Free Republic

Sheinbaum, 61, is poised to make history as Mexico’s first female president and first Jewish head of state. Polls a week before Mexico’s election show her enjoying a wide lead over the next candidate, the conservative entrepreneur Xóchitl Gálvez. Still, after nearly a quarter-century in the public eye, she remains an enigma, known mainly as the low-key protégé of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the charismatic leader known as AMLO. AMLO doesn’t speak English and dislikes traveling abroad. Sheinbaum did postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley; her sister and daughter live in the United States. The president,...

A verdict came down in the murder trial of a Capitola woman who was killed by her boyfriend back in Dec. 2023. A former San Francisco rock band member, Theobald "Theo" Lengyel ,54, was found guilty in the murder of Alice “Alyx” Herrmann. He was found guilty of first-degree murder. Prosecutors had alleged Lengyel strangled his then-girlfriend Alice Herrmann, 61, and then buried her body in a Berkeley park. The former tech worker and saxophonist in funk-metal band Mr. Bungle has not denied killing Herrmann but his lawyers say the circumstances do not rise to the category of first-degree murder;...

Berkeley, Calif., once a bastion of liberal idealism, currently mirrors the lawlessness of the Wild West. Its streets resemble an open-air drug den, overrun by homeless encampments. Tents block streets and parking, making sidewalks impassable for pedestrians with disabilities. Human waste, syringes and hazardous materials spill directly on private property and in waterways, polluting them. Open-air fires in the middle of public thoroughfares offer scenes more reminiscent of the Great Depression than the prosperous, innovative community associated with the Berkeley name.

The Harris campaign believes that “joy” and “good vibes” alone will be enough to convince voters that she should be the next president. In 1959, Richard Condon’s book The Manchurian Candidate was published, a political thriller about a communist plot to infiltrate the highest echelons of the U.S. political system, thereby allowing communism to spread its wings in the United States. Fortunately, this work of fiction remained just that; a fictitious tale. Yet, here we are, a few decades after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with an avowed Marxist on the top...

In a new book, political scientist M. Steven Fish argues that pro-democracy forces need to deploy a “high-dominance” political style to defeat Trumpism. And, he says, they need to stop being so squeamish about patriotism.

A new city ordinance in Berkeley, Calif., that officially changes the name from ‘manhole cover’ to ‘maintenance cover’ has stirred up a media commotion. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu). It is not every day that a change to a municipal code for a medium-sized city makes international news. But when city council in Berkeley, Calif., had its first reading of a proposal to remove gendered language from its municipal code, the media went to town. The 14-page proposal provides a rationale for the changes, cites legal and grammatical support, specifies the wording that will change and estimates the cost of the initiative...

A suspect arrested in relation to arson attacks at University of California, Berkeley is a 34-year-old PhD student who lived in his parents' million-dollar home and called the U.S. a "fascist hellhole." California and federal law enforcement say that 34-year-old Casey Goonan was arrested on Monday for allegedly committing four acts of arson at Berkeley during pro-Palestinian anti-Israel protests on campus. His attorney confirmed that officials had raided Goonan's parents' home in Pleasant Hill on Monday at about 10 a.m. A CalFire news release said that Goonan had been booked into the Alameda County jail on suspicion of arson and...

Pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly firebombed “the side of a building” on the University of California Berkeley (UCB) campus and claimed that students had been “attacked” on another campus. In a post on Instagram on Thursday, Palestine Action in the United States shared a post from an anonymous user who claimed responsibility for firebombing the side of Koshland Hall, a building at UCB that houses “labs from the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology.”

A group of radical pro-Palestinian activists took over a building at the University of California Berkeley on Wednesday, just hours after administrators and protesters struck a deal to end a weeks-long “encampment.” The Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley student newspaper, reported: A group of pro-Palestine protesters broke in and took over Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Wednesday afternoon. The protesters — gathering in a group of about 30 by 3:15 p.m. — hung up the Palestinian flag as well as boards reading “Free Gaza” and “Avenge Al Shifa.” [Al-Shifa is a hospital in Gaza that was taken over by terrorists,...

