Tag: california

Olympic Gold Medalist Alysa Liu’s Transgender Brother is Quietly Dominating California Girls’ High School Sports

The brother of Olympic figure skating gold medalist Alysa Liu has been competing as a female athlete and steadily collecting victories in California high school girls’ sports, according to a new report.

Jaylin Liu, who previously went by the name Joshua and only recently began identifying as female, has taken first place in every 200-meter and 400-meter girls’ race he entered for Albany High School this season, including the Tri-County Athletic League Finals, according to reporting from Reduxx.

He is ranked the top “female” runner on his team in those events and the best in the league in the quarter-mile.

In 2025 alone, Jaylin Liu secured eight first-place finishes at seasonal meets, a silver medal at the NCS Bayshore Championship in the 400-meter, and a gold medal in the Tri-County Athletic League Frosh-Soph Championship 200-meter race.

Beyond track, he has also competed in girls’ varsity basketball, earning a silver medal at a championship, and played ultimate frisbee for El Cerrito High School at the Ultimate High School National Invite, where his performance was described as extremely dominant.

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Colombian Authorities Seize Bus Carrying 420 Kilograms of Explosives Bound for Cali Days Before Presidential Inauguration

Colombian security forces have reportedly intercepted a bus carrying approximately 420 kilograms of ammonium nitrate explosives in the department of Cauca, preventing what authorities believe could have been a major planned large-scale terrorist attack against military and police installations in Cali.

The operation, dubbed Operation Prometeo, was carried out today along the Pan-American Highway near Santander de Quilichao by Colombia’s National Police, with the participation of the Intelligence Directorate (DIPOL), Criminal Investigation Directorate (DIJIN), Anti-Narcotics Directorate (DIRAN), Highway Police (DITRA), and the Southwest Organized Crime Task Force.

Authorities say intelligence indicates the explosives were intended to strike military and police facilities in Cali during the inauguration of President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella on August 7, with the objective of demonstrating the group’s operational capability and disrupting one of Colombia’s most significant political events.

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Palisades Fire Fraud: Man Headed To Prison After Scamming $64K Out Of FEMA

An East Hollywood man is headed to federal prison for a year and a day after collecting more than $64,000 in wildfire disaster relief on a Pacific Palisades home he had no connection to whatsoever.

Delvonne Dashon Johnson, 32, was sentenced on July 31 in Los Angeles and ordered to repay $64,148 to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He pleaded guilty last year to fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits – a charge that carries a statutory maximum of 30 years.

In February 2025, weeks after the Palisades Fire tore through the coastline, Johnson filed a FEMA claim listing a Pacific Palisades address as a home he owned. FEMA wired him $64,138 later that same month – except, he didn’t own the house. Someone else did, and she was living in it.

The fraud unraveled only when the actual homeowner tried to file her own claim. FEMA told her someone had already submitted one on her property’s behalf. When investigators interviewed her on April 2, 2025, she told them she had lived at the address since 2015, that it was her primary residence, that she was there when the fire hit, that she had never rented the place to anyone, and that she had never heard of Delvonne Johnson.

Johnson was not working alone – he was one of several people federal prosecutors swept up for running the same play on the same disaster. Deanniah Hogan, 32, of Compton, allegedly posed as a renter at a Palisades home and drew roughly $17,351. Zenalyn McIntre, 38, of Sherman Oaks, allegedly submitted a fabricated utility bill and a driver’s license listing a different address, and received about $25,229. Hedeshia Robertson, 36, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty after obtaining some $24,899. Another defendant allegedly claimed a nonexistent Altadena address as her destroyed primary residence and collected $23,441, plus two FEMA-booked hotel stays. Jaime Arturo Carrillo, 48, pleaded guilty after claiming property damage and utility disruption at a South Los Angeles address roughly 20 miles from either fire.

The pattern extends well beyond Los Angeles County. In June, a Honolulu man was sentenced to two years for conspiring to submit false FEMA claims tied to both the Lahaina fire and the Pacific Palisades fire, with a co-defendant posing as his Maui landlord before turning around and claiming to have lived in Pacific Palisades herself. The pair collected more than $60,000. He then filed fabricated flight records with the court and picked up an obstruction charge on top.

Victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires could qualify for a one-time $750 FEMA payment, up to $43,600 in other-needs assistance covering personal property, transportation and medical costs, and housing assistance for as long as 18 months. Homeowners were eligible for up to another $43,600 in repair money. Money that moves fast enough to help people who just lost everything moves fast enough to reach people who lost nothing.

The two fires ignited on Jan. 7, 2025, burned close to 60,000 acres, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and killed 30 people.

For claiming a slice of the recovery money set aside for those people, Johnson drew 12 months and one day.

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California Democrats Overwhelmingly Back Billionaire Tax Ahead of High-Stakes November Ballot

California’s proposed billionaire tax cleared a major political hurdle on Sunday after winning the endorsement of the California Democratic Party.

The endorsement provides fresh momentum to the initiative just months before voters decide the measure at the ballot box.

The proposal secured the 60 percent threshold required for the party’s endorsement during a meeting of hundreds of Democrat officials in San Diego.

The approval came despite fierce opposition from some of the state’s most prominent Democrats.

If endorsed by voters in November, the measure would impose a one-time 5 percent tax on Californians with a net worth of at least $1 billion, affecting roughly 200 of the state’s wealthiest residents.

The endorsement is a significant victory for supporters after months of infighting within the Democratic Party.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra have both publicly opposed the proposal, warning it could encourage wealthy taxpayers to leave the state.

The initiative was placed on the ballot by the Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which claims the tax will raise an estimated $100 billion.

The money will be primarily used to offset healthcare funding reductions enacted by the Trump administration.

“This endorsement puts to rest the idea that California Democrats are not united by the billionaire tax—they are,” said Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW.

The measure has drawn support from far-left Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, who argue California’s wealthiest residents should contribute more to fund healthcare programs.

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Crack Pipes, Get Yer’ Crack Pipes! Free Crack Pipes!: California Taxpayers Fund Drug Paraphernalia

As governor of California, Gavin Newsom has repeatedly supported “harm reduction” policies, which enable drug use in the name of making it “safer.” He created the state’s Harm Reduction Initiative, which funded “syringe services programs” for “people who inject and smoke fentanyl and/or methamphetamines.” His Department of Public Health has endorsed distributing syringes, glass pipes, and “[c]ontainers for mixing injectable drugs” to drug users. Newsom argued earlier this year that harm-reduction tactics “increase the likelihood of people entering substance use treatment.”

But do California’s harm-reduction programs encourage addicts to enter treatment? We visited the Skid Row Care Campus, a homeless-services site in Los Angeles County, to witness “harm reduction” in action. We discovered that, instead of directing addicts to get clean, the taxpayer-funded program doles out free paraphernalia, enabling addicts to get high – no questions asked.

We arrived at Skid Row in the morning. The campus, bounded by pastel-colored buildings and a metal gate, looked like an apocalyptic wasteland. Homeless people and addicts were splayed across the common areas, with some smoking what seemed to be hard drugs with impunity.

We stepped onto the courtyard connected to the street. No one stopped us, asked for identification, or searched us for weapons or drugs. This is apparently by design, judging by the Skid Row Action Plan and its implementation outline, which, singly or together, inspired the creation of the campus, denounced the “racist and classist war on drugs,” and called on local officials to create hubs “free from monitoring by law enforcement” and staffed by people with histories of “substance use and sex work.”

We entered campus and found a walk-up counter, where an attendant sat before shelves of drug paraphernalia. Users come to this counter to get free needles and crack pipes, with which they can inject or smoke hard drugs.

“What can I get you?” he asked. “We have oil burners, we have spray shooters, we have socks, we have petroleum jelly.”

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California Man Arrested After Police Catch Him Stealing Unvoted Ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona

A man from California was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, on felony charges after US Postal Inspectors caught him stealing mail, including unvoted mail-in ballots, from a USPS collection box.

