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San Diego County supervisors to consider making jail phone calls free
SAN DIEGO — When Georgina Mercado was arrested in Chicano Park in 2016 and booked into the Las Colinas women's jail in Santee, her first thoughts were about her children, who were 2, 4 and 6 years old at the time. Mercado ended up spending three months in custody before the charges were dropped. Her grandmother, whose only source of income was a monthly Social Security check, took care of the children. "I couldn't call home because I'm not going to put that extra burden on my grandmother," Mercado said. The initial connection fee alone was $5. "Over three months, I think I only called home thr...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Conservatives slam California, challenge Gov. Newsom at CPAC
Conservatives are taking aim at liberalism at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this weekend. The most emblematic of these targets? According to some speakers, it’s California and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Chief among the critics was Richard Grenell, a Californian and former Cabinet member under President Donald Trump who delivered remarks on Saturday morning at the conference in Orlando. Grenell is well-known within Trump circles and first served the administration in 2017 as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. In 2020 he briefly served as acting director of natio...
The Sacramento Bee
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Trump fans eager to hear what the ex-president has to say Sunday at CPAC
ORLANDO, Fla. — Anticipation for Donald Trump’s Sunday speech was palpable at CPAC in Orlando on Saturday, as speakers invoked the ex-president’s name and policies in their remarks and attendees were hopeful he’d shed light on his political future. Charlene Daniel-Greene and her husband drove from Pennsylvania. Recently retired, the couple hopes to get involved in conservative activism in the coming years. But she said she was discouraged that Trump hasn’t spoken out since Jan. 6 and feels his silence and the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh have left a hole in the discourse. “I’...
Orlando Sentinel
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Delta passenger who hit flight attendant over mask dispute faces $27,500 fine, FAA says
A Delta passenger is facing a $27,500 fine “for allegedly interfering with and assaulting a flight attendant,” the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday. The passenger, who hasn’t been named, allegedly hit a flight attendant in the face over a face mask dispute during a Delta Air Lines flight from Miami to Atlanta on Oct. 19. According to the FAA, the passenger was accompanied by another passenger who refused to use his face mask, secure his seat tray table and fasten his seat belt during the flight, as advised by the flight crew. As a result of his...
New York Daily News
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Florida Sen. Rubio cancels speech at CPAC, citing ‘family issue’
ORLANDO, Fla. — CPAC was supposed to be headlined Saturday by remarks from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, but the Florida Republican was removed from the agenda at the last minute, an official with the conference confirmed. The senator tweeted later that he to cancel his talk at the Orlando convention of conservatives because of “an unexpected family issue.” “I was really looking forward to it,” Rubio said in a tweet. “But as I told (CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp) they should move CPAC to Florida permanently.” Rubio wasn’t added to the speakers’ list until Friday. He has gone out of his way to stay in ex...
Orlando Sentinel
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US Supreme Court lifts Santa Clara County’s ban on indoor religious services once and for all
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected Santa Clara County’s ban on indoor worship services, ordering California’s only holdout to fall in line with the rest of the state. The ruling from the Supreme Court comes less than three weeks after Santa Clara County instructed places of worship within the county to keep their doors closed and pews empty until further notice, regardless of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that lifted California’s ban on indoor religious services and allowed them to reopen to up to 25% of capacity. By a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that the county must allo...
The Mercury News
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Judge, attorneys in migrant family separation case buoyed by promise of Biden task force
SAN DIEGO — A new Biden administration task force that will focus on reunifying migrant families separated at the border under Trump-era policies is expected to resolve many of the lingering issues being litigated in a landmark San Diego-based case, attorneys said in a hearing Friday. Specifics are still short on the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, which was created with an executive order Feb. 2. But Lee Gelernt, lead attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union representing parents, told a judge he is “hopeful.” The task force’s mission is to identify all childre...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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‘We are in an oasis of freedom’: CPAC conference is a Florida-heavy, Trumpian affair
ORLANDO, Fla. — The country’s largest annual gathering of conservatives began in Orlando on Friday, and Florida was front and center. Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off the event and touted his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and Florida’s relatively lax social-distancing protocols that enabled this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference to be held indoors and in-person in former President Donald Trump’s home state. “We are in an oasis of freedom in a nation that’s suffering from the yoke of oppressive lockdowns,’‘ DeSantis said during a speech that mostly mirrored a stump-style campaign ...
Miami Herald
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News briefs
Feds continue arrests in Capitol riotFederal prosecutors have charged more than 300 individuals for their roles in January’s Capitol riots, Department of Justice officials said Friday. The announcement came during a press briefing on the threat of domestic terrorism by numerous federal law enforcement agencies, during which officials said that the threat of violence committed by Americans will be a top priority under the Biden administration. “The first briefing that I received in my new job was about the effort to bring the perpetrators of the Jan. 6 attack to justice,” said John Carlin, the ...
Tribune News Service
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Feds continue arrests in Capitol riot, will guard ‘closely’ against attack on Biden’s first speech to Congress
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 300 individuals for their roles in January’s Capitol riots, Department of Justice officials said Friday. The announcement came during a press briefing on the threat of domestic terrorism by numerous federal law enforcement agencies, during which officials said that the threat of violence committed by Americans will be a top priority under the Biden administration. “The first briefing that I received in my new job was about the effort to bring the perpetrators of the Jan. 6 attack to justice,” said John Carlin, the acting deputy attorney general who to...
New York Daily News
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