Tag: california

California’s Small Cannabis Farmers Have Been Left High and Dry

Dan Golden has been growing weed for almost 20 years. As he hand-watered his plants on his 70-acre farm, he maintained a firm stare. He’s long abstained from alcohol—ever since his daughter was born—and his daily routine begins at 6 am. “This is life or death for me. I’ve never done anything else,” said Golden. The property is seated in a narrow valley in Humboldt County, California, a three-hour drive from the nearest store in Garberville, with large rock outcroppings running east to west. Before 2020, he owned the land outright, but four years ago, he was forced to refinance it to pay for the exorbitant fees and permits required to be a compliant legal cannabis farmer.

Cannabis has long been part of counterculture in America, and arguably no place and its peoples have done more to fuel the evolution of the plant and its mythos than Humboldt County. And yet, perversely, no place has been as left behind by legalization.

Through a series of broken promises, legislative missteps, and onerous compliance measures, the small, legacy farmers once on the front lines of normalizing marijuana for decades have been snuffed out. Now their communities are suffering. “Everyone thinks: Growing weed, that must be fun,” Golden said. “They don’t know how hard it is.”

Since 2016, when cannabis was voted legal for adult use by ballot measure, the market has been rife with snafus in California. Promises to protect those that gave rise to the industry fell flat; instead, these farmers have been met with byzantine laws, expensive permit fees, regulations, and taxes that have hampered their ability to stay competitive in open markets. Most attempts to aid craft cultivators have failed or have been denied, and many farmers say the July 1 increase of the California cannabis excise tax—from 15 percent to 19 percent—could be yet another crushing blow. Though Governor Gavin Newsom said he’d sign a freeze of the increased excise tax if it reached his desk, legislators have so far failed to act.

Many of the players have since quit the game altogether. Agricultural real estate prices have tumbled in Humboldt County as local businesses not directly associated with cannabis try to hold on in the shifting economic landscape. Meanwhile, mega-cannabis corporations dominate the market with questionable labor practices and deflated prices meant to eliminate competition. In typical corporate-capture fashion, these companies have pushed out competitors by sheer scale, lowering their prices so no one else can survive, then, once they’re the only ones left standing, they’re able to jack the prices back up.

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Now Comes the California Fire Sale: China-Based Company Is Buying Up Land Incinerated by Firestorms

If foreign corporations want to buy burned-out properties, can those sales be stopped? Should they be stopped? 

When the feared firestorm hit Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena in Southern California last January, the Los Angeles mayor was MIA, the “public safety” guy in charge—the vice mayor—was on home confinement for making an anti-Israel bomb threat on city hall, fire fighters were not pre-deployed, there was no water in the reservoir, and fire hydrants went dry in the Palisades. 

Soon came vows by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and elected officials in Malibu, Altadena, and the Palisades to streamline the rebuilding and permitting, which turned out to be a joke. Now, amid bad leadership, virtue signaling masquerading as help, incinerated FireAid money, and promises in name only, comes the fire sale. 

In early August came word from an exclusive story in Realtor.com that foreign investors were buying up prime lots in the burned-out area of an iconic Malibu beach.

Now, a foreign investor has been secretly scooping up many of the burned lots on the oceanfront side of the PCH—with the vision of rebuilding the mansions that dotted the coastline in the iconic beach town.

‘Once this beach is built back and it’s all brand-new construction, I think it’s going to be a very desirable spot for a lot of wealthy people to try to buy a beach house,’ Weston Littlefield with the Weston James Group tells Realtor.com®.

The luxury real estate agent and his colleague Alex Howe have been working with the investor who has, so far, purchased nine lots worth more than $65 million—but the process isn’t random.

The strip of homes nestled between the Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean is the storied La Costa Beach.

Nine of the most desirable lots have been sold by people who can’t wait or can’t afford to rebuild.

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Outlawing Misdemeanors? Ask California How That Worked Out

A Grab-and-Go Future

This incident could happen at any Walgreens in San Francisco: A man strolls into the store walks over to the hair display, grabs an armful of shampoo bottles, and simply walks out the door. He felt no need to rush, had no fear, and didn’t bother looking back.

Instead of actually doing something, people stood by and recorded the scene on their phones, shaking their heads; they knew nothing would happen, as he’d simply disappear into the crowd. There’s no point in calling the police; they wouldn’t come, store clerks wouldn’t bother, and the DA wouldn’t prosecute.

In California, petty thefts valued at less than $950 are typically not worth the paperwork involved.

