Free Republic

It seems everyone is getting into gardens. First Lady Michelle Obama held a groundbreaking Friday for a White House Kitchen Garden and today California First Lady Maria Shriver announced that a similar garden would be planted on the Capitol Park grounds in Sacramento. Shriver's office is still working out details, but the 800-square-foot "demonstration garden" will be on the east side of the Capitol building and will be planted in May. It will replace an existing flower bed. "We're going to see how that will work. If it's successful we'll talk about expanding it," said Francisco Castillo, Shriver's spokesman. He...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the White House Friday for a meeting on infrastructure spending, defended President Obama for his politically incorrect joke about the Special Olympics on the Jay Leno Show Thursday night. "I know, because of conversations I've had with the president about Special Olympics... I know where his heart is," said the Republican governor, a weightlifting coach for Special Olympics since 1979 whose mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the group. "He loves Special Olympics and he will do everything he can to help Special Olympics." Schwarzenegger added, "Every one of us sometimes makes a mistake, right. Something comes...

California First Lady Maria Shriver -- whose mother Eunice Shriver founded the Special Olympics -- has weighed in this morning on the furor surrounding President Obama's comments regarding the Special Olympics on the "Tonight" show. Here's her statement: "While I am confident that President Obama never intended to offend anyone, the response that his comments have caused, coupled with the reaction of a primetime audience, demonstrate the need to continue to educate the non-disabled community on the issues that confront those with a developmental disability. My mother has dedicated her life to fighting stereotypes and ridicule for this community, and...

Maria Shriver says President Barack Obama's joke comparing his poor bowling score to that of a Special Olympics athlete was hurtful, although she is sure he didn't mean it that way. California's first lady issued a statement Friday, a day after the president made the gaffe on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Obama later called Maria's brother, Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver, to apologize. The siblings' mother, Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, founded the Special Olympics and has championed the rights of the mentally retarded.

Council member Bobby Shriver – who retained his council seat with the second-highest vote count in Santa Monica history -- is considering a run for state attorney general in 2010, joining a crowded field eyeing the post currently held by former California Gov. Jerry Brown. Shriver – who is the brother in law of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a nephew of former President John F. Kennedy -- confirmed he is being courted to run for what is widely considered the most powerful state post after the governorship. Political consultant Harvey Englander, who called Shriver “extraordinarily independent,” told reporters Friday that...

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, head of his party in the Golden State, is taking a pass on the big spring GOP convention in Sacramento this weekend -- where, let's face it, the long knives are out for him -- to meet with President Obama in the nation's capital. While the Republicans are railing against Schwarzenegger on taxes and considering censuring their own who voted for the state budget, Schwarzenegger sidesteps it all: He's in Washington, D.C., for the National Governor's Association get-together, meeting with Obama and other administration officials on climate change and key economic topics. The schedule is still...

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed fellow Republican John McCain for president, but he's not passing up a chance to attend the historic inauguration of Barack Obama. The National Governors Association invited its members, including Schwarzenegger, to attend the swearing-in Tuesday. Schwarzenegger will be joined by his wife, Democrat Maria Shriver, a Kennedy family member who was an early Obama supporter.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to President-elect Barack Obama this week and would be willing to work for the Democratic administration once his term expires if asked, the Republican governor said in an interview broadcast this morning. "I will help in every possible way the administration to be successful," he told Fox News. "So whatever they need, I'm there." Latest news: Governor Arnold...L.A. Now: Arnold might go to Washington for Obama The only qualification, Schwarzenegger said, would be permission from his wife, Maria Shriver. "Before I make any move, the next move that I make, I'm going...

“I start every one of my days praying,” says Maria Shriver, wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I go to church every week. I went to Catholic schools my entire life.” But, says Shriver, when it comes to Church teachings, “I pick and choose… I think I’m probably a ‘Cafeteria Catholic.’” Shriver’s comments came during a lengthy interview on the Washington Post’s video blog ‘On Faith,’ taped during an Oct. 22 women’s conference at the Long Beach Convention Center. Shriver, wearing a rosary around her neck, was interviewed by Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn and co-host Jon Meacham of Newsweek....

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that even though his party didn’t win the presidential election, he has at least one thing to be happy about. “I can get back into the bedroom, so there's the big advantage,” the California governor said Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition.” Schwarzenegger, a leading Republican, is married to Maria Shriver, a member of the very Democratic Kennedy clan. Shriver endorsed Barack Obama in February, just days after her husband announced his support of John McCain. Schwarzenegger said his wife has been “gloating now for these last few days” and running around the house with a...

