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2:40 PM todayNew Meg Whitman quits P&G board, mulls run for Calif. gov: WSJ - MarketWatch 1 minute ago Meg Whitman quits P&G board, mulls run for Calif. gov: WSJ - MarketWatch

More than 200 O.C. social service workers will be getting pink slips Monday, as county officials are forced to trim $30 million The layoffs, now expected to affect 213 workers at Orange County's Social Services Agency Workers are in an uproar because they said that with the economic crisis, now is when they are needed the most.

Long before dawn in the remote desert south of Barstow, the only light for miles around is a faint glow from a triple-wide trailer. Inside, several monks chant in Vietnamese. Then there is silence. The trailer is home to the first cloistered Catholic monastery in the Inland area. The white-robed monks pray and chant together seven times a day and silently meditate twice. Here in Lucerne Valley, off a dirt road and at the foot of barren mountains, there is little to disturb them. "There is God in this deserted place," said Brother Matthew Nguyen. "There are not many people...

Color the brake lights red as the column of cars backs up from the Caldecott Tunnel, the often bottled-up gateway between Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Color drivers' moods red as the congestion worsens over a span of 45 years. Many drivers are looking forward to relief from a long-planned $420 million fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, but a lawsuit by Alameda County neighborhood groups and a bicycling advocacy organization could delay the project scheduled to begin in the summer and finish in 2014. A ruling on the lawsuit is expected soon from Alameda County Superior Court judge Frank...

OAKLAND -- Bay area longshoremen were up in arms Friday night when they were denied work at one of Oakland's cargo terminals. The cargo ship, the Zhen Hua 19, pulled into Oakland's Pier Seven and on board was tons of steel slated to be used for the new Bay Bridge. Caltrans decided not to hire the ILWU Local 10 longshoremen to unload the vessel, a decision that angered some local union members.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wachovia Corp's shareholders approved the bank's takeover by rival Wells Fargo & Co on Tuesday, bringing one of the largest mergers stemming from the financial crisis near to completion. Separately, regional bank PNC Financial Services Group Inc said its planned takeover of National City Corp was approved by shareholders of both banks and is expected to close by December 31.

In front of a ballroom full of N.C. bankers in January 2006, Wachovia chief executive Ken Thompson warned of the dangers of “toxic” home loans. A problem with so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, he told the group, was that homeowners can end up owing more at the end of the month than the beginning, which can be a “tough situation” for customers and lenders. “I have literally been amazed at the terms offered by some mortgage lenders, thankfully not at Wachovia and thankfully not so much in North Carolina,” he said. Four months later in May 2006, Thompson took a $24...

A private equity company led by former Goldman Sachs executives is the likely buyer of IndyMac Bank, according to a report published Friday. The winner of the bidding for the Pasadena-based thrift is New York-based Dune Capital Management, founded in 2004 by ex-Goldman partners Steven Mnuchin and Daniel Niedich, according to the report on the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter Web site.

A long-awaited sale of IndyMac Bank may be announced as early as today. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been looking for a buyer, or buyers, for the Pasadena lender since the government declared it insolvent and seized it in July. Final bids were due by Dec. 12, and the FDIC said it expected to close a deal by the end of the year. The American Banker newspaper reported Tuesday that the announcement could come today.

A senior bank regulator was removed from his job after being accused of helping mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp alter its records so it appeared to be in better shape -- weeks before it was seized by the government. The Office of Thrift Supervision has reassigned its top West Coast official, Darrel Dochow, who was also a controversial figure in the regulatory lapses surrounding the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s. In a letter sent Monday to Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, the Treasury Department's inspector general wrote that the federal OTS allowed the bank...

REPORTING FROM SACRAMENTO -- Two public employee unions today sued Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to block his effort to furlough state workers to cut costs as California's treasury runs out of money. Last week, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order to require that all state employees take two unpaid days off each month starting in February. The governor said the measure is needed to conserve cash, with the state budget gap estimated to reach $42 billion a year and a half from now.

