Free Republic

The Great Debate Oddly Is Not OverWe are still in a great public debate between capitalism and socialism, and individual freedom versus statism — odd since hundreds of millions worldwide have escaped poverty the last 30 years due to the spread of Western-inspired free markets.Many choose sides in the debate based on their own predicaments. Sometimes the more independent and secure who have thrived under capitalism promote it, the more dependent who have not - detest it.At other times the realist mind is opposed to the idealist.  And we can also envision the split as an age-old dichotomy between the...

With tens of thousands being turned away from state universities, California lawmakers likely will consider granting community colleges the right to offer a limited number of bachelor's degrees. The shift, which has occurred in 17 other states in the past decade or so, would represent a major philosophical change in California, where the three state higher-education systems have clearly defined roles. Bachelor's and higher degrees are offered by University of California and California State University campuses, while community colleges offer two-year associate degrees and certificates for a variety of professions. However, major reforms must be considered in the age of...

The first ever remix music video political ad! California Senator Barbara Boxer has had some notable confrontations over the past year in her duties as head of the Environmental and Public Works Committee in the U.S. Senate. Over the summer she dressed down a general for using the standard military protocol of addresses elected officials (namely "ma'am") Later that summer, Madam Boxer would stir up more controversy by playing the race card against Harry Alford, Chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce discussing her massive energy tax scheme known as "Cap & Trade". The Chuck DeVore campaign prides itself...

If you're looking for a cop this New Year's Eve, you might try a BART station. Hundreds of extra cops - including BART officers, Oakland police, and sheriff's deputies from San Francisco and Contra Costa County - are being called either to ride BART or patrol its stations into the early morning hours. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office will add extra patrols to AC Transit, and many local East Bay law enforcement agencies have also agreed to be available on standby. The beefed-up presence is in reaction to last year's fatal shooting of Oscar Grant, an unarmed passenger who was...

Washington (CNN) – Not every Republican is a critic of President Obama. At least one thinks the president is doing a fine job – at least when it comes to the effort involved in being the country’s chief executive. Asked to give Obama a grade as the end of the president’s first year in office approaches, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Republican governor, gave Obama high marks. “When it comes to effort, [Obama] should get a straight A,” Schwarzenegger told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King in an interview that aired Sunday on State of the Union. “He’s out there with tremendous...

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office recently reported that the State faces a $21 billion shortfall in the current as well as the next fiscal year. That’s a problem, a really big problem. My young son would say it was a ginormous problem. In fact, it may be an insurmountable problem. Our governor and legislature used every trick in their books when they created the most recent budget. They even resorted to mandatory interest-free loans from the taxpayers. Now, they have no idea where to go. The Democrats have declared that they will not allow budget cuts. The Republicans will not...

Brittany Murphy, the actress who got her start in the sleeper hit "Clueless" and rose to stardom in "8 Mile," has died in Los Angeles. She was 32. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Spokeswoman Sally Stewart said Murphy died at 10:04 a.m. Sunday. She would not provide a cause of death, or any other information. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call at 8 a.m. Sunday from a home that is listed as belonging to British screenwriter Simon Monjack, who is married to Murphy, spokesman Devon Gale said. Gale said one person was transported to a hospital. Messages left for...

LAPD To Keep Its Policy On Immigration Checks The new chief tells Latinos at a posada gathering that he will continue Special Order 40, which bars police from initiating action against people solely to discover their legal status. By Teresa Watanabe December 20, 2009 On the plaza of Dolores Mission Church, long a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, a Roman Catholic priest asked the question that has hovered in the minds of so many of the city's migrants since Charlie Beck was appointed Los Angeles police chief. Flanked by parishioners holding flickering votive candles in the cool evening air, Father Scott...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Seven U.S. banks were closed by regulators on Friday, bring the total this year to 140 as the effects of the credit crisis continued to be felt across the country. What's more, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. established temporary institutions to help close two of the failed banks.

With renewed debate over immigration reform expected in Congress next year, the San Fernando Valley could become a hotbed of activity as activists plan a massive rally and outreach efforts to draw attention to the cause. Those supporters said their decision to bring the immigration reform issue into the heart of the Valley reflects a growing impatience with the pace of immigration change among immigrant advocates, labor and religious groups and a coalition of Democratic lawmakers. "Our community, the greater community of the San Fernando Valley, has over a million immigrants all told," said businessman and immigration activist Robert Gittelson....

