Tag: california

California’s Pro-Israel AB 715: A Horrific Affront to Free Speech

While freedom of speech is one of the most prized freedoms celebrated in American society and the West, since the outbreak of the Gaza War, Zionist sympathizers in both major political parties have tried to quash dissent regarding US support for Israeli imperialism. In a new attempt to crush anti-war sentiments and indoctrinate millions of students into becoming pro-Israel sycophants, the California State Assembly has unanimously passed and referred to the State Senate a bill that would threaten freedom of speech in California public schools.

The bill, which seeks to add to already existing anti-discrimination legislation, would ban comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and language which “denies” Israel’s right to exist. After nearly two years of viciously slaughtering Palestinians, it has become clear to the United Nations, Amnesty International, and even once reluctant scholars that Israel is guilty of genocide. Therefore, comparisons between Nazi Germany and the State of Israel do not only seem valid, but necessary for adequately describing the severity of Israeli cruelty in occupied Palestine. Furthermore, the wording of “directly or indirectly denying the right of Israel to exist” is alarmingly unspecific. Many supporters of Israel, including those at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), have equated denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish supremacist state with denying Israel’s right to exist at all. By declaring legitimate criticism or comparisons of Israel as anti-Semitic without any further debate or inquiry, California politicians seek to combat the growing trend of young Americans questioning the US-Israel relationship.

Fundamentally, this bill is a gift to authoritarianism in line with a host of other similar bills in the United States and throughout the West. Ironically, both the deep-blue California and the deep-red state of Florida are united in their endeavor to suppress criticism of Israel. Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB 187, officially adopting the incredibly flawed aforementioned IHRA definition of anti-Semitism into law. In the United Kingdom, government officials have encouraged the police to treat those who wave the Palestinian flag or shout pro-Palestinian chants as racist criminals. Elsewhere, Germany has conducted raids on the homes of activists, and France has ordered a ban on pro-Palestine protests entirely.

Thankfully, numerous organizations and individuals have denounced this bill and encouraged the people of California to place pressure on the Senate and Governor Gavin Newsom to reject this bill. On the left, groups like the Jewish Educators Addressing Actual Antisemitism, CODEPINK, and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area have condemned the bill. Other Muslim and Arab advocacy groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations California, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center Action, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, have similarly condemned the bill.

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California Rolls Back Environmental Restrictions on Urban Housing

California legislators took a rare step in the right direction on Monday when they passed a law rolling back the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) restrictions on building housing in urban “infill” areas.

Calmatters.org explained:

With the passage of a state budget-related housing bill, the California Environmental Quality Act will be a non-issue for a decisive swath of urban residential development in California.

In practice, that means most new apartment buildings will no longer face the open threat of environmental litigation.

It also means most urban developers will no longer have to study, predict and mitigate the ways that new housing might affect local traffic, air pollution, flora and fauna, noise levels, groundwater quality and objects of historic or archeological significance.

Supporters of the rollback noted the acute housing shortage in California, due partly to CEQA regulations and other bureaucratic obstacles that discourage building and that keep many young buyers out of the market.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the rollback as part of his overall $322 billion budget package, which aims to reduce a $12 billion deficit through a series of cuts, including blocking new illegal migrants from enrolling in Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid.

In a statement, Newsom hailed his budget and CEQA rollback bills as part of “[a]dvancing an abundance agenda,” picking up on the new buzzword introduced by liberal wonk Ezra Klein, who argued in a book earlier this year that Democrats should focus on economic growth.

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SoCal Police to Use Drones to Catch Illegal Fireworks on July 4

Police in fire-ravaged Southern California, plan to use drones to catch people who use illegal fireworks on and around the Fourth of July celebrations.

While many, even in California, might ordinarily balk at the use of drones for surveillance and law enforcement, the fact that recent Los Angeles wildfires could have been sparked by illegal fireworks means that many communities are on edge entering Independence Day week.

The Pasadena Star-News reports:

Revelers who once could illegally ignite fireworks and scatter before police officers arrive or who suffer from collective amnesia when questioned about who lit the fuse may still find themselves lighter in the wallet. For the first time in parts of Southern California, stealthy aerial surveillance will attempt to nab them in the act.

Riverside, Hemet and Brea, and possibly other cities, will launch drones to film illegal activity as municipalities increasingly marry new technology with old-fashioned legislation to prevent injuries and the type of fast-moving fires that devastated the region in January.

Offenders or their landlords will then receive a surprise: Those cities are mailing citations to property owners, in some cases without ever first contacting them, regardless of whether they were present when the fireworks sparkled, smoked or skyrocketed.

While the Eaton Fire, which erupted in Pasadena and Altadena on January 7, was likely caused by faulty power lines, the Palisades Fire on the other side of town was likely caused by a reignited fire that originally started on New Year’s Day due to illegal fireworks, local residents believe.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office issued a warning: “The sale, transport, or use of fireworks without the ‘Office of the State Fire Marshal Safe and Sane’ seal is illegal, as is possessing or using any fireworks in communities where they are not allowed. Violators face potential fines up to $50,000 as well as a year in jail.”

