Democrats to ban "Redskins" name for sports teams

The Insane Run The Asylum

Screaming "racism" Democrats act to prevent 

schools from honoring Native Americans.

Amid national controversy over sports teams’ use of Native American slurs and tribe names, California is considering a statewide ban all schools’ use of “Redskins.”

Deemed the California Racial Mascots Act, the proposal from California Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) introduced earlier this month would phase out term Redskins for schools, athletic team names, mascots and nicknames. However, it would allow use of materials bearing the name so long as they were not purchased before Jan. 1, 2017, when the bill would take effect if it passes through the legislature and gains Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.

“Many individuals and organizations interested and experienced in human relations, including the United States Commission on Civil Rights, have concluded that the use of Native American images and names in school sports is a barrier to equality and understanding, and that all residents of the United States would benefit from the discontinuance of their use,” the bill’s text reads reports the Huffington Post.

The bill only affects four schools, according to the San Francisco Chronicle: Gustine High School in Merced County, Calaveras High School in Calaveras County, Chowchilla Union High School in Madera County and Tulare Union High School in Tulare County.

“Tulare Union Redskins are part of a long and proud tradition dating back to 1890,” Sarah Koligian, superintendent of the Tulare Joint Union High School District, told the Chronicle. “Our school has worked closely with our local Indian tribes to include them in the discussion regarding how the Tulare Union Redskin depicts both pride and respect.”

According to a study by FiveThirtyEight, of the 2,128 high school, college, semi-pro and amateur teams using such names, 92 percent are high schools.

While the four California schools hold out, schools across the U.S. have been voluntarily abandoning the “Redskins” name for years. Schools in New York,Washington, Massachusetts and beyond have dropped the name in favor of alternatives, such as “Redhawks.”

This is not the first time such a bill has entered the California legislature. In 2004, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill banning use of Native American nicknames at the state’s public schools.

An "Evil" Racist Symbol
Tulare Union High School Redskins helmet.  The "racists" in the community hate the American Indians so much that they put them on their sports teams.

Liberals searching hard for a problem that does not exist.

Democrat gas tax starts this week

Another Democrat Screw Job

• The People's Republic of California's cap-and-trade policy for gasoline and diesel fuel goes into effect Jan. 1, and will show up quickly at the pump.
• If warming gasses are bad just ban them.  But in this case warming gasses are just an excuse to re-distribute the wealth of the people to the government and to the Elites anointed by the State.

(Press Enterprise)  -  California’s long-disputed and often-misrepresented cap-and-trade policy for gasoline and diesel fuel goes into effect Jan. 1, and it will show up quickly as a roughly 10 cent-per-gallon increase at the pump.

That follows months of market actions in the United States and around the world that have dropped the global price of crude more than $50 a barrel since June and created the longest recorded consecutive-days fall of fuel prices.

The average price-per-gallon for regular unleaded gasoline in the Riverside-San Bernardino metro areas stood at $2.68 by the middle of last week, down almost 94 cents from a year ago.

The cap-and-trade increase, which will appear within days, is well below the 16 to 76 cents per gallon that the Western States Petroleum Association had forecast as recently as August.

Conversely, there will indeed be a price hike at the pump directly linked to the state’s cap-and-trade policy.

California’s Air Resources Board officials had suggested earlier this year that the petroleum industry was unnecessarily passing along those added costs to consumers, a contravention to standard business practices.

In this latest round of cap-and-trade, petroleum industries that produce greenhouse gases above a set standard — the cap — must either buy through auction the allowances (also called permits) equal to their emissions to allow them to continue operating. If they go below the cap, they can offer their unneeded allowances for sale to others - the trade.

There have been plenty of emissions over cap-and-trade during the months leading up January 2015; not all of them have been carbon dioxide.

“Robust debate is valuable, but that debate is undermined when the public is told either that this change won’t (or shouldn’t) cost them anything or that the cost will be many times higher than the most reasonable estimates,” Severin Borenstein, professor of business administration and public policy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and co-director of the Energy Institute at Haas, wrote in an August article.

