Free Republic

TTAG commentator Derrick writes: “When police responded to a report of shots fired near San Francisco in February 2011, they wound up in a standoff with 29-year-old Joseph Camilleri and his girlfriend,” news.yahoo.com reports. “The two were barricaded inside a home with as many as 20 guns, including 12 illegal assault weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.” And where did these guns come from? “On Friday, federal and state prosecutors alleged that two of the machine-pistol type weapons were sold to Camilleri by a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy abusing an exemption in state law that lets peace officers buy...

California's politicians have until Aug 31 to give a final green light to an initial $6 billion, 130-mile section of track in the Central Valley Ambitious plans for a fast track linking Los Angeles and San Francisco at speeds of up to 220mph in just over two-and-a-half hours were slimly approved by 53 per cent in a statewide ballot in 2008. That allowed the state to raise $10 billion from bonds and secured an injection of $3.5 billion in stimulus money from the Obama administration. There is currently no direct train route between the two. Construction is expected to begin...

Following on the heels of Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on certain sugary drinks in New York City restaurants, a wave of absurd regulations has seemingly begun emanating outwards. In neighboring New Jersey, drivers can be fined up to $1000 for driving with “unrestrained” animals in the car, and the Mayor of Berkeley, California is looking to ban sitting on sidewalks. According to CBS in Philadelphia, police and animal control officers will be authorized to ticket New Jersey drivers between $250 and $1,000 if they have “unrestrained” animals in the front seat of their car, on the driver’s lap, partially out the...

Michelle Obama to Announce Food Initiative With Disney Theme Parks First lady Michelle Obama will appear with Disney CEO Bob Iger in Washington Tuesday to announce an expansion of the media company’s food guidelines. Disney representatives say the corporation will be making health-conscious revisions to menus at their theme parks and resorts, though the details and scope of their implementation are yet to be revealed.” Disney is the parent company of ABC News. Michelle Obama has made promotion of nutrition and exercise a major theme of her tenure as first lady, particularly concerning children. The administration says her “Let’s Move”...

LA County Finds Health Code Violations in Skid Row LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city of Los Angeles is violating the county health code for hazardous conditions on Skid Row, including nearly 90 rats' nests, a dozen hypodermic needles and piles of human excrement and trash on sidewalks, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has found. The notice of violation stems from an extensive Health Department inspection last month of the 10-block area of downtown Los Angeles that houses the nation's densest population of homeless people, most of them mentally ill and substance abusers. Health officials ordered the...

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A man who allegedly forced his way into a Clearlake home early Sunday morning died following a struggle with the home’s resident. Randy Robinson, 30, died from injuries he received in a fight with 32-year-old Danne Petras, according to the Clearlake Police Department. Clearlake Police staffers have remained on scene – located in the 14000 block of Lakeshore Drive – conducting the investigation since the early morning, Police Chief Craig Clausen told Lake County News. According to a report from Sgt. Tim Hobbs, at 5:30 a.m. Petras was asleep inside his residence when he heard someone attempting...

A convicted murderer who was granted "compassionate release" by state courts, so he could spend his final days with his family, died in prison last week as he was about to receive an order setting him free, his lawyer said. Carl Wade, 66, was serving a sentence of 32 years to life for the fatal shooting of a fellow woodcutter, John Karns, in Lake County in June 1986. The two men shared a trailer home and had a drunken argument and fistfight before the shooting. Wade was classified as disabled in 2007 with severe heart and lung diseases that left...

Six months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan sent four aircraft carriers to the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway to draw out and destroy what remained of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. But this time the U.S. knew about Japan's plans. U.S. cryptologists had cracked Japanese communications codes, giving Fleet Commander Adm. Chester Nimitz notice of where Japan would strike, the day and time of the attack, and what ships the enemy would bring to the fight. The U.S. was badly outnumbered and its pilots less experienced than Japan's. Even so, it sank four Japanese aircraft carriers the...

Add Stockton, California (population 292,000) to the list of cities bankrupted because of bad management and over-generous public union wages and benefits. Please consider New Stockton City Hall building seized by Wells Fargo; city preps bankruptcy contingency plan: "The Stockton City Council announced Wednesday that they will look at bankruptcy contingency plans after Wells Fargo seized the new city hall building. The city paid $35 million to buy the 8-story building, but was not able to move in because of its money problems, and recently stopped making debt payments all together. This is the fourth building that was repossessed by...

California's fiscal and governance crisis careens from bad to worse. The latest blow: a 70% increase in the state's projected budget deficit in Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget, to $16 billion from $9 billion. Meanwhile, S&P warns of a downgrade to the state's bond rating, already the lowest of any state, and the latest CEO survey ranks California's business climate dead last. Caught in the symbiotic financial embrace of special interests—teacher and other public-employee unions, trial lawyers and environmental extremists—Mr. Brown and the state legislature repeatedly nibble around the edges of the budget broken by costly, ineffective programs, financed by...

