Tag: california

GOP Senators Rick Scott and Ron Johnson go to California to Hear Pacific Palisades Fire Victims While Gavin Newsom Attends Climate Change Summit in South America 

Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, both Republicans, just traveled to California to hear testimony from victims of the California wildfires in the Pacific Palisades.

Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star who lost his home in the fires was there to testify and remarked about the fact that Republicans came from thousands of miles away to listen while Democrat leaders in California were nowhere to be found.

In fact, California Governor Gavin Newsom is at a conference in South America focused on climate change, which he still insists was responsible for the fires.

Breitbart News has details:

Thursday’s senate hearing was part of a congressional investigation into the genesis of the fire and what went wrong before and after the conflagration by the various California governments responsible for warning residents and putting out the flames.

The hearing was led by Senators Johnson and Scott (R, FL), who are looking into the fire. Six Pacific Palisades residents who lost their homes also delivered powerful remarks. California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff were not at the hearing.

One of those who spoke at the confab was The Hills reality show star Spencer Pratt, who has become a leading advocate for the victims of the fires.

“By the grace of God, my family survived,” he said during his testimony.

“My family has not lost our hope, but we did lose our home and everything we own in the Palisades fire,” Pratt said during the hearing, wearing a hat with the words, “Newsom will never be president.”

“It’s been 10 months,” Pratt said, “and our government leaders, instead of helping us rebuild, have only served to make the rebuilding process so painful and slow that many just quit and are forced out of their hometown through attrition so vultures like Gavin Newsom and [state Sen.] Scott Weiner have a blank slate to remake the Palisades in the vision of their wealthy donors and foreign investors.”

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UC-San Diego Report Indicates Shocking Number of Students Entering College in California Lack 8th Grade Math Skills

A new report from the University of California San Diego indicates that a shocking number of students entering the University of California system lack the math skills one would expect from a middle school student.

Some of this can be blamed on school closures during Covid, but not all of it. At the end of the day, this is a failure of the schools and teachers that failed to impart these basic skills.

It’s also an excellent reminder that not everyone needs to go to college. If you can’t do high school level math, why should you even be considered?

Newsweek reported:

Students at California University Without 8th Grade Math Skills Skyrockets

A sharp rise in students entering the University of California system without middle school-level math skills is raising alarms among educators.

A new internal report from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) reveals that the percentage of incoming students scoring below Algebra 1 on placement exams—a math course typically completed by the end of eighth grade—has tripled over the past five years.

Why It Matters

In 2020, just 6 percent of first-year students at UCSD placed below Algebra 1. By 2025, that number had surged to 18 percent, according to the UCSD Senate Admissions Working Group (SAWG) report.

The findings reflect a growing disconnect between high school transcripts and actual college readiness. The SAWG report links the increase to pandemic-era learning disruptions, long-standing inequities in California’s K–12 system, and the elimination of standardized testing requirements in UC admissions.

What To Know

The number of UCSD students requiring Math 2, a course originally designed for less than 1 percent of the incoming class, surged from under 100 students annually to over 900 by fall 2024.

This example of an easy question failed by many students is just stunning.

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Eric Swalwell Considering a Run for California Governor

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is reportedly considering a run for California governor — a possible foil to frontrunner Katie Porter.

Two anonymous sources close to the congressman told MSNBC that he has been considering a play for the Golden State governor’s mansion with a possible announcement as early as next week.

“Swalwell declined to comment when reached by MSNBC, but a source close to the congressman, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the private discussions, said Swalwell allies had asked him to run ‘to fill a “fighter/protector” role’ in the mold of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom,” reported MSNBC.

Should Swalwell throw his hat in the ring for governor, he will be up against former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and businessman Stephen Cloobeck. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) has already announced he would not be running for governor.

“Earlier on Thursday, a Trump administration official referred the congressman to the Department of Justice for a potential federal criminal investigation over allegations of mortgage and tax fraud,” added MSNBC

Swalwell said in response, “As the most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me.”

