A coalition of 18 state attorneys general, all Democrats, on Wednesday submitted an amicus brief in support of New York’s firearms industry accountability law.
Read MoreEighteen State AGs Voicing Support for New York Gun-Industry Liability Law
Tag: California
California: 10.8 Million Mail-In Ballots ‘Disappeared’ in 2022 Election
According to research by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), more than 10.8 million mail-in ballots “disappeared” in California’s midterm elections last year. California election officials mailed more than 22.1 million ballots to registered voters, but 10.8 million “disappeared.”
Read MoreCommentary: The Coming Dark Age, Courtesy of our 21st Century Government
Certain basic functions of everyday life distinguish us from animals. Our use of fire is among them. We cook with it, heat with it, and light the darkness with it. In many ways, fire on the stove is the center of our family life. In days of our ancestors, we even kept wild animals at bay with torches burning hot with the rendered fat of animals.
Now the United States federal government is coming for our fire. It’s to protect the children, the federal government says, through an unelected bureaucrat who wants to regulate gas cookstoves out of existence.
Read MoreThe Country’s Biggest School Districts Are Explicitly Hiding Kids’ Gender Transitions from Parents
The nation’s largest school districts are implementing policies that require educators to keep students’ gender transitions a secret from their parents.
Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools and New York Public Schools are promoting practices and policies that hide a student’s transgender status from their parents. The policies have become a cultural flashpoint amid a battle over the role parents should play in their child’s education, and the extent to which gender ideology has infiltrated K-12 classrooms.
Read MoreCommentary: An Age of Decay
America ran out of frontier when we hit the Pacific Ocean. And that changed things. Alaska and Hawaii were too far away to figure in most people’s aspirations, so for decades, it was the West Coast states and especially California that represented dreams and possibilities in the national imagination. The American dream reached its apotheosis in California. After World War II, the state became our collective tomorrow. But today, it looks more like a future that the rest of the country should avoid—a place where a few coastal enclaves have grown fabulously wealthy while everyone else falls further and further behind.
Read MoreActivists Push States for Free School Meals
At least a dozen states are considering implementing or already have free student meal programs to continue the federal government’s COVID-19 giveaways, while some activists are demanding for more things to be made free.
Congress allowed a pandemic-era free student meal waiver to expire on Sept. 30, returning to the pre-COVID posture where only students at some schools or those whose families met specific income requirements were given free or reduced-price meals.
Read MoreBlue States Worry They Can’t Pay Out Retirement Benefits
Three high-profile Democratic governors are struggling to stabilize their states’ retirement programs due to a falling stock market and may have difficulties paying out benefits in the coming years, according to Politico.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, all of whom are considered potential candidates for the 2024 presidential race, have poured billions of dollars into their states’ pension funds, according to Politico. They may struggle to maintain their public images if they’re forced to raise taxes or make budget cuts to keep pension payments flowing.
Read MoreCalifornia Saw Six-Figure Population Drop as Gov. Newsom Ran ‘Join Us’ Ads
California residents are still leaving the blue state in droves despite Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s summer ad campaign urging Florida residents to “join” the blue state.
California’s population decreased by six-figures as 343,230 people fled the state in 2022, according to data from the United States Census Bureau. The population decline follows a 30-second advertisement from July in which Newsom urged Floridians to move to the blue state where he claimed they “still believe in freedom.”
Read MoreCommentary: The ‘Reparations’ Scam
California is considering paying “reparations” to black Californians who are directly descended from enslaved people, which may surprise most Californians. After all, slavery was never legal in the Golden State.
Governor Gavin Newsom, heedless of the fiasco he’s inviting, formed a “Reparations Task Force,” no doubt with his future presidential aspirations in mind. The task force issued an interim report in June, detailing California’s “history of slavery and racism and recommending ways the Legislature might begin a process of redress for Black Californians, including proposals to offer housing grants, free tuition, and to raise the minimum wage.”
Read MoreCalifornia College Trustee Wants to ‘Cull’ Conservative Faculty, ‘Take ‘Em to the Slaughterhouse’
A faculty-run think tank that challenges social justice orthodoxy at a California community college is so loathed by activists on and off campus that an elected official apparently suggested treating its leaders like his doomed livestock.
John Corkins, vice president of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees, made the agricultural quip at a Dec. 13 meeting following public comments dominated by accusations of racism and harassment by the Renegade Institute for Liberty at Bakersfield College.
