Free Republic

A gunman went on a drive-by shooting rampage in a Santa Barbara student enclave and at least seven people were killed, including the attacker, authorities said. Investigators believe a gunman driving a black BMW acted alone in the shootings late Friday night near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

On the first of May, the Ninth Circuit ordered  that Appellee William Gore, the San Diego Sheriff, respond to the State of California request to intervene in the Peruta case.  Peruta is the case where the Ninth Circuit ruled that Sheriff Gore had to issue concealed carry permits to the public for general self defense.   The order is on hold because  of the request to intervene.  Currently, the Sheriff only issues permits if the applicant demonstrates a unique need under  “circumstances that distinguish [him] from the mainstream,”.  This is commonly referred to as a "may issue" policy. Sheriff Gore,...

California (Rest of the country is in separate threads, see links below) There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. California: Igor Birman, CAL-7, JUNE 3rd .... Sacramento County. DEM incumbent is Bera Endorsed by: Sen. Mike Lee,...

Denisse Rojas earned a biology degree from UC Berkeley and has set her sights on medical school. But one big obstacle stands in her way. To practice medicine in California, doctors must obtain a license from the state, and applicants are required to provide a Social Security number as proof of identity. Rojas, 25, does not have such a number. She is in the United States illegally, having been smuggled into the country from Mexico by her parents when she was 6 months old. But a group of legislators wants to help her — to do for doctors, dentists, nurses,...

The tree trimmer at the center of a federal and state investigation into the destruction of nests and slaughter of baby birds in Oakland said Thursday that he "screwed up" because he allowed his crews to chain-saw trees even as baby birds were falling out. Pulido was the supervisor for a crew of tree trimmers hired Saturday by the U.S. Postal Service's Civic Center Annex in Oakland. The post office ordered trees containing the nests of egrets and black-crowned night herons, species protected by the U.S. Migratory Bird Act, to be cut because the nesting birds were defecating on mail...

HOUSTON (CBSDFW.COM) – Deputies with the Harris County Precinct One Constable’s Office say a man has been terrorizing a neighborhood in the Woodland Heights area of Houston by going to the bathroom in several yards at night. “We’ve had reports from six to eight neighbors out there that someone is actually coming into their yard and defecating — generally on their driveways,” said Sgt. J.C. Mosier. Authorities believe the unknown man is committing the act between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m., but a motive for crimes has not yet been established. “I think the neighbors are laughing about it, but that’s...

Above: Afghanistan combat veteran Andrew Tahmooressi- by Brian Hayes | Top Right NewsSo our last report saw Mexican troops invading our borders -- even drawing weapons on our agents on U.S. soil -- and facing absolutely no consequences by the Obama Adminstration. But let one American make a wrong turn into Mexico -- and there will be hell to pay. That's exactly what happened to a U.S. Marine veteran last month, after he accidentally drove into Mexico with three legally owned guns in his truck. And he has been rotting in a brutal Mexican jail in Tijuana ever since.California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter...

A new report analyzing the financial ramifications of a takeover of some of Nevada’s millions of acres of federal lands suggests the state would benefit from such a transfer. A transfer of 4 million acres of U.S. Bureau Land Management land could bring in anywhere from $31 million to $114 million a year, based on a review of four Western states that have significant amounts of trust lands under their control, the report says.

Why do our well-meaning elites so often worry about humanity in the abstract rather than the real effects of their cosmic ideologies on the majority? The dream of universal health coverage trumped the nightmare of millions of lives disrupted by the implementation of it. Noble lies, with emphatics like “Period!” were necessary to sell something that would hurt precisely those who were told that this was going to be good for them. A myriad of green mandates has led to California’s having the highest-priced gasoline and electricity in the continental United States, a fact that delights utopians in San Francisco...

California is proposing to ban members of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) from serving as judges because the Boy Scouts do not allow gay troop leaders, The Daily Caller has learned. In a move with major legal implications, The California Supreme Court Advisory Committee on The Code of Judicial Ethics has proposed to classify the Boy Scouts as practicing “invidious discrimination” against gays, which would end the group’s exemption to anti-discriminatory ethics rules and would prohibit judges from being affiliated with the group.

