California's Multibillionaires Intend to Conquer the World.  As the oldest man ever to be elected U.S. president begins his administration, his immediate blizzard of executive actions suggests the energy of someone much younger.  The reason for this is obvious.  Joe Biden is not running the country.  He is a president in name only.  The edicts coming out of the Oval Office, along with the imminent legislative initiatives, are produced by the American equivalent of a Soviet politburo, with the political and financial power behind this politburo coming from California.  The political actors occupying key roles include Kamala Harris, whose role as the tie-breaker in the U.S. Senate makes her the most powerful vice president in recent memory, and Nancy Pelosi, who presides over the U.S. House of Representatives — both San Francisco Democrats.  These two politicians are only the most visible Californians in a group that includes cabinet secretaries, administrative appointees, and what is by far the largest state Democratic congressional caucus.  More significant is the fact that Californians also provide the financial power behind the Biden politburo, as well as the cultural power that propels the Democratic narrative.

California is collapsing.  The on-the-ground reality — as opposed to that portrayed in the media or popular culture — is more Dickensian than utopian.  Rather than the state where dreams are made, in reality California increasingly presents the prototype of a new feudalism fused oddly with a supposedly progressive model in which inequality is growing, not falling.  California now suffers the highest cost-adjusted poverty rate in the country, and the widest gap between middle and upper-middle income earners.  It also has one of the nation's highest Gini ratios, which measures the inequality of wealth distribution from the richest to poorest residents — and the disparity is growing.  Incredibly, California's level of inequality is greater than that of neighbouring Mexico, and closer to Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras than developed nations like Canada and Norway.

Rural Californians are fighting to reclaim their state, even if that means starting their own.  Mark Baird is a third-generation Californian who hopes to one day be a first-generation Jeffersonian.  Baird, like many in California's sprawling, mostly rural north, is disillusioned with his state's Sacramento-based government, which he believes no longer represents northern interests.  That's why Baird and many others in the 23 counties above Sacramento have officially declared the reclamation of their state, even if it means breaking away and starting anew in the proposed 51st state of Jefferson, named for the third U.S. president.

Are you feeling safer yet?  A New York Post editorial quotes New York City police commissioner Dermot Shea:  "We have made staggering numbers of gun arrests, taking guns off the streets from felons, but when you look, three days later, four days later, those individuals are back on the street committing more gun violence."  The editorial continues by saying that years of often ill conceived criminal justice reform has set up a revolving door that frees even repeat offenders almost instantly.  And "[w]orse, because everyone knows the perp will be back in the neighborhood again — and the no-bail law lets the defense know right away who has talked — witnesses are ever-harder to come by."  Well, that's in one Democrat-run state.  What about California?  According to Hotair.com:  "Through a series of measures starting back in 2014, the state of California has made it increasingly easy for people to commit property theft and get away with it[.] ... Even in cases where they do manage to catch somebody stealing, it's too often not worth the trouble of taking them down to the station because they'll just be released immediately without bail anyway."  One result of this is that California businesses are shutting down for good.

Organizers Reportedly Hit Number Of Signatures Required To Force Recall Vote For Gavin Newsom.  Organizers behind the effort to recall California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom said late on Wednesday evening that they have reached the number of signatures required to force a recall election this year.  The multi-million dollar movement to oust Newsom from office comes in response to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.  California has had nearly a million more cases than the state with the second highest number, and just recently passed New York as the state that has had the most deaths from the pandemic.

'Woke' warriors at San Francisco school board deny gay white dad with a mixed-race daughter a place on volunteer parent committee because he is not diverse enough.  A gay white father of a mixed-race child has been denied a spot on the San Francisco Board of Education's volunteer parent committee because his race doesn't bring enough diversity to the group.  The issue of whether to allow Seth Brenzel to volunteer for the 15-person parent advisory council was debated for almost two hours on Tuesday night during a board meeting.  The parent advisory council, who had unanimously supported Brenzel to join their all-female committee, had submitted his name to be approved by the school board.  His candidacy, however, faced opposition from some board members and members of the public who argued that there wasn't enough diversity on the council — even though there are five seats currently empty.

DDA Jonathan Hatami Files a Harassment Lawsuit Against LA County District Attorney George Gascon.  Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has only been in office a little over two months, but he is already a boil on the side of Lady Justice.  Gascon has not only raised the ire of the Deputy District Attorneys in his office, but of District Attorneys in other counties across the State.  Gascon's "Special Directives" are being disregarded by local and regional law enforcement, and the liberal-leaning District Attorneys Union has filed a restraining order against him.  Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold, and Judge James C. Chalfant have recently neutered Gascon's policies of removing enhancements and special circumstances in criminal cases, and not enforcing three-strike allegations.

Several of D.A. George Gascón's reforms [have been] blocked by L.A. County judge.  Los Angeles County Dist.  Atty.  George Gascón was barred from implementing a significant part of his sprawling criminal justice reform platform Monday, after a judge ruled his plan to end the use of sentencing enhancements in thousands of criminal cases violates California law.  The order stemmed from a lawsuit filed late last year by the union that represents hundreds of L.A. County prosecutors, alleging some of Gascón's plans exceeded his legal authority and put line prosecutors in an ethical bind.  Sentencing enhancements can add several years to a defendant's time in prison if certain criteria are met, such as using a gun causing severe injury during the commission of a crime, or being a documented gang member.

Effort to recall Gavin Newsom moves closer to becoming a reality.  An effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is nearing the number of signatures needed with over a month to go before the deadline.  "It's highly possible we could get to 1.5 or 1.6 [million signatures] by the end of this week," said Anne Dunsmore, the campaign manager and finance director of Rescue California, one of the two groups responsible for the recall effort.  The groups have collected 1.4 million of the 1,495,709 required to force a recall election but will likely have to collect more than the minimum as some signatures will be invalidated upon review.  Dunsmore's group is hoping it can collect 2 million total signatures ahead of the March 17 deadline, something she says she is confident the group can accomplish.

California's latest move to thwart its own law enforcement efforts.  The day may yet come when the California legislature proposes a new bill that will actually improve the lives of its citizens, my friends, but today is not that day.  The latest bit of madness to come out of the Golden State is known as Senate Bill 271, and it's clearly designed to make people less safe rather than safer.  Currently, anyone wishing to run for Sheriff in any of California's counties must have either a certification of competence from the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training or recent, equivalent salaried law enforcement experience.  Makes sense, right?  If you're going to put someone in charge of a major law enforcement agency, it might be nice if they actually knew something about law enforcement and the challenges that officers face out on the streets.  But SB-271 would eliminate that requirement entirely.  The stated reason is clear.  They want people who are interested in reforming, defunding or abolishing the police to be able to run for the position.

California politicians demand grocery stores pay workers more; groceries close instead.  Every business operates at a risk, and the risk-reward ratio was obviously closed to the point that it didn't make sense to put effort into a store with declining profits.  Is this so hard to understand?  Apparently, it is, because an emotionally driven, fact-bereft city councilperson going by the name of Mary Zendejas, who sponsored the bill, said that "it really saddens me that they'd rather take away 200 jobs instead of doing the right thing, which is paying hazard pay for these local grocery store workers who risk their lives everyday they come in and who are putting their lives on the line every second they're working."  There is so much wrong with this sentiment.  In Zendejas's world, there is now a moral obligation of private companies to pay whatever rate is deemed appropriate by leftists on a given day.  Today it's a $4-an-hour boost because everyone is a hero.  Tomorrow it's a national $15-an-hour increase.  These are entirely arbitrary numbers, and by Biden's logic, if there is no evidence that they upset the balance of supply and demand, then why stop there?

Are TVs Attracting the Pandemic?  Now that Joe Biden has been elected president of the United States and Calif.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is the target of a recall effort, the science on the "Flumanchu" has miraculously changed.  KTLA informs us, "After a two-month ban, Los Angeles County restaurants are once again welcoming customers for outdoor dining Friday."  The get-out-of-"Wuflu"-jail order includes restaurants, wineries and breweries.  Then the troll takes effect:  "But when the eateries reopen, they can't have televisions on, according to the county's new health officer order."  What's the science behind that senseless royal decree?  Nowhere else in the country are restaurants forbidden to operate their TVs.  Costco's electronics' departments have multiple TVs going from open to close, some with a screen as big as a bedsheet.  Yet there have been no reports of coronavirus outbreaks in Costco.  Why are televisions only potentially deadly when patrons are chewing?

Pelosi, Biden and Newsom Show How Grift and Fraud Makes the Democrat World go Round.  The big news out of California this week is that the utterly incompetent jackasses in the Newsom administration paid out no less than $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments since last April.  I say "no less than" because some reports peg the number at a cool $50 billion.  And that's just in one state. [...] Yeah, I guess when you're sending unemployment checks to crime organizations in China and Russia, your security measures could be said to be lacking.

Facebook Says No More Ads For Movement To Recall Gavin Newsom.  Fascbook is doubling down.  Since the violence at the Capitol our dear leader, the almighty Zuck, has sought out to silence dissent against his comrades in the Democrat party.  While of course Fascbook is free to do as they please as a private company, somehow claiming to be a free and open forum at the same time is a bit disingenuous.  Their actions continue to threaten the free exercise of speech by individuals and by the press, as numerous personal accounts have been suspended for alleged "hate speech" and seemingly innocuous articles posted by news organizations on only one side of the aisle (guess which side) are now being flagged by Fascbook's "fact checkers" as false or for other vague violations.

Carlsbad, CA Says No More to Lockdowns.  May It Be a National Model!  [Scroll down]  A different, more local revolt began last weekend in Carlsbad, CA, a town just north of San Diego.  Its restaurant and bar owners decided they're weren't going to take it anymore.  They're no longer going to allow witless politicians to destroy what they've worked so long to build.  They're going to open their businesses to eager customers.  Some will ask what California legislators right up to Governor Gavin Newsom will say.  Ideally the mini-revolt will wake these sick people up to the extraordinary damage they're doing, but if not it's worth reminding everyone that the very individuals in government who are presently limiting your right to work, operate your business, and live your life as you desire, used to not be in government.  Some even used to have regular jobs in the private sector.  The main thing is that they're not experts on medical matters, nor are they abnormally smart.  They just happen to be good at politics.  They're in no position to tell us how to live, or operate our businesses, or whether or not we should have a job to go to.  They're just people who want power, prestige and money, only they want it the easy way.

Gov. Newsom plans to cancel California's COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday [1/25/2021] plans to lift regional stay-at-home orders across the state — allowing restaurants to resume outdoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report.  Sources briefed on the governor's plans told the Los Angeles Times that all counties will return to a colored tier system that assigns local risk levels based on the number of cases and positivity rates.  Most counties will go into the "widespread" risk tier, which allows hair salons to provide limited services indoors but restricts many other nonessential indoor business operations.  Some elected officials and the restaurant industry have fought in and out of court to overturn the highly controversial outdoor dining ban, according to the newspaper.

Calif Gov Newsom appears to be retreating on Covid restriction as recall petition signatures surge.  [Scroll down]  Newsom is fighting for his political life in the face of a recall petition that already has garnered 80% of the signatures necessary for a recall election to be conducted by the state. [...] The immediate spark of the surge in signatures was the release of photographs of Newsom attending a lavish birthday party at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley, one of the most famous and expensive restaurants in America, with no mask and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with his pals, including the honoree for the occasion, a lobbyist.  This in defiance of the lockdown orders he had imposed on lesser Californians.

SF DA Boudin Skips Memorial For Women Killed By Drunk Parolee — to Tweet About Inmates Not Receiving Vaccines.  On Friday afternoon [1/22/2021], a grieving mother who'd flown to San Francisco from Japan to collect her daughter's body and belongings spoke at a memorial for that daughter, which was held on a sidewalk near the intersection where a drunk parolee in a stolen car mowed her and another woman down on New Year's Eve.  After running over Hanaka Abe, 27, and Elizabeth Platt, 60, the parolee kept going, but was quickly apprehended by law enforcement.  The crash has been big news in San Francisco because the man who committed the horrific crime shouldn't have been on the street.  Troy McAllister, 45, was released from prison and placed on parole in April 2020 after serving five years for robbery.  He was arrested in November and December on felony charges, but instead of actually filing the charges the San Francisco DA's office simply notified McAllister's parole officer that he'd been arrested [...]

Why Is Gavin Newsom Hiding Coronavirus Data from the Public?  California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is hiding key coronavirus data from the public while inexplicably allowing several counties in the state to reopen.  Following a surge in November, Newsom unveiled new lockdown orders that divided the state into five regions, with each region locking down whenever ICU hospital capacity dipped below 15 percent.  Before long, about 98 percent of the state's population fell under the new restrictions.  Despite ICU capacity still south of 15 percent, the governor has lifted restrictions for 13 counties in the Greater Sacramento area, the AP reported.  State data updated daily shows the Sacramento region currently has an ICU capacity of around 7.8 percent at the time of this writing.

Effort to Recall California Governor Gavin Newsom Attracts More Than 1.2 Million Signatures.  The effort to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has attracted more than 1.2 million signatures.  Recall organizers have until March 17th to collect 1,495,709 signatures.  Californians are fed up with Newsom's authoritarian Covid lockdown orders that have destroyed thousands of small businesses.  Newsom came under fire after he ordered businesses to close while keeping his own winery, Plumpjack Winery open.

Biden's HHS Appointee Launches Civil Rights Investigation Of Nation's Largest Sheriff's Dept.  On Friday [1/22/2021], California's Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is also President Joe Biden's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that he is launching a civil rights probe into the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD).  The agency is the largest sheriff's department in the United States and operates America's biggest jail system.  According to a news release from Becerra's office, "the investigation will seek to determine whether LASD has engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing."

California state senator trying to legalize hard drugs.  Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has made good on his promise to begin his effort to "decriminalize all drug use" step by step with the introduction of several bills at the start of the new legislative session.  Senate Bill 57 creates "safe injection sites" where drug addicts can use illicit drugs under medical supervision.  Senate Bill 73 lowers the criminal penalties on users and dealers of heroin, opiates or opium derivatives, salts, cannabis, phencyclidine (PCP), and other dangerous drugs.  Still promised, but not yet introduced, is a bill Wiener says will legalize all psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms.

California Democrat floats $23 minimum wage.  California Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., asked his Twitter followers this week to consider the benefits of raising the minimum wage above $20 per hour.  In a since-deleted post captured by ProPublica, Khanna noted that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour is expected to lift 1 million people out of poverty — while envisioning what an even steeper increase would do.  "Raising the minimum wage to $15 would lift 1 million people out of poverty.  Imagine how many more lives would be impacted if we matched the rate of productivity and made it $23/hr," the post read.  A spokesperson for Khanna's office did not return FOX Business' request for comment as to why the post was deleted.

It's no time for Biden to be California dreamin'.  We did a double take at the report this week that Joe Biden, once inaugurated as president, would treat California as the administration's "de facto think tank," placing it "center stage again in Washington's policy arena."  Surely, only Biden's enemies would spread such a vicious rumor about the new chief executive.  But the sources for the extraordinary story are supporters of Biden and his Californian running mate Kamala Harris.  The wonder is not that Biden would try to imitate California on policy — he's always been ready to try anything harebrained — but rather that his allies would admit they planned to do something so obviously foolhardy.

California COVID-19 benefits fraud could reach $9.8 billion.  California may have paid out nearly $10 billion in phony coronavirus unemployment claims — more than double the previous estimate — with some of that money going to organized crime in Russia, China and other countries, according to a security firm hired to investigate the fraud.  At least 10% of claims submitted to the state Employment Development Department before controls were installed in October may have been fraudulent, Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me told the Los Angeles Times.  The Times on Friday [1/15/2021] said that would work out to $9.8 billion of the benefits paid from March through September.

A Successful Recall of California Gov. Newsom Could Portend a Disaster for Democrats in 2022.  As has long been transparently predictable, the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden has coincided with the determination of state and local elected Democrat officials that the threat of a COVID-19 pandemic has passed, and economic and social life in Democrat-controlled cities and states can now begin to return to "normal". [...] Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot suddenly has a plan for reopening bars and restaurants in Chicago. [...] But one Governor who apparently has not received the message that the political imperative of knee-capping the economy to get rid of Donald Trump has now passed is California Governor Gavin Newsom.  He is maintaining the restrictions that have been in place for months, continuing to impose regulatory restrictions in California on a per county basis.

An L.A. councilman lied to the FBI. Probation officials say he deserves no jail time.  It was the first blockbuster case to surface in the federal corruption probe of Los Angeles City Hall — a multi-count indictment accusing former Councilman Mitchell Englander of taking envelopes of cash, lying to the FBI about that money and obstructing its investigation.  Englander, while serving in office, made false statements to FBI agents during three separate interviews, prosecutors said, providing untrue information about his dealings with a businessman who gave him $15,000 in two casino bathrooms.  The case was resolved quickly, with Englander pleading guilty to a single count of scheming to falsify material facts.  But now, prosecutors are voicing objections to the sentence recommended by federal probation officials: three years' probation, a $9,500 fine and no jail time or community service.

Re-Open Cal Now, Day 2: Sheriffs John D'Agostini and Scott Jones -- Constitutionality of the Lockdown Orders and the Rule of Law.  The necessary element of a "Police State" is cooperation from law enforcement to do just that:  "enforce" the orders given, no matter how burdensome, unreasonable, and more importantly, unconstitutional.  Thankfully, there are Sheriffs in certain California Counties who take seriously their oath to the Constitution, the rule of law, and their commitment to serve the people over and above a Governor's or unelected bureaucrat's executive orders or restrictions. [...] Then he laid out simpler questions that even a 6th grader could understand:
  •   What amount of force is appropriate to enforce health orders?
  •   If someone is resisting compliance to health orders, what sort of force is appropriate for us to use against that person?
  •   Are we supposed to cite someone or release them if they are violating health orders or are we supposed to book them in jail?
  •   What if we see a public official violating health orders?  As we've seen on the news, are we supposed to issue a warrant for that public official?
People in the audience actually yelled, "Yes!" to the last question, then everyone dissolved in laughter and applause.  Newsom's French Laundry debacle looms large in our legend.

Docs reveal Governor Newsom's secret $1B CCP mask deal.  A conservative legal watchdog group has announced that it received hundreds of pages of documents revealing the contract materials and communications related to a $1 billion contract for face masks between the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) and the Chinese Communist Party linked BYD.  BYD reportedly has been barred by law from some federal contracts for providing faulty electric vehicles and lithium batteries to U.S. buyers.  The documents, all 848 pages of which can be viewed here, reveal that an OES legal representative admits that the state deviated from their normal procurement process for this contract.  Additionally, in the contract with the OES, BYD uses a different name, Global Healthcare Product Solutions, LLC., and BYD provides no liability or warranty for the masks if they are faulty.

Elected DA's Throughout California Slam LA County DA Gascon's Policies, Refuse to Grant Jurisdiction.  Now it's not just the majority of his 1,000 subordinates who are publicly and vehemently opposed to new Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon's policy directives.  Three elected California District Attorneys (all female, interestingly enough) have slammed Gascon's policies, and two of them sent letters directly to Gascon refusing to allow him to prosecute any cases that arose in their counties.

New California COVID Orders: Residents Can Travel No More Than 120 Miles From Their Homes.  Despite insanely restrictive lockdowns for 10 months, travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, business closures, mask mandates and school closures, California has some of the worst COVID numbers in the nation.  The state currently has a total of just over 3,800 COVID fatalities.  Of course, in a state of 40 million that is .0095% of the population, but we're really not allowed to put perspective on COVID-19 numbers these days.  That little tidbit was for the curious.  In a state like this one, there is no such thing as policy failure.  If a policy isn't working, we just get more of it.  On Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health announced new "guidance" for people in California who have the nerve to want to wander around their free country.  CDPH wants Californians to stay within 120 miles of their residences except for "essential" travel.

Petition to Recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom Exceeds 1 Million Signatures.  The petition to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom exceeded one million signatures this week.  "The people are being heard loud and clear, and it is not a matter of IF we are going to reach our goal necessary that will trigger a recall election of Newsom, it is just when we cross the finish line," Orrin Heatlie, the lead proponent of the effort to remove the Democrat, in a statement.  There are approximately nine weeks for organizers to gather 500,000 additional signatures, which would put the petition on the ballot for Californians to vote on.  March 17 is the deadline.  Heatlie called the recall campaign a "literal steamroller and Gavin Newsom's failed policies are being runover and flatten [sic] by the People of California who will no longer be held hostage to his dictatorial failed policies."  Newsom's office hasn't responded to requests for comment on the petition.

Soros Soars, GOP Cowards Cower.  I devoted my Dec. 15 column to newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and his benefactor George Soros.  Gascón has one goal:  to put the people of L.A. at the mercy of criminals.  He's the face of anarcho-tyranny, and George Soros is the wallet. [...] As I wrote in my Dec. 15 column, a key element in Gascón's victory was the fact that the local GOP didn't lift a finger to oppose him.

The riskiest American county to live in might surprise you.  There are more than 3,000 counties in the United States.  If I were to ask you which one of them was the riskiest place to live, you might be tempted to say it would be a county encompassing Baltimore or Portland.  Perhaps New York City and Chicago would make your list.  In some cases, you might be correct, but not for the reasons you think, at least according to a new study compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  You see, my initial reaction was to think about places with the highest violent crime rates, gang violence and street mobs.  But what FEMA was looking at was the odds of a natural disaster striking and wreaking havoc on residents.  And coming in at the top spot on the National Risk Index was Los Angeles County.  The reasons have nothing to do with the Crips and the Bloods or their incompetent government, however.

Los Angeles County Prosecutors Sue Gascon For Not Enforcing The Law.  Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon hasn't even been in office for a month yet but he's been making more headlines than the pandemic.  Unfortunately for Gascon (and the citizens of his county), few of those breaking news items have been of the good variety.  The wildly liberal, anti-cop DA has been working overtime to empty the jails and prevent the prosecution of criminals, even as crime rates have been surging in the City of Angels.  The latest news out of his office won't be changing that pattern at all.  His own prosecutors are going to court to ask a judge to block their new boss's orders and prevent them from having to break the law themselves by carrying out his directives.  And it looks like they have a pretty solid case.

San Francisco will give $5,000 to help your small business, unless you're a white guy.  No check for the privileged.  At least that's the plan in San Francisco where they're passing out $5k grants to small businesses, but making sure only the right kind of people get the relief.  They say they are using this as an opportunity to advance the city's "equity goals."  In a press release from the mayor, she says they are prioritizing "minority-owned businesses including women-owned, immigrant-owned, people of color-owned businesses," with the money.  For those unfamiliar with history, this is a practice formerly known as "discrimination."  Maybe after these white male business owners watch their livelihoods crumble to nothing around them, they can take some time to examine their privilege.

San Francisco Proves It's In Full Societal Regression by Embracing Pre-Civil Rights Era Methods.  San Francisco apparently forgot that we in America judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin, but the radical left that has taken over the city has long abandoned the idea that virtues we've learned over the past decades mean anything.  According to a press release by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, money is to be distributed to struggling businesses across the city.  The catch?  Priority will be given to businesses according to race and sex.

LA Orders Everyone to Stay Home; Asks Hollywood to Maybe Pause.  If anyone needed any further reminders that not only are we not all in this together, but a handful of powerful special interests are calling all the shots.  The essential and non-essential categories are gigantic scams.  In California, not only is Hollywood considered essential, but while people are being ordered to stay home, Hollywood is being asked nicely if it wouldn't possibly consider pausing production. [...] This isn't the treatment that restaurants are getting.  It's also not the treatment that so many other businesses are on the receiving end of.  Small businesses that are told to close and don't close, are harassed by inspectors.  [B]ut Hollywood is politely requested to maybe please consider pausing production.  Don't expect the entertainment industry, which pays the bills of California Democrats, to abide by this any more than they abided by the early proposed curfew for filming, which was almost immediately rescinded.  We're not all in this together.

4 California Small Business Owners Share Their Struggles to Survive Under Lockdowns.  California small businesses are crumbling under the weight of a new stay-at-home order and a lack of meaningful financial assistance.  Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued a new region-based lockdown order for California on Dec. 3, forcing more California businesses to close their doors or severely limit operations.  "We are at a tipping point in our fight against the virus, and we need to take decisive action now to prevent California's hospital system from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks," Newsom said in a statement announcing the new restrictions.

The Editor says...
Various governors and county kingpins have been saying things like, "We are at a tipping point in our fight against the virus," for almost a year now.  According to them, we're always at a critical moment in history:  We must act immediately if we are to forestall disaster!  This moment is critical!  Don't ask any questions, just do as we say!  It's only for a few (more) weeks!  Trust us!

California Supreme Court Rules Thousands Of Sex Offenders Are Eligible For Early Release.  On Monday [12/28/2020], the California Supreme Court ruled that thousands of inmates convicted of non-forcible sex crimes may be eligible for early release under a ballot measure that was overwhelmingly approved by voters four years ago.  The initiative, called Proposition 57, was written by then-Governor Jerry Brown (D) and passed by nearly two-thirds of the electorate.  It was crafted to reduce the state's prison population, saying any person found guilty of a "nonviolent felony offense" would be eligible for early parole.  Brown said it was never intended to cover sex offenders.  However, the original language did not exempt them from consideration.  Lower appeals courts had ruled that nonviolent sex offenders could not be excluded, and the high court affirmed those rulings.

California is clobbering small businesses with a retroactive tax grab.  Isabel Rubinas of Glen Ellyn, Ill., operates Lollipop Seeds, a virtual boutique that sells clothing for young children online.  And like many small specialty businesses, its sales have slumped badly during the COVID-19 pandemic.  It's also being clobbered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the state agency that oversees the collection of sales and use taxes.  This month the CDTFA froze Rubinas' business bank account in Illinois in an effort to collect thousands of dollars in taxes on sales that Lollipop Seeds made to California shoppers through Amazon.com in 2017, 2018 and 2019.  The freeze threatens to push Lollipop Seeds out of business.  And her dilemma is not unique.

California Gives Criminals Vaccine Before Elderly.  Criminals are currently the top victim class among Democrats.  And that means privileging killers, muggers, and rapists above everyone else.  California, as usual, leads the way in the pro-crime dystopia.

The Sovietization of California.  [Scroll down]  Yet, here I am, sitting in a state where corruption reigns (one of the leading Democrats of the last half-century told me years ago that politicians in California are window dressing; the real power in California is wielded by unions) and where, for nine months, normal life has been shut down, schools have been closed and small businesses have been destroyed in unprecedented numbers.  During these last five days in Florida, a state governed by the pro-freedom party, I went anywhere I wanted.  First and foremost, I could eat both inside and outside restaurants.  At one of them, when I stood up to take photos of people dining, a patron who recognized me walked over and said, "I assume you're just taking pictures of people eating in a restaurant."  That's exactly what I was doing.  I even took my two grandchildren to a bowling alley, which was filled with people enjoying themselves playing myriad arcade games as well as bowling.  None of that is allowed almost anywhere in California.  It is becoming a police state, rooted in deception and irrationality.  Restaurants have been shut down (except for takeout orders), even for outdoor dining, for no scientific reason.  After ordering Los Angeles county restaurants closed, the health authorities of Los Angeles county acknowledged in court that they had no evidence that outdoor dining was dangerous; they ordered restaurants closed, even to outdoor dining, solely in order to keep people home.  The left's claim to "follow the science" is a lie.  The left does not follow science; it follows scientists it agrees with and dismisses all other scientists as "anti-science."

Recalling Gavin Newsom.  Governor Gavin Newsom is a disaster.  Newsom is hypocritical, incompetent, and a non-thinker.  How bad does California have to get before people will consider someone who has an "R" after their name?  Just look at his actions over the past year.  American Thinker interviewed many who think that the governor needs to be recalled.  Orrin Heatlie is the lead proponent of the nonpartisan recall effort.  He feels that the governor is acting as a tyrant, taking action over and over against the will of the people.  He thinks, with plnety of evidence, that the governor is out of touch with reality: the bill that put independent contractors out of work, the bill to reduce penalties for certain sex crimes, the worsening of the homeless problem, mismanaging the gas tax, the high-speed rail line to nowhere, fumbling fire management, and of course his handling of the pandemic, just to name a few of his missteps.  Under the state law for recalls, a hard copy of the petition must be signed in ink, rather than handling it online.  Heatlie is hoping every Californian will sign the petition.  The court has granted an extension until March 17th because they are halfway there but need about 900,000 more signatures.  Tom Del Beccaro is working in synch with Heatlie in an effort to recall Newsom.  Del Beccaro agrees with Heatlie on all the reasons why Newsom should be recalled.

California Dems Shut Down State Over Lack of ICU Beds, After Adding Only 7% More ICU Beds in 8 Months.  Governor Newsom's latest shutdown order closes down small businesses and warns residents to stay at home if their area's number of available beds in intensive care units drops below 15%.  "By invoking a Stay at Home Order for regions where ICU capacity falls below 15 percent, we can flatten the curve as we've done before and reduce stress on our health care system," Governor Newsom, fresh from partying at the French Laundry, declared.  Spring had given way to summer and then to autumn and winter, and California Democrats are still using the pretext of preserving "ICU capacity" and "flattening the curve".  The rationale of shutting down an entire state, not so much for the sake of stopping the virus, but for keeping enough beds open in intensive care units, never made much sense even back then.  It's insane now.

Is Small Business Aware of California's $21 Billion Surplus?  A report from the bipartisan Legislative Analyst's Office says California's savings account could grow to more than $18 billion by the end of 2021.  California had a record $21.5 billion surplus in the state budget in 2018.  Newsom and the Democratic-controlled state Legislature spent more than half of that money on paying down debts and boosting reserves.  About $4 billion of it went to support ongoing programs while the rest was used for one-time projects.  Where did it go exactly and where is it going?  Small business owners deserve to know.  As Congress debates more funding, a contentious point was federal dollars bailing out states[, and] we see now that Pelosi is lying as California does not need a bailout.

Motion Filed To Depose Gov. Newsom Over Calif.  Protest Bans At Capitol.  The complaints continue to pile up for California Governor Gavin Newsom.  Not only is Newsom combating a massive recall effort across the state, but some are calling on him to testify about the ban on protests he made at the Capitol last spring.  A motion requesting a deposition was filed by plaintiffs Ron Givens and Christine Bish.  Both are involved in a lawsuit that began in April when California Highway Patrol refused to issue permits for demonstrators at the Sacramento Capitol.  CHP claimed the decision was made in the interest of public safety amid the pandemic.  As it's a civil case, attorneys for the state argued that Newsom, the former highway patrol commissioner, and the public health director cannot be deposed because all witnesses currently or previously held public office.

California Sheriff Rejects Court Order To Reduce Inmate Population, Blasts The ACLU.  The sheriff of Orange County, California, said on Wednesday that he would fight a recent order issued by a local superior court judge to significantly reduce the number of inmates housed in the county's jail system due to COVID-19 concerns.  According to FOX 11 News, Sheriff Don Barnes "is refusing to release any more" incarcerated people despite the mandate.  "These people who remain in the jail, they may have diabetes, but they're also charged with murder," Barnes told the outlet during an online interview.  "Or they may be over 65, but may be a child molester."  Sheriff Barnes posted an open letter to social media on Wednesday afternoon announcing his intention to appeal last Friday's directive by Judge Peter Wilson to cut the detainee population in all congregate living areas by 50%.  The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in April by the America Civil Liberties Union seeking to protect medically vulnerable people from coronavirus infection.

California Sheriff Refuses To Release 1,800 Inmates After Judge's Order.  A California sheriff is refusing to comply with a judge's order to release 1,800 inmates from Orange County jails, including individuals who have been imprisoned for murder, due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.  County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson on Friday ordered the release of 50 percent — or 1,858 inmates out of 3,716 — to curb the transmission of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus.  "I have no intention of releasing any of these individuals from my custody," said Sheriff Don Barnes, pushing back against the order.  "We are going to file an appeal and we're going to fight it and if the judge has any intent of releasing any one of these individuals, he will have to go through line by line, name by name, and tell me which ones he is ordering released."

With his star dimmed, California's Newsom could face recall.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a rough year.  The next one might be even tougher as a recall effort appears to be gaining momentum, fueled partly by outrage over the first-term Democrat dining with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling state residents to spurn social gatherings and stay home.  It's not uncommon in California for residents to seek recalls but they rarely get on the ballot — and even fewer succeed.  Several launched against Newsom faded but another attempt is drawing greater attention as his fortunes change while he enters a critical stretch in his governorship.

Inside Soros DA George Gascon's Office:  Deputy DA's Threatened, Intimidated to Uphold New Policies.  Soros-funded Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, as we've reported, made major waves during his first week in office.  On day one, he issued nine Special Directives instituting "criminals first" policies like failing to prosecute many misdemeanors, a blanket prohibition on seeking the death penalty or life without parole, and a ban on charging juveniles as adults.  Throughout the week, victims, law enforcement officers, and court personnel were shocked to see the results of those policies in action in the courtroom (including a failure to charge enhancements or "strikes" against a man accused of decapitating two of his children).

Judge to California's 3rd Largest County:  On Account of COVID, Release Half Your Convicts.  How do you empty a large county's jail system by half?  That's a question currently demanding an answer, as a West Coast judge has ordered that very thing.  As reported by The Daily Wire, on Friday, Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson dictated Sheriff Don Barnes must liquidate Orange County's jail system by 50%.  The decision comes following the American Civil Liberties Union's April lawsuit demanding the release of disabled and vulnerable inmates in light of the pandemic.

New DA Gascon to decline prosecution on range of low-level crimes.  The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office will no longer prosecute a range of misdemeanor crimes, from resisting arrest to drug possession to making criminal threats, according to a memo issued this week by new DA George Gascon. [...] The memo spells out misdemeanors which should be declined or dismissed before arraignment, with a number of exceptions at the discretion of the prosecutor.  Among them:  Trespassing, disturbing the peace, driving with no license or a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug possession, drinking in public, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest, among others.

As The CA Recall Grows and Small Businesses Revolt, Newsom Gaslights and Says he Has "Great Reverence" for Small Business.  Governor Gavin Newsom is feeling the heat of a growing Recall effort that already has over 800,000 signatures, small businesses that are refusing to go through a second lockdown, and County Sheriffs who are refusing to enforce this latest Stay-At-Home effort and are essentially telling him to go pound sand. [...] When confronted with his hostile policies toward small business via some regulation he has allowed the legislature to vote in and that he signs, or another tax, he does a song and dance about his "humble" small business beginnings and how much he "respects" them.  Nobody is buying it anymore.

Tyranny Reversed:  California Judge Slaps Down Newsom Over Religious-Worship Shutdowns.  Just how huge a precedent will the recent Supreme Court decision in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn turn out to be?  We can take one measure from a California court late yesterday [12/10/2020] in Father Trevor Burfitt v Gavin Newsom.  In a stinging rebuke to Gov. Newsom, Judge Gregory Pulskamp imposed an injunction against enforcement of California's planned COVID-19 restrictions.  Using Brooklyn as a guide, Pulskamp ripped California's arbitrary decision to shut down houses of worship while allowing commercial businesses to remain open.  Any such limitation on an explicit and textual constitutional right requires a strict scrutiny standard, Pulskamp ruled and cited Brooklyn for support.  But Pulskamp wonders whether the restrictions even pass a smell test.

White males are no longer considered.  Isn't that racial discrimination?
LA Times editor to Feinstein:  Be "selfless" so Newsom doesn't have to choose between a Black or Latino replacement for Harris.  "Selfless," in this case, means "get out of our way so we can indulge our identity-politics wishes."  This plea from LA Times editor Erika Smith coincidentally comes at the same time as today's big New Yorker piece about Dianne Feinstein's alleged mental-acuity decline.  One has to wonder whether this might be motivating the Capitol Hill sources who talked with Jane Mayer, too. [...] The problem, as Smith sees it, is that Gavin Newsom has to pick someone to fill out Kamala Harris' remaining Senate term.  The opening has created a food fight between the two key ethnic demographics of the Democratic Party in California.  Black party leaders see the Harris seat as theirs, while Latino leaders have grown tired of waiting for their turn at California's Senate representation.

LA District Attorney Whistleblower:  Gascon's Sentencing Special Directive Is Illegal.  New Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has had the most active first week on the job of probably any officeholder ever, anywhere.  On Day One he issued nine Special Directives to his staff, instituting a wet dream of Black Lives Matter and Antifa justice policies — and decreed that those policies should be implemented in all pending cases and even up to 20,000 cases in which the criminals were already sentenced.  On Day Two he dropped charges against a "protester" accused of trying to wreck a train (you read that right) during a protest against the LA Sheriff's Department after deputies shot and killed a known gang member and drug dealer, Dijon Kizzee, who'd pulled a gun on them.  We can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring.

New Los Angeles DA Snubs Staff, Meets With BLM, Will Implement Radical Progressive Agenda.  The worst fears about the new district attorney in Los Angeles County, George Gascón, are already materializing.  After defeating the incumbent DA on November 3, Gascón was sworn in on Monday [12/7/2020].  Gascón announced that his office would immediately end cash bail for many offenses, refuse to pursue the death penalty, and cease trying juveniles as adults for violent offenses.

California Court Order Frees 250 Criminal Illegal Aliens into U.S..  Criminal illegal aliens who were released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody due to a court order in Adelanto, California, have been re-arrested for child sex crimes, burglary, drug possession, and drunk driving.  By October, ICE released more than 250 illegal aliens from their Adelanto detention facility after a court order mandated that they free up space.  Those released were put in the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program that places GPS ankle bracelets on each illegal alien as they are freed into the interior of the United States.

LA Restaurant Owner Rips Garcetti Hypocrisy:  Why Shut Me Down While Allowing A Hollywood Canteen In My Parking Lot?  Earlier this week, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti banned outdoor service at restaurants in response to the COVID-19 transmission spike.  That includes Pineapple Hill Grill and Saloon in Sherman Oaks, whose owner Angela Marsden sunk $80,000 into social-distanced outdoor dining infrastructure and had planned to reopen today.  Marsden went to the store yesterday to collect a few items for a planned protest, but got a big surprise when she arrived at the parking lot adjacent to her dining patio.  [Video clip]

Bar Owner Forced To Close Her Business in LA Livid After Movie Studio Gets Approval for Food Tent Next Door.  Bar Owner:  "And I walked into my parking lot and obviously Mayor Garcetti has approve this, has approve this being set up.  This is being set up for a movie company."  [Video clip]

Supreme Court sides with church challenging Calif.'s COVID-19 restrictions.  The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday [12/3/2020] ruled against a pandemic-related order by California Gov. Gavin Newsom banning some indoor religious services, agreeing with critics that it is unconstitutional.  In a one-page order, the high court granted a petition from lawyers for Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, Calif., seeking to set aside a lower court ruling upholding Newsom's ban.

California Secedes from Black America.  [Scroll down]  Proposition 16, which would have allowed for favoritism of nonwhites in public employment, education, and contracting, lost by a wide margin.  Yet the backers of Prop. 16 outspent the opposition $30 million to $2 million.  And what a list of backers it was!  The California Democrat Party and every Democrat officeholder in the state championed Prop. 16, as did every major newspaper.  Every leftist "social justice" organization — the ACLU, NAACP, NOW, the ADL, BLM, even the Sierra Club and the PTA — backed Prop. 16.  So did the Chamber of Commerce, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Uber, Dropbox, Reddit, Lyft, Yelp, AirBnB, Instacart, Gap, Levi's, United Airlines, Wells Fargo, the 49ers, the Giants, and the Oakland A's.  Soros backed it.  The Chan/Zuckerberg Initiative backed it.  Ava DuVernay backed it.  Kaiser, Blue Shield, and PG&E backed it.  All those heavy hitters.  All that money, and in a "blue state" no less.  And yet... it wasn't even close.  The big bucks, the big endorsements, the push from big business and big tech, came to nothing.

Governor Preen.  If Hollywood were to cast a governor and future president, and if a straight white male were still politically acceptable, he would look like California's Gavin Newsom.  The 53-year-old governor, a former mayor of San Francisco, Newsom handsomely epitomizes the preening politics of the California elite class that has nurtured and financed his career from the beginning.  Like aristocrats of the past, Newsom seems oblivious to the realities felt by constituents among the lower orders.  In the face of massive wildfires, he postures on climate change, conflating fires with an angry mother Earth — as opposed to poor land management — and uses the conflagration to justify a radical policy of switching to all-electric power over the next decade, with the elimination of gas-powered cars by 2035. In the midst of a near economic free-fall, he favors raising taxes and works to tighten pandemic lockdowns; and, with the state losing its ability to train workers, he backs an education system where almost three out of five California high schoolers graduate unprepared for either college or a career.

Who Paid For the (Alleged) $15,000 Wine Bill Gavin Newsom and Friends Racked Up at French Laundry?  [Scroll down]  Newsom can receive up to $500/year in gifts from someone who's not a registered state lobbyist.  Could they get around that restriction by claiming it was Newsom's wife who received the gift, and not the Governor?  Nope.  A gift to Jennifer Siebel Newsom is considered a gift to Gavin Newsom for the purposes of FPPC reporting.  If someone else paid for Newsom's dinner, the only possible way that could be done without skirting required financial disclosure rules would be if his longtime friend, the birthday boy, paid for the dinner, and if none of the lobbyist birthday boy's clients had business currently before the state.  Given that executives from the California Medical Association, clients of lobbyist birthday boy, were in attendance, and that we're in the middle of a pandemic, claiming that exemption might not work.  But who knows.  This is Teflon Gavin we're talking about.

Gov. Newsom's Regime Is Crumbling.  The era of one-man rule in California is over.  A California Superior Court has ruled in favor of me and fellow legislator James Gallagher in our lawsuit challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom's abuse of power.  The judge ruled that Newsom violated the state constitution by unilaterally ordering that all registered voters be sent mail-in ballots.  More importantly, she found good cause for a permanent injunction restraining Newsom from issuing any further unconstitutional orders that make "new statutory law or legislative policy."  The court rejected Newsom's extraordinary claim that a state of emergency centralizes the state's powers in the hands of the governor, thus turning California into an autocracy.  This is the unlawful basis on which Newsom has collapsed our system of checks and balances, issuing 58 executive orders and changing over 400 laws unilaterally.

Gavin Newsom's apology for flouting his mask and social distancing regs make him the most obvious liar since Joe Isuzu.  I am enjoying the squirming of Nancy Pelosi's nephew, California Governor Gavin Newsom, now that he has been exposed as completely disregarding the COVID guidelines he is trying to force 40 million Californians to follow.  The very same man who told us that when dining out we should put a mask on in-between bites, that we should have no more than 10 people (from no more than 3 households) at our outdoor Thanksgiving celebrations was spotted and photographed violating all of his strictures on the rest of us.  Even worse, the party was held at The French Laundry, one of the fanciest and most famous restaurants in the world.  And it was a 50th birthday party for one of his old friends, who just happens to be a lobbyist.  Also in attendance:  The CEO and chief lobbyist of the California Medical Association, who like Newsom obviously don't believe the mask and social distancing regulations are genuinely important.  You've probably seen the utterly phony "apology" he made to Californians at a press conference.  But take a good look at his smiles as he lies like a Persian rug.  He seems to think that the rubes, who are expected to give up their family gatherings at Thanksgiving, are so dumb that they will buy it.

Gavin Newsom Manufactures a COVID Crisis to Make California Miserable Again.  Fresh on the heels of the Sacramento Bee's criticism of Gavin Newsom's multi-family extravaganza at the famous French Laundry, a swanky $350-a-person-before-the-wine-is-ordered restaurant in Yountville, California, and after having his wrist slapped by the state Judiciary for exceeding his constitutional authority in issuing emergency lockdown orders, he's decided that he really doesn't care what the plebs of his state think or what the law says about his executive limitations.  He's locking the state down again.  The reason, as he and the media would have you believe, is that California is experiencing a surge in positive COVID-19 tests, having just crossed the one million mark in cases.  You're supposed to focus on that big, scary number and not Gavin Newsom's blatant hypocrisy or his unlawful executive overreach, and certainly not the many questions swirling about the looming prospect of the Trump legal team's potentially exposing massive election fraud, which could have an enormous impact on the future of our republic.

Rules For Us and Rules For Them.  Of all the quotable lines in George Orwell's Animal Farm, few resonate as much as this one:  "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." [...] That quotation has been referred to often in recent days after Gov. Gavin Newsom — fresh off of issuing a new set of edicts admonishing Californians to dine alone at home and curtail their Thanksgiving celebrations — was caught dining with his wife and 10 other friends at a birthday party for a prominent lobbyist at the French Laundry in Yountville.  It's bad enough for the governor to seemingly violate his own edicts, but to do so in Napa Valley, at one of the nation's toniest restaurants, certainly gave off the wrong vibe.

Don't [Bring California's Problems To] The Rest Of America.  California's political class is widely regarded as among the most corrupt, irresponsible, hypocritical, hard left and incompetent of any comparable group of state politicians in the country, which is saying a lot.  The troubles have been on full display this week.  A week after imposing sweeping new restaurant closures across much of the state and telling Californians not to gather in groups for Thanksgiving, California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted on Monday that he attended a birthday party for an old friend at an ultra-swank Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry.  Never mind that the party for his buddy, himself a lobbyist, also included a bunch of medical industry lobbyists.  The photos show not only more people in attendance than allowed under state guidelines, neither the governor nor his wife were wearing masks.

Gavin Newsom's Thanksgiving hypocrisy:  Witness at 3-star Michelin restaurant says governor ate inside and NOT outdoors like he claims.  California governor Gavin Newsom dined indoors when he joined friends for a birthday dinner earlier this month, a witness has claimed, challenging the governor's account of the celebrations.  The witness, a woman who has not been identified, said she was eating at the French Laundry restaurant on the same night as Newsom — who was dining in a private room with 11 other people.  She said a sliding glass door to the room was initially left open, but was pulled across because the governor and his party were being 'very loud'.

Newsom considering statewide curfew as he orders emergency business shutdowns.  Nearly three-quarters of California counties must now operate under the state's most stringent pandemic restrictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday, and health officials are considering a statewide curfew as coronavirus cases surge more dramatically than they did during a summer spike.  Indoor dining, gyms and movie theaters, among other businesses, must either remain closed or shut down in 41 of the state's 58 counties.  The governor said he is "sounding the alarm" due to "the fastest increase California has seen" since the pandemic began.  Coronavirus cases have doubled in the last 10 days across the state, which hit the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus cases last week.

The California Elections Pandemic.  The once Golden State, renowned for creating and exporting much of what constitutes American popular culture, now exports a vote-fraud rich, elections-stealing contagion across the nation. [...] A consequence of Californizing elections will be rampant cynicism.  Sullen distrust will take hold.  Voters, in droves, may elect not to vote.  Yet nonparticipation may be the best case.  In time, the nation may devolve into warring political factions, who thuggishly vie to control the levers of power.  Does that seem surreal?  Investigate Latin America, where countries are colored with rigged elections and associated violence.

California judge rules Gov. Gavin Newsom overstepped authority with mail ballot order.  A California judge has ruled that Gov. Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority when he issued an executive order requiring vote-by-mail ballots sent to all registered voters, according to reports.  Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman ruled Friday [11/13/2020] that Newsom did not have the authority to amend or change existing election law — even during a pandemic.  The ruling put a permanent injunction on Newsom, prohibiting him from changing existing law under the California Emergency Services Act (CESA), according to KCRA.  The ruling does not affect the results of the 2020 general election.

One-Party Democrat Rule Is Killing California, And It's Coming For The Country.  [Scroll down]  COVID sucked the air out of the room in the presidential debates, and in the media in general.  However, my home state was never debilitated by the Wuhan virus, which likely hit the West Coast in the early months of this year before spreading through the rest of the country, and never overwhelmed our hospitals.  The real epidemic we are witnessing on our streets daily and with which so many of us have firsthand experience is the drug epidemic.  Corona victims are not falling down dead on our streets, like they did in videos from China; opiate addicts are.  During our never-ending lockdown, drug overdoses in San Francisco reached two a day.  For comparison, San Francisco has seen a total of 149 COVID deaths.  While nearly all coronavirus patients eventually recover, few druggies do, so they stay on our streets until death, blocking off entire sections of the city and taking over public transportation.

Newsom's Latest COVID Regs [are] Nuttier Than a Holiday Fruitcake.  Not many Californians will be trekking over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house for the holidays this year if Gov. Gavin Newsom has his way.  According to guidelines issued by his office, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in the Golden State can include members of no more than three households, including everyone present — hosts as well as guests.  Granny will obviously have to be a little more careful about which set of aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews she invites this year.  And for those who do wrangle an invitation, forget about singing any Christmas carols — or music of any kind, for that matter.  Newsom's edict directs that:
  •   instrumental music will be allowed, but only if the musicians maintain at least a six-foot physical distance between themselves (and all musicians must be from one of the three households; playing of wind instruments is strongly discouraged);
  •   everyone singing or chanting should wear a face covering at all times;
  •   all those singing, shouting, chanting or dancing should maintain physical distancing beyond six feet; and,
  •   they are strongly encouraged to do so quietly (at or below the volume of a normal speaking voice).

Liberal California Emigrants are Toxic.  Since 2012, California has overwhelmingly sent more transplants to Arizona than any other state.  When surveyed, escaping Californians cite high taxes, high crime rates, unaffordable housing, out-of-control homelessness, and high unemployment rates as their top reasons for fleeing.  Who is responsible for creating such an alarming living environment within the state?  California liberals.  A November, 2020 report produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University stated that California has 395,608 regulatory restrictions.  The sheer volume and scope of California regulations creates such a compliance nightmare that they kill entire industries, send housing prices to unattainable heights, and restrict even commonplace liberties for which conservative leaning states are known.  Piled onto California's endless river of regulations are its nonsensical laws and policies.  Twenty major metropolitan cities or counties in California have established laws, ordinances, regulations, or other practices that shield illegal immigrants from prosecution after committing a crime.

Judge rules California Gov. Newsom's vote-by-mail order was improper.  A California judge ruled that Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order requiring mail-in ballots to be sent to every registered voter in the state was unconstitutional.  Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman issued her ruling on Monday [11/2/2020], which also contained a permanent injunction, instructing the governor not to issue further orders that would be similarly improper.  Tuesday's election will be unaffected by the ruling because a vote-by-mail order was ultimately passed by the state's Legislature.

Judge rules California's Newsom overstepped his authority with election order.  A California judge on Monday [11/2/2020] issued a tentative ruling in favor of two Republican state lawmakers who had filed an abuse of power lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.  Executive Order N-67-20, which Newsom signed in June, required that counties mail all eligible voters vote-by-mail ballots before Election Day and regulated the number of polling stations.  Assemblymembers James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, challenged Newsom's order in court, arguing that Newsom's Emergency Services Act — implemented in March amid the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic — prevented the governor from issuing more executive orders or creating new laws.

California governor sends his children to private school as local public schools remain closed.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending his children to attend modified in-person instruction at a private school even as the public schools that serve his local district remain closed for now.  Newsom's children are "phasing back into school," he told media on Friday [10/30/2020], "and we are phasing out of our very challenging distance learning that we've been doing, so many parents are doing up and down the state."  The governor and his wife Jennifer Newsom have four children.  They were in private school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CA Governor Gavin Newsom Ignores Crime Surge yet Claims Preparation for Post-Election Chaos.  The headline in the Hill yesterday, "California governor preparing state for civil unrest following election," is laughable.  Governor Gavin Newsom's idea of any form of preparedness is to stay at home and wear a mask.  If anything, his policies of the last year have guaranteed the civil unrest, rather than any measures to quell it. [...] Of course, King Gavin gave no specifics about exactly what he planned to do to prepare for any potential election night chaos.  Chief Dominick Rivetti of the Beverly Hills Police Department has already announced that he will close down Rodeo Drive on Election Day and the day after, and his police department will be on high alert from the Halloween weekend through Tuesday [11/3/2020].

King Newsom bans indoor gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  California won't allow indoor family gatherings for the holidays, Christmas and Thanksgiving, and outdoor gatherings are limited to three families for a maximum of two hours.  This is arbitrary and tyrannical.  "Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited.  This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests.  Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer," reads the "Guidance for Private Gatherings," issued by the California Department of Public Health on October 9.

SF DA Chesa Boudin surveys crime victims on how to make life easier for their attackers.  Chesa Boudin, the radical left-wing San Francisco District Attorney on whose watch San Francisco has become a crime-infested Caracas-like hellhole, is starting to draw criticism from crime victims for his unwillingness to prosecute crimes.  And adding insult to injury, he's now using them as fodder for a survey on how to make their attackers' lives better. [...] The aim of course is to use the responses to advance his political career, smothering out the victims' real concerns in order to advance his let-'em-out political agenda in a quest for higher office.  Always the P.R. man, Chesa is focused on gaslighting the public for his own self-aggrandisement, claiming he's prosecuting criminals, while he's mainly attempting to get the victims of crimes he never prosecuted to answer his survey with carefully worded options on what his priorities should be, leaving off the option of 'prosecuting violent crime' and taking violent thugs off the streets as choices.

L.A. County Sends Health Department Workers To Fine Church That Sued Newsom.  A Catholic church in Los Angeles County is alleging that the local government dispatched two health department officials to harass them in retaliation for their priest suing Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials.  On Oct. 15, two health officials showed up at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Arcadia, California, a congregation affiliated with the dissident Society of St. Pius X.  The officials watched approximately 11 parishioners leave the building from the sidewalk and then cited them for holding indoor worship services in violation of COVID-19 restrictions, according to a copy of the citation forwarded to The Daily Wire.  The citation carried with it a $1,000 fine.

California's Gavin Newsom goes bonkers issuing Thanksgiving COVID orders.  For someone whose previous career was in San Francisco's trendy restaurant industry, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has some bizarre ideas about why people gather; what a comfortable dining experience is; and how people, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, will do what they do.  Nope, he's got some weird stuff up, motivated, he says, by a supposed new wave of COVID: [...] Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that neither he nor his constituents are going to observe these ridiculous diktats on the country's biggest family holiday from the comfort of their own homes.  The arbitrariness of these regulations is incredible.  Two hours together?  Why not one point five hours instead?  Thousands of lives could be saved!

The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving.  Governor Gavin Newsom's Department of Health has issued an updated "Guidance for Private Gatherings" in time for Thanksgiving.  Basically, fun is illegal in California:  ["]Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited.  This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests.["]  So if you have three kids, you can invite two of them.  ["]All gatherings must be held outside.  Attendees may go inside to use restrooms as long as the restrooms are frequently sanitized.["]  This would not work well in Minnesota.

California Just Declared War On Thanksgiving With Kafka-Level Regulations.  Gov. Gavin Newsom just gave Californians more regulations for an early Christmas present — and anyone hoping to celebrate the holidays with family better hope there's a gift receipt.  Just in time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities, when most families gather with loved ones, California's Democrat governor has issued a new set of regulations that bans gatherings of more than three households.  Additionally, no indoor gatherings are permitted, so don't plan on eating around the dining room table unless you lug it out into your backyard.  Newsom's ban on gatherings of more than three households means that a family with more than two grown children can only have two visit at the same time.  According to the Pew Research Center, almost two-thirds of mothers in their young forties in 1976 had three or more children.  If those mothers are grandmothers now and their children are grown, that means up to two-thirds of families would be banned from bringing all their children under one roof for the holidays.

Close To Half A Million Ballots [have been] Sent To California Voters Who Have Moved Or Died.  Why do you suppose California Republicans are setting up their own ballot drop boxes at churches and gun shops to offer voters a safe way to ensure their votes make it to election officials for counting?  Do you suppose they have some concerns about how well the mass mail-in voting system will perform when it's put to the full test on November 3rd?  Perish the thought.  I'm sure everything will be fine.  Well... nearly everything.  But we might not be entirely confident about the eventual fate of roughly 400,000 ballots that went out this month.  That's because their voter rolls don't appear to have been tended very well over the years and that huge slug of ballots went to people who had either moved out of the state or taken up residence in cemeteries.

Freshman House Democrat offers the GOP a pickup opportunity amid crumbling campaign.  California's 21st Congressional District was the last district to be called in the 2018 election, with Democrat T.J. Cox defeating incumbent Republican David Valadao one month after election day.  In a year of crazy election news, their rematch has become even more chaotic.  Cox started his 2018 run in California's 10th District, abandoning the crowded primary after the only Democrat running against Valadao dropped out.  Cox's carpetbagging didn't seem to matter too much as he landed the endorsement of the Fresno Bee, the district's largest paper.  Valadao had won his district in 2016 by nearly the same margin as Hillary Clinton had, but the 2018 Democratic wave proved too much to survive.

California Democrat Legislature Passed a Stupid "Vote Harvesting" Law and Are Now Paying the Price.  To begin with, California has the most ridiculously lax ballot harvesting law ever imagined.  They passed it in late Nov. 2016 after Donald Trump won the Presidency, and they clearly had in mind making use of it in a variety of nefarious ways in 2018.  They did so to great benefit, flipping several Congressional races in traditionally GOP districts that had become purple over the course of several election cycles.  The basic practice, as employed by Democrats, was to know the home address of every Democrat who requested an absentee ballot in the 2018 election.  One way they did that was by aggressively pushing registered Democrat voters to ask for absentee ballots and track those who did by their home address given when they sought the ballot through the party.  In the days leading up to the election, an army of volunteers — many of them union members from all parts of the labor movement in California, started knocking on the doors of those voters.  Many were elderly or otherwise housebound.

How California Is Turning Into a State Governed by Identity Politics.  If you thought racial identity politics were just a fleeting flirtation of the radical left, California's new laws suggest otherwise.  On Sept. 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into state law a bill setting up a nine-member board to study the amount of reparations that should be owed to black people for slavery and Jim Crow. [...] But that's hardly the only racially divisive law California has passed this year, since the Legislature convened in a coronavirus-racked session in June.  The same day, Newsom signed a bill to establish diversity quotas on corporate boards for racial minorities.  Corporations with between four and nine board members will now be required to have at least two racial minorities, while corporations with more than nine board members will be required to have at least three represented.

Gov. Newsom Says He Is in 'No Hurry' to Reopen Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood.  Don't expect Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm to open anytime soon, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a press conference Wednesday [10/7/2020].  He said there is "no hurry in putting out guidelines," but state officials are continuing to work with amusement parks in California after the pandemic prompted closures in March.  He called the process "very complex," adding, "We don't anticipate, in the immediate term, any of these larger theme parks opening until we see more stability in terms of the data."

Ignoring Current Problems, California Cooks up Illogical Reparations Bill.  Apparently, when California's one-party government cannot find solutions to current existential crises, it turns to divisive issues that have little to do with the safety and well-being of its 40 million citizens.  California has the highest gas taxes in the nation, even as its ossified state highways remain clogged and dangerous.  Why, then, does Sacramento kept pouring billions of dollars into the now-calcified high-speed rail project?  When fires raged, killed dozens, polluted the air for months, consumed thousands of structures and scorched 4 million acres of forest, in response the governor thundered about global warming.  But Newsom was mostly mute about state and federal green polices that discouraged the removal of millions of dead and drought-stricken trees, which provided the kindling for the infernos.  When gasoline, sales and income taxes rose, and yet state schools became even worse, infrastructure remained decrepit and deficits grew, California demanded that federal COVID-19 money bail out its own financial mismanagement.

Masks Are Turning America Into Northern California.  [Scroll down]  Palo Alto, like much of Northern California, was a cesspool of fear and grievance.  The work being done was obviously incredible; the coolest and most useful technology on the planet was all being born up and down the Bay Area.  But the culture outside of the cushy campuses and start-ups was one of persistent paranoia.  You couldn't cross a street in Palo Alto without hearing voices warning you of the dangers that lurk about.  No, seriously.  They had little recordings in the crosswalks that were on a 24×7 loop warning of general dangers.  It was creepy. [...] And with the help of masks, that's how Jake Tapper and Anthony Fauci (the posterboys for their leftist institutions) want all of America to be.  And there are plenty of people across the country who would gladly move into that kind of reality.

Gavin Newsom goes 'Bananas': 'Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites'.  So Gavin Newsom of California has gotten excited about masks again, just as Joe Biden and assorted leftists have made it mask-wearing the most recitable part of the Democrats' party platform in the wake of President Trump's diagnosis of COVID.  Joe Biden is out preaching for the wearing of masks, but for Newsom, merely wearing them at the grocery store is no longer enough. [...] It's also a day late and a dollar short, being ordered a time when COVID cases are way down in California and deaths are precipitously declining. [...] A ridiculous order like this, detrimental to public health, is nothing short of the whims of a dictator drunk on power.  It's like a scene from Woody Allen's 1971 Bananas about a fictional tropical dictator who looks like Fidel Castro.

Newsom's office tells Californians to wear masks 'in between bites' of food when dining with members from same household in public.  Gov. Gavin Newsom's office told California residents they should wear masks "in between bites" of food while dining in public spaces with people from the same household.  "Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend?  Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites," the office of the governor tweeted over the weekend.  "Do your part to keep those around you healthy," the tweet added.

The Editor says...
Fortunately, a tweet is not a law.

California governor's office tells diners to wear masks 'in between bites'.  The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom has told residents in the Golden State that if they go out to eat, they should be wearing a mask "in between bites" to protect themselves from COVID-19. [...] For emphasis, the tweet shows an image of someone at a dining seat wearing a mask, then not wearing a mask while taking a bite, and then putting the mask on again.  However, the image then advises people to "minimize the number of times you take your mask off."  California has allowed limited indoor dining to resume in a number of counties.  San Francisco allowed indoor dining last week at 25% capacity.  California has had more than 800,000 cases and more than 16,000 deaths due to the virus.

The Editor says...
That is not true.  The total number of deaths from Covid-19 is less than 10,000 nationwide.  The number of people who have died with the virus (not from it) is much higher.

Oops!  What an unfortunate error!  Better luck in 2024.
L.A. County:  Over 2,000 mail-in ballots sent without the option to vote for president.  Nearly 2,100 mail-in ballots were sent to voters in Los Angeles without the option to vote for the next president of the United States, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office declared them "faulty ballots," the report noted.  "While this has impacted a very small number of Los Angeles County voters ... we nevertheless apologize to those affected by the mistake," said Michael Sanchez, a spokesman for the county clerk's office, according to the LA Times.

The Editor says...
This tells you one thing about the Los Angeles County election officials:  Nobody checks the ballots before they are sent out.  Or worse, they knew there was an omission and thought nobody would notice.  Or worse still, they hate President Trump so much that they were willing to interfere in the election.  In any case, I can confidently predict the number of county officials who will lose their jobs as a result of this:  Zero.

Gavin Newsom Edges Ahead in the Country's Dumbest Governor Competition.  COVID-19 has certainly exposed one of two things.  Either some of the dumbest people in the country are leading our states, or they are so hyperpartisan they will beclown themselves to toe the Democrats' preferred narrative on the virus.  The latest ridiculous instructions come from Gavin Newsom's office:  ["]Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend?  Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites.["] [...] One of the primary reasons that masking is controversial is because people don't know how to use [them].  Apparently, this lack of knowledge goes straight up to the governor's office in California.  As a former healthcare worker trained on how to don and doff personal protective equipment (PPE) properly, this is painfully stupid.

A man wanted to open an ice cream shop, unfortunately he was in San Francisco.  It's difficult to open a business in some parts of the country because of all the red tape involved.  One of the places where that's definitely the case is San Francisco.  Last Friday the San Francisco Chronicle published a column outlining Jason Yu's attempt to open an ice cream shop in the city and the months and months of delays he has faced trying to take his project through various slow-moving departments.  Yu decided he wanted to open a shop selling green tea flavored ice cream back in 2018.  Eventually, he found an empty storefront and in June 2019 he signed a lease which cost him $7,300 per month.  He knew it would take a few months to open but he was prepared for that.  He hired an architect to make plans for new electrical and plumbing but there were no structural changes needed and no changes to the outside of the building.  Six months later, in June 2019, he submitted his plans to the Department of Building Inspection.  And that's when his real nightmare began.

California Is a Cautionary Tale for America.  Anyone with the means to flee Detroit, does so.  Likewise, the Golden State hemorrhages residents, as they build their lives in differently managed states. [...] California bounds from one crisis to another, with most of them being self-imposed.  The latest one involves the raging wildfires that turned our air into a putrid soup.  Obviously, heat waves and high winds were the proximate cause, but poor land management, ill-conceived liability and insurance laws, and the misuse of existing firefighting budgets are the fundamental problems.  The last crisis involved homelessness.  Just because COVID-19 pushed it off of the front pages doesn't mean that it's become any less severe.

L.A. Ordered to Pay NRA Six Figures After Losing First Amendment Case.  The Washington Free Beacon reports, a federal court ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay the NRA's lawyer fees of approximately $150,000, just months after he ruled a city ordinance violated the gun-rights group's First Amendment rights.  The City of Los Angeles tried to penalize any contractor with ties to the NRA.  The NRA sued over the ordinance and federal district court judge Stephen Wilson ruled it was an unconstitutional violation of the NRA's First Amendment rights.  The city eventually repealed it and on Tuesday, the judge ordered city officials to pay the NRA's attorney fees totaling about $150,000.

Bob Iger quits California economic task force as Disney lays off 28,000 workers.  Disney chairman Bob Iger quit California Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus recovery task force just two days after the Mouse House said it was cutting 28,000 jobs at its US parks business.  A Disney rep wouldn't say why or exactly when Iger resigned from the task force, which was formed in April, according to the Sacramento Bee, which first reported the news late Thursday [10/1/2020].  Disney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The [New York] Post.

California governor signs corporate boardroom diversity law.  Hundreds of California-based corporations must have directors from racial or sexual minorities on their boards under a first-in-the-nation bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.  The diversity legislation is similar to a 2018 measure that required boardrooms to have at least one female director by 2019.  Like that measure, it could face court challenges from conservative groups who view it as a discriminatory quota.  Supporters evoked both the coronavirus pandemic that is disproportionately affecting minorities and weeks of unrest and calls for inclusion that followed the slaying of George Floyd in May in the custody of Minneapolis police.

EPA chief to Newsom:  You don't have the power to ban gas-powered vehicles.  EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler rebuked California governor Gavin Newsom yesterday [9/28/2020] for his executive order barring sales of gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035.  California no longer has the authority to impose such regulations, Wheeler reminded Newsom, and it also lacks the power, literally:

Newsom OKs sterilizing treatments for teens.  Despite the medical evidence and moral outcry, Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated the signing of a bill that allows gender clinics to provide transgender drugs and surgery known to sterilize children and adults.  Newsom praised AB 2218 for "strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ Californians" and providing an "additional step forward" in "our march towards equality," in a weekend press release.  "By rejecting the concerns of doctors and parents, and siding with LGBT activists, Governor Newsom is yet again ignoring the heartbreak his policies will unleash," said Jonathan Keller, President of California Family Council.

California: The Golden State in Utter Decay.  With increasing homelessness, a soft approach to criminal prosecution, and the ongoing embracing of illegal immigration, violent crimes are increasing after having seen a reduction the past few years.  According to The Trace, "homicides are sharply up this year" in California as a whole, and cities such as Oakland, with a 26% increase, have seen a significant increase in the number of murders.  With the jump in violent crimes, what steps has California's government taken to reduce certain crimes?  They recently passed the controversial bill S.B. 145, which will ultimately end up reducing accountability and sentences for adults who sexually assault children as young as 14.  What a brilliant idea.  Apparently, California's leadership believes that the pedophile community had been treated unfairly.

