Free Republic

Californians pay more at the gas pump than residents of any other state in the United States despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) so-called “plan” to crack down on windfall oil profits. “Is Gavin Newsom trying to help Donald Trump?” Is Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley question, citing his plan to raise fuel prices in Nevada and Arizona just before the November presidential election. Nevada and Arizona’s gas prices heavily reflect those in California due to them being significantly reliant (90 and 50 percent) on California for their fuel supply. According to recent reports, the California Energy Commission is looking to...

The Redwood City [CA] Fire Department and Mountain View [CA] Fire Department crews are responding to a large fire at Sims Metal, a metal recycling facility on Seaport Blvd. in Redwood City. Fire officials shared news of the fire at approximately 3:20 p.m. Thick, dark smoke is in the air, accompanied by “the smell of burning plastic,” fire crews said. Stabbing reported at high school in Gilroy Officials said there is potential for smoke impacts in the area and downwind neighborhoods. Smoke is making its way to Sunnyvale, but Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety said there is no active fire...

The California State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would require new vehicles to come equipped with a function that warns motorists when they’re driving 10 mph over the speed limit. If passed by the state Assembly and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, SB961 by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener would make California the first state with such a requirement for new vehicles. The bill cleared a significant hurdle Tuesday, passing the state Senate on a 22-13 vote. Specifically, SB961 would require new vehicles built or sold in California to include what’s known as “passive speed governors” that...

California state Assemblyman Vince Fong won the special election to fill Kevin McCarthy’s seat for the remainder of the former speaker’s term. Fong defeated Mike Boudreaux, 67.3 percent to 32.7 percent, according to Decision Desk. The two will go head-to-head again in November to win a full term. “I am filled with humility and gratitude tonight, as early results show that voters have overwhelmingly selected me to serve as their voice in Washington D.C.,” he said in a statement posted on X. “With the campaign over, the real work now begins,” he continued. “In Congress, I will remain focused on...

The noteworthy British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once remarked that “there are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics.” The Ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus also observantly wrote ”in war, truth is the first casualty.” There could easily be another corollary to these great quotes that could go ... in the battle over school board recalls, there are lies, damn lies, and recall campaign slogans. The Temecula Valley Unified School District recall campaign against current School Board President Dr. Joseph Komrosky is a prime example of the lies and mistruths perpetrated by a leftist dominated coalition of local...

According to Kenneth Schrupp at The Center Square, a new analysis from the U.S. News and World Report agency found that California ranked “dead last” among the 50 states when it comes time to “opportunity.” In other news water is still wet.What could have possibly indicated that California wasn’t the friendliest location for anyone wanting to build a life of prosperity and freedom?Was it the state’s nearly seventy-billion-dollar deficit?Was it the mass exodus that has seen hundreds of thousands of people flee the state for friendlier locales, a trend which has resulted in a net negative for legal population and...

The ease and “fortuitousness” by which birth names evolve into perfectly descriptive and denigrative monikers seems like a God-has-a-sense-of-humor moment—a slimy-looking man that screams “greasy salesman” just happens to have a last name that can easily accommodate the word “scum” into it? Providence, no? And, there are few things slimier and scummier than taking an oath of office to represent the people, making promises to act in their best interest, and then reneging on them—but that’s just who Gavin Newscum is. From Susannah Luthi report at The Washington Free Beacon:Earlier this month, the governor repeatedly pledged he would not raise...

A revision to the municipal code made it illegal for groups of four or more people to convene in public spaces for commercial recreational activities without a government stamp of approval.They come in packs. They're often crunchy. They're chameleons: a downward-facing dog one moment, a cobra or child the next. (What versatility!) They do handstands and breathe peacefully. And we can't have any of that. At least, not on public land. By "they," I'm referring to the world of yogis. And by "we," I mean the city of San Diego, which revised its municipal code in March to prevent groups...

A carjacker stole a Los Angeles police SUV with a female cop still inside — before speeding off and crashing it just after the female officer was “ejected” and dragged down the road, according to officials. The unidentified officer was conducting “security detail” in downtown LA at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday when the man suddenly jumped into the squad car and attacked her, NBC LA reported. The cop was “ejected” from the vehicle at some point and fell onto the road as the suspect fled, police said. It was unclear if the officer was pushed, but she was dragged down...

