SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered about 200,000 state workers to be paid the federal minimum wage because the state Legislature has not passed a budget.

Department of Personnel Administration Director Debbie Endsley sent the order Thursday in a letter to the state controller. Most state employees will be paid the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour for the July pay period.

Shot from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco in 1905.
Before the earthquake/fire of 1906 destroyed the area. Remarkable footage of the turn of the century lifestyles.

Earl Stein's "Organic Pharmacy" is one of more than 400 medical-marijuana dispensaries the City Council aimed to shut down with an ordinance that took effect recently. But he hasn't closed up shop completely. He has merely removed his marijuana inventory for now, and hopes discrimination lawsuits filed against the city by himself and other dispensary operators will force officials to let him resume the trade....

The Geneseo Village Board has passed a law that makes it illegal to smoke in public parks or in the village parking lot.

The law was approved just last week at a village board meeting. Smokers will not be allowed to light up at all four of the village parks, that includes Highland Park, which village officials say is almost always busy with people and sports.

Smoking will also be banned in the Downtown Municipal Parking lot, even if you're smoking in your car.

The fines won't be cheap, they go all the way up to $250.

Naval officer takes plea deal and has 2 year sentence and a $28,000 fine dropped.

School officials have threatened a hearing-impaired girl with suspension if she uses sign language to talk to her friends on the school bus, the girl's parents say.

Danica Lesko and her parents say sign language is the only way to for the 12-year-old to communicate, especially while riding to school on a noisy bus.

The March 30 letter from her principal that said Danica was "doing sign language after being told it wasn't allowed on the bus."

Below is a repost of an article published on Americans for Safe Access website: www.safeaccessnow.org in November of 2003. The article describes how cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals and also kill cancer cells. Then it finishes off by saying that the US government has known for more than 35 years and that the media which would normally go crazy about a cancer cure story like this, doesn’t at all and in fact seem to be burying the story rather than promote it in any way.

Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.... If you can't beat 'em, tax 'em.

And for calling 911 while a police officer sexually assaulted his girlfriend during a traffic stop, Abel Moreno was arrested. His girlfriend was arrested, too. Then, things got even worse.

A 67-year-old Yuba City woman was shot and killed by officers when she pointed a shotgun at them and refused to put it down, according to Yuba City police.

Victoria Helen Roger-Vasselin was pronounced dead late Thursday at her home at 764 Mariner Loop in an affluent neighborhood on the city’s far south side.