It’s this future that mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is dangling in front of New York City.

California’s Lesson

New Yorkers need to look west before being seduced by Mamdani’s pitch to abolish misdemeanors, because California illustrates a picture-perfect example of what could go wrong.

Proposition 47 reclassified a wide range of felonies after passing in 2014 and increased the threshold for felony theft to $950. It was sold as reform on paper, yet in reality, it became an invitation to corruption. As long as their haul fell under the magic dollar amount, shoplifters learned there was little to fear. Over time, police grew unwilling to waste their time with cases the courts wouldn’t touch.

Fallout was swift: Retail theft spiked, while stores closed. The chains Walgreens and Target took action: Walgreensabandoned entire neighborhoods, and Target locked items behind plastic.

Residents paid the price every day. Earning the nickname “the shoplifter’s charter,” Prop 47 overlooked the fact that people weren’t simply clever slogans; they were commuters, small business owners, and single parents working hard to keep their communities together.

San Francisco’s Warning

San Francisco, always a bastion of progressive experiments, doubled down by voting Chesa Boudin into the position of district attorney in 2019. Like a good progressive soldier, Boudin followed the script by not prosecuting most low-level crimes, and became an advocate for restorative justice over accountability. 

Before long, residents woke up to find shattered car windows, thriving open-air drug markets, and hollowed-out neighborhoods. The once-booming downtown slowly transformed into a brick-and-mortar desert, not only because of COVID-19’s mandates and remote working, but also because nobody wanted to shop or work where crime ran rampant.

The embrace voters gave the reform ultimately faded. Boudin was recalled in 2022, a stunning rejection in one of America’s bluest cities. The people of San Francisco had grown tired of being test subjects in social experiments that worked wonderfully in academia but failed utterly in the real world.

Now It’s New York’s Turn

Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens. He isn’t talking about softening penalties; he’s talking about eliminating misdemeanor enforcement. 

Period.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. This action means shoplifting, petty theft, drug possession, prostitution, low-level assault, and even some incidents of drunk driving no longer draw consequences, unless there is “major” injury or violence.

Mamdani isn’t proposing leniency; he’s surrendering a city.

“E-ZPass for criminals” is the moniker critics have slapped on it, and they’re right. New York already is at war, battling crime in the subway, illegal vending, homelessness, and drug abuse. When misdemeanor guardrails are stripped away, the floodgates are turned wide open.

If California is the cautionary tale, then San Francisco is the warning flare, showing that ignoring “small” crimes leads to a forest fire.

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Newsom Prepares To Violate State Constitution To Save ‘Democracy’ In Redistricting Battle

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom is moving ahead with a controversial plan to redraw his state’s congressional maps by overriding the state’s non-partisan redistricting commission to counter redistricting moves by Republican lawmakers in Texas.

Newsom has launched a $100 million campaign that is backed by Planned Parenthood, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the California Federation of Labor Unions and a handful of billionaire donors.

Lawmakers in California approved the redistricting plan on Thursday, labeling it “Democracy’s Best Bet.”

However, serious concerns remain as to whether Newsom’s plan can survive legal scrutiny for a number of reasons.

In 2010, a decisive percentage of California voters (62-38) passed Prop 20 which took redistricting out of the hands of politicians and created an independent citizens commission in the state constitution.

Constitutional attorney Mark Meuser says Newsom’s redistricting plan would violate California’s constitution by holding hearings on a bill less than 30 days after introduction and by drawing maps without authority.

Meuser also says Newsom’s plan runs afoul of the state constitution by drawing maps contrary to its requirements and by drawing mid-decade maps, which are prohibited.

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Business Flees California due to Overregulation

California has been repelling capital through overregulation. The energy sector high-tailed out of the state in recent years under Governor Gavin Newsom’s net-zero policies. Now, even retailers feel forced to evacuate as California becomes increasingly anti-business.

Bed Bath & Beyond announced that it must close all retail stores within the state of California. “This decision isn’t about politics—it’s about reality,” company head Marcus Lemonis said in a social media post. “California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive, and risky environments for businesses in America. It’s a system that makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open, and harder to deliver value to customers.”

Newsom’s office commented that Bed Bath & Beyond was already a dead business, failing to take any responsibility. To begin, California’s minimum wage continues to rise year after year at a pace unsustainable for businesses. Automation is replacing the human workforce, and some studies have shown that minimum wage workers in California are simply receiving fewer working hours as employers aim to cut costs.

