Free Republic

School Budget Cuts Derail English Language Program By Dean Gray and Jackie Devereaux Coachella Valley, CA – An important English reading fluency program is threatened to end due to severe budget cuts to this year’s school budget. The Valley Partnership, is at the end of a three-year program, funded by an annual grant of $329,000. Without the matching funds the program is at risk and over 20 people lose their paid volunteer positions. Fundraising efforts are still trying to raise $55,000 by August 3rd to meet the target start-up date. The sponsors are asking for donations by philanthropists and charitable...

A Kern County man sentenced to death 25 years ago for participating in the double murder of a Mojave couple will not face the death penalty after all. The state attorney general’s office confirmed Friday it will not appeal a federal judge’s decision to throw out the 1983 death sentence of Constantino Carrera. In addition, the Kern County prosecutor who originally handled the case says too much time has passed to retry the case. None of these decisions affect Carrera’s conviction for the 1982 robbery and stabbing deaths of Jack and Carol Hayes, who managed the Imperial 400 Motel in...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's effort to limit vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming hit a snag Friday when a federal appeals court ruled that the state and environmental groups acted too early when they sued the Bush administration in January for blocking the law. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California, 15 other states and five environmental groups over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas fumes from new cars and trucks. The court said the Jan. 2 suit was...

The upcoming joint appearance by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain at Rick Warren's evangelical Saddleback Church is co-sponsored by a left-leaning group led by a Unitarian-Universalist minister who once headed her denomination's homosexual advocacy office. Meg Riley is the board president of Faith in Public Life, whose board members include other theological liberals, including a pro-abortion Muslim leader and a Jewish rabbi, reported OneNewsNow. The group's stated vision hints at its challenge to the influence of the so-called religious right, saying it "envisions a country in which diverse religious voices for justice and the common good consistently impact public...

Sen. Barack Obama held a private session with a group of about two dozen Iranian-American donors shortly before a fundraiser this month in California after one of the participants said the Obama campaign would hold such a forum if local Iranian-Americans were able to raise $250,000. The forum -- which was not on Obama's public schedule and was closed to the press -- took place shortly before a fundraiser at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, Calif., on July 13. That was less than a week before Obama's trip to the Middle East, where the U.S. relationship with Iran...

The David Horowitz Freedom Center, John Ziegler and Citizens United Productions present the World Premiere of the new documentary "Blocking the Path to 9/11" on August 15th at the Skirball Cultural Center. Former KFI radio talk show host John Ziegler has written, directed and produced a documentary for Citizens United telling, for the first time, the incredible untold story of the controversy surrounding the ABC docudrama "The Path to 9/11," which was edited by demand of Bill Clinton and has since been censored from ever airing again, or having the DVD released. Interviewed in the film is the writer of...

Your daily routine -- switching on a light, cooking a meal, driving down the street -- would generate less greenhouse gases under a first-of-its-kind regional strategy to curb global warming unveiled Wednesday at the state Capitol in Salem. The strategy emerged from the Western Climate Initiative, an alliance of Western states -- including Oregon and Washington -- and Canadian provinces trying to jump ahead of any federal move to regulate greenhouse gases. Large utility companies and factory owners would feel the effects first, followed by fuel distributors, as they face limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. Individual Oregonians would not...

(07-25) 17:42 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit by conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage against a Muslim-rights group that reprinted his attacks against Islam and called for an advertising boycott. Savage, who has about 8 million listeners a week on 400 stations for his syndicated "Savage Nation" program, sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations in December for copyright infringement. The organization had posted four minutes of excerpts from an Oct. 29 broadcast in which he called the Quran a "hateful little book" and a "document of slavery." He said Muslims were "screaming for...

By John Poirier WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators took over two banks on Friday and sold them to Mutual of Omaha Bank, the sixth and seventh bank failures this year as financial institutions struggle with a housing bust and credit crunch. ADVERTISEMENT Two weeks after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp seized IndyMac Bancorp Inc (Other OTC:IDMC.PK - News), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said it closed First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank NA of California. First National had total assets of $3.4 billion and $3 billion in deposits while First Heritage had assets of...

