Free Republic

OAKLAND -- A protest over the fatal shooting by a BART police officer of an unarmed man mushroomed into a violent confrontation Wednesday evening, with a faction of protesters smashing a police car and blocking streets in downtown Oakland. The protest started peacefully shortly after 3 p.m. at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland, where BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward to death early New Year's Day. BART shut down the station well into the evening commute, although the demonstration there was peaceful.] However, shortly after nightfall, a group of roughly 200 protesters split off and...

Berkeley’s latest tree-sit ended almost before it began when the lone remaining branch-percher descended to earth Tuesday morning, followed by two acacias a few hours later. Campus community relations director Irene Hegarty said that only one of the two tree-sitters who took to the branches was still aloft when community members talked him down. “He walked away, though he was cited and released for trespassing by university police a couple of blocks away,” she said. Arborists made short work of the trees, leaving five or six five-foot logs and a pile of wood chips for use at the park. “They...

Richmond city leaders are hunting for $1.5 million a year over the next two years to help bail out the West Contra Costa school district from its financial hole and keep Richmond schools from closing. The money would buy the district more time to lobby state and federal officials to forgive its debt, or to persuade voters to pay higher taxes to keep neighborhood schools with low enrollment open, city officials said. City Councilwoman Maria Viramontes said the district must find a long-term solution to its problem, not just apply bandages. With Richmond willing to pitch in, school district officials...

When the city of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy last year, it made national news. Among claimed reasons for this financial debacle was, as usual, Proposition 13. Same urban myth, different city. Recall that Proposition 13 was also blamed when Orange County went bankrupt, in spite of clearly documented evidence of the Orange County treasurer's criminal wrongdoing and the fact that he used an astrologer to assist him in making investments. In some quarters, it is always Proposition 13's fault when government runs short of money. Nor is Proposition 13 culpable in Vallejo's budget shortfall. During more prosperous times, Vallejo promised...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2009 – A Disney vacation just got more affordable. Naval officers Lt. James Corbett and Lt. Cmdr. Erin Duffy take a whirl on Cinderella's Golden Carrousel with daughters Maggie, left, 5, and Aoife, 8 months, and son Dessie, 2. Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Co.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. With the “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute” offer, active and retired U.S. military personnel, including active members of the United States Coast Guard and activated members of the National Guard or Reserves, can enjoy complimentary, multi-day admission into Disney’s U.S. theme parks, and additional special ticket...

Declaring it was time to "turn the page," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that negotiations over the state's dismal budget mess will have to focus on the "four-legged" proposal his administration unveiled last week."I've had wonderful negotiations (with legislative leaders)," the governor told reporters. "We've worked very hard throughout Christmas and New Years ... we did everything we could, but time ran out and we fell short."Instead of working from the proposal he made early last month to close the state's gaping $40-billion deficit, or the Democratic plan he vetoed Tuesday, Schwarzenegger said he would focus on the budget proposal...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Democrats the cold shoulder as he grew convinced he can somehow win Republican support for a midyear budget deal that includes tax hikes, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday. The Democratic Senate leader said he and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass came just shy of closing a budget deal Sunday that would have reduced the state's estimated $40 billion deficit by $17 billion over the next 17-plus months. But Steinberg said in subsequent talks the governor spurned their offer with an eye toward reaching a bipartisan agreement with support from anti-tax Republicans instead of working...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deficit-closing plan to temporarily raise sales taxes by 1.5 cents on the dollar has drawn predictable howls of protest from the right. Now the left has weighed in with equal disgust. Peace and Freedom Party state Chairman Kevin Akin calls the plan a "savage attack on working people." Instead, Akin says, raise income taxes on "the richest 1 percent" and eliminate the sales tax.

"A once-timid group of social outcasts is emerging from the shadows in Hollywood. If the past year is any indication, Tinseltown may have to get accustomed to the loud presence of a growing minority..." This is great! Maybe we'll see some more conservative movies like "AN AMerican Carol", and the culture will become more conservative, that is, if these actors speak clearly about conservatism. We all know how people, especially my age 13-20 are engrossed with Hollywood nonsense BS. Let's go Conservatism!!!!

A federal appeals court Tuesday reinstated the murder conviction of a man who was caught up in a cult conspiracy known as Pendragon that aimed at a paramilitary takeover of Marin County in 1982. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a decision in which a federal judge in 2007 overturned the 1984 Marin County Superior Court conviction of Crossan Hoover, 43, for the murder of antique car restorer Richard Baldwin of San Rafael. Hoover was 17 when he killed Baldwin, 39, by hitting him with a baseball bat and stabbing him with a screwdriver and...

