Free Republic

Sharleen Stafford didn't hear about the Islamic Society of Folsom's new 31,000-square-foot mosque until more than a month after the city approved it - too late for an appeal. For the first time in her life, Stafford said, she wrote a furious letter to the mayor. "What is it going to do to our little community?" Stafford said last week. Stafford, 50, said that she is concerned the mosque will snarl traffic in her Sibley Street neighborhood, and that she's angry at the city for not doing more to publicize its public hearings during the planning process. But she also...

FBI probe uncovers a list of potential Southland targets and suggests a connection between prison groups and Islamic extremists. A Pakistani national has been arrested by authorities in connection with a far-reaching investigation of a possible terrorist plot targeting any of nearly two dozen locations in Southern California, including National Guard recruitment centers, law enforcement sources said Monday. The suspect, identified as Hamad Riaz Samana, 21, of Los Angeles, was quietly taken into custody last week by counter-terrorism officials as part of a probe that began with the arrest of two men in Torrance suspected of robbing gas stations. The...

Possible Terror Plot Prompts Call For Better Tracking Of Inmates Call Comes In Wake Of Possible Terrorist Plot LOS ANGELES -- In the wake of a growing probe into a possible Southern California terrorist plot involving prison-based groups, a congresswoman said Tuesday that officials need to do a better job tracking inmate activities. "We need to understand what's going on in the prisons better," Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters. "If people are being radicalized in prisons and they are radicalized in ways that are going to cause harm to as many...

<p>WASHINGTON - The Bush administration raised the ire of the Sacramento-area congressional delegation this week when it said it is rethinking how to finance a much-needed bridge over the American River at the base of Folsom Dam, an issue the lawmakers thought they settled last year.</p>

<p>The recent storm may have been be the kind that turns the public's attentions to the rivers.</p> <p>The Sacramento is already up, and federal officials have been releasing extra water down the American to maintain some empty capacity up at Folsom Reservoir. A single big storm is typically just a local nuisance, causing street and creek flooding. It takes several whoppers to soak a massive river watershed, particularly one as big as the Sacramento River's, to worrisome levels.</p>

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, hit with a barrage of negative reports and criticism of the state prison system, Friday asked the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento to investigate a 2002 riot at Folsom State Prison.</p> <p>He also reversed course on his earlier move to limit the independence of the Office of Inspector General, which investigates prison corruption and other problems.</p>

<p>The top brass at Folsom State Prison -- from the interim warden down to its captains -- will be re-assigned during a broadened investigation of the facility's management, the director of the California Department of Corrections said Tuesday at a legislative hearing.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- The battle to authorize a 7-foot raising of Folsom Dam, regarded by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency as the last major piece of flood-control work needed to fully protect the city from the American River, appeared to have ended Thursday without the project getting out of the starting gates.</p>