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CLEVELAND, Texas -- The manhunt for an alleged gunman continues after being accused of shooting five of his neighbors to death, including an 8-year-old, inside a home in Texas Saturday. Francisco Oropeza, 38, has been on the run since being accused of retaliating after his neighbors asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday. Authorities said they have previously been to the suspect's home, according to Capers. "Deputies have come over and spoke with him about him shooting his gun in the yard," he said. Authorities describe Oropeza as a...

If you didn't know what a memory hole was, you are about to find out. You may have heard about five people being shot to death- executed, really- in Texas. It's all over the news. Here's what this looks like if you search for it Franciso Oropeza is suspected of killing 5 people in San Jacinto TX after one of the victims asked Oropeza to stop shooting so a baby could sleep. Countless democrats took to Twitter to hand wring, whine and lament about the evil of guns. Oropeza has been described as a "Mexican national", and I knew right...

Five people are dead after being shot in a Texas home by a suspect armed with an AR-15 style rifle in a horrific series of "execution style" shootings, police said. A manhunt is currently underway for the suspect, identified by police as 39-year-old Francisco Oropeza, according to ABC station KTRK in Houston. A judge has issued an arrest warrant for Oropeza and assigned a $5 million bond. Authorities believe Oropeza left by walking or on a bicycle and is currently within a two mile radius of the scene, KTRK reported. Police said the incident occurred at 11:31 p.m. local time...

(Newser) – In California, one literally does not need a pulse to win an election. State Sen. Jenny Oropeza zipped to victory last night, capturing 57.8% of the vote in her heavily Democratic district some two weeks after she died. Republican John Stammreich, who might have expected that being alive would boost his chances, managed to reel in only 36.3% of the vote, reports the Daily Breeze. A special election will be held to fill the seat.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, deceased candidate, Democrat Jenny Oropeza, defeated Republican John Stammreich in the race for State Senate in the 28th district. Oropeza, 53, died on Oct. 20. Because her death was within 10 days of the election, her name remained on the ballot. The governor now has two weeks to declare her seat empty, and schedule a special election within three to four months. This allows Democrats a chance to find a new candidate to run for Oropeza's seat. A week after her death, Democrats sent out mailers to residents, calling for voters to still...

Democrats urge reelection of dead Long Beach senator October 29, 2010 | 3:18 pm A week after the death of state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), Democrats have sent mailers to residents urging them to vote to reelect her. That would trigger a special election and give the party a chance to put up a new candidate. The mailers featuring Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Democratic Party general counsel Martha Escutia do not say explicitly that Oropeza has died or that a vote for her will allow another Democrat to be considered. "Senator Jenny Oropeza’s illness has been a...

The name of Sen. Jenny Oropeza, who died last night, will remain on the Nov. 2 ballot as a candidate for re-election to the 28th Senate District, election officials said this morning The 53-year-old Long Beach Democrat died 12 days before the election. Her name is already on the ballot -- some of which have already been cast by absentee voters -- and state law prevents calling a special election to fill a vacant office within 68 days of an election. Oropeza was expected to win re-election in the district, where Democrats have a 20-plus point registration advantage.... If Oropeza...

Democratic Sen. Jenny Oropeza has died following a prolonged illness. She was 53. Oropeza had been largely absent from the Senate since her office announced in May that she had been diagnosed with a blood clot in her abdomen. The Long Beach Democrat, first elected to the Senate in 2006, had battled liver cancer and a tumor during her time in the Assembly. Her own battle with cancer inspired her to become a champion of cancer prevention in the Legislature.

As state and national pressures build to reduce diesel pollution at sea ports, the Port of San Diego has started exploring ways to slash emissions from cruise liners and other ships that call on the city. No one tracks how much air pollution the Port of San Diego creates, but it's widely agreed that having massive diesel engines from cruise liners and other ships idling for hours at the pier isn't good for air quality. The effort centers on providing dockside power so vessels can plug in and turn off their diesel engines, a process called cold ironing. A growing...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California assemblywoman who suspects pollution contributed to the cancer she was diagnosed with last year announced plans Wednesday to seek an air cleanup bond that could cost the state between $2 billion and $5 billion dollars. The announcement by Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, followed a hearing in which lawmakers heard nearly three hours of testimony linking air pollution from California's ports, trucks and other shipping sources to deaths, childhood illnesses and even poor fetal development. The state Air Resources Board released a study earlier this month that found diesel emissions from the Los Angeles...

SACRAMENTO – Even as prices at the pump soar beyond $2 a gallon, a South Bay lawmaker has proposed to hike the gas tax by a nickel. "It's not going to win me any popularity points from Southern California drivers," conceded Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Carson. However, the state's transportation system that drives the economy desperately needs an immediate cash infusion to unclog freeways and patch roads, she argued. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has proposed diverting more than $1 billion in highway funding to balance a debt-riddled budget, rejected a gas tax hike. "The governor has made it abundantly clear that...

Amidst Price Spike, Southland Lawmaker Proposes 5-Cent Gas Tax Hike State's Transportation Infrastructure Facing Collapse, Oropeza Says LOS ANGELES -- A Southland lawmaker Wednesday unveiled a bill to raise the gas tax by 5 cents per gallon, saying California's transportation infrastructure is facing collapse. Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Carson, chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said a gas-tax increase would help narrow a critical shortfall in transportation funding. "Our highways are too congested, our roads are too bumpy and our governor's plans to divert billions in what voters said should be dedicated funding for state transportation projects are too short-sighted," Oropeza...

If anyone should learn from the recall election, it is voters. Just about the time we think state legislators have found a constructive lesson in California's recall election, they prove us wrong again. Take, for example, a recent display of petty tyranny. Petty tyrants, according to Carlos Castaneda, come in three subcategories: pinches tiranos, pinches tiranitos, and pinches tiranitos chiquititos (the teeny weeny kind). We'll leave it to you to judge the category befitting behavior in last week's special session. Members of both political parties qualify, as columnist Jill Stewart makes clear (on the Comment page). The Republicans started it...

<p>In a little-noticed provision of his initial budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking the Legislature to deny welfare recipients a cost-of-living increase that would have been triggered by his rolling back of the state car tax.</p> <p>The proposal came to light Wednesday as lawmakers started asking questions about the budget package Schwarzenegger unveiled the day before and held a strained first meeting with the governor's finance director.</p>

<p>Assembly Democrats on Monday began laying the groundwork to attempt to force a reluctant Gov. Gray Davis to raise vehicle license fees.</p> <p>In two votes that divided along party lines, the Democratic-controlled Assembly Budget Committee tied $8.6 billion in spending cuts sought by Davis to a plan he opposes that would add $4 billion to local government coffers by raising the fees car owners pay.</p>