Group Robs A CVS In Broad Daylight As Employees And Manager Just Watch.  Ever since California decriminalized what the state considers 'petty crime', this sort of brazen robberies of stores has become more and more common.  Add mask laws to the mix, which conceals criminals' identities, you can bet on a lot more of these broad daylight heists.  [Video clip]

California Wants Me to Vote, Even Though I Haven't Lived There for Over 8 Years.  States across the country are experimenting with a mass switch to mail-in elections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  But is it wise for states to make such a big change, especially in light of messy voter rolls around the country?  What I was sent earlier this month by election officials in Alameda County, California, makes me worried that ballots going to the wrong locations will be a significant concern this year.  The Alameda County Registrar of Voters notified me by mail at my parents' address in Oakland that I would receive a ballot when the state sends them out Oct. 5.  This is following Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order that all California voters receive a mail-in ballot before the Nov. 3 election.

Pregnant Black, Pacific Islander women in San Francisco to receive $1,000 monthly supplement.  Approximately 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women in San Francisco will receive a $1,000 monthly supplement during their pregnancies and for the first six months of their babies' lives, the city's mayor announced.  Mayor London Breed's (D) office said on Monday that the Abundant Birth Project is the first of its kind in the country.  The project's goal is to eventually provide a supplement for as long as two years post-pregnancy. [...] Black infants are nearly twice as likely to be born prematurely than white infants in San Francisco.  Pacific Islander infants have the second-highest preterm birth rate in the city, according to the mayor's office.  Black families also account for half of maternal deaths in the city and 15 percent of infant deaths, although they represent just 4 percent of all births.

The Editor says...
[#1] There is a lot of discussion about mothers and babies, but no mention of the babies' fathers in the article above.  [#2] What's so special about Pacific Islander women?  Which Pacific islands?  Are these women U.S. citizens?  [#3] If black babies are so important, why are so many black babies aborted in San Francisco, with the enthusiastic support of some of the same left-wing do-gooders?

California imposes racial quotas on corporate boards.  California's legislature is mandating racial quotas for corporate boards.  "Experts say" that "runs afoul of constitutional principles," according to the Wall Street Journal.  "New legislation passed over the weekend would mandate that publicly-traded companies headquartered in the state must have at least one director from a minority community by the close of 2021.  There are more than 500 public companies based in California in the Russell 3000, which accounts for the vast majority of companies."

Poll: Californians oppose gender mutilation and sterilization bill.  Sixty-four percent of California voters do not want Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill to pay for transgender drugs and surgeries known to sterilize minors and adults, according to a new poll.  The survey, conducted by Spry Strategies in conjunction with the Women's Liberation Front, shows that conservative Christians and radical feminists, who have joined forces to oppose AB 2218, are more in step with California voters than state legislators.  The controversial bill passed the Assembly 54-10 and the Senate 28-9 late last month, and now sits on Newsom's desk awaiting his decision.

LA County's Public Health Director says what we suspected about the lockdown.  [Scroll down]  Los Angeles County is America's most populous county, the largest government entity in America that is not a state or the federal government, and the third-largest metropolitan economy in the world.  It's also entirely Democrat-run, as evidenced by poverty, drugs, and homelessness, as well as its vast wealth inequality.  Los Angeles students still cannot go to school but must, instead, do online learning.  We already know that part of the problem is that the teachers' union had some pretty stringent demands, few related to the students' physical and mental well-being.  However, it turns out the continued school closures are also because of politics.  We know this because LA County's Public Health Director, Barbara Ferrer, admitted as much when speaking to a gathering of school nurses and other school administrators: [...] There is no scientific connection between the election and the Wuhan virus.  There is, however, a cynical connection between the lockdown and the election.  The Democrats know that, and Ferrer finally said it out loud.

Los Angeles County bans trick-or-treating this Halloween due to coronavirus.  Traditional Halloween activities won't be allowed for residents in Los Angeles County this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to local health officials.  The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced a ban on door-to-door trick-or-treating, carnivals, festivals, live entertainment and haunted houses.  "Door to door trick or treating is not allowed because it can be very difficult to maintain proper social distancing on porches and at front doors especially in neighborhoods that are popular with trick or treaters," officials said in a news release detailing guidelines for the annual tradition.

Update:
Los Angeles quickly reverses trick-or-treat ban.  Los Angeles pulled a Halloween switcheroo on Wednesday — first banning, and then quickly unbanning, trick-or-treating.  Less than a day after saying the door-to-door candy grab is banned due to coronavirus concerns, county officials changed course and said the popular children's tradition is now just "not recommended."  The revision came after parents and businesses "went apoplectic with outrage," Deadline reported, citing a press briefing by LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.  Also not recommended — but no longer outright banned — are LA's popular "trunk-or-treat" events, in which costumed kids go car to car instead of door to door.

California to Offer Drive-Thru Voting for November Election in Orange County.  Orange County, California, is offering voters the option to submit a drive-thru ballot this November election season to stem the spread of the coronavirus.  The county will use the Honda Center in Anaheim as a staging location, allowing voters to cast their ballots from their cars or in person inside the arena, the Daily Pilot reported.

California DA's new policy to consider looters' 'needs' before charging them.  A California district attorney is requiring her prosecutors to consider looters' "needs" when weighing criminal charges against them.  The new mandate, set forth by Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton, makes it tougher to prosecute looting cases in the county, which sits just outside San Francisco.  Investigators must now consider "was this theft offense substantially motivated by the state of emergency, or simply a theft offense which occurred contemporaneously to the declared state of emergency?," according to the policy reported by local outlet East County Today.

California Legislature Passes Bill Reducing Penalties for Oral, Anal Sex with Willing Children.  California lawmakers passed a bill Monday that would reduce penalties for adults who have oral or anal sex with a willing minor child if the sex offender is within ten years of the age of the victim.  The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

California legislature passes bill easing sex offender registry requirements for sodomy with minors.  California legislators passed a law Monday easing sex offender registry rules for those who commit sodomy or other sex acts with minors in order to end "discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the sex offender registry."  The bill, which now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk, would "exempt from mandatory registration under the act a person convicted of certain offenses involving minors if the person is not more than 10 years older than the minor and if that offense is the only one requiring the person to register," according to the bill.

Californiastan Continues Its War on Christians.  [Scroll down]  But even if a genuine pandemic rather than COVID-Con raged, pastors should never close churches.  Both liberty and the Lord demand that we defy such dictatorship.

California bill to form reparations task force advances after 33-3 state Senate vote.  State senators in California overwhelmingly supported setting up a task force to study potential reparations for slavery in a bipartisan vote Saturday [8/29/2020].  The panel would study the effects slavery had on California and recommend to the legislature no later than 2023 what type of compensation would be appropriate, how it might be dispersed and who could be eligible to receive it.  The task force could also recommend other forms of redress besides money.

Having a party is a crime now?
TikTok celebrities criminally charged after LA house parties.  TikTok celebrities Bryce Hall and Blake Gray are facing criminal charges after they hosted recent parties in the Hollywood Hills despite the city's ban on large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Friday [8/28/2020].  The Los Angeles city attorney's office filed misdemeanor charges Thursday against Hall and Gray.  The internet celebrities with millions of followers on TikTok share a home and allegedly held two parties less than a week apart.

In California, cops banned from pro-police speech but pro-BLM speech is mandatory.  A California Highway Patrol division in Southern California prohibited officers this month from displaying Thin Blue Line items, meant to honor law enforcement.  Meanwhile, the San Francisco Police Department is decorating its precincts with materials celebrating Black Lives Matter, an organization calling for the defunding of the police.  The CHP memo, a roll call briefing document with the Border Division dated Aug. 14, directed officers to "remove all Thin Blue Line paraphernalia, including anything resembling it ... immediately.  This includes any paraphernalia hung anywhere in the office, stickers/patches on State or personal property that may be seen by the public during the course of duties, and email signature blocks."  The Thin Blue Line, depicted as a black and white U.S. flag with a blue stripe, represents the sacrifices that law enforcement make to protect the public and prevent civil unrest.  Civilians display the symbol to show their support for the nation's authorities.  Progressive activists, however, liken the symbol to white supremacy and police misconduct.  A California police officer who reviewed the document said it amounted to an official order because of the use of the word "shall."  "It's all political so I understand why they sent it out," he said.

California Gov. Newsom failed to take promised pay cut, newspaper finds.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been drawing his full monthly salary despite asking state workers in May to take a pay cut to alleviate the state's burden in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.  Though elected state officials are exempt from such pay cuts, Newsom pledged that he would voluntarily slash his salary when he asked state workers to make that same sacrifice.  But a Thursday [8/20/2020] report from the Sacramento Bee revealed that Newsom has continued drawing his full monthly salary of $17,479.  A spokesman for Newsom's office blamed the matter on an "administrative error."

Killing Los Angeles.  Things are so bad in so many American cities that our mainstream media outlets do not have the space or the time to cover it all.  Even if they wanted to cover it all, which they clearly don't want to do.  After all, the decline and fall of America's great cities does not make Donald Trump look bad.  And the only news that is fit to print these days is news that makes Trump look bad.  As Democrat run cities collapse before our eyes, the media assure us that there's nothing worth watching there.  New York, Chicago, Portland, Seattle... down the drink, as they say.  And the news media are trying to cover up the story, or, at the least, blame it on white Trump supporters.  Anyway, today's story of decline and fall concerns Los Angeles.

Broke California wants to fund youth sterilizations and sex changes.  The California Senate will consider legislation soon to use taxpayer funds to pay for hormone blockers and sex change operations for minors.  The bill, after passing the Senate Health Committee by a 7-1 vote last week, now moves to the Senate Appropriation Committee and then to the floor of the Senate before the end of the month.  As noted by numerous health experts, the use of cross-sex hormones and surgeries for adolescents would permanently destroy their reproductive systems, a fact which AB2218 backers seem inclined to ignore.

With Kamala Harris as VP pick, Gavin Newsom's White House hopes have stalled.  Maybe you've noticed:  Gov. Gavin Newsom no longer looks like a promising future presidential prospect.  He has been leaped over and left behind by a California ally, Sen. Kamala Harris.  Since Newsom was elected governor in 2018, the expectation has been that he would seize the first opportunity after this year to run for president.  Newsom, 52, wasn't ready this year.  But if President Trump won reelection, the Oval Office would be open in 2024.  And if a Democrat ousted Trump, there'd be another opportunity in 2028.

Hollywood Apocalypse.  Gold's Gym has become synonymous with the Hollywood Dream. [...] Yet today Gold's sits amid post-apocalyptic scenes which have consumed much of LA, turning the City of Dreams into an urban nightmare from which people are fleeing in droves.  A makeshift tent city made up of flapping tarpaulins and cardboard boxes surrounds the gym on all sides.  Junkies and the homeless, many of whom are clearly mentally ill, walk the palm-lined streets like zombies — all just three blocks from multi-million-dollar homes overlooking the Pacific.  Stolen bicycles are piled high on pavements littered with broken syringes.  TV bulletins are filled with horror stories from across the city; of women being attacked during their morning jog or residents returning home to find strangers defecating in their front gardens.

Los Angeles:  Why politicians' COVID bullying attacks will work.  Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has learned how to govern like a third-world dictator.  His threat to shut down the water and power to large house parties that violate the city's coronavirus guidelines is right out of the totalitarian government handbook. [...] Starting on Friday [8/7/2020], Mayor Garcetti announced that the city would shut off the power and water to houses, businesses, and other venues that violated the strict corona virus safety guidelines.  This is in response to a large house party that police attempted to shut down.  It turns out these parties are cropping up because the bars and nightclubs are closed as the city institutes greater restrictions as reported cases increase. [...] And it will work.  In the Third World, which is what many of these cities have come to resemble, practical and authoritarian solutions prevail, especially when there is no one to enforce the rule of law.

Local Politicians:  America's Achilles Heel.  Capping a long, impressive streak of dumb proclamations and declarations, including suggesting that members of the LAPD put down their batons and "walk hand-in-hand" with the same rioters who were then torching LAPD vehicles, attacking officers, and looting numerous businesses, Garcetti recently declared that water and power would be shut off to any residence caught hosting a "large house party."  What exactly constitutes a gathering that is too "large?" Can/should a mayor shut off water and power to privately owned residences during the dog days of summer, two utilities that the State of California and Garcetti's own Housing Authority have explicitly deemed essential services necessary for habitation?

Crowd in California blasts Gov. Newsom for not reopening the state.  Hundreds of President Trump supporters descended onto the streets of Beverly Hills to protest property destruction and the 'villainization' of police while two similar demonstrations were held in Texas. [...] On Saturday [8/8/2020], a crowd of around 200 Americans carried signs reading 'Trump 2020' as they marched from West Hollywood to Beverly Hills.  Footage showed several protesters waving American flags, signs reading 'United We Stand,' Thin Blue Line American flags celebrating law enforcement and a plethora of 'Make America Great Again' paraphernalia.

L.A. County Supervisors Vote to Put Defunding Police on November Ballot.  The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal on Tuesday to amend the city's charter — which will be presented to voters on November 3 via ballot — to remove $880 million from law enforcement and "reinvest" the money in "direct community investment" and "alternatives to incarceration."

The Editor says...
Yes, put it on the ballot in November, and in the absence of massive election fraud, it will fail.  While you're at it, put coronavirus lockdowns on the ballot, too.

San Fran is crawling with drugs.  DA shows more concern for dealers.  District attorney Chesa Boudin acknowledges that the Tenderloin District of the city is plagued by drug sellers from Honduras, but frets that arresting them isn't really worth it.  Boudin, a former public defender who vowed as a candidate to prosecute fewer criminals, is not inclined to address how the surge in drug sales during Covid lockdowns was affecting city residents, and instead focused on the plight of the drug dealers themselves.  Many were trafficked and their families were at risk at home if they cooperated with authorities, Boudin said in a webinar last week.

California's Woke Hypocrisy.  No state wears its multicultural veneer more ostentatiously than California.  The Golden State's leaders believe that they lead a progressive paradise, ushering in what theorists Laura Tyson and Lenny Mendonca call "a new progressive era." Others see California as deserving of nationhood; it reflects, as a New York Times columnist put it, "the shared values of our increasingly tolerant and pluralistic society."  In response to the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to defund the police — a move applauded by Senator Kamala Harris, a prospective Democratic vice presidential candidate, despite the city's steep rise in homicides.  San Francisco mayor London Breed wants to do the same in her increasingly crime-ridden, disordered city.  This follows state attorney general Xavier Becerra's numerous immigration-related lawsuits against the Trump administration, even as his state has become a sanctuary for illegal immigrants — complete with driver's licenses for some 1 million and free health care.

Gavin Newsom's $3.7 Million Estate Was Gifted to Him in 2019; 3 Months Later He Got a $2.7 Million Tax Free Cash-Out.  One thing that's become extraordinarily clear to Californians in 2020 is that there's one set of rules for Gov. Gavin Newsom, and there's another set of rules for the rest of us.  He preaches that we're all in this together and that we have to sacrifice to "meet this moment," yet he's not missing a paycheck.  As California businesses struggle, he sends a $1 billion contract for masks to a Chinese company.  When he shut down wineries throughout 80 percent of California, he kept his open.  While the dream of owning a home is increasingly out of reach for California's families, it appears that Newsom received a $3.7 million estate from an LLC owned by his cousin then, a few months later took out a $2.695 million (tax-free) cash-out mortgage on it — and didn't report the gift on any of his financial disclosure forms.

Gavin Newsom Rages at Trump Discounting Illegal Aliens for States' Representation.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday [7/21/2020] decried President Donald Trump's executive order which will exclude Illegal aliens from being counted for purposes of congressional apportioning.  "Counting every person in our country through the Census is a principle so foundational that it is written into our Constitution," Newsom said in a statement.  "This latest action by the administration to exclude undocumented immigrants when determining representation in Congress, rooted in racism and xenophobia, is a blatant attack on our institutions and our neighbors."

The Editor says...
Well, governor, they may be your neighbors (very distantly, I suspect), but if they are here illegally they are not entitled to representation in the Congress.  Anyone other than a public school student should be expected to know that.

City removes 'Black Lives Matter' street mural because of 'MAGA 2020' request.  Street graffiti for me, but not for thee.  That's what lawmakers in Redwood City, California basically told a Trump supporter who wanted to paint "MAGA 2020" on the same street where left-wing activists had painted a Black Lives Matter mural.  Last week, Redwood City (which is located on the San Francisco peninsula) washed away the "Black Lives Matter" mural after a local attorney — a Trump supporter — argued that since the street was now a public forum, she should be allowed to paint "MAGA 2020" on it.

California City Chooses No Speech over MAGA Speech.  When faced with the choice of giving a Donald Trump supporter the exact same right to free expression as the left-wing terrorist group Black Lives Matter, Redwood City, California, chose to outlaw everyone's speech.  How revealing.  As Breitbart News reported Monday, Redwood City was so eager to allow one of its residents to paint a Black Lives Matter mural on city property, the city — and therefore the taxpayers — provided him with some of the materials.

Los Angeles mayor says city is 'on the brink' of declaring another stay-at-home order.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday [7/19/2020] that Los Angeles is "on the brink" of another stay-at-home order.  Los Angeles County has seen a surge of cases recently, with new record high hospitalizations and infections.  The city has more than 150,000 cases.  "A lot of things went wrong," Garcetti said.  He pointed out that cases haven't increased as quickly in LA as in some cities, but said there is "no national leadership" in efforts to slow or stop the pandemic.  "It was politicized when it should have been unified."

California Gov. Newsom Helps Chinese Get $1 Billion in COVID Aid.  [...] I've learned my lesson this time:  Don't give Democratic governors the benefit of the doubt.  I thought I'd learned it the first time.  When New York's Andrew Cuomo looked like he was showing strong leadership in the opening week or two of the coronavirus crisis, I thought maybe we could put aside our petty differences and praise a politician from the other side.  In fact, I did just that.  And then it all ended in tears.  It wasn't the rambling, empurpled news conferences that made the much-criticized presidential media briefings look like relative models of restraint.  No, for me the moment I made a clean break was when I learned the much-hailed hand sanitizer production program Cuomo was fond of touting consisted of little more than inmates rebottling an outside product inside the Empire State's prisons in order to make the governor look good.

Berkeley Bans Police-Conducted Traffic Stops, Will Send in Unarmed Civilians.  Berkeley, California has approved a plan that prohibits police officers from conducting traffics stops.  The plan, proposed by the mayor and approved in a virtual city council meeting early Wednesday morning [7/15/2020], is just one part of a major "defund the police" overhaul planned by the city, Fox News reported.  The move to separate traffic enforcement from police work is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S, according to the report.  Instead of having trained officers conducting traffic stops, the new policy will send in unarmed civilian city workers to deal with traffic offenders.  Police unions for Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco said in a joint statement that serious violations such as speeding, reckless driving, and driving under the influence — are dangerous offenses and confronting violators can be dangerous work best handled by sworn officers.

California to Release 18,000 Prisoners by End of August to 'Slow the Spread of COVID-19'.  According to the California Department of Corrections, the state is set to release up to 18,000 prisoners by the end of August to 'slow the spread of COVID-19.'  Officials in California say releasing prisoners will help protect the "health and safety of the incarcerated population."  "These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff," Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a news release.  "We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety."

Nine politicians can stop teen sterilizations in California, but will they?  The fate of a bill to fund transgender treatments that permanently destroy the reproductive systems of minors is now in the hands of nine California State Senators.  AB 2218, authored by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D) Los Angeles with principal co-author Senator Scott Wiener (D) San Francisco, will be heard before the nine members Senate Health Committee when they return to the capitol at the end of the month.  The bill has already made its way through the Democrat-dominated state Assembly with little debate and approved largely along party lines.  It establishes an "LGBT Transgender Wellness Fund," to provide grants to nonprofits, hospitals, health care clinics (like Planned Parenthood), and other medical providers to pay for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mastectomies for minors, as well as cross-sex hormones and "sex-change" operations for adults.

COVID Madness — Comrade Newsom Shuts Down California Indoor Activities.  This is nuts.  In an effort to fundamentally destroy the livelihoods of millions of California small businesses, Comrade Governor Gavin Newsom has declared that all indoor activities must shut down to top the spread of COVID-19.  The overwhelming majority of dictates around COVID-19 mitigation are not laws.  There was no debate; no input from representative government; and no option for the public to weigh-in on the decisions.

Newsom shuts bars, indoor dining and most gyms, churches amid rise in virus cases.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday extended the closure of bars and indoor dining statewide and ordered gyms, churches and hair salons closed in most places as coronavirus cases keep rising in the nation's most populated state.  On July 1, Newsom ordered 19 counties with a surging number of confirmed infections to close bars and indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, zoos and family entertainment centers like bowling alleys and miniature golf.

Gavin Newsom gives Californians a glimpse of their future.  Once upon a time, California's Governor Gavin Newsom, the leftist boy wonder of America's largest and most leftist state, was considered to be a top future contender for the White House.  That future is not so clear now that he's made it clear to Californians that every time the Wuhan virus rears its head, he's again going to shut down their places of work and imprison them in their homes.

California may release 10% of inmates in pandemic response.  California officials will soon release another 2,100 inmates from state prisons in response to the coronavirus pandemic and in all now plans to release a total of more than 10,000 inmates, or nearly 10 percent of prisoners, as Gov. Gavin Newsom responds to intensifying pressure from advocates, lawmakers and federal judges.

California Legislators Violate Our Constitutional Rights.  In multiple ways Gov. Newsom has become a monarch — a benevolent monarch, but a monarch nonetheless.  I am amazed at how many aspects of that document the governor has violated.  He would of course argue that his acts are for the public good, but he has tossed the Constitution out the window.  For example, Article 1, Section 8, says that Congress alone has the authority "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states."  Yet Gov. Newsom has unilaterally shut down varieties of commerce and restricted travel, even excursions from one's home.  Much of this commerce becomes interstate.

State Lawmakers Urge Newsom to Stop Transferring People in Prison to ICE in Pandemic.  Dozens of state lawmakers called on Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday [7/6/2020] to stop California prison officials from transferring people to federal immigration detention during the coronavirus pandemic.  In a letter signed by 44 members of the state Senate and Assembly — as well as 18 local elected officials, including Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland and Mayor Michael Tubbs of Stockton — the political leaders said ending the transfers is urgently needed to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 between detention systems in California.

After calling for no fireworks for California's 4th of July, Gavin Newsom was in for a surprise.  Amid a new outbreak of the coronavirus, California's Gavin Newsom was adamant that no firework celebrations be done on the Fourth of July, because the public simply could not be trusted to socially distance. [...] Illegal fireworks were once the province of illegal immigrants bringing in the lawless ways of Mexico, but now it appears that everyone is doing them, thumbing their nose at the law same as is done in Mexico and beyond.  It goes to show that when the state overreaches, and puts out an unreasonable demand, widespread disobedience is going to be the result.  It happens in Mexico, now it's happening here.

With the Wuhan virus, Gavin Newsom discovers the perils of crying 'Wolf'.  In March, California Governor Gavin Newsom put California in lockdown to flatten the Wuhan virus curve.  Newsom, like Gov. Cuomo, placed virus patients in nursing homes, which may have contributed to the 2,531 resident and 93 care worker deaths in those homes.  The government also had a hand in the virus's rampage through San Quentin prison, which killed three death row inmates.  In other words, Democrat policies in California managed to produce 42% of the state's 6,263 virus fatalities.  With its lockdown, which initially was to last for two weeks and that instead continued for months, Newsom weakened the California economy, drove its citizens to despair, prevented people from getting healthcare for other potentially deadly conditions, and deprived citizens of their constitutional rights.

California's Governor Forbids Christians From Singing in Church Houses.  Golden State Christians have been ordered by California's governor to stop singing in church.  This is a direct assault on the First Amendment, [...] The new guidance for places of worship was issued on July 1.  "Discontinue singing (in rehearsals, services, etc.), chanting, and other practices and performances where there is increased likelihood for transmission from contaminated exhaled droplets.  Consider practicing these activities through alternative methods (such as internet streaming) that ensure individual congregation members perform these activities separately in their own homes," the 14-page order reads.  The previous guidelines only encouraged churches to "strongly consider" ending corporate worship, the Sacramento Bee reported.  The governor's office did not indicate how he intends to enforce the law.  Can you imagine the optics of National Guard troops storming into California church houses and arresting choir members for singing, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"?

Newsom Bans Singing In Houses Of Worship After Downplaying Spread Of Coronavirus At Protests.  Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has issued new restrictions limiting the reopening of the economy in nearly 20 counties across the Golden State.  One of the more controversial measures introduced Thursday will ban singing and chanting at houses of worships, which are already restricted to allowing 25% of guests or just 100 worshippers (whichever is lower). The Sacramento Bee reported that in late May, Newsom simply encouraged houses of worship to "strongly consider discontinuing singing, group recitation, and other practices and performances."

Recall Gavin 2020.  Everywhere you look, the failures of Governor Newsom are obvious and appalling to everyone.  For this reason, the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign is not conservative or liberal, or right or left, or Republican or Democrat.  This is a mass uprising.  Our Recall Gavin campaign is building a grassroots organization with over 80,000 California voters already signed up as volunteers to sign and circulate recall petitions.  That number is growing every week.  And this is just the beginning.  Are you tired of being locked up, unable to make a living, at the same time as California's prisons are being emptied?  Do you wonder why Gavin Newsom's cronies are building "supportive housing" for the homeless at a cost of over a half-million dollars per unit, instead of just getting them help in less expensive facilities?  Then join the Recall Gavin 2020 movement.

Gov Newsom orders closing of Calif restaurants, wineries — but HIS remains open.  In what is seen as a major rollback, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered the closures of numerous businesses across 19 counties in California to counter a surge in coronavirus cases.  The order will be enforced for at least three weeks, and includes restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, cardrooms, and bars, Fox 26 reported.  While a number of Central Valley counties are included, Napa County, where Gov. Newsom owns a winery and tasting room is not among the counties affected and the business remains open as of the July 1, 2020 order, according to the Fox affiliate.

San Francisco will end mug shots release, citing racial bias.  San Francisco police will stop making public the mug shots of people who have been arrested unless they pose a threat to the public, as part of an effort to stop perpetuating racial stereotypes, the city's police chief announced Wednesday [7/1/2020].  San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the department will no longer release booking photos of suspects to the media or allow officers to post them online.  The policy takes effect Wednesday.

Los Angeles school police chief releases powerful resignation statement after board slashes funding.  Los Angeles School Police Chief Todd Chamberlain resigned following a decision by the school board to cut millions in funding and remove officers from campuses.  Chamberlain, who stepped into the job just last year, turned in his resignation on Wednesday [7/1/2020], according to district spokeswoman Shannon Haber, the Los Angeles Times reported.  With over 35 years in law enforcement, Chamberlain made the decision one day after the school board gave in to what he called a "potentially life-threatening" choice to cut the school police budget by $25 million.

In the Name of Tolerance, California Blacklists Idaho.  In a bizarre show of authoritarianism — even for them — California state officials have decided to ban state-funded travel to Idaho because of its transgender law.  In a press release, California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said:  "Where states legislate discrimination, California unambiguously speaks out.  The state of Idaho has taken drastic steps to undermine the rights of the transgender community, preventing people from playing sports in school or having documentation that reflects their identity."  In his comments Monday [6/22/2020], Becerra was referring to legislation signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little that banned biological males who say they identify as girls or women from participating in female sports at public schools, colleges, and universities.  House Bill 500, the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, passed by a significant margin in Idaho's House and Senate.  It wasn't even controversial among Idaho residents.

A meaty issue:  California tries to override the commerce clause.  In late 2018, California voters passed Proposition 12, banning the in-state sale of any pork or veal (regardless of origin) from an animal that had been "confined in a cruel manner," defined as that which prevents an animal from lying down or turning around freely. [...] Yet, the issue here is not just that Proposition 12 is bad policy.  It's also likely unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's commerce clause precedents, including its "extraterritorial doctrine."  In Baldwin v.  G.A.F Seelig, Inc., the court ruled that a New York milk distributor could not be forced to pay New York minimum prices for milk supplied by Vermont farms.  "New York has no power to project its legislation into Vermont," the court declared, before noting that the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power to regulate commerce because of "the mutual jealousies and aggressions of the States, taking form in customs barriers and other economic retaliation" existing under the Articles of Confederation.

Mailing It In.  Assembly Bill 860, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 18, is premised on ensuring safety in the era of the coronavirus.  Yet Wisconsinites voted in person in April, and the predicted spike in coronavirus cases from that public assembly never materialized.  The state's caseload did climb, but no steep increase occurred in the days and weeks after the primary, just a steady rise that has continued, partly driven by expanded testing.  Apparently the same can be said for the locations where George Floyd marches, encouraged by the media and many public officials, were held.  The pandemic, it appears, was a useful crisis — voting by mail has long been a priority among progressives, and the coronavirus outbreak provided sufficient cover to institute it.

Oakland Abolishes School Police Department.  The Oakland Unified School District abolished its own police force at a school board meeting on Wednesday night, bowing to the wishes of radical left-wing activists and the Black Lives Matter movement.  The decision came a day after the Los Angeles Unified School District board could not agree on a similar proposal.  It follows nationwide demands from activists, including many Democrats, to defund or abolish the police.

What Happens When the Madness Ends?  What will California's multimillionaire Governor Gavin Newsom do when his silly press conferences end, but his 13.3 percent income tax rate and 47-cent gas tax still don't come close to closing his $50 billion annual deficit?  Give more adolescent lectures about how the virus and lockdown are "reimagining a progressive era as it pertains to capitalism"?

There's a reason racial tension is rising in America - it's by design.  In California, Democrats are moving to repeal Proposition 209. Proposition 209 explicitly bans racial discrimination in hiring and education.  In other words, Democrats in California are now fighting for discrimination.  This is not considered strange in 2020.  No one even mentions it.  A couple of weeks ago, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky announced plans to bring universal health insurance to his state, but not for all citizens, just for people with the right skin color.  Everyone else would pay, but only certain ethnic groups would benefit.  Andy Beshear is still in office.  No one has tried to impeach him for suggesting this because ideas like this are everywhere now.  They're totally unchallenged.  This is the most divisive possible way to run a country.  If you wanted to make certain that your children would hate each other, you would hold them to different standards, and they certainly would.  There is a reason that racial tension is rising in this country — it's by design.

Mask-wearing is becoming increasingly politicized.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced Thursday [6/18/2020] that mask-wearing is compulsory in most public settings, making California the 11th state to mandate that people wear masks.  Public spaces include every workspace, public transit, and any facility in which people receive medical care.  President Trump, meanwhile, has discounted the benefits of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Panic In Beverly Hills:  Emergency Order Bans Protests In Residential Areas.  The rich and famous are all about protesting and declaring themselves down with the struggle until protesters forget their place and invade residential areas of Beverly Hills.  Then the masks drop.  It's the ultimate Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) — the City of Beverly Hills issued an emergency order Saturday night [6/13/2020] that bans public gatherings of more than 10 people in residential areas between 9 PM and 8 AM.  What brought this on?  Well, it seems a group calling themselves "Occupy" disrupted the beauty sleep of locals in their posh neighborhood on June 12 between the hours of 10 PM until 1 AM.  The group used bullhorns and "amplified music".  The residents want their tranquility back.  The emergency order remains in effect until further notice.

California City Officials Admit to Accepting Bribes.  A former Calexico City, California councilman along with a former commissioner on the city's Economic Development and Financial Advisory Commission, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to corruption charges, admitting that they accepted cash bribes in exchange for promises of official action by the city.  David Romero and Bruno Suarez Soto entered their pleas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernard G. Skomal, who set sentencing for Sept. 4, 2020, before U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo.  Romero and Soto, who were charged in federal court in May, were allowed to remain free on $10,000 personal appearance bonds secured by their own signatures.

Judge Smacks Down Gavin Newsom's Election Executive Order:  "Impermissible Use of Legislative Powers".  Throughout the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns the nation's Democrat governors have shown us just how dictatorial their aspirations are by issuing reams of overreaching executive orders they claim are allowable due to the public health emergency.  California's Gavin Newsom has been one of the worst offenders, but an order issued Friday [6/12/2020] by Sutter County Superior Court Judge Perry Parker could put a stop to a number of items on Newsom's wish list.  Two GOP members of the California State Assembly, Kevin Kiley and James Gallagher, filed suit Thursday seeking to invalidate Newsom's Executive Order N-67-20 pertaining to the November general election and requesting "interim declaratory relief and a temporary restraining order." [...] Friday morning Parker issued a temporary restraining order suspending implementation of the executive order, saying it was "an impermissible use of legislative powers in violation of the California Constitution and the laws of the State of California."

Some in LAPD Slam City Council Over Private Security Details Amid Budget Cut.  While LA City Council President Nury Martinez was filing a motion last week seeking to cut $150 million from the LAPD budget, she had an LAPD unit standing watch outside her home providing her family with a private security detail since April. [...] "It's kind of ironic.  Here she is demanding $150 million be reallocated from the police budget, but yet she has security at her house by the Los Angeles Police Department," said Det.  Jamie McBride, who serves as director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the LAPD's union.

Kamala Harris, calling for $150 million LAPD defunding, also used LAPD as her private security detail.  A Los Angeles city councilwoman was exposed as a hypocrite for introducing a bill to cut $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department budget, while maintaining an LAPD private detail at her home for herself.  Security for me, but not for thee, see, the leftist political elites always gets their takings first.  Guess who else is just as hypocritical?  Sure enough, Kamala Harris, Democratic vice presidential frontrunner, who's loudly endorsed these $150 million police defundings, supporting the idea, along with her political ally, Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was last seen calling the LAPD 'killers.'

Gavin Newsom to close 200-person veteran's home after budgeting handouts to illegal aliens.  Grandstanding Calif.  Gov. Gavin Newsom reportedly wants to close a 200-resident veterans nursing home in a budget-cutting measure while at the same time enthusiastically handing out about $75 million in direct cash benefits to illegal aliens living in the state.  In an extreme example of questionable priorities to say the least, Newsom, a far-left Democrat who is enabled by a Democrat-controlled legislature, targeted the Veterans Home of California-Barstow for closure to save $2.6 million (or perhaps less) as the formerly Golden State faces a corona-virus-induced budget crisis.  For Democrats, illegal immigrants are among their primary constituencies, particularlyin California where, as noted above, they essentially run a one-party dictatorship in state that could be the epicenter of voter fraud.

Wealthy buyers reportedly in 'mad rush' to leave San Francisco.  Amid the depths of a global pandemic and financial downturn, the demand for real estate is unexpectedly rocketing in wealthy regions outside San Francisco, reports Bloomberg.  Agents say that demand is soaring in affluent areas around the Bay Area such as Napa, Marin and further afield in Carmel, as people who have the means look to get away from the city.

LA Mayor Garcetti Calls His Cops 'Killers.' The 'Killers' Just Sent a Reply to the 'Unstable' Mayor.  Mayors and governors across the land have run to the cameras and microphones to be among the first to kneel in supplication to the riotous mobs in the streets.  They eagerly do what the Leftists at Black Lives Matter (BLM) and George Soros call for, such as defunding police departments.  They call for rule changes so that cops are defanged in the face of riotous antifa and BLM mobs. [...] Just two weeks ago, mayors and governors across the land were lauding their first responders for keeping the peace during COVID.  Those days are over.  The mob has spoken.

'Abolish The Police' Is A Slogan For The Destruction Of America.  If you thought "abolish the police" — or it's more moderate iteration, "defund the police" — was just some asinine slogan blue-check journalists, woke academics, and pandering public officials post on Twitter to show they support the Black Lives Matter movement, then you're not keeping up with the revolution.  This week Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, announced the city would be slashing the police department's budget by $100 to $150 million and instead "reinvesting in black communities and communities of color." The cuts to the LA police will make up the bulk of $250 million in funds to be reallocated to "end racism in our city," Garcetti said.

LAPD Rips Into Councilwoman Over Reactionary Department Cuts:  "We'll Take Care Of It At The Ballot Box".  America is in a free fall and none of our state and local leaders seem to have a clue how to fix it.  Minneapolis got the brilliant idea to completely eradicate their police department and replace it with some "citizen patrol" weirdness and what could possibly go wrong with that?  Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti made sure the media got lots of pictures of him kneeling just before he announced the City of Angels would cut $250 million from its policing budget to give to "communities of color."  If you think he meant that he'd be handing out the cash personally to black business and home owners who just had their livelihoods burned to the ground by looters and rioters, you are wrong.  He will be handing that cash directly over to Black Lives Matter.  Where it goes from there is anyone's guess but hey, at least Garcetti will feel like a good person.  Understandably LAPD is not pleased.  Not only were they deliberately prevented from stepping in to protect communities from Antifa during the first days of the riot, they have been maligned and insulted by their own leadership.

As 'defund LAPD' becomes a rallying cry, Garcetti will seek cuts up to $150 million.  When Los Angeles was plunged into a budget crisis earlier this year, progressive activists demanded that the City Council slash spending at the Police Department, saying it's wrong to boost funding for officers while cutting other urgently needed services.  The debate over police spending at City Hall has only intensified after several days of protests against police brutality, the LAPD's response to those demonstrations and the looting that sometimes followed.  Activists with Black Lives Matter, Ground Game LA and other grassroots groups say incidents in recent days where officers have used aggressive tactics including projectiles and batons only reinforce the need to defund the LAPD.

Eric Garcetti bows to rioters, vows to cut police budget.  Los Angeles is lost.  As a resident of Southern California, I can tell you with a heavy heart that we lost.  Los Angeles, arguably the heart of the west coast of America, has been demolished by leftist policies for years.  But in the face of riots over George Floyd's murder, Mayor Eric Garcetti has done the exact opposite of what he should be doing.  Instead of cracking down on crime, he's pulling money out of law enforcement.  On top of that, he's making ludicrous moves like declaring a moratorium on putting people in the gang data base.  As many leftist mayors and governors across the country are doing, Garcetti is making law enforcement out to be the bad guys, only the Los Angeles Mayor is doing everything he can to be the most "woke" mayor of them all.

America in the 21st Century: 20 Long Years of Constant Brainwashing.  The campaign to brainwash America about the Wuhan Virus has basically run its course along with the virus itself, and has now been replaced by a brainwashing campaign to convince us that we should all run out to the nearest riot and take a knee, just like Joe Biden did in that black church on Sunday. [...] In Los Angeles yesterday [6/3/2020], the National Guard there took a knee before the rioters, which means the rioters are now in charge of Los Angeles, which is presumably how Mayor Eric Garcetti wanted it anyway.

Garcetti:  LAPD budget to be cut by $150M to fund programs in black communities.  Amid nationwide protests ignited by the police-involved killing of George Floyd early last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that up to $150 million will be cut from the L.A. Police Department as part of relocating some $250 million from the city's budget to fund programs in communities of color.

The Editor says...
Programs?  What kind of programs?  What does that really mean?

California Tried to Bail Out Illegal Aliens - and It's a Disaster.  California's illegal alien population is its shadow economy and with many of the industries that employ them shut down, the Democrats who depend on ghost districts populated by illegals decided that something had to be urgently done to keep the illegal aliens from fleeing back across the border.  The Democrats figured that giving them checks would be cheaper than building a wall to keep them in.  But who knew that a $125 million stimulus program for illegal aliens would become such a disaster?  Illegal aliens were eligible to apply for up to $1,000 with $75 million coming from the California taxpayers bailing out illegals who don't pay taxes.  And another $50 million was supposed to be donated by wealthy lefties.  But while the taxpayers of the state were forced to put up their $75 million, the wealthy politically correct elites who have poured fortunes into electing Democrats didn't pay up.

Newsom Fiat:  No California Protest Can Have More Than 100 People.  Regressive Supreme Leader Gavin Newsom is angry.  On Saturday more than 2,000 showed up at the Capitol to protest his dictatorship, issuing 40 Executive Orders and changing close to 200 State laws, without a vote of the Legislature or even telling them in advance.  He signed over 400 NO BID contracts — some for firms owned by the Chinese Communist Party.  People are angry — so they protest.  Now, in the name of "safety and health", Newsom has issued another illegal edict — no protest can have more than 100 people.  Watch as that edict is violated in every corner of the State.  This is no different than what the Chinese Communist Party is doing to the people of Hong Kong.

Ballot harvesting bounty:  How Dems apparently used election law change to rout California Republicans.  A minor change in California's election laws may have had a major effect on last month's midterm elections that saw Democrats steamroll their Republican rivals and claim all but seven of the Golden State's 53 House seats.  Despite holding substantial leads on Election Day, many Republican candidates in California saw their advantage shrink, and then disappear, as late-arriving Democratic votes were counted in the weeks following the election.  While no hard evidence is available, many observers point to the Democrats use of "ballot harvesting" as a key to their success in the elections.

Hundreds protest in Sacramento against stay-at-home order.  Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the state Capitol on Saturday [5/23/2020] to protest against California's stay-at-home orders even as residents entered the Memorial Day weekend with newly expanded options for beachgoing, barbecuing and shopping.  The rally to demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom lift his restrictions on business, religious gatherings and other activities took on the atmosphere of a political rally and festival on a closed-off street.

California Democrats Want to Bring Racial Preferences Back.  Rather than focus on COVID-19 or the economic recovery, California liberals insist on pushing their pet issues.  The "stimulus" bill rammed through the House this month by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco was a liberal wish list of subsidies and spending.  Now other California Democrats are ramming through an effort to repeal the state's ban on racial preferences.  Two things often happen when a single political party dominates a state the way Democrats dominate California.  First, an echo chamber of the dominant party convinces its leaders they can steamroll over any opposition.  Second, that conviction leads to political overreach.  Caucasian Americans are now only 19 percent of UC students, down from 38 percent a quarter century ago — this change reflects the increasing ethnic diversity of Californians.

Gavin Newsom responds to Justice Department warning over church closures.  After receiving a formal warning from the United States Justice Department over church closures, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state is "weeks away" from allowing in-person religious services to resume.  A group of federal attorneys wrote a letter to Newsom warning him that prolonged church closures likely violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment due to the fact that similar non-religious businesses are receiving the green light to reopen in Stage 2.

Darrell Issa, Judicial Watch Sue Gavin Newsom over Vote by Mail.  Former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Judicial Watch sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday [5/21/2020] over his May 8 executive order allowing all voters in the state to vote by mail — whether they had formally requested to do so, or not.  Newsom's order cites the threat of coronavirus:  because "it is unknown to what degree COVID-19 will pose a threat to public health in November," mail-in ballots must be sent to everyone — but in-person voting must also be provided.

California's Budget Bust-Up.  Every state and municipal budget in America will take a big hit because of the coronavirus lockdowns, but no public purse is in as much trouble as California's.  Its Department of Finance recently estimated that the Golden State could face a $54 billion shortfall in the fiscal year beginning July 1, which surely must be the largest deficit any state has ever accumulated, surpassing the $40 billion hole that nearly swallowed Sacramento in 2008.  Still, though Governor Gavin Newsome said last weekend that the staggering deficit was "a direct result of Covid-19," that's clearly not true.  Critics have long warned that the state's tax base is volatile, being increasingly reliant on wealthy residents and vulnerable to sharp contraction in the next recession.  Combine that with California's spending spree — including expenditures to fix problems that the state's own bad policies have worsened — and the swing from prosperity to penury isn't hard to understand.

Illegal Aliens Jam Phone Lines as California Offers $500 Each in Coronavirus Relief.  The State of California is offering $500 each to illegal aliens as part of a $75 million coronavirus relief program — even as it asks federal taxpayers for help paying for its $54 billion deficit.  The program, which launched on Monday [5/18/2020], saw phone lines jammed as "undocumented immigrants," who are ineligible for the federal aid provided thus far, called a state hotline.

Tyranny as far as the eye can see.  California governor Gavin Newsom is now warning of the potential for a third and fourth wave of the coronavirus, stating that we must remain humble by what we still don't know about it.  While there may be a lot that we don't know about this sickening virus that was thrust upon the world by communist China, we do know that what is unfolding is unsustainable and unconstitutional.  Our society is nearing a state of partial collapse due to protracted mitigation in blue states as the Constitution is trampled upon and set on fire.  Newsom, like Dr. Fauci, appears to view our lives through the singular lens of this virus.  But life is more complex than that (duh), and Newson is ignoring the larger reality (or at least pretending to) in order to hold onto power.  Citing what we still don't know about the virus leaves the door wide open for him to continue to rule like an evil emperor.

California: Give Us Money Or We'll Fire Cops and Firefighters.  Governor Newsom is behind in the Most Loathsome Governor in America race, largely because he hasn't managed to kill as many nursing home residents as rivals like Cuomo and Murphy.  But here he is trying to take first responders hostage. [...] Cops and firefighters are the most expendable employees in California.  Not the billion dollar homeless services infrastructure.  Not all the social justice and diversity personnel.  Not, for that matter, the vast useless corps of educational administrators.  Nope.  We're gonna fire cops and firefighters because we decided to shut down the state and the rest of the country won't send us money.

Judicial Watch sues to stop Newsom from giving 75 million tax dollars to illegals.  Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch is asking a California Court to appeals to issue a temporary restraining order to stop Governor Newsom from paying out $75 million tax dollars to people here illegally.  The Lower Court found that JW's lawsuit is likely to succeed on the merits since Newsom has no right to dole out the money, but illegal aliens need the money and that outweighs everything.  Today's [5/18/2020] filing asks the Court of Appeal to command the Superior Court to issue the restraining order against California Governor Gavin Newsom and his Director of the California Department of Social Services Kim Johnson, enjoining them from making what is now an imminent, May 18, 2020, illegal expenditure of $79.8 million of taxpayers' funds to illegal aliens pending the final determination of the taxpayer action brought by Judicial Watch in the lower court.

California is offering $500 cash payments to unauthorized immigrants who don't qualify for stimulus checks or unemployment benefits.  California is rolling out a program on Monday that will give $500 cash payments to unauthorized immigrants shut out of traditional government aid programs because of their immigration status.  The New York Times reported the $75 million taxpayer-funded program funded will be conducted by phone to reduce in-person contacts.  It's expected to distribute cash to 150,000 people and the maximum amount awarded per household is $1,000.  "California is the most diverse state in the nation.  Our diversity makes us stronger and more resilient," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement last month about the program.  "Every Californian, including our undocumented neighbors and friends, should know that California is here to support them during this crisis.  We are all in this together."

The Editor says...
[#1]  Yes, they're "shut out" because of their "immigration status," to wit, they are not supposed to be here at all.  [#2] "We're all in this together" is the new Big Brother catch phrase designed and intended to stifle dissent.  You may notice Big Brother repeating this catch phrase over and over in every grocery store.

Gavin Newsom:  First responders 'first ones laid off' unless California gets federal COVID-19 funds.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom says first responders will be the "first ones laid" off unless federal bucks arrive in the Golden State in the near future.  The Democrat appeared to be playing a political game of chicken with Republicans in Congress over the weekend during a discussion about the coronavirus pandemic with CNN's Jake Tapper.  Mr. Newsom specifically had a message for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans when asked about a $3 trillion relief bill being "dead on arrival."

There's Something Happening Here.  Thousands of flag-waving Californians descended upon the State Capitol Friday [5/15/2020] for a protest of Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide stay-at-home lockdown order, which has caused millions of residents to lose their jobs and businesses," wrote Katy Grimes in the California Globe.  Down in Huntington Beach in Orange County, as Fox News explained, protesters were backing up traffic for a mile on Pacific Coast Highway, while others staged rallies in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.  What could have prompted these Californians to get out in the streets?  Governor Gavin Newsom had declared them "nonessential" and they showed up with signs reading "All jobs are essential."  So, basically they want their lives back.  This is not what their governor wants, however.  On Wednesday, Newsom told reporters, "we believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications to that indicator," a reference to his shelter-in-place order.  The San Francisco Democrat didn't say what the modifications would be or when he would make them, and he didn't want people expressing their opposition in public.

Dems discovering that with sanctuary cities, what goes around, comes around.  Atwater, California, has declared itself a sanctuary city — sanctuary from tyrannical government draining the lifeblood from the people.  If leftist tyrants can provide safe haven to illegal invaders, why not have sanctuary cities that protect Americans from our newly anointed dictators?  So this rural city of fewer than 30,000 people located in the center of California has decided to free itself from the suffocating chokehold of the state.  At the end of April, the City Council voted unanimously to open businesses and churches.

California town declares itself 'sanctuary city' for businesses, opens up in defiance of stay-at-home order.  A central California city has declared itself a "sanctuary city" for businesses and will open up in defiance of the state's stay-at-home order.  The city council in Atwater passed a resolution Friday allowing businesses to open despite Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's order for businesses to remain closed, according to ABC30's Vanessa Vasconcelos.

California City To Allow Reopenings, Declares Itself A 'Sanctuary City' For Business.  The central California city of Atwater has declared itself a "sanctuary city" for businesses.  The Friday [5/15/2020] resolution passed by the Atwater City Council allows business owners to open, openly defying Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus-related stay-at-home order.  The resolution affirms "the city's commitment" to "fundamental" human rights.  Churches and other nonprofits are included in the resolution, according to ABC30's Vanessa Vasconcelos.

California governor:  Shrink prisons to help cut budget.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to significantly shrink the footprint of California's prison system, partly because of massive budget cuts prompted by the pandemic but also because of philosophy.  The revised budget he sent to state lawmakers this week envisions closing two state prisons in the coming years; cutting nearly one in five of the 43 inmate firefighter camps; and eventually closing all three state-run juvenile prisons.

California Democrats say 10-year rent-relief plan 'not a giveaway'.  California Democrats on Tuesday proposed giving tenants struggling during the coronavirus pandemic 10 years to pay their rent.  The state would purchase unpaid rents and allow renters a decade, starting in 2024, to pay it back without interest, under the proposal by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, tthe Sacramento Bee reported.  Landlords would receive a tax credit dependent on committing to not evict tenants.  "This is not a giveaway," Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford said, according to The Associated Press.  "Our goal is to keep tenants houses and keep landlords out of foreclosure."

California Revives Affirmative Action.  On May 5, just a day after the California Legislature reconvened, an assembly hearing was held for the controversial Assembly Constitutional Amendment NO. 5 (ACA-5) in the Committee of Public Employment and Retirement.  With a long session of contested public comments over the phone, ACA-5 was passed with a 6-to-1 vote under the moralistic appeal of "hope for all."  While purporting to increase diversity and representation, ACA-5 fails to meaningfully address structural issues behind achievement gaps and racial discrepancies for both political and philosophical reasons.  Instead, the bill proposes a statewide reinstitution of government preferences in public employment, education, and contracting along rigid racial lines.  The utopian and myopic scheme, wrapped around feel-good rhetoric with a steep price tag, will not only fall short of establishing long-lasting diversity, but can further compromise true equality and the merit-based principle, both of which are bedrocks of American democracy.

California: Gavin Newsom Orders Vote-by-Mail for November Election.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday signed an executive order permitting all registered voters in the Golden State to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election, citing concerns stemming from the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.  "I signed an executive order that will allow every registered voter in California to receive a mail-in ballot," Newsom said.  "That mail-in ballot is important but it's not an exclusive substitute to physical locations."

The Editor says...
In other words, you're being encouraged to vote in person, in addition to mailing in your ballot, and any other ballots you find in the trash can at the post office, or in your neighbor's mailbox, or in the dumpster at an apartment complex.

San Francisco DA Says His Father, Convicted Murderer And Former Member Of Terrorist Group, Should Get Out Of Prison.  San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin believes his father, convicted murderer and former Weather Underground member David Gilbert, should be released from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Gilbert and Boudin's mother, Kathy Boudin, were convicted of murder in 1983 for serving as getaway drivers during a bank robbery that left three people dead at the hands of their co-conspirators.

California Is Ready to Get Rid of Gavin Newsom.  Across California on May 1, tens of thousands protested in defiance of statewide lockdown orders.  In Sacramento, the west lawn of the state capitol building was filled with protesters, with thousands more marching along the sidewalk surrounding the capitol grounds.  Additional thousands driving their cars and honking their horns created three hours of total gridlock on the streets that loop around the capitol.  Noteworthy protests have taken place in San Diego, Encinitas, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Paso Robles, Santa Rosa, and even tiny Lakeport on the shores of Clear Lake.  There is no end in sight.  While the media has typecast these growing protests as populated by right-wing extremists, Trump supporters, and remnants of a geriatric Tea Party movement, the reality in California is different.  In Laguna Beach, the protest was organized by surfers.  Overall, these protests included people who claimed never to have been involved in politics, people who identified themselves as former Democrats, and young people.  Thousands and thousands of youth:  children, teenagers, college students, twentysomethings.  A generation is waking up.

Is California Thinking About Coronavirus Internment Camps?  Gavin Newsom, governor of the "nation-state" of California, is raising what he calls an "army" of 20,000 government employees who will trace the spread of coronavirus across the state.  Those found guilty, or rather, infected, are likely to run into an uncomfortable change in their lives.  In Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, a pilot program was launched this week to trace infections and exposure, according to County Health Director Dr. Robert Levin.  When infected persons are found, he said, they are "immediately isolated."  As more people are tested, Levin continued, "we will find more and more people who have COVID-19."  "We will isolate every one of them, and we will find every one of their contacts, and we will make sure that they stayed quarantined, and we'll check in with them every day."  Seems innocuous, even helpful.  But: [...]

Liberal District Attorney Boasts 'I'm Keeping San Francisco Safer by Emptying the Jail'.  San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is bragging about his city's jailbreak policies that have been implemented throughout the coronavirus pandemic, claiming in a Los Angeles Times op/ed that he is "keeping San Francisco safer by emptying the jail."

Uber, Lyft Sued by California in Major Gig-Economy Crackdown.  Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. were sued by California for allegedly violating a new state law designed to give gig-economy workers the benefits of employees.  While expected, the lawsuit filed Tuesday [5/5/2020] in state court marks a serious threat to the business model of an array of companies that save on labor costs by classifying workers as independent contractors.  If the companies ultimately lose the suit, they could be forced to pay for overtime, health care and other benefits.

Free O.C.  California governor Gavin Newsom's executive order closing the beaches of Orange County, Calif., is what you get when you govern by Twitter:  A news photo showing a crowded Orange County beach makes the social-media rounds, provoking the predictable outrage storm; Governor Newsom, rather than investigate, issues an executive order to placate the social-media circus; that executive order is based on powers that the governor does not enjoy, and the Democratic governor singles out the historically Republican cities of Orange County.  It is not even clear that there was a real problem for Newsom to solve.  One photograph did indeed show an Orange County beach looking like spring break; other photographs showed a much more dispersed and socially distanced crowd.

Orange County DA 'outraged' after commissioner releases 7 dangerous sex offenders due to COVID-19 restrictions.  Orange County, Calif.  District Attorney Todd Spitzer stated Saturday [5/2/2020] that he is "outraged" after the state ordered the release of seven high-risk sex offenders from the county's jails over concerns they could contract coronavirus.  Appearing on "Fox & Friends Weekend" with host Jason Chaffetz, Spitzer said that the issue at hand is not just in Orange County or California, but "is a ruse that has been pulled on the American public, on jails and custodial facilities all over the nation."

Gov. Newsom Puts Politics Over Data in California Shutdown.  Los Angeles County, which has implemented the most draconian beach closures in the country, has in excess of 1,000 coronavirus deaths.  Orange County, which has consistently taken a less restrictive approach, has had 45 deaths going into this weekend.  Orange County's population of 3.3 million is larger than 22 states.  If it were a state, Orange County's death rate of 0.0014% would be the 49th lowest in the country.  The primary hospital in Newport Beach has a 475-beds capacity and has never treated more than 25 people for coronavirus issues at any given time.  The leaders of that hospital system believe that the curve has flattened, and that Orange County needs to responsibly reopen.

Judicial Watch Sues California to Stop Governor Newsom's Initiative to Provide $75 Million in Cash Benefits to Illegal Aliens.  Judicial Watch announced it filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles on behalf of two California taxpayers, Robin Crest and Howard Myers, asking the court to stop the state from expending $75 million of taxpayer funds to provide direct cash assistance to unlawfully present aliens.  The lawsuit alleges California Governor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority and violated federal law when, without affirmative state legislative approval, he took executive action to create the "Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants Project" and provide cash benefits to illegal aliens who otherwise are ineligible for state or federal insurance or other benefits due to their unlawful presence in the United States.

Thousands of protesters flock to Huntington Beach following state-ordered OC beach closures.  Large crowds opposing the state's coronavirus stay-at-home mandate took to the streets of downtown Huntington Beach on Friday [5/1/2020], a day after the governor closed Orange County beaches and drew frustration and criticism from some residents and city leaders.  Protesters gathered near the Huntington Beach pier shortly before noon, with the crowd eventually swelling to some 2,500-3,000 people, according to Huntington Beach police Chief Robert Handy.  The tightly packed crowd, with most people not wearing protective masks, repeatedly chanted "U.S.A." as they waited for the demonstration to begin.

California Cities Vote To Sue Governor For Closing Their Beaches.  The cities of Huntington Beach and Dana Point have voted to take legal action against the state of California after Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said he would close all beaches and state parks inside of their cities and the rest of Orange County.  According to The Los Angeles Times, Huntington Beach voted 5-2 in a last-minute meeting in favor of seeking an injunction against the governor, who announced in Thursday's coronavirus press conference that the state would close all beaches in Orange County in response to "alarm bells," including packed crowds and a lack of reportedly improper physical distancing.

Governor Grundy puts Orange County, but not San Diego County, on restriction.  Just a few hours ago, I got back from La Jolla, a rich and deep-blue enclave of the city of San Diego that's the home of Mitt Romney.  The just-after-sunset beach traipse was to see the bioluminescence event.  Beach waves turn glow-in-the-dark at night as a result of the red tide, and it's a rare and completely yowza thing to see.  Of course it drew a crowd.  Street parking was competitive.  The cars just kept coming and coming on Coast Boulevard near Wipeout Beach, and visitors bunched up at stoplights to use crosswalks — no slipping across the streets real quick to get to the shore view from the cliffs.  Here's a bit of the pre-weekend flavor, and this was far from the most crowded scene I saw.  You can see that the groups have masks, look more like friends than families, and aren't socially distancing.

Gavin Newsom, beach cop taking on all California.  California's Gov. Gavin Newsom is shutting down the beaches, just as the entire population of California goes stir-crazy and the sunniest weekend of the year beckons. [...] Unless city officials intend to deploy every police officer to politicing the beaches, it's very unlikely to be the sort of order that's going to work.  Already there are signs the order will never be heeded.  The opening of the beaches, about a week ago, was brought on by public pressure to open the public space, and that's just for starters.  The surfer enclaves of Encinitas and Huntington Beach have already seen fierce protests and calls to end the lockdown.

No California-wide beach shutdown:  Gavin Newsom went for narrow closure.  State officials pushed to close all beaches and state parks in California to try to prevent overcrowding they feared could spread the coronavirus, but Gov. Gavin Newsom decided Thursday only to temporarily close beaches in Orange County, an administration official said.  Newsom said at a news conference he was ordering a "hard close" in Orange County after beaches in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach drew tens of thousands of visitors during a heat wave last weekend.  He said he was particularly concerned about the beach activity because Orange County has more coronavirus cases and hospitalizations than many other areas.

The Editor says...
What happened to "the virus knows no borders?"

CA Gov Newsom [is] Only Closing Beaches in (Conservative) Orange County.  In a move that makes him look even more petty and dictatorial than before, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he's announcing state parks and beach closures only in Orange County this weekend instead of closing state parks and state beaches throughout the entire state as he'd planned, and which my colleague Kira Davis reported.  The reasoning outlined by Newsom in the press conference was nonsensical and inconsistent.  More likely is that Newsom wants to punish Orange County officials, whom he sees as uncooperative (despite his public claims), particularly Supervisor and former Assemblymember Don Wagner.  Orange County was one of the Republican Party's last strongholds in the state until the 2018 election, in which Democrats swept all seven House seats in the county.

Newsom to close all California beaches, state parks over coronavirus: memo.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be closing all beaches and state parks across the state starting Friday to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to a memo sent to California police chiefs on Wednesday [4/29/2020].  The decision comes after Newsom called out the massive crowds that flocked to Newport Beach in Orange County last weekend during a heat wave.  Newsom called the beach crowds an example of "what not to do" to make progress toward easing restrictions in the statewide stay-at-home order.

CA Gov Newsom Warns Sun-Loving Newport Beachgoers "Aggressive" Measures Coming.  In a livestreamed update on the Golden State's response to COVID-19 this afternoon [4/27/2020], California Governor Gavin Newsom threw down the gauntlet to sun-worshippers in his state, who he was disappointed appeared to be enjoying life over the weekend.  That's something that just can't stand, man!  Newsom began his speech with a smile, by thanking "the 40 million" Californians who "over the course of the last number of weeks have not only bent the curve... but stabilized it."  But the governor's smile only lasted about 24 seconds, when he said this: [...]

California to close all beaches after crowds ignore social distancing rules.  California will reportedly close all beaches and state parks beginning Friday [5/1/2020] after swells of beachgoers fled to the shore last weekend in defiance of social distancing rules.  The state's governor, Gavin Newsom, will formally announce the decision Thursday, according to a memo outlining the move obtained by FOX 11.  "After well-publicized media coverage of overcrowded beaches this past weekend, in violation of Governor Newson's shelter in place order, the governor will be announcing tomorrow that beaches and all state parks in California will be closed, effective Friday, May 1," said the notification, which was sent out to all California police chiefs on Wednesday.

San Francisco Bay Area Extends Lock-Down Order Throughout May.  It is being reported the San Francisco Bay area will remain in a state of forced lock-down with an extension of the stay-at-home orders throughout May.  Considering this is the home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, this decision highlights an expectation that the federal government will bail out local and state governments.  We anticipated this type of approach where Blue states & Blue regions will keep their economies closed as long as possible to inflict maximum political damage.  Simply, if San Francisco were not confident they will gain a federal bailout they would not be keeping their economic system closed for another entire month.

To Help Out with the Pandemic and Unemployment, California Will Now Pay Seniors to Order From Restaurants.  If you're a restaurant-lovin' California senior citizen and lookin' to make a few extra bucks, you're in luck.  Assuming you fit the profile, the state will now pay you to wine and dine yourself — if you order your grub.  On Friday [4/24/2020], Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new program wherein local, state, and federal money (so if you're local, will you be triple-taxed for this?) will be paid out to eligible seniors who order food from nearby restaurants.

Newsom Ordered by CA Supreme Court to Defend $75 Million Giveaway to Illegals.  Californians struggling to make ends meet during extended coronavirus shutdowns were not amused when their governor, Gavin Newsom, announced the creation of a public-private partnership to give away $125 million ($500/person) in pandemic relief grants to illegal immigrants who are ineligible to receive unemployment benefits or federal stimulus checks (because they are not here legally, duh).  Newsom further explained that of the $125 million in funding, $75 million would come from taxpayer funds (without explaining any legislative process appropriating such funds) and that "a group of charities" had promised to chip in $50 million.

Democrats' Fascism Shines Through.  On April 14, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he's planning to give $125 million in public and private funds to 150,000 adults living in the state illegally.  Newsom understands that illegal immigration is the future of the Democratic party.  Californians are ordered to stay at home.  Illegal aliens are welcome to come there any time.  Everything that Newsom and his party have done for illegals — sanctuary cities, free health care, driver's licenses, in-state tuition — will encourage more to come here in violation of our immigration laws.  Fascists don't believe in the rule of law, unless it benefits them directly.

Newsom won't share details on $1B mask deal with China.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing pushback as state lawmakers have begun demanding details of his nearly $1 billion deal to receive 200 million masks per month from a Chinese manufacturer.  Just two weeks after announcing the deal, Newsom has remained largely mum on the specifics.  Advisers to the California Democrat have declined requests for comment from the Los Angeles Times about the agreement, which was inked with Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD — which stands for Build Your Dreams — earlier this month.  BYD was formed in 1995 as a battery manufacturer.  In 2008, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased a 24.8% stake in the company.

California's 'Reopening' Economic Task Force Is As Absurd As It Gets.  California Governor Gavin Newsom has introduced his new economic task force to begin plans for reopening the economy.  The task force is 80 members and will include:  [#1] Former Governor Gray Davis, who — in a rare event of complete voter unity — was recalled from the governorship for his utter incompetence.  [#2] Former Governor Jerry Brown, who brought us our disastrous pension liability.  [#3] Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who gave us the current Democrat super majority by bringing us the insane notion of "jungle primaries."  [#4] Failed presidential candidate and very rich man Tom Steyer, who proudly supports a New Green Deal and is very vocal about working to end vital business in the energy sector.  Let's not forget that Newsom said recently he views this crisis as a chance to usher in a "new era" of progressive policies.

How Much Do The Pelosi's Have Invested In China?  Pelosi may present herself as the defender of the little guy.  She is anything but.  In 2018 her net worth was roughly $160 million.  She is married to Paul Pelosi who runs a top tier investment and real estate firm in San Francisco.  Over the course of decades, as Nancy has risen through the ranks of the Democratic Party, the Pelosi's have gotten fabulously wealthy.  There have been any number of allegations over the decades that Nancy and her husband have profited in ways that are clearly illegal from the access a senior politician enjoys.  Over a span of years, Nancy Pelosi used her influence to steer more than $1 billion to the expansion of a light rail line into a San Francisco neighborhood where her husband owned commercial property and in which business associates of his then purchased additional properties.  The value of real estate in the area exploded with the arrival of light rail, and the Pelosi's made a killing.  There has also been an almost unending number of allegations that Paul Pelosi has benefited from what is known as insider trading.  That is, he has made sometimes enormous purchases of stocks based on information allegedly provided to him by Nancy, who was privy to sensitive, non-public information by way of her position.

Newsom: California unemployment center hours extended, $125M fund created for undocumented immigrants.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday [4/15/2020] said he has extended the unemployment call center hours to help the record 2.7 million Californians who have filed claims and created a fund to help undocumented immigrants, who comprise 10% of the state's workforce.  The Employment Development Department's call center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, rather than closing at noon Monday through Friday.  Newsom extended the hours through an executive order.

Because the state has a HUGE budget surplus...
California will pay illegal immigrants not included in coronavirus stimulus.  California will be the first state to send money to illegal immigrants who did not qualify for assistance under the $2.2 trillion federal coronavirus stimulus package passed last month.  Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced the allocation of $75 million in taxpayer funds for $500 payments to 150,000 adult immigrants who are reeling from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Editor says...
Wouldn't it be far less expensive to deport them all?  But that would require some concern about wasting the taxpayers' money.

Illegal Immigrants in Los Angeles Can Apply for Pre-Paid Debit Cards.  Los Angeles will be doling out pre-paid debit cards to residents who have faced economic hardship due to the coronavirus lockdown, and living in the country illegally won't disqualify you from getting the cash.  Los Angeles officials have begun accepting applications for a no-fee debit card that provides cash to residents who were already living under the poverty line before the coronavirus crisis began and have since had their incomes dramatically reduced because of the outbreak, KTLA5 reported.

