Free Republic

“I just heard about it two minutes ago…I really don’t know what the details are,” said Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo in response to a question about DeSantis' move to send state and national guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. “My initial reaction is that he’s so desperate to get national attention," she said. "The men and women didn’t sign up to be used as political stunts, and that’s what this is.” The Florida State Guard was re-established by the legislature in 2022. A staff analysis of last year’s expansion bill states it can only operate, "with the...

Corrections officials said Friday that they have reached agreement with a private prison company to transfer another 3,600 inmates to an out-of-state facility. The contract with Correctional Corp. of America will bring the total number of prisoners sent out of state to the nearly 8,000 allowed under a state law approved this year to ease prison crowding. Correctional Corp. of America will add space for the 3,060 inmates at its new La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona under the contract with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The new contract will cost California taxpayers $48 million this fiscal...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Friday that his administration would forcibly shift thousands of inmates to out-of-state prisons because only a few hundred had volunteered to leave. The governor's decision escalates the pressure to overhaul a corrections system that officials say will be out of space by summer. A federal judge has given the state until June to relieve the crowding or face a possible cap on admissions. "The safety of our correctional officers is threatened, we have the highest recidivism rate in the country because there is no room for rehabilitation, and we face the possibility of court-ordered...

California's prison secretary on Friday said the state will force the transfer up to 5,000 inmates to other states, an indication that an order signed last fall by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has fallen short of expectations. The involuntary transfers will start in 60 to 90 days. Corrections Secretary James Tilton said the action is needed to relieve overcrowding that threatens the safety of guards and inmates in the nation's largest state prison system. "We are severely overcrowded, and the need for more space is absolutely critical," Tilton said in a statement. "These transfers allow us to improve the safety of...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of a plan costing at least $3.6 billion to alleviate overcrowding in California prisons, is proposing to free up space by contracting with other states to house 5,000 incarcerated illegal immigrants. A detailed outline of the governor's prison agenda, released Friday, also says the corrections department needs to add more than 51,000 beds -- the equivalent of at least 10 large prisons -- during the next 15 years and offers new insights into the stresses put on a 33-prison system that is operating at nearly 200 percent capacity. One new proposal is a...

Hollywood celebrities and prominent corporate executives have poured thousands of dollars into the campaign of former Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) to knock off Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas). Screenwriter and producer Norman Lear, director Rob Reiner, actress and singer Barbara Streisand and musician Don Henley have written checks to Lampson, according to politicalmoneyline.com, a website that tracks campaign contributions. Reiner and Streisand kicked in $1,000, and Lear and Henley sent Lampson $4,200. While Democrats have courted Hollywood stars in recent years, the moguls’ money has usually flowed to presidential candidates, the national party or the congressional fundraising committees. As a rule,...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger raised between $2 million and $3 million for his expected special election campaign during a three-state swing last weekend, his chief fundraising consultant said Thursday. The governor said he intends to continue his aggressive fundraising schedule in hopes of pressuring Democrats to negotiate over the various measures he wants to place before voters in November. "Just remember, math says we need around $50 million altogether to fight the hundreds of millions of dollars the special interests and the unions are spending against our initiatives and against our reforms," Schwarzenegger told reporters during a media...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has embarked on a multistate fundraising swing to raise some of the estimated $50 million his advisers say he'll need to wage an all-but-certain special election campaign. Schwarzenegger arrives in Tampa on Friday before schmoozing with Gov. Jeb Bush and deep-pocket donors Saturday at a lunch in Miami. He then heads to Illinois and Texas, where he ends with a cocktail and dinner party Monday night in Dallas. The trip comes at a critical time in California and for the Republican governor. Democrats and the state's powerful labor unions are attacking his...

Big Brother Bloomberg is watching. Smokers who've been buying cigarettes from Internet sites to beat the city's $1.50-a-pack tax are in for a shock: tax collectors know who you are and are now sending out thousands of bills going back more than two years, The Post has learned. Andrew Hoffer, a utility worker who lives in Queens, told The Post he was flabbergasted to get a threatening letter from the Finance Department demanding $1,005 for the taxes due on purchases he made back to July 2002. "I had a feeling of violation," said Hoffer, 37. "Internet purchases are traditionally...

<p>Washington -- As California embarks upon the most politically tumultuous week in memory, the state's most popular politician is cloistered a thousand miles away taking in a seminar on U.S. security policy.</p> <p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who first eyed the governorship more than a decade ago, has remained remarkably detached from the raw electoral maneuverings in her home state, even as a growing number of elected officials call on her to place her name on the recall ballot.</p>

Kirk, Cornyn run on out-of-state cash Cornyn criticizes Kirk's sources but also gets money from outside Texas 10/23/2002 By WAYNE SLATER and PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN - While Republican Senate candidate John Cornyn has chided Democratic challenger Ron Kirk for seeking contributions far from Texas, he's been fairly bullish himself about mining for money outside the Lone Star State. Campaign reports indicate that Mr. Kirk has raised more money from outside Texas, but both candidates have attracted big names and big bucks from the glass canyons of New York to the bright lights of Hollywood....

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is warning his South Dakota constituents about "out-of-state special interests" criticizing his voting record in Congress, but records show a majority of his campaign money came from out-of-state donors. Missing from that March 20 warning, which came in the form of a letter to South Dakotans, was the fact that campaign finance records show more than 85 percent of the money in Daschle's reelection war chest comes from contributors outside the state. Daschle sent the letter to defend himself against the "partisan obstructionist" label he says is being applied to him by his political opponents,...