Borenstein’s estimate of a cap-and-trade-caused price increase of between 9 and 10 cents a gallon was echoed by ARB spokesman David Clegern, who said earlier this month that consumers should expect an increase of 10 cents or less per gallon, adding it was up to suppliers to determine how the costs are passed along.

Jerry Azevedo, a spokesman for the California Drivers Alliance, the group responsible for the “hidden gasoline tax” ads that warned of the 16 cent to 76 cent-a-gallon increases, said Monday that the lower estimate was part of a “growing consensus.” The alliance was funded by the Western States Petroleum Association.

"From each according to his ability, to
each according to his need."
Democrat Party Platform

Obamacare cancels private insurance for 95,000 people

Bend Over and Enjoy Liberalism

California's health exchange is violating the law by canceling private coverage for up to 95,000 people because they might qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's insurance commissioner says.

At issue is health insurance for some of the poorest Californians whose incomes aren't high enough to even qualify for subsidized policies in the Covered California exchange.

The state marketplace is notifying thousands of policyholders that their federal premium subsidies for Obamacare coverage will end Dec. 31 and their private health plan won't be renewed starting in January. Instead, these people will be put into Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income residents reports the Los Angeles Times.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has been urging the exchange to reconsider. "The law is very clear. They can't cancel people," Jones said in an interview.

All this comes at a pivotal time for Covered California. The exchange is trying to renew more than 1 million policyholders during the second open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act and sign up several hundred thousand more before enrollment ends Feb. 15.

For months, the Medi-Cal program has faced a backlog of applicants, leaving some people to wait months to get coverage confirmed. The state said it has resolved most of that bottleneck and about 75% of applicants since Nov. 15 have been enrolled without delay.

"There will be no gap in coverage for these people," said exchange spokeswoman Amy Palmer. "We will make sure Medi-Cal kicks in immediately."

Palmer said the exchange is complying with the law and disagrees with Jones. She said the number of people affected should be less than 95,000, but she didn't specify a figure.

California state workers, agencies caught for wrongdoing in audit

Everyone has their snout in the trough

(News 10 ABC)  -  California has 224,991 active state employees, according to the State Controller's Office website. Some of them, as well as state agencies, have engaged in malfeasance costing taxpayers, the California State Auditor reported Tuesday.

Among the auditor's findings:

- A full-time employee in the Department of Industrial Relations convinced his manager to allow him to telecommute. That allowed the employee to work a second, full-time job without his boss' knowledge. The audit estimated the employee was paid at least $12,000 for time when he was unavailable to perform his job.

- A State Water Resources Control Board manager stole more than $3,500 when she directed surplus state property to be taken to a local recycling center for a cash redemption which she pocketed.

- An Employment Development Department manager and other employees didn't accurately designated an employee's headquarters and so reimbursed the employee for $26,800 in improper travel payments over five years.

- The audit concluded when the Department of General Services allowed a private security firm's guards to park their personal vehicles in a state-owned garage without paying parking fees, it cost California a minimum of $12,800 in lost revenue.

Link to full Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees report.

Jerry Brown's Supreme Court nominee confirmed

Learning on the Job
- - - Brown appoints a lawyer to the Supreme Court who has never been a judge.

SAN FRANCISCO — A state panel on Monday confirmed another California Supreme Court appointment by Gov. Jerry Brown — a move that likely tilts the conservative-leaning court further to the left.

Leondra Kruger, 38, a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general, won unanimous approval by the three-member Commission on Judicial Appointments.

The confirmation of Kruger, who is black, brings down the court's average age and will give California one black, one Hispanic and three Asian justices. Four women will be on the panel.

Kruger is a Yale University law school graduate who appears to be a rising star in the legal profession. Critics, however, have pointed out that she has never served as a judge and has spent most of her legal career outside California, although she is a native of Los Angeles area.

Kruger responded to the criticism at her appointment hearing, saying her career had exposed her to a wide variety of legal issues, and she hoped to draw on the expertise of her colleagues on the court regarding any questions about California law reports the Fresno Bee.

"It is both a personal and professional delight to come back home," she said.

Governor Jerry Brown
(AP File Photo)

No one spoke in opposition of the nomination at the public hearing.

