Free Republic

Traffic On Hwy. 99 Diverted At Elk Grove ELK GROVE, Calif. (KCRA) -- Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies say a California Highway Patrol officer was shot near Elk Grove and the suspected gunman is dead. The shooting occurred Sunday evening during a traffic stop on Highway 99 just south of Elk Grove. As the officer approached the vehicle they were shot at multiple times, California Highway Patrol officials say. The officer is in stable condition at a local hospital, KCRA has confirmed. Elk Grove police officers at the scene heard the shots fired at the officer. A shootout then took place...

Ahnold's cheating may put him into legal trouble. The California Attorney General will conduct an “inquiry” into former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s alleged misuse of taxpayer funds to cover up his sexual liaisons, it was reported today. Probers are conducting a "preliminary evaluation" into Schwarzenegger’s double life, which allegedly included using his "state-funded security details to cover up women being escorted into his hotel room," according to RadarOnline.com. Veteran hotel security officer William Taylor said he witnessed Ahnold using California Highway Patrol cops and vehicles to carry "scantily-clad women in-and-out of his suite" at the Sacramento Hyatt Regency, where he and...

The California Highway Patrol has begun arresting protesters at the Capitol, after warning about 65 to leave the building after its 6 p.m. closing. The daylong protest, organized by the California Teachers Association, drew about 1,000 protesters for various activities. About 150 moved into the rotunda in late afternoon, and some of them refused to leave at closing time. .. Mike Parker, a community college teacher who expected to be arrested, said the protest is to provide a "moral witness...What's happening in this society is totally out of kilter," he said.

When Mark Mackey, a member of the local Calvary Chapel, showed up to the DMV office in Hemet, CA on February 2, he had a goal: read the Bible and introduce those waiting in line to the “gospel of Jesus Christ.” And for about 15 minutes he was successful. That is until a California Highway Patrolman took the Bible from his hands, arrested him, and told him he was guilty of preaching to a “captive audience.” And it was all caught on video: According to reports, Mackey wasn’t the only one arrested. Pastor Brett Coronado and Edmond Flores, Jr., who...

Speeding motorcyclist taunts state trooper trapped in crashed car A state trooper rolled his car multiple times while chasing two reckless motorcyclists, one of whom returned to taunt the injured trooper trooper, officials said. The incident happened on the northbound ramp from Interstate 5 to State Route 599 at approximately 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. Washington State Patrol Trooper Cliff Pratt said the trooper was chasing a group of at least nine members of a south King County motorcycle group who were speeding dangerously and getting too close to cars. As the trooper tried to close in on the fastest biker, he...

The California Highway Patrol officers' union and three other state labor groups have agreed to contract terms with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that roll back pension benefits for new state hires and increase all employees' retirement contributions. The deals would also protect the unions' members from the threat of minimum wage when lawmakers don't enact a state budget on time and eventually add a top step pay increase. "We're not blind or deaf to the unique times in California. We want to get the necessary discussion of (pension) reform behind us," said Jon Hamm of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen....

Dozens of Inland freeway shootings in recent weeks apparently weren't meant to kill anyone, but they have shattered the rear windows of about 30 vehicles and are prompting investigators to seek the public's help in catching the perpetrators. "We've had someone running around with a pellet gun or a BB gun," Sgt. Andrew Thompson said this morning from the California Highway Patrol's office in San Bernardino. "No one has been hurt. "No projectiles have penetrated any of the windows." The problem is that no one has seen whomever has been committing the car-to-car shootings. So officers have no suspect description....

California Highway Patrol Officer Danny Benavidas killed in plane crash COACHELLA - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today sent condolences to the family of Highway Patrol officer Danny Benavidas, who was killed in a plane crash near Borrego Springs. "Maria and I were deeply saddened to learn of this tragedy. Officer Benavides dedicated his life to ensuring the safety and security of California residents, and his honorable service will forever be remembered," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today when he heard of the crash. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Benavides' family during this difficult time." Officer Danny Benavides was found...

