Free Republic

… California is gripped by historic parched conditions that have desiccated farmland, dried up reservoirs and forced rural communities to ration water. A welcome dousing late last month did little to break the arid spell. Even before this latest drought emergency, some agencies that historically draw their water from the overtapped Colorado River and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have taken steps to slash their dependence on water from outside sources and boost their own supplies. Past drought woes, particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, have forced some communities to rethink where their water comes from, and they’re increasingly...

The owner of a California store that sells gun parts to build rifles from scratch is refusing to turn over his customer list to federal officials. Dimitrios Karras, owner of Ares Armor in Oceanside, told Fox5SanDiego.com that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents are investigating his business because it sells AR-15 lower receivers, which contain the gun’s operating parts. The company sold thousands of 80 percent receivers in with colors showing where the customer can drill, making it easier and cheaper to build. The ATF said the sales are illegal and demanded the company turn over the products...

Things got wild this week at a California school board meeting where locals berated a superintendent who was found to be bringing home a yearly compensation package of $663,000. Centinela Valley high school district superintendent Jose Fernandez spoke at the start, declaring that the media had exaggerated his salary and benefits, and saying he would take a significant pay cut down to less than $300,000. […] A steady stream of local citizens, including high school students, got up to speak, excoriating Fernandez and the board members who approved his compensation in 2009. One man, Jay Gould, shouted that all Fernandez...

President Barack Obama is fulfilling a State of the Union pledge to preserve more federal lands by adding more California coastline to a national monument. Obama on Tuesday signed a proclamation permanently protecting some 1,665 acres in Northern California's Mendocino County, just north of Point Arena. …

The California Department of Motor Vehicles began Tuesday to puzzle through the complex question of how to regulate cars that rely on computers—not people—to drive them. Once the stuff of science fiction, “driverless cars” could be commercially available by decade’s end. Google already has sent its fleet of Priuses and Lexuses, fitted with an array of sensors, hundreds of thousands of miles in California, and major automakers are testing their own models. …

California’s greenhouse gas reduction law already has shaken up the state’s industrial sector, costing it more than $1.5 billion in pollution permit fees. It’s now poised to hit the pocketbooks of everyday Californians. Starting next year, the law will force fuel distributors into the same cap-and-trade marketplace as utilities and major manufacturers. The oil industry says it will lead to price increases of at least 12 cents a gallon immediately, while state regulators say any price spikes could vary widely, from barely noticeable to double-digits. …

Sarah Slocum loves her Google Glass. She wears the gadget on her face for more than 12 hours a day and enjoys showing others how to use it. With the wink of an eye, she can take a picture or use her voice to command it to record video. The device is, she says, “the future”. So it was with some shock that she discovered there are those who disagree. Rather forcibly, in fact. On a recent outing to a bar in San Francisco, the 34-year-old technology writer says she was attacked by people who told her “F--- Google!”, accused...

In a year when California Democrats are worried about motivating their voters, Gov. Jerry Brown heard another unwelcome message Saturday: Some Democratic activists are bristling over his administration’s policies on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. […] State Democratic conventions can be boisterous gatherings, but the protesters provided an unscripted distraction in what was otherwise expected to be a unified show of support for the 75-year-old governor, who appears headed for an unprecedented fourth term in the heavily Democratic state. Fracking “gets to the oil that is the dirtiest oil on the planet,” said delegate Ken Jones of Greenbrae in Marin County,...

Democrat Governor Jerry Brown opposed marijuana legalization during an interview on Meet the Press Sunday. By advertising and codifying the drug, Brown feared its acceptance and use could lead to a less alert and less competitive population. The problem with anything, a certain amount is okay. But there is a tendency to go to extremes. And all of a sudden, if there's advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world's pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day,...

