Free Republic

The U.S. government is violating a 1997 settlement by detaining unauthorized immigrant children, and an order may be forthcoming to require the release of the minors and parents detained with them, a judge in California has ruled. The ruling on Friday by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee follows an influx across the U.S.-Mexico border of immigrants from Central America. The flood of immigrants has slowed from peaks last year, but is still high, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said earlier this summer. The latest ruling on detentions represents a defeat for U.S. immigration authorities, who in court filings...

TV bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman knows there are some fugitives even he can’t bring to justice. The star of CMT’s “Dog and Beth: On The Hunt” admits he probably would not be able to capture escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — and doesn’t even plan to try.

A wrong-way driver was arrested in Millbrae early Saturday morning after crashing his car while exiting U.S. Highway 101 at a high rate of speed during a pursuit, according to the CHP. Around 3 a.m., officers had been chasing the suspect, later identified as 34-year-old Claudio Valdovinos of San Jose, north on Highway 101 when he attempted to exit at the Millbrae Avenue off-ramp, according to the Officer Art Montiel. Valdovinos' blue dodge charger hit the guard rail and went airborne, landing on its side near the center median and partially blocking the nearby Millbrae Avenue on-ramp, according to Montiel....

On July 24, California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) announced she will investigate whether the Center for American Progress broke any laws in videoing Planned Parenthood’s (PP) Dr. Deborah Nucatola. On the video, Nucatola discussed PP’s sales of baby livers and the practice of “partial-birth abortions to supply intact body parts” to those who want them.

A 31-year-old man was arrested Friday night in the death of a Hollywood woman who was shot in the back of the head in an apparent dispute over money, police said. Carrie Jean Melvin, 30, was walking with her boyfriend in Hollywood near Sunset Boulevard and McCadden Place (map), when she was shot on July 5, Los Angeles Police Department officials said. ... Obioha and Melvin knew each other and had a financial dispute, Preciado said. The shooter approached wordlessly and fired on Melvin from behind, hitting her in the back of the head, and then fled in a black...

A 4.3 earthquake was reported Saturday morning near Fontana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 5:54 a.m. The quake was felt over a wide area of the Inland Empire, Orange County and eastern Los Angeles County, according to the USGS. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury. According to the USGS, the epicenter was near the intersection of Sierra and Fontana avenues. It was followed by two small aftershocks.

Officers are responding to a man with a gun call with possible shots fired in the area of Ventura Boulevard and Vantage Avenue in Studio City, according to Los Angeles police. Firefighters responded to a shooting call at 3:28 p.m. in the 12000 block of Ventura Boulevard. Further details were not immediately available. Shoppers in the area were evacuated from businesses. A long line of cars could be seen leaving a parking lot.

This strategy isn’t entirely new. They started talking about targeting tea partiers in primaries in late 2013 and followed through in last year’s midterms... The difference last year was that they stuck to open seats rather than going after incumbents. Evidently they’ve decided now that “progress” towards the dream of renewing the Ex-Im bank and passing a gigantic amnesty ensuring all the cheap legal labor they could possibly want isn’t happening fast enough. It’s simply not sufficient to fill vacancies in the House with corporatist business-class Republicans. To move their agenda, they need to start replacing some of the people...

A federal jury convicted an Oakland man of six felony counts, including first-degree murder, related to a fatal shooting outside a Walmart in East Oakland during a marijuana deal in 2013, prosecutors said. Damion Sleugh, 28, was found guilty in the drug deal-turned-murder that resulted in the death of Vincent Muzac, 24, of Alameda on the afternoon of Dec. 22, 2013, in the parking lot of a Walmart store on Hegenberger Road, said U.S Attorney Melinda Haag. Prosecutors said that Sleugh had arranged to buy 5 pounds of marijuana from Muzac, and surveillance video presented at trial showed the victim...

Donald Trump may be thousands of miles from Washington on the Texas-Mexico border, but on Capitol Hill he's center stage in the fight over illegal immigration. The bill, which is formally called the "Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act," would block states and cities from receiving federal law enforcement funding if they have so-called “sanctuary city” practices in place, blocking the enforcement of certain federal immigration laws. It passed today in the House with overwhelming Republican support in a 241-179 vote, with only six Democrats joining the majority. Democrats have pejoratively labeled the legislation “The Donald Trump Act,” tying...