A State Bar of California committee that evaluated Kruger for the judicial commission gave her its highest rating of exceptionally well-qualified, noting praise for her "intellectual firepower, written and oral advocacy skills, impeccable judgment, her fairness, diplomacy and her composure under pressure."

Brown has been making his mark on the court after it was dominated for years by appointees of former Republican Govs. George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson.

Earlier in his current term, Brown nominated Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, 42, a Mexican-born Stanford law professor, to be an associate justice. In 2011, he appointed University of California, Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, 44, after Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked his nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

With Kruger and Cuellar, the court will have three justices appointed by a Democrat and four by Republicans.

The high court position for which Kruger was nominated pays $225,342 a year. She will be replacing Associate Justice Joyce Kennard, who retired.

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Senior Presiding Justice Joan Dempsey Klein of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in California were the commission members who considered Kruger's nomination.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/12/22/4297507/hearing-set-for-california-supreme.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/12/22/4297507/hearing-set-for-california-supreme.html#storylink=cpy

Democrat Senator convicted of drunk driving

Democrat Senator Hueso as seen in his natural habitat.

"Yeah, I know, some people are against drunk driving, and I call those people 'the cops.' But you know, sometimes, you've just got no choice; those kids gotta get to school!"  - - - Dave Attell

Democrat Sen. Ben Hueso was sentenced Thursday to three years probation and ordered to complete an alcohol education program stemming from his August arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol near the Capitol.

The San Diego lawmaker won't be required to serve any jail time.

Megan Virga, Hueso's attorney, accepted a plea deal on the senator's behalf during a brief hearing in Sacramento Superior Court.

Hueso did not appear in court.

The California Senate after 5 PM.

In September, the senator was charged with two counts of DUI, which carry a maximum of six months jail time and a $1,000 fine.

Through his attorney on Thursday, however, Hueso pleaded no contest to a lesser "wet reckless" charge. It carries a $240 fine plus other assessments for a total of about $1,400, Virga said.

The senator was arrested by the CHP early on the morning of Aug. 22 after he was spotted driving the wrong way on a one-way road near downtown Sacramento, authorities said at the time.

Hueso had been granted delays at each of the two previously scheduled hearings in the case, one which was rescheduled to two days after Election Day in November.

He defeated challenger and fellow Democrat Rafael Estrada in the fall contest 54.9 percent to 45.1 percent.

Through his staff, Hueso has declined several requests this fall to discuss his arrest or to elaborate on his statement released in August, in which he pledged to “engage in immediate, corrective actions to ensure this kind of personal conduct is never repeated.”

(UT San Diego.com)

State Senate men's room after a hard
end of the day party.

Feds to abolish state environmental laws to build bullet train

The Rule of Law Means Nothing

• The unelected U.S. Surface Transportation Board claimed the power to abolish California environmental laws at will.
• Laws are passed for a reason.  As a Conservative John Muir - Theodore Roosevelt conservationist I want to protect the environment and have no problem with those laws being used to prevent the construction of the corrupt bullet train.

A federal agency that has jurisdiction over California's bullet train has ruled that it has the authority to pre-empt state environmental law, creating uncertainty for numerous groups fighting the project in court.

In a decision made public Monday, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board ruled that lawsuits challenging the high-speed rail line under the California Environmental Quality Act conflict with its authority over railroads.

The three-member board was acting on a request from the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which was seeking to clarify federal jurisdiction over the project reports the Sacramento Bee.

The authority faces seven lawsuits that use the state environmental law to challenge the bullet train plans. Officials were concerned that the lawsuits could delay construction of one of the initial sections of track, a 114-mile line between Fresno and Bakersfield.

In its 2-1 decision issued late Friday, the federal body said the California environmental law "could be used to deny or significantly delay an entity's right to construct a line that the Board has specifically authorized, thus impinging on the Board's exclusive jurisdiction over rail transportation."

The ruling makes it clear that federal law has precedent over state law as it pertains to construction of the high-speed rail line, said Lisa Marie Alley, spokeswoman for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. She said agency officials were still reviewing the decision.

Yet it also has the potential to muddy the legal waters.

