Free Republic

A man walking two dogs at San Francisco’s McLaren Park verbally attacked a Muslim group gathering for a communal prayer Monday morning for the annual Eid al-Adha holiday, members of the Islamic Center of San Francisco told SFGATE.

Who can you put next to President Joe Biden that will make him look good? We know it’s not the G7, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni had to wrangle the US commander-in-chief when he threatened to drift away from the group of world leaders during a parachuting demonstration. And Saturday confirmed that former president Barack Obama isn’t the answer either, after grabbing his former VP by the wrist and guiding him by his shoulders off the stage at a Los Angeles event as Biden appeared to freeze for about five seconds. Biden’s handlers have already equipped him with special...

Will the last person to leave California please turn off the lights? Assuming they aren't in the middle of one of California's increasingly frequent brownouts, that is. Relocation firm moveBuddha looked at searches for 100,000 moves just this year, and five of the top ten were people looking to get out of the Golden State for almost anywhere else. "5 of the top 10 exit metros are in California, the firm reported on Monday. "Los Angeles has the highest interest in outbound moves, with 42% more outbound inquiries than runner-up San Francisco. Per capita, the prize goes to San Francisco."The...

On April 28, 2023, the Santa Monica Daily Press ran this headline on page one: "Metro Rider Violently Beaten by Eight Teenagers at Santa Monica Station." The article, written by Magnolia Lafleur, reported the incident (which occurred on April 19) as a case of simple assault. But buried on page eight was this: "the teens jumped on him screaming insults and racial slurs". Now, when violent thugs shout "racial slurs" during an attack, is that not a hate crime? Yet LaFleur's long article -- 30 paragraphs -- never mentions "hate." Nor are we told the races of the "teenagers" or...

Does California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ever stop talking about his state's "climate leadership"?And we’re a state that at our best — not always — but at our best, we believe the world, in many respects, looks to us to see that it’s possible to live together and advance together across many imaginable differences. And that – that absolutely is the case when it comes to the issue of addressing the crisis of our time in climate change. ...We look forward to maintaining our position of leadership. And we look forward to all of us bringing into our positions of formal...

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 galaxy of political and entertainment stars (of various wattage) arrived Saturday night at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater for a gala fundraiser for President Biden’s reelection campaign. Here’s a rundown of some of those who attended the event, which is expected to raise at least $28 million: First Lady Jill Biden Former President Obama Julia Roberts George Clooney Barbra Streisand Paul Anka Kathy Griffin Jeffrey Katzenberg Bryan Lourd Richard Lovett Jimmy Kimmel Jack Black Kathryn Hahn Jason Bateman Sheryl Lee Ralph Gov. Gavin Newsom L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) ***MORE

As Democrats make their case to voters around the country this fall, one challenge is that some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess. Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction? I’ll try to answer that question in a moment, but liberals like me do need to face the painful fact that something has gone badly wrong where we’re in charge, from San Diego to Seattle. ...the truth is that too...

Several weeks ago, I flew to Texas to visit my friend Mollie, who had left California in 2022. Whenever I told someone I was going to Texas, their first question was, “Are you moving out of California?” How different from when I moved to California in 1977… “I’m so jealous!” That was the reaction of family and friends when my husband and I announced that, after one year of marriage, we were leaving New York. It was a difficult decision because I was close to my parents, particularly my mother. For us, the primary reason was the weather. We did...

Gabriel Shin described the attack at the hands of another San Francisco firefighter. "The whole time I was yelling at him, I said, 'Robert, stop, what's wrong with you, stop,' you know, and he just didn't stop. He was relentless." Shin is talking publicly for the first time about a brutal attack that he says ended his career. Another firefighter stands charged with beating him with a hydrant wrench. -snip Connected to this attack, Gabriel Shin has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that asks a basic question. Why was the victim forced out of the San Francisco Fire Department...

California is awash in water after record-breaking rains vanquished years of crippling drought. That sounds like great news for farmers. But Ron McIlroy, whose shop here sells equipment for plowing fields, knows otherwise. “I’ll be lucky if I survive this year,” he said. Illustrating how broken California’s vast water-delivery system is, many farmers in Central Valley, America’s fruit and vegetable basket, will get just 40% of the federal water they are supposed to this year. Why? Endangered fish. The pumps that transport water from wet Northern California to the semiarid south have been drastically slowed to protect threatened migrating smelt,...

