Free Republic

Breaking with other governors who have warned that admitting Syrian refugees would undermine American security, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday advocated preserving “America’s traditional role as a place of asylum” but stressed the need for thorough vetting.

Californians who are terminally ill will not be able to access drugs with the potential to save or prolong their lives as a result of Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of the Right to Try Act on Sunday. AB 159, the California Right to Try Act, passed the state assembly and senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. “It’s disappointing that Governor Brown couldn’t see the need to allow Californians the right to fight to save their own lives,” said Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D., Whittier), who sponsored the legislation. “Both Democrats and Republicans wanted this for our California’s terminally ill.” In his veto...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed the nation's first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores, driven to action by pollution in streets and waterways. A national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers immediately said it would seek a voter referendum to repeal the law, which is scheduled to take effect in July 2015.

DETROIT — On the night before her Friday keynote address to a gathering of progressive activists here, Sen. Elizabeth Warren tried to slip into a hotel restaurant for a quiet dinner. But the former law professor has become a liberal superstar, and when a few admirers spotted her walking to the corner of the dining room, they cheered loudly. A moment later, more joined in the applause. Then one urged her, “Run for president!” The next morning at Netroots Nation, where Warren (D-Mass.) gave a fiery sermon for economic populism — “The game is rigged, and it isn’t right!” —...

Attorney General Jerry Brown's legal challenge to California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage marks the first time that the state's top lawyer has refused to defend a newly enacted ballot measure since 1964 - another epic discrimination case that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In November 1964, an overwhelming 65 percent majority of the state's voters approved Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment that overturned a fair-housing law and allowed racial discrimination in property sales and rentals.Attorney General Thomas Lynch - newly appointed to succeed Stanley Mosk, a Prop. 14 opponent who had just been named to the state Supreme...

Even Ted Kennedy's political enemies spoke kindly of him when they learned that he had a malignant brain tumor. But not conservative talk show host Michael Savage. As a form of "respect" to Kennedy on his syndicated talk show Tuesday, Savage played The Dead Kennedy's "California Uber Alles" - get it? Ho ho, the wit! Oh, and he dropped in a couple of "Kindergarten Cop" sound clips of the Arnold Schwarzenegger character saying, "It's not a tumor." Listen to it here, if you must. Then quickly bathe. Mike, Mike, Mike, one word, baby: Karma. It never forgets. Then again, Savage's...