Like many municipal governments, Oakland, California uses a closed e-mail system and several bulletin boards to carry out its business. The city's employee groups also use the bulletin boards and e-mail system to promote their activities. In 2003, a group of African-American women working for Oakland organized the Good News Employee Association (GNEA), which they described as "a forum for people of faith to express their views on the contemporary issues of the day." They prepared a flier explaining that the group honored "the Natural Family, Marriage, and Family Values." GNEA posted its flier on the city bulletin board and...

SACRAMENTO, Calif, Dec 12, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Will Dramatically Cut Largest Source of Deadly Diesel Pollution in State The California Air Resources Board today approved two diesel truck regulations that will dramatically cut the largest source of diesel pollution in the state and are the first of their kind in the United States, according to Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The Air Resource Board estimates that the truck regulations are expected to save 9,400 lives between 2010 and 2025 and greatly reduce health care costs. "In passing these rules, California will continue to lead a nationwide movement to protect...

OTTAWA — Ottawa’s archbishop would like all parishes in the sprawling diocese to kneel at the same time during the Mass. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast said he is implementing what the Canadian bishops had decided a few years ago would be common practice throughout Canada when the new translation of the Roman Missal comes into use. He never expected his request would become a front-page story in the Ottawa Citizen, describing the move as “authoritarian.” “It didn’t strike me as controversial,” he said. “But you can always line up people on either side of an issue.” “It gets the message out...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California's utilities, refineries and large factories must transform their operations to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new climate plan before state regulators. On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board was expected to adopt what would be the nation's most sweeping global warming plan, outlining for the first time how individuals and businesses would meet a landmark 2006 law that made the state a leader on global climate change. It would hold California's worst polluters accountable for the heat-trapping emissions they produce _ transforming how people travel, utilities generate power and businesses use electricity. At...

The Financial Times reports, in a story with no named sources, that the owners of the Los Angeles Times are talking to the owners of the Orange County Register about merging operations.

SAN DIEGO -- An FA-18 Hornet fighter jet crashed in a University City neighborhood near I-805 and Genessee shortly before noon Monday, destroying two homes in a blaze that sent a thick black plume of smoke into the sky. The pilot was able to eject from the aircraft before the crash and has been transported to a local hospital in "mild" condition.

Shaping Economic Analysis to Suit Climate Politics By Roger Pielke Jr., Prometheus TodayÂ’s ClimateWire reports that CaliforniaÂ’s proposed climate policy - known by its bill number as AB32 - has been soundly criticized by a distinguished panel of six internationally recognized economists with expertise in carbon policies: California intentionally skewed its analysis of the economic effects of its climate change plan, according to a review by state-commissioned economists. All six economists found the analysis deeply flawed, and several even said the state hand-picked data to improve the economic case for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Wow. When policy makers and experts...

More than 200 legislative staff members have received pay increases during this year of multibillion-dollar deficits, program cuts and the longest budget standoff in state history. The Legislature did not award across-the-board pay hikes, but 179 Assembly and at least 35 Senate aides quietly received raises, a comparison of first- and fourth-quarter rosters shows. Pay jumped for an additional 105 legislative staffers because they received promotions in which their job titles changed.

SACRAMENTO, California: Arnold Schwarzenegger still has two years left in his term as California's governor, but the Austrian-born Hollywood star already appears to be preparing for his next role — likely on the world stage. In January, he will address the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Switzerland. That event follows an international summit on reducing greenhouse gas emissions he convened earlier this month in Beverly Hills. Schwarzenegger also has been asked repeatedly whether he would entertain a position if offered one by President-elect Barack Obama, most likely focused on alternative energy or other environmental initiatives. He's been coy in...

[California] appears headed, if not for imminent disaster, then toward an unanticipated, maddening, and largely unnecessary mediocrity. Since 2000, California’s job growth rate— which in the late 1970s surged at many times the national average—has lagged behind the national average by almost 20 percent. Rapid population growth, once synonymous with the state, has slowed dramatically. Most troubling of all, domestic out-migration, about even in 2001, swelled to over 260,000 in 2007 and now surpasses international immigration. Texas has replaced California as the leading growth center for Hispanics. Out-migration is a key factor, along with a weak economy, for the collapse...

