Free Republic

Does House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy think it’s funny to have to delay border wall funding? Apparently so. In a Tuesday appearance on Fox Business News with Maria Bartiromo, McCarthy giggled when revealing funding for President Trump’s top campaign promise was being pushed back months.

California would become the first state in the nation to legalize psychedelic mushrooms if a long-shot ballot initiative passes muster with voters next year. The measure is backed by a legalization activist who says he kicked his heroin habit with the help of a mushroom trip in Death Valley. It would exempt Californians over the age of 21 from a state law that criminalizes mushrooms containing psilocybin, the compound that gives some mushrooms psychedelic properties. […] … California is one of eight states where voters have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and Saunders said legalizing psilocybin-bearing mushrooms is the logical...

An independent K-12 Catholic school in the San Francisco Bay Area has removed religious statues from its campus in order to appeal to those of other faiths. Parents and alumni are concerned about San Domenico School's decision to remove a number of statutes and religious icons, especially those of Jesus and Mary, the Marin Independent Journal reported. "Articulating an inclusive foundation appears to mean letting go of San Domenico's 167-year tradition as a Dominican Catholic school and being both afraid and ashamed to celebrate one's heritage and beliefs," wrote parent Shannon Fitzpatrick in an email to school decision makers. "In our time...

Many 18-year-olds are registered for their first semester of college classes, but very few of them are registered to vote. As adults in a democracy, young people have this great privilege and responsibility, yet very few take advantage of the opportunity. Their disregard is not the result of indifference or immaturity, but of an overwhelming amount of new responsibilities. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10 (ACA 10) is a bipartisan constitutional amendment that would lower the voting age from 18 to 17 in California. This may seem like a minor shift, but it would be pivotal in youth turnout for elections. At...

The family of an 8-year-old transgender girl is suing the child’s private school for “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” among other charges, after the school allegedly refused to use her female name and pronoun and also barred her from using the girls’ restroom and from wearing a girls’ school uniform.

Imam Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis in California delivered a sermon on Friday in which he quoted an antisemitic hadith and prayed for Allah to “annihilate” Jews “down to the very last one.” The video of Shahin’s sermon was posted to the Islamic Center of Davis’s YouTube channel on Friday (Update: the video has since been removed), and translated and excerpted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), though portions of the sermon were delivered in English. In his sermon at the Islamic Center, Shahin quoted, in Arabic, one of the most notorious antisemitic hadiths (teachings...

Demonstrators are expected to gather Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles to urge Congress to impeach President Trump. More than 12,000 people have said on Facebook they are attending the event in Los Angeles. It is one of dozens of marches planned across the country, with demonstrations in California scheduled in Fresno, Orange County, Ventura, San Diego and San Francisco.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a voter-approved California law that would have forced gun owners to get rid of high-capacity ammunition magazines by this Saturday. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who is based in San Diego, issued a preliminary injuction Thursday that found the law was likely unconstitutional because it prevented people from using firearms that employed “whatever common magazine size he or she judges best suits the situation.” The law would have barred people from possessing magazines containing more than 10 bullets. “The State of California’s desire to criminalize simple possession of a firearm magazine able to hold...

California legislators on Thursday tightened rules requiring Volkswagen to spend a portion of clean car infrastructure funds in disadvantaged communities, passing a bill as part of a budget package agreed with Governor Jerry Brown. The state's regulator, the Air Resources Board, last month told VW to "make every attempt" to invest 35 percent of the first 30-month investment cycle in disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by air pollution.

California lawmakers voted to pass a bill Wednesday that will add a third gender option — non-binary — on state identification cards. Senate Bill 179, introduced by Sen. Tori Atkins, will now move onto Assembly after the 26-12 Senate vote. If it passes Assembly, California Gov. Jerry Brown can sign the measure into law, making California the first state to add a third gender option on IDs. In addition to changing the gender selection on driver’s licenses, the bill would also allow three options for birth certificates, identity cards and gender change court orders. The bill, if signed into law,...

California’s ban on displaying the Confederate flag doesn’t apply to individuals even if they are on government property, state officials said this week in settling a free speech lawsuit. Fresno artist Timothy Desmond sued after his painting depicting the flag was barred from the 2015 Big Fresno Fair. His painting shows Confederate soldiers fighting in the 1864 siege of Atlanta, led by a soldier carrying the battle flag. California’s 2014 law says the state cannot display or sell the Battle Flag of the Confederacy or any similar image unless it appears in a way that serves an educational or historical...

