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CA Gov. Signs New Gun Restriction: Authorities Can Seize Guns from People Who 'Pose a Threat'

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Photo Credit: AP / Rich PedroncelliBy Don Thompson.

California will become the first state that allows family members to ask a judge to remove firearms from a relative who appears to pose a threat, under legislation Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday he had signed.

The bill was proposed by several Democrats and responds to a deadly rampage in May near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Relatives of the victims and other supporters of the bill said the parents of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger were thwarted in their attempts to seek help for their troubled son before the rampage.

Supporters had said such a measure could have prevented the attacks, winning out over critics who said it would erode gun rights.

“If both of these laws had been in place on May 23, things could have been very different,” Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, said in a statement Tuesday night. “California, today, is a safer state because of this legislation. Let’s hope other states follow.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APCalifornia becomes first state to ban plastic bags

By FENIT NIRAPPIL.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed the nation’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores, driven to action by pollution in streets and waterways.

A national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers immediately said it would seek a voter referendum to repeal the law, which is scheduled to take effect in July 2015.

Under SB270, plastic bags will be phased out of checkout counters at large grocery stores and supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Target starting next summer, and convenience stores and pharmacies in 2016. The law does not apply to bags used for fruits, vegetables or meats, or to shopping bags used at other retailers. It allows grocers to charge a fee of at least 10 cents for using paper bags.

State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, credits the momentum for statewide legislation to the more than 100 cities and counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, that already have such bans.

The law marks a major milestone for environmental activists who have successfully pushed plastic bag bans in cities across the U.S., including Chicago, Austin and Seattle. Hawaii is also on track to have a de-facto statewide ban, with all counties approving prohibitions.

Read more from this story HERE.

With Dry Taps and Toilets, California Drought Turns Desperate

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Photo Credit: Jim Wilson / The New York TimesAfter a nine-hour day working at a citrus packing plant, her body covered in a sheen of fruit wax and dust, there is nothing Angelica Gallegos wants more than a hot shower, with steam to help clear her throat and lungs.

“I can just picture it, that feeling of finally being clean — really refreshed and clean,” Ms. Gallegos, 37, said one recent evening.

But she has not had running water for more than five months — nor is there any tap water in her near future — because of a punishing and relentless drought in California. In the Gallegos household and more than 500 others in Tulare County, residents cannot flush a toilet, fill a drinking glass, wash dishes or clothes, or even rinse their hands without reaching for a bottle or bucket.

Unlike the Okies who came here fleeing the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the people now living on this parched land are stuck. “We don’t have the money to move, and who would buy this house without water?” said Ms. Gallegos, who grew up in the area and shares a tidy mobile home with her husband and two daughters. “When you wake up in the middle of the night sick to your stomach, you have to think about where the water bottle is before you can use the toilet.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Daily Water Allocation Could Be the Next California Drought Strategy

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Photo Credit: AP / Rich Pedroncelli
You probably know your Social Security number, your driver’s license number and perhaps the latest wrinkle in mattress marketing, your sleep number.

But do you know your drought number?

The latter represents the amount of water you are allowed to use per day. If you don’t know it, you probably should. Not knowing could cost you money. As California’s severe drought moves into a fourth year, state and local water agencies are working on something called “allocation-based rate structures,” a kind of precursor to water rationing that’s all the rage in Sacramento and in some areas such as Santa Cruz, Irvine and Santa Monica.

Here’s how it works: Your local water company, special district or city assigns you and your household a number in gallons — a daily water allocation. Usually, one number applies to maximum indoor water use, i.e. showers, kitchen and bathroom faucets, dishwashers, clothes washers, etc., and an extra allocation is assigned for outdoor use such as lawn irrigation.

Using census records, aerial photography and satellite imagery, an agency can determine a property’s efficient water usage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Woman Punched on Film by California Highway Patrol Officer Reaches $1.5M Settlement

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Photo Credit: APBy Fox News.

A woman who was punched repeatedly by a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer in an incident caught on film earlier this year will receive $1.5M as part of a settlement reached Wednesday.

CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow announced the settlement in an emailed statement and an attorney for 51-year-old Marlene Pinnock confirmed the deal to the Associated Press. The agreement was reached after nine hours of mediation in Los Angeles.

As part of the agreement, the officer who struck Pinnock, Daniel Andrew, will resign. Andrew, who joined the CHP in 2012 and had been on paid administrative leave, could still be charged criminally in the case. The CHP forwarded the results of its investigation of the incident to Los Angeles County prosecutors last month, saying he could face serious charges but none have been filed yet.

