Boxer Go Barbara Boxer
posted by milkman on Jan 18, 2005 - 79 comments

Congressman dies of rare disease Congressman Bob Matsui, who was recently elected to a 14th term in Congress, has died due to a rare stem cell disease. Matsui, who was one of the leading opponents of President Bush's plan to eliminate Social Security, was the ranking Democrat on the Congressional subcommittee on Social Security.
posted by expriest on Jan 2, 2005 - 26 comments

David Dreier doesn't like free speech. The California Congressman and the Republican Party have filed a felony federal complaint against one of their own, which could possibly lead to jail time, all for opposing the incumbent. Apparently, spending a million dollars wasn't enough. More coverage of Dreier here and here.
posted by calwatch on Oct 30, 2004 - 12 comments

This is an odd way to find out about an earthquake in California.
posted by eriko on Sep 28, 2004 - 23 comments

Labor Unions in a free market. Southern California is being gripped by crippling strikes by transit workers and grocery clerks -- both over health care -- that has stranded thousands of mostly poor commuters across Los Angeles and is expected to sap millions from the local economy.

As a person who can't drive due to a visual disability, I am personally effected by the MTA transit strike (that is rumored may last several months). State employees are not allowed to strike. Shouldn't that also be the case for essential services, such as public transit?
posted by lola on Oct 14, 2003 - 80 comments

9th Circuit Court blocks California Recall Election because six counties would be using outdated punch-card ballots. Perhaps the court should have paid a visit to the Black Box Voting web site to look at all the problems surfacing with the Electronic Voting machines.
posted by thedailygrowl on Sep 15, 2003 - 42 comments

What Made Gas Prices Spike So Sharply in California? One hint, it has something to do with greed and the ability to arbitrarily raise one's profit margin.

The oil refineries decided that they weren't making quite enough money so they decided to gouge California by nearly tripling their profit margin to $.69 a gallon.

My response is to say I'll vote for which gubernatorial candidate that's going to go after the corporate greedheads who seem to think its perfectly acceptable behaviour to bleed people because they can.

Are you listening Arnold, Gary or Georgy?
posted by fenriq on Sep 9, 2003 - 21 comments

California senior driver pressed the accelerator instead of the brakes ? For 2nd time in 2 months a 85-something driver hits accelerator instead of breaks, this time there where no deaths only 4 serious injuries ? What can be done about this ? Are you scared to walk down the street, afraid a senior driver might kill you ?
posted by bureaustyle on Sep 1, 2003 - 47 comments

Save Our State: Vote Terry Tate. (NYT/rr) Remember the Reebok Superbowl ad featuring the "office linebacker"? Well, that actor just entered the California governor's race. As the bumpersticker says, "Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?" Name your pick for next has-been to get on the ballot...I smell Kato.
posted by serafinapekkala on Aug 12, 2003 - 20 comments

The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California takes the impeachment question directly to the local street and neighborhood and asks the following question on it's marquee. What is an impeachable offense? Lying to wage war? Or lying about sex? Across the country billboards and marquees have been commonly used to express political sentiment (original link from Buzzflash)
posted by thedailygrowl on Jul 28, 2003 - 11 comments

Davis to face recall
posted by raaka on Jul 23, 2003 - 48 comments

What's wrong with this teacher's comments? A Pasadena HS teacher circulated a letter with his complaint that African American students at the school are the reason for bad behavior and low test scores. He's now suspended...rightly? More inside...hoping to keep this civil, too...(thanks to Jim Romenesko)
posted by serafinapekkala on Oct 23, 2002 - 67 comments

This LA Times article will get you clued in to some recent developments. But what is the most responsible course of action to deal with the Salton Sea? It's part of a complex hydrologic system and has a pretty unusual history. To me, this seems one of the best reminders that ecological issues are among the trickiest we face.
posted by Nicolae Carpathia on Sep 14, 2002 - 7 comments

Jaw-drop-inducing link of the day The federal government spent $62 million on a building to store and treat low-level radioactive waste at a California nuclear weapons laboratory, then decided the structure wasn't secure enough. So where is the waste kept now?

... Right outside the new building, under tents.

posted by magullo on Jun 10, 2002 - 11 comments

Man, I need to go back to college! Berkeley students go to strip clubs and play "The Match Game" in a male sexuality class.
posted by MikeB on Feb 19, 2002 - 15 comments

Discarding evidence because of a possible Miranda violation. Sure, Miranda serves a (good) purpose but are the scales of justice tipped a little too much in favor of the accused when the entire chain of evidence can be discarded because of a confession of a possibly dubious nature?
posted by owillis on Feb 16, 2002 - 16 comments

IBM gets the bill for less-than-standard advertising methods supporting Linux. The city of San Francisco yesterday quashed some of the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with the Linux operating system when it reached a settlement with IBM that calls for the vendor to pay $120,000 to compensate the city for damages caused by a "guerrilla" marketing campaign centered on Linux.
posted by trioperative on Nov 29, 2001 - 15 comments

The crimes they are a'changing. This comes from the daily police log of The Union newspaper Grass Valley/Nevada City, CA. Surveillance cameras (and apparently not very effective ones) were stolen while mystery powders kept the cops hopping.
posted by tnadeau on Oct 25, 2001 - 5 comments

