Free Republic

After sixteen years in power, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is facing a serious challenge from an allied opposition in the run-up to June 24 national election. Turkish voters will head to the polls that Sunday to vote on candidates for parliament and the presidency. The election is the first up-or-down vote for the AKP’s leader and current Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following a national referendum last April. In the referendum, voters narrowly passed a series of changes to the constitution to transform the Turkish political system from a parliamentary model to a highly centralized presidential system of...

A former California Highway Patrol assistant chief and his estranged wife pleaded no contest on Monday in Fresno Superior Court to a felony conspiracy charge for helping their son escape to Mexico during his rape trial in 2012. After their pleas, Judge John “Nip” Gallagher ordered Kyle and Gail Scarber to each perform 500 hours of community service and pay a total of $10,000 in restitution to the state of California for its criminal investigation.

Tuesday the California Highway Patrol identified and announced charges against the man accused of killing an on-duty officer while driving under the influence on Christmas Eve. The driver, identified as 22-year-old Mohammed Ali of Hayward, crashed into 33-year-old Andrew Camilleri and his partner on Interstate 880 in Hayward just before midnight.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, wrapped up his 25-day, 270-mile Justice March from Ankara to Istanbul last week and was greeted at a rally attended by more than a million people. Does the enormous support for the anti-authoritarian campaign indicate a turning tide in Turkish politics? The 25-day period was chosen deliberately to symbolize the prosecutors’ demand for a 25-year prison term for Enis Berberoglu, one of Kilicdaroglu's fellow members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Throughout the march, the most controversial issue was the reaction of members of two other opposition parties. One is the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), ultranationalists who...

Turksih President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the country’s main opposition party of siding with terrorism, as a three-week “march for justice” led by its chief neared its ending point of Istanbul... “If you start protests to protect terrorists and those who support terrorism — when it did not occur to you to take part in anti-terror demonstrations — then you cannot convince anyone that your objective is justice,” Erdogan said... he said the road taken by Kilicdaroglu was “the way to Qandil and Pennsylvania”.

Bulent Tezcan, deputy chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP). Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP  has called for the annulment of the results of Sunday’s referendum.CHP deputy chairman Bulent Tezcan slammed the decision by the High Electoral Board (YSK) to accept unstamped ballots as valid saying, “Everyone knows that the ‘no’ side won. After pressure and threats couldn’t produce the desired results, the YSK took action. This election is an election without stamps and has no legitimacy,” he said referring to the the last-minute decision by the YSK to use the unsealed ballots.“Packages were stolen, externally manufactured votes were used....

Everyone knows of the giant storm that is burying the Sierras. This short video was taken on frozen Highway 80 near Donner Pass

Officials have identified a Northern California teen who was killed in a crash when a California Highway Patrol officer became distracted, possibly by his computer, investigators said Wednesday. Weston Sites, 15, of Willows, was a student at Willows High School and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Glenn County Sheriff's Office. MORE: Teen remembered at candlelight vigil The CHP officer, identified only as a 49-year-old man from Willows, was driving his patrol vehicle just before 3:30 p.m. north on Interstate 5 coming up to a construction zone, south of the County Road 20 over-crossing in Orland, the...

At about 9 a.m. on Sunday, CHP officers were tasked with an unusual call: A flock of baby geese had wandered onto westbound Interstate 80 near the Ashby Avenue exit. In a Facebook post on the incident, CHP showed endearing footage of officers escorting the geese via vehicle along the freeway. When officers arrived on scene to find the geese, the animals were found in the left lanes of the freeway, said Officer Sean Wilkenfeld with CHP Oakland. "We ran a traffic break and we stopped the freeway so we can get them corralled to the right hand shoulder —...

The Orange County district attorney filed charges Monday against a 19-year-old man who was arrested during the demonstrations that turned violent following a Donald Trump rally in Costa Mesa. Luis Fernando Alarcon, a car detailer, was charged with one felony count of vandalism causing damage of $400 or more and one misdemeanor count of inciting a riot, according to a criminal complaint.

