Free Republic

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office is seeking two unidentified male suspects after an Orick resident reported using a handgun to avert an attempted home invasion robbery early Sunday morning. The sheriff's office was notified at approximately 7 a.m. on Sunday that an attempted home invasion robbery allegedly had just occurred on the 100 block of Robinson Road in Orick. Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene and met with two victims, a 26-year-old female and a 35-year-old male, according to a release from the sheriff's office. According to the release, the victims told the deputies that they were asleep with their...

A Fairfield man was shot in the leg during an apparent robbery attempt in south Santa Rosa late Friday night, police said. The shooting victim, Denzel Demetre Simmons, 20, said he was smoking outside a relative’s house on Bellevue Avenue near Santa Rosa Avenue when someone shot him around 11:35 p.m., police said. But 15 minutes later, two other men said they’d been involved in a shooting after one of them had a gun put in his face. Savon Othello Cleveland, 21, and Frank David Kobrin, 22, said the shooter accosted them after they’d pulled over to the side of...

SACRAMENTO, Calif- A new tax proposal could be the answer to our state's budget mess. The proposal? Tax illegal immigrants. The people behind the initiative said they can get illegal immigrants to pay income taxes, but first the Governor must get a promise from the federal government, it won't go after anyone here illegally and is part of the program. "Trying to get the federal government to not spend resources on those folks who are filing and paying I don't know why that would come about, I would suspect some sort of political motivation in Sacramento visa vie Washington." Attorney...

Today, the 9th Circuit upheld the absurd ruling of Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, striking down Proposition 8, the voter-approved constitutional amendment that would uphold traditional marriage in the state. The ruling itself was highly political and in no way legally oriented. “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians,” wrote the Court, “and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior… the Constitution simply does not allow for ‘laws of this sort.’” -snip-President Obama has...

DISCOVERY BAY, Calif. — Three women and one man pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to a $20 million crime that involved wire fraud, tax evasion and harboring illegal immigrants, and one of the alleged victims was a relative. Three and a half years after being indicted, Ronald Nelson, his second wife, Edith Nelson, and two former mortgage brokers pleaded guilty to dozens of charges tied to a mortgage loan fraud scheme. Kim Funke, the daughter of Ronald Nelson, said she was one of the victims. "It was kind of a sickening feeling," Funke said. Internal Revenue Service Special Agent...

Despite bleeding from three gunshot wounds, a co-owner of an East Oakland taco truck was able to return fire and twice hit the robbery suspect accused of shooting him early Thursday, police said. The suspect, Sean Ward Morris, 19, of Oakland, his brother Antoine Ward Morris, 18, and a 17-year-old Antioch boy whose name was not released were detained a short time later when they drove to a hospital and were subsequently arrested. The 32-year-old taco truck co-owner was in stable condition at a hospital. All are expected to recover from their wounds. The wild shootout happened about 1:30 a.m....

Sheriff's deputies are looking for three teenagers who tried to rob an auto repair shop and then stabbed an employee. The incident happened just before 11 p.m. Wednesday night at GMC General Auto Repair in Lost Hills. An employee, identified as Mario Soto, said he was working inside the business when he noticed three male juveniles outside in the parking lot. He said two of them tried to steal a car dolly so he grabbed a gun and went to confront the kids. When he tried to detain them he said he was stabbed in the neck. Soto said he...

Once again, for those Second Amendment snivelers who responded to Inga Barks' Jan. 28 column, "Long-gun ban only threatens our free speech rights," in the Feb. 1 Letters section: "Infringe (verb): Act so as to limit or undermine (something); encroach on. 'Infringe on his privacy.'" So those bombasts who start sentences with "I don't want to infringe on anyone's rights, but ..." are doing exactly that. Some other indisputable facts that freedom haters love to dispute: * Cops can't protect you from crime, but packing iron might. It ain't a guarantee, but having a gun offers more opportunity to successfully...