It was springtime, when ducks usually are headed north. But suddenly Saturday, the ducks ran amok. In two separate incidents, an intrepid California Highway Patrol officer came to the rescue of ducks attempting to waddle across freeways in the South Bay, in defiance of the laws of nature and the California Vehicle Code. Nine fuzzy yellow ducklings were spotted heading southbound down the center divide of Interstate 880 near Milpitas Saturday morning, when Officer Ryan Nelson — something of a fledgling himself, in his first full year with the CHP — rolled onto the scene in his patrol car. When...

California Highway Patrol officers say their patrol car acted as a brake for a Toyota Prius with a stuck accelerator Monday. The car, headed eastbound on Interstate 8, was going at a high rate of speed because the accelerator was stuck, according to CHP spokesperson Brian Pennings. The patrol car moved in front of the Prius and engaged its brakes to bring the Prius to a stop, according to CHP. The car eventually stopped on the highway near the La Posta Bridge in the area of the Golden Acorn Casino.

For years, the unions representing prison officers and California Highway Patrol officers have had a not-so-friendly rivalry. It boils up whenever The Bee reports on one or the other. This column reignited the flame last week by revealing that the state could sue the California Correctional Peace Officers Association over a $4 million tab run up over nearly five years. The union owes the Corrections and Rehabilitation Department for wages and benefits paid to union staff on leave from their jobs. Online commentator "lab87" aimed fire, not at CCPOA, but at the CHP officers' union: "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO...

Plane Hit by 3 Cars After Calif. Freeway Landing By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS August 23, 2009 SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say a small airplane was struck by three vehicles just after it made an emergency landing on a California freeway. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the Piper PA-24 Comanche with two people on board was bound for Santa Barbara Airport Sunday when the pilot told air traffic controllers he had no fuel remaining and landed on the southbound side of U.S. Highway 101, about one mile northeast of the airport. California Highway Patrol Officer James Richards...

FRESNO, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol says a police chase in Dinuba has ended with seven people dead, including four children. The patrol says Dinuba police were trying to stop a car Saturday afternoon for a traffic infraction. Patrol Sgt. Jon Baker says the driver went through a stop sign during the pursuit and collided with a pickup truck. The Fresno Bee reports that five children were in the truck and four of them were ejected and died at the scene. It says the surviving child and two adults in that vehicle were taken to Community Regional Medical Center...

A fast spinning windmill appeared "out of control," and threatened traffic on the highway between Los Angeles County's high desert and the San Joaquin Valley, a CHP dispatcher in Bakersfield said today. The CHP dispatcher said the windmill is spinning too fast and might fly apart, which is why Highway 58 in the Tehachapi Pass was closed down both directions between Mojave and about 45 miles north of Lancaster and Tehachapi. The malfunctioning electric generator is one of thousands of windmills installed along both sides of Highway 58 in Tehachapi Pass. Traffic was being detoured onto parallel county roads. Traffic...

A three-time Culver City police officer of the year was killed Wednesday on the eastbound Santa Monica (10) Freeway in the Palms area when his car was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver, who also died in the collision, according to the CHP. The collision that took the life of Culver City police Sgt. Curt Massey occurred about 5 a.m., just west of National Boulevard, the California Highway Patrol reported. "Curt was a very special police sergeant and friend,'' Chief Don Pedersen said of the 17-year veteran of the department. "He was kind, thoughtful and always went out of his...

A man was shot and killed by a California Highway Patrol officer following a car chase that ended early this morning next to an elementary school in east Fresno.

Oakland, in the Jerry Brown years, practiced an unofficial policy of what might be called “community cleansing.” This is not to be confused with “ethnic cleansing,” the horrific activity in parts of, say, Eastern Europe or Central Africa where whole ethnic populations are violently and bloodily removed, either through exile or actual genocide. No, Mr. Brown’s “community cleansing” policies were far more genteel, involving little violence (though some—that’s what the whole Oakland Riders police scandal was about) and targeting not whole ethnic groups, but rather portions of the population that were considered as being “undesirables.” Part of this involved harassment,...

