Free Republic

In November, 2016, California voters passed a referendum that banned the possession of magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds. The ban was immediately challenged in the courts. An injunction against enforcement of the ban was put in effect by a federal district court. The court challenge claims the ban violates the U.S. Constitution on several grounds, including the Second Amendment. The case is one of several where state and local governments contend that magazines of over 10 rounds fall outside of protection afforded by the Second Amendment. The State of California appealed the injunction to the...

A fast moving fire in northern California jumped the Sacramento River, sending residents in the city of Redding fleeing ahead of the flames late Thursday in one of several wildfires sweeping through the state.Cal Fire announced the death early Friday of a private bulldozer operator, who was working on an active section of the fire. The Carr Fire tore through nearby Shasta and Whiskeytown destroying homes and other buildings before charging into Redding, a city of about 92,000. Several firefighters and civilians have also been injured, fire officials said.The Sacramento Bee reports: snip, video at link As the Carr fire...

Justice is coming for unions that forced non-members to pay "non-political" agency fees that went to prop up Democratic candidates. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that forcing workers who disagree with a union to make these payments anyway violates the workers' First Amendment rights. Less than a week after that ruling, Janus v. Association of Federal, State, City, and Municipal Employees (FSCME), seven California teachers have filed a class-action lawsuit to recoup unjustly forced fees. "This lawsuit will enable teachers like me to recover the agency fees that we were wrongly forced to pay against our will," Scott Wilford,...

According to new research released by Charles Varner, associate director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, California lost an estimated 138 high-income individuals following passage of the Proposition 30 income tax increase championed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and approved by Golden State voters in 2012. This new research by Varner updates a previous paper released six years ago that looked at domestic migration to and from California following a 2004 income tax hike. “One reason we wanted to update our previous paper is that this tax change in 2012 is the largest state tax change that we...

@realDonaldTrump “The highest level of bias I’ve ever witnessed in any law enforcement officer.” Trey Gowdy on the FBI’s own, Peter Strzok. Also remember that they all worked for Slippery James Comey and that Comey is best friends with Robert Mueller. A really sick deal, isn’t it? 9:03 PM · Jun 17, 2018 ______ The Democrats should get together with their Republican counterparts and work something out on Border Security & Safety. Don’t wait until after the election because you are going to lose! 8:49 PM · Jun 17, 2018 ______ Why was the FBI’s sick loser, Peter Strzok, working...

Last month, April, 2018, the California Department of Justice raided prominent Kern County Farmer, Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann. The justification for the raid was pictures the farmer had sent to the Department of Justice in an attempt to register a rifle. The DOJ claimed the rifle was an illegally modified “Assault weapon”.  During the raid, the DOJ confiscated 230 rounds of ammunition, a dozen guns, two objects claimed to be “silencers”, and some sort of trigger activator. There is reason to be wary of the accuracy of the claims of what was found during the raid. California law is very complex....

The California state budget could extend a tax break to low-income families of undocumented immigrants. Assembly Democrats want Gov. Jerry Brown to expand the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit in such a way that people who do not have Social Security numbers can apply for it. The proposal is meant to help poor Californians recover some of their state income tax. Last year, a household with two children and an adjusted gross income of up to $22,309 would have been eligible for a tax credit. The maximum credit for a family of that size is $2,467, according to the Franchise...

Everywhere is a bellwether in American politics these days. And every race allegedly tells you much of what might happen in the midterm elections on Nov. 6.In California, that just may be true in today’s primaries.The Republican Party remains a sad-sack affair statewide in the country’s most populous state.But it does currently hold potentially the critical balance that could keep the House for the GOP or swing it to the Nancy Pelosi crowd. She only needs 23 more House seats to regain the Speaker’s gavel from retiring Paul Ryan.In California, the GOP presently holds seven seats in House districts...

When a catastrophic earthquake hits California, buildings will topple and potentially hundreds could be killed. But what gets less attention is the wrenching aftermath of such a huge temblor, which could leave whole neighborhoods torched by fires uninhabitable and hundreds of thousands of people without a home. Officials are grappling with where all these quake refugees would go. In the San Francisco Bay Area, more than 400,000 could be displaced in a magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault, which directly runs underneath cities like Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and Fremont, said Ken Hudnut, the U.S. Geological Survey’s science advisor for...

