Tag: california

California Democrat Lawmaker Wants to Decriminalize Welfare Fraud Under $25,000

Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D) in February.

The bill would decriminalize welfare fraud under that amount in the state for administrative errors, Fox News reported on Monday.

According the outlet’s Bill Melugin, “Smallwood-Cuevas represents a large chunk of Los Angeles County, including Mar Vista, West LA, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, Century City, Playa Vista, and part of downtown LA.,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday.

Smallwood-Cuevas told Fox the state’s safety net should help residents and not keep them in poverty. She also wrote in a recent social media post, “This bill is about keeping families out of the criminal justice system from making administrative errors on raising the threshold for welfare fraud prosecutions.”

The bill is set for a hearing on May 5. The Legislative Counsel’s Digest regarding the bill reads:

Existing law establishes criminal penalties for welfare fraud, defined as willfully and knowingly, with the intent to deceive, by specified means, including a false statement or representation, obtaining or retaining aid through designated public social services for oneself or for a child who is not in fact entitled thereto, as specified. Existing law makes any person who knowingly uses, transfers, sells, purchases, or possesses CalFresh or federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in any manner not authorized, as specified, guilty of a misdemeanor or felony depending on the face value of the benefits.

This bill would delete the provision that establishes criminal penalties for an attempt to commit welfare fraud. The bill would delete criminal penalties for welfare fraud when the total amount of aid obtained or retained is above or below $950, and instead make welfare fraud when aid was obtained or retained in the total amount of $25,000 or more punishable by specified imprisonment in a county jail, by a fine, or by imprisonment and fine.

“In Los Angeles County, field investigators handle 15,000 to 20,000 fraud cases or referrals, according to the Department of Public Social Services,” Monday’s Fox article said.

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California Bill Highlights Epidemic Of Male Rapists Transferring To Women’s Prisons

On April 29, 2025, California lawmakers will decide whether to advance a bill introduced by Sen. Shannon Grove that would prohibit any trans-identifying male prisoners with histories of sex offenses from being housed in women’s prisons. This bill would take a significant bite out of Sen. Scott Wiener’s 2021 law SB132 (also known as the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act), which currently allows the entrance of trans-identifying male prisoners into women’s prisons. The bill comes amid ongoing concerns about inmate safety.

Amie, then a prisoner at Central California Women’s Facility, still remembers the day Richard Masbruch was transferred to CCWF. Masbruch, who changed his name to Sherri Lashure, was a sadistic sexual predator who held an elderly mother and daughter at gunpoint and tortured the daughter with electric shocks before brutally raping and sodomizing her.

Amie’s hands trembled as word spread throughout the prison. “Sherri” also had infamously self-castrated himself while in a Texas prison. Despite the loss of his male genitals, he is alleged to have raped female prisoners with objects. His presence made the female population extremely fearful and anxious, as many of the prisoners were survivors of sexual violence.

Under the current California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation policy, there are no bright-line rules; the policy simply requires that every inmate request for a transfer must be considered. Any male inmate who self-identifies as female can request a transfer to women’s prison, regardless of his criminal history, his anatomy, or whether he has undergone any so-called “transition” procedures. According to the CDCR, as of April 2025, there are 45 trans-identifying males housed in the women’s prisons, 208 pending transfers, and 898 requesting to be transferred.

Clearly, CDCR anticipated that wanted or unwanted sexual encounters among the “transgender” males and the females would occur when it distributed condoms to women’s prisons. As early as 2023, the California Office of the Inspector General recognized that female prisoners were fearful of the male prisoners. The other forms of abuse perpetrated by the male transferees included “physical violence and demeaning behavior” toward female prisoners.

Nearly two-thirds of women interviewed reported fearing for their safety around some or all of the male transferees, with over one-quarter reporting negative experiences, including sexual assault. The OIG confirmed that some male transferees allegedly forcibly touched female prisoners or forced the females to touch them, which is undeniably sexual assault. Allegations of rape have also materialized. 

In a high-profile case, Tremaine Carroll, a 6-foot-tall male who purports to be a transgender woman, was transferred in 2021 to CCWF, where he impregnated one female prisoner. In 2024 Carroll was accused of raping a female inmate and charged with trying to dissuade a witness to testify. In the rape trial — in an unmitigated affront to the victim — Judge Katherine Rigby has ordered the prosecutor and the alleged victim to refer to Carroll using female pronouns. Carroll’s trial is ongoing.

