Free Republic

2010 California Governor: Brown 41%, Whitman 41% State Attorney General Jerry Brown is the only major Democrat still running for governor of California next year, and now he’s tied with Republican hopeful Meg Whitman at 41% each in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state. Three percent (3%) of California voters favor some other gubernatorial candidate, and 14% are undecided. In late September, Brown was ahead 44% to 35% in a hypothetical match-up with former eBay executive Whitman.

Customs Agents Foil Suspected Reptile Smuggler At LAX November 20, 2009 In an apparently cold-blooded attempt at smuggling, a Lomita man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport this week with more than a dozen wriggling lizards strapped to his chest. Michael Plank, 40, was detained by U.S. Customs agents after they discovered 15 live lizards stuffed into his money belt, officials with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said Friday. Plank was returning from Australia on Tuesday when agents found two geckos, 11 skinks and two monitor lizards in his possession. Australian reptiles are strictly regulated, and Plank didn’t...

Porn Mogul's Son To Be Tried In Girlfriend's Death The Associated Press Nov. 20, 2009 SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- The son of a late San Francisco pornography mogul will stand trial on accusations that he crushed his ex-girlfriend's skull with a baseball bat. Marin County Judge Kelly Simmons ruled Thursday the evidence was sufficient to put 27-year-old James Raphael Mitchell on trial for first-degree murder in the July 12 bludgeoning death of Danielle Keller. Mitchell is the son of the late "Behind the Green Door" director Jim Mitchell. Simmons' decision followed a preliminary hearing that included testimony from James Mitchell's...

A teenage boy pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to fatally shooting Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas during a robbery attempt at the U.S.-Mexico border. Christian Daniel Castro-Alvarez, 17, admitted to illegally crossing into the United States near Campo with a group of others July 23 and luring Rosas from his patrol vehicle to rob him, according to the plea agreement.

Climate Change: As scientists confirm the earth has not warmed at all in the past decade, others wonder how this could be and what it means for Copenhagen. Maybe Al Gore can Photoshop something before December. It will be a very cold winter of discontent for the warm-mongers. The climate show-and-tell in Copenhagen next month will be nothing more than a meaningless carbon-emitting jaunt, unable to decide just whom to blame or how to divvy up the profitable spoils of climate change hysteria. The collapse of the talks coupled with the decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put...

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art saw its investment portfolio lose nearly a quarter of its value during its 2008-09 fiscal year, which coincided with the worst worldwide financial debacle since the Great Depression. The $254.7-million pile of cash and investments shrank to $196 million, a 23% drop, according to figures in the audited financial statements that LACMA recently posted on its website. The most worrisome development for LACMA -- as for many nonprofits -- has been the recession's effect on fundraising. In 2007-08, it raked in gifts and pledges totaling $129.7 million, most of it for the museum's...

Bay Area Not Maverick Enough To Read Palin Book Steve Rubenstein November 19, 2009 It might as well have cooties. Hardly anyone wants to touch the thing, or even get close to it. The new autobiography by moose hunter and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is harder to find in the Bay Area than a hockey mom. Some bookstores figure it's one of those grit-your-teeth First Amendment deals that principled booksellers must put up with from time to time. But many nonchain bookstores won't handle it. "Our customers are thinking people," said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell announced today he's passed the $1 million mark in fundraising, nearly doubling what he had raised by the end of June. The former congressman has largely been seen as an experienced but poorly funded challenger to his two GOP opponents, wealthy former Silicon Valley CEOs Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, who are spending much of their own wealth on their candidacies. Whitman has already given $19 million to her own campaign.

SNIPPET: "ONTARIO, Calif. -- State lawmakers are holding a hearing today in Ontario to discuss the rise in the number of criminal gangs using networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Officials say the hearing entitled "Gangs 2.0: The Emerging Threat of Cyberthugs" will explore the use of social networking tools in gang recruitment and gang-related crime. Assembly majority leader Alberto Torrico, and attorney general candidate, says gang members both in and out of prison are making more use of technology."