LAUSD Grants Teacher Tenure With Little Review, Times Investigation Finds December 19, 2009 A Times investigation found that the Los Angeles Unified School District routinely grants tenure to new teachers after cursory reviews -- and sometimes none at all. Evaluating new teachers for tenure is one of a principal's most important responsibilities. Once instructors have permanent status, they are almost never fired for performance reasons alone. The two-year probation period, during which teachers can be fired at will, offers a singular opportunity to weed out poor performers. It is a chance L.A. Unified all but squanders, according to interviews with...

18 states allow for recall votes on US Senators. The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The Senate oath of office is: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well...

About 20 high school kids (including myself) from my school’s Live Action chapter went to a Planned Parenthood in the Bay Area. We got there around 10:00 AM, and met with a few more activists with signs picturing abortion victims. We split up into a couple of groups of 7 or so each, and each group gathered in a circle near one of the 3 driveway entrances to the parking lot of the clinic. We prayed for a while, each sharing his/her own prayer, and then we read aloud from the Psalms. Then we prayed again. The whole time, children...

**** Bank failures now total 140 in 2009 **** LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - OneWest Bank, formerly failed mortgage lender IndyMac, bought the assets of First Federal Bank after it was closed by U.S. regulators, in a deal that may bolster the case for private investment in banks. California's First Federal was one of seven U.S. lenders closed on Friday by regulators, bringing the total number of U.S. bank failures this year to 140. The 39 branches of First Federal -- formerly controlled by FirstFed Financial (FFED.PK) -- reopen on Saturday as OneWest Bank FSB. In addition to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Obama administration refused Friday to follow a federal judge's order to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco and said its hands were tied by a discriminatory law. "This issue shows exactly why Congress needs to repeal" the law, which prohibits federal benefits to same-sex couples, government lawyer Elaine Kaplan said in a message to attorneys for court employee Karen Golinski. One of Golinski's lawyers, Jenny Pizer of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said Kaplan's response was "something we might have expected from the Bush or Reagan administration, and...

... Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, its homeless problem is worse than any comparable city's. Despite its spending more money per capita, period, than almost any city in the nation, San Francisco has poorly managed, budget-busting capital projects, overlapping social programs no one is certain are working, and a transportation system where the only thing running ahead of schedule is the size of its deficit. It's time to face facts: San Francisco is spectacularly mismanaged and arguably the worst-run big city in America. This year's city budget is an astonishing $6.6 billion...

Abortion clinic escort strikes Planned Parenthood investigator Lila Rose Lila Rose San Jose, Calif., Dec 19, 2009 / 03:37 am (CNA).- Legal charges are pending against a male Planned Parenthood escort who struck pro-life activist Lila Rose on the hands on Thursday outside an abortion clinic. She warned that the surprising attack should not help create a “double standard” that hinders clinic protesters’ free speech rights.Rose, the president of Live Action Films who has led undercover investigations into the abortion provider, was not injured in the attack.She was on a public sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood affiliate in San Jose,...

David Brooks / Union-Tribune Renee Ruff, a police officer who is the mounted unit’s lead trainer, visited some of her four-legged charges at the corral used by the city to house the horses. The mounted unit was used for everything from riot control to patrolling Balboa Park Junior is one of the highly-trained horses that make up the Police Department’s mounted unit, which is being disbanded. BALBOA PARK — In the 15 years that San Diego police Sgt. Bret Righthouse patrolled Balboa Park on horseback, he felt at times like a celebrity. People came up to him all the...

Click photo to enlarge Sherman "Tony" Fontano with his dog, 'Magnum', at his San Jose home Thursday... ( Patrick Tehan ) * « * 1 * » After his brothers watched a newscast about the national movement to carry guns in public, they told Sherman "Tony" Fontano he could do that himself. Two San Jose police officers also said it would be OK. So this week, Fontano, 74, put his unloaded .357 Magnum into his waistband and took a walk with his girlfriend. But he was soon surrounded by police who had their own guns drawn. Unfortunately, nobody had mentioned...

CHINO HILLS - City officials on Thursday expressed disappointment after the state Public Utilities Commission sided with a controversial Southern California Edison plan to run a high-voltage power line through neighborhoods.The energy line is part of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project, a series of high-voltage electric transmission lines to deliver electricity from wind farms in Tehachapi Pass to the Los Angeles basin.

