Free Republic

California is changing its laws in order to be "fair and compassionate" toward illegal immigrants living in the state. Governor Jerry Brown signed the "California Dream Act," which allows illegal immigrants access to state aid at public universities and colleges. In addition, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D) along with Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck are calling for illegal immigrants to be given California driver's licenses and to not have their vehicles impounded for thirty days if stopped for a traffic violation. There is also a new California law stating that employers do not have to use E-Verify for state, city,...

TURLOCK, Calif. (AP) -- The man who holds the Guinness World Record for living the longest with a bullet in his head has died in Central California at age 103. The Modesto Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/JHXmXv ) that William Lawlis Pace died in his sleep at a Turlock nursing home Monday - 94 years and six months after his older brother accidentally shot him with their father's .22-caliber rifle in 1917.

Current list of California state agencies: California Academic Performance Index (API) * California Access for Infants and Mothers * California Acupuncture Board * California Administrative Office of the Courts * California Adoptions Branch * California African American Museum * California Agricultural Export Program * California Agricultural Labor Relations Board * California Agricultural Statistics Service * California Air Resources Board(CARB) * California Allocation Board * California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority * California Animal Health and Food Safety Services * California Anti-Terrorism Information Center * CaliforniaApprenticeship Council * California Arbitration Certification Program * California Architects Board * California...

Nearly 80 percent of Californians oppose $5 billion in so-called trigger cuts to state schools this fall, but only a slight majority of voters support the governor's tax plan to stop it, according to a survey of 2,000 voters released Wednesday. At this point, 54 percent of likely voters said they'd vote for Gov. Jerry Brown's ballot measure to temporarily boost sales tax and income tax on wealthy California residents, the Public Policy Institute of California poll found. If it doesn't pass, Brown's plan calls for school budget cuts to be triggered. Supporters of the tax hike measure expect to...

In Katie Pavlich’s devastating new expose of the Eric Holder Justice Department-approved Fast and Furious operation, Pavlich doesn’t just expose the Obama administration. She exposes the mainstream media for what they are: tools of the Democratic Party, and of the White House. As Pavlich recounts, the first mainstream media outlet to report on Fast and Furious was CBS Evening News, which aired a report by Sharyl Attkinson. She stated that the scandal itself was so awful that “some insiders say it surpasses the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge and the deadly siege at Waco.” She pointed out that the Bureau of...

You know its bad when...the net flow of Mexicans into the US has fallen so much that there is a high probability that it is now in reverse ending around forty years of inward migration. The Pew Hispanic Center notes that the standstill - after more than 12 million current immigrants have entered the US - more than half of whom are illegal - appears to be the result of many factors including a weakened US job and construction market, tougher border enforcement, a rise in deportations, growing dangers associated with border crossing, a long-term decline in Mexico's birth rate,...

You know it's bad when...the net flow of Mexicans into the US has fallen so much that there is a high probability that it is now in reverse ending around forty years of inward migration. The Pew Hispanic Center notes that the standstill - after more than 12 million current immigrants have entered the US - more than half of whom are illegal - appears to be the result of many factors including a weakened US job and construction market, tougher border enforcement, a rise in deportations, growing dangers associated with border crossing, a long-term decline in Mexico's birth...

The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of multiple government data sets from both countries. The standstill appears to be the result of many factors, including the weakened U.S. job and housing construction markets, heightened border enforcement, a rise in deportations, the growing dangers associated with illegal border...

The number of Mexican immigrants living illegally in the U.S. has dropped significantly for the first time in decades, showing a dramatic shift as many illegal workers are moving back to Mexico from the U.S. because there are so few job opportunities. The new analysis comes amid renewed debate over U.S. immigration policy as the Supreme Court hears arguments this week on Arizona's tough immigration law. Mexican immigrants make account for nearly 60 per cent of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. and last year there were 6.1million in America. That number was down from its peak in 2007...

Apprehensions of Mexicans trying to cross the border illegally have plummeted by more than 70% in recent years The number of Mexican immigrants living illegally in the U.S. has dropped significantly for the first time in decades a new study suggests. The figures represent a dramatic shift as many illegal workers, already in the U.S. and seeing few job opportunities, are returning to Mexico. The analysis of census data from the U.S. and Mexican governments finds that roughly 6.1 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants were living in the U.S. last year. That's down from a peak of nearly 7 million in...

