Free Republic

The state Assembly on Monday gutted a bill that would have required California textbooks to include the historical contributions of homosexuals, amending it to say only that school material should not be discriminatory toward gays. Lawmakers voted 56-2 to delete the provision at the request of the bill's author, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who had feared a gubernatorial veto. Her bill instead would prohibit any negative portrayal of homosexuals in textbooks and other instructional material, expanding current anti-discrimination laws that apply to minorities. "I'm not really someone who wants to plop something down on his desk for him to veto," said...

The California Legislature has been on a one month hiatus after six months of session. I have often compared the legislative process to a roller coaster ride, and following that analogy, the first six months of session are sort of like the part of the roller coaster where the ride takes the riders higher and higher with the chain underneath. Everyone on the ride knows that the higher the ride goes, the wilder the ride will be when the car finally goes into free fall. This year the roller coaster ride had a couple of interesting dips, the largest being...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Courtesy Sacramento Bee) Breaking a policy of not commenting on pending bills, a spokesman for Arnold Schwarzenegger says the California governor will veto at least one of three controversial education measures related to sexual orientation. The governor opposes a measure passed by the Senate and pending in the Assembly that would remove "sex-specific" terms such as "mom" and "dad" from textbooks and would require students to learn about the contributions homosexuals have made to society, the Sacramento Bee reported. SB 1437 passed the Senate May 11 with a 22-15 vote. "The governor believes that school curriculum...