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California Pols Could Target Tax Status of Boy Scouts, Youth Groups Over ‘Discrimination’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

California lawmakers are cruising toward a final vote on a bill that could threaten the tax-exempt status of American-as-apple-pie groups — ranging from the Boy Scouts to Little League — if their membership policies are found to be discriminatory.

If passed, the bill, SB 323, would remove an exemption from state taxes for any nonprofit youth group that discriminates on the basis of “gender identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or religious affiliation.” Well-known organizations like Girl Scouts of the USA, Boy Scouts of America, and Little League International Baseball and Softball were cited in the bill, which was introduced in February by Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara.

Lawmakers are not accusing groups like Little League and the Girl Scouts of having discriminatory policies. The bill appears to be aimed more at the Boy Scouts, as Lara pushed the legislation on the heels of the controversy surrounding the Boy Scouts’ policy to exclude gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as scouts or adult leaders. The national organization later voted to allow gay youth membership, but maintained its ban on openly gay adult leaders.

Lara told reporters earlier this month that the Boy Scouts’ decision was not good enough for him, and continued to push the bill.

Youth groups say they hope they won’t be affected. Brian McClintock, a Little League International spokesman, told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that the group already does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Read more from this story HERE.

Thanks to New START Treaty: Russians Inspect Missile Defense Base

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Photo Credit: Boeing

Photo Credit: Boeing

Russian officials this week carried out a secret inspection of the U.S. strategic missile defense base in California as part of the New START arms treaty, according to Obama administration officials.

The inspection of five missile defense interceptors is the only one allowed under the 2010 arms accord. The treaty requires cuts of U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads to 1,550.

A defense official said the visit was a treaty verification visit hosted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

A State Department official declined to comment on the inspection but confirmed it was related to New START. “Implementation activities under New START are confidential,” the official said.

However, Thomas Moore, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee professional staff member, said the inspection of the base was a controversial part of U.S. and Russian arms talks leading up to New START that was ratified by the Senate in December 2010.

Read more from this story HERE.

Editors Note: Both of Alaska’s US Senators voted in favor of the ill-advised New START Treaty.

California Wants Small-Business Owners To Pay Back $120 Million In Tax Breaks (+video)

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Photo Credit: Prayitno

Photo Credit: Prayitno

Small-business investors in California were promised big breaks five years ago, but now they’re being told to pay up, instead after a court ruling.

After following the law, many of them are getting hit with tax bills as high as $250,000.

“When we make a promise, we have to uphold it,” said Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach.

But that is not what the state government appears to be doing. Small-business owners are getting hefty tax breaks for tax credits they already got five years ago.

“They relied on California law as it was written, that they would get a tax break if they invested in certain kinds of businesses,” Lieu said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Calif. Man’s Charge Upped to Murder after Boasting about Speeding on Twitter

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Photo Credit: west.m

Photo Credit: west.m

An 18-year-old accused of killing a bicyclist with his car has had a vehicular manslaughter charge upgraded to murder in part because he boasted about speeding on Twitter, prosecutors said Thursday.

Cody Hall, of Pleasanton, was being held without bail after he was charged Wednesday with the murder of 58-year-old Diana Hersevoort, the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune reported.

Hall was going more than 80 mph in a 40 mph zone when he hit Hersevoort and her husband along a busy boulevard in Dublin on June 9, prosecutors allege. Hersevoort’s husband only broke an arm, but she was killed.

An analysis of Hall’s driving record, along with Twitter posts in which he discussed how fast he liked to drive, persuaded prosecutors to change the charge to murder, the Alameda County district attorney’s office told the Chronicle.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill to Allow Transgender Students to Choose Bathrooms Moves to California Governor’s Desk

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A bill that would let school kids use whatever bathroom or play on whichever sports team they believe matches their gender identity – and not necessarily their anatomy – is on the desk of California Gov. Jerry Brown.

Brown won’t say what he plans to do, but the measure passed easily in the two legislative chambers despite criticism from conservative groups who want biology to dictate bathroom use.

Supporters say transgendered kids feel alienated when they can’t use the bathroom of the sex with which they associate.

The law would end exclusion that “negatively impacts students’ ability to succeed in school and graduate with their class,” said Jesse Melgar, a spokesman for Equality California.

Read more from this story HERE.

Residents Ordered to Evacuate as Southern California Wildfire Rages

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Photo Credit: APAn out-of-control wildfire growing with great speed in Southern California mountains Wednesday night burned homes, forced the evacuation of several mountain communities and left three people including two firefighters injured.

The fire broke out about 2 p.m. near Banning and surge to at least 6,000 acres, or more than 9 square miles, within a few hours, state fire officials said.

One civilian was burned and airlifted to a hospital, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. Two firefighters were also injured and both were taken to hospitals by ambulance. Officials would give no further details on the injuries.

Fire officials said about a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed, but could not say how many were homes. Footage from TV news helicopters and photos from the scene showed several houses in flames.

