Free Republic

The Service Employees International Union's top California officer has taken a leave of absence, and her former boyfriend has been ordered to return tens of thousands of dollars he received from the state council and Los Angeles local that she heads. Annelle Grajeda is the third major SEIU leader to step aside following reports in The Times about the union's financial practices. The SEIU acknowledged Saturday that Grajeda was on leave as president of the L.A. local and the union's state council, and as an executive vice president of the national organization, because of allegations that she was improperly involved...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has now abandoned his goal of fixing the problem that led to his historic election in 2003. With the revised budget proposal he released Wednesday, the governor has effectively conceded that California's era of perpetual budget deficits will not end on his watch. --snip-- His trouble started early, when he proposed spending cuts that were politically unpalatable while failing to follow through on a fundamental, top-to-bottom rethinking of the way the state does business. When the economy briefly surged and brought in billions of dollars in unexpected tax revenue, Schwarzenegger lost his zeal for fiscal discipline and...

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California will not appeal a federal court's decision overturning a three-strikes sentence of 25 years to life imposed on a repeat shoplifter. Last week, ruling 2-1, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the 25-year term handed to a California man convicted of stealing a $199 VCR violated the Eighth Amendment constitutional ban on cruel-and-unusual punishment. The appellate court said the punishment did not fit the crime even though the U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld the same sentences for two California shoplifters. The appeals court said the life sentence triggered under...