Free Republic

IRVINE - Councilman Steven Choi is taking heat from county political watchers for wearing a rendering of Nancy Pelosi as Stalin on his back at a keynote address the House Speaker gave at a recent Democratic Party of Orange County dinner. Choi, who is also in the midst of an Assembly run, says he was not invited to Pelosi's speech at the Irvine Hilton, but chose to join several hundred protesters at the Harry S Truman Awards Dinner, a fundraiser that reportedly raised more than $125,000 for the local Democratic Party. Choi was photographed from behind, but not identified, by...

The current treatment of young-age creationists in the scientific community and society at large is unfair and unwise. Scientists and philosophers of science, including old-age creationists and naturalists, should respect youngage creationists as legitimate contributors to science. Young-age creationists offer to the current origins science establishment a competing rational viewpoint that will augment fruitful scientific investigation through increased accountability for scientists, introduction of original hypotheses and general epistemic improvement...

St. Paul, Minn. — A group of Twin Cities Quakers has decided to stop signing marriage certificates for opposite-sex couples until the state legalizes gay marriage. "We're simply trying to be consistent with the will of God as we perceive it," said Paul Landskroener, clerk of the Twin Cities Friends Meeting, in an interview with MPR's All Things Considered on Monday. The congregation will continue to hold both opposite-sex and same-sex weddings at its meeting house, but will no longer sign the legal marriage certificate for opposite-sex couples. Instead, couples will need to have the certificate signed by a justice...

California: While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worries about rising seas, his state sinks below the waves. Don't mess with Texas, they say. But California and the nation could follow its lead. Last Wednesday, Gov. Schwarzenegger released a new report based on research compiled by the California Energy Commission claiming that by 2100 San Francisco Bay would be more bay than San Francisco, with Fisherman's Wharf and Treasure Island under the rising waters of climate change. His show-and-tell, which included a new Google Earth application the commission spent $150,000 to help develop, goes a long way toward explaining the once-Golden State's slide...

The eligibility age for state-subsidized breast cancer screening has been raised from 40 to 50 by the California Health and Human Services Agency, which will also temporarily stop enrollment in the breast cancer screening program. Advocates for low-income women, whose health care the department helps pay for, say the cuts put a two-tier system in place that is based on money rather than medical standards. The cuts will greatly harm the clinic's mammogram program, said Natasha Riley, manager of Vista Community Clinic's Breast Health Outreach and Education Program. The clinic and others like it in San Diego County provide reduced-cost...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is showing no signs of grounding his high-flying spending practices - running up nearly $60,000 on his city credit card in a one-year stretch for airline flights, restaurant meals, conference fees and stays at some of the toniest hotels in the nation. That works out to more than $1,000 a week that Oakland's taxpayers shelled out from September 2008 to September 2009 to keep Dellums traveling in style. The mayor ran up nearly every dime of his $59,079 in expenses after the City Council ordered employees in fall 2008 to halt all unnecessary travel to help...

The Health Department stops funding breast screenings for low-income women The "unprecedented fiscal challenges" claimed another victim this week as health officials decided to discontinue a cigarette tax-funded program that pays for breast cancer screenings for low-income women. The two biggest changes to the program according to a release are: They will stop paying for breast cancer screening for women under 50. They will stop enrolling all new patients for breast cancer screening until July 1.

Weis is quoted as saying: "Let me ask you this question: You guys know about things that go on in different places. Was I living with a grad student in Malibu, or was I living with my wife in my house? You could bet that if I were living with a grad student here in South Bend, it would be national news. He’s doing it in Malibu and it’s not national news. What’s the difference? I don’t understand. Why is it okay for one guy to do things like that, but for me, I’m scrutinized when I swear. I’m sorry...

CHULA VISTA, Calif.—A Chula Vista city councilman says he hit and killed a 58-year-old man who was trying to cross a San Diego County highway. Councilman Rudy Ramirez tells the San Diego Union-Tribune in a story posted Saturday that he was headed for his metal factory in Tecate, Mexico when he came around a curve on state Route 94 and hit the man. The California Highway Patrol says the man—Thomas Edwin Klopfstein of Dulzura—was crossing the highway on foot Thursday.

Snow will fall and accumulate in Sacramento on Monday, the National Weather Service is predicting. Temperatures in the capital will fall into the 20s. A storm predicted to bring rain to Northern California this evening will cool dramatically and bring snow by Monday. Chances of precipitation are 100 percent, experts predict, and between two and four inches of snow will cover the valley floor. Northwest winds will blow about 10 mph.

