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California is known for many things and sadly, air pollution is one of them. According to the American Lung Association's annual list of smoggiest cities in the U.S., eight of the top ten are in California. Phoenix and New York City round out the top ten. The Los Angeles-Long Beach area takes the top spot for worst air pollution, as it has for the nearly 19 years the report has been issued. Bakersfield is a close second, while Visalia, Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego and Modesto are also on the list. Los Angeles ranked #1 for high ozone days out of...

Starbucks coffee shop managers will have trainings for combating "unconscious bias," its CEO said Monday, after police arrested two black men at a Philadelphia branch of the chain. "I'll say the circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome at our store on Thursday were reprehensible," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson told ABC News on Monday. Johnson added that the incident called for "more training that we're going to do with our store managers, not only around the guidelines but training around unconscious bias." Witnesses posted a video to Twitter on Thursday of two black men escorted out of a Philadelphia Starbucks...

The Newport Beach city council voted unanimously earlier this week to challenge California's sanctuary law, joining a dozen other cities that are not interested in complying with the sanctuary policies. It's the third city in the past two days to take such action, joining about a dozen others in recent weeks.

Want a view of the Space Needle? A group of homeless people built a tent "mansion" in a small patch of grass between Third Avenue and Broad Street. It's a half a block from Seattle's most famous tourist attraction and surrounded by multi-million dollar high-rise condos. "We've got the doors, the couch, the table," said Melissa Burns. She's currently living in the new camp. "We've got the living room here, which is a mess right now because we're still constructing, but we're puttin' up the vinyl to cover it up, make it more attractive." (I mean, you got to keep...

Hundreds of additional police officers have been deployed on the streets of London this weekend in areas of the capital worst affected by the spike in violent crime. It comes as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan promised more arrests and backed increasing the use of intelligence-led stop and search by police, insisting keeping Londoners safe is his “top priority”. Mr Khan has also invited Home Secretary Amber Rudd and London MPs to a summit at City Hall next week to discuss new measures for tackling the violence. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has insisted the force has “not lost control”...

The NYPD received multiple reports Wednesday of a man walking through Crown Heights, Brooklyn pointing what appeared to be a handgun at people. Five officers responded to the 911 calls. As NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan described the situation when they approached Saheed Vassell . . . “The suspect took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform.”Four of the officers sent a total of ten rounds at Vassell, killing him. The silver thing he’d been holding turned out to be a pipe with a knob on one...

A Sacramento, Calif., area home is up for sale, but it comes with a catch. The homeowner has a political preference in mind for the next owner of her house, which has been in her family for decades. "She entertained people from all walks of life," said the homeowner who asked we not use her name for fear of retaliation. "I told her [the realtor] that I didn't want her to sell it to a Trump supporter," said the woman. She wants a sale contingent upon how someone votes, but is that legal?

Pair green-lighted by NY Catholic leadersNEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) - New York's Catholic leaders marked the city's 257th St. Patrick's Day Parade by spotlighting openly gay marchers, chief among them, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland. The prime minister and his boyfriend helped lead the parade, marching alongside Governor Andrew Cuomo and Congressman Peter King, both self-described Catholics. Varadkar hailed the significance of the event. "It was a real privilege to march with my partner at this parade in New York," he said after the parade. "Only a few years ago, people couldn't march under the rainbow banner but that has...

Explaining why he is moving his influential investment firm from the Silicon Valley, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel says it’s one thing for a culture to be “quite liberal” and another for it to be “totalitarian.” Thiel, a cofounder of PayPal and an early Facebook investor, was virtually alone among his colleagues as one of President Trump’s biggest supporters in 2016. He acknowledged in an interview Friday with the Fox Business Network that he “got heat” for his stance. “Fault Line: How a Seismic Shift in Culture is Threatening Free Speech” is available now at the WND Superstore. Thiel,...

Republican leadership is going to fund sanctuary cities in the must-pass spending bill next week, giving Democrats a huge victory while simultaneously undercutting conservatives who put them in power, a senior GOP aide told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “House and Senate leadership has rolled over and played dead on border security. When it comes to a border wall, they say it is not our problem. When it comes to funding sanctuary cities, they say it is not our problem. What they are essentially saying is we are going to pass bills with more Democrats than Republicans,” the aide told...