The dissenting member of the federal board, Ann D. Begeman, said the ruling removes key decision-making abilities from state residents, whose interests are at stake in the construction of the north-to-south rail line. "Nobody's really quite sure what to do with this," said Stuart Flashman, an Oakland attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Atherton case.

He said the opposition groups could ask the Surface Transportation Board to reconsider its decision or appeal it in federal court.

Officials with Kings County, which is included in one of the state lawsuits against the bullet train project, were examining the board's ruling and trying to determine their next step.

"It practically invites more litigation," Colleen Carlson, the attorney for Kings County, said in an emailed statement.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article4501911.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article4501911.html#storylink=cpy"Nobody's really quite sure what to do with this," said Stuart Flashman, an Oakland attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Atherton case.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article4501911.html#storylink=cp

The Bullet Train Corruption Cometh

Let The Stealing Begin

• The high speed rail trough of billions in corrupt money is starting to fill for the supporters of California's political hacks.

The state high-speed rail authority took another key step Thursday in building the initial segments of the bullet train system between Los Angeles and San Francisco, saying it had preliminarily selected a team of contractors for another 65 miles of the route through the Central Valley.

While the agency continues to move ahead with planning, contracts, legal settlements and political agreements, it has yet to start heavy construction in Fresno, which was expected about two years ago. But officials have vowed that the late start will not delay their completion dates in 2017 and 2018 for about 130 miles of rail line from Madera to Bakersfield.

The team for the 65-mile section, led by Dragados USA, a subsidiary of a Spanish construction firm, submitted the lowest of three bids for the new contract and was judged as having the highest technical competence score. It submitted a bid of $1.23 billion, well below the $1.74 billion submitted by the team led by Sylmar-based Tutor Perini and the $2.07 billion by the team led by Samsung E&C Americas, a Los Angeles-based unit of a South Korean conglomerate reports the L.A. Times.

The 65-mile segment runs from near downtown Fresno south to the Kern County line, passing nearby but not through the small farming towns of Hanford, Allensworth and Corcoran. The cost of the segment, about $19 million per mile, is significantly less than the 29-mile segment through an urbanized part of Fresno, which will cost about $34 million per mile.

The new segment of rail has been among the most controversial in the Central Valley, raising the ire of farmers who said the line was bisecting pristine agriculture fields with some of the richest soil in the state, if not the nation. The route planning triggered a number of lawsuits by farmers and counties.

Hanford officials strongly objected to having trains running through their historic downtown at 220 mph. Instead, the route swings in a semicircle to the east. Another bypass near Corcoran avoids sensitive wetlands. An Allensworth bypass avoids a wildlife preserve and a historic state park, according to rail agency documents.

John Tos, a farmer who filed an unsuccessful suit to block the project, vowed to continue his opposition.

"It appears they are doing a lot of paperwork," Tos said. "It is a charade they are putting on for the public."

Amtrak rail lines in California..
.
Nothing to Steal
An intelligent person would simply connect the Amtrak line that dead ends in San Luis Obispo with the Amtrak line at San Jose.  For a tiny fraction of the cost of the insane "high speed" rail fraud most of the state from Mexico to Sacramento would be connected by rail.
.
..Instead countless billions will be pissed away as payback to the businesses and unions that fund the campaigns of the Sacramento hacks.  All the special interests have their snouts in the trough of corruption. 

Conservative group sues California AG over donor list demands, 'bullying'

See more at (laslimes)

Democrats use the tax code 

to punish free speech

Americans for Prosperity, a prominent conservative group, is suing the California attorney general for allegedly demanding donor information and threatening harsh penalties if they don't comply. 

The lawsuit, which claims that complying with Attorney General Kamala Harris' demands would put donors' safety "at risk," comes on the heels of the 2013 controversy over IRS targeting of conservative groups. 

According to the Courthouse News Service, the nonprofit group is seeking a federal court order that would bar Harris from demanding the names of its donors. Harris, according to the report, had told the group if it did not hand over the donor lists from 2011 and 2012, Americans for Prosperity would be slapped with fines and barred from operating in California reports Fox News.