A 2020 report in Axios noted that Swalwell had ties to an alleged Chinese spy, Christine Fang (a.k.a. “Fang Fang”), who had reportedly been cultivating relationships with California politicians on behalf of the Chinese government for years. Fang helped fundraise for Swalwell’s 2014 congressional election bid and helped place an intern in his office. Swalwell cut ties with her in 2015 upon advice from U.S. intelligence.

In 2021, Breitbart News reported that “the U.S. Intelligence Community currently has in its possession a classified report that includes intricate and intimate details of the nature of the relationship” between Swalwell and Fang.

In 2023, the House Ethics Committee concluded the investigation into his relationship with Fang with no further censuring.

Swalwell has denied having any inappropriate relationship with Fang, maintaining that he was a target of the Chinese government.

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DOJ Joins Lawsuit Challenging California’s Redistricting Maps

The Department of Justice has sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the State of California’s newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50. 

The suit alleges that the plan mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

Proposition 50 amends the California Constitution, allowing the legislature to draw a new congressional-district map. Substantial evidence, including that in the legislative record and public statements, indicates that the legislature created a new map in which Latino demographics and racial considerations predominated, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop 50,” said Jesus A. Osete, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond.”

The 20-page document was filed in California’s district court and claims that the proposition used race as a proxy to advance political interests. 

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California DMV Admits to Illegally Issuing 17,000 Commercial Licenses to “Dangerous Foreign Drivers”

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has confessed to illegally handing out 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers who have no business operating massive semitrucks or school buses on American roads.

According to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy, the discovery came as part of an ongoing audit by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

According to the Department of Transportation, each of the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders has been issued notice that their license will expire within 60 days, as it no longer meets federal requirements.

FMCSA is now requiring the California DMV to hand over a full audit of all non-domiciled CDLs to verify that every unlawfully issued license is revoked and that the state corrects the systemic failures that allowed this fraud to occur.

Federal auditors found that over one in four foreign driver records sampled in California failed to comply with federal law, including CDLs that extended beyond the expiration of a foreign worker’s visa, a blatant violation of federal safety regulations.

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Newsom’s Former Chief of Staff Indicted on Public Corruption Charges

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 23 charges related to public corruption, according to a Nov. 12 statement from the Department of Justice.

U.S. Attorney Eric Grant alleged that Williamson, 53, of Carmichael, California, committed bank and wire fraud, conspired to defraud the government and obstruct justice, filed false tax returns, and made false statements to investigators.

“This is a crucial step in an ongoing political corruption investigation that began more than three years ago,” Grant said in the statement. “As it always has, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to protect the people of California from political corruption.”

According to the charges, Williamson allegedly helped divert about $225,000 in funds from a “dormant political campaign” to an associate’s personal account using a money laundering scheme to fund a “no-show job” between February 2022 and September 2024.

She is also charged with conspiring to create illegitimate, backdated contracts to thwart a federal investigation into Paycheck Protection Loans made to a business he owned.

Williamson also allegedly filed false tax returns, deducting luxury purchases of home goods and handbags, as well as private jet flights and hotel stays, according to the indictment.

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DISQUALIFIED! — Congressman Eric Swalwell Names Washington DC Home as ‘Principal Residence’ and Has No California Address

California Representative Eric Swalwell has faced a barrage of controversy in recent years, from his alleged ties to the Chinese spy “Fang Fang,” to his removal from the House Intelligence Committee over national security concerns, to his infamous on-air mishap during a 2019 interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Now, a new revelation raises even more serious questions about Swalwell’s integrity and eligibility to serve in Congress.

Despite serving as a Congressman from California’s 15th District and claiming Hometown: Livermore on his official House profile, Swalwell has declared his Washington, DC property as his “principal residence.”

A public Deed of Trust for Swalwell’s DC home at 209 S Street NE, dated April 18, 2022, confirms the property is designated as his “principal residence” as a condition of the loan.

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Dem-run city hires inspectors to snoop in residents’ garbage cans to make sure they’re recycling properly

Residents in a California city can expect to see trash inspectors lifting their garbage cans in the early morning hours as the city continues to crack down on recycling. 