Carroll has been returned to the male prison and is serving 25 years to life under California’s Three Strikes Law. Ironically prior to the rape charges, the American Civil Liberties Union held Carroll up as the model “safe” transgender prisoner and used him to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SB132.

That lawsuit, which was filed by Women’s Liberation Front along with Harmeet Dhillon (who is now the assistant attorney general for civil rights), contends that housing male inmates with female inmates constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and discrimination. The six female prisoner-plaintiffs have experienced childhood violence and sexual abuse and now have violent males housed with them. Plaintiff Krystal Gonzalez was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male prisoner who was transferred to the women’s prison based upon his professed belief in his own femininity. When she reported the assault, it was she who was punished. One plaintiff was a victim of sex trafficking at age 13.

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California Senators Approve Bipartisan Bill To Create Psilocybin Pilot Program For Veterans And First Responders

California senators have unanimously approved a bipartisan bill to create a psilocybin pilot program for military veterans and first responders.

On Wednesday, members of the Senate Health Committee advanced the legislation from Sens. Josh Becker (D) and Brian Jones (R), with amendments, in a 7-0 vote.

The proposal would establish a pilot program under the University of California (UC) system to study and develop “psilocybin services” for eligible patients in up to five counties across the state.

The universities would be responsible for “protocol design, institutional review board approvals, training of psilocybin facilitators, data collection, and reporting” of the pilot program.

“The bill would require each local pilot program to partner with local mental health clinics, hospice programs, veterans facilities, or other community-based providers that provide services and care to the target population,” the measure, as introduced in January, says. “This bill would require the agency to report specified information about the pilot program to the Legislature by January 15, 2030.”

Under the legislation, the state would establish a “Veterans and First Responders Research Pilot Special Fund,” with continuous appropriations to fund the work.

“SB 751 responds to crisis we cannot ignore. Every day, an average of 17.6 veterans die by suicide. First responders—those who run towards dangers to protect the rest of us—are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty,” Becker said. “These are individuals who’ve experienced repeated trauma and, too often, existing mental health treatments simply don’t work for them.”

Many are turning to underground or unregulated sources of psilocybin, or even traveling abroad, to seek relief that only places them at risk,” he said. “It signals a serious gap in our system of care. This bill is a step towards addressing that gap responsibly and safely.”

A findings section of the legislation—which is also cosponsored by eight other lawmakers, including longtime psychedelics reform advocate Sen. Scott Wiener (D)—states that research “suggests that psilocybin and psilocyn, when used in a controlled setting, may offer significant benefits in treating mental health disorders, particularly those related to trauma and stress.”

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California’s Broke Medicaid Program Has Been Spending on … Homeless Housing

Medi-Cal, the State of California’s version of Medicaid, has been spending on extraneous programs such as housing while running up a deficit so extreme that the state has had to borrow over $6 billion to save it.

As Breitbart News reported last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration had to seek $6 billion in loans to keep the program from collapsing, partly due to the cost of covering illegal aliens, which he did last year.

Now, CalMatters.org reveals that the federal government is cracking down on Medi-Cal and other Medicaid providers that have been using money to support “rent assistance” and “medically tailored meals”:

In 2022, California made sweeping changes to its Medi-Cal program that reimagined what health care could look like for some of the state’s poorest and sickest residents by covering services from housing to healthy food. But the future of that program, known as CalAIM, could be at risk under the Trump administration.

…

The moves align with a narrower vision of Medicaid espoused by newly confirmed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Dr. Mehmet Oz, who said during his swearing-in ceremony that Medicaid spending was crowding out spending on education and other services in states with the federal government “paying most of the bill.”

“This one really bothers me. There are states who are using Medicaid — Medicaid dollars for people who are vulnerable — for services that are not medical,” Oz said.

President Joe Biden allowed California and other states to “experiment” with Medicaid funding — and California spent itself into near-insolvency. The Trump administration is cracking down, insisting that Medicaid spending be restricted to medical expenses — not items like housing for indigent patients.

