Free Republic

The governor of California has created the state's mandatory water reduction orders, following a historic drought. The order mandates a 25% reduction in water sage for cities and town across the state. --snip--

Alex Martin, 25, was pursued by Border Patrol in Pine Valley, California The agents were in unmarked cars They used a spike strip to pull Martin over, smashed his passenger window and then fired a Taser into the car The shot ignited the interior and the car exploded Dashcam footage shows the agents fleeing the scene and not helping Martin burned to death His family are now suing the US federal government The family of a 25-year-old man who died in a car fire in California is now suing the US federal government, claiming a Taser shot by Border Control...

As of Wednesday it is more expensive to shop in parts of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Buy something in Hayward and you’re going to get whacked with a 10% sales tax. Take a few steps outside the city limits and the tax is a half cent cheaper. “A sales tax could scare businesses,” said Jessica Cuevas of 25 25 Vintage. “If it keeps increasing the way it does, it could have a negative effect on Hayward.” ... Soon, sales tax could go even higher. There’s a bill in the legislature that would allow cities to add one percent to...

Southern California athletic director Pat Haden will not attend the College Football Playoff selection committee meeting in Indianapolis this week because of a new Indiana religious-freedom law that critics fear could permit discrimination against gays and lesbians. Haden posted on Twitter at (at)ADHadenUSC: "I am the proud father of a gay son. In his honor, I will not be attending the CFP committee meeting in Indy this week. (hash)EmbraceDiversity."

The singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing the 1969 hit song "Spirit in the Sky" remained in a hospital Monday, two days after he was hurt in a car crash north of San Francisco that left a motorcyclist dead, according to the California Highway Patrol. Norman Greenbaum, 72, was brought to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in critical condition after the car he was a passenger in collided with a motorcycle, according to a statement from the California Highway Patrol (CHP

On a recent Friday, Kwanza Brooks, a $7.25-an-hour McDonald’s worker, climbed into a 14-person van to take a four-hour ride from Charlotte, N.C., to Atlanta. As she and other workers headed south, Ms. Brooks, a short, fiery woman, swapped stories with her companions about unsafe conditions and unfair managers. Upon arriving, they joined more than 400 other people — including home care aides, Walmart workers, child care workers and adjunct professors. The gathering was a strategy session to plan for the fast-food movement’s next big wave of protests, which is now scheduled for April 15. But the meeting was also...

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland walked away from the NFL at the age of 24 for fear of head injuries, despite not having a diagnosed concussion for a decade. And then there’s Wes Welker, the anti-Borland, a wideout with a disturbing array of concussions who isn’t ready to quit. “As long as I’ve recovered the right way and everything like that, I’m ready to go,” Welker told ESPN in December. “I really don’t see any problem with it.’’ But apparently the rest of the NFL sees what Welker doesn’t. Pro Football Talk reported the receiver has “generated no buzz”...

There are few places in the nation where a democratic socialist independent who’s mulling a presidential run would have more rock-star status than the Bay Area. Yet U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, is convinced that his populist message can resonate far beyond places like Berkeley and Brooklyn. “If you go to almost any state in this country, including the most conservative, and you ask them if it makes sense to give tax breaks to billionaires while making cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and education, they will say ‘no,’” Sanders said in an interview Monday afternoon in San Francisco. He said...

Authorities have surveillance footage showing the suspected arsonist in last December's spectacular downtown L.A. apartment complex fire parking his vehicle on the 110 Freeway and walking into the half-built structure with cans of fuel, a fire official told a community group.. Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Ruda last week informed members of Echo Park's neighborhood council of new details about the fire, which caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. He said the suspect was still at large. Officials have offered a $170,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the arsonist behind the...

Left: Monument of Junípero Serra on plaza de San Francisco de Asis in Havana; right: Mission church of Jalpan de Serra, Querétaro, Mexico, built by Junípero Serra between 1751 and 1758 (Images: Wikipedia) Los Angeles, Calif.- California missionary Father Junipero Serra’s canonization is “long overdue,” says a university professor concerned that the priest’s history has been politicized and misrepresented. “When he died, many native peoples came to the mission for his burial. They openly wept. Others of his colleagues and even colonists, believed that he would be made a saint, because of the way he had lived his life,...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle today at 3:53 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The test reentry vehicle impacted in a pre-established test area in the Pacific Ocean near the island of Guam approximately 40 minutes after launch. All test launches verify the accuracy and reliability of the ICBM weapon system, providing valuable data to ensure a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent. The launch team, under the direction of the 576th...