Harris’ office has not yet been served with the lawsuit and so far is not commenting, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Americans for Prosperity, founded by the Koch brothers and based in Virginia, acknowledged in court documents that its views are not “universally popular” -- the group said it feared for the safety of donors, citing past harassment and hackers. They said Harris' demands violate the First and 14th amendments and the Supremacy Clause.

"Faced with such bullying, current and potential donors are understandably afraid that having their identities disclosed will put them and their families at risk," the court complaint states. "Dozens of potential donors, a number of whom live in California, have reluctantly refused to contribute to the foundation because they are too fearful of the reprisal they will face if their contribution becomes public knowledge, and current donors have indicated that they will cease their contributions if their names and addresses are revealed to the state of California."

The case follows the 2013 scandal in which the IRS applied extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking nonprofit status. 

Americans for Prosperity is federally registered as a 501(c)(4), which means it can engage in political campaigns and elections as long as it is not for a specific candidate. They are not required under federal rules to release donor lists. The group has a separate registration in California, which they say has been put at risk if they do not comply with Harris’ demands.

Another conservative group, the Center for Competitive Politics, a 501(c)(3), also sued Harris in March, contending that its First Amendment rights were violated by her demands for their donor lists. They lost their request for an injunction in federal court and are appealing the court’s decision to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Now the GOP wants to destroy the Sacramento Delta

Everyone's Hands Are Dirty

• On one hand you have Jerry Brown and his Democrat allies trying to destroy the Sacramento Delta and drain it dry with giant water tunnels.  Now you have the GOP House working hard to destroy the Delta on behalf of their agri-business campaign contributors.
• Just because you choose to farm in a desert you do not have the right to destroy the natural wonders of California.
• Solution  -  Instead of raping the Delta, why not build desalination plants on the coast and pump that new water right into the California aqueduct system for farms and cities?  But common sense ideas like these require too much thought for the pinheads in government and business.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  The GOP controlled House on Tuesday passed a California drought bill, despite a veto threat from the Obama administration and its expected demise in the Senate in the final days before Congress adjourns.

Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir
back in the days when the GOP cared
about the environment.

The 230-182 vote was largely a symbolic gesture in the years-long effort by House Republicans to weaken endangered species protections that have restricted water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and urban Southern California.

"This bill very clearly tries to override the requirements of the Endangered Species Act," said attorney Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's obviously a warmup for next year with Senate control by the Republicans."

The drought debate demonstrated the growing clout of California Republicans. The measure's key champion was House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, who rose to the post only months ago. A longtime ally of agribusiness, McCarthy used his control over the legislative calendar to bring the GOP bill to the floor in the waning days of the legislative session, even though negotiations over a bipartisan bill had collapsed weeks earlier.

Devin Nunes, a Central Valley Republican, compared the Democrats who opposed the water legislation to communist bureaucrats.

"This is about San Francisco and Los Angeles getting all of their water, never giving up one drop, and they have taken the water from our communities," Nunes said. (In fact, delta deliveries have been cut to Los Angeles and the rest of the Southland.)

Read More . . . .

Burt Wilson, of Sacramento, who worked to oppose the 1982 peripheral canal plan, joined others in a protest against a plan announced by Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to build a giant twin tunnel system to move water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmland and cities.   (stamfordadvocate.com)

"Corruptus in Extremis"
Governor Brown and the liars in the legislature are moving heaven and earth to rape the Sacramento Delta in order to repay the huge campaign contributions to the politicians from business and labor looking to profit from the building contracts.

Nevada to suck down "California's" water

Welcome to Lake Mead.

Suck That Water Down

• We keep importing millions and millions of new legal and illegal foreigners into the desert communities of California, Nevada and Arizona.
• Now Las Vegas is making plans to keep sucking dry Lake Mead even after water levels drop into the danger zone.  

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Facing dwindling water supplies, Western states are struggling to capture every drop with dam and diversion projects that some think could erode regional cooperation crucial to managing the scarce resource.

Against that backdrop, eight Western governors meeting in Las Vegas this weekend will address regional water issues, and water managers from seven states arrive next week to work on ways to ensure 40 million people in the parched Colorado River basin don't go thirsty.