Gavin Newsom Declares California a "Nation-State," Suggesting It is Independent of Federal Authority.  Look, either formally secede — with my enthusiastic Bon voyage! — or get ready for invocation of the Insurrection Act and civil war by the usual means.  We're not going to have this [nonsense] where every state has to buckle under leftwing federal diktats but that liberal states are free to secede-in-part whenever the federal government is not leftwing.  If America isn't working for you anymore — Leave.  We can work out the details later.  I suggest that all border counties be permitted to vote to leave or stay on a county-by-county basis.  We don't need to keep states intact when we're dividing the country.  Then I suggest we mutually agree that any citizen of one America has the right to move to the other America as a citizen within five years of division.  After five years, you're a foreign immigrant like any other, and the countries can choose to accept or reject your request for citizenship as they like.  The five year period will permit a lot of self-sorting.

California governor planning coronavirus aid for illegal immigrants.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature are working on a coronavirus aid plan for the state's illegal immigrants and others not covered by the federal government's $2.2 trillion relief package.  Newsom, a Democrat, disclosed the plans Tuesday [4/7/2020], according to The Associated Press.  "Californians care deeply about undocumented residents in this state," the governor, a former mayor of San Francisco, said.

Newsom is Giving Emergency Grants to Illegal Alien Small Business Owners.  On Friday [4/3/2020], a reporter from Telemundo asked California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom what emergency relief he would be providing for illegal aliens amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  "No state in America does more to help residents regardless of their immigration status," the governor rightly assured the reporter.  Newsom first bragged about the state's healthcare coverage for illegal aliens before explaining how his administration is now helping illegal alien small business owners obtain grants while a large part of the American economy remains shut down.

California to release 3,500 inmates early as coronavirus spreads inside prisons.  California is granting early release to 3,500 inmates in an effort to reduce crowding as coronavirus infections begin spreading through the state prison system.  Lawyers for Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday told a panel of federal judges the state is taking "extraordinary and unprecedented protective measures" to slow the spread of the virus and protect those who live and work within California's 35 prisons.  The accelerated parole policy — affecting inmates due to be released over the next 60 days — comes in the face of pressure to do much more.

LA County Sheriff Orders Closure of Gun Stores, Releases 1,700 Inmates.  Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has released 1,700 inmates from county facilities and is ordering gun stores in the county closed.  Fox 11 reports the gun store closures are part of the coronavirus stay-at-home order while the release of the inmates is an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in county facilities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom says state won't issue guidance on whether gun stores are essential businesses.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom will not offer official guidance on whether gun stores can be classified as essential businesses and remain open during the state's shelter-in-place order.  Newsom was asked about the issue after Los Angeles County reversed course on a move to close gun stores amid the spread of coronavirus in the region and the county's shelter-in-place order.  L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva initially ordered the closing of gun stores, but legal counsel for the county determined gun stores are essential businesses and must remain open.  Villanueva then rescinded the order.

LA Sheriff Suspends Efforts To Close Gun Stores.  Confusion swirled as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Tuesday temporarily suspended its efforts to close gun stores during the coronavirus outbreak.  The decision was made as the county counsel's office works to clarify whether gun stores are considered essential businesses under California Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide order, a sheriff's spokesperson confirmed to CBS2 Tuesday night [3/24/2020].

California's Stay-at-Home Order Is a Legal Mess.  California Governor Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order may well be necessary as a matter of public health in the face of the new coronavirus — I will leave that to epidemiologists to determine.  But viewed as a legal declaration, it's a total mess. [...] The order is also drafted so badly that it creates contradictions with the state's own website explaining it, with the governor's own speech rolling it out, and with common sense.  As written, the order does not say clearly that Californians can leave their homes to buy food or medicine or other necessities.  It doesn't say whether they can go out to help family members or friends who are themselves vulnerable or otherwise in need.  It is silent on going out for exercise.  Although context suggests all these may be permitted, the formal legal implication of the text would be that all are prohibited.

Newsom executive order allows California to commandeer hotels, motels to house coronavirus patients.  Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Democrat, released an executive order on Thursday [3/12/2020] that includes the authority for Sacramento to take over hotels and motels for medical use for coronavirus patients, in a move he said will help the state of 40 million prepare for any widespread outbreak.  Some patients in the state have already been moved to hotels.  The Desert Sun reported that a 120-room hotel in San Carlos, which is near San Francisco, has been already tapped to house passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship.  The first-term governor told reporters that besides hotels and motels, state officials are also scouting for potential lodging in "mothballed" facilities and state parks.  The executive order, according to the report, has been designed to allow the state's Health and Human Services Agency and the Office of Emergency Services to commandeer private property for coronavirus treatment.

Government Outlaws Freelance Work.  Freelance jobs are "feudalism," says California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.  She persuaded California's legislature to pass a new law reclassifying freelance workers as employees.  That means many people who hire them must now give them benefits like overtime, unemployment insurance, etc.  Politicians said it would help freelancers a lot.  Of course, much of the media agreed. [...] Young reporters just don't understand that stifling economic freedom always creates nasty side effects.

California Is a Cruel Medieval State.  One way of understanding California is simply to invert traditional morality.  What for centuries would be considered selfish, callous, and greedy is now recalibrated as caring, empathetic, and generous.  The current ethos of evaluating someone by his or her superficial appearance — gender or race — has returned to the premodern values of 19th-century California when race and gender calibrated careers.  We don't pay medieval priests for indulgences of our past and ongoing sin, but we do tweet out displays of our goodness as the penance price of acting amoral.  A paradox ensues that Californians both have a high, indeed smug, view of themselves and yet do a lot of damage to their fellow human beings.

California's Gig Law Comes For the Scooters, Destroys Independent "Juicers".  California's "gig economy" law — AB5 — continues to have disastrous consequences across the state.  The list of jobs affected or outright destroyed is huge and growing every day.  The wedding industry is collapsing.  Festivals are closing.  Theaters and music venues are closing.  A nursing shortage is now upon us because qualified nurses can no longer pick up extra side-jobs in areas like hospice care.  The law has even killed Christmas:  mall Santas can no longer contract their services.

Calif. Bill Would Fine Stores With "Boys" and "Girls" Departments.  [Scroll down]  But should [Evan] Low's bill become law, a retailer could actually have some fun with it.  I'd comply and combine the sections, for instance, but then label different displays as "blue" or "pink."  Were it questioned by a government bureaucrat, I'd ask how he could be so closed-minded as to associate a color with a sex.  Better still might be to label displays as "Little XY" or "Little XX."  Upon interrogation, I'd expound upon how "experts" maintain that one can be genotypically male but phenotypically female.  "How could you be such a bigot, sir (or is it madam?), as to assume that the girls entering my establishment don't have an XY chromosome configuration?"  As for Low, he justified his bill with the usual lowbrow leftist boilerplate.

New California Bill Requires Retailers Create 'Gender-Neutral' Aisles For Children.  A new bill introduced in the California Assembly would require retailers to create "gender-neutral" floor-spaces for children's merchandise, with the goal of banning sex-specific labeling labeling such as "girls aisles" and "boys aisles."  The bill proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low, requires all retail department stores with 500 employees or more to comply with the newfound gender standards of the Left.

The Editor says...
In a free country, businesses are allowed to arrange their stores in any manner they choose.

Sorry, Democrats:  Party's Over.  It makes me smile to know that fewer people are watching CNN than have fled from California in the last few years.  These days even Jed Clampett wouldn't be convinced that Californy is the place he ought to be.  He would have the sense to take his money to Texas where the taxes are reasonable and you won't be flash-mobbed by SJWs chanting that you're an eco-criminal for striking it rich in the energy sector.  Modest as Jed's education may have been, I think he would have understood that energy is a good thing and letting junkies poop in the aisle at Costco is a bad thing.  Even cousin Jethro would have winced at the mountain of filth that Pelosi and her party have made.

New California bill would require gender neutral sections in retail stores.  A new California bill would require some retailers to have gender neutral floor space inside their stores, Politico reports.  The bill, called Assembly Bill 2826, was introduced by Assemblymember Evan Low, a Democrat from Campbell.  According to Politico, retailers would be able to sell the same products, as long as they dedicate space where customers can find clothes and toys regardless of whether the items have been marketed to boys or girls.

Housing crisis: Berkeley law would put renters first.  City officials say the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act would give tenants more leverage and help them stay housed in one of the country's most expensive real estate markets, which has pushed rents sky high and contributed to a growing homeless crisis.  The median home price in Berkeley was $1.3 million last year, nearly doubled from $704,000 in 2013, [Berkeley Mayor Jesse] Arreguin said.

Gavin Newsom Says Doctors Should Write Prescriptions For Housing.  Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that medical doctors should be able to prescribe housing in the same way they prescribe medication to sick people Wednesday during his 2020 State of the State Address.  "Health care and housing can no longer be divorced.  After all, what's more fundamental to a person's well-being than a roof over their head?" Newsom asked during the address.  "Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin and antibiotics."  The crowd erupted in applause.

AB5 Backfire:  California's poorly designed "gig-work" law is already having unintended consequences.  AB5 took effect on January 1, and it's already causing trouble.  A limit on the number of articles that freelance writers could produce for one publication resulted in layoffs for some California journalists and a First Amendment lawsuit from others.  Workers in more than 135 occupations claim that losing contractor status hurts them, while independent theater and arts groups are facing thousands of dollars in costs they can't afford because they must now treat staff as employees.  Lorena Gonzalez, the assemblywoman who wrote AB5, has introduced another law to remove the article cap for writers and address the status of musicians.  A sign of poor legislation is the need to rewrite it immediately after it takes effect.

A California-style Brexit.  Since AB5 took effect on January 1, hundreds of thousands of Californians are finding their businesses in tatters.  Musicians can't join bands for a one-night gig, chefs can't join forces with caterers, nurses can't work at various hospitals, and writers must cap their submissions per media outlet to 35 per year.  Under the law, these freelancers can no longer conduct the same business-to-business transactions they have for years or even decades.  Clients with whom they fostered valuable relationships are gone — as are their successful careers and incomes.  An overwhelming majority of professionals in fields affected by AB5 identify as liberals and have generally voted along the blue line.  Today, however, many are so disillusioned with their representatives that they're changing political loyalties.

Congressman Calls on California to Fire Pension Official Tied to Chinese Spy Program.  A Republican lawmaker urged California to fire a top pension fund official because he participated in a Chinese program that the FBI has called "non-traditional espionage against the United States."  Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to investigate Yu Ben Meng, the chief investment officer at California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), for his "long and cozy relationship" with the Chinese Communist Party.  The letter also decried CalPERS's investment in Chinese companies that built up the regime's military presence in contested waters of the South China Sea and produced surveillance equipment used for China's brutal crackdown in Xinjiang.  "Governor Newsom, if it were up to me, I would fire Mr. Meng immediately," Banks said in a letter to the governor.

San Francisco's mayor admits to affair and accepting gifts from the city's disgraced homelessness chief.  San Francisco's mayor has admitted to having a fling with and to accepting thousands of dollars in unreported gifts from the city's disgraced former homelessness chief who is now at the center of an FBI corruption probe for accepting kickbacks.  Mayor London Breed admitted on Friday to briefly dating Mohammed Nuru, San Francisco's former Director of Public Works, around 20 years ago, leading to calls for her resignation from the city's top job.  Nuru, 58, resigned from his post earlier this week after he was arrested and charged by the FBI in January for a series of alleged public corruption schemes.

SF Mayor London Breed says she 'dated' now-indicted poop-patrol chief Mohammed Nuru.  Apparently, Kamala Harris wasn't the only ambitious and comely San Francisco female pol who "dated" a San Francisco political pooh-bah to advance her career.  Harris dated San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.  Now San Francisco mayor London Breed says she dated Mohammed Nuru, San Francisco's entrenched director of public works (famous for its "poop patrols"), taking a $5,600 "gift" from him and "forgetting" to disclose it. [...] Nuru's now under indictment for kickbacks, pay to play, bribery, wire fraud, and use of public services for private gain in what's called San Francisco's biggest political scandal in years. [...] The pair have known each other, apparently intimately, for 20 years.  And Nuru is a very powerful, entrenched fixture on the scene in San Francisco politics.

Maxine Waters:  CA Should Have More Say In Primary Because Of Big Money Raised At Beverly Hills Parties.  For years now, Democrats have been claiming they want big money out of politics.  Yet Maxine Waters just claimed on national television that California should have more sway in the Democrat primary process because of all the big cash generated for Democrats at fancy parties in Beverly Hills.

San Francisco car break-ins are so common that the city's district attorney is proposing reimbursing residents whose windows are smashed.  San Francisco's district attorney is proposing creating an auto-burglary-assistance fund that would reimburse residents for the cost required to repair shattered windows from break-ins.  The DA, Chesa Boudin, is proposing using $1.5 million from the mayor's office to fill the fund.  If it passes, it could be the country's first fund of this kind.

Texas Sues California Over Economic Sanctions on Religious States.  One of the more bizarre elements of our cold civil war is California's imposition of economic sanctions on any states that provide any element of religious freedom.  California has currently imposed economic sanctions on eleven states.  And then it messed with Texas.

Sorry, you cannot compel Americans to vote.  Democratic California Assemblyman Marc Levine has introduced a clearly unconstitutional bill which mandates that anyone registered to vote must attend a voting booth and file a response.  Levine says his intended law is justified and necessary because "democracy is not a spectator sport — it requires the active participation of all its citizens ... Those rights come with a responsibility by registered voters to cast their ballot and make sure that their voice is heard by their government."  While registered voters would not have to select a candidate in order to conform with Levine's desired law, they would have to file a ballot return, even if unmarked.  But as I say, this bill is patently unconstitutional.

Orange County Has Released Thousands Of Criminal Illegal Aliens Because Of California's Sanctuary Law.  The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been forced to release thousands of criminal illegal aliens in the past two years, with both the sheriff's department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement blaming California's statewide sanctuary law.  California's SB 54, legislation that largely restricts cooperation between ICE and law enforcement, went into effect in January 2018.  Since that time, Orange County has released over 2,100 illegal aliens back into the community despite ICE detainers placed on every single one of them, the agency announced in a Wednesday press release.  The sheriff's department released 1,106 inmates without notifying ICE in 2018 and released another 1,015 again in 2019 without notifying the agency.

California's primary vote count could take longer than ever.  Californians start voting Monday in a high-profile Democratic presidential primary that has no clear front-runner and could take longer to count than any previous election in a state already notorious for slow ballot counting.

Coastal States Are in the Fight of Their Lives.  Is the Rest of America Listening?  AB5 — otherwise known as the "Gig Economy" bill is much more dangerous and not just for us, but everyone in the nation.  This bill makes independent contracting illegal.  It is absolutely the most communist legislation I have ever seen passed in my lifetime as an American.  It was aimed to get at Uber and Lyft and instead entrapped anyone who contracts their services.  And I do mean anyone.  I spoke to a man who had to close his theater production because how can you hire 42 seasonal actors as W-2 employees every few months and then fire them and then rehire and on and on?  You can't.  Independent theater will die.  Linguists, courtroom reporters, translators, transcribers, truckers, rideshare drivers, musicians, caterers, bartenders, writers, freelance journalists... anyone who earns money by contracting their services is now out of work or about to be.  It is the most massive and disturbing overreach I have ever seen, and yet hardly anyone else in the country is paying attention.

How the Golden State Embraced Corporate Socialism.  Gavin Newsom, the lily white, urbane, coiffed scion of San Francisco's posh royalty, is California's highest-ranking Democrat.  He presides over a party that has taken progressive ideals beyond absurdity to the brink of tyranny, a socialist party that openly disparages whiteness and wealth.  One would think that the party of Gavin Newsom is bent on destroying everything Gavin Newsom represents.  So what's going on?  To understand the rise of Newsom, and every other hyper-privileged Democrat who even today remain in firm control of the progressive movement, it is necessary to define a 21st-century version of corporate socialism.  This goes well beyond the use of the term merely to describe government subsidies for, say, the oil and gas industry, or, for that matter, the wind and solar industry.

Oklahoma governor bans state-funded travel to California after being put on Golden State's blacklist.  The governor of Oklahoma has banned all state-funded travel to California after officials there placed a similar ban on travel to his state.  Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is in his first term, announced the ban in an executive order on Thursday, barring all non-essential travel by state employees to the Golden State, with exceptions for business recruiting trips, college sports games and trips by schools to participate in out-of-state programs.

Oakland Becomes First California City To Ban Background Checks For Prospective Renters.  Following a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night, Oakland has now become the first city in California to ban criminal background checks on potential renters.  "Indescribable emotions and feelings," said John Jones III of Oakland, who got out of prison in 2012 and struggled to find a place to live in Oakland despite his well-paying job as an aviation mechanic.  Jones said he's among the many who left prison only to end up on the streets, contributing to Oakland's homeless crisis.  That's why he's been lobbying hard for the Oakland City Council to pass the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which says landlords will no longer be allowed to turn down potential renters because of criminal convictions.

California Now Pushing Free Health Care for Illegal Immigrant Seniors.  California has waged a war on the concept of citizenship by essentially sidestepping the will of the American people and intentionally undermining immigration laws.  Worse, by extending social welfare to those illegal immigrants, the state is signaling that the concept of citizenship itself is meaningless.  It's clear that California's craziness doesn't stop, as [Governor] Newsom and the state's Democrats have doubled down to extend free health care coverage to even greater numbers of illegal immigrants.  Newsom's latest proposed budget now aims to extend free health care coverage to illegal immigrants 65 years old and older as a part of the state's Medi-Cal program.  This would add $80.5 million to the budget this year and $350 million annually once fully implemented, according to Politico.

Tents, Homelessness, and Misery: 9 Things I Saw in San Francisco.  Home to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional district, San Francisco is reliably and overwhelmingly blue in every election (with perhaps a few votes going to the Green Party).  In just the past year, the city's Board of Supervisors declared the National Rifle Association to be a "domestic terrorist organization," and the school board voted first to paint over, and then to hide, a mural of George Washington in one of the city's high schools — a mural, incidentally, painted by a leftist who strove to show both Washington's greatness and flaws.  Such actions are just par for the course for San Francisco, a city of more than 884,000 that in the past decade also banned fast-food restaurants from including toys with most children's meals; prohibited city-funded travel by local employees to 22 pro-life states; raised the minimum wage from $9.79 to $15.59 an hour; and, after banning plastic bags in 2007, first set a 10-cent fee for each nonreusable bag at stores, and then a 25-cent fee per bag.  Yes, leftist insanity has long been the norm for San Francisco.

First, the purges:  Comrade Chesa Boudin fires prosecutors for ... prosecuting.  What would it be like if Hugo Chávez and Bill Ayers ran the city prosecutor's office?  San Franciscans are about to find out, now that Ayers's stepson, Chesa Boudin, son of Weather Underground terrorists and translator to none other than Hugo himself, has made his first move as San Francisco district attorney.  He's kicked off his term with purges for insufficient revolutionary fervor, taking a page from Andrei Vyshinsky, Stalin's famous show trial prosecutor who enforced ideological purity. [...] Bottom line:  Chesa has no use for such prosecutors who prosecute, and the only thing he wants prosecuted is "the system," the idea of there being laws against crimes.  It goes to show the depth of ideological conformity being demanded now in what's clearly going to be a highly politicized D.A.'s office.  Professionalism is the enemy of the people now.

San Francisco, solid blue city of — empty storefronts and missing young people.  San Francisco is getting to be a hellhole and not just because crooks are having a field day, or a vast homeless army has prompted new tech 'innovations' in poop-map apps.  It's actually becoming a city with a hollowed out look, redolent of some place like Steubenville, Ohio or maybe Utica, New York, during the bad years, empty storefronts and missing young people.  So much for the trope that leftwing cities, with their walkable boulevards full of food trucks, handmade crafts, knitting shops, bookstores, artisan cheese shops, gourmet restaurants, and cafes are more lively and liveable than rightwing places.  For awhile, that did seem to be the story.  But it's coming to an end.  Sure, there's vast wealth.  But despite California being in an economic boom, the place is starting to look like Venezuela.

Abortions are okay, but stray dogs must be preserved.
'We want to be a no-kill state.' Newsom calls for end to animal euthanasia in California.  Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California to stop euthanizing animals, and he's ready to put taxpayer money toward the cause.  "We want to be a no-kill state," Newsom said during a press conference where he presented his 2020-21 budget.  Specifically, Newsom's budget calls for a $50 million one-time general fund allocation to the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program to develop a grant program for animal shelters, with a goal of helping local communities "achieve the state's policy goal that no adoptable or treatable dog or cat should be euthanized," according to the budget summary.

Does California Want to Secede?  On Friday [1/10/2020], Governor Gavin Newsom will present the state's budget for the next fiscal year.  In it, he will propose that the state of California sell its own brand of prescription drugs in order to "increase competition in the generic drug marketplace and lower the cost of medications by having Sacramento contract drugmakers to manufacture certain prescriptions under a state label." [...] Because California is so large, with such a huge economy and so many people, the state's dominance generally steers industry and other governments in the direction it wants.  No company that does business with state governments can afford to ignore what California is doing.

Bloomberg sees California as model for U.S.  The Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City mayor likes a lot of what he sees in the Golden State and thinks its efforts on climate change, gun control and criminal justice reform sets a benchmark for other states to emulate.  "I think that California can serve as a great example for the rest of this country," Bloomberg told supporters at the opening of his Angeles headquarters.

Workers Resist California's Newest Bad Law.  As of Jan. 2, Uber and Lyft drivers, independent truckers, freelance writers, photographers, artists and musicians and the companies who hire their services have to abide by AB 5.  The law, which was originally concocted to destroy the business models of Uber and Lyft and has exemptions for 50 professions, is a cynical and transparent gift to unions from the same Democrats who have been wrecking my one-party state for decades.  AB 5's proud mother, leftwing Democrat Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, claims it's intended to protect part-timers and freelancers from being "exploited" by their evil, greedy employers.  Her law is supposed to provide independent contractors with the same benefits and workplace protections that full-time employees get and — most important to the Democrats — therefore make it possible for them to unionize.

New California Law Prohibits Showering and Doing Laundry on the Same Day.  "So all of the sudden I can smoke marijuana as much as I want but I can't take a shower?," newsman Mark Kriski said.  "Unbelievable.  That's where our state has gone."  KTLA news anchors and reporters debated on LIVE TV the stupidity of a new California law that effectively prohibits showering and doing laundry on the same day.

A tale of two states in decline.  Taxpayers in California and New York shoulder some of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation, and now new data show the two have something else in common:  Their growth rates have slowed.  It's probably no coincidence.  According to the California Department of Finance, during the year that ended June 30, more people left the Golden State than moved in — the first time that's happened since 2010. [...] One obvious reason:  As the Los Angeles Times notes, the Golden State has one of the highest tax burdens in America.  Here in New York, meanwhile, taxpayers also bear some of the nation's highest tax burdens.  And guess what:  This state has long been watching its share of the national population shrink.  No, taxes alone aren't to blame:  Both states, for example, are famous for their progressive policies, hostility to businesses and onerous mandates.

California Preening.  In truth, the Golden State is becoming a semi-feudal kingdom, with the nation's widest gap between middle and upper incomes — 72 percent, compared with the U.S. average of 57 percent — and its highest poverty rate.  Roughly half of America's homeless live in Los Angeles or San Francisco, which now has the highest property crime rate among major cities.  California hasn't yet become a full-scale dystopia, of course, but it's heading in a troubling direction.

New California law to provide subsidized healthcare for undocumented immigrants.  Under the new law SB 104 California will offer government subsidized health benefits for undocumented immigrants under the age of 26.  Previously only undocumented immigrant children could apply.  It's part of new funding for MediCal.  Gov. Gavin Newsom says there will be "An additional $450 a month in subsidies reducing premiums by 25%.  No state in America does that."  Sarah Dar from the California Immigrant Policy Center says this will make a healthier community.

Least-Educated State: 2,471,189 California Residents 25 and Older Never Completed 9th Grade; Highest Percentage in Nation.  California once again ranked No. 1 among the 50 states for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth grade and 50th for the percentage who have at least graduated from high school, according to new five-year estimates (2014-2018) released Thursday by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.  California, as CNSNews.com reported last year, also ranked No. 1 for the percentage who never completed ninth grade and No. 50 for the percentage who had graduated from high school in the five-year estimates (2013-2017) the Census Bureau released in December 2018.  In California, according to the new five-year estimate, 2,471,189 residents 25 and older had never completed ninth grade.

The Editor says...
So much for the claim that "immigrants make our communities stronger."

Car burglaries in some California cities are at crisis levels.  Prosecutors say their hands are tied.  An epidemic of car burglaries in San Francisco over the last few years has led one Democratic lawmaker to propose plugging a loophole in state law that allows some break-ins to go unpunished, but the Legislature has balked at prosecutors' requests to make obtaining convictions easier.  The proposal, which would eliminate a requirement that prosecutors prove a car's doors were locked at the time of a break-in, has been shelved two years in a row in legislative committees.  Lawmakers struggling with prison crowding and public pressure to enact criminal justice reform have been reluctant to do anything to put more people behind bars.

Why the Law?  The latest and most high-profile district attorney race victory went to none other than the stinking, crime infested city of San Francisco.  Does the name Chesa Boudin ring a bell?  No not to me either, at first.  Not until it was revealed he is the son of 1960s radical leftist, American terrorist bomber Bill Ayers.  It matters not that Boudin, a defense attorney, has never prosecuted a single case.  I bet he'll make a great district attorney for victims of crimes (sarc.).  Boudin has already stated he will not prosecute public urination, prostitution and "quality of life crimes" for the homeless.  What about quality of life for the hardworking tax payers and business owners?  Supporters of Boudin claim he wasn't financed by George Soros, but this statement is disingenuous.

Thought San Francisco's Quality Of Life Couldn't Get Worse?  Think Again.  San Francisco garnered national headlines with the election of its new district attorney, a progressive, which means there will be zero progress made in the homelessness crisis, and little if any made toward reducing crime in the city and county.  Chesa Boudin, a one-time deputy public defender who has never tried a case, was elected in a close race, and will assume office in January.  Before he had a chance to decide if the new drapes in his office were going to be socialist red or blue state blue, Boudin announced that he would not prosecute quality-of-life crimes such as "public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc."  We assume public defecating on streets and sidewalks, today's San Francisco "treat," will also go unprosecuted.

California DMV Makes 50 Million Dollars a Year Selling Drivers' Info to Private Companies.  A California Department of Motor Vehicles document revealed that the government agency is generating $50 million a year by selling drivers' personal information to private companies.  According to a report from VICE, which received the document through a public records request, revenue from selling information — which includes names, physical addresses, and car registration information — has climbed from $41 million in fiscal year 2013-2014 to $51 million in 2018-2019.  In an email explaining the numbers, the California DMV did not specify which private companies have purchased the data, but said the list may include insurance companies, vehicle manufacturers, and prospective employers.

Most city workers pay $0 in healthcare premiums.  Garcetti said he'd change that.  He hasn't.  In a major policy reversal that critics say will cost the city and taxpayers millions of dollars, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has abandoned his long-stated goal of getting the city's public employee unions to pay a portion of their healthcare costs.  Under contracts signed this year that were supported by the mayor, many of City Hall's largest unions will continue to contribute nothing toward their healthcare premiums.  Garcetti also backed agreements with several smaller unions, allowing those employees who had been contributing 10% of their premiums to stop paying in January.

Correcting Voters' Mistakes.  Californians must no longer have recourse to the recall election.  If Golden Staters still have the recall, surely they'd be using it to oust their useless mayors who have allowed their once-beautiful cities to degenerate into filth and ruin.  They'd also be mounting a recall of their new governor, Gavin Newsom.  Back in 2003, before the mass exodus to Texas, there were still enough decent Californians remaining to recall and oust Gov. Gray Davis.  Davis's replacement, Arnold Schwarzenegger, might have become a terrific governor had he been paired with a decent legislature.  But the Governator didn't have a decent legislature; it was populated with progressives.

What Happened to California Republicans?  [Scroll down]  A cynic might argue that once a federal judge allowed undocumented immigrants to enjoy the full array of state services and entitlements, there were incentives for millions of other immigrants to enter the U.S. illegally, and California in particular.  Statistics suggests they did just that — often to the chagrin of Democratic politicians, the United Farm Workers and other liberal groups who worried about the negative effects of illegal immigration on entry-level wages, unionization and poor citizens' access to overtaxed social services. [...] The final irony?  Those most hurt — and growing the most angry — are the immigrants who once fled to a different California that now no longer exists.

California's Burning.  California's young and bold new progressive governor Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, probably figured he'd be thrust into the national limelight after signing a host of must-do liberal measures ranging from statewide rent control to a new union-crafted law that seeks to essentially ban companies from using outside contractors.  He also signed a ban on the sale of animal furs, stopped state agencies from leasing public lands for any oil-and-gas-related infrastructure (to stop the Trump administration from expanding resource "exploitation" on neighboring federal lands) — and even signed a law forbidding hotels from handing out those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

Son of Two Unrepentant Terrorists Wins DA San Fran Race.  "Chesa Boudin has won the election to become San Francisco's next district attorney," CBS News reported late Saturday.  "The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message," Boudin said in a statement.  "It's time for radical change to how we envision justice.  I'm humbled to be a part of this movement that is unwavering in its demand for transformation."  People in the vast hinterland to the east might wonder who Chesa is, exactly, and what kind of transformation he has in mind.  Bernie Sanders was first to congratulate the victor, and San Francisco voters knew Chesa served as a translator for the regime of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.  Still, a full understanding must start with Chesa's mother, Kathy Boudin, a Weather Underground terrorist.

Lucky San Francisco:  With Chesa Boudin as DA, good luck getting a cop when you want one.  Well, Chesa Boudin has finally done it: he's gotten himself into the San Francisco D.A.'s seat, after a lifetime of standing up for crooks and mastering criminal "justice" from Bill Ayers's stepdad berth and Hugo Chávez's knee.  Like the way criminal justice works in Caracas?  In San Francisco, Hugo Chávez's trusted adviser is now there to help.  He's there to "transform," as he says.  That's his brand, as the Bay Area tech marketing hipsters say.  This won't work out too well if you've got bums vomiting at your doorstep, gang members shooting with muzzle flashes 'round corners, and junkies setting up camp on your sidewalk.  We've already seen the boulder-warfare some of the homeowners are putting up in a desperate bid to stop it.  Such people can probably now look forward to getting arrested.

San Francisco Voters Elect Radical District Attorney, Son of Cop-killing Terrorists.  Progressive candidate Chesa Boudin wants to free criminals but prosecute police and ICE agents for doing their jobs.  It's no surprise Boudin hates cops so much.  His parents did, too.  Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were terrorists in the Weather Underground who murdered two police officers and a security guard during a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored security car outside New York City.  There should be a law that children of terrorists who share their parents' worldview are barred from holding public office, especially the role of the chief law enforcement officer.  Boudin's dad is still in prison so he can't kill any more cops, but his mother is out.  Naturally, she is an assistant professor at Columbia University.  After his parents killed the cops, Boudin was sent to live with two other terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.  Dohrn declared war on the United States and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted for skipping funeral of deputy allegedly killed by illegal immigrants.  The same day a federal grand jury indicted two illegal immigrants accused of murdering Deputy Brian Ishmael, El Dorado Sheriff John D'Agostini took aim at California's drug and sanctuary policies, singling out Gov. Gavin Newsom for skipping his funeral in favor of a meeting with the state's beleaguered power provider.

Newsom runs up against US Justice Department rules in pardoning immigrants.  Attorney General William Barr is trying to deport some legal immigrants who were convicted of crimes many years ago.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to spare some of the same immigrants from deportation by pardoning them.  It's shaping up as another round in the Trump administration vs. California.  The immigrants are legal U.S. residents who, because they have not become citizens, face potential deportation for past crimes that were punishable by sentences of a year or more.  Barr, overturning long-standing decisions by immigration courts, declared last month that migrants convicted of long-ago crimes could be deported even when their home states had retroactively reduced or erased their sentences.

San Francisco Supervisor Chants [in Opposition to] the [Police Officers Association] During DA Candidate's Campaign Rally.  Heading into 2020, it seems we've entered into an age in which anyone, from Twitter troll to elected public official, can say whatever strikes their fancy no matter how abhorrent, destructive or violent, from any microphone they can manage to find, and with near impunity.  Oh, sorry.  I mean, any liberal.  Conservatives can't do that.  Take, for example, San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, who, after clunking her way up to the stage to stump for left-wing district attorney candidate Chesa Boudin, used her moment at the podium to rant against the city's 2,000-member police union by leading the audience in the chant, [...]

English Is the International Language of Success — Except in California.  It's been two decades, but I still remember the excitement of helping to pass California's Proposition 227, which I thought would rescue Spanish-speaking kids from an education ghetto of frustration and failure.  It was an uphill battle.  We fought an education bureaucracy including California's powerful teachers' unions, book publishers who received lucrative government contracts, and even Jerry Perenchio, the late Republican billionaire CEO of Univision, who donated $1.5 million to the efforts to maintain California's "bilingual" education system.  We won.  Sixty-one percent of Californians were ready for a change.  Amid chants of racism and cultural insensitivity, Latino parents would tell me they knew that education and learning English in their adopted country were key to their kids' futures.  Unfortunately, the victory wouldn't last.

Power and Gas Cutoffs in Blue States Represent a Failure of Governance.  California — a state that by itself constitutes the world's fifth-largest economy, is endowed with vast stores of human and natural resources, and has one of the planet's most amenable climates for human habitation — is failing.  The Golden State is host to one of the country's worst homelessness epidemics.  It's a state in which 19th century diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis are making a comeback.  More people are moving out of the state than into it.  Its rates of violent crime are on the rise.  It has more failing schools than any other state in the Union.  And now, true to basket-case form, California is home to massive, rolling power outages.  But unlike in the developing world, these blackouts are not a result of resource deficiency but the voluntary imposition of darkness on the public.

California's Prop 47 leads to [a] rise in shoplifting, thefts, [and] criminal activity across [the] state.  These brazen acts of petty theft and shoplifting are a dangerous and all-too-common consequence of Proposition 47, a referendum passed five years ago that critics say effectively gives shoplifters and addicts the green light to commit crimes as long as the merchandise they steal or the drugs they take are less than $950 in value.  The decision to downgrade theft of property valued below the arbitrary figure from felony to misdemeanor, together with selective enforcement that focuses on more "serious" crimes, has resulted in thieves knowing they can brazenly shoplift and merchants knowing the police will not respond to their complaints, say critics.

Is California Becoming Premodern?  California is now a one-party state.  Democrats have supermajorities in both houses of the legislature.  Only seven of the state's 53 congressional seats are held by Republicans.  The result is that there is no credible check on a mostly coastal majority.  Huge global wealth in high-tech, finance, trade and academia poured into the coastal corridor, creating a new nobility with unprecedented riches.  Unfortunately, the new aristocracy adopted mindsets antithetical to the general welfare of Californians living outside their coastal enclaves.  The nobodies have struggled to buy high-priced gas, pay exorbitant power bills and deal with shoddy infrastructure — all of which resulted from the policies of the distant somebodies.

California to train poll workers how to interact with transgender voters.  All poll workers in California will be trained on how to properly interact with and assist transgender and gender-nonconforming voters when they cast ballots.  California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) announced the new initiative last week, saying his office is partnering with the Equality California Institute ahead of next year's presidential primary.

Is California's governor really this clueless about high gas prices and power outages?  California Gov. Gavin Newsom finally noticed that his state has the highest gas prices in the nation, and he's angry.  So angry, in fact, he ordered his Attorney General to investigate the decades-long mystery.  "There is no identifiable evidence to justify these premium prices," Newsom wrote in a letter to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra.  "If oil companies are engaging in false advertising or price fixing, then legal action should be taken to protect the public."  Newsom correctly identified the symptom but remains clueless about the cause.  He at least pretends to be.

Why California's AB-5 is a threat to the American way of life.  I am freelancing this article.  Doing so means that I work from home, set my own schedule and have most days of the week free to write books.  While books provide the bulk of my income, freelancing provides substantial extra money that my family and I have come to expect.  Barring any unforeseen change in circumstances, over the next year I'll freelance dozens of articles at a rate of one or occasionally two a week.  If I did that in California, I'd be opening up my employers to legal penalties.  Bill AB-5, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, has just passed, limiting California freelancers to submitting 35 articles to a publication a year without being hired by that company.  Thirty-five may seem like a lot, but that limit makes a weekly column impossible, let alone working for online companies where you might submit a short article or two daily and reach that limit within a month.

How California's new gig economy law could put freelancers out of business.  If I lived in California, I'd be staring down unemployment.  A new law governing freelance work was signed into law late last month.  It isn't scheduled to take effect until January, but if panicking freelancers aren't able to force a change before then, many will be banned from doing their jobs.  It's a classic case of well-intended but functionally destructive regulation:  In the name of protecting workers, Assembly Bill 5 will prohibit some them from working.  In the resultant chaos, a lucky few will secure full-time jobs while the rest are "helped" right out of a stable income stream.  A.B. 5's primary target is gig employers like ridesharing apps Uber and Lyft, whose drivers are classified as contract workers, not employees.  That means they aren't entitled to benefits like health insurance or paid time off even if they're working full-time hours, which A.B. 5 seeks to change.

California's legal weed profits going up in smoke.  Legal marijuana in California as a business was supposed to be a no-brainer.  How could it not be profitable in a liberal state pushing 40 million residents where some of the best weed in the world has been grown for decades?  But nearly three years after Proposition 64, the law legalizing the adult use of the drug, was passed, California cannabis producers are not seeing the windfalls predicted. [...] The California law gives local governments the right to regulate the pot shops so towns can prohibit them.  A whopping 80% of the state's towns and cities have turned legal pot shops down.

Rev. Franklin Graham Condemns San Francisco Ban on Travel to Pro-Life States.  Christian evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham said progressive leaders in San Francisco who have banned travel for city employees to states that have enacted abortion restrictions "want everyone to swallow the lie that abortion is a woman's right."

The Editor says...
Let the San Francisco bureaucrats stay in California for the rest of their miserable lives.  I can't see how this travel ban has any negative effects.  What can't they accomplish over the phone?

California's War on Citizenship.  California — a one-party state dominated by progressives — has become the model for where progressivism will go when completely unchecked.  Now, even the basic concept of citizenship is under full-blown assault as the state has moved on from being a "sanctuary state" for illegal immigrants to outright insisting that noncitizens have the same access to the levers of power as citizens.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to serve on government boards and commissions.  He also signed another bill that would make it illegal to make immigration-related arrests at courthouses.

San Francisco bans city employees from business travel to 22 states with pro-life laws.  The City of San Francisco has added 22 states with pro-life laws to a blacklist that prevents city employees from traveling to those states using city funds or dealing with businesses based in them.

California says independents can vote in Democrats' 2020 primary, but not Republicans'.  California's more than 5.6 million independent voters will be allowed to vote in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but not in the Republican contest, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Monday [10/21/2019].

California governor pardons three convicted immigrants to help block deportations.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday [10/18/2019] he's pardoning three immigrants who've been convicted of crimes as part of an effort to protect them from deportation to their home countries.  The three men — originally from El Salvador, Iran and Cambodia — broke the law as teens or young adults, served their sentences and have taken steps to rehabilitate themselves, the governor's office said.

California legalizes eating roadkill.  Awash in feces, blackouts, wildfires, opioids, junkyard highways, homelessness, illegals, measles, typhus, and leprosy, California's one-party blue Legislature and its far-left governor have nevertheless gotten around to the important things.

California opens state boards to undocumented immigrants and other non-citizens.  Undocumented immigrants and other non-citizens will be allowed to serve on state boards and commissions after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills Saturday [10/12/2019] intended to integrate immigrants further into society.  SB225 by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, expands eligibility for state appointments to any California resident over the age of 18.  In a signing message, Newsom said applicants deserved to be considered on their merits, rather than their immigration status.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Forcing Public Universities to Dispense Abortion Drugs.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill into law that requires public colleges and universities in the state to distribute abortion drugs, effectively turning the schools into first-trimester abortion clinics.  On Friday [10/11/2019], Newsom signed SB 24, which was championed in the State Senate by Sen. Connie Leyva (D) as a reproductive rights issue.

California adopts nation's broadest gun seizure laws.  California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 15 gun-related bills into law Friday, tightening the state's already-stringent Second Amendment restrictions.  One of the bills, which expands a so-called "red flag" law to allow co-workers, employers and educators to seek gun violence restraining orders against firearms owners they fear are a danger to themselves and others, was vetoed twice by Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown.  Newsom also signed a companion bill allowing the gun violence restraining orders to last one and five years, although the gun owners could petition to end those restrictions earlier.  The bill also allows judges to issue search warrants at the same time as they grant the orders.  The warrants can be used immediately if the gun owners are served with the relinquishment orders but fail to turn over the firearms or ammunition.

Say Goodbye to Charter Schools.  There's no way to reform public schools, in California or elsewhere, given that they are government monopolies that are dominated by unions.  They will put kids first, as one former teachers' union official reportedly said, after the kids start paying dues.  People who think that such schools can be improved through new reforms and more money probably believed that the Soviet economy could have been fixed with a better-developed five-year plan.  The only way to deal with that reality is to escape.  In 1992, California passed one of the nation's most far-reaching school-reform experiments, by making it easy to create publicly funded alternative schools where kids could flee.  The original law authorized the establishment of 100 charters.  The state now has more than 1,300 of them, and they educate 11 percent of the state's students.

Democrats [are] turning California into a third-world hellhole.  While they try to blame climate change and the infrastructure, the reality is that neither of those has caused any significant changes in the last ten years — but now, suddenly, due to Democrat policies, Californians have to start living in the 18th century.  The Democrats who run California also refuse to build more water storage capacity even though the state's population has dramatically increased, ensuring that water has to be rationed during droughts.  Democrats are turning California into a third-world country economically.  The income inequality between the über-rich Silicon Valley workers and the rest of Californians is huge, just like in third-world countries, while the elites live in luxury and the rest live in squalor.

Federal Judge Halts California Law Requiring Trump to Release Tax Returns in Order to Appear on 2020 Primary Ballot.  US District Judge Morrison England on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction against a California law which required Trump to release his tax returns in order to appear on the 2020 primary ballot.  Last month, the federal judge temporarily suspended the law and announced he would be releasing a formal written injunction by October 1st.  On Tuesday [10/1/2019], Judge Morrison, a George W. Bush appointee, released a written opinion and argued the law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom violated the Presidential Qualifications Clause contained in Article II of the US Constitution and violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause as set forth in the 14th Amendment.

California Shocked To Find Bill Decriminalizing Retail Theft Resulted In... More Retail Theft.  A few years ago, California passed one in a series of bills aimed at emptying the jails and prisons.  Proposition 47 carried the disingenuous name of "the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act and its stated purpose was to keep non-violent offenders out of jail.  To achieve this goal, the state decriminalized a number of lesser offenses, including retail theft.  The law raised the value of the amount of merchandise someone could steal while still only being charged with a misdemeanor to nearly one thousand dollars.  To the great surprise of the government, people noticed this change and began taking advantage of it.  They have now recorded multiple years of steadily increasing, organized robbery.  These plots are known as "mass grab and dash" thefts and they generally involve large numbers of young people all entering a store at the same time, grabbing armfuls of merchandise and dashing back out to their vehicles and hitting the highway.  Not only are robberies on the rise, but arrests and prosecutions are down.  Who could possibly have predicted this?

Gavin Newsom calls for impeaching Trump, gets slapped with recall petition from California's locals.  California's far-left governor, Gavin Newsom, is out there with the best of them, loudly calling for the impeachment of President Trump.  It's nothing new for him, given that he ran for governor in 2017 on this platform. [...] From his point of view, it makes sense, because even though he's been on the job for only about a year, he's shown that he's always been more interested in sounding woke than actually governing.  Just tour the poop-strewn, disease-ridden streets of any California blue city with a high Newsom vote count for a whiff of it.

Federal Judge Blocks California Law That Would Force Trump To Disclose Tax Returns.  A federal judge temporarily blocked California's law requiring presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns in order to gain a spot on the primary ballot Thursday [9/19/2019].  The California law would require any candidate running for president or governor to give the IRS tax forms for the past five years, after which portions of them would be edited for public viewing, the Los Angeles Times reported.  This could be an issue for President Donald Trump as he runs for president again in 2020 because he has refused to disclose his tax returns, despite efforts by Democrats to force his hand.

California judge blocks law requiring Trump to submit tax returns to compete in state's 2020 primary.  A federal judge in California Thursday granted the Trump campaign's request to block a new law that requires presidential and gubernatorial candidates to release five years of tax returns to run in the state's primary elections.  The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in July would have left the sitting president off of the ballot in California's March 2020 primary unless he submitted five years' worth of his tax returns by a Nov. 26 deadline, the Los Angeles Times reported.  Under SB 27, Trump would be included on the general election ballot in November 2020.  Oppoenents [sic] of the law argue depressed GOP voter turnout in the primary could discourage voters from showing up to vote for the president in the main race.

Federal Judge:  This Tax-Return Requirement For California's Presidential Primaries Smells Unconstitutional.  Indeed it does, and the injunction issued by US district court Judge Morrison England Jr represents a victory for Donald Trump — if a temporary one.  California had passed a law requiring all presidential primary candidates in the state to publicly release the last five years of their income tax returns to qualify for the ballot.  A former fringe candidate joined Donald Trump in challenging the law for its super-constitutional efforts to add state-level qualifiers to federal office, and Judge England issued an injunction against its enforcement.

The Editor says...
This is what's known as a bill of attainder.

California adds Iowa to 'travel ban' over refusal to fund gender transitions.  California announced last week that it has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever-expanding "travel ban" list because of that state's new prohibition against funding gender-transition surgeries under Medicaid.  The announcement by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra means that as of Oct. 4, California will no longer offer taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa for any public employee or student at a state-run university.  Becerra's authority came from a 2016 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bars state-funded travel to other states that undercut LGBT rights.  The blacklist already included Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

The Editor says...
California is attempting interfere with the other states entirely for the purpose of endorsing and legitimizing homosexuality.

Gov. Newsom Commutes Sentences of 21 Violent Criminals Incarcerated in CA Prisons, Including 4 Murderers with Life Sentences.  Far-left California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted sentences of 21 violent criminals including 4 murderers with life sentences without possibility of parole.  One of the murderers was arrested in 1993 for fatally shooting a man during a carjacking and another was incarcerated in 1991 for killing an armed guard during a robbery.  A man who served 31 years of 2 life sentences for a double murder in 1988 was also given clemency by Newsom.

California Introduces Bill to Ban ICE Detention Centers, Private Prisons.  The state of California is cracking down on "private for-profit prisons" after introducing a bill to ban the facilities.  Moreover, it means shutting down U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's privately run detention centers.  The bill AB-42 passed the state assembly Wednesday [9/11/2019] with 65 votes in favorable votes.  According to Newsweek, it would mean shutting down four detention centers holding "up to 4,500 inmates."

The Left's determination to destroy us from within.  Governor Newsom of California has reached into the gutter for a new and obscene low.  So dishonorable is this man that he signed into law a bill that "struck down a more than century-old law that required any able-bodied persons 18 years of age or older to assist a police officer who requested help during an arrest." [...] Newsom, and the rest of the Democrat governors and mayors that destroyed their own states and cities, have not only ruined the municipalities that they control, but have destroyed countless lives — namely, of those who barely subsist on the streets of these cities:  Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago.  They willingly promulgate the drug use of their homeless (they pass out free syringes) and seem to tolerate the vast homeless encampments and all they entail:  discarded needles, public defecation, crime, disease — in short, the destruction of the cities they've been allowed to take over and ruin.

Gov Newsom signs bill, now legal for citizens to refuse police officers' request for help.  Gov. Gavin Newsom just made it legal for anyone in the state of California to refuse to help a police officer requesting assistance.  The California Democrat on Tuesday [9/3/2019] signed into law a bill that struck down a more than century-old law which required any "able-bodied person 18 years of age or older" to assist a police officer who requested help during an arrest, The Sacramento Bee reported.

California's Newsom signs bill allowing citizen to refuse to help a police officer.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Tuesday [9/3/2019] signed a bill that no longer requires any "able-bodied person 18 years of age or older" in the state to help an officer who requests assistance during an arrest.  The Sacramento Bee reported that the old law, the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872, was common in the country's early days, but Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who sponsored the bill, called the old law a "vestige of a bygone era."  The law was employed to help catch runaway slaves, the report said.  The old law made it a misdemeanor that carried a fine of up to $1,000 for refusing to help a police officer who requested assistance during an arrest.

The Editor says...
If the only purpose for that law was to have citizens assist the police with the capture of runaway slaves, there might be some reasonable basis for repealing it.  Surely the elected officials of California don't believe such a thing.  Governor Newsom's action reeks of race-based political opportunism, and the unintended consequences are not many days away.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Declares NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization.  San Francisco's legislative body has challenged other American cities and states to follow its lead and formally condemn the National Rifle Association (NRA).  The Californian city's board of supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday officially labeling the gun rights' group a domestic terrorist organization. [...] It said the NRA "musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence."

San Francisco Declares NRA a 'Domestic Terrorist Organization'.  San Francisco, the "sanctuary city" for illegal aliens — now crowded with homeless people camping and defecating on sidewalks — has just declared the National Rifle Association a "domestic terrorist organization."  The resolution, which the Board of Supervisors passed unanimously Tuesday, urges the rest of the country to "do the same."  The resolution accuses the NRA or mustering "its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence."

Crony Capitalism on Steroids.  California lawmakers want to bring back central-planning agencies that squander taxpayer dollars on corporate welfare and abuse eminent domain — in the name of fixing a housing shortage that these agencies helped create.

California's War on Cars.  Traffic has long been horrific throughout California, especially in the Los Angeles basin and the Bay Area.  But like every bad thing in this state, it just keeps getting worse.  The 2018 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard tops the ranking of most congested cities, with drivers spending an annual average of 104 hours stuck in gridlock.  Other California cities made the ranks of 50 most congested cities across the globe.  The obvious solution is to, well, build more roads, even though decades of neglect — and reams of environmental impediments such as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) — would make that a daunting task if state officials wanted to do so.  But they have no interest in doing so.  Their goal is to coerce us into giving up our cars or at least driving much less.  They've caused the crisis and are not about to let it go to waste.

Armchair quarterbacks:
California Governor Signs Use-of-Deadly Force Bill Aimed at 'Changing the Culture of Policing'.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Monday [8/19/2019] that California is now a "model for the rest of the nation" when it comes to the use of deadly force by police officers.  Newsom on Monday signed Assembly Bill No. 392, which says police officers may "use deadly force only when necessary in defense of human life."  According to the text of the bill, the "authority to use physical force...is a serious responsibility that shall be exercised judiciously and with respect for human rights and dignity and for the sanctity of every human life."

Cosmic Injustice.  In the last years of Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship, Arnold more or less gave up on the existential crises of illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, soaring taxes, water shortages, decrepit roads and bridges, homelessness, plummeting public school performance, and a huge exodus out of state of middle-class Californians.  Instead he began to lecture the state, the nation, and indeed the world on the need for massive wind and solar projects and assorted green fantasies.

California prefers 'free range rats' over humans.  Proposed poison ban.  California is prepared to sacrifice human lives for the sake of wildlife apparently.  The wise Progressives have let fester a growing health risk in allowing their rat population to explode with no interest in controlling their expanding population.  The Democrats want to ban rat poison.  You can't call them lazy.  Once a female rat reproduces, she could have 15,000 descendants by the end of just one year!  Note:  Your rat mileage may vary.

'Flagrantly illegal.'  Trump sues California over new law targeting his tax returns.  President Donald Trump, the California Republican Party, and the national GOP joined together Tuesday [8/6/2019] to sue California over a new tax-return law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last week.  The law requires Trump and other presidential candidates to release the last five years of their tax returns to get their names on the state's 2020 primary ballot.

California's Gavin Newsom torched as red-hot hypocrite for calling Trump's wall wasteful.  California's leftist governor, Gavin Newsom, got it in the teeth on Twitter after he tried to decry President Trump's border wall as, of all things, government waste. [...] And it didn't end well for him.  He drew about 6,000 replies, virtually all of them negative, with a large number of them clearly from the locals.

Berkeley becomes first US city to ban natural gas in new buildings.  Berkeley became the first city nationwide to ban the use of natural gas in new low-rise residential buildings in a unanimous vote Tuesday by the City Council. [...] In June 2018, the council declared a climate emergency and called for a review of Berkeley's greenhouse emission reduction strategies.  The city determined in a report last year that gas-related emissions have increased due to an 18% population growth since 2000.

The Editor says...
I wonder if the Berkeley politicians understand that they share the atmosphere with 7.7 billion other people, most of whom would love to have cheap and abundant natural gas available, rather than the firewood, coal, or dung they're currently using.  The city council's action is not just symbolic:  It affects the construction of already-unaffordable new houses.

In California, don't call them 'public servants,' call them 'the government gang'.  As a Californian of more than three decades, I have watched the highways deteriorate, with no new construction of freeways (or reservoirs for that matter) while the population soared.  I have watched the schools go from bad to horrendous.  Meanwhile, taxes have soared to levels that are driving out middle class taxpayers in very large numbers.  The rest of us who are not members of the government gang watch as the gang members get rich.

California Gives Green Light to Health Care for Illegal Aliens.  California is the first state to allow taxpayer-funded health care benefits to go towards people residing in the U.S. illegally.  Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Tuesday which would allow low-income adults under the age of 25 to receive state Medicaid benefits through its Medi-Cal program regardless of immigration status.

Democrats take their next step to destroy the USA.  California has approved a new budget expanding Medi-Cal coverage to illegal aliens up to the age of 26.  This will cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, even without factoring in the costs created by the obvious incentive the program will create for illegals to move to California.  Moreover, the formerly Golden State is bringing back the individual mandate, in part to fund the Medi-Cal expansion for non-residents of California.  This means that residents of the state who don't want to — or need to — buy health insurance, as well as those who can't afford it, will have their money confiscated by the government to provide health care to illegal aliens.

California Assembly Approves Resolution That Calls for Church Acceptance of LGBTQ.  The California State Assembly voted 9-2 to send to the state senate a resolution calling on "religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy."  While no one would argue with the aim of being more loving and more compassionate in our counsel of our fellow man, the people's representatives do not possess any authority in the arena of religious practice.

California Democrats Propose Bill to Allow Illegal Immigrants to Hold Party Leadership Positions.  Democratic lawmakers in California have introduced a bill that will allow illegal immigrants to hold leadership positions within the Democrat Party on the state and local level, Breitbart reports.  Current state law limits noncitizen participation in party politics, but the bill, SB 288, would change that, letting noncitizens, including illegal immigrants like Dreamers, serve as state convention delegates and county committee leaders within the Democratic Party, which will allow them to be involved with party platform and other issues.

California Democrats Push Bill Allowing Illegals Party Roles: 'They're Already Leaders'.  A bill proposed last week by California lawmakers could grant illegal aliens the ability to serve in Democrat Party leadership positions locally and statewide.  The new bill, SB 288, would allow them to be part of shaping the party's platform, including serving as state convention delegates and county committee leaders.

The Plan to "Make America, American Again".  California Dems made sure the people of Mexico and other foreign countries understood the borders were open, no one would ever be sent back, and Democrats would give them every form of welfare for free.  Then they gave illegals drivers licenses.  They registered illegals automatically at DMV.  They made sure there was no Voter ID at the polls.  Recognize the plan?  Gavin Newsom gave it away.  This is now the national plan for Democrats.  Make the whole country into California.

California's Gov. Gavin Newsom puts out a video for illegals on how to obstruct ICE.  I thought it was satire, something cooked up by his political enemies.  You couldn't put out a less attractive video than the one Gavin Newsom did for illegal aliens on Twitter, advising them himself on how to obstruct ICE from any deportation maneuvers. [...] Leave aside the fact that he's the governor of a U.S. state, supposedly there to represent the interests of that state's citizens rather than those of the foreigners who come here without papers, quite illegally, and run up the tab using his state's services.

Hillary's People's Republic of California Jungle Primary Voter Suppression.  In the 2018 midterm general election California voters had the choice for US Senate on the general election ballot between liberal Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein or even more liberal Democrat opponent.  There were no Republicans on the US Senate General Election ballot in 2018.  Two years earlier, in 2016, liberal Democrat Kamala Harris was elected US Senator by defeating Liberal Democrat opponent Loretta Sanchez in the general election.  Again, There were no Republican candidates on the general election ballot for Senator in 2016.

California's Progressive Betrayal.  The recent California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco exposed the divide between the state's progressive and working-class voters.  Progressives, in their militant certitude, support left-wing policies that often don't affect them; it's the working class that suffers the consequences of these proposals.  But the Green New Deal, widely embraced by party leaders, pushed too far, triggering a backlash at the convention.  The state's private-sector labor unions, notably the building trades, organized a "Blue Collar Revolution" protest against the Democrats' climate legislation.  The Democrats are calling for the elimination of fossil fuels by 2030, which would result in California's immiseration, especially for workers in the state's energy-production sector, the nation's fourth-largest.  In 2012, the oil and gas industry employed over 400,000 Californians, but these workers — unionized and well-paid — can expect pink slips with the green package.

California Says, 'Go West Young Illegals, Go West'.  Doctors and hospitals are in the gunsights of many Democrats who want Medicare-for-all as a draconian price control scheme by government over all medical care in the US.  Hospitals are told they charge too much and doctors are vilified for earning too much.  What a relief that a sugar daddy has appeared, a rich boyfriend, a benefactor with a fat wallet, ready to bestow his financial largess on financially strapped healthcare providers.  This sugar daddy is named Gavin, tall and handsome with good hair.  I speak of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who finalized a deal with the California legislature, "to provide full health benefits to low-income illegal immigrants under the age of 26."

Can California Be Saved, or Is It Too Late?  How did this state, once the envy of all others, become the pathetic, indebted loser state it is today?  The answer is simple, single-party Democratic rule. [...] State taxes in California are the highest in the nation, as are our sales taxes.  We fall nearly last in education.  We have the most homeless, the most illegal migrants.  The state spends $30 [billion] on illegal immigration per year.  Like all cities run by progressives, our entire state is a disaster of Democratic making.

California lawmakers weigh budget proposals to cover health care for illegal immigrants.  California lawmakers are weighing proposals this week that would offer government-funded health care to adult illegal immigrants but are at odds over how far to go.  Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed $98 million a year to cover low-income illegal immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25, but the state Assembly's bill would cover all illegal immigrants over the age of 19 living in California — a proposal that would cost an estimated $3.4 billion.

California to pay full health benefits for illegal immigrants.  Democrats in the [California] state Legislature reached an agreement Sunday afternoon [6/9/2019] as part of a broader plan to spend $213 billion of state and federal tax money over the next year.  The agreement means low-income adults between the ages of 19 and 25 living in California illegally would be eligible for California's Medicaid program, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

The dystopian nightmare that is California has been brought to you by... Democrats.  Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times reported a week ago on the obscene condition of downtown Los Angeles, "A mountain of rotting, oozing, stinking trash ... stretching a good 20 yards along a skid row alley.  Rats popped their heads out of the debris like they were in a game of Whac-A-Mole, then scampered for cover as a tractor with a scoop lurched toward them. ... The trash problem is not confined to any one street, but this particular location on the 800 block of Ceres Avenue is surrounded by food distribution companies that sell to shoppers, vendors, stores and restaurants.  I counted seven within a block, so you have to wonder — given the colonies of football-size rats — about the potential contamination of the food supply chain and the spread of disease."  What does the city say when confronted about the slow, or nonexistent, pace of cleanup?

Berkeley loves its sanctuary label, but a housing crisis is testing its liberal values.  This eccentric Northern California enclave was a sanctuary long before the designation became a must-have merit badge for any left-leaning city.  Berkeley politicians proclaimed the place a refuge for Navy sailors resisting deployment to the Vietnam War nearly a half-century ago.  It was the birth of a movement to protect the outcast — and, in some cases, the outlaw — from rules that this beat-of-its-own-drum city and its followers found immoral, most recently the deportation of undocumented immigrants.  But California's housing crisis is testing whether Berkeley can remain that kind of place.

SF supes get 12% pay raise while everyone else at City Hall gets a lot less.  San Francisco's supervisors will be getting a 12% raise this year, more than three times the size of those being given to other elected officials and city employees.  The raise was approved by a 3-1 vote of the Civil Service Commission on Monday [5/20/2019] and represents a $15,016 pay hike, bringing the board members' salaries to $140,148 this year — plus benefits.

Los Angeles Prohibits Employees From Traveling to Alabama Because It Banned Abortions.  Los Angeles County has imposed a one-year travel ban to Alabama in response to the state's new abortion law, which is the most restrictive in the country.  Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solia, author of the motion, said the state's law is an "attack not only confined to the residents of those states, but an act of aggression upon all of us."  "We must stand in solidarity and in opposition against extremist and unconstitutional laws that put the health and wellbeing of families at risk," Solis said.  "The constitutional and human right to a safe and legal abortion is part of the very fabric of the United States."

California lawmakers weigh budget proposals to cover health care for illegal immigrants.  California lawmakers are weighing proposals this week that would offer government-funded health care to adult illegal immigrants but are at odds over how far to go.  Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed $98 million a year to cover low-income illegal immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25, but the state Assembly's bill would cover all illegal immigrants over the age of 19 living in California — a proposal that would cost an estimated $3.4 billion.

Sacramento's Biggest Gasbags.  Don't be alarmed by soaring California gasoline prices, which have topped $4 a gallon at most gas stations around the state.  Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders are on the job, as they sniff out the culprit behind rising prices.  They are pretty sure it has something to do with bad corporate behavior, based on their latest public statements.  Stay tuned — but you might not want to buy that giant gas-sucking SUV just yet.  The cause of the high prices is obvious to those of us familiar with the state's gasoline-related policies.  In 2017, then-Gov. Jerry Brown pushed through his signature increase in gas taxes to fund the road-infrastructure improvements that his administration had neglected as it ramped up social spending.  The law adds 12 cents to each gallon of gasoline and 20 cents to each gallon of diesel and could add far more to the price in coming decades.

Trump, Pareto, and the Fall of the Elites.  Encouraging mass immigration of illegals who compete for lower-level jobs does not help the underprivileged, rather it creates a new group of voters that will support the Democrats.  It also helps privileged groups by supplying cheap labor.  Take, for example, wealthy Marin County, California.  Marin is largely populated by well-to-do and highly educated professional people.  An underclass of often illegal immigrants provides affordable services such as yard work and babysitting.  In the 2012 presidential election, Marin voted 74% for Obama.  In the 2016 election, Marin voted 77% for Hillary and only 16% for Trump.  Another wealthy California county, Santa Clara County, is the heart of Silicon Valley.  In the 2016 election, Santa Clara County voted only 21% for Trump.  Fresno County, California, a county that is majority Hispanic with a very high poverty rate, voted 43% for Trump.  California as a whole voted 32% for Trump.  The nation as a whole voted 46% for Trump.  In the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, one of the wealthiest places in the country, only 10% of the votes went for Trump.  Clearly the privileged class votes Democratic and strongly opposes Trump.  In places inhabited by elites, the Democrats dominate.

California moves to keep Trump off 2020 primary ballot.  The California Legislature is trying again to force presidential candidates to publicly disclose their tax returns, hoping a new Democratic governor known for his clashes with President Donald Trump won't block them this time.

California Politicians Hiked Gas Tax, Now Demand Investigation Into State's $4 Per Gallon Gas Prices.  As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state's gas taxes.  When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase.  It's 2019, and Newson, now the state's governor, is demanding an investigation into why the state's gas prices are so high.  On Tuesday [4/23/2019], the governor sent a letter to the California Energy Commission (CEC) asking that the state agency investigate the Golden State's roughly $4.03 per gallon gas prices, currently the highest in the country (and well above the national average of $2.86 per gallon).

What 'Free Money' Means to Me.  Officials in Stockton, Calif., a hard-pressed agricultural and industrial city 75 miles northeast of San Jose, are enjoying the glow of media attention from their ongoing, first-in-America program to provide residents with a Universal Basic Income, or UBI. [...] This is about more than helping a few residents in a mid-size city pay medical bills, buy groceries, repair the car, or spend the weekend in the Sierra foothills gambling at the Jackson Rancheria Indian casino (there are no limits on how the money is spent, after all).  It's about setting the stage for a national political "discussion" that might eventually involve large, direct taxpayer payments to lower-income residents.  The research and storytelling will be used to soften us up for the hard sell, which will come in various state or federal proposals, and will sometimes be linked to plans for reparations.

California.Gov.Con.  If Gavin Newsom runs for president, [Eleni] Kounalakis may run for governor, or even higher office.  In that quest, Eleni will again deploy daddy's money and promotional support from Markos, who believes that a woman's proper place is in the White House.  Eleni gets all this, plus California's imported electoral college, from places like El Salvador and Mexico.  For Clinton cronies, California offers the best of all possible worlds.

Government 'Oversight' Is a Very Bad Joke.  [Scroll down]  The 67-page audit of [the California] DMV found a "reactive culture that has adversely impacted the field office customer experience," outdated management structures, a third of customer-service windows closed even as people waited in lines that went around the DMV field offices — and pretty much everything else that anyone who has visited a California DMV office would know.  The audit suggested changes, but the agency reacted in normal fashion and requested more money.  DMV offices, which I've described as a cross between bus stations and Soviet bread lines, have been like this since time immemorial (although they're better in some states) and will always be this way.  We must deal with the agency if we want to drive.  There are no customers that must be satisfied because we have no other choice.

Money in the Toilet — The Billion Dollar Cost of Public Bathrooms.  The fastest rising item in the country isn't gold or bitcoin, it's the cost of a public bathroom.  In '08, a San Francisco Weekly article fumed that a park restroom in Golden Gate Park was costing taxpayers $531,219.  Fast forward, a decade later the cost of a park restroom in the Golden Gate Boathouse had ballooned to $2 million or $4,700 per square foot.  The modern bathroom had a third All-Gender option that the '08 bathroom didn't.  But adding a non-gender shouldn't have quadrupled the price.  Inflation would have kept the cost well below a million.  Why did a 15-foot by 28-foot bathroom cost millions?  Part of the answer may be that San Fran privileges minority businesses and requires that 15% of work hours be carried out by "disadvantaged" workers.

As Trump vows to shut the border to illegals, Gavin Newsom makes a suspicious trip to El Salvador.  [Scroll down]  One can just picture how this trip looks from the Salvadoran side of things.  Here come Big Daddy, the California governor, the gringo who's already laid out a banquet of goodies for Salvadorans in California, from free health care to free education, to sanctuary state protections to enable illegals to work, coming there supposedly to find out how he can offer...even more goodies to Salvador's uneducated lower middle classes.  The idea is to get even more of them to come over.  Big Daddy comes down with the Santa sack full of goodies.

California executes a 'moratorium' on the death penalty.  During the past eight years, California voters have twice reiterated their support for the death penalty by defeating propositions seeking to overturn it.  If anyone was confused about Californians' understanding of the death penalty representing an important part of justice, in 2016 they even passed a proposition calling for the speeding up of executions by shortening the decades-long appeals process.  In other words, Californians want the death penalty, and they want to it happen faster and more often.

