New America Media, News Report, Posted: Jan 06, 2012

A campaign to place a referendum on the November ballot to repeal California's newly enacted Dream Act has failed to gather enough signatures, according to Republican state Assembly member Tim Donnelly, R-San Bernardino, who led the “Stop AB 131″ campaign. The signature drive was not able to gather the 500,000 signatures necessary, coming up short by more than 57,000 signatures. The California Dream Act, signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown, allows undocumented immigrants to qualify for publicly funded scholarships to attend California's public universities.

Donnelly, who made the announcement on Friday, was detained by police two days earlier for trying to board a plane with a loaded handgun. Donnelly said he had forgotten that the weapon was in his briefcase.