The AP is reporting that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Rules Committee, says the Senate should seat former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. Feinstein said late today that, while Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is tainted by corruption charges, he still has the right to appoint someone to President-elect Barack Obama's former seat. The Rules Committee which she chairs decides whether Burris is qualified to serve. Feinstein said that blocking Burris would have ramifications for other governors' appointments.

The treesitters are back on UC Berkeley’s turf, this time occupying the branches of an acacia at People’s Park. Two protesters declared their occupation Monday morning of one of two People’s Park acacias that the university plans to chop down. Unlike the Memorial Stadium treesit, which ended in September with the demolition of a venerable oak grove, the People’s Park protest wasn’t sparked by construction. While the university wanted to clear the stadium grove to make way for a four-level high tech gym and office complex, UC Berkeley spokesperson Irene Hegarty says safety concerns have prompted plans to remove the...

In a conference call with The Bee's editorial board this afternoon, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg explained why a promising budget deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger blew up today. Steinberg said that he and governor were close to resolving differences over the governor's economic stimulus proposals and budget cuts. That wasn't the big holdup, Steinberg said. Instead, he suggested, the governor was getting "cold feet" on a plan by Democrats to raise taxes and fees without a two-thirds vote by lawmakers. Here's his full comment: Between Sunday night and Monday, something else occurred unrelated to the specifics of the issues. It...

SACRAMENTO -- Democratic leaders of the state Legislature, deadlocked with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over how to solve California's growing fiscal crisis, sent the governor their $18 billion budget package today despite his vow to veto the bills. Schwarzenegger followed through with his promise, immediately rejecting the bills and sending the Legislature back to square one with the state bleeding revenue and expected to run short of cash to pay its bills as early as next month."It was wishful thinking on (the Democrats') part," said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger. "The governor said three weeks ago that he would veto...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California has nearly $44 billion in infrastructure projects ready to start and capable of creating nearly 800,000 jobs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told President-elect Barack Obama in a letter on Tuesday in which he urged a "substantial federal stimulus program." Obama officials and Democrats in Congress have been discussing economic stimulus legislation authorizing up to $775 billion over two years to help the U.S. economy recover from recession. Some governors have pressed for around $1 trillion in spending while many Republicans are talking about $500 billion. California, the most populous U.S. state, is suffering from a spike...

SACRAMENTO — A Democratic gambit to generate billions in new tax revenue for the depleted state treasury was on the verge of collapse Tuesday, after legislative leaders declared that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to cut a deal with them on the $18 billion plan. "The governor seems to be getting cold feet," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said at a news conference in the Capitol this afternoon. Earlier in the day, taxpayer groups and Republican lawmakers announced they had filed suit to block the proposal, which both houses of the Legislature approved last month virtually on...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Republican lawmakers and anti-tax groups on Tuesday sued to block an $18 billion Democratic budget package, claiming it included tax increases that were not passed by the required two-thirds majority in the Legislature. The lawsuit was filed in the state's 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento and seeks an immediate injunction. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said the groups want to ensure that lawmakers don't try the same maneuver again. The budget bill, intended to close a widening state deficit, was passed last month by the Democratic-majority Legislature but has not...

Complaining that they already have been hit hard by the ailing economy, many Inland bar owners are upset by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to raise taxes on cocktails, beer and wine purchased at bars. "It's awful," said Paula Jones, owner of Arts Bar & Grill in downtown Riverside. Business has dropped 30 percent the past year, the worst decline Jones has seen in 25 years of owning the bar, she said. The nickel-a-drink tax is part of Schwarzenegger's plan to solve a nearly $40 billion state budget shortfall projected through June 2010. If approved by the Legislature in the coming...

San Francisco: Protesters whip up the crowd at the Israeli Consulate.

Teachers union proposes sales tax to fund schools BURLINGAME — The California Teachers Association has proposed a statewide ballot initiative to raise at least $5 billion a year for public education through a 1-cent sales tax increase. The tax would provide new, ongoing funding for schools and community colleges in a time of continuing budget shortfalls, the Burlingame-based association said. "California's budget process is broken," said David Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member CTA, "and our students and schools are suffering the consequences. More students are being squeezed into already overcrowded classrooms (and) more than 10,000 teachers and education support professionals...

