Free Republic

Add Arnold Schwarzenegger to the growing list of Republicans who have pulled support from Donald Trump. On Saturday, the Terminator star and former Republican governor of California said he will not vote for the Republican candidate in the presidential election for the first time since becoming a citizen in 1983. Schwarzenegger did not say which other candidate he would vote for on Nov. 8.

Three police officers have been shot Saturday in Palm Springs, according to a department release. They are hospitalized and their conditions are unknown. Dozens of law enforcement officers are involved in a search for the shooter or shooters in the are of Cypress and Del Lago roads in Palm Springs. Police are encouraging residents in the area to stay indoors while they conduct an investigation.~SNIP~Frances Serrano, who lives directly across the street from where the shooting took place, spoke to the father of the suspected shooter moments before the incident. The father told Serrano that his son, who has mental...

Jerry Rubin, 72 of Santa Monica, started his "Be Green, Not Mean" protest Friday in the hopes of convincing Stein not to actively campaign in "battleground" states where polls are showing a close race between Clinton and Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Authorities called the death of Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Owen a “calculated execution.” Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell described the death in detail. “Sgt. Owen approached the suspect in response to a burglary call,” McDonnell said as large photos of Owen were behind him. “The suspect immediately shot Sgt. Owen. He then stood over and executed Sgt. Owen by firing four additional rounds in his body.” Before the news conference began at 4 p.m., authorities identified the man accused of killing Owen as Trenton Trevon Lovell, of Lancaster. Owen was shot and killed Wednesday after he responded...

Los Angeles County was once a red area. Ronald Reagan won LA in 1980—but it was a squeaker. 1984 was better. Of course, Reagan wiped the floor with Mondale across the country. The last time a Republican Governor won LA? Pete Wilson, 1994, running on a platform of stopping illegal immigration. The 2003 recall didn’t do much for GOP chances in Los Angeles. The majority voted “No!” to the recall, but wanted Schwarzenegger to be the next Governor. Now, Los Angeles County has turned into a cesspool of illegal immigration, the lynchpin for Democratic dominance (besides the Bay Area). Poverty...

Sheriff's deputies have arrested two out-of-state contractors with the Chevron Richmond Refinery in connection with the assault. A third suspect reportedly escaped.Attacked while waiting at a red light last month, an East Bay Sikh man believes he was the victim of a hate crime and targeted because he wears a turban. Lawyers for Maan Singh Khalsa, 41, of Richmond, said he was driving home from work via Hilltop Drive at around 8:50 p.m. on Sept. 25 at the time of the assault. Three men, traveling in the back seat of a white, four-door truck, threw a half-full beer can at...

Vietnam’s government has officially labeled a California-based anti-Communist group a terrorist organization and warned that anyone involved with it will be considered an accomplice in terrorism and will be dealt with in accordance with Vietnamese law. The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement that Viet Tan, or the Vietnam Reform Party, has been carrying out terrorist activities to end Communist rule in Vietnam. […] The group was formed in 1982 by a vice admiral in the former U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government. Viet Tan says it is committed to nonviolent struggle to end Communist rule. The U.S. government has...

Singer Barbra Streisand has sent an email in support of California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 63, requesting $5 donations “to defeat the National Rifle Association” (NRA). Streisand pointed to the 1993 Long Island Railroad shooting to explain her support for more gun control. According to the Sacramento Bee, Streisand’s email said, “Like you, California is my home, and I can’t just wait around hoping tragedy doesn’t strike our state again. If there’s something we can do that will stop innocent Californians from being shot and killed, I will do everything I can to see it done.”

Each time over the past decade or so that New York state increased its tobacco tax — now at $4.35 per pack of cigarettes — calls to the state’s Quitline spiked. And as high as the state tobacco tax went, in New York City, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg hiked the tax even more. “I was so angry with him, I could hardly afford it,” says Elizabeth Lane, a Harlem resident who paid $12 a pack. “I had to beg, borrow and steal to get money to buy cigarettes.” At first, Lane cut down to four packs a week from seven. But...

The Greeks gave us tragedy -- the idea that life is never fair. Terrible stuff for no reason tragically falls on good people. Life's choices are sometimes only between the bad and the far worse. In the plays of the ancient dramatists Aeschylus and Sophocles, heroism and nobility only arise out of tragedies. The tragic hero refuses to blame the gods for his terrible fate. Instead, a Prometheus, Ajax or Oedipus prefers to fight against the odds. He thereby establishes a code of honor, even as defeat looms. In contrast, modern Americans gave the world therapy. Life must always be...

