Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ordinances approved by voters in Arcata and Eureka to prohibit military recruiters from contacting minors are unconstitutional attempts to regulate the federal government and limit its authority over the armed forces, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The measures, which won majorities of 73 percent in Arcata and 57 percent in Eureka in November 2008, were promoted as protections for local youths from heavy-handed and misleading recruiting pitches. Backers in the Humboldt County communities cited an international treaty, signed by the United States, that bars military recruitment of youngsters under 17. The ordinances prohibited contacting youths under...

UKIAH, Calif. (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Dan Hamburg was jailed after he attempted to deliver a letter about election irregularities to the Ohio secretary of state. Hamburg and his wife, Carrie, spent Wednesday night in a Columbus, Ohio, jail after they refused to leave a coffee shop in a building that houses the offices of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. The couple, who live near Ukiah, were released Thursday, said Hamburg, who served one term in Congress as a Democrat and later ran for governor of California as the Green Party candidate. The couple arrived in Columbus a week...