Free Republic

California lawmakers seem intent on making Sacramento the place where reasonable reforms, much like runaway trains, jump the tracks. In that no-speed-limit spirit Tuesday, the California Assembly voted 41-37 to allow convicted felons to vote in jail. (Yes, you read that correctly.) If Assembly Bill 2466 becomes law, the American Civil Liberties Union estimates that 50,000 adults will be able to vote behind bars. The state doesn’t trust these people on the streets, but they are welcome in the voting booth. When individuals commit crimes that endanger public safety, they forfeit their civil rights upon conviction. The National Conference of...

The 10-question quiz included questions about prostitution, drugs, drive-by shootings and spray paint graffiti. According to WALA, one of the questions was: Leroy has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an eight ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?" It was similar to a math quiz that's been on the internet for years with questions about gangs.

San Francisco -- Rebuilding San Francisco after a major earthquake would change its human face, hastening gentrification and driving out poor and elderly residents, experts and city officials warn. Experts say there's a 62 percent chance a quake with a magnitude of 6.7 or higher will hit the San Francisco Bay area within several decades — or tomorrow. Thousands of homes would be rendered uninhabitable, displacing up to 300,000 residents, almost half the city's population, according to some projections. A major issue would be creating replacement housing for the poor in one of the nation's most expensive markets. About 16,000...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Hispanic voters in Florida, New Mexico and California have waved Mexican flags and bashed Donald Trump piñatas — clashing with police, at times — to protest the Republican presidential contender's hard line approach to immigration. Yet far from the protests, an increasingly vocal Hispanic minority is speaking out in favor of the brash billionaire. They are backing Trump even in the face of resentment and suspicion from friends and family, who are among the overwhelming majority of non-white voters opposed to the New York businessman's candidacy. "I'm not ashamed to vote for Trump. I'd just rather...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Hispanic voters in Florida, New Mexico and California have waved Mexican flags and bashed Donald Trump piñatas - clashing with police, at times - to protest the Republican presidential contender's hard line approach to immigration. Yet far from the protests, an increasingly vocal Hispanic minority is speaking out in favor of the brash billionaire. They are backing Trump even in the face of resentment and suspicion from friends and family, who are among the overwhelming majority of non-white voters opposed to the New York businessman's candidacy...

Donald Trump’s best ally in winning over skeptical Republicans is turning out to be Hillary Clinton. Having overcome a multimillion-dollar “Never Trump” campaign aimed at blocking him from the Republican nomination, he’s now benefiting from a wave of GOP donors, party leaders, voters and conservative groups that are uniting under a new banner: “Never Hillary.” “Nothing unites Republicans better than a Clinton,” says Scott Reed, a political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who has advised previous GOP campaigns. While Reed says there remain “many unknowns” about Trump, he adds that “the knowns about Hillary are very powerful motivators...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Step aside, Burmese python — you may no longer be Florida's scariest invasive species. Researchers have confirmed that three Nile crocodiles were captured near Miami, and they say it's possible more of the man-eating reptiles are still out there, although no one can say for sure. The big question now: How did they get to Florida? "They didn't swim from Africa," University of Florida herpetologist Kenneth Krysko said. "But we really don't know how they got into the wild."

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, of Utah, who shied away from the spotlight but earned a reputation as someone who knew how to get things done in Washington, has died. He was 82. Bennett assistant Tara Tanner said he died Wednesday from complications of pancreatic cancer and a recent stroke. The Republican was first elected in 1992 and was widely seen at home as politically moderate, which at times put him at odds with Utah’s highly conservative Republican base. His middle-of-the-road reputation led to his ouster in 2010 at the state convention by delegates fueled by tea party anger. …

TEL AVIV – A group that advocates a nuclear-free world and was identified earlier this month by the White House as central in helping to market the Iran nuclear deal to the news media has funded National Public Radio since 2005, an Associated Press investigation has revealed. Think tanks funded by the Ploughshares Fund include the Arms Control Association, Brookings Institution, and the Atlantic Council, the AP reported. Unmentioned by the AP is that the Ploughshares Fund is financed by billionaire GEORGE SOROS' OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE. The involvement of Ploughshares in selling the Iran agreement to the public was revealed...

