Free Republic

A group of left-wing Californians, frustrated with the recent election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States, has filed an application to put a secession referendum — “Calexit” — on the 2018 ballot. The East Bay Times reports that the group, called Yes California, intends to circumvent the U.S. Congress: A “yes” vote would trigger a special election the following March in which residents would decide if “California should become a free, sovereign and independent country.” Another “yes” vote would require the governor of the newly minted “Republic of California” to apply to the United...

In 2018, the issue of whether California should secede from the union could come to a head. Yes California Independence Campaign, a fringe political group that calls for the state to become an independent nation, filed a proposed ballot measure with the Attorney General's Office on November 21, The Sacramento Bee reports. If it garners the half a million signatures required to appear on the 2018 gubernatorial ballot, the measure would strike language from the state constitution that would help clear a path to secession. Still, a state holds no right to secede under federal law. Californians would need to...

We haven't really written much about the insane Theranos scandal, though we discussed it on our podcast. The whole story is pretty crazy -- involving a heavily hyped up company that appeared to basically be flat out lying to everyone about what it could do. The company still exists, but barely. The company's founder and CEO, who was plastered across magazine covers and compared frequently to Steve Jobs, has been banned from running a lab for two years, and the company is now facing a $140 million lawsuit from its biggest partner, Walgreens, who claims that Theranos repeatedly lied to...

Crazifornia Election 2016, Smoking tobacco is bad, but Smoking pot is good in California. California politicians and their union bosses lack all shame in their self-enrichment at public expense. Their outrageous conduct has ravaged the once-prosperous Golden State, consigning taxpayers to $1.5 trillion in debt and another $1 trillion in pension debt. Yet the voting public seems oblivious. The rest of America has watched without much empathy as California’s politicians deal death-blow after death-blow to the once Golden State through insane, hypocritical and often unconstitutional legislation.

Anti-Trump secessionists filed formal paperwork Monday launching their petition drive aimed at separating California from the union by first putting the issue before voters on the 2018 ballot. A petition submitted by the Yes California Independence Campaign calls for repealing language in the state constitution that describes California as an “inseparable part” of the nation and holding a vote on independence on March 13, 2019.

Few states pay closer attention to food than California. We are the cradle of the Central Valley and almond milk lattes, the home of of Full Belly Farms and Alice Waters and Ikeda markets, the state that introduced America to soda taxes and tomatoes to die for and cage-free hens.

President-elect Trump isn't the only one thinking about splitting his time between two cities. When President Obama leaves the White House this January, his family is expected to become bi-coastal, with homes in both DC and California. Sources told the New York Post that the Obamas have purchased a home in Rancho Mirage, California.

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Boies, 75, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Read: ‘Fraud is not a trade secret’: How a 27-year-old blew the whistle...

Hana Ghanim, a UC Berkeley student, doesn’t feel safe at school anymore. Ghanim and other Muslim students at universities across the Bay Area are taking precautions after a number of hate crimes occurred on their campuses since the Nov. 8 presidential election of Donald Trump, who said during his campaign that he would ban people of her faith from entering the country. Her fears come after an incident Nov. 10 on the UC Berkeley campus in which three men threatened to rip off a student’s hijab, or headscarf, and taunted her over Trump’s stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

San Francisco’s District Attorney said on Friday that he feels the need to reiterate that hate crimes won’t be tolerated, and undocumented immigrants will be protected. The declaration is in response to what George Gascon says is an uptick in hate-related incidents across the Bay Area and burgeoning concerns about the safety of immigrant communities after Donald Trump was elected president on Nov. 8. “The fear in the community is real,” he said. At the Hall of Justice, Gascon announced a hotline that people can use to report hate crimes. “This will not be a place where hate will be...

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Boies, 75 years old, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Those efforts included threatening to take legal action against The...

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Boies, 75 years old, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Those efforts included threatening to take legal action against The...

It's worth asking why Elizabeth Holmes is still leading the embattled blood testing company Theranos Inc. But there may be a good reason why she still is in charge, one that has little to do with the scandal-ridden company's performance to date. Forget what venture capitalist Tim Draper — one of the first to invest in the Palo Alto company — implied this week that Holmes is being attacked because she's a young, female entrepreneur. The simple fact is that Theranos has not been able to deliver on its technology from a commercial, scientific or regulatory standpoint, and that falls...

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Charges against 25 protesters who stopped traffic on the Bay Bridge in January were dismissed this morning by a San Francisco Superior Court judge, according to an attorney representing the group. The group, known collectively as the Bay Bridge 25, was arrested on Jan. 18 on the bridge on suspicion of misdemeanors, including obstructing traffic on a freeway, public nuisance and unlawful assembly, in addition to having their cars impounded.

When the Rev. Robert H. Schuller decided in the mid-1970s that his congregation was outgrowing the drive-in, low-slung Garden Grove church that Richard Neutra had designed for him 15 years earlier within earshot of Interstate 5, and that he needed a purpose-built cathedral to accommodate his increasingly popular “Hour of Power” televised sermons, he flew to New York to visit the architecture firm run by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. On the face of it, Schuller and Johnson were a very strange match, the self-made Orange County televangelist and the smoothly moneyed New York architect who was also an atheist...

POWAY, Calif. – Poway Unified School administrators sent a letter to parents Tuesday claiming that bullies have created an “unsafe learning and working environment” for a few students and staff since the presidential election. The letter, sent by acting Superintendent Dr. Mel Robertson, claims that the students and employees were targeted because of their race, religion or political beliefs. “Our students cannot learn when they are afraid or bullied and I know I speak for our full community in saying this cannot continue,” Dr. Robertson stated.

2016 has not been too kind to Elizabeth Holmes, the Steve-Jobs wannabe in charge of fraudulent Theranos. She has thus far been banned for 2 years from operating labs, removed from hosting fundraisers for Hillary and lost her entire net worth. And now, the Wall Street Journal has published the "tell-all" story of the whistle-blower, 26 year old Tyler Shultz, who brought the the whole Theranos farce crashing down. It's a sordid tale complete with all the expected twists and turns of a Jason Bourne thriller including intimidation, coercion and private detectives. Tyler Shultz is the grandson of George Shultz,...

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — Got milk? Chances are it’s from California. There are more dairy cows in the Golden State than anywhere else in the country. But all that milk and cheese comes at a cost to the planet. Tom Frantz keeps a running count. He says dairy farms have taken over his farming community in the San Joaquin Valley. “There are ten of them within what I call smelling distance of my home,” he said, noting they’ve moved in in just the last 10 years.

In issuing its annual survey of state finances, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has affirmed the wisdom of Gov. Jerry Brown’s push for Proposition 2, the 2014 ballot measure that amended the California Constitution to create a sizable rainy-day fund and set aside money when revenue is free-flowing for use when it dries up. The LAO estimates that if California’s economy continues its modest growth and new spending commitments are not made, the state will end the 2017-18 fiscal year with $11.5 billion in total reserves. Of that amount, $8.7 billion can be used only for future budget emergencies. The...

A former teacher who made national news nearly two decades ago when she tried to retain her job at a Sacramento-area high school while transitioning from male to female has been charged in an Oakland triple homicide. Dana Rivers, 61, of San Jose was arrested early Friday in Oakland on suspicion of killing Patricia Wright, 57; Wright’s wife, Charlotte Reed, 56; and the couple’s 19-year-old son, Toto Diambu-Wright. Police said the two women were both stabbed and shot, and the man was stabbed. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Police said Rivers was covered in blood and about to...