There’s a mind-blowing battle playing out in Sacramento among the Democrats who dominate California politics. We told you this week about how these same Democrats quietly killed a bipartisan bill, without debate, that would have implemented the successful reading instruction program that has allowed Mississippi students to overtake California kids in early literacy. They did so at the furious behest of California’s anti-education, anti-child teachers unions, who are among the deep-pocketed left-wing special interest groups who rule the party that rules the state. This maneuver even offended the leftist editors of the leftist San Francisco Chronicle, but it’s business as usual in the leftist state. If that weren’t bad enough, Democrats have chosen to double down on cartoonish evil — and I don’t use that word lightly — by debating over whether purchasing children for sex should be a felony.
Tag: california
Report: Brazilian National in CA Was Arrested for Domestic Violence, Became a Cop, Now Accused of Rape
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law in 2022 removing a requirement for police, highway patrol, and corrections officers in the state to be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Now, a foreign national Felipe Gomes, who was hired by the Belmont Police Department after the law went into effect in 2023, was arrested last week on suspicion of rape, The Blaze reported. The Brazilian national was reportedly hired despite a previous arrest in 2017 for domestic violence.
Redwood City Police arrested Gomes at the Belmont Police Department headquarters on April 22, RCPD Sgt. Victor Figueroa said. Gomes is accused of violating penal code 261 (a)(1), which is “knowingly having sexual intercourse with an individual incapable of giving consent because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability,” according to the report.
Gomes was subsequently booked into the San Mateo County Office Main Jail and released on $100,000 bond. Belmont Police Lt. Pete Lotti said Gomes was terminated the day after his arrest, the report states.
Gomes was sworn in on Dec. 10 at a Belmont City Council ceremony. At the ceremony, Belmont Police Chief Ken Stenquist said Gomes was in the Brazilian Air Force and worked as air force police.
“He was a full-time police soldier and left that position when he moved to the United States. He enjoys practicing jiu jitsu and attending church when he’s not working,” Stenquist added.
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and the East Palo Alto Police Department allegedly warned Chief Stenquist about Gomes before he was hired. Both law enforcement agencies said they had rejected his application due to a 2017 domestic violence arrest, KGO-TV reported.
“The charging affidavit reviewed by KGO alleged that one year into his marriage, Gomes — who is not an American citizen but apparently has a U.S. work permit — brutally beat his wife, striking her repeatedly in the face and stomach. Gomes had allegedly done so after seeing text messages on his wife’s phone from her ex-boyfriend,” according to the report.
An officer at the time said he saw a “large bruise that covered most of (his wife’s) left cheek and scratches to her right cheek.”
“The state attorney reportedly factored in Gomes’ claims that his wife hit and scratched him first, charged both husband and wife with battery/domestic violence, and ultimately dropped the charges,” the report details.
HHS to reexamine massive $89 billion contract awarded to California nonprofit: Report
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reportedly reconsidering a massive contract the National Cancer Institute awarded to a California nonprofit in January to operate a cancer research lab in Maryland.
The $89 billion award was given to the Alliance for Advancing Biomedical Research on January 17, just three days before former President Joe Biden left office. The nonprofit is also considered untested because it has not received or spent a penny since its inception in 2022, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday.
The HHS notified the Government Accountability Office earlier this month that it is reevaluating all the original bids for the contract, which means it could give the money to another company.
The organization is also tied to the University of California system, which Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has accused of using 40% of its federal funding for administrative purposes, and criticized for allegedly being vulnerable to China.
“It’s outrageous Biden’s NIH shoved a nearly $90 billion contract out the door just days before President Trump returned to office,” Grassley told the Free Beacon. “Even worse, the money would have flowed to an organization that can’t clearly protect itself from adversaries like China.
California Democrats Block Bill to Make Sex Trafficking of Minors a Felony — Again
California Democrats in the State Assembly are once again blocking a bill that would make the sex trafficking of minors a felony — this time for victims age 16 and 17 — preferring instead to give prosecutors discretion.
Notably, some of those prosecutors would be George Soros-backed prosecutors who have avoided enforcing the law in the name of “criminal justice reform,” and whom voters have begun to oust across the state.
