Free Republic

SACRAMENTO - Even as big money begins to roll into a campaign fund supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot measures, a superior court judge delayed a ruling Friday in a lawsuit that could limit the governor's role in raising money for the special election later this year. Attorneys representing Schwarzenegger and a political committee organized by Schwarzenegger allies had asked Judge Michael Virga to exclude a consumer group from helping to defend a state rule that caps donations to candidate-controlled committees. The California Public Interest Research Group, CalPIRG, wants court approval to join a lawsuit brought by the governor and the...

JERUSALEM - With a U.S.-backed peace plan hanging in the balance, Israel decided Wednesday to hold off on a major military strike in response to a Hamas bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed at least 20 people, including as many as six children, a security official said. The attack was one of the deadliest in three years of fighting, and about 40 of the more than 100 wounded were children. Tuesday's blast ripped through a bus packed with ultra-Orthodox Jewish families returning from the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) and top...