Free Republic

Among the country's better pundits, it's an annual tradition to break out the figurative cat-'o'-nine-tails and indulge in a little ceremonial self-flagellation. For readers, there's sometimes little more satisfying than watching prognosticators and opinion-mongers publicly confess their sins of analysis. So this year, some of the braver ones have copped to underestimating Donald Trump - not just as a media magnet, but as a bona fide political force in the race for the Republican nomination. You won't be getting that from me. And Ted Cruz is the reason why. We'll get to why in a moment. First, as a separate...

The Chargers made it official Monday night. The AFC West franchise wants out of San Diego, its home since 1961. The Chargers, nearly seven months after breaking off negotiations with San Diego city and county officials, formally submitted relocation documents with the NFL on Monday, the first day of the league’s window for franchises to apply to move. The Rams and Raiders also applied for relocation Monday night, setting up a three-way race for no more than two spots in the Los Angeles-Orange County market that will likely be decided by a vote of the league’s owners next week in...

Xochitl Collazo won't be spending 2016 in Orange County, her home of three decades. Instead, the longtime Santa Ana resident plans to move in with a friend in central Arizona, driven away by unaffordable rents and high health insurance premiums. "It just doesn't make sense for me to be struggling like that anymore," said Collazo, 36, who could barely afford her $1,000-a-month rent from what she earned managing a Mission Viejo doctor's office. "What am I supposed to do? Have no savings? Have nothing? It literally makes no sense." If forecasters are right, there's little relief in sight for Orange...

Throughout much of the 20th century, Orange County attracted white middle-class and upper-middle-class residents who were either fleeing an increasingly diverse and liberal Los Angeles or were relocating from the Midwest and the South and bringing conservative regional values with them.... Also helping focus the political energy was The Orange County Register's ardent libertarian slant, ... Republicans' share of county voter registration peaked in 1990, when they outpaced Democrats by 22 percentage points. The GOP's edge is now 8 points and shrinking, and its share of registered county voters fell below 40 percent for the first time in December. Non-Latino...

LOS ANGELES - An Egyptian immigrant's deadly attack on an Israeli airline ticket counter last year has been ruled a terrorist attack related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an FBI spokesman said Friday. "Given his political views and the fact that El Al is an Israeli government-owned airline, that met the criteria for a terrorist attack," said Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles field office of the FBI. Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport's El Al ticket counter on July 4 last year, killing two people before being shot dead by an airline security...

In the latest milestone of Orange County's shifting political milieu, Republicans' share of voter registration has fallen below 40 percent for the first time in the county's history. That's 8 percentage points more than the Democrats' share but marks an ongoing slide from Republicans' 22-point dominance in 1990, the GOP's zenith in the county, according to county elections statistics updated this week. The growth in voters with no party preference -- at 24 percent, up from 10 percent in 1990 -- is a key part of the shift.

A man fired a gun during a slow-speed pursuit through the streets of north Orange County. The driver of the car was on smoking and blown out tires doing U-turns on Euclid Street.

... At least 108 languages are spoken in Orange County, and 185 languages are spoken in the Los Angeles/Orange County region. The New York area had the largest number of languages spoken, 192, but its percentage of non-English users (38 percent), was far smaller than in Los Angeles (54 percent), according to the study, which covered 2009-13 ...

Freedom Communications Inc., owner of the Orange County Register, filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, and its chief executive said he plans to lead a bid to acquire the troubled newspaper company. The Santa Ana-based newspaper firm, which also owns the Riverside Press-Enterprise, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central District of California. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-orange-county-register-bankruptcy-20151101-story.html

The San Diego Chargers will file for relocation to Los Angeles when the NFL opens the application window in January, Mark Fabiani told The Mighty 1090 AM radio show. “At this point yes, because there's no sign that the other team or teams are not going to file,” said Fabiani, who serves as the Chargers’ special counsel. “Everyone assumes all three teams will file, and in that case we can't afford to lose our market in Los Angeles and Orange County.”

NEWPORT BEACH - The sighting of an 8-foot hammerhead shark off the Newport Beach pier led lifeguards to close nearby beaches Monday. Lifeguards were alerted to the shark around 11 a.m. near the end of the pier, according to Jennifer Manzella of the Newport Beach Police Department.

