Free Republic

In Tuesday’s elections, voters rejected recreational marijuana, transgender rights, and illegal-immigrant sanctuaries; they reacted equivocally to gun-control arguments; and they handed a surprise victory to a Republican gubernatorial candidate who emphasized his opposition to gay marriage. Democrats have become increasingly assertive in taking liberal social positions in recent years, believing that they enjoy majority support and even seeking to turn abortion and gay rights into electoral wedges against Republicans. But Tuesday’s results—and the broader trend of recent elections that have been generally disastrous for Democrats not named Barack Obama—call that view into question. Indeed, they suggest that the left has...

The ash of the Rocky fire was still hot when Gov. Jerry Brown strode to a bank of television cameras beside a blackened ridge and, flanked by firefighters, delivered a battle cry against climate change. The wilderness fire was "a real wake-up call" to reduce the carbon pollution "that is in many respects driving all of this," he said. "The fires are changing.... The way this fire performed, it's not the way it usually has been. Going in lots of directions, moving fast, even without hot winds." "It's a new normal," he said in August. "California is burning." Brown had...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid fears of an atomic arms race in the Middle East, a senior United Arab Emirates official has told a top U.S. lawmaker that it too might seek the right to enrich uranium that Iran has asserted under the recently signed nuclear deal. The landmark Iran accord to curb its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic sanctions relief allows Tehran to enrich uranium. In barely noticed testimony last month, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the UAE’s ambassador in Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, had informed him in a telephone call that the...

LOS ANGELES — Four California schools will be forced to change mascots after Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation barring public schools from using the "Redskins" name for sports teams. It was one of three sports-related bills Brown approved Sunday. He also signed a measure that bans using or possessing smokeless tobacco on the playing field at professional baseball parks and another that recognizes competitive cheerleading as a high school sport. The mascot legislation will prevent public schools from using a term that American Indians regard as offensive. It goes into effect in 2017. Only four schools still use the name....

Trump says people will turn off tomorrow's Democratic primary debate – because he's not in it! 'I think people are going to turn it on for a couple of minutes and then fall asleep,' Trump told a Fox News audience Claimed 'a person at CNN' said that 'we have to put Donald Trump in this debate. We're going to die with it' First two GOP debates drew 24 million and 23 million viewers, largely on the strength of Trump's participation Hammered Obama for '60 Minutes' appearance: 'I watched his performance last night and I thought it was terrible' Tuesday's first...

California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill on Friday mandating that all licensed pregnancy centers in the state “disseminate to clients” a message promoting public programs with “free or low-cost access” to abortion and contraceptive services. The new law has no exemption for pro-life, faith-based crisis pregnancy centers. […] According to the legislation, pregnancy centers that fail to disseminate this message “are liable for a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500) for a first offense and one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each subsequent offense.” …

Targeting California’s recent record-low voter turnout, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a measure that would eventually allow Californians to be automatically registered to vote when they go the the DMV to obtain or renew a driver’s license.The measure, which would also allow Californians to opt out of registering, was introduced in response to the dismal 42% turnout in the November 2014 statewide election.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed an ambitious bill on Wednesday to combat climate change by increasing the state’s renewable electricity use to 50 percent and doubling energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2030. Brown approved the measure after losing a political battle against oil interests as he also tried to cut petroleum use by half in the state. […] Many moderate Democrats were concerned that the petroleum mandate would hurt California’s working-class residents. The lawmakers sought greater oversight of state regulators, but Brown refused to give up what he viewed as executive authority. …

Asians will beat Hispanics to become America’s largest immigrant population by 2055, according to a Pew Research Center report released Monday. The study estimated the United States' immigrant population by 2065 and noted that the turning point comes in 2055 when 36 percent of the migrants will be from Asia. Migrants are estimated to account for 88 percent of the increase in the American population between 2015 and 2065, the report stated. Currently, 14 percent of the population comprises immigrants compared to 5 percent in 1965. "Without the immigrants, the U.S. population would start decreasing," said Pew demographer Jeff Passel,...

California governor Jerry Brown gave signs in a Wednesday interview on CNN that he may be considering running for president. Brown, who has run for president three before, spoke with Wolf Blitzer about the current Democratic field. The Democrat said he has not yet endorsed a candidate, calling frontrunner Hillary Clinton "formidable" and refused to give advice about Vice President Joe Biden, who is reportedly mulling a run.