California, a national trendsetter in all matters edible, became the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday to phase out their use over the next few years. Under the new law, the fats must be excised from restaurant products beginning in 2010, and from all retail baked goods by 2011. Packaged manufactured foods will be exempt. In recent years trans-fats have become almost the new cigarettes among public health policy makers, with consumer behavior as much in the crosshairs as the product itself in governments' attempt to curb harmful effects. On...

Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Disability rights advocates and pro-life groups are speaking up in the case of Janet Rivera, an incapacitated California woman who had her food and water restored yesterday. They say Rivera's guardian was wrong to override her family and deny her the right to sustenance.Rivera, 46, had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness. She has been on life support for two years.As LifeNews.com has reported, on July 14 a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes.After obtaining help from pro-life attorneys, the Rivera family won a court order to...

UC Berkeley has been hit by a new delay in its plan to cut down trees in a grove occupied by tree-sitters next to Memorial Stadium and build an athletic training center there. A 17-month-old court order blocking the project had been set to expire after Tuesday, following this week's decision by an Alameda County Superior Court Judge allowing UC to build the center. But beginning today, the injunction will be extended at least 20 days following a notice of appeal filed by two groups that sued to block the project, the California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill Association....

California will be the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants and bakeries under legislation signed today by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The measure requires restaurants to quit using trans fats by January 2010, and for bakeries to follow suit one year later. "Consuming trans fat is linked to coronary heart disease, and today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement. The legislation, Assembly Bill 97, was proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Tony Mendoza of Artesia and opposed by most Republicans. Trans fats, also known as trans fatty acids,...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court dealt a setback to California and environmental groups today in their battle with the Bush administration over the state's efforts to restrict vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states in January over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The court said the suit was premature because the EPA hadn't yet taken formal action to deny the...

U.S. offshore oil drilling is not perfectly tidy. It's only 99.999 percent clean. Indeed, since 1980 -- as MMS figures indicate -- 101,997 barrels spilled from among the 11.855 billion barrels of American oil extracted offshore. This is a 0.001 percent pollution rate. While offshore drilling is not 100 percent spotless, this record should satisfy all but the terminally fastidious. Ironically, in terms of oil contamination, Mother Nature is 95 times dirtier than Man. Some 620,500 barrels of oil ooze organically from North America's ocean floors each year. Compare this to the average 6,555 barrels that oil companies have spilled...

If a reporter wanted to test the enthusiasm of College Republicans at a campus for John McCain, one might think that they would look up the officers of the chapter and arrange a few interviews. CNN apparently found that a little too difficult at USC yesterday, so they just stopped the first person who claimed to be a Republican. Andrew Malcolm reports on the aftermath: The president of the College Republicans at the University of Southern California is charging that CNN used a “fake College Republican” in its broadcast report today, claiming there was a lack of enthusiasm for the...

Capping the highest-profile case to come out of City Hall "pay-to-play" corruption investigations in the administration of former Mayor James Hahn, former commissioner Leland Wong was convicted Thursday of more than a dozen felony charges, including bribery, in connection with taking $100,000 from a company doing business with the city. Wong, 51, was found guilty of 14 felony charges, including one count of bribery, two counts of conflict of interest, one count of perjury, seven counts of theft by embezzlement and three counts of filing false tax returns. But the jury also acquitted Wong on six other counts of theft...

Record number of Californians report being financially worse off. Most do not expect improvement next year. - A record number of Californians (63%) report being financially worse off than they were a year ago. In no previous Field Poll survey in nearly fifty years of polling – covering several previous economic recession periods – has more than 50% described their financial condition so negatively. In addition, most voters foresee no improvement in their personal finances next year. There has also been a deterioration in Californians' appraisal of the state's economy. At present 86% of voters feel California is in bad...

We may not be getting effective governance from movie star-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but we can count on a steady diet of grandiose, and usually hollow, political gestures. Who could forget, for instance, the time that Schwarzenegger posed with a gigantic faucet, out of which flowed a red liquid, to dramatize budget deficits? Or the time he denounced the Legislature as "girlie men" for delaying budget action? Having promised and utterly failed to end "crazy deficit spending," Schwarzenegger is resorting once again to cheesy stunts, this time a threat to reduce the salaries of tens of thousands of state employees to...

State workers chanted Thursday outside the Capitol to assail Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans to pay 200,000 state employees the federal minimum wage until a budget is signed, providing some of the most compelling budget-related scenes of angry Californians this year. It may have been what the governor wanted all along, even if they shouted his name in disgust. The governor's draft executive order to withhold a portion of state workers' pay, obtained Wednesday by The Bee, has generated public attention for the state's budget situation in a way that months of Schwarzenegger town halls never could. Whether Schwarzenegger's attempt to...