Gavin Newsom Doesn't Care about Crime Victims.  On March 13, California governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order granting a reprieve to all 737 convicted murderers awaiting execution in the Golden State. [...] All 737 reprieved death-row inmates had been found guilty of murder by a jury of their peers, beyond any reasonable doubt.  The convicted murderers had also exhausted all the possibilities of the appeal process, which in the California criminal justice system is quite extensive.  Gavin Newsom is not an attorney and not a judge.  The governor did not attend the trials and produced no new exculpatory evidence in any of the cases.  Those awaiting execution include Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed twelve-year-old Polly Klaas, and "Tool Box Killer" Lawrence Bittaker, who raped and killed five teen girls in 1979 after torturing them with pliers and screwdrivers.

Killing the Death Penalty via Edict.  To my conservative friends who like when chief executives push the envelope on "national emergencies" and executive orders, I offer you California Gov. Gavin Newsom.  Last week, he grabbed national headlines for his decision to grant reprieves to all 737 prisoners on California's death row based on his own personal feelings: [...] Governors have the power to pardon people and give reprieves.  But just as advocates for limited government believe that presidents should let Congress take the lead on spending matters, they too should prefer that governors stick to the spirit and not just the letter of the law.  Such reprieves are meant for particular cases — not as a means to change public policy.

California Drug Legalization Leads to Political Corruption.  California is going full narcosocialist and there's a price to pay for that.  The price is deeper corruption and criminality. [...] While part of the LA Times story tilt claims that this is about "black market" drug dealers, most of these examples appear to involve those that were legal or trying to go legal.  But that takes us to the baffling difference between a black market drug dealer and a legal drug dealer is that the latter is paying off the government.  Now we have drug businesses getting in trouble for paying off government officials in the wrong sort of way.  We want drug dealers to legalize by legally paying off the government.

Gov. Newsom to order halt to California's death penalty.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is suspending the death penalty in California, calling it discriminatory and immoral, and is granting reprieves to the 737 condemned inmates on the nation's largest Death Row.  "I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people," Newsom said in a statement accompanying an executive order, to be issued Wednesday [3/13/2019], declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.  "The death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian."

California's Rendezvous With Reality.  Californians brag that their state is the world's fifth-largest economy.  They talk as reverentially of Silicon Valley companies Apple, Facebook and Google as the ancient Greeks did of their Olympian gods.  Hollywood and universities such as Caltech, Stanford and Berkeley are cited as permanent proof of the intellectual, aesthetic and technological dominance of West Coast culture.  Californians also see their progressive, one-party state as a neo-socialist model for a nation moving hard to the left.

California's Gov. Newsom inherits a steaming load of scandal from Jerry Brown.  California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has inherited a steaming load of financial scandals from Jerry Brown regarding high-speed rail and the Oroville Dam.  Gavin Newsom is the first Democrat California governor to follow a sitting Democrat governor in over a century.  Newsom campaigned as an ally of Gov. Jerry Brown by trumpeting how Brown eight years earlier had overcome a crisis projected by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office to included a $6.4-billion current budget deficit, a $19-billion deficit for the following year, and another five years of $20-billion-plus deficits.

North Carolina vote fraud case shows just why Congress should ban ballot-harvesting nationwide.  [Scroll down]  Sure enough, in California, this same ballot-harvesting that was illegally practiced in North Carolina is completely legal and completely responsible for deep-red Orange County suddenly going blue in the last congressional election.  Candidate after candidate who had been leading in the 2018 midterm count all of a sudden saw those large leads reversed, with all of them shifting to the Democratic side, with leftists taking all the congressional slots.

Gov. Gavin Newsom touts proposed $25 million in California aid to asylum seekers.  Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials in San Diego on Thursday [1/31/2019] touted a proposed $25 million in state funding to address a growing humanitarian crisis involving migrant families seeking asylum in the U.S. and blamed the Trump administration for manufacturing a problem at the border.  With prodding from San Diego lawmakers, Newsom has called for spending $20 million over three years to aid local nonprofits and community organizations that provide services to asylum-seeking migrant families.

The Editor says...
President Trump did not "manufacture" the problem of uncontrolled illegal immigration across the Mexican border.  That problem has existed for decades, but in recent years has been exacerbated by the Democrats, who offer numerous incentives for immigrants.

See more under Welfare programs attract illegal aliens and other immigrants.

California's Gavin Newsom Proposes Tax on Drinking Water in First Budget.  California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed his first budget for the state on Friday [1/11/2019], and it includes a tax on drinking water.  The budget, titled "California for All," declares drinking water a "fundamental right," and adds:  "The Budget includes short-term measures to bring immediate relief to communities without safe drinking water and also proposes an ongoing sustainable funding source to address this problem into the future."

The Editor says...
Wait a minute.  If drinking water is a "fundamental right," why should it be taxed?  Indeed, why does your city government send you a utility bill and charge you for water, if it's a right?  No, in reality, food and water and housing and medicine are not "fundamental rights," regardless of the number of politicians who say they are.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks to add more illegal immigrants to state health care plan.  Newly sworn-in California Gov. Gavin Newsom, vowing to provide "sanctuary to all who seek it," has proposed extending state health care coverage to more illegal immigrants living within the Golden State's borders.  Hours after assuming office, Mr. Newsom released sweeping health care proposals to raise the age limit for illegal aliens covered by Medi-Cal from 19 to 26, which would make California "the first state in the nation to cover young undocumented adults through a state Medicaid program," according to a Monday [1/7/2019] release from the governor's office.

Cpl. Singh Was Laid to Rest.  Guess Which Politicians Were Conveniently Absent.  Just when we thought politicians in California couldn't get any more horrible, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom proved us wrong.  Apparently the reason he was absent from Cpl.  Singh's funeral yesterday was because he was too busy watching the Sacramento Kings play basketball.

Jerry Brown "Legacy": Highest Poverty in Nation, Highest Homelessness/Worst Affordable Housing.  We are a few days away from the end of the Brown Administration.  His legacy is clear, if you listen to the Democrats.  They claim California has the most poverty in the nation — true.  We have a shortage of homes — true.  We have a massive homelessness problem — true.  All of this has become his legacy.  Add to this the $200 billion train boondoggle, his cutting off water for farmers and the worst roads and freeways in the nation — California is a Third world State.

Fighting Trump and Freedom, California Creates 1,000 New 2018 Laws.  That the Land of Fruits and Nuts is legislating from soup to nuts is significant because, while often forgotten, a law generally is a removal of a freedom.  After all, laws virtually always state that there's something we must or mustn't do.  Thus, the more laws we have, the less free we are from governmental control.  And given that governments continually enact more laws but hardly ever rescind any, this means that every year we're progressively less free.  So what liberties were robbed in California this time around?

The Grapes of Wrath — in Reverse.  [I]n the last decade and a half, about 6 million Californians over the age of 25 left the state; in the last 30 years, perhaps 10 million fled.  There are no accurate statistics on the political ideologies of the departed or even their actual numbers.  But most studies suggest that the reasons for radical outmigration were quality-of-life complaints, soaring home prices and taxes, poor state services, failing infrastructure and schools, and rising crime. [...] According to one study, at least 13,000 companies fled the state over the last decade.

Democrats: A plague on the nation.  Governor Brown has effectively destroyed California, now benighted by rampant homelessness and the crime that accompanies a population of illiterate, drug-addicted, gang-affiliated, criminally inclined persons adrift on our streets.  And now another young officer has been killed by an illegal alien thanks to the left's obsession with protecting the throngs of migrants crossing the border into the U.S.  It should be obvious to every American by now that our progressive left does not have the best interest of Americans at heart.

California Spends $100 Million to Maximize Census Cash Jackpot.  California is spending over $100 million preparing for the 2020 Census to maintain its top spot to maximize the federal population spending jackpot.  The key for California to keep growing its top spot in state and local government spending that hit $587.9 billion this year is maximizing its number of legal and illegal residents who currently justify $107.5 billion in direct federal transfers and about $376 billion of indirect transfers to pay for federal salaries, income support, student financial aid, U.C. grants, corporate subsidies, and a slew of other items.  California has allocated $100.3 million for "outreach" this year to maximize the number of state residents to be counted in the 2020 U.S. Census.  Only 10 other states have allocated any cash for "outreach."  California's funding is over 27 times the $2.3 million by number-two Georgia and 66 times the $1.5 million funded by number-three Illinois.

San Francisco mayor trying to get brother, a convicted killer, out of lockup 20 years early.  San Francisco Mayor London Breed sent a letter to departing Gov. Jerry Brown in late October asking him to "consider leniency" and commute the sentence of her older brother, who has served nearly two decades of a 44-year sentence on a manslaughter conviction, according to reports.  The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that the mayor has joined other members of her family in requesting an early release from prison for Napoleon Brown, who struggled with drugs from a young age.

Jerry Brown's 'Twin Tunnels' Project on Hold.  The project, officially called the California Waterfix, aims to divert water from the Sacramento River underneath the California Delta to storage facilities further south, from which water can be pumped to southern California.  The "twin tunnels" were to be Brown's major infrastructure legacy, in addition to the California High-Speed Rail system, which faces significant financial and engineering hurdles.  But it faced intense local opposition from the communities in the Delta, who faced considerable disruption to their lives.  The project was also opposed by many environmental groups, and farming groups that were meant to benefit — at a price — showed lukewarm support.

DA Gascón carried guns on planes, then whistle-blower was fired, suit says.  A former senior investigator says he was fired for blowing the whistle on his boss, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who he alleged carried a gun while flying — in violation of federal law.  Gascón reacted with a "pattern of retaliation and harassment" that culminated in the termination of senior investigator Henry G. McKenzie on Oct. 30, 2017, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Study: More than 7-in-10 California Immigrant Households Are on Welfare.  More than 7-in-10 households headed by immigrants in the state of California are on taxpayer-funded welfare, a new study reveals.  The latest Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California — the number one immigrant-receiving state in the U.S.  Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of households headed by native-born Americans use welfare in California.

After California's ballot harvest:  What is to be done?  The ballot-harvesting issue, which gave Democrats an absolute monopoly of power in even Orange County, signals a sort of the bottom dropping out in California.  Now that Democrats have discovered they can flip any race based on selective collections of mail-in ballots by Democratic door-knockers from voters who didn't ask for them, their one-party state of the past 20 years in California has gotten even more entrenched in power.  One gets the sense that the landscape has changed and what the voters want no longer matters.  Voting is no longer about you, or what you think or the decisions you make, it's now all about that unasked-for piece of paper on the kitchen table known as a ballot and how Democrats can get their hands on it.  You are incidental.  The creepy Democratic machine, with its 1980s PRI-style politics, rigged this state this way, and in so doing would make Hugo Chávez or Daniel Ortega envious.  PRI Mexico was, after all, once called "the perfect dictatorship."  Now the title has moved on to California.  It amounts to stolen democracy, which ultimately cries out for revolution.

The Cloward-Piven strategy:  Overload the system to intentionally break it.
California Democrats plan to extend Medicaid to illegal immigrants.  State Assembly member Joaquin Arambula, a Democrat and a doctor, announced the plans Monday [12/3/2018] as the legislature convened at the state capitol, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Should the bill advance, California would become the first state to extend Medicaid coverage regardless of immigration status.  State projections for last year's bill found that 1.8 million people in California are uninsured and reside there illegally; roughly 1.2 million would qualify for Medi-Cal, the name of the state's Medicaid program.

Trump:  The Last President?  The Governor isn't the Governor of California, especially when he won in a 57% to 43% victory.  The Governor is the Governor of the Left, and will represent the Left, not the electorate in general.  The swing vote, which has moderated elections nationally is absent in California.  The swing vote means that the most uninterested people have the levers of power.  That category of people simply does not exist in California.  Party leader?  Sure.  Governor?  Well, in name only.  In reality, the recently elected Governor is the Democratic Party leader.

Pelosi tells audience, 'San Francisco values, that's what we're about'.  Has Nancy Pelosi joined the GOP team anxious to scare voters away from voting for the donkey party?  The pejorative use of the expression "San Francisco values," to indicate a loss of decency, tradition, and sanity, has at least two decades of history, and arguably almost three and a half, since Jeanne Kirkpatrick denounced "San Francisco Democrats" at the 1984 Republican Convention.  Today, San Francisco is the exemplar of a city that has driven out the middle class and features the worst-looking income gap between rich and poor.  San Francisco's poor languish in its streets in the worst display of the degradation of poverty this side of Calcutta.  San Francisco's homelessness, its open drug use, and the spread of human feces on the sidewalks there have made being a pedestrian there a health risk.

Gavin Newsom Helped Mother's Assisted Suicide.  A recent article in the New Yorker extolling the (probable) next Governor of California reveals that Gavin Newsom helped his mother commit assisted suicide. [...] When I first read the piece, I assumed she didn't die in California because assisted suicide was a felony there in 2002, and Newsom was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors sworn to uphold the law.  Wrong.  She died in San Francisco.

California city council candidate is caught dropping off his wheelchair-bound mom, 86, so she can panhandle.  A nonpartisan candidate for city council in Southern California has been accused of dropping off his elderly, wheelchair-bound mother to panhandle for the last decade, even though they're not homeless.  David Chey has been caught on camera leaving Soon Chey, 86, in her wheelchair in the downtown district of Laguna Beach with a sign that reads, 'please, help me.'  'They have a brand new car, live in a condo in Irvine, yet beg for our help,' local business owner Heidi Miller told DailyMail.com.

California Ranks as Poorest State, One of the Worst for Income Inequality.  Despite all the wealth in the state and the Democrat control of state government, California actually ranks as the poorest state in the country after costs of living are factored in.  A whopping 19 percent of Californians live below the poverty line.  While California represents just 12 percent of the nation's population, Californians represent a third of all Americans on welfare.  The average monthly cost of rent in the state is 43 percent higher than the national average.  Nearly a third of Californians spend more than half of their earnings on housing.  The situation is made worse by skyrocketing energy costs.  "Residents who can afford rent or a mortgage are on the hook for electricity rates burdened by green initiatives and regulation that grew 500 percent faster than the national average from 2011 to 2017."

San Francisco to Allow Illegal Aliens to Vote.  In July, the Department of Elections issued voter registration forms to illegal aliens to vote for members of the San Francisco Board of Education in the 2018 election, reported ABC7 News.  Now that the illegals are registered and ready, they will be voting in November.

The piously politically correct blue state that bankrolls Putin.  CalPERS, the $326-billion California state pension fund for some two million state cops, firefighters, and bureaucrats, has never been shy about its trumpeting its political correctness.  It's positively famous for its pullouts of tobacco investments, Turkey investments, apartheid South Africa investments, and coal investments, and so famous that you probably would never have heard of the fund were it not for its pullouts.  It's not that they are that awful in themselves — they often try to push back on calls to divest.  But they've always been seen by leftists as a tool to oppose President Trump.  So in general, name the lefty cause, and out they pull.  Well, with one little exception:  Putin's Russia.  On that one, they've shelled out nearly half a billion dollars to the Russian government (not companies, but the government) through its bond buys.  And hey, they're one of Russia's top foreign investors, top ten among foreigners.

Rich San Francisco businesses could face homelessness tax.  San Francisco has come to be known around the world as a place for aggressive panhandling, open-air drug use and sprawling tent camps, the dirt and despair all the more remarkable for the city's immense wealth.

Jerry Brown's get-out-of-jail-free card in California.  Here's a story that's making the news in San Diego as a local district attorney protests, but it's actually a state problem that goes back to the usual lefty suspects, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown.  Thousands of murder convictions are likely to be vacated due to a change in state law that effectively says that if you were the guy sitting in the shotgun seat of the car as the other guy pulled the trigger, you get off scot-free — you're no longer convicted of murder, too.  The County of San Diego alone is set to release about 150 such charmers onto the streets, and the other 57 counties are going to have to do similar.  All told, about 800 of them are reportedly going to get let out.

San Francisco:  Land of the Living Dead.  Effectively, there's nothing in this news story that you don't know already.  Anyone who has followed the news and who reads this blog knows full well that downtown San Francisco has been given over to drug addicts and the homeless.  In the most liberal blue city in America, Nancy Pelosi's home town, you cannot walk the streets in many neighborhoods.  What's news is the place it appeared:  The New York Times.  The paper of record sent a reporter and a photographer out to document the nightmare that is the streets of San Francisco.  They did not pull any punches.  They told it like it is.

The One-Party State.  [Scroll down]  Dan Walters, a longtime political journalist in Sacramento, will tell you it was the end of the Cold War that really brought about Democratic dominance.  He points to the decline of the defense and aerospace industries, major employers in Southern California, which prompted an exodus of Republican voters — middle-class, white, and suburban — to cheaper states.  Los Angeles County regularly went for the GOP in elections.  It's simple arithmetic, says Walters.  When the GOP lost Los Angeles, it turned California over completely to the Democrats.  Today, the state is a liberal's dream.  It's multicultural.  It's largely urbanized.  It is socially and environmentally progressive.  People here frequently boast, without a trace of smugness, that if you want to see America in 10 years, look at California.

Weak passwords banned in California from 2020.  Default passwords such as "admin" and "password" will be illegal for electronics firms to use in California from 2020.  The state has passed a law that sets higher security standards for net-connected devices made or sold in the region.  It demands that each gadget be given a unique password when it is made.

California's Socialist Oligarchy:  Making the State Unaffordable.  Nowhere are the consequences of California's oligarchical socialism more evident than in the cost of housing.  State legislation has made it nearly impossible for developers to construct new housing outside the so-called "urban growth boundary."  Instead, development is redirected into the footprint of existing urban areas.  While there is a natural tendency as population increases to see higher density redevelopment in urban cores, by restricting outward expansion of urban areas, the value of the limited remaining eligible land becomes artificially inflated.  But established landowners and large development firms benefit from these restrictions.  They are able to withstand years, if not decades, of expensive permitting delays and endless litigation.  They are able to afford millions in permit fees because these costs are offset by their ability to sell residence units — from high-rise condos to detached single family dwellings — at prices far beyond what they would cost in a normal market.  These billionaire business interests get richer, while ordinary Californians who want to own or develop land cannot afford to go through the permit process.

The One-Party State.  The state [of California] has the most liberal environmental laws and regulations in the country, which hamper the development of affordable housing.  A San Francisco Chronicle investigation in 2017 showed rising housing costs driving lower-income Californians out of their homes and into the streets.  Homelessness has skyrocketed in both the cities and the rural areas of the state.  While 12 percent of the U.S. population is in California, 25 percent of the country's homeless live there.  From Sacramento to San Diego, you can't help but notice the multitudes of people living on the street.  Look at the housing shortage and homelessness, the decline of manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs, and the growth of a tech economy that rewards disruption over predictability, and you see why some are suspicious of the California way.

California will require women on corporate boards under bill signed by Brown.  California became the first state in the country to require that women be included on companies' boards of directors, as Gov. Jerry Brown literally sent a message to Washington on Sunday [9/30/2018] in signing legislation that corporate associations opposed as unconstitutional.  Brown signed SB826 into law after it passed the Assembly and the Senate last month.  The bill mandates that all publicly traded California companies have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019.

The Editor says...
Notice how much of California's official business is transacted on Sundays.

California Passes Law Allowing 12-Year-Olds To Get Tax-Paid Transgender Treatments.  You have to be 16 obtain a driver's license in California, 18 to buy a rifle, engage in consensual sex, or get married without parental consent, and 21 to buy a handgun, alcohol, or marijuana.  But in the nation's most progressive state, you only need to be 12 years old to privately seek and consent to treatment for gender transitioning.

America, don't be like California.  Once again, California has the highest poverty rate in America.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent report, the Golden State's Supplemental Poverty Measure averaged 19 percent between 2015 and 2017.  Nationwide, poverty dropped in 2017 from 14.7 percent to 14.1 percent, but California's rate was proportionately 35 percent higher than the national average.  In spite of (or perhaps to divert attention from) its high poverty rate, California's left-wing political class continues its unrelenting sermonizing to the rest of us.

California DMV Gives Illegal Voters a Surge.  Last week California's Department of Motor Vehicles sent 23,000 "erroneous" voter registrations to the office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who maintains the list of registered voters.  The DMV blamed it technical errors and said none of the erroneous registrations involved undocumented immigrants.  Padilla was "extremely disappointed and deeply frustrated" and the DMV assured him it wouldn't happen again.  Legitimate voters have good reason to believe Padilla was not disappointed but delighted.  The odds are strong that illegals make up most if not all of the newly registered voters.  The registrations of illegals will be happening again, in greater numbers, as the November election approaches.  The day after the 23,000 registrations made news, it emerged that from late April to early August, the DMV registered 182,000 "new voters," with the largest number, 112,000, choosing "no party."  Neither the DMV nor Padilla would explain the numbers but the trend is evident and all by design.

San Fran Green Lights Illegals To Vote.  Our country has twisted itself in knots over the possibility of foreigners (ie:  Russia) having unduly influenced our elections (even though recounts and investigations have confirmed that the outcome was NOT changed by foreign interference).  You'd think that would be reminder enough as to just how precious the individual value of a lawful voter is, and how it must be safeguarded against anything that would erode the value of that one vote.

California moves toward corporate gender quotas, ignoring Norway's failure.  Supporters of California's move toward the nation's first-ever corporate gender quotas have insisted the bill will be good for business, but that's not what happened in Norway.  After the Norwegian Parliament required that women make up 40 percent of publicly traded corporate boards in 2006, stock prices plunged and firm values dropped as boards added less experienced female directors, while the numbers of public firms decreased and private companies increased.  "The quota led to younger and less experienced boards, increases in leverage and acquisitions, and deterioration in operating performance, consistent with less capable boards," said the 2012 paper by USC professor Kenneth R. Ahern and University of Michigan professor Amy K. Dittmar.

Trump on the Ground.  For months, I've been driving on different routes through the vast San Joaquin Valley back and forth from the California coast — and through the usually economically depressed small towns on and near the Highway 99 corridor through the Central Valley.  The poverty rate in many valley counties is higher than in West Virginia.  It is a world away from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the Stanford or Caltech campus, Malibu, and Pacific Heights.  In an overregulated, overtaxed state of open borders and sanctuary cities, with the nation's near highest electricity and gasoline prices, and facing a looming state and local pension unfunded liability of well over $300 billion, one might not expect much of an uptick from the supposed Trump economic revival.  California's calcified strategy, after all, is that global lucre pouring into coastal high-tech and finance will more than balance out the economic damage wrought by state government.  Sacramento is a sort of court jester to Menlo Park.

A last-ditch effort to pull California back from the brink.  I fully understand the hatred and contempt many, if not most, conservatives feel toward California.  A state blessed with so many advantages has surrendered to left-wing madness and, worst of all, pretends it has something to teach the rest of America.  In the thirty-some years I have lived here, California has gone from Reagan Country to thrusting people on the order of Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom onto the national stage.  Of the two, Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco (and former husband of Kimberly Guilfoyle, late of Fox News and currently rumored to be an intimate friend of Donald Trump, Jr.), is in a position to do more harm in the immediate future, as he is running for governor of California on a platform of state-paid universal health care, including for illegal aliens who manage to cross the state border, from Mexico or Nevada or Oregon.

California, Poverty Capital.  According to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure — which accounts for the cost of housing, food, utilities, and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income — nearly one out of four Californians is poor.  Given robust job growth in the state and the prosperity generated by several industries, especially the supercharged tech sector, the question arises as to why California has so many poor people, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased roughly twice as much as the U.S. average over the five years ending in 2016 (12.5 percent, compared with 6.27 percent).  It's not as if California policymakers have neglected to wage war on poverty.  Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now.

Why California's Gavin Newsom campaigns for free health care for illegals.  Gavin Newsom, leading candidate for governor of California, and a Democrat, has a new goodie on offer:  free health care for the state's three million illegals.  The former mayor of San Francisco said so in this podcast, explaining that there is no reason not to "wait around" to extend Medi-Cal coverage to anyone who asks, regardless of immigration status.

California craziness:  Congress may have to stop state from giving 'free' health care to illegal immigrants.  California has escalating crime, cities teaming with homeless people, clogged and crumbling roads, massive unpaid bills, some of America's highest taxes, and some of its worst public school systems.  So what's the plan by Gavin Newsom, the Democratic Party's candidate for governor, to improve the situation?  On Tuesday he suggested giving free health care to illegal immigrants.  Speaking on a left-wing podcast, the former mayor of San Francisco said:  "I did universal health care when I was mayor, fully implemented, regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status.  I'd like to see that extended to the rest of the state.  San Francisco is the only universal health-care plan for all undocumented residents in America."

Gavin Newsom:  I'm Bringing Single Payer To Everyone In California, Regardless Of Immigration Status.  Gavin Newsom is currently running for Governor in California and, barring something dramatic, he is going to win.  So when he says he plans to bring single payer to California as Governor, there's a very good chance he'll get his shot.  Today, Newsom appeared on the Pod Save America podcast where he was asked about his health care plans.  Newsom made clear he wants a single paper system that is for everyone in the state regardless of immigration status.  "I'd like to see if we can control our own destiny," Newsom said.  He continued, "I'm not naive about it.  I did universal health care when I was Mayor [of San Francisco], fully implemented regardless of pre-existing conditions, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status.

Dem Gubernatorial Candidate:  Gov't Should Pay for Universal Health Care for Illegal Immigrants.  Gavin Newsom, Democratic candidate for governor of California, said on liberal podcast "Pod Save America" that the state government should pay for universal health care for illegal immigrants.  In the episode, released Tuesday, the candidate and current lieutenant governor of California touted his involvement in San Francisco having "the only universal health care plan for all undocumented residents in America."  "I did universal health care when I was mayor — fully implemented, regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status.  San Francisco is the only universal health care plan for all undocumented residents in America.  Very proud of that," Newsom said.  "I'd like to see that extended to the rest of the state."

Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose.  [Scroll down]  And, of course, there's virtually no area of our lives — outside our sexual behavior and reproductive "choices" — that should be free from state interference.  It should be no surprise, then, that the libertarian Cato Institute's latest "Freedom in the 50 States" report finds California nearly at the bottom, in 48th place.  New York and Hawaii were worse, but California has been remarkably consistent in its ranking over the past 16 years.  Whenever there's some think tank report comparing the states for some bad thing, I always start at the bottom to find my home state.  Not surprisingly, we have the highest taxes in the country, even with 1978's Proposition 13 putting the kibosh on uncontrolled property-tax hikes.  We have a high level of public debt, [of] course.  As Cato points out, the state actually has one of the lowest percentages of government employees (11.2 percent of private employment).  But the reason is simple:  California pays its employees such astoundingly high pay and benefit packages that it simply can't afford to hire any more of them.

California Gov. Jerry Brown Sets Record of 1,018 Pardons in 8 Years.  California Gov. Jerry Brown used his executive powers to issue 36 gubernatorial pardons on Friday, to hit a record of 1,018 pardons in eight years in office.  Although 22 of those were for murder and 13 for attempted murder or manslaughter, Brown said each of the pardons he provided went to individuals that had had "demonstrated exemplary behavior" and lived "productive and law-abiding lives" following their convictions and time served in prison, according to the Fresno Bee.

California Initiative Filed to End Proposition 13 Protections for Commercial Properties.  Funded by Silicon Valley deep pockets — including the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, the personal charity of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan; a coalition of teachers unions; the League of Women Voters; affordable housing advocates; and other "social justice warriors" organized as "Schools and Communities First," — the activists submitted the signatures to the Secretary of State on August 14 to place an initiative on the 2020 ballot to increase California commercial property tax revenue by $11 billion.

Milk Or Water:  California Bill Aims To Curb Kids' Soda Drinking At Restaurants.  A new state bill would give kids two options with their meals at restaurants — water or milk.  Senate Bill 1192 would make water or milk the default drink for kids meals in a push to reduce obesity and access to sugary drinks for children.  The bill passed the Assembly and is on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.  If he signs it, California would be the first state in the nation to have such a law.

A Tale of Three Cities.  San Francisco is being overrun with the homeless and illegal aliens due to its sanctuary city status and virtue-signaling leadership.  The streets are littered with human feces, hypodermic needles, and syringes, turning the once beautiful "City by the Bay" into a cesspool.  What's the response of San Francisco leaders?  Banning plastic straws.

California lawmakers grill DMV official over ballooning wait times.  The leader of the state Department of Motor Vehicles apologized on Tuesday for a recent steep increase in hours-long wait times at the agency's locations across California, as complaints over excessive delays sparked new scrutiny from legislators.  "The wait times you are experiencing are not what we ever want our customers to go through," said DMV Director Jean Shiomoto, who testified at an Assembly hearing convened to address the issue following months of public frustration.

Secret DMV office serves lawmakers, Capitol staffers.  In California, long lines are a fact of life at Department of Motor Vehicles offices across the state, but for California lawmakers and their legislative staffers, there's an alternative.  KCRA has learned of a DMV office that is not open to the public.  It's located inside the Legislative Office Building on N Street, adjacent to the state Capitol.

The Mask Slips In Santa Barbara.  A little noticed detail in Santa Barbara's recent drive to criminalize plastic straws, which culminated in the Santa Barbara city council taking testimony from a nine-year-old about the planetary menace, has come to light in recent days.  During that council session, councilman Jesse Dominguez said the following in response to citizens who asked "what's next?":  "Unfortunately, common sense is just not common.  We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives."  Take that one in for a moment, for it expresses the core impulse of liberalism today.

'We Have to Regulate Every Aspect of People's Lives'.  A Santa Barbara city councilman inadvertently let slip the primary purpose of progressivism in 21st century America.  The city recently criminalized the use of plastic straws.  Speaking to that issue, Councilman Jesse Dominguez said, "Unfortunately, common sense is just not common.  We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives."  Got that?  "We" are smarter than you and know what's best for you better than you do.  Perhaps realizing that his comment revealed a fundamental truth of progressive thought, Dominguez tried to walk back his gaffe: [...]

California Wants to Reinvent the Power Grid.  So What Could Go Wrong?  Two decades ago, when California deregulated the delivery of electric power, lawmakers, regulators and even some environmentalists hailed the decision as a way to lower consumers' bills.  The strategy proved disastrous.  The plan resulted in an energy crisis that sent power bills soaring, prompted billions in penalties against utilities and banks for manipulating the new electricity market, and led Congress to enact laws to help prevent it all from happening again.  Now the state's leaders have a new proposal for an energy makeover, this time to create a single authority to manage the electric grid for most or all of the West.  This plan, too, promises to cut costs for consumers — by as much as $1.5 billion a year — while helping to bolster use of carbon-free power sources.

California's Tax War On Business Owners — Part 1.  In the early 1990s, the U.S. economy was hit by a triple whammy:  1) the Savings & Loan Crisis, 2) high oil prices as the result of the first Gulf War, and 3) a good-sized recession.  Following that recession, the U.S. economy experienced slow growth.  So, recognizing that middle market companies are the primary source of economic growth, Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code to incentivize the creation of new companies — "mainstreet" companies and lower middle market companies.  Subject to certain restrictions, upon sale of the company, founding owners would be able to exclude up to a certain amount of gain.  With California's tax code "conforming" to the Internal Revenue Code, the same pro-growth incentive would have been available on a business owner's California income tax return.  But, given the title of this article, it couldn't be that simple — and it's not.

San Francisco:  The City of Bans.  Who would have guessed that cafeterias would even be a public-policy issue?  I've worked at companies with them and without them.  But I would have found it more likely for lefties to require such things rather than prohibit them.  Many workers, even in well-paid industries where such cafeterias are common, struggle financially given the high cost of living in the Bay Area.  Here's a chance for the city to help assure that they get a healthy meal while they work those long hours doing whatever IT people do.  What did I miss?  "The supervisors introduced the legislation because they say tech companies' employees are hurting local restaurants by taking advantage of the perk and eating in-house, rather than patronizing neighborhood eating establishments," reported Smart Cities Dive.

'Calexit' supporters revamp campaign with plan to convert half of California into 'autonomous Native American nation'.  Organizers of a long-running initiative to secure California's secession from the United States now say they want to give away nearly half of the state, including all of its federal land, to form an "autonomous Native American nation."  "Calexit," as the proposal for California's secession is known, was given the green light by the state government earlier this year to begin collecting signatures to place the measure on the November ballot.  Advocates had until mid-October to gather 365,880 signatures of registered voters to put it up for a statewide vote.

California Is Not as Big or Blue As You Think.  The National Popular Vote plan is an interstate compact in which the compacting states agree to award their electoral votes to the person who gets the most votes in all 50 states.  It is based on Art. I, Sec. 2 of the Constitution which grants state legislatures the plenary (and exclusive) power to award electors, and the founders' expectation that states would use that power to maximize their influence in the selection of the president.  The first thing I hear, when the proposal is presented, is that "California is so big, it will run the country" (mainly because I am from California) if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact takes effect.  My conservative friends use California as an example of "what not to do" when it comes to public policy, and so, if California is going to run the country under the state statutes implementing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, then, they say, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is dangerous.

California's 'foreclosure capital' to give away $500 a month to residents in experimental welfare program.  A California city is set to become the first in the nation to embark on an experiment of Universal Basic Income, paying 100 residents $500 a month without any conditions.  The program's purpose is to eventually ensure that no one in Stockton, with a population of 300,000, lives in poverty.  The receivers of the cash will be able to spend the money on anything they want without any strings attached.  It will launch by 2019 and the 100 fortunate residents will receive the cash for a full 18 months as part of its testing phase before deciding whether to roll it out across Stockton.

Cost of anti-ICE protests prompts California county to forgo $3M federal contract.  Citing the cost of managing anti-ICE protests outside one of its facilities, authorities in a Northern California county this week severed a $3 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed the federal agency to detain illegal immigrants in one of its cities.  Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco, thus became the second county in the region this month to cut ties with ICE, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  The county's West County Detention Facility, in Richmond, which averaged 200 immigrant detainees a day, had drawn protesters for months.  At a news conference, Sheriff David Livingston suggested the demonstrations played a large role in the contract's termination.

Is California's Democratic Party swinging too far left?  By Nov. 7, Democrats will learn if their left turn steered them to victory or took them off a cliff.  The state party's endorsement of Kevin de León, a self-proclaimed socialist's upset of an establishment Democrat in a New York City congressional primary and talk of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and enacting single-payer health care show an embrace of progressive politics that heartens liberal activists enraged by conservative policies pursued by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.

California's Pointless Net Neutrality Efforts.  California is moving ahead with some of the most ambitious — and pointless — net neutrality laws in the country that will only make the patchwork laws springing up around the U.S even murkier.  California's bill offers stronger language than the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) rules established under the Obama administration and repealed this spring.  The state legislation not only prevents internet service providers from throttling speeds or blocking websites, but it also bans excessive zero-rating practices of ISPs exempting its own services from data caps while counting the usage of third-party apps against the limits.

California governor signs soda tax ban into law.  California cities and counties are banned from taxing sodas and other sugary drinks for the next 12 years under a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.  The deal was rushed through the legislature and to the governor's desk on Thursday.  In exchange for the law, the nonalcoholic beverage industry is withdrawing a ballot measure that had been slated for November.  It would have raised the voter threshold to approve local sales tax increases on any item, not just soda taxes, from a majority vote to a supermajority vote.  Signatures were gathered for the ballot through a campaign funded by the beverage industry.

San Francisco: Poster-Child For The Failure Of U.S. Cities' Blue Model.  By any standard, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  So why has it suddenly become an unappealing place to visit and to live? [...] San Francisco proudly calls itself a "progressive" city.  It follows what writer and scholar Walter Russell Mead calls the progressive "Blue Model" of governance.  Yet, the policies it follows — high taxes, inane regulations, petty nanny-state authoritarianism, tolerance for rising lawlessness and disorder on its streets in the name of "compassion" — are the very ones that have driven middle-class and working-class citizens out.  Only the rich and the so-called homeless, who have been welcomed into the city and are a growing issue, can afford to live in the city.

California's Oligarchs and Agitators.  If one were to distill the essence of California's Democratic party into a one-page document, it would be hard to beat a recent mail piece showing the SEIU's candidate endorsements for California's top jobs.  According to its website, the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 (SEIU) "is a united front of 96,000 working people employed by the State of California, making Local 1000 the largest public sector union in California and one of the largest in the country."

Look What California Thinks is an Emergency Bill.  California is a Socialist nightmare with oppressive government regulations and high taxes killing the middle class.  Housing is so costly that it's greatly adding to the number of homeless.  The open borders and sanctuary cities policies have allowed killers, perverts, and drug dealers to get protection everywhere in the state.  With all the problems they have, they rushed through a bill that could make you laugh.  According to the Washington Examiner, the oh-so-urgent bill that had to be rushed through bans California cities and counties from taxing sodas and other sugary drinks for 12 years.  Are you surprised that a nanny state banned taxes?  Don't be.  The reason they did it was to keep high taxes on everything else!

Court reinstates California law allowing terminally ill people to end their lives.  The law allows adults to obtain a prescription for life-ending drugs if a doctor has determined that they have six months or less to live.

The Editor says...
The writers of this law apparently assume that doctors know everything, which they don't, and that doctors' diagnoses are always right, which they aren't.

California school board votes to name elementary school after illegal immigrant activist/journalist.  At a divisive time for U.S. immigration policies, a California school board has decided to name a new elementary school after an award-winning journalist who disclosed in 2011 that he had been living in the U.S. illegally.

Thefts rise after California reduces criminal penalties.  California voters' decision to reduce penalties for drug and property crimes in 2014 contributed to a jump in car burglaries, shoplifting and other theft, researchers reported.

Ridiculous Bay Area housing costs may be reflected in a large drop in births.  A harbinger of the absurdly high cost of housing in the San Francisco Bay Area may be visible in the region's maternity wings.  San Francisco is a city of few children.  You're more likely to see a French bulldog roaming Alamo Square Park than packs of kids frolicking among the Victorians.  The lack of youngsters is indicative of a larger issue in the city:  the absurdly high cost of housing.  According to a new study, when housing prices go up, the birth rate goes down.

Soros push to elect progressive DAs in California fails to attract voters.  New York billionaire George Soros' multimillion-dollar effort to reshape California's criminal justice system by propping up progressive district attorney candidates backfired Tuesday [6/5/2018], with most of his candidates suffering major defeats.  Soros, together with other wealthy liberal donors and groups, spent millions on would-be prosecutors who favor lower incarceration rates, crackdowns on police misconduct and changes in a bail system that they argue discriminates against the poor.  But most of the money went to waste as their candidates lost to more traditional law-and-order prosecutors who didn't share progressive views or have hostile attitudes toward police.

America's King of Poverty.  I know it is not a pleasant topic but let's take just a moment and think about poverty in this country.  Which state do you think has the highest poverty rate?  Must be Mississippi or Alabama or one of those Southern states.  No it ain't.  The state with the highest poverty rate is... wait for it, CALIFORNIA!!!  Yep, our progressive, income redistributing state which accounts for 12% of the country's population is home to about 1 in 3 of all U.S. welfare recipients.  Our poverty rate exceeds 20% when the national average is around 15%.  It is not as though California policy makers have neglected to wage their assault on poverty.  Since 1992 California has spent nearly $1 trillion on benefit programs.  Clearly it hasn't worked.  Then again paying poor people to be poor never does.

The lawless, porn-respecting, MS-13-loving, humorless American left.  [Nancy] Pelosi says the low unemployment is meaningless, the tax cuts are "crumbs," and that consumer confidence is low despite it being at an 18-year high.  They see, hear, think, and propagate what they want to be true, not what is true.  Even California voters made a tiny dent in the left's socialist grasp on the state.  No one expected Republican John Cox to come in second.  All Californians should be horrified by what has become of their once golden state.  Thanks to the polices of Gov. Brown, ex-senator Boxer, Feinstein, Kamala Harris, A.G. Becerra, etc.  (it is a one-party Marxist state), California is a disaster of incalculable proportions, drowning in the homeless, the illegal migrants, traffic, and the highest gas prices in the country.

California Desperately Needs A State Electoral College.  This November a Republican — businessman John Cox — will be one of two gubernatorial candidates in the state of California.  This is significant because of the Golden State's unique "jungle primary" system in which the top-two vote-getters proceed to a run-off election regardless of party.  The "jungle primary" was championed by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  His reasoning was that eliminating party-identification in a race would give Republican candidates a better chance in a deeply blue state.  Of course, the effect was just the opposite.  With so many blue voters, the controversial system virtually guarantees that the top two candidates are Democrats.  The result has been that many voters not aligned with the Democrat platform have been repeatedly forced to choose between candidates that don't in any way represent them.

California Attorney General adds Oklahoma to growing travel ban list.  I am so old that I remember when California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was fighting against travel bans.  Let's get in the Wayback Machine and turn the dial to March, 2017:  ["]California Atty.  Gen. Xavier Becerra issued a statement Monday [6/4/2018] saying President Trump's decision to rescind a travel ban bogged down in court challenges 'confirms what we all knew:  the travel ban was unconstitutional and un-American.'["]  Becerra, a social justice warrior and leading general in the War on Trump, relies on one of the tried-and-tested tools of progressive activism:  The Double Standard.  This week, he issued his own travel ban on that red bastion of traditional values and implemented a travel ban on Oklahoma.

Oklahoma officials unfazed after landing on California's state-travel blacklist.  Oklahomans weren't exactly crying in their sweet tea after learning that their state has been added to California's blacklist on state-sponsored travel.  "There appears to be more and more Californians sharing our values as we are seeing more Californians move to Oklahoma," said Michael McNutt, spokesman for Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, in a statement.  "With our state's economy being as strong as it is, we won't miss a few Californians traveling on state business showing up in our state."

Prop 68: A Yes Vote is a Reward for Bad Behavior.  This adds about $400 of new debt onto your family's tab, that you'll repay in future taxes plus interest.  It promises to be used to prepare for droughts.  Remember the $5 billion that was supposed to be used on new reservoirs a few years ago?  It wasn't.  The best way to prepare for droughts is to store water from wet years so that we have it in dry ones.

With free health care for illegals, California Democrats hand a big campaign contribution to the GOP's Cox.  For Democrats, succoring illegals and doling out nationalized "free" health care are signature issues.  What better way to enact that agenda than to offer California's abundant illegal aliens free state health care?  That's the scheme they've cooked up, in their relentless push to make California a West Coast imitation of socialist Venezuela.  It's so bad that it's likely to draw California voters toward Republicans.

California rebukes Trump with health care push for immigrants.  California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults even as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown by separating families at the border.  The proposal — which would build on Gov. Jerry Brown's 2015 decision to extend health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status — is one of the most daring examples yet of blue-state Democrats thumbing their nose at President Donald Trump as they pursue diametrically opposed policies, whether on immigration, climate change, legalized marijuana or health care.

California assisted death law overturned in court.  A judge in Riverside County on Tuesday overturned California's controversial assisted death law nearly two years after it took effect, ruling that the Legislature improperly passed the measure during a special session on health care funding.

Report finds cases of STDs reach all-time high in California.  The number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases in California reached a record high last year and officials are particularly concerned by a spike in stillbirths due to congenital syphilis, state health authorities said Monday [5/14/2018].

California Bill Seeks to Replace Washington or Lincoln's Birthday Holidays with 'May Day'.  A Democrat California assemblyman introduced a bill seeking to make "May Day," or International Workers Day, a state holiday that would replace President George Washington's or President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  Assemblyman Miguel Santiago's (D-Los Angeles) legislation calls for consolidating the two presidents' birthdays to be observed on the third Monday in February as a single "President's Day" holiday, but it also calls for the state to observe May 1 as "International Workers Day."

Leftist pol in California proposes scrapping Washington's Birthday in favor of Marxist May Day.  Leftists are notoriously touchy whenever anyone questions their patriotism, and the mask seems to be off with a California assemblyman's proposal to scrap Lincoln's or Washington's birthdays as holidays and replace them with the communist May Day.  Surreal as this sounds, it's true.

California Bill Wants To Drop Washington/Lincoln's Birthday And Replace It With Communist Holiday.  The California Assembly discussed Thursday [5/10/2018] a bill that would replace Abraham Lincoln or George Washington's birthday with International Socialist Workers' Day as a paid holiday.  California Democrat Assemblyman Miguel Santiago introduced Bill AB-3042, which would allow schools to replace Washington Day and Lincoln Day with Presidents' Day and install an "International Workers' Day" — conventionally known as "May Day" — as a second holiday.  "I'm aghast that a bill like this would be able to get through committee," California Republican Assemblyman Matthew Harper said to the Assembly.  "Are we in competition to be the laughing stock of the United States?"

The Editor says...
Yes, such a competition is apparently underway, and California is far ahead, although New York is catching up.

California Demands That Christians 'Evolve'.  There's a new legislative proposal banning all conversion therapy as a fraudulent business practice — by not just mental health providers but anyone.  Since the "independent fact-checkers" are quick to swarm around conservative "misinformation," FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and Snopes have all cried "False" at the idea that this bill is a threat to the sale of the Bible.  They declared that a threat against Bible sales is nowhere in the text of California Assembly Bill 2943, offered by gay assembly member Evan Low.  That is correct ... on its face.  It doesn't mention the Bible.  However, the bill would amend the state Consumer Legal Remedies Act, adding the ability to sue for damages for "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual."  Any efforts to change someone's sexual orientation "in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer are unlawful."  That's more than therapy.  It's any kind of an argument.

California Voters Oppose Arming Teachers to Shoot Back if Under Attack.  By a wide margin California voters support more gun control and oppose arming teachers to shoot back if under attack.  The opposition to armed teachers was uncovered via a Berkeley-IGS Poll and reported by the Sacramento Bee.  The poll found 61 percent of voters opposed arming teachers while only 37 percent supported it.  When viewed by political affiliation, 83 percent of Democrats opposed allowing teachers to be armed to protect themselves and their students, while 75 percent of Republicans supported the idea.

Christians' Munich Moment in California.  Scarcely any moment in American history is as important for America's Christians as the developing crises over religious freedom now happening in California.  The legislature of Sacramento not only is underhandedly banning books opposed to the doctrines of the transgender religion (including the Bible), but also has threatened Christians' rights to free assembly and freedom of speech.  According to its website, Summit Ministries, an organization devoted to advising Christian youths on how to live out a Christian worldview, has canceled its scheduled appearances at Biola University in Los Angeles "due to concerns that California will forbid some of what it teaches."  Summit's concern is real.

How Homeschoolers Defeated California's Push to Take Power From Parents.  They came by the hundreds, one newspaper said — "perhaps thousands."  Some traveled hours, others waited hours, all for the opportunity to protest one of the most outrageous homeschooling bills ever introduced:  California's AB 2756.  Spilling out into crammed hallways and overflow rooms, families poured into the Statehouse just for the opportunity to spend a few minutes speaking out on a measure that would give the government more power over parents who educate at home.  Initially, the bill tried to mandate fire inspections of all homeschooling families (which, not surprisingly, firefighters rejected).  Then the proposal was amended — this time to force homeschooling families to give out private information about the names and address of homeschooling families.

They Keep Telling Us Who They Are.  The California legislature is processing a bill to ban and criminalize all speech, all writing, that goes against "LGBTQ priorities".  Assembly Bill 2943, which has already sailed through two committees, would criminalize "efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions."  It seems to be aimed at practicing psychologists, psychiatrists, or counselors whose clients ask them to help them get rid of unwanted sexual attractions; but the bill is so vaguely written that it could be used against virtually anybody — commentators who dissent from the agenda of Organized Sodomy, parents who teach their children that there are only two "genders," and Biblically orthodox churches where homosexual acting-out is presented as a sin.

Yes, California Is on the Verge of Banning Some Christian Books, Here's How.  Late last week, I wrote an article that caused a bit of a furious reaction in social-justice Twitter.  Activists claimed I was lying, arguing in bad faith, and/or exaggerating the effect of California's AB 2943, a bill that purports to declare "sexual orientation change efforts" to be an "unlawful business practice."  I claimed the bill was so broad that it could even ban books.  And I'm right.  It can and would.

California Bill Would Criminalize Speech, Books Opposing LGBT Agenda.  In a direct assault on the freedoms of speech and religion, the California Assembly on Thursday [4/19/2018] overwhelmingly approved a bill that would, in effect, prohibit the dissemination of traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality and transgenderism.  The Assembly voted 50-14 to criminalize "a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer" that consists of "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual."  The bill defines "sexual orientation change efforts" as "any practices that seek to change an individual's sexual orientation.  This includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."

New California Bill Would Mean Banning the Bible.  The bill in question is California Assembly Bill 2943.  It would treat as a criminal violation of the state's consumer fraud act "the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer" that consists of "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual."  Don't be misled into thinking that this bill bans only professional counselors from trying to alter same-sex attractions.  It goes well beyond that.

California launches an attack against churches!?  A California State Assembly is gearing up to vote on new bill that could ban the sale of books and punish churches that encourage children to stick to traditional gender norms.  Yes, you read that right — they want to ban books that say things like, "Girls wear dresses" and shutter churches that encourage boys to wear slacks.  Assembly Bill 2943 would make it "unlawful business practice" to engage in "a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of good of services to any consumer" that engages in "sexual orientation change efforts with an individual."

California's crazy-intrusive politicians can't keep their hands off anything — Next up?  Homeschoolers!  [Scroll down]  The recently introduced Assembly Bills 2756 and 2926 are cases in point.  This first, AB 2756, requires fire marshals to perform in-home inspections of home-schoolers every year, implying that somehow home-educators are less fire-safe than other individuals.  This is, of course, egregiously discriminatory on its face.  But wait.  The second one is even worse!  With AB 2926, Assembly Member Susan Eggman proposes forming an appointed committee to "investigate" homeschooling.  The "instruction" committee would subsequently share its findings so that the California legislature might consider how best to regulate those families.  Because there isn't anything a bureaucrat loves more than a new regulation!  And these particular bureaucrats are already doing such a fine job of regulating our public schools that roughly half of California public school students surveyed reported experiencing bullying.

California Has Highest Poverty Rate In America.  Democrats in California have consistently rejected forcing work requirements on the able-bodied individuals who receive welfare.  Forcing those who can work to look for a job and/or maintain employment before receiving benefits is a policy unpalatable for the democrats who control the state.  Americans in California are mostly jobless and the ones who can find work are actually having their money taken through the highest state income tax in the union to support immigrants, the majority of which are on welfare.

Why do Democrats love tax hikes so much?  California is already seeing residents and businesses flee the state because of its sky-high taxes.  Yet unbelievably, two Democratic state assemblymen have proposed to more than double the state business tax — hiking it from 8.84 percent to 18.84 percent on businesses with annual net incomes of more than $1 million.  This would be the highest state corporate tax rate in America.  The rationale for the giant tax hike?  Denying the companies tax savings from the federal income tax cuts recently signed into law by President Trump.  Soak the rich!  Billions in new tax revenue for the state!  What could possibly be wrong with that?

California's latest contradictions — Welcoming criminals but warning about 'dangerous' coffee.  Imagine a state that passes a law welcoming, embracing and protecting criminals, directly endangering citizens.  Then imagine that same state passing laws, and judges issuing orders that make no sense except to micromanage people's lives in the name of keeping them safe.  A contradiction indeed, and especially ripe in California.  The same week that a number of cities and counties in California sued their own state over the dangerous law making the state a "sanctuary" for illegal alien criminals, a judge issued a ruling to save Californians from themselves and their coffee-drinking habit.

Can America Survive the Latest Plague?  The left survives within a self-made mirage that uses well written speeches containing caring and poetic language and emotional appeals that appear to be on the side of good, protecting the weak and needy in society.  But in fact, the left exploits and manipulates both weak and poor to continue to remain in power.  Consider the infected American cities of Detroit, Baltimore, and Chicago, where the left has total control and can implement whatever programs it wants, and look at the result:  perpetual devastation, crime, and misery.  California, a once wealthy and successful state, is now an insolvent laughingstock of the world.

California Democrat Introduces Bill to Force Websites to Use 'Fact-Checkers'.  California State Senator Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) has proposed a bill, the "Online False Information Act," that would require anyone who posts news on the Internet to verify their information through "fact-checkers."  The bill, filed quietly in late February as SB 1424, requires all California-based websites to develop a plan to fight "fake news," to use "fact-checkers," and to warn readers — including via social media — of "false information."

The Editor says...
Why stop at social media?  Why not require the same of broadcasters and newspapers?  Is CNN always 100% accurate?  Is MSNBC never misleading?  Is The New York Times not biased?

The Justice Department Sues California.  On Monday [4/2/2018], the Department of Justice filed suit against the state of California, challenging a state law that purports to prevent the federal government from selling federal lands without the permission of a state agency.  Passed by the California legislature in October 2017, Senate Bill 50 declares that, with limited exceptions, "conveyances of federal public lands in California are void" unless the State Lands Commission is provided a "right of first refusal" or "the right to arrange for the transfer of the federal public land to another entity."  The statute also prohibits purchasers of federal land from recording the deed to the newly acquired property without an accompanying "certificate of compliance" from the state commission and provides for a $5,000 civil penalty for buyers who violate this provision.

'Remarkably stupid': Calif Dems push 'first of its kind' legislation restricting when a cop can use his gun.  Talk about handcuffing police, California Democrats are pushing an unprecedented law to limit when a cop can use his/her weapon.  Following the shooting death of an unarmed black man in Sacramento last month by police, state lawmakers have proposed legislation that raises the threshold for when an officer may open fire, Huffington Post reported.

Trump is right — California is out of control.  When President Trump recently visited California, he came away with the sense that it "is totally out of control." If he arrived at that conclusion from just a single visit, imagine how many who live in the state feel.  To be fair, California itself isn't out of control.  There are many among the 40 million who honorably and honestly go about their daily business.  Outside of Antifa riots and some infantile behavior on college campuses, there are no mobs in the streets; crime is up but not unrestrained; there are multiple efforts brewing to break up the state, but none are threatening violent insurgencies (though there is a Calexit movement that calls for the state to leave the union).  What is out of control is California's ruling class.  Much of its political agenda is hostile to basic human liberty and mocks the limits on what government should be allowed to do in an ostensibly free society.

Is The Golden State Trying To Secede?  There may be hope in California yet.  Despite the state's political descent into madness by illegally declaring itself a "sanctuary state," the resistance it growing.  California has a political and legal fight on its hands, one it can't win.

Is California Governor Jerry Brown Mentally Ill?  The entire country is talking about the collapse of California due to decades of insane liberal policies.  And what is Governor Brown's response?  He implemented hundreds more destructive liberal rules, regulations, and giveaways to illegals.  An article listing the top ten stupidest new California laws includes "Single-User Restrooms," "Controlling Cow Flatulence," "Legalizing Child Prostitution," and "Felons Voting."  Governor Brown signed a new law making California a sanctuary state, doubling down on his bizarre quest to undermine American citizens. [...] Numerous California families have suffered devastating losses of family members killed by illegals with long felony records who have been deported several times and welcomed back with open arms by Brown.  One mom whose son was killed by an illegal with two DUIs and two felonies said Brown should be arrested for treason.

California Appoints Illegal Alien to State Office.  California has its first illegal alien in state office, after Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) appointed Lizbeth Mateo to the California Student Opportunity and Access Program Project Grant Advisory Committee.  Mateo, an attorney, was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. illegally at the age of 14 with her parents, who are also illegal aliens, according to the Sacramento Bee.

San Francisco Is Suffering From The Excesses Of Its Own Liberalism.  I live in a reasonably decent section of San Francisco, and from what I gathered in speaking to many others, everyone has had his or her version of San Franciscan traumas.  San Francisco, one of the richest cities in the country and home to a booming center of intellectual capital, has suffered from the excesses of its own liberalism.  Bloated and inefficient spending, combined with a gross shortage of housing only worsened by rent-control antics and a fat city bureaucracy, has left a city in utter disrepair. [...] The relative "coronation" of Democrats each election on the local and state level has led to a general erosion of performance from the reigning party, which rarely feels the pressure to perform, given the absence of a legitimately competitive rival party.

Is California becoming America's Taiwan?  Taiwan is an independent nation — in its ambitions, its economy, its democracy.  But many countries refuse to recognize it as a separate country, deferring to mainland China, which claims Taiwan as a possession and responds with threats when Taiwan goes its own way.  California shares aspects of this conundrum.  Our state has the ambitions, economy, and democracy of a leading nation.  But it remains very much a part of the United States, which responds with threats when California goes its own way.

California Has Become a Disgraceful State.  At one time, California was the envy of America, attracting people from around the nation to move to a state offering opportunity and the chance to pursue ambitious dreams.  With scenic beauty, the Pacific Ocean coastline, the major cities of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California recruited entrepreneurs looking for economic growth.  As the home of Hollywood and multitudes of celebrities, California presented an enticing potential to enjoy "lifestyles of the rich and famous."  Today, California has become an economic and cultural disaster.  The state is home to over 114,000 homeless people, one quarter of the total in the nation.  In San Francisco, a health crisis has developed as the homeless have created a mess in the downtown area, littering it with fecal matter, spent needles and piles of trash.

I hope Democrats defend sanctuary cities.  It's bad policy, and it'll cost them.  The Justice Department is now challenging several laws in California that not only interfere with the nation's immigration policies but also place American citizens and law enforcement personnel at risk.  The idea that laws can be ignored and that state and local politicians can affirmatively warn lawbreakers of how to escape apprehension is incredible.  It is indefensible.  We either have laws, or we don't.  And if our elected leaders don't want to uphold the law, they can either change them or resign.  The law is not optional once you have made a pledge to uphold the duties of your office.  Open-border radicals in California and other liberal strongholds must be held accountable.  Of course, liberals would have you believe that they are only interested in protecting the poor, the oppressed and the hardworking who have nowhere else to go.  But in many cases, their actions allow dangerous and sometimes repeat criminals to be shielded from deportation or prison.

Dear California:  Call Me When the Commies Leave.  I don't care what the libs do to the likes of New York, Chicago, or the Pacific Northwest.  Let the progressive loons have cities and states that are already cold, wet and miserable.  But, as I often asked audiences, why should we let them have a place as glorious as California?  Apparently, no one was listening.  When the Democrats gained a super-majority stranglehold on the California legislature, they didn't waste any time letting their far-left freak flag fly.  As soon as some bills were floated, then passed, people began asking me in private and in public interviews about the legislative madness issuing forth from Sacramento.  I thought most of it was boilerplate liberal lunacy that wouldn't stand up to any strict legal scrutiny, which made me shrug it off.

How a list of 23 crimes now dominates California's debate over prison punishment.  California has a long history of mixing crime and punishment with raw politics.  But outrage doesn't always translate into coherent policy, and unintended consequences can spark even more public anger.  With that in mind, consider the last two years of debate over what should, and should not, be a "violent" crime.  That debate begins with the index of crimes in section 667.5 of the California Penal Code.  The list was first enacted in 1976, and has been tinkered with so many times it's hard to say whether it's a fair representation of the most heinous crimes.

California has worst 'quality of life' in US, study says.  Awards season is in full swing in California, and the Golden State just took home a booby prize of its own.  California ranks dead last among U.S. states in quality of life, according to a study by U.S. News, ranking behind New Jersey (49th) and Indiana (48th).  The ignominious honor reflects California's low marks in the sub-categories of environmental quality and social engagement.  The latter category measures voting participation and community bonds.  Californians scored poorly in part because they're simply insufferable, U.S. News suggested.

U.S. News Crowns California Worst State for 'Quality of Life'.  The U.S. News & World Report has named California the worst state for "quality of life," largely due to the high cost of living.  U.S. News ranks the 50 U.S. states each year on eight major social and economic categories to determine an overall competitive ranking.  California received an overall score of 32 in 2018, based on sub-category rankings for a Health Care (11); Education (26); Economy (4); Opportunity (46); Infrastructure (38); Crime and Corrections (28); Fiscal Stability (43); and Quality of Life (50).  U.S. News found California's high cost of living to be its biggest detriment, despite its having the largest economy in the nation.  San Jose and San Francisco both ranked in the 20 top places to live in U.S., but two communities were also in the most expensive for housing.

Pelosi the 'most right-wing'? Only in San Francisco.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is regarded by most Republicans as a far-left liberal.  But a recent column identifies the San Francisco Democrat as the "most right-wing" candidate running in her district this year.  Emily Cadei, a correspondent for the Sacramento Bee, wrote Monday [2/26/2018] that Pelosi — who'll turn 78 on March 26 — will be forced to fight off three opponents, all coming at her from the left, when she seeks re-election later this year.

Dianne Feinstein No Longer Left-Wing Enough for California.  This is a woman who was once mayor of San Francisco, who has argued for the confiscation of guns from law-abiding gun owners, and whose lifetime ACU rating is under 10%.  (Meaning she has voted conservatively less than 10% of the time.)  But Kevin de Leon is an even bigger anti-gun zealot, a man so far left he introduced environmental regulation so radical (banning all fossil fuels in California) not even the hard-left Democrat legislature would go for it.  (Probably because existing renewable energy bills have already made California's electric bills look like Michigan's car insurance premiums.  Worse, actually.

Democratic Lunacy on Full Display in California.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has promised everything she can for the young illegal aliens and her increasingly restive left-leaning caucus.  The House members are grousing privately about how their leader is ruining their brand across the country.  As for the illegal aliens and their activist enablers, they overwhelmed one of her press conferences in San Francisco.  They badgered her US Senate colleagues, including Chuck Schumer by protesting outside of his home in New York State.  Two weeks ago, Pelosi stood for 8 hours to demand that a clean DREAM Act be attached to the latest budget-spending bill.  Nothing happened.  Meanwhile, since 2016 the Democratic Party has moved further left than anyone would have anticipated since 2016.  They will embrace every letter in the LGBTQAI etc. list, they want to repeal the Second Amendment, abolish the First, get rid of the United States Constitution.

San Francisco Prisons Implement Reforms Giving Transgenders Special Treatments.  San Francisco prisons formally announced they are implementing a policy for transgenders that will respect their gender preferences, house them in the cells of their chosen identity, and offer other gender identity services.  The San Francisco Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday [2/21/2018] that inmates who identify as transgender, gender variant or non-binary will be able to choose a name and gender identity upon entering the prison.  They will also get to determine if a man or woman will search them before they're admitted into the prison, according to CBS San Fransisco.

Diseased Streets.  How dirty is San Francisco?  An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco.

California's Paradox:  More Immigration, More Poverty.  California is a land of untold opulence.  Hollywood's glitter dazzles the gawking masses, while the world's most profitable companies, Google, Apple, and Facebook, funnel cash into the Golden State from every corner of the earth.  And yet California is also desperately poor.  One-in-five Californians live in poverty, the state's income inequality is worse than Mexico's, and untold thousands live on the streets.  California is a dystopia.  How can so much wealth and poverty coexist?  This is the California paradox.  It was not always this way.  California used to be home to America's largest and most affluent middle class.  Now it is a playground for the rich and a prison for the poor.  How did the Golden State become America's poverty capital?

Tucker: Violent Criminal Illegals Now a 'Protected Class' in California.  Illegal aliens — including violent criminals — have become a protected class in California, Fox News host Tucker Carlson declared Tuesday [2/13/2018], reacting to the state's new sanctuary policy:  "It doesn't matter even if they have a history of crime, even violent crime.  In California, illegal aliens are now a protected class.  And even more significant, the state itself is now in direct opposition to this country's most basic laws."  Carlson listed several ways California's laws give special treatment to illegal aliens: [...]

California Will Block Oil And Coal Shipments, Risks Constitutional Battle.  California officials plan on preventing the federal government from transporting oil and gas using existing pipelines in the state, according to a report Wednesday [2/7/2018] from The San Francisco Chronicle.  Officials on the California Coastal Commission are urging the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to rescind plans allowing companies to drill for oil off the coast.  They are still hoping for an exemption from the oil drilling plan, that Florida has received.

Starting Today, San Francisco Is Erasing Everybody's Misdemeanor Pot Convictions.  San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced today [1/31/2018] that his office will proactively expunge and seal the records of misdemeanor marijuana offenders, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.  The office will also resentence offenders who received a felony pot conviction.  Proposition 64, the 2016 referendum item that legalized recreational marijuana in California, allows pot offenders to petition for resentencing if their crime would have received a different penalty, or no penalty at all, under the new law.

California's Soft Secession Accelerates.  California's progressive government is one part healthy federalism and one part unhealthy separatism.  If (and this is a big if) the state can temper its soft secession, California's progressives may actually — in all their radicalism — show us a path out of our dangerous national polarization.  But first, let's chronicle what California is doing.  Its resistance to the White House is well known.  The state government has filed 26 separate lawsuits against the Trump administration.  That's roughly one new complaint every two weeks, with challenges touching at least 17 different subject areas.  Moreover, California is now a "sanctuary state" and therefore sharply limits the extent to which its citizens or public entities can voluntarily cooperate with federal immigration authorities.  It's even considered imposing penalties on companies that worked to build a Trump border wall.

Eek!  A man!  In the case of San Francisco city policy, it isn't so much how many heroin needles should be distributed outside the quinoa cafes, or what punishment to exact upon sippers of straws.  It isn't about what to do with car break-ins, which have spiked to fever proportions and are growing at 26% annually.  Nor is the debate about housing, where vibrantly successful Democrat policy has caused "inflation adjusted construction costs [to] increase in San Francisco over the last 16 years by 60% not including changes in land values."  All of these policies are right on the mark.  The trouble is the skin color and sex of the people in city hall.

New California law will automatically register illegal immigrants to vote... and it all begins on April Fool's Day!  A new law in California that goes into effect this spring will automatically register people to vote — including immigrants who are in the country illegally.  In 2015, the state passed a law called the California New Motor Voter Act to increase voter rolls by simplifying the process to register to vote.  The legislation, which goes into effect April 1, will automatically register people who apply for a new driver's license or new state ID at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Why are so many people poor in the Golden State?  It's not as if California policymakers have neglected to wage war on poverty.  Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now.  Myriad state and municipal benefit programs overlap with one another; in some cases, individuals with incomes 200 percent above the poverty line receive benefits, according to the California Policy Center.  California state and local governments spent nearly $958 billion from 1992 through 2015 on public welfare programs, including cash-assistance payments, vendor payments, and "other public welfare," according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Unfortunately, California, with 12 percent of the American population, is home today to roughly one in three of the nation's welfare recipients.  The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse.

California AG: 'We will prosecute' employers who violate sanctuary laws.  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned employers Thursday of legal repercussions if they assist federal immigration officials in an impending crackdown in the sanctuary state, The Sacramento Bee reported.  Under a new state law — the Immigration Worker Protection Act — employers and businesses could face fines of up to $10,000 if they provide employee information to U.S. Immigration Customs, Becerra said.  If employers "start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office.  We will prosecute those who violate the law," he said at a news conference.

California Democrats want businesses to give half their tax-cut savings to state.  California lawmakers are targeting the expected windfall that companies in the state would see under the federal tax overhaul with a bill that would require businesses to turn over half to the state.  A proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment by Assemblymen Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would create a tax surcharge on California companies making more than $1 million so that half of their federal tax cut would instead go to programs that benefit low-income and middle-class families.

Crazed California AG Threatens Charges Against Employers Aiding ICE Raids On Illegal Aliens.  In a shocking admission Thursday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D-CA) threatened his office will charge employees cooperating with ICE raids on illegal aliens. [...] The news comes amid Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen telling the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday [1/16/2018] that her Department is preparing to arrest leaders of sanctuary cities.

'We will prosecute' employers who help immigration sweeps, California AG says.  The state's top cop issued a warning to California employers Thursday [1/18/2018] that businesses face legal repercussions, including fines up to $10,000, if they assist federal immigration authorities with a potential widespread immigration crackdown.  "It's important, given these rumors that are out there, to let people know — more specifically today, employers — that if they voluntarily start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office," state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a news conference.  "We will prosecute those who violate the law."

