Tag: california

Calif.: Newsom signs bill limiting law enforcement access to ballots

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation to tighten California’s election security, limiting authorities’ access to ballots, voter lists, rosters, or certified voting technology, ahead of the June 2nd state primary election.

The bill signed on Wednesday would prohibit anyone — particularly federal officers — from becoming involved in election administration, while allowing exceptions in cases of urgent public health or safety concerns.

Furthermore, the law states that if packages containing voted ballots are removed from the custody of election officials, civil penalties for ballot custody violations may still apply, with fines of up to $50,000.

“We have to clarify the rules of engagement. That’s why this legislation is important. There are fines associated with it, criminal fines, and jail time, three years,” Newsom (D-Calif.) said at Wednesday’s signing ceremony.

Senate Bill 73 — which will take effect immediately — follows Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of 650,000 ballots from last fall’s Proposition 50 Special Election. However, the probe was later stopped due to legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Sheriff Bianco (R-Calif.) — who is running for California governor this November — said he seized the ballots as part of an investigation into alleged voting discrepancies, though election officials later disputed those claims.

Bianco had referred to the freezing of the investigation as “politically motivated.”

Meanwhile the measure also directs the attorney general to provide guidance to local election workers on responding to requests from law enforcement.

“SB73 puts in protections to ensure that ballots will be secured and that voters have confidence in our election system that their voices will be heard at the ballot box,” said California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Calif.), one of the primary authors of the law.

The signing of the bill came the same day Assembly Democrats advanced 23 separate bills related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Assembly floor.

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“I’m just a number to them”: Garden Grove residents demand closure of GKN plant after toxic emergency

On Tuesday evening, California officials lifted the remaining mandatory evacuation orders for some 16,000 residents in Garden Grove, California, who live near an overheated chemical tank at a GKN Aerospace facility. Evacuation orders for some 50,000 residents were initially issued last Thursday, rescinded later that same evening, and then reissued Friday morning.

A 34,000-gallon storage tank at the facility containing methyl methacrylate (MMA), a volatile and flammable chemical, was found to be leaking. The chemical is not only dangerous when inhaled, but also posed the risk of causing a massive toxic explosion.

While the evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday night, police and emergency personnel are maintaining a several-block closure around the facility as chemicals continue to leak from the ruptured tank.

In addition to thousands of residences, several schools are also located close to the facility.

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Gavin Newsom Vows To ‘Seize’ Money From California Republicans

Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for California to slap a 100% tax on anyone in the state who collects money from President Donald Trump’s new Anti-Weaponization Fund, framing it as a way to block what Democrats say could become a payday for Trump allies.

“Anyone from California that receives any of those funds,” Newsom said at a Wednesday news conference. “We want to tax 100% of those proceeds and that’s an action the state of California can take. It’s an action we look forward to taking.”

Newsom’s move targets the $1.776 billion fund the Justice Department announced as part of a settlement tied to Trump and the Internal Revenue Service. Supporters say it is open to any claimant who can show the government unfairly targeted them. Critics call it a boondoggle and warn it could be used to compensate people convicted or indicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Newsom leaned into that argument in a post on X, tying the fund to Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations.

“He pardoned all of those folks that were beating up cops and absolved them, providing them 1.776 billion dollars. So not only do you get a pardon, you get rewarded,” Newsom wrote. “That’s why this is needed.”

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Chilling new twist in violent murder of renowned scientist linked to dark pattern of deaths and disappearances

The mystery surrounding the murder of an astrophysicist linked to a string of strange scientist deaths and disappearances in the US has taken a new twist in court.

Carl Grillmair, 67, was shot dead outside his California home on February 16 after stepping onto his front porch around 6am local time.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department charged Freddy Snyder, 29, with murder, carjacking and first-degree residential burglary, alleging he personally used a rifle during the killing.  

Snyder pleaded not guilty to all charges during his arraignment Tuesday, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 5. If convicted on all charges, Snyder faces a potential life sentence in prison.

The veteran Caltech astronomer helped contribute to the discovery of water on a distant planet, with colleagues describing his work as ‘ingenious’ and saying the findings could help scientists search for signs of life less than 160 light-years from Earth.

Investigators alleged Snyder armed himself with two rifles in the early morning hours of February 16 and demanded his mother’s car keys inside their home. When she refused, he allegedly fired a shot into the ceiling before stealing the vehicle and driving away.

Authorities said Snyder then drove to Grillmair’s nearby home, where the scientist stepped outside after noticing a vehicle in his driveway. Grillmair, an astronomer at Caltech’s IPAC science and data center, was allegedly shot once in the neck and died on his front porch.

Grillmair’s death drew national attention after it emerged alongside a growing number of scientists tied to sensitive aerospace, defense and advanced technology programs who have been reported missing or found dead in recent years.

