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Some of the most vulnerable and integral cable sections and rods on the new $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are rusting. The bridge suspension span and iconic tower rely on an unusual design: A single cable, comprising 137 steel strands, loops over the tower and under the bridge to hold it up. That cable is secured on the eastern edge of the span, inside chambers designed to keep out water and marine air to prevent corrosion. But a Sacramento Bee investigation found that inside one of the chambers, where the suspension cable is attached, the cable strands and rods...

Nevada Standoff: April 12th - A historic day when the people rose up and forced tyrants to retreat.by Gina Cassini | Top Right News The media's version of the end of the Bundy Ranch siege is that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) simply "left" the ranch and "returned" the cattle out of the goodness of their hearts. CBS News even outrageously reported that the BLM "released the cattle to help restore order and avoid violence"! This despite widely-seen video of BLM thugs tasing Bundy's son and shoving a pregnant woman to the ground. And the protesters never threatened violence in any way...

<p>The Justice Department says a 29-foot war memorial cross on a San Diego mountain is not an unconstitutional promotion of Christianity and should remain on federal property.</p> <p>The Obama administration said an appeals court ruling declaring the cross on Mount Soledad a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state undermined an act of Congress and conflicted with recent Supreme Court decisions.</p>

One Republican candidate for governor is a former U.S. treasury official, a moderate who promises to create jobs and fix California’s public school system. Another is a firebrand — a conservative California assemblyman and former anti-immigrant “Minuteman” who was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2012 for having a loaded gun in his carry-on luggage at the Ontario airport. Although some California Republican leaders had seen the moderate, Neel Kashkari, as the GOP’s candidate of the future in a deep blue state, Tea Party favorite Tim Donnelly is pummeling him, according to a surprising new Field Poll.

Shares of Herbalife Ltd. suffered their biggest loss in more than a year Friday following a report that criminal authorities are investigating the Los Angeles nutritional products company. The FBI has launched a criminal investigation of Herbalife and its web of independent distributors, a federal law enforcement source told The Times. A federal law enforcement official in New York confirmed Friday that the FBI had opened an inquiry into Herbalife but did not know first-hand the extent of the investigation. “I can’t give any guidance on where it’s headed,” the official said. …

Followers of the Kardashian clan were introduced to an unlikely new character this week: Marianne Williamson, the independent candidate running for soon-to-retire Representative Henry Waxman’s seat in California’s 33rd district. “I went to hear @mariannewilliamson speak the other night w @kourtneykardash & @rachel_roy,” Kim reported on Instagram. “Very inspiring!” Also inspired by the 61-year-old author and spiritual adviser: Katy Perry and Nicole Richie, who attended a recent campaign event sporting new green and purple dye jobs respectively; Steven Tyler and Chaka Khan, who performed at a fund-raiser; and former Desperate Housewives Eva Longoria and Marcia Cross, who reunited at another...

April 12, 2014 True the Vote president calls Cummings damning emails ‘the tip of a very ugly iceberg’ by Michael Dorstewitz The explosive discovery by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that its ranking Democratic member coordinated with the IRS to target True the Vote came as no surprise to its founder and president. She called it “the tip of a very ugly iceberg.”Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the committee’s chairman, released emails earlier this week strongly suggesting that Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., was in direct communication with disgraced IRS supervisor Lois Lerner in an effort to target True the...

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Just saw news flash - BLM is pulling out over concerns for safety.

While attorneys for a women's rights advocate and prominent Twitter engineer accused of raping her estranged wife say the accuser is "out for revenge," a friend who says she was present after the incident said Friday that the wife just wants to teach her children that criminals must face justice.

"......The California car firm yesterday revealed plans for the factory that would employ up to 6,500 people , cover 1,000 acres, and cost $5 billion, said the Wall Street Journal, Solar and wind farms would at least in part supply the huge power needs of the plant in either Nevada, New Mexico, or Arizona. Reno is thought to be a favorite. Tesla needs its own production to hit its cost target for a more affordable car. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk's idea is a "Gigafactory" that takes in raw materials and produces finished lithium-ion batteries. He has said he intends...