Police are investigating a street race between two high-performance exotic cars in Beverly Hills that garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube — and the man claiming to own the cars says he is protected by diplomatic immunity. The video shows a white Porsche 911 and a yellow Ferrari LaFerrari, a hybrid supercar with a combined horsepower rating of around 950, speeding through a residential tract at high speeds on Saturday evening in the 700 block of North Walden Drive. It includes an exchange between a journalist who captured the video and a man outside the house where the...

A YouTube video that went viral — showing a Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 911 GT3 tearing through residential streets of Beverly Hills; flying though stop signs while pedestrians waited to cross, narrowly avoiding other motorists — has caused outrage, with neighbors pleading with police to take action before someone gets hurt. According to NBC4, the owner of said vehicles is claiming “diplomatic immunity,” telling a video journalist who asked for comment, “I could have you killed and get away with it.” The name of the car’s owner has not been released, but he is rumored to be part of the...

Dr. Ben Carson has spent most of his professional career as a man of science, which is why the Republican presidential candidate’s recent remarks on climate change have been puzzling to many. In a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the neurosurgeon claimed “I know there are a lot of people who say ‘overwhelming science,’ but then when you ask them to show the overwhelming science, they never can show it. There is no overwhelming science that the things that are going on are man-caused and not naturally caused.” The comment soon drew a rebuke from Democratic California Gov....

The environmental lobby has tried to turn climate change into a social justice issue even though its anticarbon policies disproportionately harm the poor. Honest Democrats are starting to admit this, as we saw in this week’s stunning revolt in the California legislature. Jerry Brown doesn’t have much to show for his second turn in Sacramento, and of late he has focused his legacy attention on reducing carbon emissions. The Governor hailed California as a model of green virtue at the Vatican this summer and had hoped to flaunt sweeping new anticarbon regulations at the U.N’s climate-change summit in Paris this...

As is now well-known, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses after the Supreme Court ruled in June that states are required to recognize same-sex nuptials. But the fury aimed at Davis has been disproportionate to the actual facts of the situation, and shows galling – and revealing – inconsistency on the part of her critics. In particular, where was the outcry when Attorney General and later Governor of California, Jerry Brown, refused to mount a defense of gay-marriage ban Proposition 8? Representing the state in court was at the center of his job. Yet he put his personal...

Jesus Cecena killed SDPD Officer Archie Buggs in 1978The man who shot and killed San Diego Police Officer Archie Buggs "execution-style" has been granted parole, according to the San Diego District Attorney's office. On Friday, the state Parole Board decided Jesus Cecena should be released after 36 years behind bar for Buggs' slaying. In 1978, Cecena was pulled over by Buggs, 30, for a traffic stop in Skyline. Cecena pulled out a gun and shot the 4-year SDPD veteran to death. Cecena was originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1979, but in 1982,...

In reverse order of probability: (5) oil severance tax, (4) Sales tax on services, (3) split property tax rolls (separate rates for homeowners than businesses), (2) cigarette tax, (1) Extension of Prop30.

The summer has not been kind to Hillary Clinton. The drip-drip-drip of revelations about her possible misuse and mishandling of classified information threatens to become a deluge in the fall. They have taken a serious toll on her reputation — and even more notably, her treatment by liberal media figures who surely would rather she be elected even if the Risen Christ were to be the Republican nominee. Democrats are worried — so worried five donors who raised millions for President Obama as well as Obama’s chief Florida strategist have both sworn off Hillary and joined an effort to draft...

  The Democratic Party is bleeding California and they're rapidly running out of other people's money. So that means more taxes. More and more taxes. Governor Brown, for his part, has left the door open. His approach has changed since his previous term, when he promised to give voters the final say on tax proposals even though their assent is not required by law. "Everything is on the table," said Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Brown. Everything except cutting taxes and spending obviously. The Capitol's ruling Democrats want to hit up residents and businesses for billions of dollars as...

In an unprecedented move to impose political correctness further into state law, California Governor Jerry Brown removed the term “alien” from the California Labor Code, arguing that the term was offensive and archaic. The Los Angeles Times reported: Continuing his push for change on immigration issues, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a trio of measures Monday, including one removing the word "alien" from California’s labor code because it is seen as a derogatory description of those not born in the U.S. or who are not fully naturalized citizens. Jose Vargas, himself an illegal alien who was duped into considering himself a...