Berkeley -- Angry shouts of "Shame! Shame!" erupted in the Berkeley City Chambers Thursday night after the council declined to appeal a court ruling against the city allowing UC Berkeley to build an athletic training center next to Memorial Stadium. The conflict has drawn wide attention because of a 20-month protest by tree-sitters at the project site who have demanded that UC preserve the grove of more than 80 oaks, redwoods and other trees next to the stadium. The city had sued - along with stadium neighbors and a tree preservation group - to block the project. The other two...

The owner of a downtown Los Angeles sushi restaurant facing wage payment claims by two alleged undocumented workers has launched a novel counterattack by filing a class-action lawsuit against the California labor commissioner for defying federal immigration law. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 24, 2008 California Employer Sues State Over Wage Claims for Illegal Workers The owner of a downtown Los Angeles sushi restaurant facing wage payment claims by two alleged undocumented workers has launched a novel counterattack by filing a class-action lawsuit against the California labor commissioner for defying federal immigration law. Masayoshi Kaji of Sushi Sharin argues that the commissioner’s policy...

An indignant Don Perata made fun of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his brigade of "13 armed escorts" today. The Senate president pro tem was mocking Schwarzenegger as out of touch with the average Californian at a rally protesting the plan to temporarily slash the pay of state workers to $6.55 an hour. Visibly fired up, the Oakland Democrat declared he had only one question for Schwarzenegger now that the governor had revealed his plan to conserve cash during the budget crunch by cutting workers' pay. "Who in the hell do you think does the work around here?" he shouted to...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The scene repeats itself daily on city streets: a driver gets stuck bumper to bumper, blocking an intersection and preventing another car from turning left. But authorities say that was enough to cause Edwin Ramos to unload an AK-47 assault weapon on a man and his two sons, killing them. The deaths immediately drew public outrage, which intensified when authorities revealed that Ramos, 21, is an illegal immigrant who managed to avoid deportation despite previous brushes with the law.

SAN DIEGO – The parent company of The San Diego Union-Tribune announced Thursday that it has hired an investment banker to look into the possible sale of the company. Copley Press engaged the New York-based investment banking firm Evercore Partners, which also represented the publishing company in the sale of newspapers it owned in Los Angeles and in the Midwest in 2006 and 2007. In a statement, The Copley Press, Inc., cited the tough times in the newspaper industry as its motivation in deciding to explore the company's strategic options. “The last couple of years have been a difficult period...

His legal troubles behind him, famed investment banker Frank Quattrone was back in his old role Wednesday as corporate adviser and tech industry sage. At the AlwaysOn technology conference at Stanford University, Quattrone opined about market reforms enacted after the dot-com bust, equity markets, the state of initial public offerings and the outlook for innovation in the technology industry. Along the way, he dispensed advice to executives of three start-up companies lucky enough to have an appointment with 'the doctor," as the conference billed Quattrone. "It feels great," he said. "I feel like I'm a kid in a candy store."...

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh at lunch today, and he mentioned that Ms. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) was castigating the President for failing to release any of the "700 million barrels" of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (our emergency supply). Guess what? Nancy has been preventing the production of a lot more than 700 million barrels of our oil, and she has been doing it for years. Take a look here: http://www.mms.gov/omm/pacific/offshore/oil-gaspdfs/2000-063.pdf"Unproved reserves are estimated to be 1,316 million barrels of oil and 922 billion cubic feet of gas, in 25 fields."That's ONE BILLION, THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN...

SAN FRANCISCO — The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday called on Mayor Gavin Newsom to allow the federal agency full access to information about local inmates, saying the city should rescind its policy that prohibits ICE agents from reviewing jail logs and records. A letter sent to Newsom from ICE director Julie Myers urging more access to inmate records was the latest flare-up following accusations that a San Francisco policy to shield undocumented immigrants also caused the city to shelter felons charged with serious crimes. Eileen Hirst, chief of staff for San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey,...