After a months-long battle with the city of Irwindale over complaints about a spicy odor, Sriracha sauce creator David Tran said Wednesday that he is now seriously considering moving his factory to another location. Tran responded Wednesday to the politicians and business leaders from 10 states and multiple cities in California who have offered to host the Sriracha factory. He invited them to tour the facility in Irwindale and decide if their communities would complain about the odors that arise during production. Tran stressed that he has not decided whether to move, but would like to explore his options. The...

Ahead of the April 15 tax deadline, a record-high 60% of Californians say that they pay "much more" or "somewhat more" in taxes than they should, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) (and noted by John Seiler of Calwatchdog.org and Stephen Frank of CApoliticalnews.com). However, as PPIC Mark Baldassare notes at Fox&Hounds, Californians still believe that the answer is to tax wealthy earners or corporations more--not to reform and broaden the current tax system. The PPIC survey, which was conducted in March among 1,702 adults, notes: While about half of Californians view the...

LA Times Story via Drudge since I can't link to a story directly.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Education has said that a drag show that occurred last year on the campus of the University of San Diego (USD) caused “scandal,” according to a letter revealed by the group Alumni for a Catholic USD.Nevertheless, the student organization PRIDE at USD will again be hosting a drag show next week called “Celebration of Gender Expression: Supreme Drag Superstar” on the campus of the Catholic institution, according to the group’s Facebook site.“Transgender & Transsexual? Gender expression & gender identity? Drag queen & drag king? What do these terms mean?,” the group asks. “At this Changemaker event,...

No place on the planet is as beautiful and as naturally rich as California. And few places have become as absurd. Currently, three California state senators are either under felony indictment or already have been convicted. State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) made a political career out of demanding harsher state gun-control laws. Now he is facing several felony charges for attempting to facilitate gun-running. One count alleges that Lee sought to provide banned heavy automatic weapons to Philippines-based Islamic terrorist groups. State Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), who had succeeded one brother, Thomas, in the state Assembly and was succeeded...

Obamacare in action…A California couple contacted ABC News 10 after they received a voter registration card from Covered California marked for the Democratic Party.

CA Democrat's Alleged Arms Trafficking Scheme Linked to Islamist Rebels Joel B. Pollak 26 Mar 2014 The 137-page, FBI-sworn affidavit against California State Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat who is also running for Secretary of State, and over two dozen other individuals reads like a crime thriller. Beyond the widely reported stories of alleged wire fraud, money laundering, corruption, and bribery, the affidavit contains tales of alleged murder-for-hire plots involving a political consultant close to Yee, as well as large international weapons trafficking operations. Indeed, while the media have fixated on the hypocrisy of a gun-control advocate--Yee sponsored legislation against...

CAMPBELL -- Prosecutors heeded a man's self-defense claim when they decided not to file charges in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old boy during a weekend confrontation at Campbell's largest park, authorities said. (snip) Tharp told investigators he was attacked by Diaz and at least two other people and once he was knocked to the ground and absorbing kicks to his head, he pulled out a hunting knife with a six-inch blade and swung it to ward off his attackers, and Diaz was stabbed. Buller said Tharp was beaten by as many as six people. Buller said the group, of...

<p>Harvey Weinstein revealed on Saturday that he wasn't sure how he felt about Barack and Michelle Obama when Hillary Clinton -- a longtime friend -- was defeated by Obama in the Democratic primary.</p> <p>"I strongly support Hillary. When she lost, Michelle invited me back in ... but I thought I was going to sit that one out," Weinstein said during his keynote speech at the 38th annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium, hosted by the UCLA School of Law.</p>

Authorities are searching for an “aggressive” mountain lion that killed a German shepherd in a Fontana backyard Wednesday and kept returning to the home despite being shot at by police. About 3:30 a.m. a resident in the 4100 block of Fox Borough Drive heard his dog crying out and went outside to find a large mountain lion standing over his dead 100-pound German shepherd, the Fontana police said in a statement. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-aggressive-mountain-lion-search-20140305,0,6377684.story#ixzz2v9UKdfWZ