William Bigelow - Page 40

On Friday, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board ruled 2-1 that the California Environmental Quality Act could not be used to block the construction of the Fresno-Bakersfield segment of the California bullet train. The board nullified seven lawsuits pending against the

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, 81, who fled the United States in 1978 the night before he was to be sentenced for statutory rape, wants to return, and his attorneys, including Alan M. Dershowitz, filed suit on Monday, accusing district attorneys

Jeb Bush, appearing in a crucial early state for the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, gave the commencement address at the University of South Carolina on Monday, offered pablum to the masses in the form of three pieces of advice: Dream

Mark Pulliam, an attorney who covered the California Supreme Court from 1993 to 2003 as the legal issues correspondent for California Political Review, has blasted California Governor Jerry Brown’s selection of Leondra Kruger for the Supreme Court.  Pulliam writes in

The NFL Players Association, claiming that the arbitrator in the Adrian Peterson case acted unjustly and in opposition to the league’s collective bargaining agreement last Friday by upholding his suspension, has filed a lawsuit against the NFL. The association asserts

Comcast Corporation will pay $50 million to 800,000 “cable-TV subscribers in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties and Philadelphia” after U.S. District Judge John R. Padova ruled against the cable giant in a class-action lawsuit on Friday.  The consumers will each

Some supporters of California’s proposed bullet train suggest that because the first leg of the southbound line starting in Merced would end in Burbank, rather than downtown Los Angeles, the Metrolink commuter rail network serving Los Angeles should be electrified,

A small group of protesters chanting “Black lives matter!” and “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” blocked traffic on Market Street in San Francisco Thursday night, despite the rainstorm, asserting that the inconvenience of the

Even with LeBron James Nike shoes, you can’t outrun the police. In early November, Charles Jennings, an employee of cargo transportation company Intermodal Cartage Group, allegedly stole a truck laden with 7,500 pairs of the new Lebron 12 Nike shoes,

Debris left from the 2011 tsunami in Japan may deposit invasive species on the north coast of California as a result of this week’s storm, the Eureka Times-Standard reports. An area off the coast called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

UAW Local 2865, which represents 13,000 student workers in the UC system, is now the first labor union in the United states to officially support the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” (BDS) campaign against Israel. On December 4, 1,411 student workers voted

Pending physicals and approval from the commissioner’s office, the Los Angeles Dodgers have traded outfielder Matt Kemp to the San Diego Padres completing a frenzied period of activity for the Dodgers front office, which also acquired shortstop Jimmy Rollins, the

The employment rate in the United States is now near the bottom of the list of developed nations, according to The New York Times. The percentage of non-working men in the 25-54 age bracket is now 16%, more than triple

A 21-year-old woman from New Jersey, who had sued her divorced parents to pay her college tuition, filed a motion this week asking the court to fine them $100 a day for contempt of court until they ante up. Caitlyn Ricci,

The Orange County Equality Coalition, founded to fight for gay marriage after California passed Proposition 8 in 2008, has sued the California Department of Education and its Office of Equal Opportunity, claiming that those agencies are not protecting LGBT students.

Madison Bumgarner, 25, honored as Sports Illustrated‘s Sportsman of the Year, showed up to accept the honor in the first suit he has ever owned, according to Tom Verducci of SI. Bumgarner hails from rural North Carolina, and even wore

The police chief of Richmond, CA, Chris Magnus, joined a protest against alleged police brutality in Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY on Tuesday while holding a sign reading “#blacklivesmatter.” Roughly 100 fellow protesters held signs while they listened to

Grumpy Cat may be grumpy, but the cat’s owner, Tabatha Bundesen, may need a truck to cart the money earned by her famous feline, rumored at close to $100 million in the last two years. Bundesen denied the amount, according

The Heisman Committee has announced its finalists for the 2014 Heisman Trophy, honoring the nation’s most outstanding college football player.  The committee invited University of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, University of Alabama receiver Amari Cooper, and University of Wisconsin running

Retired ABC News journalist Ann Compton told C-SPAN that Barack Obama has privately blasted journalists with obscenities when speaking off-the-record. Compton also called Obama out for leading “the most opaque” administration of “any I have covered.” Compton told C-SPAN’s Brian

A Sacramento area woman who found a man’s cremated remains on the side of the road made it her mission to return them to the family. Ana Riddle left the Arden Fair Mall, then saw some objects on the side of

St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher taunted the tottering Washington Redskins about the trade that ultimately netted the Rams six players and the Redskins Robert Griffin III, sending those same six players to midfield for the coin toss before Sunday’s

A massive fire in downtown Los Angeles caused the California Highway Patrol to shut down the 101 Freeway in both directions and the temporary closure of the 110/101 interchange. The blaze consumed a seven-story wood-framed residential structure that was under

Advocates for the projected bullet train running from San Francisco to Los Angeles argued at the Public Policy Institute’s all-day State of Change conference last week that simply getting the project started would catalyze the federal government to pour more

A new book targets “El Sistema,” Venezuela’s famous $100 million music education program, which has been described as a “high-intensity programme of instrumental coaching that turned kids from the slums of Venezuela into the thrilling Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (SBYO),

Playing the race card more overtly than ever before, Barack Obama told Black Entertainment Television that racism is “deeply rooted” in the United States.  In Obama’s interview, which will be broadcast Monday evening, he intoned, “This is something that is

Hans von Spakovsky, writing in The National Interest, makes a powerful case that Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have endangered the criminal justice system in their response to the Ferguson grand jury’s verdict.  Spakovsky writes, “Perhaps the biggest

The mother and girlfriend of Rumain Brisbon, a black man killed by a white police officer Tuesday night in Phoenix, do not want the ensuing narrative to focus on race. Nora Brisbon, the victim’s mother, who is black, and Dana

The U.S. Department of Defense, ever concerned that local police departments might lack needed equipment for their efforts combating crime, sent the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department an early Christmas present last March: 500 snowshoes and 132 snow trousers. That wasn’t

The number of immigrants deported from the U.S. fell 14 percent for the year ending Sept. 30, even as the number of people caught crossing the border grew, the Los Angeles Times reports. A draft ICE report shows immigration officials deported 315,943

Former NBA player Kenny Smith, now an analyst on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” blasted fellow analyst Charles Barkley for his comments on events in Ferguson, Missouri, saying Barkley had no justification for offering his opinion. Barkley had stated:  [Those expletives]

Ricky Williams slammed the man who gave up a draft’s worth of picks to acquire him as a “white guy” who doesn’t understand police brutality.  Former Bears and Saints coach Mike Ditka had criticized the lawlessness in Ferguson and the

A study conducted by Unicef UK asserts that if mothers breastfeed their children longer, the National Health Service (NHS) could save millions of pounds: the prevention of infections by breastfeeding would save 11 million pounds, and the plunge in cases

Opposition to the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) on college campuses is growing; a petition signed by over 120 faculty and staff members at the University of California calls for UAW 2865, the union chapter representing 13,000 mainly

According to Gov. Jerry Brown’s top policy aide, Brown wants to let illegal immigrants protected by Barack Obama’s new executive amnesty become eligible for state-funded Medi-Cal coverage.   Nancy McFadden, speaking Wednesday at an event run by the leftist Public

Torii Hunter, delighted to return to the Minnesota Twins, was anything but delighted near the end of the press conference welcoming him back. A beat reporter, Mike Berardino, badgered him about whether his opposition to same-sex marriage had reduced his