Free Republic

University of California Regent Jay Sures asked the right question this week about free speech on campus: Does it apply to everyone equally? Or just the far left? Specifically: If a Palestinian terrorist has free speech at UC Berkeley, why can’t a former Israeli hostage have free speech at UCLA? Sures was reacting to the shocking appearance — via remote link — of would-be Palestinian terrorist Israa Jaabis, who tried to ignite a gas tank to kill Israelis. She ended up burning herself and a police officer. For some reason, students at UC Berkeley thought it was important to hear...

President Trump tore into comedian Bill Maher in a Truth Social post late Saturday. "I hate seeing Fox, and other Conservative Outlets, constantly making Low Rated Bill Maher 'relevant' as it pertains to the Republican Party, and beyond. Bill Maher is a weak and ineffective person who I got to know very well during my dinner with him at the White House," he wrote. Trump referenced California Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent appearance on Maher's HBO show. "Maher was defenseless, and totally deficient. Either he didn’t have the knowledge, or he choked, because Gavin went on and on about how good...

-Napa Valley man Thomas O’Donnell found guilty of murder-for-hire in Kentucky court. -Prosecutors say former California Highway Patrol captain Julie Harding hired O’Donnell to kill her estranged husband, Michael Harding, luring him to a secluded Kentucky home for an HVAC repair. -Harding died by suicide months after the killing; O’Donnell, 64, faces 20 years to life in prison. A Napa Valley man hired by a former California Highway Patrol captain to kill her husband has been found guilty as text messages revealed details of the murder-for-hire plot.

The chair of the California Democratic Party has had enough of the possibility that Republicans could lock out Democrats in this year’s governor’s race — and wants to change the the voting system to prevent that in the future. Rusty Hicks is one of the first prominent Democrats this year to embrace a wholescale change to how the state holds its primaries, where currently the top two candidates regardless of political party advance to the general election. “The current system we have does not work,” Hicks told the Guardian. “It needs to be revised or repealed.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s June 2 primary election is approaching, with ballots set to begin arriving for registered voters Monday. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, voters will receive four key pieces of mail: a state voter information guide, a county voter information guide, a sample ballot and an official ballot. “Democracy is a messy business, and it can take some work,” political analyst Steve Swatt said. “And it’s incumbent on us as voters to do our homework.” At the top of the ticket is the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, a contest that analysts say remains...

A 14-year-old California girl was dismembered with a chainsaw in a backyard inflatable pool after threatening to expose her alleged child predator ex-boyfriend, according to Los Angeles prosecutors. David Anthony Burke, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter known as "D4vd," faces charges of murder, child sex abuse and the unlawful mutilation of human remains after prosecutors allege he sexually abused the teen for months before killing her, cutting up her remains and allowing them to decompose in the trunk of his Tesla. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. The morning after allegedly killing Celeste Rivas Hernandez, he sat...

Going a bit farther. At the Federalist this week, I wrote about the truly amazing debate between the top candidates in CA-11, competing to see who will replace Boxwine Pelosi: “The California Primary Election Season Is Screaming A Warning For The Nation.” And I said that “if you have a couple of hours to clearly understand the dark future of the Democrat Party, this is it.” It really is, if you feel like torturing your brain for two hours. But, excerpts follow the big video, I think I can give you the whole flavor in just a couple of minutes....

Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer is drawing fire after appearing at a May Day rally in East San Jose alongside a well-known labor leader, where he was labeled a “class traitor,” and embraced for it. Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the California Federation of Labor, highlighted the moment on X, writing: “When @TomSteyer shows up to your ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ May Day Rally in East San Jose, you ask him to wear the shirt. And he does! #ClassTraitor.” The optics of a billionaire donning anti-billionaire messaging quickly ignited criticism online, with detractors blasting both Steyer and organized labor for what they...

Dirty Harry was released near the end of 1971 and became an immediate hit, and just as immediately began a feud between its star, Clint Eastwood, and Pauline Kael, one of the most influential movie critics in America. In her review, published in the New Yorker on January 15, 1972, and titled "Dirty Harry: Saint Cop", Kael called the film "a kind of hardhat The Fountainhead" and "an almost perfect piece of propaganda for para-legal police power." "When you're making a picture with Clint Eastwood, you naturally want things to be simple, and the basic contest between good and evil...

Rattled supporters of Jimmy Kimmel are planning to roll out billboards near his network’s corporate headquarters after President Trump demanded that ABC ax the late-night host over his “hateful” joke aimed at the president and first lady. Lefty advocacy group MoveOn is targeting Disney and ABC offices in the Los Angeles area with the mobile billboards, urging new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro to “protect free speech” and “stand firm against FCC Censorship.” MoveOn said the billboards will “circulate around Disney Headquarters, Disney-ABC Television Group, ABC 7, and Disney’s corporate office in Burbank, CA,” WDWNT reported. The campaign comes after Trump...