“When this incident occurred, I promised that I would look into it and vowed a swift resolution,” Farrow’s statement said. “Today, we have worked constructively to reach a settlement agreement that is satisfactory to all parties involved.”

Pinnock’s attorney, Caree Harper, says they wanted to make sure the woman could have financial stability for the rest of her life and wanted to make sure that Andrew would not be an officer any longer.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ShutterstockNYPD Slams Pregnant Woman Onto the Street in Latest Rough Arrest Video

By Joe Coscarelli.

The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the 72nd Precinct in Brooklyn for the second time in two weeks — the first was for this uncalled-for kick — after a tough-to-watch video surfaced on Facebook of an officer throwing a pregnant woman onto the ground and holding her stomach-down. Sandra Amezquita, five-foot-four and visibly five months pregnant, attempted to intervene in the arrest of her 17-year-old son for possession of a knife when she was manhandled. A friend who ran up to check on her was sent flying down the street with a two-handed shove.

“The first thing I thought was they killed my baby and they’re going to kill my wife,” Ronel Lemos, the baby’s father, told the Daily News.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Voters Worry Over Illegal Immigration but Support Path to Legality

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Photo Credit: AP California voters broadly support a path to legalization for immigrants in the U.S. without proper documents, despite widespread worry about the effects of illegal immigration, a new poll shows.

Three in four of those surveyed support an overhaul of federal immigration laws, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows.

A majority of voters of all races, income levels and geography agreed that illegal immigration is a major problem, but there were significant differences over what to do about it, the Times reported Monday.

Beverly Bloom, a 59-year-old registered Democrat from Corona who works in physical education at a high school, said she doesn’t want to see punishment for the students and families she works with, many of them in the country illegally.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Drought: El Niño Chances Fall Again

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Photo Credit: Brian MurphyHopes of an almighty El Niño bringing rain to a drought-stricken California – with its fallow fields, depleted streams and parched lawns – were further dashed Thursday. The National Weather Service, in its monthly El Niño report, again downgraded the chances of the influential weather pattern occurring in the fall or winter.

The odds were 80 percent in May, but were placed between 60 and 65 percent this week.

Meanwhile, the agency also announced that the much-needed weather event is likely to be weak instead of moderate in strength – another retreat from the more robust projections made earlier this year that fueled speculation that California’s three-year dry spell might be snapped.

El Niños, defined by warming Pacific Ocean waters that release enough energy to shape worldwide weather, have been associated with wet winters in the Golden State. The strong 1997-98 event correlated with San Francisco’s biggest recorded rain year: a whopping 47.2 inches of rain.

But the correlation doesn’t always hold up. While El Niños carry the potential to bring quenching showers, this week’s climate report doesn’t necessarily doom the state to another year of drought.

Read more from this story HERE.

Nearly 1 in 10 California Workers are in Country Illegally, Study Finds

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Photo Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

Photo Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

By KATE LINTHICUM.

A Report released Wednesday by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state’s workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product.

The study, which was conducted in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center, was based on census data and other statistics, including data from the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security. It looked at a variety of ways the estimated 2.6 million immigrants living in California without permission participate in state life.

Among the study’s findings:

*Immigrants who are in California illegally make up 38% of the agriculture industry and 14% of the construction industry statewide.

*Half of the immigrants in the state illegally have been here for at least 10 years.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Judge Sets Hearings for Illegal Alien Minors–4 Years From Now

By Brittany M. Hughes.

Seventeen-year-old Cristian stepped through the swinging wooden door separating the crowded waiting area from the judge’s bench, straightening his slightly-too-big dress shirt as he slid behind the defendant’s desk. As his lawyer took the seat beside him, Cristian slipped on the court-provided headphones so he could hear the Spanish-speaking translator as his lawyer began to speak.

After a few pleasantries, Cristian’s lawyer told Immigration Judge John M. Bryant that his client conceded to the charge of being an undocumented alien in the United States and was subject to potential removal. Cristian wanted to plead for asylum for “protection from torture,” and “declined to state his country of removal at this time,” the lawyer added.

Within a minute, Bryant had accepted the plea and scheduled a hearing in which the court will determine if Cristian is eligible to receive asylum. The date was set for June 11, 2018.

“Are you available that day?” Bryant jokingly asked the lawyer.

