Free Republic

Prop. 76 is a modest attempt to keep the state from spending more money than it takes in Public-opinion polls suggest that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was swept into office in an unusual recall election, is facing declining popularity as he tries to fix the fiscal problems that propelled him into office. The polls, if accurate, suggest that union-backed ads targeting the governor are taking their toll. They also suggest a certain fickleness among the voting public. Enormous budget deficits and out-of-control spending cannot go on forever. Yet the same public that wanted a change in Sacramento also wants to...

SACRAMENTO -- As he tries to reorganize the state's troubled prison system, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ignoring the key part of a plan recommended in July by a special panel he appointed, administration officials, lawmakers, experts and advocates said Wednesday. The panel chaired by former Gov. George Deukmejian proposed eliminating the California Department of Corrections, California Youth Authority, and California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, merging them into a new Department of Correctional Services run by a 10-member commission appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. "This system is in chaos," Joseph Gunn, executive director of the Corrections...

Al-Qaida linchpin eludes his pursuers Rory McCarthy in Karachi Monday September 23, 2002 The Guardian When Pakistani police dragged the blindfolded al-Qaida suspect Ramzi Binalshibh out of a bullet-ridden apartment block in Karachi and past the waiting cameras the arrest was hailed as a crucial breakthrough in the fight against Osama bin Laden's network. But the Guardian has learned that the target of the raid, a much more senior al-Qaida figure who agents had been tracking for several days, slipped away from the drab concrete building hours before. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the Kuwaiti who heads Bin Laden's military command and...