BALDWIN HILLS - Quick thinking and a sharpshooter's aim enabled an 87-year-old retired postal worker to thwart an attempted burglary and critically wound one of two burglars trying to break into his Baldwin Hills home, police said. Jack Goodwin, a World War II U.S. Army veteran, told police he was listening to a Lakers game when he heard the rear window breaking in his house in the 5300 block of Rodeo Road around 9 p.m. Tuesday night. Fearing for his life, Goodwin said he armed himself with a handgun, walked down his hall and opened fire when he saw the...

Five people are charged in a plot to employ African Americans from Compton to avert suspicion when bringing illegal immigrants across the border. In the calculus of cross-border human smuggling, Maria Lopez-Diaz allegedly concluded that black instead of brown equals green. The 60-year-old Compton woman, prosecutors say, tried to cash in on racial profiling by operating a human smuggling ring that hired mostly African American drivers who didn't speak a word of Spanish to ferry small groups of immigrants from Mexico to Los Angeles. In the end, the venture failed. Authorities announced charges Thursday against Lopez-Diaz and four others, including...

BALDWIN HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- An elderly man from Baldwin Hills took matters into his own hands when two suspected burglars were at his bedroom window Tuesday night. "I was in bed and heard the noise - boom, boom - then I came to see what it was," said 87-year-old Jack Goodwin. "It was two guys busting the window out coming in." Fearing for his life, Goodwin grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot at the suspects, wounding at least one of them. Goodwin was an Army marksman in World War II. "I only shot twice. I didn't empty the...

What do I find scary in Altadena? Fast traffic on dark roads, power lines in a windstorm, the cello-packed seafood at Ralph’s. Hot dry days when the mountains are full of brown and brittle brush -- yes, fire scares me. But I’m not afraid of people; neighbors or strangers with whom I share the streets, parks, shops, gas stations. Whatever personal safety questions cross my mind, owning a gun, much less carrying a gun, doesn’t offer much of an answer. I suppose I could shoot the Ralph’s salmon, but for heaven’s sakes, it’s been dead far too long already. Anthony...

Without a new kidney, Jesus Navarro will die. Although the Oakland man has a willing donor and private insurance to pay for the transplant, he faces an additional hurdle in the race to save his life: He is an illegal immigrant. That fact prompted administrators at UC San Francisco Medical Center to refuse to transplant a kidney from Navarro's wife because they cannot be sure he will receive adequate follow-up care. Their decision taps into the tension between health care and immigration policies in the state and the role medical professionals should play in trying to save the lives of...

“Although San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was a strong advocate of gun control while on the Board of Supervisors, he surrendered 3 handguns when police recently booked him on misdemeanor domestic violence charges,” KCBS reports. Mirkarimi apparently owned them while sponsoring legislation last summer to bolster San Francisco gun control laws against a lawsuit by the National Rifle Association. “Mirkarimi was elected sheriff in November after serving seven years as one of the city's more liberal supervisors,” Fox News tells us. Indeed, “As a longtime member of the progressive bloc on the Board of Supervisors, Mirkarimi was a vocal advocate...

A bill introduced by Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, would ban rifles, shotguns and other long guns from being openly displayed in public, even while unloaded. Portantino wrote in a press release that the bill is inspired by guns right protest groups that openly carry long guns in public. He noted that following the passage of AB 144, the bill he introduced last year barring the open carry of handguns, the groups began to show up instead with automatic rifles and shotguns at rallies. “Last year, the state made it clear that this type of behavior had no place on...

DANA POINT, Calif. (KABC) -- A Dana Point resident woke to the sounds of an intruder Monday night, then fatally shot the suspect. The resident has not been charged in the shooting, though the case is still under investigation. The incident happened at a house on the 34000 block of Capistrano By the Sea in Dana Point. At least two bullets shattered a window at the house. Authorities say at least one bullet hit the male intruder who allegedly confronted the victim around 11 p.m. Monday. "The homeowner heard some noises inside his home, checked around initially, did not see...