CHP officers seized 11 illegal firecrackers from one of two Sonoma men arrested on suspicion of street racing after the drivers were spotted before dawn Monday speeding on Rohnert Park Expressway, authorities said. At about 12:30 a.m. Monday , Officer Blair Hardcastle saw a gray Nissan 350Z and a white Infiniti G35 speeding at upwards of 80 mph while heading east on Rohnert Park Expressway near Highway 101, CHP spokesman Officer Jon Sloat said. The speed limit on the road is 35 mph. After being pulled over, the drivers admitted to racing each other, Sloat said. Officers arrested Infinity driver...

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused opposition MP Eren Erdem of “betrayal.” Erdem told RT that Islamic State terrorists had obtained sarin gas supplies through Turkish territory – and that Ankara did nothing despite having all the evidence. “There is a deputy in this country, buried so deep in a pit of betrayal, and to a party that claims to be as old as the republic saying during an interview to a foreign television channel that Turkey is selling chemical weapons to terrorists,” Erdogan told a crowd in the city of Konya. The Turkish President also called the silence...

A California Highway Patrol officer in Santa Rosa saved a small bird from becoming roadkill and then snapped a selfie with the feathered creature, officials posted on Facebook.

Cellphone video captured an emotional dispute on the side of the 10 Freeway in the Mid-City area last Friday between members of a funeral procession and a California Highway Patrol Officer who pulled them over. A uniformed traffic escort was leading a procession of about 100 cars to Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills to bury family matriarch Sandra Louise Behn-Capel when they were stopped for traveling too slow on the freeway, according to Humphrey’s daughter Rachel Behn-Humphrey.

The Agios Konstantinos Greek Church in the western province of İzmir has reopened following renovations and held a mass for first time in 93 years, with the participation of the Fener Greek Patriarchate. The historic church, dating back to the 19th century, located on Mermerli Street in the Menemen district in İzmir, was renovated by the Menemen municipality. Fener Greek Patriarchate Bartholomew and Menemen Mayor Tahir Şahin reopened the church with a ceremony where they threw white doves and planted an olive tree in the garden as symbols of peace. ‘Right to worship indispensable for religion’ Bartholomew, who performed the...

The stubborn pelican had landed on the ramp that takes the 90 Freeway onto the northbound 405, and would not leave, according to City News Service, so California Highway Patrol officers blocked both lanes and a SigAlert was issued.

A California highway patrolman says that for several years he has participated in a “game” in which he and other police officers shared explicit pictures they had taken from the cell phones of female arrestees. Sean Harrington, a 35-year-old CHP officer, was initially being investigated for sending five explicit pictures from the cell phone of a 23-year-old woman he had arrested on Aug. 29 for a DUI, the Contra Costa Times reported. The woman came forward earlier this month and told authorities that during her DUI stop — during which she registered a 0.29 blood-alcohol level — Harrington asked for...

The California Highway Patrol says at least three officers have been shot in Sacramento and Placer counties by a man and woman who are heavily armed.

Fairfield: CHP sergeant suspected of downloading child pornography on and off duty FAIRFIELD -- A California Highway Patrol sergeant allegedly downloaded child pornography on a laptop while he was working off duty and on duty near Wi-Fi locations in Suisun, Fairfield and Vacaville, a Vacaville police sergeant said. The child pornography allegedly downloaded by CHP Sgt. Eric Lund showed pre-pubescent children having sex acts with adults, police Lt. Matt Lydon said. Lund, 49, of Chico, was arrested at 9 p.m. Thursday on 21 felony charges of sending or selling obscene matter depicting a minor and on misdemeanor charges of possessing...

A woman who was punched repeatedly by a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer in an incident caught on film earlier this year will receive $1.5M as part of a settlement reached Wednesday