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Newsom faces backlash over $33K taxpayer-funded portrait amid state financial strain

California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing significant criticism after including $33,000 for a formal portrait of himself in the state’s proposed 2026-2027 budget, amid increasing concerns over budget deficits and rising costs of living in the Golden State.

The budget proposal prompted backlash from both Republicans and Democrats, with opponents arguing that Newsom (D-Calif.) is neglecting pressing issues such as soaring housing costs, high gas prices and expensive health care services.

The timing of the governor’s request adds fuel to the ongoing debate surrounding his final, record-setting $349.9 billion budget proposal. The $33,000 would allegedly be pulled from California’s General Fund.

While the administration maintained that the massive spending plan was designed to protect core state services and invest in California’s long-term infrastructure, fiscal critics argued that even small, symbolic line items like the portrait allocation represents an out-of-touch approach to government spending while ordinary residents face severe financial hardships.

The money is reportedly set aside for the “traditional painting of the Governor’s portrait” which would eventually hang inside the California State Capitol alongside portraits of previous governors. However, the proposal comes during a time when lawmakers remain extremely cautious about new discretionary spending due to the state’s long-term financial challenges.

State Senator Suzette Valladares (R-Calif.) sharply criticized Newsom’s budget and emphasized the poor timing of the proposal.

“Only in Sacramento would a governor look at struggling families and think, ‘You know what this moment needs? A painting of me,’” Valladares said.

Assembly member Alexandra M. Macedo (R-Calif,) also mocked the proposal while rebuking Newsom’s controversial high-speed rail project.

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Newsom signs bill restricting law enforcement access to California ballots

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday aimed at tightening California’s election security rules ahead of the June 2 statewide primary.

Senate Bill 73 takes effect immediately. It limits when law enforcement can access ballots, voter lists, rosters or certified voting technology.

The bill comes after Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots from last fall’s Proposition 50 Special Election. The investigation was later halted amid legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“We have to clarify the rules of engagement. That’s why this legislation is important. There are fines associated with it, criminal fines, and jail time, three years,” Newsom said at Wednesday’s signing ceremony.

The bill prohibits peace officers from interfering with election administration, except in urgent public health or safety situations. It also requires a court order before law enforcement can take possession of key election materials. Removing packages containing voted ballots from the custody of elections officials would also be a crime. The law allows civil penalties of up to $50,000 for ballot custody violations.

The measure also directs the attorney general to issue guidance to local election workers on how to respond to law enforcement requests.

“SB73 puts in protections to ensure that ballots will be secured and that voters have confidence in our election system that their voices will be heard at the ballot box,” said California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes, one of the primary authors of the law.

Bianco, who is running as a Republican candidate for California governor, said he seized the ballots as part of an investigation into claims of voting discrepancies. Election officials disputed those claims.

Bianco later called the effort to halt his investigation “politically motivated.”

The bill signing came on the same day Assembly Democrats brought 23 separate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related bills to a floor vote.

That legislation includes restricting federal law enforcement presence near polling places, stopping ICE officers from becoming California peace officers, requiring hotels to notify workers and guests when ICE has a reservation on site and withholding state tax breaks from companies that contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

“Don’t do that, man,” Republican Assemblymember James Gallagher said. “There’s several people on that side of the aisle I’m looking at. You know that’s wrong.”

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California’s New Age-Verification Bill Frees Linux But Expands Age Tracking to the Open Web

California Assembly Bill 1856 is getting friendly press coverage because it now exempts Linux from the state’s age-tracking mandate. The part nobody’s talking about is that it simultaneously expands the surveillance to your web browser.

AB 1856, authored by the same lawmaker who wrote the original Digital Age Assurance Act, amends the law to exclude open-source operating systems from its definition of “operating system provider.”

Any software distributed under a license that lets users “copy, redistribute, and modify the software” would no longer be covered. Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux, and Mint all walk free. That sounds like a win and tech outlets are reporting it as one. It’s also a distraction from what the bill adds.

The original law, AB 1043, required operating systems to harvest users’ ages during device setup and feed that data to app stores and app developers through a real-time API.

AB 1856 keeps all of that and extends the data pipeline to browser providers and website operators. Browsers would now be required to collect age signal data from the OS and pass it along to any website subject to online age verification laws.

We obtained a copy of the amended bill for you here.

Those websites, in turn, would have to request the age signal when you visit them. Your age bracket, declared once during OS setup, would follow you from app to app and now from site to site, broadcast to every developer and website operator who asks.

This is how a law originally limited to apps and app stores becomes an age-tracking system for the entire internet.

The Expanding Universe of “Covered” Websites

The category of websites subject to age verification laws started narrow as the earliest mandates targeted pornography sites. It has since expanded to social media platforms and a growing list of sites legislators consider likely to “harm” children in loosely defined ways. That list keeps getting longer and AB 1856 doesn’t define its own boundary. It piggybacks on whatever other laws exist, meaning every future expansion of age verification requirements automatically expands the reach of AB 1856’s browser-based data pipeline, too.