California State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Léon (D-Los Angeles) said last Tuesday that “half his family” was in the country illegally, using false documents, and eligible for deportation under President Trump’s new executive order against “sanctuary” jurisdictions. De Léon, who introduced the bill, made his remarks at a hearing in Sacramento on SB54, the bill to make California a “Sanctuary State.” He said (at 1:27:34 in the video that follows): … I can tell you half of my family would be eligible for deportation under [President Donald Trump’s] executive order, because if they got a false Social Security...

"Kevin de León says Trump law enforcement policy based on 'principles of white supremacy' Patrick McGreevy APRIL 21, 2017, 12:42 P.M.California officials reacted with defiance Friday to a threat by federal officials to withhold some $20 million in criminal justice grants from the state and its counties as part of the dispute over so-called sanctuary city policies. “It has become abundantly clear that Atty. Gen. [Jeff] Sessions and the Trump administration are basing their law enforcement policies on principles of white supremacy — not American values,” Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement. “Their constant and...

An American history professor at Fresno State University in California apologized Thursday for a tweet that said President Donald Trump “must hang” to save American democracy. The professor, Lars Maischak, said he has temporarily left Fresno while the university is on spring break, after receiving death threats and hundreds of hate emails since the tweet was highlighted by far-right websites such as Breitbart News. “I regret making these tweets,” Maischak said. “I wrote them to an audience of 28 followers on Twitter under the assumption they would be read by people I know.” Maischak said he sent the tweet in...

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to the state’s drought emergency on Friday after powerful storms quenched the state following four extraordinarily dry years that drained reservoirs and wells, devastated forests and farmland and forced millions of people to slash their water use. The turnaround has been stark. After years of brown fields and cracked earth, monster storms blanketed California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains this winter with deep snow that flows into the network of rivers and streams that supply much of the state’s water. Front lawns revived to bright green in neighborhoods throughout the state and rivers that had...

California’s attorney general announced Friday he is seeking documents that could show conflicts of interest and ethics violations by the man President Donald Trump appointed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the latest episode in the ongoing feud between Golden State officials and the Trump administration. Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the agency for documents related to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Becerra’s office said Pruitt has conflicts of interest in his new role overseeing federal environmental regulations because he sued the agency multiple times while he was attorney general of Oklahoma. Pruitt sued...

<p>A throng of angry protesters converged at Claremont McKenna College on Thursday and effectively shut down a pro-police speech as they surrounded the building, forcing the speaker to give the talk via livestream to a near-empty room as they yelled “F*ck the police” and “Black Lives Matter” and banged on windows.</p>

Rule change prompted by complaints of murderer serving a life sentence Men's prisons in California may soon provide access to bras, mascara, and lip-gloss for inmates who identify as transgender. Women's prisons would also be equipped with boxers and aftershave, according to rules introduced by the Department of Corrections. The rules stem from a lawsuit brought against the state by a murderer serving a life sentence, who was the first inmate in the state to receive taxpayer-funded sex change surgery. "Transgender female inmates housed in men's facilities could have feminine undergarments, lip gloss and mascara, for instance, while transgender male...

Three California Democrats have a warning for contractors who sign up for President Donald Trump’s border-wall construction project between the U.S. and Mexico: Build it, and we will divest from your company. In the latest act of resistance against the Trump administration, the state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would force the state to drop its pension investments in any companies involved in the project. “This is a wall of shame and we don’t want any part of it,” Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said in a statement. “Immigrant stories are the history of America and this is a...

Adding to a long list of mayors supporting Michael Bloomberg’s citizen disarmament agenda who have been arrested for criminal activities, former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva was taken into custody at San Francisco International Airport Sunday, KCRA News and other outlets are reporting. “According to jail records, Silva was booked into San Joaquin County Jail on felony charges of money laundering, embezzlement by a public officer, grand theft and embezzlement worth more than $400,” the report notes. “His bail is set at $1 million.” [Log in to see inmate information.] The charges add to a list of legal issues Silva’s conduct...