Officials are sending teams of Compliance Officers or ‘lid lifters’ to walk through neighborhoods before trash collection and monitor whether residents are properly sorting their trash and recycling. 

The initiative in San Diego was launched following the passage of a law in the California State Senate (SB 1383), which established a new organic waste recycling program. 

The city will not issue citations to those who violate the recycling rules, but instead will place an ‘oops’ tag on the bin, notifying the owner that they made a mistake. 

Some bins may have a ‘do not collect’ sticker on them, which requires homeowners to sift through their trash and call the city for a new pickup.  

The lid lifters won’t be sifting through garbage cans and are only tasked with inspecting what they can see after looking inside the bins. 

City Waste Reduction Program Manager Alexander Galasso told local ABC affiliate, KGTV: ‘Waste doesn’t end when you come to the trash can.’

‘There is a life after waste and we want to make sure that these are sorted correctly, because not only does it impact our staff and trucks, but it impacts what goes into our landfill.’

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DOJ Launches Investigation into UC Berkeley over Antifa ‘Mob Violence’ at TPUSA Event

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it is investigating the University of California, Berkeley, a day after “mob violence” from Antifa protesters occurred outside of a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event.

In a post on X, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon shared a letter that was addressed to UC Berkeley Police Chief Yogananda Pittman. In the letter, Pittman was asked to “preserve all records” in her possession that are “relevant to the agency’s preparation, execution, and response to the Turning Point event held” at the campus on Monday, along with related protests.

“The @CivilRights Division, under @AGPamBondi’s leadership, has asked UC Berkeley Police to preserve all records regarding their response to the mob violence at UC Berkeley’s TPUSA event,” Dhillon said in her post. “Every American has the right to speak at and attend events without fear.”

The letter stated, in part, that the situation at TPUSA’s event “may implicate the University of California’s commitment to provide adequate security”:

The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has recently become aware of concerning incidents occurring on your campus at the University of California (UC), Berkeley on or about November 10, 2026. These events may implicate the University of California’s commitment to provide adequate security pursuant to a 2018 settlement agreement in Young America’s Foundation, et al. v Napolitano et al., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 17-02255. Our office previously opened investigations of the University of California System for potential violations of Title VI and Title VII based on other events. We will determine whether the events of November 10 should also be included in those investigations. We are also determining whether recent events provide a basis for additional investigation of violations of federal rights, including, without limitation, violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Dhillon’s letter also explained that the request to preserve all records related to the response to the violence at the TPUSA event, included but was “not limited to” all written or electronic communications from UC Berkeley Campus Police regarding the incident or TPUSA, “generally in the last year,” along with “minutes and communications of any pre-event planning either internal or with outside groups” relating to the event, among others.

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They Did It Again! CBS Affiliate Gets Scorched for Calling TPUSA Event Violently Disrupted by Antifa “Mostly Peaceful” Before Showing Footage of What Actually Happened

The corporate media literally copied their playbook from the BLM riots back in 2020 and applied it to last night’s TPUSA event in Berkeley, California, which Antifa terrorists invaded.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, a bloody fight broke out at a TPUSA event at UC Berkeley after Antifa terrorists crashed the gathering on Monday night. Antifa terrorists and other far-left protestors turned the TPUSA event into a war zone.

The confrontation erupted at around 4:30 PST. During one brawl, two men were seen fighting each other, one of whom had blood gushing from his face.

Local police had difficulty containing the agitators and were seen putting on shield masks and gathering batons.

In another fight, Antifa terrorists ripped the shirt off pardoned J6 protester Jon Mellis and burned his MAGA Hat while cops stood by and did NOTHING.

CBS News Bay Area reporter Amanda Hari, though, had a different take on what occurred last night.

She remarked on how “lively” agitators were while assuring viewers that the protest was “mostly peaceful.”

If this rings familiar, it should. While covering a BLM riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, CNN’s Omar Jimenez called </> the incident “fiery, but mostly peaceful” while standing in front of burning cars set ablaze by the rioters.

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