Free Republic

Judge approves California’s biased renaming of ballot measure to protect kids from transgenderismFar-left California Attorney General Rob Bonta is forcing supporters of the ‘Protect Kids of California Act,’ which bans child ‘sex changes’ and protects parents’ rights, to attempt to collect signatures under the name ‘Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.’SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) — A California judge has sided with left-wing state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s renaming of a proposed ballot initiative to uphold the reality of the two sexes and parental rights in education, forcing it to be labeled in such a way as to leave voters predisposed to oppose...

Kanye West was joined by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and white supremacist Milo Yiannopoulos on Monday’s episode of the Timcast IRL podcast. While speaking with Tim Pool, the host of the YouTube channel with 1.4 million subscribers with a largely right-wing audience, West dove into a tirade over the recent media backlash surrounding his anti-semitic comments. “I thought I was more Malcolm X, but I found out I’m more MLK. As I’m getting hosed down every day by the press and financially, I’m just standing there,” said West during the live recording. “When I found out they were trying to...

Three days before Christmas, President-elect Trump tweeted (yes, tweeted) that the U.S. “must greatly strengthen and enhance its nuclear capability” until the world “comes to its senses regarding nukes.” The world, for its part, blinked in astonishment, wondering once again what Mr. Trump might mean, and why such a momentous announcement appeared via social media. Prior presidents generally undertook any shift in nuclear policy with care, and with the advice of experts in arms control and proliferation who have made keeping us safe their life’s mission. After all, when a single person has the power to rain down nuclear fire...

California's Next Attorney General Issues Warning to Donald Trump Cheryl Miller, The Recorder December 1, 2016 Just hours after Gov. Jerry Brown nominated Xavier Becerra to be California's next attorney general, the longtime U.S. lawmaker warned the Trump administration to expect a fight if newly emboldened Republicans challenge the Golden State's liberal laws and policies. "If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, come at us," Becerra, a 12-term Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, told reporters

ALAMEDA (KPIX) — San Francisco fog. It’s as iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge. So, when the distillers at Alameda-based Hangar 1 Vodka decided to transform an essential vodka ingredient, all they had to do was look across the bay. “Sixty percent of vodka is water,” explains Caley Shoemaker, Hangar One’s head distiller. “We started thinking ‘what’s a way that we can make something that’s fun and creative and different but that is gonna have a positive impact on this drought in California’.”

An East Bay neighborhood terrorized by a swarm of aggressive bees over the weekend is safer now, authorities said. Concord police told residents Sunday the bees have been mostly eradicated after an amateur beekeeper got rid of a hive Saturday night. A bee expert called to the neighborhood also declared the area safer. The bees began terrorizing the 3800 block of Hitchcock Drive on Friday, attacking residents, dogs and even a mail carrier. Concord police received a number of reports of "aggressive bees" in the area. According to one neighbor, two dogs died as a result of numerous bee stings....

A hapless man was taken to hospital after claiming a banana launched from a passing vehicle slammed into his private parts in a drive-by 'fruiting'. Police said the man was discovered lying at the roadside, writhing in agony, near the Quick Food convenience store in Westfield, Massachusetts. A passer-by had raised the alarm after seeing him stumbling towards the store. When asked by officers what the issue was, he apparently described how he had been struck by the yellow fruit which had been flung from a car window.< -- SNIP -- >

Two students at the University of California, Berkeley are calling for students to “Occupy the syllabus,” or consider dropping a course if it only includes the works of white men as class material. Students Rodrigo Kazuo and Margaret “Meg” Perret wrote an op-ed in The Daily Californian, the independent student newspaper, titled “Occupy the syllabus” where they called for a student-wide occupation of all social science and humanities classes after they found their upper-division course on classical social theory lacked the works of women, trans people, and people of color. “The course syllabus employed a standardized canon of theory that...

A Republican seeking congressional office and touting a reform agenda has just made history by becoming the first politician on the campaign trail to bring his gay partner to the forefront, with an advertising film. “I don’t see it as such a big deal,” said openly gay Carl DeMaio, of his campaign ad for California office that shows him holding hands with his gay partner, in The Daily Mail. He downplayed the ad further, saying that it’s not really different from other politician hopefuls who show their “spouse, their children, their household pets” in their ads, the newspaper said. In...

Buy a pack of cigarettes, and a printed warning from the surgeon general will remind you that smoking causes cancer. Obviously, you’ve chosen to smoke anyway. But perhaps one day you’ll look at that message, printed on the pack, and resolve to change your ways. Now, apply that idea to global warming. A group of Bay Area environmentalists wants to slap warning stickers on gasoline pumps, telling drivers that the fuel they’re buying is cooking the planet. The stickers would constantly remind consumers of the link between driving and climate change.