ANTIOCH -- An Antioch jewelry store owner shot and killed an armed robber Friday afternoon and police said a customer was also shot during the heist, police said. The robbery at the Hardy Nix Jewelry store at 3600 Delta Fair Boulevard shut down a major street as authorities swarmed the surrounding area looking for a second suspect who escaped the store after the 4:27 p.m. robbery. The female customer who was shot was taken to a hospital with a non-life threatening wound, according to Antioch police Lt. Robin Kelley. The woman "just happened to be in the way" as the...

Federal authorities said today that they are likely within the next three months to announce additional charges and new defendants in the criminal case that involves Sen. Leland Yee and more than two dozen others accused of various crimes including running guns, selling drugs and arranging murder-for-hire. "While investigation by the Grand Jury is necessarily secret... it makes good sense to generally notify the Court and opposing counsel that additional charges and, potentially, additional defendants are inevitable," prosecutors wrote in a court filing today. Authorities continue to investigate possible racketeering and criminal violations and hope to return additional indictments in...

The heat in the IRS investigation just went up. Rep. Darrell Issa, head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter today to ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings in which he accuses Cummings of working to "obstruct the investigation" into IRS misbehavior. The bulk of Rep. Issa's letter is devoted to some recently uncovered emails which demonstrate that Rep. Cummings was seeking information on True the Vote, the voter integrity group based in Texas which became the target of much unwanted government attention. Cummings' staff contacted the IRS in August 2012 to inform them that they...

A House committee voted Thursday to hold Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, as Republicans escalated their bid to "get to the bottom" of the former IRS official's role in the political targeting scandal. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 21-12 to hold Lerner in contempt. The party-line vote followed hours of heated debate on the committee. The contempt measure heads next to the House floor. House Speaker John Boehner predicted earlier this week that unless Lerner agrees to cooperate, the full House will support contempt -- from there, the case would likely head to the courts. "This...

This story was published at 4:33 p.m. and has been updated with a response from Rep. Cummings.House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has accused the panel's top Democrat of prompting the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 to target a conservative organization applying for non-profit status. Issa said records obtained last week from the IRS show communications from the office of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., about True the Vote, a Texas-based, non-profit conservative group that aims to prevent voter fraud.The communications at one point involved Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official whom Issa's panel is poised...

The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee actively conspired to inappropriately target and silence tea party-affiliated groups, says Catherine Engelbrecht, president of True the Vote. House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa released emails this week that suggest Rep. Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat, prompted the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the conservative organization as it was applying for nonprofit status, according to The Washington Examiner. Engelbrecht told John Bachman and J.D. Hayward of "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV that these emails will undermine claims by Cummings and the IRS that no conservative groups were targeted for political reasons. "I'm thrilled to...

Two federal judges on the U.S. Sentencing Commission said Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder stepped “outside the legal system” and exceeded the authority of the executive branch by sending “improper instruction” to federal prosecutors to reduce drug sentences before they were officially approved by either the commission or Congress. “I have been surprised at the attorney general’s steps taken to proceed with this reduction outside of the legal system set up and established by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984,” Judge Ricardo Hinojosa, the commission’s vice chair, said during a public hearing in the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building...

During a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing concerning oversight, Rep. Zoe Lofgren decided to quiz Attorney General Eric Holder about the federal government's surveillance efforts, starting off with a rather simple question. She notes that the bulk phone record collection program is considered to be legal by its supporters, based on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows for the collection of "business records." So, she wonders, is there any legal distinction between phone records and, say, internet searches or emails? In other words, does the DOJ believe that it would be perfectly legal for the US government to...

The Senate Intelligence Committee has opened an investigation into how McClatchy obtained the classified conclusions of a report into the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, the panel’s chairwoman said Friday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she was also referring the case to the Justice Department for investigation. “If someone distributed any part of this classified report, they broke the law and should be prosecuted,” Feinstein said in a prepared statement. “The committee is investigating this unauthorized disclosure and I intend to refer the matter to the Department of Justice.”