One day before of Election Day, state highway authorities are removing political signs from freeway overpasses and pedestrian bridges. They want voters to focus on the road, not politics. While it's legal to stake political signs and banners in most places, they are considered a public nuisance on overpasses. The California Highway Patrol says the signs could distract motorists. SNIP

*Unconfirmed Reports of three killed* 1:02 a.m. June 14, 2008 CAMPO – At least three people were hit by gunfire Friday night on the Mexican side of the border near Campo, authorities said. The California Highway Patrol said several shooting victims came across the border. The shootings occurred some time after 10 p.m. A Heartland fire dispatcher said he knew of three victims, but that the Border Patrol had said there were more. The dispatcher said he did not know if anyone was killed. Border Patrol officials were unavailable to comment on what occurred. Ambulances were sent to state Route...

The cost to taxpayers of protecting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's other top officials has nearly tripled since the Governator took office, to close to $38 million a year, figures obtained by The Chronicle show. The California Highway Patrol, which guards the officials, won't release budget figures covering just the governor out of security considerations. But it's pretty clear from what people tell us that the big spending isn't on the state schools superintendent or the insurance commissioner - it's on Schwarzenegger.Five years ago, during Gray Davis' last year in office, the CHP spent $14.4 million providing security to the...

SANTA ANA - A Ladera Ranch family tormented by images of their decapitated teen daughter has filed a civil lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol, which admitted responsibility for the photos being circulated worldwide on the Internet. The family of Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras, 18, killed Oct. 31 in a two-car crash on a toll road near Lake Forest The lawsuit, which follows the Catsouras family's unsuccessful $20 million legal claim against the state, details the anguish suffered by Catsouras' parents and three little sisters, including fake MySpace.com sites set up after her death and "spam" that popped up in the...

'Father, 3 Kids, Missing in Northern California Mountains Found Alive','All four members of a family that went missing Sunday in the Northern California mountains while searching for a christmas tree have been found alive, FOX News reported The search area in rugged mountains of Butte County, Calif., where a father and three children vanished Sunday All four members of a family that vanished Sunday in the Northern California mountains while searching for a christmas tree have been found alive, FOX News reported Wednesday. "They have found all four, and they appear to be OK," said Paradise Police Sgt. Steve Rowe....

PARADISE, Calif. - A father and three children who vanished on a Christmas tree-cutting trip in the Northern California mountains were found alive Wednesday after huddling in a culvert for warmth during three days of heavy snowstorms. "Our hearts are all full right now," said Cory Stahl, who owns a pest control business where the father, Frederick Dominguez, works. "It's a very merry Christmas now." A California Highway Patrol helicopter delivered the family to safety, the two youngest children brought out of the woods first. The father smiled at family and friends, who cheered as he and his 18-year-old son...

A Family's Nightmare: Accident Photos of Their Beautiful Daughter Released Family of Nikki Catsouras Has Sued Investigators for Allegedly Releasing Accident Pictures Not long after their 18-year-old daughter died in a car accident, Christos and Lesli Catsouras were forced to relive their grief. They soon began receiving anonymous e-mails and text messages that contained photographs of the accident, including pictures of Nicole Catsouras' decapitated body, still strapped to the crumpled remains of her father's Porsche. A fake MySpace page was created, which at first looked like a tribute to Catsouras but also led to the horrific photos. "What type of...

