Free Republic

A University of California, Berkeley Student Senator proposed that all student government funding for the Berkeley College Republicans be reallocated to the Black Student Union. According to The Daily Californian, Senator Rizza Estacio made an amendment to the proposed budget allocations to student organizations and university groups which would eliminate the $1,000 funding for the BCR and add it to the budget for the BSU. Estacio said that her reasoning for the reallocation is because the BCRs “have violated a lot of, like, lead center rules during like free speech week,” adding that because of this, the organization does not...

Young America's Foundation scored a legal victory against UC-Berkeley this week after a judge in San Francisco refused to dismiss the organization's lawsuit against the university for infringing on the First Amendment rights of conservative students and speakers on campus. “Young America’s Foundation looks forward to moving on to the merits of this case and vigorously defending our claims at trial. This ruling allowing YAF’s critical First Amendment case to move forward is a win for conservatives and free speech, and it shows that Judge Chesney believes there is significant evidence of Berkeley’s work to suppress conservative speech," Young America’s...

The candidate for a seat in the UC Berkeley student Senate promised safe spaces for squirrels, better access to acorns and support groups for those experiencing habitat loss. His name was Furry Boi, he campaigned in a squirrel suit and he attracted immediate attention. "omg i love him he's so cute," Iris Melody Xu, a UC Berkeley student, wrote on Furry Boi's Facebook page. "Finally, a candidate I can get behind," someone else wrote. But when the character that sophomore Stephen Boyle had created as a joke actually won one of the Associated Students of the University of California's 20...

(Reuters) - A federal judge rejected the University of California at Berkeley's bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it discriminated against conservative speakers like Ann Coulter by imposing unreasonable restrictions and fees on their appearances. In a decision late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in San Francisco said two conservative groups could pursue claims that the school applied its "high-profile speaker" and "major events" policies in a manner that unfairly suppressed conservative speech. But the judge also said she was "unpersuaded" by claims that the school engaged in intentional viewpoint discrimination, and said the plaintiffs could not seek punitive...

The sky-high rent and cost of living that we've come to expect from the Bay Area might have finally taken their toll on a large proportion of residents. A huge wave of people are considering more affordable cities outside of the tech capital of the world, and they're taking their startups — and investors — with them, as Kevin Roose reported in The New York Times. San Francisco lost more residents than any other city in the country in the last quarter of 2017, according to data from real estate website Redfin, which sampled a million users. The data factored...

Last week, the Los Angeles Times published a feature piece on UC-Berkeley student Ismael Chamu, that highlighted the struggles he and his family face on a daily basis. The only problem? The article never mentioned that Chamu is a radical, violent, left-wing extremist – with ties to Antifa. Chamu was charged with felony vandalism in 2017, after allegedly spray-painting graffiti around his campus. These graffiti messages included, “F--- White People,” “F--- the police,” “Kill Cops,” “Eat the Rich,” and more. According to Berkeleyside, dozens of tires were slashed as well, and when police approached Chamu he was hiding a knife....

Former Diablo Valley College adjunct professor Eric Clanton’s pretrial was moved after initially being set for Feb. 22. Clanton was arrested in May 2017 for the April 2017 protests in Berkeley where an individual wearing a mask assaulted attendees of the “Patriot Rally” with a bike lock. (snip) The pretrial has been moved to April 5 at 9 a.m. at the René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.

California’s war on the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution took a dramatic new step on Tuesday, as the city of Berkeley declared itself a “sanctuary city” for marijuana-related crimes. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to become a sanctuary city for legal adult-use marijuana, prohibiting city agencies and employees from turning over information on legal cannabis activities and assisting in enforcing federal marijuana laws. “I believe we can balance public safety and resisting the Trump administration,” Mayor Jesse Arreguin. “Berkeley is a sanctuary for people in our community.” The measure doesn’t prevent the...

San Francisco supervisors Tuesday voted 10-1 to rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples' Day despite a last-minute effort to delay the vote in response to objections from some members of the city's Italian-American community. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the North Beach neighborhood, where the annual parade on Columbus Day has long since been renamed as the Italian Heritage parade, asked the board to postpone a vote on the resolution after receiving a large number of emails from constituents. "I would like some time to figure out a path forward that works for our indigenous native peoples as well as...

