Free Republic

The Athletics, as part of their efforts to relocate to Las Vegas in time for the 2028 season, will play their home games for the 2025-27 seasons at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California, the team announced on Thursday. The deal includes an option for a fourth season. The A's lease with the City of Oakland is set to expire at the end of this season, yet the A's rejected a five-year extension on the lease of Oakland Coliseum. That, plus an apparent desire to retain as much of their local broadcasting revenue as possible (a factor that my have...

The state of California sued several of the world's biggest oil companies on Friday, claiming their actions have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage and that they deceived the public by downplaying the risks posed by fossil fuels..."These folks had this information and lied to us...," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "It's shameful. It sickens you to your core."

California regulators voted Wednesday to ban gas furnaces and water heaters in one of the state’s most populated regions, a move that will likely require locals to undergo costly home renovations.

San Francisco's reparations committee will propose paying $5million to each longtime black resident of the city in a reparations plan this spring. To qualify, people need to have identified as black on public records for at least 10 years and be at least 18 years old. They also must qualify for two of a number of requirements, including having been born in the city or migrated to it between 1940 and 1996 and then lived there for 13 years. It is unclear exactly how many people would qualify should the proposal pass, but if just 10,000 people qualified it would...

Crime-ridden San Francisco has introduced new sanitized language for criminals, getting rid of words such as “offender” and “addict” while changing “convicted felon” to “justice-involved person.” The Board of Supervisors adopted the changes last month even as the city reels from one of the highest crime rates in the country and staggering inequality exemplified by pervasive homelessness alongside Silicon Valley wealth. The local officials say the new language will help change people’s views about those who commit crimes.

There's no room for Columbus Day in Columbus, Ohio. Or for George Washington in George Washington High School. There’s plans in the works to cover a mural of George Washington from the halls of George Washington High School in San Francisco due to complaints that it’s offensive and demeaning to Native Americans and African Americans. The San Francisco school board is expected to decide next week whether to cover the image or paint over it, but there’s no plans among top officials to leave the imagery in the open for students to view, according to several Bay Area news reports.

After 25 years in Washington, nearly half of it as the highest-ranking woman in American politics, Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi has learned the art of when to attack and when to pull back. The Democratic House minority leader, in an interview in her hometown last week, was asked about former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's recent comment that President Obama has "lost his mojo" on the campaign trail and shows "no life, no personality and no real enthusiasm." Her answer was typically diplomatic. "I don't agree," she said. "I love Willie, but maybe he hasn't been to any of the public...

BERKELEY. Calif. -- A party to protest budget cuts turned violent early Friday with protesters damaging UC Berkeley's Durant Hall and then spilling over into the city streets, igniting trash cans and Dumpsters, smashing windows and clashing with police. Authorities said several people had been arrested and the damage from the melee was evident throughout the campus and adjoining streets. There were no indications of what would come early in the evening when a dance party to protest the cuts got underway on Upper Sproul Plaza. Authorities said sometime around 11:15 p.m. a group of protester began occupation of Durant...

On Saturday, January 10, 2009, a large rally and march took place in San Francisco to protest Israel's invasion of Gaza. The event was one of a series of similar events held in various cities around the country on the same day, and was organized by ANSWER along with several other far-left, Arab and Muslim groups. The photos in this report represent what I personally saw that day in San Francisco. Because there were thousands of people in attendance, with innumerable signs, vignettes and scenes playing out every minute in many different locations, I can vouch only for what I...

SAN FRANCISCO - Their hair, once a symbol of youthful rebellion, is mostly gray. Bodies that writhed with wild abandon when a guru invited them to "Turn on ... tune in ... drop out" now sport stiff knees and age spots. "How many of you are on acid right now?" rock critic Joel Selvin asked an audience of former hippies who turned out this past week to mark the 40th anniversary of the Human Be-in, the counterculture event that unofficially launched the Summer of Love. "How many of you are on antacid right now?" In many ways, the '60s as...

Inmates at San Francisco County Jail attacked on Friday a store clerk who is being held for allegedly shooting a suspected shoplifter, in the latest fallout from an incident that has heightened tensions in San Francisco's Bayview community. Haggag Mohsin, 21, was attacked after pleading not guilty to two counts of assault with a firearm and one count of firing into an occupied vehicle. He was ordered held on $250,000 bail. When he was returned to a holding cell at the Hall of Justice, inmates attacked him and broke his nose, authorities said. He was treated by jail medical staff...

from "Hannity & Colmes," ... SEAN HANNITY...from San Francisco tonight, the board of supervisors here overwhelmingly voted to reject a plan last year that would bring the historic World War II Iowa battleship right here to San Francisco harbor, as a museum and tourist center. We're now joined by one of the supervisors that voted against that plan, Gerardo Sandoval is with us. You don't want a symbol of war in the harbor. Is what you said to me. GERARDO SANDOVAL: That's right... it's a warship and it's got guns on it. It fires things. You know, you can't deny...

They say all politics is local -- but when it comes to the politics of parking in San Francisco, you can find yourself careening toward an international incident. Just ask the U.S. State Department. It all started three years ago, when Russian diplomats, citing security concerns in the post-Sept. 11 world, insisted they needed at least another five restricted spaces -- on top of the four they already had -- outside their red brick consulate at Green and Baker streets in the parking-challenged Cow Hollow neighborhood. As the consulate saw it, it was a modest request -- given its 55...