Tag: california

California Senate Approves Ban on Schools Informing Parents of Student’s Gender Identity

California lawmakers voted June 13 to advance legislation to ban school districts from notifying parents about social gender transitions at school without the student’s permission.

The state Senate voted 29–8 to approve Assembly Bill 1955 and send it back to the Assembly for final approval of amendments.

Sen. Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), who presented the bill on behalf of its author, Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), and the 13-member California Legislative LBGTQ Caucus, said before the vote the bill would “put some guardrails” on the “forced outing” policies passed recently by some California school boards.

“We know some of those policies have not been able to go into effect. We know some of those school board members have since been recalled,” she said.

One such California school board member, Temecula Valley Unified School District Board President Joseph Komrosky, is set to be recalled after a June 4 special election in which 51 percent of voters supported his removal. The district currently requires school staff to notify parents if their children change their name, pronouns, or other such information in their school records.

The new bill codifies in law guidance from the California Department of Education that “schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family.”

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Seventh Grader and Sisters Expelled from School Following Principal’s Controversial Decision to Limit Free Speech Over Use of the Word ‘Patriotism’

A California seventh-grade student, Jimmy Heyward, who recently went viral after his principal censored his patriotic speech, has now been banned from attending the school next year.

The Gateway Pundit reported last month that Heyward was a student at Saint Bonaventure Catholic School, where Principal Mary Flock reportedly told him to edit his campaign speech for the role of Commissioner of School Spirit and Patriotism, instructing him to remove “all parts about patriotism.”

The incident was first shared by LibsofTiktok, who wrote, “This is Jimmy. A middle schooler in California… His principal allegedly made him change his speech and remove all mention of patriotism. When he refused, she reportedly didn’t allow him to give the speech and he was forced to sit there humiliated, and watch the other contenders give their speeches…”

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California’s Leftist Committee Approves Bill for Reparations that Could Cost $800 Billion

A California State Legislature committee has approved a bill that could allocate a staggering $800 billion for slavery reparations—a sum that is more than 2.5 times the state’s annual budget.

This decision comes from a state that historically never practiced slavery and will be paying individuals who themselves were never enslaved.

The reparations initiative stems from the recommendations of California’s Reparations Task Force, which convened for the first time in 2020. The task force, made up of eight black members and one Asian member, was established through Assembly Bill 3121.

According to the California Attorney General’s website, the committee’s purpose is threefold: “(1) to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans; (2) to recommend appropriate ways to educate the California public of the task force’s findings; and (3) to recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Task Force’s findings.”

The task force ultimately voted in favor of recommendations that could include payments of a minimum of 360,000 to each eligible black resident in the state. As reported by the New York Post, this reparations proposal could potentially cost the state up to 800 billion — more than 2.5 times its annual budget.

On May 21, 2024, following a motion for reconsideration and a series of procedural votes, the bill was passed in the California State Senate, securing a vote of 30-7.

On Tuesday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee heard the bill. State Rep. Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, the only member to raise concerns, voiced her alarm.

“Economists, consultants from the task force reported the total amount could be as much as 800 billion. That’s two and a half times the size of our entire state budget. To pay for that, you’d need a major tax hike unlike anything this state has ever seen before,” Sanchez said.

“The majority of our state is Latino and Asian, making up 55% of our population. Most of them, like me, are second, first, or third generation immigrants who had nothing to do with slavery or Jim Crow laws. It is fundamentally unfair to force these people to pay for this, and because of that, I will be opposing today,” she continued.

In an X post, Sanchez wrote, “A key committee just approved a [California] bill to help distribute reparations that could total $800 billion. I was the ONLY member to raise concerns.   Why should CA taxpayers foot the bill when none of us had anything to do with this? Ridiculous!” 

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California Senators Approve Bill To Legalize Marijuana Cafes Where People Could Smoke, Eat Food And Watch Events Such As Concerts

A California Senate panel has approved a bill to legalize cannabis cafes in the state, months after the governor vetoed a previous iteration of the proposal.

The Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee passed the legislation in a 9-2 vote on Monday, about three weeks after it cleared the full Assembly.

Assemblymember Matt Haney (D) is again sponsoring the proposal, which would allow on-site marijuana consumption at licensed businesses that could also offer non-cannabis food and non-alcoholic drinks and host live events such as concerts if they get permission from their local government.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed the prior version, saying that while he appreciated that the intent was to “provide cannabis retailers with increased business opportunities and an avenue to attract new customers,” he felt “concerned this bill could undermine California’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections.”