California has actually built an age-tracking infrastructure that scales itself.

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California Dem Governor Candidate Xavier Becerra Wants Free Healthcare for Illegals, Boasts About Jobs They Take From Americans

Xavier Becerra, the former Obama Biden lackey who is running for governor of California as a Democrat, wants the state to continue to provide free healthcare for illegals. Big surprise, right?

He confirmed this during a recent appearance on CNN.

The remarkable thing about the segment is that he admitted that illegals take jobs away from Americans, not just in farming, but in construction, healthcare and more.

You can tell from the smug look on his face that he thought he was being so clever about this.

Breitbart News reported:

Host Elex Michaelson said that Hilton “says he wants to take the undocumented off of healthcare rolls. Why do you want to keep them on there, and how much is that going to cost the state?”

Becerra answered, “He looks at them as people who don’t have documents. I look at them as hard workers. I look at them as people like my parents. I am the son of immigrants. To me, I want you to build, help me build California. If you’re working hard, I want you to have healthcare. I guess Steve Hilton doesn’t care if they work really hard. He looks at their status, and that’s about it.”

Michaelson then said, “Well, he says that they broke the law. And he says that he immigrated here legally and that spending money to give somebody healthcare is incentivizing bad behavior.”

Becerra responded, “He doesn’t seem to mind that the price of food is a little lower because these are the folks that are picking the crops. He doesn’t seem to mind that the places that you can buy to live in are places that these folks built. He doesn’t seem to mind that they’re the folks that are taking care of probably one of his relatives, probably taking care of his yards. He seems to mind that they don’t have documents, but he doesn’t seem to mind that they do so much of the work in California.”

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THEY’VE LEARNED NOTHING: California Democrat Governor Candidate Tom Steyer Says ‘I’m Totally in Favor of Trans Athletes in High School’

Democrats learned absolutely nothing from the 2024 election and this proves it.

During a recent podcast appearance, Tom Steyer, the liberal billionaire Democrat running for governor of California, said that he is ‘totally’ in favor of trans athletes in high school.

This technically violates two public sentiments on this issue. Not only do people not want trans athletes in high school sports, people don’t want minors to be allowed to transition genders at all.

The 2024 election made the public’s position on this crystal clear but the Democrats just don’t care.

FOX News reports:

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer defended transgender athletes competing in high school sports in a podcast posted on Sunday, arguing that excluding transgendered youth from athletics would worsen the emotional and mental health struggles many already face.

“I’m totally in favor of trans athletes in high school,” Steyer told “I’ve Had It” podcast host Jennifer Welch.

“When you understand the vulnerability, the stress, the danger of being a trans kid, and you understand almost half of them try to commit suicide, then you think, ‘We’re gonna punish those kids, we’re gonna cut them off from team sport.’ It’s like, no we’re not.”

Steyer made similar remarks when speaking to CBS Los Angeles but also branded dissidents for perpetuating a “right-wing attempt” to smear transgender individuals.

“To be clear, this is not some huge epidemic,” he said. “This is a right-wing attempt to victimize and villainize already vulnerable and desperate people, and my heart completely goes out to the people who are so sad, feel so rejected, and so unaccepted that half of them would try to kill themselves.”

Steyer is among a crowded field of Democrats vying to retain party control of the governorship once incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom’s term expires.

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How Gavin Newsom Subsidized the Migrant Invasion

Former President Joe Biden’s administration oversaw an unprecedented wave of migration across the southwestern border of the United States. Migrants convoyed in “caravans” in hopes of overwhelming border authorities. Cartels trafficked drugs and people in droves. At some points, American authorities estimated that more than 130,000 people were crossing into the U.S. each month; arrivals came not just from Latin America but every corner of the earth.

At the height of this drama, some border states sought to stop the wave of illegal immigration on their own. Texas dispatched thousands of National Guard soldiers and spun razor-wire barriers across the desert. Arizona sent construction cranes to stack hundreds of shipping containers into a makeshift border wall near Yuma. Then-Arizona Governor Doug Ducey called it a “border crisis.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott called it an “invasion.”

California, on the other hand, welcomed the flood. In this City Journal investigation, we have traced the money and can reveal that Governor Gavin Newsom has granted approximately $1 billion to an army of nonprofits that has encouraged unchecked numbers of migrants to enter the country, fought deportation orders in the courts, and led street protests against ICE. These groups often operate under the guise of “humanitarianism” or “immigration justice,” but many, as we have uncovered, are in fact left-wing activist groups that use propaganda, lawfare, and street protests to transform America’s demographics and build political power for California Democrats—all on the public dime.

This is the story of how Gavin Newsom subsidized the illegal invasion and turned a wave of desperate people into pawns in his political game.

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