Free Republic

Decorated Marine veteran Nick Popaditch on Tuesday announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 51st Congressional District seat held by Democrat Bob Filner. Nicknamed “Gunny Pop,” Popaditch served two separate stints in the Marines. He was a tank commander during the Persian Gulf war and honorably discharged in 1992 after six years. Tiring of civilian life, he rejoined the Marines in 1995. A widely circulated photograph after the fall of Baghdad in 2003 shows the tank commander and platoon sergeant smoking a cigar in front of the statue of Saddam Hussein just before his unit helped tear it...

Lifestyles of the hip and famous keep on rolling for the world-champion Chula Vista Park View Little Leaguers. The boys were bused to Burbank yesterday for an appearance last night on “The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.” Never mind that most of the 12- and 13-year-olds didn't know Conan O'Brien from Conan the Barbarian. “Nope,” said Park View second baseman Bulla Graft. “Never heard of him.” After O'Brien's monologue and Sandra Bullock's appearance to promote her new movie, up to the stage stepped all 12 players, wearing baby-blue T-shirts and gray baseball pants — and earning the audience's hearty applause.

The gruesome murder of four young Americans in Tijuana remains unsolved, and Mexican authorities are investigating the possibility that the killings may be linked to the country's burgeoning illegal drug trade. The bodies of the victims — who were reportedly beaten, stabbed and strangled — were found inside a van in eastern Tijuana on May 9, two days after at least two of them told relatives in Southern California that they were going to the border city for a night of partying. Charles Smith, a spokesman for the U.S consulate in Tijuana, identified the victims as Luis Gamez Chaves, 21;...

TIJUANA, Mexico — The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday. The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California. U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims — two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista...

BISBEE — A recent court decision that held the Border Patrol liable for occupying private property in California might be applied to lands in other places near the U.S.-Mexico border, including Cochise County. Otay Mesa Property LP, Rancho Vista Del Mar and Otay International LLC filed a lawsuit in March 2006 seeking compensation for the use of 750 acres of valuable development land in San Diego County. Without permission from landowners, the Border Patrol buried numerous sensors, and then entered the property when the sensors indicated movement of potential illegal immigrants. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims held...

Reporting from San Diego -- A U.S. citizen was one of the three men who were found decapitated this week in Tijuana, Mexican authorities said Friday. The body of George Harrison, a 38-year-old former Chula Vista resident, had been dismembered and mutilated and was dumped in a vacant lot near Tijuana's beachside bullring. Harrison had several drug-related convictions in the United States and was suspected of drug trafficking in Mexico, Baja California Assistant Atty. General Rafael Gonzalez said.

A smuggling suspect in a stolen car with illegal migrants led Chula Vista officers on a 100 mph pursuit Thursday night before crashing in Otay Mesa, Chula Vista police said. Four men were arrested. A Chula Vista officer saw a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix speeding along Olympic Parkway and tried to stop the driver about 10:15 p.m., Lt. Scott Arsenault said. The driver allegedly sped onto southbound Interstate 805, turned east on state Route 905 and lost control trying to turn south on Otay Mesa Road. The car went off the road and the driver and one passenger ran into...

The state's political watchdog agency has imposed a $55,000 fine against the Latino Builders Association for 11 counts of laundering contributions to candidates running for office in Chula Vista, National City and San Diego. The association's director, Jose Mireles, engineered a scheme to evade campaign laws by directing employees and business associates to make contributions to candidates that were later reimbursed by the Latino Builders Association, according to the Fair Political Practices Commission. The commission, which enforces state contribution and disclosure laws, imposed the maximum fine of $5,000 for each of the counts Thursday. “Concealing the true source of campaign...

SAN DIEGO -- A June 8 kidnapping in Chula Vista is raising fears that brazen crimes related to drug cartels south of the border are making their way north. Federal authorities rescued the victim earlier this month and took five people into custody, but are being especially closed-mouth about the crime because of its possible connection to drug traffickers, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The house where the man was held for eight days is about a mile from where Mexican-drug-trafficking suspects shot at a Chula Vista police officer in 2005 and about 3 miles from where a body was...