Court Tosses State Ban On Felons' Body Armor Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer December 18, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO -- A decade-old California law that bans possession of body armor by anyone with a violent felony conviction is unconstitutional because the average person wouldn't be able to decipher which types of bulletproof vests are prohibited, a state appeals court has ruled. The law, passed in 1998, was intended to protect police against flak-jacketed criminals such as Lee Boutwell, who fatally shot San Francisco Officer James Guelff in November 1994 and wounded another officer before being killed in a shootout. Congress passed...

Shedding jobs that once reliably attracted new residents, California grew at a slower pace this year than all but two other years since 1900, according to state Department of Finance figures released Thursday. The number of new births dropped. The number of new immigrants dropped. And more residents left California for other states than came here. The end result: Statewide growth from July 2008 to July 2009 was 350,000 people, or less than 1 percent. During the rest of the decade, California averaged 525,000 new residents each year. The four-county Sacramento region posted even more striking numbers, adding just 21,000...

You have to string together a series of seemingly unrelated events to see it, but this week painted a powerful picture of California's chronic inability to govern itself. As the week began, a legislative committee heard state Treasurer Bill Lockyer describe, in blunt terms, why the state finds it increasingly difficult to market its bonds. Briefly, its budget is chronically unbalanced, it has floated too much debt, and it's now forced to pay higher interest rates on its debts than many Third World nations. Counterintuitively, state schools chief Jack O'Connell a day later urged the Legislature to approve a big...

Over the past few days, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been in Copenhagen making the bizarre claim to anyone who will listen that his job destroying environmental regulations are somehow good for the economy. He also made the even more off the wall assertion that America's economy would be stronger if only the entire country followed California's lead in this area, and that Governor Palin's common sense skepticism to the man-made global warming religion was somehow wrong. All of these musings by the Governator were forthcoming despite the fact that foisting his regulations on California's economy have chased businesses and the jobs...

MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY, Calif. – Far from Copenhagen's turbulent climate talks, the sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters reposing along the shoreline and kelp forests of this protected marine area stand to gain from any global deal to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers of the sanctuary's frigid waters, flipping in and out of sight of California's coastal kayakers, may not seem like obvious beneficiaries of a climate treaty crafted in the Danish capital. But reducing carbon emissions worldwide also would help mend a lesser-known environmental problem: ocean acidification. "We're having a change in water chemistry, so 20...

A California neighborhood reportedly is up in arms after a resident decorated his lawn with a depiction of Jesus shooting Santa Claus. The controversial Christmas display shows Jesus pointing a double-barrel shotgun at Santa's dead body as Rudolph lays sprawled across the hood of a pickup truck nearby, WNCT reported.

Calif. Man Convicted of Throwing Wife Off Cliff ASSOCIATED PRESS December 18, 2009 TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) -- A 28-year-old man accused of throwing his new wife off a Southern California cliff has been convicted of murder. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about a day before finding Jason Manai of Torrance guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday. Prosecutors alleged that Manai threw Julie Rosas off a Rancho Palos Verdes cliff in July 2005 because she wanted to annul their marriage. The two had been married for 13 days.

Leadership: Alaska's ex-governor asks a question we'd like answered: Why is California's current governor pushing the same policies in Copenhagen that helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? The movie series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name involved cyborgs traveling through time to alternately try to destroy or save one John Connor, who would grow up to be the leader of the resistance against a race of machines that ruled the planet. Prominent in the series was his tough cookie of a mom, Sarah Connor. Another Sarah has taken the lead in another resistance against another group...

In what he described as a “sweeping new policy,” Supt. Ramon C. Cortines today announced that the Los Angeles Unified School District would begin aggressively weeding out poor-performing teachers and administrators. “This district can rightly be criticized for the promotion of ineffective teachers over the years,” he said in a prepared statement. “That is about to change. We do not owe poor performers a job.” The policy encourages district supervisors to consider firing some of the 404 probationary teachers who were found to need improvement in their last performance evaluation. It also urges greater scrutiny of 339 administrators who have...

BEAVER -- The Beaver County Sheriff's Office has arrested three men suspected in a series of burglaries. According to the Spectrum, deputies said Luis M. Lopez, Andy F. Lopez, and Oren T. Hounchell admitted to varying levels of involvement in a series of break-ins at homes, stores and the Beaver City Library. They were also found in possession of an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. All three face multiple burglary and drug charges. Deputies discovered a set of footprints left in the snow after one of the home burglaries. They followed those footprints to the Hounchell's home. The...

