Tag: california

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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In Brutal Self Own, Gavin Newsom’s Team Tries to Blame Trump but ADMITS that California Broke its Own Law by Giving Illegal Alien who Killed Three in Semi-Truck a Driver’s License

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office attempted to deflect blame from the Democrats in light of one of their illegal constituents killing three innocent Americans and accidentally admitted that the sanctuary state of California is wholly responsible for the tragedy. 

As The Gateway Pundit reported, an illegal alien, who obtained his truck driving license (CDL) in the Democrat-run sanctuary state of California, killed three Americans after he made an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway this week.

The driver, identified as Harjinder Singh, was arrested and charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after he made an insane U-turn directly in front of a car to his left on Florida’s Turnpike.

The animal showed zero emotion after he exited the 18-wheeler and examined what was left of the vehicle – a pile of mangled metal and three dead bodies.

The White House press office responded to the incident on X, “This individual is an illegal immigrant who was granted a commercial driver’s license by the State of California — and now, three innocent people are dead,” prompting a brief back and forth between Newsom’s office and the White House.

Newsom’s press office, which is likely filled with DEI hires, tried to respond with a graphic, stating that the driver entered the U.S. under the Trump Administration and showing California’s law prohibiting illegal aliens from obtaining driver’s licenses.

The graphic also states, “Research consistently shows that issuing driver’s licenses for undocumented people improves public safety,” and it’s complete with comic book pop art that reads “Yikes.”

“Who was the President in 2018?” the post reads.

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California County Board Bans Trans Athletes from Girls’ Sports

The Kern County Board of Education has passed a resolution to come into compliance with President Donald Trump’s Title IX rules. It will ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports in the Southern California county.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Trustee Lori Cisneros said, “Now, there be it resolved the Kern County Board of Education affirms it is for Title IX and calls on athletic governing bodies to uphold its protections by ensuring fairness in girls’ sports,” according to KBAK-TV.

The board oversees the education of about 400 students in county-run alternative education programs, but has no control over Kern’s other 46 districts.

But the board feels its resolution is a start that other districts should emulate.

“My message to the other school districts in Kern County is: Please follow our lead and protect girls. That’s the main purpose — to protect our students in girls’ sports,” trustee Lori Cisneros said, KERO-TV reported.

Still, some speakers at the meeting opposed the resolution.

One speaker exclaimed, “If the board truly cared about fairness, it would talk about equal funding for girls’ programs, better coaching resources, and ensuring all students have the equipment they need. Instead, this resolution targets one marginalized group while ignoring real inequities. That’s a double standard and a distraction from genuine solutions. Protecting women means protecting all women, including trans women.”

The Trump administration has been putting serious pressure on California to come into compliance with his Title IX changes that reversed the Biden administration’s wide expansion of policies to push the radical trans agenda.

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Ninth Circuit Overturns California’s ‘One-Gun-Per-Month’ Restriction

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a mandate Thursday overturning California’s “one-gun-a-month” restriction.

The case is Nguyen v. Bonta and the plaintiffs include the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., San Diego County Gun Owners PAC, two FFL gun dealers, and six private citizens including Michelle Nguyen.

The Second Amendment Foundation noted the “one-gun-a-month” restriction allows law-abiding citizens to purchase only one handgun or semi-automatic centerfire rifle (or combination thereof), from a licensed dealer within a 30-day period.

The August 14th mandate overturning the restriction follows a June 20, 2025, Ninth Circuit three-judge panel decision which affirmed a lower court ruling against the “one-gun-a-month” restriction.

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While Fire Victims Struggle to Rebuild, Gavin Newsom Sends Resources to Puerto Rico

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday that he is sending emergency resources and personnel to Puerto Rico, over 3,000 miles away, ahead of a tropical storm — even though tens of thousands of Californians are still displaced by fires.

