Free Republic

The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.Breitbart News reported earlier this week that Sonoma County Sheriffs had arrested Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, at Maxwell Regional Park in Sonoma County after a series of reports of ongoing fires in the region. Mr. Gonzalez was observed around 3:00 p.m. PDT wearing a jacket and walking “out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him,” according to the Santa Rosa...

State of our great State, its present discourteous political discourse and this precedent set by the Democrats in 2017’s legislative session, it would be only fair and appropriate that their cries of anguish about bias and fairness go unanswered Elected Republicans represent nearly a third of California’s legislators, but are only getting 18 percent of their bills passed, for eventual consideration by Gov. Jerry Brown. This is despite the fact that they represent nearly 40 percent of the voters who cast ballots in the last election. And even worse, Brown so far has only approved about 16.5 percent of Republican...

State Senate Bill 169 would have codified Obama-era Title IX guidanceCalifornia Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Monday a bill to codify the aggressive Obama-era campus federal sexual-assault guidance, echoing concerns about the rights of the accused raised previously by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Mr. Brown said it was “time to pause and survey the land” before moving forward with more regulations “when we haven’t yet ascertained the full impact of what we recently enacted” with California’s 2014 affirmative-consent law. “Since this law was enacted, however, thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned whether federal and state actions to prevent and redress sexual...

If you live in the Bay Area, you’ll be hearing a lot about Senate Bill 595 over the next year or so. If you’re a regular user of any of the region’s seven state-owned toll bridges — that’s all of them, except the Golden Gate Bridge — you’ll want to pay close attention. SB 595, which won final passage Thursday and now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature, provides for a vote in the nine Bay Area counties next year to raise bridge tolls by as much as $3. If the Bay Area Toll Authority, the agency that oversees the bridges,...

Please join me on a whirlwind superficial but revealing tour of liberal la-la land as we peek at recent headlines. Meanwhile, liberals call conservatives wingnuts. Singer Nancy Sinatra tweeted, "The murderous members of the NRA should face a firing squad." One wonders whether in her rendering, "murderous" is redundant. One might also wonder whether she thinks other murderous people should be exempt from or perhaps face a less humiliating form of execution. Responding to Michelle Obama's claim that people are distrustful of politics because the GOP is "all men, all white," Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, said, "I don't know if...

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) — California Gov. Jerry Brown warns that catastrophic wildfires will keep ripping through the state as the climate warms. **SNIP** He said a warming climate has contributed to catastrophic wildfires. “That’s the way it is with a warming climate, dry weather and reducing moisture.” said Brown. “These kind of catastrophes have happened and they’ll continue to happen, and we have to be prepared to do everything we can to mitigate.” The governor has positioned himself as a leader in the fight against climate change.

Jerry Brown is the self-anointed Savior of the Planet while his decades-long policies destroy the once-Golden State People like me have been explaining for many years that California is an example of leftist policies to avoid, and the poster child state of what not to do unless state suicide is the goal. California has become the Greece of the United States, and is cracking up. But this crack-up isn’t funny, as I cover in my new book co-authored with Jim Lacy, ”California’s War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?” Despite the dire circumstances, the ravenous left in California continues...

California can now start jailing people that refuse to use the preferred gender pronouns of nursing home residents after Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill Thursday. The law’s effect is limited to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, but mandates that those who “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” can be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. Known as the “LGBT Senior Bill Of Rights,” the legislation also requires nursing homes and care facilities to allow residents...

... A sampling of immigration bills signed into law: ‘Sanctuary state’: aims to prevent local law enforcement officers from assisting with a promised crackdown on illegal immigration. Landlords and housing: will make it illegal for landlords to use someone’s real or perceived immigration status against them. Workplace raids: would require an employer to require proper court documents before allowing immigration agents access to the workplace or to employee information. ‘Dreamer’ and student protections: prevents schools from collecting information about the immigration status of students or their families. Immigration detention centers: places a moratorium on new or renewed contracts between local...

SACRAMENTO — California will beef up protections for undocumented immigrants beginning in January under a controversial new law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Thursday to create a statewide sanctuary policy. Brown signed the bill and 10 other immigration-related bills on the same day as a critical deadline for immigrants aided by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, who must file by Thursday for a final two-year extension before the program is phased out.