The suspect, 26-year-old Richard Anthony Ramos Jr. of Stockton, California, was arrested on July 21 with several ballots in his car.

Notably, the Primary elections in Arizona were also held on July 21.

The scheme reportedly involved using a cardboard box into the collection bin to trap outgoing mail, which he would then fish out.

It is unclear whether his target was the mail-in ballots and what he intended to do with them.

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Report: California High-Speed Train Debacle Not Caused by Trump but by State Missing Grant Deadlines

Not surprisingly, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed President Donald Trump for a $4 billion cut to California’s troubled high-speed train project. Instead, records show the state never bought the trains required to get the money.

That is the conclusion of an extensive CBS News investigation published Sunday about the California High Speed Rail Authority repeatedly missing federal grant deadlines to buy the trains, which turned out to be one of the key failures the Trump administration cited for legally pulling the funding a year ago.

Now, more than 18 months after the original deadline, the Authority still cannot say when it expects to award the train contract, CBS reported, with the state calling that date “TBD,” otherwise known as “to be determined.”

Approved by voters in 2008, the project was originally designed to link San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours with electric trains able to reach speeds of 220 miles per hour.

Currently, there is no direct train service between the two major cities, and if someone wanted to try it by existing conventional lines, the trip could take up to 12 hours.

It looks as if it would still be a tedious trip even with the Golden State’s proposed high-speed rail plan.

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Calif.: Undercover anti-human trafficking initiative conducted during San Diego Comic-Con weekend results in arrest of 27 alleged sex buyers, recovery of 9 victims

A major undercover anti-human trafficking initiative conducted during San Diego Comic-Con weekend reportedly resulted in the arrest of 27 suspected sex buyers and the successful recovery of nine human trafficking victims.

The multi-agency operation, known as “Operation Iron Justice,” was spearheaded by the California Department of Justice (DOJ) and the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force to disrupt illicit sex trade networks capitalizing on the massive influx of visitors to the region.

Among the nine individuals rescued during the three-day operation were seven adult victims and two juveniles, including a missing 16-year-old girl from San Bernardino County.

“The ugly truth is that the demand for these illegal services fuels the supply of commercial sex operations and human trafficking,” California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta stated. “No matter if it’s around large-scale conventions or anywhere else, solicitation is a crime and California stands ready to hold offenders accountable.” 

“Our ongoing efforts will continue to keep communities safe and achieve meaningful results that protect Californians,” Bonta continued. “Operation Iron Justice showcases that tremendous joint effort. We will not hesitate to prosecute traffickers with the available federal charges that carry 10-year and 15-year mandatory minimum sentences.”

Authorities immediately connected all recovered individuals with specialized survivor advocates, trauma-informed support services and age-appropriate care programs. Golden State officials also emphasized that victim recovery and immediate stabilization remain the primary objectives when carrying out high-intensity law enforcement operations of this scale.

Law enforcement agencies routinely focus enforcement efforts around large conventions and highly anticipated international gatherings, as sex buyers and traffickers frequently seek to exploit the cover of big crowds.

In this most recent sting, undercover personnel had reportedly utilized targeted online stings and investigative tactics throughout the convention period, actively identifying individuals seeking to purchase sex and intercepting trafficking networks operating in nearby hotels and surrounding areas.

The results of Operation Iron Justice demonstrate a significant increase in law enforcement activity compared to previous years.

With 27 buyers taken into custody, the total number of arrests more than doubled from the 13 buyers apprehended during the same event the prior year, highlighting both the scale of the issue and the intensified inter-agency coordination targeting human exploitation, officials say.

“The demand for commercial sex is what makes trafficking profitable, and in the City of San Diego, buyers will be held accountable. My office filed 81 cases against sex buyers so far this year, leveraging state law that now targets buyers directly,” said San Diego City Attorney Heather Ferbert. “Accountability is only half the job: our office operates the San Diego Family Justice Center, Your Safe Place, where survivors of trafficking can get help at no cost. I’m grateful to Attorney General Bonta and our Task Force partners for this collaboration.”

