Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO -- California gas prices rose 17 cents a gallon overnight due to supply disruptions at some refineries and seasonally low inventories, bringing the one-week increase in the Golden State to nearly 36 cents. The average retail price of gasoline was $4.486 on Friday morning, up from $4.315 on Thursday and $4.131 a week ago, according to AAA data. The average price was $3.818 a year ago. The average price is just 12 cents below the highest recorded statewide price of $4.61, which was reached in June of 2008. "It's insane," said Matt Hurd, 35, who works in real...

Just for the record and to get down to some upsetting facts regarding California‘s 55 electoral college votes, the total share of federal taxes paid by the people of 18 states [New York, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado, Arkansas , Nebraska, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Mexico, and Wyoming] works out to be a higher per capita amount then paid by the people of California. And yet, the state of California has an overwhelming 55 electoral college votes compared to any of these states! For example, and according to 2007 figures the people of...

Having declared that his presidential campaign does not need a makeover, Republican Mitt Romney raised millions of dollars at two fundraisers in southern California on Saturday to help bankroll the final weeks of the race. "I'm not even going to be able to go home today. We're just coming to town to see you and keep the campaign going," Romney told a well-heeled crowd at the Grand Del Mar Resort hotel in Del Mar, California, about 12 miles from his beachfront house in La Jolla. Some 650 supporters - including diet guru Jenny Craig - paid from $1,000 to $25,000...

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan will stop by the Danville home of a former San Francisco 49er for a fundraiser on Saturday morning. The San Jose Mercury News reports Ryan will be attend the breakfast fundraiser at the home of retired football player Brent Jones. The breakfast begins at 8:15 a.m. [...] Earlier tonight Ryan was at a fundraiser at the Alamo home of Steven Burd, the Chief Executive Officer of Safeway Inc., the Pleasanton-based grocery store chain.

Here is a live blog of the appearance this morning of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, at a breakfast fundraiser at the Danville home of former San Francisco 49er Brent Jones. 9:45 a.m.: A quick get-away for Congressman Ryan. The Republican vice presidential nominee walked out of the home with Jones. He then climbed into his black SUV-like vehicle and the convoy led by the CHP drove off. Ryan was in the house for about an hour. He's on his way to Mountain View. The valets keep running and the guest keep waiting for their cars. One...

ACRAMENTO — (MCT) Beaver had June and Ward. Ricky had Ozzie and Harriet. Mom and Dad, same-sex couples or blended families, California law is clear: No more than two legal parents per child.

Like teenagers on vacation with their parents, Republicans from blue states and Democrats from red states don't want to be seen with party elders. "I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Mitt Romney," Elizabeth Emken, the Republican who will face off against Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein in November, recently told me. "That's the truth. I've never met him." Emken thinks she has a shot at winning the election precisely because she is not the pick of the GOP establishment. "We've had millionaires and billionaires and CEOs and movie stars," said Emken in a not-so-subtle swipe at former top-of-the...

California state legislators passed a bill Friday that seeks to protect undocumented immigrants charged with relatively minor crimes from being deported. The bill, by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, would prohibit local police from detaining anyone on an immigration hold if the person is not charged with or has not been convicted of a serious or violent crime. The bill, which only needs the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown to become law, passed the Assembly on Friday after being amended in the state Senate to remove language that would have required police departments to develop plans to guard against racial...

Chicken was in high demand Thursday in the Bay Area, as San Jose's first Chick-fil-A restaurant celebrated its grand opening. Located on the corner of First Street and Headquarters Drive, the store marks the fast food chain's first stand-alone restaurant in the Silicon Valley. Before this one, the closest Chick-fil-A was in Fairfield, and many years ago there was a location in the Sunnyvale Town Center shopping center. The chain intends to open another Bay Area franchise in Walnut Creek in October. Not even a sprinkle of protesters, rallying against Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy's recent anti-gay marriage statements, could darken...

A new bill that’s the first of its kind has opinion hotly divided in California, this time over whether parents can be banned from trying to “cure” their gay children. Senate Bill 1172, which would prohibit all “sexual orientation change efforts” for minors, is through the legislature and slated to land on the governor's desk in September.