The Russian defense minister proposed on Friday that Russia and the U.S.-led coalition launch joint action against al-Qaida's branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front. A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said no agreement on such action has been made with Russia. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow had proposed to Washington that the coalition call on all factions eager to abide by a cease-fire in Syria to leave the areas where the al-Qaida branch is active by May 25. Then Russia and the U.S.-led coalition could conduct joint strikes against the Nusra Front and any other...

The northern prison where authorities suddenly transferred convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is rated as the worst in Mexico’s federal penitentiary system for inmate conditions and other factors, according to the government’s own reporting. The Cefereso No. 9 facility on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez, which borders El Paso, Texas, did score well on “conditions of governability,” perhaps an indication that authorities believe they can control Guzmán’s environment there and limit the risk of him pulling off a third brazen jailbreak. But Michael Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, questioned the...

(Trump) used the term "lightweight" to describe Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., once in the presidential race, and suggested former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another former rival, was still licking his wounds from the vicious campaign. The party's 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, Trump said, "blew the election" that year and never even thanked Trump for his work on Romney's behalf. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 nominee, said it would take a lot for him to ever stand on stage next to Trump, even though McCain has agreed to support the party's nominee.

In light of Ben Rhodes' revelation over the weekend that he led a White House effort to lie about the Iranian nuclear deal, it is useful to look back at last summer, when the White House attacked the Associated Press and its diplomatic reporter, @APDiplowriter (Matt Lee) for asking too many questions about the deal, particularly about the side agreement that allows the Iranians to 'self-inspect' their weapons production facility at Parchin. What this story is really about is the politicization of expertise, and how far things can go when one group of experts (arms controllers) decides to fight...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands are expected to rally in cities across the United States on Sunday for immigrant and worker rights and against what they see as hateful presidential campaign rhetoric.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he does not think Bernie Sanders has a path to winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Responding to questions at his weekly news conference Reid declined to suggest Sanders should drop out or cede the ground to Hillary Clinton, who’s expected to post a strong showing in primaries Tuesday in Maryland, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. …

As his top aides spent the week gingerly courting Republican insiders at a seaside resort in Florida, Donald Trump was busy railing against them. "The system is all rigged," Trump told supporters at a rally Friday at the Delaware State Fairgrounds ahead of the GOP primary. "That's why we have to win big. That's why on Tuesday, everyone has to go out and vote. We have to win big because the system is rigged."

The Associated Press is out with new polling pitting Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Donald Trump. Clinton beats Trump in every category among the general electorate, including on the questions of who is best to create jobs, who is better on international trade and who can "Make America Great Again," which of course is Trump's campaign slogan. First, the criteria:

California and New York — where almost 1 in 5 Americans live — are on their way to raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the activists who spearheaded those efforts are now setting their sights on other similarly liberal, Democratic-led states. Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington are among the states with active “Fight for $15” efforts, and even economic experts who oppose the increased rate see it gaining momentum. “There is lots of pressure to do this,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who is now president of...

The Associated Press news agency cooperated with the Nazi regime during the 1930s, a German historian has exposed. In an article for the Studies in Contemporary History journal, historian Harriet Scharnberg revealed archival material which detailed how AP struck a deal with Adolf Hitler’s regime for access inside Nazi-ruled Germany. In return for that exclusive access — by 1935 all other international news agencies had been forced to leave Germany — AP signed up to what was known as the Schriftleitergesetz, or editor’s law, which meant the New York-based agency pledged to toe the Nazi party line and not publish...

Layers of editors and fact-checkers at the Columbus (OH) Dispatch and others involved in its production "somehow" failed to detect the creation of an obviously false caption to a campaign rally photo of Donald Trump taken by a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer. The photo, taken on Friday at Trump's St. Louis appearance by the Post-Dispatch's David Carson, had the following caption, apparently added surreptitiously, when it appeared in print at the Columbus Dispatch: "Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally in St. Louis. He was scheduled to go to Chicago for a rally, but canceled as his supporters became violent."  If any press...