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE — Two storms appeared to be on course Friday to hit Southern California next week with potentially heavy rainfall that could unleash floods of mud and debris-laden water from wildfire burn areas into adjacent communities. The National Weather Service said the exact tracks of the storms and rainfall amounts were still uncertain, but it was likely that rain would fall over the region on Monday and possibly through the week until Friday. There was a possibility showers could arrive as early as Sunday night, the NWS said. A major area of concern is the string of Los...

The worldwide Anglican Church has been plunged into a fresh crisis after a lesbian was chosen as its second gay bishop. In a move that will dismay the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Canon Mary Glasspool was elected as an assistant bishop for the diocese of Los Angeles. The Rev Rod Thomas, the leader of the conservative evangelical group Reform and a member of the General Synod, said: ‘I feel deeply ashamed that this is happening in the Anglican Church. ‘I think a schism is absolutely inevitable.’

I’ve often wondered what it would take to disgust even the moonbats running the San Franfreakshow Comical. Thanks to the gut-wrenchingly repulsive activities on display during the Folsom Street Fair, I finally know: Public sex tents? Now there’s an idea that should have been shot down the second it was announced from the mouth of a... ...Read more I've often wondered what it would take to disgust even the moonbats running the San Franfreakshow Comical. Thanks to the gut-wrenchingly repulsive activities on display during the Folsom Street Fair, I finally know: Public sex tents? Now there's an idea that should...

A cigarette tax-funded program that pays for breast cancer screenings for low-income women will stop accepting new patients Jan. 1, public health officials said this week. Officials said the decision came as a result of “unprecedented fiscal challenges” to the program which they hope to reopen by summertime.If “Every Woman Counts” reopens July 2 as planned, its scope will be scaled back significantly. Although women ages 50 and older will still be eligible, women ages 40-49 will no longer be screened. State officials acknowledged that women ages 40 to 49 who had been served by the program will no longer...

A group of civic activists, united by faith and a belief that the poor economy in the interior of Los Angeles is a social injustice, is preparing to offer bus tours of some of the grittiest pockets of the city, including decayed public housing, sites of deadly shootouts and streets ravaged by racial unrest. After a VIP preview last weekend, L.A. Gang Tours expects to open to the public in January, giving tourists a look at the cradle of the nation's gang culture -- the birthplace of many of the city's gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th...

OAKLAND -- KTVU News has learned a key section of that bridge has been delayed again and Caltrans now is bracing for a new cost over-run in the tens of millions of dollars. The history of the new Bay Bridge has been a troubled one from the time the state decided to replace the old eastern span after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The original price tag of a little more than $1 billion has exploded into more than $6 billion along with numerous delays. Now Channel 2 News has learned that next Wednesday, state and local transportation officials are...

A new Legislative Analyst's Office report predicts California's early-childhood education program will lose $45 million per year under a cigarette-tax-for-cancer-research ballot measure proposed by former state Senate president and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata. The education program, First 5, would lose about $8.66 million in the Bay Area, including about $2.2 million from Santa Clara County, $1.7 million from Alameda $1.1 million from Contra Costa and $785,000 from San Mateo, according to a breakdown provided by Alameda County First 5 CEO Mark Friedman — and that's why early-childhood education advocates could end up joining tobacco companies and anti-tax groups...

Dec 3, 2009 — In the previous entry, Darwin inspired some geologists, even though he was wrong. Here are some news stories showing nature inspiring engineers with wonders right under their noses...

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A forensic psychiatrist testified on Friday that Brian David Mitchell used religion to justify his lust in the kidnapping and rape of Elizabeth Smart. Dr. Michael Welner testified during the competency hearing that Mitchell showed a stable and steady manner before and after his arrest, unlike patients who would otherwise be considered mentally incompetent to stand trial. Welner said he interviewed several people during his research into Mitchell's mental status, including police officers, hospital employees, and Elizabeth Smart herself. According to Welner, Elizabeth told him that Mitchell used "blessings" to placate her before...

EL CAJON — A gunman who attempted to rob a market in unincorporated El Cajon got cold feet and ran away empty-handed, authorities said today.snipThe clerk told the gunman most of the money was kept below the counter and began to reach in that direction, he said, adding that the would-be robber then ran away, possibly fearing the clerk was reaching for a weapon.