California on Friday expanded its market for buying and trading permits to emit greenhouse gases to include the Canadian province of Ontario. The market is the centerpiece of California’s cap-and-trade program, which aims to reduce carbon pollution over time by capping emissions and requiring companies to obtain permits to pollute. Quebec is already part of the market. California is aiming to reduce emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. The two Canadian provinces have similar or stricter goals. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the agreement Friday in Quebec at a meeting with officials of both provinces, capping off...

Just one day after California Governor Jerry Brown compared supporters of President Trump to cave dwellers, he told the United Nations the U.S. is not run by Trump. Speaking at a UN roundtable event on Tuesday, the Democrat vowed to fight climate change despite Trump’s stand on the issue.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s popularity has slipped in recent months, but a majority of California voters still approves of his job performance, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. The survey found 53% of voters gave the Democratic governor a favorable job rating, down from 64% in February, shortly after the start of his final term. Thirty-four percent rated him negatively, up from 27% in February. The survey found Californians in a relatively sour mood: Only 38% said the state is moving in the right direction; 49% said things are pretty seriously off track.

Californians, gird your loins in anticipation of the tax onslaught. While California drowns in debt, its public schools are failing and ranked with some of the lowest reading scores in the country, criminals are being let out of prison and jails and crime is spiking, water is cut off to our farmers, illegal aliens and “refugees” are arriving in droves as Democrats are trying to pass legislation making California a sanctuary state, one dam we know of may still blow apart (who knows about the rest…), bridges are falling down, highways are crumbling, and Democrats flout federal election laws by...

Calif. governor going to Russia to discuss climate SACRAMENTO - California's governor is traveling to Russia next week to discuss collaborating with Pacific nations on climate change at an economic forum hosted by the Russian government and featuring a talk by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's Thursday announcement of his pending trip came on the same day the United States forced Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco amid escalating diplomatic tensions.

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Capitol Hill staff is stonewalling a request by military mother Beverly Perlson for a copy of a reported diplomatic letter provided by the California Democrat to the leftwing group Code Pink/Global Exchange in support of the delivery of $600,000 in cash and aid to the “other side” in Fallujah, Iraq in late 2004. Perlson, whose son has served four tours in the war on terror, is founder of the pro-troops group The Band of Mothers.After initially telling Perlson the letter could not be found, Boxer’s staff has given Perlson the run around. Since she first made her...

Trump ignited a political firestorm yesterday during an impromptu press conference in which he said there was "blame on both sides" for the tragic events that occurred in Charlottesville over the weekend.    Now, the discovery of a craigslist ad posted last Monday, almost a full week before the Charlottesville protests, is raising new questions over whether paid protesters were sourced by a Los Angeles based "public relations firm specializing in innovative events" to serve as agitators in counterprotests.The ad was posted by a company called "Crowds on Demand" and offered $25 per hour to "actors and photographers" to...

llegals living in Los Angeles County were handed almost $1.3 billion in welfare payouts between the months of 2015 and 2016, Fox News reported, citing data. That’s billion with a capital “B.” That’s a quarter of what the county distributed to its entire needy population in those same months. Liberals and government elitists always like to make the case that citizens ought to support some cheap-sounding fee- or tax-paying cause by grandly pronouncing, “It’s just the cost of a cup of coffee,” or “If everyone just gave up their Starbucks lattes, it’d pay for itself.” Well, guess what $1.3 billion...

A new company is helping conservative Californians emigrate to Texas, where they can enjoy lower taxes, better economic opportunities, and friendlier politics. Fox News reports that former Republican congressional candidate Paul Chabot has founded a company, Conservative Move, that helps would-be emigrants sell their homes in the Golden State and find new ones in the Lone Star State, and also helps them find “a good-paying job” in their new home. Chabot’s prospective clients include those who, like him, have concluded that California has no future for them: "While California during the 1980s and early 1990s was anything but serene –...

With looming floods and roaring flames, Chuck Wilsey's year sounds more like ancient scripture than modern living in Northern California. Wilsey returned to his ranch home in Oroville on Monday, relieved to learn it had been spared by the wildfire, just as he had stayed clear of troubles brought on by a damaged spillway at a nearby dam five months ago. "I don't know what's worse - fire, or water - it's a toss-up," Wilsey, 53, told The Associated Press after returning to his home on Monday afternoon.