Free Republic

SAN RAMON (CBS SF) – A seldom sung third verse of the National Anthem has led to the patriotic song being removed from rallies at San Ramon’s California High School. The decision has sparked a controversy among local residents and students. In a letter to the student body published in the school newspaper, Associated Student Body President Ariyana Kermanizadeh wrote the decision to drop “The Star Spangled Banner” from the school’s winter rally was made after students became aware of the third verse.

San Ramon, California, appears to have broken a new earthquake record over the last two weeks: A total of 408 small quakes have shaken the East Bay city, almost four times the record set in 2003 in half the amount of time. "I've not felt so many tremors in decades," Mark Stone said outside a San Ramon Starbucks on Tuesday morning. "My dog, Gimmel, she's the first one to know a couple of seconds before." The U.S. Geological Survey reports that as of Oct. 13, the Northern California Seismic Network had detected 408 earthquakes – at least a dozen since...

Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it would sell off more assets and cut back on capital spending, as the integrated oil and gas giant looks to protect its finances from lower crude prices. Chevron said it would put about $15 billion of assets up for sale through 2017 — up from a previous $10 billion target — and cut capital spending incrementally to roughly $30 billion in 2017. In January, Chevron had said it would trim capital spending to $35 billion in 2015, down about $5 billion from its 2014 budget. Despite the cuts, the San Ramon, California-based company said it...

The Making of a Mayor By Jay Nordlinger Friends, there is a very interesting mayor in San Ramon, Calif., some 40 miles east of San Francisco. His name is H. Abram Wilson. I talked to him the other day — by phone (from New York), not in the Bay Area, alas. Not every American is entitled to perfect weather and beautiful surroundings. You might like to get to know Wilson a little. I thought I would write him up, Impromptus-style: in bulleted bites. . Wilson is running for reelection again — and he is again running unopposed. Next year, he...

SAN RAMON - A brawl in San Ramon is unusual in its own right. And in this city, don't be surprised if the mayor comes in to help break it up. San Ramon Mayor H. Abram Wilson waded into a nighttime parking lot melee between a suspected shoplifter, three plainclothes security guards and a small mob of angry shoppers who attacked the guards, mistakenly believing they were muggers.

MANTECA, Calif. (AP) - A husband and wife who found a dog sitter for their new puppies, but left their 10-year-old son home to care for his younger autistic brother while they celebrated the new year in Las Vegas, were arrested Wednesday, police said. Jacob Calero and his wife, Michelle De la Vega, left Calero's sons - Joshua, 10, and Jason, 5 - at their San Ramon home early Friday while the newlyweds headed out of town for a five-day trip, police said. The children's mother, Cristina Calero, died of breast cancer in 2003 and Calero married De la Vega...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2005 – Army Sgt. Manuel Mendoza-Valencia, 24, of San Ramon, Calif., was presented with the first Sentinels of Freedom scholarship today in the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes. "Sgt. Manny Mendoza has been an example of will and courage both on the battlefield and in his recovery," Gordon England, acting deputy secretary of defense, said. "He has given greatly in service to America. And like the men and women of our latest generation, Manny has much more to give and a long, bright future ahead of him." Mendoza is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a double...