The Editor says...
The AG is very selective about the laws he will defend.  "We will prosecute those who violate the law," he says.  But that doesn't mean he will prosecute those who are not supposed to be in this country.

Does the California Model Really Work?  The alleged success of the California model is one of the more intense controversies in the nerdier corners of public-policy debate.  For many progressives, California's metastasizing liberalism proves you can have Scandinavian-style social policies and tax rates and still have robust economic growth.  For conservatives, California is like a bumblebee.  On paper, [it] shouldn't be able to fly — and yet it does.  Thus the cottage industry on the right of prophesizing California's inevitable demise.

Making California Mexico Again.  After the November 2016 election, California governor Jerry Brown, a three-time presidential loser, denounced the victorious Donald Trump and pledged that the Golden State would go its own way, perhaps even launching its own satellites.  Brown's attorney general Xavier Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton's short list as a running mate, also defies the federal government.  Senate boss Kevin de León, which is not the name on his birth certificate and voter rolls, authored the state's sanctuary legislation that has made false-documented illegals, even criminals, a privileged, protected class.  In early January, after the legislation kicked in, California's Assembly speaker Anthony Rendon took things to a new level.  "There is no sensible place for barriers between California and Mexico," said Rendon, heading south with fellow Democrats on a four-day mission to Mexico.

San Francisco Requires Poop Maps To Help Pedestrians Avoid Human Waste.  For those who have maintained that San Francisco is full of ... whatever, there is now living proof.  How much poop is there on the streets of the City by the Bay?  Would you believe there is an online map to track human feces on the city's streets?  There is.  According to Fox News, one area of the city reported a 140% rise in feces.  As Jay Caruso of RedState noted, "Public urination is so widespread it has damaged subway elevators and escalators, building walls and power poles."  When did the gleaming jewel that was San Francisco become a repository for poop?  Mayor Willie Brown terminated ordinances; city district Attorney Terence Hallinan would not prosecute "victimless" crimes involving drugs and prostitution.

What's the Matter with California?  The progressives who control every aspect of the state's government are not necessarily stupid people, but they are malign.  They understand that increasing welfare spending only encourages the arrival of more recipients on whom to spend it, and the high likelihood that those new constituents will vote Democrat as soon as they are able, legally or otherwise.  Already, some 55 percent of "immigrants" receive means-tested benefits, while only 30 percent of native Californians do so.  California's army of bureaucrats contributes as well, as does the state's highly restrictive land-use ordinances and environmental restrictions, which drive up the cost of housing in what is already the nation's most expensive real-estate market.

Why California is the 'poverty capital of the America'.  An excellent op-ed in the L.A. Times today by Kerry Jackson is on why California — with its liberal politics and generous welfare system — is the "poverty capital of America."  According to the Census Bureau, one out of five California residents is poor.  This despite the state's per capita GDP rising twice as fast in the last five years as the national average.  From 1992 to 2015, state and local governments spent nearly $1 trillion to help the poor.  The state, with 12% of the American population, is home today to about one in three of the nation's welfare recipients.  Jackson then reaches the not so astonishing conclusion:  "The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse."

Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?  Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country?  Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor.  That's according to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income.  Given robust job growth and the prosperity generated by several industries, it's worth asking why California has fallen behind, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased approximately twice as much as the U.S. average over the five years ending in 2016 (12.5%, compared with 6.27%).

Hate-speech Laws USA? California Prosecutes Man for Anti-Muslim Posts.  California is already flouting federal immigration law with its "sanctuary" status.  Now it's also ignoring the most American of laws — the First Amendment — prosecuting a man simply for posting five anti-Muslim messages to Facebook.  The hapless defendant is 41-year-old Mark Feigin, who expressed his opinions at the Islamic Center of Southern California's (ICSC) Facebook page in 2016.  Feigin is certainly an acerbic, acid-tongued, foul-mouthed fellow, and he admits to sending the messages.  But while many may not like their substance and/or style, they're clearly an example of constitutionally protected speech.

Rainbow Textbooks Adopted in California.  Late last year, the California board of education brought to an end a decades-long campaign to emphasize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender historical figures in state social-studies/history textbooks, approving K-8 volumes that make identity politics of all kinds the core of the subject.  California has had enormous influence on the nation's history textbooks in the past, and single-interest groups have long flocked to Sacramento to try to gain expanded, favorable inclusion.  The LGBT lobby has been notably assertive. [...] In 2006, Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica — the state's first openly gay legislator — introduced a bill that would require textbooks to include LGBT contributions to state and national history.

California federal court rules high school football player can't be ordered to stand for national anthem.  A California federal court has ruled that a high school football player cannot be ordered to stand for the national anthem before games.  The decision, made by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Dec. 21, struck down statutes enforced by the San Pasqual Valley Unified School District, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday [12/30/2017].  The district prohibited students from "kneeling, sitting or similar forms of political protest" at sporting events and "required students and coaches to "stand and remove hats/helmets during the playing or singing of the national anthem," according to court documents.

California Prosecuting Man For Anti-Muslim Insults.  Here in the United States of America, the California Attorney General is actually prosecuting a man for Internet insults.

Six Insane California Laws That Will Be Implemented On Monday.  [#3] Employers can't ask applicants abouttheir salary history:  Private employers — yes, private employers — can't ask people who want money from them silly questions like how much money they've made in the past or are making at their current job.  It will be interesting to see the inevitable unintended consequences of AB 168.  It will be at least a little more difficult for a company to gauge what a reasonable offer looks like without knowing what an applicant is currently making or recently made.  Sure, employers will ask questions like, "What would you like to make?" and smart applicants will clarify their expectations at some point in the interview process.  But, really, it's not the government's business how an employer and an applicant work out any mutually benecial agreement.

Gov. Jerry Brown Pardons Immigrant Felons Facing Deportation.  In California governor Jerry Brown's endless attempts to drag California to third world nation status, he is now pardoning immigrants convicted of felonies in order to save them from being deported.

California becomes 'sanctuary state' as Gov. Brown defies Trump administration.  California became a "sanctuary state" on Thursday [12/21/2017] as Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation protecting illegal immigrants in defiance of the Trump administration.  The bill, approved by the state's legislature last month, bars police from asking people about their immigration status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities in most cases starting Jan. 1.

Mileage Tax Could Drive More Middle-class Residents From California.  A proposal to charge California drivers for every mile they drive threatens to bring an end to a way of life in the Golden State.  For decades, the California lifestyle was almost synonymous with Californians' love affair with the automobile.  The Golden State's freeways were legendary, and Californians' fascination with cars was celebrated in a number of car-themed songs during the 1960s (e.g., "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena," "Little Deuce Coupe").  The scenes of teenagers cruising in their cars in American Graffiti were based on the memories of the film's director, George Lucas, during his own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto.  But the combination of impossibly heavy traffic on those beloved freeways, the state's imposition of ultra-strict automobile emissions requirements, and increasingly higher gasoline taxes have diminished considerably the joy that Californians experienced driving their cars.

Report:  California's $15 Minimum Wage Will Destroy 400,000 Jobs.  California's massive state-wide jump to a $15 minimum wage could conservatively cost around 400,000 potential jobs, according to a new Employment Policy Institute study.  "California Dreamin' of Higher Wages," strives to evaluate what the state's jump to a $15 minimum wage will mean when it fully kicks in in 2022 by attempting to contextualize it with the empirical effects of previous minimum wage increases in the state going back to 1990.  The results are pretty dire.  They believe that by the time the minimum wage fully kicks in the state will have lost 400,000 jobs as a consequence.  These job losses will not be evenly distributed throughout the state's workforce.  They will hit food service, retail, and agriculture jobs the hardest.  Overall, this a four percent loss of jobs out of workforce estimated at around 10 million.

Some Real Talk For Conservatives About 2018.  We conservatives need to get our heads right about the mid-terms or liberals will end up guzzling patriot tears and their gloating will be flat-out intolerable.  We're not doomed in 2018 — I mean, it's not like tax reform or pulling out of the Paris Climate Scam, which have already killed millions of people, including me and you.  But, if we fail to get on course for victory then we're going to see Nancy Pelosi and the Gropeocrats back in charge and trying to make America into California.  Trust me.  You do not want to live in the United States of California.

California still hasn't paid a dime of the $1.2 billion in claims from people whose homes and businesses were destroyed by Oroville Dam crisis.  California has not paid any of the $1.2 billion claims stemming from the Oroville Dam crisis, it has emerged.  The main spillway of the nation's tallest dam was heavily damaged in February, after heavy rains forced the dam operators to continue using it[.]  The flows exacerbated damage to the structure, eventually carving a massive gash through the concrete spillway.

California Sued by Students & Parents for Failing to Teach Literacy.  A group of parents and students has filed what it hopes will be a landmark lawsuit against the State of California for its public schools failing to teach literacy.  Public Counsel and the prestigious Law Firm of Morrison & Foerster sued the State of California, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson for their collective failure to provide every child in the state access to literacy as required under the California Constitution.

Poll: CA Dems in Trouble Over High Costs, Jobs, Taxes & Illegal Aliens.  California Democrats could be in trouble in 2018, with the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll finding registered voters' top concerns are the traditionally Republican issues of high cost of living, jobs, taxes, and illegal immigrants.  The USC poll found that the most important concerns for voters are the high cost of living, at 21.8 percent; followed by jobs, at 9.9 percent; taxes and fees, at 8.9 percent; and illegal immigration, at 6.9 percent.

Politico: Jerry Brown, President of the Independent Republic of California.  David Siders writes in Politico that California Governor Jerry Brown, as he visits Europe en route to the United Nations climate talks, is functioning rather more like the leader of a country distinct from the United States than merely the governor of one of fifty states within that powerful union.

Average price per gallon up 17 cents in Los Angeles since gas tax took effect.  The average price for a gallon of gas in Los Angeles County is up 17 cents compared to last week after a new 12-cent gas tax was tacked on at the pump.  In Orange County, the average price-per-gallon is 18 cents more than it was one week ago.

California:  Proof That Everything The Liberals Run Turns [Bad].  [Scroll down]  It seems to be a habit of government leadership on the far Left to make everything they govern worse than they found it.  It's not only a habit, it seems to be a requirement.  If you challenge them they double down!  Again, why?  California Democrats want a free college education for all, including illegals.  Free healthcare for all, including illegals.  They want more taxes and, according to Governor Brown, Californians that don't want to pay more taxes are selfish.  Democrats who run this state don't want to explain what they did with the tens of millions of dollars they took from Californians in the guise of taxes then redirected away from the projects they collected it for.  And now, not only do they want Californian's to pay again, but they also want the Federal government to bail them out.  Yup, it's everyone's fault but theirs!  And we all get to pay for it.

California, the sanctuary state, will reap the whirlwind.  Earlier this month, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 54, a historic state law that thumbs his state's nose at federal authority.  Beginning in January, the law states, California officially becomes a so-called sanctuary state.  The term "sanctuary" is, of course, not univocal.  It was once used to describe a sensible law enforcement strategy, by which otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants who report crimes or cooperate with the police are not asked about their immigration status, lest they hesitate to help authorities in the future.  Unfortunately, that is not what "sanctuary" means in this case.

California first state to legally recognize third gender option.  California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Sunday [10/15/2017] signed new legislation that will allow state residents to choose a gender option other than male or female on official documents.  The legislation, a top priority of civil rights groups, also makes it easier for transgender people to change their gender identification on birth certificates or driver's licenses.

New California law allows jail time for using wrong gender pronoun, sponsor denies that would happen.  California health care workers who "willfully and repeatedly" decline to use a senior transgender patient's "preferred name or pronouns" could face punishments ranging from a fine to jail time under a newly signed law. [...] The bill itself is aimed at protecting transgender and other LGBT individuals in hospitals, retirement homes and assisted living facilities.  The bill would ensure those facilities accommodate transgender people and their needs, including letting them decide which gender-specific bathroom they prefer to use.  "It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to take any of the following actions wholly or partially on the basis of a person's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status," the bill reads.

California Sues Trump For Granting Employer 'Choice' on Obama Birth Control Mandate.  California wasted no time filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, claiming it discriminated against women when it rescinded the Obama-era mandate that requires employers to pay for birth control in their healthcare plans.

Knowingly exposing others to HIV will no longer be a felony in California.  Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday that lowers from a felony to a misdemeanor the crime of knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV without disclosing the infection.  The measure also applies to those who give blood without telling the blood bank that they are HIV-positive.  Modern medicine allows those with HIV to live longer lives and nearly eliminates the possibility of transmission, according to state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), authors of the bill.

California to become a 'sanctuary state' in 2018.  Gov. Jerry Brown placed new limitations on state and local law enforcement's ability to help the federal government enforce immigration violations by signing California's controversial "sanctuary state" bill into law on Thursday [10/5/2017].  Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León introduced Senate Bill 54 weeks after the 2016 election to stifle President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to ramp up deportations and prevent the federal government from using California police officers to accomplish his goal.

Leftists Never Fight.  [Scroll down]  California passed Prop 8, with Blacks supporting it at the 70%+ level, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.  Prop 8 passed with 52% of the voters supporting it.  Yet the Democrat governor and the Democrat attorney general refused to defend the law as they were required by their oath of office.  That alone shows that Democrats are fascists; it's not up to the governor to decide which laws are constitutional or not; that's the job of the courts.  However, the state courts supported the legality of Prop 8.  Not to be deterred, Democrats took it to a federal court where a closeted gay judge who stood to benefit from ruling against Prop 8 suppressed the will of the people of California.

Bill advancing universal free school meals for California's hungriest kids heads to Assembly.  A bill approved in Assembly Appropriations this past week would expand free and reduced breakfast and lunch for hundreds of thousands of students on Medi-Cal.  SB 138 — the "Feed the Kids Act" will address childhood hunger by removing a massive layer of bureaucratic red tape from the State school meal program enrollment process and by serving all students in very high poverty schools for free.  The legislation would develop a universal enrollment process by ensuring that all school districts utilize Medi-Cal data to seamlessly enroll income-eligible students in free and reduced-price school meals.

With 220 languages spoken in California, courts face an interpreter shortage.  Federal law enforcement began investigating California's courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korean-speaking women in Los Angeles had been denied court interpreters.  Courts in other states also were examined and faulted.  Along with California, they began working to comply with U.S civil rights law, which bars discrimination based on national origin.  Failure to act meant the possible loss of federal money.  But nowhere has the task been so challenging as in California, the most linguistically diverse state in the nation.

California Tries to Leverage Hurricane Harvey to Fund $20 Billion Flood Control.  California hopes to leverage the attention on Hurricane Harvey flooding to convince the federal government to fund some of the $20 billion needed to repair the dilapidated Central Valley flood control infrastructure.  Harvey has killed at least 34 and caused over $190 billion in damage thus far.  The 1,000-year flood is expected to cost the U.S. economy about 1 percent of GDP, or $190 billion, according AccuWeather.

California Crime Wave Follows Criminal Justice Reform.  In November 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, which downgraded drug possession and many property crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor.  As Debra Saunders reminds us, proponents argued that lesser punishment for low-level offenders would enhance public safety.  Unfortunately, this utterly counterintuitive notion has not panned out.  In San Francisco, according to a police spokesman, theft from cars is up 47 percent this year over the same period in 2014.  Auto theft is up by 17 percent.  Robberies are up 23 percent.  And aggravated assaults are up 2 percent.  (To be fair, burglaries are down 5 percent).  How about Los Angeles?  It has seen a 12.7 percent increase in the overall crime this year, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Violent offenses are up 20.6 percent; property crimes by 11 percent.

California initiative would legalize psychedelic mushrooms.  California would become the first state in the nation to legalize psychedelic mushrooms if a long-shot ballot initiative passes muster with voters next year.  The measure is backed by a legalization activist who says he kicked his heroin habit with the help of a mushroom trip in Death Valley.  It would exempt Californians over the age of 21 from a state law that criminalizes mushrooms containing psilocybin, the compound that gives some mushrooms psychedelic properties.  "There is a cultural fascination with mushrooms that goes really deep," said Kevin Saunders, the activist behind the initiative.  "The soccer moms are all pretty much, for lack of a better term, high now, and some of them are taking mushrooms."

California Set To Be First State To Add "Gender X" Designation To Licenses.  Up until now, state issued identification cards around the country have limited gender designations to 'male' and 'female' because, well, biological science has historically taught us that those were the only two options.  But that hateful and narrowed-minded micro-aggression perpetrated by our genetic code will no longer be tolerated in the state of California, whether it's a scientifically proven fact or not.  As the San Francisco Chronicle points out today [8/29/2017], California's legislature is currently considering SB 179 that will add a new "nonbinary" gender designation to the state's identification cards.

ACORN Sues California to Allow More Illegals to Vote.  An ACORN offshoot and other left-wing pressure groups are suing California in federal court because the state hasn't made it easy enough for Democrats to flood voter rolls with illegal aliens and foreign nationals who aren't legally eligible to vote.  Throughout the years Mickey Mouse, Mary Poppins, and celebrities living and dead were registered to vote because now-defunct ACORN and its allied groups were allowed to pollute the voter rolls.

California Could Start Jailing People Who Don't Use Transgender Pronouns.  A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person's preferred pronoun.  The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities, but if passed, those who "willfully and repeatedly" refuse "to use a transgender resident's preferred name or pronouns" could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code.  The state senate passed the bill 26-12 at the end of May.  Since then, the Assembly Judiciary committee recommended the bill unanimously and the General Assembly held its first hearing on the legislation Wednesday [8/23/2017].

Calexit III? New ballot measure plots route to California independence.  On Thursday, people unhappy with California's place in the United States filed yet another proposed ballot measure that could lead to the Golden State striking out on its own.  This time, the goal is convening a U.S. constitutional convention to overhaul what proponents call a moldy national blueprint out of step with life in California.  The measure says a reworked Constitution should include a provision creating a "clear and reasonable path for states to achieve complete independence from the United States should any state so choose."  No state has become independent under the existing U.S. Constitution.

On Illegal Immigration, California Decides They Really Like The 10th Amendment.  If you remember back to the debate over Arizona's SB1070, a law that allowed law enforcement to enforce federal law as written, California, California law makers, and California papers took the stance that immigration was the purview of the federal government, and that states couldn't change that in the least.  Today, though, as we discuss illegal aliens, California wants to do its own thing[.]

California Can't Fix Its Housing Problems.  Even California's liberal Democrats are starting to understand that the state's housing crisis is fundamentally a supply-and-demand problem.  Home prices have soared to astronomical levels, with a median price above $750,000 in the nine-county Bay Area and nearly $700,000 in Orange County.  Years of growth controls and local regulations have restricted housing supply and added as much as 40 percent to the price of every new home that's built.  Housing is the key reason California has a 24 percent poverty rate (using the U.S. Census Bureau's new cost-of-living-adjusted index), the highest in the nation.

Socialists create youth shortages in California.  Socialism has long been associated with shortages, and nowhere is that more evident than in California, land of surf, sun, skiing, skateboarding, and other youth-oriented pursuits.  The socialists have managed to chase out the youth.

A Guide to How Bad the Democratic Party Is Right Now.  In the Golden State, the progressive wing of the party is irate that California Democrats shelved a $400 billion state-based single-payer initiative.  Death threats were hurled at state lawmakers for tabling the measure, which met a legislative death because it had no funding mechanisms within the bill.  Also, the leadership election to lead the state's Democratic Party has led to a contested election, where the establishment figure won, but the Bernie Sanders supporting insurgent has failed to concede.

Democrats Rigging Election in Broad Daylight.  Here in California, the Democratic leadership is busy rigging rules in an election.  The issue is covered on the front pages.  But Democrats control every lever of power, so nothing can derail their efforts to save a vulnerable Democratic senator from a recall.  Now the state's ethics watchdog, the California Fair Political Practices Commission, is in on the action.

Judicial Watch threatens to sue California - after finding 11 counties with more registered voters than eligible citizens.  Dems will often argue that such fraud is "not widespread," but they're loathe to define what, exactly, 'widespread' means.  How many bogus votes need to be cast before blue states care?  Enter Judicial Watch.  They're threatening to sue the state of California because Governor Moonbeam's voter rolls have gone completely off the rails.  In 11 counties, Judicial Watch found that there were more registered voters than citizens of legal age.  Sometimes by as much as 144%[.]

Still Think Our Elections Are Fair?: 11 California Counties Have More Registered Voters Than Voting Age Adults.  Right now there are plenty of Democrats who think Russia hacked our elections, but they'll laugh at Trump's accusation that illegal immigrants stole the popular vote from him (which is very likely).  The truth is that our elections are seriously compromised, and not by the Russians.  The latest example of this fact comes from California, where it was recently discovered that there are 11 counties that have more registered voters than eligible voters.

L.A. County hands $1.3 billion to illegals for welfare.  Los Angeles County is a massive draw for illegals, with more than a million flocking there and setting up home — and now we know why.  Not only is it hallowed sanctuary ground; it's also, apparently, taxpayer-dole-out central.  Look at this, from Robert Rector with the Heritage Foundation:  "They get $3 in benefits for every $1 they spend," he said, speaking of the costs of education, police, fire, medical and housing that illegals get, compared to what they pay back by way of taxes.  This isn't conjecture.  It's based on analysis of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services database.  Among the findings:  In 2015, more than 58,000 families received $602 million in benefits.  In 2016, more than 64,000 families received $675 million.

California Risks Billions in Sanctuary City Suit Against Trump Administration.  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is launching a preemptive legal assault against the Trump Administration's promise to pull tens of billions of dollars of federal funding from "sanctuary cities" that do not cooperate in enforcement against illegal aliens.  Attorney General Becerra is leading a coalition of 300 cities, 18 counties, and the State of California that intend to sue the Trump Administration over U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' plan to begin cutting off funding to jurisdictions tagged by the U.S. Justice Department as "sanctuary cities" that harbor illegal aliens from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Judicial Watch Warns California: 11 Counties Have More Voters than Voting-Age Citizens.  Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization, has sent a letter to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla on behalf of the Election Integrity Project, noting that there are 11 counties in the state with more registered voters, and alleging that the state may be out of compliance with Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

Feinstein Says We Can't Increase Immigration Enforcement Because No One Will Pick Our Fruit.  California Sen. Dianne Feinstein warned that President Donald Trump's immigration plan would severely cripple the agriculture industry in a Wednesday evening [8/2/2017] interview.  "We're the largest agricultural producer in America[.]  It's a $50 billion industry.  We employ tens of thousands of agricultural workers," The Democratic senator said on CNN.  "They are among a class that this would be prohibited.  It would cripple agriculture if they didn't have the people coming in to do this work[.]"

Boss tells state workers:  Kick ICE out of California labor offices.  California's top labor law enforcer wants federal immigration agents to stay away from offices where state investigators weigh claims about underpaid employees and workplace retaliation.  Labor Commissioner Julie Su last month directed her staff to turn away Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents unless the federal officers have warrants.  Her directive followed three instances over the past 10 months in which immigration agents sought information about California workers who had filed claims against employers.  In two cases, immigration agents attempted to attend hearings where investigators discuss claims with workers and their employers, Su said.  In all three cases, the agents left when they were asked, she said.

L.A. County Paid Out $1.3 Billion In Welfare To Illegal Aliens.  On the bright side, it's expected that the Los Angeles County will spend $200 million less in 2017, as fewer illegal aliens arrive and more have left, mostly due to allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to do their job, to enforce the laws that are on the books, unfettered by politicians and political appointees.  We keep being told that illegal aliens are a boon for our economy.  Well, the illegals are getting $3 in benefits for every $1 they spend.  It sure seems that they are more of a drain on taxpayer money that giving more back.

Tucker Debates 'Calexit' Supporter Who Calls CA 'Not the US'.  Tucker Carlson reported that the United States may lose a star on its flag for the first time ever, if "Calexit" becomes reality.  Carlson said the Calexit movement wants California to become an independent country through a ballot initiative in 2018 that would require 585,000 signatures to get started.  Shankar Singam, a supporter of Calexit and vice president of the California Freedom Coalition, told Carlson such a split does not have to be "hostile."

California is working to avoid a shortage of legalized marijuana, state pot czar says.  With Nevada suffering a shortage of legalized marijuana, California's state pot czar said Wednesday [7/19/2017] that efforts are being made in her state to make sure sufficient licenses go to farmers, testers and distributors to supply retailers.  Providing temporary, four-month licenses to support some businesses including growers is planned "so we don't have a break in the supply chain," Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, said in testimony at a legislative hearing.  Legal sales began July 1 in Nevada, but it immediately became clear there was not enough supply to meet demand, in part because unique rules provide alcohol wholesalers exclusive distributor rights.  California does not have the same limits on who can distribute cannabis.

California's Judicial Council racial sensitivity bureaucrats dress up as black convicts for office party.  If anyone needed proof that California is over-larded with do-nothing, malevolent bureaucrats, maybe the Judicial Council's Halloween party, which featured racial sensitivity bosses dressed in blackface and turning their cubicles into jail cells, is just that example.  Sure enough, it's an agency that oversees racial sensitivity programs for California's court system.

33 Percent of American Welfare Recipients Live in California.  The liberal state of California is a prime example of why liberal policies must not be adopted anywhere around the country as one-third of America's welfare recipients reside in the state.

California Democrats Target Conservative College Students.  California state senator Josh Newman, Fullerton Democrat, was the key vote to approve Jerry Brown's recent $5.2 billion tax hike that jacks up what Californians will pay for gasoline, diesel fuel, and vehicle fees.  At the California State University in Fullerton, College Republicans Amanda McGuire, Ryan Hoskins and Brooke Paz led efforts to recall Newman.  The state Democratic Party responded by changing the rules on recall elections and targeting the three students with a lawsuit.  "This lawsuit intends to stop the petition from circulating and halt the recall process, falsely citing deceptive messaging as grounds for suing," explains a press release from the College Republicans.  According to the Republicans' secretary Ryan Hoskins.  "This lawsuit is the definition of frivolous and more than an obstruction of the very processes that every Californian should hold dear."

Will California Ever Thrive Again?  The basket of California state taxes — sales, income and gasoline — rates among the highest in the U.S. Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.  After years of drought, California has not built a single new reservoir.  Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted to sea.  Thousands of rural central California homes, in Dust Bowl fashion, have been abandoned due to a sinking aquifer and dry wells.  One in three American welfare recipients resides in California.  Almost a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line.  Yet the state's gas and electricity prices are among the nation's highest.  One in four state residents was not born in the U.S.

California Democratic Party Sues Conservative College Students In Unprecedented Move.  Three members of the Cal State Fullerton College Republicans have been named in a lawsuit backed by the California Democratic Party in retaliation for their work to recall State Senator Josh Newman, who was the pivotal vote in support of April's $52 billion gas tax increase.

California Dems panic over their tax hike.  Democrats control both houses of the California State Legislature with 2/3 majorities, allowing them to pass any bills they wish, with no possibility of obstruction from the powerless GOP.  As Democrats will when they feel empowered, they recently passed a major hike in gasoline taxes that will take over $5 billion a year more from the pockets of motorists.

Tucker on SF's $190K Payout to Illegal Immigrant: 'You Shouldn't Pay a Criminal for Breaking the Law'.  An illegal immigrant is set to be awarded $190,000 from San Francisco after police turned him over to immigration authorities, which is a violation of the city's sanctuary policy.  Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, who is from El Salvador and was living in the U.S. illegally, walked into a police station on December 2, 2015, to recover his stolen car.  When he left the station, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately took him into custody.  Figueroa-Zarceno recently reached the massive settlement agreement with the city attorney's office.  The agreement must be approved by the city's Board of Supervisors.

111 terminally ill end lives under new California law.  California health officials reported Tuesday that 111 terminally ill people took drugs to end their lives in the first six months after a 2016 law made the option legal in the nation's most populous state.  The data was part of the California Department of Public Health's first report on the law since it went into effect June 9, 2016.  According to the data generated from forms doctors were required to submit between June 9 and Dec. 31, 2016, a total of 191 people received life-ending drugs after being diagnosed with having less than six months to live and 111 people took them and died.

Texas, three more states on California's banned travel list.  California is restricting publicly funded travel to four more states because of recent laws that leaders here view as discriminatory against gay and transgender people.  All totaled, California now bans most state-funded travel to eight states.  The new additions to California's restricted travel list are Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota.  They join Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee as states already subjected to the ban.  California Attorney Xavier Becerra announced the new states at a Thursday press conference, where he was joined by representatives from ACLU Northern California and Equality California.  "We will not spend taxpayer dollars in states that discriminate," Becerra said.

Minimum Wage Madness Begins to Kill Off California's Restaurant Industry.  The restaurant industry is a canary in California's coalmine of moonbattery.  Minimum wage insanity is killing it: [...] It's bad enough in big cities on the coast.  Wages, like prices, are lower inland and in smaller towns.  That means that one-size-fits-all central planning is even more unsupportable regarding the minimum wage.  Unemployment is already significantly higher away from the coast in California.

California's descent to socialism.  California is widely celebrated as the fount of technical, cultural and political innovation.  Now we seem primed to outdo even ourselves, creating a new kind of socialism that, in the end, more resembles feudalism than social democracy. [...] This new progressive synthesis promises not upward mobility and independence, but rather the prospect of turning most Californians into either tax slaves or dependent serfs.

Half-baked single-payer health plan amounts to political stunt.  On Thursday [6/1/2017], the California state Senate made the bold move of voting to create a single-payer health system without having any idea of how to pay for it.  Ostensibly spurred by concerns over the future of the Affordable Care Act at the federal level, Senate Bill 562 by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would create a single-payer system which would cover health expenses for every resident in California.  Considering the magnitude of such a proposal, the very least that is owed is a thorough accounting of how exactly such a program would be paid for.  After all, according to estimates from a legislative analysis provided to the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 22, the proposal is anticipated to cost $400 billion per year, more than double the state budget.

Hey, California, Ready To Spend $400 Billion For Your Single-Payer Disaster?  California's so-called progressive Democrats, fresh off their classy "flipping off" of Donald Trump at their state convention, now want to flip off the entire state by imposing a reckless, economy-destroying single-payer health care system on the state's citizens.  If voters don't stop this madness they'll get what they deserve.

Report: California Single Payer Healthcare Will Double State Expenditures.  The state of California seems determined to go broke.  They want to institute a single payer healthcare system but the cost would be astronomic.  In fact, it would be more than the state's budget.

California Considers Sanctuary State Legislation to Protect Pot Industry.  California lawmakers are talking about doing for their state's new marijuana industry what they are also trying to do for illegal immigrants: create a sanctuary state where local police are ordered not to cooperate with federal authorities.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the man who has the power to unleash enforcement of the federal anti-marijuana law that could shut down the multibillion marijuana industry in California and every other state where smoking weed for the fun of it is legal.

Democrats Love Affair With Communism.  A bill narrowly passed the house in California, repealing part of the law enacted during the Cold War era in our country's history when communists were really active and infiltrating our government, attempting to overthrow it.  The bill proposed to eliminate the section which allowed the firing of public employees if they were members of the Communist Party.  The bill now goes to the Senate and its author, Democrat Assemblyman Rob Bonta, hopes that it will pass.  "Assemblyman Randy Voepel, a Southern California Republican who fought in the Vietnam War, said communists in North Korea and China are still a threat."  Assemblyman Travis Allen, also a Republican, said that "this bill is blatantly offensive to all Californians.  Communism stands for everything that the United States stands against."

California moves to let Communists work in government.  The California government may soon employ openly Communist people in its ranks.  The state assembly passed a bill Monday that would repeal a policy that had made being a member of the Communist Party a fireable offense.  The legislation was supported along party lines with most Republicans opposing it while Democrats mainly favored the policy.  It would overturn a bill was signed into law during the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s when Americans worried Russian spies were trying to take over the country.

California State Assembly Votes to Make Communism Great Again.  Being a communist would no longer be a fireable offense for California government employees under a bill passed by the state Assembly.  Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill Monday [5/8/2017].

California Democrats Make Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day Disappear.  Monday April 24 was Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day and in Los Angeles thousands marched in the street outside the Turkish consulate.  Up in Sacramento, ruling Democrats ignored the Armenians and instead held "Muslim Day at the Capitol," hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

California's Road To Single-Payer Ruin.  Never let it be said that California doesn't march to the beat of a different drummer.  While the rest of the country has had second, third and even fourth thoughts about having a single-payer health care system, the Golden State boldly marches forward into fiscal oblivion.

California Is Seceding from the Constitution.  The entire nation has of course watched as the city of Berkeley and the University of California, Berkeley ceded control over free speech to violent left-wing mobs.  Both the city and the campus have placed the safety of rioters over the liberty of their conservative citizens, refusing to protect that liberty on the dubious grounds that someone might get hurt.  Thus, city and school leaders have knowingly and intentionally granted a heckler's veto to the far-left, in effect making the First Amendment a dead letter at one of the nation's (and the world's) most prominent universities.  The rot extends far beyond Berkeley.  Just this week, the California assembly's judiciary committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of AB 569, a bill that would prohibit religious employers from enforcing entirely normal rules of Christian conduct on their employees.  Thus, it would be illegal for Catholic schools to require that their employees choose life rather than get an abortion.

California's latest move to "fight the wall" is truly something out of La La Land.  There are still budget battles and (probably) blockades from the 9th Circuit to come, but sooner or later the President is going to get some work started on the border wall.  But if and when he does, California is laying some landmines in advance for any private contractors who dare to bid on the job and pour a single yard of concrete.  In a move being dubbed, "Build it and be banned," California legislators are proposing to impose a permanent ban for government contracts on any company who takes part in the project.

California gas tax hike prompts fierce backlash from the right.  A 12-cent gas tax hike recently approved by California's Democratic leaders has prompted a huge backlash on the right, with a grassroots coalition vowing to ensure it never takes effect.  A combination of AM-radio talk show hosts, a consumer advocacy group and a GOP assemblywoman have joined forces to battle the measure — set to kick in this November — that would give California the dubious honor of the second-highest gas tax in the nation at 73.2 cents per gallon.  Only Pennsylvania residents will pay more, with a 77.7-cent tax.

Berkeley Mayor Is Member of Militant Leftist Organization's Facebook Group.  The mayor of Berkeley, California, is a Facebook member of a leftist militant organization that has been linked to violent incidents in the city.  Mayor Jesse Arreguin's personal page shows he's a Facebook member of Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).  According to a 2001 article in the East Bay Express, BAMN, founded in 1995, is "allegedly a front group for an obscure Detroit-based Trotskyist political party called the Revolutionary Workers League." Even by UC Berkeley standards, students considered the group extreme.

Single Payer Is Fool's Gold For California.  While the latest Republican attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare may have failed, Democrats in California and in D.C. are just getting started in their effort to eliminate the health law.  Unfortunately, they're angling to replace ObamaCare with something even worse.

Police arrests are plummeting across California, fueling alarm and questions.  In 2013, something changed on the streets of Los Angeles.  Police officers began making fewer arrests.  The following year, the Los Angeles Police Department's arrest numbers dipped even lower and continued to fall, dropping by 25% from 2013 to 2015.  The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the San Diego Police Department also saw significant drops in arrests during that period.

California has fewer arrests, but not necessarily less crime.  The number of arrests by police in California has plunged in recent years, but that doesn't necessarily represent good news on crime, according to an analysis published Saturday [4/1/2017].

Los Angeles Middle School Faces Budget Cut For Having Too Many White People.  Los Angeles parents are outraged after their middle school announced budget cuts because there are too many white students, according to Sunday [3/26/2017] reports.  Walter Reed Middle School announced there would be layoffs and larger classes because the school's white student body is too big, reports ABC 7.  The Los Angeles Unified School District gives schools money only if white students make up no more than thirty percent of the student population.

California's Chief Justice:  Enforcing Immigration Laws Goes Against The Rule Of Law.  Since when is moving to another country against the law?  And since when do we enforce the laws we have on the books?

Nigel Farage and the 'Bad Boys of Brexit' set their sights on splitting California in two.  The 'Bad Boys of Brexit' who led the campaign to break Britain away from the European Union have taken on a new exit challenge:  splitting California into two states.  Former UKip leader Nigel Farage and Leave backer Arron Banks have just returned from the United States, where they helped raise $1million (£800,000) for a 'Calexit' campaign, which would split California into two eastern and western regions.  There are several 'Calexit' campaigns competing for a referendum in the United States, with one aiming to remove the state from America entirely as a response to President Donald Trump being elected last year.

CA Bill Would Make Not Disclosing HIV+ Status to Partner Just a Misdemeanor.  People who are HIV positive have long been required to disclose this status before engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse.  Considering the life-threatening condition caused by HIV, it stands to reason that potential partners have a right to know, since the disease is easily passed through sexual contact.  However, in what is being described as a test of just how much feelings have changed on the disease, a group of lawmakers in California have presented a bill that will make it no longer a felony to engage in unprotected sex without disclosing the condition to their partner, instead making it a misdemeanor.  Because of "the stigma."

What does it take to be a librarian in San Francisco?  1) You have to know how to shelve books.  2) You have to know how to check out books.  and 3) You have to know how to inject heroin addicts with anti-narcotics drugs.

San Francisco's withdrawal from national terror intelligence network hikes risks, officials say.  San Francisco has taken its defiance of the feds to a new level, ending its cooperation with the FBI in an anti-terror initiative begun after 9/11 — a move crtitics say could get innocent people killed.  Critics say the sanctuary city by the bay's latest decision to forego cooperation with Washington, by dropping out of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, could put lives at risk.  The JTTF has been credited with foiling 93 Islamist terrorist attacks and plots against the U.S. since 2001, including 12 this year, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation.  There are another 1,000 investigations into suspected terror activity nationwide.

Five festering problems the Democrats cynically ignore.  [#5] The connection between illegal immigration and California's electoral power:  California declared itself a sanctuary state and now houses a quarter of the nation's illegal immigrants.  The elected officials at all levels of that state government will openly defy any attempts to enforce existing federal law that could reduce the number of illegal immigrants.  The massive presence of illegals distorts our representative system.  There are at least 4 million illegals in California.  It requires a special liberal variety of naïvité to believe that none of them votes.  Even if none does, they are all counted in the census, which determines congressional representation and some federal funding allocations.  If only citizens were counted, California would have five fewer congressional seats and electoral votes.  Those seats would go to, for example, Ohio (2), Michigan, and Pennsylvania.  The Democrats who've declared California a sanctuary state know exactly what they are doing.

California's 12,209,605 Medicaid/CHIP Enrollees Outnumber Populations of 44 States.  In the fall of 2013, the Obamacare exchanges opened to enroll people in health insurance plans for 2014.  The average number of Medicaid/CHIP enrollees in California in July-September 2013 — the last quarter before the Obamacare exchanges opened — was 7,755,381, according to CMS.  By November 2016, the latest month for which CMS numbers are available, the number of Medicaid/CHIP enrollees in California was 12,209,605.  That is a three-year increase of 4,454,224 — or 57.43 percent.

California Goes One Step Beyond ObamaCare, Proposes Single-Payer Healthcare System to Include Illegal Aliens.  California Democrats made a surprise move late Friday to foil President Trump's promise to repeal ObamaCare — by introducing a stand-alone, single-payer healthcare system in California.  The Mercury News reported that two California lawmakers Friday introduced legislation to replace private insurance with a government-run health care system covering all 38 million Californians — including its undocumented residents.

The Oroville Dam disaster is yet another example of California's decline.  A year ago, politicians and experts were predicting a near-permanent statewide drought, a "new normal" desert climate.  The most vivid example of how wrong they were is that California's majestic Oroville Dam is currently in danger of spillway failure in a season of record snow and rainfall.  That could spell catastrophe for thousands who live below it and for the state of California at large that depends on its stored water.  The poor condition of the dam is almost too good a metaphor for the condition of the state as a whole; its possible failure is a reflection of California's civic decline.

California spent on high-speed rail and illegal immigrants, but ignored Oroville Dam.  The flood danger from the Oroville Dam receded Monday, but California was hit by a wave of criticism for failing to heed warnings about risks to the spillway at a time when the state spent generously on illegal immigrants and high-speed rail.  California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, came under fire amid reports that federal and state officials for years rebuffed or ignored calls to fortify the massive 50-year-old dam, which provides water to more than 20 million farmers and residential consumers.  "What's Governor Brown doing?" former state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Republican, asked in a Monday [2/13/2017] post on Facebook.  "The same thing he's been doing for decades — obstructing progress."

California Goes Confederate.  "Calexit" supporters brag that they will have enough signatures to qualify for a ballot measure calling for California's secession from the United States. [...] [California] hosts the largest numbers of impoverished and the greatest number of rich people of any state in the country.  Eager for cheap service labor, California has welcomed in nearly a quarter of the nation's undocumented immigrants.  California has more residents living in poverty than any other state.  It is home to one third of all the nation's welfare recipients.  The income of California's wealthy seems to make them immune from the effects of the highest basket of sales, income, and gas taxes in the nation.  The poor look to subsidies and social services to get by.  Over the last 30 years, California's middle classes have increasingly fled the state.

California Lawmakers Want 'Third Gender Option' for Drivers' Licenses.  Legislation introduced in California would create a third gender option on drivers' licenses and expedite the process for individuals to change their sex on their birth certificate without undergoing a sex change.  The "Gender Recognition Act," sponsored by state senators Toni Atkins of San Diego and Scott Weiner of San Francisco, would add "nonbinary" to the list of male and female genders on state identification documents.

California Democrats propose adding third, nonbinary gender option for driver's licenses and other official documents.  California driver's licenses and birth certificates could have a third option for gender in addition to male or female under legislation unveiled Thursday [1/26/2017] by Democratic lawmakers.  The bill by state Sens. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would establish a new nonbinary gender marker for official state documents.  Lawmakers framed the measure as an expansion of rights for transgender, intersex and other people who do not identify as male or female.

California's Recipe for Voter Fraud on a Massive Scale.  The media have exhibited a pathological determination to ignore any possibility of voter fraud, in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary.

California Lt. Gov:  We'll Stop Trump's Wall with Environmental Suits.  President-Elect Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall along with U.S.-Mexico Border will be challenged through environmental lawsuits, according to California's second-highest official.  California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an interview with 'The Golden State Podcast' that he would use specific environmental laws in the state to stop the border wall from being built, at least in southern California.

The Editor says...
In this case, environmental laws are being used as weapons.  The matter at hand has nothing to do with the protection of the environment.  One thing politicians and environmentalists do well:  they obstruct and impede their enemies' progress.

California's Picky-Choosey Attitude to Complying with Federal Immigration Laws.  California, the would-be renegade state that has declared itself a statewide sanctuary for illegal aliens, has hired former Attorney General Eric Holder to "defend" it against expected actions from the incoming Trump administration (such as, presumably, withholding federal funds for its sanctuary status); and has a referendum petition circulating that would direct it to secede from the Union.  Yet the state finally has found an immigration-related law that it can love.

Janet Napolitano Triples, Quadruples Down On Supporting Illegal Aliens.  University of California President Janet Napolitano has tripled down on her support for illegal aliens in the United States.  She has also openly challenged the incoming Trump Administration on the policy of deporting illegal aliens.  In a recent speech Napolitano stated that the University of California system supports illegal alien students and will provide them with millions of dollars in financial aid.

The Great California Earthquake of 2018: First State To Default.  I would like to direct your attention to something boring but infinitely informative regarding the nature of this mismanaged state.  Employers who utilize labor pay into the FUTA, or the federal unemployment tax, at a rate of 6% and are credited back an offset of 5.4% that they previously paid the state, leaving a small federal liability of only 0.6%.  However, if the state-run U.I. trust gets overdrawn, as it did in California for going on its third year now, it automatically pulls an emergency loan out from the federal government to service the underfunded account.  And if that is not repaid by November 10, and it defaults, then the government forces employers to pay it.  They just defaulted.  Our company received a mystery bill in the mail two weeks ago, explaining our new $15,000 owed.  We got a shock, as it was not expected.  I presume that many employers won't be able to pay it.

It's Still a Mad, Mad California.  Abstract idealism on behalf of the distant is a powerful psychological narcotic that allows caring progressives to dull the guilt they feel about their own privilege and riches.  Nowhere is this paradox truer than in California, a dysfunctional natural paradise in which a group of coastal and governing magnificoes virtue-signal from the world's most exclusive and beautiful enclaves.  The state is currently experiencing another perfect storm of increased crime, decreased incarceration, still ongoing illegal immigration, and record poverty.  All that is energized by a strapped middle class that is still fleeing the overregulated and overtaxed state, while the arriving poor take their places in hopes of generous entitlements, jobs servicing the elite, and government employment.

CalExit!  Now that America is on the road to free government, the Progressives are talking about secession again.  The big one is CalExit, a movement to have California break off from the rest of the country.  This has been spurred by the election, where normal Americans broke mostly for Trump, but Californians voted in heavy numbers for the anti-American candidate.  If you look at the bill of particulars on the CalExit site, the inability to dictate election results to the rest of the country is one reason they want to leave. [...] The major benefit of losing California is we would lose their trillion in bad debt that threatens to destroy the bond market.  California has been able to kick its problems down the road because of its statehood.  It is the stinky pile of sub-prime mortgages in the AAA rated MBS.  Independence would force some responsibility on California.  It could also force reform on the Cult of Modern Liberalism, which has thrived by shifting the costs of its polices onto others.  If not, the rest of us would be free of them anyway, which is what matters.

L.A. city and county creating $10-million legal defense fund for immigrants facing deportation under Trump.  Los Angeles city and county leaders on Monday [12/19/2016] unveiled a $10-million fund to provide legal assistance for residents facing deportation, the region's boldest move yet as it prepares for an expected crackdown on illegal immigration by Donald Trump.  If approved by lawmakers, Los Angeles' two top government agencies could find themselves in the position of using public funds to challenge policies sought by the White House and Republican Congress.

California's Gift to Its Neighbors:  Expanded Cigarette Smuggling Opportunities.  For too many years, Arizona has led the pack — or at least taxed the hell out of it — with among the higher cigarette taxes in the West.  "A cigarette tax higher than in neighboring states and cheaper prices on American Indian reservations have helped fuel a growing black market for cigarettes in Arizona," the Cronkite News Service reported in 2014.  It's true that few of us actually paid that $2.00 per pack tariff for a pack of smokes; with every single state bordering us stealing less from smokers and a long, handy border with Mexico, half of all of the cigarettes sold in the state are smuggled from elsewhere, according to research by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Tax Foundation.  Many Arizonans avoid getting mugged by enjoying life on the receiving end of smuggling routes.  But we could be benefiting by running goods in the other direction.

CA's Senator Boxer Attempts To Block Her Own Bill.  California Tea Party activists have long battled the bureaucrats and politicians over policies related to water.  One of the most well-known of the myriad of issues is the diversion of water from farms in the Central Valley (a major source of this nation's fruits and nuts... outside of San Francisco, that is).  One goal of this reallocation of a prime agricultural resource is the protection of a bait fish known as the Delta Smelt.  Last week, the House of Representatives easily passed a major water bill that includes emergency aid for Flint, Mich., and boosts U.S. ports, dams and waterways.  This bill, known as the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), was initially co-authored by the notorious Senator Barbara Boxer, who infamously derided a Brigadier General for referring to her as "ma'am".

California to release "non-violent" rapists, shooters, hostage takers.  Whenever a proposition comes on the ballot in California to release criminals from jail, it always passes, since the criminals already outside of jail outnumber the law abiding citizens.  That's why it will come as no surprise when California voters vote for Proposition 57 which will release "non-violent" criminals.  The only problem is that California has a very expansive definition of "non-violent" in its legal code: [...]

Ditching Electoral College would allow California to impose imperial rule on a colonial America.  California has been called the Left Coast for quite a while.  Just about everyone in Silicon Valley except Peter Thiel and in Hollywood except Pat Sajak supported Clinton.  White middle class families have been pretty well priced out of the state by high taxes and housing costs, and the Hispanic and Asian immigrants who have replaced them vote far more Democratic.  Those developments have put California increasingly out of line with the national average.  In 2012, six states and D.C. were more Democratic.  In 2008 it was eight states and D.C.; in 2004 it was seven.  Now it is only one, and not by much.

The Anti-Trump Riots Are a Smoke Screen.  Many seem bewildered by the anti-Trump riots and demonstrations. [...] They know full well that they aren't going to overturn the election.  These privately funded forces are being used to create pressure to destroy the Electoral College so they won't have to deal with it next election.  This is how the Left operates.  Make a big deal over here to force the hidden agenda over there.  The plan is to make enough trouble that Congress will move to abolish the EC to get some peace.  For clues as to who is behind this effort, one only has to watch to see which member of Congress proposes such action.  The answer of course is California Senator Barbara Boxer.

California jumps the shark.  This election confirmed, if it was needed, the death spiral of the state's Republican Party.  Thanks, in part, to Donald Trump — and his magnetic anti-appeal among Latinos, women and the educated — the GOP did even worse here in the presidential race than in 2012, when it couldn't muster 40 percent support, and has lost several legislative seats, allowing the Democrats to re-establish their coveted two-thirds supermajority in the Assembly — and possibly in the Senate as well.  The progressives also won most of the major propositions — most critically, the extension of a high income tax rate on the state's affluent population through 2030.  We may have more freedom to smoke pot, but it won't be so easy to start a business, buy a house or build a personal nest egg, if you are anything other than a trustifarian or a Silicon Valley mogul, or are related to one.

California Voters to Decide Whether Schools May Teach Students in Spanish.  Voters in California will weigh in Tuesday on a decades-old debate about bilingual education in the state's public school system.  The outcome ultimately could determine whether California schools will continue to be required to teach in English, or may use Spanish or another language.  Although largely overlooked in a crowded election season, the issue has split Californians into two camps, those who believe the country benefits from a multilingual society and those who believe such policies hurt students and serve only to further ethnic and racial divides.

CA Attorney General:  Use Of Term 'Illegal Alien' Is Offensive, Must Stop Treating 'Undocumented' As Criminals.  This is the chief law enforcement officer in California.

Food Stamp Craze:  U.S. Spends $3.6 Billion to Give $70 Billion in Benefits.  Not only does the government spend a breathtaking $70 billion a year to give a record number of people food stamps, it wastes billions more to administer the bloated welfare program.  Some states spend a lot more than others to distribute the free food vouchers and the discrepancies are downright outrageous.  The government dedicates $3.6 billion annually just to administer food stamps (renamed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to eliminate stigma), according to a federal audit that includes mind-boggling figures.  For instance, California, the state with by far the largest food-stamp roll, spends a lot more than the national average to execute the federal nutrition program.  The Golden State doles out an average of $34.06 a month for each of its 2 million food stamp cases while other states, like Ohio, spend only $9.55.  Some California counties are off the charts with administration costs.

The 7 Ugliest Propositions on the California Ballot.  [For example,] Prop. 57 — Jerry Brown's "Let's Put Violent Criminals Back On The Street" Act is a terrible measure.  Don't be fooled by the false and misleading ballot title and summary that leftist Attorney General Kamala Harris put on this one — it will reduce prison sentences for many, many violent criminals and put them back on the streets.  Worst of all — the sentencing "reforms" in it are retroactive — so victims of violent crimes trying to recapture some dignity and meaning in their lives will be re-victimized because of this cruel and dangerous ballot measure.

LAPD Officers Ordered To Shoot Only After Non Lethal Options Exhausted.  Los Angeles Police officers must now exhaust all forms of non-lethal means before shooting a suspect.  The L.A. Police Commission approved a wide array of law enforcement reforms Tuesday including training for officers to help in de-escalation and verbal skills when faced with a violent perpetrator.  According to Police One, the academy already teaches recruits to use all non-lethal means prior to shooting their service weapon, but establishing a policy at the department level means LEO's may be punished for not using another means instead of their firearm.

Ethnic cleansing?  California town now less than 10 percent white.  Ethnic cleansing used to be a bad thing.  But in America, when it happens to white people, it's called progress and the "new face of California."  The town of Santa Ana has been almost 100% purged of white people.  They were pushed out not by tanks and machine guns, but by a massive influx of people speaking a different language and bearing a different culture who expected everyone to adapt to their norms.  Today Santa Ana is nearly 80% Hispanic and less than 10% white.  We have a city in America that now demographically perfectly mirrors many cities in Mexico.

If Proposition 55 passes, the state budget will rely even more on California's highest earners.  If voters approve Proposition 55, the state will continue depending on [Paul] Taybi and other wealthy Californians to fund a significant portion of schools, parks, road repairs, police, prisons and many other government services.  Those paying the higher rates, which kick in for single and joint filers making more than $263,000 and $526,000 a year respectively, contributed almost $34 billion in income taxes in 2014, roughly a third of all state general fund revenue.  California's reliance on the wealthiest taxpayers means the state is especially vulnerable to their bottom lines.

California petitions to become first state to offer ObamaCare to illegal immigrants.  California's health care exchange is requesting that it be allowed a waiver from ObamaCare regulations in order to allow illegal immigrants to buy insurance on the exchange — which would make California the first state to extend ObamaCare to illegal immigrants.  In a Sept. 30 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Covered California's Executive Director Peter Lee said that the Affordable Care Act has been "tremendously successful" in the state and has cut the rate of uninsured in half.

What Could Go Wrong:  California Lets Felons In Jail Vote.  Forget about the fact that the great majority of felons vote Democrat; California Governor Jerry Brown had no political motivations at all when he signed AB 2466 on Wednesday [9/28/2016] allowing thousands of felons in California to vote.  Starting January 2017, convicted felons still in jail will be able to cast their vote.

Liberals rejoice over legalization of child prostitution in California.  Social justice warriors everywhere rejoiced at the news that California has decriminalized, or effectively legalized, child prostitution.  After all, prostitution is basically a victimless crime, right?  And progressives have spoken loudly about emptying jails of "non-violent" offenders.

California governor signs bill allowing felons to vote from their jail cells.  Convicted felons serving jail sentences in California county jails will now get to participate in an activity besides three meals a day and recreation time:  voting in elections.  Governor Jerry Brown signed new legislation into effect as part of a reform backers say will help prisoners transition back into society while still serving time for their crimes.  The bill he signed would let thousands of felons doing time in county jails to vote in California elections, the LA Times reported.

BART tax could quadruple original claim.  It turns out that the average property tax bill required to support BART's proposed $3.5 billion bond measure on the November ballot could be as much as four times what the transit agency claimed.  Two months ago, I reported that the taxes needed to pay off that bond borrowing would be about double BART's public estimate.  Well, it could be even twice that.  That's because legal language in Measure RR allows BART to issue bonds at up to the state limit of 12 percent interest, far higher than assumed for the previous estimates.

California Could Let Felons Behind Bars Vote, Despite What the State Constitution Says.  California Gov. Jerry Brown is considering whether to sign a bill that would allow tens of thousands of incarcerated felons to vote, while continuing to deny the vote to others.  The Legislature sent a bill to Brown's desk that would restore voting rights to an estimated 50,000 convicted felons who are behind bars in county jails, but not to felons who are serving their sentence in prisons.

SF official suggests taking slaveholders' names off schools.  George Washington, the guy on the quarter, could soon be facing the ax in San Francisco as surely as his fabled cherry tree.  The president of the San Francisco school board thinks it's time to consider renaming schools that bear the names of slave owners — including Washington and his friends and fellow presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe.  Board President Matt Haney said Tuesday [9/6/2016] he will introduce a resolution before the board this month to clarify the rules for renaming San Francisco schools with an eye to encouraging the communities at Washington High School, along with Jefferson and Monroe elementary schools, to consider whether they want to make a change.

Left's California Dream Built on Ignorance.  The Democrat-owned legislature — the ones that are not in jail or under indictment — passed a bill that would gradually raise the minimum wage from $10 to $15 in 2022.  The poll says 64 percent of Californians support that.  That is while 66% of them believe that people will be laid off and 65 percent say that businesses will leave the state.  What would have been interesting is if the people who took the poll would have asked poll participants:  Would you support the increase if your son or daughter were laid off?  Would you support it if your spouse's business relocated to Utah, North Carolina or Texas?  It is always easy to say that policies are good when they are affecting the other person or their family.

One California city is paying people not to commit crimes.  A San Francisco suburb is testing a controversial strategy to combat the gun violence that's plagued the community — paying people not to commit crimes.  The experiment known as "Advance Peace" is being conducted in Richmond, Calif., and works like this:  The 18-month fellowship hires convicted felons to "court" troubled youth — who so far have avoided arrest due to lack of evidence — with offers of cash and out-of-town vacations if they mend their ways.  If, after six months, a "fellow" in the voluntary program begins to achieve specific goals, they can earn up to $1,000 a month.

A Victory for Religious Freedom at Christian Universities in California.  A California lawmaker who is sponsoring a bill that would have allowed the use of taxpayer dollars to punish and publicly shame Christian universities for operating according to their beliefs has removed an offending provision from the legislation.  In announcing his legislation in April, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D), sponsor of SB 1146, had referred to his action of denying First Amendment rights to religious schools as closing a "loophole that allows private universities to discriminate against students and staff based on their gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation."

California bill SB 1146 threatens minorities and the poor.  Current California law exempts religious schools from nondiscrimination laws in cases where applying these laws "would not be consistent with the religious tenets of that organization."  This is sensible and reflects our nation's founding principles of religious freedom.  For years now, this policy has worked well, enabling church-run colleges and universities to hire personnel and establish policies and expectations regarding religious practice and personal conduct that reflect their beliefs and values.  SB 1146 proposes to drastically narrow that historic exemption so that it would only protect seminaries or other schools that train clergy and ministers.

Muslim Appreciation Month.  The State of California is planning to proclaim August Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.  Why?  Because CAIR wants them to!  Turns out, California isn't Mexifornia after all.  It's Caliph-ornia.

Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month.  Remember the false report that Obama was going to name November to be National Muslim Appreciation Month?  The terrorist facilitators at CAIR apparently do — except for them, the fake story isn't satire; it's an excellent suggestion.  California is run by the sort of people who might agree. [...] Readers may recall that just last year 14 people were killed and 22 seriously injured in a Muslim terror attack right there in California.  But no month will be set aside to honor victims of Islam, because that would be Islamophobic.

Here's the US city with the highest pot use.  San Francisco has a new claim to fame:  The city has the highest rate of marijuana use in the country, according to a new survey.  In the survey, which was conducted from 2012 to 2014 nationwide, 15.5 percent of people in San Francisco said they had used marijuana in the past month.  That's much higher than the national average of 7.7 percent.  Perhaps not surprisingly, parts of Colorado (where recreational marijuana use is legal) also had high rates of marijuana use.  About 14.8 percent of people in the northeastern part of the state, the Denver area, and the northwestern and southwestern parts of the state reported using marijuana in the past month.

Will California Ever Thrive Again?  There was more of the same-old, same-old California news recently.  Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre.  There were more predications of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed rail — before the first mile of track has been laid.  One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.  Such pessimism is daily fare, and for good reason.  The basket of California state taxes — sales, income, and gasoline — rates among the highest in the U.S.  Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.  After years of drought, California has not built a single new reservoir.  Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted to sea.  Thousands of rural central-California homes, in Dust Bowl fashion, have been abandoned because of a sinking aquifer and dry wells.  One in three American welfare recipients resides in California.  Almost a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line.  Yet the state's gas and electricity prices are among the nation's highest.

California Reps Urge Obama To Stop California From Giving Illegals Obamacare.  House Republicans representing California pressured the Obama administration to stop its plan to expand Obamacare to illegal immigrants in the state Wednesday [6/30/2016].  Rep. Darrell Issa spearheaded the effort in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services signed by a number of California representatives slamming the plan's potential to further stagnate the economy and increase the burden on taxpayers in the state.  The California legislation would allow for a waiver permitting illegal immigrants in the state to buy private health insurance through the Obamacare exchange — allowing an estimated 390,000 more people the option to purchase plans.

Californians Will Decide Whether to Legalize Cannabis This Fall.  Yesterday [6/28/2016] the Control, Regulate, and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) officially qualified for this November's ballot in California. [...] Like the legalization measures approved by voters in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, the AUMA would let adults 21 or older possess up to an ounce of marijuana at a time.  Like all of those states except Washington, it also allows sharing (up to an ounce) and home cultivation (up to six plants per household).  Unlike the four states that have legalized marijuana so far, the AUMA explicitly allows deliveries to consumers and on-site consumption at businesses licensed for that purpose.  Both of those options would be subject to approval by local governments, which also could ban marijuana businesses entirely and regulate (but not ban) home cultivation.

PG&E to close Diablo Canyon, California's last nuclear power plant.  California's last nuclear power plant will be phased out by 2025, under a joint proposal announced Tuesday morning by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and labor and environmental groups.  Under the proposal, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County would be retired by PG&E after its current Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses expire in November 2024 and August 2025. The power produced by Diablo Canyon's two nuclear reactors would be replaced with investment in a greenhouse-gas-free portfolio of energy efficiency, renewables and energy storage, PG&E said in a statement.

Blackout: California In Power Grid Emergency:  "All Customers Should Expect 14 Days Without Power".  The power grid is under direct threat as a result of the unprecedented, but little reported, massive natural gas leaks at Alisco Canyon that was ongoing for four months as an intense summer heat wave sets in.  California will have its first test of plans to keep the lights on this summer.  With record-setting heat and air conditioning demand expected in Southern California, the state's power grid operator issued a so-called "flex alert," urging consumers to conserve energy to help prevent rotating power outages — which could occur regardless.

Blackout California.  The shutdown of the leaking Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility has caused a loss of about 70bcf of stored gas that Southern California utilities have historically counted on to see them through the hot, high-demand summer months.  The California Independent Service Operator (CAISO), which manages the California grid, estimates that as a result all customers should expect to be without power for a total of 14 days this summer.  Some 21 million Southern Californians stand to be directly affected.  Are blackouts on such a scale likely?  It seems they are.

The Editor says...
Yep, the lights and the air conditioning won't work for a few days — in the hottest part of the year — but they sure got rid of all those nuclear power plants, didn't they?  Yessir, they sure managed to outlaw coal in their state.  I'll bet they wish they could wash their dishes, but they sure saved Mother Earth from certain destruction.

San Francisco Charter Amendment Would Grant Illegal Immigrants a Vote in Local Schools.  A potential San Francisco ballot proposal could give illegal immigrants a voice in Bay Area schools.  A charter amendment by San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar is intended to grant illegal immigrants with children in school the right to vote in San Francisco Unified School District school board elections.  Two similar measures were presented in the past, but they were rejected by voters.  "The time is right for San Francisco to make history, to pave the way for immigrant parents to have a say in the policy decisions that impact their child's education and who gets to sit on the Board of Education," Mar said in a statement.

California to ask feds to allow undocumented immigrants to use Obamacare.  California could become the first state to ask the federal government to let undocumented immigrants buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.  Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed legislation Friday that attempts to allow people in the country illegally to purchase the insurance through Covered California without costing the state or federal government anything.

Federal judge rules California transgender inmates must get some female items.  A federal judge ruled Thursday [6/9/2016] that California prison officials must let transgender inmates have more female-oriented commissary items including nightgowns, robes, sandals, scarves and necklaces as part of a settlement that will make the stat the first to pay for an inmate's sex reassignment surgery.  California agreed in August to provide some items to transgender inmates who are housed in male prisons, aside from providing surgery to 56-year-old Shiloh Quine.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas decided that the policy didn't go far enough.  He said transgender inmates housed in men's prisons should have many of the same items provided to female inmates.  Shiloh's attorneys argued that the state was keeping some items from transgender prisoners "based solely upon gender norms" rather than security concerns.

The End of the Free-Speech Consensus.  What happens when the consensus for free speech evaporates and those with political power become willing to use any means necessary to silence people who hold unpopular views?  We'll probably soon receive the answer in California, as the state's dominant Democrats set the stage for prosecutors to take action against climate-change "deniers."  "A landmark California bill... would make it illegal to engage in climate-change dissent clearing the way for lawsuits against fossil-fuel companies, think tanks and others that have 'deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change,'" explains a Washington Times report.  The bill, S.B. 1161, passed through two committees but ultimately was shelved.  But like most "landmark" bills, this one will keep coming back until it passes.  The bill even comes with an Orwellian name, "The California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act."

San Francisco Moves to Open Voting to Illegals.  San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Eric Mar says the political climate is right to grant illegal immigrants the right to vote.  While even notoriously liberal San Francisco voters have rejected past efforts to grant voting privileges to illegals, Fox News reports that Mar thinks the backlash against Donald Trump will yield a strong turn-out of Latino and anti-Trump voters to the polls to pass his proposed charter amendment.

LGBT Bill Threatens California's Religious Schools.  A California state bill its sponsors say will prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at private universities is threatening to expose faith-based schools to enormous legal threats, school officials warn.  SB 1146, introduced in February by state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, which passed the state Senate May 26, is designed to close "a little-known loophole" in California law under which private colleges can make admission, housing, and faculty decisions based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, according to a press release from Lara's office.  Lara is part of the state Legislature's seven-member California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus, which advocates for LGBT rights.

One law for us, another for you.  The California state Senate voted 28-8 Wednesday [6/8/2016] to exempt itself from the pointless gun-control laws that apply to the rest of the populace.  Legislators apparently think they alone are worthy to pack heat on the streets for personal protection, and the masses ought to wait until the police arrive.  This is just one of many bills Golden State politicians used this legislative session to set themselves apart from the little people, the ones who pay their inflated salaries.  Annual compensation for legislators averages about $140,000, not counting luxurious perks such as taxpayer-funded cars and free gasoline.  By comparison, the average Californian earns $50,000 a year, and the unemployment rate is 11.9 percent — far above the national average.  Exact salaries for state assemblymen and senators are obscured by the use of a "per diem" payment scheme that shelters a significant chunk of income from taxation.

San Francisco to try yet again to give illegal immigrants voting rights.  After two failed bids to grant voting rights to illegal immigrants, some San Francisco officials believe they have found the man who can make it happen:  Donald Trump.  A proposed charter amendment drafted by Board of Supervisors member Eric Mar would give illegal immigrants with kids in the public school system the right to vote in school elections.  Voters have rejected two previous ballot proposals, but Mar is betting on anti-Trump sentiment to carry the pro-illegal immigrant proposal if he can get it on the November ballot.

If You Share Undercover Exposés of Planned Parenthood, You Could End Up in a California Jail.  The California legislature is considering a bill that would make it impossible to expose Planned Parenthood with recordings unless they give their permission, but it is even worse than that.  Anyone who publishes, shares, emails the recordings would also be held liable for criminal prosecution.  The bill moved to the State Senate last week.  This is a serious effort.  Abortion mills are the latest protected class.

California's Crazy Election Quirks Limit Voter Choices and Create Chaos.  New polls show that the Democratic primary in California is neck and neck between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  If the election is close, and Hillary narrowly wins, it could be because arcane and suspect rules gave her an artificial advantage.  A Hillary win would rob Sanders of the ability to claim momentum and would blunt his efforts to fight for the nomination up until the Democratic convention.  California has made such a royal mess of its entire primary system that it needs to do a complete overhaul to restore the credibility of the system.

Trump is Correct about the California Drought.  On Friday, May 27, the prospective Republican candidate for president Donald Trump went to the city of Fresno, the capital of California's farming community, and declared: "there is no drought!"  This seemingly brash statement was met with ridicule and scorn across the blogosphere — how could anyone make such a so-called "stupid" statement when everyone knows that California has experienced a historically high dry spell since 2013?  But was Trump right?  Arguably yes.  Here's why.

Three Excellent Examples of Investigative Journalism on Migration Topics.  There has been all too little investigative reporting regarding immigration matters, but there were two remarkable exceptions to that last month, and a third late last year.  These three long, well researched articles dealt with scandals in a huge California visa mill, multiple problems in the EB-5 program, and in the H-2B program for temporary alien non-agricultural workers, perhaps the most ignored of the migration trouble spots.

California Senate sidelines bill to prosecute climate change skeptics.  A landmark bill allowing for the prosecution of climate change dissent effectively died Thursday [6/2/2016] after the California Senate failed to take it up before the deadline.  Senate Bill 1161, or the California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016, would have authorized prosecutors to sue fossil fuel companies, think tanks and others that have "deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change."  The measure, which cleared two Senate committees, provided a four-year window in the statute of limitations on violations of the state's Unfair Competition Law, allowing legal action to be brought until Jan. 1 on charges of climate change "fraud" extending back indefinitely.

California moves to criminalize undercover filming at Planned Parenthood.  In the wake of an undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood's alleged fetal trafficking operation, the California state legislature is considering a bill that would criminalize publishing secretly recorded video footage of "health care providers."  AB 1671, which has been backed by Planned Parenthood, would criminalize the publication of confidential interactions with state-licensed medical personnel, including abortionists and clinician staff, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine per violation.

The Dead are Alive and Voting in California.  The only question is how many Undead-Americans will vote for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.  Because the dead are voting.  And we must not deny the franchise to undead Democrats.  That would be wrong and un-American.  It would put us on the wrong side of history.  California can lead the way to the restoration of voting rights for the dead, right after voting rights for felons.

Feds to Pay California to Finance FREE MediCaid Health Care for Illegal Aliens.  The responsibility of the Fed is to keep illegal aliens out of this country — instead Obama is importing them and giving them "free" health care — while cause honest citizens to pay higher taxes, receive lower quality health care and to crowd the system so honest Americans must wait while the Obama imports get their care.

California's Political Water Wars Heat Up.  Water wars are historic undertakings in California.  Countless other publications have written recently about the proposed ballot measure that would redirect High Speed Rail bond money for water-related projects and prioritize the use of water, But what makes this story interesting is the coalition of opponents, their motivations and techniques being employed.  The Committee to Stop the Special Interest Water Grab, led by David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association, Tim Johnson, president of the California Rice Commission and a "contract administrator" at California Rice Industry Association, and political operative Steve Maviglio of Forza Communications and big supporter of High Speed Rail, have launched an all-out assault campaign against the California Water Priorities Initiative.

Lawmakers reject John Wayne Day over racism concerns.  What a California lawmaker intended as a benign resolution honoring a late, world-renowned movie icon exploded into an emotional debate over decades-old racist comments.

California Looks to Cover Illegal Immigrants Under Obamacare.  In an unprecedented move, California legislators look to extend Obamacare health coverage to the state's estimated 2.6 million illegal immigrant population.  If passed and signed into law, California would be the first state in the nation to request illegal immigrants be covered through a state exchange, the Los Angeles Times reported.  It is against the law for California to allow illegal immigrants to enroll in Covered California, the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange, Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the pro-free-market Pacific Research Institute, told The Daily Signal in an emailed response.  "The law does not allow illegals to enroll in the state exchanges or the federal exchange Healthcare.gov," Pipes said.

CalPERS Could Get Hands on Billions in Private-Sector Retirement Funds.  Instead of addressing the estimated $600 billion in unfunded liabilities in California's beleaguered public-employee pension system, Democrats in Sacramento have instead decided to "solve" a growing pension crisis in the private sector.  In 2012, Governor Jerry Brown signed a measure that created an investment board and authorized a "feasibility study" of various options for a state-backed private-pension system.  That study came out last month, and the legislature is now vetting bills that would put its recommendations into action.  The plans under consideration would mandate participation in the new state-run retirement system for firms with five or more workers, though the workers themselves could opt out.  Employers that don't comply would face fines and other penalties.

21st Century California Reverts Back to the Wild West.  [Scroll down]  Today I generalize that about every old rural farmhouse in these environs can be characterized by three traits:  a) the house is a rental and not connected with the corporate fields around it; b) there are two to three families, in illegal fashion, living in ramshackle trailers and sheds on the property; c) the authorities don't dare enforce zoning or health laws, on the grounds that enforcement is a bad investment of their limited time and budget.  If I find a dead dog dumped on the alleyway (as I have three or four times over the last 12 months), with a rope around his neck and his insides exposed from dog fighting, I bury him and pass on calling the animal-control people.  In fairness to them, what would they do, run an investigation into rural dog fighting — in a state in which felons are routinely released from prisons and jails, and sanctuary cities offer amnesties?  I suppose a Queensland with his face ripped off is small potatoes.  (Does multiculturalism trump the ASPCA or PETA?)  Nor do I ever contact the state EPA or the county when monthly I collect baby carriages, car seats, tires, used paint cans, old Christmas trees, mattresses, and dirty diapers dumped on the side of the road — despite occasional junk mail signifying the address of the polluter.

San Francisco Torn as Some See 'Street Behavior' Worsen.  From her apartment at the foot of the celebrated zigzags of Lombard Street, Judith Calson has twice peered out her window as thieves smashed their way into cars and snatched whatever they could.  She has seen foreign tourists cry after cash and passports were stolen.  She shudders when she recounts the story of the Thai tourist who was shot because he resisted thieves taking his camera.  And that is her tally from the last year alone. [...] Recent data from the F.B.I. show that San Francisco has the highest per-capita property crime rate of the nation's top 50 cities.

Love Finds a Way in Oakland.  This month, Oakland's City Council voted 5-3 to adopt "Love Life" as the city's motto. [...] "Love Life" is the brainchild of Donald Lacy, whose daughter LoEshe — the name means "Love Life" in Nigerian — was killed near McClymonds High School in 1997.  The 16-year-old died in the sort of senseless random gang-turf shooting that has taken too many young black lives in Oakland. [...] Enter racial politics.  Because Schaaf and some motto foes are white, while McElhaney and some other supporters are black, "Love Life" fans suggested that opponents lacked empathy for victims of street violence.

Religious group sues San Francisco over open-air urinal.  A religious organization has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco to remove an open-air urinal it calls unsanitary and indecent from a popular park.  The Chinese Christian Union of San Francisco filed a civil complaint last week demanding the city remove the concrete circular urinal from the iconic Dolores Park.  The group says the urinal, which is out in the open and screened only with plants for privacy, "emanates offensive odors," "has no hand-washing facilities" and "it's offensive to manners and morals."

Should California AG Harris Be Investigated for Tax Code Violations?  California attorney general Kamala Harris is the state's top charity regulator, overseeing California's Registry of Charitable Trusts.  Ms. Harris has decided to bypass federal law expressly requiring her to obtain Schedule B information directly from the IRS on a case-by-case basis if she has a legitimate need for donor information to enforce her state's charitable solicitation laws.  Instead of abiding by federal law, she's employing a dragnet method, demanding that all charities registering with her office submit their Schedule B donor lists to the Registry in order to solicit contributions from Californians.

San Francisco Passes Fully Paid Parental Leave Bill.  San Francisco could soon become the first city in the nation to provide both parents with six weeks of fully-paid parental leave after a birth or adoption.  The measure, which was unanimously passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday [4/5/2016], will now require the signatures of Gov. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.  Both have indicated they will sign.

Casualties of a Living Wage: A California Bookstore Owner's Minimum Wage Story.  After more than a decade at the helm of her bookstore, Ann Kinner faces an uncertain future because of new measures at the city and state level to raise the minimum wage.  On June 7, San Diego residents will vote on a ballot measure to raise the city's minimum wage to $11.50 an hour in 2017.  This proposal, coupled with a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday raising the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022, has left Kinner in knots.

California Department Of Justice Raids David Daleiden's Home.  The California Department of Justice raided the home of David Daleiden, the pro-life journalist behind the undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood's harvesting and sale of human organs from aborted children.  Daleiden explained in a Facebook post that authorities with the California Department of Justice raided his home Tuesday afternoon and seized all video footage of Planned Parenthood employees' involvement in selling organs from aborted babies — including damning footage which has yet to be released.  Daleiden noted that the California Department of Justice serves under the authority of California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who has benefited politically from Planned Parenthood: [...]

Planned Parenthood: David Daleiden Speaks out on Home Raid.  Undercover investigator David Daleiden's home in California was raided Tuesday [4/5/2016] by officials under the office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris.  Harris has been investigating Daleiden for months, after his video exposé of Planned Parenthood's alleged baby-parts scheme.  His videos allegedly showed Planned Parenthood personnel actively negotiating the sale of the livers, lungs, hearts and other organs of aborted unborn children.

Abortion Activist Claims Planned Parenthood Videos Caused Raid At His Home.  An anti-abortion activist who made undercover videos at Planned Parenthood clinics said in a social media posting that California Department of Justice agents raided his home Tuesday [4/5/2016].

California to Pay $5400 to Make Poor Sick People Dead.  California Medical — its version of Medicaid — will pay $5400 for the drugs to make the suicidal terminally ill poor, dead.  Worse, Medical recipients don't have access to good cancer treatment and doesn't pay well for palliative care.

California is first state to approve $15 minimum wage.  California has become the first state in the nation to approve a statewide $15 minimum wage.  Both the State Assembly and State Senate passed the measure on Thursday afternoon [3/31/2016].  Governor Jerry Brown said he would sign it on Monday.  "No one who is working full time in California should live in poverty due to a low wage," said Democratic State Senator Mark Leno, who cosponsored the bill.

Heaven Help California's Non-Urban Cities Under a $15 Minimum Wage.  If anybody is wondering why so many California residents outside of the big cities want to break away and make their own states, just take note of the news today that California legislators have made a deal with the all-powerful unions to jack up the minimum wage for all industries and all employers across the state to $15 by 2022 and then tie future increases to inflation.  Small business in California will have until 2023 to comply.  There are 13 counties in California that still have double-digit unemployment figures, according to the state's own data.  The data isn't seasonally adjusted, so keep in mind that unemployment naturally rises at the start of a new year.  But even taking into account an adjustment there are significant populations in the state struggling to find work.  None of these high unemployment counties are connected to the big cities.

San Francisco mayor bans city workers from traveling to North Carolina.  San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement Friday [3/25/2016] he doesn't want any city workers to travel to North Carolina unless necessary in wake of its legislation which blocks anti-discrimination for gay, lesbian and transgender people.  "We are standing united as San Franciscans to condemn North Carolina's new discriminatory law that turns back the clock on protecting the rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals," Lee said in the statement.

Palo Alto residents who earn up to $250,000 a year to qualify for subsized housing.  The well-heeled California neighborhood, where a plot of land recently sold for $2.7 million, is home to some of America's richest entrepreneurs who work a few miles away in Silicon Valley.  With house price averages an eye-watering $3 million, even those earning $250,000-a-year are spending two-thirds of their monthly salary (around $14,000) paying off their mortgage.  It means workers such as teachers, janitors, firefighters, social workers, police officers and more are not paid enough to afford the local rent, driving up congestion as they commute in.

California AG Kamala Harris wants your private information from the IRS.  Charity donor information on Schedule B is protected under federal law as confidential.  Charities and their donors worry that imperious, uber-liberal Ms. Harris will leak this confidential information to their ideological opponents and her allies.  Among its various acts of lawlessness and lawbreaking, Lois Lerner's IRS was caught leaking this type of confidential donor information of the National Organization for Marriage to its opponents.

The Weirdness of Illegal Immigration.  When someone ignores a federal statute, then it is naturally easy to flout more.  In Los Angeles, half the traffic accidents are hit-and-run collisions.  I can attest first-hand that running from an accident or abandoning a wrecked vehicle is certainly a common occurrence in rural California.  Last night on a rural road, a driver behind me (intoxicated?  Malicious?  Crazy?) apparently tried to rear-end me, then turned off his lights, sped up, and at the next stop sign pulled over swearing out the window in Spanish.  In this age and in these environs, why would one call a sheriff for a minor everyday occurrence like that?  The point is simply that when there is no federal law, no one has any idea how several million arrive in the U.S., much less what exactly they were doing before their illegal arrival. [...] To read the local Fresno Bee is to collate a daily tally of stabbings, shootings, gang violence, carjackings, thefts, and chop shops — without any exegesis why this is so.  Cuts in law enforcement?  Therapeutic approach to the law?  A complete failure to integrate and assimilate the second generation of illegal immigrants?  The inability to offer jobs in a command state economy?

CA's Knee-Jerk Bill Forbids Travel to Un-PC States.  Hopefully, this Californian lawmaker puts more thought into the other bills he introduces.  This week, Evan Low, a Democrat, introduced a bill that would ban California state employees from traveling to states that passed a version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  "No one wants to send employees into an environment where they would be uncomfortable," Low reportedly said, as if hurt feelings are enough to hamper the state's ability to cooperate with other members of the union.  But here's the kicker:  the lawmaker doesn't know how many states his little bill would affect.  Furthermore, the bill would only apply to government employees. [...] This isn't the first time Low introduced a bill for the gay-rights community.  Last May, Low co-authored a resolution with two other California lawmakers responding to the FDA's blood donor guidelines that forbid sexually active homosexuals from donating blood.

California's violation of federal civil rights laws.  In August 2014, the California Department of Managed Health Care, suddenly and without prior notice, issued a mandate to private market healthcare plans in California requiring them to cover all abortions as a "basic health care service" — including late-term and gender selective abortions.  (Prior to this mandate, California limited coverage to medically necessary abortions.)  The new mandate violates a longstanding federal civil rights law — the Weldon Amendment.  Congress first enacted Weldon in 2002 to protect healthcare providers and insurers from governmental discrimination on the basis that they choose not to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.  The victims of this type of governmental discrimination have only one recourse:  file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR).  This has proven entirely futile.

California is considering a travel ban on states with anti-gay laws.  Like always, lawmakers jammed a mountain of bills into the legislative queue just ahead of the Feb. 19 deadline to introduce them.  Many of them affect state employees.  Some would install new laws and regulations that pile on workload (it happens every year to DMV staff) or by altering some aspect of how state government itself conducts business.  Now, with the 30-day waiting period to start hearing those measures just ahead, here's one to watch:  Assembly Bill 1887 by Assemblyman Evan Low, a Democrat from Campbell.  Low wants to prohibit state employees from government-funded travel to states that have "a law in effect that sanctions or requires discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression," according to his bill's language.

The Editor says...
Is homosexuality really that important to California politicians?  No, but control certainly is.  The government wants unlimited power to control the way we act and think, and the ability to make us associate with those whom we would prefer to avoid.

The New California Crime Wave.  Something amazing has happened in California.  First, a brief background:  Crime rates across the state, after a long period of steady decline, had reached fifty-year lows in 2014.  Then, that November, a 60 percent majority of California voters — presumably incapable of accepting such good news without a measure of collective guilt — decided that it would be a really enlightened idea to pass Proposition 47, a ballot initiative bearing the cheery name "The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act."  The purpose of this measure was to downgrade many types of drug possession and property crimes from felonies (punishable by more than a year in prison) to misdemeanors (which often entail no prison time at all).  For the benefit of squeamish skeptics, the self-assured proponents of Prop 47 condescended to explain that these reduced penalties would not only alleviate prison overcrowding, but would also make California's streets safer by placing drug offenders into warm-and-fuzzy treatment and counseling programs, rather than into disagreeable prison cells.  If you think this sounds like a familiar old tune, you're quite correct.  It was #1 on the left-wing hit parade throughout the 1960s, when it became the theme song of skyrocketing crime rates across the United States.  And now the Golden Oldie is back, in the Golden State.  The tangible results of Prop 47 were both immediate and breathtaking.  Within a year, there were some 14,000 fewer inmates in California's state prisons and local jails, just as the Proposition's backers had promised.  But the other half of their promise — improved public safety — somehow failed to materialize.

San Francisco Public Library hosts drag queen story hour for children.  What do drag queens and children have in common?  They both find joy in wrapping themselves in feather boas and all things shiny and glittery.  A San Francisco nonprofit recognizes this shared interest in dressing up and is joining forces with the San Francisco Public Library to bring drag queens and children together.  Radar Productions, a group giving voice to queer writers and artists, will be hosting Honey Mahogany at the Eureka Valley Harvey Milk Memorial Library, March 12, noon to 2 p.m, in the heart of the Castro District.  Dressed in fabulous drag-queen garb and full makeup, Honey will be reading stories, painting children's faces and passing out cookies.

New California Law Forces Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers to Advertise Abortions.  Did you hear about the new bill that California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law? [...] The bill he signed (AB775), named the Reproductive Fact Act, aims to punish pro-life pregnancy centers, which offer women and girls compassionate alternatives to abortion.  Under penalty of ruinous fines for every "violation," the law orders the pro-life centers to post notices and tell mothers that they can abort their babies and have California taxpayers foot the bill via the state's expansive Medi-Cal program.

City workers in San Diego barred from uttering 'biased' term 'Founding Fathers'.  The traditional reference to America's patriotic patriarchs is considered gender biased, and a city manual banning the term was reinforced this week with verbal orders, according to legal watchdog group, Pacific Justice Institute.  "At a time set aside to honor American icons to whom we owe our constitutional freedoms, it is offensive and indefensible that the City of San Diego is directing employees not to even mention the Founding Fathers," Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, said in a statement provided to FoxNews.com.  The warning against referring to Washington, Jefferson, Adams and company as "Founding Fathers" first appeared in a section of a city-issued manual titled, "Bias-Free Language."

After Hiring 1,000 New DMV Bureaucrats, California Issues 605,000 Licenses To Illegals.  After spending $141 million to hire nearly 1,000 new Department of Motor Vehicle employees to process driver's license applications in the wake of AB60 — the California law to issue driver's licenses to 1.5 million illegal immigrants — the results are in, and it's clear the bureaucrats have kept busy.  Tuesday [2/9/2016], the DMV said it had issued 605,000 shiny new driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, with the full 1.5 million expected to be in place in the next two years.  The total accounted for more than half of the licenses issued in 2015.  But that's not searchable in a database, accounting to True The Vote.

California's "unprecedented mass forgiveness" of convicts raises more than a few questions.  In case you hadn't heard, California's governor has been on something of a binge in terms of releasing convicts from prison and reforming the system to be more fair to everyone.  Prison reform and rehabilitation vs isolation is all the rage these days it seems.  The Washington Post ran a feature this week on how wonderfully this has been going and it certainly makes a grade A effort to paint a happy face on these proposals.

You Can Now Urinate in Public in San Francisco.  San Francisco has installed an outdoor urinal in Dolores Park near the Mission District as part of the more than $20 million renovation of the recreation area in an attempt to combat a "rampant" public urination issue.  "The more options we can give them to relieve themselves, the better for the parkgoers," San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener told the Associated Press.

San Francisco park debuts open-air urinal.  San Francisco's iconic Dolores Park is now home to the city's first open-air urinal, the latest move to combat the destructive scourge of public urination in the City by the Bay.

Kamala Harris crosses lines of both privacy and the law.  California Attorney General Kamala Harris must be so ambitious that she is willing to tempt fate of multiple civil lawsuits and even criminal charges so she can intimidate her ideological opponents — and even her supporters.  Ms. Harris oversees licensing of charities across the country that ask Californians for contributions.  She's also a candidate for the United States Senate.  In disregard of the 1958 landmark civil rights decision NAACP v. Alabama and post-Watergate reforms to the Internal Revenue Code to protect tax information privacy, Ms. Harris is now telling charities and other nonprofit organizations that in order to get from her a charitable solicitation license they must first provide her office a confidential federal tax schedule listing their most valuable donors.

Under Obamacare, Medi-Cal ballooned to cover 1 in 3 Californians.  California officials never anticipated how many people would sign up for state-run health insurance under Obamacare.  The state's health plan for the poor, known as Medi-Cal, now covers 12.7 million people, 1 of every 3 Californians.

Never Enough Abortions in California.  California is such a pro-abortion state that:  1. It allows non-doctor nurse practitioners to terminate fetal life.  2. Its voters have twice refused to vote in a "parent notification" law, requiring that parents of underage girls be told — not approve, just notified — that their daughter had an abortion.  And now:  3. Crisis pregnancy centers — that help women choose to give birth by providing counseling and material support — will be required to post notices of where abortions can be obtained with phone numbers, as well as that they might be obtained for free.

America's Can't-Do State: California's Man-Made Drought Continues.  The first desalination plant in a state dragging itself through a drought has finally opened — a welcome event but also instructive in how nearly impossible it is to build anything useful in California. [...] The Carlsbad desalination plant was proposed in 1998 and took almost 18 years to build.  But only three of those years were actually spent building.  The rest were wasted on politics and the usual Golden State regulatory and bureaucratic tangle.  One of the plant's investors told a California writer that the duplicative state approval process alone delayed the project by at least a decade and added about 10% to total costs.

San Francisco Is Needle City.  In 1997, I went to a "needle exchange" in San Francisco to see firsthand how the "harm reduction program" prevented the spread of HIV among addicts. [...] Under the new order, San Francisco Department of Public Health spokeswoman Rachael Kagan explained, "you don't need a needle to get a needle."  Users who show up at a "syringe access" center can get a "starter kit" of 20 needles.  If they want more than 20 needles, they have to present used needles.  I walked into a nearby facility and walked away with my own starter kit in a discreet plain brown bag.  San Francisco now asks users to leave their discarded syringes in drop boxes at public toilets, pharmacies and clinics.  I got a "sharps" disposal box with my 20-needle kit.  Alas, there's another oft-used disposal venue — city streets and sidewalks.  If you walk around the city, then you've seen the used needles.

Half of immigrants in state illegally could be eligible for Medi-Cal expansion, study finds.  Half of Californians in the country illegally would be eligible for the state's healthcare program for the poor if it were expanded under a proposal by legislators, a new report finds.  Some California politicians are pushing to open up the $91-billion Medi-Cal program to people here illegally, since such immigrants are not allowed to sign up for insurance under Obamacare.

All 20 'Worst Small Cities in America' in California.  The annual WalletHub's 2015 "Best & Worst Small Cities in America" found that all 20 of the worst small cities in America to live in are in California.

California: A state of death.  Shortly after signing a bill allowing assisted suicide in California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed another measure that forces pregnancy crisis centers to "offer information about affordable contraception, abortion and prenatal care."  The information is to be displayed in the form of a sign tacked to the crisis center's door and must include a phone number to the nearest county services office where family free or low-cost family planning services can be obtained.  Deceptively labeled the Reproductive FACT Act, the measure requires women seeking help with an unplanned pregnancy to be informed of alternatives, including abortions, which the pregnancy crisis centers do not perform.

Does the government want you to die?  Gov. Brown and his Democratic Party majority in the California state Legislature have benevolently given people the "right to die."  Assisted suicide is now legal in California, but we have to ask ourselves:  What is the government's incentive to help people die?[...] The government does not need give anyone permission to commit suicide.  And that leads to the question:  What motivates a government to give you permission to end your life and assist you in the process?

Jerry Brown Cooks Up A Recipe For California Voter Fraud.  Just months after handing out California driver's licenses to illegals, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a law to automatically register every driver to vote.  Supposedly, it's to raise turnout.  More likely, it's inviting fraud.  So how does opening up U.S. presidential elections to the votes of any of the citizens of El Salvador, Armenia, Mexico or China sound?  Foreigners have complained for years about wanting to vote in U.S. elections and in California.  And now they may get their wish — unless California's Gov. Jerry Brown is somehow kept from enacting AB 1461, a bill to automatically register every recipient of a California driver's license to vote.

Non-Citizens Will Now Vote in At Least One State.  Governor Jerry Brown just sold out the American vote in California.  He signed a new version of the Motor Voter Act that will register every eligible California citizen who acquires a driver's license or renews a license at the Department of Motor Vehicles to vote.  This is after he made all illegal aliens eligible for diver's licenses.  Eleven states allow illegal aliens to get driver's licenses.

Gov. Brown Approves Automatic Voter Registration at DMV for Californians.  Targeting California's recent record-low voter turnout, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a measure that would eventually allow Californians to be automatically registered to vote when they go to the DMV to obtain or renew a driver's license.  The measure, which would also allow Californians to opt out of registering, was introduced in response to the dismal 42% turnout in the November 2014 statewide election.

California opens the door to more voter fraud with new motor voter law.  California's Governor had a busy weekend, breaking out his pen and signing nearly two dozen bills into law.  Most of them centered on the voting process in the Golden State, but while liberals are taking a victory lap there are hints that these maneuvers are going to signal trouble down the line.  The big ticket item in the legislative package was the "New Motor Voter Law."  This brainstorm will make voter registration automatic for any person receiving a new driver's license or renewing an existing one.

Cutting ozone will require radical transformation of California's trucking industry.  At a laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, a big rig spins its wheels on massive rollers as a metal tube funnels its exhaust into an array of air quality sensors.  Engineers track the roaring truck's emissions from a bank of computer screens.  The brand-new diesel truck is among the cleanest on the road, the engineers at the California Air Resources Board testing lab say.  Even so, its 550-horsepower engine spews out more than 20 times the smog-forming nitrogen oxides of a typical gasoline-powered car — and that won't be good enough for the state to meet stricter federal smog limits adopted this month.

California to become the fifth state to allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives.  California will become the fifth state to allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives using doctor-prescribed drugs after Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday [10/5/2015] he had signed one of the most emotionally charged bills of the year.

California mom claims retailer booted her for complaining about man in girls' restroom.  A California mom who says she was recently kicked out of a sporting goods store after alerting a manager that man had frightened her young daughter in the women's restroom is demanding answers — and a policy change — from the Washington-based chain.  The woman, who spoke to FoxNews.com but asked not to be identified, said she was shopping with her 12-year-old daughter and the girl's younger friend when her daughter told her what had happened moments earlier at an REI sporting goods store during a shopping trip in late August.

The 'Affordable Housing' Fraud.  Nowhere has there been so much hand-wringing over a lack of "affordable housing," as among politicians and others in coastal California.  And nobody has done more to make housing unaffordable than those same politicians and their supporters.  A recent survey showed that the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was just over $3,500.  Some people are paying $1,800 a month just to rent a bunk bed in a San Francisco apartment.  It is not just in San Francisco that putting a roof over your head can take a big chunk out of your pay check.  The whole Bay Area is like that.

Everything Wrong with California in One Photo.  Nationwide gasoline prices are below $3 a gallon.  But here in California it is not unusual to see prices still over $4 a gallon.  So what do liberals here want to do?  Pass a law that mandates reducing gasoline consumption by 50 percent by the year 2030 — just 15 years from now.  This proved too much even for some Democrats — the ones who represent actual poor and (previously) working people in the Central Valley, unlike the West LA and Silicon Valley and San Francisco Democrats who represent smug rich people who drive Teslas.  These old-style Democrats said they would not vote for the bill.

California issuing free diplomas to high school students who flunked out.  Plenty of state school systems are struggling with ways to not only keep up with national mandates and restrictions, but to boost their graduation rates so they can maintain their funding and reduce criticism from the public.  California seems to have come up a rather unique, back door approach to the problem.  You could always take tens of thousands of former high school students who flunked out and simply give them a diploma anyway.

California Will Give Free High School Diplomas To Kids Who Flunked Out.  The California High School Exit Exam (CASHEE) was created in 2004, and is intended to make sure that students have a rudimentary grasp of English and mathematics before being awarded a high school diploma, and to counter the phenomenon of students receiving passing grades while learning almost nothing.  The test is hardly complex.  The math test, for instance, only covers 8th grade-level material and can be passed if students answer 55 percent of questions correctly.

University of California considering recognizing a "right" to be "free from ... expressions of intolerance".  The policy specifically condemns the expression of particular viewpoints as "intolerant," as having "no place at the University of California," and a violation of others' rights to be "free from ... expressions of intolerance."  For instance, articulating a view that people with various intellectual disabilities are incapable of various intellectual tasks, or people with various physical disabilities are incapable of various physical tasks, would be condemned by the authority of the University. Articulating a view that there are cultural (or even biological) differences between ethnic and racial groups in various fields — condemned by the authority of the University, without regard to the arguments for or against the particular assertion.  It's just an up-front categorical rule; whatever you want to say along these lines, we don't want to hear it, we don't care what your arguments are, we'll condemn it, and faculty and students have a right not to hear it.

California Assembly Approves Assisted Suicide Bill.  The ghost of Brittany Maynard came back for yet another haunting Wednesday [9/9/2015] when the California Assembly voted to allow physician-assisted suicide by a vote of 43-34.  After having lost in the California Senate back in June due to efforts largely from the Roman Catholic Church, the merchants of death simply regrouped and returned to the lower house of the legislature to approve the End of Life Option Act.

Median total compensation for Redwood City firefighters — at least $226,365.  Back in February 2014 the California Policy Center publicly announced the Transparent California website, developed in partnership with the Nevada Policy Research Institute.  An article covering this announcement was posted on the Forbes Magazine website, entitled "Hundreds Of California Government Employees Are Paid Over $400,000 A Year," which a review of 2013 Transparent California data (2014 data is still being assembled) easily confirms.  As a matter of fact, in 2013, total compensation in excess of $400,000 was paid to 1,292 public servants in California.  A staggering 2,818 of California's public employees collected total compensation in excess of $300,000 in 2013.

Bums Bury San Francisco in Feces.  San Francisco is also a center of leftism.  The liberals running the city have laid out a red carpet for dysfunctional street people, who come from all over the country to collect their freebies and crap on the sidewalk.  Combined with the policy of no longer incarcerating any but the most obviously violent lunatics, this has reduced the city to a cross between a mental institution and a sewer.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein Wants Obama to Wall-off 1 million Acres in Desert.  U.S. Senator Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asked President Barack Obama on Friday [8/21/2015] to bypass Congress and use the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create three new national monuments in the California desert.  The move would extend federal protection over more than 1 million acres of mountain ranges, sandy expanses and forests running roughly between Palm Springs and the Nevada border.

No one showed up for California's green jobs rush.  In 2012, California voters were peppered with grandiose promises, such that they could not resist approving Proposition 39. [...] Naturally, it did not work at all.  On Monday, the Associated Press reported that the program has "created" just 1,700 jobs in three years — just under 600 jobs per year or roughly five percent of what was promised, at the cost of $175,000 per job.  Even that paltry figure fails to account for opportunity costs — i.e. jobs lost statewide because of the forced diversion of economic resources away from productive industries and toward green energy.  The number of net jobs created is likely zero or less than zero, which is to say that probably a few hundred or a few thousand jobs have been destroyed so far at a cost of $300 million.

California moves to provide interpreters in all court cases.  Legal advocates say throughout the state, litigants in divorce, child custody, eviction and other civil cases who have difficulty with English are going into court without qualified interpreters.

California's SB3, the Minimum Wage Hike.  California has embarked upon a dangerous experiment.  The Democrats who secured total control of the statehouse have been the most productive group of legislators at passing bills in the last 50 years.  Most of these bills were passed stealthily to avoid media scrutiny.  The last minimum wage hike was rammed through without much media attention.  The same with the Sick Leave Law that went into effect in July of 2015.  These two new costs, when combined with the federal ACA have increased the cost of labor roughly 35% overnight.  None of these assaults on California businesses were sensibly staggered, nor was the business community even consulted.  It's as if the feeling that exists under the Capital building is a childlike free-for-all to greedily get as much vote-buying, pro-labor legislation in before the window closes.  And now comes SB3, which is to amend the last minimum wage and take it higher, much much higher, for the entire state.

The Collapse of California.  The place they once called the Golden State is providing a sobering look at America's possible Third World future. [...] California now has the highest rate of poverty in the country.  The drought, which is also not being helped by the rapid increase in population, is now drying up entire rivers.  Not surprisingly, the "watchdog press" is chiefly concerned with making sure people don't connect the dots between an overcrowded, Third World demographic profile and a Third World way of life.

Without immigration reform, California citizenship will have to do.  It started with in-state tuition.  Then came driver's licenses, new rules designed to limit deportations and state-funded healthcare for children.  And on Monday [8/10/2015], in a gesture heavy with symbolism, came a new law to erase the word "alien" from California's labor code.  Together, these piecemeal measures have taken on a significance greater than their individual parts — a fundamental shift in the relationship between California and its residents who live in the country illegally.  The various benefits, rights and protections add up to something experts liken to a kind of California citizenship.

Gov. Brown doesn't want California to use this word for immigrants.  Gov. Jerry Brown signed a trio of immigration-related measures Monday [8/10/2015], including one removing the word "alien" from California's labor code because it is seen as a disparaging term for those not born in the United States.  Brown also signed into law legislation allowing noncitizens in high school to serve as election poll workers and protecting the rights of immigrant minors in civil lawsuits.

Red Flags Of Corruption Over Huntington Park.  In a page-one headline, the Los Angeles Times hailed the appointment of illegal immigrants to two Huntington Park, Calif., civic commissions as a milestone that "charts a bold path for immigrants."  It was booster journalism at its worst, gushing about illegals gaining participatory "rights" in U.S. public life that had supposedly been unjustly denied them.  It also stood in stark contrast with the multiple local press reports — KPCC, KTLA, CBS-LA and more — which reported the event as primarily cause for angry protests.

Thousands of California convicts to regain voting rights.  California restored voting rights Tuesday [8/4/2015] to tens of thousands of criminals serving sentences under community supervision, reversing a decision by a state official that they could not participate in elections.  Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the settlement between the state and the American Civil Liberties Union of California, which sued on behalf of nearly 60,000 convicts who became ineligible to vote when then Secretary of State Debra Bowen determined in 2014 that community supervision was equivalent to parole.

California's Medi-Cal explosion.  California is coming face to face with the reality of one of its biggest Obamacare successes:  the explosion in Medi-Cal enrollment.  The numbers — 2.2 million enrollees since January — surprised healthcare experts and created unforeseen challenges for state officials.  Altogether, there are now about 11 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries, constituting nearly 30% of the state's population.

Audit Finds Massive Financial Mismanagement In West Covina.  It was a bumbling city that didn't know how much it was collecting or spending.  It signed large contracts without proper bidding and hired administrators without vetting their qualifications.  Its city manager spent lavishly on meals and arrangements for council members with the city credit card.  And it lost $1 million by selling a developer land it wasn't legally allowed to sell.  Those were the findings of a state audit released Thursday [7/9/2015] that blistered the management of West Covina, whose roiling politics usually make few ripples outside its east San Gabriel Valley boundaries.

California Is A Microcosm Of American Mediocrity.  California keeps reminding us what has gone astray with America in recent years.  The state is in the midst of a crippling four-year-old drought.  Yet it has built almost no major northern or central mountain reservoirs since the New Melones Dam of 1979.  That added nearly 3 million acre-feet to the state's storage reserves — a critical project that was almost canceled by endless environmental lawsuits and protests.  Although California has almost doubled in population since the dam's construction, its politicians apparently decided that completing more northern and Sierra Nevada water projects was passe.  So the parched state now prays for rain and snow rather than building reservoirs to ensure that the next drought won't shut down the state.

California regulators approve higher electricity rates for most residents.  Electric bills are set to rise over the next few years for most household customers served by California's major investor-owned utilities, including Southern California Edison.  The increases are a result of sweeping changes approved Friday [7/2/2015] by the California Public Utilities Commission — the first statewide rate overhaul since the 2000-01 energy crisis.  Modest and moderate consumers of electricity will bear a greater share of costs, while many larger users of electricity will see their bills shrink or increase less rapidly.

CA Water Board Prioritizes Fish Over People.  As severe drought conditions in California continue to worsen, state officials have started to roll out with new regulations to prioritize various water interests.  On Wednesday [6/24/2015], the State Water Resources Control Board adopted new emergency regulations to protect endangered and threatened fish.  Low flows in four tributaries of the Russian River cause "high temperatures, low oxygen levels and isolated pools of water that can kill fish," such as the coho salmon and steelhead trout.

California budget deal to make state first in nation to offer health care to undocumented kids.  The $115.4 billion agreement announced Tuesday [6/16/2015] is expected to win easy approval from the [California] Senate and Assembly before the fiscal year begins July 1, and its immigrant health care provisions were touted by its backers as a necessity in the face of federal inaction.

The Editor says...
Sometimes there's a reason for "federal inaction."  In fact, "federal inaction" is often the best we can hope for.

Goodnight, California.  8:00 PM[:]  I'm on the upstairs balcony looking out over miles of lush countryside.  It's quite scenic, something in between verdant Tuscany and the aridness of Sicily.  I can hear the ag pumps of the surrounding farms everywhere churning 24/7.  In a normal year they would never be turned on, as river water irrigated the fields and recharged the water table.  Then come two sirens.  Will the power go off?  Quite often, someone after too much to drink goes airborne and hits a power pole on these rural roads.  I got back inside in case things go dark to review the mail.  The local irrigation district has not delivered water in four years (what do ditch tenders do when canals and ditches are empty?) and now wants a tax hike to keep up with increased expenses.  In fact, half the mail seems to be drought information from various agencies.

Has the federal government ever had sex?  Law professors Stephen J. Schulhofer and Erin Murphy are trying to update the criminal code when it comes to sex offenses, believing current definitions of rape and sexual assault are antiquated.  The focus of their draft is on what constitutes consent.  It adopts the "yes means yes," or "affirmative consent" model that was passed in California last year.  The California law applies only to college campuses, however.

The Editor says...
Really, I try to keep this web site "family friendly," but when you keep track of all the things liberals do, in places like California, and then put it on a web page, it's not easy to avoid topics like promiscuity.

California's Unsustainable Comeback.  Sometime this year, the Federal Reserve is expected to increase interest rates.  When that happens, many experts believe the market will correct as investors exit equities.  Any setback in the stock market will eviscerate California's income taxes.

California's sexual re-education camps are coming soon.  Not content to redefine consent to mean asking permission before every step of the sexual process, California is now on the path to teaching high school students the proper way to have sex — because human nature is now wrong. [...] This means that every time two college students have sex they have to act like they've never met before and ask for approval for everything from the first kiss and touch through intercourse.  I tried multiple times to ask the sponsor of the California bill, State Sen. Kevin de Leon, how someone could prove they obtained consent under his law, but only received press releases and quoted paragraphs from the bill.

California Senate OKs health coverage for many immigrants here illegally.  The state Senate on Tuesday [6/2/2015] approved a hotly debated measure that would allow many immigrants in the state illegally to sign up for special healthcare programs that would offer the same benefits as Medi-Cal.  The action comes just days after lawmakers significantly scaled back the plan, which originally would have offered state-subsidized Medi-Cal to people in the country without authorization.

Water crisis puts California Democrats on defense.  Wherever he goes, Tom Del Beccaro asks California voters which they would prefer:  high-speed rail or more water.  Invariably, the answer is the same.  "Everybody says water," said Mr. Del Beccaro, a Republican who's running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2016.  "I think every dime that exists should be allocated there.  [But] we are spending more than 15 times the amount on a train than we are on new water.  "In my speeches, I also ask people to raise their hand if they think we have a train crisis," he adds.

Audit finds millions in overtime pay at L.A. transportation department.  Last year, the average employee who paints stripes on roads and installs street signs for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation made $48,100 in overtime, almost six times what most other city workers received.  Four supervisors claimed $70,000 in OT, and one manager drew $155,319, effectively tripling his salary.  Those and other findings were in a transportation department audit issued Tuesday by City Controller Ron Galperin.  It revealed in particular that workers in the paint and sign division collected what Galperin characterized as "staggering" amounts of overtime, costing the city $3.3 million in a single year and raising concerns that some of the extra pay might have been claimed improperly.

In Los Angeles, unions make an offer companies can't refuse.  From the truth is stranger than fiction except if you're in Los Angeles and/or dealing with union personnel file we learn what happens when reality slaps high-sounding abstract liberal theory in the face.  In this instance, reality wins.  Sort of.

Los Angeles becomes the biggest city yet to approve a $15 minimum wage.  The Los Angeles City Council voted overwhelmingly Tuesday [5/19/2015] to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, up from the current $9 an hour, making the city the largest in the country to set a target that has gone from almost absurdly ambitious to mainstream in the span of a few years.  The bill, which will need to clear a final vote, passed by a margin of 14-1.

Blue state infrastructure.  A month ago, we spent a spring break week in southern California.  The weather was glorious, and we had a wonderful time.  But we were appalled by the third-world condition of California's roads and highways.  California's highways are not just decrepit and pocked with potholes, they are downright dangerous.  Billions of dollars would be required to bring California's roads, bridges, cloverleafs and related infrastructure up to the level that is taken for granted in, say, South Dakota.  But California's Democrats have higher priorities, whether it is doling out dollars to the party's supporters, funding environmental projects that will never see the light of day, or finding new ways to attract illegal immigrants.

California Rings The Mission Bell For Voter Fraud.  A bill to automatically register all drivers is speeding through the California legislature.  In a state that already offers driver's licenses to millions of illegals, this is an invitation to massive fraud.  Advanced by Democrats, Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, AB 1461 automatically registers anyone applying for a California driver's license as a voter in local, state and federal elections.  It's all in the interest of supposedly increasing voter participation.  This has the hideous look of a back-door bill to encourage illegal immigrants to vote in elections they have no right to vote in, in a country they have no loyalty to.

Starbucks' Ethos water comes from drought-stricken California.  Starbucks' Ethos bottled water, while promising to help children around the world "get clean water," is quietly helping to drain drought-ravaged California of its precious H2O, according to a report.  The $1.95-a-bottle water is sourced, in part, from a bottling plant in Merced, Calif., which is ranked in the "exceptional drought" category by the US Drought Monitor, according to the report.

Port of Los Angeles police chief indicted for corruption.  The police chief for the Port of Los Angeles has been charged with corruption in an alleged kickback and bribery scheme.

An ironic drought in California.  The present four-year California drought is not novel — even if President Barack Obama and California Gov. Jerry Brown have blamed it on man-made climate change.  According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California droughts are both age-old and common.  Predictable California dry spells — like those of 1929-34, 1976-77 and 1987-92 — more likely result from poorly understood but temporary changes in atmospheric pressures and ocean temperatures.  What is new is that the state has never had 40 million residents during a drought — well over 10 million more than during the last dry spell in the early 1990s.  Much of the growth is due to massive and recent immigration.

California's class-based water woes.  If you can put aside for the moment the New York Times' stubborn use of the "farmers use 80% of the water in California" canard, this article isn't too bad.  It certainly notes the deep class divisions that are taking place in the state.  To put it simply:  the rich buy their way out of the restrictions and everybody else can't.

No, Farmers Don't Use 80 Percent of California's Water.  This is a textbook example of how the media perpetuates a false narrative based on a phony statistic.  Farmers do not use 80 percent of California's water.  In reality, 50 percent of the water that is captured by the state's dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, and other infrastructure is diverted for environmental causes.  Farmers, in fact, use 40 percent of the water supply.  Environmentalists have manufactured the 80 percent statistic by deliberately excluding environmental diversions from their calculations.  Furthermore, in many years there are additional millions of acre-feet of water that are simply flushed into the ocean due to a lack of storage capacity — a situation partly explained by environmental groups' opposition to new water-storage projects.

Global-Warming Guacamole.  That California's catastrophic drought is a result of global warming has become a commonplace of contemporary political rhetoric.  That truism isn't true:  Most scientific accounts of California's current dry spell link recent low precipitation to naturally occurring atmospheric cycles, not to global warming.  Indeed, most of the global-warming models relied upon by those advocating more-invasive environmental policies predict that warming would leave California with wetter winters — winter precipitation being critical to the snowpack-dependent state — rather than the drier winters at the root of the state's current water crisis.

Red ink could kill Covered California.  Indeed, there's no more money coming from Washington after the state exhausts the $1.1 billion it received from the federal government to get the Obamacare exchange up and running.  And state law prohibits Sacramento from spending any money to keep the exchange afloat.  That presents an existential crisis for Covered California, which is facing a nearly $80 [sic] budget deficit for its 2015-16 fiscal year.

Insiders Detail Culture of Secrecy at California's Obamacare Exchange.  Aiden Hill's introduction to the secretive culture at Covered California came in his first days on the job.  He had just been hired to head up the agency's $120 million call center effort when he emailed a superior April 18, 2013, and got a text message in reply:  ["]Please refrain from writing a lot of draft contract language in government email ... And don't clarify via email ... No email.["]

Big Idea: California Is So Over.  California has met the future, and it really doesn't work.  As the mounting panic surrounding the drought suggests, the Golden State, once renowned for meeting human and geographic challenges, is losing its ability to cope with crises.  As a result, the great American land of opportunity is devolving into something that resembles feudalism, a society dominated by rich and poor, with little opportunity for upward mobility for the state's middle- and working classes.

Critics say California drought caused by misguided environment policies.  In an average year, California gets enough snow and rain to put 200 million acres under a foot of water, but environmental opposition to dams over the last several decades has allowed the majority of the freshwater to flow into the ocean, even as the state's population exploded to nearly 40 million people.  The current drought has left farms parched and residents under strict water consumption orders, but some say it didn't have to be that way.

Californians can now be fined for long showers!  I reported that California Governor Jerry Brown unveiled the state's first water restrictions in response to the "mega-drought".  As I foresaw, the rules have turned out to be more about revenue generation than resource protection.  What I did not predict is that my teen son and his lengthy showers would make him the latest environmental villain.

Liberals blamed for California drought.  For California Gov. Jerry Brown to crack down on shower-taking and toilet-flushing to save precious quarts of water as millions of gallons flow into the Pacific Ocean doesn't make a lot of sense to Travis Allen. [...] With everyday Californians now on the hook for drastic conservation measures, Republicans say the time has come to focus on the real culprit:  a state and federal regulatory framework, fueled by environmental litigation, that requires a certain aquatic environment for at-risk fish while making it nearly impossible to build dams and other water-storage projects.

How the Environmentalists are Destroying California.  In 2007, they mobilized around saving the Delta Smelt, a three-inch baitfish, as an outgrowth of a policy that for decades put animal life and vegetation ahead of drinking water and food.  The Delta Smelt requires a rare and somewhat precise mixture of fresh and salt water.  It is by any measure a fragile species.  In August 2007, Federal Judge Oliver Wanger ruled that the fresh water pumped into the Central Valley, the lifeblood of its economic base, threatened the survival of the Delta Smelt.  He ordered a severe reduction in the water directed to Central Valley agriculture.  The ruling (subsequently reversed for sloppy science and then upheld) resulted in a loss of thousands of jobs and acres of farmland. [...] The fight over the Delta Smelt [...] is a fight between people who value a baitfish over productive farmland and America's food resources.

A hot water issue in the California drought discussion.  The California governor's recent proclamation that Californians must cut water usage by 25% certainly caught the attention of Californians and pundits nationwide.  Featuring threats of fines of up to $500 per day, and even restrictions on personal shower habits, Governor Brown wasted little time getting right to class warfare over our green lawns.  Unfortunately, he and the ruling Democratic Party once again resorted to draconian rationing measures and heavy-handed fees, while offering no leadership and no real solutions to California's current water crisis.

The browning of California's green movement.  Indeed, an adequate water supply isn't a luxury issue for Californians, and no serious attempt has been made by liberals viewing the environment with alarm to deal with it.  In part, this is due to the fact that lack of moisture can't be immediately linked to climate change.  And unlike California's initiatives to reduce so-called environmental threats through various governmental actions, the options for dealing with droughts are few.  The only real alternative is drastic conservation that would impact significantly on the lives of citizens.  An alternative such as desalination of ocean waters isn't feasible because it's a long-term project, and the residue supposedly left in the Pacific from implementation would adversely affect marine life.

More on the California Water Waster Fink Squads.  Remember that thing I wrote yesterday about how Long Beach, California was going Full Metal Snitching on 'water wasters?'  Guess what!  Yup, it's going statewide.

California Water Authorities To Use New Tool In Fight Against Water Wasters.  Water authorities are using a new tool in a major effort to crack down on people and businesses wasting water in light of new water restrictions issued by Gov. Jerry Brown to fight the drought.  The Long Beach Water Department says sprinklers at a McDonald's restaurant on Bellflower Boulevard went on for 45 minutes at a time, twice a night, for an undefined number of nights.  Complaints continued to mount as water pooled and wasted.  The department, however, could do little about the wasting.  That was before the smart meter.

The Editor says...
It's easy enough to wield this weapon against McDonald's without much public outcry, but when it is used against residential water customers, watch out!

Governor Moonbeam Regulates Bathroom Activities.  Changing behavior is what liberal fascists are all about.  For them change — specifically, coerced change — is an end in itself.  Stalin figured it out long ago:  control food, control people.  But Democrats are doing him one better.  Control water, control food production and people.  How will the authorities know if you took too long in the shower?  One way is if your neighbors rat you out, just as in any other police state.  Another is the smart meter: [...]

Should California Spend 4 Billion Gallons to Save a Few Fish?  In the the [sic] heart of California's drought-parched Central Valley, fruit and vegetable supplier to the nation, a water district is defying a federal order to give some endangered trout a 3.9 billion gallon water ride out to sea.  And it could be the first skirmish in a much wider conflict.  The Endangered Species Act protects steelhead trout, a small population of which are attempting a recovery in the Stanislaus River, which flows out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains into Modesto, in the San Joaquin Valley.  So earlier this week a federal fisheries agency — it's unclear which one, and there are several — told the California branch of the Bureau of Reclamation (another water agency) that the fish needed more water to get out to the Pacific.  The bureau in turn passed the order to the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, telling them to let a pulse of water through the dam on the Stanislaus.

Feds order parched California farm district to use 9 billion gallons of water to save 29 fish.  These eco-Marxists are completely insane.  Off their rockers.

Marijuana Plants Soak Up Billions of Gallons of Water in California.  California's terrible drought has become — like just about everything else in the United States — a political issue.  Many liberals have taken to blaming anthropogenic climate change for the drought, while some conservatives have placed the blame at the feet of "liberal environmentalists."  The political point-scoring is tiring and just plain silly, given that the drought is almost certainly a result of natural processes — processes that we humans, conservatives and liberals alike, have precious little to do with.  Another problem is that our partisan pugilists are conflating two separate issues:  the drought, which is the lack of rainfall that California has suffered over the past four years, and the water shortages, which may indeed have some man-made causes.

California Lawmakers Present Bills to Protect Undocumented Immigrants.  A group of California lawmakers on Tuesday [4/7/2015] presented a package of measures to strengthen protection of undocumented immigrants and thus alleviate the "political paralysis" in Congress over approving immigration reform.  "In California, there are about 40 million residents... of Mexican, Central American and Asian origin. So, today we're presenting a package of 10 measures to protect undocumented immigrants," Kevin de Leon, the Democratic president pro tempore of the California Senate, told Efe.

Torrance Police Settle for Illegally Destroyed Guns.  California, especially California cities, have had a bad reputation for decades, of legally stealing firearms.  This was primarily done with police officers confiscating firearms that they came across, without any crime being committed.  Department policy was then to refuse to return the firearm unless a court ordered them to do so.  As the process of obtaining a court order would ordinarily be much more costly than the price of a firearm, most people who had their firearms stolen by police simply did not bother in attempting to obtain a court order.

Carly Fiorina blames liberal environmentalists for Calif. water crisis.  Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and potential Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is blaming California's water crisis on "liberal environmentalists" who are "willing to sacrifice other people's lives and livelihoods at the altar of their ideology."  "With different policies over the last 20 years, all of this could be avoided," Ms. Fiorina said in an interview Monday [4/6/2015] on Glenn Beck's radio show, The Blaze reported.  "Despite the fact that California has suffered from droughts for millennia, liberal environmentalists have prevented the building of a single new reservoir or a single new water conveyance system over decades during a period in which California's population has doubled."

The Drought: California Apocalypto.  I think that we've come full circle in California:  from the premodern Wild West of the 19th century to a decadent postmodernism that is every bit as feral, though the roughness of ascension is always preferable to its counterpart in decline.  The day before Easter, Sacramento tried to stage the world's largest public Easter egg hunt.  From news reports it seems quickly to have devolved into a Darwinian free-for-all, where the ochlos swarmed the few who played by the rules.

An Engineered Drought.  We're suffering the ramifications of the "small is beautiful," "spaceship earth" ideology of our cocooned elites.  Californians have adopted the ancient peasant mentality of a limited good, in which various interests must fight it out for the always scarce scraps.  Long ago we jettisoned the can-do visions of our agrarian forebears, who knew California far better than we do and trusted nature far less.  Now, like good peasants, we are at one another's throats for the last drops of a finite supply.

California is in one of its worst-ever droughts because people are growing too much weed.  The current drought in California, one of the most severe on record, could have been exacerbated by marijuana cultivation, scientists say.  Some marijuana farms are sucking more water from the ground than can be replaced, threatening the state's water entire supply, according to a study published in the Public Library of Science journal.  The amount of water being used to cultivate marijuana was said to be "unsustainable" in the report.

Rain Dances in California.  On February 14, 2014, President Barack Obama arrived on Air Force One in Fresno, California, with Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein aboard. [...] The Democratic entourage, ringed by Secret Service, posed in the fallow field for Associated Press and the television cameras.  It had no clue how to solve California's water problems.  It could have been doing rain dances, for all the good it was doing.  The fact is, the four were doing rain dances for MSM — all of them — Obama, Boxer, Feinstein, and Brown. [...] A White House that has hijacked drought to serve its ideological ends makes sound water allocation more difficult to achieve.

California Accredits Nation's First Muslim College ... Founded By Jihadists.  The same California college board that accredited Stanford and Berkeley has certified the nation's first Muslim college in what the left is cheering as a breakthrough for diversity.  In fact, it's a breakthrough for jihadism.  The Western Association of Schools and Colleges last week officially — and naively — recognized Zaytuna College, making the Islamist school eligible to receive federal grants and accept foreign Muslim students on visas.  But before liberals celebrate too loudly, they should know that Zaytuna was founded by pro-jihadists who hate America and Jews and want to turn America into an Islamic state.

The Scorching of California by the Green Radical Left.  In the 1970s, coastal elites squelched California's near-century-long commitment to building dams, reservoirs, and canals, even as the Golden State's population ballooned.  Court-ordered drainage of man-made lakes, meant to restore fish to the 1,100-square-mile Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, partly caused central California's reservoir water to dry up.  Not content with preventing construction of new water infrastructure, environmentalists reverse-engineered existing projects to divert precious water away from agriculture, privileging the needs of fish over the needs of people.  Then they alleged that global warming, not their own foolish policies, had caused the current crisis.

Two Planned Parenthood workers who taught high school sex-ed, revealed to be sex-toy instructor and 'pleasure activist'.  Parents with students at one California high school recently learned that two Planned Parenthood employees who taught their impressionable children sex education also held down some controversial side jobs.  One of the sex-ed instructors at Acalanes Union High School in Lafayette also taught a class on sex toys at a nearby shop while the other identified herself as a 'pleasure activist' on her now-deleted Twitter profile.  The job history of the two teachers was revealed after parents learned about the school's partnership with Planned Parenthood and demanded the curriculum be changed.

Common Core Follies: California report cards to include grades for 'grit', 'gratitude', 'sensitivity to others'.  The entire state of California pubic education system is to begin grading students on matters a teacher cannot possibly know or evaluate objectively.  In a sign of descent into full indoctrination camp mode, the Common Cores standards adopted by the state are calling on teachers to grade students on their "grit, gratitude, and sensitivity to others."

Rapper Tiny Doo facing long prison sentence over lyrics.  Song lyrics that glorify violence are hardly uncommon.  But a prosecutor in California says one rapper's violent lyrics go beyond creative license to conspiracy.  San Diego-based rapper Tiny Doo has already spent eight months in prison, and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted under a little-known California statute that makes it illegal to benefit from gang activities.

The Editor says...
Is it not true that every television news show in Los Angeles and Oakland and San Diego features occasional stories about gang activity?  Do those TV stations therefore benefit from gang activities?

California bars judges from belonging to Boy Scouts.  California's Supreme Court voted Friday to prohibit state judges from belonging to the Boy Scouts on grounds that the group discriminates against gays.  The court said its seven justices unanimously voted to heed a recommendation by its ethics advisory committee barring judges' affiliation with the organization.  In 1996 the state Supreme Court banned judges from belonging to groups that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but made an exception for nonprofit youth organizations.

California health care on suicide watch.  California, thanks to Obamacare and its exchange, Covered California, has no one to blame but itself.  The state is imposing costly rules and regulations on the health care system, causing a death spiral in health care delivery.

Gender-neutral single-stall restrooms now required in West Hollywood.  West Hollywood law requiring all single-stall restrooms in businesses and public places to be gender-neutral will go into effect this week.  The law, which will have no impact on multiple-stall restrooms, mandates that any facility designed for use by no more than one person not be restricted to a specific sex or gender identity by signage, design or installation of fixtures.

Police stop pursuing nearly 79,000 fugitives.  Nationwide, police and prosecutors quietly told the FBI they had abandoned their pursuit of nearly 79,000 accused felons during the past year and a half, a USA TODAY investigation found.  They have given up chasing people charged with armed robbery and raping children, usually without informing their victims.  Police in one county in California reported they would no longer pursue three of their most-wanted fugitives and a man charged with a murder for which prosecutors have sought the death penalty.

California pushes to expand immigrant health care.  President Barack Obama's executive order to spare some immigrants from deportation has galvanized Democrats, immigration groups and health care advocates in California to push for expanding health coverage to a segment of the population that remains uninsured.

California bill would require retailers, restaurants to pay their employees double on holidays.  A California lawmaker said she will introduce a bill that would double the pay of employees who work over Thanksgiving and Christmas.  "I've watched how the retailers and restaurateurs continue to expand their hours and open up on these holidays that are traditionally family holidays," Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez told the Sacramento Bee.  "What people are being called in to do now is a real slap in the face of family values, frankly."

Opposing viewpoint:
Why I Don't Mind Working Retail Thanksgiving Day.  For the last two or three years, people have been complaining about Black Friday starting earlier and earlier and claim to feel badly for poor oppressed retail workers who have to work on Thanksgiving Day rather than spend it with their families.  So here's my take, as an actual retail employee who does work on Thanksgiving.

Obama is not doing enough to wreck the country.  I believe that the economy can potentially absorb five million additional gardeners and nannies. The challenge will be to create a corresponding number of rich young liberals to hire them.  I was relieved to hear that California Governor Edmund Gerald "Jerry" "Moonbeam" Brown, Jr., who has welcomed all five million amnesty recipients to his state, has proposed a new Middle Class tax that will subsidize wealthy left-wing yuppies to bridge the gap between a livable wage for illegal immigrants and that which liberals are willing to pay them.  Brown sees this as a first step in his campaign to become the Democratic Party's candidate for President of Mexico in 2016.

California Orders Churches To Fund Abortions — Or Else.  For the past four years, the Obama administration and its friends on the Left were careful to claim that they still strongly support religious liberty while arguing that Hobby Lobby's Green family, Conestoga Wood Specialties' Hahn family, and others like them must lose.  Principally, they contended, religious liberty protections could not be applied to Hobby Lobby because (1) It is a for-profit corporation, (2) It isn't a church (and thus not a true "religious employer," and (3) It is wrong on the science — Plan B, a copper intrauterine device, et cetera, they claimed, do not cause abortions.  They implied, if not claimed outright, that they would surely support religious freedom in another case, but Hobby Lobby was unworthy to claim its protections.  The State of California is now calling their bluff.

One more reason to flee California:
San Diego agrees to turn recycled wastewater into drinking water.  Acknowledging California's parched new reality, the city of San Diego has embraced a once-toxic idea:  turning sewer water into drinking water.

California's next big political fight: Plastic grocery bags.  Go to a grocery store in California and buy all the milk, eggs and vegetables you want.  But there's one thing you won't find at the checkout line, beginning July 1, 2015:  Plastic bags to carry your stuff home.  Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Tuesday signed into law a ban on single-use plastic bags, making California the first state to prohibit stores from using the ubiquitous carry-alls.  Shoppers will be charged 10 cents for every paper bag and heavy-duty plastic bag they use.

California's Plastic Bag Ban And A State's Death Wish.  California, as is its wont, enacted another bunch of silly laws this week, topped by a ban on the plastic bags that we all find so handy. [...] Nobody likes a "torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself," as Brown says.  Yet plastic bags still end up where they shouldn't be.  The answer, however, isn't to ban the bags, which people use not only for groceries but for everything from toting lunches to picking up pet droppings.  The solution is to penalize those who foul the commons, not just with plastic bags but with all kinds of other litter.  Californians actually may be worse off with the ban.  It could, for example, actually make people sick, since the reusable bags that shoppers are being urged to switch to can harbor food-borne illnesses.

California Voters to Decide on Sending Fewer Criminals to Prison.  California voters appear poised to scale back the heavy reliance on incarceration they once embraced, with a measure that would transform several lower-level, nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors punishable by brief jail stays, if that, rather than time in a state penitentiary.  The referendum on Nov. 4 is part of a national reappraisal of mass incarceration.

California becomes first state to ban plastic bags.  Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed legislation imposing the nation's first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags, driven to action by a buildup of litter and damage to aquatic ecosystems.

California Gives $3 Million to Groups Providing Free Legal Aid to Illegal Aliens.  California Gov. Jerry Brown is channeling the "progressive spirit" of California in his latest act as governor.  Turns out he just signed a bill that would give $3 million in grants to non-profits that would offer unaccompanied alien minors legal counsel- which is $1 million more than what the federal government planned to give in grants nationwide.

California School Purging Library of ANY Book with a Christian Author or Theme.  Ask me again why my children are homeschooled.

Why not $20 an hour?  Or $50?
Los Angeles approves $15.37 minimum wage for hotel workers.  The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday [9/24/2014] to raise the minimum wage for hotel workers to $15.37, one of the highest wage requirements in the country.  Hotel workers in yellow shirts packed City Hall as the council voted 12 to 3 to approve the measure, which will go into effect for hotels with at least 300 rooms beginning in July.  Hotels with 150 rooms or more will have to meet the wage requirement a year later.

Brown signs package of bills to encourage voting.  Months after statewide voter turnout hit a historic low of 25% in this year's primary election, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday [9/26/2014] signed eight bills aimed at getting more Californians to participate in the political process.  He also signed dozens of other bills Friday — a hodgepodge that included new rights for gay and transgender Californians, a requirement that state prisons expand the availability of condoms to inmates and measures that promote the "farm to fork" movement to increase consumer access to fresh food.

Jerry Brown at UN Climate Change Summit: 'Carbon Pollution Kills!'  Arriving in NYC aboard the People's Climate Train, which travelled across the country from Emeryville California, Sister Ayya Santussika, a Buddhist nun, said that climate change is a "moral issue" and affects everyone of us. [...] Gov. Brown signed some bills on Sunday [9/21/2014] that mandates an increase in the amount of electric cars for California, reduces the time it takes to get rooftop solar panel permits, and establishes new regulations to restrict atmospheric pollutants.

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon, for the same reason that water is not hydrogen.  Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere supports life.  It is not a threat.  It is not pollution.

"What do you call a man who claims voters' choices have no place in government?"
Brown's Final Nail In Prop. 187 Is Really A Blow To California's Voters.  [I]n 1994, millions of California's voters, by a margin of 59% to 41%, voted in favor of denying "free" welfare, education and other benefits to illegal immigrants on the clear logic that a burglar who breaks into someone else's home doesn't have the right to eat the owner's food.  It was a legitimate decision for a people to make, given that in any democratic system, the participants have the right to control the purse.  But [Governor] Brown's statements and those of his political allies, including those in the press, suggest an imperial contempt for the will of California's voters.

Pension 'spiking' to cost CalPERS nearly $800 million, controller says.  Taxpayers and local governments are on the hook to pay nearly $800 million stemming from "legal" pension spiking over the next two decades, the state controller said Tuesday [9/9/2014].  The price tag came as Controller John Chiang issued a new audit of the California Public Employees' Retirement System.  The audit of 11 state and local government agencies found no illegal pension spiking but concluded that the country's largest public retirement fund makes itself vulnerable to the practice by not aggressively reviewing its 3,100 member agencies' payroll records.

Nearly 1 in 10 California workers are here illegally, study finds.  A report released Wednesday [9/3/2014] by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state's workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product.  The study, which was conducted in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center, was based on census data and other statistics, including data from the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security.  It looked at a variety of ways the estimated 2.6 million immigrants living in California without permission participate in state life.

California Rep. On Drought: Democrats Believe 'Fish Are More Important Than People'.  Rep. David Valadao (R-Bakersfield) lashed out at Democrats, including congressional opponent Amanda Renteria, on California's urgent drought problem, saying Democrat policies will fail to provide relief for millions of Central Valley residents living with severe water shortages. [...] Valadao is not the only one in the district blasting the allocation of water resources.  Area farmers are angry after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began releasing 25,000 acre-feet of water from Northern California's Trinity Lake to help protect the native salmon population on Saturday [8/30/2014], even as farmers have repeatedly asked for more water to help grow food.

CA Lawmakers Aim To Ban English Only Instruction in Public Schools.  On Tuesday [8/26/2014], a few hours after Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto said that Illegal Aliens deserve justice in the USA and Gov. Jerry Brown welcomed all illegal immigrants to California, lawmakers in Sacramento passed a proposed ballot measure seeking to dismantle the English-only mandate for public schools and increase multilingual education programs.

Gov. Jerry Brown Reveals That California Has Just Seceded From the Union and is Now Part of Mexico.  This Democrat Party is completely out of control.  It has succeeded in its century-long quest to fundamentally  transform  destroy our form of government.

Liberals love freedom of expression — until they disagree with it.
CA Looks To Ban Confederate Flag.  A bill sits on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk to ban California from displaying or selling the Confederate flag or objects with images of it.  The state's Legislature passed the bill nearly unanimously last week.  Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, D-Compton, introduced the legislation after his mother discovered the Capitol gift shop sold a replica of Confederate money that contained a picture of the flag, according to the L.A. Times.  The lone dissenting vote among the 67 cast was from former California GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks.  He argued the bill would infringe on free speech.

Gov. Jerry Brown To Mexican Illegals: 'You're All Welcome In California.  On Monday evening [8/25/2014], California Governor Jerry Brown said all Mexicans, including illegal immigrants, are welcome in California.  According to the Los Angeles Times, while introducing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who said America is "the other Mexico," Brown "spoke about the interwoven histories of Mexico and California."  He "nodded to the immigrants in the room, saying it didn't matter if they had permission to be in the United States."  "You're all welcome in California," Brown reportedly said.

Another Dumb Idea From Los Angeles.  The city of Los Angeles is considering paying voters to encourage turnout.  Needless to say, it's a ridiculous idea that will reward low-information voting, foster political demagogues and breed corruption.

California AG Kamala Harris to appeal ruling against death penalty.  A federal judge's "flawed" decision declaring California's enforcement of the death penalty unconstitutional will be appealed, state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris announced Thursday [8/21/2014].  Harris will ask the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn last month's ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who said decades-long delays and uncertainty about whether inmates will be executed violated the Constitution's ban on cruel or unusual punishment.  Harris personally opposes the death penalty but promised voters she would enforce it.

CA Supreme Court Rejects Dems' Anti-'Citizens United' Ballot Measure.  On Monday [8/11/2014], the California Supreme Court blocked an "advisory" ballot measure that Democrats had hoped to include on the November ballot, with a view to increasing turnout among apathetic voters.  The non-binding measure, Proposition 49, asked voters if they felt the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling should be reversed.

Jerry Brown: Affluent Families Not Producing' Children.  Giving what was dubbed the "California Welcome," Gov. Jerry Brown told attendees at the 31st Annual National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Conference in June that affluent families seemed to not be "producing" children in the state.  "I don't know what the affluent families are doing," Brown said.  "They're not producing or something, because half the kids in schools are from low-income families."

The Editor says...
Get a clue, Governor.  ALL of the kids in public schools are from low-income families.  Anybody with any money sends their kids to private schools.  Like Mr. and Mrs. Obama, for example.

California Releases Thousands of 'Lifers' from Prison.  California continues to stretch the imaginations of non-liberals.  One unthinkable policy is Governor Brown's policy by which thousands of presumably dangerous prisoners originally sentenced by juries to life sentences in the slammer are being set free.  A Friday [8/8/2014] radio segment on the California Report was downright cheery about cons being released into local communities. [...] In other words, don't be scared, little citizens — the murderers and rapists have been taught techniques in anger management.

Is Big Labor Keeping The L.A. Water Dept. From Replacing Old Pipes?  Not an outlandish question.  The water main that broke near UCLA last week was ninety years old, which isn't unusual here in the City of Angels.  The only things more common than fault lines running under this city are ancient water pipes.  It's a situation that even the mayor admits isn't going to get better soon.  As is typical with bureaucracies, the problem is blamed on a lack of money.  As is also typical with bureaucracies, it is really more a problem of prioritization and budgeting than available funds.

Diaper duty for Calif. taxpayers? Bill would create new welfare program.  California is weighing a first-of-its-kind welfare program that would subsidize diapers for needy families, though some lawmakers say the plan's a stinker.  Assembly Bill 1516, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, would create the taxpayer-backed program within the state's existing welfare network, called CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids).  Families that qualify for CalWORKS could be eligible for $80 a month to buy diapers for children under the age of 2.

One of Obama's big ideas for reforming health care failed a test in California.  "We need to bundle payments so you aren't paid for every single treatment you offer a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead paid well for how you treat the overall disease," Obama told the crowd of physicians.  Obama was articulating what would become one of the key payment reforms in his health care law — a proposal aimed at giving incentives to providers to control costs by rewarding them for providing less expensive care.  But a study published in the journal Health Affairs looked at an ambitious three-year pilot program of bundled payments in California that was funded by a $2.9 million grant from Obama's 2009 economic stimulus package — and found that the program was such a massive failure, it could hardly get off the ground.

Health premiums soared, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says.  The cost of health insurance for individuals skyrocketed this year in California, with some paying almost twice what they did last year, the state's insurance commissioner said.  But Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones predicted that insurers will ease up in the coming year to prevent California voters from approving tough new rate controls on the November statewide ballot as Proposition 45.  Insurers and opponents of Proposition 45 dismissed Jones' comments as misleading and politically motivated.

The Editor resorts to mocking derision:
That's brilliant!  As long as they're at it, why not limit the price of gasoline to a dollar per gallon?

Divided they stand? Billionaire in push to carve up California into six states.  A billionaire tech investor says he has enough backing to put on the ballot a plan to split California into six states.  Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist founder of a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has invested in such tech companies as Twitter, HotMail, Skype and Tesla, told Reuters he has the 808,000 signatures needed on a petition to force the measure onto a public referendum in November 2016.

Almonds Are Sucking the Life Out of California.  The new California gold rush is a bit, well, nutty: According to USDA predictions reported Monday [7/14/2014], farmers will harvest a record 2.1 billion pounds of almonds this year.  That's great news for almond-lovers, but not-so-great news for California, which produces 80 percent of the world's almonds.  A single almond requires 1.1 gallons of water to produce, and seeing as the state is currently in the middle of a devastating drought, that's water farmers have to drill deep for — 2,500 feet deep, in fact.

California Removes 'Husband' and 'Wife' from California Marriage Law.  One word can make all the difference when it comes to definitions.  Exhibit A:  exchange the words "husband and wife" for a more inclusive term, and you have the phrase "I now pronounce you spouses."  In the state of California, they are paying special attention to keep their vernacular as progressive as possible.  Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill Monday [7/7/2014] to formally make marriage gender-neutral to reflect the state's allowance of same-sex unions.

California's Hydromania.  We had a wonderful water storage system for 23 million people in 1980.  But it proved completely inadequate for the 40 million plus of 2014, who assumed household and drinking water, irrigation supplies, and clean hydroelectric power came out of thin air.

Well drilling boom in the West.  Erected on the edge of hundreds of acres of crops in Kern County, Calif., crews are currently working around the clock on a massive well.  At first glance, you may think they're drilling for oil.  But this project is digging for something of a different value.  Third generation farmer Devon Yurosek and his family have invested heavily in the two thousand foot water well on their farmland.  In the midst of the worst drought in California's history, the Yuroseks need water to help grow pistachios, pomegranates and cherries.  Their well is just one of a number popping up throughout the area.

Californians Keep Up With Joneses' Water Use.  In five months since the drought emergency was declared, Californians have cut their water consumption only 5 percent compared with recent years, according to state officials — a far cry from the 20 percent that Gov. Jerry Brown called for in January.  So, faced with apparent indifference to stern warnings from state leaders and media alarms, cities across California have encouraged residents to tattle on their neighbors for wasting water — and the residents have responded in droves.  Sacramento, for instance, has received more than 6,000 reports of water waste this year, up twentyfold from last year.

Advocates of splitting California into six states gathering signatures.  Advocates for Six Californias, a plan to split the Golden State into a half dozen separate states, are holding a petition drive this weekend to get their plan on the ballot in 2016.  The idea is the brainchild of Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist from Menlo Park — or as he hopes to some day call it, the state of Silicon Valley.  Draper has sunk $2 million into signature gathering for the proposal.

Vergara Case Is California's Education Earthquake.  [Scroll down]  Teachers gain lifetime tenure after just 18 months, before their training is even done.  It's almost impossible to dismiss them, no matter what their transgressions — perversion, drug dealing, child pornography, sexual assault, you name it.  The regulations are so cumbersome, it's impossible to fire anyone.  There's also a layoff system that ensures that seniority trumps performance, resulting in top-performing teachers being laid off over under-performing deadwood who've just been on the job longer.  It's a Mafia-like protection racket for the worst of the worst.

California Tops List of 10 States With Highest Taxes.  The Tax Foundation has ranked the states by their state income tax rates and among the highest are California, Hawaii, and Oregon.

CA Legislators Are Highest Paid in USA.  Stateline's data, which indicated California legislators are averaging a base salary of $90,526 per year, is a few months old, and that base salary will be raised to $95,291 in December as a result of a decision last year by the California Citizens Compensation Commission.  The Commission is also considering a further raise.  In addition, the legislators receive an additional tax-free "per diem" of $141.86 per day every day the Legislature is in session.  The closest average salary to the California legislators is in Pennsylvania, where the average salary is $84,012.

Environmentalists Cheer California's Latest Plan to Sink Its Economy.  Environmentalists are gleeful at the news reported last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that the amount of recoverable oil from California's Monterey Shale formation — predicted to be the nation's largest reserve of oil — is a whopping 96-percent below original production estimates.  In response, more than 100 environmental groups signed a letter to the California Legislature calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing and other "stimulation" techniques that ultimately would be needed to develop this oil field.  They say the new estimates are "undercutting the misguided rationale" for allowing fracking before more studies are done.

Vergara v. California: The Most Important Court Case You've Never Heard Of.  This school year, parents learned a tough lesson:  The only force on behalf of the public interest is an interested public.  And sometimes the students show us the way.  Nine public school children have been courageously taking on the government in California, where their right to a sound education is rooted in the Constitution.  A judge's decision is expected soon, and their lawsuit is being watched closely in education circles.

California takes first step toward curtailing water rights.  Some farmers and community water districts in drought-hit California could soon face limits on their ability to use water from strained streams that flow into the Sacramento River.  The California Water Resources Control Board adopted regulations on Wednesday to limit water use during summer months, the driest season and the time of year when farmers are most likely to need water to irrigate their crops.

Southern California City May Drop Lawsuit Against Sriracha Sauce Maker.  The mayor of Irwindale said he will ask the City Council to drop the public-nuisance order and lawsuit against the maker of Sriracha hot sauce, possibly bringing the months-long conflict to an end.  The move comes after members of Gov. Jerry Brown's office visited the sauce factory.

The Editor says...
The factory had been recently visited by elected officials from Texas who were actively trying to lure the factory away from California.  That would be a really good reason to drop the lawsuit.

Sriracha CEO Compares California to Communist Vietnam.  David Tran is the founder and CEO of Huy Fong Foods, the maker of the famously tasty Sriracha hot sauce.  Grappling for months with regulators and politicians in southern California about the spicy scents that his factory emits, Tran recently compared meddlesome government to that of a communist country.  It might sound hyperbolic, but he does know a thing or two about living under the nightmarish bureaucracy of a red utopia.  NPR explains that Tran "escaped" Socialist Republic of Vietnam and "its many intrusions" three decades ago to start a new life in The Land of the Free.

Sriracha battle over: Victory for chili as council throws out 'public nuisance' declaration and lawsuit against hugely popular hot sauce factory.  In a victory for chilli fans around the world, a town that is home to the fiercely popular Sriracha hot sauce company has removed its status as a "public nuisance" and thrown out a lawsuit that threatened to halt its production.  The simple piquant condiment that inspired a global community of foodies — and whole books of dedicated recipes — had been in undeniably hot water following complaints from local residents.

In California we don't trust.  It may come as little surprise that Californians are not very trusting of their state government.  After all, Californians have had to deal with more than our fair share of budget crises, tax increases, corruption, mismanaged agencies and boondoggle projects.  Given that California residents have been conditioned for many years to accept this as the normal state of affairs, it may astound some of us to learn that most other state governments have earned far greater levels of trust from their citizens.

Atheists win prayer battle against California city council.  Atheists who complained about pre-meeting prayers conducted by members of the Pismo Beach City Council in California can now claim a win.  Council members say they're going to stop saying prayers at public meetings and that the volunteer chaplain will no longer be invited to give the opening invocations, The Blaze reported.  They've also agreed to pay a symbolic settlement of $1 to each of the the two plaintiffs — and another $47,500 to cover the two plaintiffs' legal fees.

Bill Encourages Schools To Teach About Racial Significance Of Obama's Presidency.  A bill that passed the Assembly with unanimous bipartisan support Thursday encourages California schools to teach students about the racial significance of Barack Obama's presidency.

Calif. moves to ban judges affiliated with Boy Scouts.  California is proposing to ban members of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) from serving as judges because the Boy Scouts do not allow gay troop leaders, The Daily Caller has learned.  In a move with major legal implications, The California Supreme Court Advisory Committee on The Code of Judicial Ethics has proposed to classify the Boy Scouts as practicing "invidious discrimination" against gays, which would end the group's exemption to anti-discriminatory ethics rules and would prohibit judges from being affiliated with the group.

Two Dems Accuse Party Leaders in CA-33 of Changing Rules to Favor Wealthy Insiders.  Two Democratic Party candidates in the primary race for California's 33rd congressional district in West Los Angeles have accused local party officials of using an arbitrary fundraising minimum to favor established insiders — then raising that minimum at the last moment to exclude them from a recent candidates' forum.

California Unemployment Holds Steady at Dismal 8.1%.  In March, according to the Los Angeles Times, the rate was 8.1%. In February, it was exactly the same.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the state only added 11,800 net new jobs in March, many of them in construction, government, education, and health services. [...] While California remained miserable, unemployment rates in 17 other states rose.

Drought-stricken Calif. farmers to get more water.  Drought-stricken California farmers and cities are set to get more water as state and federal officials ease water cutbacks due to recent rain and snow, officials announced on Friday [4/18/2014].

Asians Derail Affirmative Action In California.  The express train hurtling to return racial preference admissions to California — in the form of State Constitutional Amendment 5, which if placed on the ballot and approved by voters would have overturned Prop. 209  — has just been derailed by an outburst of opposition from Asian Americans.  The eruption of opposition caught SCA 5's Democratic sponsors by surprise and caused a crucial three Asian American senators to withdraw their support, depriving the measure of the two thirds senate majority required to place an initiative on the ballot.

Racial spoils system starting to fall apart in California.  California's ruling Democrats are in danger of splintering their coalition over an attempt to re-introduce affirmative action, which has been banned ever since the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996, which banned the use of racial preferences by the state, including in higher education.

California Democrats Await Fallout After 3 Are Caught Up in Scandals.  One state senator was charged with conspiring to traffic in arms from the Philippines, and taking bribes from undercover F.B.I. agents including one who posed as a marijuana dealer.  Another was accused of taking bribes from federal agents impersonating Hollywood film executives.  And a third was convicted of perjury and voter fraud after lying about where he lived when he ran for office.  All three are Democratic state senators from California, and their recent legal problems have brought rare bad news to a party that has come to thoroughly dominate politics in this state but now looks besieged by high-profile corruption cases.

Why did 287,000-plus Californians vote for Leland Yee?  One of the odder stats of Election Night:  As of Wednesday morning, 287,590 Californians had cast ballots for indicted state Sen. Leland Yee for secretary of state.  That's good for nearly 10 percent of the vote.  That's also more votes than five other secretary of state candidates who haven't been indicted received.

The poster boy for liberal hypocrisy ignored by national media, but outrages San Francisco.  The liberal media are trying to ignore his arrest, but California State Senator Leland Yee is such an amusing piñata of liberal hypocrisy that even his home town liberal newspaper is joining in the mockery fun. [...] Outlets like CNN which ignore this embarrassment to liberals do so at their peril.

Corruption Costs Dems Their Supermajority in California.  Two years ago, California Democrats celebrated victory in a decades-long struggle to win a supermajority in the Legislature, where a two-thirds majority is required for any tax increase.  It was the latest chapter in a long descent into inconsequence by California Republicans, who hold no statewide offices and party registration of only 29.3 percent of the voters.  But corruption has achieved what the Republicans could not.  The supermajority is now down the drain as three of the Golden State's 27 Democratic state senators have within the past two months been convicted or indicted on charges ranging from bribery to gun-running.

Gov. Jerry Brown calls for Democratic senators to resign.  Gov. Jerry Brown called on three scandal-plagued state senators to resign on Friday, speaking out for the first time on a series of criminal cases that have sapped Democrats' power in the Capitol and tarnished the Legislature's image.

California Dems Worried Their Corruption Scandals Will Benefit GOP.  The unethical and illegal behavior of Democratic state senators in California, where Democrats have total control of the state legislature, is giving the state's Democratic Party concerns that the GOP may use the misbehavior to regain power.  Since the beginning of 2014, every month has featured a Democratic state senator either being arrested or convicted.  The latest arrest came Wednesday, as Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco was arrested on federal corruption charges.

California state senator arrested in FBI raids along with Asian gang leader known as 'Shrimp Boy'.  State Sen. Leland Yee and Raymond Chow, were taken into custody after a series of raids by federal and gang task force officials, but the charges against them remained undisclosed.

California state senator Leland Yee arrested in FBI sweep.  A longtime California politician who was praised for his efforts to make government more transparent and authored gun control legislation was arrested Wednesday, accused of conspiracy to deal firearms and wire fraud.  The allegations against State Sen. Leland Yee were outlined in an FBI affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against him and 25 other people.  The affidavit was unsealed on Wednesday, as Yee was scheduled to appear in court.

California state senator arrested in FBI sweep.  A prominent California lawmaker was arrested on Wednesday in an FBI sweep that netted 26 people, a high-profile case that could affect statewide elections and brings to three the number of Democratic state senators who face criminal charges this year.

California city approves highest-in-state $12.30 minimum wage.  The Richmond City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday [3/18/2014] in favor of an ordinance that would raise minimum hourly pay in the city to $12.30 an hour by 2017.

California Seeks to Redefine Consensual Campus Sex as Rape.  In endorsing a bill in the California legislature that would require "affirmative consent" before sex can occur on campus, the editorial boards of the Sacramento and Fresno Bee and the Daily Californian advocated that sex be treated as "sexual assault" unless the participants discuss it "out loud" before sex, and "demonstrate they obtained verbal 'affirmative consent' before engaging in sexual activity." [...] Defining sex as rape merely because there was no verbal discussion in advance trivializes rape and brands innocent people as rapists (including some people who themselves have been sexually victimized in the past).  Disturbingly, it's not just sex they want to regulate, but also "sexual activity" in general.

A law so stupid California legislature seeks to repeal it two months after it took effect.  California's state legislature is seeking to repeal an idiotic law that took effect January 1st.  It turns out that some feel-good regulatory efforts generate enough blowback that they can actually be reversed.

Gas Prices May Jump From California Emissions Law.  California's greenhouse gas reduction law already has shaken up the state's industrial sector, costing it more than $1.5 billion in pollution permit fees.

Grieving California mom takes down cross on road after group's protest, more appear.  A grieving California mom who, under pressure from an atheist group, went to the site where her son was killed to remove a memorial cross was met at the scene by a throng of supporters who planted crosses of their own.  "They said they have to take that one down," Doug Johnson, a Riverside resident who traveled to the site with his daughter and six home-made crosses, told The Riverside Press-Enterprise.  "But they didn't say anything about putting another one up."

California's Drought Isn't Due To Global Warming, But Politics.  President Obama visited California's drought-hit Central Valley Friday, offering handouts and blaming global warming.  But the state's water shortage is due to the left's refusal to deal with the state's water needs.

California auto buyers favor Toyota Prius; rest of U.S. prefers trucks.  Toyota's Prius was the best-selling vehicle in the state for the second consecutive year in 2013, highlighting California's radically different taste in automobiles.  Nationally, Ford's F-Series truck has been the bestselling vehicle for more than three decades.  The Prius ranked 16th in sales nationally.

Court overturns restrictions on concealed guns in much of California.  In a significant victory for gun owners, a divided federal appeals court Thursday [2/13/2014] struck down California rules that permit counties to restrict as they see fit the right to carry a concealed weapon in public.  The 2-1 ruling by a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel would overturn restrictions on carrying concealed handguns, primarily affecting California's most populated regions, including Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco.

Parched California's Worst Water Enemy: Its Governor.  California Gov. Jerry Brown has blasted as "unwelcome and divisive" a desperately needed drought-relief bill in Congress that will likely win in the House soon.  That's rich coming from a man who's done nothing.

Kiddie Porn Does Not Count as "Moral Turpitude" to S.F. Govt.  A former high-ranking San Francisco government employee convicted of felony possession of child pornography will continue to receive his government pension because, according to city regulations, evidence of "moral turpitude" is required to revoke a pension yet viewing violent kiddie porn does not qualify as moral turpitude.

Caltrans accused of trying to hide Bay Bridge problems.  A Caltrans engineer and an outside expert working on the Bay Bridge eastern span accused agency officials of discounting warnings about cracked welds on the bridge, and telling them not to put their concerns in writing to keep them from becoming public, according to a report commissioned for a state Senate committee.

California Agency Plans 'Green' Car Vouchers for the Poor.  One longtime critic of federal transportation spending once concluded that it would be less expensive for the government to buy every new transit rider a Jaguar XJ8 than it would be to build certain new rail systems.  Unfortunately, California officials may not have realized that the idea of buying people new cars wasn't a serious proposal as much as a way to illustrate a point about excessive spending.

California Adopts Failed Venezuelan Model Of Energy Management.  In California, energy officials warn that the state and others like it face a catastrophic collapse of its power grid due to the many green energy schemes that have made managing energy flow difficult.  "Energy officials worry a lot these days about the stability of the massive patchwork of wires, substations and algorithms that keep electricity flowing," reported Evan Halpert in Tuesday's [12/03/2013] Los Angeles Times, citing wind, solar and geothermal energy coming online.  At a minimum, higher costs would be a certainty as officials attempt to mitigate the effects of their own green energy policies, if not a total grid collapse.

Slow Motion Gun Confiscation in California.  California has established gun confiscation squads that move through California confiscating guns that were registered.  As predicted in the essay "Gun Registration is Gun Confiscation" written in 2000, gun confiscation is not being implemented in massive door to door searches, though such confiscations have happened in recent history, such as in the Philippines in 1972, and even during a flood in Canada this year (2013).

Do single-family homes threaten the planet?  A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change.  Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes.  That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region's Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

California's alternative-energy program under scrutiny.  California is spending nearly $15 million to build 10 hydrogen fueling stations, even though just 227 hydrogen-powered vehicles exist in the state today.  It's a hefty bet on the future, given that government officials have been trying for nine years, with little success, to get automakers to build more hydrogen cars.  The project is part of a sprawling but little-known state program that packs a powerful financial punch:  It spent $1.6 billion last year on a myriad of energy-efficiency and alternative-energy projects.

California's Brown Signs Bill Permitting Non-Physician Abortions.  The legislation, which had been pushed vigorously by Planned Parenthood, had been strongly opposed by pro-life groups and some physicians, arguing that it amounted to legalizing back-alley abortions for profit.

Brown signs bill to allow children more than two legal parents.  Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday that will allow children in California to have more than two legal parents, a measure opposed by some conservative groups as an attack on the traditional family.  Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said he authored the measure to address the changes in family structure in California, including situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent.

Showing Contempt For Its Citizens, California Issues Driver's Licenses To Illegals.  California's new law letting illegal aliens have driver's licenses represents a shift in ruling-class priorities from the interests of citizens to those of politically well-organized pressure groups.

Brown vetoes bill to allow non-citizens on juries.  Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have made California the first state in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty.

Jerry Brown: Illegal Immigrant Driver's Licenses [are] 'Only the First Step'.  It's been a whirlwind month for Gov. Jerry Brown — four weeks in which the California chief executive's desk saw an anti-paparazzi bill and a bill to allow non-physicians to perform abortions, and he himself lofty praise in Rolling Stone.  The latest bill to pass his desk, granting illegal immigrants the ability to apply for driver's licenses in the state, is "only the first step" of a national movement, the governor told a crowd yesterday [10/2/2013].

Gov. Brown signs another bill easing conditions for immigrants.  Law enforcement officials in California who arrest immigrants in the country illegally will be prohibited from detaining them for transfer to federal authorities unless they committed a serious crime under one of several bills signed Saturday by Gov. Jerry Brown to ease conditions for immigrants.

California grants driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.  California's governor signed a bill Thursday [10/3/2013] granting illegal immigrants driver's licenses, in a decision immigrant rights groups hailed as a major step forward for their movement.  The country's largest state becomes the latest to reverse course and grant legal driving privileges to illegal immigrants.

For California's Illegal Immigrants, a Great Week.  On September 4, in a shocking vote to undermine safety and to erode federal immigration law enforcement, the California Assembly passed AB 4, the so-called TRUST Act.  AB 4 would prohibit state and local police from honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers in all but the most extreme cases.  An ICE detainer advises a state or local law enforcement agency that it seeks custody of a criminal alien for arrest and removal.  However, when ordered by the state to ignore ICE detainers, local jails must release criminals back onto the street where they can continue their lives of crime.

Don't tell mom the babysitter's unionized.  If Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has his way, your babysitter soon could join a union and cost you a lot more.  The San Francisco Democrat has authored several domestic-worker unionization bills that have been vetoed by California governors.  Now he's back with Assembly Bill 241, which just passed both houses of the Legislature and is awaiting a signature or veto from Gov. Jerry Brown.

California becomes first state in nation to regulate ride-sharing.  California regulators have approved the nation's and state's first rules for fast-growing ride-sharing companies that connect passengers to drivers via smartphones.

California passes 'job killer' increase in minimum wage to $10.  While the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the wage increase will affect more than 2.3 million California workers, groups like the California Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill, calling it a "job killer" that will drive up business costs "worse than any predicted rate of inflation increase."

California governor to sign driver's license bill for illegal immigrants.  California Governor Jerry Brown said on Friday he would sign a bill authorizing the state to provide driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, a last-minute reversal of his position.

Ice cream parlor permit hassles chilling.  Tuesday is inspection day for building owner John Vicars.  He's got a commercial property on College Avenue, right in the heart of Oakland's busiest shopping district.  His quest is simple:  to see an ice cream parlor opened on the ground floor of the building.  But his journey has been a regulatory nightmare.  It's taken him nine months to prepare 1,700 square feet of retail space to the city's satisfaction — at least to where they were satisfied enough to actually come out to inspect it.

California Raises Minimum Wage to $10 an Hour.  The California legislature has passed a bill that will raise the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour within three years, giving California one of the highest state minimum wage rates in America.

California Legislature OKs minimum wage boost.  A bill that would boost California's minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016 won approval by the state Legislature on Thursday [9/12/2013] and was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown, who said he would sign it.  The measure would raise the current $8 minimum wage to $9 an hour next July 1 and to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.

CA Mulls Allowing Non-Citizens to Work Polling Stations as Translators.  The State of California is seriously considering allowing non-citizens work at polls throughout the state during elections.  The Sacramento Bee reported weeks ago that the California Legislature has passed a bill that would let non-citizens who are "lawful permanent residents who meet all the other requirements for being eligible to vote except for citizenship" work at the polls.

California poised to implement first electronic license plates.  The idea is that rather than have a static piece of printed metal adorned with stickers to display proper registration, the plate would be a screen that could wirelessly (likely over a mobile data network) receive updates from a central server to display that same information.  In an example shown by a South Carolina vendor, messages such as "STOLEN," "EXPIRED," or something similar could also be displayed on a license plate.

The Editor says...
It sure is comforting to know that such a system could never be hacked by some guy with a laptop and a transmitter to make the plates display offensive words, or somebody else's license plate number.  Why would somebody do that?  Because license plate readers are the only means of toll collection on many highways.  Bank robbers would love to be able to change the plate number every half mile.  Once again, the California legislature has come up with a brilliant idea that has been carefully thought out.

America the Trivial.  At the end of two years of near-record drought in California, the fate of hundreds of thousands of acres of irrigated farmlands, which feed millions of Americans and earn billions of dollars in critical foreign exchange, hinges on a snow-filled winter in the Sierra Nevada.  You might never know of that razor's edge from the state legislature.  Rather than discussing new dams and canals, it debated whether transgendered youth in public schools could use the bathrooms of their choice and whether residents should need a permit to buy ammunition.

California insurance commissioner: We could "have a real disaster on our hands" with identify theft, fraud, and abuse.  California rushed headlong into the implementation of ObamaCare, eager to be the first model state to show off the many wonderful ways in which the law was ostensibly meant to work. [...] Besides the very glaring problems of sharply higher insurance premiums and major insurers fleeing the individual insurance market for via-employer insurance only, their "Covered California" exchange's administrators are realizing that there's another predicament in the works.

Fraud fear raised in California's health exchange.  As California prepares to launch its health care exchange, consumer groups are worried the uninsured could fall victim to fraud, identity theft or other crimes at the hands of some of the very people who are supposed to help them enroll.

Delta Project: California's Latest Environmental Boondoggle.  Judges have routinely stopped the water flows out of the Delta toward the dry but agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley and toward Southern California's massive metropolises, to help a tiny endangered baitfish known as the Delta Smelt.  The smelt is viewed as the canary in a coal mine, a bellwether for the ecological health of the waterways.  Millions of smelt are killed each year as they get caught in the giant pumps near Tracy, near the south end of the Delta. Environmentalists also express concerns about the level of saltwater that moves inland from the Pacific Ocean.

California Board Seeks to Ban Iconic Beach Firepits.  California's South Coast Air Quality Management District is proposing to give cities the authority to outlaw fire pits within their jurisdictions if they find the fires are nuisances.  The proposal jeopardizes one of the iconic images of California's surfer culture, where surfers often end the day around a fire pit on the beach.  The government proposal reflects American Lung Association opposition to beach fires, claiming they release too much air pollution.

Fracturing in California.  Few issues divide Democrats more than energy policy, as we've learned as unions and environmentalists fight over the Keystone XL pipeline.  More evidence now comes from California, where greens have lost an attempt to ban oil and gas hydraulic fracturing.  Democratic leaders brought their fracking moratorium bill to the Assembly floor last week, and their rank and file revolted.  The bill lost 37-24, with 12 Democrats joining 25 Republicans to defeat it.

California bill would fine big firms whose workers get Medi-Cal.  For years, politicians and labor unions have pilloried Wal-Mart and other large employers for paying workers so little that many qualify for government health insurance at taxpayers' expense.  Now critics fear the public will get stuck with an even bigger tab as California and other states expand Medicaid as part of the federal healthcare law.

Irvine, Calif., City Workers Average $143,691 in Total Compensation.  Employees of the City of Irvine, Calif., received total compensation averaging $143,691 in 2012, according to a study published by the California Public Policy Center.  Median total compensation, which means half of the Irvine city employees received less than this amount, and half received more, was $133,782 during 2012.

Calif. bill would let non-citizens serve on juries.  The California Assembly passed a bill on Thursday [4/25/2013] that would make the state the first in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty.

"Three-strike" lifers get a second chance in Calif. prisons.  California prisons are so overcrowded that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the conditions amount to cruel and unusual punishment.  The state is caught between a tight budget and its "three strikes" law, which imposes a life sentence after convictions. Last Fall, voters approved a plan to release some of those lifers.  Proposition 36 allows three-strikers to ask judges to let them out early.

California Group Mails Condoms to 12-Year-Olds.  The CFHC [California Family Health Council], a non-profit organization, has set up a website advertising its "Condom Access Project," where teens as young as 12 years old can receive free condoms in the mail.

To cut STD rate, California considers condoms in prison.  California prisoners have unprotected sexual contact, forced or consensual, even if both are illegal, and this reality often leads to the spread of HIV and other diseases in prisons and in communities where felons are paroled.

The Editor says...
Apparently the State of California is saying that prison rape is inevitable, so you'd better have a condom on hand.

America's most dishonest neighborhoods revealed.  America's top tax dodging hotspots have been revealed with about a third of fraudsters in California.  Neighborhoods including Beverly Hills and Newport Beach in California, New Carrollton, Maryland and College Park, Georgia, were among the potential tax evasion clusters targeted for auditing, according to confidential IRS data.  They were identified by the National Taxpayer Advocate using the IRS's confidential tax return data.  In all, researchers identified areas of possible tax cheats in more than 350 communities in 24 states.

CA Crime Skyrockets in Wake of Brown's Prison Release Plan.  In 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law California Assembly Bill 109, a piece of legislation designed to relieve overcrowded prisons in accordance with a Supreme Court decision.  AB 109 enshrined "realignment" into law — a plan to place supposedly "non-violent, non-serious, and non-sex offenders" in county jails rather than state prisons.  In other words, local governments were handed the problem of prisoners the state didn't want to hold.

California 'Lumber Products Assessment' a tax by any other name.  The clowns who frequent Sacramento's seedy bars and whorehouses, otherwise known as the members of the California State Legislature, have pulled off another midnight raid deep into the pocketbooks of all Californians.  At least street thugs and bank robbers are a one-time occurrence; [...]

To the left, California is now the model for America.  California's dominant Democrats can now raise taxes, float debt and expand government at will.  Republican "obstructionism" forced the state's liberal leaders to control themselves, but that control is over.  Every hare-brained idea will have at a high likelihood of passing.  Democrats already are pushing a host of new taxes and proposals that will make it easier for local officials to raise taxes, also.  So the taxing and spending has just begun.

State auditor: California's net worth at negative $127.2 billion.  Were California's state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits.  The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state's negative status — all of its assets minus all of its liabilities — increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue.

California tied with Rhode Island for highest jobless rate.  California's jobless rate was unchanged at 9.8% in January, and that lack of improvement put the Golden State in a tie with Rhode Island for the worst unemployment in the land.

Golden State's green jobs bust.  President Obama, of course, has completely failed to deliver on this promise of 5 million new green-collar jobs.  The entire U.S. economy has created only 1.2 million jobs since Obama was sworn into office, many of them in the fossil fuel extraction, production and distribution sector.  But in Obama's defense, most of his green jobs agenda was killed.  Cap-and-trade and renewable electricity mandates never made it through Congress.  High-speed rail was killed off by governors in Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin.  But where the rest of the nation has rejected all or most of these proposals, California has embraced them all.

Green state chokes off its middle class.  Los Angeles' water-fueled growth permanently altered entire habitats, including, most famously, the Owens Valley, which once supported a lake and farming community.  It is now a desert.  Unfortunately, California environmentalists are trying to turn much of the Central Valley's farmland back into desert too.  Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, federal courts have ordered farmers to divert hundreds of billions of gallons of water away from crops and into the Sacramento River, where it is supposed to help revive the delta smelt.

California's expensive education failure.  According to RAND Corp., as late as the 1970s California's public schools still had an "excellent" reputation.  Then, in 1975, Brown (in his first stint as California's governor) signed the Rodda Act, giving government unions the power to take money directly out of government employees' paychecks.  The California Teachers Association quickly poured this new revenue stream into an organizing drive, more than doubling the union's ranks.  The Golden State's politics have never been the same since — nor has the quality of its public schools.

California at Twilight.  We keep trying to understand the enigma of California, mostly why it still breathes for a while longer, given the efforts to destroy the sources of its success.  Let's try to navigate through its sociology and politics to grasp why something that should not survive is surviving quite well — at least in some places.

California Dept. of Transportation: 'Be Sure to Black Out the 'United States' and [the] Motto'.  For three years, a private citizen named Steve LeBard has led the effort to build a privately funded memorial in Orcutt, California — a tranquil small town located on the Golden State's gorgeous Central Coast — to honor military veterans.  And for the better part of those three years, he has run into a toxic blend of political correctness, anti-Americanism, and bureaucratic senselessness.  Today, the memorial, which was to be built with private funds on a small piece of public land, remains unbuilt.

California testing limits of gun-control rules in wake of Newtown shooting.  California already has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.  Buying a handgun requires registration, a safety certificate, a 10-day waiting period and a rigorous background check.  All direct person-to-person sales are banned and concealed-carry permits are rare.  But now, in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, lawmakers in the Golden State have launched into a new legislative frenzy to restrict firearms further.

California parks officials deliberately hid money, report says.  Fear of embarrassment and budget cuts led California parks officials to intentionally conceal millions of dollars in a department account, according to an investigation conducted by the state attorney general's office.  The report, released Friday [1/4/2013], is the most detailed official narrative yet regarding the root of the accounting scandal at the parks department.

For his next crisis.  Saving the planet isn't easy — or cheap — especially in California.  The state's anti-global-warming cap-and-trade program is the latest gimmick to leave it with yet another big hole to fill in its budget.  The Golden State's new carbon-trading program is the world's second largest, after the European Union's.  The stated goal is to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and another 80 percent by 2050.  But California held its very first "carbon credit" auction last month — and it was a big disappointment.

Study: CA Worst-Governed State in America.  According to a new study from 24/7 Wall Street, California is the worst run state in the nation ... for the second year in a row.  The best run state is North Dakota.

The 11 Death Spiral States.  Eleven states made Forbes' list of danger spots for investors including California, New York, Illinois, and Ohio.  They warned (and with the cliff it is even more critical), if you have muni bonds in these states — clean up your portfolio; if your career takes you there — rent, don't buy!

Pulling billions out of thin air.  As home to the entertainment industry and the land of make-believe, California is known for embracing fads.  The latest rage among the Democrats who just won a supermajority sway in the Sacramento Statehouse may prove to be the most costly.  California is starting its own cap-and-trade program, which taxes carbon-dioxide emissions and other "greenhouse" gases through a convoluted permit system.  The Golden State could end up suffocating its golden goose with this scheme.

California's Road to Perdition.  California was once the envy of everyone.  But this promised land is now being controlled by a super-majority of leftists, and the liberal, pro-union Democrats have only one answer to California's woes:  to raise taxes.

No Meat on Mondays in Los Angeles.  The Los Angeles City Council is urging all residents to observe "meatless Mondays" from now on.  A resolution adopted on Oct. 24 reads:  "Be it resolved, that the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby declares all Mondays as 'Meatless Mondays' in support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health and protect animals."

And Will a Jesse James or Billy the Kid Elementary School Follow?  California public schools for some time in many surveys of national testing have ranked 48th or 49th in the nation in math and science, and, inter alia, are part of the various impediments to robust economic growth in California.  No matter — California school boards have better things to worry about.

Golden State turns to lead, now leads poverty rankings.  The Golden State has reached a poverty rate that is now twice as bad as West Virginia's and substantially worse than the rates of poverty in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, according to a new measure of poverty developed by the federal Census Bureau.  Democrat-run California earned its last-place rank under the federal government's new measure of poverty, which incorporates more detailed analyses of welfare payments and the local costs of food, gasoline and housing.

SF to cover uninsured's gender reassignment.  In 2001, San Francisco became the first city in the country to cover the cost of sex change surgeries for transgender city employees.  In 2007, it became the first city in the country to provide health care for all uninsured residents through its Healthy San Francisco program.  Now, San Francisco is combining those firsts into yet another pioneering move by becoming the first city in the country to cover the cost of gender reassignment surgeries for its uninsured residents.

$822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway.  Nine years ago, California Democrat Gray Davis became the first U.S. governor in 82 years to be recalled by voters.  The state's 20 million taxpayers still bear the cost of his four years and 10 months on the job.  Davis escalated salaries and benefits for 164,000 state workers, including a 34 percent raise for prison guards, the first of a series of steps in which he and successors saddled California with a legacy of dysfunction.

Highest-Paid California Trooper Is Chief Banking $484,000.  California Highway Patrol division chief Jeff Talbott retired last year as the best-paid officer in the 12 most-populous U.S. states, collecting $483,581 in salary, pension and other compensation.  Talbott, 53, received $280,259 for accrued leave and vacation time and took a new job running the public-safety department at a private university in Southern California.  He also began collecting an annual pension of $174,888 from the state.

California, where a cop can make $483,581 in one year.  Thanks again to massive pension liabilities, the state has been unable to keep up with the growth of its prison population, resulting in overcrowding, which in turn resulted in the court-ordered early release of thousands of inmates, many of whom are already on crime sprees.

California in Chaos.  California actually has fewer state government employees per capita than the national average, but its employees are the best-paid in America.  This often has a negative effect on government services.  It is hard, for example, to hire enough cops to keep violent crime down in Oakland if the city can't afford the six-figure compensation packages of the existing officers.

With billions in the bank, Blue Shield of California loses its state tax-exempt status.  Authorities have revoked the tax-exempt status of nonprofit Blue Shield of California, potentially putting it on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in state taxes each year.  The move by the California Franchise Tax Board comes as the state's third-largest health insurer faces fresh criticism over its rate hikes, executive pay and $4.2 billion in financial reserves.  The state quietly stripped the San Francisco insurer of its exemption from California income taxes in August.  The company held that since its founding in 1939.

Israel Invests in Desalinization; California Builds High-Speed Rail.  California is reeling from a drought, rather like the one suffered by Israel in 1998-2002.  California, with an 840-mile coastline on the world's largest ocean, has a water shortage; Israel, with a mere 170-mile coast line, does not.  Israel invests in desalinization; California is building a high-speed train at a cost of somewhere between $68 billion and $90 billion, the most expensive public works project in the nation's history with no completion date in sight, but finds the $1 billion price tag on its first desalinization plant too high to bear, even though its 50 million gallon per day output would meet the daily requirements of something like 280,000 of the modest-income consumers now the hardest hit by the rationing system in place.

With new climate legislation, Gov. Brown gets even with the oil industry.  Dominant Democrats in Sacramento hang together more often than not, and that produces victories when only a simple majority vote is required.  And that's usually.  Republicans these days are mostly irrelevant in California's Capitol.

Wildfires in Australia seem to share the same set of contributing factors as the fires in California

The Editor says...
The fires in California and in Australia share many traits:  In each case, the fires were initially blamed on global warming, more than anything else.  In California, that is still the case.  But in each case, the root of the problem is years of mismanagement, resulting in the accumulation of dry brush.

Terrifying footage of photographer's journey through heart of wildfire burning in California.  Terrifying footage of a photographer's drive through the heart of the Gamble Fire which has burnt over 1,000 acres in California's Napa County.  Craig Philpott managed to record his journey through the blaze which has destroyed many trees and started to burn parts of the road.  This footage was filmed on August 18.  [Video clip]

How a World Without Borders Became a Ward With No Exit.  A New York Times reporter argues that "the fires that have burned across Australia are not just destroying lives, or turning forests as large as nations into ashen moonscapes [they mean] the end of Australia as we know it." [...] "We have seen," she added, "the unfolding wings of climate change."

Arson, mischief and recklessness: 87 percent of fires are man-made.  There are, on average, 62,000 fires in Australia every year.  Only a very small number strike far from populated areas and satellite studies tell us that lightning is responsible for only 13 percent.  Not so the current fires threatening to engulf Queensland and NSW.  There were no lightning strikes on most of the days when the fires first started in September.  Although there have been since, these fires — joining up to create a new form of mega-fire — are almost all man-made.

Wildfire Transcends Continents and Centuries.  Australia is currently in its summer season.  And, for non-Australians, that translates to "fire season."  This year, these fires have caught international attention and are being portrayed as much worse than what we've seen in the past.  Yet the wildfires happening now in Australia, and those months earlier in California, are not novel and share much in common.

What caused the Australian fires?  Global warming?  Obstruction of fire prevention burns?  Arson?  The season's fires have been intense and widespread, but not nearly as much as reported by some media that made it seem as though virtually the entire continent was ablaze.  Eighteen million acres destroyed is a disaster by any measure, but that acreage represents less than 1 percent of Australia's landmass, and less than 6% of its forests.  No one denies the fires were made worse by dry conditions resulting from a drought and record hot temperatures.  But, as measured by the amount of forestland destroyed, the 18 million acres for this year's fires pale in comparison to the 290 million acres burned to the ground during the 1974 bushfire season.

Australian Police Arrest 183 Arsonists for Bushfires.  Australian police investigating the bushfires have arrested more than 180 alleged arsonists since the start of 2019. But apparently they forgot to send the memo to Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, both of whom insisted in their Golden Globes acceptance speeches that the Australian bushfires were in fact caused by 'climate change.'

The California drought of 2011-15.  Here's an undeniable part of California's drought history the doomsayers try to hide at all costs.  Studies of tree rings, sediment and other natural evidence have documented multiple extreme droughts in what is now California over the last 1,000+ years, including several that lasted more than 20 years — that's four times longer than the relatively puny 5-year drought of 2011-15.  Twenty years is a long time, but some California droughts lasted even longer.  Much longer.  One that began in 850 A.D. is thought by scientists to have droned on for a mind-numbing 240 years, and that megadrought occurred more than a millennium before the climate crisis industry invented itself out of whole cloth in the 1980s.  The drought of 850 wasn't alone.  Fifty years before it began, another mega-drought, one that lasted 180 years, was just winding down.

Appeasement: The Root Cause of the Australian Mega-Fires.  It's impossible to reduce the number of sociopaths in a society to absolute zero.  And even one sociopath can ignite several fires in proximate locations that can join up into a single crown fire.  How?  Because, the fuel — the forest canopy, runs for miles as a single, unbroken circuit.  And it is governments who are, by stealth, opposing the significant breaking of these fire circuits.  The fuel loads pile up waiting for a hot summer ignition.  This Australian fire season was preceded by years of drought:  the fuel was plenty, it was dry, it was unbroken — making the disaster inevitable — the arsonist's power had been multiplied tenfold by those entrusted to protect us.  In 2017, Newsweek admitted that ISIS celebrated the wildfires in California, and that ISIS "supporters suggested laying gasoline-filled bottles in the woods to inflict further damage" in their newsletter.  Why are we making it easier for terrorists to create inextinguishable fires?

Arson, mischief and recklessness: 87 percent of fires are man-made.  There are, on average, 62,000 fires in Australia every year.  Only a very small number strike far from populated areas and satellite studies tell us that lightning is responsible for only 13 percent.  Not so the current fires threatening to engulf Queensland and NSW.  There were no lightning strikes on most of the days when the fires first started in September.  Although there have been since, these fires — joining up to create a new form of mega-fire — are almost all man-made.

The Australian Wildfires Are About Arsonists — Not Climate Change.  In the last couple of months, as many as 200 wildfires have destroyed Australia all over the continent.  Due to the number of fires and location, law enforcement determined that the blazes were intentionally set, and 183 arsonists have been arrested for the crime so far.  The Left tends to ignore the truth and push lies that work for their political agenda — this time, it was Climate Change.  The Left blames humans, specifically those who do not believe in the political ideology of human-made Climate Change.  Leftists pushed the narrative that we, as humans are not doing enough to stop the earth from heating up.  Climate deniers are blamed.  There is one problem: arsonists set the fires.  People driving cars, flying in airplanes, and overeating red meat have nothing to do with the flames.

Fight fire with fire: controlled burning could have protected Australia.  By modern standards, my grandfather would probably be considered an environmental criminal.  To clear land for his farmhouse in north-eastern Victoria — and for his milking sheds, pig pens, chicken sheds, blacksmith shop and other outbuildings — he cleared hundreds of trees.  And he cleared thousands more for his wheat fields, cattle paddocks and shearing sheds.  Old man Hobbs would probably be found guilty of cultural appropriation, too, because he adopted the Aboriginal method of land-clearing.  He burned all of those trees.  He also established fire-delaying dirt paths through surrounding bushland.  This was once standard practice throughout rural Australia, where the pre-settlement indigenous population had long conducted controlled burns of overgrown flora — known as 'fuel' in current fire-management talk.  They knew an absence of controlled burns would invite uncontrolled burns — such as the gigantic wildfires that have ravaged much of this drought-hit nation since September.

There's Only One Way To Make Bushfires Less Powerful:  Take Out The Stuff That Burns.  As monstrous blazes overwhelm Australia's south-east, the need for a national bushfire policy has never been more urgent.  Active land management such as hazard-reduction burning and forest thinning must lie at the core of any such policy.  Done well, controlled burning limits a bushfire's spread and makes suppression easier, by reducing the amount of flammable material.  Clearing or thinning vegetation on roadsides and other areas also helps maintain fuel breaks, allowing firefighters access to forests in an emergency.  As former fire chiefs recently pointed out, of all factors driving a fire's severity — temperature, wind speed, topography, fuel moisture and fuel load — fuel load is the only one humans can influence.

Are Australia Bushfires Worsening from Human-Caused Climate Change? 
  [#1] Global wildfire activity has decreased in recent decades, making any localized increase (or decrease) in wildfire activity difficult to attribute to 'global climate change'.
  [#2] Like California, Australia is prone to bushfires every year during the dry season.  Ample fuel and dry weather exists for devastating fires each year, even without excessive heat or drought, as illustrated by the record number of hectares burned (over 100 million) during 1974-75 when above-average precipitation and below-average temperatures existed.
  [#3] Australian average temperatures in 2019 were well above what global warming theory can explain, illustrating the importance of natural year-to-year variability in weather patterns (e.g. drought and excessively high temperatures).
  [#4] Australia precipitation was at a record low in 2019, but climate models predict no long-term trend in Australia precipitation, while the observed trend has been upward, not downward.  This again highlights the importance of natural climate variability to fire weather conditions, as opposed to human-induced climate change.
  [#5] While reductions in prescribed burning have probably contributed to the irregular increase in the number of years with large bush fires, a five-fold increase in population in the last 100 years has greatly increased potential ignition sources, both accidental and purposeful.

The Green Agenda Is Exacerbating Australia's Wildfire Problem.  The unfolding tragedy in Australia is being interpreted as an apocalyptic portent of a "climate emergency":  justification for the drastic prescriptions of Extinction Rebellion to "close down the capitalist system".  Heart-rending tweets from the fire zone convey the raw anger of farmers burnt out of their homes.  But their interpretation is strikingly different.  Far from begging everybody to embrace the green agenda, many are blaming the greens for exacerbating the fires by meddling in the time-honoured practice of burning off excess vegetation to mitigate wildfires.  All over the world farmers are being prevented by "experts" in government quangos from carrying out controlled burning to manage habitats prone to catching fire.

Submission to Mr Tony Pearce, Inspector General for Emergency Management.  There are some irrefutable facts about the drastic state of the bushfire threat to Southern Australia.  These are...
  [#1] We have a failed fire management policy and practice in Southern Australia especially Victoria.  The failed fire management is resulting in an increasing threat to our forest environment (especially tree deaths), water supplies, life and property loss and a severe decrease in our quality of life.
  [#2] The thermal scale of wildfire in Victoria exceeds by a factor of 20 our ability to extinguish.
  [#3] Disaster scale wildfires occur about once in every 30 years, but will become more frequent as fuel levels continue to rise.
  [#4] "Blow up" fire weather causes disaster fires when ignitions and fuel are present.
  [#5] Ignitions cannot be prevented.

Report: Arson Epidemic, Not Climate Change, Behind Australia's Bushfires.  Australian law enforcement has arrested over 180 people for arson in connection with the nation's raging bushfires, as alarmists try to pin the blazes on "climate change."  All of the 183 alleged arsonists have been arrested since the start of this year's bushfire season, the Australian reported Tuesday, adding that 29 fires were deliberately started in the Shoalhaven region of southeast New South Wales (NSW) in just three months.

The Insane True Cause Of Australia's Bush Fires.  According to Hallam, the Aboriginal peoples spent up to 30% of their time on fire management, and their efforts were rewarded by a perfect symbiosis between peoples and their environment.  Then the first boats of "globalists" came and with them the growing inability to deal with the Australian bush.  Much of the Australian bush is not a dense forest, but many thin to thick woody shrubs and bushes, usually very dry, especially during the summer, mostly grassless, often eucalypt trees, that are extremely flammable.

Delingpole: Environmentalists Made Australia's Bush Fires Worse.  [Scroll down]  So, to be clear, there is zero evidence of any change in climatic conditions that might have increased the likelihood or severity of these bush fires.  This is not — repeat NOT — a man-made climate change story, and anyone who claims otherwise is either a gullible idiot or a lying charlatan.  There is, nonetheless, good reason to believe that the stupidity and irresponsibility of man is at least partly to blame for this disaster — just not quite in the way that the left-liberal MSM and the green wankerati would have you believe.  Man-made culprit #1:  all the firebugs who have been deliberately starting fires in New South Wales, Queensland, and elsewhere.  You won't be surprised that their involvement has had very little coverage in the left-liberal MSM.

Australia Fires, And Misfires.  I kept hearing so much about the Australian bushfires being the result of or driven by "climate change" or "global warming" that I thought I'd take a look at just what's happened to the rainfall there.  Here are a hundred and nineteen years of Australian rainfall.  [Chart]  Here's the curious part.  The earth has been undergoing a mild warming pretty steadily since 1970, about the last half-century.  But although the last couple years have been dry, the last half-century in Australia has been wetter than the previous half-century.  Not dryer.  Wetter.  And a lot wetter.  In fact, anyone under about sixty years old has never experienced dry Australia.

Australia's Epic Fires Caused By Bad Forestry And Arson, Not Climate Change.  Like California, Australia limits clearing and controlled burning of forest fuel build-up, and reports indicate that almost half the bushfires this season were set by people. [...] In a nutshell, reports indicate that people have been deliberately lighting almost half the bushfires this season.

Hijacking Australian 2019 Bushfire Tragedies to Fearmonger Climate Change.  MSN's climate fearmongers dishonestly claim "Australia has experienced steadily worse droughts."  Climate fearmongers argue warmer temperatures will evaporate surface moisture more quickly and exacerbate droughts.  But they have the tail wagging the dog.  Australia's Bureau of Meteorology's illustration shows the 1920s and 30s had experienced much worse droughts than recent decades.  Furthermore, during periods of low precipitation, drought conditions CAUSE higher temperatures.  Without normal soil moisture to evaporate, solar radiation is no longer consumed as latent heat of evaporation, but instead, rapidly raises land temperatures.

Don't blame climate change for Australian wildfires.  If all you read was the liberal press, you'd think the Australian bush fires are Mother Earth's punishment for the heresy of allowing global warming.  Reality is a little different — actually, entirely different.  The current wave of wildfires running rampant across the Australian countryside certainly isn't aided by dry weather and heat, but it's actually the result of environmentalists' naivete, not climate change.  The problem is the same one the United States has with forest fires: people simply not understanding how the environment works.  In both cases, the countryside has evolved to deal with and prosper from frequent and low-level fires.  But if these are suppressed, then the large and hot fires, taking out the canopy, for example, will eventually happen and entirely devastate the flora and the fauna.  It's been environmentalists insisting we suppress all examples and incidences of wildfires.  Therefore, blame for the current damage should be laid at their door.

Scientist David Packham on what's really causing the bushfires.  As former State Fire Chiefs call for a summit on bushfires, expert and scientist David Packham explains that it has nothing to do with climate change and everything to do with fuel-loads.

Flashback to 2015:
Bushfire scientist David Packham warns of huge blaze threat, urges increase in fuel reduction burns.  Forest fuel levels have worsened over the past 30 years because of "misguided green ideology", vested interests, political failure and mismanagement, creating a massive bushfire threat, a former CSIRO bushfire scientist has warned.  Victoria's "failed fire management policy" is an increasing threat to human life, water supplies, property and the forest environment, David Packham said in a submission to the state's Inspector-General for Emergency Management.  And he argued that unless the annual fuel reduction burning target, currently at a minimum of 5 percent of public land, "is doubled or preferably tripled, a massive bushfire disaster will occur.  The forest and alpine environment will decay and be damaged possibly beyond repair and homes and people [will be] incinerated."  He said forest fuel levels had climbed to their most dangerous level in thousands of years.

The Truth About the Australian Bushfires.  It has nothing to do with climate change.  [Video clip]

Aussie Fires ARE Caused by Man — It's Called Arson and Green Policy.  It turns out that the fires raging in Australia are climate-related.  They're caused by a climate of hate, irresponsibility, and incompetence manifesting itself in arson, feckless fire handling, and environmentalist policies creating forest tinderboxes.  What's more, that two Muslim teens have just been charged with lighting a fire is a reminder that jihadists have prescribed such action as a terror method. [...] In fact, one man-caused fire incident is raising eyebrows.  "Western Sydney teen Fadi Zraika — one of the two teens accused of lighting a grass fire at a Guildford park while bushfires ravaged NSW — laughed outside court today after appearing on multiple charges," reports the Daily Telegraph.  "Police allege Fadi and Abraham Zreika, both 18, set off fireworks that sparked a grass fire at Bright Park, Guildford, on December 22," the paper continues.

In Australia, fires expose green folly.  Australia is [experiencing] some of the worst bushfires in its history.  Greens blame climate change, but it's a cover-up.  In reality, they have themselves to blame.  From here in Australia, it can only be called green folly.  Green folly locked up 11% of Australia in a tinderbox of bushfire fuel, much of which is now burnt or burning.  Green folly closed forest tracks and gates; expelled foresters and timber-workers; and prevented property-owners from removing flammable fuel from their own land and adjacent roads, parks, and forests.  Those responsible for these follies should face Class Action.  Green folly promotes electric vehicles, but not one fire truck, dozer, water bomber, helicopter, ambulance, or naval vessel ran on batteries.  They all used hydro-carbon fuels — diesel, petrol, or avgas.  And with so many power lines down, these electric toys could not have recharged their batteries anyway.

The disastrous fires in Australia are man-caused, but they're not climate change.  Leftists around the world are at it again, blaming "anthropogenic" (i.e., man-caused) climate change for the Australian fires.  While it's true that the fires are "man-caused," they're not anthropogenic in the way the Left thinks they are.  At the Golden Globes, the glitterati focused on the fires raging in Australia.  Russell Crowe, the famous climatologist...er, the actor who left school at 16, confirmed that the fire was all about climate change, so reparative action is urgently needed: [...] Meanwhile, ABC made a laughingstock out of itself with a map superimposing Australia across the United States, implying that an area equal to 25% of America was on fire, even as ABC acknowledged that the fire was, in fact, only as big as Maryland.

If you want to stop wildfires, put qualified people back in charge of forests.  There was a time when Australian foresters kept Australian forests safe and productive.  They maintained access tracks bridges and fire breaks, undertook prescribed burning, cleared flammable litter from the forest floor, cut suckers, manned fire lookouts, and maintained their own fire-fighting crews in decentralized districts.  University-trained professional foresters were supported by tough, experienced rangers who learned their job in the bush.  Almost every advance in bushfire management in Australia, from the science of fire behavior to aerial burning, was thanks to our foresters.  Into the 1980s, they were regarded as international leaders.  To pay for good forest management, sections of the forest were logged, allowing ground space and sunlight for the swift re-growth of new trees.

The information war about astonishing arson figures.  Rapidly the word about the astonishing rate of arson and man-made accidents is spreading, but it doesn't help "the cause" (which for left-leaning journo's appears to be getting left-leaning politicians elected).  For example, the awful Binna Burra fire in September was blamed on climate change.  Instead it turned out to be caused by two teenagers with cigarette butts.  Who looks silly pushing a carbon tax agenda to stop fires?

Fighting Fires with Fire [In Australia].  [Scroll down]  First, governments created fire hazards called national parks, where fire sticks, matches, graziers, and foresters were locked out, and access roads were abandoned or padlocked.  Green-loving urbanites built houses right beside them and planted trees in their yards.  The open forests and grasslands were invaded by eucalypt regrowth, woody weeds, tangled undergrowth, dry grass, logs, dead leaves, twigs, bark, and litter — all perfect fuel for a wildfire holocaust.  These tinderboxes of forest fuel became magnets for arsonists, and occasionally even disgruntled neighbors, or were lit by wind-blown embers or dry lightning.  With high winds, high temperatures, and heavy fuel loads, some fires will race through the tree tops of oil-rich eucalypt forests. [...] Central management and control of burn-off policy and firefighting across entire states have failed completely.  Too often, the people in charge did not understand bushfire history and science and they were too influenced by Green ideology.

Yes, It's True — It Appears Up To 90% Of Australian Brushfires Started By People / Arsonists.  Right now is summer in Australia and every summer that country faces annual bushfires.  This year the number of those fires has suddenly increased.  The radical left was quick to blame "climate change" for the increase in fires.  Ah, but now Australian authorities are pointing to something far more likely — people who have been starting these fires on purpose.

Wildfires and intentional power outages

Introduction by The Editor:
The notion that wildfires are caused by global warming, failure to sign international treaties, or right-wing politics, is absurd.  Left-wing environmentalists pretend to know more about forest management than logging companies, and when they prevent the occasional clearing and cleanup of the woods, all sorts of combustible fuel accumulates, waiting for the next lightning strike or uncontrolled campfire to set it off.

California has occasional power blackouts during wildfire events, in order to stop the spread of the fires.  But California also has barely enough electric power available on a good day.  An adequate distribution system appears to be in place, so the problem is either inadequate supply or excessive demand, or both.  California is the home of many radical left-wing environmentalists who oppose every practical energy source, especially nuclear power.  They prefer solar and wind power, which are intermittent.  They have a baseless fear of carbon dioxide, which China doesn't seem to share.  One solution to California's energy shortage would be to increase the supply of electricity, even if it means burning coal and natural gas.  The power has to come from somewhere.  The other part of the shortage is excessive demand for electricity.  The population increases constantly, and that either leads to homelessness or increased residential demand for power.  But the leftists in California (who assume the power will always be available) squander a lot of power on non-essential uses, like marijuana farming, electric cars, and bitcoin mining.

None of these activities were a problem until a few years ago, because almost nobody used electricity that way.  But now, marijuana farming is legal and widespread, and uses a lot of power. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Electric cars are unpopular, but the Biden administration wants to force them on us anyway, and the power to recharge all those additional cars is not yet available.

Bitcoin mining uses a lot of power, too. [1] [2] [3]

If these are goals you want to pursue, go ahead, but don't complain when the power grid collapses.

Turbine fire burns 260+ acres east of Tehachapi.  On Monday, August 12th, Kern County Fire Department, received reports of a wind turbine on fire on Tehachapi Willow Springs Road half a mile south of Oak Creek Road.  When crews arrived on scene, they found a fully involved wind turbine with 2 acres of brush, with afternoon winds picking up, the fire started moving S/E towards Tehachapi Willow Springs Road, at approximately 12:30 PM CHP in Kern County Fire Department closed Tehachapi Willow Springs Road the fire later was stopped at Tehachapi Willow Springs Road.  The current size is 266 acres.  [Video clip]

CalFIRE confirms that illegals are setting wildfires out in San Diego's back country.  [Scroll down]  They set up campfires wherever they want.  They set wildfires to attract border agents to pick them up and transport them to their destinations of choice.  They burn down border vehicles because they don't like the Border Patrol.  It's shocking what they will do whenever they want something, given the danger of the fire risk and just how big and catastrophic these fires can get once they get out of control.  Sound like the kind of people who might rape and murder, too, once they go through catch-and-release?  And nobody in the Biden administration, let alone his border czar, are doing a thing about the border, not on the sea-side, where illegals ride in through the surf and run through the beachgoers' picnics and beach ball parties, as we have seen, and not on the badlands side where illegals set wildfires intentionally and apparently all of them get away with it.

How to Keep the Lights On.  Americans have rightfully come to expect reliable electricity and the grid has made this possible.  Yet some legislators are valuing other goals above maintaining reliability.  Predictably, reliability has begun to suffer.  Legislators at all levels of government should respect the nine principles for electrical grid soundness identified in this paper.  In so doing, they will be helping to ensure the long-term efficacy of all parts of the American Bulk Power System.  This system is comprised of the three separate interconnections in the US:  the Western, Eastern, and Texas interconnections.  Avoiding blackouts and other reliability issues should be the highest priority of lawmakers when it comes to electricity because the human cost of blackouts is incredibly high.

Thousands of Californians Lose Power in Cutoffs Due to High Winds.  The Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) cut power to nearly 2,000 households in northern California on Tuesday due to high heat and winds that raise the risk of downed power lines, which in turn lead to sparks that can ignite wildfires.  Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency Wednesday [7/3/2024] in Butte County in response to the Thompson fire, a wildfire that has burned over 3,000 acres and threatens to become deadlier if spread by continued high winds.

Over 12,000 Acres Near Los Angeles is on Fire — More Than 1,200 People Evacuated So Far.  A massive wildfire just outside Los Angeles, California, has spread to 12,265 acres and was only two percent contained on Sunday afternoon [6/16/2024].  The Post Fire is moving towards Hungry Valley Park, where California State Park Services have evacuated approximately 1,200 people.  [Tweet with video clip]  Evacuation warnings have also been issued south of Pyramid Lake between Old Ridge Route and the Los Angeles County line, which includes Paradise Ranch Estate.  [Tweet]

Green college degrees and phony climate calamities.  [Scroll down]  Then there are the wildfires.  They are more numerous than ever, but not because of fossil fuels and global warming.  Fires have become frequent because of the predominant "earth first" attitude embraced by the federal government and most state agencies.  No longer are our forests and wildlands provided with proper care and stewardship.  Instead, a preservationist philosophy has been put in place allowing our natural habitat to grow wildly out of control, providing insane amounts of fuel when fires do occur.

California Homeowners:  Insured No More Amid Fire Danger.  America's largest and, for some owners, only option for a home insurer is pulling back its operations in the state of California, leaving many with no more options to secure their property's value amid wildfire danger in the state reaching new heights.  As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, after saying in May of last year that it wasn't giving out any new California contracts, news broke in March that 72,000 State Farm policies in the state would not be renewed. [...] State Farm's move speaks volumes to homes in wooded areas of California now being considered so likely to be destroyed that the usual calculations of insurance companies have stopped working out[,] at least for those high-end properties that are now having their contracts discontinued.

The Editor says...
If the insurance companies are backing out, they know something is coming.  It's their job to know what's just around the corner.

Climate hysteria tailspin reaches terminal velocity(?)  They told us an increase in wildfires was a harbinger of the "climate crisis" but now, with wildfires down substantially over the last two years because of a deluge of precipitation, they have to adjust fire, and pivot, claiming all the rain putting out the wildfires is also bad, because now vegetations will grow, and create a risk of fire.  There's no winning against the "green" agenda.  Since all of history, hasn't rain brought life to flora?  Yet, against all odds (thriving plant life), we're still here!  Would the state be better off if it didn't get the vegetation and the record rain?  Maybe, when vegetation dries out, the state should ignore the bureaucrats and "environmentalists" and clear out the underbrush before it becomes a tinderbox.  Maybe, instead of dumping billions into vote-buying schemes like welcoming endless hordes of illegals, the state uses the taxes it collects to build the proper infrastructure — if the climate crisis really is as existential as they claim it to be.

Another Hugo Chavez-style idea on electricity rates from California's one-party regime.  Cash-strapped California has proposed to set electricity rates based on one's income, not one's consumption.  What could go wrong? [...] So if you've been foolish enough to invest in solar energy as the state encouraged you to do in the name of saving the planet, hoping that $7,000 investment in the roof plates you shelled out for would eventually pay for itself through lower electricity rates, well, too bad about you.  The danger here is that California is more likely than ever to see electricity shortages, given that the cost incentive to use less will be gone with this new proposed policy.  People will just leave the power on, given that there is no difference in the rate for doing so.  With that kind of incentive to overconsumption, from the state with the most green mandates and highest electricity costs in the nation, you can be there won't be electricity when it's going to be needed.  The coming heat waves, wild fires, and cold waves are going to be something else.

California is having a tough Time With Electricity.  The infrastructure hasn't kept up with the state's population needs itself, less mind the grandiose plans, mandates, and deadlines imposed on citizens and utilities alike.  They're also hamstrung by regressive progressive policies as far as proper fire control for the semi-arid desert scrub most of them inhabit.  Every year CA burns.  Every year aging powerlines fall into scrub and brush that was never cleared or control burned off to minimize that very outcome.  And instead of using proper fire suppression techniques?  Every year it's lather, rinse, repeat.  The aging lines and poles stay the same, and the power to customers gets turned off "just in case" when the Santa Anas start to blow. [...] Much like Newsom's botched administration of the state, the grid itself is in chaos.  The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has been forced to curtail electricity in the lines because CAs build out of wind and solar hasn't been matched with the new transmission lines needed to carry the extra capacity, particularly when it's produced in low-usage periods.

