Free Republic

California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a controversial new law regarding judges' discretion on whether or not to add individuals to the state’s sex offender registry who have committed sodomy with minors. Newsom signed the bill, passed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature, into law without comment on Friday, expanding the discretion granted to judges in statutory rape cases, according to ABC 7 News Los Angeles. California law permitted judges to decide whether a man was placed on the sex offender registry if he had consensual intercourse with someone 14 to 17 years old and was not more than 10...

A Sutter County judge granted a request Friday by two GOP legislators to temporarily block an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would require that all active California voters receive a mail ballot for the November election. The order provoked a fiery response from Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who dismissed the assemblymen’s legal challenge as “a reckless publicity stunt.” The temporary restraining order by Superior Court Judge Perry Parker, which was sought by Assemblymen James Gallagher of Nicolaus (Sutter County) and Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County), sets a June 26 hearing in Yuba City to determine whether...

Former Vice President Joe Biden predicted on Wednesday that President Donald Trump will try to “steal” the general election in November by limiting Americans’ access to voting. “This president is going to try to steal this election,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.” “This is the guy who said all mail-in ballots are fraudulent — voting by mail — while he sits behind a desk in the Oval Office and writes his mail-in ballot to vote in a primary,” Biden added. Trump has repeatedly leveled allegations of large-scale mail-in voter fraud...

The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party sued Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state's Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Sunday, claiming an executive order sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters in the state is an "illegal power grab" that invites potential fraud. Newsom's order, aimed at allowing voters to avoid exposure to coronavirus, will send ballots to all registered voters including inactive voters. This has led to concerns that ballots sent to people who have moved or died will end up being filled out and submitted anyway unless voter rolls are inspected and...

Due to fears over continued spread of the novel coronavirus, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Friday the entire state will be asked to vote by mail in November. The governor signed an executive order that will ensure every registered vote in the state is sent an absentee ballot prior to election day, and those who choose to vote in person will have to comply with strict physical distancing measures at polling sites.

President Donald Trump is threatening a lawsuit against CNN over a ‘whistleblower’s’ recording showing bias. The recording of the network’s president, Jeff Zucker, was released by conservative activist group Project Veritas. President Trump on Monday floated a lawsuit threat against CNN over reports that the network’s president, Jeff Zucker, launched an internal bias campaign to undermine his presidency. In a tweet posted Monday evening, Trump said, “’Project Veritas-Obtained Undercover Videos Highlight Jeff Zucker’s (@CNN) Campaign To Destroy Trump. Videos Reveal @CNN’s BIAS!’ @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews Does this sound like a good, or even great, lawsuit?” The president’s latest gripe with CNN...

Former President Bill Clinton, who signed a since-expired ban on assault weapons in 1994, called for the prohibition to be reinstated in an editorial for Time Magazine on Wednesday. Noting that Congress’s failure to reinstate the ban since it expired in 2004 has largely been attributed to fear of electoral losses like those of the 1994 midterms, Clinton wrote that the political landscape would be friendlier to such a move today. “The 2018 elections, thanks to the passionate activism of citizen groups across the country, proved that it’s a different world now,” he wrote.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's nation-leading gas prices are set to climb even higher Monday, when the state gas tax increases another 5.6 cents a gallon. It's the latest increase from a 2017 law designed to raise about $5 billion a year for road and mass transit programs. A 12 cent-per-gallon boost came that November, and voters last year rejected a Republican-led effort to repeal the law. But Southern California voters did recall one Democratic lawmaker who helped pass the measure. California motorists were paying an average $3.75 per gallon as of late June, far above the national average of $2.71...

Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled a sweeping plan Monday to forgive massive amounts of student loan debt for middle-class Americans as she tries to appeal to the young voters expected to play a major role in the 2020 campaign. The Democratic presidential candidate from Massachusetts also called for free tuition at state colleges and universities as another way to relieve the higher education costs that have financially crippled many millennials.

