Two cases in 2011 indicate the state of justice in the state of California. Police in two cities followed the same procedure. Each sent officers to a man’s home. The police confiscated firearms unrelated to the investigation. Then they refused to give back all of the guns. In Oakland, police went to a man’s home [...]
Full Story »
This past January, President Barack Obama announced his contraceptive mandate that would require all employers to obtain health insurance that would provide coverage for contraceptives, abortion drugs and sterilization and offer it to all of their employees. The mandate was written in such a way that even religious institutions (churches, schools, ministries) would be required [...]
Full Story »
California Gov. Jerry Brown said the state’s projected budget deficit widened to $16 billion from about $9 billion, and warned that the state will need deeper cuts to services such as education if voters do not pass a tax-increase measure he is championing. The Democratic governor was set to release his revised 2012-13 budget to [...]
Full Story »
Democrats in Delaware have resuscitated a legislation plan that would declare sheriffs in the state have no power to make arrests after a GOP proposal on the dispute was abruptly withdrawn by sponsors. Unlike police chiefs, who are hired by government officials, sheriffs are elected by the people and historically have been recognized as a [...]
Full Story »
North Carolina has become the 31st state to add an amendment on marriage to its constitution, with voters banning same-sex marriage and barring legal recognition of unmarried couples by state and local governments. North Carolina is the last state in the South to add such an amendment, and supporters hoped for a resounding victory. Incomplete [...]
Full Story »
Republican foreign policy elder statesman Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, first elected to the Senate in 1976, was defeated in the Indiana primary Tuesday by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who was backed by conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists to the Washington-based fiscal conservative group the Club for Growth. Mourdock [...]
Full Story »
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker raked in more than $13 million in just over three months as he faces an upcoming recall election to drive him from office, his campaign announced on Monday. The Republican governor raised the millions from 125,926 contributions between January 17 and April 23, according to his campaign finance report. His main [...]
Full Story »
A federal judge has issued an injunction against a Texas law that would bar Planned Parenthood from receiving state funds because it provides abortions. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel will make a final decision after hearing full arguments in the case. Planned Parenthood called the initial ruling a “victory” that will allow thousands of low-income [...]
Full Story »
The new USC study pointing to a much-slower rate of population growth in California has been greeted by demographers and urban planners as good news, in that it supposedly gives our state’s leaders a little breathing room to better plan for the future. The rate of growth has slowed to about 1 percent a year, [...]
Full Story »
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently offered a stark assessment of the threat to his state’s future that is posed by mounting pension and retiree health-care bills for government workers. Unless Illinois enacts reform quickly, he said, the costs of these programs will force taxes so high that, “You won’t recruit a business, you won’t recruit [...]
Full Story »
Jim Shee, a U.S. citizen of Spanish and Chinese ancestry, says he began to understand the impact of Arizona’s strict immigration law called S.B.1070 when he was stopped by Arizona police twice in one month. “I was stopped for the color of my skin. I look like a minority, whatever a minority is supposed to [...]
Full Story »
‘California is God’s best moment,” says Joel Kotkin. “It’s the best place in the world to live.” Or at least it used to be. Mr. Kotkin, one of the nation’s premier demographers, left his native New York City in 1971 to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley. The state was a far-out paradise for [...]
Full Story »
Actor Andy Griffith’s TV character Andy Taylor became famous as the sheriff without a gun, who made arrests and enforced the peace through his courage and firm, but gentle, persuasion. But what would he have done if he hadn’t had the ability to make traffic stops or arrests at all? That’s just about the situation [...]
Full Story »
Public high schools in Arizona will soon be able to offer an elective course on the Bible and its role in Western culture. Gov. Jan Brewer has signed legislation requiring the state Board of Education to design a curriculum for schools to teach if they choose. Rep. Terri Proud, a Tucson Republican who sponsored the [...]
Full Story »
Maryland’s highest court is poised to hear arguments in a precedent-setting case involving two women who married legally in California but were denied a divorce in Maryland, which does not currently allow same-sex weddings. The Court of Appeals of Maryland in Annapolis was set to hear arguments Friday from lawyers for the lesbian couple who [...]
Full Story »
