Free Talk Live

The 110 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Jose will be reduced to only ten after a city council vote to impose new restrictions on pot clubs.

A vote that came in early Tuesday evening would limit the city to only ten dispensaries and only two such establishments per district. The new regulation would also require that marijuana be grown on site at the dispensaries.

A Santa Ana City Council member accused of sexual battery and other charges was described Tuesday as a "well-connected" man who used his management power to prey on female employees. More details were released Tuesday morning when the Orange County District Attorney outlined charges against Carlos Bustamante, the former administration manager for the Orange County Public Works Department who was arrested on his way to a city council meeting Monday. "He had a type," said OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

Wrong on so many levels... Gordon Wozniak, a city councilman in Berkeley, Calif., has proposed an email tax to provide much-needed revenue to the ailing U.S. Postal Service. “There should be something like a bit tax,” Wozniak said. “I mean a bit tax could be a cent per-gigabit and they would still make, probably, billions of dollars a year… And there should be, also, a very tiny tax on email.” Wozniak said the bit tax could bring in revenue to help a number of sectors, beyond just the post office.

Cost of a 15-pack of Crayola sidewalk chalk: $4. Cost to Orlando taxpayers for arresting chalk protester: $196,363. Chalk protester Timothy Osmar, who sued the city after his arrest, was paid $6,000 in damages, and the three First Amendment attorneys who took his case split $35,000. But the biggest expense was the two high-powered law firms hired by City Hall: Akerman Senterfitt was paid $83,293, and King, Blackwell, Zehnder & Wermuth was paid $72,070.

Out of all of the cities with Occupy movements, the cost per arrest in Phoenix was the highest - taxpayers spent $4,430 per. If this math is correct, each officer got around $8,000 in overtime for 72 hours of police work to protect the city from just 40 protestors. Who does this benefit? Not Phoenicians. Additional coverage at the San Francisco Chronicle here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/02/08/prweb9168446...

The city will change the lettering on every single street sign - at an estimated cost of about $27.5 million - because the feds don't like the font.

Former UK National Health Service director Margaret Hutchon has died after a nine months' wait (and four cancellations!) to have a critical stomach surgery. State-run healthcare to save us all, eh?

A prominent Canadian politician’s decision to undergo heart surgery in the U.S. has touched off a debate about national health care in his own country. Because even HE doesn't trust Socialized medicine!

DHS Gives UC-Berkeley ‘Armored Personnel Carrier’

Heavily armored vehicle “used by U.S. troops on the battlefield”

An armored personnel carrier used by U.S. troops to fight insurgents on the battlefield is making its way to the University of California thanks to a $200,000 dollar grant from the Department of Homeland Security...