San Francisco University officials are trying to downplay a report that one of their professors used taxpayer dollars to fly to the middle east and meet with various terrorist groups.
A non-profit group discovered during a request through the California Public Records Act that Professor Rabab Abdulhadi received more than $7,000 to fly to Jordan and the West Bank. The professor had initially been scheduled to speak at a conference at American University in Lebanon but was removed from the speaking list. She still took the trip.
Professor Abdulhadi then met with Leila Khaled, a convicted terrorist hijacker and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terror group responsible for almost 160 bombings, assaults and assassinations. She also met with Sheikh Raed Salah, who funds the terrorist group Hamas and served a two-year terror related prison term.
The documents say the meetings with terrorists were set before the University provided the funding for the trip.
Professor Abdulhadi has spoken at various anti-Israeli events around the world.
Professor Abdulhadi did not return calls to Fox News.
A mentally ill 22-year-old California man killed six people and wounded seven others before killing himself in a premeditated murder rampage in Isla Vista, California.
Elliot Rodger posted a video online the day before his assault where he prepared to bring “retribution” on those who he believed had done him wrong, singling out college age women he said rejected him in favor of men he thought were crude and beneath him.
Rodger posted a 140-page manifesto online that he e-mailed to friends and family who were frantically searching for him the evening of his attack.
Rodger stabbed his three roommates to death before getting in a black BMW to start his rampage. He committed suicide when police closed in on him after a short chase.
Police say most of the deaths happened outside a convenience store where the bystanders didn’t realize initially what was happening and took some time to obtain cover. Witnesses say the gunman rapidly sped away after the shooting, running over two bicyclists in his way.
Police had been dispatched to Rodger’s house a month prior to the attack after reports of disturbing videos that he had placed online. Police visited with him and reported that they did not find any threatening signs.
Police in Santa Ana, California have arrested a man who kidnapped a 15-year-old girl ten years ago and then forced her to marry him and have his children.
Isidro Gracia disappeared in 2004 with his live-in girlfriend’s daughter who he had been raping for three months. He then drugged her and kept her addicted to drugs while they moved to a house in Compton, California. He obtained fake IDs for both of them and then kept her locked in a garage until her mid-20s.
He brainwashed her into thinking because she didn’t speak English, she was illegal and would be deported if she contacted police. He then forced her to marry him so she would be “legal” and then have his child so she couldn’t be deported. He said the girl’s family told him they’d given up looking for her and no longer wanted her.
Police discovered the situation when the women found her sister on Facebook and contacted her.
The 41-year-old Garcia is facing charges of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment and other charges. He is facing life without parole if convicted on all the charges against him.
The woman, who is not being named because she was a minor when taken, has been reunited with her family. She said that she plans to raise her daughter in a loving family environment and to obtain an education.
Southern California emergency officials are dealing with a rash of wildfires that should not be happening this time of year.
“This is May, this is unbelievable. This is something we should see in October,” said Carlsbad fire chief Michael Davies told the BBC.
The wildfires have caused disruptions and evacuations all over southern California. Nine wildfires have broken out around San Diego and have caused evacuations of as many as 20,000 people because of the flames. San Marcos officials evacuated students from the California State University campus.
“The fire was right above campus. I could see it reaching over part of the hill, this really dark smoke. It was almost like an explosion,” said 19-year-old Grant Rapoza.
A 6,000 acre fire at Camp Pendleton Marine Base forced the evacuation of weapons stations for both the Marines and Navy.
“The common theme statewide this year is unprecedented number of fires and fire activity across the state, in many cases two to three months earlier than normal,” Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the Christian Post.
NBA observers were surprised when the Golden State Warriors dismissed coach Mark Jackson despite his very successful run with the team.
Now reports are surfacing that the coach’s strong Christian faith may have played a part in his dismissal from the team.
Mark Jackson, a pastor before being hired to coach the team, was asked on 95.7 FM in the Bay Area about comments Jackson’s strong Christian faith caused problems between himself and ownership that lead to his firing.
“I was hired when I was a pastor. I think it’s unfortunate because if it was true, you don’t encourage media to come do a piece on my church, on my ministry, the work on my faith. Don’t do it when it’s convenient and you’re searching for something. I never went around beating people in the head with a Bible,” said Jackson.
Jackson, the first coach to take the Warriors to the playoffs in consecutive seasons since 1991-1992, said that he is thankful for the opportunity God gave him with Golden State.