A crashed California Department of Justice (DOJ) website during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday prevented the shipment of thousands of firearms to retailers in California, and cost legitimate businesses tens of thousands of dollars in delayed or lost sales. California has some of the most restrictive firearm laws in the country. One of those laws creates the California Firearms Licensee Check Program (CFLC). It was the inability to comply with the CFLC, due to the DOJ website crashing, that caused the whole problem here. Firearm dealers must be a Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL) in addition to having state and...

Tempers flared Tuesday night at a Los Angeles Police Commission community forum on a controversial proposal to ease the towing and impound policy for unlicensed drivers. Under current laws, the cars of unlicensed drivers are towed and impounded for 30 days if they are stopped by officers. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has proposed lifting the 30-day impound and giving the registered owner or a licensed driver a reasonable chance to retrieve the vehicle. Critics, including the LAPD police union, say the changes just reward lawbreakers and put politics above safety. The meeting in Northridge was packed with residents who were...

In a major step towards global centralization of election processes, the world's dominant Internet voting company has purchased the USA's dominant election results reporting company. When you view your local or state election results on the Internet, on portals which often appear to be owned by the county elections division, in over 525 US jurisdictions you are actually redirected to a private corporate site controlled by SOE software, which operates under the name ClarityElections.com. The good news is that this firm promptly reports precinct-level detail in downloadable spreadsheet format. As reported by BlackBoxVoting.org in 2008, the bad news is that...

“California Lawmaker Pleads No Contest in Shoplift Case,” The Associated Press reports at Fox News. Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, entered the plea in San Francisco Superior Court after the judge reduced a theft charge against her from a felony to a misdemeanor at a prosecutor's request. After she tried to lift $2,500 worth of clothes? How many of us mere mortals think we could get away with felony grand theft and have the prosecutor go to bat for us, and then walk away from it with no jail time, our jobs intact and a fine of less than the...

GREENBRAE, Calif. (KGO) -- A 90-year-old Marin County man recovering after being wounded during a shootout with an intruder is having trouble breathing and is heavily sedated. Jay Leone shot the burglary suspect three times after the man broke into his Greenbrae home Wednesday morning. Police say the suspect also had a gun and shot Leone in the cheek. His sister tells ABC7 it has been "touch and go" the last few days. Leone is now on a ventilator and doctors may have to perform a tracheotomy. Leone is a World War II veteran and a former law enforcement agent....

GREENBRAE (CBS 5) – It turns out it took more than firepower for a 90-year-old Greenbrae resident to free himself after a burglar kicked in the door of his home around 11 a.m. Wednesday. In an exclusive interview at his bedside at Marin General Hospital, 90-year-old Jay Leone told CBS 5 he had to outwit the burglar who held him captive at gunpoint. After the gunman, identified as 30-year-old Novato resident Joseph Cutrufelli, allegedly kicked in the door, Leone said he was ordered not to move as the house was scoured for valuables. But after awhile, Leone insisted that he...

KINGSBURG, Calif. (KMPH) - A Kingsburg man opens fire, and now the father of four is being called a hero. Deputies say he shot a man who broke into his home. It happened at a house in Kingsburg, just after midnight, last Friday morning. 39-year-old Adan Duran says the intruder first broke into his truck, took a hammer out of his own tool box and tried to break in through the garage. When he couldn't, he went to the front of the house where he was confronted by two dogs that bit him. Duran says he attacked the dogs and...

Thousands of Los Angeles County workers who collected a reported $48 million in unused vacation pay could dramatically impact both the county’s budget and pension funds, according to county officials. KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reports the Board of Supervisors is outraged over a new report showing dozens of retirees receiving hefty compensation packages. The Los Angeles Times reported on one Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Marie Hannah who retired with a $143,000 annual pension and a one-time payment of $183,683 for unused time off. The package was reportedly for a combination of 325 days of vacation pay, sick time, comp...