Read MoreCommentary: New York and California in a Race to Hit Rock Bottom
Throughout much of the 20th century, America’s status as an economic superpower and the world’s standard-bearer for freedom and opportunity was due in no small measure to the successes of New York and California. Today, those states have become symbols of America’s decline, as the consequences of their incompetent, partisan leadership are now undeniable. Nowhere is this clearer than how these two formerly great states have addressed immigration.
Read MoreCalifornia Could Give over $200K in Reparations to Each Black Resident
Black residents of California could receive $223,200 each in reparations payments, according to an estimate by the state’s reparations task force reported by The New York Times.
The nine-member task force, authorized by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, recommended $569 billion total in reparations for black residents due to the effects of housing discrimination, though the number could increase before the final recommendations are due June 2023, according to the NYT. Currently, 6.5% of California’s population, or 2.5 million people, identify as black or African-American.
Read MoreThousands of Pedophiles Released from California Prisons After Less than a Year: Report
More than 7,000 pedophiles convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age” were released from California prisons the same year they were convicted, according to the Daily Mail.
The crimes included child rape, continuous sexual abuse of a child, sodomy with a child under 16 and kidnapping a child under 14 “with intent to commit lewd or lascivious acts,” according to the Daily Mail. The outlet analyzed data on thousands of convicts in California’s Megan’s Law database and found that individuals convicted of sexually abusing children were serving only months in jail or prison; Megan’s law requires that certain information about convicted sex offenders be made public.
Read MoreCalifornia to Face Budget Shortfall Amid Mass Exodus of Business Owners
The state of California is facing a budget deficit of $25 billion going into 2023, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reports.
According to the Daily Caller, the LAO’s Wednesday report claimed that the primary reason for the deficit will be the shortcomings in the state’s tax revenue, which will ultimately be about $41 billion less than originally projected. Corporate tax revenue in the state is expected to drop by about $6 billion from fiscal year 2021-2022 to 2023-2024, and personal income tax revenue has also declined, from $135.9 billion in the prior fiscal year to an estimated $122.6 billion in the coming fiscal year.
Read MoreCommentary: To America’s Permissive Addiction ‘Fix,’ Critics Just Say No
After nine years as a homeless drug addict in Los Angeles, Jared Klickstein finally checked himself into a drug treatment center. Unlike the program he had gone to six years before, which had hot tubs, acupuncture, and trips to the beach, this one, in North Hollywood, was deadly serious about personal responsibility. Clients kept a strict schedule. They did chores. They scrubbed toilets. “No hot tubs,” Klickstein said.
Read MoreEarly Returns Show Voters in Five States Defending Abortion-Related Measures
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that returned the question of abortion limits back to the states, unofficial election results in five states show voters opted to codify abortion as a constitutional right, defend expanded access to abortion, and deny lifesaving care to infants born alive despite an abortion attempt.
More than 133,000 Vermont voters – about 72 percent – appear to have supported a ballot measure that made the state the first to enshrine abortion in its constitution. Nearly 42,000 voters, or about 22 percent, voted against the measure, while 9,000, or about 5 percent, left the ballot question blank, The Hill reported.
Read MoreDemocratic Secretaries of State Warn ‘Independent State Legislature Theory’ Would Upend Elections
Thirteen Secretaries of State led by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in Moore v. Harper, a case that will have the court considering the “independent state legislature” theory.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Moore v. Harper in December, a case brought forth after the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature adopted a new congressional voting map based on 2020 Census results. A group of Democratic voters and nonprofit organizations alleged the map was a partisan gerrymander that violated the state constitution and challenged it in court, according to Ballotpedia.
Read MoreHouse Speaker Pelosi’s Husband, Paul, Attacked at Couple’s San Francisco Home
The husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, was attacked at the couple’s home in San Francisco early Friday morning.
A statement from the speaker’s office said the assailant broke into the couple’s residence and that Paul Pelosi, an investor, needed medical attention and is expected to make a full recovery.
Read MoreCalifornia’s Economy Hurting as Companies Flee in Droves
California officials are sounding the alarm after recent statistics showed that fewer corporate and start-up activity in the state was leading to a decline in tax revenue, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
This year, just nine companies based in the state had held initial public offerings (IPOs), which is when a company first lists shares for sale on the stock market – considered a milestone in its growth after strong activity and high valuation, the report revealed. In 2021, California – whose start-up ecosystem in ‘Silicon Valley’ is considered the most prodigious in the world – saw 81 companies conduct IPOs, making 2022 a year of a nine-fold decrease.
