Tag: california

California bans Glock-style handguns from commercial sale

Assembly Bill 1127 fundamentally shifts firearm regulations by prohibiting licensed dealers from selling some of the most popular semiautomatic handguns on the market. 

By focusing on how certain handguns are built, lawmakers want to stop people from easily turning standard pistols into fully automatic weapons.

What we know:

The legislation specifically introduces a new legal classification: “machinegun-convertible pistols.” 

Lawmakers drafted this category to address handguns, most notably Glock-style pistols, that feature trigger mechanisms capable of being converted into fully automatic firearms with relatively simple, aftermarket modifications.

For consumers, the immediate impact is restricted to retail environments.

Licensed firearm dealers must cease all sales of new inventory that falls under this classification. 

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Waymo Robotaxi “Snitches” On Two 15-Year-Olds Drinking & Shooting Orbeez Guns In Bay Area

Two 15-year-old boys were detained in San Mateo Monday afternoon after the Waymo robotaxi they were riding in reported them to police – for drinking alcohol and firing a gel-bead blaster out of the moving car – then pulled itself over so officers could collect them.

Waymo’s remote monitors spotted the behavior on the vehicle’s interior cameras and called the San Mateo Police Department around 2:10 p.m. with the car’s exact location. The company then disabled the vehicle near 20th Avenue and El Camino Real, telling the pair the car was having trouble – a ruse that bought officers time to get into position.

Because the initial report described what looked like a real firearm, police conducted a high-risk stop, approaching with guns drawn and a police dog deployed. No one was hurt. Inside, officers found an Orbeez-style gel blaster – painted over to pass for the real thing – and open alcohol.

The teens cooperated, were detained, and were released to their parents. The case has been forwarded to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office for review of possible charges, including underage drinking, and police say they plan to pull the Waymo’s interior video.

“Parents do you know where your teens are? @waymo does!” The department wrote on Facebook: “After calling us and stopping the car, we were able to safely remove both subjects and determined they were shooting Orbeez from the car as they sipped on afternoon libations while being chauffeured around town in the driverless vehicle.”

“While there was some ingenuity to this scheme, toy guns, water guns, and BB guns all pose real dangers, especially to an untrained eye… Shooting projectiles at speed can cause real damage. And lest not forget the underage drinking. All bad ideas today for these two. Well, the Waymo might have been the smartest idea yet, because driving impaired would’ve made this so much worse.”

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Department of Labor Announces Gavin Newsom’s California Owes OVER $22 BILLION to U.S. Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund – The ONLY State Still in Debt, Slamming Businesses with Higher Federal Payroll Taxes

The radical left’s favorite golden boy is running the once-great state of California straight into the ground.

The Trump Labor Department announced Wednesday that California Governor Gavin Newsom’s failed administration owes more than $22 billion to the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

This staggering debt comes from loans California took during the COVID-19 pandemic to pay unemployment benefits — benefits that were looted by massive fraud under Newsom’s watch. California is now the only state in the entire country with an outstanding federal unemployment insurance loan balance.

As a direct result, California business owners are being forced to pay higher federal payroll taxes to bail out Sacramento’s incompetence and corruption. Every other state that borrowed during the pandemic has repaid its loans. Not Newsom’s California.

During and after the pandemic, California raked in record budget surpluses, at one point nearing $100 billion. Instead of using that taxpayer windfall to repay the federal loan like responsible states did, Newsom and the Democrat supermajority in Sacramento sat on the money, spent it on other priorities, and let the debt balloon with interest.

The state has paid $1.8 billion in interest since 2021, with Newsom’s latest budget proposing another $668 million in interest payments this year while putting zero dollars toward the actual principal.

The bill keeps growing. The California EDD’s UI Fund Forecast officially projects the outstanding loan balance to reach $22.0 billion by the end of 2026.

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Woke activists push for ‘Black English’ to be taught in Democrat state’s preschools to combat ‘harmful language hierarchies’

California activists are calling for the state’s preschools to legitimize the use of Black English in the classroom.

Supporters say teaching the dialect, also known as African American English (AAE) or African American Vernacular English (AAVE), will help ‘combat harmful language hierarchies.’

The Black Californians United for Early Care & Education group is part of a movement advocating for Black English to be recognized as a legitimate, rule-based language in preschool classrooms on par with other languages.

Co-founder Dr Ashley Williams told PBS the movement is personal because she grew up being told by her family that the way she spoke at home wasn’t acceptable at school.

Williams says she felt ashamed and embarrassed by this and is spearheading the movement because she doesn’t want her two-year-old son to grow up with the same experience. 

‘I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,’ she told the outlet. 

The advocacy group – known as BlackECE – has trained educators to support Black English speakers in the same way they support dual language learners. 

The group uses resources like the Black English Knowledge Brief and webinar series, which helps educators, caregivers, and school leaders better understand Black English, its roots.

It also offers ways to create classrooms that affirm children’s language and identity.  

It comes after the Golden State introduced a plan in 2020 to expand early dual-language learning and support bilingual children.

