Free Republic

A California board has revoked federal water claims that were critical to building a long-stalled dam northeast of Sacramento, effectively ending the project. Tuesday's unanimous vote by the State Water Resources Control Board comes more than four decades after Congress authorized the Auburn Dam to control flooding along the American River. Board members said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had not done its job. --snip-- The Bureau of Reclamation could apply for new permits, but Congress first would have to reauthorize the project.

Just over a month into the fall semester, students at American River College, the state's largest community college, got a welcome lesson in the importance of elections. Though the college has more than 37,000 students, only 300 students voted in the last Student Council election. Now the larger student body has found reason to pay attention. The Student Council has drawn statewide attention with its 8-3 vote on Tuesday to endorse Proposition 8. That's the constitutional amendment initiative on the Nov. 4 statewide ballot titled "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." Students who oppose the ballot initiative have collected...

SACRAMENTO - A federal jury on Thursday found a 29-year-old environmental activist guilty of conspiring to burn down or blow up a northern California dam, a genetics lab, cell phone towers and other targets. Eric McDavid of Foresthill, Calif. faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for what FBI agents said was as an eco-terrorist plot in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy, loose-knit group of environmentalists that has claimed credit for arsons throughout the West. McDavid and two others were arrested in January 2006 after purchasing bottles of bleach, a car battery,...