A former sheriff’s deputy and World War II pilot shot and injured an armed intruder in a quiet Greenbrae neighborhood Wednesday morning in what law enforcement described as a random residential burglary, Twin Cities police said. Jay Leone, 90, was shot once in the face after he encountered the suspect at about 10:46 a.m. on Jan.4 in the 300 block of Via La Cumbre, a one-way street off Eliseo Drive in Greenbrae. Leone, armed with a .38-caliber handgun, fired three times and hit the suspect in the torso area, according to police. The suspect fled and made it to a...

When Governor Brown signed AB 144 into law in October, the bill came to his desk sponsored by the California Police Chiefs Association, among other public safety organizations. Effective as of Jan. 1, the new law was written by California legislators in 2011 as an effort to stop people from visiting their local coffee shop or shopping mall while packing heat. Known as the "open carry" law, it was vehemently opposed by gun rights advocates and is now the subject of state and federal lawsuits. The president of the group California Right to Carry, Charles Nichols, has filed a civil...

It’s now illegal for Californians to openly carry an unloaded handgun in a public place. The new law does not apply to unloaded long guns. As TTAG predicted, open carry advocates are there. “A man showed up at a Daly City mall Monday with an unloaded shotgun strapped to his back – and he wasn’t arrested,” sfexaminer.com reports with hyphenated astonishment. “A security guard called police after spotting a man with a shotgun outside Serramonte Shopping Center about 9 a.m., before the mall opened for business, Daly City police Sgt. Michael Barton said. Responding cops located the man, but then...

SAF, CALGUNS Foundation Sue California Over Firearms Statue Golden State imposes 10-day wait between gun purchases by Neil W. McCabe 01/02/2012 The Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation joined the Calguns Foundation lawsuit against the California Department of Justice and Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris filed December 23 contesting the state’s 10-day waiting period between gun purchases. "We've joined in this lawsuit because it makes no sense for California to require a gun owner who already possesses a firearm from buying another one within a few days," said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. "We recall what Dr. Martin Luther King...

“San Jose Police Detective Matthew Christian created a document, on letterhead that bore the seal of the Santa Clara County Crime Lab, which falsely stated that Michael Kerkeles’s semen was found at the alleged crime scene. The fake report purported to be authored by a technician named ‘Rebecca Roberts.’ Christian then testified under oath that the report was true.

Gun turn-in programs (“Annual gun swap hits its mark,” Local, Dec. 20) are the first step to disarm the citizens of the United States. They are designed to desensitize people to the action of giving up our arms at the request of the government. The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment in recognition of the God-given right to a person’s self-defense. As they had just fought a war against a tyrant, they recognized the need for every citizen to have the means to defend himself against criminals both local and governmental. Presently there is a modicum of respect (fear) of...

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Second Amendment Foundation has joined the Calguns Foundation and three California citizens in a federal lawsuit against the California Department of Justice and Attorney General Kamala Harris, challenging the state's requirement that gun owners wait at least ten days before taking possession of an additional firearm. The case is known as Jeff Silvester et.al. v Kamala Harris, et.al. "We've joined in this lawsuit because it makes no sense for California to require a gun owner who already possesses a firearm from buying another one within a few days," said SAF Executive Vice...

California --(Ammoland.com)- I know that our fundamental right to keep and bear arms for self-defense is important to you. This individual liberty ensures that we have an opportunity to protect our lives and those of our loved ones should the need arise. We Californians are all too aware of the many infringements of this enumerated right that regular, law-abiding people like us face on a daily basis, yet it’s for this very reason the road to freedom runs through the Golden State. 2011 was a notable year for gun rights and our culture of respect for the constitution. Over the...

FIRST OFF, merry Christmas. Now, for the gift that keeps on giving: city council meetings. Specifically, Ontario's. I attended Ontario's meeting last Tuesday in hopes of getting a short item or two, despite the scanty agenda. As often happens for me in situations that seem unpromising, the meeting proved to be a gold mine. (Philosophers among my readership sometimes ask if news breaks out simply because I'm at a meeting, or if the news would have happened anyway. That's an imponderable. Does the light in the refrigerator stay on when the door is closed?) Let's start with the public comment...