The number of Mexican migrants to the United States dropped significantly while the number of those returning home increased, bringing net migration from Mexico to a statistical standstill, according to a report published Monday.

One million Mexicans said they returned from the US between 2005 and 2010, according to a new dem-ographic study of Mexican census data. That's three times the number who said they'd returned in the previous five-year period. And they aren't just home for a visit: One prominent sociologist in the US has counted "net zero" migration for the first time since the 1960s. Experts say the implications for both nations are enormous – from the draining of a labor pool in the US to the need for a radical shift in policies in Mexico, which has long depended on the...

Brazil is everyone’s darling these days, but Mexico’s economy is growing faster at the moment. Mexican GDP advanced at an annual rate of 3.7 per cent in the fourth quarter and at an annual rate of 4.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2011. That left mighty Brazil eating Mexico’s dust. Brazil’s GDP grew at annual rates of 1.2 per cent and 2 per cent in the fourth and third quarters respectively. For all of 2011, Mexico’s economy expanded 3.9 per cent compared with 2.5 per cent in Brazil, according to Bank of Nova Scotia. The Canada-Mexico story isn’t...

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón is preparing to file felony vehicular manslaughter charges against Chris Bucchere, the bicyclist who fatally struck a 71-year-old pedestrian in the Castro district last month. The felony charge - which could result in a 16-month sentence for Bucchere if he is convicted - is a sharp contrast to the misdemeanor count prosecutors filed in a case last year in which a bicyclist struck and killed a woman along the Embarcadero. The difference this time is prosecutors' conclusion that Bucchere, 35, was grossly negligent in his riding before he ran into Sutchi Hui in a...

Maybe there's something about one of the Alameda County Board of Supervisor's five seats that attracts troubled Bay Area politicians. Less than a week after Nadia Lockyer resigned her seat on the board following weeks of scandalous revelations of drug abuse and a sexual affair with a meth adddict, disgraced Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, reportedly inquired about the post. Hayashi, who is termed out of the Legislature after this year, contacted three of the four remaining members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to gauge their interest in appointing her to fill out Lockyer's term until 2014, the Bay...

LOS ANGELES — Henry Keith Watson remembers April 29, 1992, as if it happened just last week. History won’t allow him to forget it. It was a day that marked the beginning of one of the deadliest, most destructive race riots in the nation’s history, and one in which Watson’s spur-of-the-moment decision to take part made him one of the enduring faces of the violence....

A cross that was first erected nearly 80 years ago by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in honor of the heroes of World War I will finally be allowed to stand. More than a decade after the ACLU originally sued to have the cross memorial removed from public land, a case which ended up at the Supreme Court, a federal judge has approved a settlement of the case allowing the cross to remain. The ACLJ has been fighting to allow this cross to stand for years - an important war memorial in honor of those who have heroically served in...

“That’s Why God Made the Radio” certainly has everything a vintage Beach Boys tune needs: Breezy harmonies, references to cars, and an almost exhausting sense of sweetness. There is something profoundly bizarre about the Beach Boys putting out new music in 2012, especially considering how many artists (especially in the indie world) have exploited the sound they helped invent. Their influence is everywhere, from Bon Iver’s lovely layers to Katy Perry’s beach-friendly youth anthems.

Liberal journalist Michael Tomasky, in a column for the Daily Beast / Newsweek, voiced concern Tuesday that President Barack Obama has lost 16% of his support among U.S. Jews and may lose the elections in key states like Florida, come November. Tomasky, who is also the editor-in-chief of Democracy, analyzed Obama's first term vis-à-vis Israel and concluded that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu outfoxed the President. Tomasky cites a recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, in which 62% of 1,004 American Jews surveyed said that they would vote for Obama, noting that this is a sizeable downturn from 2008,...

The Department of Agriculture today confirmed a case of mad cow disease found in a dairy cow in central California. In a press briefing today, John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer, said the cow's meat did not enter the food supply and the carcass will be destroyed. The animal was found at a rendering facility run by Baker Commodities in Hanford, Calif. The disease was discovered when the company selected the cow for random sampling, Baker Commodities executive vice president Dennis Luckey told The Associated Press. The Agriculture Department confirmed today that the cow is the fourth discovered in...

Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state -including Maine- even comes close. When it comes to sending Left-wing dingbats to Washington... we're #1.  There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'.  The four of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab....

Now, however, the Golden State's fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape. The first thing that comes to many American minds when you mention California isn't Hollywood or tanned girls on a beach, but Greece. Many progressives in California take that as a compliment since Greeks are ostensibly happier. But as Mr. Kotkin notes, Californians are increasingly pursuing happiness elsewhere. Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states...

LOS ANGELES | Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:22pm EDT (Reuters) - A rare daytime meteor was seen and heard streaking over northern Nevada and parts of California on Sunday, just after the peak of an annual meteor shower. Observers in the Reno-Sparks area of Nevada reported seeing a fireball at about 8 a.m. local time, accompanied or followed by a thunderous clap that experts said could have been a sonic boom from the meteor or the sound of it breaking up high over the Earth. "It probably would have exploded as it entered the atmosphere," said Mike Smith, a meteorologist...

An eyewitness says: "It was pretty freakin' real when all the dogs started barking right before it hit, then EVERYTHING shook. We were in the field just outside the barn & the barn continued to shake for a couple minutes afterward. We are about 50-60 miles or so from where it hit."

COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) -- A student pilot was arrested after he tried to steal an airplane from Compton/Woodley Airport. Sheriff's officials said 25-year-old Troy Long of Bellflower attempted to steal the two-seat Cessna 152 on Friday. Authorities say Long entered the airport office and began taking keys for airplanes. He then pulled a gun on airport workers when they tried to stop him. He got into the Cessna and started the engine, but he was stopped from going anywhere by a chain connecting the plane to the tarmac.

APPLE VALLEY • Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose tough stance on criminals and illegal immigration placed him in the national spotlight, will be in Apple Valley to endorse Republican Phil Liberatore’s race for the 8th Congressional District. Arpaio, 79, dubbed “America's Toughest Sheriff,” will speak at a public rally at 11:30 a.m. on May 5, at Civic Park near Town Hall, a Liberatore spokesman said by phone. As Sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., Arpaio gained attention with his no-frills jails. He houses inmates in surplus Army tents and feeds inmates bologna sandwiches and issues pink under shorts — all...

BERKELEY, California – Fifteen years ago, California voters were asked: Should colleges consider a student's race when they decide who gets in and who doesn't? With an emphatic "no," they made California the first state to ban the use of race and ethnicity in public university admissions, as well as hiring and contracting. Since then, California's most selective public colleges and graduate schools have struggled to assemble student bodies that reflect the state's demographic mix.

"...my friend and colleague Eugene Volokh makes much the same point in his usual erudite way: So just as Congress could therefore ban the speech of nonmedia business corporations, it could ban publications by corporate-run newspapers and magazines — which I think includes nearly all such newspapers and magazines in the country (and for good reason, since organizing a major publications as a partnership or sole proprietorship would make it much harder for it to get investors and to operate). Nor does this proposal leave room for the possibility, in my view dubious, that the Free Press Clause would protect...

State Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) was driving a state car away from the Sacramento area without the required permission when he was arrested last month on suspicion of drunken driving, officials said Friday. Hernandez was stopped by police in Concord at 2 a.m. on March 27 after officers saw his car weaving between lanes. At the time, Hernandez was driving a Toyota Camry owned by the state and assigned to the Assembly’s vehicle pool. Such vehicles are not supposed to be driven out of the Sacramento area without permission, which Hernandez failed to get for his Concord trip, .....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California state treasurer Bill Lockyer is used to the public spotlight. Just not like this. After a political career spanning four decades, Lockyer is drawing attention not for his job but for his marital troubles, his wife's substance abuse and her claim that she was roughed up by an ex-boyfriend at a motel room. And with each new development, the story has taken ever stranger turns. An email last week that appeared to be sent from Nadia Lockyer, herself a promising San Francisco Bay area politician, went to a newspaper, accusing her husband, a former state...