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Sanctuary State California to Free Illegal Alien from Prison After He Killed Two Teens in Drunk Driving Crash

The sanctuary state of California is set to release from prison a twice-deported illegal alien who was convicted of killing two American teenagers, 19-year-olds Anna Varfolomeeva and Nicholay Osokin, in a 2021 drunk driving crash.

Varfolomeeva and Osokin, who were dating, were killed in November 2021 in Orange County, California, by Ortega-Anguiano who was drunk, high, and driving 100 mph on the 205 freeway at the time. The teens were burned alive in the crash.

The following year, Ortega-Anguiano was convicted on two counts of vehicular manslaughter while drunk and sentenced to just ten years in prison for killing Varfolomeeva and Osokin. Before the conviction, Ortega-Anguiano already had numerous felony convictions and served time in California’s state prison system.

A new report from Fox News’ Bill Melugin reveals that California officials plan to release Ortega-Anguiano from prison in July of this year, ensuring that he has served less than half of his sentence.

“The victims’ families felt that was already a weak sentence, but they tell me they were notified by the CA Department of Corrections on Easter Sunday that Ortega-Anguiano is scheduled for an early release on July 19th, 2025, only a little more than 3 years into his sentence, leaving the victims’ families shocked, and outraged given the seriousness of the crime and his prior criminal history,” Melugin posted to X.

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State Bar of California Makes ‘Staggering Admission’

The State Bar of California has disclosed that some multiple-choice questions in a problem-plagued bar exam were developed with the aid of artificial intelligence. The legal licensing body said in a news release that it will ask the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took its February bar exam.

  • “The debacle that was the February 2025 bar exam is worse than we imagined,” Mary Basick, assistant dean of academic skills at the University of California, Irvine, Law School, told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m almost speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers using artificial intelligence is just unbelievable.”
  • In February, the new exam led to complaints after many test-takers were unable to complete their bar exams. The online testing platforms repeatedly crashed before some applicants even started. Others struggled to finish and save essays, experienced screen lags and error messages, and could not copy and paste text, the Times reported earlier.
  • According to a recent presentation by the State Bar, 100 of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions were made by the company Kaplan Exam Services and 48 were drawn from a first-year law students exam, the AP reports. A smaller subset of 23 scored questions were made by ACS Ventures, the State Bar’s psychometrician, and developed with artificial intelligence.
  • “It’s a staggering admission,” says Katie Moran, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law who specializes in bar exam preparation. “The State Bar has admitted they employed a company to have a non-lawyer use AI to draft questions that were given on the actual bar exam,” she says. “They then paid that same company to assess and ultimately approve of the questions on the exam, including the questions the company authored.”

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Southern California judge found guilty of murdering his wife in 2023

A California jury convicted a judge of fatally shooting his wife following a drunken argument at their Anaheim Hills home in 2023, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors accused Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson of intentionally killing his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, 65, in their Anaheim, California, home in August 2023. During the trial, Jeffrey Ferguson admitted to shooting his wife but maintained that it was an accident.

Jurors rejected Jeffrey Ferguson’s testimony that he accidentally shot his wife and convicted him of second-degree murder as well as a felony gun enhancement on April 22, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years to life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 13.

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South Carolina’s Play To Nullify Tariffs In 1832 Failed Spectacularly. Newsom’s Will Too

Oh, the irony! California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the gel-haired darling of the left, has decided to play President Andrew Jackson’s foil in a modern-day Nullification Crisis. His lawsuit to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs — filed with all the fanfare of a Hollywood premiere — smacks of South Carolina’s 1832 tantrum over federal tariffs. Back then, the Palmetto State tried to nullify federal law, claiming it could pick and choose which national policies applied.

Newsom, it seems, fancies himself a latter-day John C. Calhoun, strutting onto the national stage with a States’ Powers swagger. The only problem? He’s reading from a script debunked by history, law, and common sense.

Let’s rewind to 1832. South Carolina, peeved over the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 — derisively called the “Tariff of Abominations” — declared them null and void within its borders. The state’s economy, tied to slave-driven cotton exports, chafed under duties that protected northern industry but raised costs for southern planters. Calhoun, then vice president, penned the intellectual case for nullification, arguing states could override federal laws they deemed unconstitutional. Andrew Jackson called this treasonous nonsense. He issued a Proclamation of Force, threatening troops, and Congress passed a compromise tariff to cool the feud. South Carolina backed down, but the episode laid bare a dangerous question: Can states defy federal authority rooted in the Constitution? Gavin Newsom, on a different day, would say that the Civil War answered that one with a resounding “no.”