By Garance Burke ASSOCIATED PRESS 8:01 p.m. November 3, 2007 FRESNO – A 62-year-old man was arrested Saturday on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge after two people were killed in a massive morning pileup in dense fog that involved more than 100 cars and trucks, the California Highway Patrol said. Eighteen big rigs were involved in the massive pileup on Highway 99 just south of Fresno as patches of dense fog obscured visibility on the heavily traveled roadway, CHP officials said. CHP Officer Kirk Arnold would not identify the man who is being held in Fresno County jail, and said...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Collisions on a foggy freeway Saturday resulted in a pileup of as many as 100 vehicles and the deaths of at least two people, the California Highway Patrol said. The collisions included nine big rigs on northbound Highway 99 just south of Fresno, CHP Officer Scott Jobinger said. "It looks like we had a chain reaction crash in that fog," Jobinger said. Rescuers extracted several people whose vehicles were pinned under tractor trailers, he said. The number of people injured was not yet known. Authorities said no hazardous materials appeared to have been spilled in the...

California authorities are trying to determine the whereabouts of at least 9 drivers involved in the deadly I-5 tunnel crash. Ten people injured in the crash were taken to area hospitals, another 10 escaped the flames uninjured, three others, including a 6 year old were killed in the crash. That totals 23 people, but the CHP says 31 vehicles were involved in the crash which leaves at least 9 drivers unaccounted for at this time. Warren Stanley of the California Highway Patrol, "We have to identify all the vehicles and determine who they belong to and based on registration we...

Authorities say they may have trouble identifying the body found on Highway 880 before dawn Thursday because it was repeatedly struck by passing cars for about an hour during the morning commute. The first call to the California Highway Patrol that something was amiss came before 6 a.m. The caller reported a dead dog. Officers arrived at southbound I-880 in Hayward nearly an hour later and made the gruesome discovery. On the ground was a human ear. The CHP immediately called for the freeway to be closed. It was 6:50 a.m., less than a half hour before sunrise. The remains...

Senator facing misdemeanor count in wild state vehicle ride. State Sen. Carole Migden will be charged with one misdemeanor count stemming from a wild ride in her state vehicle this spring that ended with a wreck on Highway 12 outside of Fairfield.Migden, D-San Francisco, will be charged Friday, L. Kathryn Coffer, chief deputy district attorney of Solano County, said Wednesday. Coffer would not specify what charge Migden would face.But she said the state senator will not be arrested or booked into jail, and will allowed to appear with her attorneys in court, as is customary in misdemeanor cases. Representatives of...

VICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) An Adelanto man will be sentenced to 10 years in state prison for killing a California Highway Patrol officer in a drunken freeway crash. Domingo Esqueda, 21, pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter and agreed to receive the maximum sentence under an agreement reached Wednesday. He will be sentenced next month. Prosecutors dropped a charge of driving under the influence causing bodily injury. CHP Officer Gregory Bailey, 36, was killed on Feb. 26, 2006, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. The father of four had pulled over a pickup truck and was talking to the driver...

Lefties launch 'Move over' campaign By: Dave Downey - Commentary Sunday, June 17, 2007 Look out, all you left-lane campers. Soon, you could be approached from behind by an impatient commuter with the words "move over" and a giant arrow pointed in the direction of the No. 2 lane pasted across his or her windshield. Those drivers who routinely get irritated when you create those mile-long backups now have a polite way of communicating with you. For $29, they can buy their very own "move over" windshield decals through the Web site leftlanedrivers.org. The site was set up earlier this...

A major new scandal and another potential one have emerged in recent days at the California Highway Patrol. After past CHP black eyes involving pension spiking with dubious injury claims by the majority of retiring top managers, a disastrous no-bid pistol-buying contract, bid-rigging and a stunning number of drunken-driving incidents involving top officials, it often seems that with the CHP, what can go wrong will go wrong. In the Inland Empire, assistant Inland division chiefs Mike Williams and Mike Maples abruptly left the CHP's employ last week amid sordid allegations. In Southern California, there are allegations that division Chief Gary...

