present their wares to potential customers. "We didn't see anybody that showcased what we have here," district finance director Erika Westawski said. "We have this niche that nobody addressed." The airport offers runways, taxiways,...

Note: The following text is a quote: DEA Task Force Targets Lancaster Street Gang APR 09 -- (LOS ANGELES) – On April 8, 2009, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Landrum, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced the culmination of a 12-month investigation targeting the drug trafficking activities of the Lancas 13 street gang. The Lancas 13 street gang is responsible for distributing methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana throughout the Lancaster and Palmdale areas, and as far away as Ohio. This joint investigation has resulted in 97 arrests,...

MOJAVE - The unique, twin-fuselage WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft continued to expand the flight envelope with its third test flight, taking it higher, faster and for longer duration than the earlier two test flights. The aircraft is the prototype mothership for Virgin Galactic's nascent space tourism business, and will carry aloft the six-passenger SpaceShipTwo for suborbital spaceflights. In a two-and-a-half-hour test flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port on Wednesday, WhiteKnightTwo reached a maximum speed of 140 knots (161 mph) and reached an altitude of above 18,000 feet, according to a Virgin Galactic statement. The flight also successfully tested in-flight...