California lawmakers are pushing numerous gun control measures including an expansion of confiscatory orders and limits on the number of firearms residents can buy each month. Many of the lawmakers are claiming school shootings in Florida and Texas as the impetus for more gun control on law-abiding Californians. The Mercury News reports that Assemblyman Rob Bonita (D-18) is pushing controls to bar 18-20-year olds from buying firearms. A companion bill, sponsored by State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-25), passed the Senate earlier this week. Portantino’s bill also puts a one-gun-a-month purchase limit in place for Californians.

Smoke containing human remains billowed out of a California crematorium Thursday when an oven door was stuck open while the furnace was in use. National City Fire Capt. Brian Krepps confirmed that crews were called to Cortez Cremations and Funeral Services shortly after noon to help close the oven door. Firefighters were able to shut the door and then helped the crematorium ventilate the building. No damage or flames outside of the oven were reported.Krepps confirmed human ashes were contained in the thick smoke that flooded out of the building, as well as a chemical fire suppression agent.

President Trump endorsed GOP California gubernatorial candidate and businessman John Cox on Friday, days after Cox said he was remorseful he did not vote for Trump in the 2016 election because he wasn’t sure if Trump was a conservative. ...snip Cox and Orange County Assemblyman Travis Allen, both Republicans, are seeing to woo enough voters for the June 5 primary in order to gain one of two spots in the November general election. In the event Republicans fail to garner enough support, two Democrats could go head-to-head. Cox has already attracted the support of GOP leadership, including U.S. House Majority...

The mother of 10 children who were allegedly tortured in a dangerously run-down Fairfield home defended herself Monday as an “amazing mother” and denied that she and her husband subjected their children to years of physical and mental abuse.

A state board in California has approved a proposal to require solar panels on all new homes beginning in 2020, a measure that would increase the cost of new construction but provide savings on utilities — and help the state meet ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. California, which is routinely a leader in environmental regulatory efforts, would be the first state in the country with such a requirement. Several cities, including San Francisco and South Miami, Fla., have residential solar panel requirements. The new rule in California would cover all low-rise residential buildings, although houses that are frequently...

MUST WATCH: AG Jeff Sessions gives EXPLOSIVE Speech on Illegal Immigration In San Diego California

At first look, the city of Long Beach and county of Fresno could not seem any more different. But whether you’re a farmworker or an urban worker, there’s one struggle many people in our districts share: the human cost of being undocumented and uninsured. One in 10 California workers is undocumented, and one in six children in our state has a parent who is undocumented. Ensuring healthcare coverage for all Californians not only strengthens the health of our state’s workforce, but will move the entire state forward. Immigrants play a vital role in all aspects of California’s social, economic, and...

Junkies have been filmed openly shooting up in a San Francisco subway station amid piles of vomit and unconscious bodies. Commuter Shannon Gafford recorded the disturbing video at the Civic Center BART station, saying he sees the same thing every day. BART managers point to a national homeless and opiate crises as the cause of the problem, saying they are simply 'overwhelmed' by the amount of drug use.

Matthew Blake reports for Los Angeles Business Journal that on April 17, 2018, a bill to extend California’s motion picture tax credit program sailed through a state Assembly committee without opposition. Do California’s taxpayers know that they’re 'subsidizing' America-hating, anti-Second Amendment, pro-abortion, corrupt and debauched Hollywood ....to the tune of $330 million a year?

Notorious street-gang MS-13 has reportedly ordered its members to “take out” police officers in New York; hoping to send a strong message to authorities following a serious crackdown on the group throughout the region. According to the New York Post, the NYPD is on high-alert after a confidential informant told police that gang members were given a green light to murder local police officers; particularly in the nearby town of Hempstead on Long Island. “The police have been making too many arrests and it’s time to take the streets back and take out (shoot) a cop like we do in...

As president of S.F. Travel, the city’s visitors bureau, Joe D’Alessandro’s job is to promote San Francisco. You’d think he’d be hyping the city’s gorgeous vistas, top-notch restaurants and glorious museums. Sure, San Francisco has great facets worthy of postcards and travel books, but it also has a worsening underbelly that D’Alessandro says he can no longer gloss over. People injecting themselves with drugs in broad daylight, their dirty needles and other garbage strewn on the sidewalks. Tent camps. Human feces. The threatening behavior of some people who appear either mentally ill or high. Petty theft.