Denver City Councilman Rafael Espinoza's call for an investigation over improper texts that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock sent to Denver police detective Leslie Branch-Wise when she was a member of his security detail circa 2011-2012 is not being echoed by other members of the panel. The Denver City Council has now issued a joint statement that essentially shrugs off the need for such an inquiry while calling for greater transparency related to any assertions of sexual harassment by officials. Yet the information that led to this decision was dispensed at a closed-door meeting, during executive session

Fort Lauderdale has elected its first openly gay mayor.... ...Dean Trantalis, 64, a Wilton Manors attorney, defeated Bruce Roberts, 70, the city’s former police chief, to replace longtime mayor Jack Seiler, who could not run because of term limits. Trantalis will be the city’s first openly gay mayor....

Denver City Councilman Rafael Espinoza has asked for an independent investigation of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock following his video apology for sending inappropriate texts to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise in 2011 and 2012, when she was on his security detail. But the controversy has also sparked renewed interest in stories from that same period suggesting that Hancock had been a client of the Denver Players/Denver Sugar prostitution ring, originally headed by former professional skier Scottie Ewing.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - So much for freedom of assembly. Following an outcry from Staten Island Democratic elected officials, the annual Friends of the NRA fundraiser at the Vanderbilt restaurant in South Beach has been cancelled. Because that's how we conduct debate about important issues here: We shout down the viewpoints that we don't agree with. We don't let people we disagree with even gather. We've seen much the same from the left on college campuses, where protestors have rioted in order to shut down speeches by conservatives. It's two Constitutional amendments that get denigrated here with the NRA cancellation:...

A controversy is brewing at a coffee shop in Oakland, where police officer are not welcome. The business, called Hasta Muerte Coffee, will not serve officers in uniform and turned away an officer a few weeks ago. The shop is an employee-owned co-op. Workers at Hasta Muerte did not respond to requests for comment on the policy to refuse service to police officers. But on the shop’s Instagram account, there's a photo posted with text that reads in Spanish: "Talk to your neighbors, not the police." The post continues about an exchange with a uniformed police officer on Feb. 16,...

The new owner of the Playboy Mansion has agreed to maintain the facade in its original condition under an agreement with the city of Los Angeles. Daren Metropoulos entered into a permanent protection covenant for the 5-acre (2-hectare) property he bought for $100 million. He agreed to not demolish the 20,000-square-foot (1858-sq. meter) main residence as he proceeds with plans to connect the mansion and its grounds to his 2-acre plot next door. The deal, announced Tuesday by Councilman Paul Koretz, will remain in effect for future owners. City News Service says the designation stops short of giving the building...

Sessions spoke at an event for California law enforcement and a day after the Justice Department announced it was filing a lawsuit against the “sanctuary city” state over three pieces of legislation that it said interferes with federal immigration policy. ~~~~~~~~~ Sessions said that while America admits the highest number of legal immigrants in the world, the American people deserve a legal, rational immigration system that protects the nation and preserves the national interest. “It cannot be the policy of a great nation to reward those who unlawfully enter its country with legal status, Social Security, welfare, food stamps, and...

Seattle police first in state to seize gun under mental health law by Joel MorenoSaturday, March 3rd 2018 SEATTLE – The city’s police department became the first law enforcement agency in the state to force the surrender of a firearm under a new law known as an “extreme risk protection order.” The incident involves a man who lives in Belltown, who neighbors said had been intimidating people for the past year - even staring-down customers through store-front windows with a gun holstered at his side. Mental illness is suspected, but that new law allowed police to legally disarm him. “He...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is coming to Sacramento on Wednesday morning to make a "major sanctuary jurisdiction announcement," officials with the Department of Justice released Tuesday. The announcement will be happening at the 26th annual Law Enforcement Legislative Day hosted by the California Peace Officers' Association at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel next to the Golden 1 Center. Sessions' appearance in Sacramento comes a week after more than 150 people were arrested in California for being in the country illegally during a three-day sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. About half of those arrested for...

Rising Democratic star Megan Barry is expected to resign as Mayor of Nashville at a hastily scheduled press conference that will be held at Nashville City Hall at 10 a.m. central on Tuesday, according to The Tennessean and other local media outlets. Barry admitted on January 31 that she had a two-year-long affair with her bodyguard, former Metro Nashville Police Department Sgt. Rob Forrest, as Breitbart News reported: