Free Republic

Russia may launch an attack on Ukraine on Saturday, February 19, 2022. The attack would likely begin with an air and missile campaign targeting much of Ukraine to decapitate the government and degrade the Ukrainian military as well as the ability of Ukrainian citizens to prepare to resist a subsequent Russian invasion. US and allied governments have been warning of such an attack for some days, pointing to the size of the Russian forces concentrated on Ukraine’s borders.[1] Western officials have additionally said that Russian troops have moved to jumping-off positions for an invasion over the past 24 hours. The...

California’s dream is shrinking inexorably, and only radical steps can prevent the condition from becoming permanent. Compared with previous economic expansions, fewer state residents and communities are benefiting from this recovery, which has largely been restricted to the small coastal zone surrounding the Bay Area, as well as certain parts of western Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. As the economy has strengthened, what is called a “boom” in the mainstream media is really a story of one region. Some 300,000 jobs have been created as the recovery has strengthened over the past 15 months,but three-quarters of them have...

SACRAMENTO - More than half of Republican state lawmakers from the Inland area skipped Mexican President Vicente Fox's speech to the Legislature on Thursday to protest what they said are his government's unacceptable policies on illegal immigration. In a late-afternoon address to a joint session of the Legislature, the outgoing Mexican leader praised the economic ties between Mexico and the United States and stressed the need for continued investment in the Mexican economy. Most Republican lawmakers listened to Fox's remarks in person. Some refused to stand when Fox entered or to applaud. Most of the empty seats on the Republican...

Drought threatens food supply in western China Mon May 15, 2:27 PM ET Large swathes of north and west China face food shortages because of a prolonged drought that has dried up reservoirs and wells, and destroyed more 60 percent of the winter wheat crop in the worst-hit areas, the Food and Agriculture Organization said. "Five million hectares of winter crops are estimated to have been lost or damaged as a result of inadequate rainfall and higher temperatures," the UN-agency said, adding that the area planted with spring crops had also been substantially reduced. Out of 940,000 hectares of planned...

14-year-old Inland middle school student who killed himself after telling his mother he might be jailed for joining a student walkout is being held up as a symbol by some who support immigrant rights. "He was just fighting for his rights," Louise Corales said of her son, Anthony Soltero, after a standing-room-only Palm Sunday Mass for the teen at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ontario. "He would be proud that we are here now to honor him because he is a hero." Then she leaned weeping into the arms of her husband, Victor Corales, as Anthony's father, Jaime Soltero,...

SACRAMENTO - A microcosm for what went wrong for Gov. Schwarzenegger in this month's special election can be found in part of East Highlands. The San Bernardino County area supported the recall of former Gov. Gray Davis. More than half of its registered voters are Republicans, like Schwarzenegger. Yet 53 percent of voters there opposed the centerpiece of Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" agenda: Prop. 76. They also opposed another Schwarzenegger-backed measure, Prop. 77, the redistricting initiative. Across the region, places where voters backed the 2003 recall and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger swung against the governor Nov. 8 and opposed...

The Inland area, a bastion of Republican votes that overwhelmingly supported Gov. Schwarzenegger in the recall election, didn't come through at the ballot box this week, party officials said Thursday. Voter turnout in Riverside and San Bernardino counties was among the lowest in the state. It fell several points below the statewide average, as well as turnout in Democratic coastal strongholds. The results have local Republicans worried about 2006, when Schwarzenegger and seven other GOP candidates will need solid Inland victories if they hope to win statewide. "I realize that we were not going to offset everything on the coast...

PERRIS - Gov. Schwarzenegger hopes to increase the state education budget by 6 percent to $61.5 billion, the largest amount given to schools at any time in history, his staff said Wednesday during a visit to the Inland area. But some local educators say it won't be enough -- even if the Republican governor's budget is passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature. Schwarzenegger's representative, Scott Himelstein, met with an invited group of educators, school administrators and community leaders at Val Verde Union School District office in Perris to discuss the education budget. Himelstein will become deputy secretary of education and chief...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A new U.S. Census report on California's fastest-growing cities and towns draws a portrait of a vast inland migration as residents relentlessly search for a cheaper place to call home.</p> <p>Whether to suburban Sacramento's Lincoln in the north or the Inland Empire's Beaumont and Murrieta in the south, thousands, statistics show, have taken eastbound highways to the hills and valleys of Central California.</p>