Fast forward to 2025, and enter Newsom, California’s self-anointed guardian of the “resistance.” On April 16, Newsom announced a lawsuit to halt Trump’s tariffs, which slap a 10 percent baseline on imports and far steeper levies on goods from China. Trump justifies these under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law granting presidents broad authority in national emergencies.

Newsom, flanked by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, claims the tariffs are “unlawful” and will wreak “chaos” on California’s economy — think higher prices for almonds, wine, and Hollywood flicks as other nations hike their tariffs in response. Sound familiar? Like South Carolina, California is griping about federal policy hitting its economic interests. Like Calhoun, Newsom is betting on state power to thwart Washington. And like 1832, this is a clash over who gets to call the shots.

The parallels are uncanny, and the irony is thicker than a blanket of Sacramento Tule fog. Newsom, a Democrat who’s spent years preaching federal supremacy on everything from climate to immigration, now cloaks himself in the mantle of state sovereignty to dodge Trump’s trade agenda.

Let’s be clear: States don’t have rights; they have powers, delegated by the Constitution. Only people have rights, a truth the Founders etched into our framework. Newsom’s rhetoric, implying California can opt out of federal policy like some sovereign republic, misreads the Constitution as badly as Calhoun did. This is the same governor who has cheered federal overreach when it suits his progressive piety — think EPA mandates or Obamacare. Yet when Trump wields federal power to address trade deficits, Newsom cries foul, claiming California, the “world’s fifth-largest economy,” deserves special treatment. Newsom is dusting off Calhoun’s playbook, arguing his state can nullify federal law.

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Southern California mayor’s twisted plan to wipe out homeless people sparks widespread condemnation

A Southern California mayor has sparked mass condemnation after revealing he’d give homeless residents ‘all the fentanyl they want’ in an effort to wipe them out.

R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, made the remarks in front of stunned residents and councilmembers at a city council meeting earlier in the year but footage of his speech has just emerged.

Huge swathes of California have been gripped by a fentanyl crisis as the highly addictive and deadly drug becomes more accessible and affordable on the streets.

Just a tiny, two milligrams dose of the drug is enough to kill a human.  

Most of California is also in the grips of a housing crisis, as home costs soar and new developments stagnate – made exponentially worse by the devastating bushfires which tore through Los Angeles in January.

The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count registered as many as 6,672 people experiencing homelessness in Lancaster and its surrounding areas in 2024.

Asked about his vision to tackle the crisis, the 73-year-old Republican mayor did not mince his words.

‘What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,’ Parris told the February 25 meeting, to the bewilderment of everybody else in the room.

‘I mean, that’s what I want to do. I want to give them all the fentanyl they want.’ 

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California Governor Signs $2.8 Billion Medi-Cal Bailout to Cover Soaring Costs, Including for Illegal Immigrants

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed emergency legislation that will close a $2.8 billion shortfall in the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, ensuring continued health care coverage through June for approximately 15 million low-income residents, including hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 100 into law on April 14, according to a statement from his office. The measure is part of a broader response to an estimated $6.2 billion budget gap in Medi-Cal, the state’s sprawling public health care program.

The shortfall followed California’s expansion of full-scope Medi-Cal benefits to all income-eligible adults in 2024, regardless of immigration status—a move hailed by progressives and criticized by conservatives.

The Medi-Cal expansion—implemented in January 2024 under a 2022 law—made California the first state in the nation to offer free, comprehensive health care to all low-income adults regardless of immigration status. The state initially projected that the policy would cost $2.7 billion annually and cover about 764,000 residents without lawful immigration status. Actual program costs have exceeded expectations, contributing to California’s budget crisis, according to state officials.

California state Rep. Carl DeMaio, a Republican, has called for an audit of Medi-Cal spending, saying that California cannot afford to provide free health care to illegal immigrants.

“This puts the health coverage for poor people, children, the neediest among us, at risk,” DiMaio told reporters, according to a video that he shared on social media. “Why? Because we’ve given away the store to noncitizens. We’ve given illegal immigrants free health care at taxpayers’ expense.”

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