February 27, 2014 Appeals Court Says School Had Right To Ban U.S. Flag T-Shirts A student wears one of the shirts disallowed on Cinco de Mayo at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif. CBS SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO - Officials at a Northern California high school acted appropriately when they ordered students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn the garments inside out during the Mexican heritage celebration Cinco de Mayo, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the officials' concerns of racial violence outweighed students' freedom of expression rights. Administrators feared...

California Gov. Jerry Brown says he will seek re-election. […] Polls show Republicans in the race so far remain unknown to many Californians. …

For decades, California's criminal justice policies ensured that murderers and others sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole, could expect to die in prison. And most of the time, they did. Since Gov. Jerry Brown assumed office in January 2011, a record number of inmates with life sentences are winning parole. Brown has allowed the release of nearly 1,400 lifers, while going along with the parole board about 82 percent of the time.

A referendum to overturn a California law that gives transgender students the right to use the public school restrooms and locker rooms of their choice will not appear on the November ballot. […] … They needed a little less than 505,000 (signatures) to force a public vote on the law and submitted more than 619,000, but county election officers found that fewer than 488,000 of the signatures were valid. …

A Republican seeking congressional office and touting a reform agenda has just made history by becoming the first politician on the campaign trail to bring his gay partner to the forefront, with an advertising film. “I don’t see it as such a big deal,” said openly gay Carl DeMaio, of his campaign ad for California office that shows him holding hands with his gay partner, in The Daily Mail. He downplayed the ad further, saying that it’s not really different from other politician hopefuls who show their “spouse, their children, their household pets” in their ads, the newspaper said. In...

The federal government has approved three new fracking jobs off the shores of California as state coastal regulators voiced concerns about potential environmental impacts. The work in the Santa Barbara Channel, site of a 1969 oil platform blowout, has not yet begun and it was not immediately clear when it would. The disclosure Wednesday came as the California Coastal Commission attempts to exercise greater oversight of the contested practice known as hydraulic fracturing, which involves pumping huge amounts of water, sand and chemicals deep into rock formations to free oil. The environmental impacts of fracking and other well stimulation techniques...

Women's rights activist Sandra Fluke appears to be moving forward with a run for Congress. Fluke has filed with the California state Democratic Party to seek its endorsement in the race for retiring Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-Calif.) seat, according to the state party Web site. A state party delegate confirmed to Post Politics that Fluke has filed and paid the fee to appear on the ballot this weekend. Fluke hasn't officially announced her campaign or filed with the Federal Election Commission, and she didn't immediately return a request for comment. But filing for the state party's endorsement means she's now...

As House Republicans prepare to wrestle with their differences on immigration at an annual retreat next week, one GOP lawmaker from the Central Valley is signaling there may be movement on an issue that has split the party. At the same time, a high-profile group of bipartisan leaders met in Silicon Valley Thursday to unveil a report showing immigrants are key to a robust U.S. economy. The report by the Bipartisan Policy Center was released by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, both Republicans, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development...

Gun makers’ objections to a California law that requires firearms to imprint a unique “microstamp” on bullet casings are “baloney” and “posturing,” said Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, who introduced the legislation while serving in the state Assembly. Feuer’s comments come as gun maker Smith & Wesson announced Thursday that it would stop selling newly designed semiautomatic pistols in California because it will not comply with the law, implemented in May 2013. The law requires some firearms to imprint a unique “microstamp” to help identify bullet casings. It is intended to help police investigators link shell casings found at...

A new gun law proponents say helps law enforcement has driven Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger out of California, and affirmed the suspicions of firearms rights advocates that the measure is really about making handguns obsolete. The two companies have announced they will stop selling their wares in the nation’s most populous state rather than try to comply with a law that requires some handguns to have technology that imprints a tiny stamp on the bullet so it can be traced back to the gun. The companies, and many gun enthusiasts, say so-called “microstamping” technology is unworkable in its...

More young men in California rise in pitch at the end of their sentences when talking, new research shows. This process is known as "uptalk" or "valleygirl speak" and has in the past been associated with young females, typically from California or Australia. But now a team says that this way of speaking is becoming more frequent among men.