Free Republic

A Watsonville couple was arrested for allegedly robbing women's purses at gun point with their three year old son in the car, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. Investigators said the couple, Diana Pacheco, 20 and Antonio Bravo, 20, robbed women at gunpoint in Live Oak and Capitola on Aug. 22nd.

Rights: A Ninth Circuit Court ruling that students can't wear American flag T-shirts because they may offend Mexican students celebrating Cinco de Mayo is a ridiculous yet dangerous assault on the First Amendment. On Sept. 17, more than four years after Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif., sent students home for wearing American flag t-shirts, an 11-judge Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that it was the right choice, "tailored to avert violence and focused on student safety." The decision upheld the court's three-judge ruling in February that justified the school's actions based on tensions between Mexican...

<p>Season's greetings, Santa Cruz style: Just a week after a drunken man cut down Christmas lights downtown, two women have swiped the nativity scene from in front of an elder-care home in Live Oak.</p> <p>The nativity scene was part of an elaborate display in front of Chanticleer Home. It was stolen at 1:24 a.m. Sunday, a time owner Silvio Tufo can state with confidence because it's on the video surveillance tape he turned over to sheriff's investigators.</p>

More people need to be willing to stand up for what is right, regardless of the personal feelings of others. Our goal should not be to offend people but their offense should not come before the safety and stability of the country. This is America and the rights of American’s should ALWAYS come first.

It’s funny how things can begin from a relatively minor event. In my world history classes, we’re discussing the beginnings of World War I. Invariably when discussing this topic, students marvel at how one assassination was the spark that threw Europe–and eventually the United States–into a bloody conflict. Arizona passed a law allowing their law enforcement officers to do what the federal government should have been doing for years. Chaos ensued. Days later, on Cinco de Mayo–a holiday that Mexicans don’t even really celebrate, according to one of my Mexican-American basketball players–two students were forced to leave school because they...

62-foot live oak reigns as state champ of species Mammoth in Brazoria is new title holder in Big Tree Registry04/21/2003 Associated Press HOUSTON – The Texas Forest Service on Monday will crown a new state champion live oak, replacing a tree that has held the title as largest of the species since 1966. The oak, located deep within the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge about 50 miles south of Houston in Brazoria County, is the most recent addition to the state's Big Tree Registry, which has kept a record of the largest of Texas' 250 tree species since the 1940s....