Free Republic

A college professor suspected in a series of arson fires in remote forested areas of Northern California near the massive Dixie Fire has been charged in connection with one of the blazes in Lassen County and was ordered held Tuesday in the Sacramento County Main Jail. Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, is believed to have worked at a number of colleges in California, including Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, where a Dr. Gary Maynard is listed as a lecturer in criminal justice studies specializing in criminal justice, cults and deviant behavior. ...Maynard was arrested Saturday following an investigation that...

A former college professor has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison over a string of arson fires in Northern California in 2021 as fire crews were battling the second-largest fire in the state’s history. Gary Stephen Maynard, 49, of San Jose, pleaded guilty in February to three arson counts in connection to fires in the Shasta National Forest and near the Dixie Fire in the Lassen National Forest. The Dixie Fire burned over 1,500 square miles after igniting on July 13 and destroyed over 1,000 homes. Maynard was accused of setting fires behind firefighters battling the...

Hundreds of students marched against hate on Tuesday on the campus of Sonoma State University [Rohnert Park, California], where two nooses were discovered. One was found in a classroom last week, another was found in a swimming pool area earlier this month. The day of action march comes at an especially sensitive time as the nation is still reeling from recent mass shootings motivated by racism and hatred. The march of nearly 100 students and staff also comes during final exams week and during graduation. Jason Hill, a student, said the discovery of the nooses was disturbing and did not...

A Sonoma State University student has filed a religious accommodation request after she said she was ordered to remove her cross necklace because it might offend other students. “It’s amazing in this day of diversity and tolerance on university campuses that a university official would engage in this type of obvious religious discrimination,” said Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser. The Liberty Institute is representing Audrey Jarvis, 19, a liberal arts major at the northern California university. On June 27, Jarvis was working for the university’s Associated Students Productions at a student orientation fair for incoming freshmen. During the event, her...

Federal and county investigators searched offices and storage facilities at Sonoma State University this week, looking for evidence related to 20 grants awarded to a now-defunct campus department, school officials said. The department - the California Institute for Human Service, which trained Head Start teachers, among other activities - was shut down in 2007 under suspicion that its administrators mishandled more than $2 million in state and federal grant money. On Thursday, the FBI, the Sonoma County district attorney, and inspectors from the federal Health and Human Services Department searched the university's administrative and financial offices, as well as a...

A union representing professors, librarians and coaches at Sonoma State and 22 other California State University campuses has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike, which could occur over several weeks beginning in April.Because of the size of the CSU system, Travis said, "if we strike, it will be the largest strike in the history of higher education in this country."New CSU tenure-track faculty start at about $50,000 a year, the average salary for tenure-track is $71,000, and the average for faculty with 20 years of experience is $86,000.Instructors, who teach 60 percent of CSU classes, earn an average of $58,000...