Free Republic

Mark Halperin of Bloomberg interviewed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president of the United States, recently and endeavored to find out how authentically Cuban he is. This line of questioning has not, so far as is known, been directed at any other presidential candidate. Barack Obama’s blackness has not been called into question, nor has Hillary Clinton’s womanhood. Ruben Navarrette, writing on Saturday for the San Jose Mercury News, was appalled, to say the least. Halperin asked Cruz what kind of Cuban food he liked, if he listened to Cuban music and was invited to address Bernie Sanders...

Unfortunately, Senate Republicans, except for Sen. Maldonado, decided they would continue holding up the budget in an effort to address concerns they have with environmental regulations. Let me be perfectly clear - it is unacceptable to hold up the budget, and negatively impact the entire state, over a non-budget issue. Once the Republican senators achieved their promise to balance the budget, they should have joined Sen. Maldonado and passed it. The budget is now six weeks late, leaving one of the world's largest economies without a spending plan. The ramifications are real and far-reaching.

A federal judge issued an order Friday that allows the sale of four newspapers, including the Times, to MediaNews Group Inc., pending a separate decision by the U.S. Department of Justice. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston clears a major obstacle that could have stalled the sale of the Times, San Jose Mercury News, Monterey County Herald and St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. San Francisco businessman Clinton Reilly had filed a lawsuit aimed at halting the deal in which Sacramento-based McClatchy Co. would sell the papers to Denver-based MediaNews. The judge denied a request by Reilly for a...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Jose Mercury News has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a same-sex harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a man who said he endured sexual comments and touching from a mailroom supervisor, officials said today. Mark Newton, 45, of Brentwood, who is married with children, said a former male supervisor harassed him from October 2002 to June 2003, leading him to seek medical treatment for emotional distress. "These practices include subjecting Mr. Newton to harassment on the basis of his sex, male, which created an offensive, abusive, intimidating...