A map of how California will be affected by climate change in the future was unveiled yesterday by state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The map, which demonstrates the devastating effects of global warming in just a century, shows how San Francisco Airport would be completely underwater if sea levels were to rise by 150cm (60in). The coastline on the map was also coloured, highlighting how nearly half a million Californians are at risk from rising sea levels. The map, named CalAdapt, which was revealed at a press conference on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay by Mr Schwarzenegger and Google CEO...

Joanna Krupa was in Los Angeles December 1st for a PETA protest outside Barkworks, a Southern California pet store with seven (7) locations, expressing her disapproval for pet breeders and the Government which allows them to prosper. The Dancing With The Stars alum had this to say in an exclusive PETA interview: "You know, we're trying to spread the word that breeding isn't the way to go. Somebody needs to put their foot down and stop this breeding and these puppy mills. … [T]hey're in these little tiny cages, and all they're doing is breeding their whole life. It makes...

When Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis told the New York Times in a recent interview that gay people don't get to heaven, he broke not one, but two cardinal rules of politics in a single sentence. With a simple phrase, Davis breached the separation between church and state and grabbed the electrified "third-rail" in Bay Area politics with both hands. He told the reporter that gays are "committing sins and those sins will keep them out of heaven." After the Nov. 20 article, the mayor claimed his words were taken out of context. The Times responded by providing an audio link...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge probably violated the Constitution when he ordered backers of Proposition 8, the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California, to give their campaign strategy documents to opponents trying to overturn the measure, an appeals court said Thursday. The Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco suspended the order that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued in October against backers of Prop. 8, which state voters approved in November 2008. Walker said lawyers for two same-sex couples and a gay-rights group were entitled to see internal memos and e-mails between Yes on 8...

Warming Scandal: Despite the incriminating e-mails, administration science adviser John Holdren still thinks man causes global warming. And Sen. Barbara Boxer thinks it's the whistle-blowers who should be arrested. Time was when Barbara Boxer thought it was just fine for the New York Times and Washington Post to spill national military secrets and war plans on their front pages. The people had a right to know where and how they were being led. But we are not dealing here with the Pentagon Papers, the location of terrorist prisons or the surveillance of al-Qaida and its operatives. Boxer, top Democrat on...

The map, which demonstrates the devastating effects of global warming in just a century, shows how San Francisco Airport would be completely underwater if sea levels were to rise by ...60in. The coastline on the map was also coloured, highlighting how nearly half a million Californians are at risk from rising sea levels. The map, named CalAdapt, which was revealed at a press conference on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay by Mr Schwarzenegger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, was created as part of a plan for the state to adapt to global warming. 'Within a century, Treasure Island, this...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ― State water officials say it could cost $10.6 billion to send water to Southern California through a proposed project of tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Department of Water Resources presented the cost estimate Thursday to a group of state and federal agencies studying ideas to safeguard water deliveries out of the delta. Two tunnels, about 150 feet underground, are being considered as an alternative to building a proposed canal around the fragile estuary. A third tunnel would serve as an intake tunnel.

Here's the reaction from two Republicans running to be California's senator in 2010 to President Obama's Afghanistan plan

A judge today slammed parents as “bigots” for seeking to excuse their elementary-age children from controversial pro-homosexual curriculum. The parents are being represented in court by Pacific Justice Institute. PJI Chief Counsel Kevin Snider argued in Alameda Superior Court today on behalf of parents seeking to enforce a provision of the California Education Code that gives parents the right to opt their kids out of health education. Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch lambasted the parents, repeatedly insinuating that they are bigots and insisting there can be no homosexual indoctrination because people are born that way. The judge equated a...

The northern fishing grounds opened this week, and the first shipment arrived Tuesday night for North Coast Fisheries in Santa Rosa. On Wednesday morning a truck brought the fish processor its second shipment of 30,000 crabs from Crescent City. Michael Lucas, an owner at North Coast Fisheries, said the result will be lower prices for consumers. Some supermarkets are advertising crab for $3.99 a pound, $2 to $3 less than when the season began two weeks ago off Bodega Bay and San Francisco.

The Essence and Future of Texas vs. California by Tory Gattis 11/21/2009 I know there have been a lot of articles and references to Texas vs. California recently in this blog, but, well, there's a new one with some genuinely new contributions to the argument ("America's Future: California vs. Texas", Trends magazine, hat tip to Jeff). And it says some nice things about Houston too, so how can I pass on it? The beginning of the article is here - including an overview of both states' situations - but here are some key additional excerpts: ...Both the Brookings Institution and...