The blocking effort is the latest chapter in a saga that began in 2023. As Breitbart News reported at the time, Republican State Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) had introduced a bill to make sex trafficking of minors a “serious felony.” It passed unanimously in the State Senate, but Democrats on the State Assembly’s Public Safety Committee blocked the bill, since they did not want to increase criminal penalties generally.
Faced with public embarrassment, Democrats struck a deal in 2024 with Grove, under which the bill would advance but only if it was limited to victims under the age of 16. Now, a Democrat, State Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), is trying to make trafficking minors aged 16 and 17 a felony, too — and fellow Democrats are refusing to allow the bill to advance.
Sacramento-area NBC affiliate KCRA reported Monday:
California lawmakers in the Assembly Public Safety Committee are blocking a proposal that would make it a felony to purchase 16 and 17-year-old children for sex.
Assemblyman Nick Shultz, the Democratic chairman of the committee, confirmed AB 379, a bill to crack down on the consumers of the child sex trafficking industry, will move forward on Tuesday, but without the proposed felony charge.
…
“My perspective as chair, there was a carefully crafted deal last year,” Shultz said. “We’re not saying no, but what we’re saying is if we’re going to be thoughtful policy makers, we really need to dive deep into this issue.”
The proposed bill, even without the provisions that Democrats on the Public Safety Committee are blocking, will roll back some of a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed in 2022 that prevented police from arresting prostitutes for loitering — a bill that led to an explosion of street prostitution, including child sex trafficking.
The bill recalls efforts by State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) to decriminalize various sex crimes involving minors in their late teens, arguing that these penalize the LGBTQ community disproportionately.
California Democrat Lawmaker Wants to Decriminalize Welfare Fraud Under $25,000
Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D) in February.
The bill would decriminalize welfare fraud under that amount in the state for administrative errors, Fox News reported on Monday.
According the outlet’s Bill Melugin, “Smallwood-Cuevas represents a large chunk of Los Angeles County, including Mar Vista, West LA, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, Century City, Playa Vista, and part of downtown LA.,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday.
Smallwood-Cuevas told Fox the state’s safety net should help residents and not keep them in poverty. She also wrote in a recent social media post, “This bill is about keeping families out of the criminal justice system from making administrative errors on raising the threshold for welfare fraud prosecutions.”
The bill is set for a hearing on May 5. The Legislative Counsel’s Digest regarding the bill reads:
Existing law establishes criminal penalties for welfare fraud, defined as willfully and knowingly, with the intent to deceive, by specified means, including a false statement or representation, obtaining or retaining aid through designated public social services for oneself or for a child who is not in fact entitled thereto, as specified. Existing law makes any person who knowingly uses, transfers, sells, purchases, or possesses CalFresh or federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in any manner not authorized, as specified, guilty of a misdemeanor or felony depending on the face value of the benefits.
This bill would delete the provision that establishes criminal penalties for an attempt to commit welfare fraud. The bill would delete criminal penalties for welfare fraud when the total amount of aid obtained or retained is above or below $950, and instead make welfare fraud when aid was obtained or retained in the total amount of $25,000 or more punishable by specified imprisonment in a county jail, by a fine, or by imprisonment and fine.
“In Los Angeles County, field investigators handle 15,000 to 20,000 fraud cases or referrals, according to the Department of Public Social Services,” Monday’s Fox article said.
California Bill Highlights Epidemic Of Male Rapists Transferring To Women’s Prisons
On April 29, 2025, California lawmakers will decide whether to advance a bill introduced by Sen. Shannon Grove that would prohibit any trans-identifying male prisoners with histories of sex offenses from being housed in women’s prisons. This bill would take a significant bite out of Sen. Scott Wiener’s 2021 law SB132 (also known as the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act), which currently allows the entrance of trans-identifying male prisoners into women’s prisons. The bill comes amid ongoing concerns about inmate safety.
Amie, then a prisoner at Central California Women’s Facility, still remembers the day Richard Masbruch was transferred to CCWF. Masbruch, who changed his name to Sherri Lashure, was a sadistic sexual predator who held an elderly mother and daughter at gunpoint and tortured the daughter with electric shocks before brutally raping and sodomizing her.
