Free Republic

The day after a teacher testified she never retaliated against three former Ojai elementary school students whose parents complained about a book with explicit sexual content they were assigned to read, the plaintiffs suddenly decided to end the trial. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Harry Walsh agreed to dismiss the case Thursday. "The parties have resolved their differences. So the case is concluded," Walsh told the jurors. "I don't know what agreement they've reached." …The plaintiffs alleged in a 2005 lawsuit that they never gave permission for their children, who were in the fifth grade at San Antonio School at...

Southern California businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah has agreed to plead guilty to funneling tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barbara Boxer, prosecutors said Wednesday. Jinnah is expected to formally enter his plea next week in Los Angeles federal district court. He could face more than a year in prison. Under a plea agreement filed with the court, Jinnah admits he reimbursed employees and associates for $53,000 in donations made in their names to Clinton's political action committee and Boxer's 2004 reelection campaign. His case, much like that of jailed Democratic fundraiser...

TIJUANA -- Marcos Rojas, a waiter at Mr. Tequila Restaurant, roams the Plaza Viva Tijuana, eager to pour double shots for partying tourists. This downtown gateway used to be crowded with Southern California day-trippers, Midwestern families and busloads of German and Japanese tourists. But empty bars and shuttered businesses now outnumber people mingling near the broken fountain. Rojas, who earns tips by making a show of slamming tequila shots on the table and pouring them down customers' throats, says it's been a week since he performed one of his signature tricks, twirling a tourist on his shoulders. "Look around, it's...

January 15, 2008 'Supercop' Bratton in Playboy A nod to laobserved for catching this one. Los Angeles Police Chief Wililam Bratton is touted as "the most influential crime fighter in recent history" in the February issue of Playboy, on sale starting today. Joe Domanick, a long-time chronicler of the nation's second-largest police force in the nation, pens the piece with the headline "Supercop." Bratton is rumored to be on the short list to head the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI in a Hillary Clinton administration. He’s so influential that his archnemesis, former New York City mayor and now...

Early last year, Pentagon officials said they were not inclined to commit more combat troops to the Afghan effort, and instead pressed allies to step up and provide more manpower and resources to the NATO-led coalition. But after nearly a year of largely unsuccessful high-level meetings and persistent lobbying, Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed orders this week sending a Marine Expeditionary Unit and a battalion to Afghanistan. The Pentagon's concerns about the failure of allies to send in more troops were echoed by Rep. Duncan Hunter, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, who sent a letter to...

A federal judge blocked the government from conducting background checks of low-risk employees at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory after an appeals court said the investigations threatened the constitutional rights of workers. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright issued the injunction Friday after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his earlier ruling and issued a sharp rebuke to the judge. The higher court said the 28 scientists and engineers who refused to submit to the background checks faced "a stark choice -- either violation of their constitutional rights or loss of their jobs." The workers sued the federal government, claiming...

Obama’s answer was intended to be diplomatic. “If his criteria is military service, then frankly he’s only got one candidate left," Obama said. "I mean, he'll have to vote for John McCain, who is a genuine hero.” But Obama, in his answer, forgot about the other option, no doubt a third-tier candidate but still in the race for the Republican nomination: Rep. Duncan Hunter, who is a Vietnam veteran. ... "Obama is correct that the most important job of the president is to keep Americans safe; that's why the president [Bush] should be applauded for his strong record since 9/11,"...

After being labeled "Panderer to the Criminal Invader" and called a traitor to border security, Hutchison fought back Friday. "There is misinformation, and I think the congressmen who should know better exactly what has happened have been a little loose with the facts," she said in an interview. The controversy is over an amendment that Hutchison inserted into a $555 billion spending bill that President Bush signed into law the day after Christmas. The measure repealed the parts of the 2006 law that dictated both the fence's location and design -- to the dismay of King and Hunter, who advocate...

The Mexican government opened its latest Plaza Comunitaria, or Community Plaza, Thursday at San Fernando Middle School, minutes from Vidal's house. There are 13 such centers throughout Los Angeles County, aimed at helping Mexican nationals complete their basic education. The centers offer free classes, in person or through video and the Internet, to Mexican nationals living in the U.S. "They are leaving our country without that education," said Mario Velazquez, acting consul general at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. "We have failed in giving education to those Mexicans. We must try our best to give that education, even if...

Cardinal Roger Mahony Wednesday called on Roman Catholics to stand in solidarity with immigrants as "one Church, one community, one people of God" as he celebrated the traditional "Mananitas" Mass in honor of the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mahony also reaffirmed the commitment of the U.S. bishops to just and human comprehensive reform. "The raids, divisions of families, insecurity in the workplace, lack of drivers' licenses, the stigma of being label 'illegal' without rights - these are injustices faced by our immigrant community crying out for God's intervention," Mahony said in Spanish to a crowd of some...

If you get in a car crash in the San Fernando Valley, there's about a 50-50 chance you'll flee the scene - and get away with it. Last year, nearly half of all 16,792 Valley traffic collisions were hit-and-runs, and investigators solved just 54percent of the cases, LAPD Valley Traffic Bureau officials said. "It's astonishing. It's amazing," said LAPD Officer Douglas Larkin, an investigator with Valley Traffic. "A lot of people are just scared. They've never been in an accident before. They don't know what to do." Throughout Los Angeles and its neighboring cities, hit-and-runs as a percentage of total...

GREELEY, COLO. -- Tom Selders is still baffled at how quickly the city he served for years turned on him. The two-term mayor of this conservative farm town had been a political fixture for nearly two decades. A businessman who prided himself on bringing efficiency to city government, Selders infuriated his constituents after jumping into the national debate over illegal immigration. In May he spoke at an open forum in Washington about the effects of last year's immigration raid on a meatpacking plant here, which led to the detention of 262 undocumented workers.

Dozens of angry, loud people stood on each side of a Simi Valley church's driveway using bullhorns and overworked vocal cords to hurl insults at each other in an immigration protest Sunday. They faced off at the United Church of Christ, where a congregation of about 80 people is sheltering an illegal immigrant from Oxnard and her U.S.-born infant son. Wanted for deportation, the woman is living in the church's former parsonage as part of a national New Sanctuary Movement aimed at keeping families together. The protest was organized by an anti-illegal immigration group called Save Our State that came...