Judge: Schwarzenegger Can't Furlough Prison Guards JUDY LIN Associated Press Writer Dec. 17, 2009 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A judge has ruled against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough order for thousands of California prison guards. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch on Thursday sided with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and ordered the state to pay prison guards back for the days they worked without pay. The union argued that Schwarzenegger's furlough order amounted to a wage cut because prison guards could not take time off due to the nature of their work.

Partnership In CA Gives Health Care To Everyone JULIANA BARBASSA Dec. 17, 2009 VALLEJO, Calif. -- Dozens of patients file through Sutter Solano Medical Center's emergency room every day in this recession-wracked Northern California city, often without insurance, cash or legal immigration status. They all get health care, no questions asked. Medical providers in Vallejo teamed up to establish the program, generating community opposition because illegal immigrants were among those who benefited from services funded in part with county money. This led to a civil grand jury investigation, and a Board of Supervisors vote. The partnership survived, but the skirmish...

As if she didn't have enough adversaries, Sarah Palin has decided to mix it up with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ostensibly, the issue was global warming. Actually, it's about the future face of the Republican Party -- whose it will be, and the ideology that person brings to the table. The exchange of criticisms between the ex-governor of Alaska and the current California governor was provoked by comments Schwarzenegger made about Palin at the international summit on climate change in Copenhagen – a conference Palin not only avoided, but called on President Obama to boycott. With that, the gauntlet was thrown for...

An attack on UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s house and conflicting reports as to why students were arrested at Wheeler Hall Friday, Dec. 11, have added a new twist to ongoing protests against university budget cuts. Student organizers of Live Week—a week-long “open occupation” of Wheeler Hall where students tried to create an open university by holding talks, forums and music shows all day—condemned the 4:30 a.m. arrests during which UC police locked in 66 protesters, cited them for trespassing and later took them to Santa Rita jail. Almost all were reportedly released later. Although campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said...

The Berkeley City Council postponed discussion of the most controversial item on its Dec. 15 agenda. Councilmember Jesse Arre-guin’s request that City Manager Phil Kamlarz report on the city’s involvement in approving an amendment to state Senate Bill 113, the Local Government Omnibus Act, signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger Oct. 11, was tabled on a 5–2 vote. The council will not get a chance to vote on it until January. The state omnibus bill traditionally includes only non-controversial provisions. This year, however, the bill included an amendment, requested by the University of California, that would exempt UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium and...

WASHINGTON – Washington is moving to assist California and other cash-strapped states that face the prospect of raising taxes or cutting spending again in 2010 to balance their books. The House took the first step Wednesday evening, passing a $75 billion jobs bill that would help states pay for infrastructure projects and prevent more public employees from being laid off. Some are calling it Stimulus II, and the sequel would come as good news for 35 states that face budget gaps totaling $31.5 billion by the middle of next year. California is projecting the largest shortfall, at $6.3 billion, followed...

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference enters its second week in Copenhagen, California will send a delegation to showcase the state’s own climate change policies. Since his election to office in 2003, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made global warming and climate change a cornerstone of his gubernatorial legacy. When he addresses conference delegates this week, Schwarzenegger will boast that under his watch the state has implemented some of the strictest and most comprehensive environmental regulations in the world. But delegates won’t be presented with the true cost of Schwarzenegger’s war on global warming. Californians know better than anyone else...

WALNUT CREEK — Almost a month after an internal probe pushed 50 immigrant workers out of their jobs at a downtown Target store, interviews with former and current store employees portray a mass firing that was selective, planned in advance and confusing to many of those forced out. Sparked by an allegation that illegal immigrants worked on the night shift, the Walnut Creek store last month attracted the attention of the Minneapolis corporate headquarters of the 1,700-store chain. The company sent a team to investigate, according to several people close to the incident. By the end of the second week...

Last Friday, the state's biggest public employee union came up short. Again. This time Service Employees International Union Local 1000 backed the loser in a runoff board election for CalPERS, the mammoth government worker pension provider. The board signs off on annual payments that the state and local governments must make to their employee retirement funds. It also sets how the $200 billion system spreads its investments on behalf of CalPERS' 1.6 million members. Local 1000's handpicked candidate, Cathy Hackett, lost to J.J. Jelincic, who was backed by several other unions, 49 percent to 51 percent. It's the latest in...

