Free Republic

SACRAMENTO -- A day after furious Coloradans recalled two state senators who voted for new gun laws, California lawmakers pressed ahead with their own agenda Wednesday aimed at giving the Golden State the strictest gun control in the country. Colorado's recall elections and California's rush to pass gun bills in the final week of its legislative session quickly reignited the national debate over balancing public safety with constitutional rights. The Colorado votes sent a Rocky Mountain chill down the spines of lawmakers in other battleground states, but those in bright blue California seemed unfazed. "I don't see anybody switching teams...

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Sacramento County’s health department will begin distributing a take-home STD test for women that won’t cost users a penny. The city has one of the highest rates of STDs in the state, and it keeps going up every year. Now a new online program will hopefully get more people to get tested. “We definitely need all the help we can get,” said Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye. The division of public health says STDs are spreading like wildfire in Sacramento, with chlamydia and gonorrhea considered an epidemic. “Many people who have STDs do not...

Small-business investors in California were promised big breaks five years ago, but now they’re being told to pay up, instead after a court ruling. After following the law, many of them are getting hit with tax bills as high as $250,000. “When we make a promise, we have to uphold it,” said Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach. But that is not what the state government appears to be doing. Small-business owners are getting hefty tax breaks for tax credits they already got five years ago. “They relied on California law as it was written, that they would get a tax...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: First call. And we're taking a call right now 'cause I'm fascinated by this. I got a call from my adopted hometown Sacramento. Kitty! Kitty, great to have you on the program. Hi. CALLER: Hi. How are you? RUSH: Good. Thank you. CALLER: I was saying back in, oh, '87, you were in Sacramento locally -- RUSH: Right. CALLER: -- and you came into where I worked, and everybody in the department -- it was a hospital, you made a visit. And everybody in the department was going, "Oh, Rush is here! Rush is here!" and I...

Since the last 40 Days for Life ended in March, four more abortion centers — which were sites of 40 Days for Life campaigns — have CLOSED their doors for good!Shortly after the campaign, volunteers learned that a late-term abortion facility in Sacramento, California — where multiple 40 Days for Life prayer vigils had been held outside — had gone out of business.Just a few weeks later, a Planned Parenthood abortion center in Kenmore, Washington — where two 40 Days for Life vigils have been held outside — announced its permanent closure.Then an abortion center in Toledo, Ohio … that...

The unemployment rate in Sacramento and California registered a significant drop in May for the second consecutive month, but analysts cautioned that the steadily improving numbers conceal a large number of people who are working in low-wage jobs or who are no longer firmly attached to the workforce. The Sacramento area jobless rate fell to 7.8 percent in May, down from a revised 8.2 percent in April, according to statistics released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. The statewide jobless rate dipped to 8.6 percent last month, down from 9 percent in April, 9.4 percent in March and 10.7...

A consortium of Seattle businessmen offered to pay $365 million for a controlling 65 percent interest in the Sacramento Kings, (snip). A competing group offered $341 million to keep the team in SAC (snip) or $35M less. At first glance this seems perverse. (snip) Well, it seems to all go back to the arena. You see, in addition to offering $365 million for the team, the Seattle bidders were offering to build a brand new arena for the Kings. By contrast, the Sacramento bidders managed to persuade the city of Sacramento to build a brand new arena for the Kings....

Suspected tagger found dead, hanging 9 stories up on office tower A man whose body was found hanging from a downtown Sacramento building Monday, nine stories up, appears to be a tagger who was attempting the vandalize the property, authorities say. The man had used rope to tie himself in a seated position like a rappeller, authorities said. The rope was tied off with a window washing anchor, and fire officials believe that that anchor could have held his weight. But they don't think he was a window washer.

Last weekend, Phil Mickelson threatened to move out of California over the onerous tax hikes imposed by Jerry Brown and the Democratic supermajority in Sacramento. Mickelson later apologized for his outburst, although I'm not sure why; he has just as much right to complain as anyone else. CNN Money later attempted to correct Mickelson, saying that his total tax rate was somewhere around 53%, not 62%, but I'm not sure that was much comfort, nor an effective rebuttal to Mickelson's point.As it turns out, Mickelson's not the only sports entity looking at a Golden Gate exit. Forbes noted that one...