Newsom believes he can continue spending and rescue the state from the debt through taxation. Fleeing businesses can’t pay taxes, and California forces both businesses and residents to pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. All corporations operating in the state must pay a flat corporate income tax rate of 8.84% on net income. Banks and financial institutions pay a bit more at 10.84%. There is an annual franchise tax of $800 for businesses as well. But wait—corporations are still beholden to the 21% federal corporate income tax, which means businesses are paying roughly 29.84% on corporate income taxes alone.

Payroll taxes in California are higher than the national average, largely due to social programs like State Disability Insurance (SDI) and the Employment Training Tax (ETT), which must be paid in addition to Unemployment Insurance (UI). There is a personal income tax withholding of up to 14.63% that employers must withhold from employees as well.

The state was forced to overturn its policy regarding shoplifting and burglary after criminals used the minimum $950 amount for petty theft to avoid felony charges. Countless businesses shuttered their brick-and-mortar locations as a direct result of light-on-crime policies.

Capital flees excessive regulation and it’s almost a no-brainer for corporations to move beyond state lines where operating costs are drastically lower.

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HHS Cuts California Sex Ed Grant over State’s Refusal to Remove Radical Gender Ideology from Student Program

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday terminated a sex education grant to California due to the state’s refusal to remove radical gender ideology from the taxpayer-funded program, the agency announced. 

HHS, through its Administration for Children and Families (ACF), specifically terminated the state’s Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant, which is a program for students meant to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. HHS said California used taxpayer money to “teach curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body … through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’” HHS said the state also instructed teachers to “remind students that some men are born with female anatomy.”

“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.” 

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California Content Law Design Code Faces Free Speech Clash

Efforts to implement California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code continue to face resistance from both the tech industry and digital civil liberties groups, who argue that the law’s restrictions violate constitutional protections and would compel sweeping surveillance and censorship online.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which represents companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, and eBay, recently filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case NetChoice v. Bonta.

Stephanie Joyce, the group’s senior vice president and director of its litigation center, condemned the legislation in blunt terms: “The Constitution prohibits the government from dictating what lawful content readers can see, and it extends that protection regardless of the reader’s age.

Though well-intentioned, California’s internet age restriction law is unconstitutional, and the court of appeals should affirm the decision to block it.”

The case marks the second time this legal clash has reached the Ninth Circuit. Previously, the court blocked only a portion of the law and returned the rest for further review.

Now, with renewed scrutiny, the court could determine whether the entire statute fails to withstand constitutional challenge.

NetChoice, an industry coalition that includes many of the same members as the CCIA, has led the charge against a wave of so-called “age assurance” laws.

These policies would require digital platforms to verify the ages of users and potentially restrict minors’ access to content deemed unsuitable. But free speech advocates warn the consequences would be broader and more dangerous than legislators admit.

Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) have also weighed in with their own amicus brief, arguing that the law’s age estimation mandates undermine essential First Amendment rights. “CDT and EFF’s brief argues that the appeals court should uphold the injunctions solely on the basis of its overbroad, unconstitutional age verification requirement because that requirement is not severable from other provisions and should doom the entire statute.” The brief warns that such mandates not only chill access to lawful speech but also erode online anonymity and place users’ personal data at risk.

They also emphasize that minors’ ability to engage freely online is a critical part of their development and civic participation. “Social media helps minors develop their own ideas, learn to express themselves, and engage productively with others in our democratic public sphere,” the brief states.

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Trump threatens funding for all California schools over transgender policies

US President Donald Trump on Aug 21 said any California school district that does not adhere to his administration’s transgender policies will not receive federal funding, but gave no other details.

Representatives for the White House and the US Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for detail following Mr Trump’s comment, posted to his social media platform.

US schools receive the vast majority of their funding through local and state sources, but do receive some money from the federal government.

Mr Trump’s post is the latest salvo in his fight against transgender rights as well as the state of California, led by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

His administration 

sued California in July over its policy to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that it was a violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.

In February, the Republican President 

signed a directive to strip federal funding from any school that allows transgender women or girls to compete in female sports.

Representatives for Mr Newsom’s office could not be immediately reached. REUTERS

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California AG Bonta ‘running out the clock’ to stop parental rights initiative, appeals court hears

California law required Attorney General Rob Bonta to write a neutral title and summary for a 2024 ballot measure to mandate parental notification when children request to be identified as the opposite sex in school records, limit girls’ sports to females and prohibit puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgery for gender-confused youth.