Read MoreCommentary: California Is Evading Fiscal Transparency
California may have one of the largest economies in the world, but when it comes to keeping tabs on its own spending it’s dead last among the states. For years, all 49 other states have been able to answer a single public records request and show us where they spent taxpayer money – every check to every company, nonprofit, union or other entity.
Read MoreDoctors File Lawsuit to Block California Law Threatening Physicians for Practicing Medicine Independent of Government Narrative
Two California doctors filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to block a California law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D) last week that threatens the free speech rights of physicians to provide full informed consent to their patients about the risks of COVID-19 mRNA shots and benefits of early treatment with off-label drugs.
The new law threatens to punish doctors who do not support the government’s established narrative, called the “scientific consensus,” on COVID-19 with revocation of their license, and livelihood.
Read MoreGavin Newsom Signs Bill to Punish Doctors for Providing COVID-19 Vaccine Informed Consent Information Not Backed by Government and Big Pharma
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Friday a bill that allows the medical boards of California to be used as government overseers as they discipline doctors who provide their patients with informed consent about the risks of the COVID-19 mRNA shots and the benefits of early treatment for COVID disease with off-label drugs.
Newman signed AB 2098, which labels as “unprofessional conduct,” a doctor’s discussion about the benefits of early treatment of COVID with effective, readily available, and inexpensive medications already in use for years.
Read MoreNew York Will Ban Gas Car Sales by 2035, Copying California
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said Thursday that it will follow California’s lead by banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035.
All passenger cars, pickup trucks and SUVs sold in the state will have to be classified as “zero-emissions vehicles” by no later than 2035, according to a press release. Hochul directed the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to begin implementing the new rules that will also require 35% of state vehicle sales to consist of electric cars by 2026, rising to 68% by 2030.
“With sustained state and federal investments, our actions are incentivizing New Yorkers, local governments, and businesses to make the transition to electric vehicles,” Hochul said.
Read MoreGavin Newsom Signs Bill Making California Sanctuary State for Parents Seeking Child Transgender Surgery
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill (SB-107) into law Thursday that makes his state a safe haven for parents who want their gender dysphoric children to be treated with drugs and surgeries when their own states have attempted to protect minors from such life-altering interventions.
“In California we believe in equality and acceptance,” Newsom said in his signing message. “We believe that no one should be prosecuted or persecuted for getting the care they need – including gender-affirming care.”
Read MoreCatholic Leader: Gov. Gavin Newsom Citing Scripture to Promote Taking Life of Unborn Baby ‘Demonic’
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) decision to rent billboard space to use scripture to promote the abortion industry in his state amounts to “demonic behavior,” wrote Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League Tuesday.
Newsom rented billboards in pro-life states – which he refers to as “anti-freedom” states – for ads attacking their abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Read MoreCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom Rents Billboards for Ads Attacking Pro-Life States
California Governor Gavin Newsroom (D) has fired up a new billboard campaign within pro-life states that promotes his state’s embrace of abortion.
The governor has rented billboards in seven states that have passed significant restrictions on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Read MoreCalifornia Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon
California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Wednesday an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, claiming that the retail giant “stifled competition and caused increased prices” in the state.
“Amazon coerces merchants into agreements that keep prices artificially high, knowing full well that they can’t afford to say no. With other e-commerce platforms unable to compete on price, consumers turn to Amazon as a one-stop shop for all their purchases,” Bonta said. “This perpetuates Amazon’s market dominance.”
Read MoreCalifornia Could Offer $1,000 Tax Incentives for Car-Free Life for Low-Income Residents
California could soon offer a tax incentive to certain households that do not own cars under a bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consideration.
Senate Bill 457, which passed the Legislature on the final day of session last week, would offer a $1,000 tax credit per household starting in January 2023 to certain low-income taxpayers who do not own a vehicle. The bill specifies that spouses jointly filing making $60,000 or less and individuals who make $40,000 or less would be qualified for the tax credit.
Read MoreCommentary: Nuclear Power Is Making a Big Comeback All Around the World
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom was spearheading an eleventh-hour effort to pass legislation to extend a lifeline to Diablo Canyon, a 2,250-megawatt nuclear plant that supplies some 8 percent of the energy produced in the Golden State.
Under pressure from lawmakers and environmental activists, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) agreed in 2016 to decommission Diablo when its operating licenses expire in 2024 and 2025. But in light of the recent energy policy environment, California lawmakers had second thoughts.