On November 21, 2008, the banking operations of Downey Savings and Loan Association, F.A. - Newport Beach, CA was sold in a transaction facilitated by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

On November 21, 2008, the banking operations of PFF Bank and Trust, Pomona, CA was sold in a transaction facilitated by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Okay, so maybe it's a pipe dream. But I was thinking of ways to help Arnold close the budget gap in California with more creative new taxes. So here's what I come up with: An Abortion Tax! 125,000 (roughly) abortions in CA per year - times - $200 Abortion tax = $25,000,000 in new revenues for the CA government! Let's get someone to propose it in the CA Legislature, shall we? Consider this an open thread for ideas on helping Arnold close the budget gap in CA - creative ways he might not think of.

“I start every one of my days praying,” says Maria Shriver, wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I go to church every week. I went to Catholic schools my entire life.” But, says Shriver, when it comes to Church teachings, “I pick and choose… I think I’m probably a ‘Cafeteria Catholic.’” Shriver’s comments came during a lengthy interview on the Washington Post’s video blog ‘On Faith,’ taped during an Oct. 22 women’s conference at the Long Beach Convention Center. Shriver, wearing a rosary around her neck, was interviewed by Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn and co-host Jon Meacham of Newsweek....

Firefighters and a squadron of aircraft launched a desperate daylight attack Friday to push back a wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed at least 100 homes and forced thousands to evacuate their homes in the longtime celebrity hideaway of Montecito. VIDEO HERE http://www.nbclosangeles.com/live/?aid=31997849&vid=30518544 Officials had no projection on the containment of the fast-moving brush fire that started Thursday evening in the foothills of Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara. Fanned by winds between 50 and 70 mph, the fire broke out in the Cold Springs area at about 6 p.m. Fire officials began an aggressive attack from the air at daybreak with...

Although a week has passed since California voters overturned that state's Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, the state has felt numerous aftershocks as gay rights activists have mounted large-scale protests directed at supporters of Prop 8, specifically the Mormon church. ... Demonstrations outside Mormon temples were reported over the weekend throughout California and more are anticipated nationwide. The Mormon church, however, is not the only Prop 8 supporter coming under criticism for its role in the controversial election, as Catholics and Evangelical churches have seen protests, as well. An estimated 10,000 gay-rights protesters gathered in San Diego, Calif. outside...

White voters in California voted slightly against Proposition 8, while blacks voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 8. 70% of blacks in California voted for Proposition 8 (which banned homosexual marriage), while 30% voted against Proposition 8. Latinos voted slightly in favor of Proposition 8, as well. Were it not for black and latino voters in California, Poposition 8 would not have passed. Now we see radical homosexual activists marching in some streets in California saying things like "Proposition 8 is hate," that those who voted for Proposition 8 are bigots, homophobes, discriminators, and so on. Poll after poll has shown that...

White voters in California voted slightly against Proposition 8, while blacks voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 8. 70% of blacks in California voted for Proposition 8 (which banned homosexual marriage), while 30% voted against Proposition 8. Latinos voted slightly in favor of Proposition 8, as well. Were it not for black and latino voters in California, Poposition 8 would not have passed. Now we see radical homosexual activists marching in some streets in California saying things like "Proposition 8 is hate," that those who voted for Proposition 8 are bigots, homophobes, discriminators, and so on. Poll after poll has shown that...

This is what we're up against. On Sunday morning, amidst worshiping congregants and following unifying prayers that our President-elect be granted wisdom as he prepares to lead our nation through difficult global, social and economic challenges, the Michigan left declared open war on peaceful church goers. They did it with banners, chants, blasphemy, by storming the pulpit, by vandalizing the church facility, by potentially defiling the building with lude, public, sex acts and by intentionally forcing physical confrontations with worshipers. This didn't take place in some dystopian, post modern work of fiction and it didn't take place in San Francisco...

