Free Republic

ORANGE COUNTY MAN WHO “WEB-CAST” EXPLICIT IMAGES OF A PRE-SCHOOL-AGED RELATIVE INDICTED FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY SANTA ANA, Calif. – An Orange County man who engaged in sex acts with a then four-year-old relative and web-cast the images over the Internet to computer users in Texas and Indiana has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of producing and possessing child pornography. Jed Philip Larson, Sr., 44, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the charges contained in the two-count indictment handed down today. Larson was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Orange County...

Orange County Assemblyman Tom Umberg on Thursday admitted to and apologized for cheating on his wife in a four-year affair that ended about the time of his election in November. Umberg went public with his indiscretion after his former mistress, who possesses e-mails they had exchanged, threatened to ruin his political career, said George Urch, Umberg's spokesman. In a brief written statement Thursday, Umberg said he has apologized to his family and will regret forever the mistakes and pain that he has caused his wife of 23 years, Robin, and their three children. "I love my wife very much and...

LA PORTE, Texas — More than 10,000 Texans and others are expected to gather at San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site on April 24 to celebrate the brief but decisive battle that brought Texas its independence from Mexico. This year marks the 168th anniversary of Gen. Sam Houston’s Texan troops’ victory over the Mexican army under the command of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna on April 21, 1836. The festival is free and lasts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. At 3 p.m. April 24, more than 200 re-enactors will dramatize the victory of the roughly 800 Texans under...

Just received a freepmail from Sandyeggo. She writes: "We have VERY BAD fire conditions - low humidity, winds. Fire about 4-5 miles away - evacuations taking place there. We are OK - but ash everywhere and winds gusting all over the place. Sky glowing orange - billowing smoke. " Please say a prayer for Sandyeggo and her family, as well as her parents who live nearby. Thanks and God bless you!

Michael Stravato for The New York Times In 1857, Mexican-American freight haulers were hanged on an oak tree at the courthouse in Goliad, Tex. GOLIAD, Tex., July 16 — In history books, the killing of more than 300 Texan rebels by Mexican troops here has long been known as the Goliad Massacre. But to many residents of Goliad, with its 18th-century Spanish fort and towering monument to the dead, that brutal episode in its history is still open to interpretation. At the heart of the dispute, largely between Anglos and Mexican-Americans, is the porous definition of who is a Texan...

<p>The recall from office of a school board member in a medium-size Southern California city wouldn't normally be big news. But the ouster last week of Santa Ana Unified School District's Nativo Lopez should send a signal to ethnic-enclave politicians across the state, if not the nation.</p>

September 19, 2002 9:00 a.m. Ron Unz has whipped the bilingual-education establishment in two states: California in 1998 and Arizona in 2000. He hopes to double his winnings on November 5 when Colorado and Massachusetts voters consider their own ballot initiatives on language instruction. (Visit Unz's website here.) Odds are they'll give bilingual ed the old heave-ho: Initiatives promoting English tend to win easily, whether they're the "Official English" proclamations of the late 1980s and early 1990s or the more meaningful efforts Unz has sponsored. Just about everybody believes immigrants should learn English, from those who want to preserve American...

Bill Clinton used his first Orange County appearance since 1999 on Thursday to discuss everything from actress Rita Moreno's career to his own current activities, from attacks on GOP tax cuts to warnings that the United States should avoid war with Iraq.