Having just sued a school district for the same parental notification policy, the Democratic attorney’s title for the Protect Kids of California Act seemed predictable: “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” 

His summary used the same framing, referring to males who identify as girls as “transgender female students,” claiming the parental notification mandate lacks an “exception for student safety” and referring to medicalized gender transitions as “gender-affirming health care.” 

Sixteen months after a trial judge upheld Bonta’s phrasing as “accurately and impartially” conveying the substance of the measure, which under Bonta’s language fell short of the required signatures for the ballot within the 180-day collection window, Protect Kids California’s crusade to give voters a direct say in the matter may founder on a technicality.

Polling suggests voters would approve the measure, with majority support for each of the three prongs, but an appeals panel repeatedly grilled the group’s lawyer at a hearing Monday on why the case wasn’t moot in light of Protect Kids California’s litigation choices.

The three judges essentially made Bonta’s argument for him as Liberty Justice Center counsel Emily Rae tried to redirect them toward Bonta’s “malfeasance,” for what its lawsuit called his “inaccurate, false, and biased” language. The panel, by contrast, asked deputy AG Malcolm Brudigam just a single question during the state’s argument.

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California invested millions in STEM for women. The results are disappointing

Ten years ago, it seemed everyone was talking about women in science.

As the economy improved in the years after the Great Recession, women were slower to return to the workforce, causing alarm, especially in vital fields like computing. State and federal leaders turned their attention to women in science, technology, engineering and math, known by the acronym STEM.

Over the next few years, they poured millions of dollars into increasing the number of women pursuing STEM degrees. But the rate of women who attain those degrees has hardly improved, according to an analysis of colleges’ data by the Public Policy Institute of California on behalf of CalMatters.

“The unfortunate news is that the numbers haven’t changed much at all,” said Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the institute who conducted the analysis of California’s four-year colleges using data from the 2009-10 school year and comparing it to the most recent numbers, from 2022-23. The share of women who received a bachelor’s degree increased from roughly 19% to about 25% in engineering and from nearly 16% to about 23% in computer science. In math and statistics, the percentage of women who graduate with a degree has gone down in the last five years.

“It’s not nothing, but at this pace it would take a very long time to reach parity,” Johnson said.

Girls are also underrepresented in certain high school classes, such as AP computer science, and while women make up about 42% of California’s workforce, they comprise just a quarter of those working in STEM careers, according to a study by Mount Saint Mary’s University. Fewer women were working in math careers in 2023 than in the five or 10 years before that, the study found.

“It’s a cultural phenomenon, not a biological phenomenon,” said Mayya Tokman, a professor of applied mathematics at UC Merced. She said underrepresentation is a result of perceptions about women, the quality of their education, and a lack of role models in a given field.

Science and technology spurs innovation and economic growth while promoting national security, and these jobs are often lucrative and stable. Gender parity is critical, especially as U.S. science and technology industries struggle to find qualified workers, said Sue Rosser, provost emerita at San Francisco State and a longtime advocate for women in science. “We need more people in STEM. More people means immigrants, women, people of color as well as white men. There’s no point in excluding anyone.”

She said that recent cuts by the Trump administration to California’s research and education programs will stymie progress in science, technology and engineering — and hurt countless careers, including the women who aspire to join these fields.

Over the last eight months, the federal government has made extensive cuts to scientific research at California’s universities, affecting work on dementia, vaccines, women’s issues and on health problems affecting the LGBTQ+ community. The administration also ended programs that support undergraduate students in science. In June a federal judge ruled that the administration needs to restore some of those grants, but a Supreme Court decision could reverse that ruling.

More recently, the administration halted hundreds of grants to UCLA — representing hundreds of millions in research funding — in response to a U.S. Justice Department investigation into allegations of antisemitism. Now the Trump administration is asking for a $1 billion settlement in return for the grants. A California district judge ruled on Tuesday that at least some of those grants need to be restored.

‘The cultural conversation has changed’

In the past five years, attention has shifted away from women in science. Nonprofit leaders and researchers across the state say that many lawmakers and philanthropists turned away from women in STEM during the COVID-19 pandemic and focused more on racial justice following the police killing of George Floyd.

Since 1995, women have been outpacing men in college, and women are now much more likely to attain a bachelor’s degree. The unemployment rate for men is higher, too, and men without college degrees are opting out of the labor force at unprecedented rates.

On July 30 Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order saying the state needs to do more to address the “growing crisis of connection and opportunity for men and boys.” It’s not a “zero-sum” game, he wrote: the state can, and should, support everyone.

But some state investments for women’s education are lagging.

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