Tag: california

California Governor Unveils Emergency Rules To Ban Hemp Products With Any ‘Detectable Amount’ Of THC

Six years after Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp at the federal level, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is attempting to rein in the proliferation of products that contain intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids. While many support the aims of the proposal, some stakeholders contend it could ultimately limit access to federally legal CBD products.

Newsom announced new emergency regulations on Friday that would outlaw hemp products with any “detectable amount of total THC.” Hemp products that don’t have THC would be further limited to five servings per package, and sales would be restricted to adults 21 and older.

The proposal comes less than a month after the state legislature effectively killed a governor-backed bill that would have imposed somewhat similar restrictions on intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids.

Newsom said in a press conference that he expects the new rules to take effect after a “very short” administrative process.

Standing next to a table piled with largely unregulated products containing hemp-derived cannabinoids, including beverages and gummies, Newsom expressed disgust that they’re now widely sold at grocery stores, gas stations and convenience stores. Hemp-derived THC-infused sparkling water, he lamented, can be found—including by minors—alongside more benign products like La Croix.

“It’s a disgrace and it’s a shame,” the governor said, “and the industry bears full responsibility for not policing itself, for the proliferation of these intoxicating products that are hurting our children.”

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California’s New AI Law Proposals Could Impact Memes

California’s state legislature has passed several bills related to “AI,” including a ban on deepfakes “around elections.”

The lawmakers squeezed these bills in during the last week of the current sessions of the state Senate and House, and it is now up to Governor Gavin Newsom (who has called for such laws) to sign or veto them by the end of this month.

One of the likely future laws is Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024, which aims to regulate how sites, apps, and social media (defined for the purposes of the legislation as large online platforms) should deal with content that the bill considers to be “materially deceptive related to elections in California.”

Namely, the bill wants such content blocked, specifying that this refers to “specified” periods – 120 days before and 60 days after an election. And campaigns will have to disclose if their ads contain AI-altered content.

Now comes the hard part – what qualifies for blocking as deceptive, in order to “defend democracy from deepfakes”? It’s a very broad “definition” that can be interpreted all the way to banning memes.

For example, who’s to say if – satirical – content that shows a candidate “saying something (they) did not do or say” can end up “reasonably likely” harming the reputation or prospects of a candidate? And who’s to judge what “reasonably likely” is? But the bill uses these terms, and there’s more.

Also outlawed would be content showing an election official “doing or saying something in connection with the performance of their elections-related duties that the elections official did not do or say and that is reasonably likely to falsely undermine confidence in the outcome of one or more election contests.”

If the bill gets signed into law on September 30, given the time-frame, it would comprehensively cover not only the current campaign, but the period after it.

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Illegal Migrants Try to Board / Hijack School Busses With Children On-Board

In a troubling turn of events, migrants have twice attempted to board school buses in the San Diego area, raising alarm among parents and school officials.

The Jamul-Dulzura Union School District reported that on two consecutive days, groups of migrants tried to either stop or enter buses carrying children.

The first incident occurred on a Tuesday afternoon when three men stepped into the road, forcing a school bus to swerve around them.

The situation escalated the next morning when about 20 migrants attempted to board a bus at an elementary school stop.

Quick action by parents and the bus driver prevented the migrants from entering the vehicle.

One parent, Nicole Cardinale, shared her son’s unsettling experience. “He was really confused. He said these adults, they weren’t kids, they had backpacks on and they tried to get on our bus. And there were a lot of them,” Cardinale told local media.

The backpacks suggest these individuals had recently crossed the border illegally.

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Gavin Newsom to Decide After CA Democrats Pass $150,000 Home Loans for Illegal Aliens

California Governor Gavin Newsom will make the final decision on a bill that would make illegal aliens eligible for $150,000 in home loans for first-time buyers, after the State Assembly passed a final version of the bill on Wednesday.

Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona) helped lead Republican opposition to the bill, but Democrats passed it by a three-to-one veto-proof majority, sending it to the governor’s desk — and drawing attention to the party’s pattern of creating incentives for illegal migration by heaping taxpayer-funded benefits onto people who are not supposed to be in the country at all.

As Breitbart News has reported, the loan program expands an existing program that does not require a down payment or interest payments, but instead requires borrowers to repay the principal and a percentage of the appreciation of the value of the home.

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California Senate Passes Law Banning Voter I.D. in Local Elections, Paving Way For Illegals Voting

California lawmakers has passed a law banning voter idenficitation in local elections as Democrats seek to shore up their supermajority in the state.

Legislation SB1174 was passed after the City of Huntington Beach, which remains one of the few areas of Los Angeles that leans Republican, approved a voter ID requirement for municipal elections from 2026.

Sadly for the people of Huntington Beach, this legislation will override their sensible policy.

According to the bill’s author bill, State Sen. Dave Min, an “overwhelming body of evidence proves that voter ID laws only subvert voter turnout and create barriers to law abiding voters.”

“To register to vote in California, voters are already required to provide their driver’s license number, California identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number,” he continued.

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California Democrats Vote to Force Taxpayers to Subsidize $150,000 Down Payment on Homes for Illegals – But the CA Department of Finance Confirms the Program Has No Money!