The FBI and local law enforcement agencies are seeking the public’s assistance to identify an unknown male bank robber who has been named the “Geezer Bandit.” The “Geezer Bandit” is believed responsible for robbing five banks in San Diego County. Three different rewards, totaling $16,000 are being offered for information leading the arrest and conviction of the “Geezer Bandit.” The most recent robbery in this series is believed to have occurred yesterday, Monday, November 16, 2009, with the robbery of the Bank of America, located at 7680 Girard Avenue, La Jolla, California. On Monday, November 16, 2009, at approximately 5:57...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2009 – Retired Army Col. Lewis L. Millett, who earned the Medal of Honor during the Korean War for leading what reportedly was the last major American bayonet charge, died Nov 14. Retired Army Col. Lewis L. Millet wears his Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and other medals earned in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He served as honorary colonel of the 27th Infantry Regiment Association, and was active in veterans events almost to his death Nov. 14, 2009. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Millett, 88, died in Loma...

When Mac Taylor, the Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised. Anyone with half a brain and a hand calculator could figure out that many assumptions on which the budget was based, both spending and revenues, were unrealistic, some of them conjured out of thin air to "balance" an inherently unbalanced budget for political reasons. Taylor told legislators that the current budget is $6.3 billion out of balance and the 2010-11 budget has another $14.4...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - University of California Berkeley students protesting a 32 percent increase in student fees barricaded themselves Friday inside part of a campus building. The demonstrators occupied Wheeler Hall and hung a sign out of a window that read "32 Percent Hike, 900 layoffs," with the word "Class" crossed out in red. A group of students also rallied outside the building. Campus police said they had arrested three of the demonstrators inside. Police would not say how many protesters remained in the building. University police Lt. Alex Yao said demonstrators were barricaded behind fire doors on the second...

An appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa voted two years ago to direct millions in public pension dollars to a company that invested in his own private equity fund, according to documents obtained by The Times. Elliott Broidy, chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, served until May on the Fire and Police Pensions board, which provides benefits to the city's retired police officers and firefighters. Real estate company CIM Group invested $500,000 in Markstone's private equity fund in 2004, according to an e-mail to the city's pension agency. Three years later, Broidy voted with his colleagues on the pension board...

State Jobless Rate Rises to 12.5% California's unemployment rate increases in October from September's rate of 12.2%, giving the Golden State the fourth-highest rate in the country. Still, the state gained 25,700 jobs last month. Chart: CA. jobless rate rises to 12.5% By Alana Semuels November 20, 2009 California's unemployment rate rose again in October, once more setting a new post-World War II high, even as the state added jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this morning. The state's unemployment rate of 12.5% was just a slight increase from September's rate of 12.2%, and gives California the fourth-highest jobless...

Damon Dunn has captured the attention of the California Republican Party, as well as the conservative, independent and youthful voters of the state; many are starting to label him the “future of the Republican Party”. If Dunn is that future, it is best described as energetic, articulate and extremely passionate – and never has voted. Dunn is the 33-year-old Texas ex-patriot, University of Stanford political graduate and very successful California businessman who has now decided to run for Secretary of State as a conservative Republican. The former Cardinal football star, and employee of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, has a story...

Somewhere in the bureaucratic haze of Oakland city government, in a spacious office with views of Frank Ogawa Plaza, there is a holiday grinch who has actually succeeded in swiping a slice of Christmas spirit from city residents. Now I already know what you're thinking, so let's get it out of the way. It is not Mayor Ron Dellums. He has been out of town since Saturday attending to a death in the family, said Paul Rose, the mayor's overused, underinformed press secretary. On Monday, Oakland city officials informed Marco Li Mandri, executive director of two business community benefit districts...

BERKELEY -- UC Berkeley students took over a campus building in protest this morning, a day after the University of California regents voted to raise tuition by 32 percent.An undetermined number of protesters have barricaded themselves inside Wheeler Hall, which houses the English department. Several demonstrators wearing bandannas opened a window and used a bullhorn to denounce the regents' decision.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hundreds of protesters chanted, marched and took over a building Thursday on the UCLA campus, where University of California regents were scheduled to vote on a 32 percent student fee increase. The UC Board of Regents is considering boosting undergraduate fees—the equivalent of tuition—by $2,500 by summer 2010. For a second day, the proposal drew demonstrators to the University of California, Los Angeles. Some came from other UC campuses and stayed overnight in a tent city. The demonstrators outside UCLA's Covel Commons building chanted, beat drums and waved signs urging "No fee hikes" and "Wanted: Leadership."...