While questions remain surrounding Oakland’s landmark sale of its undivided half of the Coliseum property to an all-Black private development group a little over two weeks ago, not just the stadium and arena are waiting for the Athletics to make a decision. The state of uncertainty is also affecting one of the most vital pieces surrounding the site: the Coliseum BART Station. BART director Robert Raburn, whose jurisdiction includes the Coliseum Station, is one of many public officials in Oakland who are quite optimistic about what the African American Sports and Entertainment Group wants to do with the Coliseum site....

Earlier today, I wrote about why Jillian Michaels fled California--it has been taken over by woke fanatics and is becoming unlivable and even "demonic." Well, here's a perfect example of just how stupid, even ridiculous, the state has become. BREAKING: LA City Council members have removed "No U-Turn" traffic signs in a gay neighborhood.They say the signs were homophobic.No, this is not satire. pic.twitter.com/yadflyo588— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 14, 2024In their ever-expanding efforts to wipe out all vestiges of common sense, Los Angeles is removing 'No U-Turn" signs from a gay neighborhood because, supposedly, they were put up to deter...

As homicides and robberies continue to rise, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has created a backlog of 15,000 unfiled criminal cases, leading to concerns that unprosecuted criminals in the zero-bail county are able to stay on the streets and keep committing new crimes without any consequences. While LAPD did not respond to a public records request on updated crime data by the time of publication as the department adopts a new crime reporting system, a LAPD public information officer told The Center Square there were 438 gunshot victims and homicides are up 11%, robberies up 17.6%, motor vehicle theft...

Daniel Alman from Squirrel Hill @DanielAlmanPGH By not arresting anyone, #KarenBass, #GeorgeGascón, and #GavinNewsom are sending a message that it's OK to trap people inside a building, assault people, and damage property. https://yahoo.com/news/pro-palestinian-protesters-over-cal-140532316.html #Palestinians #Jews #Antisemitism #Israel #CalState #CalStateLA 12:43 PM · Jun 14, 2024

The Stanford Internet Observatory, a small but prominent research group studying abuse on social media platforms, looks to be in crisis, according to a report by Platformer. Some key staff have departed recently, including founding director Alex Stamos and research director Renée DiResta, Platformer reports. A handful of staff have left recently after not having their contracts renewed, and other members have been told to look for other jobs. Platformer describes the turmoil as a “dismantling” of the research group. Stanford Internet Observatory research centers on some of the most pressing types of abuse online, including threats to democracy and...

Wells Fargo, the San Francisco-based banking giant, has fired a small group of employees who allegedly tampered with their computers to fake the appearance of working. The company’s St. Louis-based subsidiary, Wells Fargo Clearing Services, filed five disclosures with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority saying that it had fired workers in early May. Each disclosure said the worker was “discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work.” Bloomberg, which first reported the firings on Thursday, wrote that “more than a dozen” employees were fired from Wells Fargo’s wealth and investment management arm. SFGATE...

Surveillance cameras at a county jail in San Bernardino County captured an inmate armed with a homemade metal knife launching out of a cell and attempting to stab a deputy. The violence unfolded at around 2:45 p.m. on June 11 at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The inmate, 25-year-old Christopher Lommie Jackson, who has been in custody since 2019 on numerous violent charges, including the alleged murder of 51-year-old Subhi Baghdadi, 51, of Anaheim, had attempted to stab another inmate, prompting a response from jail-assigned...

School districts in California would be barred from forcing teachers to notify parents if their child asks to go by a new pronoun at school under a bill the state Legislature is weighing amid legal battles over the rights of parents and gender-nonconforming students. The state Senate approved the proposal Thursday, which would ban school districts from passing or enforcing policies requiring school staff to disclose a student's gender identity or sexual orientation to anyone else without the child's permission, with some exceptions. The goal is to protect students whose safety could be threatened if they live in unwelcoming households.

First Lady Jill Biden is set to arrive Thursday evening in the Bay Area to attend a campaign fundraiser, according to the White House. Biden is expected to fly in from a political event in Minnesota and will arrive at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View. On Friday at 12:45 p.m., she will visit and talk at a political finance event in Los Gatos before going to Reno, Nevada, for another event later in the day, according to the White House. It is the second time that the first lady has been in the Bay Area in as many months...