Free Republic

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...

Michael Shires, professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine scratches the itch of why government is so expensive in California; including local county and municipal governments. Shires argues that it is just not a matter of increased taxes v. cutting services; this is how Democrats and Republicans in the California legislature paint the picture. Rather, revenue declines are only a small part of the problem. While services and their cost actually do not increase, the annual increase of secretly negotiated salary, benefits, and cost-of-living increases benefitting unionized public employees is killing budgets, savings, and family finances statewide.Shires writes: “Most public employees...

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...

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...

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...

In another sign of the flagging economy, Pechanga Resort and Casino said yesterday that it plans to lay off more than 8 percent of its work force, or roughly 400 of its nearly 4,800 employees. The layoffs, to begin at a date still to be determined, will be the first in the 13-year history of the Temecula casino, which ranks among the biggest and most successful in the nation. With the move, Pechanga joins a number of Indian casinos in San Diego County and elsewhere that have trimmed their work force as attendance begins to reflect growing unemployment and soaring...

A growing number of California voters believe the chronic state budget deficit is a serious problem and lack faith in the ability of the state's political leadership to do anything about it, according to a new Field Poll. The poll also found voter approval of the job that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are doing continues to decline. Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said voters are becoming increasingly frustrated by the Legislature's inability to pass the budget on time or close the $15 billion deficit. “The public has growing concerns about the budget and less confidence that the Legislature...

Caltrans announced Tuesday its preferred method for improving the 405-101 freeway interchange, which the agency says is one of the busiest in the world. But don't get too excited. The agency also says that it doesn't have the money to design or build the project, which is expected to cost about $135 million. Still, this is one of those classic bottlenecks, and understanding why it doesn't work helps explain a lot of other bottlenecks on Southern California freeways. The big problem is that entrance and exit ramps have been placed too close to one another. The particular issue on the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles shoppers soon won't hear the question, "Paper or plastic?" at the checkout line. The City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic shopping bags from stores, beginning July 1, 2010. Shoppers can either bring their own bags or pay 25 cents for a paper bag. The council's unanimous vote also puts pressure on the state, which is considering an Assembly bill that would ban plastic bags in 2012 and charge at least 15 cents per paper bag. "We've gotten to a point where we need to act as a city, where we can have real...

LOS ANGELES - Local water director Xavier Alvarez was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $5,000 in federal court Monday morning for falsely claiming he was awarded the Medal of Honor. MP3 Audio: Alvarez Medal of Honor claimBefore he was sentenced, Alvarez told Judge R. Gary Klausner that he was "very remorseful" for his false claims of military valor. "I'd like to apologize to everyone in this whole nation," said Alvarez, who represents south Pomona Xavier Alvarez. (Staff photo) on the Three Valleys Municipal Water District board. As part of Alvarez's terms of probation, the court recommended he perform...

OAKLAND — Former employees and supporters of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery have scheduled a rally for Aug. 2 — the one-year anniversary of journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing — to call for an investigation into the business's demise. "This is the anniversary of the closing of the bakery and the event is about getting to the truth, getting to justice and making sure that whoever is guilty of any crime be brought before the bar of justice, because right now the truth is not being told," said rally organizer Henry Clark. The date was chosen to commemorate "police attacking...

A mountain lion is chased up a tree in downtown Palo Alto. Another one is shot after mauling a Chihuahua at a Watsonville mobile home park. In Los Gatos, a lion hits a car while trying to cross Summit Road. Peninsula and Silicon Valley residents rarely ponder the lives of mountain lions trying to survive in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But urban development — the razing of habitat for homes, roads and parking lots — is the chief obstacle the wild cats face every day as they hunt for deer and fulfill their instinct to roam hundreds of miles, looking...

The Granola state is at it again, with a proposal to dis'honor' George Bush by naming a sewage plant after him.

A bare majority of California voters would continue to allow gay marriage, according to a new poll released Friday. The Field Poll of 672 likely voters found that 51% oppose Proposition 8, which would amend the state Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and woman. Forty-two percent of voters support the November ballot measure. Poll director Mark DiCamillo said the results indicate a substantial change among voters since 2000, when Proposition 22, a similar ballot measure, was approved with 61% of the vote. Proposition 22 and other laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation were...

California Proposes Sales Tax Hike To Fund Transport, Government Services July 18, 2008 11:32 a.m. ESTVittorio Hernandez - AHN News WriterSacramento, CA (AHN) - To close California's $17.2 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considered on Thursday hiking the state sales tax and using funds intended for transportation and government services.State legislators proposed the two measures, which the governor initially described as bad ideas, but he did not rule out adopting the measures to avoid a cash crisis in California.The lawmakers plan to close the budget gap by collecting $5.6 billion income tax increase on the rich and borrowing $1.1...

