Tag: california

Newsom Holds Californians Hostage, Refuses to Fully Fund Prop 36 – A Measure that Passed in a Landslide to Increase Penalties for Theft and Drug Trafficking

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is holding Californians hostage by refusing to fully fund Proposition 36 – a measure that passed in a landslide in November 2024 that increases penalties for theft.

Proposition 36 passed in California in a landslide 71% to 21%.

California voters overwhelmingly voted to increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking after a record number of brick-and-mortar retailers closed down due to smash-and-grab robberies.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D) opposed Prop 36 because he said it’s “too harsh.”

Per LA Public Press, Prop 47 “scaled back punishments for certain nonviolent offenses for drugs and theft, which were reclassified from felonies to misdemeanors.”

Under Prop. 36, penalties will be increased, and sentences will be lengthened for drug possession and for the theft of items valued at less than $950.

Prop. 36 rolls back some of the soft-on-crime policies that California voters passed in 2014 with Prop. 47.

Newsom has only approved $100 million for prop 36 – far below the $400 million needed to fully pay for the new law.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman blasted Newsom for not funding prop 36.

“We will call [Newsom],” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “We will send him social media. We will DM him. I’ll say it right to the camera, Governor Newsom if you’re watching, get us this funding. If you want to save lives, get us this funding.”

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Big money and names power the campaign to influence California voters over a new congressional map

It’s either a plan to save democracy from President Donald Trump’s attempts to rig elections or a power grab by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.

The race to define Newsom’s push to redraw California’s congressional map before the 2026 midterms is underway with about five weeks until voters can begin casting early ballots on Proposition 50. The prevailing narrative could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the last two years of Trump’s second term.

Days into the campaign, supporters and opponents each brought in more than $10 million. That’s a fraction of the $100 million-plus expected to be spent to win over voters by Nov. 4. The contest also is drawing some high-profile state politicians, including actor and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Here’s a look at the campaigns and how they’re ramping up.

A national redistricting fight

The California ballot question is part of the unusual mid-decade redistricting that Texas Republicans kicked off last month at Trump’s direction. By pressing GOP-led states to redraw congressional district boundaries in the party’s favor, the president hopes to prevent Democrats from taking control of the U.S. House in the 2026 elections.

Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to regain the House majority, which would give them the power to subpoena Trump, investigate his administration and block his legislative agenda.

Republican state lawmakers in Texas passed a bill aiming to make five Democratic-held congressional seats more winnable for the GOP. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law Friday.

California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature responded in kind. Lawmakers last week approved a plan, which Newsom quickly signed, to ask voters to approve new House district boundaries that shore up shaky Democratic districts and pick up as many as five GOP-held seats.

Newsom and Democratic allies are mobilizing

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Newsom Slips — Admits ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are VOTING in U.S. Elections

In defending his state’s sanctuary laws, California Governor Gavin Newsom warned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might show up at polling places to “chill participation.” 

That statement was an admission: Democrats know non-citizens are voting—and they are relying on it.

For years, Democrats and allied media have insisted that non-citizen voting is a “myth.”

Yet extensive research contradicts them. A 2014 Electoral Studies paper found that about one-quarter of non-citizens were likely registered, and over six percent voted in 2008.

The study concluded those votes “likely” changed key elections for Democrats, including Electoral College outcomes and a Senate race that enabled passage of Obamacare.

It also reported that 81.8% of non-citizens who admitted voting in 2008 supported Barack Obama.

Those findings were reinforced by Just Facts, which updated the estimates using 2022 Census data.

They determined that between 10% and 27% of non-citizens nationwide are illegally registered to vote.

With 19.7 million non-citizen adults counted in 2022, that means two to five million names appear illegally on voter rolls.

Given turnout rates, between one million and nearly three million non-citizens could cast ballots in 2024.

That is enough to swing battleground states and determine control of Congress.

The argument that those numbers are “too small” collapses when compared to recent election margins.