The UC Berkeley administration’s reaction to undocumented junior Luis Mora’s detainment by Border Patrol proves that the campus doesn’t give undocumented students the support they need. Within days of Mora’s detainment on Dec. 30 in San Diego, campus immigrant rights organization Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education, or RISE at Berkeley, launched a massive social media campaign to call for Mora’s release. Now is the time for public action, and the UC Berkeley administration — which has repeatedly expressed support for the undocumented community — should proudly lead the charge. Mora’s detainment isn’t an isolated incident; under President Donald Trump’s administration,...

Humanities professors say organization evading moral, professional duties Dozens of humanities scholars cancelled their membership with their field's leading professional academic organization ahead of its annual convention, in retaliation for the group refusing to impose boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. The defecting professors wrote to the Modern Language Association—published in the days leading up to the conference being held this week in New York City—that they will not be renewing their membership, due to the organization "disgracefully" voting in June against BDS and in favor of a statement denouncing academic boycotts. Timothy Reiss, a professor emeritus of comparative literature...

The court determined that Antifa leader Yvette Felarca's legal claim "was not brought in good faith." Hayward, CA – Antifa leader and middle school teacher Yvette Felarca was ordered to pay over $11,000 in damages to former Berkeley College Republicans President Troy Worden on Thursday, following an Alameda County Superior Court ruling. Felarca, a national organizer for antifa-aligned group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), filed a civil harassment restraining order against Worden in September, 2017, and alleged that he stalked her by appearing at BAMN events, the San Francisco Gate reported. BAMN also led protests against conservative speakers who came...

The Pacifica Foundation, a Berkeley-based community radio network that includes the progressive radio station KPFA, is in financial crisis because of mounting debt — and is now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Pacifica, a nonprofit founded in 1946 by conscientious objectors from World War II, is the mother of America’s alternative radio, pioneering decades of left-leaning public affairs programs and community-based music.

3km ESE of Berkeley, CA 2018-01-04 10:39:37 (UTC)

Contra Costa County - felt like a 4.x - anyone else awake?

New FBI/Clinton Scandal — FBI Deputy Director McCabe Delayed Recusing Himself from the Clinton Email Case Conservatives Excluded as Leftists Got $1 Billion from Companies Sued by DOJ Antifa Attacks Judicial Watch in Court New FBI/Clinton Scandal — FBI Deputy Director McCabe Delayed Recusing Himself from the Clinton Email Case Often overlooked amid the shenanigans of two former FBI Directors – James Comey and Robert Mueller – are questions about FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was actually acting director for a time after Comey was fired. Consider the news we broke today. We uncovered Justice Department records showing...

Protests broke out at U.C. Berkeley Tuesday to shut down Patriot Prayers’ free speech rally, landing at least three protesters in jail, among them prominent “By Any Means Necessary” (BAMN) leader Yvonne Felarca. Felarca, 47, is a teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School and was arrested for battery and resisting arrest after the Antifa-BAMN “Victory March” celebrating Berkeley’s cancellation of “Free Speech Week.”

You may remember Yvette Felarca, the middle school teacher who is also the leader of an Antifa Communist group in California. She made a bizarre appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show earlier this year. Felarca was arrested on Tuesday for battery and resisting arrest. There are photos online of Yvette Felarca being led away by police in handcuffs.

A member of the Black Student Union at the University of California-Berkeley recently penned an op-ed complaining that she felt “violated” by Ben Shapiro’s appearance on campus. “If your perceived definition of violence is limited to the confines of physical contact, that’s probably because you’ve never had to experience the psychological trauma that comes along with being a Black person in America,” declares Shelby Mayes, who serves as Membership Development Director for the BSU, in an op-ed for The Daily Californian. “I didn’t need to be physically harmed to feel violated by my school [on September 14]

This is a livestream of Milo Yiannopolous marching in Berkeley. The streamer is switching on a regular basis to different streams at the event.