Sacramento, Nov 6, 2008 / 07:47 am (CNA).- St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California has invited Pepperdine University law professor and Obama backer Doug Kmiec to give an election “post-mortem” lecture.According to the California Catholic Daily, Kmiec will give the Thirteenth Annual Newman C. Eberhardt Lecture next Tuesday. The seminary’s web site says his lecture will examine “the prominent role played by the American Catholic community in the 2008 election, from Bishops educating candidates on ensoulment to alternative ways to be pro-life to the selection of running mates.”Kmiec, former legal counsel for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, has...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday proposed $4.4 billion in new taxes... "We must stop the bleeding." Freeper, Osage Orange posted the above article. I am posting another regarding the prodigal state of California. Get ready – as the tax hike fails to work. The Marxist trinity Hussein, Pelosi & Reed will run to bail out their Mecca come January if not sooner. My advice to the many good, moral people of that state – FLEE! Flee from that place like Sodom. Where to? I’m not affiliated with them but maybe check into the plan of http://christianexodus.org Get...

According to the internals conducted after election day, 70% of blacks voted to ban homosexual marriage in California. Without their support, Proposition 8 would have failed, due to the fact that a slight majority of whites in California were against Proposition 8. Poll after poll has shown that around 75% of blacks across America do not support homosexual marriage, yet Barack Obama wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. Obama says that the issue of homosexual marriage should be left up to the voters in each state. And yet repealing DOMA would mean that states that have banned homosexual...

Sacramento, Nov 4, 2008 / 12:20 pm (CNA).- In what one Catholic bishop called “a blatant display of religious bigotry and intolerance,” a commercial advocating a “no” vote on Proposition 8 depicts Mormon missionaries invading the homes of a lesbian couple.The California ballot’s Proposition 8 would restore the legal definition of marriage to being between one man and one woman. Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court imposed same-sex marriage on the state.In the 60 second commercial, produced by the Courage Campaign Issues Committee, two missionaries knock on a door and say they are from the Church of Jesus...

Google has become embroiled in a row about gay marriage, after opponents of same-sex unions in California used the search engine's advertising network to post messages on popular websites against the owner's wishes. A number of American websites, including the widely read TechCrunch and Create Digital Music blogs, featured adverts backing Proposition 8, which would change California’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The adverts appeared on the sites a day before the crucial vote - which Californians will take at the same time as the presidential ballot - and have caused uproar...

A masked man waving an American flag and holding a handgun on a Santa Barbara freeway overpass has shut down Highway 101 for nearly two hours. Police Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte says the man is on the La Cumbre Avenue overpass wearing a ski mask and brown fatigues. He's waving an American flag in one hand and a handgun in the other. No shots have been fired. The freeway has been shut down in both directions...The police special weapons team and a crisis negotiation team is on the scene.

In the latest twist in the tug-of-war between Native Americans and anthropologists, officials at the University of California have decided not to repatriate a pair of well-preserved skeletons that are nearly 10,000 years old. Archaeology students unearthed the bones in 1976 near the clifftop home of the chancellor of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). It may be possible to extract some of the oldest human DNA in North America from the exquisitely preserved remains, say researchers. But in the past two years the bones have become a political football over US$7-million plans to demolish and rebuild the house....

VALLEJO, Calif. -- When the economic crisis deepened this fall, this city already was losing scores of police and firefighters because it could no longer afford the rich salaries and benefits it offered after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, with crime on the rise and tax revenue sinking, this San Francisco Bay area city faces more cuts in police and fire department budgets. It is a scenario being closely watched by the many other California municipalities that offered the same lucrative pay packages -- and that now face the same fiscal pressures. With a slowing economy and housing prices...

URGENT: JOIN PRO-CHOICE LEADERS TO DEFEAT PROP 4 Dear Feminist Activist, We're emailing you together for the first time, because the situation is critical. Never before have all of us -- leaders of the National Organization for Women (NOW), NARAL Pro-Choice America (NARAL), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), and Feminist Majority Foundation -- joined together to ask for your immediate help. Our message is urgent. We must defeat Proposition 4 in California. Right now polls show we are down by just two points -- 46-44 percent -- so we can still turn it around. This draconian, deceptive so-called parental...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Officials in the United States are looking into the recent arrest of an Iranian-American student in Tehran who was working on a research project on women's rights in Iran. Esha Momeni, a graduate student at California State University-Northridge, was arrested October 15 in Tehran for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving, according to Change For Equality, an Iranian women's movement. "We're seeking additional information about this case," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday. "We stand with all those in Iran who are working for universal human rights and justice in their countries." Momeni, who was born...

