Free Republic

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A judge's bid to be reinstated after he was convicted of groping five women while drunk at a conference on domestic and sexual violence is sparking outrage among his victims. Joan Sergio, one of the women groped by District Court Judge Franklin Jones, said reinstating him would send a message to victims that the state doesn't take sexual assault seriously and would imply alcohol abuse can excuse a crime. "If he's reinstated, it's a crime in and of itself," Sergio said in a telephone interview Friday. "People are going to look at it and think the...

California students certainly won't find it in their civics textbooks. Nor will the subject surface in most conversations about the way legislation is enacted. That's because political insiders in Sacramento would just as soon keep quiet about the disturbingly common practice of gutting and amending a bill in order to slip it through at the very end of a legislative session. It works like this: A lawmaker or a special-interest group wants to pass a controversial measure but the deadline has passed for the introduction of new bills. So, supporters grab a dead or dormant proposal, strip the original language,...