As California Goes...? by: Emily Miller, July 18, 2008 The same-sex marriage debate proved to be a politically divisive issue in the 2004 election, and once again the subject dominates the national political landscape during an election year. Yet one aspect of the gay marriage debate remains largely ignored: if and how same-sex marriage threatens religious liberties and the free exercise clause of the First amendment. Lawyers convened last week at the Family Research Council to discuss the emerging conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty, and noticed an increase in the number of cases filed against religious institutions charged...

President Bush continues to turn up the heat on Congress over its refusal, so far, to lift a ban on offshore drilling that covers much of the nation's coasts. The president's latest salvo came Monday when he rescinded an executive ban on oil and gas drilling, signed by his father in 1990. "This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress," President Bush said during a Rose Garden appearance. The executive ban was one of two roadblocks that have for decades protected our fragile beaches from possible...

There is no quick fix to $4.50-a-gallon gas, no way to provide instant relief to consumers we know are hurting. Yet President Bush and others continue to push the false promise of offshore oil drilling. Just this week, the president lifted the executive order banning drilling that George H.W. Bush put in place in 1990. And he's asked Congress to lift its own moratorium on oil exploration on the outer continental shelf -- which includes coastal waters as close as three miles from shore. This would be a terrible mistake. It would put our nation's precious coastlines in jeopardy and...

Today the President and First Lady attended Tony Snow's funeral, the President made a wonderful speech about how special Tony was and I have chosen these words to be the quote of the day as the content does much in putting things into perspective. We may get tied up on the minutiae of life but Tony Snow showed where our priorities should be never compromising his beliefs but always bearing in mind what was important and treating the rest with good humour and a smile. After attending the funeral the President travelled to California to view some of the damaged...

California state government spent $145 billion last fiscal year, $41 billion more than four years ago when Gov. Gray Davis got recalled by voters. With all that new spending -- a whopping 40% increase -- we ought to be in a golden age of government with abundant public services for all. So why does it seem like the quality and quantity of government is not all that different from 2004? How many of us feel like we are getting 40% more public services, 40% better schools, roads, parks and so on? The Legislature and governor, grappling with another huge budget...

Drudge is reporting that the FBI has been investigating failed bank IndyMac for mortgage fraud in loans made to risky borrowers. Countrywide is also under investigation.

History was made in Thousand Oaks California on the corner of Hampshire Boulevard and Royal Oaks Street, Saturday July 12. Hundreds of illegal alien day laborers have been crowded in this peaceful city owned park area along Hampshire Road in Old Thousand Oaks. For many years, hundreds of possible illegal alien day laborers have littered this area. Sadly, this rundown area is the first thing outside tourists see when tourists exit the 101 Freeway on their way to visit the state-of-the-art Thousand Oaks City Theater complex. This Thousand Oaks city sponsored day laborer center was essentially CLOSED for that one...

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The National Council of La Raza spends most of its time protecting and advancing the rights of Latinos through advocacy and community work. But as it wraps up its convention downtown, it has found itself defending its name. That's because activists who oppose illegal immigration are saying in e-mails, during street protests and through the media that “La Raza” means “The Race,” and have been calling the organization a hate group. The accusations have prompted soul-searching among NCLR supporters as to what the name actually means and stands for. Most say the situation is the result...

SACRAMENTO -- An alliance of insurance companies and environmentalists wants to bring a new kind of mileage-based auto insurance to California and charge motorists only for the number of miles actually driven. Called pay as you drive, the option is available from a few insurers in 34 states -- but not California -- as well as Canada, Japan and Europe. One company, GMAC Insurance Group, says its customers -- whose mileage is tracked by General Motors Corp.'s OnStar system -- have reduced the premiums they pay by 13% to 54%. And California drivers could expect to get similar savings if...

SACRAMENTO -- One severely broken part of California's state government is the tax code. It's antiquated and unreliable. Government financing is too heavily dependent on the rich, who have good and bad years, causing roller-coaster tax trauma in the Capitol. And there isn't enough help from the creaky old sales tax. The volatility of the tax system keeps getting worse, making it increasingly difficult for policymakers to plan ahead. New Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) has taken up the cause and is bent on creating an independent blue-ribbon commission to overhaul the tax code. "The economic crisis is national,...