Decriminalizing prostitution — an idea gaining momentum among some Democrats, including at least one 2020 presidential contender — may one day be traced back to the hookers plying their trade under the elevated train along New York City’s Roosevelt Avenue. That open-air market of prostitutes and johns in Queens, undeterred by the constant threat of arrest and incarceration, has been cited by New York state lawmakers mulling whether it’s time to wave the white flag in the war on the world’s oldest profession.

Senator Kamala Harris’s staff has refused to answer any questions regarding the citizenship status of her parents when she was born. The normal path to becoming a naturalized U.S. Citizen takes five years. Kamala Harris was born in 1964. Her father emigrated from Jamaica to the USA in 1961. Her mother emigrated from India to the USA in 1960. Thus there was not sufficient time for either of Kamala’s parents to become naturalized U.S. Citizens. Kamala’s father eventually became a naturalized U.S. Citizen per his bio. It is not known at this time if Kamala’s mother ever became a naturalized...

Gavin Newsom, Democratic candidate for governor of California, said on liberal podcast "Pod Save America" that the state government should pay for universal health care for illegal immigrants. In the episode, released Tuesday, the candidate and current lieutenant governor of California touted his involvement in San Francisco having "the only universal health care plan for all undocumented residents in America." "I did universal health care when I was mayor—fully implemented, regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status. San Francisco is the only universal health care plan for all undocumented residents in America. Very proud...

FBI official Peter Strzok, who played a lead role in both the Russian meddling and Hillary Clinton email probes but became a political lightning rod after the revelation of anti-Trump text messages, has been fired.

President Donald Trump blasted his former attorney Michael Cohen on Wednesday, the morning after CNN aired the audio of a recording Cohen made of the two. "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!" Trump tweeted. In the audio aired first on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing how...

Facebook shared personal information from user profiles with companies after the date when executives have said the social network prevented third-party developers from gaining access to the data, the company confirmed on Friday. The records included information about the friends of Facebook users, including phone numbers and analysis of the degrees of separation between people, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Facebook acknowledged the information was given to a “small number” of companies including RBC Capital Markets, Nissan, advertisers and other business partners.

SACRAMENTO - Even in the wake of previous tax windfalls, Gov. Jerry Brown's announcement on Friday was breathtaking: The state has collected an unexpected $8 billion in tax revenue in recent months, even more additional cash than reported in January. The money is the latest installment in a fiscal winning streak of historic proportions in California. And, as in previous years, the governor's newly revised budget seeks to divvy it up either on short-term spending or long-term savings by putting it into government reserves.

Donald Trump said on Thursday that five “most wanted” leaders of the Islamic State militant group had been captured, an apparent reference to the capture of five commanders of the militant group by Iraq. Iraq had described the capture of the Isis commanders as “some of the most wanted” leaders of the group. The list did not include Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The US-led coalition said that Iraqi forces working with US-backed Syrian rebels had captured five senior Isis leaders.

The notion of a “job guarantee” in America, once appropriately seen as a fringe idea lacking credibility, is growing in popularity among the Democratic Party. Last week, the Washington Post reported that Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is crafting a proposal in which the federal government would guarantee a job that pays $15 an hour plus health insurance to any American “who wants or needs one.” The plan, which Sanders hasn’t figured out how to fund yet, would call for the creation of hundreds of government projects throughout the country in fields ranging from infrastructure to caregiving in...

Troubles for Wells Fargo & Company (WFC - Free Report) seems to have no end. This time they come from a teacher’s union — The American Federation of Teachers (“AFT”) — demanding the bank to restrain itself from providing finance to gun dealers and the National Rifle Association (“NRA”). After the recent tragic incident at a high school that took lives of innocent students and educators, AFT’s President Randi Weingarten raised concerns over Wells Fargo’s connections with the gunmakers and NRA. In a release issued on Apr 7, the union disclosed plans to discontinue the Wells Fargo mortgage program offering...

Fox News called the campaign to drive advertisers away from Laura Ingraham’s show “agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” as the network showed support for the embattled host. “We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored,” Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy said in a statement Monday to multiple newsorganizations. “We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children.” Ingraham is off the air of her TV show, “The Ingraham Angle,” this week on a preplanned vacation, Fox News told The Washington Post Saturday.