Tag: california

California Has Gay-Certification Program To Tap Into $633 Million For “LGBT” Businesses

Americans are used to handouts for favored groups. Affirmative action in university admissions, corporate “diversity” initiatives, and minority-owned contracting requirements direct opportunities, resources, and contracts to supposedly “oppressed” groups, such as women, Native Americans, blacks, and Hispanics.

In California, state Democrats have embraced another kind of favoritism: contracts for state-certified gay-owned businesses.

The scheme operates through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates privately owned utility companies. California utilities spent more than $43 billion in 2024 on contractors—fuel suppliers, surveyors, engineers, and others—whose work helps deliver water, gas, electricity, and internet service to California’s 39 million residents.

In 1986, Governor George Deukmejian signed Assembly Bill 3678, which required certain CPUC-regulated utilities to submit annual “plans” for buying goods and services from woman- and minority-owned companies. Two years later, CPUC created its “Supplier Diversity Program,” which would enforce the law and set contracting “goals” for large utilities.

Under a series of Democratic governors, the program has expanded to include gay-owned businesses. In September 2014, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation requiring CPUC to recognize “LGBT-owned businesses” as eligible for supplier-diversity benefits. Five years later, Governor Gavin Newsom expanded the program further, “encouraging” other companies involved in the energy sector to award contracts to gay-owned firms.

In the years that followed, CPUC faced activist pressure as it implemented the gay expansion. BuildOUT California, a since-rebranded LGBT building-industry organization, sent a letter to the commission arguing that “homophobia” existed within “the ranks of the utility companies.” The state’s legislative LGBTQ caucus suggested in a 2021 letter that even considering lower gay-procurement targets was “an insult to the LGBTQ+ community.”

By 2022, CPUC had fully implemented the expansion. In practice, this meant establishing a “goal” for utility companies with annual revenues exceeding $25 million to buy things from state-certified LGBT businesses: 0.5 percent of procurement in 2022; 1 percent in 2023; and 1.5 percent in 2024 and beyond. If “large” CPUC-regulated utilities met these “goals” in 2024, they would have sent roughly $633 million to LGBT-owned firms.

This scheme raises an obvious question: How does a business qualify as officially gay? Paperwork. Supplier Clearinghouse, a group that certifies firms for the CPUC program, features a list of qualifications linked on its website. Applicants can secure certification by providing a letter from an “LGBT organization” attesting to their sexual preferences; proof that a newspaper identified them as “LGBT”; or three letters from “personal contacts” written “on company letterhead” attesting to their homosexual orientation. Corporate officials who “falsely represent” their business as gay face up to a year in county jail.

Supplier Clearinghouse also accepts gay-certification letters from the National LGBTQ+ & Allied Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has its own list of accepted documents, including human resources complaints or police records claiming LGBT discrimination. As NGLCC states on its website, “Certification is a journey, not a destination.”

Mary Ann Horton has experienced this “journey” firsthand. Horton, an early internet pioneer credited with helping develop the e-mail attachment, is a white male who “transitioned” and is now married to a woman. Horton’s company, Red Ace, is registered in California as a woman- and LGBT-owned business.

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Gavin Newsom solicited $340M in ‘behested payments’ from special interests, filings reveal

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to seize control of the narrative around multiple federal investigations is backfiring, with critics using the governor’s accusations of Trump-led ‘lawfare’ to revive long-running questions about pay-to-play politics in California.

State records show Newsom has solicited more than $340 million in donations from wealthy donors and special interests — some of which have received preferential treatment and millions of dollars in state contracts — while also taking pains to prop up the political activities of his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

A review of state disclosure records shows Newsom has reported 1,325 behested payments totaling $347,240,506 since 2011, when he was serving as lieutenant governor.

The payments — legal under California law, but a controversial if not illegal practice in some other states — are reported once they hit $5,000 from a single source in a calendar year, and they must be for a charitable, governmental or legislative purpose.

Criticism and memes of Newsom’s habit of soliciting donations have been gaining steam since the governor announced on Monday he and wife are the focus of multiple federal probes.

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California Gay Business Certification Another Dem Lurch to the Prog Fringe

Our jumping off point is a real doozy, even by California lunatic fringe standards. Had I not read it on one of our sister sites, I probably would have triple-checked it. This is from my Townhall colleague Joseph Chalfant:

A new report from the City Journal revealed the “LGBTBE Certification” process that individuals must go through should they wish to receive preferential treatment in the taxpayer-funded contract bidding process in the state of California.

