Free Republic

The man in the natty suit smoked a cigarette, ordered a bourbon and soda and carried a bomb in his briefcase. He sat in the rear of the passenger cabin on Northwest Orient Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. Shortly after takeoff, he slipped the flight attendant a note explaining his intention to hijack the plane. Calmly, he put on a pair of sunglasses, demanded $200,000 in ransom and directed the pilot to land in Seattle. Once on the ground, the hijacker let 36 passengers exit, accepted the $200,000 and instructed the pilot to fly to Mexico. On Nov. 24,...

California State Senator Kevin de Leon introduced himself to the DASB Senate on Wednesday, April 18. He formerly served as President pro tempore of the California State Senate, and is running to unseat incumbent U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in the 2018 election. De Leon expressed his support for protecting undocumented immigrants and making college free. After Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was going to deport 11 million criminal violent felons, de Leon said he decided to author Senate Bill No. 54, also known as the California “Sanctuary State” Bill. He called Sessions’ comment “fake news,” and said Sessions was...

Friday’s outing of longtime CIA and MI6 asset Stefan Halper as an FBI asset sent to infiltrate the Trump campaign has social media abuzz today. Reactions have ranged from celebration to outrage, with little inbetween. To recap, after two weeks of hunting for a “mole” in the Trump campaign, the New York Times and Washington Post both printed incredibly detailed descriptions of Halper – withholding all but his name, solidly corroborating a March report by the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross about Halper’s meetings with the Trump aides. Neither publication give Ross credit, of course. Somehow several anti-Trump intellectuals got their...

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee slammed President Trump’s claim that there was an FBI informant spying on his presidential campaign. “The most I can tell you Chuck is that this claim by the president, the suggestion by Giuliani that there is a political spy embedded in the Trump campaign is nonsense,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd. Schiff is referring to Trump’s most recent claim that former President Barack Obama used “an embedded informant” to spy on his campaign. “Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI ‘SPIED...

But Trump and his backers are wrong about what it means that the FBI reportedly was using a confidential source to gather information early in its investigation of possible campaign ties to Russia. The investigation started out as a counterintelligence probe, not a criminal one. And relying on a covert source rather than a more intrusive method of gathering information suggests that the FBI may have been acting cautiously — perhaps too cautiously — to protect the campaign, not undermine it. As a former FBI counterintelligence agent, I know what Trump apparently does not: Counterintelligence investigations have a different purpose...

President Trump endorsed GOP California gubernatorial candidate and businessman John Cox on Friday, days after Cox said he was remorseful he did not vote for Trump in the 2016 election because he wasn’t sure if Trump was a conservative. ...snip Cox and Orange County Assemblyman Travis Allen, both Republicans, are seeing to woo enough voters for the June 5 primary in order to gain one of two spots in the November general election. In the event Republicans fail to garner enough support, two Democrats could go head-to-head. Cox has already attracted the support of GOP leadership, including U.S. House Majority...

It's not only a possibility in the Hawaiian Islands. A chain of about 40 volcanos runs along the West Coast between Canada and Mexico and all have the potential to become active. (The potential for each peak is outlined in the gallery above.) They've all erupted at least once in the past 10,000 years and they all have a supply of magma under them.

In recent years, the number of people moving away from the state of California has greatly outnumbered the number of people moving into the state. Reasons for the mass exodus include rising crime, the worst traffic in the western world, a growing homelessness epidemic, wildfires, earthquakes and crazy politicians that do some of the stupidest things imaginable. But for most families, the decision to leave California comes down to one basic factor… Money.For a lot of Californians, it simply does not make economic sense to remain in the state any longer. So over the past decade approximately 5 million people...

San Francisco’s mayor plans to put medical teams on the streets to distribute a drug that curbs heroin cravings in opioid addicts, an initiative he says will be the first in the country. Mayor Mark Farrell announced Thursday he will allocate $6 million for 10 new public health clinicians to provide the opioid treatment medicine buprenorphine, known as Suboxone, directly to users. Buprenorphine is a daily pill or dissolvable strip that reduces cravings and alleviates withdrawal symptoms. It also reduces risk of overdose. Video and photos of people shooting up drugs in public have gone viral in recent weeks and...