The principal and a teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School in Santa Barbara County, California are apologizing to parents for not following school district policy relating to a pro-homosexual workshop given to 8th grade students in a leadership class at the school. The controversial workshop was presented by “Just Communities Central Coast” in three, 45-minute sessions over three days. It included handouts defining homosexual terminology, including queer and transgender, and listed “heterosexism” as “oppression that ‘pushes down’ people who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning) and ‘pushes up’ people who are straight.” The handout defines sexual orientation...

In a surprise move designed to end a brewing battle over who will be the next California Assembly speaker, current Speaker Karen Bass threw her support Wednesday behind rookie Assemblyman John Pérez of Los Angeles. Pérez, a University of California, Berkeley, graduate with long ties to organized labor, was elected last year in Los Angeles' 46th District. Over the last year, he has served as the Assembly's Democratic caucus chairman. If he becomes speaker, Pérez would make history as the first openly gay speaker of the Assembly.

Two prominent groups backing same-sex marriage – the California-based Courage Campaign and Lambda Legal, a national legal organization for homosexuals headquartered in New York – announced earlier this week that attempts to repeal Proposition 8 by qualifying an initiative for the 2010 ballot should be postponed because of insufficient popular support. California voters approved Prop 8 in November 2008 by a margin of 52% to 48%. The initiative, a constitutional amendment, overturned a 4-3 state supreme court decision declaring unconstitutional legal restrictions on same-sex marriages. Prop 8 added a provision to the state constitution restricting marriage to between one man...

Fresno –The U–Save liquor store on Tulare and Maple Avenues in Fresno was open for business the day after a store clerk turned the table on an armed robber. Police say 29–year–old Fernando Valencia and another man tried to rob the clerk at gunpoint Sunday night. Valencia had a semi–automatic gun, and so did the store clerk. "He had pointed the firearm at the business owner, at some point in time the business owner became fearful, when he found an opportunity to shoot the suspect, he did," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. Valencia died inside the store. Valencia has...

BERKELEY — Calling UC Berkeley's 1960s turmoil "a dead movement," protesters on Wednesday knocked a tribute to the Free Speech Movement off the steps of Sproul Hall and voiced their own concerns about student-fee hikes and other issues. Exactly 45 years after the face of the movement, Mario Savio, spoke to thousands on the same steps, a few dozen demonstrators forced student-government leaders to cancel their commemoration. The same protesters later read a line from Savio's Dec. 2, 1964, speech in unison. Organizers of the invading demonstration said it was time to focus on "a living, breathing movement" rather than...

The Free Speech Movement lives on at UC Berkeley - 45 years to the day after a barefoot, 21-year-old student named Mario Savio energized thousands from atop a police car by exhorting them to do all they could to stop the administration's restrictive policies. Today the issue is less about freedom of speech than about freedom of access to a quality education, as thousands of students have protested rising tuition, employee layoffs and course cutbacks in recent weeks. "We're the ones fighting for this to be a public university that everyone can afford!" Ronald Cruz, a Berkeley activist, told a...

A rather peculiar email attempts to address the question: “Where is Steve Poizner’s Campaign for Governor?” It’s a good question; where is the heartbeat, the pulse of media advertisements that cast mass messaging and marketing appeal? As we spill November into December, preparing to leave 2009 behind, there has been nothing from the self-made millionaire, and some people are beginning to ask pointed questions. Here is the only statewide incumbent candidate running inside of a heated Republican gubernatorial race, and Steve Poizner has yet to utilize one radio, television or major marketing tool since his announcement earlier in 2009. Today,...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado will run for lieutenant governor in 2010 whether or not the Legislature confirms his nomination to fill the vacant post. The Santa Maria moderate Republican confirmed his decision during a 45-minute meeting Wednesday with the Contra Costa Times editorial board. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently named Maldonado as his choice to succeed Democrat John Garamendi, who was elected to Congress in a special election in November. Since the announcement, Maldonado has been on the road pitching his qualifications for a job that many Californians, if they think about it at all, view as superfluous in a high-tech...

Last year, members of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) learned that the author of a critical study on diesel engine soot impacts, Hien Tran, had falsified his academic credentials. Tran admitted the deception, and accepted a Board demotion. However, Tran’s analyses remained the basis for highly controversial and costly regulations imposed upon operators of trucks, buses and other diesel-powered machinery. The Tran study concluded that diesel "particulate matter" (soot) was responsible for about 1,000 additional deaths each year. Tens of millions of dollars in engine upgrades will by required of California diesel operators under the new regulations. List week’s...