... In its efforts to prop up a shattered housing market, the government is greatly extending its traditional support of real estate, including guaranteeing the mortgages of middle-class and even upper-class buyers against default. In 2007, the government did not insure a single mortgage in [San Francisco], one of the most expensive in the country. Buyers here, as well as in Manhattan, Santa Monica and every other wealthy area, were presumed to be able to handle the steep prices and correspondingly hefty down payments on their own. Now the government is guaranteeing an average of six mortgages a week here....

SAN FRANCISCO -- The chief federal appeals court judge in San Francisco bluntly ordered the Obama administration Thursday to stop resisting his finding that the wife of a lesbian court employee was entitled to government insurance coverage. The federal agency that oversees benefits for government employees "shall cease at once its interference with the jurisdiction of this tribunal," Judge Alex Kozinski said in response to the Office of Personnel Management's rejection of his earlier ruling in the case. He told the agency to let Karen Golinski, a staff attorney at the court's headquarters in San Francisco, enroll her wife, Amy...

9/11 Panel Questions Two Hijackers' Help Sept. 11 Commission Wonders Why Two Hijackers Got Help From Two Muslim Men When in U.S. The Associated Press WASHINGTON June 27, 2004 — The FBI long has contended that not a single al-Qaida operative in the United States collaborated with the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks. Yet the commission investigating the attacks has identified two Muslim men who may have had advance knowledge of the plot. The commission found that two hijackers got substantial help from Mohdar Abdullah and Anwar Aulaqi after settling in California in 2000. The bipartisan panel created...

Newsom breaks his silence with the media SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom emerged Thursday from nearly three weeks of avoiding the public spotlight, to confront a massive city budget crisis. When the mayor dropped out of the governor's race, he dropped out of sight and steered clear of reporters until today. A smiling Newsom emerged today, even though the issue he wanted to discuss is grim. He told his department heads Thursday that San Francisco faces a $522 million deficit in the next fiscal year.

State Budgets: California's slide into fiscal oblivion continues, with no end in sight. Despite lots of budget cuts this year, a $21 billion deficit looms. The politicians' solution? Stop selling high-definition TVs in the state. It's starting to become routine. Last February, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new spending plan with "real, lasting reforms" that would help close its $36 billion-plus deficit and ensure the state never got so out of fiscal whack again. And just four months ago the Governator and California's worst-in-the-country legislature agreed to a plan to close a $24 billion budget gap by cutting spending amid...

Lavelle Stewart, of ACORN in South Central Los Angeles, tells us she thinks we have to hook up with “someone who’s on that international sex business level,” that “14 and 15 year olds been traveling overseas for years,” that she can do independent research for us, and that she has had meetings with Porn magnate Larry Flynt. As for laundering the sex money into my faux political campaign, Lavelle says, “there are ways, people do it all the time. Yeah there are ways, especially out here in California.”

Call the constitutional convention Jim Wunderman Sunday, November 15, 2009 California's state government is broken. This dysfunction has left our state unable to deal with the serious issues of our time in a good economy or bad - whether it's the K-12 education system, broken budgeting, our rapidly disintegrating public higher-education system, overflowing prisons, traffic-choked regions, local governments hobbled by unfunded state mandates, or a host of other problems. This hurts our state, it hurts our economy and it hurts you. California's dysfunction has made us a laughingstock, but it's not funny, it's tragic. Californians are frustrated - they should...

The UC Board of Regents has decided to raise statewide fees some 32-percent, while ignoring their own fiscal waste, inner-circle intelligencia perks and favors, and continual funding of the egregious UC Labor Institute. Suffer the students, let them eat cake. College rates across the country are paying higher tuitions, as state budgets evaporate inside of a recession. But nowhere are the increases as dramatic as they are in California. Earlier this year the CSU System increased their fees by 32-precent as well. If you are a college student in California, there is nowhere to hide. In two steps over the...

Creationists are ‘liars' (?): Geologist Donald Prothero doesn’t like the fact that we don’t agree with his ideas on evolution. I love the attitude some evolutionists have toward professional, scientific debate. Because creationist scientists do not agree with their biased, subjective and unsubstantiated ideas they spit the dummy and call us liars. The latest tirade from geologist Donald Prothero is in an opinion piece in NewScientist entitled ‘Evolution: What missing link?’1 I like that title. His article was picked up by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK which reported, ‘Creationists “peddle lies about the fossil record�.’2 Lies? Are creationists really...