Democratic legislative leaders said Monday that California's $40 billion budget deficit will require the Legislature to sacrifice, but they declined to agree to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal that they cut their budget by 10 percent. The Republican governor last month ordered a 10 percent cut in state employees' salaries through furloughs and proposed the Legislature cut its budget by the same amount. On Monday, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said, "We will certainly do the responsible thing, and we will share the pain." "I don't know what form that will take yet," Steinberg said before meeting with Assembly Speaker...

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing. The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead. "They'll all have to go to the landfill," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of...

Any budget agreement between Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that skirts the state's two-thirds vote requirement for new taxes will almost certainly be challenged in the courts – and there's a significant chance the state would lose, some legal experts said Monday. It's not a slam-dunk case for either side, though, law professors say, because the Legislature is largely moving into uncharted territory with its plans to break the budget stalemate by effectively replacing a tax that is tough to increase with a fee that is much simpler to boost. "The question is, 'What is a tax?' " said Jesse...

Following the lead of cities such as London and Singapore, officials in San Francisco are considering a plan to ease traffic by charging drivers a fee upon entering notoriously clogged sections of the city. Using $1 million in federal funds, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is studying various "congestion-pricing" options. If approved, such pricing would make San Francisco the first U.S. city to charge cars a fee to enter certain neighborhoods at certain times. "I want a San Francisco that is far less congested and far easier to navigate," said a city supervisor, Jake McGoldrick, who has shepherded congestion-pricing...

Just over five years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger swept into power in California, vowing to crush the "spending addicts" responsible for the state's crushing budget deficit and to thwart Sacramento Democrats who saw taxpayers as ATMs. ... Now, however, Schwarzenegger is about to stab California's beleaguered taxpayers in the back. Not only is he poised to support Democrats' push to raise the state's sales tax, income tax and gas taxes to close a budget deficit of about $1 billion a month; he is also expected to go along with a devious legal maneuver that may allow Democrats to impose tax hikes...

Is this “Chinatown” after all? Lawyers for Roman Polanski, who fled the country more than 30 years ago on the eve of sentencing for having sex with a minor, on Monday asked that his case be moved from a Los Angeles justice system that they say is too seriously tainted by its own misdeeds to treat this Oscar-winning filmmaker fairly. The request, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, was the latest twist in an extraordinary bid to have the decades-old case against Mr. Polanski dismissed, despite his status as a fugitive. Although this is happening long after Mr. Polanski...

Meg Whitman fueled speculation that she was readying a run for office of California governor when it became public today that she stepped down last week from several corporate boards she was serving. After retiring from eBay in March, the former President and CEO had stayed on as Special Advisor to the new president and CEO, a role that netted her compensation of up to $1.2 million a year. She terminated that position on December 31 and resigned from the eBay Board of Directors. According to eBay, "Whitman's decision to resign is solely for personal reasons and time considerations and...

OC FReepers, please join me and other conservatives on Wednesday evening for our regular grassroots town hall meeting of the Saddleback Valley Conservatives. Guest speaker is Capistrano Unified School Board member Anna Bryson. Come ready with your questions and feel free to bring all your conservative friends. WHEN: Wednesday, Jan 7th, 6:00-7:30PM WHERE: Rancho Santa Margarita Ford dealership, 30031 Santa Margarita Parkway, zip code 92688. Take Alicia Parkway east all the way to RSM, turn right on Santa Margarita Parkway and head down about a mile. RSM ford is on your left. Also I will be discussing various technology related...

01-05) 18:27 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- State Attorney General Jerry Brown was "profoundly wrong" and "invented an entirely new theory" when he urged the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8's same-sex marriage ban because voters can't be allowed to overturn fundamental liberties, attorneys for the measure said Monday. Brown's reasoning would confer upon the state Supreme Court power it has never had, attorneys Kenneth Starr and Andrew Pugno said in their response to the attorney general's December brief. Brown "is inviting this court to declare a constitutional revolution," the attorneys argued in the 29-page response. "His extra-constitutional vision is...

Congressman-elect Tom McClintock will take the oath of office and be sworn in as the U.S. Representative from California's 4th Congressional District at noon Eastern Standard Time January 6th. A ceremonial swearing in, open to the media, will be held in the Rayburn Room H-207 in the Capitol at 3:15 EST. A reception for constituents and guests will begin at 11:30 a.m. that day in room 508 of the Cannon House Office Building. The District Office, located at 4230 Douglas Boulevard, Suite 200, Granite Bay will open and constituents are welcome to visit and meet the staff.

