Free Republic

About 75 community members and clergy leaders clogged San Rafael's Canal district sidewalks at dawn Friday to offer solidarity for the community - with plans to continue morning protests until the immigration raids which began this week are stopped. Protesters gathered at the Country Club Bowling Alley on Vivian Street at 5 a.m. Friday, many with candles in hand, and dispersed to various intersections throughout the neighborhood for a three-hour morning vigil in support of immigrants in the Canal neighborhood. Marinwood resident Bob Owen, 67, who arrived at 5 a.m. with his wife Jill, said he was moved by the...

President Bush survived an impeachment hearing this week at a meeting of the Lagunitas School Board. The board voted 2-1 in favor of impeaching Bush, but Trustee Suzi Giacomini abstained and, according to the rules of order, that equated to a "no" vote, deadlocking the panel. Trustee Richard Sloan said he would likely bring it back for another vote after a new trustee is appointed to fill an open seat vacated by Kelly O'Conner. Sloan said the school district needed to take on the issue because board members swear to uphold and protect the Constitution. "I consider George Bush to...

A wild turkey crashed through the window of the school counselors' office at Novato High School on Monday morning, startling school employees. "I thought it was a bomb," said office manager Lillian Rincon, who called police after the turkey broke in at about 10:15 a.m. "It was so loud. I said, 'Oh my God,' ducked under my desk and dialed 911. I had no idea what was going on, until I heard someone saying 'It's a turkey! It's a turkey!' " After bursting through the window, the turkey bolted through the school offices, finally coming to rest in the office...

Mary McGill stopped by the California Highway Patrol office in Corte Madera on Wednesday to pick up an accident report about a crash in which she had been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Instead, the 45-year-old Corte Madera woman was arrested once again - on suspicion of drunken driving. CHP officer Ross Ingels said McGill was taken into custody at the CHP office, at 53 San Clemente Drive, after officers smelled alcohol and recognized other signs of intoxication, including slurred speech. She failed a sobriety test after having driven her 1995 BMW to the CHP office, police said. Ingels...

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know. WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction. WHEN? Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd, at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose. WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy ( a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against...

Bundles containing 1,200 marijuana plants cut down by narcotics agents hours earlier were stolen - possibly by the illicit growers - from a site on the Mount Tamalpais watershed in the middle of the night, water district officials said Friday. The stolen haul, part of 20,000 plants discovered at several West Marin pot gardens earlier in the week, was valued at roughly $3 million, according to estimates by narcotics agents. "It was overnight on Tuesday when the plants were taken," said Paul Helliker, general manager of the Marin Municipal Water District. "Apparently some of the growers returned." Disclosure of the...

These photos were taken at the "Stop the U.S.-Israeli War" rally in San Francisco on August 12, 2006. It was one of several similar rallies held around the country on the same day.

ONTARIO - The City Council is looking for ways to limit public comment after council members said one speaker's remarks at this week's meeting went too far. When Pastor John Sabbath, of Liv in Christ Christian Center, got up to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, he said he was placing a curse on City Manager Greg Devereaux, Devereaux's wife and his family. His comments were interrupted by Devereaux, and then Mayor Paul Leon admonished the pastor, as did Councilman Jason Anderson. "It touched a nerve for me," Anderson said in a later interview. "Not that criticism...

The principal of San Rafael High School said the school is doing everything it can to protect more than 1,000 students who attend classes there. Principal Judith Colton fielded inquiries from the media Tuesday, a little more than 24 hours after a 15-year-old San Rafael High freshman was allegedly raped on campus as she arrived late for classes Monday morning. Colton said the campus is outfitted with 20 surveillance cameras and has two full-time security supervisors. In addition, the San Rafael Police Department assigns two officers to work with the schools full time, but they travel among all the city's...

"Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances." --U.S. Constitution, First Amendment The people's rights are never in greater jeopardy than when Congress is seized by one of its periodic spasms of reform. As we witnessed with so-called "campaign finance reform," such efforts typically do little to address real issues, but instead result in a further increase of government power and concomitant loss of freedom among the citizenry. Such reform hysterics are intended mostly to political effect, to implant...