For those who haven’t updated their Victim Group Alphabet Soup glossaries, LGBTBE stands for “LGBT Business Enterprise.” I don’t know why the “++” was left out or how the “Q” was dropped. Perhaps they were lost during one of the many times that the goal posts were being moved. 

Check out all of Joseph’s post. The state of California requires extensive documentation for businesses to prove that they are gay enough for gay contract money. That’s rich coming from a state that insists that asking for identification to vote is racist and disenfranchises people. 

Don’t they care about gay business owners who may not be able to provide “Proof of domestic partnership health insurance utilization” or any of the other proof of gayness documents that the Golden State wants before it signs any checks?

There are some old school elders of the village in the Democratic Party who freely admit that the party has lost its way on so many issues, most notable among them being former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. He’s exploring a run for president in 2028 and hopes to get his party to focus on issues that matter to regular Americans. 

His party doesn’t seem to be paying attention. Nobody on the left is, they all just keep rushing headlong to the far left edges of the Milky Way galaxy. 

The “you will be made to care” agenda regarding all things LGBTQ++ is still in full swing and continues to manifest itself in ways that would indicate nothing but complete disdain for anything that even glances toward the center. 

Recently, Major League Baseball forced its players to wear caps that had Pride flag rainbows on the logos. Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen didn’t play along, and the enemy of the people media was aghast. Three members of the San Francisco Giants responded by writing Bible verses on their caps, and the San Francisco Chronicle said they defaced them. My Twitchy colleague Brett T. covered that here.

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CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Admits One-Party Rule by Democrats Has Been a Disaster for California

During a recent broadcast, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria did a monologue about California and how the state has been failed by the one-party rule of Democrats.

He points to the state’s failure in education, the inability to build housing, and the massive homeless problem, among other things.

Zakaria uses all of this to explain the anger of voters and the rise of Republican candidates like Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt.

Partial transcript via Real Clear Politics:

FAREED ZAKARIA: At a time when President Trump and Republicans are faring poorly in most polls, the story has been different in California. Republican Steve Hilton finished ahead of many high spending Democrats in the governor’s race to advance to the November election, facing Democrat Xavier Becerra. In Los Angeles, an overwhelmingly Democratic city, Spencer Pratt, a Republican, former reality television personality, looked as if he might make the mayoral general election before finishing third.

California Democrats will be tempted to dismiss all this as a sideshow, but the frustration is real and justified. California is one of the most dynamic places on the planet. It has Silicon Valley, Hollywood, world class universities, extraordinary agriculture, ports, talent and natural beauty. But it is a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.

The paradox of California today is a successful economy attached to a failing model of governance.

Consider the fiscal record. Since 2000, California’s population has grown by roughly 15 percent. But the state’s general expenditures have grown more than 200 percent, from $78 billion to about $248 billion. General spending per person has risen from about $2,300 to about $6,300. The number of state employees has grown by more than 50 percent by one count.

Does anyone think that California government and its benefits have gotten 200 percent better in the last 25 years?

Housing is the central failure. California has long spoken the language of compassion while building a system of exclusion. Alicia Finley writes in the “Wall Street Journal” that from 2021 to 2024, the L.A. metro area, with nearly 13 million people, issued only 118,000 building permits for new homes. Atlanta with about half that population issued 163,000.

California has made it too hard, slow and expensive to build. The result is predictable. Home prices soar, rents rise, workers commute farther, homelessness grows, young people leave. And people are leaving. Over the past seven years, the state has lost a net 1.9 million people through domestic migration.

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California GOP Senator Suggests Putting Marijuana Back On The Ballot To ‘Reverse’ Legalization

A California Republican senator says it is time to have a “serious discussion” about putting a measure on the ballot to potentially “reverse” legalization of marijuana in the state—also raising concerns about President Donald Trump’s move to reschedule cannabis at the federal level.

“I think it’s time to assess the effects, the significant unintended consequences of the legalization of marijuana, which has not just happened in California, but in other states too,” Sen. Roger Niello (R) said at a hearing of the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee last week.

“Now we can’t change it without going back to the people, but I think we should have a serious discussion, a serious analysis of the obvious…unintended negative consequences I don’t think that the writers of the proposition cared about,” he said as first reported by State Affairs, referring to the cannabis legalization ballot initiative that California voters approved in 2016. “I think these could have been predicted. They just wanted recreational use to be legalized.”

Niello raised concerns that “we’re even seeing our current president now advocating that by downplaying the classification of marijuana at the federal level.”