The governor’s office said that 600,000 pounds of illegal fireworks had been seized in 2025 thus far.

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DOJ Probes University Of California Over Alleged Race And Sex Hiring Quotas

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the University of California (UC) system to determine whether its efforts to boost faculty diversity run afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws.

In a June 26 announcement, the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that it is probing whether the university’s “UC 2030 Capacity Plan” and related campus-level programs constitute a pattern or practice of unlawful employment discrimination based on race and sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Public employers are bound by federal laws that prohibit racial and other employment discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division. “Institutional directives that use race- and sex-based hiring practices expose employers to legal risk under federal law.”

According to the Justice Department, the UC system’s strategic hiring plan explicitly encourages campuses to measure and increase the number of new hires by race and sex to meet internal diversity targets. Officials described the framework as potentially unlawful, citing provisions in the plan that direct campuses to recruit “diverse” faculty in line with demographic benchmarks.

The UC 2030 Capacity Plan outlines several such goals, including the recruitment of at least 40 percent of its graduate students from its own undergraduate programs and from other minority-serving institutions, including Hispanic-serving institutions, historically black colleges and universities, and tribal colleges and universities. The plan also outlines a goal to hire more than 1,100 new ladder-rank faculty members by 2030—an effort the university says will help diversify its academic workforce, noting that new hires tend to be more diverse than the existing faculty.

“Identity-based hiring is not only wrong—it is illegal,” Dhillon wrote in a post on social media. “Public employers ignore our civil rights laws at their peril.”

A request for comment sent to the University of California by The Epoch Times was not immediately returned.

A university spokesperson told The Hill that the university “is committed to fair and lawful processes in all of our programs and activities, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws.”

“The University also aims to foster a campus environment where everyone is welcomed and supported. We will work in good faith with the Department of Justice as it conducts its investigation,” the spokesperson said.

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Moment Border Patrol use huge explosion to blast their way into house with woman and two children

A California mother-of-two was left in tears after Border Patrol agents used a massive explosion to blow down her front door during a terrifying early-morning raid caught on camera.

The shocking scene unfolded in Huntington Park, Los Angeles, where Jenny Ramirez and her two young children, ages one and six, were jolted awake by a deafening blast before a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear stormed the home.

Surveillance footage obtained by NBC Los Angeles shows agents planting an explosive device on the door before detonating it – shattering a window and sending shockwaves through the quiet neighborhood.

Moments later, around a dozen federal agents charged toward the house with weapons drawn.

Inside were Ramirez, her boyfriend Jorge Sierra-Hernandez, and their two children. Speaking through tears, Ramirez told NBC it was one of the loudest explosions she’d ever heard.

‘I told them, ‘You guys didn’t have to do this, you scared by son, my baby,’ Ramirez told NBC. 

Ramirez said she was given no warning about the raid and insisted that everyone in the home is a U.S. citizen.

According to Ramirez, the agents said they were searching for her boyfriend, who she claims was recently involved in an accidental collision with a truck carrying federal officers.

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Trump’s DOJ Sues Orange County, California for Allegedly Hiding Illegal Voter Registrations of Noncitizens

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against Orange County, California, election officials, accusing them of concealing voter registrations of noncitizens on its voter rolls.

“Voting by non-citizens is a federal crime, and states and counties that refuse to disclose all requested voter information are in violation of well-established federal elections laws,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement:

Removal of non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls is critical to ensuring that the State’s voter rolls are accurate and that elections in California are conducted without fraudulent voting. The Department of Justice will hold jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal voting laws accountable.
[Emphasis added]

The lawsuit accuses the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Robert Page, of violating both the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by allegedly refusing to hand over voter information to the Justice Department and hiding voter registrations of noncitizens on the county’s voter rolls.

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Homelessness Reaches Record High in Bay Area County

Santa Clara County’s total homeless population rose by 8.2 percent to a record high of 10,711 people, according to early results from the county’s latest point-in-time count.

The count used data taken in one night in January 2025, and it serves as the main data source to determine federal funding and homelessness estimates within the county.

The total number of people experiencing homelessness rose from 9,903 in 2023 to more than 10,000 now, consistent with expert observations that “more people are entering homelessness than exiting homelessness in the region,” the report states.

Among the homeless population, the number of sheltered individuals increased by 30 percent, which the county attributes to better use of available shelter beds and more shelter capacity overall.

“Even as we face extraordinary challenges and threats to critical federal and state funding for safety-net services, the County continues to make significant investments in both shelter capacity and permanent housing to combat homelessness in our community,” County Executive James R. Williams stated in a statement.

The investments include approximately $446 million in funding to address homelessness in the 2024–2025 fiscal year. With this funding, the county was able to move more than 8,000 homeless individuals into housing from 2023 to 2025.

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Does Kamala Really Think This Will Revive Her Political Career?

After her billion-dollar humiliation in November, many are wondering what Kamala Harris’s next move is going to be. Will she go for a third failed presidential bid? Will she run for governor of California? Maybe just start an unlistenable podcast? According to past reports, she would be making a decision about her political future before the end of the summer. But reportedly, she’s leaning toward running for governor.

