Tag: california

California LGBTQ+ center director arrested in multi-agency child sex-ring operation

The Director of the Rainbow Resource Center of Modesto was arrested among 17 other men in a multi-agency sting operation targeting men for allegedly eliciting sex from minors according to a report from the Modesto Bee.

According to the report, Gerad Slayton, 42, and sixteen other men were taken into custody by the Turlock Police Department after falling into a sting designed to ensnare sexual predators reportedly contacting minors with the intent to have sex with them. 

The Rainbow Resource Center posted a statement to Facebook saying, “We want to assure our community that we take these allegations with the utmost seriousness. [Slayton’s] actions do not represent our organization’s values or mission.” They added, “In accordance with our unwavering commitment to upholding the highest standards of conduct and integrity, we are addressing the issue within the rainbow resource center.

“We acknowledge the impact that the situation may have had on the community. We understand that trust is earned through consistent and accountable actions. We are dedicated to rebuilding any trust that may have been affected by the situation. As an organization that is at the forefront of advocacy and support for the LGBTQ+ community, our actions must reflect our dedication to these principles.”

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California’s Attack on Gig Work Predictably Drove Workers Out of Jobs

California’s attempt at forcing gig workers to become traditional employees backfired by driving many of those workers out of their jobs.

In the wake of a new law (Assembly Bill 5) that was intended to reclassify many independent contractors as regular employees, self-employment in California fell by 10.5 percent and overall employment tumbled by 4.4 percent, according to a study released Thursday by the Mercatus Center, a free market think tank housed at George Mason University. In professions where self-employment was more common, the effects were more dramatic, and in some fields employment declined by as much as 28 percent after A.B. 5’s implementation.

Meanwhile, researchers Liya Palagashvili, Paola A. Suarez, Christopher M. Kaiser, and Vitor Melo reported finding no increase in the number of employees classified as full employees. In professions where there was an uptick in traditional employees receiving W-2 wages and benefits, those increases were not large enough to cancel out the number of self-employed workers who left jobs.

“These results suggest that AB5 did not simply alter the composition of the workforce as intended by lawmakers,” the four researchers wrote. “Instead, our findings suggest that AB5 was associated with a significant decline in self-employment and overall employment in California.”

That could have significant implications for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently announced attempt at duplicating California’s policy across the rest of the country.

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California Lawmaker Revives Bill To Legalize Marijuana Cafes Months After Governor’s Veto

A California lawmaker is renewing his push to legalize cannabis cafes in the state, with a newly introduced bill and plans to work with the governor and regulators to address concerns that resulted in the last version being vetoed.

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

Accordingly, Haney says he’ll be exploring ways to resolve those concerns in collaboration with the governor’s office and the state Department of Cannabis Control (DCC).

As filed last week, however, it seems the basic provisions of the bill were kept the same as those discussions continue. The sponsor told The San Francisco Standard that the legislation will be amended to address the governor’s concerns “in the coming months.”

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Date rape drug test kits soon to be required at bars, nightclubs in California

In California it is about to get a lot harder for partygoers and revelers at bars and nightclubs to have their drinks “roofied” unwittingly.

A new law known as AB 1013 will go into effect in the Golden State this July that will require all bars and nightclubs to keep testing kits at their establishments that can detect drugs like Rohypnol, ketamine or the sedative GHB.

According to the bill, these business owners must offer to sell their customers the unexpired testing devices “at a cost not to exceed a reasonable amount based on the wholesale cost of those devices” or offer them for free.

There must also be signage at the facilities that read: “Don’t get roofied! Drink spiking drug test kits available here. Ask a staff member for details.”

The law goes into effect July 1, 2024, and will be repealed on Jan. 1, 2027, unless reinstated by the California General Assembly. The bill was proposed California Democrat Josh Lowenthal.

The kits will include a straw, sticker and strip to detect the “date rape drugs” in drinks.

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‘It was creepy’: Woman found in prone position with no head or thumbs and blood drained from entire body is identified

Nearly 13 years after cops found a woman without her head or thumbs and with her blood drained from her body, they now know her name.

The Kern County Sheriff’s Office last week said it identified the woman found dead in a grape vineyard in Arvin, California, on March 29, 2011, as 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan. The scene that day in Arvin, which is about 30 miles south of Bakersfield, was brutal. In addition to having her head and thumbs chopped off, the woman now known as Kaplan also was nude and placed in a prone position that investigators considered sexual.

Detectives believe she was killed elsewhere and carefully placed in the vineyard. Coroners categorized the death as a homicide but could not determine the cause of death.

Ray Pruitt, then an investigator with Kern County Sheriff’s Department, described the scene as “surreal” in a 2018 interview with NBC affiliate KGET.

“I remember looking at the detectives and the sergeant on scene and the coroner investigator who had arrived on the scene and we were all kind of speechless,” Pruitt said. “We were all just looking at each other trying to get our minds around what we were looking at.”

Pruitt said the murder was one “that you come across maybe once in an entire career, maybe never.”