“We have seen significant negative consequences of this legalization, both here as well as in other states,” the senator, who was speaking at a hearing at which lawmakers approved a bill to legalize marijuana dispensary drive-thru windows in California, said. “I think it’s time for us to have a serious analysis of that, and whether or not we want to develop a proposition to go back to the voters and either reverse it or somehow reform it so that we don’t continually deal with the problems that we do.”

“I oppose the legalization of marijuana,” he said, citing data about cannabis use by young people and an alleged link to mental health problems and claiming that the 2016 reform was “written to please everybody” which resulted in a “dysfunctional policy that is bound for unintended consequences.”

Elsewhere in the U.S., marijuana legalization opponents are currently collecting signatures to put measures to roll back the reform in Maine and Massachusetts—though those anti-cannabis campaigns have faced accusations of misleading petitioning tactics.

A separate anti-marijuana effort in Arizona for a similar measure was dropped after its lead organizer said his initial concerns about the legal cannabis industry were misplaced.

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Palisades Fire Victims Beat Gavin Newsom in Court AGAIN

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been playing hide the ball with the truth about the disastrous and deadly Pacific Palisades fire and the state’s culpability in it since it rekindled on Jan. 7, 2025. This week, the governor lost another court maneuver in his attempt to deny Palisades fire victims the ability to sue the the State of California. 

On Friday, the California Supreme Court denied Newsom administration’s latest stall tactic, that would have required yet another “review and request to stay the Palisades Fire Litigation,” according to Trey Robertson, who represents 4,000 Palisades victims. If the court had decided differently, those victims would have been completely iced out of their efforts to seek relief… and discovery. 

We’ve already seen the state run from liability in the case, but the secrets that would pour out from discovery in a court case of this kind could fill that entire empty Pacific Palisades reservoir. It’s still empty, by the way. 

The State of California has the right to defend itself against liability in the fire, of course. But there’s something else at play here. Newsom’s administration has fought the thousands of victims every step of the way as they seek  what could be billions of dollars in damages from the state’s complicity.  

The decision means that “justice is coming for the Palisades Fire victims,” Robertson said in an X post. 

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California cult leader sentenced to 225 years for raping, molesting followers

An Oroville man who used a religious organization he founded to sexually assault women and young girls was sentenced to 225 years to life in prison this week, the maximum allowed under California law.

Sansue Bee Vang, 58, was convicted in February by a Butte County jury of eight counts of child molestation and three counts of rape involving members of his Hmong congregation.

At the hearing, five of the six named victims addressed the court, each describing the lasting toll Vang’s assaults had taken on their mental health and family relationships, according to the news release from the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. 

Vang founded the organization Kev Ntseeg Leej Niam Kee Tiam Vaj Lis Thum, loosely translated as “Belief in the Mother,” in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Hmong are an ethnic minority originally from Southeast Asia, and large numbers of Hmong people have immigrated to the United States and California over the past five decades. After building a following in Wisconsin, Vang moved the group to Fresno in 2015 before relocating select families from Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina and Fresno to Oroville in 2020. There, they began constructing a temple and religious community at the base of Table Mountain. According to state records, the organization is based at 274 Thompson Flat Road, north of Oroville, near Highway 70. The group’s website describes plans to develop a temple and community on 170 acres of land at a projected cost of $15 million to $20 million.

Followers regarded Vang as a prophet, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office said.   

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FBI RAIDS Democrat-Controlled California Assessor’s Office and Assessor’s Home — Hit With Three Federal Search Warrants Amid Corruption, Favoritism, and Sexual Harassment Scandals

The FBI executed three federal search warrants Tuesday morning at the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office and the homes of longtime Assessor Gus Kramer and his right-hand man, Assistant Assessor Vince Robb.

The FBI executed three federal search warrants on Tuesday, targeting the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office and the homes of two top county tax officials in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest public corruption investigations to hit California’s East Bay in years.

Federal agents descended on the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office in Martinez, along with residences connected to longtime County Assessor Gus Kramer and Assistant Assessor Vince Robb, who was recently elected to replace Kramer.

Investigators have reportedly been seeking evidence related to wire fraud and other potential offenses. No criminal charges have been announced yet.

The Assessor’s Office is responsible for property valuations across approximately 380,000 parcels of land, a massive operation that directly determines tax bills for hundreds of thousands of homeowners, businesses, and property owners across the county.

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California Gets 80% Of All Federal Cash For Illegal Immigrant Families: Report

California is home to the lion’s share of illegal immigrant families in the United States with children who received federal welfare assistance in 2024, according to a federal report published on June 10.