Amie’s hands trembled as word spread throughout the prison. “Sherri” also had infamously self-castrated himself while in a Texas prison. Despite the loss of his male genitals, he is alleged to have raped female prisoners with objects. His presence made the female population extremely fearful and anxious, as many of the prisoners were survivors of sexual violence.
Under the current California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation policy, there are no bright-line rules; the policy simply requires that every inmate request for a transfer must be considered. Any male inmate who self-identifies as female can request a transfer to women’s prison, regardless of his criminal history, his anatomy, or whether he has undergone any so-called “transition” procedures. According to the CDCR, as of April 2025, there are 45 trans-identifying males housed in the women’s prisons, 208 pending transfers, and 898 requesting to be transferred.
Clearly, CDCR anticipated that wanted or unwanted sexual encounters among the “transgender” males and the females would occur when it distributed condoms to women’s prisons. As early as 2023, the California Office of the Inspector General recognized that female prisoners were fearful of the male prisoners. The other forms of abuse perpetrated by the male transferees included “physical violence and demeaning behavior” toward female prisoners.
Nearly two-thirds of women interviewed reported fearing for their safety around some or all of the male transferees, with over one-quarter reporting negative experiences, including sexual assault. The OIG confirmed that some male transferees allegedly forcibly touched female prisoners or forced the females to touch them, which is undeniably sexual assault. Allegations of rape have also materialized.
In a high-profile case, Tremaine Carroll, a 6-foot-tall male who purports to be a transgender woman, was transferred in 2021 to CCWF, where he impregnated one female prisoner. In 2024 Carroll was accused of raping a female inmate and charged with trying to dissuade a witness to testify. In the rape trial — in an unmitigated affront to the victim — Judge Katherine Rigby has ordered the prosecutor and the alleged victim to refer to Carroll using female pronouns. Carroll’s trial is ongoing.
Carroll has been returned to the male prison and is serving 25 years to life under California’s Three Strikes Law. Ironically prior to the rape charges, the American Civil Liberties Union held Carroll up as the model “safe” transgender prisoner and used him to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SB132.
That lawsuit, which was filed by Women’s Liberation Front along with Harmeet Dhillon (who is now the assistant attorney general for civil rights), contends that housing male inmates with female inmates constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and discrimination. The six female prisoner-plaintiffs have experienced childhood violence and sexual abuse and now have violent males housed with them. Plaintiff Krystal Gonzalez was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male prisoner who was transferred to the women’s prison based upon his professed belief in his own femininity. When she reported the assault, it was she who was punished. One plaintiff was a victim of sex trafficking at age 13.
California Senators Approve Bipartisan Bill To Create Psilocybin Pilot Program For Veterans And First Responders
California senators have unanimously approved a bipartisan bill to create a psilocybin pilot program for military veterans and first responders.
On Wednesday, members of the Senate Health Committee advanced the legislation from Sens. Josh Becker (D) and Brian Jones (R), with amendments, in a 7-0 vote.
The proposal would establish a pilot program under the University of California (UC) system to study and develop “psilocybin services” for eligible patients in up to five counties across the state.
The universities would be responsible for “protocol design, institutional review board approvals, training of psilocybin facilitators, data collection, and reporting” of the pilot program.
“The bill would require each local pilot program to partner with local mental health clinics, hospice programs, veterans facilities, or other community-based providers that provide services and care to the target population,” the measure, as introduced in January, says. “This bill would require the agency to report specified information about the pilot program to the Legislature by January 15, 2030.”
Under the legislation, the state would establish a “Veterans and First Responders Research Pilot Special Fund,” with continuous appropriations to fund the work.
“SB 751 responds to crisis we cannot ignore. Every day, an average of 17.6 veterans die by suicide. First responders—those who run towards dangers to protect the rest of us—are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty,” Becker said. “These are individuals who’ve experienced repeated trauma and, too often, existing mental health treatments simply don’t work for them.”
Many are turning to underground or unregulated sources of psilocybin, or even traveling abroad, to seek relief that only places them at risk,” he said. “It signals a serious gap in our system of care. This bill is a step towards addressing that gap responsibly and safely.”
A findings section of the legislation—which is also cosponsored by eight other lawmakers, including longtime psychedelics reform advocate Sen. Scott Wiener (D)—states that research “suggests that psilocybin and psilocyn, when used in a controlled setting, may offer significant benefits in treating mental health disorders, particularly those related to trauma and stress.”