IRRESPONSIBILITY It's very unfortunate for gun owners that the Roanoke Times (RT) has acted so irresponsibly with respect to the CHP holder list. The RT's reckless actions have endangered lives, as there are people on that CHP list who are under threat from violent ex-spouses or from criminals they have helped put in jail. I have been returning calls from concerned gun owners and the stories are heartbreaking and intense. One woman's mother wakens at the slightest sound in the middle of the night and she calls the police and her daughter. She is living in constant fear that the...

The *****TREMENDOUS***** pressure that you guys just put on the Roanoke Times was of a magnitude that even I had never seen before. It was akin to watching a nuclear bomb go off. The Roanoke Times has taken the CHP database off their site, using as an excuse that some of the data perhaps shouldn't have been made public: how about the home address of the Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court for starters? The truth is that they owe gun owners a sincere and front page apology for having a massive lapse in judgement. It would also be...

The California Highway Patrol has a higher average suicide rate than other police agencies, a newspaper reported. Fifteen workers have taken their lives since September 2003, including 13 men and two women. The suicides ranged from the North Coast to the Inland Empire and included five in the Sacramento area, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee. Last month an officer was found dead in his Folsom home. Experts say police suicides often are related to job pressures and the availability of guns. "We ask our people to work very odd and unusual shifts," CHP Commissioner Mike Brown said....

Cars can kill or maim. Alert cautious drivers can make the difference between life and death. That's the message a safety training program of the California Highway Patrol hopes to drive home to teens and their parents. CHP Officer Ross said the next session of the Start Smart Program is set for mid-February at the Antelope Valley station in Lancaster... Teens comprise 10% of the U.S. population, yet they account for 14% of traffic fatalities nationwide, according to the most recent data available. A report by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said teens "learning the...

SACRAMENTO — The California Highway Patrol, partly responsible for enforcing state law on certifying the safety of cars that have been in accidents, failed for four years to turn in the proper paperwork when it sold its own wrecked cars and motorcycles. "They should be crimson red with that disclosure ... ," said former state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who wrote legislation to protect consumers from unsafe salvage cars. "They were part and parcel of the whole debate on this bill. Not to enforce the law is very negligent."

LOS ANGELES -- Most Golden State drivers go out of their way to avoid the California Highway Patrol, but Erik Estrada can't seem to stay away. Estrada, who experiences the reality of law enforcement in his new unscripted CBS series "Armed & Famous," told reporters on Thursday that he's looking forward to the upcoming feature film version of his seminal series "CHiPs." "I tell you what -- I think that Wilmer Valderrama's gonna do a fine job," Estrada says. "I think he'll do a fine job as Ponch. And the script, I've read the script and I'm not in the...

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association may be miles away from getting a new labor contract with the state, but its members appear to be in line for a pay raise sooner rather than later, thanks to the union's victory in a grievance it filed a year ago. In a decision dated Saturday, an arbitrator ruled that the CCPOA's 31,000 members are entitled to a pay raise based on compensation increases the state gave to the California Highway Patrol. The prison officers' pay is linked to the CHP's union contract, and the arbitrator ruled that health insurance and holiday leave-time...

The southbound truck route on the Golden State (5) Freeway was reopened after frozen pig carcasses were spilled across lanes Monday night. A big rig collided with a box truck in the truck route from the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway just north of the Foothill (210) Freeway Monday night, scattering frozen pigs over 80 feet of the freeway, authorities said. The collision, in which one truck clipped another, occurred at 7:36 p.m., said California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter. The collision was at the end of the truck route, and Caltrans brought in a dump truck and loader to...

OAKLAND – A California Highway Patrol officer struck by a car whose driver left the scene died yesterday morning. Officer Brent Clearman, 33, a decorated Marine sharpshooter and Iraq war veteran, was investigating an accident Saturday night on an Interstate 880 on-ramp when he was struck by a Buick LeSabre. The driver, who could face charges of felony hit-and-run, manslaughter or homicide, remained at large. Clearman served as a CHP firearms instructor and was described as a leader among his peers. He joined a force of 200 CHP officers in New Orleans last year to help with Hurricane Katrina disaster...