California could gain as much as 100,000 jobs and $4.4 billion in economic spillover if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds President Barack Obama's health care plan, according to a report. A Bay Area Council Economic Institute report says the San Joaquin Valley would see employment rise by more than 3,500 jobs and its economy expand by $65 million. Had the health care law taken full effect in 2010, the report says California's economy - helped by federal and state subsidies - would have received a $6.7 billion boost from new spending on doctors, hospitals, medical device manufacturers and the hiring...

Calypso Louis is back with another deranged rant. He brings back the NOI's long held demand for a separate Black nation. Farrakhan claims that God will punish America unless this new Black nation is formed. He also mentions the Mahdi is about to return! He claims the US will attack Iran for Israel and that there are plans to bomb Mecca! This is one of his most evil speeches. He claims "his god" will destroy American cities in retaliation of a possible bombing of Iran. His god isn't my god. Farrakhan is pure evil.

Oakland is often criticized for its gun violence, then not recognized when it tries to do something about it. On Saturday, the Oakland Police Department set up the city’s first ever gun buyback in a Caltrans lot in Fruitvale. The net recovery? 12 guns. OPD Lt. Blair Alexander, in charge of the buyback operation, told the Trib he was disappointed in the lack of support it received: “The more people who come out, the more they send a message of a united front against violence.” Community leaders including 100 Mothers, which focuses on gun violence, had organized the effort. Oakland...

Misconduct scandal prompts L.A. schools to send 604 teacher discipline cases to stateBy Michael Martinez, CNN updated 6:19 AM EDT, Fri June 1, 2012 Los Angeles (CNN) -- In the wake of a teacher misconduct scandal, Los Angeles school officials have referred the discipline cases of 604 teachers from the past four years to state authorities to decide whether the teachers' licenses should also be revoked, a school spokesman said Thursday. Of the 604 cases in which teachers were fired or facing discipline, 60 teachers were accused of sexual misconduct with pupils on or off campus or with minors who...

As San Francisco and other Bay Area cities prepare for gay pride celebrations this month, Gov. Jerry Brown issued a proclamation Saturday declaring June 2012 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. In a statement issued Saturday, the governor called June 28, 1969 a “historic turning point” — a day when LGBT citizens in New York City resisted police harassment stemming from discriminatory laws during the Stonewall Riots. He noted that “California has been a leader in advancing the rights of its LGBT citizens”, including a San Francisco federal appeals court’s February ruling that found Prop 8, California’s ban on...

Spanning hundreds of leagues and four days, June 4-7, 1942, the Battle of Midway pitted an overmatched American fleet against a Japanese armada in a desperate struggle for command of the Pacific. What unfolded more than 1,000 miles northwest of Hawaii was, British historian John Keegan maintains, “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.” Saturday in San Diego, the U.S. Navy celebrated this triumph’s 70th anniversary. Aboard the retired aircraft carrier named for the battle, 1,000 guests were to hear videotaped comments from a handful of survivors. They included aviators, Marines and one plucky steward....

As the national media's political attention turns again to a Wisconsin recall election ginned up by angry labor unions -- that's not counting Ed Schultz, who's never stopped obsessing about ousting Gov. Scott Walker -- it's easy to forget that the national media used to be on the other side of a recall election. In 2003 in California, it was liberal Gov. Gray Davis who was recalled, and conservatives who ginned up the campaign. Back then, the governor was a hero and the opponents were cranks. As reporters Howard Fineman and Karen Breslau summed up in a Newsweek cover story:...

A strong majority of voters is against the bullet train project just as Gov. Brown is pressuring the Legislature to green-light the start of construction, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll finds. Across the state, 55% of the voters want the bond issue that was approved in 2008 placed back on the ballot, and 59% say they now would vote against it. Since voters approved that $9-billion borrowing plan, the state and national economic outlook has dimmed and some of the promises about the bullet train have been compromised. 55% of the respondents said the state has bigger priorities than...

Jerry Brown, not surprisingly, used a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge to tout his two bids for public works posterity – a north-south bullet train and a tunnel for water to bypass the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. "Suck it in!" Brown said. "We got to build, we got to do it right. And this bridge I think really expresses that sense." Just as the bridge proved to be an economic boon, Brown said, so would a bullet train and a tunnel to improve water supply reliability, adding that just as the Golden Gate Bridge "connects...

After 25 years in Washington, nearly half of it as the highest-ranking woman in American politics, Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi has learned the art of when to attack and when to pull back. The Democratic House minority leader, in an interview in her hometown last week, was asked about former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's recent comment that President Obama has "lost his mojo" on the campaign trail and shows "no life, no personality and no real enthusiasm." Her answer was typically diplomatic. "I don't agree," she said. "I love Willie, but maybe he hasn't been to any of the public...