McClintock to take Oath of Office January 6th Announces Staff Appointments Congressman-elect Tom McClintock will take the oath of office and be sworn in as the U.S. Representative from California's 4th Congressional District at noon Eastern Standard Time January 6th. A ceremonial swearing in, open to the media, will be held in the Rayburn Room H-207 in the Capitol at 3:15 EST. A reception for constituents and guests will begin at 11:30 a.m. that day in room 508 of the Cannon House Office Building. The District Office, located at 4230 Douglas Boulevard, Suite 200, Granite Bay will open and constituents...

Another wave of legal arguments hit the California Supreme Court on Monday in the battle over Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage. Local governments, led by San Francisco and Santa Clara County, filed their latest opposition papers to Proposition 8, describing the voter-approved initiative as a "dark moment'' in California history. The brief is an attempt to refute the legal arguments of Proposition 8 backers as the Supreme Court weighs a challenge from government officials, civil rights groups and same-sex couples who are seeking the right to marry. The San Francisco brief sides with the unique argument raised in December...

You wouldn't know it from the rhetoric that's blasting out of Sacramento right now, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are inching closer toward compromise. The governor's latest budget plan, released on New Year's Eve, offers concessions to both Democrats and Republicans. If they're sensible, over the next few weeks legislators will find enough flexibility to finish their work on a solution the state desperately needs. Otherwise, state Controller John Chiang said that he will have to start paying California's bills with IOUs in February. The governor's latest plan would close the $40 billion budget deficit over the course...

Majority settle in east, which caters to growing Middle Eastern population San Diego County has long been a haven for Iraqi refugees, most recently for a record wave of new arrivals. The 2,356 Iraqis, mostly Chaldean Catholics and other Christian refugees, who arrived in the region last fiscal year are part of a nationwide program to resettle refugees from the war-torn country. It is the largest number of Iraqi refugees who have arrived in San Diego County during a single year. An additional 3,600 are expected this year. Many of the newcomers are refugees like Salah Saour, 45, an engineer...

2:40 PM todayNew Meg Whitman quits P&G board, mulls run for Calif. gov: WSJ - MarketWatch 1 minute ago Meg Whitman quits P&G board, mulls run for Calif. gov: WSJ - MarketWatch

Schwarzenegger's Failure You can’t really argue with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political success. In 2002 the California Republican Party, still suffering from the anti-immigrant fervor cooked up by former Gov. Pete Wilson, failed to win any statewide offices for the first time since 1882. Yet just one year later Schwarzenegger led a recall effort against the fiscally reckless and managerially incompetent Democratic governor, Gray Davis, beating out the nearest Democratic challenger for the newly vacated position by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Even as Republicans nationwide took a drubbing in the 2006 elections, losing both houses of Congress and...

The Legislature officially reconvenes today after the holidays. The budget's still pretty much the only game in town. In fact, one agency -- Cal-EPA -- is planning to shut its offices on the first and third Fridays of each month to comply with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order on furloughs, The State Worker blog reports. Finance Director Mike Genest stood in for Schwarzenegger on New Year's Eve when he unveiled the guv's latest budget proposal. . . . Like Schwarzenegger before him, he also used words like "fiscal Armageddon." "Our situation is dire," Genest said. "California runs out of cash in...

A generation ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown's conscientious stand against the death penalty prompted a revolt in the Legislature and eventually spurred voters to throw out his appointee as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. Now the 70-year-old attorney general and would-be 2010 gubernatorial candidate is stirring a new storm by his legal challenge to voters' approval of a measure banning gay marriage in California. It's a move that could pay political dividends in a June 2010 Democratic primary against another likely gubernatorial candidate, San Francisco mayor and gay marriage champion Gavin Newsom. After initially indicating his office would defend...

A Catholic church in San Francisco was defaced with spray-painted graffiti depictions of swastikas overnight, police said Sunday. A Most Holy Redeemer Church employee reported the incident at about 6:30 a.m. at 100 Diamond St., Lt. Neville Gittens said. The employee told police that when he left the night before, the church had not been defaced, Gittens said. Police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime.

More than 200 O.C. social service workers will be getting pink slips Monday, as county officials are forced to trim $30 million The layoffs, now expected to affect 213 workers at Orange County's Social Services Agency Workers are in an uproar because they said that with the economic crisis, now is when they are needed the most.