More than 80 percent of all nationwide cash assistance allocated to such households was spent in California. The report tracked $759 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) spent in 2024 on families headed by a parent living in the country illegally.

In those cases, the child qualified for federal welfare, even though the parent was excluded from the federal program because of immigration status.

“These cases receive relatively little public attention, yet … data show that they are far from a negligible part of the program,” wrote authors David Swegle, director of the Office of Family Assistance at the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Alex J. Adams, assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, in the report.

Nationally, the federal government paid 85,000 households with qualifying children receiving assistance who were living with their illegal immigrant parents in the U.S. in 2024.

“Although the benefit is formally paid on behalf of the child, it still supports a household that includes an immigration-status-ineligible parent,” the authors stated. “The significance of these cases therefore cannot be judged solely by the fact that the adult is not the formal recipient.”

The cases are also significant because they don’t have to adhere to the TANF rules requiring work expectations, such as regularly applying for jobs, and the payments aren’t limited to the federal 60-month lifetime limit, according to the report. The illegal immigrant families, therefore, can receive federal welfare until the child turns 18 years old.

Low-income American families are held to the federal welfare restrictions that require work participation and are restricted to a 60-month lifetime limit, the authors said.

The number of TANF cases involving an illegal immigrant parent reached nearly 850,000—or 10 percent of all cases—in 2024, up from nearly 6 percent in 2001.

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These Are The Six States Celebrating America 250 By Raising Your Gas Tax

The final countdown for America’s 250th birthday is on. Families will be planning road trips, parades, vacations, reunions, and cookouts to celebrate the greatest nation in history. But in six states, politicians have a different idea for the party: raise taxes.

Beginning July 1, drivers in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi are scheduled to see higher state gas taxes. In other words, as the country prepares to celebrate casting aside a tax-heavy king in favor of freedom, these states will use the occasion to fatten government coffers one gallon at a time.

The worst offenders will be no surprise. California, Washington and Illinois  — we’ll call them the Axis of Glut.

Their governors are often the first to fake outrage when gas prices rise. They blame oil companies. They blame “price gouging.” They blame world events. They blame everyone except the politicians who keep piling taxes, mandates, and regulations onto every gallon drivers buy.

Yet these same states already have some of the worst gas prices in the nation, some of the highest gas taxes in America, and now they are getting ready to raise those taxes again.

California’s gas tax is already the highest in the country and is scheduled to climb again on July 1, from 61.2 cents to 63.4 cents per gallon, under the state’s annual inflation adjustment. The same report noted California’s average price for regular gasoline was nearly $6 per gallon in early June.

Illinois is no better. The state says its motor fuel tax will rise on July 1 because the law requires an annual inflation adjustment. Washington joined the club with a gas tax increase last year and then baked in automatic increases going forward. Starting July 1, 2026, the state’s fuel tax rises by 2% every year unless lawmakers change the law.

This is the dirty hustle behind inflation-indexed taxes. Politicians get to raise taxes without holding a press conference to admitting it. They pass the law once, then every year drivers get mugged by a formula.

As of June 8, the national average for regular gas was $4.164, down 38.2 cents in a single month. That is welcome relief for families, workers, small businesses and anyone trying to get through summer. But the national average would look even better if it were not being anchored down by tax-heavy states that treat drivers like a rolling ATM.

The problem is not limited to the six July 1 tax-hike states. Seven of the ten most expensive states for gas are run by Democratic governors. That is not a coincidence.

Taxes play a major role in the high-price reputation of many of these states. So do their regulatory regimes, special fuel rules, anti-energy policies and climate mandates that make fuel harder to produce, refine, transport and sell.

The result is predictable.

Families, small businesses, truckers, and farmers all pay more. Then the same politicians who helped drive up the cost pretend they are shocked by the bill.

That is not compassion. That is government gluttony.

Supporters claim the money goes to roads and infrastructure. But that excuse only goes so far. Every tax increase is sold as necessary. Yet somehow the burden always lands in the same place: on the people who drive to work, school, church, the grocery store or a summer vacation.

That is what makes the timing so perfect, and so insulting.

America’s 250th birthday should be a celebration of freedom, independence and the rejection of government overreach. The American Revolution was born from the idea that people should not be treated as endless revenue sources for rulers who never seem to have enough.

Nearly 250 years later, millions of drivers will pull into gas stations in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi and get a reminder that some politicians still have not learned the lesson.

The country is moving toward a better energy future: lower prices, more production, more reliability and less punishment for the people who keep America moving. But these six states are choosing a different path.

America 250 should remind us why this country was born: because free people eventually get tired of being treated like revenue.

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