BlackECE argues that Black English should also be included as part of the scheme.

‘We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,’ Xigrid Soto-Boykin, director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, said.

‘We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.’

According to 2020 research published by the National Library of Medicine, about 20 percent of US children and 44 percent of California children ages five to 17 are bilingual. 

As of 2023, 96 percent of Black Americans speak English fluently.

Around 88 percent speak only English, with the remaining respondents using another language at home and speaking English very well, according to Pew Research.

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California Democrat Pushes to Add Muslim Holy Days to State Holidays

While Christmas and Easter are shunned for ‘winter holiday’ and ‘spring holiday’, California State Assemblymember for District 17, Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), authored a bill to establish two Muslim holidays as official state holidays that would allow local public school boards and community colleges the ability to close campuses.

AB 2017, which passed the State Assembly with a 64-1 vote to advance to the Senate Appropriations Committee, would establish Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as official state holidays.

Eid al-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast) is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal, the month immediately following Ramadan, and marks the end of Ramadan.

Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) us elebrated on the 10th day of Dhul-Hijjah, the 12th (final) month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It coincides with the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

In a video shared by the Supervisor of San Francisco District 5, Bilal Mahmood, in March, when the bill was announced, Haney said, “Ramadan Mubarak, everyone. I’m Assemblymember Matt Haney. We’re here at the Islamic Society of San Francisco with an incredible group of community members announcing an exciting bill that we’ve put forward in the state legislature, AB 2017, which will make Eid a state holiday in California.”

“Right now, too many students are being forced to celebrate what is one of the most holy days for them or miss time in school. Workers are being forced to miss critical time at the jobs to be able to celebrate something that is one of the most holy days, not just for Muslim Californians, but nearly 2 billion Muslims across the world.”

“This is how we show truly that we are inclusive, that we value diversity, we celebrate diversity, and that our Muslim neighbors, our friends, our colleagues are fully included and able to celebrate without consequence the most holy a holy day for them.”

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Tyrant Gavin Newsom Panics: Threatens to Prosecute Anyone Helping President Trump Secure Fair Elections – Pushes New Felony Law to Criminalize Ballot Scrutiny Before Certification

In yet another desperate power grab, radical Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is warning that anyone who dares help President Trump protect election integrity in California will be prosecuted.

He’s now moving forward with legislation to make it a FELONY to seize ballots before they’ve been certified by his hand-picked state and county officials.

This is the same Gavin Newsom who has spent years resisting basic election security while California’s system remains wide open to abuse.

In a video statement posted on social media, Newsom warned that anyone who assists President Donald Trump in what he described as interference with California’s elections would face prosecution under state law.

Newsom: Let me speak directly to anyone considering helping President Trump interfere with our election or our count: If you violate California’s laws, if you interfere with our voters, tamper with our ballots, or meddle in our election, you will be prosecuted. It doesn’t matter who gave the order.

That’s why I’m moving forward with new legislation that would make it a felony to seize ballots before the vote has been certified by state and county officials.

We will be the wall he cannot get past because we believe that, once an election is decided, the winner governs for everyone. That’s the architecture of American liberty.

Donald Trump—he doesn’t believe in that architecture.

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Ancient ‘lost world’ discovered off the US West coast rewrites story of first Americans who arrived 13,000 years ago

A remote ‘lost world’ off California‘s coast could rewrite the story of the first Americans. 

Hidden among the Channel Islands are 13,000-year-old human remains, ancient settlements and evidence suggesting some of the continent’s earliest inhabitants may have arrived by boat rather than crossing an inland ice corridor. 

If correct, the theory would overturn decades of conventional thinking that the first Americans crossed a land bridge from Siberia and traveled south through an ice-free corridor in western Canada. 

Instead, it suggests Ice Age humans reached North America thousands of years ago by following a coastal ‘kelp highway,’ using boats to move along the Pacific shoreline and settle places like the Channel Islands. 

The islands have also yielded the bones of pygmy mammoths and remarkably preserved archaeological sites that offer an unprecedented glimpse into Ice Age life.  Scientists have described the chain of islands as a place where ancient landscapes and human history have been frozen in time. 

Researchers said the evidence points to a forgotten maritime migration that could fundamentally change our understanding of America’s earliest people. And they believe many of the answers may still be waiting to be uncovered. 

The Channel Islands have been studied by scientists and archaeologists for more than a century, with some of their most important discoveries, including the remains of Arlington Springs Man, emerging during excavations in the mid-20th century. 

Now, a new documentary released on June 30 on the YouTube channel Timeline is bringing fresh attention to these discoveries and the mysteries that still lie beneath the islands and surrounding waters.

Not all archaeologists agree that the Channel Islands provide definitive proof of a maritime migration. 

While many researchers now accept that people were present in the Americas before the Clovis culture, experts continue to debate exactly when the first settlers arrived and whether they traveled by sea, by land, or through a combination of routes. 

The eight California Channel Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California, stretching from Point Conception near Santa Barbara to south of Los Angeles.