When California Bishop Marc Andrus wants to engage people in a conversation about climate change he doesn’t throw statistics at them, rather he begins with a question like: When was the last time you had an experience of wonder in the natural world? “If we can connect people back to it, or open them up for a fresh experience with wonder, it’s a great starting place for recovering a sense of why [climate change] is a moral issue,” said Andrus. Throughout history, the church has partnered with social movements on equal rights and justice issues. By beginning the conversation now...

Something in Tim Cook’s screed caught my eye as highly unusual - and no, I don’t mean what he’s calling his “stand.” Rather, it’s this line: “...on behalf of Apple, I’m standing up to oppose this new wave of legislation — wherever it emerges.” On behalf of Apple? Really, Tim? Tim Cook is the CEO of a rather large multinational corporation, with assets pushing the three-quarter trillion dollar mark. CEO’s generally, and oligarchical CEO’s of corporate nation-states especially, do not shoot their mouths off “on behalf” of the company. Their lawyers, for one, start twitching at the very mention of...

Ordinarily I wouldnÂ’t concern myself with what some billionaire far-left oligarch thinks. Usually, they donÂ’t think about much beyond making money and having millions of people they neither know or respect suck up to them. AppleÂ’s Steve Jobs made a career of this type of self-important asshattery. His successor, Tim Cook is no different. Weighing in on the Indiana RFRA law signed by Governor Mike Pence last week, Cook has demonstrated he is not only has distinctly fascistic tendencies (part of the whole billionaire far-left oligarch thing) and scarcely as passing knowledge of the US Constitution and the issue at...

Apple chief Tim Cook slammed what he called a wave of “dangerous” laws in several US states that he said promote discrimination and erode equality, in an editorial published Sunday. Cook — one of the most prominent chief executives to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality — wrote in the Washington Post that so-called “religious freedom” laws passed in several states threaten to undo progress toward greater equality. "There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country," Cook wrote in the editorial.

Tim Cook: Apple Will Oppose Bills Like Indiana's 'Religious Freedom' Law Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Sunday broadened his criticism of a new law in Indiana, which opponents say could be used to discriminate against gay people, to other states that he says have similar laws. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Thursday, sparking an outcry from those, including Cook, who say it could be used to protect businesses that refuse to serve gay people. The law's supporters say it will prevent the government from forcing business owners from providing services that go...

Sales tax rates are going up in parts of California on Wednesday and will, for the first time, hit double digits in some Northern California cities. Shoppers in Albany, Hayward and Union City and San Leandro in Alameda County and El Cerrito in Contra Costa County will pay 10 percent starting next month. If a bill in the state Legislature passes, more areas could be paying that much. The statewide sales tax rate is 7.5 percent. State law allows cities and counties to add up to 2 additional percentage points in local sales and use taxes. The Legislature passed bills...

Turning away a legal plea literally wrapped in the American flag, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to intervene in a controversial case involving a South Bay high school's discipline of students who chose to wear flag-adorned shirts during a 2010 Cinco de Mayo celebration. The high court's action left intact a federal appeals court ruling last year that found Live Oak High School officials had the legal right to order students wearing the American flag shirts to turn them inside out or go home.

In a little-noticed move this week, California State Assembly Minority Leader Kristin Olsen, completed a purge of “conservative” policy staffers.  The dramatic reversal—in both function and ideology of the Assembly Republican Caucus—mirrors the California GOP’s leftward shift, which has eschewed social conservatives as a “fringe” element. By softening the party’s stances on issues like illegal immigration, traditional marriage, Common Core, and ObamaCare, the GOP establishment both nationally and here in California believes the party will attract more voters from the center than the party loses from the right.

Jamie Foxx hosted the IHeartRadio Music Awards Sunday night and has spent much of the next morning taking heat on Twitter for a joke he made at Bruce Jenner’s expense. “We have some groundbreaking performances here too tonight,” Foxx said in his monologue. “Bruce Jenner will be here doing some musical performances. He’s doing a his and her duet all by himself.” “Look, I’m just busting your balls while I still can,” he added to a mixture of groans and applause from the audience, which included Kylie Jenner, the Olympian-turned-reality star’s teenage daughter. The tweet that seems to have set...