“California” on The Daily Caller

When gay couples first sought the right to legally wed in California, they argued that they were entitled to all of the benefits of marital bliss. (more)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Same-sex marriage moved one step closer to the Supreme Court on Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled California’s ban unconstitutional, saying it serves no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity” of gays. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Moments after the final buzzer sounded on the Los Angeles Lakers’ latest extravaganza of hard fouls, trash-talk and outright wrestling matches with the Los Angeles Clippers, Pau Gasol might have topped it all when he patted Chris Paul on the head. (more)

In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama promoted a high-speed rail project as part of his stimulus spending plans. After Tuesday night’s address, however, the administration’s devotion to the idea has apparently jumped the tracks. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo Inc. is preparing for a possible makeover of its board, according to news media reports published Saturday. (more)

The budget that California Governor Jerry Brown unveiled yesterday is a masterpiece in nonchalance and non-responsiveness in the face of crisis — and worse, it includes a bold signal that California, already one of the most anti-business states in the union, will be doing even more to drive business owners and the jobs they create elsewhere. (more)

Let’s start with the premise that lawmakers are the only people in America who aren’t convinced we have too many laws. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities arrested a German man Monday in connection with dozens of suspected arson attacks that destroyed parked cars, scorched buildings and rattled much of the nation’s second-largest city over the New Year’s weekend. (more)

The number of fires believed to be linked to an arson spree has risen to 39 across the Los Angeles area, fire officials said Sunday. (more)

An arsonist lit up Los Angeles for a fourth straight night, torching more than a dozen targets yesterday in what seemed like a madman’s march to burn down the city, car by car. (more)

Kim Kardashian — the reality TV star known for being Kim Kardashian— has joined the long list of people targeted with negative advertising this year, finding herself the subject of of a campaign to get millionaires to pay more taxes. (more)

A recent study from the left-wing Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) concludes, almost laughably, that taxes do not motivate people to leave high-tax states. The study’s authors argue that weather may have more of an effect on migration patterns than tax rates. (more)

California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown apparently has a plan to revitalize the state’s failing economy: magic, with a little bit of help from Harry Potter. (more)

Sanitation officials said Wednesday that they expect to haul away 30 tons of debris from the Occupy L.A. encampment —everything from clothing to heaps of garbage to oddball curiosities left behind by the protesters who lived at the City Hall tent city for two months. (more)

NEW YORK — After filing two separate antitrust lawsuits against the league in different states, NBA players are consolidating their efforts and have turned to the courts in Minnesota as their chosen venue. (more)

The TV commercials are heartwarming — Richard and Gloria Pink, sitting in their busy hot-dog stand on La Brea Avenue, remember how Bank of America gave Richard’s parents the loan that helped them build their wiener business more than 50 years ago. (more)

A federal court has ruled that school administrators had the right to order California high school students to remove displays of the American flag from their clothing on Cinco De Mayo. (more)

California dentist and lawyer Orly Taitz, best known as a leading proponent of conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama’s birth, is running as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. (more)

Police and business leaders in the very liberal city of Oakland, Calif., are pushing back against Democratic political leaders who have abandoned efforts to clear rioting protesters from a downtown park. (more)

Last week, “Morning Joe” regular Donny Deutsch made the bizarre argument that the nationwide “Occupy” protests needed a “Kent State” moment to make it more historically relevant. He doubled down on Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, adding that while he didn’t want violence, it may be what’s needed to take the movement to “the next level.”  (more)