Schwarzenegger, Shriver Oppose Marriage Amendment Sunday, October 26, 2008 11:36 AM California's first lady says she is voting against a ballot initiative that would prohibit same-sex couples from getting married in California. Maria Shriver said in an interview with KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that she is voting no on Proposition 8. Shriver said, "I believe in people's right to choose a partner that they love, and that's a decision that I have come to, and I have felt that way for a long time." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also opposes Prop. 8.

California's first lady says she is voting against a ballot initiative that would prohibit same-sex couples from getting married in California. Maria Shriver said in an interview with KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that she is voting no on Proposition 8. Shriver said, "I believe in people's right to choose a partner that they love, and that's a decision that I have come to, and I have felt that way for a long time." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also opposes Prop. 8.

Between Dave Brubeck's piano jazz, Quincy Jones' musical repertoire and Alice Waters' inventive cuisine, the California Hall of Fame can throw one heck of a party. Especially considering actor Jack Nicholson will have a front-row seat. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and first lady Maria Shriver on Wednesday announced the third class of California Hall of Fame inductees, which includes legends as varied as actress-activist Jane Fonda, author Theodor Geisel ("Dr. Seuss") and two-time Nobelist Linus Pauling. Also making the cut were sculptor Robert Graham, fitness guru Jack LaLanne, photographer Dorothea Lange, architect Julia Morgan and former Gov. Leland Stanford. The new...

A city ordinance that went into effect on Thursday that bars some private jets from using Santa Monica Airport would be grounded under a temporary restraining order sought by federal officials. Citing "a clear possibility of irreparable harm," attorneys for the U.S. government filed an application for a temporary restraining order ... Concerned about safety and noise, the Santa Monica City Council approved an ordinance in November that bars jets with approach speeds of greater than 136 mph, including aircraft popular among business executives. The FAA earlier served the city with a cease-and-desist order challenging the ordinance, contending the city...

A response to Governor Schwarzenegger's state parks proposals is first, then the Associated Press story that inspired it follows. I hope Mr. Schwarzenegger will reconsider. ************** THE TERMINATOR NEEDS TO CUT ELSEWHERE! The news of Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent proposals in California to build a toll road through a state park and to close 48 state parks due to "budgetary" considerations is very disappointing despite the fact that I live in Illinois! His firing of his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood from the State Parks Commission will garner the story national attention, which it deserves. California is not...

Take your pick. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger either felt the need for “fresh legs” on the state Park & Recreation Commission or was in the mood for political payback. Whatever his true sentiments, his staff notified his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood on Monday that they were no longer needed as state park commissioners. Shriver, 53, a Democrat and brother of First Lady Maria Shriver, and Eastwood, 77, a Republican and former mayor of Carmel, were first appointed to the advisory commission by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. Three years later, Schwarzenegger reappointed both of them to four-year terms....

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a cabinet-level office for volunteer service Tuesday that aims to raise the profile of volunteerism and emergency relief in a state beset by wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Schwarzenegger named Karen Baker, executive director of the governor's commission for volunteerism, as secretary of service and volunteering, the first such state cabinet position in the country, he said. Speaking in a crowded hall at Cal State Northridge, he said he hoped the change would inspire other states to establish similar offices around the country. He gave his wife, Maria Shriver, credit for pushing the idea to...

Per Drudge:

The cost to taxpayers of protecting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's other top officials has nearly tripled since the Governator took office, to close to $38 million a year, figures obtained by The Chronicle show. The California Highway Patrol, which guards the officials, won't release budget figures covering just the governor out of security considerations. But it's pretty clear from what people tell us that the big spending isn't on the state schools superintendent or the insurance commissioner - it's on Schwarzenegger.Five years ago, during Gray Davis' last year in office, the CHP spent $14.4 million providing security to the...

Forum part of the annual Women's Conference When Maria Shriver gathers five wives of 2008 presidential candidates for a forum next week, it will be a first-of-its-kind event. What it won't be is a debate. "I don't want them to spend their time at this conference saying, 'My husband thinks this and my husband thinks that,'" Shriver said. "One of the criticisms of (presidential) debates is that people don't get to know who the people are, that they are canned. I am hoping that we will have a very real conversation with five women who have extraordinary lives and that...