Author Frederic Caire Chiles, who has a PhD in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara, said in the film: ‘They are the trace of a vanished world.’

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SoCal: Absolute Mayhem in Newport Beach as Non-Residents Brawl, Riot and Loot on July 4th – Grocery Store Destroyed, Bars and Beaches Closed

Absolute chaos erupted in Newport Beach, California, on Saturday night as non-residents visiting the peninsula brawled, rioted, looted, and destroyed a grocery store on the 4th of July.

Newport Beach Police were forced to close beaches and bars due to the mayhem.

Mounted police broke up a massive brawl on the beach just north of the Newport pier.

Additional footage shows a Pavillions grocery store completely destroyed after the rioters looted the place.

The out-of-towners ignored a directive by Newport Beach Police and launched mortars on the beach.

The California Post reported:

Fourth of July descended into mayhem across Southern California as unruly crowds overwhelmed packed-out fireworks displays, looted stores, ignited fires and saw cops charge on horseback.

The worst unrest erupted in Newport Beach, where Independence Day revelers poured into Orange County, choking traffic and triggering a police response as disorder spread near the pier.

Authorities ultimately shut down businesses from the Newport Pier to Pacific Coast Highway as officers moved in to restore order.

Officers were swarmed by hundreds of people who hurled bottles and other debris at them before the crowd turned on one another and began fighting.

Mounted officers rode horses into them to clear the area so additional arrests could be made.

Video from the scene also appeared to show the aftermath of the reported looting of a Pavilions grocery store in Newport Beach, with merchandise strewn across the parking lot while groups of people lingered outside the business, laughing and joking.

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First $1 Billion, Now $50 Million: Khanna Says Wealth Tax “Must Not Stop At Billionaires”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) – fresh off endorsing California’s November ballot measure to seize 5% of billionaire wealth – published a Substack essay Wednesday titled, no really, “Why I Support a Billionaire Wealth Tax.”

He makes it roughly a dozen paragraphs before explaining that it isn’t one.

“The tax should not stop at billionaires, it must reach centimillionaires,” Khanna writes, before spelling out exactly what that means: every fortune of $50 million and up, hit with a 2% federal levy on wealth above that line – every year, forever, on top of everything else you already pay. The vehicle is Elizabeth Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, which Khanna notes he has cosponsored every single year it’s been introduced.

And before anyone reaches for the estate planner: Khanna wants the levy to pierce irrevocable trusts, with the tax billed to the grantor who set them up – because parking a fortune in a trust, in his telling, shouldn’t take it off the government’s books.

Former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky summed up the reveal in eight words: “Just like that, no longer a billionaires tax.“

Pirate Wires’ Mike Solana was less diplomatic, characterizing the scheme as an annual asset seizure in which the government tallies everything you own and demands a cut on top of your existing tax bill – now openly targeting anyone worth $50 million. His prediction for where the ratchet stops: “this ends with your 401k.”

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Six California Cities Ranked Among Top 10 Least Educated In US

Six California cities ranked among the top 10 least educated metropolitan areas in the United States, according to a report by WalletHub published on June 29.

Looking at the 150 most populated metro areas, the city of Visalia ranked as the second least educated, while Bakersfield was fourth, and Modesto, Fresno, Stockton, and Salinas followed.

All six are in central California.

The other four metros that rounded out the top ten were all in Texas – McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Brownsville-Harlingen, Beaumont-Port Arthur, and El Paso, at first, third, ninth, and tenth least educated, respectively.

“Higher education doesn’t guarantee better financial opportunities in the future, but it certainly correlates with it,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report.

“The most educated cities provide good learning opportunities from childhood all the way through the graduate level.”

As Dylan Morgan reports for The Epoch Times, to determine the ranking, WalletHub equally factored in the share of adults at least 25 years old who have a high school diploma or higher, who have at least some college experience, who have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and who have a graduate or professional degree.

Visalia ranked last among the 150 metros in percent of bachelor’s degree holders and percent of graduate or professional degree holders.

It ranked 107th highest in median annual household income, and there appeared to be a general correlation between income and education rates across the nation.

However, Visalia still had a lower poverty rate than the state average—11.3 percent compared to 11.8 percent, according to U.S. Census data—and Stockton ranked as having the 31st highest median household income while Salinas ranked as 26th highest, though those two cities were near the bottom in education.

Education and income rate correlations may not reflect California’s higher cost of living and regional economic structures, such as the Central Valley’s reliance on agriculture, an industry that has not historically required higher education the same way other California hubs have, such as Silicon Valley.

The San Jose metro, home to Silicon Valley, ranked as the fourth most educated in the United States.

WalletHub said that more than 55 percent of the San Jose metro’s population over the age of 25 have at least a bachelor’s degree, while nearly 28 percent have an advanced degree. .

It also ranked third for university quality. San Jose is near Stanford University and has Santa Clara University and San Jose State University in the center of the metro.

The nearby San Francisco metro area, which is home to the University of California—Berkeley, ranked as the eighth most educated.

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