“Protecting the health and safety of workers is paramount,” the governor said at the time. “I encourage the author to address this concern in subsequent legislation.”

Speaking to senators on Monday, Haney clarified that his bill this bill does not legalize consumption lounges but instead would let marijuana businesses add new streams of revenue to those facilities that are already in operation.

“Consumption lounges currently exist throughout the state of California if authorized by the local government, and people are actively consuming cannabis at these lounges,” he said. “However, what is currently not allowed under existing law, completely prohibited, is the ability for cannabis retailers to diversify their business by selling food, drinks and an experience.”

“The cannabis industry is struggling. Issues like an oversaturation, high taxes and a still-thriving black market are hurting cannabis businesses who follow the rules and pay taxes,” Haney said. “By authorizing cannabis retailers to diversify their businesses, we are boosting revenue for California’s small businesses.”

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Thousands of Beloved Joshua Trees to Be Chopped Down in Maniacal CA Solar Energy Push

The Joshua tree. The beloved gnarled California icon—revered by desert aficionados and nature conservationists and considered to be endangered—is nevertheless under assault in a weird twist: environmentalists battling environmentalists.

The tree is held in such high regard by people who love the natural world that supergroup U2 named perhaps their finest album after it, titling their 1987 multi-hit record simply “The Joshua Tree.”

The symbolism was not lost on their fans.

But woke is pitted against woke, as the ancient trees now face the chopping block as the crazed “green energy” crowd is poised to destroy the land and thousands of these ancestral growths:

A renewable energy company will soon begin clearing thousands of protected Joshua trees just outside this desert town, including many thought to be a century old, to make way for a sprawling solar project that will generate power for 180,000 homes in wealthier coastal neighborhoods.

The 2,300-acre project has angered residents of Boron and nearby Desert Lake, two small Kern County towns where the poverty rate is twice the California average. Residents say their concerns about construction dust, as well as the destruction of the mostly pristine land that is habitat for endangered desert tortoises, have been ignored by the county and state officials who approved it.

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California Restaurants Have Slashed 10,000 Jobs Since Democrats Introduced $20 Minimum Wage

Restaurants across the state of California have cut at least 10,000 jobs since Democrat lawmakers mandated a $20 minimum wage, according to a major trade group.

According to the California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA), thousands of restaurant workers have lost their positions as businesses are forced to cut labor costs and raise their prices in order to survive.

The New York Post reports:

The California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA) slammed  Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for pushing through the law, which went into effect April 1 – and was blamed for forcing one beloved taco chain to shutter 48 locations in the state last week.

“California businesses have been under total attack and total assault for years,” CABIA president and founder Tom Manzo told Fox Business. “It’s just another law that puts businesses in further jeopardy.”

Several major chains – including McDonald’s, Burger King, and even low-cost favorite In-N-Out Burger – jacked up prices to offset the higher wages. Many had to cut employee hours and some have expedited a move to automation.

Manzo said nearly 10,000 jobs have been cut across fast food restaurants since Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 1287 into law last year, adding that officials were living in a “fantasyland” by thinking that drastic wage increases will help workers or businesses.

Just this week, the beloved restaurant chain Rubio’s Coastal Grill, announced that it would be closing 48 locations statewide due to the unaffordable costs of doing business.

“The closings were brought about by the rising cost of doing business in California,” said a statement from a Rubio’s spokesperson. “While painful, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic long-term plan to position Rubio’s for success for years to come.”

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Trans prisoner removed from California’s Chowchilla women’s correctional facility after raping female inmate

A trans-identifying male inmate at a California women’s prison has been moved to a men’s prison after being charged with raping a female inmate. Tremaine “Tremayne” Deon Carroll had been housed at the Central California Women’s Facility, located in Chowchilla. 

According to the Daily Mail, Carroll has been charged with two counts of rape and one count of dissuading a witness from testifying. One of Carroll’s alleged victims, Jane Doe, said she was attacked and raped by Carroll in a shower at the jail. 

Doe was in jail serving a short sentence for burglary. Sources close to the case said that Doe had asked prison authorities to change her cell. Doe chose to room with two female inmates and Carroll. Doe said that Carroll began expressing sexual interest when she moved to the cells, allegedly leaving her flirtatious notes and propositioning her on the second day Doe was in the cell. 