As the state's fiscal year came to a close, the California Highway Patrol sped up its use of budgeted overtime pay in May and June, with at least one CHP division urging its workers to rack up extra hours. The Valley Division's officers "did an excellent job of using up overtime, spending nearly $943,000 since May 14," according to a June 14 e-mail obtained by The Bee. "Now we are counting on non-uniformed employees to make a dent." The division's commander, Stan Pérez, "has granted approval for every non-uniformed employee under Valley Division to use as much overtime as they...

The California Highway Patrol is weaning itself off its fleet of now-discontinued Chevrolet Camaro pursuit cars, switching to new Porsche 987 Boxsters. As a spokesman for the CHP bizarrely put it, “The Camaros were at the end of their useful life, and were never able to be used fully given that CHP officers are prohibited from wearing mullets while on duty.” (Apparently, droll humor isn’t unlearned during baton-fighting exersizes.) An initial order for 200 Porsche Boxsters will be fulfilled by the end of 2005(6), with the majority of units being placed in service in high-enforcement areas, like Irwindale. (PS: Check...

I am writing to commend the work of the San Diego Police Department at the recent Immigrants Rights March. As a member of the organizing team's effort to keep the march orderly and peaceful, I was struck by the contrasts in style between the San Diego Police Department and the California Highway Patrol. As the march began, I looked over toward an off-ramp from the freeway near Balboa Park, and there stood the California Highway Patrol, seven to 10 strong. They were in riot gear. Their long, black sticks and helmets gleamed in the Palm Sunday sun. Ominously dangling from...

A driver who was allegedly drunk when he struck and killed a California Highway Patrol officer last weekend pleaded innocent to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, authorities said. Domingo Esqueda, 20, could face up to 16 years in prison if convicted of killing motorcycle officer John Bailey, 36, who was married and had four children. Esqueda was arraigned Tuesday in San Bernardino County Superior Court in Victorville. Authorities say Bailey was driving home to Adelanto Saturday night when he pulled over another motorist for investigation of drunk driving on Interstate 15 near Hesperia. Bailey was talking with the motorist on the...

10-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol, Iraqi war veteran, husband, father of four and resident of Adelanto, died late Saturday night in a fiery crash touched off by an alleged drunken driver. Motorcycle officer Gregory Bailey, 36, was pronounced dead at 11:46 p.m. after he was caught in a spiral of debris created by a suspected drunken driver who veered off the shoulder of Interstate 15 north of Oak Hill Road. Bailey was a sergeant first class in the Army National Guard. Just four months ago he had returned home from a 15-month tour of duty in Iraq. Bailey,...

A CHP Motor Officer, from the Rancho Cucamonga Area Office, was reportedly on an enforcement stop and was struck by a possible D.U.I. driver sometime during the later part of "B" watch last night. He was reportedly transported to a local hospital were he died a short time later. This officer is the 209th uniformed member of the CHP to die in the line-of-duty - and the 6th in the last 5 months (David Romero, Santa Fe Springs, 09/23-05 (run over by a DUI driver) - Andy Stevens, Woodland Area, 11-17-05 (shot on a traffic stop) - Erick Manny, Fort...

A California Highway Patrolman was shot and killed this morning on northbound Highway 99 near Modesto, according to CHP Sgt. Wayne Ziese.

Being reported on locally by KABC - nothing nationally.

The California Highway Patrol plans to fire two officers after an internal investigation found they used their service weapons to shoot alligators while working in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, the CHP said Friday. The CHP said the officers shot and killed at least one alligator and failed to report the firing of their weapons, as required by agency policy, said Fran Clader, a spokeswoman at CHP headquarters in Sacramento. The officers broke Louisiana law when they killed the animal, she said. “This is an embarrassment to our department and especially to all our personnel who went to Louisiana and served...