When we were young, we learned about the best and brightest minds in the nation coming together to create the foundation of a new country and fundamentally change the role of government in the lives of the people. Now there is a proposal to have a similar Constitutional Convention in California, but without those great minds, how are we to be sure that we get a document that rewrites the Constitution for the better and not make our state’s problems even worse? It is important to note that according to recent article in the Ventura County Star by Timm Herdt,...

Despite intense student protests, the California Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 32 percent undergraduate tuition increase over the next two years. Hundreds of students marched and chanted outside UCLA, where university officials were meeting. School officials argued that a fee increase and deep cuts in school spending were necessary because of the state government's ongoing budget crisis.

November 19, 2009 Brown, Whitman tied in new Rasmussen poll With nearly a year until the general election, a new Rasmussen Reports poll puts GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman and still-undeclared Democratic contender Jerry Brown locked in a tie with 41 percent support a piece. The results show Whitman gaining traction since a September Rasmussen survey, in which Brown outpolled Whitman 44 percent to 35 percent. Whitman's two rivals for the Republican nomination, former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner trailed Brown in the telephone survey of 500 likely voters. Brown came out nine-points ahead of Campbell...

Is Meg Whitman too green for the conservative core of the Republican Party? Wednesday the San Jose Mercury News released the news that eMeg has offered $200,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund from her charitable foundation, $100,000 more than what was first thought. Then there is Steve Poizner’s Charitable Foundation accounting numbers. While all of the attention is on Meg’s gifts to environmental causes, nobody has asked the obvious question: “Why does Steve Poizner’s charitable foundation only have $7,000 as its balance?” How can a millionaire have such a small amount of cash in his (and his wife’s) charitable foundation?...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33UU6MKuWSE&feature=player_embedded

Considering the hike today at UC Board; why are they not defunding the millions directed toward their Labor Institute? Read more... The unions propaganda machine is alive and well, due to the mandates from politicians, threats from union bosses and the overall sock-puppets called the UC Board of Regents. The students that journey through these programs at Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses volunteer their time to benefit the liberal politicians, partisan political agendas, initiative campaigning and efforts of the public employee unions of California. I remember running across many of these students in 2003, organizing anti-recall protests at signature gathering...

Amid rowdy protests, a committee of the University of California regents voted Wednesday to raise student fees by 32 percent in two steps over the next year, bringing the annual cost of a UC education above $10,000 not including room, board or books. Today, the full board is scheduled to vote on the plan, which also includes increases in financial aid. Fourteen protesters – out of about 500 – were arrested at UCLA, where regents held their meeting. Roughly 1,000 protesters rallied at UC Berkeley, according to campus officials, and 300 demonstrated at UC Santa Cruz. "Look at all these...

More grim news Wednesday for state workers: California's general fund faces a $21 billion deficit through the middle of 2011. The red ink could flow for years to come, according to a forecast by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.The state's 200,000 or so workers, already taking a 15 percent pay hit from three furlough days per month, knew this was coming. What does the state's rotten financial picture mean to them?• Real job cuts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already has ordered 7,000 jobs eliminated from the deficit-ridden general fund. And as this column reported a few months ago, the administration has...

California again is facing a mammoth budget deficit and the prospect of more severe cuts to state services, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office warned in a report released Wednesday.Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said the state will face a $20.7 billion deficit next year and that the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger need to start work to fill that gap "as soon as possible." He also noted that many one-time fixes state leaders have relied on in the past to close deficits are not available. The state will face $20 billion annual deficits through 2015 if permanent fixes are not made,...

A 12-year-old girl is prohibited from bringing aspirin to California public schools without a note from her mother or father – but in many California districts she may sign herself out of classes, leave her junior-high campus without parental permission, secretly have an abortion and return to school before the end of the day – and her own family may be none the wiser. Parents and educators across the state have been in heated debate over school policies allowing children to be excused during class time without parental notification for "confidential medical services" such as abortions, birth control, and drug...

David Beckham has apparently agreed to spend four days with the US Army over Thanksgiving. The football star, who plays for LA Galaxy, has arranged to visit the American troops at their barracks in Germany with his teammates next week.

In a report highlighting the "open carry" gun movement, KTVU's Lloyd LaCuesta interviewed locals who are hanging out in public, packing heat and exerting their Second Amendment right for all the world to see. Advocates across the country are picnicking together, going to zoos, going to church and picking up trash. Most notably, supporters protested Obama this past summer. In the Bay area, David Julian, 27, and others are hanging out at a Cupertino Starbucks, sipping their Venti coffees with guns holstered to their hips. Supporters, who appear to come from all backgrounds, also say they're toting firearms to educate...