The Supreme Court is giving California raisin producers a new day in court to object to a government program that aims to stabilize prices by regulating the market. … The farmers say the program unfairly prevents them from selling their entire crop when the government determines that there otherwise would be a glut of raisins that would drive prices down. They say the program unconstitutionally takes their private property without compensation. …

Steven Spriggs was stopped in a traffic jam near downtown Fresno and thought nothing of whipping out his iPhone 4 and clicking on the map feature to see if there was an alternate route around the construction mess. He was startled when he looked up and saw a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer ordering him to pull over. He showed the officer that he was looking at a map and not texting or talking. “Pull over,” Spriggs recalled the officer as saying. “It’s in your hand.” A little more than a year later, Spriggs is at the heart of a...

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J., - Just like San Juan Capistrano, Calif., has its swallows and Hinckley Township, Ohio, has its buzzards, East Brunswick, N.J., has its salamanders. Each spring, the salamanders make a pilgrimage out of the woods in search of mates and for the past 11 years the good folks of East Brunswick and neighboring South Brunswick have been doing their part to help make the magic happen by closing Beekman Road to help ensure the 3-inch amphibians' safety on their way to required wetlands. The annual migration by hundreds of salamanders began last Tuesday, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported Sunday....

San Francisco's ever-active Animal Control and Welfare Commission has renewed its push for a pet sale ban in the city - only this time, it even covers goldfish. The idea is to put the squeeze on puppy and kitten mills that supply pet stores, and to discourage "impulse buys" of hamsters and other small pets that often wind up being dumped at shelters. But goldfish, guppies and tropical fish?

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) -- Public works crews will finish clearing a grove of old oak and sequoia trees slated for removal as part of a dam project following the arrests of four tree sitters who hoped to stop the project. Two men, including veteran tree sitter John Quigley, and two women were escorted out of the trees Wednesday night and taken into custody,

First Lady Michelle Obama announced last week that a new public-private partnership, Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools, would make it possible for as many as 6,000 salad bars to be installed in U.S. school cafeterias at an estimated cost of $15 million. Contrary to what hundreds of irate commenters directed to Grist from a link by the Drudge Report feared, the salad bars will not be mandatory lunchtime eating for the nation's youngsters, not taxpayer-funded. If parents like Sarah Palin want their kids to eat cookies for lunch, no one is going to stop them. Of bigger concern has...

Thirty UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff members are supporting a legal defense fund for tree-sit demonstrators they say are merely exercising "civil disobedience." Professors Bettina Aptheker and Paul Ortiz, nationally known social activists, have founded an nonprofit advocacy group called "Friends of Flora and Fauna" with the help of filmmaker Mathilde Rand. Also involved is professor Zack Schlesinger, who was arrested in December for bringing hot tea and soup to tree-sitters. Former Santa Cruz mayors Jane Weed, Bruce Van Allen, Celia Scott and UCSC professor Tim Fitzmaurice also are supporters, according to a solicitation letter Aptheker said her group...

BERKELEY, Calif. (KCBS) -- Protesters have returned to the Berkeley Marines recruiting center just a day after a showdown between anti-war and pro-military demonstrators before the Berkeley City Council. This time, several dozen members of the peace group CodePink urged people to make love, not war. The Berkeley demonstration is one of 20 “Kiss Don’t Enlist” protests across the country. ”Polls show that the majority of Americans are opposed to the war, and this has given people a chance to really come out and show that. And it’s kind of fun to make out, instead of making war, right?” said...

Californians are more likely than the rest of the nation to see global warming as a threat, but also are more optimistic that greenhouse gases can be cut while creating jobs and expanding the economy, according to a Field Poll released Friday. State residents are more likely than other Americans to back efforts to address climate change, with large majorities favoring government regulations, tax incentives and other efforts by industry and individuals to curb their emissions, the poll showed. "They think California can take the lead in being an innovator and in making the state more energy efficient and reducing...

After months of tree-sitting, Native American healing ceremonies, dueling seismic reports and jeers from Cal football fans, the fate of the Memorial Stadium oak grove heads to the courthouse this week. An Alameda County Superior Court judge will hear arguments Wednesday and Thursday on UC Berkeley's plan to remove about two-thirds of the oaks, redwoods, laurels and other trees next to the stadium to build a state-of-the-art sports training center for its football team - currently ranked No. 6 in the nation - and 13 other varsity sports. The city of Berkeley, a neighborhood group and the California Oak Foundation,...