County board votes to rescind airport privatization approval... After close to one year of lobbying efforts and a public campaign, the American Federation of Government Employees—the union for TSA workers in Sacramento and nationwide—today applauded the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors for voting to rescind its approval for Sacramento International Airport to be allowed to privatize, or use corporate airport screeners in place of federal employees.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A Sacramento man scanning the night sky caught a sudden burst of light through his telescope. He recorded that strange sight with his smart phone. CBS13 shared the video with experts to see if they could solve the mystery. This mysterious little tale begins earlier this week when Good Day Sacramento’s Cody Stark got this message on Facebook: “I have something on video no one has ever seen. I had my telescope out, caught an explosion in space. Wanna see the video?” Cody’s response? Absolutely! The video was shot with an iPhone through the eyepiece of a...

The New Year's Eve fireworks celebration in Old Sacramento ended tragically before it had even begun: Someone pulled a gun during a fight inside the Sports Corner Cafe around 9:40 p.m., and now two people are dead three more have been shot, according to police. The midnight display was cancelled. An eyewitness, who provided her name but asked not to be identified, was walking outside the bar when said she heard several gunshots. She said she ducked under a stairwell, turned, and saw a young man in a white hoodie run outside the door, pull out a handgun, turn it...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A poll worker is out of a job, and she says it’s all because of an email she sent her supervisor. The woman says she was concerned about poll inspectors coming to Sacramento for Tuesday’s election. Shannon Lewis has been a poll worker in Sacramento for 15 years. She said she sent that email and was fired 10 minutes later. “I just tapped out a really fast email,” said Lewis. But that quick email ended Lewis’ 15 year job as a Sacramento County pollster. “I just wanted to get my feelings known and get an answer to...

Revenue from Consumer sales fell a whopping 33.5 percent or $475 million, further demonstrating a severe reality check for the Golden State’s recovery plan. Decades of poor leadership from the state capital have contributed to an unsustainable yearly budget which means California voters must either substantially raise taxes or cut, cut, cut. All the accounting gimmicks have failed, Obama’s stimulus dollars only postponed the inevitable, Facebook’s shares have crashed, taxpayers haven’t approved a tax hike in the past few elections as their wallets are empty, the high-speed train to nowhere will only add to the state’s budget crisis and now...

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says students need to be careful when investing in their education. Bernanke says taking on debt to pay for college can be an important way of increasing one's earning potential. But higher education can also become a financial burden if it doesn't lead to a good job, he warns.

Jimmer Fredette was Jimmer Fredette again Monday night, burying jumpers and runners and generally looking like the scoring machine that created so much hype back in his halcyon days at BYU. But all is not well for the second-year Kings guard, even with the 30-point outing he unleashed in a summer league game against the Rockets at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center. Just minutes before hitting the floor, he received word that the Kings had signed veteran point guard Aaron Brooks and thus moved him even further down the team's depth chart.

by John HillStand With Arizona It's no contest. It's not even close. California is America's undisputed "Sanctuary State" for illegal aliens. And now, in their hysteria over the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the central provision of Arizona's S.B. 1070 - that requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop - California legislators are setting new lows in contempt for the rule of law. The California Senate on Thursday passed a bill supporters dub the "anti-Arizona" law, which seeks to "shield illegal immigrants from status checks by local police" and which even welcomes in illegals from states such as Arizona. The...

When guilt is demonstrable, confession is the best bet. So allow me to confess: as the California’s Director of Finance for four years, I did some stupid things. Let’s take a few examples and see if they help the casual observer to better understand how government, or at least how the Golden State’s’ budget process works – or fails to work.

Not too many people get excited about dry budget numbers. Most people care instead about what’s behind those numbers — how much of our money will the government take, what kinds of services will it provide? Indeed, those programmatic and policy questions are far more important than the latest assessment of how bad our fiscal situation is. They’re also the subject of the remainder of this week’s conversation on these pages. As a former Director of Finance for the state, it falls to me to give an overview of the arithmetic and the budget process. Bear with me: you’ll laugh,...