Our high-benefit/high-tax model no longer works, especially compared with low-tax states like Texas. In America's federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a "package deal" that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right. It's not surprising, then, that there's an intense debate over which model is more admirable and sustainable. What is...

So it might be the cynic in me or call me crazy for not trusting the government, but I cannot believe that there was not more attention paid to the state’s latest accounting gimmick to save the state’s budget. Starting Sunday you may notice a few less dollars in each paycheck, 10 percent less to be specific. While the state says that the money will be returned in April, something does not sit right with me when the government helps itself to even more of my paycheck especially when so many people are already living paycheck to paycheck. Read the...

SACRAMENTO — Jerry Brown was sounding downright conservative when he told a group of corporate attorneys last week that the state's businesses are burdened with too many regulations. And, previously, he insisted state government needed more downsizing, dismissing higher taxes as an antidote to California's growing economic problems. (snip) "This state is ungovernable and in a mess, and we need to be hearing from Jerry Brown how he gets us out of this mess," said Robert Cruickshank, the public policy director for the Courage Campaign, a liberal advocacy group. "Cutting regulations is not the answer. It doesn't get teachers back...

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday postponed a vote on a medical marijuana ordinance, with members saying they needed time to study numerous proposed amendments. But council members, who will return to the measure Tuesday, pressed for a quick end to a drawn-out deliberation that has unfolded as hundreds of dispensaries opened. "I think that we need to act relatively quickly," said council President Eric Garcetti. "We need some protection in there now to improve what's out there. We also need to be able to deter bad operators." The council appeared likely to allow dispensaries to sell marijuana, dismissing...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A federal lawyer who was prevented from enrolling his same-sex spouse in his government-sponsored health plan must be reimbursed the cost of outside insurance and other medical expenses, a California judge ruled Tuesday. Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt said Brad Levenson, a public defender in Los Angeles, is entitled to the money because the Office of Personnel Management refused to authorize health coverage for Levenson's husband of 16 months. That violates both his constitutional rights and the court's anti-discrimination rules, the judge ruled. "The denial of federal benefits to same-sex spouses...

SANTA ANA, CA—A former high school and college football star who briefly played with the Tennessee Titans was sentenced this afternoon to 57 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges related to a $5 million Ponzi scheme. Reed Kyle Diehl, 31, of Coto de Caza, was sentenced by United States District Judge David O. Carter, who noted the “extraordinary” harm caused by Diehl’s scheme. Diehl pleaded guilty in July to three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, admitting that he bilked investors with promises of high rates of returns on investments in loan...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talks with Spc. Ferrell Mapp, a resident of Richmond, Calif., and a member of the California National Guard, 49th Military Police Brigade, during a breakfast event held on Camp Victory, Baghdad, Nov. 17. At right is Brig. Gen. Donald Currier, commander of the 49th, and close aide to the governor in his civilian job. Photo by Sgt. Kenneth Bince, 49the Military Police Brigade. BAGHDAD — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shared breakfast and conversation with his State’s Soldiers during a visit here to Camp Victory, Nov. 17. Schwarzenegger said he visited the Fairfield, Calif.-based 49th Military Police...

11/18/2009 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- He was there, and then he was gone. It was just a glimpse in the night of Oct. 31. She continued to exit the C-130 Hercules that had just landed at this air base in Southwest Asia, still scanning her surroundings to see if it could be. Then she saw him. Her face lit up as she joyfully greeted her husband at the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing reception area. Although she was ecstatic to see her husband for the first time in six months, Capt. Kieran Dhillon-Davis, the newly arrived chief of the 380th...

The 2009 Legislative Report Card rates lawmakers based on their votes on 35 bills. As HJTA has done in previous years, 14 bills were double-weighted, including all six constitutional amendments that attacked Proposition 13 or 218. Also, all legislators voting for February’s $12.6 billion in new income, sales and car taxes received an automatic 20 point deduction. Regarding individual legislators, HJTA is pleased to report that for the second consecutive year, Assembly Member Joel Anderson has received a perfect score from HJTA. He is joined in this fine accomplishment by Assembly Member Diane Harkey. These two legislators are now in...