Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
California cities are mobilizing to fight the Trump administration's effort to strip federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities, which do not enforce federal immigration policy. Even as the Justice Department on Friday advised eight local governments and the state of California that they were at risk of losing federal dollars if they don't cooperate, several cities had already directed their lobbyists to oppose such efforts.
Shortly after the 2008 election, President Obama's soon-to-be chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, infamously declared, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste." He elaborated: "What I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
Supporters of one long-shot bid to make California an independent nation ended their effort on Monday, while another group said it will launch a new campaign for a statewide vote next year. The drive to make the nation's most populous state its own country, with what would be the world's sixth-largest economy, has drawn extra interest after last year's election of Republican Donald Trump as president.
Senator Dianne Feinstein's town hall meeting is interupted by heckler Michael Stone speaking out at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center San Francisco, California, on Monday, April 17, 2017. Senator Dianne Feinstein's town hall meeting is interupted by heckler Michael Stone speaking out at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center San Francisco, California, on Monday, April 17, 2017.
A bill pending in the California Senate would guarantee healthcare for all under what's known as a single-payer model - people pay into a fund, and a state agency handles coverage from there. The idea will be the subject of two town hall meetings at the Sonora Opera Hall on Thursday, one at 12:30 p.m., the other at 6:30 p.m. "We really think that with the federal attacks on healthcare, California has an opportunity to lead and has another path," said Pilar Schiavo, one of the presenters and a Sonora-area native who is coordinating the campaign on behalf of the California Nurses Association.
Around 200 people were on the scene when fights broke out at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park and are blocking several streets in the city's center, Berkeley police said . "No one would release them while the audit is going on", he said.
Rep. David Valadao meets a constituent during district meetings last month. The last two GOP presidential candidates lost in his district by double digits.
ASCAP President Paul Williams, Congressman Doug Collins, Congressmember Karen Bass, songwriter Priscilla Renea, and General Counsel, ASCAP Clara Kim speak onstage at 'Music Licensing Reform: The Fight for Your Rights' during the 2017 ASCAP 'I Create Music' EXPO on April 14, 2017 in Los Angeles. A miracle seemingly happened at yesterday's ASCAP I Create Music Expo legislative panel: Two congressional legislators from opposite sides of the aisle, Congressman Doug Collins, a Republican from the red state of Georgia, and Representative Karen Bass, a Democrat from blue state of California, actually agreed on something.
For the first time, on the day of March 23, 40 percent of Californian grid power between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. was generated by utility-scale solar plants. This proportion was a seasonal effect but not a fluke, and it certainly points to what will be routine in the very near future.
Thank you very much but I'm already quite aware of drivers texting and making non-hands free calls, so much that I now spend as much time looking in my rear view mirror as I do looking forward. Which of course leads to problems of their own.
SAN BERNARDINO >> A proposed ballot initiative that would have banned undocumented immigrant children from attending Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified schools is something that only the California legislature can do, according to San Bernardino County's elections chief. “The state constitution vets the legislature with sweeping and comprehensive powers in relation to public schools,” an April 11 letter to Joseph Turner from Registrar of Voters Michael J. Scarpello reads in part.
Neil M. Gorsuch joins the Supreme Court today, just in time to cast potentially significant votes in cases that pit religious liberty against gay rights, test limits on funding for church schools and challenge California's restrictions on carrying a concealed gun in public. Such issues arise either in appeals filed by conservative groups that have been pending before the justices for weeks or in cases to be heard later this month.
Congressional Republicans returned this weekend to their districts to get another earful about ObamaCare, while giving mixed statements about how close they are to replacing the health care law and suggesting that avoiding a looming government shutdown is now the priority. California GOP Rep. Tom McClintock again held a town hall event in which residents expressed concerns about the GOP-led Congress repealing and replacing ObamaCare with more expensive and less comprehensive coverage.
California Gov. Jerry Brown returns to his office after meeting with the Senate Democratic Caucus to urge them to approve a transportation plan, Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Sacramento, Calif. Brown and top legislative leaders pressed all week to convince fellow Democrats to support the measure that would place a $5-billion-a-year boost in California's gas and vehicle taxes to pay for major road repairs.
Twenty states already offer cheaper in-state college tuition to students who are in the United States illegally. Legislation making its way through the Tennessee Legislature would make that state the 21st.
Communities for a Better Environment organizer Alicia Rivera tries to get shoppers interested in a protest march. It did not begin well for Alicia Rivera, who carried a stack of fliers as she made her way around the parking lot of a Wilmington shopping center.
How much is one vote worth in the California state Senate? A half-billion dollars, if it's linked to a big tax hike to pay for overdue road repairs. The key vote to raise gas taxes and vehicle fees came late Thursday from Sen. Anthony Cannella, a little-known Republican and the only GOP member of the heavily Democratic Legislature to vote for the bill.
Often, advocates could not raise enough money for signature gathering, advertising and other costs of an initiative campaign. Some of the most promising efforts, however, ran into a different kind of obstacle: an official summary, written by the state attorney general, that described the initiative in terms likely to alienate voters.
Vermontian to the marrow, soaked in the ethos of direct democracy, playful and yet thoughtful enough to have won the enthusiastic approbation of George Kennan and John Kenneth Galbraith, these Green Mountain Boys and Girls didn't achieve divorce, but they did give us an alluring glimpse of the shape that hope takes in a darkening empire. The new Republican president has also catalyzed an independence movement, this one in the Golden State, though so far it lacks the intellectual seriousness, rooted radicalism, and wit of the Vermonters.