Free Republic

Hundreds of U.S. sites are set for anti-immigration demonstrations today and tomorrow, Saturday, July 19. The coordinated protests are being billed as: “The National Day of Protest Against Immigration Reform, Amnesty and Border Surge,” and if you live in a U.S. city, there’s a chance one is happening near you. The protests are organized in partnership with ALIPAC, an anti-immigration organization, and tea party groups. More than 45 are planned to take place across California alone. The Murrieta Border Patrol station, which organizers describe as, the facility “where Americans turned back buses of illegals,” will host protestors as well. As...

Senator Rand Paul is in Silicon Valley, and the Republican lawmaker and Tea Party hero has reportedly met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, according to reports. What does the GOP leader want? "Cash and geeks," according to TIME.com. Paul is hoping to fundraise among libertarian techies, whose political leanings are toward independence from government interference, meaning the red-blooded lawmaker has a shot in deep-blue California, observers say. He wants more of the $2.7 million Thiel donated to Ron Paul's 2012 presidential run, the website reported, and along with the cash, he's hoping for some tech...

The earthquake-risk zone in California just got bigger.New faults have been discovered in California, where the earthquake hazard zone has grown. In most places, anyway. San Jose and Vallejo are at higher risk of earthquakes, while Oakland is at a slightly lower -- but still high -- risk of a temblor, according to the US Geological Survey. California and the greater West Coast are at the greatest risk of earthquakes of any region in the United States, the USGS found, but other areas in the country are now at higher risk as well following the 5.8 magnitude quake that hit...

Human smugglers in Mexico routinely give young illegal immigrant girls birth control for their trip through Mexico. The odds are they will be raped.

Tim Draper loves California so much he’d like to see six of them. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist, best known for backing such companies as Hotmail and Skype in the early days of the internet boom, believes government in his home state is so broken down that the only way to fix it is to break it up – like taking an axe to a creaking corporation with too many unprofitable divisions and too much bureaucracy choking its potential. And so he dreams of Silicon Valley, his home turf, getting the chance to run itself; Los Angeles becoming its own...

When you’re in a steady relationship, communication is clear. Because when mom says to do one thing, and dad says another, the kids get really confused. Such is the case in California, where the state has issued rules for homeowners to conserve water in the midst of extreme drought, with fines of $500 per day or violating those guidelines, but one city is threatening to fine a couple $500 — unless they water their lawn.

It was a police chase of unprecedented proportions, even for this violence-plagued city.

$4-Million Settlement Reached In Political Embezzlement Case By MELANIE MASON A California bank has agreed to pay $4 million to settle lawsuits arising from the embezzlement of political funds by prominent Democratic campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee, attorneys said Thursday. First California Bank agreed to pay the politicians who said the bank abetted Durkee's fraud, said Wylie Aitken, the attorney representing Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood) and Susan A. Davis (D-San Diego), as well as state Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana). "This the last chapter of this sad story of Kinde Durkee and her fall from grace,"...

The surviving suspect from a Stockton bank robbery, car chase and shootout that left a hostage and two suspects dead is a 19-year-old gang associate, police said Thursday. Jaime Ramos of Stockton was booked into San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of homicide, kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder. Police said he was one of three documented Norteños gang members who took part in an hour-long chase and shootout with dozens of officers Wednesday. ... About an hour into the chase, the second bank-employee hostage was thrown or jumped from the vehicle that was traveling around 50 mph, police said. She...

Atty. Gen. Harris Seeks Legal Help For Flood of Minor Immigrants By PATRICK MCGREEVY California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris on Wednesday convened a group of public and private officials to look at how legal representatives can be provided to the thousands of minors who are crossing the border illegally into the United States. With a surge of more than 57,000 unaccompanied minors who have arrived in the U.S. in recent months from Central America, nonprofit legal services groups that serve immigrants have been overwhelmed by demand, meaning many of the minors are not getting legal representation. Representatives of corporations...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has shifted her stance on amending a law to make it easier for the U.S. to deport minors, now saying she opposes such a change because it would deprive the children of due process. Senior Democrats showed little willingness to amend the law, but Pelosi told reporters last week that changing it is “not a deal breaker.” She has since backed off from that stance. “We should change the law to treat Mexican children the same as we now treat children from Central America.

California's system for imposing and carrying out the death penalty is so long and drawn-out that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and so is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. Ruling in the case of Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was condemned to death in 1995 and has yet to be executed, Judge Cormac J. Carney of the U.S. District Court for the Central California said that to take "nearly a generation" to decide on Jones' appeals was unconstitutional. As part of the ruling, Carney vacated the death penalty sentence in Jones' case. "The dysfunctional administration of California's...

<p>A federal judge in Orange County ruled Wednesday that California’s death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, ruled on a petition by death row inmate Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was sentenced to die nearly two decades ago.</p>

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has convened with nonprofit groups to shelter undocumented immigrant children in L.A. while they await court hearings on whether they can remain in the United States. Homeless activist Ted Hayes, who has lived in L.A. for three decades, opposes the idea, insisting there are American kids on city streets who need help first. “It’s kind of a slap in the face to U.S. citizens,” Hayes said. “It’s embarrassing. It’s hurtful. Because it’s like a father saying that he loves children outside of the family more than he loves his own.” “We feel...

Silicon Valley-based billionaire venture capitalist Timothy Draper has a dream: Six Californias. He's the major backer of a proposal that would split the nation's most populated state into six parts -- creating the new states of Jefferson, North California, Central California, South California, West California and Silicon Valley. And now his dream is a teensy bit closer to reality: A petition for "Six Californias" has reached the 808,000 some signatures needed to get a referendum on the ballot in 2016, spokesperson Roger Salazar tells Reuters. But that doesn't mean it'll be happening anytime soon: Even if the proposal is approved...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday that the city would help shelter immigrant children who have been detained after crossing the border and has begun talks with a federal agency about doing so. "Before you get partisan, before you tell me where you are on immigration—these are children," Garcetti said Tuesday at a forum hosted downtown by Politico magazine. "As a father, who are we as Americans if we don't step forward first and say, these kids who are isolated, alone … let's get them someplace safe and secure," the mayor told the crowd.

Proposed changes to the federal Clean Water Act have roiled farmers across the nation and created an uproar among many other water users—including cities and counties with parks and recreation areas, golf courses and local water agencies. If adopted, the proposed rule changes would expand the definition of "waters of the United States" to potentially allow federal agencies to regulate virtually every area of ground in the nation that gets wet or has flow during rainfall. California Farm Bureau Federation leaders were in Washington, D.C., in mid-May to explain to lawmakers face to face the damage the proposed changes could...

<p>The people behind the idea missed the deadline for this year’s ballot, but now that they have enough signatures — more than 800,000 — they’ve earned a spot on the 2016 ballot. That’s a presidential election year, of course, which means higher turnout. A lot of Democrats are going to end up weighing in on this at the polls.</p>

---SNIP-- Before California enacted legislation in 2009 to create its first film and TV production incentive, the state had been asleep at the switch while Canada and other countries, as well as more than 40 states, offered lucrative incentives to lure away production jobs. Many argued the incentive would not be worth the investment, but the program has proved to be a phenomenal success in creating jobs

For the second straight year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has taken center stage in what is usually a routine appointment for a student leadership post on the UC Board of Regents.