Free Republic

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A 2-month investigation into the expenses of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has found a pattern of what appears to be extravagant spending at taxpayer expense, even as the mayor suggests shutting down City Hall for a dozen days and raising taxes. The expenses include stays at 5-star hotels in Washington D.C. such as the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, on his many travels away from Oakland, although Dellums owns a luxurious home in the nearby exclusive enclave of Georgetown. The data obtained though the California Public Records Act also shows expensive meals, limousine services and even hundreds...

SACRAMENTO – The new Medicare prescription drug program was supposed to save California $120 million this year. Instead, the state has had to earmark $150 million to help low-income Californians pay for drugs they've been denied as a result of bureaucratic foul-ups. Even if the Medicare drug program begins operating smoothly, it is projected to cost the state an additional $59 million this fiscal year and more money each subsequent year because of flaws in the federal funding formula. "We don't think it's fair," said Stan Rosenstein, deputy director of medical care services for the state Department of Health Services....

Linda Ronstadt has made it clear she will continue inserting her vitriolic political commentary into her concerts. I think the the venues hosting them should know that customers like us go to concerts to hear music and be entertained not lectured, screemed at or propagandized. If we want politics, we will turn on the news or read a paper. Let these venues know that we will cancel are tickets and refuse to see any more Ronstadt concerts until she performs as she was hired to do and why we bought tickets. Mention that you intend to tell your friends, relatives...

<p>Robert Burgett remembers hauling big steel drums of chemicals from naval facilities to the supply yards on Andersen Air Force Base when he was assigned on island for temporary duty in the late 1960s.</p> <p>"We would move these barrels and stuff would spill and go all over us," he said. "We'd just wash off and keep going."</p>