California revenues lag, underscore budget woes By Jim Christie Wed Dec 16, 5:51 pm ET SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California's revenues since the start of its fiscal year are trailing estimates by more than $1 billion, according to the state's November revenue report, which comes as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrestles with crafting a balanced state spending plan. Next month Schwarzenegger must present to lawmakers a balanced budget plan for California's next fiscal year beginning in July, while closing the deficit that has reopened in the current fiscal year's spending plan. The combined shortfall for the two years has been pegged...

SANTA CRUZ -- City leaders will pay the state $25,000 to settle a 2006 allegation that sediment illegally backed up in a North Coast waterway that provides almost 10 percent of the city's drinking water.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approval rating has dropped to a new low as Californians continue to worry about the economy and the state’s dismal finances, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. The poll found that just 27% of Californians approve of the job the governor is doing -- a career low for Schwarzenegger in the institute's surveys. The Legislature also remains unpopular, with approval from just 17% of Californians, matching a record low in July. The institute surveyed 2,004 adults by telephone. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

RIVERSIDE, CALIF. -- A Palm Springs man who surprised former classmates at his high school reunion in Martinez when he showed up in a Marine Corps uniform has pleaded guilty to wearing military medals that he never earned. Steven Douglas Burton, 39, entered his guilty plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Riverside to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized wearing of military medals or decorations, averting a trial that had been scheduled for January. He will face as much as a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced March 1. He remains free on...

(AP) LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police are searching for at least one gunman who fired shots in the parking lot of a Los Angeles hospital. Officer Rosario Herrera says at least six shots were fired Wednesday outside Valley Presbyterian Hospital in the San Fernando Valley. Police initially reported one person was injured and that the shooting occurred in the hospital lobby. But Herrera now says no one was struck by gunfire. She says detectives are interviewing witnesses to gather information about the suspects and the motive for the attack.

The state Treasurer's Office came down hard this afternoon on a prediction from California Lutheran University economists that the state could default on some of its debt, calling the warning "balderdash" that is "nothing more than irresponsible fear-mongering with no basis in reality, only roots in ignorance."

One of every six U.S. employers that closed permanently in 2008 was in California, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration using bankruptcy court data. However, one in nine employers that opened in 2008 was in California. The net result was almost 47,000 fewer companies with employees in California by the end of 2008. The data are part of the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010. The state had 45.1% more business “deaths” than “births,” one of the steepest changes. Note that many of the closures were started in other years. In California’s case many of those...

Modesto Police have released the identity of the woman shot and killed by officers at Catherine Everett Elementary School in northwest Modesto. The woman has been identified Elizabeth Catherine Kropp, a 43-year-old Modesto resident. The preliminary investigation suggests that Kropp had a mental health history. Modesto Police are investigating the possibility that this was a "suicide by cop" scenario but the investigation is on-going. Modesto Police and Schools administrators met with teachers and parents on Wednesday to provide more information and answer questions. The two involved officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is being investigated, which...

Accusing prosecutors of a "shameful" campaign to intimidate witnesses and obtain unjustified convictions, a federal judge threw out high-profile criminal stock fraud charges against Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III and the company's former chief financial officer. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney issued his ruling Tuesday, less than a week after he overturned a guilty plea by company co-founder and Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli.The judge also dismissed a civil lawsuit that the Securities and Exchange Commission had filed against Broadcom executives, wiping away misconduct allegations that had plagued the Irvine-based microchip giant for years. Samueli and Nicholas,...

Mayor’s comments on homosexuality lead to turmoil in Vallejo When Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis told the New York Times in November that homosexuals are “committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven,” little did he know his remarks would continue to reverberate in the Bay Area city of about 120,000 and lead for calls that he resign. The pro-family lobbying group Capitol Resource Institute reported Dec. 10, “Vallejo is the site of an escalating battle involving public statements and private morality.” As a consequence of Davis’ remarks, said CRI, “the community is divided in their reaction to...

California faces at least another year of recession, and the state budget is so far upside down that it's now "more likely to default than not," on some of its debt, a new economic forecast from California Lutheran University's economists declares. The director of Cal Lutheran's new Center for Economic Research and Forecasting, Bill Watkins, cites the state's budget problems, its high regulatory and operating costs and its deficit infrastructure as impediments to rapid recovery.