Score one for the Berkeley tree-sitters. Hours after UC Berkeley won a court decision Tuesday allowing a long-blocked athletic training center to be built next to Memorial Stadium, supporters of illegal tree-sitters occupying the project's site commandeered a new tree on the main campus and strung ropes from it to the besieged aerial protesters. But late in the day, campus officials reached an agreement with the protesters to remove the lines and abandon the newly occupied tree, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said. Campus officials were stunned Wednesday morning to find two more tree-sitters able to travel with ease and,...

Former Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown is waging war on California suburbs because of global warming, says Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. Brown is concerned about the alleged environmental damage caused by the suburbs. He wants to compel residents to move to city centers or to high-density developments clustered near mass transit lines: • Brown has threatened to file suit against municipalities that shun high-density housing in favor of building new suburban single-family homes, on the grounds that they will pollute the environment. • He is also backing controversial legislation -- Senate bill 375 --...

California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces launched plans on Wednesday for one of the world's largest carbon-trading systems, a sweeping effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The North American program, like a similar market-based system in Europe, focuses on heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities. Environmental groups immediately questioned whether the plan will be tough enough on polluters, while industry groups said the program lacks details. California officials said the proposal will be an integral part of the Golden State's ambitious goal of reducing...

Jon asked me to comment on the debate over the "water" bond currently being proposed in the Legislature. Since there really is no water bond being proposed, the debate is a false one. We are already in a water crisis it is true. Democrats have done nothing to alleviate that crisis since sometime in Jerry Brown administration in the 70's, that is true as well. About 6 bonds have passed since 1996 claiming to be water bonds, and they got Republican votes to get on the ballot because somewhere in the language of the bond, someone wrote the word water....

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought in June and then urged passage of a $9.3 billion water bond, Democrats and environmental critics became suspicious. They still are. “Last year we did have record low rainfall, but whether or not there is a drought is somewhat debatable,” said the Sierra Club’s Jim Metropulos. “The governor calling it a drought--that carries no legal significance. It’s interesting he calls for a drought, and couple of weeks later, he calls for a water bond.” The Republican governor proposes a $9.3 billion dollar water bond for the November ballot, arguing that passage of...

One year after California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols decided to sell off some energy stocks that showed a potential conflict of interest with her role as a state regulator, records show her diverse investment portfolio still contains many energy interests. Nichols also sold stock in a company that stands to profit from new diesel regulations that the ARB is set to adopt this fall, and other companies that have business before the board, according to financial disclosure documents filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission. But FPPC records show that she and her husband, attorney John Duam, sold...

How is it possible that chronic behavioral malcontent George Miley assaulted a female police officer three weeks ago, but only ended up spending four days in jail? After all, his July 6 attack on Officer Lisa Frazer was followed by his 106th arrest since 2001. Most everyone says the system for punishing quality-of-life crimes like public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling is broken in San Francisco, but Miley seems like an extraordinary case. How can he be on the streets today? The answer is both complicated and simple: Lenient San Francisco juries, clogged courts, and judges who are more willing to...

SACRAMENTO — Resurrecting negotiations between Vallejo employee unions and city negotiators could be the next step in Vallejo's Chapter 9 bankruptcy saga, attorneys for the city and unions agreed Wednesday. The attorneys disagreed, however, on what that move would mean for Vallejo's future. Opening arguments on Vallejo's bankrupt status were heard in U.S. Bankruptcy Court before Chief Justice Michael McManus on Wednesday. McManus must first decide if the city meets the criteria for bankruptcy before considering voiding employee union contracts, set to expire in June 2010. The city filed for bankruptcy protection May 23, with the unanimous backing of the...

n 2005, I asked Angelenos to join me in re-imagining their city as a dynamic world capital defined by its flexibility and mobility, not by traffic and smog. I challenged them to imagine communities connected not by bigger, wider highways but by a real network of public transit options -- rapid buses, trains and subway lines -- connecting every neighborhood in our county's 88 cities. I asked them to imagine cleaner and greener neighborhoods where we each pitch in to combat global warming and create a more sustainable city. Today, when I take the helm as chairman of the Metropolitan...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to pay thousands of state employees the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until lawmakers reach a deal on California's overdue state budget. Democrats and Republicans have so far been unable to compromise on a solution to the state's $15.2 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that started July 1. As the stalemate continued, Schwarzenegger has ratcheted up his rhetoric. Spokesman Aaron McLear said the Republican governor is contemplating signing an executive order next week that would pay about 200,000 state workers the federal minimum wage, which is $1.45 an hour...

Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the county in April 2007, charging that a general plan update approved a month earlier would worsen global warming. The general plan, a blueprint for growth through 2030, projects more homes and increased traffic as the county's population continues to increase. It was the first time the state sued a public agency for not taking into account global warming. State and county officials hailed the greenhouse reduction plan that the county agreed to as groundbreaking. Julie Rynerson Rock, the county's director of land-use services, said the county's plan will be the most far-reaching in the...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Media inquiries: contact@aipnc.com Fenton, MI – July 23, 2008 – In a statement released today by America’s Independent Party, Chairman Tom Hoefling welcomed California’s American Independent Party to the growing ranks of AIP state affiliates. Hoefling, commenting in the wake of a statement from the office of the California Secretary of State recognizing Edward C. Noonan as the rightful chairman of the American Independent Party and the legitimacy of the actions of the July 5th State Convention in Sacramento, said, “We gratefully accept the AIP State Central Committee’s decision to affiliate nationally with us. We share a...

LOS ANGELES Authorities are offering a $50,000 for information in the drive-by shooting death of a U.S. Navy reservist outside an El Sereno liquor store in 2007. Jesus Guevara, 24, a U.S. Navy reservist, was walking from the liquor store at 3:15 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2007 toward his parked car when someone fired at him from a dark-colored, mid-size car, wounding him in the back, police said. He died three hours later at a hospital. "It's not fair to lose him, to not have him around," Guevara's aunt, Maria Corona said. "We miss him terribly every day.... The irresponsible...

Barack Obama's VP shortlist might have gotten shorter: The National Enquirer yesterday published a story claiming it had caught John Edwards meeting with an alleged mistress and illegitimate child. Then again, the Enquirer hasn't been able to produce quotes, photos or even eyewitness accounts. And the mainstream media seems to be ignoring it, for the most part. TalkLeft, among others, hopes it isn't true. And thus far, the claims don't seem to have hurt Edwards politically — although the Corner has something worth noting: ...after first seeming to take himself out of the running, he put himself back in the...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning to cut the pay of about 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until a budget is signed, according to a draft of the governor's order obtained by The Times. Administration officials said Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the order early next week as part of an effort to avert a cash crisis. The controversial move, likely to be challenged in court by public-employee unions, would save the state about $1 billion a month, the officials said. Workers would be repaid their lost earnings once a budget was in place....

Commission approves financing plan for toll lanes on Highway 101, other Bay Area freeways A Bay Area transportation commission took a step today toward creating an 800-mile network of toll lanes on parts of Highway 101 and other local freeways for car pools and drivers who pay a toll. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved a 25-year financing plan that allocates $6.1 billion for the lanes. Transportation planners say the money for the project will come from the tolls collected from motorists who use the lanes. The commission also approved a set of principles for developing the network. The profits from...

California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces will launch a market-based carbon trading system in a major North American effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, according to a draft proposal released today. When it officially begins in four years, the program would first target heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities, which would be required to begin reporting emission levels beginning in 2011 to allow participating governments to agree on the maximum level of emissions for the region. The plan also includes an offsets system, part of...

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre said on Wednesday he had filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and its Countrywide unit to prevent the mortgage lenders from foreclosing on homes in his city, which he aims to make a "foreclosure sanctuary."

The mayor of San Francisco has obtained the password to the city's multimillion-dollar computer network password from a disgruntled employee during a secret jailhouse visit, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. On Monday night, Mayor Gavin Newsom met Terry Childs, a Department of Telecommunications and Information Services employee charged with computer tampering, in a secret meeting and walked away with the password to the city's new FiberWAN (Wide Area Network), the Chronicle said. The system stores such records as officials' e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail bookings. Childs has been held since July 13 and had reportedly...

Despite its health-crazy reputation, parts of Los Angeles are plagued by obesity rates that rival any city in America. Now, the city may join a growing roster of local governments aiming to put their residents on diets by cracking down on the fast-food industry, says the Wall Street Journal. The Los Angeles city council is considering legislation that would ban new fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and KFC from opening in a 32-square-mile chunk of the city. The targeted area is already home to some 400 fast-food restaurants, possibly contributing to high obesity rates there -- 30 percent of adults, compared...

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May -- twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to...