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US Appeals Court Blocks California From Banning Guns in Most Public Places

A U.S. appeals court on Jan. 6 allowed a judge’s ruling that blocked California from enforcing a new gun-control law that bans the carrying of firearms in most public places on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved an order by a different 9th Circuit panel from a week earlier that suspended an injunction issued by a judge who concluded that the Democrat-led state’s law violated the right of citizens to keep and bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

“The administrative stay previously entered is dissolved,” the court wrote in May v. Bonta. “The emergency motion under Circuit Rule 27-3 for a stay pending appeal and for an interim administrative stay is denied pending further order of the court.”

Last week’s order temporarily stayed the injunction. It allowed the law to take effect on Jan. 1. Gun rights groups then asked the 9th Circuit to reconsider, and on Jan. 6, a different panel of judges dissolved the order, suspending the injunction.

“So the politicians’ ploy to get around the Second Amendment has been stopped for now,” C.D. Michel, a lawyer for the gun rights groups, said in a statement.

California’s appeal of the injunction will now be heard in April. The state’s attorney general, in court papers, had argued that “tens of millions of Californians will face a heightened risk of gun violence” if the law were blocked.

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California state health insurance to cover sex changes for illegal immigrants

The Golden State is expanding its massive health care system this year, which means more taxpayer dollars will fund sex change surgeries for state residents, regardless of their citizenship status. 

According to a memo first circulated in May 2022 and reported by the Daily Caller Foundation, California’s Medi-Cal covers costs for hormone therapy and procedures “that bring primary and secondary gender characteristics into conformity with the individual’s identified gender, including ancillary services, such as hair removal, incident to those services.”

Nearly 700,000 illegal immigrants between the ages of 26 and 49 qualify, as of Jan. 1, for these federal health care services, which will cost California taxpayers an estimated $3.1 billion. For those living in California illegally within this age range, it translates to approximately $4,058 per year in medical coverage subsidies funded by the state’s general fund.

“Gender affirming care is a covered Medi-Cal benefit when medically necessary,” the memo states. “Requests for gender affirming care should be from specialists experienced in providing culturally competent care to transgender and gender diverse individuals and should use nationally recognized guidelines.”

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California’s ‘Repugnant’ Restrictions on Public Gun Possession Just Took Effect

California’s sweeping new restrictions on public possession of firearms, many of which a federal judge enjoined this month after deeming them “repugnant to the Second Amendment,” took effect today thanks to a stay that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued on Saturday. That means Californians with permits that notionally allow them to carry concealed handguns will have to think twice before using them, because the state has declared a long list of locations they routinely visit to be “sensitive places” where firearms are prohibited.

Senate Bill 2, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on September 26, makes it a crime for permit holders to carry their handguns in 26 categories of places, including parks, playgrounds, zoos, libraries, museums, banks, hospitals, places of worship, public transportation, stadiums, athletic facilities, casinos, bars, and restaurants that serve alcohol. The list also covers any “privately owned commercial establishment that is open to the public” unless the owner “clearly and conspicuously posts a sign at the entrance” saying guns are allowed.

S.B. 2 “turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place,’ effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public,” U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney noted on December 20, when he issued a preliminary injunction that barred the state from enforcing 15 provisions of the law. “California will not allow concealed carry permitholders to effectively practice what the Second Amendment promises. SB2’s coverage is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”

Carney was referring to the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which upheld the right to carry guns in public for self-defense. Under Bruen, states may no longer demand that residents demonstrate a “special need” before they are allowed to exercise that right. Accordingly, S.B. 2 eliminates California’s “good cause” requirement for carry permits, along with a similarly amorphous “good character” criterion. By limiting the discretion of licensing authorities, the bill notes, those changes could have opened the door to “broadly allowing individuals to carry firearms in most public areas.” Deeming that outcome intolerable, legislators instead decreed that guns may not be carried in most public areas.

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California to offer 700,000 illegal immigrants free healthcare as deficit soars and population shrinks

California is ushering in 2024 with free healthcare for more than 700,000 migrants living illegally in the Golden State as the state is faced with a looming $68 billion deficit.

The program, which was announced in May by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will provide health insurance for approximately 700,000 illegal immigrant residents aged 26-49.

California has been providing free health insurance to illegal immigrants who are under 26-years-old since 2019.

The program will begin on Jan. 1, 2024 and will provide more illegal immigrants with health insurance under the state’s Medi-Cal coverage.

When he proposed the bill two years ago, Newsom called the expansion “a transformative step towards strengthening the healthcare system for all Californians.”

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California’s New Minimum Wage Is Predictably Killing Food Delivery Jobs

A new California law will require that most food-service workers get paid at least $20 per hour starting next year.

But hundreds of pizza delivery drivers in the Los Angeles area are about to discover Thomas Sowell’s famous adage that the true minimum wage is zero.

Pizza Hut announced Wednesday that it would lay off about 1,200 delivery drivers in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties, CBS News reported. Pizza Hut franchises are outsourcing delivery to third-party apps like GrubHub and UberEats as a cost-saving measure in advance of the new law taking effect.

The layoffs are likely to take effect in February, The Los Angeles Times reports, just weeks before the new, higher minimum wage hits.

California’s minimum wage for all workers is already $15.50, one of the highest wage floors in the country. The new $20 per hour minimum wage applies to all employees of fast-food chains with at least 60 locations in the country.

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