SAN DIEGO – A former border inspector who accepted more than $70,000 in bribes for allowing illegal immigrants into the country was sentenced to 57 months in prison Monday on bribery and smuggling charges. Richard Elizalda, 56, of Chula Vista, pleaded guilty to bribery and smuggling charges in September 2006. He admitted accepting between $70,000 to $120,000 in cash and automobiles and said he allowed hundreds of illegal immigrants into the country between 2004 and June 2006, when he was arrested. Before pronouncing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns told Elizalda, “You're one of the gatekeepers for the security...

CHULA VISTA - At least 60 illegal immigrants found in a two-story condominium were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol, an agent said Saturday. Arrests were made in connection with the raid, said Wendi Lee, a senior Border Patrol agent. Lee said she did not know how many were arrested, or their names. Authorities found the illegal immigrants sometime Friday at the complex, on the 200 block of Rancho Court, Lee said. It was part of a "drop-house" raid, authorities said. The illegal immigrants were taken to the Border Patrol's processing facility in Chula Vista, Lee said. Those found...

For the second time this week, a border inspector was arrested and charged with waiving smugglers into the country in exchange for bribes. Customs and Border Protection Inspector Richard Elizalda of Chula Vista was indicted Friday, along with seven other people, on conspiracy and other charges. The indictment was unsealed Thursday. Authorities said smugglers bribed Elizalda with cash and a Lexus automobile to allow them to use his lane at the San Ysidro border crossing to bring illegal immigrants and marijuana into the United States. Another inspector was brought into San Diego federal court Wednesday on similar charges. Authorities said...

SAN DIEGO - A Chula Vista man suspected of leading a methamphetamine trafficking ring that used juveniles to sell or smuggle the drug was in federal custody Monday after being charged in a two-count indictment, authorities said. Jorge Arreola-Gomez was among 19 people named in the indictment unsealed Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office alleging that the defendants used numerous couriers, many of them teenagers, to smuggle methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border. An investigation led to the seizure of more than 140 pounds of methamphetamine, more than $25,000 in cash, a firearm and 20 pounds of pseudoephedrine, a nasal decongestant...

Chula Vista has an early campaign issue and it is called “the mayor's bodyguard.” This isn't about the conduct or qualifications of private security contractor, this is about the way the city of Chula Vista has mishandled the matter at every turn and the folly of doing public business behind closed doors. How did the city find the private contractor (two versions exist)? Why did the council not receive more than a cursory report when the hiring item first came up in September? Why was the private contractor being paid from two separate accounts? Who, exactly, authorized the city's purchase...

CHULA VISTA – Although his bodyguard was driving him to all mayoral functions in a new, fully loaded SUV the city had bought, Mayor Steve Padilla collected his $1,000 monthly car allowance for nearly four months, records acquired by the The San Diego Union-Tribune show. The city's payroll records also show that Padilla reimbursed the city $3,500 in late January for car allowances received in October, November, December and part of January. “It was a mistake,” Padilla said of collecting a car allowance. “It was an oversight on my part.” Padilla said he realized the mistake in early January when...

CHULA VISTA – A 49-year-old high school English teacher has been arrested on suspicion of child molestation and jailed on $1 million bail, authorities said. Diego Davalos was arrested by sheriff's deputies Wednesday after classes on the Chula Vista High School campus. He is facing three counts of lewd or lascivious acts with force involving a child under 14 years old and is scheduled to be arraigned today. Sheriff's Sgt. James Bovet said Davalos is suspected of molesting family members in Jacumba, where Davalos had lived, starting in the late 1980s and continuing until 2002. "None of these charges are...

SAN DIEGO - An official with the City of Chula Vista (California) Recreation Department asked a local Christian hip-hop dance group to not perform at a city-sponsored "Holiday Festival" last weekend. The dance group was scheduled to perform at the city-sponsored event on December 3, but was told after the program began that it could not perform. The six-girl dance troupe -- with participants ranging in age from 8 to 12 -- wore shirts identifying themselves as a "Jesus Christ Dancer." AgapePress was told of the incident by Phil Magnan of Biblical Family Advocates. John Gates, senior supervisor for the...

Leftist Democrat Congressman Bob Filner has gotten himself into hot water. Filner has injected himself into a tenants dispute in a HUD housing complex owned and operated by the Catholic Church in San Ysidro, California. Mike Giorgino, retired-Navy Commander and Republican nominee for Congress in CA-51st has stepped in to help the tenants. Help Mike beat Filner by going to: http://www.Giorgino4Congress.com