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A federal judge, Christina Snyder, will decide whether a Latin cross on the Los Angeles County seal is a state endorsement of Christianity or just an accurate depiction of a building of historical significance. Coates said in a trial brief that the cross had been at the San Gabriel Mission since it was built in the late 1700s. Aside from a 22-year period when the cross was removed for repairs after the Whittier earthquake in 1987, stolen and then restored, the cross has been a consistent feature of the mission. But plaintiffs' attorney Linda Burrow, with Caldwell Leslie & Proctor,...

A Chilean mother and her daughter, cut down in a concert hall while the daughter's 5-year-old son survived. A young Italian woman, separated from her boyfriend and friends when the concert erupted in chaos. They were among the latest victims named as officials on Sunday continued the heavy task of identifying the 129 people killed in Friday night's coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris.

A California man with a rare genetic disorder that gives him an insatiable appetite has pleaded no contest to breaking into houses to steal food and other belongings. The San Luis Obispo County district attorney says in a statement that because of the condition it allowed 20-year-old Tyler Jarvis to plead to five misdemeanors and get probation and treatment. He had previously been charged with felonies that could have led to jail time. Prosecutors say Jarvis has "Prader-Willi Syndrome" and they looked closely at his case to reach a just outcome. They say people who have it and are not...

A top White House adviser said Sunday that President Obama still plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees even as Republicans insisted that it's all but impossible to stop terrorists from hiding among the migrants. "We're still planning to take in Syrian refugees," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said on "Fox News Sunday." One of the terrorists in Friday's deadly attacks on Paris reportedly may have used a Syrian passport to enter Europe with a flood of refugees, but Mr. Rhodes expressed confidence in the background-check system. "We have very robust vetting procedures for those refugees. It involves our intelligence...

After the first Democratic presidential debate Oct. 13, 2015, Texas Republican Ted Cruz interpreted the crowd’s cheers for proposals to raise taxes as a reason for the decline of the Democratic Party. The day after the debate, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly asked Cruz how he could appeal for votes from Americans cheering on Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator seeking the Democratic nomination, who has stressed how much more the very wealthiest Americans have than the rest of us. "Well," Cruz replied, "it's why the modern Democratic Party is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. What does it say that they're...

As France and the rest of the world comes to grips with Friday night's horrific terrorist attacks in and around Paris that claimed at least 129 lives, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is blaming tough gun control laws in France for the dimensions of the tragedy. At a rally in southeast Texas Saturday afternoon, Trump told the crowd "nobody had guns but the bad guys." "You can say what you want, but if they had guns -- if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry -- it would have been a much, much different situation," Trump said,...

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is standing by his support for bringing Syrian refugees into the United States of America, even after the Paris murder-rampage by some of the many Muslims migrating into Europe. In September, Rubio told CNN that “we would be potentially open to the relocation of some of these [refugee] individuals at some point in time to the United States.” On Saturday, Breitbart asked Rubio’s campaign if he still stands by this statement. In response, Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant referred Breitbart News to two other previous interviews Rubio has done on the matter—essentially confirming that Rubio still supports,...

After a week in which he hosted Saturday Night Live and stood center-stage at a Republican debate, Donald Trump is surging among Republicans likely to cast votes in the party’s presidential primary. According to the five-day rolling Reuters/Ipsos presidential poll, Trump has leapt some 17 percentage points among likely Republican voters since Nov. 6, when he was essentially tied with Ben Carson at about 25 percent. Trump now captures 42 percent of those voters while Carson has fallen off slightly.

Wait what? Debbie Wasserman Schultz attacked the mainstream media for its bias and hostility toward Ben Carson? Ahhh, but there's a catch in this nice find by Newsbusters.. It turns out that DWS had to use Carson as the rhetorical diversion to protect Hillary Clinton from renewed media scrutiny into her serial fabulism and by a surprising source: DNC Chair Freaks Out After Andrea Mitchell Actually Fact-Checks HillaryAt first, Wasserman Schultz tries challenging Andrea Mitchell on the value of the story. Why on Earth are we talking about this? the DNC chair laments and Mitchell shuts her down: MITCHELL: Good...

Wait … what? Debbie Wasserman Schultz attacked the mainstream media for its bias and hostility toward Ben Carson? Ahhh, but there’s a catch in this nice find by Newsbusters. It turns out that DWS had to use Carson as the rhetorical diversion to protect Hillary Clinton from renewed media scrutiny into her serial fabulism — and by a surprising source:

Former Republican Rep. Ron Paul blasted the presidential hopeful, Donald Trump for being “authoritarian” on Alan Colmes’ Show recently. Paul’s comments about Trump came about when he was asked if Donald Trump was good or bad for the Republican Party, to which Paul replied, chuckling, “Well I don’t even care whether he’s good or bad for the Republican party. I don’t have much interest in that per se. But, I think he’s a dangerous person and a lot of people find him kind of funny and they love him, even libertarian types love him…” When Colmes presses Paul to explain...

Tom Coburn, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma says that Rand Paul scares him to death, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker are not ready for primetime, Rick Perry is not capable enough, and America will not elect another Bush to be president. Of all the candidates, he said Marco Rubio is his favorite. Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn spoke candidly about the current crop of Republicans running for president on Sirius XM radio Thursday, sharing some critical thoughts about Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and Governors Scott Walker and Rick Perry, while heaping praise on Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina,...

Ann Coulter reacted to the Paris terrorist attack tonight by declaring "no more Muslim immigration" and touting Donald Trump on that particular issue. In a string of tweets tonight, Coulter said that the obvious answer to stopping terrorism in the United States is to "stop importing Muslims" ________________________________________ Ann Coulter @AnnCoulter HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? French people ran onto the street with signs that said, 'Je Suis Charlie'! Why didn't that stop this? 7:15 PM - 13 Nov 2015 Ann Coulter @AnnCoulter Paris death toll up to 100. U.S. college students need to tell Parisians about real violence from Halloween...

What We Know So Far Hastert, the former Speaker of the House, was indicted Thursday on federal charges of evading reporting requirements and lying to the FBI The Illinois Republican allegedly agreed to pay an unnamed individual $3.5 million for previous misconduct Source: Investigators considered including a second alleged victim in the Hastert indictment, but ultimately chose not to do so. A source familiar with the investigation told BuzzFeed News that U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon considered but did not pursue additional charges against former Speaker Dennis Hastert, which would have included a reference to an Individual B, one of potentially...

Trump also took credit for bringing to the public’s attention the death of a San Francisco woman killed by an undocumented immigrant. (AUDIO-AT-LINK)Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday compared undocumented Mexican immigrants to the “hardcore criminals” Fidel Castro sent to the United States in the early 1980s. Speaking on conservative radio, the real estate mogul addressed the controversy surrounding his characterization of Mexican immigrants as “rapists” in his presidential announcement speech. “A lot of people said, ‘Would you apologize?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, I’d apologize, if there was something to apologize for,” Trump told radio host Wayne Dupree on Wednesday....

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says his opponents for the presidency shouldn’t be missing votes in the Senate or they should “resign, you know.” “No, I’m really kind of saying the system itself is the problem,” Bush told radio host Michael Medved when asked if his speech Monday on changing Washington was aimed at his presidential rivals who are currently in the Senate. Bush, speaking in Florida on Monday, gave a broad speech how he would bring changes to what he termed “Mount Washington” if elected. Bush said he would push for a balanced budget, an “unequivocal six-year ban on...

It was September 1986, and Annabel Hill, 66, was facing an auction where she would lose the farm that had been in her family for five generations. Hill’s husband, Lenard, had committed suicide eight months earlier, 20 minutes before a scheduled auction, in a last-ditch attempt to save his property with life insurance money. The life insurance money wasn’t enough, covering only $175,000 of debts than ran in excess of $300,000, from two years of a drought that Hill said had ruined their livelihood. Even when several hundred acres of the 1,300-acre Waynesboro, Georgia, farm were sold, the now-widowed Annabel...

Ethan Czahor’s tweets began disappearing today after news broke Monday that he had been hired by Jeb Bush. Czahor resigned Tuesday. Time magazine reported on Monday that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has hired Ethan Czahor, a Santa Monica-based techie who co-founded Hipster.com, to be chief technology officer for his political action committee, Right to Rise.

Good360, which provides charities with goods from businesses, donated $18,022 in goods to an affiliate of the National Network of Abortion Funds, which calls abortion “a fundamental human right.” In 2013, a charity whose board is chaired by Carly Fiorina donated $18,022 of goods to an organization that provides financial assistance to women seeking abortions. Fiorina, the Republican presidential candidate, has served as the chair of Good360 since 2012. The organization facilitates donations from companies to nonprofits by allowing the companies to donate products, and the nonprofits to select the products they need on an online marketplace. Good360 then delivers...

Fiorina on Clinton in 2008: “She was a great candidate. She has helped millions of women all over this country. Women of any political party owe a debt of gratitude to Hillary Clinton and I will bet that every woman up here agrees with me.” Throughout much of her presidential campaign, Carly Fiorina has attacked Hillary Clinton, calling on the former secretary of state to “name an accomplishment”. “Throughout this campaign, I have repeatedly asked Hillary Clinton to name an accomplishment,” Fiorina wrote in an op-ed for CNN. “She has yet to name one. Note: Flying is an activity, not...