California’s Broke Medicaid Program Has Been Spending on … Homeless Housing
Medi-Cal, the State of California’s version of Medicaid, has been spending on extraneous programs such as housing while running up a deficit so extreme that the state has had to borrow over $6 billion to save it.
As Breitbart News reported last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration had to seek $6 billion in loans to keep the program from collapsing, partly due to the cost of covering illegal aliens, which he did last year.
Now, CalMatters.org reveals that the federal government is cracking down on Medi-Cal and other Medicaid providers that have been using money to support “rent assistance” and “medically tailored meals”:
In 2022, California made sweeping changes to its Medi-Cal program that reimagined what health care could look like for some of the state’s poorest and sickest residents by covering services from housing to healthy food. But the future of that program, known as CalAIM, could be at risk under the Trump administration.
…
The moves align with a narrower vision of Medicaid espoused by newly confirmed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Dr. Mehmet Oz, who said during his swearing-in ceremony that Medicaid spending was crowding out spending on education and other services in states with the federal government “paying most of the bill.”
“This one really bothers me. There are states who are using Medicaid — Medicaid dollars for people who are vulnerable — for services that are not medical,” Oz said.
President Joe Biden allowed California and other states to “experiment” with Medicaid funding — and California spent itself into near-insolvency. The Trump administration is cracking down, insisting that Medicaid spending be restricted to medical expenses — not items like housing for indigent patients.
Sanctuary State California to Free Illegal Alien from Prison After He Killed Two Teens in Drunk Driving Crash
The sanctuary state of California is set to release from prison a twice-deported illegal alien who was convicted of killing two American teenagers, 19-year-olds Anna Varfolomeeva and Nicholay Osokin, in a 2021 drunk driving crash.
Varfolomeeva and Osokin, who were dating, were killed in November 2021 in Orange County, California, by Ortega-Anguiano who was drunk, high, and driving 100 mph on the 205 freeway at the time. The teens were burned alive in the crash.
The following year, Ortega-Anguiano was convicted on two counts of vehicular manslaughter while drunk and sentenced to just ten years in prison for killing Varfolomeeva and Osokin. Before the conviction, Ortega-Anguiano already had numerous felony convictions and served time in California’s state prison system.
A new report from Fox News’ Bill Melugin reveals that California officials plan to release Ortega-Anguiano from prison in July of this year, ensuring that he has served less than half of his sentence.
“The victims’ families felt that was already a weak sentence, but they tell me they were notified by the CA Department of Corrections on Easter Sunday that Ortega-Anguiano is scheduled for an early release on July 19th, 2025, only a little more than 3 years into his sentence, leaving the victims’ families shocked, and outraged given the seriousness of the crime and his prior criminal history,” Melugin posted to X.
State Bar of California Makes ‘Staggering Admission’
The State Bar of California has disclosed that some multiple-choice questions in a problem-plagued bar exam were developed with the aid of artificial intelligence. The legal licensing body said in a news release that it will ask the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took its February bar exam.
- “The debacle that was the February 2025 bar exam is worse than we imagined,” Mary Basick, assistant dean of academic skills at the University of California, Irvine, Law School, told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m almost speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers using artificial intelligence is just unbelievable.”
- In February, the new exam led to complaints after many test-takers were unable to complete their bar exams. The online testing platforms repeatedly crashed before some applicants even started. Others struggled to finish and save essays, experienced screen lags and error messages, and could not copy and paste text, the Times reported earlier.
- According to a recent presentation by the State Bar, 100 of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions were made by the company Kaplan Exam Services and 48 were drawn from a first-year law students exam, the AP reports. A smaller subset of 23 scored questions were made by ACS Ventures, the State Bar’s psychometrician, and developed with artificial intelligence.
- “It’s a staggering admission,” says Katie Moran, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law who specializes in bar exam preparation. “The State Bar has admitted they employed a company to have a non-lawyer use AI to draft questions that were given on the actual bar exam,” she says. “They then paid that same company to assess and ultimately approve of the questions on the exam, including the questions the company authored.”
Hellbound and Down 
You must be logged in to post a comment.