“We are a proud member of the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force. Working together, we successfully disrupted human trafficking here in San Diego,” said San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl. “These operations demonstrate our continued commitment to recovering victims and focusing on the buyers who drive the demand for this illegal activity.”

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See The Hilarious AI Ads That Furious California Democrats Want Banned

Two California Democrats are moving to outlaw AI-generated campaign ads at the federal level, just days after a Republican rival for the governor’s mansion used the technology to hammer their party.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Monday reintroduced the AI Ads Act, which would make it a federal violation to use artificial intelligence to impersonate candidates or committees in federal races.

The push comes on the heels of two AI-generated spots from GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, who went after Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra.

Of course, Hilton isn’t the only one having fun with the technology. The campaign of Spencer Pratt, the reality television star turned Los Angeles mayoral candidate, made waves with his creative and side-splitting ads from Los Angeles-based director Charles Curran.

Unsurprisingly, Schiff claims his bill isn’t about politics, but about protecting against a so-called “serious threat to our democracy.”

“AI-generated fraudulent advertising which uses the likeness or voices of candidates to misrepresent their positions, campaigns, or causes, or otherwise misrepresents a candidate’s point of view is not only wrong – it poses a serious threat to our democracy that should concern all Americans regardless of their party,” said Schiff. “Fraudulent AI advertising has already proliferated in races across the country, and if Congress does not act, this runaway challenge will only get worse as AI becomes increasingly capable of blurring the lines between fact and fiction. With November elections around the corner, time is of the essence to reign in false political advertising.”

Groups that support the bill include Common Cause, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Campaign Legal Center, Protect Democracy and Public Citizen, according to the New York Post.

“AI will transform our lives and our society in many ways, but it can’t be used to mislead voters or undermine our democracy. I’m proud to lead the AI Ads Act with Senator Schiff to ban AI-generated content that deceives the public about candidates or elections,” Khanna said in a statement.

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California Democrats Attempt To Sabotage Voter ID Initiative

In November, California voters will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 39. The measure, officially the Voter Identification, Citizenship Verification, and Registered Voter List Administration Initiative, would require Californians to show identification when they vote and force state officials to clean up the voter rolls and verify that the people on them are eligible citizens.

All signs suggest it will pass. A poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found in May that 71% of Californians support requiring proof of citizenship for first-time voter registration, and 54% want it required before every election. However, Attorney General Rob Bonta is trying to make sure it doesn’t pass.

His latest move came on July 21, just months before the November election, when Bonta rewrote the official ballot title for Prop 39, replacing the language he himself approved last year with a new title that proponents say is engineered to make voters reject it.

The original ballot title for the bill, approved by Bonta last year, read:

ESTABLISHES ADDITIONAL VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. This measure would amend the California Constitution to further require that voters present government-issued identification at the polls or the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail; the State provide voter identification cards on request; and elections officials annually report percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified.

That language sat on every petition that more than 1.3 million voters signed over a year of circulation to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Bonta’s revised version reads:

PROHIBITS CITIZENS FROM VOTING UNLESS THEY PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED IDENTIFICATION. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Invalidates mail ballots that do not have last four digits of designated government-issued identification number written on envelope. Prohibits in-person voting without presenting government-issued identification.

Carl DeMaio, the Republican state assemblyman who chairs Reform California and serves as one of Prop 39’s official proponents, called the rewrite a “blatant attempt to rig the November election.”

“California politicians know that a supermajority of California voters support Prop 39’s bipartisan solution for Voter ID – so now they are corruptly trying to rig the election by putting a biased and dishonest title on this common-sense measure,” DeMaio said.

He also pointed out what he called the tell in Bonta’s timing. “When Rob Bonta didn’t think we could get the signatures on Prop 39, he provided a relatively fair ballot title – but now that the citizens have forced Prop 39 on the ballot, he decides at the last minute to corruptly try to rig the election against Prop 39 by changing the ballot title to a biased and dishonest one,” DeMaio said.

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