California Democrat state senators on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill that would give illegal aliens $150,000 interest-free home mortgage loans.

Illegal aliens will get zero down payment, interest-free home mortgage loans under this new bill.

California’s Democrat governor Gavin Newsom hasn’t said whether he will sign the bill.

Democrat assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (Fresno) recently introduced Assembly Bill 1840 to extend a first-time homebuyer loan program to illegal aliens.

If the bill becomes law, illegal aliens will be eligible for a new program that offers a loan worth 20% of the purchase price of the residential property. There are no monthly payments and no interest accrues on the loan. Rather, the loan is paid back when the borrower refinances or sells the property. The borrower will have to pay back the original loan plus a 20% increase in the value of the property.

California’s Democrat lawmakers in the State Senate approved AB 1840 23-11.

The bill will head to the California assembly for final approval after lawmakers in the senate made changes.

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California advances 0 down, no payment home ‘loans’ for undocumented immigrants

The California Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a bill to allow undocumented immigrants to make use of the state’s zero down, no payment home “loan” program, an expansion the legislature says would create “significant cost pressures.”

The social and economic benefits of homeownership should be available to everyone. As such, the California Dream for All Program should be available to all,” wrote bill author Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno. “When undocumented individuals are excluded from such programs, they miss out on a crucial method of securing financial security and personal stability for themselves and their families.

AB 1840, which already passed the Assembly and now faces a floor vote in the Senate, would prevent the state’s California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loans program from denying individuals on the basis of their immigration status. This program allows applicants to secure “loans” of up to 20% of the home’s purchase price — or, about what a typical down payment is — with zero down payment on this state loan, and no payments.

The state’s “loan” can potentially be repaid to the state when the home is refinanced, sold, or transferred, with the borrower paying back the original loan amount plus 20% of any increase in value on the property. It’s not clear what happens if a family decides to hold on to a home as there are no provisions on how long a property can be held for, which means certain kinds of trusts could potentially allow the loan to not be paid back.

The Appropriations Committee analysis said expansion would create “unknown significant cost pressures, potentially in the millions annually, to provide additional funding for the Home Purchase Assistance Program to accommodate the expanded eligibility population.”

This year, 18 thousand individuals applied for the $255 million “loan” program through a lottery, leaving 1,700 lucky winners with up to $150,000 each towards down payment and closing costs.

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Newsom Nods To Cali’s Soft-On-Crime Jail Break Statute, Retains Prop. 47

In response to 50% of retail stores in San Francisco closing their doors, Democrat Gavin Newsom has signed a series of mild laws obliquely aimed at handling California’s retail crime wave.

On Friday, the governor, who has essentially dodged the retail theft wave for nearly a decade, signed bipartisan legislation for stricter criminal penalties and additional tools for felony prosecutions.

Unsurprisingly, Newsom had no comment on 2014’s Proposition 47, known as “Californians for Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.” Voters were largely misled by the title, which set the stage for almost no accountability for these theft crimes. Prop. 47 reduced many felonies, including drug, sex and other violent crimes, into misdemeanors.

Proposition 36, the “Increase Drug and Theft Penalties and Reduce Homelessness Initiative,” is the proposed rational amendment to Prop. 47, which Newsom and Democrats intend to kill this November.

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California’s Digital Plates Plan Raises Privacy Fears

California is one of the US states that have introduced digital license plates, amid opposition from a number of rights advocates.

Now, there is a legislative effort to have GPS location tracking embedded in these, to all intents and purposes, devices attached to the car.

Sponsored by Democrat Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, Bill 3138 is currently making its way through the state’s legislature. It refers to “License plates and registration cards: alternative devices,” and the bill has another sponsor – Reviver.

The company was founded by Neville Boston, formerly of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and promotes itself as the first digital license plates platform. It has made its way to both this proposal, and the law the current draft builds on – AB 984 (also sponsored by Wilson) – which was signed into law two years ago.

The problem with Reviver is that it has already had a security breach that allowed hackers to track those using the company’s digital plates in real-time. It doesn’t help, either, that the company is effectively a monopoly – the only one, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes, “that currently has state authorization to sell digital plates in California.”

Meanwhile, the key problem with AB 3138, warns EFF, is that it “directly undoes the deal from 2022 and explicitly calls for location tracking in digital license plates for passenger cars.”

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Deputies disciplined, cat shooting case closed: Sheriff

Kern County Sheriff’s deputies accused of using a cat as target practice have been disciplined and they’re back at work.

The incident happened at the Hart Park training facility back in March.

A woman walking in the park said she saw the deputies shoot a cat and kill it.

The woman didn’t capture the shooting on camera, but she did record her confrontation with the deputies in a video that went viral, sparking rage from animal rights groups.

This week on KGET 17 News at Sunrise, Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the case is now closed.

“This case is completed. The allegations were sustained. The officers involved were appropriately disciplined. I met with animal rights groups; they’re content with what we’re doing,” Youngblood said on 17 News at Sunrise. “They’re back to work, but they’ve been disciplined and that’s about all I can tell you without violating the peace officer bill of rights.”

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