Free Republic

California Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday that the state plans to launch its "own damn satellite" into orbit to battle climate change. The man the late Chicago columnist Mike Royko famously dubbed "Gov. Moonbeam" made the announcement at the conclusion of a two-day climate summit he organized in San Francisco. [Snip] Before Brown's announcement, two prominent Democrats and a Republican mayor criticized Trump for his decision to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate accord. "While Donald Trump may have pulled out of the climate agreement, the American people have not," former Secretary of State John Kerry said...

A federal judge upheld most of California’s new sanctuary laws Thursday, but did rule the state went too far when it ordered businesses not to grant access to the Border Patrol or deportation officers. Judge John A. Mendez, a Bush appointee to the court, said the state does not have to turn over illegal immigrants and can refuse to cooperate with federal agents, as long as it still allows local police to share information. And he ruled that California has the right to perform inspections on any facility that holds illegal immigrants in the state.

President Trump warned California Gov. Jerry Brown that he’ll cut off federal funding for the deployment of California’s National Guard if the governor insists that the troops “do nothing” instead of enforcing immigration laws. “Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy ‘up to 400 National Guard Troops’ to do nothing,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Brown’s charade. We need border security and action, not words!” Mr. Brown mobilized 400 National Guard members Wednesday to fight gangs and smugglers as part of the president’s efforts...

California Gov. Jerry Brown's visit to the nation's capital resulted in a war of words with Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins. Jenkins confronted the Democratic governor at his National Press Club event for his state's sanctuary city policies. The reporter had evidence to suggest the sanctuary status has endangered communities. Do critics have a point by suggesting sanctuary city laws "favor the rights of criminal illegal aliens over the rights and the safety of those communities," Jenkins asked . In Brown's defensive answer, he seemed to suggest that Fox News were the first ones to make such a claim....

Hector Barajas was convicted of shooting at a vehicle in 2002, was deported back to Mexico, quickly snuck back into the U.S. was caught and deported again. He then started a support group for fellow veterans deported to Mexico, worked to get them health care — and, last year, earned a pardon from California Gov. Jerry Brown for his crime. On Friday he’ll cross the border once again, arriving in San Diego, where he’ll be sworn in as a U.S. citizen. To his backers, it’s a long-overdue recognition for a man who devoted years of his life to his adopted...

The Newport Beach city council voted unanimously earlier this week to challenge California's sanctuary law, joining a dozen other cities that are not interested in complying with the sanctuary policies. It's the third city in the past two days to take such action, joining about a dozen others in recent weeks.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner on Friday said California must consider early parole for thousands of sex offenders, the Associated Press reported. About the Lawsuit Janice Bellucci, a Sacramento attorney and president of Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, was the one who filed the lawsuit on behalf of sex offenders. According to Bellucci, the rules the CDCR were putting in place directly conflicted "with the ballot measure's language and voter's intent in approving Proposition 57." From the Associated Press: Bellucci argued the measure requires earlier parole consideration for any sex crime not on the state's narrow...

There are few things quite as expensive as “free health care.” And the nation’s most populous state may be about to find out the hard way. On June 1, the California Senate voted 23-14 in favor of a bill, the Healthy California Act (SB 562), to authorize the state to act as a “single payer” in place of insurance carriers in negotiating prices with doctors, hospitals and other providers. The measure covers all residents regardless of financial ability or immigration status. Annual costs may reach $400 billion – and that’s just for starters. As existing Medicare and Medicare funds will...

One Democratic governor is citing adherence to Christian values as a reason to oppose the United States building a wall on its southern border. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D.) explained Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" his opposition to President Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, telling host Chuck Todd that the project is not consistent with Christian values. [Snip] Todd asked if Brown would take every opportunity to stop construction of the wall. Brown responded that he and his state will oppose Trump's border wall in a "strategic" way, not wasting time on frivolous lawsuits. ... "No, we're...