Gary Wockner, a conservationist with the Denver-based advocacy group Save the Colorado, said there's already jostling amid the fear of empty buckets. "Everyone is trying to get the last legal drop of water," he said.

A view of Lake Mead in the distance behind boats in dry dock near
where the Lake Mead Marina was once located.

"Diversions extract water from the system," said Jack Schmidt, professor of watershed sciences at Utah State University. He just completed three years studying the Grand Canyon for the U.S. Geological Survey. "More water use and more water retention in the upper basin means less water flowing through the Grand Canyon to the lower basin."

Schmidt referred to the Colorado River Compact of 1922 and agreements with Mexico that promise about 16.5 million acre-feet of water annually from a river system that has historically taken in about 15 million acre-feet from rainfall and snowmelt. But that amount has diminished during almost 15 years of drought. One acre-foot of water is about enough to serve two average Las Vegas homes for a year.

"You could say that we decided how to divide the pie, but the pie is smaller than anybody thought," Schmidt said. "With climate change, it is even smaller than that."

In Las Vegas, which virtually relies on water from Lake Mead, officials are making plans to add a $650 million pumping facility to draw from the reservoir even if levels drop below 1,000 feet above sea level. That's the line at which Hoover Dam's hydroelectric turbines would be idled.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority already is drilling an $800 million tunnel to tap water from the bottom of the lake, at 860 feet above sea level.

At 900 feet — so-called "dead pool" — the river would end at Hoover Dam. Nothing would flow downstream.

The lake reached its high water mark in 1983 at 1,225 feet.

Read More . . . .

A Las Vegas neighborhood..
It's not rain but population
Las Vegas or Los Angeles it does not matter.  We continue to build and add millions of new people with no thought as to where the water will come from.  After all, water "magically" joust pours out of the tap on command. Never mind that we live in a desert.
.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A community advisory committee is recommending a new $650 million water project — and a rate hike to pay for it — to secure the Las Vegas Valley’s water supply even under a worst case scenario at Lake Mead.

The proposed pumping station would allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to keep drawing from the lake should it shrink to “dead pool,” a once-unthinkable low point at which Hoover Dam can no longer release water.

Since 2000, the surface of Lake Mead has dropped about 130 feet amid record drought on the over-appropriated Colorado River. Since dipping to a new record low in August, the water level has gone back up by 4 feet, but current projections call for the lake to fall back into record territory in April.

Right now, the surface of the lake sits at about 1,084 feet above sea level. The intake pipes and pumps currently used to supply the valley with about 90 percent of its water will stop working should the lake drop another 85 feet.

The dead-pool level, at which Hoover Dam can no longer release water downstream, is at about 900 feet above sea level. The proposed Intake Pump Station 3 would allow the water authority to keep drawing from the lake down to about 870 feet above sea level, though there would be little left of the lake under such a doomsday scenario.   Read More . . . .

Pentagon gives California police grenade launchers

Militarization of Police Departments

Both Democrats and Republicans fall all over each 

other to militarize local police departments.

Southern California is mired in more than three years of drought, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is prepared for snowy conditions after it received 1,600 parkas for camouflage, 500 snowshoes and 132 snow trousers in March from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The gear was listed in data recently released by the department detailing the transfer of surplus military equipment to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the country. More than $160 million in equipment has gone to agencies in California, with some small towns like Santa Maria receiving grenade launchers, the data show. The vast majority of the equipment was given since 2006.

California agencies have also received meals, office supplies, night vision goggles, high-powered military rifles, x-ray machines and a boat reports the Los Angeles Times.

The Pentagon released the data with little fanfare last month on its Defense Logistics Agency e-reading room for Freedom of Information Act requests after being inundated with requests from journalists, MuckRock and The Marshall Project reported Thursday.

The federal surplus program has become controversial, with critics saying it adds to the militarization of police departments.

In September, the Los Angeles school police returned three grenade launchers it received through the federal program. But the department held on to its rifles and a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, which is designed to withstand rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices.

City officials in Davis, Calif., directed their police department in August to return a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicle, which is worth $689,000, after residents protested the acquisition, saying it would make people more fearful of the police.

Police State Too Much? Send in a Marine!