Earthquake

SACRAMENTO — In May 1969 a National Guard helicopter hung over the campus of UC Berkeley, spraying protesters with what The Times then described as “heavy clouds of tear gas.” It was the sixth consecutive day of campus demonstrations over plans to develop the land known as “People’s Park.” An ambitious governor who would go on to become president had called in 2,300 National Guard troops and hundreds of Highway Patrolmen. They brought shotguns, rifles and bayonets. The problems, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan said in a feisty televised appearance, all started because universities “let young people think they had the right...

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum claimed to be in the business of buying and selling real estate, but he really bought and sold human kidneys for transplant, according to a federal complaint filed Thursday. The 58-year-old Brooklyn man was accused of trafficking in human organs, after a sting by an undercover FBI agent who agreed to pay $160,000 for a kidney from a live Israeli donor for her sick New Jersey "uncle." Investigators said Rosenbaum bragged about doing "quite a lot" of transplants over the last 10 years. "I am what you call a matchmaker," the complaint said the man, also known...

Watch what Reagan had to say about "Mostly Peaceful" Protesters (As heard on Tuesday’s Mark Levin Show.)

When you sup with the Devil, you must bring a long spoon. Berkeley law dean Erwin Chemerinsky has never been a favorite of mine, but I love irony, and this week he’s my avatar of people whose actions have come back to bite them. He has publicly bragged, for example, how much easier it is to avoid anti-discrimination laws in his faculty hires than it is in student admission, tacitly admitting that is what he has done and what he encourages others to do. But that seems to be of no avail to him now that he’s become a target...

One of the most progressive and socially liberal schools in the country is cultivating controversy as it faces accusations of racism after it allegedly banned white residents from accessing a community farm on Saturdays. Gill Tract Community Farm in nearby Albany has designated Saturdays exclusively for use by 'Black, Indigenous, and People of Color' (BIPOC) after a complaint was filed with the US Department of Education by the Mountain States Legal Foundation. The move has been denounced by some as an example of 'systemic racism.'

An antisemitic riot broke out Tuesday evening at a meeting of the city council of Berkeley, California, that was to have discussed plans for observing Holocaust Remembrance Day in April.

The very least parents expect when they send their children to any educational institution is security. This is the safety of both the physical and mental variety. After this safety is provided, the educational institute must provide a forum for a healthy exchange of ideas and debates. Education isn't merely about imparting knowledge but also about challenging students intellectually and compelling them to confront opposing perspectives. This is not a place for dogma but for open-mindedness. A student must be taught to challenge the seemingly immutable and form opinions after digesting facts about any subject from multiple perspectives. An educational...

A powerful congressional committee accused the University of California, Berkeley, of fostering “an environment of pervasive antisemitism” — which included an anti-Jewish “riot.” The Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce said Tuesday it was formally investigating the San Francisco Bay Area college as part of an escalating probe into antisemitism. And the committee chair, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), revealed she had “grave concerns” about Berkeley because of the “inadequacy” of its “response to antisemitism on its campus” even before the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel ignited anti-Jewish demonstrations. The committee outlined a list of antisemitic incidents...

Concerned parents calling themselves SafeBears have raised $40,000 to pay for security guards or “safety ambassadors” to patrol the UC Berkeley campus area for a few weeks in early March. UC Berkeley may be one of America’s most prestigious schools, but its location in the California Bay Area has parents and students both wary of safety on campus. A group called SafeBears, that touts itself as comprising “1,300+ Cal parents and community allies working to improve safety for UC Berkeley students,” has worked to solve the problem themselves, hoping their prototypical program of patrols around campus will inspire the college...

Stacey Zolt Hara was in her office in downtown San Francisco when a text from her 16-year-old daughter arrived: “I’m scared,” she wrote. Her classmates at Berkeley High School were preparing to leave their desks and file into the halls, part of a planned “walkout” to protest Israel. Like many Jewish students, she didn’t want to participate. It was October 18, 11 days after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel. Zolt Hara told her daughter to wait in her classroom. She was trying to project calm. A public-relations executive, Zolt Hara had moved her family from Chicago to Berkeley six...