Call in and welcome Duncan D. Hunter to the halls of Freedom Radio, along with Honest and Loki at 8 pm est, tonight, Sunday, Oct. 19! Our country was attacked by terrorists on 9/11/01. The very next day, Duncan quit his job, and joined the U.S. Marine Corps' Officer Candidate School, and graduated as a Lieutenant in March of 2002. Duncan excelled in the area of field artillery, inspired by his grand-father, Robert O. Hunter, who was a Marine Corps artillery officer in the Pacific campaigns of WWII. Duncan went on to serve in the 1st Marine Division, in Iraq...

<p>La Quinta, Calif., resident says the space was a bedroom when she bought the house 30 years ago, but the city says it's her responsibility to undo the illegal conversion.</p> <p>Ageda Camargo was sitting in her shady frontyard, wondering aloud if jail is as bad as it sounds.</p>

SACRAMENTO -- Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP-hired with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country. Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed. "I am not a Republican," insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet clinic manager and former Democrat from...

A new Obama ad characterizes the "Bush-McCain privatization plan" as "cutting Social Security Benefits in half." This is a falsehood sure to frighten seniors who rely on their Social Security checks. In truth, McCain does not propose to cut those checks at all.

Islamists Day Parade Gets Ugly First, the difference between the fighters for free world over in Europe who get attacked, harassed, berated and in some cases physically beaten and us (in America) is law enforcement. The police in the US do their job. Magnificently. What was striking today was, for the first time since I began covering these demonstrations (three years and counting), an agitator was allowed behind our barrier and permitted to harass the patriots (as seen in the video). Later on, when a Muslim was filming on our side of the barrier in our designated area, screaming allahu...

  Dear Friend, You're not going to believe this. In the same week that the No on 8 campaign launched an ad that labeled as "lies" claims that same-sex marriage would be taught in schools to young children, a first grade class took a school-sponsored trip to a gay wedding. Eighteen first graders traveled to San Francisco City Hall Friday for the wedding of their teacher and her lesbian partner, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The school sponsored the trip for the students, ages 5 and 6, taking them away from their studies for the same-sex wedding. The wedding...

Postal Nightmare: Needed - an Investigative Journalist October 12, 2008Ida Lofstrom is fighting for her life in a San Diego, CA hospital. When the nurse gave her a shot to draw blood, they couldn't stop the bleeding for three days. They found she was overdosed with blood thinner of some kind. She is old and has several problems, but the biggest problem is her ex-husband, James L. Lofstrom. Ida is being help by her daughter from a previous marriage, Brenda, who, many years ago, modeled for the gaming token pictured to the right. James L. Lofstrom is a retired...

Hey Yall, This just happened to my husband and I wanted to alert you all to this. Apologies if I have filed this under the wrong category; moderators please fix as necessary. My husband and I live in the San Francisco area and are registered to vote by mail permanently. We both successfully voted in the California Republican primary earlier on February 5. In September I received a notice that I would get my Presidential ballot in early October but he did not. When I got mine last week but he did not get his, he called the voter registration...

Phil Stine is not crazy, or possessed, or even that special, he says. He has no idea how he does what he does. From most accounts, he does it very well. “Phil finds the water,” said Frank Assali, an almond farmer and convert. “No doubt about it.” Mr. Stine, you see, is a “water witch,” one of a small band of believers for whom the ancient art of dowsing is alive and well. Emphasis, of course, on well. Using nothing more than a Y-shaped willow stick, Mr. Stine has as his primary function determining where farmers should drill to slake...

The comment thread on my original post about Oakland's new "Cathedral of Light" has about 90 comments at this point. My editorial observations were minimal, but that didn't stop several people from claiming positions for me (and strongly disagreeing with ... the positions they thought I held). This thoughtful post by "Vitruvian Duck" gets closer to identifying the concerns I had when I first saw pictures of the cathedral. He received his Masters degree from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, one of the best (if not only) classical schools of (Church) Architecture in the country. He...