The state’s largest doctors group is opposing healthcare legislation being debated in the Senate this week, saying it would increase local healthcare costs and restrict access to care for elderly and low-income patients. The California Medical Assn. represents more than 35,000 physicians statewide, making it the second-largest state medical association in the country after Texas.

Hollywood blockbusters aren't usually born in movie theaters in Dallas, Birmingham or Nashville. But that's exactly where “The Blind Side” has taken off -- a show-business phenomenon driven by audiences in the South and Midwest storming to a movie about Christian charity and football that stars Sandra Bullock. In one of the more extraordinary box-office stories of the year, writer-director John Lee Hancock’s movie about Baltimore Ravens lineman Michael Oher -- who as a homeless black teen was taken in and nurtured by a well-off, churchgoing white couple -- nearly toppled the smash sequel "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" at...

Lower Than Low: Thieves Steal Donated Toys, Food By Jonathan Lloyd Missing: about $100,000 worth of items that were supposed to make the holidays a little better for some Orange County families. The items included donated toys and food taken from a Garden Grove storage area. The items had been donated to the United Labor Agency of Orange County. An employee at the storage site reported the break-in. The stolen toys were worth about $25,000. Authorities said the thieves took about 20,000 pounds of food. The crooks also left with a BBQ grill and raffle prizes.

Dozens of people crowded the steps of Vallejo City Hall on Tuesday to protest a recent quoted remark by Mayor Osby Davis that gay people would not go to heaven. The protesters waved rainbow flags, held signs demanding the separation of church and state and some called for Davis' resignation. And then there was a roar. From inside City Hall came the sounds of more than 100 people clapping and cheering, praising God. "Lord, we're not against anybody. We're for our children," prayed New Hope Church Community Senior Pastor Terrence Nichols. "No matter what outside forces may stir up the...

The behind-the-scenes battle over who will be the next speaker of the Assembly is heating up this week, with sources saying a vote on who will succeed Speaker Karen Bass could be coming up soon. A handful of members were said to be jockeying for the spot, but it appears the pool of contenders has been whittled down to two Democrats from Los Angeles. Those left standing are Assemblyman Kevin de León of the 45th District, a friend from way back of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. De Leon's chief rival is Assemblyman John Pérez, the rookie from the 46th...

A year ago, high officials of the California Air Resources Board learned that the author of a statistical study on diesel soot effects had falsified his academic credentials. The CARB researcher, Hien Tran, acknowledged the deception and agreed to be demoted, but after his data were given another peer review, they remained the basis of highly controversial regulations that will cost owners of trucks, buses and other diesel-powered machinery millions of dollars to upgrade their engines. The Tran study concluded that diesel "particulate matter" was responsible for about 1,000 additional deaths each year. Only recently, with the rules on the...

Here in the dwindling twilight of the '00s, there is much puling from the liberal left that Obama has not done nearly enough, quickly enough, that his list of accomplishments is no list at all and is more of a giant, infuriating shrug. Many are saying he's not all he's cracked up to be because he has yet to completely revolutionize every aspect of human life as we know it by instantly turning everything organic, curing all diseases and setting all gay military personnel free to romp in the fields of boot camp. Where is the complete ideological overhaul of...

A libertarian conservative has declared his plans to "take out Nancy Pelosi" in the 2010 election to stop her from devastating the nation. John Dennis, a businessman and real-estate investor in California's 8th congressional district, told WND, "I've decided to run because the statist Pelosi agenda will destroy America." Rep. Pelosi's district covers most of San Francisco, and Democrats have held the seat since 1949. Since first winning the House seat in a 1987 special election, Pelosi, 69, has breezed to re-election 10 times. President Obama received 85 percent of the vote there in 2008.

Perez Said To Be Next Assembly Speaker We're hearing that Assemblyman John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles, has the votes to grab the speakership -- if he does, he would become the Assembly's first openly gay leader in California history. Also vying for the speaker's office are Assemblymemebers Kevin de Leon and Felipe Fuentes, both themselves Latino Democrats from Los Angeles. And speaking of L.A., Perez is the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Civil Liberties Union, which supports marital rights for gays and lesbians, is siding with opponents of same-sex marriage who are challenging a judge's order to turn over campaign documents from last year's effort to pass Proposition 8. Foes of the voter-approved initiative hope the documents help them prove that the ballot measure was rooted in bigotry and was therefore unconstitutional. The ACLU's Northern California chapter, which supports the lawsuit, nevertheless filed arguments with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying the court-ordered disclosure could endanger people's freedom to speak freely while planning political campaigns....