An animal tracker hired by city officials was heading into Foothills Park in Palo Alto tonight to hunt down and kill a mountain lion that attacked a man over the weekend, authorities said. Foothills Park and the adjacent Pearson-Arastradero Preserve were closed today after officials learned of the incident, the first known mountain lion attack in Palo Alto, said Palo Alto Police Agent Dan Ryan. The 50-year-old hiker was uninjured but narrowly escaped with his life after the cat leaped onto him from behind about 4 p.m. Saturday, sending man and beast tumbling down an embankment, Ryan said. The Portola...

Two years ago, the city passed an ordinance to punish landlords for renting to illegal immigrants. But it rescinded the rental restriction after a legal challenge was filed and bills began to mount. Photos: Escondido Map of EscondidoNow Escondido is trying a new approach to what it calls the "public nuisances" of illegal immigration, citing residents for code violations such as garage conversions, graffiti and junk cars. The city is also debating a new ordinance that would restrict overnight street parking without a permit. In addition, it is drafting a policy that would prohibit drivers from picking up day laborers...

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – Abel Moreno sat at a table yesterday at the National Council of La Raza convention, answering questions from a volunteer at a citizenship clinic. Is his wife a U.S. citizen? Yes. How long have they been married? Thirteen years. Moreno, a maintenance engineer at a downtown hotel, became eligible for U.S. citizenship in 1998. But between work and raising two children, the legal permanent resident said he kept putting it off for “tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.” Finally yesterday, after a relative learned of the convention's free citizenship clinic on television and alerted Moreno, he jumped at the...

What accounts for the respect given to the education funding guarantee? For one thing, Proposition 98, despite all its problems, has served the useful purpose of enshrining the most important public policy issue -- education -- as the state government's top priority. Second, there's widespread fear on the part of state politicians of challenging the teachers union and the rest of the education lobby. But there's still another story behind the silence: The multiple formulas of Proposition 98 are so complex that they're difficult to understand, even more difficult to explain -- and, for those who want to know how...

The court is poised in coming weeks to seal Lawrence's fate, along with that of nine other convicted murderers seeking freedom. The justices are expected to answer some difficult questions: When should a killer be set free? What are the limits, if any, on the governor's power to decide? Are such factors as an inmate's prison record and age ever more significant than a horrendous crime committed decades ago? The state parole board had approved Lawrence's release four times since 1993, but three governors vetoed those decisions. Schwarzenegger blocked Lawrence's release twice before judges on the state Court of Appeal...

When the U.S. Supreme Court agreed last year to hear a Second Amendment challenge to Washington D.C.’s ban on handguns, gun rights groups called it a step towards challenging California’s gun laws. Last week, the court overturned the D.C. ban. But gun control groups and others say the court’s ruling was too narrow to overturn any state laws. Meanwhile, some in the gun-rights movement are urging people to be careful about what lawsuits they file in the wake of Heller vs. D.C. One thing no one contests is that the June 26 ruling in Heller vs. D.C. was a major...

State Controller John Chiang delivered more grim evidence of the state's budget meltdown Thursday. Chiang's office released cash figures showing that California overspent by $3.9 billion in the fiscal year just ended. General fund expenditures for the 2007-08 fiscal year that ended June 30 totaled $107.3 billion, while total receipts were $103.4 billion. Receipts would have been even lower had the governor and Legislature not borrowed $3.3 billion earlier this year. "Without counting bond proceeds, the gap between last year's revenues and expenditures was more than $7 billion," Chiang said in a statement. "Without a spending plan in place, the...

A 10-year-old boy was among four Oakland youths who carried out a string of residential burglaries during the past month, stealing laptops, iPods and other electronic equipment, investigators say. The youths would travel into Alameda on bicycles during daylight hours and target properties where no one was home, making off with items that were easily carried in backpacks, according to police. The group includes two brothers, who are ages 10 and 15, and their 12-year-old sister. The third boy is 15 years old and their friend. Investigators did not disclose the names of the suspects because they are minors. When...

SACRAMENTO - The Legislature's majority Democrats promised Wednesday to push a vote on a spending proposal containing several billion dollars in tax increases despite Republican opposition.

Dust storms that fouled Kern County’s air in May could mean months of delay for two major Kern County freeway projects. A project to widen Highway 46 from Holloway Road west to Highway 33 at Blackwells Corner will almost certainly be delayed for five months or more, said Ron Brummett, executive director of the Kern Council of Governments. And the Westside Parkway in Bakersfield, a freeway that’s to run west from a point near Highway 99 to Heath Road, might also be delayed if dickering over air quality standards goes on too long. The Environmental Protection Agency, Brummett said, is...