AP) INDIO Authorities seized 31 pounds of black-tar heroin in a bust that one official said was so big it looked like something out of a movie. "In 34 years, I've never seen this large of a heroin seizure," Riverside County Assistant Sheriff John Boyd said after a news conference Thursday. The seizure on Tuesday followed a seven-month operation in the Coachella Valley involving the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Palm Springs and Indio police departments. Agents estimated the heroin's street value at $1.3 million. It was enough for 140,000 to 280,000 doses, said Stephen...

If this dates me, so be it! My grandparents used to refer to Prince Charles when he was a baby as "Bonnie Prince Charlie," as did many others. When I heard Prince Charles was coming to the town of Pt. Reyes Station with his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, I thought "Wow!" what an honor. The week before the Prince arrived, the town was abuzz with the Secret Service, both Brits and American "Men in Black," tramping all over, inside buildings, on roofs, and measuring our streets and sidewalks. When the week before the Prince came to town, the...

LONDON (eTurboNews) -- The aviation industry body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has attacked the proposed introduction by France of an airfare surcharge to help world poverty. IATA says the development tax on aviation is misguided, and France should address the real problems of trade barriers with developing countries. The proposal from President Jacques Chirac is to impose a levy of one euro (US$1.18) on all economy air tickets and ten euros (US$11.78) in business and first class. The French government hopes to generate over 200 million euros (US$236 million) a year to fund development aid and fight global...

WASHINGTON, November 3 -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) said today that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) proposal to allow foreign control of U.S. airlines is a blatant attempt to circumvent the law that the DOT has been unable to convince Congress to change. Less than two years ago Congress made its statutory ban on foreign control even more restrictive by forbidding any "actual control" of U.S. airlines by foreign citizens. Nonetheless, DOT is attempting to gut the definition of "actual control" despite the clear Congressional intent to bolster it and to ensure only U.S. citizens can control U.S. airlines....

BEIJING, China (eTurboNews) -- China announced the world’s highest railway line, which links Lhasa in Tibet to Gormo in Qinghai province in China, will soon be ready to give passengers that “top-of-the world journey.” To be in operations by next year, China said the railway will start carrying passengers and spurring trade and investments as part of the government’s efforts to develop the poor west and bind the restive region in China’s interior. Work started for the railway line in June 2001, but was suspended twice, in 2002 and 2003, to allow migration of Tibetan antelopes and snow leopards from...

Join us for this spectacular two day family fun event featuring the Blue Angels, a parade of Navy ships, and more... Starts Friday Oct. 7 - this year, for the first time, air races have been added. FREE! View from Marina Green or Crissy Field.

The number of Americans traveling to Cuba has fallen dramatically since 2003, and those who do visit the island without their government's permission are more likely to be fined, Cuba said as it lashed out against a decades-old U.S. embargo. Vice Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla lamented the effects of the embargo, which has been steadily strengthened under President Bush and prohibits virtually all trade between the two countries except for the sale of some U.S. food and medicine to the communist-run island. "We are talking about an economic war against our country," Rodriguez said Tuesday. "It is unfounded, unfair,...

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey's (ULTRALIB-CA) poll question: "Do you support the Administration's plan to keep troops in Iraq for "as long as it takes?"

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill by Assemblyman Joe Nation yesterday that would have required people who are paid for gathering initiative signatures to wear a badge. "I am dismayed the governor decided to veto a voter-oriented, good government piece of legislation," said Nation, D-San Rafael. "However, I understand this bill would have adversely affected his govern-by-initiative approach by forcing paid signature gatherers to reveal their true identity to voters." Schwarzenegger has called for a special election in November and is backing three initiatives that will be on the ballot. Proposition 74 would increase the time required before a teacher...

The Port of Los Angeles will get $11.4 million in federal grants to help upgrade security. The Port Security Grant Program was designed to address key national priorities by helping to protect ports against small craft, underwater attacks and vehicle-born improvised explosive devices. The program also funds measures to enhance explosive detection capabilities aboard passenger vessels and associated facilities. Of the 36 port areas nationwide that will receive grant funding, four ports in the state of California received awards totaling $33.6 million.