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant died Wednesday after he was shot while responding to a call of a residential burglary in Lancaster, authorities said. The sergeant killed was Steve Owen, a 29-year department veteran, according to sheriff’s Executive Officer Neal Tyler. “This has been a very dark day for the Sheriff’s Department,” Capt. Steve Katz said. “We are all suffering right now.” From the archives: L.A. Times reporter rides along with Sgt. Steve Owen last year » The shooting occurred as Owen and his partner responded to a 911 call about 12:35 p.m. from a woman reporting a burglary...

California’s health care exchange is requesting that it be allowed a waiver from ObamaCare regulations in order to allow illegal immigrants to buy insurance on the exchange – which would make California the first state to extend ObamaCare to illegal immigrants. ADVERTISEMENT In a Sept. 30 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Covered California’s Executive Director Peter Lee said that the Affordable Care Act has been “tremendously successful” in the state and has cut the rate of uninsured in half. “While millions of Californians have benefitted from coverage purchased through the Covered California marketplace, certain individuals are...

The Left is relentless in its attempt to nail the label of “fascist” to those on the right side of the political spectrum, Donald Trump being the most recent victim of this deceitful tactic. In truth, it is the massive increase in regulations and cronyism brought about by the progressive Left, that has the U.S. more and more resembling an actual fascist state. Anyone wishing to experience this on a macro scale need only attempt doing business in California. Take just one industry as an example: construction, and one small sub-section within it: electrical -- the industry in which I...

OAKLAND (BCN)—The Oakland City Council on Tuesday night will consider a proposal to name a section of De Fremery Park in West Oakland for a 17-year-old Black Panther Party member who was killed in a confrontation with Oakland police in 1968. City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents West Oakland, said she and Councilman Larry Reid are recommending that the city name the grove of trees on the park’s south side “Bobby Hutton Grove” to recognize his contribution to Oakland.

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Protests erupted at a South Los Angeles intersection Sunday night not far from where a teenager died in an officer-involved shooting after police say he fled from a suspected stolen vehicle. Shortly before 10 p.m., authorities issued a citywide tactical alert and asked protesters standing at the intersection of Western Avenue and 108th Street to disperse or they would be arrested. As the evening went on, at least four people were taken into custody. The alert was called off around midnight. Chaos in the intersection of Western and 108th in #southla after vigil for #Carnellsnelljr.@ABC7...

U.S. Gun-Show Customers’ License Plates Come Under Scrutiny Federal agents enlisted local police to scan cars’ plates at shows’ parking lots By Devlin Barrett Oct. 2, 2016 7:35 p.m. ET Federal agents have persuaded police officers to scan license plates to gather information about gun-show customers, government emails show, raising questions about how officials monitor constitutionally protected activity. Emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers—devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars—at gun shows in Southern California, including one in...

LOS ANGELES (KABC)--Protests erupted at a South Los Angeles intersection Sunday night not far from where a teenager died in an officer-involved shooting after police say he fled from a suspected stolen vehicle. Shortly before 10pm authorities issued a tactical alert and asked protestors standing on the street to disperse or they would be arrested.......

A California driver who slammed into a vehicle being driven by a veteran Saturday told police he caused the crash in the name of Allah, and because of Donald Trump’s improper treatment of minorities, Fox 26 News reported. Driver Ameer Abbaf Fakhraldin slammed into a car being driven by Scott Alcala, an Afghanistan war veteran who was on his way from Fresno to San Jose to play golf with his father. *snip* Fakhraldin told an officer at the scene that he estimated his own speed to be 200 mph and that he caused the crash using psychic/telekinetic powers to control...

A pair of California men went on an apparent Donald Trump yard sign-stealing spree this week and filmed several of their exploits for the enjoyment of their Twitter audience. One citizen IDed Lemoore, California residents Angel Mendoza and Rolando Vega as the culprits, and combined their videos into a single one, likely in case they were deleted. The first video shows a woman being beaten on the front lawn of a home while she tries to protect a Trump sign. ... When this article was published, he had merely protected his Twitter account from the public. Now it was deleted...

Los Angeles County, California is the most populated county in the country. (California also has the largest county by square mile, but at least it’s far more conservative). Los Angeles County has deep poverty in its urban core, with an elitist political class that distances itself from the cultural and economic problems of its own making. The homelessness! It is staggering, unprecedented, and unrelenting. Local activists have sprung up all over the county, especially in the Greater Los Angeles area, to combat this perversity. Even in my hometown—Torrance, CA—I have seen more transients brazenly sleeping on sidewalks, wandering up and...