Read MoreCommentary: Mandating Kindergarten Is a Bad Idea
This back-to-school season, many parents are eager to drop-off their kindergarteners to begin the 13-year journey toward high school graduation. It can be a joyful time, full of anticipation and excitement. But just because something may be desirable for many families doesn’t mean it should be mandatory for all.
California is the latest state to try to mandate kindergarten for all students, angling to become the 20th to do so. The California legislature recently passed a bill for compulsory kindergarten attendance that is now awaiting Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature.
Read MoreCalifornia Democrats Pass Bill That Could Pay Fast Food Workers Up to $22 an Hour
Democratic legislators in California passed a bill on Monday that will create an unelected state-run board to impose minimum wage and working conditions standards on the state’s fast food restaurants.
The bill, known as A.B. 257, will establish a ten-member council, made up of state officials as well as worker and employer representatives, to set employees’ wages, hours and working conditions for California’s entire fast food industry. The bill stipulates that the council has the authority to issue health, safety and anti-discrimination regulations as well as set an industrywide minimum wage of up to $22 per hour, according to the bill’s text.
Read MoreCalifornia Social Media Bill Could Force Big Tech to Run Facial Scans on Children
California legislators passed a bill Tuesday that, if signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, will require social media companies to consider the mental health of minors that use their products before releasing them to the public.
The legislation would require companies to bolster privacy and security measures for products likely to be used by children and to consider and address potential mental health risks they pose to children. The bill comes amid increasing pressure on companies like TikTok and Instagram following a 2021 report that Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, knew its products were harming teenage girls’ mental health but didn’t fix the issues.
Read MoreCommentary: California May Be Flooring It to the ‘Clean’ Energy Future, but Its Transmission Is Slipping Badly
CALIFORNIA CITY — California’s precariously out-of-date hybrid power grid can’t handle the state’s growing amounts of solar and wind energy coming online, with system managers already forcing repeated cutbacks in renewables and a continued reliance on conventional energy to keep the grid stable, according to state data.
The shortcomings of the transmission grid, which energy consultants in this bellwether state have warned about for years, raise the prospect that marquee products of the growing battery economy such as electric vehicles – “emission free” on the road – will be recharged mainly from traditional electricity-generating power plants: energy from fossil fuels, some of it from out of state.
Read MoreWashington Will Ban Gas Cars, Copying California
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington announced Wednesday that his state would be following California’s lead in banning the purchase of all gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
Inslee touted California’s new rule, which was approved on Thursday, and stated that Washington was ready to adopt the rule to prohibit the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 at the end of 2022, according to a tweet he posted. The governor also said that his state already set an unenforced goal for all new car sales to be zero emissions vehicles by 2030, a move that would attempt to phase out cars powered by an internal combustion engine.
Read MoreCalifornia to Ban Any New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035
In perhaps the most radical push yet for so-called “green energy” alternatives, the state of California has announced plans to ban the sale of any new gas-fueled cars by the year 2035.
On Thursday, as reported by the New York Post, the California Air Resources Board is set to approve a resolution called the Advanced Clean Cars II act, which will initiate a phase-out of gas-powered vehicles across the state of California over the next 12 years.
Read More30 Months into the COVID-19 Pandemic, at Least a Dozen States Are Under ‘Emergency’ Orders
In October 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court stripped Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of the unilateral powers she was using when she declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whitmer had been using a 1945 law – which was prompted by a three-day race riot in Detroit three years earlier – that had no sunset provision in it and didn’t require approval by the state legislature.
In May 2021, Whitmer told a news agency that if she still had that 1945 state-of-emergency law, she would use those powers, but not for anything related to a pandemic.
Read MoreCalifornia ‘Equitable Math’ Program Postponed as New National Civics Curriculum Launched
Many California parents are celebrating wins this week after a controversial school district superintendent was fired for making comments about Asian students and the state’s proposed equitable math program has been postponed from being implemented.
At the same time, a new framework for civics was launched nationally. Advocates are praising the education reform initiatives that have already begun in Florida and Louisiana.
Read MoreCalifornia Leaks Personal Information of Legal Gun Owners
A new dashboard from the California Attorney General’s office has leaked the personal information of thousands of the state’s gun owners.
The California Department of Justice launched its 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal on Monday. The portal featured data on the state’s gun purchases as well as concealed carry license holders.
Read MoreNancy Pelosi’s Husband Charged in Connection with DUI
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was charged Thursday with two alcohol-related misdemeanors after a driving collision in May that led to his arrest, according to the Napa County District Attorney’s office.
