Free Republic

CHICAGO — A Chicago man known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy” is facing three charges after riding his horse on the Dan Ryan Monday afternoon. At around 4:30 p.m., police responded to the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan after Adam Hollingsworth, 33, better known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy,” was seen riding his horse on the expressway near 35th Street. He rode for around 30 minutes as traffic slowed to a halt with Illinois State Police and Chicago police following close behind. Police said they asked Hollingsworth and those who were with him to exit the expressway multiple times and said...

All he wanted was a little more sleep. It was 5:45 a.m., 15 minutes before his alarm was set to ring, and Chester Hollingsworth lay in bed, tired, especially after a weekend celebrating a birthday he never thought he'd make. A few more hours of rest, he thought, would do him well. But today was a Tuesday. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Hollingsworth goes to work. The alarm clock rang. It was time to get out of bed. He dug both elbows into the mattress and carefully twisted his body on its side. He dropped his legs off the edge,...

Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for about 80 minutes in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which is the lawsuit regarding California's Proposition 8. Two gay couples brought suit on the grounds that the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Since the State of California refuses to defend Proposition 8, opponents of gay marriage sought to enforce it in Hollingsworth v. Perry. Generally, citizens do not have legal standing to enforce laws with which they agree. Several justices expressed doubt that gay marriage...

In a final flurry of appointments before leaving office, outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday handed out paid jobs on state commissions to three former state senators and some staff members in the Governor's Office. Former Republican Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield and former Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollings-worth of Murietta each won $128,109-a-year posts on the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. Former Sen. Carole Migden, a San Francisco Democrat, landed a $128,109-a-year job on the Agriculture Labor Relations Board. Schwarzenegger also named his cabinet secretary, Scott Reid, to a $50,000-a-year job on the State Compensation Insurance Fund board. Schwarzenegger's...

The 2009 Legislative Report Card rates lawmakers based on their votes on 35 bills. As HJTA has done in previous years, 14 bills were double-weighted, including all six constitutional amendments that attacked Proposition 13 or 218. Also, all legislators voting for February’s $12.6 billion in new income, sales and car taxes received an automatic 20 point deduction. Regarding individual legislators, HJTA is pleased to report that for the second consecutive year, Assembly Member Joel Anderson has received a perfect score from HJTA. He is joined in this fine accomplishment by Assembly Member Diane Harkey. These two legislators are now in...

If voters reject proposals May 19 to fix the state budget, GOP Senate leader Dennis Hollingsworth predicted Wednesday that "by default" his party's ideas for cutting public spending and easing business regulations will catch fire. "Eventually they're going to have to start listening," Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, said of the Democratic majority in the state Legislature. "There won't be revenues available to do what they want to do. They're killing the Golden Goose." Speaking with reporters in his minority leader office, Hollingsworth said that if the set of six propositions on the ballot fail, the following day "it gets uglier." The GOP...

Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, the Republicans' new state Senate leader, predicted Thursday that five out of six ballot measures linked to the budget deal will fail at the polls May 19.Speaking to a Sacramento Press Club luncheon, Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, also said majority Democrats would have gotten the blame if the recent budget deal had collapsed and driven the state into insolvency.Hollingsworth took over the Senate GOP caucus in the middle of the night after his colleagues deposed Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto. Cogdill had cut the budget deal that included tax increases with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democrats and Assembly Republican Leader...

Links through to evil Bloomberg.... Senator Hollingsworth is the new leader.... Went to the new leader's site to listen to him. http://cssrc.us/web/36/ He Warmed My Heart! This is the Hope I and change I am looking for! Kind of like a Palin not in charge but will do everything it takes to fight hard. Researching him, thinking of sending some donations.

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- California Senate Republicans’ ouster of their leader for negotiating a budget agreement with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats posed new challenges to a deal that would close the state’s $42 billion shortfall. The new Senate Republican minority leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta said $14 billion in tax increases included in the budget package must be removed and negotiations over how to fix the deficit reopened. The governor rejected the call. “We don’t want to see taxes increased,” Hollingsworth told a growing number of reporters as the five-day, around-the-clock session continued. “We have to get spending more...

The game of chicken in Sacramento just claimed its first victim, one that has to send a chill down Democratic spines.  Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader, the man who crafted a deal with Democrats to resolve the budget standoff with massive tax increases as part of the package.  The GOP has apparently accelerated their car, and the Democrats will have to decide whether to swerve or crash: A state budget deal to close a $41 billion shortfall has been put further into question early this morning after Senate Republicans ousted their leader who had helped negotiate the...

California remained locked in a budget impasse today despite a night-long negotiating session aimed at resolving the state's $42bn (£29.5bn) budget deficit. California senate Republicans, in defiance of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, continued to hold out against the compromise deal, which would see the deficit addressed with a combination of spending cuts, borrowing and tax increases. Early this morning the state's Republican senators ousted their leader, who had supported the compromise, replacing him with a more conservative senator who has pledged to resist any attempt to raise taxes. California's peculiar legislative system dictates that the package must win a two-thirds majority...

Republican state senators upset with tax increases in the budget proposal agreed to by Republican Sen. Dave Cogdill have voted to remove him as minority leader, Cogdill said early Wednesday. The Senate's 15 Republican members voted to replace Cogdill with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murietta. The late-night coup could derail already strained budget talks by requiring Democrats and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to renegotiate with a new Republican leader. Majority Leader Darrell Steinberg directed lawmakers to begin taking up the budget vote just before 1 a.m.

Reporting from Sacramento -- As California's government continued its grinding downshift toward insolvency, efforts to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget gap hit a new snag late Tuesday as Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader. Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill's office. Shortly before midnight, it was still unclear who would replace him. Cogdill's ouster could be a major setback to...

Statue of Reagan heads to Capitol as critics protest Resolution passed in final hours of legislative session By Robin Hindery ASSOCIATED PRESS January 2, 2007 SACRAMENTO – Under a joint resolution passed with little fanfare in the waning hours of California's 2006 legislative session, the statue of the man who helped preserve California's statehood during the Civil War will be uprooted from its home in the nation's Capitol. The bronze likeness of Thomas Starr King, which has represented California in The National Statuary Hall Collection since 1931, will be replaced with one of a figure more recognizable to later generations:...

In January 2005, GOP state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-La Mesa), while in Washington, D.C., for the Inauguration of President Bush, toured Statuary Hall in the national Capitol with Congressman Duncan Hunter. Each of the 50 states provides Statuary Hall a pair of statues honoring notable persons from the state. California’s statues are of Father Junipero Serra and Thomas Starr King. Father Serra, of course, is well known. King, who lived from 1824 to 1864, was a Unitarian minister, lecturer, and orator credited with playing a prominent role in keeping California in the Union during the Civil War. Taking nothing away...