The NY Times just wrote about the demise of the CA GOP. It claimed its dramatic loss in voter registration, now just 30% of the state's voters, is due to the fact that the party has run out of ideas popular with the electorate and that it has grown increasingly conservative, out of step with independents who decide elections. Yes, the GOP has declined to insignificant status. It's minority status is now so small it can no longer block any legislation or budget that Gov. Brown and the Dems want. We live in a one party state. The state GOP...

Newport Beach may call the bill collectors on President Obama's re-election campaign. Chicago-based Obama for America hasn't coughed up $35,000 for the cost of providing police protection during the president's February fundraiser in Corona del Mar, leaving Newport Beach stuck with the bill, the Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/MjHJFO ) reported Monday. According to city policy, parties holding major events in the city are billed for municipal services unless there is a grant or sponsorship to cover the cost. City policy also directs bills unpaid after 120 days to collection agencies. City spokeswoman Tara Finnigan noted that Mitt Romney's campaign promptly...

Since returning to the state's top job for a second time in 2011, California Governor Jerry Brown has faced massive fiscal and functional problems. And he has not been shy about making bold moves to try to solve some of those problems. "Analysis paralysis is not why I came back," he said at a press conference in Sacramento Wednesday. "I want to get shit done." In this instance, the shit Brown hopes to get done is a $23 billion water delivery tunnel system that aims to help supply water to the state's Central Valley farms and the massive urban agglomerations...

Between the new congressional district lines and the new open primaries, people who hold elected office in California are running for their lives. In previous years, maybe 10 percent of congressional and legislative districts were competitive. Now everybody thinks they're at risk. Even well-known incumbents in Democrat-dominated districts - people like Reps. Barbara Lee and John Garamendi - fear they might get beat. As a result, they are scooping up and holding onto as much campaign cash as possible. It's all putting a pinch on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's hopes of the Democrats retaking the House. You see, in the past...

LOS ANGELES — This would seem a moment of great opportunity for California Republicans. The state has become a national symbol of fiscal turmoil and dysfunction, the Legislature is nearly as unpopular as Congress and Democrats control every branch of government. But instead, the state party — once a symbol of Republican hope and geographical reach and which gave the nation Ronald Reagan (and Richard M. Nixon) — is caught in a cycle of relentless decline, and appears in danger of shrinking to the rank of a minor party. “We are at a lower point than we’ve ever been,” said...

State Sen. Mark Leno is pushing legislation to allow a child to have multiple parents. "The bill brings California into the 21st century, recognizing that there are more than Ozzie and Harriet families today," the San Francisco Democrat said. Surrogate births, same-sex parenthood and assisted reproduction are changing society by creating new possibilities for nontraditional households and relationships.

Our daughter graduated with a BS in Biology this morning from the University of California at Santa Cruz. I did not see a single "Obama 2012" bumper sticker today -- not one! We drove about 40 miles from home to the campus and saw many hundreds or thousands of cars on Highways 85, 17, and 1; the local Santa Cruz streets; throughout campus; in the campus parking structure; and in the parking lots on campus. We walked quite a distance on campus and didn't spot a single Obama sign on any buildings, bus shelters, housing units, dorms, or student bulletin...

Last fall, we pointed out that the California Republican Party was running a bit late in not being able to field — with all due respect — a “name” candidate to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. And now, we see one of the effects of that. DiFi is lapping the GOP field in the latest fundraising disclosures. . . . DiFi is outraising the entire Republican field by about a gazillion to one in the latest fundraising totals. That includes includes her closest GOP rival — Danville autism activist Elizabeth Emken, who was endorsed by the CA GOP....

Much has been made about Mormonism, now that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney looks to be on his way to the Republican presidential nomination. But should he win the general election in November, would it be accurate to say that Romney is a Christian president? On Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, fill-in host Jake Tapper posed the question of Romney’s religion to Rick Warren, the pastor of the California mega-church, Saddleback Church. “Mitt Romney will almost certainly be the Republican nominee and if that happens, which it looks like it will, he’ll be the first member of Church of Jesus...

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, on a three-day campaign swing in California that has attracted overflow crowds, said Thursday his withdrawal from the race is "not going to happen" - and he isn't certain he'll support Mitt Romney should the former Massachusetts governor win the party's nomination. The Texas congressman, in a meeting with The Chronicle's editorial board, said there may be some "excitement" ahead, including the possibility of a "brokered" convention. Paul, asked whether he would back Romney if he secures the 1,144 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination, said, "We haven't gotten that far yet. I have...