They include the Twin Pines home of Dave Clark, whose parents were killed in a house fire in Riverside in April 2012 the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Prosecutors alleged Clark’s sister Deborah Clark set the fire, and she was awaiting a mental-competency hearing to see if she was competent to stand trial for her parents’ murder in a case that has received extensive local media coverage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Spectator Loses Part of Leg in California Power Plant Implosion (+videos)

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Photo Credit: CNNA man standing more than 1,000 feet away lost part of one leg when he was hit by debris from a power plant implosion early Saturday, police in Bakersfield, California, said.

Two other people injured by flying shrapnel were treated on the scene.

The scheduled implosion of the Kern Power Plant in Bakersfield occurred at 6 a.m. (9 a.m. ET).

The man with the most significant injuries was airlifted to Fresno to be treated, police Lt. Scott Tunnicliffe told CNN. One leg was partially amputated and the other was severely injured, Tunnicliffe said.

One of the injured spectators showed his injuries to a news crew from CNN affiliate KGET. The man’s right leg was bandaged just below the knee and around the ankle. He was treated by medical crews at the scene before going home.

KGET News Report:

Raw Video:

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Out for Blood’: 1 dead, 11 Injured After Car Plows Through LA Boardwalk ‘With Intent’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: APBy Dave Urbanski. One person is dead, KNBC-TV reports, and 11 others are injured after a driver of a car—reportedly “out for blood”—plowed into people walking along a crowded Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles Saturday.

Detectives have detained a possible suspect and a vehicle of interest, Lt. Andrew Neiman of the Los Angeles Police Department told KNBC.

Witnesses said the car, a dark-colored sedan, had “moved purposefully along the boardwalk,” striking pedestrians, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the fire department, the New York Times reports. KTLA-TV adds Humphrey describing the vehicle traveling as fast as 20 m.p.h. along the boardwalk.

KCAL-TV reports witness saying the driver hit the pedestrians on purpose:

Read more from this story HERE.

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Police: Venice Beach Boardwalk driver ‘bent on doing evil’

By Alan Duke. A man who sped down Venice Beach’s crowded boardwalk Saturday evening looked like he wanted “to create mayhem and massacre a lot of people,” a witness said.

One woman was killed, and a Los Angeles County coroner’s office spokeswoman identified her as Alice Gruppioni, 32, of Italy. Her husband told police they were on their honeymoon, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Nathan Campbell, 38, was charged with murder after he turned himself in to police hours after the incident, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Rosario Herrera said Sunday. Campbell is being held on $1 million bond, she said.

“There no indication that he knew anybody that he hit,” LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said. “It looks like this guy wanted to run over a bunch of people. One guy bent on doing evil.”

Of the dozen people injured, one victim was critically hurt and two others suffered serious injuries, officials said. Read more from this story HERE.

DOJ Ripped for Making Transgender Use of Opposite-Sex Restrooms the New Civil Rights Priority

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe U.S. Department of Justice’s latest cause – fighting for a transgendered California ninth-grader’s right to use the boy’s room at school – has conservative groups wondering just how far Washington will go in the name of civil rights.

The student was born a girl but “has identified as a boy from a young age,” according to the Department of Justice, which reached a settlement with the public school district in Arcadia, an affluent LA suburb. Under the deal, the district must not only change the student’s restroom privileges and make similar accommodations on overnight trips. It also must institute a host of measures to ensure transgender students are treated as whatever gender they consider themselves to be.

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, said Attorney General Eric Holder is off-base in pushing the case as a matter of civil rights.

“Eric Holder needs to reread the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and find out that civil rights are based on an unchangeable, immutable characteristic,” Thomasson said. “You cannot change your genes or your gender. You have chromosomes and they are either XX or XY. This is a girl who has been environmentally warped to believe she is a boy, and, instead of coddling this confused child, her parents should have gotten her into counseling with an expert on gender confusion.”

According to a DOJ report, the student began her gender transition from female to male during fifth grade after being teased and socially ostracized at school and on a school camping trip. After spring vacation, she adopted a male name and began wearing masculine clothing and teachers and classmates were told to use masculine pronouns in reference to her. She also used a gender-neutral bathroom for the remainder of the school year, according to the report.

Read more from this story HERE.

San Diego Mayor Ignores Calls to Resign, Plans 2 Weeks of ‘Therapy’ Instead (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News San Diego Mayor Bob Filner once again brushed off mounting calls to resign on Friday, saying at a hastily arranged news conference that he has decided instead to enter what he described as a behavioral counseling clinic for two weeks of “intensive therapy.”

The decision comes after a total of seven women came forward this week to accuse him of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances.

The succession of allegations prompted the head of the Democratic Party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to call for Filner’s resignation earlier Friday.

Filner, however, did not resign. In a bizarre public statement beset by audio problems, Filner said he would merely take two weeks off starting Aug. 5 for therapy. He described this as the “first step in what will be a continuing program” of regular counseling.

He made clear he intends to stay in office, saying he’ll be getting briefed on city activities every morning and evening while in therapy. And when he returns on Aug. 19, he said, “my focus will be on making sure that I am doing right by this city in terms of being the best mayor I can be and the best person I must be.”

Read more from this story HERE.