Newsom has claimed, in his defense, that he did, in fact, pre-deploy resources to the fire-stricken areas of the state in January — but that is not entirely true. Although he deployed some resources ahead of the extreme wind event in Southern California, both state and local authorities failed to pre-deploy firefighting resources in the Pacific Palisades, including on state land where there had been a fire just a few days before.

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Newsom says California to draw congressional maps to ‘END TRUMP PRESIDENCY’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said California will move forward with drawing new congressional maps that he said “WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY” and allow Democrats to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!),” Newsom wrote Tuesday night, in a post written in the style of President Donald Trump’s occasionally all-caps social media posts.

The announcement comes amid Texas Republicans’ efforts to redraw congressional maps in their party’s favor. The redistricting showdown in Texas has led blue states to threaten to retaliate — with Newsom proposing to cut five GOP-held seats in California.

The redistricting battle in Texas — and potentially other states — has national implications, with control of the U.S. House potentially at stake. The Texas GOP’s proposed congressional map could net Republicans between three and five seats in next year’s midterm elections — seats that could make a difference as Republicans work to maintain their small majority in the U.S. House.

A spokesperson for California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas confirmed to ABC News that the state legislature is aiming to release draft maps on Friday.

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California City Approves $100,000 Fund to Help Migrants Pay Rent

The Santa Ana city council approved a new $100,000 fund of taxpayer dollars to pay the rent of illegal migrants who are “affected by immigration enforcement.”

Not only did the city approve the program, they also gave it an official title in Spanish, not English. The council passed what it is calling the “Santa Ana Ayuda Sin Frontera” program (“Help Without Borders”).

The program will allow migrants to apply for funds for overdue rent, utility bills, and other household expenses, according to a press release on the city website.

“Our community stands strongest when we support one another, especially in times of uncertainty,” Mayor Valerie Amezcua said in the release. “This assistance program reflects the Santa Ana City Council’s commitment to protecting the dignity and stability of each resident impacted by the recent, unjust immigration enforcement actions.”

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Chinese Immigrants Create 21 Children Via Surrogate Before Allegedly Abusing Them

In a troubling case unfolding in California, police have removed 21 children from a couple with connections to China. This complicated situation highlights profound ethical, moral, and legal dilemmas that demand our attention.

The couple at the center of this case is Silvia Zhang, 38, and Guojun Xuan, 65. Originally from China, they became naturalized U.S. citizens and now reside in a sprawling multimillion-dollar mansion in a suburb of Los Angeles. Zhang has a daughter from a previous marriage. She and Xuan have been having children through surrogacy since 2021.

Zhang operated a surrogacy agency called Mark Surrogacy from their mansion. The agency purportedly marketed itself as an institution assisting American and international couples struggling to conceive through surrogacy. However, investigations revealed a startling truth: The only couple the agency served was Zhang and Xuan themselves. They are the biological parents of 21 children born through surrogacy. Of these children, fifteen lived with them in the mansion under the care of a few nannies, while friends and family supposedly looked after the other six in different locations.

Mark Surrogacy’s sham operation would have continued if not for one of the children, a two-month-old infant, who had to be rushed to the hospital in May. After hospital staff determined the infant exhibited signs of child abuse, they contacted social services and the police. Police searched Zhang and Xuan’s mansion and found 15 children, none of whom is more than three years old. The police also uncovered home surveillance videos showing that some children were “subjected to physical and emotional abuse” by their nannies. Therefore, the police removed all children and put them under foster care.

The revelations surrounding Mark Surrogacy have left many of the surrogate mothers in a state of disbelief and anger. “It was kind of like they preyed on my vulnerability, being a first-time surrogate,” Kayla Elliott told CBS News. “We were lied to about so much, that I mean it’s disgusting.”

Compounding this injustice is the fact that two surrogate mothers are currently pregnant with the couple’s children, unsure if their babies will be placed into the foster care system. Some of these mothers are contemplating legal action against Zhang and Xuan. Additionally, the couple is entangled in two lawsuits from former employees of their real estate business, raising further questions about their integrity.

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