“I don’t have my 2018 calendar in front of me, but yes, I believe so,” the lawyer responded.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Illegals Have Taken their Invasion of our Border to a Whole New Level

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Photo Credit: Screenshot

Photo Credit: Screenshot

WATCH: Illegals Have Taken their Invasion of our Border to a Whole New Level

Miranda Fuller, on vacation in San Diego, witnessed a disturbing and dangerous occurrence Monday while on at Mission Beach. Twenty men, all dressed in black, stormed the beach in San Diego. These men were illegal aliens who landed on the beach in a panga boat.

It happened at approximately 7 am on Monday morning. After the men stormed the beach, they ran across the beach, climbed a wall, and headed into the city. Fortunately, much of their movement was caught by a homeowner’s surveillance camera.


Brian Wu, a Mission Beach resident, told NBC7 that the men appeared to have someone waiting for them. His cameras tracked them running into an alley where they changed clothes before attempting to walk into the city and blend in. Seven of the illegal alien invaders were spotted via helicopter and apprehended. Officials are still searching for the others.

On Tuesday at 1 am, a second attempt was made by a group of illegals enter the country via panga boat on Tuesday, but U.S. Customs and Borders agents were waiting for them. There were another 20 people on that boat, 13 men and seven women. Two were from Guatemala, one from El Salvador, and the rest were Mexican Nationals.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Judicial Watch reports an imminent terrorist attack warning on border

By James Simpson.

Judicial Watch reiterated its warning this evening in an email sent out to subscribers (the subscription is free). Earlier today, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson denied that there was any imminent threat warning. In a phone conversation with the UK Mail, a DHS spokesman also denied there was any credible evidence of ISIS in Mexico. The White House also denied the reports. But in an interview with the Mail today, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the administration’s assertions “so dishonest,” saying that his sources were “golden.”

Original Article

Judicial Watch, perhaps the most effective government watchdog, today reported federal law enforcement sources saying an attack along our southern border may be imminent. These sources claim that ISIS and al Qaeda personnel are present in Ciudad Juarez, a city on the Mexican border directly opposite El Paso, Texas. A warning bulletin has been issued to to DHS, FBI, Defense agencies and others warning that these groups intend to carry out these attacks using vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED).

The bulletin was apparently posted on Thursday by the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to Fox News. Fox reports that thousands of tweets and Facebook posts were circulated from monitored terrorist sites repeating a call for ISIS cross-border attacks. Some even cited James O’Keefe’s recent successful effort to cross the border dressed as Osama bin Laden to show how easy it was, Fox says.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Judicial Watch: Feds’ Bulletin Describes Threat of Imminent Terrorist Attack on Southern Border

By Andrew C. McCarthy.

For those of us who’ve been raising alarms about both the jihadist threat and the national-security vulnerability created by the Obama administration’s non-enforcement of the immigration laws, this is not a surprise — particularly less than two weeks before September 11. But it is nonetheless jarring to read. Judicial Watch has just put out this statement:

Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.

Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.

Read more from this story HERE.

Unbelievable: With 5 Simple Words The Governor Of California Just Totally Undermined U.S. Law

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Photo Credit: Amadscientist (Creative Commons)

Photo Credit: Amadscientist (Creative Commons)

Question: What should be done about the governor of the most populous state in the union throwing open the doors to any and all Mexican immigrants, legal or illegal? Is this sort of “come one, come all” policy the new normal in Obama’s America?…

From the LATimes.com article:

In introducing Peña Nieto on Monday, Brown spoke about the interwoven histories of Mexico and California and nodded to the immigrants in the room, saying it didn’t matter whether they had permission to be in the United States.

“You’re all welcome in California,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Earthquake's Timing Left Many Fumbling in Dark

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Photo Credit: AP / Eric Risberg

Photo Credit: AP / Eric Risberg

A powerful earthquake that struck the heart of California’s wine country caught many people sound asleep, sending dressers, mirrors and pictures crashing down around them. Scores were injured as the temblor knocked out power to thousands, caused gas and water lines to rupture and sparked fires.

The magnitude 6.0-quake struck at 3:20 a.m. PDT Sunday near the city of Napa, an oasis of Victorian-era buildings nestled in the vineyard-studded hills of Northern California.

The fires also flared in a mobile home park where four homes were destroyed and two others were damaged, officials said.

By midday Sunday, the fires were out and power was starting to be restored, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Read more from this story HERE.