Pelosi Statement on Earth Day April 20, 2012 Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in recognition of Earth Day, which falls on Sunday, April 22: “For more than four decades, Earth Day has brought Americans together to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the environment we all share. This day is an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the cause of a cleaner planet, to the promise of a clean energy economy, to the potential of new technologies, and to the movement to confront the challenge of climate change. “Democrats in...

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, who for two months has been embroiled in a sex and addiction scandal that riveted the Bay Area, told the Bay Area News Group today she is resigning from office. Lockyer, the wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, will tell her colleagues and constituents in a letter that she wanted to focus on the well-being of her 8-year-old son and recovery from chemical dependency and her alleged beating by her ex-lover. "Today is a significant day for me personally and professionally," she told a reporter in the living room of their home in the Hayward...

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg pledged today to put forward for the 2014 election a package of major changes to California's initiative process, including a provision to make it easier for legislators to place tax measures on the ballot. The Sacramento Democrat, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon, outlined a trio of initiative reforms he said "will both strengthen California's tradition of direct democracy and empower the people elected by their communities...to make clear choices." He said he plans to put the proposals on the 2014 ballot either through a vote of the Legislature, a task he said...

The DOJ's Mugging Of Apple Reminds Us That Antitrust Is TheftThe government should not interfere in any pricing or offering, even if a company outright colludes with competitors to set a price. Market participants have a right to offer their goods and services at whatever price they wish, and they should be free to determine that price however they wish. Some sort of twisted resentment at companies for deliberately trying to get the most money from a deal is not a valid basis for outlawing their activity. No one is forcing anyone to buy their products. Those who do not...

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 19 (Reuters) - California peace activist Cindy Sheehan has agreed to meet with Internal Revenue Service agents seeking to collect back taxes she refuses to pay as a protest of U.S. wars, but she vowed on Thursday to persist in her tax boycott. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in action in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army in 2004, appeared before a federal judge as the government sought a court order requiring her to answer an IRS collection summons seeking information about assets that could be used to satisfy her tax liability. The 54-year-old activist,...

Dem leader Pelosi 'stunned and disgusted' by Secret Service scandalBy Mike Lillis - 04/19/12 04:13 PM ET House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says she's "stunned and disgusted" by the prostitution scandal dogging the Secret Service this month. The California Democrat said she has not been briefed on the incident — in which almost a dozen Secret Service agents caroused with prostitutes ahead of President Obama's recent trip to Colombia — but she urged a quick investigation into the culture of the agency and suggested those involved should be fired. "It's a stunning thing. It's actually disgusting," Pelosi said Thursday at...

City council members are clearly bracing for choppy waters when a public hearing begins with a request that no one jeers. "Some people might be on one side of the issue, some people on the other," Pinole Mayor Peter Murray said. "What I want is that everyone pledge that we're going to respect everyone's opinion and there will be no catcalls from the audience." Taking center stage Tuesday night in the Pinole Council Chamber was a slugfest that needed only a ring announcer. "In this corner, wearing red-white-and-blue trunks and still upright after 221 years, is the Second Amendment, guaranteeing...

If you’re planning a crime that could entail running from the police, may I suggest committing it in moonbattery-addled San Jose, California: I can hardly wait to see how they raise awareness against the “bullying” of transsexual freakazoids.

Two commercial fishermen in Mexico received the surprise of a lifetime Sunday when they hauled up a great white shark measuring nearly 20 feet and weighing about 2,000 pounds, according to local news reports. The rare catch of such a large white shark -- at 20 feet it'd be among the longest ever recorded -- was made in Mexico's Sea of Cortez near Guaymas, by fishermen who thought they had merely scored a large haul of much smaller fish as they hoisted up their net."We were amazed and immediately realized that we had a huge, dead, great white shark, and...

Toyota Material Handling USA Inc. is moving its North American headquarters from Irvine to Columbus, Ind., the company announced.

eXiled editor Yasha Levine still has a host of legal woes hanging over his head from being arrested while covering last November’s LAPD crackdown of OccupyLA. Turns out, those are the least of his worries at the moment. During his two-day stay in Los Angeles Metro Jail, Levine says he contracted a wicked case of scabies. Until a few days ago, I thought my scabies was just a gnarly poison oak rash that I had picked up in the Santa Monica mountains after losing the trail and having to cut through the overgrown backyards of multimillion dollar mansions. For weeks...