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned Republican lawmakers on Friday not to expose the identity of top-secret FBI informant, saying that to do so would be "irresponsible" — and potentially illegal. "It would be at best irresponsible, and at worst potentially illegal, for members of Congress to use their positions to learn the identity of an FBI source for the purpose of undermining the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in our election," Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "Anyone who is entrusted with our nation’s highest secrets should act with the gravity and seriousness...

GOP seeks farm bill support amid immigration debate House Freedom Caucus members are trying to flex some muscle on immigration in exchange for support on the farm bill; A sprawling and subsidy-packed farm bill that also would have tightened food stamp rules failed in the House on Friday, in a dramatic defeat for GOP leaders who faced an uprising from conservatives over inaction on immigration. The farm bill, which was voted down 213-198, had been hanging in the balance as the conservative House Freedom Caucus threatened to withhold support without an agreement on an immigration bill vote. The GOP leadership,...

A woman running for Congress shared a video of herself on social media confronting a transgender woman at Denny’s for using the women’s bathroom. Jazmina Saavedra, who’s running as a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in California’s 44th District, posted the video to her Facebook page Tuesday. The video shows her going into the women’s bathroom at the Los Angeles restaurant to confront someone in a stall. “I’m trying to use the ladies room and there is a man here saying he’s a lady,” she tells the camera as she enters the bathroom. The person inside the bathroom tells Saavedra...

California finally deserves a great Governor, one who understands borders, crime and lowering taxes. John Cox is the man - he’ll be the best Governor you’ve ever had. I fully endorse John Cox for Governor and look forward to working with him to Make California Great Again!

MAR VISTA, Calif. — A former pro wrestler was beaten severely in front of his Mar Vista home Tuesday and neighbors said it all apparently began over a parking dispute. CBS Los Angeles reports as many as six young men beat Tom Magee, who will be 60 in July.

Leakers to the New York Times confirmed in a story published on Wednesday that the FBI had run a spy operation on the Trump campaign that involved government informants, secret subpoenas, and possible wiretaps. The story comes ahead of the release of the pending Department of Justice inspector general report on the FBI’s actions during the 2016 election, and likely is an attempt by the leakers to paint the FBI’s efforts in the most flattering light possible. But the story revealed that the FBI – which is supposed to be an apolitical agency – was spying on the Trump campaign...

Democrats had been counting on victories in at least half a dozen California congressional districts to bring them closer to the 24 needed to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans only hold 14 seats in the Golden State, and Hillary Clinton won many of those districts in the 2016 election. But a combination of factors — including an excess of Democratic contenders, and a surge in Republican enthusiasm — could thwart those plans. California has a unique primary system called the “top two” or “jungle” primary, under which every voter can vote for any candidates, and the...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Neighbors say they’re furious over a drone that’s flying over the neighborhood, and we’ve found out it’s tied to a government agency not many people have even heard of. The mysterious drone has been spotted during late-night hours, hovering over residential neighborhoods and looking down on homes. John Mattox first spotted the mysterious drone about a month ago. “The drone would fly over here, come over my neighbor’s house, fly over our house right here,” he said. “You come home from work, it would be operating, go to bed it was still operating, and this would repeat...

State Senate Bill 169 would have codified Obama-era Title IX guidanceCalifornia Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Monday a bill to codify the aggressive Obama-era campus federal sexual-assault guidance, echoing concerns about the rights of the accused raised previously by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Mr. Brown said it was “time to pause and survey the land” before moving forward with more regulations “when we haven’t yet ascertained the full impact of what we recently enacted” with California’s 2014 affirmative-consent law. “Since this law was enacted, however, thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned whether federal and state actions to prevent and redress sexual...

By 2014, California was the top state in eighth-grade algebra enrollment. Common Core erased all those gains almost immediately ... Before Common Core came along, California parents, faculty, and officials spent years developing some of the best-ranked K-12 math requirements in the nation. One result of their careful work was more than tripling the number of eighth graders who ranked proficient in math, and quadrupling the number of eighth graders taking algebra. By 2014, California was the top state in the nation in eighth-grade algebra enrollment. That was the year Common Core went into place. It erased all those gains...

California’s primary system could thwart Democrats and Republicans alike on June 5, shutting either party out of key races in the fall. Under the state’s top-two primary, the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes advance to the general election in November, regardless of party. Democrats fear that the high numbers of hopefuls on the primary ballot could split the vote and leave the party without candidates in high-stakes congressional races in November. Meanwhile, Republicans are worried they could be left off the ballot in the governor’s race and other statewide contests in November, giving their voters less of...