Free Republic

The San Francisco Examiner calls it a “dirty secret:” Groups of black people targeting Asians for violence, robbery and even murder. “In 85 percent of (300) physical assault crimes, the victims were Asian and the perpetrators were African American,” the newspaper said recently, citing a police study. In Philadelphia, secrets may be even more violent and widespread. Over the last three years, the Philadelphia Daily News found “at least 15 home invasions or other attacks on Asian business owners outside their businesses in Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery counties in 2008, followed by another spike of at least 19 actual or...

Maybe, just maybe the people of California are somehow becoming aware of the disaster that the left wing politicians have brought down upon them. Last Tuesday, while Scott Walker was smacking his recall down in Wisconsin and San Diego and San Jose were cutting the public employee pension funds, there was another possible bellwhether going on. With 100% of the votes counted in California, Proposition 29 seems to have gone down to defeat. This would have put an additional $1.00/pack tax on Cigarettes. Why is it that this may a be a "Jig is Up" bellwhether? Well, according to the...

Wisconsin wasn’t the only place in America voting on the blue social model last night, and Wisconsin wasn’t the only place where the blue social model took it on the chin. As reported here yesterday, voters in San Diego and San Jose, California (both among the largest ten cities in the United States) had referendums on the ballot that would cut pension costs. The results of those votes are in this morning, and both measures were passed by overwhelming majorities. In San Diego, 68 percent of voters supported the cuts. In San Jose, 71 percent voted against Big Blue.

San Jose police officers Wednesday made good on promises to legally challenge San Jose's voter-approved pension reform with a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. San Jose Police Officers' Association President Jim Unland said the lawsuit argues that the measure -- approved by almost 70 percent of voters Tuesday -- violates employees' "vested rights" to their pensions. He based that on a history of court rulings that effectively hold that government employers cannot cut back workers' retirement plans without offering a comparable benefit in return. The officers asked the court to block implementation of the measure's provisions until...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Voters in two major California cities overwhelmingly approved cuts to retirement benefits for city workers in what supporters said was a mandate that may lead to similar ballot initiatives in other states and cities that are struggling with mounting pension obligations. Supporters had a simple message to voters in San Diego and San Jose: Pensions for city workers are unaffordable and more generous than many private companies offer, forcing libraries to slash hours and potholes to go unfilled. "The public is frustrated," said San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican who staked his mayoral bid on...

Some would argue this is a trend. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker survived a recall election after he moved to cut the costs of public employee pensions. Here in California voters in San Diego and San Jose followed suit. Tonight.. Voters in San Jose approved Measure B. The passage of Measure B mean future employees will have to pay ....

San Jose voters Tuesday were handing Mayor Chuck Reed a crucial victory with his nationally watched pension reform measure leading by almost 3 to 1 in early returns. It was a big night for pension reform, with a San Diego measure also leading by a wide margin. City employee unions who argued the measures are illegal were expected to challenge both in court. But voter approval of San Jose's Measure B puts Reed and the city in the vanguard of efforts to shrink taxpayer bills for generous government pension plans. Passage also strengthen's Reed's hand as he and his City...

Diverse appointments to superior, appeals courts Gov. Jerry Brown appointed a former State Bar leader to a judgeship in Contra Costa County on Friday. He also nominated a former San Francisco school board attorney as the first Latino on the state appeals court in San Jose, and chose a Los Angeles prosecutor as California's first Muslim judge... (snip) Halim Dhanidina, 39, of Los Angeles to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Dhanidina has been a deputy district attorney since 1998 and will be the first Muslim on the bench in California, said Aziza Hasan of the Muslim Public Affairs Council....

Take a look at what goes on at a Tea Party gathering. Lydia Ortega, Brian Sussman, Mimi Steel and Neil Mammen were speakers at California's Silicon Valley Tea Party. Silicon Valley Tea Party - 15 April 2012 - Lydia Ortega (A Professor at San Jose State University!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_b5BNbS710 Silicon Valley Tea Party - 15 April 2012 - Brian Sussman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izLLT3gacy4 Silicon Valley Tea Party - 15 April 2012 - Mimi Steel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQav8J9bgFo Video that Mimi Steel referenced in her speech: SFBAY CAPR-Mark Levin-CA War On Suburbia-4-9-12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOVjmGes7iY Silicon Valley Tea Party - 15 April 2012 - Neil Mammen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYiKNIbt9go Take...