“I’m grateful…Maybe that doesn’t sell but I’m grateful for the opportunity and we move on. And God-willing another opportunity will present itself but if not, I’m totally at peace being a husband, a father, a pastor,” Jackson said.
Jackson and his wife Desiree Coleman are co-pastors of the True Love Worship Center International in Reseda, California.
Reading, writing and denying the killing of over 6 million Jews. That’s apparently part of a California schools’ curriculum after parents discovered an assignment telling their children to write papers denying the holocaust.
Rialto United School District assigned eighth grade students an assignment to “write an argumentative essay, based upon cited textual evidence, in which you explain whether or not you believe [the Holocaust] was an actual event in history or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”
The interim Superintendent of the District, Mohammed Islam, claimed that no offense was intended to Jewish members of the community or Jewish parents.
“The intent of the writing prompt was to exercise the use of critical thinking skills,” Islam wrote in a statement. “There was no offensive intent in the crafting of this assignment. We regret that the prompt was misinterpreted.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Associate Regional Director wrote the assignment had no benefit for students.
“It is ADL’s general position that an exercise asking students to question whether the Holocaust happened has no academic value,” Matthew Friedman wrote in a press release.
A district spokeswoman said the department that assigned the project will undergo cultural sensitivity training. The student’s assignment was canceled after public outrage.
The town of Pismo Beach, California will no longer have any form of prayer in their council meetings after bowing to the demands of the virulent anti-Christian groups Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists United San Luis Obispo.
The city claims they are trying to save taxpayer dollars by giving in to the demands of the anti-Christianists.
The two groups had filed a lawsuit against the city six months ago claiming the city was violating the mythical separation of church and state because the prayers were mostly Christian in nature. They said the city’s volunteer chaplain was a Christian and thus had a Christian tone to his prayers.
They also said that the volunteer chaplain, Rev. Paul E. Jones, would tell people to live a life “in accordance with the Bible.”
The city agreed in their settlement to eliminate the volunteer chaplain position but claimed no liability in the lawsuit.
David Leidner, a member of the anti-Christian Atheist United, said he was “very happy” that the Christian chaplain was no longer part of the meetings and that there will be no prayers allowed.
A California school district has ruled that teachers violated the rights of Christian students when they prohibited the distribution of a series of Bible coins.
The students were giving classmates coins that were printed with different Bible verses including John 3:16 and John 3:36.
“We’re going to make sure that students are protected,” Apple Valley School District Superintendent Thomas Hoegerman told the San Bernadino Sun. “There was no malicious intent but we clearly had folks who didn’t fully understand the implications.”
The children were giving the coins to their friends during recess periods and not during actual class time when they were stopped by teachers.
One of the teachers, Stormy DeHaro, told her student she hated the coins and they were a distraction to her class. A second teacher removed them from Valentine’s cards a student brought to her class and returned them to the child saying they were a violation “of the Ed Code.”
The superintendent says he regrets the incident and the problems it caused to the student’s family.
Five high school seniors are among the ten people dead in a fiery crash after a tractor-trailer slammed into their bus on a California highway.
Investigators say the crash happened around 5:30 p.m. on Interstate 5 near Orland, California. The bus was filled with seniors who were planning a visit to Humboldt State University to see if they wanted to attend in the fall.
The working theory in the investigation is that the FedEx driver was swerving to avoid a passenger car but was unable to avoid them. The passenger vehicle was involved in the accident with the truck and bus.
In addition to the students, the truck drivers and three adult chaperones were killed in the crash. At least 37 others sustained injuries, some critically, and about half remained hospitalized.
“As we mourn the loss of those who died, we join all Californians in expressing our gratitude for the tireless work of the Red Cross and emergency personnel who responded bravely to this terrible tragedy,” California governor Jerry Brown said in a statement.
Despite no tsunami warnings being issued for California, the West Coast has been experiencing unusual water movements since the 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck Chile’s northern coast.
Tide fluctuations, abnormal wave heights, and current changes have been reported and no tsunami warnings have been issued.
Tsunami waves hit the southern town of La Jolla, California and progressed north according to Bill Knight, an oceanographer with the National Tsunami Warning Center.
It is unlikely the tides will damage boats in the harbor, but boat owners could experience problems if they are returning to dock. California harbors have experienced three-to-four knot fluctuations that can push boaters and their vessels into the dock.
Knight added that the fluctuations could last a full day, but called the situation “pretty typical.”
“I think there’s nothing to worry about here, but we want to do our due diligence,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything yet to make us worry. And we don’t expect to.”