Pelosi was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with injury and driving with a .08% blood alcohol level or higher causing injury, the district attorney’s office said Thursday in a press release. The lawmaker’s husband, a venture capitalist living in San Francisco, was arrested and taken to the Napa County Detention Center in late May.
Read MoreOhio Group Joins Fight Against California’s Livestock Regulations
An Ohio group joined the fight against a California proposition that it believes imposes illegal regulations on the pork industry across the country.
The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based policy group, filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court recently in a case filed by the National Pork Producers Council that challenges California’s Proposition 12, saying it violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which restricts states from regulating commerce outside their borders.
Read MoreLargest Pork Packer Leaving California
Another company is leaving California, this time the largest pork packer in the U.S.
Smithfield Foods, Inc., announced it is closing its Vernon, California, facility and reducing its hog production in the western U.S. region, citing as its reason the “escalating cost of doing business in California.”
Read MoreArmed California Man Arrested Near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Home Allegedly Told Police He Wanted to Kill Kavanaugh
An armed California man arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home Wednesday allegedly told police officers he wanted to kill Kavanaugh in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in the Mississippi abortion law case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.
Fox News has reported the suspect has been identified as 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske of Simi Valley, California, and had been carrying a gun, knife, and pepper spray when arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Read MoreTax Filings: Black Lives Matter Has over $42 Million in Assets
New tax filings from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reveal that the official Black Lives Matter organization ended the last fiscal year with at least $42 million in assets.
According to the Associated Press, the 63-page Form 990 shows that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. peaked with over $90 million in donations in 2020, amid race riots that destroyed cities all across the country, which were largely orchestrated and led by BLM. Of that $90 million, the organization invested at least $32 million in stocks.
Read MoreNew Study Shows Red States Handled COVID-19 Better Than Blue States
A new study by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity found that states led by Republicans did a better job than Democrat-led states at managing the coronavirus and keeping their states from slumping into an economic and social recession.
As reported by The Daily Caller, the three states that ranked the worst in mortality, economy, and schooling during the COVID pandemic were New Jersey, New York, and California, all of which had implemented some of the strictest lockdown measures in the nation. By contrast, the states that ranked the highest were Utah, Vermont, and Nebraska.
Read More‘Trans Demiboy’ Elementary Teacher: ‘Heterosexuality Is Pushed on My Kids on a Daily Basis at a Very Young Age’
A video posted to the Libs of Tik Tok Twitter account features a self-described “trans demiboy non-binary” elementary school teacher who argues parents’ claims that pre-K through third grade children are not ready for indoctrination in gender ideology are signs of “internalized homophobia and transphobia.”
“Hi, I’m a queer teacher and I, 1,000 percent, do not support this bill,” states Amanda Tooley, who apparently now uses the name “Skye” and goes by “Mx. T” in her classroom at Saturn Street Elementary Arts and Media Magnet School in Los Angeles.
Read MoreCalifornia Incumbent Democrat Katie Porter Is on the NRCC Target List
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is targeting CA-47 incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Katie Porter for defeat.
Porter has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since January of 2019.
Read MoreRepublicans Are Working to Oust California Democrat Incumbent Mike Levin
Republicans are looking to oust Democrat incumbent U.S. Representative Mike Levin of California’s 49th Congressional district.
CA-49 is on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) target list for incumbent Democrat defeat.
Read MoreBakersfield College Funneled Nearly $200k to Undocumented Student Programs
A public community college in California has funneled just under $200,000 to undocumented student programs, documents obtained by Campus Reform show.
The California Campus Catalyst Fund is a “grantmaking initiative” for undocumented students and their families attending California state schools such as Bakersfield College, a community college with over 2,000 undocumented students in attendance.
Read MoreProsecutors’ Union in Landslide Vote Says Soros-Backed Los Angeles District Attorney Should Be Recalled
The Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA), a union which represents the vast majority of Los Angeles County prosecutors, voted overwhelmingly to support the recall of District Attorney George Gascon.
Gascon, who received over $2 million in financial backing from left-wing financier George Soros according to The Los Angeles Times, is currently facing a recall petition spurred by backlash to his perceived lenient stance on crime.
Read MoreNFL’s San Francisco 49ers Hit by Ransomware Attack
The San Francisco 49ers team fell victim to a ransomware attack affecting key corporate operations, the team announced Sunday.
Hackers using BlackByte ransomware tools listed the San Francisco 49ers on a dark web site identifying the team as a target for extortion attempts, The Record reported. The team confirmed to The Record on Sunday that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack.
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