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer is lying when she says she visited ex-lover Stephen Chikhani in jail last summer in her professional capacity as an lawyer, Chikhani's attorney said Wednesday. "I know she signed in as a lawyer, but they were not legal visits," said attorney Adrienne Dell, of San Jose. "She definitely abused that; there's no question in my mind. They were still in a relationship." The Bay Area News Group's public-records request uncovered jail logs denoting two of Lockyer's visits to Chikhani in Santa Clara County's Elmwood jail in Milpitas, on June 15 and June 22, 2011. Dell...

Recent San Jose actuarial reports show $3.5 billion of city debt for underfunded pension and retiree health benefits -- a shortfall that works out to about $11,000 for every household in the city. Yet, as Mayor Chuck Reed proposes substantive pension reform, workers and a local television reporter are hyperventilating about irrelevant numbers that distract from the ballooning problem. If not for major layoffs and salary cuts last year, the shortfall would be much worse. It would also be much larger if the city used more realistic investment earnings assumptions rather than relying on overly optimistic forecasts. Nevertheless, the calculations...

The funeral was being held for Hells Angel Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew, who was president of the Hells Angels' San Jose chapter. A member of the rival Vagos motorcycle club is accused of killing Pettigrew Sept. 23 in a Sparks, Nev., casino, sending gamblers diving for cover. The mayor canceled a regional motorcycle rally as a result.

Despite a heavy police presence at a Hells Angels funeral in San Jose on Saturday, a top bike-club enforcer nicknamed "Mr. 187" after the state penal code number for murder was gunned down Saturday in front of stunned mourners.

San Jose has seen a sharp spike in graffiti, up 38 percent from a year ago to the highest number of documented tags since 1999. The surge comes at a time when budget cuts have forced the city to outsource its cleanup work. City officials say annual surveys done each January since 1999 noted 44,405 graffiti tags citywide this year, up from 29,285 in January 2010. That was the highest figure since the city first started tracking graffiti tags in 1999 and counted 71,541. The City Council will consider the issue Tuesday. "The volume of graffiti is higher," said Mike...

Looks like San Jose police are finally cracking down on the sexy Vietnamese coffee shops in the area that are offering more than just sugar with their Joe. While on patrol Sunday evening, SJPD officers observed several female waitresses showing off a little too much skin, in one of the shops on the 1600 block of Tully Road. Three female workers of the Quyen Cafe, ages 22, 22, and 23, were identified and cited for display of public nudity, a municipal code violation. They were only cited, not arrested, but will still have to appear in court. "The police department...

A man has been arrested in the 2009 slaying of a 96-year-old farmer who was beaten to death at his Saratoga home, authorities said Tuesday. Juan Luis Cortinas, 33, is being held without bail in the December 2009 attack that killed Charlie Maridon, said Santa Clara County sheriff's Sgt. Troy Smith. Cortinas was already in custody after being sentenced to five years in state prison for an unrelated burglary in Palo Alto. Cortinas is to appear in Santa Clara County Superior Court today on charges of murder and the special circumstances of murder in the course of a robbery and...

Two years ago, Kristina Harris Perkins, a 19-year-old woman enrolled in the San Jose Job Corps Center with big plans for the future, lay dead on a light-rail station platform. She had been stabbed in the heart. Now, after a marathon 26-day preliminary hearing spread out over three months, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Rise Pichon has ruled there is enough evidence to try five young adults -- all from the same San Jose family -- on charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from a deadly brawl captured by security cameras at the Alum Rock station. Two other...

As anger in the immigrant community grows against San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore's alliance with the federal immigration agency, a broad band of advocacy groups gathered Friday to demand a meeting with two ICE agents who recently began working with the police department to fight gang violence. Activists said they want to be further reassured that the agents will not be involved in deporting law abiding residents. "Now, more than ever there needs to be a culture of trust between immigrant populations and the police department and this program will invariably damage that trust,'' said Jazmin Segura, of Services,...

San Jose, Calif. (AP) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon is in the San Francisco Bay area where he spoke at a San Jose job training center about immigration issues and other topics. Speaking at the Center for Employment and Training on Saturday, Calderon told a crowd of more than 600 people that walls or what he called "abusive laws" will not stop people from migrating to the U.S. He told the gathering that Mexico needs more labor opportunities.

With the San Jose Sharks down 3-1 in their series against the Vancouver Canucks, the Sharks had to win Game 5. It was one of the hardest fought battles during regulation and it saw the teams draw even just as regulation came to an end. After going an entire overtime without any offensive break troughs, both teams went into the second overtime utterly exhausted. When you see these pro athletes dogging it the way they were, you knew it was going to take an ugly goal to win this Game 5. The goal that won the game was just that...