Free Republic

The mayor of Stockton, Calif., is pushing back against allegations of negligence after a gun stolen from his home was used in the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy, according to reports. The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office stated Friday that one of two guns registered to Mayor Anthony Silva and stolen in separate incidences was identified as the murder weapon in the Feb. 23, 2015, fatal shooting of Rayshawn Harris, CBS News reported.

For the first time ever, a private company has permission to land on the moon. The U.S. government has officially approved the planned 2017 robotic lunar landing of California-based Moon Express, which aims to fly commercial missions to Earth's nearest neighbor and help exploit its resources, company representatives announced today (Aug. 3). ... Previously, companies had been able to operate only on or around Earth. The new approval, while exclusive to Moon Express, could therefore serve as an important regulatory guide for deep-space commercial activity in general, Richards said. "Nobody's had a deep-sea voyage yet. We're still charting those waters,"...

The battle to stop the most aggressive LGBT anti-religious legislation in the country, SB 1146, is continuing in California, with California MassResistance in the thick of the fight. While the California Legislature was in recess during the month of July, the fight intensified. California MassResistance activists personally went to numerous Assembly members’ local offices, and engaged them at their public events. (See below.) They also put the pressure on local city governments to formally oppose the bill. SB 1146 would officially label private Christian colleges with Christian values, morality, and even dorm policies which conflict with the LGBT agenda as...

Veto Gunmageddon is a group of volunteers dedicated to overturning the recent draconian gun laws passed by the California legislature and signed by Governor Jerry Brown. We are gun owners from all over California who watched with disbelief as the California Legislature bypassed normal procedure to pass strict and clearly unconstitutional gun laws. We have come together and formed “VETO GUNMAGEDDON, CITIZENS OF CALIFORNIA WHO ARE OPPOSED TO PROPOSITION 63, ASSEMBLY BILLS 1135, 1511, 1695, 857 AND SENATE BILLS 880, 1235 AND 1446.  FPPC#1387279”. We are 100% volunteer, and our primary focus is to exercise the people’s veto (a referendum) to...

BREAKING: Two #SDPD Officers have been shot tonight. Their condition is unknown. Keep them in your prayers Update: BREAKING: We have an active search for the suspect(s) in the area of 3800 Boston. Residents need to shelter in place

SAN DIEGO (FOX5) – San Diego police chief Shelley Zimmerman identified the suspect arrested on suspicion of shooting two officers in Southcrest on Thursday night, killing one of them. Jesse Michael Gomez, 52, was arrested Friday on suspicion of the murder of Jonathan "JD" DeGuzman and attempted murder of his partner, Wade Irwin. Potential suspect Marcus Antonio Cassani, 41, was arrested for an outstanding warrant in the 4000 block of Epsilon Street following an hours-long SWAT standoff. Police have not yet determined if Cassani was involved in the shootings of DeGuzman and Irwin, Zimmerman said....

The conflict between religious freedom and gay rights has a new battleground — California's religious colleges and universities. A bill moving through the Legislare would remove a longstanding exemption from anti-discrimination laws for religious institutions, potentially exposing the schools to civil rights lawsuits from students and employees.

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – On Monday, August 1, the California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) will join Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) in the presentation of House Resolution 59, which recognizes the month of August 2016 as “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.” WHAT: Presentation of HR 59, to Recognize August 2016 as “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month WHEN: Program begins at 11:30 a.m.; Resolution Presentation, 1 p.m. WHERE: Program – Capitol Room 2163; Resolution Presentation – Assembly Floor CONTACT: CAIR-Sacramento Valley Programs Consultant Maheen Ahmed, 916.605.6099 mahmed@sacval.cair.com; CAIR-Sacramento Valley Executive Director Basim Elkarra, 916.441.6269 belkarra@cair.com “I am proud...

<p>California state and local law enforcement agencies may have to choose between more than $100 million in federal aid and the “sanctuary city” immigration policies that supporters say are humane, but critics say fuel crime.</p> <p>The policies, whether in writing or just in practice, preclude local law enforcement from working with federal authorities when they catch an illegal immigrant who by law faces deportation. The laws have sparked a national controversy in the wake of dozens of murders and other violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants who local law enforcement did not report to the Department of Homeland Security.</p>

(SACRAMENTO, CA, 7/29/16) – On Monday, August 1, the California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) will join Assembly member Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) in the presentation of House Resolution 59, which recognizes the month of August 2016 as “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.”~~SNIP~~“I am proud to celebrate the first ever Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month by honoring generations of Muslim Americans for their many social, cultural, and economic contributions to California,” Assembly member Quirk stated. “The rhetoric surrounding this election makes the presentation of this resolution more important for me,” he said. “It is appropriate to acknowledge...