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan pair of female senators are rolling out new legislation to bar convicted sex criminals from getting taxpayer-funded annuities and retirement pay. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have teamed up on the “No Taxpayer-Funded Pensions for Sex Criminals Act” in the aftermath of rape and sexual misconduct accusations that forced Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to resign last month. “There should be absolutely no room for the tolerance of egregious sex crimes,” Ernst, herself a sexual assault survivor, said in a statement. “Allowing proven predators to continue collecting their pensions on the taxpayer’s dime only...

A California man who plotted to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh also wanted to kill at least two other conservative justices in a bid to preserve Roe v. Wade. New court filings revealed this week are spotlighting the violent extremism that gripped abortion activists in the chaotic lead-up to the landmark Dobbs decision. Nicholas John Roske, 28, of Simi Valley, California, faces 30 years to life in prison for attempted murder of a U.S. official in his bid to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. Roske was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Chevy Chase, Maryland, home on June 8, 2022, where he was found...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sparked outrage after accusing Palisades Fire victim Spencer Pratt of “exploiting the grief” of wildfire victims in his campaign to unseat her. Bass, who has been losing ground to Pratt in the lead-up to the mayoral election, made the extraordinary claim during an interview with MeidasTouch. “Well, honestly, before this, I had never heard of Spencer Pratt,” she said of the former reality TV star. “But the thing I am concerned about is that I feel like he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades. And I think that’s reprehensible. He is about his...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Federal taxpayers helped build a $2.2 billion solar plant — now electricity customers are on the hook to keep it running. The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant, a sprawling facility near the California-Nevada border built with billions in federal support during the Obama-era economic stimulus program, is stuck in a costly dilemma. Both the Trump and Biden administrations — along with the utility company that buys its power — have sought to shut it down, saying it underperforms, produces expensive electricity and has been overtaken by cheaper energy sources. But California regulators have refused to allow it...

A manufactured crisis plays out daily in the parking lots of LA’s Home Depot stores. Day laborer centers, seven city-contracted hubs often nestled on private commercial property, have become battlegrounds. And, no surprise, the NGOs now want more of your hard-earned dollars. Nonprofit organizations like CARECEN demand millions in local taxpayer dollars not to help workers find jobs, but to shield illegal aliens from lawful federal enforcement by ICE.

Ex-con former first son Hunter Biden may have to shell out more in child support to his former stripper baby mama, given his alleged lavish lifestyle featuring gourmet food and a mountain home with ocean views. An Arkansas judge Thursday ordered Biden, a 56-year-old dad of five, to turn over his tax records and other financials and sit for a grilling under oath by lawyers for Lunden Roberts — with whom he shares 7-year-old daughter Navy Joan Roberts. The ruling came as part of Roberts’ bid to have Biden start coughing up more than the $5,000 a month he currently...

Taxpayer funded pro-illegal immigration groups are demanding millions of dollars from LA residents to help them attack ICE and fund day laborer hubs near Home Depot sites. The groups are already getting $1-million-a-year from LA City Council, and are now demanding a $2-million-a-year funding increase to help them fight against ICE operations and maintain buildings outside the hardware stores. The hubs offer everything from restrooms to free legal services and employment advice to day laborers, all paid for by nonprofits funded by taxpayers. Socialist councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has backed the move that would see groups like the Central American Resource...

2007—Year of the Lapita? Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008 by Mark Rose Polynesian Breakthroughs A Polynesian chicken (Anita Gould) and a Chilean chicken bone (Courtesy Alice Storey) There was no doubt about including in our 2007 Top Ten the discovery that chicken bones from ancient Polynesian sites in Tonga and Samoa and El Arenal, a Chilean site occupied between A.D. 700 and 1390, had identical DNA. The chicken was domesticated in Southeast Asia, but how it arrived in the New World before Europeans arrived was a mystery. Now it seems that Polynesian seafarers brought them, adding to the evidence...

A civil liberties group told UCLA on Monday that the university should not stop a conservative student group from identifying demonstrators who protested a United States Department of Homeland Security lawyer’s campus event. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – which advocates for free speech on college campuses – condemned an email sent by Bayrex Martí, the assistant dean for student affairs at the UCLA School of Law, which encouraged the UCLA Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization, to not publicize protesters’ identities. About 50 people disrupted an event hosted by the Federalist Society that featured DHS general counsel...

The sign, which was approved by the Westminster City Council last Nov. in a 4-1 vote, honors the conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA. The installation across from Westminster City Hall comes nearly eight months after Kirk was shot and killed while speaking to college students at an event in Utah. Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen: “As Mayor, I am proud that Westminster, CA is the first city in the country to dedicate an official Charlie Kirk Way. We honor Charlie for his faith, his love of country and his devotion to his amazing family. We are inspired...