ESCONDIDO, Calif. - Delfino Aldama was fixing a customer's brakes this month when his smartphone chimed with a text message that tipped him to a police checkpoint more than an hour before officers began stopping motorists. The self-employed auto mechanic frantically called friends with the location and drove an alternate route home

Former Oakhurst resident Danny Henley, 53, was shot and killed after attempting to murder Oakhurst resident Derry Burnett shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18. The incident occurred at Burnett's residence on Snowline Court off Highway 41, just north of the closed Snowline Restaurant. According to Madera County Sheriff's Department reports, Henley went to Burnett's property with the intent to shoot him. Burnett had previously allowed Henley to live on his property but, when Burnett found out that Henley was bringing stolen goods onto his property, asked Henley to leave. According to Madera County Sheriff John Anderson, Henley returned to...

While the elites make excuses, citizens cope with theft and destruction. I am starting to feel as if I am living in a Vandal state, perhaps on the frontier near Carthage around a.d. 530, or in a beleaguered Rome in 455. Here are some updates from the rural area surrounding my farm, taken from about a 30-mile radius. In this take, I am not so much interested in chronicling the flotsam and jetsam as in fathoming whether there is some ideology that drives it. Last week an ancestral rural school near the Kings River had its large bronze bell stolen....

MAGALIA — A 29-year-old Magalia man with a prison record dating back to at least to 2003, was shot and killed Monday night after he allegedly forced his way into a home in the 15100 block of Jack Pine Way. John Randolph Shanks III was pronounced dead in the home around 8 p.m. The male resident of the home, who has yet to be identified, reportedly shot Shanks once in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun, according to Butte County sheriff's Sgt. Jason Hail. Hail said Shanks, who was wearing a bandana over his face when he entered the home,...

If it is built, California’s High-Speed Rail would be the largest public works project in state history. That fact alone appears be intoxicating to state officials, in a perpetual quest to have California be the first state to do anything. Despite the warnings of a nearly $100 billion ballooning price tag, no track laid, no trains running, decreasing legislative support and even opposition from diehard rail advocates, the High-Speed Rail Authority is steaming ahead full throttle with plans to build the most expensive high-speed rail system in history. But there is pushback coming from so many places that it must...

(12-17) 16:31 PST Santa Rosa -- A suspected car thief was arrested this morning after the victim's husband chased and confronted him at gunpoint, Santa Rosa police said. At 8:13 a.m., a woman called police to report her car had been stolen from the driveway of her home in the Coffey Park area of Santa Rosa when she had left it running to warm it up. The woman's husband jumped into another car to look for the stolen vehicle, found it near Coffey Park and chased it, police said. Outside the park, the husband blocked the stolen car's path and...

Sacramento, CA --(Ammoland.com)-In a victory for self-defense civil right activists, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has ordered the City of Los Angeles to produce documents relating to the LAPD’s policies and procedures for processing applications for a carry license. In 1992 and 1994, the City’s unlawful refusal to properly process carry license applications was challenged in two lawsuits. To settle the suits, LAPD agreed to a court ordered application processing procedure. The LAPD agreed to a definition of “good cause” that was articulated in the settlement, and agreed that all citizens who request a carry license permit application would...

There was a time when Brad Engmann would gun his race car; these days he races with his gun. Like other kids in his St. Francis Woods neighborhood, the San Francisco native grew up playing American Legion baseball; in fact, the middle infielder was instrumental in launching the baseball program at International High School. At USF, however, the 2006 graduate with a double major in history and political science switched his allegiance to cars. “What I loved was the speed and precision,” Engmann said. But the associated expense and garage time needed to work on the cars began to create...

Hours after Gov. Jerry Brown issued a spirited attack on politicians who doubt the significance of climate change, Brown's predecessor -- former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- praised Brown but urged a spirit of inclusiveness. "To me, it made no difference if a Democrat had a great idea or a Republican had a great idea, or if someone from the outside had a great idea, or if someone from within the office had a great idea," Schwarzenegger said this afternoon at Brown's conference on climate change at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco. "The more inclusive you are about...