Sources close to Harris say she’s seriously mulling a bid for governor, with one insider claiming the prospect has put “a glimmer in her eyes.” Of course, there are plenty of voices in her ear telling her this is her best shot — maybe her only shot — at remaining relevant. I’m sure some of those voices are from actual people, too. 

However, even among her own circle, there’s pushback. Not everyone is convinced Harris can — or should — wade into an already crowded Democratic field, which includes the likes of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, both of whom have deeper roots and broader appeal in California and don’t specialize in word salads.

But that’s why a trial balloon has been leaked to the media, and we’re not going to know for sure until the end of the summer. According to a report from The Hill, Kamala is “planning to take some time off in July, when sources say she hopes to further reflect on the next step in her political career.”

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Federal Judge In California Remains At The Ready To Wrest Control Of National Guard From Trump

“The fight doesn’t end here.” Gavin Newsom made that announcement on Thursday, soon after a federal appellate court ruled President Donald Trump retains control over the California National Guard. By Friday morning, the overturned district court judge repeated the mantra, but in subtler, more judicious terms designed to obscure his bias and his intent to halt the president’s use of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles. The apparent plan is now to find the president’s deployment violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which goes to show that judges bent on executing a coup by courts also have six ways to Sunday to rebel against the duly elected president.

After rioters attacked ICE agents and federal property in California, on June 7, 2025, President Trump federalized the California National Guard. Once under federal command, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered thousands of National Guard troops to deploy to Los Angeles. Secretary Hegseth later also deployed some 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton to Los Angeles.

Within days of the president’s federalizing of the California National Guard, Governor Newsom filed a multi-count complaint in a San Francisco federal court. Then, at 11:00 a.m., on June 10, 2025, the governor asked the court to immediately (by 1:00 p.m.) grant him an ex parte temporary restraining order, barring the deployment of troops in Los Angeles and directing the president to return control of the National Guard to the governor. Presiding Judge Charlies Breyer instead provided the Trump administration 24 hours to respond to the motion and set a hearing for June 12, 2025, at 1:30 p.m.

Judge Breyer opened the June 12, 2025 hearing by noting he had refused to grant the requested injunction on an ex parte basis, with the Clinton appointee stressing the importance of hearing from both sides before ruling. However, Judge Breyer soon made clear his fist was firmly on Governor Newsom’s side of the scale, with the federal judge appropriating the language of the left and declaring we have no king in America.

It came as no surprise, then, to court listeners that by day’s end Judge Breyer had entered an injunction against President Trump, enjoining him “from deploying members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles,” and directing the Commander-in-Chief “to return control of the California National Guard to Governor Newsom.” The court stayed his order until noon on Friday, June 13, 2025.

The Trump administration immediately sought a stay of Judge Breyer’s injunction in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — the federal circuit court that hears appeals from district courts in California, among other western states. Within hours, a three-judge panel of the federal appellate court entered an administrative stay of Judge Breyer’s order, keeping the president in charge of the National Guard. The Ninth Circuit then set an expedited briefing schedule and scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, June 17, 2025.

Last Tuesday, Trump appointees Judges Mark Bennette and Eric Miller, joined by Biden-appointee Judge Jennifer Sung, heard the parties’ argument concerning the propriety of the injunction. Two days later, in a unanimous opinion, the court held the Trump administration “made the required strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their appeal,” and stayed the lower court’s injunction against the president. That stay left the California National Guard under federal control and deployed in Los Angeles, as directed by Secretary Hegseth.

In concluding that Trump was likely to succeed on the merits of his appeal, the Ninth Circuit focused on Newsom’s claim that the president lacked authority under 10 U.S.C. § 12406 to federalize the California National Guard. That federal statute authorizes the president to federalize the National Guard of a state whenever, among other things, “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States . . . ”

While Judge Breyer concluded that Trump had failed to establish that he was unable with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States, the Ninth Circuit rejected the lower court’s reasoning in two respects. First, the three-judge panel concluded that courts owe great deference to the president’s conclusion that regular forces are unable to execute federal law.

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Cackling Sellout Kamala Harris ‘Leaning Toward Entering California Governor’s Race in 2026’

On Sunday, June 22, The Hill reported that failed 2020 and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris is “leaning toward entering the [2026] California gubernatorial race, per sources familiar with the former vice president’s thinking.”

“While the sources caution that Harris hasn’t made a final decision yet and is still considering all her options, they say she has made it clear that she is not done with public service and is giving the race strong consideration. Those who have spoken to Harris about the possibility of entering the race say it has given her a renewed sense of excitement and, as one source put it, ‘a glimmer in her eyes,” The Hill reported.

The American people were forced to endure watching Kamala Harris babble and cackle her way across the 2024 presidential campaign trail, once Joe Biden finally malfunctioned to the point that Democrats launched a backroom coup to cancel Biden’s candidacy.

Now, Harris appears keen on inflicting her latest assault against the downtrodden Republic of California, the world’s 4th largest GDP, estimated at $4.1 trillion, greater than all nations of the world besides the US, China, and Germany.

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