OAKLAND -- A suspect wanted for shooting at an Oakland police sergeant Saturday night as she sat dazed in her patrol SUV after a collision was arrested Thursday morning after a standoff with Stockton police, officials said. The suspect's name was not released by police, who said he made statements that the July 23 shooting may have been inspired by recent anti-police sentiment in areas where there have been police shootings. --SNIP-- "Right now we don't know the why," Holmgren said about a motive. He said that the suspect was possibly inspired by anti-police sentiments, but didn't elaborate.

There's nothing like a fresh baguette, hot out of the oven. And one company has made it as easy and quick to get as a Snickers bar. Le Bread Xpress has opened vending machines in San Francsico that produce hot and fresh baguettes in seconds. The machines are operating at the new Myriad market in the Castro. The baguettes rise at a bakery in Burlingame and are slighty baked. The baking process finishes in the vending machine. Operators say the machine is a hit in France. "In a mall next to transportation, people come back from work, get their fresh...

It’s hard to believe it has been almost fifty years since the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders of 1969. Unfortunately, we are reminded of these murders on too regular a basis. They were again in the news recently when Gov. Brown overruled the parole board’s recommendation to release Leslie Van Houten, one of several Manson Family members convicted of murder. Good call -- she is where she belongs. If you lived in southern California at the time, you likely have strong memories of those events. It was an unusually hot August that year, when the Tate murders hit the news. Six people...

Rep. Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) recommended the United States issue "strong-worded comments" to Russia if it hacked the Democratic National Committee's emails . . . "I think that’s the kind of thing that Donald Trump would say we aren’t being aggressive enough," Jansing said. "A strongly worded comment, a warning, is not the kind of president I would be, and I think that's part of what resonates with a certain part of the population."

Mainstream now means teaching LGBT to second-graders. On July 14 the California board of education added LGBT mandates to the state’s new K-12 social studies program, revised for the first time in ten years. This ended a long struggle over school-based Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender studies, playing out for decades inside and outside the state. The San Francisco Chronicle called the event “a landmark move that puts the ongoing LGBT civil rights fight into the mainstream of public education.” The newly adopted state curriculum is “not only acknowledging diversity,” commented state superintendent of public instruction Tom Torlakson with customary...

CLOVEDALE (CBS SF) — The Mayor of Cloverdale hopes it’s just a misunderstanding, but the Bernie Sanders campaign appears to have left her small town with $23,000 in unpaid bills after it hosted their ‘A Future To Believe In’ rally last June.

Eight men were rescued Tuesday from the fire lines on the south side of the Soberanes fire burning near Big Sur. Cal Fire said the men went hiking five days ago and became lost with little water or food. Once the fire flared up over the weekend, the men said they were stranded and didn't know which direction would lead them to safety. Bulldozing crews spotted the men Tuesday, and Cal Fire used air support to locate them. "Air attack did locate them initially," said Cal Fire's Kevin Bohall. "Once we found that, we used a global positioning unit, got...

California’s racially charged all-Democrat Senate race has spilled onto the Democratic National Convention as the candidates continued to feud over President Obama’s endorsement of one over the other. Attorney General Kamala Harris, the recipient of Mr. Obama’s blessing, said Monday that she thought Rep. Loretta Sanchez should apologize to the president for suggesting that race played a role in the endorsement. Ms. Harris is black and Ms. Sanchez Hispanic. “I find it very troubling, and I think that that is not the voice or perspective of a leader,” Ms. Harris told Fox11 in Los Angeles. “Especially in these times, where...

I had a very weird college experience. My memories aren’t of frat parties, of slugging down drinks in games of quarters or beer pong, of losing my voice cheering at big football games, and of hearing how evil Western civilization is in the classroom. Instead, when I think of my four years at Thomas Aquinas College, I think of drawing Euclidean propositions on a chalkboard, of lively debates about Aristotle’s claims about ethics, of earnest discussions about things as obscure as the nature of being.

I had a very weird college experience. My memories aren’t of frat parties, of slugging down drinks in games of quarters or beer pong, of losing my voice cheering at big football games, and of hearing how evil Western civilization is in the classroom. Instead, when I think of my four years at Thomas Aquinas College, I think of drawing Euclidean propositions on a chalkboard, of lively debates about Aristotle’s claims about ethics, of earnest discussions about things as obscure as the nature of being.