The state's top analyst has urged lawmakers to pull the emergency brake on California's $68 billion bullet train, saying the recently revised plan carries way too much risk of failure. The Legislative Analyst's Office report released late Tuesday may give the Legislature political cover if it decides to ax the polarizing rail line as it begins debating whether to approve high-speed rail Wednesday.

Fixing Destroyed L.A. City Hall Lawn After Occupy Protest PRWeb – 6 hrs ago Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) April 17, 2012 - Southern California drought and historic sites landscaping expert Glen Dake, Landscape Architect at GDML, is part of a panel addressing the lawn replacement issue facing City Hall after the Occupy Los Angeles encampment was removed. He will explain solutions for replacing the lawn at the upcoming Municipal Green Building Conference and Expo (MGBCE) April 26, 2012. The Expo is Southern California's longest running and largest sustainability and green building event focused on the needs and concerns of municipalities....

Never underestimate the anti-tax wrath of California voters. Years ago, Californians were struggling under higher and higher property taxes that were continually getting reassessed and raised, and at one point they had had enough. In 1978, Proposition 13 was proposed to cap property taxes and limit reassessments, and it passed with a huge margin despite a firestorm of opposition from every politician around. The author and chief proponent of Prop 13, gadfly Howard Jarvis, became a minor celebrity and helped author similar ballot measures in other states.

Democrats in House of Reps. joined J Street in supporting Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions Seventy-four Democrats in the House of Representatives have joined the dovish J Street organization in supporting the Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions to the Palestinian Authority. “In our view, support for a two-state resolution is inseparable from such support for Israel, its special relationship with the United States, and its very survival as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people,” the letter said. Seven Jewish members signed the letter, including Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John...

It's wild times in the watershed. The most happy-go-lucky denizen of Bay Area creeks is back, after a hiatus of at least three decades: the river otter. "They look like they're having a wonderful time out there. It's really exciting to see," said Steve Bobzien, a wildlife ecologist for the East Bay Regional Park District. "Plus, it's a really good biological indicator of the health of the ecosystem." From Antioch to Tomales Bay, park visitors have reported otters rolling in mud, gnawing on crayfish, sliding down rocks and generally partying on the creek banks. A Marin group has even created...

A faux pax by Senator Diane Feinstein outed the presence of Mossad chief Tamir Pardo in Washington to discuss a possible strike on Iran. Mossad director Tamir Pardo is in Washington for talks about a possible attack on Iran's nuclear installations, Israel's Channel 2 reported on Tuesday. Pardo's visit, which would normally be conducted in secret, was revealed by US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, 78, who made the faux pax at committee hearing. The hearing was being broadcast live by US television. Feinstein said she had spoken with Pardo, who also met with CIA director David Petraeus, adding...

An incredible eight bolts struck the Bay Bridge in San Francisco last night which was captured in this incredible shot by photographer Phil McGrew, who took the photo through the rain-soaked window of his apartment.

BrightSource Energy of Oakland, a solar power-plant developer whose first project won $1.6 billion in federal backing, abruptly canceled its initial public stock offering Wednesday night, just hours before trading was scheduled to begin. The surprise move killed what had been the most hotly anticipated clean-tech IPO this spring. It casts doubt on investor appetite for similar offerings in the future. The cancellation could also revive the debate over federal support for renewable power companies. Solar-module maker Solyndra of Fremont, which received $528 million from the same government program that funded BrightSource's first power plant, also canceled a planned IPO...

The government spent at least $205,075 in 2010 to “translocate” a single bush in San Francisco that stood in the path of a $1.045 billion highway-renovation project that was partially funded by the economic stimulus legislation President Barack Obama signed in 2009. “In October 2009, an ecologist identified a plant growing in a concrete-bound median strip along Doyle Drive in the Presidio as Arctostaphylos franciscana,” the U.S. Department of Interior reported in the Aug. 10, 2010 edition of the Federal Register. The bush—a Franciscan manzanita—was a specimen of a commercially cultivated species of shrub that can be purchased from nurseries...