Caught between conflicting moral arguments, Gov. Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminary student, on Monday signed a measure allowing physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who want to hasten their deaths. Approving the bill, whose opponents included the Catholic Church, appeared to be a gut-wrenching decision for the 77-year-old governor, who as a young man studied to enter the priesthood. “In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death,” Brown added. “I do not know what I would do if I were dying in...

Angry at the failure of his tax and jobs plan to gain enough support in the state legislature, California’s Governor Jerry Brown (D) tore into Republicans for what he termed their “unconstitutional delegation of power.” Brown said that several Republican state senators told him they would like to vote for his package, but wouldn’t for fear of voter disapproval. “Since when do voters have the right to intimidate legislators on how to vote?” Brown asked. “The State Constitution clearly grants the decision on tax bills to members of the legislature. Republicans shouldn’t be using such a lame excuse and voters...

On July 12 California Governor Jerry Brown signed the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act (SB 48): a law which forces California schools to use textbooks and curriculum that acquaint public school students of all ages with the “historical contributions” of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) persons. Ironically, the act is called “FAIR,” although there’s a stipulation in the law that parents can’t exempt their children from LGBT lessons in the classroom when the historical contributions of “men-who-want-to-be-women” is addressed. Hmmm, doesn’t seem very fair to me.

Time to leave California? Governor Moonbeam may be the best salesman Texas has. While there’s a state delegation in Texas (including former SFO mayor Gavin Newsom) trying to figure out why Texas is pulling business out of California (cue Ross Perot’s giant sucking sound) our governor turns up the volume. Flashback: While not the main theme at the moment (hostile state over-regulation of business is) the election reminder of “It’s the electricity, stupid” may someday be a yellow sticky note on some campaign consultant’s computer monitor.WUWT reader DD More says: April 12, 2011 at 6:39 am Heard on the radio...

Oh this is delicious sweet irony…they adopted a plan but didn’t bother to make a complete environmental review like any other project in the state is required to do. That’s what they get for ramrodding the thing. From the:Calif. cap-trade plan dealt blow by S.F. judgeWyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento BureauFriday, February 4, 2011(02-04) 04:00 PST Sacramento - –The California Air Resources Board violated state environmental law in 2008 when it adopted a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and again last year when it passed cap-and-trade regulations, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled in a tentative decision. If...

In 1976, a Chicago newspaper columnist wrote that Jerry Brown would get "the moonbeam vote."The writer was Mike Royko, who then started referring to the then-38-year-old Brown as "Gov. Moonbeam." Royko was suggesting that Brown was attracting California's New Age crowd. Brown was a strong supporter of space exploration and many of the earliest statewide green initiatives. Yet he also gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative, refusing many perks that came with the governorship.Royko eventually retracted his statement, and in 1991 in the Chicago Tribune, he called the moniker "null, void and deceased."

The investigation into a California university foundation that hired Sarah Palin to give a speech this summer is politically motivated, critics say. California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office announced Tuesday it will investigate California State University Stanislaus and its foundation for its handling of a contract related to a $500-per-plate speech Palin will give there in June. [...] Bill Whalen, a research fellow who specializes in state and national politics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, a public policy research center, questioned why Brown is devoting his time to the investigation when it's not clear exactly how the documents were acquired....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-California will no longer be home to a "liberal, activist" attorney general if voters choose state Sen. Tom Harman as the state's next chief legal officer, the Republican told Legal Newsline. Harman is the only Republican vying to replace Attorney General Jerry Brown, the state's high-profile politician, in 2010. A crowded field of Democrats is in the running, but Harman said they are largely in the mold of Brown, who is widely expected to run for governor rather than seek reelection as attorney general.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who sued San Bernardino County for failing to factor greenhouse gas emissions in its general plan, is turning his attention to Contra Costa County and its two refinery- expansion proposals. Brown has submitted critical comments to Richmond planners as part of the city's environmental analysis of a Chevron project and appealed the county Planning Commission's approval of a ConocoPhillips Rodeo refinery upgrade on the grounds that it has failed to mitigate the impacts on global warming. The attorney general personally called all five members of the Board of Supervisors, who will vote on the appeal,...