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California, which is in a state of perpetually self-inflicted drought, restricts all sorts of practical water solutions based they would hurt some living creature somewhere. (People, especially farmers, don’t count.) And along the way the state decided to demolish a dam to help some salmon. The destruction was celebrated by environmentalists and rubber-stamped by the media. Native American tribes, environmentalists and state officials have been big advocates for this dam removal. Governor Gavin Newsom announced “California’s Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future” in hopes of restoring salmon populations in the state. The governor lists his six priorities: removing barriers...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — An enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was cut up and hauled away from Richmond's Monument Avenue three weeks ago, but plaintiffs who failed to block the removal want Virginia's Supreme Court to reconsider its decision allowing it.... ... lawyer Patrick McSweeney says his clients "don't think the state owns and controls the monument." The state wants to keep the monument and land while disavowing promises made to obtain them....

Imagine purchasing a home and living in it and paying taxes on that home and property for decades. Then being told part of that property you paid taxes on is in violation and must be being taken away without compensation. Not only that, you’re responsible for footing the cost of removing the stuff you have on that land, like your fence or shed. Oh, and it has to be done in a few months time.

  URGENT!!!! BEWARE…….this man, with a heavy arabic accent, was stopped by employees of a local Kosher Store for taking pictures of the building.  If you see any suspicious activity, report it IMMEDIATELY.  He made a call, and within seconds, a Prius cab #114, pictured below from Independent Cab Co. Pulled up, he jumped in, and they sped off.  LAPD has been notified. LAPD has been notified.

In Washington State, a homeowner is asking why the City of Renton is not willing to pay for extensive damages done to her home by a City SWAT team, on a search for her son who was not there. From kirotv.com: For more than four hours, SWAT team members fired grenades through walls and windows and blasted in the doors with explosives. De La Torre came home from work while police were still there. “(An officer) just kinda shook his head and said, ‘I am so sorry, ma’am. It’s your house and it’s…ruined; we destroyed it,’” she said. “Police...

Original Title:Florida Man Who Tricked Girlfriend Into Taking Abortion Pill Sentenced to Nearly 14 years in Prison A twisted Florida man was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison for tricking his ex-girlfriend into taking an abortion pill last year and killing their 6-week old fetus. John Andrew Welden, 29, apologized Monday for his actions as a federal judge in Tampa handed down the 13 year, 8 month sentence. But his victim, former girlfriend Remee Jo Lee, demanded the judge show the calculating fiend “the same amount of mercy that he showed me during my pregnancy,” the Tampa Tribune reported....

For instance, on taking the stairs.

Conservative members of the Supreme Court seemed outraged Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions in a four-year battle with an Idaho couple who want to build a house on land the EPA says contains sensitive wetlands.

LET US HELP YOU PACK! A rally call to patriots by Joyce Shaffer

They are often hailed as an essential component of modern life. But smartphones are taking over some people's lives, according to a study that has identified repetitive and obsessive use of the devices. Scientists have uncovered what they call 'checking habits', when users frequently look at the menu screen, news, email, contacts, and social applications on the device. A typical checking lasts less than 30 seconds and involves opening the screen lock and accessing a single application. The researchers, from Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, were surprised to find users engaging in checking behaviours throughout the waking hours.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that it is "not for me or our government to determine" whether Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should leave office amid massive protests against his rule. Gibbs said the United States is "not picking between those on the street and those in the government." Yet Gibbs also said the U.S. was seeking an "orderly transition" in Egypt. Asked what he meant with those words, the press secretary said the United States wanted to see "a process of negotiations with a broad cross-section of the Egyptian people.

Did you see the Washington Post this morning? That was the one sentence e-mail I received yesterday from my DHS contact who alerted me to the DHS/TSA memorandum about the domestic intelligence agency’s creating and maintaining a list of individuals who were determined to be “interfering” with the enhanced airport TSA screening procedures through their objections or “opting out” of such procedures. In my November 23rd report titled DHS making a list, checking it twice, I wrote that the DHS, through the arm of the TSA, under the direction of Napolitano and with the full consent of Obama, was collecting...

Eliot Spitzer returned to attacking the Tea Party and their allies on Thursday's Parker-Spitzer, lamenting that people "kind of from the fringe" like Christine O'Donnell "seem to be taking over the Republican Party." Guest Bernard-Henri Levy also joined in the Tea Party bashing, labeling the movement "really crazy" and insulted Sarah Palin as being less "American" than President Obama.The new CNN program led the 8 pm Eastern hour with a replay of correspondent Jim Acosta's interview of Delaware Republican Senate candidate O'Donnell, which first aired earlier in the day.

It suddenly all makes sense why the White House thinks it can decide what they’re doing is legal or illegal –they must be taking advice from a former president who would know.

Illinois politics seems to be everywhere this year -- and now it may be headed to the Supreme Court in the form of a lawsuit brought against the state. The case, which has ties to impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, could have an important impact on the definition of a "taking" under the Fifth Amendment -- as well as implications for the state's power of taxation. In Empress Casino v. Giannoulias, the question involves the passage of a state law that took money from four riverboat casinos and gave it to five horse-racing tracks to use as purse money, among...

WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders suffered an embarrassing defeat Wednesday as the House failed to pass a public lands bill. The 1,248-page bill, which included provisions ranging from new Pacific Northwest scenic trails to Everglades National Park additions, secured a solid House majority. The 282-144 vote, though, fell just short of the two-thirds margin needed under the special rules in play. "They were trying to be too cute by half," said bill opponent Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare. "This was a completely ridiculous process." The House vote does not permanently kill the public lands bill. Before it returns, though, the House leaders...

Something like the purges of the Kulaks during the Russian Bolshevik Revolution is about to happen to many of California's Central Valley farmers. Only in a Capitalist society like ours the government just adjudicates the de facto taking of your property only without additionally hanging you like Lenin did the Kulaks. But why are California's coastal cities not joining with agricultural water districts to appeal the court order which has blocked 85% of water deliveries through the California Aqueduct to both farmers and Southern California? Don't they both have something to lose? For those who haven't been following what is...

As expected, the Fresno Unified School District board room was jammed last Thursday as the State Water Resources Control Board conducted a workshop/hearing on proposed septic and well system regulations. The room holds 149 people and the crowd was so big, folks were sitting in the aisles and standing against the wall. Speaker after speaker -- including three Madera County officials -- criticized either the proposals or the process. The crowd was at times hostile to the Water Board representatives, who did a good job of keeping their cool. At other times, speakers elicited roars of laughter or shouts of...

It's believed that he earned upwards of £24,000 through his scam.Abdul Musa, a garage owner from Blackburn, Lancashire, today begins a 16 month stretch in jail after police discovered he was getting paid to take the blame for other people’s speeding offences. According to reports he charged customers £200 a time for his ‘services’, admitting to authorities that he had been driving a car when it got caught on camera. With his service proving particularly popular with local taxi drivers it is believed that he made upwards of £24,000. It is though that he falsely accepted responsibility for at least...

The Half Moon Bay City Council was poised late Tuesday to hire a team of appellate lawyers and a financial adviser to help it address a potentially ruinous federal court order that the city pay $36.8 million to a developer in a property dispute. The council planned to hire Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco law firm that specializes in public finance and corporate law, and Piper Jaffray, a financial firm that has worked with cities across the state. They will work with the council on what to do about a court judgment that is more than three times...