In 2020, Biden carried Arizona by just over 10,000 votes. Georgia’s margin was fewer than 12,000.

If even a fraction of the non-citizen votes identified occurred in those states, outcomes could have flipped.

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California Highway Patrol offers Harris security: LA Times

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) has offered to provide protection for former Vice President Harris after President Trump canceled her Secret Service protection, according to new reporting from the Los Angeles Times, which cited law enforcement sources.

The Times, in a report published Friday, said the CHP offer came in the wake of discussions between the offices of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D).

The CHP declined to provide further information when reached by The Hill.

“Respectfully, the California Highway Patrol does not comment on security arrangements,” said CHP office of media relations spokesperson Lt. Matt Gutierrez. The office of Newsom, who would need to sign off on the protection, could not be immediately reached for comment by The Hill. Newsom’s office declined to provide further comment to The Times.

Harris’s protection was revoked through a letter titled “Memorandum for the Secretary of Homeland Security” dated Thursday. Her protections are set to end Sept. 1, according to CNN.

“You are hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law, for the following individual, effective September 1, 2025: Former Vice President Kamala D. Harris,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.

Harris’s security protections ran for six months following the end of the Biden administration, as is standard for vice presidents; however, former President Biden extended the deadline for protection by a year before leaving office, per CNN. Presidents receive lifetime Secret Service protection.

Bass denounced Trump’s decision to revoke Harris’s Secret Service protection in a statement to The Hill, saying she will work with Newsom to ensure Harris’s safety.

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California Supreme Court Backs Newsom, Allows Legislators to Seize Power from Voters

The California Supreme Court rejected an emergency petition Wednesday filed by Republicans to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) $200 million special election to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts.

It was the second time in as many weeks that the state’s highest court, which has a 6-1 Democrat-appointed majority, had given Newsom and his party the green light to go ahead with their redistricintg scheme.

As Breitbart News had reported earlier in the week, Republicans said that the redistricting law and the special election Newsom is holding to enact it are both unlawful and unconstitutional.

Sacramento-area NBC affiliate KNBC reported that the court’s decision did not seem to be accompanied by any opinion on the issues at hand.

Effectively, California’s highest judges allowed the legislature to seize the power to draw congressional districts away from voters, even after the voters amended the constitution to prevent them from doing so.

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New Details Suggest the California ‘FireAid’ Fundraiser Scandal is Even Worse Than People Thought

After the wildfires of California earlier this year, leaders in the state joined with a number of Hollywood celebrities and famous musicians and did a fundraiser event called ‘FireAid’ that managed to raise $100 million which they claimed would go directly to the victims.

Several weeks ago, an independent journalist did a deep dive into the funds and found that none of the victims had seen a dime of the money. Based on her research, she found that the money had gone to a number of non-profit organizations.

Now, the Washington Free Beacon has done an even deeper dive into the issue and it looks even worse. Some of the non-profits that received this money have absolutely nothing to do with the issue of fire recovery or even base their assistance on race.

From the Free Beacon:

FireAid announced in February that it would distribute the money it raised “equitably,” a promise it appears to have kept. Greenline Housing Foundation, for instance, received funds from a $4.8 million pool dedicated to health and housing. It noted on its website that no whites need apply.

“In order to qualify for a grant through Greenline Housing Foundation, applicants must be a Black or Hispanic person,” the group stated…

The same is true for the Black Freedom Fund, a Black Lives Matter-era nonprofit dedicated to fighting “systemic racism” and promoting “Black power-building.” The organization—which received money from a $7.6 million pool dedicated to “disaster relief”—stated in a 2023 grant proposal document that it would only assist groups “led and controlled by Black people” and “primarily serving Black people.”

My Tribe Rise, which also received cash from that pool, has a similar mission. Founded in 2019, the organization states that its mission is “to take the stigma out of gangs and to educate people about the positive changes that are possible when people come together to end violence and meet the needs of Black and Brown communities.”

Other groups that have received money through FireAid offer assistance to illegal aliens within California.

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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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