Free Republic

Speaking to the California Legislature, Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday applauded passage of a sweeping immigration reform bill by the U.S. Senate and said his country is willing to share in border control. "Mexico wants to be part of the solution, not part of the problem," Fox said in a 20-minute speech to a joint session of the state Senate and Assembly, marking his first official visit to California's Capitol in five years. "We are your partners in security against terrorism," Fox said. "We are your allies in the war on drugs and crime. We are your partners in...

LOS ANGELES - George Takei, best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in "Star Trek," came out as homosexual in the current issue of a magazine covering the Los Angeles gay and lesbian community. Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality. Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out. The...

DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) - Concerned for the comfort and hygiene of its citizens, the Tanzanian government is warning the toiletry trade of legal action for producing or selling sub-standard toilet paper in the east African nation. The country's chief regulatory body, the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), says it will take manufacturers or distributors of toilet tissue to court if their products do not meet national requirements for softness, size or alkalinity. "It has come to our notice that there are firms manufacturing and selling sub-standard toilet paper," said Charles Ekelege, a senior TBS official, adding that sanitary concerns...

SACRAMENTO – In his strongest terms yet, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would call a special election this fall "no matter what," saying the magnitude of the changes he is seeking are almost certain to require voter approval. "We are going to call the special election no matter what. I can guarantee you that," Schwarzenegger said on KFBK-AM in Sacramento. " . . . I cannot think of a compromise that I can come up with that will make us happy because in order to change the budget one has to literally have the vote of the people. In order...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez on Monday declared victory in a historic recall referendum on his rule, but his opponents vowed to challenge vote results they rejected as a "gigantic fraud." With 94 percent of electoral rolls counted, 58 percent of voters cast ballots against removing Chavez from office, said National Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero. Chavez, a populist ex-army officer who survived a coup two years ago, appeared on the balcony of his Miraflores presidential palace and led hundreds of supporters in singing the national anthem before dawn. "The Venezuelan people have spoken and the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prisoners at a handful of facilities statewide will be triple-bunked in two-person cells under a recently declared state of emergency triggered by overcrowding in the state prison system, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The state Department of Corrections says 1,200 unexpected inmates, most of them destined for maximum-security facilities, are arriving from financially strapped counties that can't accommodate them in their jails, according to a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The emergency declaration took effect April 1 but was never made public. In it, prisoners at the low- security facilities of Avenal State Prison, Chuckawalla...