A California judge has ordered parents to pay $3,500 in monthly child support to their 50-year-old son.
posted by rcade on Aug 5, 2001 - 14 comments

Father forgot boy for two hours in mid-80s heat, San Jose police say.
posted by christina on Jul 24, 2001 - 43 comments

LA is the number-one relocation city for fleeing San Franciscans. Has the world turned upside down? The L.A. Examiner has the summary. And the complete story can be found, for now, on the LA Business Journal front page.
posted by josholalia on Jul 24, 2001 - 34 comments

Another right wing rant about California's predicament. By one of my favourite right wing ranters. But I never knew about this... Kinda cool.
posted by BGM on Jun 15, 2001 - 14 comments

Energy woes continue in CA and now it looks like there may be a more serious push to consider price caps. But what if that doesn't happen? I've been thinking about this a lot lately and wondering what we as consumers can do. And I came up with this sort of crazy idea that I can't seem to shake: What if we all just stop paying our electric bills? Is this an appropriate form of protest? Would it be immoral? Would it be possible? And most importantly, would it make a difference?
posted by megnut on Jun 14, 2001 - 94 comments

SoCal MeFians take note: The Tahara Project Gala Fundraiser is coming up June 16 at the El Rey Theatre. Lots of amazing dancers raising money to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe on May 29, 2001 - 2 comments

Pre-bankruptcy bonuses at PG&E The corruption in California couldn't be any more obvious to me.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Apr 8, 2001 - 20 comments

The University of California may eliminate SATs scores as a criterion for admission of undergraduates.
posted by MattD on Feb 17, 2001 - 38 comments

Ah-nuld for Guv? Right on the heels of Mr. Schwarzenegger musing on his political future the (left-wing controlled?) press reveals all his dirty laundry. Coinicidence? You tell me...
posted by BGM on Feb 6, 2001 - 13 comments

Act for Change : California’s electricity crisis Act now and be heard! Express your own position on the California energy crisis by sending an email to the state speaker of the Assembly.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Jan 19, 2001 - 6 comments

This time it's for real: A Stage Three Power Emergency has been declared in California this evening. Rolling blackouts are expected, especially in Northern California. If MeFi goes down tonight, this is why. Nothing like government intervention disguised as "deregulation" to muck up the works.
posted by aaron on Jan 11, 2001 - 27 comments

Dotcom Yuppies Gone Home. As dotcoms crash and burn, real estate prices start to drop.

Who can say that's a bad thing?
posted by Mr. skullhead on Dec 28, 2000 - 7 comments

Deep Springs College is a small cult of undergraduate males in Nevada. They claim to be smart, but I know better.
They sell eggs, milk, and T-shirts, and attend seminars. Showing their sensitive side, some of the students have posted thoughts on changing the "historically male" institution to permit women. (via a little bird.)
posted by rschram on Dec 21, 2000 - 2 comments

My God! California has both a heart and a brain! [more]
posted by Steven Den Beste on Nov 8, 2000 - 16 comments

"I'd rather take a hot stick in the eye then deal with your bureaucratic nonsense. " I'm interested in hearing from people in the MeFi community who think the University of California at Santa Barbara is correct in not publishing Chris Brown's profanity peppered 2 page disacknowledgement from his masters thesis.
posted by internook on Jul 14, 2000 - 10 comments

POWER ALERT: SF and SJ, CA.
If you, or your website, are located in the *other* bay area :-), you might want to know that The California ISO (the people who run the grid) have declared a power emergency and the City of Palo Alto Utilities, among others, has implemented rolling blackouts.

Again, if you host in this area, this may result in intermittent outages to your site; you might wish to post a notice to that effect, so that regular visitors don't get worried.
posted by baylink on Jun 14, 2000 - 8 comments

California may have its head wedged (Prop 22) but at least there's hope somewhere else.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 18, 2000 - 0 comments

Get the petition. They need one million signatures before April 20 to get it back on the November ballot. If you're in California, print out the petition and start drumming up support today. It's not so often you get a second chance like this. Show the country that California does indeed, rock.
posted by veruca on Mar 20, 2000 - 9 comments

Noooooooooooooooooo! Prop 22 looks to be passing in a landslide. I thought we were better than this (the Vote2000 site is a great resource though).
posted by mathowie on Mar 7, 2000 - 15 comments

I bought 3 Quick Picks for the Lottery this week, thinking that if there were any balance in the universe I'd be due for a big payoff... If SuperLotto was High/Low, I'd have nailed it. I got one number. ONE. 5 number for lotto x 3 quick picks = 15 potential correct numbers. I got ONE. On the upside, I'm still due. Touch me now, I'm jam packed full of luck potentiality...
posted by CrazyUncleJoe on Mar 4, 2000 - 5 comments

For those of you in Southern California, Jesse Berst is speaking this Friday. Great, I hope I don't forget to bring my gun filled with "shut-the-f*ck-up" bullets. Hmm, on second thought, I better bring an extra box.
posted by mathowie on Jan 19, 2000 - 0 comments