RUSH: Today is Thursday. Last weekend was four days ago. Depending on which day of the weekend you go back to, it could be five days ago. And if you have wishful thinking about weekends it could be six days ago, all the way back to last Friday. What happened last weekend? Donald Trump supposedly took himself out of the presidential race with one sentence about John McCain. I mean, that's what the conventional wisdom told us. From the moment it was reported that Trump said he wasn't impressed with McCain because he's not impressed with people that get captured,...

Gov. Jerry Brown arrived in Rome for climate talks this week with the smallest of entourages – three – and the most comfortable of accommodations. Brown, who typically flies Southwest Airlines in California, flew to Italy with real estate developer George Marcus and his wife, Judy, in their private plane. Brown is combining his trip to a conference here with a vacation with those friends.

Amazon overtook Walmart as the largest US retailer by market capitalisation on Thursday, after posting an unexpected quarterly profit and revenues that easily beat Wall Street expectations. The online retail pioneer, which has been aggressively expanding its Amazon Prime membership service with one-day sales events and same-day free delivery options, was valued as high as $267bn after a 19 per cent share price surge in after-hours trading. Walmart, with its network of physical stores around the US, had a market capitalisation of $235bn on Thursday. Amazon said its second-quarter revenues hit $23.2bn, up 20 per cent on the same period...

Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was released in a prisoner exchange in Afghanistan for five Taliban detainees, wound up in the middle of a pot raid earlier this week in northern California. Captian Greg Van Patten with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Thursday that the county’s marijuana eradication team encountered Bergdahl on Tuesday while serving a search warrant on a home in Redwood City, Calif.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday will visit a Bay Area company developing inexpensive, portable diagnostic blood tests for a tour of its Newark manufacturing facility and a roundtable discussion on health care. Biden at about 1 p.m. Thursday will visit the Newark manufacturing plant for Theranos, a Palo Alto-based company aiming to make inexpensive blood tests available for use outside a laboratory setting, or even at home, according to White House officials. Theranos was granted a waiver by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration just last week for its blood test for herpes simplex 1 virus test. The...

Bowe Bergdahl — the once-missing U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who was accused of desertion — was spotted hanging out at a Mendocino County marijuana farm during a raid. According to the The Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bergdahl was an "unexpected visitor" in Mendocino County, where he was visiting old friends when the "local dope team arrived on a marijuana raid." Bergdahl arrived Friday at the farm, which is located in a remote part of Redwood Valley. Bergdahl, who is awaiting military court martial, had an Army pass allowing him to be in Mendocino County, the Advertiser reported, adding he was "not...

The gunman who allegedly killed a Hayward police officer in a shootout after a traffic stop Wednesday morning had no criminal record, police officials said. Mark Anthony Estrada, 21, of Oakland didn’t have criminal past, but had some gang ties, although he was not a member, said Hayward Police Chief Diane Urban. He worked at his father’s company in Hayward. Police say they don’t know why Estrada opened fire on Sgt. Scott Lunger, but Urban said the fatal shooting happened 45 seconds after the traffic stop.

Tesla Motors has earned more than $295 million in state cap and trade-type emission credits during the past three years for a battery-swapping technology customers weren’t getting, a Watchdog investigation reveals. In fact, the electric car company, owned in part by billionaire Elon Musk, may have earned credits up to nearly half a billion dollars in value from the 11 states that use the Zero Emission Vehicle barter as part of a green auto industry mandate. California created the program and leads the pack, doling out $173 million in credits to the Silicon Valley-based Tesla. Tesla claimed the credits between...

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House Democratic leaders are slamming GOP legislation aimed at discouraging sanctuary cities, characterizing the proposal as "The Donald Trump Act" in a bid to embarrass the Republicans bringing the measure to the floor this week. The proposal, which would withhold federal law enforcement funds for state or local governments that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents, comes in response to this month's fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle along the San Francisco waterfront, allegedly by an illegal immigrant with a long criminal history. The House vote on the Republicans' sanctuary city bill is scheduled for Thursday, and it is expected...