Free Republic

The Mike Ramos Brigade, the group that organized Saturday’s protest, asks people to still show up for Mike Ramos and George Floyd. This after the Austin Justice Coalition cancels today’s rally and march. STORY: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/loc... KVUE is Austin's ABC affiliate station and has been delivering local news for Central Texans since 1971. Today it is owned by TEGNA, Inc., which reaches approximately one-third of all television households in America. http://www.kvue.com

California Gov. Jerry Brown's Christmas granted 143 pardons and 131 commutations for Christmas, including a handful of refugees and immigrants that he hopes to spare from deportation by scrubbing their criminal histories. Brown also responded to the clemency request of Kevin Cooper -- a death-row inmate convicted of killing four members of a Chino Hills, Calif., family at their home with a hatchet, knife and ice pick in 1983 after escaping from a nearby prison -- by ordering new DNA tests on four pieces of evidence including the hatchet handle and sheath. Brown stressed in the order that he takes...

For first lady Michelle Obama, a joyous Christmas Eve tradition briefly ran up against the harsh realities of a world where all is not calm and bright. -snip- Obama hit the links at the Kaneohe Klipper golf course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. It's the third golf outing since he arrived on Friday. The president's golfing partners included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb and Mike Ramos, aide Marvin Nicholson; former aide Reggie Love; White House Chef Sam Kass; and Chicago friend Eric Whitaker.

President Barack Obama celebrated his 52nd birthday on Sunday surrounded by friends at his Camp David retreat. Obama kicked off his weekend on Saturday with a round of golf at Joint Base Andrews with friends from his childhood home of Hawaii, Chicago, where he lived before becoming president, as well as aides past and present. It is reported that the winners of the game got to join Obama in the presidential helicopter while the losers had to take a long car ride to the retreat, in the Catoctin Mountains, Maryland.

On paper, Gary Nalbandian would appear to be an influential figure in Southern California law enforcement. He has served as director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homeland Security Support Unit, the Riverside County Sheriff's Executive Council and the Bureau of Justice for the San Bernardino County district attorney's office. But Nalbandian is not a professional cop. The only paid law enforcement position he has held is as a volunteer reserve deputy with the Los Angeles County sheriff — salary, $1 a year. His real job is running a tire store in Glendora. He is, however, a major political fundraiser...