And be sure to shop at Lowe’s in appreciation for not caving to the thug-like tactics of Terrorist Front Group CAIR and their demands for an apology and reinstatement of the ads as well as CA State Senator Ted Lieu for threatening legislation against Lowe’s if they don’t apologize and start running their ads on the repugnant ‘All-American (sic) Muslim’ show again.

Listen to this advertisement and you’ll reasonably assume that what’s for sale is something forlorn, lonely, cute and cuddly … a stray puppy, perhaps. “They’ve been mistreated and misunderstood for generations,” the ad begins. “Abusive owners have done severe damage and given these beautiful creatures a bad reputation.” That’s how it’s supposed to sound. The owner of PRK Arms in Fresno, Calif., brainstormed this brilliant way to sell guns — and, so far, it’s worked. According to a news report from Fresno’s CBS 47 news, the gun shop has seen more business this holiday season than ever before. Among the...

In Santa Clara County, 113 people have permits that allow them to carry concealed weapons, according to Sheriff Laurie Smith's office. Sixty-four permits issued to judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers are considered confidential. Another 49 have been issued to "civilians.'' The applications for those permits-- which are public record -- include a variety of reasons for seeking a permit, based on real or perceived threats to the applicant or family. The threats are often related to their current or former jobs, outside interests or responsibilities. 1) Robert Anderson, forensic consultant 2) Joseph Barbara, physician 3) Keith Barna, private investigator...

When Tom Scocca applied to Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith three years ago for a permit to carry a concealed firearm, he thought he had all the right stuff. Not only was he a former police officer and sheriff's deputy working as a security manager at a major Silicon Valley tech company, he owned an investigative firm and was already licensed to openly carry a loaded gun. But the sheriff turned him down. Now that denial is the basis of a federal lawsuit in which Scocca alleges that Smith issues concealed-weapons permits in an arbitrary and capricious way. He...

REDDING, Calif. (KABC) -- A chilling story is told on 911 tapes as a Northern California woman discovers a man breaking into her home. Donna Hopper, 66, of Redding grabs her gun and her phone as she confronts him. Hopper fired that gun for the first time in her life to scare off the intruder. Two shots didn't do the trick, so she fired a third shot. The suspect, 37-year-old Jesse Theis, was shot dead. The 911 operator can be heard telling Hopper to put the gun down and wait for police to arrive. She was later cleared of any...

RICHMOND -- A resident shot and killed a 19-year-old robbery suspect Wednesday night during a home-invasion robbery attempt on the south side of the city, police said. Officers responding to an emergency call in the 400 block of South 35th Street found the dead man inside a house, along with a second man injured by gunfire, Lt. Bisa French said. Those shot were part of a group that tried to storm the house a little past 6 p.m. during a home-invasion robbery attempt. The motive for the attack and why the robbers chose the particular residence, remain under investigation, French...

The California Dream Act -- which grants illegal immigrants access to state financial aid at public universities and community colleges -- has proven to be contentious throughout the state. And it appears Cal State Bakersfield is no exception. A heated debate about the Act on a longstanding, politically themed message board for CSUB employees has been raging, and led one participant to be asked by campus officials this week to stop circulating a petition on campus aimed at overturning the law. Shelly Eick, a budget analyst at CSUB, posted a message for employees saying she had petitions in her campus...

A cannonball misfired by the "Mythbusters" TV show crew blasted through an East Dublin home Tuesday afternoon while its occupants were asleep. It then smashed through a window of a minivan parked a few hundred feet away. No one was injured, and the home's residents did not wake up until the dust was settling on top of them, said an Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman. The cannon was shot at the Sheriff's Office bomb range behind Santa Rita Jail about 4:15 p.m., said the spokesman, J.D. Nelson, who is also a consultant for the Discovery Channel TV show. He had...