His departure from public life was nasty, dramatic and well-documented. But former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona got out of prison this week in a far different manner: Quietly, and somewhat mysteriously. Carona, 59, has left a federal prison medical center in Lexington, Ky., said Kenny Coleman, the center’s camp administrator, on Thursday. Carona served 52 months of a 66-month sentence for felony witness tampering.

SANTA ANA – Turns out, selling pot in Santa Ana isn’t going to be easy. Seven months after the city became the first Orange County municipality to hold a lottery to let small businesses sell medical marijuana, only two, South Coast Safe Access and OC3, are open. Reasons for the slow start are varied. Some landlords and neighboring businesses aren’t thrilled about the prospect of working with or near pot merchants. And those would-be pot sellers who have won over their neighbors say the city and local police – in spite of overwhelming approval from Santa Ana voters – aren’t...

The left is going bananas over Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis and her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gays. They applaud the heavy hand of the government and rejoice that a judge has taken the extraordinary step of having her placed behind bars, guarded by U.S. Marshals. The double standard revealed her is astonishing. Now keep in mind that gay marriage is in no way every mentioned in the constitution. Nor is marriage generally. But the 2nd Amendment makes it abundantly clear that every American has a right to keep and bear arms. There is no question on this. None...

As hundreds of thousands of Syrians make their way across Europe, some by foot, local agencies are preparing for some of those people to land here. “We are expecting a wave of Syrian refugees in Orange County,” said Nahla Kayali, founder and executive director of Access California Services, an Anaheim nonprofit that provides services largely to Muslim refugees and immigrants. “We don’t know when they will come. But we are getting ready to receive them.” In the past month, Access California Services has helped at least 30 Syrian refugee families moving to Orange County, providing everything from financial aid and...

Joe Mantegna, star of the CBS television show Criminal Minds, plans to auction off two of his Tavor rifles to fundraise for "Friends of the IDF", a New York City-based organization that lends material support to the Israeli military. According to a press release from IWI-US, Mantegna will conduct an auction for two Tavor rifles produced by IWI. Gains from the auction will go to "Friends of the IDF". Interestingly, "Israel Weapon Industries-US" (IWI-US) is co-sponsoring the Sunday event, along-with "Bullets & Bagels", a Jewish gun club in Orange County, California. Event attendees “will get to shoot the TAVOR at...

Officers responded to the zoo — which is located at 1801 E. Chestnut Ave. — at around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and discovered 37-year-old John William Rodenborn covered in mud, according to Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department. He told them he was the fictional character Tarzan. Before authorities arrived, a shirtless Rodenborn had allegedly attempted to get into the zoo’s bird exhibit before he tried to swing into the monkey exhibit, Bertagna said. Kent Yamaguchi, the director of the zoo, told KTLA that the man was initially walking through the bird aviary, but then walked over to...

ANAHEIM – Two men were shot late Sunday night, and one died Monday morning, in an unincorporated area west of the city, officials said. Dave Bruce Douglas, 51, and a second man were in a Ford SUV around 10 p.m. Sunday near Lullaby Lane and Poona Drive when they had a confrontation with three to five men who were on foot outside of the vehicle, Orange County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Jeff Hallock said. Both men live in the neighborhood and drove by the group who were in their late teens or early 20s and who were spray painting, or tagging,...

They were supposed to be in Mexico that day, not at the opening of some amusement park. But 7-year-old Michael Schwartner persuaded his parents to take a detour. And then his cousin Christine Vess tripped and skinned her knee. And that’s how Michael and Christine became the very first official guests in Disneyland 60 years ago this week and unexpectedly received a lifetime of privileges. That’s how they were escorted past 15,000 people, how they met Walt Disney, and how they posed with Disney for a photograph beamed around the world.

When Fabiola Ortiz heard California had granted health coverage to poor children lacking legal immigration status, she was grateful. Since arriving in the U.S. illegally 12 years ago, she has taken her two youngest children to the doctor only for required school physicals and relied on home remedies for everything else.