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A criminal justice professor who has worked at various California colleges pleaded guilty Thursday after being charged with setting a series of blazes near the massive Dixie Fire in 2021. Gary Stephen Maynard, 49, pleaded guilty to three counts of arson to federal property in Sacramento federal court before U.S. District Judge Daniel J. Calabretta. Maynard, who is being held without bail in the Yuba County Jail, was arrested in August 2021 after a three-week investigation that included the use of a tracking device hidden on his vehicle by authorities who followed his movements throughout Northern California for hundreds of...

Andrew Napolitano : "Jack Teixeria is an American hero for telling the American public that their government has been lying to them and people are dying as a result of the lying. And, that American dollars are being wasted as a result of the lies."

The ship was scheduled to arrive in Miami on Saturday. But a federal judge in Miami issued an arrest warrant for the ship Thursday, a maritime practice where a U.S. Marshal goes aboard a vessel and takes charge of it once it enters U.S. waters. The lawsuit was filed in a Miami federal court by Peninsula Petroleum Far East against the ship under a maritime procedure that allows actions against vessels for unpaid debts. The complaint says Crystal Symphony was chartered or managed by Crystal Cruises and Star Cruises, which are both sued for breach of contract for allegedly owing...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A cruise line is in a state of chaos after unpaid fuel bills caused a Miami judge to issue an arrest warrant for the Crystal Symphony cruise ship. It’s owned by the ultra-luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises. The warrant gives authorities the ability to seize the ship if it enters U.S. waters. As a result, the ship is currently docked in Bimini instead of returning to South Florida. Passengers on the ship have told multiple media outlets that they’ll be shuttled via ferry back to Port Everglades sometime on Sunday. It comes just days after Crystal...

The nation’s most restrictive abortion law remains in place for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday sided with the state of Texas. In a brief 2-1 order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit refused the Justice Department’s request to reinstate an earlier court ruling that had blocked enforcement of the Texas law, which bars the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy and makes no exceptions for rape or incest. The brief order, which is expected to be appealed the Supreme Court, was backed by Judges James C. Ho, a nominee of Donald Trump,...

A federal appeals court reinstated Texas’ controversial "fetal heart beat" abortion ban on Friday night, days after a lower court suspended the Republican-backed law. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay, effectively pausing U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order against the abortion ban earlier this week. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, had appealed the lower court’s decision. "Great news tonight, The Fifth Circuit has granted an administrative stay on #SB8. I will fight federal overreach at every turn," Paxton wrote on Twitter after the decision. The appeals court...

Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec ·33m BREAKING: Federal circuit court reinstates Texas heartbeat abortion ban 8:55PM • Oct 8, 2021

(CNN)A federal judge in Texas issued an order Wednesday blocking the state's six-week abortion ban. US District Judge Robert Pitman's order is a victory for abortion rights proponents, who had seen other attempts to block the law stymied by the ban's novel design. It may, however, be only a temporary victory. At a hearing Friday, a lawyer from the Texas attorney general's office made clear that the state would appeal such an order to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals if it were granted. That appeals court -- perhaps the most conservative in the country -- previously rejected a...

An openly gay Texas judge says she refuses to conduct marriage ceremonies for straight couples. No one tried to put her in jail. No federal judges tried to condemn her. The Dallas County Judge Tonya Parker explained her decision at a monthly meeting for the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas. “I do not perform them because it is not an equal application of the law. Period,” she said, according to the Dallas Voice, a newspaper for the gay community. Parker is believed to be the first openly “gay” African-American elected official in the history of the state, according to NY Daily...

Correction: This post initially stated that Judge Tonya Parker was “no longer” marrying straight couples. Judge Parker has never performed such marriage ceremonies. This version has been corrected. Catholic priests have refused to marry same-sex couples for years. Judge Tonya Parker (Dallas County) Now, a Texas judge has an answer to that, saying she will not marry straight couples until gay marriage is legal in the state. Judge Tonya Parker of Dallas County told the Dallas Voice that she respectfully tells couples why she can’t conduct their marriage ceremony: “I'm sorry. I don't perform marriage ceremonies because we are in...

Well, that was quick. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday evening ordered that same-sex marriages begin again in California, and after less than a day of weddings, Prop 8 advocates filed an emergency motion to halt the unions, claiming that they still had time to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to dismiss their challenge to a 2010 ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. Kennedy, who is responsible for motions dealing with the Ninth Circuit, was swift in his response. The Associated Press reports that he "turned away the request on Sunday with no additional...

A California court has refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal a ruling that overturned the state’s gay marriage ban, according to an Associated Press report. The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento on Wednesday denied a conservative legal group’s request to force the officials to defend Proposition 8 in court. The court did not give a reason why it turned down the request by the Pacific Justice Institute.

Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted the stay on his Proposition 8 ruling, which deemed a ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional. Walker's ruling last week was ground breaking, but it still kept the ban on gay marriage intact, until Prop 8 was ruled on by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Walker has now removed the stay, and will allow for gays and lesbians to marry in the state of California. Walker said that he would lift the stay on August 18th. The LA Times reports that the temporary hold on gay marriage is to allow supporters of Prop 8...

SACRAMENTO - Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted a stay in order regarding last week's verdict that stated Proposition 8, California's law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, is unconstitutional.

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban is set to rule Thursday on whether gay marriages should resume immediately in the state or await an appeals court's input. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker announced late Wednesday that he would issue his decision by noon on requests to impose a stay that would keep Proposition 8 in effect while its sponsors appeal his decision.

After Vaughn Walker was nominated for the federal court in 1987, gay activists took issue with his role as a lawyer for the U.S. Olympic Committee who successfully sued to bar a San Francisco sports festival from calling itself the "Gay Olympics." After Walker issued a landmark ruling Wednesday that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, his detractors took issue with the fact that the judge is gay. As the topic stoked Internet and talk radio chatter, some blasts aimed at the presiding judge of the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco were direct and...

KGUN 9 POLL: Do you agree with the decision made by Judge Vaughn Walker in overturning California's gay marriage ban? Yes No Undecided

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Sandoval, who was one of the city's first openly gay prosecutors, has died. He was 56. Sandoval died Feb. 28 of a heart attack while being treated for leukemia at City of Hope Hospital, said Bill Martin, his partner of 23 years. Sandoval joined the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office in 1978 as part of an effort by then-City Attorney Burt Pines to recruit more gays and minorities. He was elected a commissioner of the Municipal Court in 1984 and became a Superior Court commissioner in 1997. Then-Gov. Gray Davis appointed him to...