Free Republic

Thousands of mostly Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and others escaping poverty in Bangladesh are stranded on boats as governments in the region seek to prevent them from landing, despite a request by the United Nations to rescue them

Another vicious teen brawl erupted inside a McDonald’s location in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday — and innocent people may have gotten hurt.

Operators of a 63-year-old coal-fired passenger ferry that carries people and cars across Lake Michigan between Wisconsin and Michigan have made the necessary environmental improvements to keep the vintage vessel in service, U.S. regulators announced Thursday. The 410-foot SS Badger launched in 1952 can carry 600 passengers and 180 vehicles. It's the last coal-fired steamship operating on the Great Lakes and normally runs from May to October. It is scheduled to resume service Friday between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said inspectors this week confirmed that Lake Michigan Carferry Service Inc. "has taken all the...

This city’s Spanish name recalls grassy, spring-fed meadows that nourished the first farms here and gave laborers relief from desert heat. Now Las Vegas draws a new generation of settlers epitomized by California transplant Joe Beck: CalPERS pensioners who have made Sin City their No. 1 destination for retirement outside California. Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article20702106.html#storylink=cpy

SACRAMENTO — Seven years ago, a newspaper investigation found that a little-known state program designed to protect police and judges from the public disclosure of their home addresses had expanded into a massive database of 1.5 million public employees and their family members, few of whom face any on-the-job dangers to merit the protection. Because of this Confidential Records Program, “Vehicles with protected license plates can run through dozens of intersections controlled by red light cameras and breeze along the 91 toll lanes with impunity,” according to the Orange County Register report. They evade parking citations and even get out...

With California’s growing cap-and-trade program expected to yield a budgetary bonanza, lawmakers and interest groups have ample ideas for how to spend the money. Floating proposals ahead of a pivotal period for budget negotiations, they say they want to fund port improvements, pay for heavy-duty trucks and ferries, nurture urban rivers, sponge up carbon in soil and provide discounted bus passes. They are vying for a surge in new revenue that will be available this budget cycle and could continue pouring in for years to come.

Placing a tax on business services in California has the potential to raise an additional $122.6 billion annually for state and local governments, according to a recent Board of Equalization study. A services tax could become a reality if Senate Bill 8 is approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The windows are still boarded up, the car windshields are still smashed in, and the tempers are still boiling over. One week after the May Day riots left Broadway Auto Row in Oakland an avenue of broken glass and dented metal, the proprietors who are still wondering why they were targeted are still awaiting some help from somebody.

Heroin traffickers have sharpened their focus on Santa Cruz County in recent months, capitalizing on more people drawn to the drug while coming off prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and Oxycontin, law enforcement authorities said.

The University of California's National Summit on Undocumented Students started going sideways seconds after UC President Janet Napolitano stepped to the podium to make her opening remarks Thursday morning. As Napolitano greeted the 260 attendees from across the nation who came to share ideas on admitting, retaining and supporting students who lack legal immigration status, dozens of undocumented students around the room suddenly stood and raised their fists in the air.

Drivers who’ve had their licenses suspended could soon get a reprieve. State Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, has introduced legislation that would reduce outstanding penalties and fines for drivers with a suspended license. In addition to reducing penalties, Senate Bill 405 would provide a method for drivers with a suspended license from a nonviolent offense to regain their driving privileges. Hertzberg says that legislation is needed to help low-income residents who are caught in a Catch-22: They can’t pay their fines because they are unable to find or keep a job without a driver’s license. “We are criminalizing the poor...

The United States of America has only been invaded once; the British landed in 1812 from Chesapeake Bay and took Washington, D.C. the capital of the United States. Mexico has not been so lucky. First, the Mexicans warred on the Spanish for a decade before they left in 1821; then the United States invaded Mexico in 1846 and would invade again in 1914 and 1916. The U.S. won in 1846 but Woodrow Wilson’s 1914 and 1916 incursions failed in their missions. The 1916 incursion was humiliated by Mexican soldiers that captured Americans in battle. The incursion failed in its mission...

A convicted felon was charged Tuesday with murder in the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy in Oakland’s Fruitvale District, which prosecutors said happened only hours before the suspect went on a mini-shooting spree in Hayward, first firing on a car and then shooting it out with police officers.

The world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier was moved into its birthplace dry dock at Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding this weekend as part of the ongoing inactivation process. The aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN 65), was moved Saturday from Newport News’ Pier 2 to Dry Dock 11, where the super carrier was constructed over 60 years ago.

Royal Dutch Shell’s quest to return to Arctic drilling for the first time in three years could face delays after Seattle ruled that the city’s port must apply for a permit for the company to use it as a hub for drilling rigs. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat who has fought against new projects by coal and oil companies, applauded the requirement by the city’s planning department. “This is an opportunity for the port and all of us to make a bold statement about how oil companies contribute to climate change, oil spills and other environmental disasters – and...

The backbreaking work in California’s chili pepper fields and cherry orchards wasn’t so noticeable when farmworker Antolin Gonzalez was young. But the 49-year-old south Santa Clara County farmworker now suffers from dizziness, allergies from dust and pesticides, swollen feet and throbbing backaches — even eyesight problems from prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light. Like many of the state’s 2.5 million illegal immigrants, Gonzalez does not have health insurance because he can’t afford it.

Even with the crackle of gunfire signaling rescuers were near, the horrors did not end: Boko Haram fighters stoned captives to death, some girls and women were crushed by an armored car and three died when a land mine exploded as they walked to freedom.

New England fishermen of important food species like cod and haddock say the looming cost of paying for at-sea monitors could put them out of business this year. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service said the money it had been using to pay for the monitors — trained workers who collect data on fishing trips — will be needed for other obligations. That means groundfishermen who catch fish like cod, haddock and pollock in New England waters will likely have to start paying the cost around August. The new expense is coming at a...

A Southern California man who was beaten with a baseball bat has died and authorities say they'll seek a murder charge in the alleged hate crime attack.

May Day protests grew violent in Oakland on Friday night after a day of passionate but peaceful rallies on both sides of the bay — all influenced by a decision in Maryland to prosecute six officers accused of brutality.