Elon Musk’s Tesla is continuing to lay off employees as the company has slashed an additional 600 jobs across its California facilities, affecting a wide range of positions from factory workers to engineers. CNBC reports that Tesla has been grappling with a series of challenges that have led to multiple rounds of layoffs over the past month. The latest round of layoffs, reported in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing obtained by CNBC, impacted a wide range of positions, from entry-level roles to directors, spanning various departments such as factory workers, software developers, and robotics engineers. This...

With seven people killed and close to a million losing power, the recent storms hit Texas hard. Restoring electricity may take days and may not be completed by Wednesday. The isolation of the Texas power grid has become a symbol of the state’s independent streak and resistance to federal oversight in recent years. The massive outages during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 were a wake-up call to the vulnerabilities of Texas’ system. But Texas hit the snooze button, resulting in repeated crises in Summer 2022 and Winter 2023. Now it seems Texas is sleepwalking into another avoidable crisis ... ERCOT...

Is Gavin Newsom trying to help Donald Trump? You have to wonder from the California governor’s plan to raise gasoline prices in Nevada and Arizona before the November election. California’s prices are the highest in the country—$5.21 a gallon on average vs. $3.59 nationwide—owing to hefty taxes and burdensome regulations, such as its cap-and-trade program and low-carbon fuel standard. Mr. Newsom is escalating his war on the industry. The California Energy Commission is planning to impose a tax on refineries’ “gross margins”—i.e., the difference between wholesale gasoline and crude prices plus certain regulatory costs. The gross margin notably doesn’t include...

Pole climbing and hurtman's rescue.

BURLINGAME, Calif. - Republicans from around the state gathered in Burlingame on Saturday for the California GOP convention during a critical election year. "Republicans are moving in the right direction," said John Dennis, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party. "We have a lot to work for and a lot of opportunities to improve the party and improve California." Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state 2:1, but GOP members say they’re making progress. They’re putting energy into races at every level from school boards to the San Francisco mayor’s race. "The mayor’s race is an important one and sends...

A proposed Senate bill would prohibit self-checkout lanes for customers at all California grocery and retail drug stores unless certain conditions are met. It’s all in an effort to combat theft. “I think self-checkouts are pretty good in terms of efficiency," said David Kisieu, Cal Poly student. "If I don’t have a lot of stuff, I don’t really want to wait and deal with a lot of people. I just scan something really quickly and leave." Senate Bill 1446, proposed by state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas of Los Angeles, stores would be able to offer self-checkout lanes if the checkouts are...

A reported illegal immigrant accused of sexually assaulting two women along Highway 39 in southern California has been taken into custody as police are seeking more victims. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says Eduardo Sarabia, 40, is now facing two felony counts of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation following alleged incidents on Sunday and Monday of this week. "Detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau are investigating two separate sexual assault cases involving female victims who were sexually assaulted by Eduardo Sarabia along Highway 39 in the Angeles National Forest," it said in a...

Oakland has removed the traffic lights from one intersection and replaced them with 4-way stop signs due to people stealing copper and then tampering with an electrical box. It's a sight that has made drivers do a double take: a stop sign hanging overhead where a traffic light would normally be, located above the intersection of E. 12th Street and 16th Avenue in Oakland. Neighbors said city workers removed the all the traffic lights in the last week and replaced them with four-way stop signs. The installation came after months of people stealing copper wires and tampering with the city...

David DePape, the man convicted of breaking into the home of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and bludgeoning her husband with a hammer was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday by a federal judge. DePape was convicted in November of attempting to kidnap a federal official and assaulting a federal official’s family member after a four-day trial. A jury returned a verdict after less than 10 hours of deliberation.

California should have known better than to compel a transition to electric vehicles while encouraging rampant drug use and crime, because everyone knows that copper wire is a go-to for addicts and thieves. From a report by John Nolte at Breitbart News:‘Thieves are targeting high-powered Tesla and other EV charging stations and stealing the heavy cable for the copper metal inside,’ reports San Francisco’s NBC affiliate. ‘In Vallejo, someone cut cables from nine charging stations — leaving Tesla drivers in a bind and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repair costs.’‘I think this is the second time...

Wayne State professor Steven Shaviro has been suspended after allegedly suggesting college protesters kill campus speakers they don’t like. Stanford was recently engulfed by protests and chaos when federal judge Kyle Duncan was invited to speak to campus. Stanford University Law School associate dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach suggested Duncan’s speech was causing pain. She was later placed on leave, according to Fox News.