Doe said she turned down Carroll’s advances, but a day later she said Carroll attacked her when she was alone in the shower and raped her. Sources told the outlet that Doe was hospitalized and placed in chains during a pelvic exam. She was segregated when released from the hospital and strip-searched because Carroll claimed that Doe was the one that carried out the attack. 

Carroll has since been moved to Kern Valley State Prison, a male facility around two hours away from the women’s facility. 

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‘A Failed Medical School’: How Racial Preferences, Supposedly Outlawed in California, Have Persisted at UCLA

Long considered one of the best medical schools in the world, the University of California, Los Angeles’s David Geffen School of Medicine receives as many as 14,000 applications a year. Of those, it accepted just 173 students in the 2023 admissions cycle, a record-low acceptance rate of 1.3 percent. The median matriculant took difficult science courses in college, earned a 3.8 GPA, and scored in the 88th percentile on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT).

Without those stellar stats, some doctors at the school say, students can struggle to keep pace with the demanding curriculum.

So when it came time for the admissions committee to consider one such student in November 2021—a black applicant with grades and test scores far below the UCLA average—some members of the committee felt that this particular candidate, based on the available evidence, was not the best fit for the top-tier medical school, according to two people present for the committee’s meeting.

Their reservations were not well-received.

When an admissions officer voiced concern about the candidate, the two people said, the dean of admissions, Jennifer Lucero, exploded in anger.

“Did you not know African-American women are dying at a higher rate than everybody else?” Lucero asked the admissions officer, these people said. The candidate’s scores shouldn’t matter, she continued, because “we need people like this in the medical school.”

Even before the Supreme Court’s landmark affirmative action ban last year, public schools in California were barred by state law from considering race in admissions. The outburst from Lucero, who discussed race explicitly despite that ban, unsettled some admissions officers, one of whom reached out to other committee members in the wake of the incident. “We are not consistent in the way we apply the metrics to these applicants,” the official wrote in an email obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. “This is troubling.”

“I wondered,” the official added, “if this applicant had been [a] white male, or [an] Asian female for that matter, [whether] we would have had that much discussion.”

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Disgraced Professor Sentenced for Action That Could Have Trapped Firefighters in Deadly Blaze

A former college lecturer on “criminal justice issues” is going to get some first-hand experience in the subject after he was sentenced to spend five years and three months in prison on Thursday.

Gary Stephen Maynard had pleaded guilty in January to starting a number of fires in California that could have had much more disastrous results than they did.

Maynard, 49, had formerly lectured at Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, KCRA reported.

The former lecturer admitted to starting at least four fires in July and August of 2021, according to a Justice Department news release, and pleaded guilty to three counts of arson.

One count of arson was dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to court records cited by The New York Times.

Maynard was charged with starting fires behind firefighters who were working to contain the Dixie Fire, which eventually destroyed more than 1,000 homes and spread over 1,500 square miles, according to KCRA.

“He intentionally made a dangerous situation more perilous by setting some of his fires behind the men and women fighting the Dixie fire, potentially cutting off any chance of escape,” Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement (available in full below).

It eventually grew to become the second-largest fire in California history, according to the outlet.

“Maynard faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison and a $750,000 fine,” KCRA reported. “Besides the prison sentence of more than five years, he was ordered to pay $13,081 in restitution.”

His attorney argued that Maynard was “suffering from untreated and significant mental health issues when he set the fires and has sought treatment since then,” according to Fox News.

“A Santa Clara University colleague of Mr. Maynard, who was not identified, told the police in October 2020 that Mr. Maynard was struggling with anxiety, depression, split personality, and wanted to kill himself, the complaint said,” according to The Times.

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California Democrat Delivers Impassioned Plea to Toughen Penalties for Pedophiles Buying Sex With Children

In a speech on May 23, California State Senator Susan Eggman made an emotional appeal to her colleagues in the chamber, urging them to support a bill that would send pedophiles who buy sex with children to prison.

The bill, SB 1414, aims to address the state’s outdated laws that currently allow individuals who solicit underage prostitutes to be charged with misdemeanors, resulting in a mere two days in jail.

Senator Eggman, a progressive Democrat who has served in the state legislature for 12 years, expressed her frustration with the current system. “I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children. I’m done,” she declared.

The proposed legislation, authored by State Senator Shannon Grove, would make soliciting underage prostitutes a felony punishable by two to four years in prison, a $25,000 fine, and mandatory registration as a sex offender. However, the bill faced opposition from a group of rebel Democrats led by State Senator Scott Wiener, who watered down the bill in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

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