Free Republic

The barrage of outraged tweets from GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump decrying the shocking San Francisco slaying of 32-year old Kathryn Steinle signals the start of what may be an intense immigration debate with potential fallout in California, home to the nation’s largest undocumented population. Social media blazed with anger and frustration at the news that the man arrested in connection with the shooting death at San Francisco’s Pier 14 Wednesday has a rap sheet with seven felonies, was in the U.S. illegally and has been deported to his native Mexico five times — and in April was released from...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The next time you plan a movie night without the kids, you may have to provide more than just pizza for your babysitter. Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento are fast-tracking a bill that would require workers’ compensation benefits, meal breaks and paid vacation time for all “domestic employees”, including nannies, housekeepers and even babysitters. Assembly Bill 889, authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), has already cleared the Assembly and is expected to receive overwhelming support from Senate Democrats, who control both houses of the California legislature. Under AB 889, parents legally become household “employers” and are...

The California Assembly approved a bill to allow counties to opt out of a controversial federal immigration program that lawmakers said rips families apart, leads to racial profiling and erodes trust between law enforcement and the immigrant community. Under the Secure Communities program, instated by President Obama, the fingerprints of anyone booked into a county jail are automatically cross-checked against immigration databases, and if a person is determined to be undocumented, local authorities hand them over to federal officials for deportation. A growing number of law enforcement officials and public leaders across the U.S., however, are criticizing the program, saying...

The California Legislature has utterly failed to perform its most basic duty – balancing the budget. But that's just one placard on its wall of shame. Legislators have also botched water policy, transportation policy, education policy and energy policy, thus diminishing the economic competitiveness of a state mired in a seemingly intractable recession. They waste their time – actually our time – on such trivial matters as designating a state rock and naming freeways after each other, while hitting up lobbyists for campaign checks and plotting their next political career moves. Not surprisingly, poll after poll finds that Californians hold...

Identification cards that don't say whether you're a man or woman? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation today that would have allowed counties to issue official identification cards that did not identify either the owner's address or gender. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, had proposed the measure as a way to assist undocumented immigrants who lack adequate documentation to qualify for a state-issued ID card, and to help transgender individuals who feel uncomfortable having a gender listed.

WASHINGTON ---- It may be highly improbable mathematically, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that the encoded profanity contained in one of his veto messages was "a wild coincidence." Speaking to reporters at the White House, the Republican governor said: "That was a total coincidence. It was one of those wild coincidences." The first letter in seven lines of the message, when read from top to bottom, combine to spell out "F• you."

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano today said he hoped he and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a "clean slate" in the future after the governor vetoed one of Ammiano's bills with a not-so-subtle F*** Y** attached. "I think some people feel it was inappropriate," Ammiano said of the governor's acrostic message to him in vetoing AB 1176. "To me it's part of 'welcome to Sacramento.'"

SACRAMENTO -- Did Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office use a coded veto message to send the f-bomb to Tom Ammiano, soon after the San Francisco assemblyman made news by telling the governor to "kiss my gay ass"? Schwarzenegger's people say no. But the X-rated evidence is hard to miss in a message that Schwarzenegger sent to explain why he was vetoing an Ammiano bill dealing with financing for the Port of San Francisco. A straight reading of the guv's letter laments "the fact that major issues are overlooked while many unnecessary bills come to me for consideration," and concludes, "I believe...

ormer San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is lambasting what he calls "highly inappropriate" behavior by San Francisco Democrats Wednesday who greeted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with a hostile reception during a surprise drop-in at a San Francisco Democratic Party fund-raiser. But outspoken State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, who shouted "You lie!" to Schwarzenneger during the event at the Fairmont Hotel -- and didn't deny reports he walked out with a quip of "kiss my gay ass" -- said the GOP governor's "cheap publicity stunt" earned a very appropriate show of political theater, San Francisco-style. Schwarzenegger, in a statement this...

Leave it to a loony Assemblyman from San Fransisco to suggest legalizing marijuana and taxing the sale of it as a way to improve the states budget. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano claims this would raise $1 billion dollars per year with a tax of $50 for every ounce. I wonder how he came up with that number? Perhaps, Assemblyman Ammiano has been doing a little personal research

Newsom expects layoffs due to city's $90 million deficit Mayor Gavin Newsom said city layoffs could start in the next few weeks as his office grapples with a budget deficit that could exceed $90 million."I can't defer bad choices," Newsom said.The mayor asked city departments to cut $75 million, but Newsom said new projections from the controller's office will lead to bigger cuts. It's too soon to say how many people will lose their jobs, the mayor said.The Public Health Department faces the biggest cuts because it's the largest department. Health officials revealed $10 million worth of proposed cuts this...