Tag: california

California offers $100 million to rescue its struggling legal marijuana industry

The California Legislature on Monday approved a $100-million plan to bolster California’s legal marijuana industry, which continues to struggle to compete with the large illicit pot market nearly five years after voters approved sales for recreational use.

Los Angeles will be the biggest beneficiary of the money, which was proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to be provided as grants to cities and counties to help cannabis businesses transition from provisional to regular licenses.

“California voters approved Proposition 64 five years ago and entrusted the Legislature with creating a legal, well-regulated cannabis market,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), the chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. “We have yet to reach that goal.”

Many cannabis growers, retailers and manufacturers have struggled to make the transition from a provisional, temporary license to a permanent one renewed on an annual basis — a process that requires a costly, complicated and time-consuming review of the negative environmental effects involved in a business and a plan for reducing those harms.

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Governor Newsom Will Not Lift State of Emergency in California on June 15 as Promised

Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday announced he will not lift the state of emergency in California on June 15 as he previously promised.

California’s Covid restrictions will be lifted on June 15, however Newsom is hanging on to his broad powers by keeping the emergency in effect.

“The emergency remains in effect after June 15,” Newsom said on Friday during his vaccine lottery event.

“The one thing I am certain of is there’s uncertainty in the future,” Newsom said.

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California — a state that never practiced slavery — moves forward with slavery reparations plan

On Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind task force charged with studying the issue and developing proposals for redress convened for its inaugural meeting, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The task force is the result of a bill signed last year by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that required members to draft a formal apology to black Americans and come up with various financial remedies for the lingering effects of discriminatory practices in the country.

“As our country reckons with our painful legacy of racial injustice, California again is poised to lead the way towards a more equitable and inclusive future for all,” Newsom said at the meeting.

California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added, “Although the horrors of slavery may have begun in the past, its harms are felt every single day by Black Americans in the present.”

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California bar owner arrested for selling fake COVID-19 vaccine cards

A bar owner in California was arrested for allegedly selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards. 

On Tuesday, 59-year-old Todd Anderson was booked on multiple charges for allegedly altering a medical record, forgery of a public seal, identity theft and conspiracy, a spokesperson for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) told FOX Business. 

The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. 

In April, ABC began investigating the Old Corner Saloon in Clements after receiving a complaint that fake cards were being sold at the bar, ABC said. 

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Deadly California Wildfire Was Ignited To Cover Up A Murder, Sheriff Says

A Northern California blaze in 2020 that became part of one of the biggest and deadliest wildfires in state history was deliberately set to cover up the murder of a woman, officials have revealed. Now the suspect in that killing is also facing charges in the deaths of two fire victims.

Victor Serriteno, 29, of Vacaville, has been in prison awaiting trial in the death of 32-year-old Priscilla Castro, who vanished while on a date with him in August 2020. Her burned body was found the following month near Lake Berryessa in Solano County, about 60 miles west of Sacramento. 

“Based on an extensive eight-month-long investigation, we believe Serriteno deliberately set the Markley Fire in an attempt to conceal his crime,” Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara said at a news conference Wednesday.

The deaths of 82-year-old Douglas Mai and 64-year-old Leon “James” Bone, whose bodies were found near where Castro’s body was discovered, had been blamed on the Markley fire. Those two deaths have now been classified as homicides.

The 30,000-acre Markley Fire merged with other wildfires to become part the massive LNU Lightning Complex blaze, one of the largest ever in California. It burned 363,000 acres, killing six people and destroying 1,500 homes and other buildings.

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California Guard members feared fighter jet would be ordered to frighten protesters

In March of last year, California National Guard members awaited orders from Sacramento headquarters to make preparations for any civil unrest that might arise from the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The members expected directives to ready ground troops to help state and local authorities respond to disturbances triggered by resistance to stay-at-home rules or panic over empty store shelves.

But then came an unusual order: The air branch of the Guard was told to place an F-15C fighter jet on an alert status for a possible domestic mission, according to four Guard sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Those sources said the order didn’t spell out the mission but, given the aircraft’s limitations, they understood it to mean the plane could be deployed to terrify and disperse protesters by flying low over them at window-rattling speeds, with its afterburners streaming columns of flames. Fighter jets have been used occasionally in that manner in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, they said.

Deploying an F-15C, an air-to-air combat jet based at the Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing in Fresno, to frighten demonstrators in this country would have been an inappropriate use of the military against U.S. civilians, the sources said.

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California Weighs ‘Equitable Math’: Goal of Obtaining Correct Answer Is Racist

The California education department is considering implementing a statewide math framework that promotes the concept that working to figure out a correct answer in math is an example of racism and white supremacy invading the classroom.

The framework, titled “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction,” is intended to be “exercises for educators to reflect on their own biases to transform their instructional practice.”

The “Equitable Math” website states its training manual was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary private source of funding for the Common Core State Standards.

“White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,” the document states. “Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.”

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Shock Video: Cops Force-Vaccinate Special Needs Girls In Statewide ‘Operation Homebound’ Program

After forcibly injecting her with the experimental mRNA vaccine, the officers then clapped as the woman continued wailing.

Another special needs girl is seen in a driveway trying to escape the officers with the vaccine before also getting jabbed.

Next, the officers appeared to administer the COVID-19 to a sleeping patient with Alzheimer’s disease without her knowledge or consent.

“There you go, piece of cake. It’s okay hon, we just gave you a vaccination, that’s all,” the female officer said as the woman began to wake up.

This disturbing footage is part of Los Angeles’ Operation Homebound, which the LA County Sheriff’s Department says is a “program designed to vaccinate the most underrepresented, homebound, and underserved disabled residents in our communities, including those experiencing homelessness.”

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