President Bush once remarked at a White House party that in the famously liberal enclave of San Francisco, his supporters were so rare that "you could probably fit them all in one room." He wasn't exaggerating, and he would do little to alter his standing. He never once set foot in San Francisco during his two terms, and he was hardly much chummier with California as a whole, the nation's most populous state and the world's eighth-largest economy. The 43rd president's legacy in the Golden State, according to the unsparing assessment of Democratic consultant Phil Trounstine, is "zilch." "He regarded...

The Obama transition team was aware of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's relationship with the firm currently being investigated, CDR Financial Products, because Richardson had introduced the firm's founder, David Rubin, to Obama fundraisers during the Democrat convention in Denver last August. Richardson withdrew his name from nomination for Commerce Secretary due to a grand jury investigation into possible financial dealings between his New Mexico administration and Rubin's firm, CDR Financial. But it isn't just Obama and Richardson that Rubin has ties to. According to federal law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, federal officials are also looking into CDR's...

A massive earth-moving project is transforming Smuggler's Gulch near San Diego from a narrow canyon used by cattle thieves, bandits and illegal immigrants into a plugged breach. Reporting from San Diego -- Smuggler's Gulch lived up to its infamous name. For a century, the narrow canyon leading into California from Mexico provided cover for cattle thieves and opium dealers, bandits and booze runners. More recently, it has hidden thousands of illegal immigrants on their journey north, sealing its place in border lore. Now, it's a fading memory. The canyon has been all but wiped off the landscape, its steep walls...

Millions of Californians with limited English proficiency now have the right to an interpreter from their commercial health and dental plans – made possible by a first-in-the-nation law aimed at dismantling the language barriers that get in the way of good medicine. The new regulation – implemented New Year's Day after five years of hearings, delays and wrangling among insurance companies, regulators and consumer advocates – is widely hailed as a milestone in reducing mistakes because of miscommunication. "This is really huge, especially in California where we're getting more and more diverse," said Martin Martinez, policy director for the California...

The 110th U.S. Congress has formally adjourned for the year without a conclusion to an ethics probe of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, contrary to a November prediction by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi... Rangel, D-N.Y., is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee in at least four areas, including his reported failure to properly report income taxes on a Caribbean villa in the Dominican Republic; use of four, rent-controlled apartments in Harlem; questions about an off-shore firm asking Rangel for special tax exemptions; and whether Rangel improperly used House stationary to solicit donations for a school of...

Oakland -- BART's police chief asked for patience from the public on Sunday after video footage surfaced showing one of his officers fatally shooting an unarmed man who was on the ground on a station platform on New Year's Day, and after an attorney for the dead man's family said he planned to sue the transit agency for $25 million. Chief Gary Gee said he, too, had seen video images of the shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward. But Gee said he found the footage to be inconclusive, and he said his investigators still needed to...

DANA POINT – Three groups clashed in verbal protest over immigration as they lined the streets of Doheny Park Road in Capistrano Beach Saturday. Members of the anti-illegal immigration Minuteman Project demonstrated with flags in a group of more than 20 at an informal day laborer pick-up site near Ganahl Lumber. About a dozen day workers at the site then moved north along the road to get work while trying to steer clear of the antagonistic shouting between flag-waving Minutemen and about five anti-Minutemen protesters.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a price. If he is going to give up the no-new-taxes stance on which he staked his 2006 re-election campaign, he says, Democrats must agree to shove aside environmental rules for 11 highway projects and let private investors and builders play a larger role in state construction. Schwarzenegger has long believed that higher taxes damage the economy; he said in 2006 it would be the "worst thing" to do. Now, facing a $40 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months, he says he is willing to bend if the state can offset the...

With a limited amount of money, officials across the U.S. are zeroing in on the neediest areas. Los Angeles is expected to get nearly $33 million. ___ Terry Ware, head of Denver's housing and neighborhood development office, is a man under siege. The city is due to receive $6 million under an unusual federal program to help cities and counties deal with abandoned properties. Not surprisingly, there are many people in town who want help. Representatives of several neighborhoods have pleaded for the funds to go toward cleaning up blighted houses that are dragging down property values. Homeowners struggling to...

Recently there has been some national media coverage regarding a report submitted to Congress from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The report lists over 11,300 ‘ready to go’ projects from 421 cities, including Hercules. The media has chosen to focus on a few projects such as parks, exhibits and art pieces in an attempt to make their news stories more controversial. The media has classified these projects as ‘pork’ and while we are honored they would recognize our wonderful community, they have failed to address the larger issue and purpose of the report. Each project listed includes an estimate for...