SACRAMENTO – With scattered rationing punishing cities and farms statewide, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein Thursday jointly unveiled a $9.3 billion water bond proposal, convinced that fears over prolonged shortages and environmental collapse in the vital Sacramento delta will be enough to overcome resistance to building dams and a north-to-south delivery canal. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Feinstein, a Democrat, plan to aggressively push lawmakers to approve taking the bond measure to voters in November. The plan still faces tough odds. The ballot is already crowded with controversial initiatives addressing same-sex marriage, abortions for minors and caged farm...

Prosecutors will probably soon ask a federal grand jury to indict state Senate boss Don Perata on public corruption charges, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. An indictment would culminate a four-and-a-half-year federal probe of California's second-most-powerful politician. The FBI, the US Attorney's Office, and a federal grand jury have been investigating whether the senator took bribes or kickbacks in exchange for providing official government favors to close friends, business associates, and major campaign donors. It's not clear who else may be charged along with the Oakland Democrat. But based on public records and interviews, the feds also...

KCRA - SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- More than 70,000 consumers complained about third-party debt collectors in 2007, but one Sacramento couple said they have good reason to bark about the bill they received. Steve Fanelli received a bill from AFNI collections claiming an Andy Fanelli owes Verizon Online $142.34. And although Steve Fanelli does indeed live with an Andy Fanelli, there is a small, furry problem with the bill. Andy Fanelli is Steve Fanelli's dog. more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed his support behind a costly high-speed rail system in California. Schwarzenegger told NBC11 he wants California to lead the way in transporting commuters across the state at near-record speeds while reducing global warming at the same time. Critics have said the state's proposed high-speed rail system is too costly and too good to be true, NBC11's Mike Luery reported. On the very spot where the Transcontinental Railroad was established nearly 140 years ago, Schwarzenegger told Luery that a less-than-three-hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles represents the type of progress that...

For decades, Proposition 13 has been cast as the bane of cash-strapped local government, limiting property tax revenues even as California's housing market soared. But this week, as county assessors reported rising tax bases despite the housing slump, they credited the 30-year-old law -- revealing its unexpected role as an economic stabilizer. Counties across Southern California reported that their overall tax bases grew compared with last year's. The corresponding revenue increase occurred despite falling home prices and even though assessors have reduced the property values on nearly 600,000 homes in five Southland counties in the last few months because of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he is "open-minded" about $8.2 billion in tax increases proposed by Democrats to help resolve a $15.2 billion budget shortfall this year. The Republican governor said he has "always been against tax increases," but he shied away Wednesday from criticizing the latest Democratic package, which heavily depends on tax hikes on wealthy Californians and businesses.

A San Francisco engineer testified Tuesday in Sacramento federal court that political fundraiser Julie Lee asked him to adopt fraudulent documents to satisfy auditors looking into Lee's use of state grant money. James Li described for a jury how Lee, in the summer of 2004, brought him "a bundle of documents in an envelope and asked me to review them and be prepared to answer questions from state controller auditors." Among the documents, Li told the jury, was a backdated invoice that purported to be from his firm seeking payment of $621,300 from Lee's nonprofit San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center...

County supervisors rejected two gay marriage proposals Tuesday, one banning the unions in Kern, the other asking San Bernardino County to deputize people to perform civil ceremonies here. County Counsel Bernard Barmann said the anti-gay marriage ordinance proposed by a conservative coalition would violate the California constitution. Pastor and Kern High School District Trustee Chad Vegas said the sin of gay marriage is “self-evident” and supervisors should not be swayed by Barmann's opinion that their oath to uphold the state constitution required them to block the ordinance. Vegas said in taking the same constitutional vow as a school board member,...

Democrats on Tuesday proposed billions in tax increases on businesses and high earners to help bridge California's budget shortfall. The proposed hikes include rolling back the dependent child income tax credit expanded in the 1990s, creating two higher income tax brackets for the state's biggest earners and increasing corporate taxes. The long-awaited list of revenue proposals faces near certain defeat, however, as Republican lawmakers have repeatedly said they are unified in their opposition to any tax increases. Approving a budget and increasing taxes requires a two-thirds vote, which means GOP support is mandatory. "I guarantee you it will be a...

The California Democratic Party has donated $250,000 to help Don Perata pay off his legal bills, as the Senate Democratic leader continues to rack up expenses fending off an ongoing FBI corruption investigation. The party made the quarter-million dollar donation on July 1, according to campaign filings. The money comes just in time for Perata, who, according to a May disclosure, had only $273 cash on hand in his legal defense fund and $250,000 in unpaid bills. Jason Kinney, a spokesman for Perata on legal issues, said the donation -- and the continuing expenses -- are "no indication of anything."...