California Has Another Planet-Saving Idea.  Making electricity is easy.  Figuring out how to make enough electricity without violating leftist dogma is quite a bit harder.  California's population has grown an astounding 162 percent since 1958.  Yet the state hasn't built a new power plant (other than wind or solar) since the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant came online in 1985.  The state simply does not have the electrical generating capacity to meet its current needs — making it more dependent on imported power than any other state in the Union.  California currently imports between 20 and 30 percent of its power from other states.  The "save the planet" zealots have become dependent addicts, ensuring continued profitability for the evil pushers of environmentally destructive energy.  That dependence on other states is a simple engineering problem to solve.  If you don't have enough electricity, just build more power plants. [...] The problem is California's energy policy.  The state hasn't built a new power plant in almost 40 years because it has committed to reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

Strangely, an awful lot of these "climate change" wildfire were started by arsonists, not excess CO2.  [Tweet with video clip]

LA Times energy writer: What if we accepted occasional blackouts to solve climate change?  Sammy Roth is an energy & environment reporter for the LA Times.  Last week he asked a serious question on Twitter:  Would it really be so bad if we had occasional blackouts as the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels sooner?  [Tweet]  I'm not an energy writer for a major newspaper but this immediately strikes me as a terrible idea.  Yesterday he wrote an entire column about this starting with this rephrased version of his question:  ["]What's more important: Keeping the lights on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or solving the climate crisis?["]

The Editor says...
[#1] There is no climate crisis, so the answer to that last question is "keeping the lights on."  [#2] Switching over to windmills and solar panel will only help America's enemies.  They want us to have unreliable power.  [#3] China and India don't have intentional outages, and neither country cares about carbon dioxide emissions.  [#4] Cuba has blackouts all the time,^* and it has made no difference to the climate, locally or globally.  [#5] If power outages are planned, what's the best time of the week to pull the plug?  Solar panels don't work at night, so it will have to be done in daylight.  Sunday morning?  What about the churches and weekend sports in the big government-funded stadium?  Saturday morning?  What about the gas stations, hospitals, broadcasters, and nursing homes that need continuous power?  Obviously each of them will need to run a big diesel-powered generator to stay in business (and keep patients alive).  Wouldn't that defeat the whole purpose of the switch to windmill power?  How many TV stations are in California?  Approximately 106 full power stations, and 205 low-power stations, not counting the sub-channels.  Most of them have a local studio and all of them have a transmitter.  Even if the transmitters for different stations are in the same building, they don't share the cost of any resources, especially generator power, because they are in ruthless competition with each other.  TV stations make a bunch of money every minute they're on the air, and I can assure you that none of them will bite the bullet and sit in the dark while the power is intentionally turned off.  Also consider the amount of energy being consumed by marijuana farming.  That crop is grown under artificial light 24 hours a day.  Is anyone in that business going to sacrifice their competitive edge by sitting through a blackout every week?  Certainly not.  The same is true of the motion picture industry, and any other competitive enterprise.  Time is money.  Are the airport terminals and control towers exempt from this lunacy?  Do you want to be in a hospital when the power goes off?  What about the county jail, the police station, or the penitentiary?  All of the places listed above have backup generators already.  Some of them are as big and as loud as locomotives.  And you can safely presume that the wealthy liberal elite have generators for their 10,000 square foot houses.  A scheduled weekly (or daily!) blackout would just make people angry.  It wouldn't do much to win Democrat votes.  And it wouldn't do any good to have blackouts in California if no other state follows suit, and especially if no other industrialized country cooperates.  All this avoidable inconvenience will accomplish NOTHING.  You may have to live through The Great Energy Transition to Renewable Power, but a few years later, I predict you will see an uprising called Put Everything Back the Way it Was.

Get Used to Living With 'Blackouts' to Save the Planet.  Naive conservatives point to the leftist obsession with electric cars even while the grid is being moved away from reliable energy sources like oil, coal and gas, to fundamentally unreliable ones like wind and solar, and then point to the blackouts in California.  "How is this going to work?" they argue, thinking that they've made a convincing point, while fundamentally misunderstanding (as conservatives often do) that they haven't found a logical weakness, they've uncovered the enemy's plan.  Shoving everything into an unreliable power grid, especially personal transportation, isn't a bug, it's a feature.  That's the whole point of electric cars, and the proliferation of always online vehicles that require a power grid and can be remotely shut down.  All of this is Cloward-Piven for energy.  Failure isn't just inevitable, it's the goal.  As the blackouts grow, they will tell you, as I predicted, to shut up and take it for the good of the planet.

Related:
Democrats whine about Con Ed hikes caused by their own dumb policies.  Better sit down before you open your next Con Ed bill:  Rates are set to soar, starting next month — and double over the next two years.  If you're a progressive, you can't complain.  What did you think would happen, based on your anti-fossil-fuel, big-spending, anti-business agenda?  On Thursday, the state's Public Service Commission OK'd hikes of 9.1% for electricity and 8.4% for gas, starting in August, along with additional jumps though 2025.  At that point, typical bills will have doubled, from about $70 a month to $140 — or an extra $840 a year.

The Editor says...
Maybe electric cars aren't such a great idea after all.  Maybe it's not a good idea to eliminate coal-fired power plants.  Maybe your windmills will stop on the hottest day of the summer, or freeze on the coldest day.  Maybe your solar panels won't work at night — oh wait, that's a certainty.  Maybe you should just leave things the way they were 30 years ago.

Wildfires and Progressive Climate-Change Deniers.  The reality is that even if U.S. banks stopped financing fossil-fuel projects today, global CO2 emissions would rise for decades owing to growing coal production in India and China.  Another inconvenient truth is that government policies to reduce CO2 emissions will be swamped by wildfire emissions.  University of California researchers last year calculated that wildfire emissions in 2020 were two times higher than the state's greenhouse gas reductions from 2003 to 2019.  California wildfires in 2020 were the state's second largest source of CO2 emissions after transportation and generated double the greenhouse gases of all the state's power plants.  Another study this spring in the journal Science estimated that burning boreal forests in North America and Eurasia in 2021 released 1.76 billion tons of CO2, nearly twice as much as global aviation that year.  That's also more than four times New York State's annual emissions and about three times as much as the Inflation Reduction Act's projected reductions in 2030.

California Can Either Charge Its EV Fleet Or Keep The Lights On.  Can California transition to a portfolio of 100% renewable energy sources and still generate enough electricity to meet the state's future needs, including the addition of millions of electric cars on the road?  Using the state's historical trends to project forward, the answer to these questions is no.  Californians will face acute electricity shortages soon if policymakers insist on implementing its current suite of policies.  California is already incapable of generating enough electricity, importing 30% of its current electricity needs from other states.  With respect to current generation sources, nearly 60% of California's in-state electricity generation is produced by natural gas and nuclear power plants.  Including conventional hydroelectric generation, which does not count as a renewable source for purposes of California's policies, nearly two-thirds of the state's current electricity comes from disfavored generation sources.  It is doubtful that California will be able to generate sufficient electricity to meet future energy needs using only the favored generation sources; and it is not even close.

Shocker: 96% of U.S. climate data is corrupted.  You probably heard how AOC was quick to blame the clouds of smoke wafting down from the Canadian wildfires last week on climate change.  As you likely expected without even needing to check, that turns out to be nonsense.  But the underlying facts that prove its nonsensical nature turn out to be well rooted in science. [...] You should check out the work of veteran meteorologist Anthony Watts of the Heartland Institute.  He's been studying the weather and the climate in general for a very long time.  He travels around the country inspecting meteorological equipment and studies historical weather data from around the world.  One of the first findings he would like the public to be aware of is that not only are wildfires common in many parts of North America, but the reality is that in the 21st century, they have actually been less numerous than they were in the past.  They're just getting more attention from the press and on social media.

Let's talk climate scares and wildfires.  The latest panic climate talk is amplified because of the smoke from Canadian fires that is drifting to the East, as all American weather does, to produce smoke in East Coast cities and create air quality advisories and pearl-clutching.  California wildfires in the recent past did not produce any measurable uptick in deaths or illnesses, but no matter:  another crisis is currently besetting the lefty havens of the East Coast. [...] Finally, the authors ignore the major reasons for an increase in wildfires: arson, more arson, and the tinderbox created by poor forestry practices, and restriction of logging and harvesting of forests that decreases density.  Dense forests cause wildfires to be more frequent and of greater magnitude.  This paper is a part of a pattern — a poorly formulated claim of factoids is blown up into a basis for a scare.  But a reasonable analysis of the science shows the claims to be inadequately formulated.  Fossil fuel use and increased CO2 in the air are not the cause of any valid prediction of increased wildfire frequency or severity.

The Corruption of Climate Science.  In California, wildlife biologists and forest ecologists who spend their lives studying and managing these timberlands unanimously agree that tree density has increased, thanks to "non-climatic factors such as the prohibition of Indigenous burning, and legacies of fire suppression."  The increase is not subtle.  Without small, naturally occurring fires that clear underbrush and smaller trees, forests become overgrown.  Controlled burns and responsible logging are absolutely necessary to maintain forest health.  According to a study conducted in 2020 by UC Davis and USDA, California's mid-elevation Ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests used to average 60 trees per acre, and now they average 170 trees per acre according to conservative estimates. [...] California's forests are tinderboxes because environmentalists made it nearly impossible to get permits to do controlled burns and because environmentalists decimated the timber industry.  In the face of relentless regulatory and litigious harassment, California's timber industry has shrunk from harvesting 6 billion board feet per year as recently as the 1990s to less than 2 billion board feet in recent years.  Meanwhile, California's fire suppression industrial complex has grown to gargantuan proportions, pouring billions of dollars into putting fires out before they can spread.

Study: California Wildfires in One Year Erased 16 Years of Emissions Cuts.  The raging California wildfires of 2020 created enough carbon emissions to offset 16 years of reductions through the state's green policies — twice over — according to a UCLA study published by Environmental Pollution.  As Breitbart News reported at the time, the wildfire season in 2020 was so intense that smoke from the fires reached cities on the East Coast of the United States.

Is California a Luddite Conspiracy?  California politicians continue to pass policies that, by all accounts, appear to be deliberately aimed at substantially reducing its residents' ability to have reliable, on-demand electricity. [...] California has, over the years, been a leader in "decarbonizing" their state.  In their enthusiasm, Californians rapidly shut down coal, oil, and gas power plants over the years, at a rate that the installation of renewable replacements simply could not keep up with.  Nuclear is on the chopping block as well, though the Diablo Canyon nuclear power station has just had its execution deferred for another few years.  Diablo Canyon supplies California with 9 percent of its electricity, and represents 15 percent of its non-fossil fuel energy.  It's worth noting that the only reason Diablo Canyon was slated to close in the first place was because Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, embarked on a long quest to force Pacific Gas & Electric to close it prematurely.  Electricity prices in California have risen six times faster than the rest of the country since 2011, and are more than double the cost of neighboring states' rates.

Dodging Blackouts, California Faces New Questions on Its Power Supply.  California finds itself on edge more than ever with a lingering fear: the threat of rolling blackouts for years to come.  Despite adding new power plants, building huge battery storage systems and restarting some shuttered fossil fuel generators over the past couple of years, California relies heavily on energy from other states — the cavalry rushing over a distant hill.  Sometimes the support does not show up when expected or at all.  That was the case this month, when millions of residents got cellphone alerts urging them to cut their energy use as the state teetered close to blackouts in blazing heat.  As climate change makes extreme weather events more frequent, the peril has only increased.

The Editor says...
[#1] Climate change has not made "extreme weather events more frequent," and hot weather is nothing new.  The problem is not the weather.  The problem is California's bull-headed resistance to every practical source of energy, and the irrational fear of carbon dioxide.  More specifically, the problem is that the politicians all represent the same socialist party, and that party listens too much to the rabid earth-worshiping environmentalist fruitcakes.  [#2] If the neighboring states cut off their power feeds into California, it will get really interesting.

California is learning that solar doesn't work without battery storage.  California got through the biggest heat wave of the year without having to order any blackout but only just barely.  Gov. Newsom is praising the state's shift to renewable energy as if avoiding the blackouts is proof that the shift to renewables is working. [...] We actually did have blackouts in some places on the hottest days but those were ordered by the power companies not the state.  I wonder to what extent those outages helped the state's independent regulator avoid ordering rolling blackouts.  In any case, everyone agrees we came really close.  Wednesday the Washington Post published a story arguing that the real lesson Newsom and others should have learned from barely avoiding blackouts this summer is that solar without battery storage really doesn't work very well.

California: NFL Opener, Rock Concerts Continue Despite Energy Crisis.  Major concerns and sporting events are continuing to be held across California despite the ongoing energy crisis, with fans flocking to Oracle Park in San Francisco Wednesday for a rock concert, and the L.A. Rams due to open the NFL season at home Thursday.  As Breitbart News has reported, California is entering its eighth consecutive day of "Flex Alerts," during which consumers are asked to save electricity in the afternoon and evening hours.  An energy emergency is possible on Thursday, including possible blackouts.

California Residents Forced to Prepare for Rolling Blackouts as State Leadership Pushes 'Green' Initiatives.  The operator of California's power grid is advising state residents to prepare for rolling outages because of a heatwave.  Governor Gavin Newsom constantly brags about the state's commitment to green energy, but he can't even keep the power on.  How will they power all the electric cars once they ban gas-powered vehicles if they can't keep the power on?

Greenie paradise California goes on rolling blackouts.  Just days after signing a greenie law mandating that Californians buy only electric cars by 2035 — and calling it a model for the nation — Gov. Gavin Newsom is pleading with Californians to turn off their electricity to prevent the electrical grid from blowing out.  In some Bay Area cities — Alameda, Healdsburg, and Old Palo Alto — the rolling blackouts have already started.  It's a policy failure unlike any other, from a guy who makes no secret of wanting to run the entire country based on his state's energy model.  Those ads he's taken out in Florida, urging those who fled to come back to California, are looking pathetic right now.  Florida, after all, still allows air-conditioning.

You must drive electric cars -- but please do not charge them.
California Extends 'Flex Alert,' Warns Drivers Not to Charge Electric Cars.  Authorities in California extended a "Flex Alert" telling residents to conserve energy, including not charging their electric vehicles, on Sunday afternoon and evening.  The alert has been in effect for several days in the midst of a heat wave that is slated to last through Labor Day.  The California Independent System Operator, the manager of the state's power grid, issued the statewide Flex Alert from 4 to 9 p.m.  Residents are urged to set their thermostats to 78 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, avoid using major appliances, avoid charging electric vehicles, and turning off unnecessary lights. "Additional Flex Alerts will likely be called as heat will only intensify through Tuesday, with little relief from triple-digit temperatures seen over the next several days," the operator wrote.  "Daytime high temperatures are forecast at 10-20 degrees above normal in much of the state through the Labor Day weekend and into next week, and record-breaking heat is projected in some parts of California."

Officials Beg Californians to Use Less Electricity as Blackouts Loom.  Officials are asking Californians to use less electricity as the state faces record demand for energy on Tuesday, creating the possibility for rolling blackouts in the midst of a heat wave.  On Tuesday, as the state faces a seventh consecutive "Flex Alert," in which residents will be asked to conserve electricity between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., officials say that efforts to save energy must be doubled or tripled to be effective.  The California Independent System Operator (ISO) declared an "Energy Emergency Alert" at level 2 on Monday, one level below the stage at which blackouts would have been required.  It brought four natural gas plants online to help hope with demand, as solar and wind power cannot meet the state's needs in a crunch.

The Editor says...
Solar and wind are inadequate "in a crunch," and California is headed for a non-stop crunch.  It was all completely avoidable, and the crunch will be entirely the fault of the socialist Democrats.

California power grid declares Flex Alert for Wednesday, asks for electricity conservation.  The manager of California's power grid has issued a statewide Flex Alert for Wednesday, asking residents and businesses to cut back on power usage to prevent strain on the system.  The California Independent System Operator is calling on Californians to save power between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

This article is very much like an infomercial for generators.
The Often Overlooked Costs of an Extended Power Outage.  While the inconvenience of a power loss is real enough by itself, the true monetary costs that are possible when a prolonged outage hits can't be understated.  In fact, according to a report put together by Kohler Generators, American households face approximately $150 billion in power outage-related expenses each year.  So where do these costs come from?  In their survey, Briggs & Stratton looked at both how common certain power outage expenses were and their average cost.  The most common expense was spoiled food, which 40 percent of survey respondents faced at an average cost of $160, during just one power outage.  The second most frequent cost was for emergency supplies such as flashlights, candles and firewood; 29 percent of those surveyed reported such spending at an average of $76 per household.  Facing a prolonged period of time without power, many American homeowners looked for alternate solutions.  For 16 percent of the survey's respondents, this meant picking up a portable generator with an average price tag of $650.  An additional eight percent of those questioned opted to get a hotel room at $108 per night on average.

France to turn lights off at night.  French President Emmanuel Macron [...] is telling French citizens to engage in energy "sobriety" and to prepare for even higher food prices.  Macron added, "From now on, I will ask public bodies, and all companies that can, to consume less.  We will create a program and try to use lighting less in the evenings.  We are launching a load reduction and sobriety program.  We have to prepare for a scenario in which we have to give up Russian gas completely." [...] And France is by no means alone.  California, the erstwhile Golden State, the Land of Milk and Honey — and Hollywood — says it expects periodic blackouts this summer as the power runs low.  In fact, California has struggled to keep the power on the past two summers, due to progressive policies that range from the nonsensical to the insane.  France is not engaged in war with Russia but is using the war as an excuse to demand energy "sobriety" from her citizens.  California is not fighting Russia either.

Fossil fuels are far better than blackouts.  As the world watched, French President Emmanuel Macron explained the basics of supply and demand in oil markets to President Biden this week.  Video of the encounter made it obvious:  Energy experts need to begin loudly restating the basic truth that reliable energy is essential to human health and well-being.  Macron's Energy 101 tutorial with Biden reinforced the reality that the world is grappling with a growing energy crisis, and the Middle East won't be able to bail out markets.  The U.S. would do well to heed this fact.  It should implement protective measures for oil and gas markets, as well as for electricity markets, before it's too late.  And make no mistake, "too late" is bearing down on us.  For example, last month a Michigan utility closed an 811-megawatt nuclear plant almost a decade before its operating permit expired.  Last week, the Michigan Public Service Commission took it a step further by approving a request by Consumers Energy, a major utility, to close its last remaining coal plant by 2025.  That's 15 years ahead of schedule.  The closure will mean 1,560 megawatts of reliable capacity lost so the company can meet its wholly voluntary goal of net-zero CO2 emissions by 2040.

Like a third-world country, California is facing rolling power blackouts.  Unless states and countries are willing to transition almost entirely to nuclear power, so-called "green" energy is a chimera.  In the old days, "green" energy was the norm and life was Hobbesian: "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  It was fossil fuel that brought us into a world of plenty but the greenies have been having their way with our fossil-fuel-powered grid and, inevitably, the lights are going off.  California, for example, boldly decided to go "green," closing down existing nuclear power plants and refineries, only to discover that the lights go out when you do that, so now the only option is [...] returning to that much-despised fossil fuel.

Green Energy Chickens Coming Home to Roost.  In California, the California Political Review reports, demolition of four dams will soon begin, "with no replacement for the water and energy they provide."  Compounding this blunder, in two years the state's last nuclear power plant, which provides 10% of the state's energy, will be shut down without any plans to replace that loss.  And even worse, the Democrats who run the state are sticking with plans to banish gas-powered vehicles from the state by 2035, replacing them with 8 million electric vehicles in a state already incapable of keeping the lights on in hot weather or during wildfires that damage transmission lines.  According to one study, achieving this goal of 30 million EVs would require electric power companies with 2-3 million customers to invest between $1700 and $5800 in grid upgrades per vehicle, costs that will no doubt be passed along to customers.

California's electrical grid has an EV problem.  California energy officials issued a sobering warning this month, telling residents to brace for potential blackouts as the state's energy grid faces capacity constraints heading into the summer months.  And since the state has committed to phase out all new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 — well ahead of federal targets — the additional load from electric vehicle (EV) charging could add more strain to the electric grid.  "Let's say we were to have a substantial number of [electric] vehicles charging at home as everybody dreams," Ram Rajagopal, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, who authored a recent study looking at the strain electric vehicle adoption is expected to place on the power grid, told Yahoo Finance.  "Today's grid may not be able to support it.  It all boils down to:  Are you charging during the time solar power is on?"

The Editor says...
Here's the bottom line, if you haven't figured it out already:  If you rely on solar panels, you can't drive an electric car in the winter, when the days are short.  If you rely on windmills, you can't charge an electric car at night, when the wind all but ceases.  You can't charge your electric car at the same time that you and everybody else in town wants to use electric appliances; that is, right after you get home from work.  At last, when the time is right, you'll need a few hours to get the car fully charged.  Compare this to the time it takes to fill up the gas tank on a gas engine automobile.  "Renewable energy" and electric cars are incompatible.

Newsom's electric car nirvana collides with reality.  Gavin Newsom is bi-polar.  He wants to get us into all electric homes and cars.  At the same time he is limiting and destroying energy sources — causing brownouts and blackouts.  If we had 8 million more EV cars and 2 million all electric homes, we would have to ration electricity to a few hours a days and maybe one charge of your EV each week.  Newsom is providing the foundation of the collapse of the California economy. [...] This year's increase in electric car sales was, no doubt, spurred in part by a steep hike in gasoline prices, as well as subsidies — which poses an interesting dichotomy.  Newsom has decried those fuel price spikes and wants the state to offset them with payments to motorists, which would reduce some of their motivation to buy electric cars."  Not only would there be a severe limit on the energy you can use, but the cost of available energy will skyrocket.

Electric grid operators warn of potential summer blackouts.  While some major cities are already seeing their lights go off due to electricity use overload, grid operators and energy advocates gave a warning to states closing their coal-fired power plants even quicker than they can build new ones.  "Any plans to remove nuclear plants or coal power plants or natural gas plants that are slated to be closed, that has to be completely suspended," Power the Future executive director Daniel Turner told FOX Business' Jeff Flock Tuesday [5/10/2022].  Eighty coal-fired power plants are slated to close across 14 states in the next six years, Flock mentioned in his report, which poses a threat as some blackouts have already begun and coal and nuclear power still source 41% of the country's electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Electricity Shortage Warnings Grow Across U.S..  From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year.  California's grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints.  The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which oversees a large regional grid spanning much of the Midwest, said late last month that capacity shortages may force it to take emergency measures to meet summer demand and flagged the risk of outages.  In Texas, where a number of power plants lately went offline for maintenance, the grid operator warned of tight conditions during a heat wave expected to last into the next week.

California Warns of Possible Summer Blackouts as Power Runs Low.  California energy officials warned the state may be at risk of blackouts for the next three summers due to power supply shortages and extreme weather.  The state could be short about 1,700 megawatts this summer — enough power for about 1.3 million homes — and that gap may widen to about 1,800 megawatts by 2025, officials said Friday during a media call.  These forecasts don't include other factors such as extreme regional heat waves or wildfires that can take down power lines, they said.

The Editor says...
If it's safe to assume there will be "extreme weather" months from now, perhaps it isn't extreme at all.

California says it needs more power to keep the lights on.  California energy officials on Friday [5/6/2022] issued a sober forecast for the state's electrical grid, saying it lacks sufficient capacity to keep the lights on this summer and beyond if heatwaves, wildfires or other extreme events take their toll.  The update from leaders from three state agencies and the office of Governor Gavin Newsom comes in response to a string of challenges with the ambitious transition away from fossil fuels, including rolling blackouts during a summer heat wave in 2020.

Gov. Newsom:  Maybe it was a mistake to shut down California's last nuclear plant.  You may not remember it, especially if you don't live here in California, but the state had rolling blackouts back in 2020. The culprit was a heat wave which meant lots of people were using air conditioners to keep indoor temperatures under control.  And as the sun went down and the state's solar power supplies dried up, there weren't enough back up supplies to replace it.  After that debacle California regulators decided to let some existing natural gas power plants stay open a few extra years.  But the state had already decided several years earlier to shut down the last remaining nuclear plants which would cease to operate when their current licenses expired rather than try to extend those licenses.

Wind & Solar 'Transition' Mean End of Reliable & Affordable Power.  If you live in California, by now you've probably seen the ads, either on prime time television or online, exhorting you to "Power Down 4 to 9PM." [...] The misanthropic cruelty of these laws ought to be obvious.  Normal people need more electricity between 4 and 9 PM, and no amount of public education can overcome that circadian fact. [...] Normal people may also be forgiven if they don't want to jump through the preposterous hoops required of "programmable" appliances, such as washing machines that will defer ignition until the spot price of electricity drops below a specified threshold.  The fact that every major appliance now requires internet connectivity and comes with an instruction manual that rivals Lord of the Rings in scope and word-count, is not a sign of progress.  It is fetishistic excess.  Future generations will marvel at the absurdity of this maddening, mandated attention to technology-driven minutia, and attribute it to the hubris of our times.

Which Country Or U.S. State Will Be The First To Hit The Renewable Energy Wall?  [Scroll down]  I have written several posts highly critical of California's pie-in-the-sky green energy plans, which include a 2045 "zero carbon" target. [...] However, California does have a deep secret to help it stave off the possibility of hitting the renewable energy wall:  it imports a very high percentage of its power from neighboring states.  Some of the imports are fossil fuel based (coal and natural gas from Arizona and Nevada), and some are reliable non-fossil fuel based sources (nuclear from Arizona and hydro from Oregon and Washington). [...] In 2018 California imported about 32% of its electricity (91,000 GWH out of 285,000 GWH), and in 2020 about 30% (82,000 GWH out of 273,000 GWH).  According to data from the EIA, California imports far more electricity from other states than does any other state (although there are a few states that import more on a percentage basis).  The ability to import large amounts of electricity from neighboring states means that California has a high degree of insurance against its own energy folly.  As long as Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have some electricity to sell, blackouts can be staved off even though California's wind and solar generators may be completely quiet.  You may say that this is cheating in the game of "zero emissions" electricity, which it is, but don't count on California's politicians to level with the voters.

With Its Power Grid Under Pressure, California Asks Residents to Avoid Charging Electric Vehicles.  Amid a West Coast heat wave that includes triple-digit temperatures, California's power grid operators have called on residents to not use as much electricity so as to put less strain on the state's beleaguered grid.  In the past week, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) told residents several times to voluntarily conserve energy, including asking them on social media to stop charging their electric vehicles (EVs) during peak usage times.  The operator also warned users to "[avoid] use of large appliances and turning off extra lights."  "This usually happens in the evening hours when solar generation is going offline and consumers are returning home and switching on air conditioners, lights, and appliances," wrote the ISO. And on June 18, the California Flex Alert Twitter page wrote that "now is the perfect time to do a load of laundry," and urged residents to "remember to use major appliances, charge cars and devices before #FlexAlert begins at 6 p.m. today."

The Editor says...
[#1] Relatively few people drive an electric car, even in California.  What happens when everybody has an electric car?  [#2]  When there is an insufficient supply of electricity, conservation is not a long-term solution.  The only long-term solution is an increase in generating capacity, which means the combustion of coal or natural gas, or the use of nuclear energy.  Please make your selection soon.

University professor is charged with starting four California wildfires.  A former college professor was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly starting four wildfires in Northern California earlier this year, near the deadly Dixie Fire.  Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of arson to federal property, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California said in a statement.  The blazes threatened to trap firefighters as they battled the massive Dixie blaze — the second-largest wildfire in California history — nearby, prosecutors said.  Maynard's alleged arson spree included blazes he started in July and August behind crews fighting the Dixie fire, scorching more than 1,500 square miles and destroying more than 1,000 structures, court documents showed.

High winds prompt PG&E to shut power to 25,000 in California.  Pacific Gas & Electric began shutting off power to about 25,000 customers in central and northern California Monday and Southern California Edison warned it may do the same for up to 9,000 of its customers as high winds toppled trees, downed power lines and ignited fires that forced people to flee from their homes.  At least a half dozen mostly small fires broke out across the state, challenging firefighters as they tried to contain the blazes amid the blustering wind.

Forestry student-turned-shaman, 30, faces nine years in jail for 'starting California's Fawn Fire'.  A former forestry student-turned-shaman and yoga teacher has been charged with starting a huge California wildfire that has destroyed 41 homes — and was being investigated in connection with other fires — after claiming the blaze was triggered accidentally while she tried to boil bear urine so she could drink it.  Alexandra Souverneva, of Palo Alto, was charged Friday with felony arson to wildland with an enhancement because of a declared state of emergency in California, Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said.  The 8,500 acre blaze the 30 year-old is accused of starting has wrecked 41 homes, and 90 other structures.  Souverneva pleaded not guilty but could face up to nine years in state prison if convicted.  She is also suspected of starting additional fires in Shasta County and throughout the state, Bridgett said.

What is it about academics and arson?  You've heard of "going postal:? Maybe the next odious term should be "going academic."  We're seeing an awful lot of arson as a cause for California's wildfires and at treasured institutions being perpetrated by academics.  Here's the latest going on near Redding, California from the Washington Post: [...] Nearly all of the accused have signs of drug abuse in their pictures as do these three, a lot of them are serial setters, and many have mental health issues.  But it's starting to stand out that some of the worst fire-starters are from the cool ivy halls of academia, as if something in the culture is telling the angry ones among them to go burn something.  What is it?  How is it that a profession that set such stake on telling America how to live seems to have so little capacity for cleaning house?

California's Top Grid Operator Asks Feds To Burn More Fossil Fuels To Avert Blackouts.  California's power grid transition to renewable energy sources appears to be backfiring.  The push into clean energy is not producing enough power to meet demand during hot summer days, and it's becoming harder for the Golden State to avoid rolling blackouts.  A stunning new revelation in the state's top grid operator, California Independent System Operator, filing to US Department of Energy (DoE), titled "Request for Emergency Order Pursuant to Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act," requested the federal government to declare an "electric reliability emergency" so it can use more fossil fuel power generation to prevent blackouts.

The Editor says...
If California has an "electric reliability emergency," it's entirely the fault of the state and federal government, due to their obsession with carbon dioxide, and it's an emergency with no end in sight.  If you haven't noticed, the state and federal governments thrive on perpetual emergencies, like terrorism, pandemics, immigration, homelessness, and global warming.

California wises up and chooses natural gas.  The Golden State has been trying for years to get rid of all of its fossil fuel generation capacity.  Spreading a mythological doom-and-gloom narrative about catastrophic, world-ending climate change, California's government has nonetheless moved toward shuttering all of its carbon-free nuclear power plants in favor of creating a grid based almost entirely on wind and solar power.  There is just one problem with this:  It cannot be done, at least not with existing technology.  Not only has this forced upon Californians electricity prices 80% higher than the national average, but it has also saddled them with a power grid that relies far too heavily on intermittent (that is, unreliable) sources of electricity.  Wind power only works when the wind blows.  Solar cannot generate electricity at night.

Two Charts Destroy Big Lie About 'Climate Change' And Wildfires.  It's that time of year again, the season of headlines routinely screaming about "record" amounts of acreage burned from out-of-control wildfires caused by, of course, "climate change."  But is it true?  Is global warming driving a surge in wildfires?  The answer is no.  The media started again this week with the release of the United Nation's latest dire climate change report, based on the same faulty models and filled with more apocalyptic predictions that won't come true. [...] It's become an annual summer mantra from the media, this time driven by large wildfires that happen to coincide with the release of the U.N. report.  The truth is, in the U.S. we are not at a "record" for wildfire burning by a longshot.  As the charts below show, wildfire burns were far worse in the early- to mid-20th century, with massive amounts of acreage charred before there was any significant global warming to speak of.

California Wildfire Destroys Entire Town; Thousands Forced to Evacuate.  Wildfires in Northern California have forced more than 16,000 evacuations and destroyed the town of Greenville, located in Plumas County.  The Dixie Fire as of Aug. 5 is 35 percent contained and has burned more than 322,000 acres, according to federal officials.  The blaze ripped through the small town of Greenville, located about 110 miles northeast of Sacramento, on the evening of Aug. 4.  The town, which dates back to California's Gold Rush era, has a population of about 1,000.  "Last night, firefighters, including aerial resources, aggressively attacked large flame fronts in an effort to defend structures.  As fire entered the Greenville area, firefighting efforts shifted to assist law enforcement in evacuation efforts," according to a bulletin posted on the federal government's Incident Information System.

California issues Power Alert amid hot temperatures.  The California Independent System Operator (ISO) has issued a statewide Power Alert for Wednesday, July 28th from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., due to predicted high energy demand amid hot temperatures.  Cal ISO tweeted "Due to heat and tight supply conditions, the California ISO has issued a statewide #FlexAlert for Wednesday, July 28, from 4-9 p.m. encouraging consumers to conserve energy to help alleviate stress on the #powergrid."

The Editor says...
If the state has "tight supply conditions," whose fault is that?  How many natural gas-fired power plants have been decommissioned in a feeble attempt to save the earth from global warming?  This might be a good time to build a couple of nuclear power plants.  Or, for faster results, coal-fired power plants.

Couple whose gender reveal sparked deadly wildfire face manslaughter charges.  A California couple whose gender reveal pyrotechnic show started a massive inferno that killed a fireman last year have each been hit with involuntary manslaughter charges.  Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez pleaded not guilty to the felony charge and 29 other counts related to the September 2020 El Dorado Fire on Monday [7/19/2021], officials said.  The wildfire was allegedly started by the couple's smoke-generating pyrotechnic device that ignited dry grass at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains, 75 miles east of LA.  The Jimenezes tried to put out the blaze with bottled water, but it was quickly stoked by strong winds and dry conditions, authorities said.

Now is the Time to Get Serious About Nuclear Energy.  [Scroll down]  Until the past few years blackouts and brownouts were almost unheard of.  What's changed?  The answer is easy to find.  According to Robert Bruce, progressive politicians and their enabling voters have created a disastrous combination of "soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability."  What's bizarre is that it has all been deliberate.  The left is obsessed with weaning humanity off its reliance on fossil fuels.  Californians are now the proud possessors of the highest income-tax rates, highest sales-tax rates, highest gasoline prices, and highest housing costs in the country.  California already has laws on the books that mandate reducing "greenhouse emissions" 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050.  It is irresponsible to mandate an end to fossil fuel use when there is no viable substitute in place, at least not one they're willing to entertain.  If nuclear energy is off the table, blackouts will become a way of life.  California will become a ghost state.  Only leftists will be happy.

Devin Nunes trying to rescue California from insanity.  California is, as the old quip goes, "the land of fruits and nuts."  But with Gavin Newsom facing a recall election, the plan to shut down the nuclear power plant that provides almost 10% of the state's electric power is obvious madness. [...] Of course, Nunes's plan will go only as far as Nancy Pelosi permits, and with her speakership hostage to the left-wing crazies of all stripes in the Democrat caucus, she will deep-six it.  The greenies don't seem to care if people in the Central Valley die of heat exposure with no air-conditioning.  They don't care if businesses shut down when electricity is not available.  They are fanatics.  They don't even care that nuclear power emits no CO2.  But I do wonder how long Californians will put up with blackouts and staggering electricity bills.

Nunes seeks to stop California from shuttering last nuclear plant amidst energy crisis.  California's push for clean energy has already created hardship for consumers, from a 40% decade-long climb in electricity costs to rolling blackouts that loom as a threat every heat wave.  Now the state is poised to exacerbate that crisis with plans to retire its last remaining, zero-carbon emissions nuclear plant in 2025.  The planned closure of Diablo Canyon, approved by the state in 2018, will take offline another 2200 megawatts of electricity production — nearly 10% of the state's needs — with no ready replacement.  As many as 3 million consumers could be impacted.  Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), one of the senior members of the state's congressional delegation, told Just the News he is moving to stop the closure.

The Editor says...
If the supply of electricity can't keep up with the demand, California has several options, none of which are likely to be popular with the political left:  On the supply side:  [#1] Nuclear energy, [#2] Coal, [#3] Natural gas.  California is learning the hard way that electric power sources should be available 24/7; otherwise, you live in Cuba.  On the demand side, look at all the place where electricity is being squandered:  [#1] Electric cars, [#2]  Marijuana farming, [#3]  A glut of 24-hour radio and TV stations, half of which have very few if any listeners.

California Asks Utility for More Electricity Amid Shift to Green Energy.  California state energy officials have asked the state's top grid operator to contract for additional power capacity in the months of July and August due to concerns it won't meet the demand during evenings.  In a letter, the heads of the California Energy Commission and California Public Utilities Commission asked the California Independent System Operator (ISO) to provide more power supplies via its tariff-based authority to obtain more resources during the two months and possibly September if conditions don't improve.  "California is using all available tools to increase electricity reliability this summer," the letter stated, citing "unprecedented heat events, which are occurring throughout the West in combination with drought conditions that reduce hydroelectric capacity."

The Editor says...
The state government knows how much electricity will be required (and how much might be required in the event of hot or cold weather), and it knows how much generating capacity is on line; and yet it still allows (or demands) the shutdown of coal-fired power plants for the sole purpose of avoiding carbon dioxide emissions.  Intentional power outages are entirely the fault of radical environmentalists and their irrational fear of carbon dioxide.

Joe Biden's Clueless Plan to Fight Wildfires.  "We know this is becoming a regular cycle," the president said, "and we know it's getting worse.  The truth is, we're playing catch-up.  This is an area that's been under-resourced, but that's going to change if we have anything to do with it."  There is so much so very ignorant about what Joe Biden said.  First, wildfire is not becoming a regular cycle.  It already is.  Has been forever since the beginning of fire and time.  Fire is how Nature cleanses itself and launches the next cycle, all on a schedule that ignores humans.  Wildfires are getting worse, not because of global warming or climate change or whatever the green catchphrase is this summer.  Wildfires are getting worse because humans insist on letting fuels build up, then fighting the fires, snuffing out flames before they can do their job.

The Real Reason They Blame Heat Deaths, Blackouts, and Forest Fires on Climate Change Is Because They're Causing Them.  It's true that there have been more heat waves in the United States since 1960, and that higher temperatures dry out the dead wood in forests, contributing to a greater area burned by forest fires.  "Climate dries the [wood] fuels out and extends the fire season from 4-6 months to nearly year-round," US Forest Service scientist Malcolm North explained to me last summer.  But what determines whether people die in heat waves is whether or not they have air conditioning, not whether temperatures rose to 111° instead of 109°.  Proof of that comes from the fact that heat-related deaths declined in the US by 50% to 75% since 1960 thanks entirely to air conditioning, even as heat waves grew in frequency, intensity, and length.  What determines whether a fire in a forest is high-intensity or low-intensity is the amount of wood fuel.  Climate change is "not the cause of the intensity of the [mountain forest] fires," stressed North.  "The cause of that is fire suppression and the existing debt of wood fuel."

Blackouts Loom in California as Electricity Prices Are 'Absolutely Exploding'.  Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California:  soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability — and both trends bode ill for the state's low- and middle-income consumers.  Last week, the state's grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, issued a "flex alert" that asked the state's consumers to reduce their power use "to reduce stress on the grid and avoid power outages."  The California Independent System Operator's warning of impending electricity shortages heralds another blackout-riddled summer at the same time California's electricity prices are skyrocketing.  In 2020, California's electricity prices jumped by 7.5%, making it the biggest price increase of any state in the country last year and nearly seven times the increase that was seen in the United States as a whole.

California will spend $500 million this year to thin its 33 million acres of forests to lessen the chance of wildfires.  California is adopting former Donald Trump's plan to thin out the state's 33 million acres of forests with controlled burns and raking the woodland floor — after state officials essentially laughed off the former president's idea a few years ago.  Trump had suggested in 2018 that the Golden State start sweeping its forest floors of debris that often aids in the spread of wildfires.  But by Aug. 2020, at the peak of the state's wildfire season, his suggestion became an ultimatum when he withheld wildfire financial aid on the basis of California's failure to clear its forests of dead trees, branches and leaves, Politico reported at the time.

California Will Now Fight Wildfires — by Trimming Back Forests.  [Scroll down]  I will note that the timing is quite convenient for Newsom.  The recall election is likely to occur at the height of the state's wildfire season.  No matter how ardent their eco-activism might be, voters are unlikely to continue supporting Newsom's "green" policies as their homes, businesses, and neighborhoods are charred.  File this item under:  "Trump was right.  Again."

Climate Change Drought Fairy Tale Season Is Here.  It's that time of year again!  Summer, when things get hot and dry and certain seasonal extreme weather events naturally occur — as do alarming claims about them.  When hurricanes form during "hurricane season," expect climate alarmists to claim human-caused climate change is creating them, even though hurricanes have always formed at this time of year (thus the existence of the term "hurricane season").  When wildfires break out during "wildfire season," scorching thousands of acres of mismanaged, overgrown forests, expect climate alarmists to claim human-caused climate change is causing them, even though wildfires have always been sparked at this time of year (thus the existence of the term "wildfire season").  The third in the trifecta of weather-related horror stories we can expect to read about every summer is drought.  Droughts are normal and natural.  At any point in time, portions of the United States and the world suffer from a drought of some length and severity.

Texas, California Call for Power Restraint During Heatwave.  Texas and California urged consumers to conserve energy this week to reduce stress on the grid and avoid outages as homes and businesses crank up air conditioners to escape a scorching heatwave blanketing the U.S. Southwest.  High temperatures were expected to top 110 degrees Fahrenheit through the weekend in parts of several states including California, Arizona, and Nevada.  "The public's help is essential when extreme weather or other factors beyond our control put undue stress on the electric grid," said Elliot Mainzer, chief executive of the California ISO, which operates the grid in most of California.  Over the past year, Texas and California imposed rotating or controlled outages to prevent more widespread collapses of their power systems — California during a heatwave in August 2020 and Texas during a brutal freeze in February 2021.

California Tells Public to Prepare for Heatwave, Power Prices Soar.  The California power grid operator told the public to prepare to conserve energy next week if needed as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape what is forecast to be a brutal heatwave.  Already, power prices across the U.S. West spiked to their highest since the February freeze when natural gas pipelines and wind turbines froze in Texas leaving millions without power.  The California ISO, which operates the state's power grid, said in a release that "It is still too early to know the precise impact that next week's high temperatures will have on the electric grid."

California May Face Round Two Of Energy Shortages This Summer.  Last summer, when a heat wave rolled across the western United States, California residents experienced energy blackouts as a result of a difficult-to-manage power grid.  Even after that experience, which put residents' health at risk due to excessive heat exposure, California continued its push to ban fracking, shut down nuclear power plants, and rely solely on renewable energy.  Now, anew report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) states that "California is at risk of energy emergencies during periods of normal peak summer demand and high risk when above-normal demand is widespread in the west."  The report says that there is a 400-megawatt shortfall expected at peak demand.  This shortfall will come despite an addition of over 3 gigawatts, the majority of which will come from solar power, and an additional 675 megawatts of new battery storage systems.  These increases are still expected not to be enough when California needs energy most and show that California hasn't learned its lesson.

National Interagency Fire Center Disappears 'Inconvenient' U.S. Wildfire Data.  The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) has been the keeper of U.S. wildfire data for decades, tracking both the number of wildfires and acreage burned all the way back to 1926.  After making the entire dataset public for decades, in a blatant act of cherry-picking, NIFC "disappeared" a vast portion of it.  Now, NIFC only shows wildfire data from 1983.  Fortunately, the internet never forgets, which means the entire dataset is preserved on the world wide web.  Data prior to 1983 show U.S. wildfires were far worse 100 years ago, both in frequency and total acreage burned, than they are today.  By disappearing all data prior to 1983, which just happens to be the lowest point in the dataset for the number of fires, NIFC data now show a positive slope of worsening wildfire aligning with increased global temperatures.  This truncated dataset is convenient for claiming "climate change is making wildfires worse," but flawed because it lacks the context of the full dataset.

California power projections underscore difficulty of Biden climate targets.  California will have to deploy renewable power at record-breaking speed over the next few decades to meet its target for carbon-free electricity by 2045, a transformation that state agencies say in a new report this week is technically achievable but immensely challenging.  The scale of deployment California alone will need to achieve underscores the hurdles facing President Biden and his team as he calls for eliminating carbon from the power sector by 2035, 10 years earlier than California's target.  The effort would require the biggest transformation of the electricity sector since it was built.

Reality Check Regarding Utility-Scale Battery Systems During a One-Day Wind/Solar Lull.  Hopefully, California learned an expensive lesson, due to relying on weather-dependent, season-dependent, wind and solar electricity to such an extent, it decided to close down power plants, that produce reliable, not variable, not intermittent, low-CO2, low-cost electricity, 24/7/365, regardless of weather or season.  Typically, California imports electricity from nearby states to cover any wind/solar electricity short-falls.  This was not possible, because the US Southwest had a major, multi-day, heat wave.  As a result, electricity imports to California were curtailed by the exporting states.  Prior to the heat wave, as a part of climate change fighting, California had unwisely closed down 15 of its 19 high-efficiency, low-CO2, gas power plants, on the Pacific coast.  Those plants had not been kept in reserve, i.e., staffed, fueled and kept in good working order to immediately provide electricity, just in case of a major heat wave.  The result was, California had multiple days with rolling black-outs, i.e., no air-conditioning during periods with temperatures up to 115°F.  Living conditions were made even worse by the smoke of large-scale forest fires.

Today's California Energy Embarrassment.  Yesterday we noted the embarrassment announced in understated fashion by the U.S. Department of Energy that California imported 25 percent of its electricity in 2019.  It seems almost as if someone at the very excellent Energy Information Administration has a thing about California's silliness, because today's EIA "Today in Energy" brief has another understated but devastating smackdown for California's energy pretensions.  In one sentence, today's brief essentially says, "Without lots of natural gas-fired power, California is screwed."  Of course that's not the actual language — these are government analysts were talking about.  But it's not hard to read between the lines.

California got $1.3 billion in wildfire relief.  Victims have received nothing.  California has received more than $1.3 billion in federal aid to rebuild after the 2017 wine country wildfires, the 2018 Camp fire in Butte County and other disasters from those years.  But disaster-affected homeowners and renters have yet to receive a single penny.  The cause: years-long federal and state bureaucratic delays.  As a result, renters like [Linda] Adrain are going without permanent housing while homeowners are unable to cobble together enough money to rebuild their homes.  In the Butte County town of Paradise, which was heavily damaged in the Camp fire, disaster victims are still living in cars and recreational vehicles on their properties as they await further financial assistance.

California utility may cut power to 1 million people.  Pacific Gas & Electric may cut power to over 1 million people on Sunday to prevent the chance of sparking wildfires as extreme fire weather returns to the region, the utility announced Friday.  The nation's largest utility said it could black out customers in 38 counties — including most of the San Francisco Bay Area — as weather forecasts called for a return of bone-dry, gusty weather that carries the threat of downing or fouling power lines or other equipment that in recent years have been blamed for igniting massive and deadly blazes in central and Northern California.

NBC: Say, You Know Who Turned Out To Be Right About Forest Fires?  Recall this discussion at the first presidential debate?  This turned into one of Donald Trump's more surprising moments, in which he exhibited preparation on a key piece of policy before facing off against Joe Biden.  Moderator Chris Wallace wanted to introduce climate change into the debate, and used the forest fires on the West Coast to frame the question.  Trump pushed back against the idea that climate change was responsible, and instead blamed bad forest management for the crisis:  [Transcript]  Biden actually avoided the forest-management issue in his answer, as the two of them got caught up in a testy exchange over the Green New Deal instead.  Instead, media outlets and pundits rushed to fill the gap by declaring this a form of climate-change denial.

Neglected Forest Management, Not Climate Change, Is Why California Is On Fire.  [Scroll down]  Further examination of the issue, however, shows that mitigation through prescribed burns and mechanical thinning could prevent the widespread destruction caused by these western wildfires.  In the past, conservationist policies in these states, especially California, have prevented the proper management needed to keep people and their land safe causing more intense and prolonged wildfires, not climate change.  Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges that mitigation techniques such as clearing tinder material in these forests through prescribed burns can lower the intensity of these fires.  According to Michael Shellenberger, author, journalist, and environmental activist, claiming that climate change is the reason for the wildfires is misleading and prevents real, preventative solutions from being implemented.  "Climate change is real, but this monomaniacal focus on whether to use this obsession with it has meant that we've neglected the health of our forests and really missed an opportunity for conservation as well," Shellenberger recently told The Federalist.

California wildfires blamed on something else besides climate change.  This year, California's wildfires are being called the worst in state's history.  The governor and others claim climate change is the chief culprit.  But Lisa Fletcher has been tracking the golden state's fires for several years and finds the real problem might be something else.

PG&E plans to cut power to 89,000 customers in 16 California counties due to weather causing fire risks.  Pacific Gas & Electric plans to cut power to 89,000 customers in parts of 16 counties beginning early Sunday as dry, unseasonably hot conditions and strong winds continue to increase fire danger across much of Northern California, officials announced Saturday evening.  The shut-off will be in three phases and last until late Monday, officials said.

Largest California wildfire threatens marijuana growing area.  Numerous studies in recent years have linked bigger U.S. wildfires to global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, especially because climate change has made California much drier.  A drier California means plants are more flammable.

The Editor says...
If "climate change has made California much drier," why hasn't it affected every other state?  Or at least the entire west coast?

Civilization Requires Collective Common Sense.  Large swaths of the American West are now charred by out-of-control wildfires. [...] A few veteran forest managers have been proverbial voices in the wilderness in recent years.  They warned that ignoring dead trees, limiting the sort of domestic animal grazing that reduces dead brush and dry foliage, forbidding timber companies from harvesting decaying timber, and preventing periodic controlled burns were collectively a prescription for the very disasters that now cloud Western skies with fires, smoke and air pollution.  In other words, pragmatic people once understood that tens of millions of dead trees were not to be left alone as mulch for premodern ecosystems.  In the present, the dried-up vegetation has served as veritable napalm, causing traditional fall wildfires to blow up into biblical conflagrations that consume homes, property and people.

California: The Golden State in Utter Decay.  The current crisis in California that is getting the most national attention is the plague of wildfires throughout much of the northern part of the state.  Such fires have ravaged the area for millennia, long before the presence of any European settlers, but that has not stopped California leftists and their media from pointing fingers at climate change and President Trump.  Avoiding responsibility for a crisis by blaming anyone and anything with even a remote chance of culpability is the California way — which leads to a failure to develop real solutions.  None of California's leaders, least of all Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, have accepted any responsibility for the government's role in the fires.  Evidence clearly shows that the decision by the state to revive "fire suppression" efforts, a practice that essentially delays the inevitable and results in even larger wildfires (and was mostly discontinued in the 1960s), has been a major contributor to the magnitude of this year's fires.  But has the government of California even paused to reconsider the strategy?  Sadly, no.

Newsom plays both sides in forest management fight as wildfires rage.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pointed out that the state's wildfires are located primarily on federal land — and he's right — but now he and other Democratic governors are trying to block the Trump administration's effort to speed up the clearing of overgrown, tinder-dry forests.  Twenty-three states, including California, Oregon and Washington, sued last month to stop the National Environmental Policy Act modernization, which would thin the regulatory thicket and red tape blamed for slowing down federal projects, including forest management on the government's extensive Western lands.  The NEPA lawsuit came as no surprise, given that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has sued the Trump administration 100 times, but critics accused California Democrats of putting their loyalty to the environmental movement and focus on climate change ahead of proven strategies for forest health.

It's Not About Climate Change.  It's no secret that dryer [or drier] wood burns more readily than wet wood.  Nor is it news that hotter, dryer weather will dry things faster.  What seems to be a secret from less self-evident to some is that parts of the West Coast get really hot and dry, over and over.  According to studies on past droughts, the recent ones in California are not even close to being the longest.  Some droughts have lasted more than a century.  It seems the past 100 years have actually been relatively wet.  Even if a one-degree-warmer world led to warmer West Coast forests, the high intensity of the recent wildfires can't be attributed to air temperatures being 109 degrees instead of 108.  The much bigger problem is fuel loading — the amount of dead wood and other organic matter on forest floors, compounded by a higher density of small trees.

Sorry, solar panels won't stop California's fires.  The massive fires raging in California are being blamed squarely on climate change.  Alongside ominous photographs of orange skies, the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times blared:  "California's Climate Apocalypse." Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom says the cause is climate change.  Anyone who thinks differently, he insists, is in denial.  The governor is right that climate change is real, man-made and something we need to deal with smartly.  But the claim that the fires are caused by climate change is grossly misleading.  Translated into policy, it would steer the state to the worst way to help future Californians.  To understand why, it helps to know that California wildfires used to be much bigger.  This past decade, California has seen an average burnt area of 775,000 acres.  Before 1800, however, California typically saw between 4.4 and 11.9 million acres burn every year.

How environmentalists destroyed California's forests.  Once upon a time, forests in California were logged, grazed, and competently managed.  It wasn't always perfect, but generally it worked.  Fires, which are a natural part of that ecosystem, were generally small — not just benign but beneficial.  Land management focused on keeping the forest healthy for all involved, whether they were loggers, ranchers, fishermen, hunters, homeowners, or backpackers.  But then things started to change.  Groups such as the Sierra Club and National Resources Defense Council began to drive a myopic agenda of protecting environmental interests at all costs.  Logging was shut down.  Grazing was banned.  Controlled burning and undergrowth clearance were challenged and subjected to draconian regulations.  Fires were put out as quickly as possible.  So the trees grew closer and closer together.  Undergrowth, unchecked by grazing, cutting, or burning, grew thick and tall enough to reach the branches of mature trees.  The forests became thick and overgrown, but man, they sure looked nice and green from a scenic overlook.

Don't fall for simplistic claims about wildfires and global warming.  [Scroll down]  Every fire is different.  The reasons each fire turns out to be milder or more dangerous than the others can include a wide variety of causes and effects.  Random day-to-day wind patterns can turn a seemingly harmless blaze into a massive conflagration.  The frequency and severity of fire can also be affected by long-term drought patterns that predate modern mass carbon emissions by centuries.  Oceanic weather patterns such as "La Nina" can also change the pattern and course of Western U.S. wildfires, and man's increasing encroachment on natural habitats tends to make them more damaging to human life and property.  Does that mean global warming doesn't affect wildfires?  Of course not.  We assume it has some effect.

The Editor says...
Until the last few sentences, the writer was making sense.  But then he [or she] lost me.  There is no extraordinary global warming.  Therefore global warming is not a factor in the California wildfires.  Until there is about 400 degrees of warming, hot weather won't ignite trees.

Six accused of starting Oregon blazes amid devastating wildfire season.  At least six men in Oregon have been accused of intentionally setting blazes during the state's devastating wildfire season, according to a report.  There is no evidence that the suspects were motivated by politics, despite conspiracies that such an animus has fueled the fires that have burned more than a million acres, OregonLive reported.  Instead, some of the blazes were attributed to petty beef, relationship troubles and enjoying the "smell of smoke," officials said.  One of the alleged arsonists, Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton, 39, was discovered setting fires July 28 in the woods outside Glide after he became upset with a member of a local forest protection organization, the outlet reported.

California's Disastrous Forest Mismanagement.  Fire plays a natural role in regulating the lifecycles of trees and vegetation.  In the pre-industrial era, more than 4 million acres burned in California annually.  "Skies were likely smoky much of the summer and fall in California during the prehistoric period," according to environmental scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.  Fortunately, we now have the knowledge and technology to diminish the frequency and extent of wildfires.  Prescribed burns and proactive clearing of dead vegetation are known to reduce the speed and intensity of fires by diminishing the stock of combustible material, but federal and state agencies have long put a monomaniacal emphasis on suppression, rather than prevention, of fires.

Western Wildfires Are Due to Arson and Stupidity, Not Climate Change.  Unfortunately, we are living in a world where facts don't matter much anymore.  For instance, the wildfires that have swept across the western United States over the past few weeks are being almost universally blamed on climate change, even though the facts tell otherwise.  The fires in California and Oregon are not due to climate change.  They are due to arson and sheer stupidity on the part of many, including those who are responsible for the environmental stewardship that is supposed to prevent them in the first place.

9-in-10 wildfires are set by humans.  Dear Facebook, Before you flag this as fake news, my source is the National Weather Service.  NWS reported that 87% of the wildfires were caused by humans this year — 7,072 in California alone.  Not all were arson, of course, because humans are pretty careless.  But enough are arson to cause concern in light of Democrats setting cities aflame this summer.  The last thing we want is the Antifa arm of the Democrat Party expanding into rural areas.

National Weather Service reveals 87% of all wildfires this year have been caused by humans.  The Almeda fire in Oregon that has so far killed two is now under investigation as a potential arson attack after a body was discovered near the start of the blaze.  Ashland Police Chief Tighe O'Meara announced Thursday a criminal investigation has been opened into the cause of the fire saying he believes the circumstances around the fire are 'suspicious'.  Investigators are looking into the possible connection between the blaze and the death of an unidentified individual, whose body was found near the origin of the fire.  This comes as the National Weather Service (NWS) revealed a staggering 87 percent of all wildfires that have ravaged America this year were caused by humans.

It Turns Out a Number of Fires on the West Coast Aren't Because of 'Climate Change'.  The left continually tells us that "climate change" is the reason behind wildfires.  In fact, Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee (D) even went so far as saying we should call them "climate fires."  Most of the West Coast — Washington State, Oregon, California, and Idaho — are on fire.  While the left is pushing their climate change theory, police are arresting arsonists for sparking these dangerous fires.  A 41-year-old man was arrested in Oregon for starting one of the two origins of the Almeda fire, located just outside of Medford.  Oregon State Fire Marshal's office spokesman Rich Tyler said Michael Jarrod Bakkela started one of the fires, which eventually merged to create one giant wildfire. [...] Bakkela is being held on 15 counts of criminal mischief and 14 counts of reckless endangerment.

Wildfires Will Become Worse Thanks To Decades-Old Liberal Policies, Says Fire Expert.  Former President Bill Clinton made a significant change to federal land management nearly 30 years ago that created the conditions necessary for massive wildfires to consume portions of the West Coast, according to one fire expert who predicted the problem years ago.  Shortly before leaving office in 2001, Clinton limited the ability of the United States Forest Service to thin out a dense thicket of foliage and downed trees on federal land to bring the West into a pristine state, Bob Zybach, an experienced forester with a PhD in environmental science, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.  The former president's decision created a ticking time bomb, Zybach argues.  "If you don't start managing these forests, then they are going to start burning up.  Thirty years later, they are still ignoring it," said Zybach, who spent more than 20 years as a reforestation contractor.  He was referring to warnings he made years ago, telling officials that warding off prescribed burns in Oregon and California creates kindling fuelling fires.  Such rules make it more difficult to deploy prescribed burns, which are controlled burns designed to cull all of the underbrush in forests to lessen the chance of massive fires, Zybach noted.

Fire Fanaticism.  The real reason for the large fires is the overloading of our western forests over the last several decades, which can be laid at the feet of excessive and misguided fire suppression starting almost a century ago, and environmentalist opposition to any pro-active forest management on public lands.  Environmentalists without fail run to the courthouse to block every Forest Service forest thinning plans, delaying and sometime blocking sensible forest management.

Antifa Claims To Have Ignited The Fires Burning America.  It's a terrible thing for the American public to be so stupid to think that any of this has to do with climate, and to be so cloistered and gullible that you must believe the FedGov when they tell you this has nothing to do with the communist revolution.  When the enemy tells you exactly what he's doing and why, and when people refuse to believe it, the enemy is winning.

I guess the fires lack Canadian passports.  [It could be that most of the fires in the western U.S. are cases of arson.  If there are no such fires in Canada or Mexico, that would strengthen the argument.  But it is also possible that Canada doesn't have a system to report the locations of such fires.]

Four people [have been] arrested for arson for deliberately starting blazes along West Coast.  Four people have been arrested for arson for deliberately starting blazes along the West Coast as the death toll from the devastating wildfires climbed to 29 and Oregon officials warned they are prepare for a 'mass fatality event'.  Two men in Washington state, one man in Oregon and one woman in California are facing arson charges for setting fires in areas that were already grappling with deadly blazes.  At least 20 have been killed in California, eight in Oregon and one in Washington state as thousands of firefighters struggle to bring the blazes under control and the governors of California and Oregon told residents to expect more fatalities in the coming days.

The Editor says...
Oh!  So it wasn't global warming after all.  Shocking.

The Green Road to Blackouts.  California leads the way to electricity blackouts, closely followed by South Australia.  They both created this problem by taxing, banning, delaying or demolishing reliable coal, nuclear, gas or hydro generators while subsidising and promoting unreliable electricity from the sickly green twins — solar and wind.  All supposed to solve a global warming crisis that exists only in academic computer models.  Energy policy should be driven by proven reliability, efficiency and cost, not by green politics.  Wind and solar will always be prone to blackouts for three reasons. [...]

Wildfires in California emit more CO2 annually than cars.  Since California has lost nearly 1.67 million acres to wildfires through August 31 this year and based on the assumptions above, about 131.2 million tons of carbon dioxide have been emitted to the environment in eight months due to wildfires.  California had 15.1 million vehicles registered in 2018.  Assume all are fuel burning for this exercise.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, fossil fueled cars emit 4.6 metric tons per year (22 mpg and 11,500 miles driven per year basis).  That means California cars emit 76.4 million tons (not metric) of carbon dioxide annually.  California is on a track to double the annual emissions of vehicles by wildfires in 2020.

Left-Wing Agitator Arrested for Starting Fire in Washington, Suspected of Starting Two Other Wildfires.  A Washington man with a history of left-wing agitation was arrested Wednesday evening [9/9/2020] after he allegedly started a fire in the brush along a highway near Tacoma.  Jeffrey Acord, 36, was charged for reckless burning in the second degree.  He is now reportedly also a suspect in two other Washington wildfires. [...] The suspected antifa militant has a history of anti-police protesting and encounters with law enforcement, court records show.  According to his Facebook, Acord also attended a Black Lives Matter march in Seattle on June 5 of this year.

Barack Obama's Latest Reason to Vote for Joe Biden Is Actually a Reason to Vote Trump.  Barack Obama, the Left's erstwhile patron saint, appears to have taken his deputy Rahm Emanuel's advice to heart:  "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."  On Wednesday [9/9/2020], Obama rushed to blame climate change for the wildfires ravaging the West Coast, insisting that Californians' "lives" depend on Joe Biden beating Donald Trump in November.  As usual, Obama has the entire situation backward:  Climate change isn't the culprit behind the infernos, poor forest management is — and the climate regulations Obama champions have prevented the controlled burns necessary for keeping the fires in check.

Environmentalists Destroyed California's Forests.  Millions of acres of California forest have been blackened by wildfires this summer, leading to the usual angry denunciations from the usual quarters about climate change.  But in 1999, the Associated Press reported that forestry experts had long agreed that "clearing undergrowth would save trees," and that "years of aggressive firefighting have allowed brush to flourish that would have been cleared away by wildfires."  But very little was done.  And now fires of unprecedented size are raging across the Western United States. [...] Year after year, environmentalists litigated and lobbied to stop efforts to clear the forests through timber harvesting, underbrush removal, and controlled burns.  Meanwhile, natural fires were suppressed and the forests became more and more overgrown.  The excessive biomass competed for the same water, soil, and light a healthier forest would have used, rendering all of the trees and underbrush unhealthy.  It wasn't just excess biomass that accumulated, but dried out and dead biomass.  What happened among California's tall stands of Redwood and Ponderosa Pine also happened in its extensive chaparral.  Fire suppression along with too many environmentalist-inspired bureaucratic barriers to controlled burns and undergrowth removal turned the hillsides and canyons of Southern California into tinderboxes.

To stop wildland fires, forestry, not climate policy, is the priority.  Smoke from forest fires filled the air in Western Washington and immediately the finger of blame was pointed at climate change.  Prior to the recent fires, the 2020 fire season had been extremely quiet.  No matter how the season ends, however, blaming climate change is politics, not science.  Not all the lands burned in the last week are forests, but forestland is a major source of the smoke we are seeing.  The science is quite clear that timber harvests — including commercial timber harvests — are necessary to reduce the number of fire-prone, unhealthy forests.

Scenes From The Endtimes.  Not to get all biblical on you, but have you checked out these scenes from the West Coast? [Numerous photos]

After rolling blackouts, California regulators voted to let gas powered plants stay open a few more years.  There were rolling blackouts in California last month on two consecutive days.  The reason for the blackouts wasn't a mystery.  There was a heatwave across the region and as the sun went down and California's solar generation started to fade, the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO) simply couldn't find enough power from other sources to meet the demand.  The blackouts were ordered to prevent the entire grid from entering a brownout.  Several outlets including NPR and the Wall Street Journal made the point that California's push for green energy was partly responsible for the situation.  In fact, as the LA Times pointed out, the California Public Utilities Commission had been warning about this exact scenario since last year.

The Decline and Fall of California in Two Maps.  It was known for nearly a week that we were in for record-breaking heat this weekend, and remember that as it is a holiday weekend, most industry (that is still left in the state) is shut down, which ought to have made it easier to secure enough power for citizens. [...] You too can have a decrepit grid like this when you pay twice the national average for electricity that doesn't work when you need it.

Massive California wildfire sparked by smoke-making machine at gender reveal party [according to] officials.  One of the massive California wildfires that erupted this weekend was sparked by a smoke-making device at a gender-reveal party, according to authorities.  The fire started Saturday morning in San Bernardino County's El Dorado Ranch Park, east of Los Angeles.  A "smoke generating pyrotechnic device" used at the party caused the fire, Cal Fire said in a news release that also warned residents that a fire can quickly start amid the state's especially hot and dry conditions this time of year.  No charges have been filed in connection with the start of the blaze, which has now spread across roughly 7,050 acres and resulted in more than 500 emergency workers being sent to the area to fight the fire and evacuate residents and park visitors.

Family behind party that sparked California wildfire could owe millions.  The family behind the gender reveal party that sparked a California wildfire could be hit with charges — and a massive bill to cover the costs of putting out the blazes, authorities said.  Cal Fire spokesman Bennet Milloy said the group could be on the hook for millions to cover the hundreds of firefighters, helicopters and planes employed to tackle the El Dorado Fire, the Daily Mail reported.  They also could face a "variety of charges," including arson, which carries a sentence of up to nine years, Milloy said.

The Editor says...
Yeah, but is it a boy or a girl, or something in between?

California burning.  In a remarkably honest Mother Jones article, Elizabeth Shogren explained that the wildfires that have been terrorizing Northern California in the late 2010s have been caused by more than a century of fire suppression, resulting in overgrowth which supplied fires with plenty of fuel to burn through.  For thousands of years previously, Native Americans managed the land with controlled burns, creating secure habitats and preferable hunting conditions — what was necessary for continuation of their way of life.  Traditional practices stand in contrast to our own environmental policies.  According to a Reason Foundation study, the Clinton-era anti-logging policies resulted in runaway growth of tree density.  When in the 1990s the Spotted Owl was placed on the endangered species list, culling plummeted and wildfires became increasingly catastrophic throughout the West.  I think the Spotted Owl is very cute, of course, but it would be nice if we could find a way to live in harmony with this flock.  I doubt the birds like the forest fires either.  In the meantime, California politicians have resorted to their favorite demagogic tropes:  blaming climate change and corporations.

Blackouts and Fires Caused by California's Ineffective Green Policies.  In the soft warmth of spring the swallows famously return to Capistrano, but in recent years they are followed by what seems inevitable summer power outages and fires.  This is not as pleasant an experience for Californians as the return of our favored feathered companions.  Every summer, usually around this time of year, we get our inevitable heat waves.  In the past, we used to endure them without fearing our lights — and computers — would be shut down, and our houses left in ruins.  No more.  Almost every year we do not just have a fire season, we have a conflagration.  Millions of acres get scorched across the state, accompanied by mass evacuations.  Meanwhile, electricity is cut off to millions more, and the state, already reeling from an extraordinary economic decline, with the sixth-highest unemployment rate among the states, continues its pell-mell rush into the 12th Century.

The Plague of Renewable Portfolio Standards.  Wind and solar are feasible only because the operators of the grid agree to do everything possible to accept whatever amount of wind or solar is coming their way at any time.  They assume this posture toward wind and solar because that is required by various regulations and contracts.  All the other sources of power are ordered to decrease or increase output as needed to balance the amount of wind or solar power flowing at any moment.  If wind and solar are minor players, the burden of accommodating their erratic nature is small.  If they become big players, the burden starts to be a serious problem.  In some places, like California, it's starting to get serious.

California Apocalypto.  It is now August in California.  So we can expect the following from our postmodern state government.  There are the now-normal raging wildfires in the coastal and Sierra foothills.  And they will be greeted as if they are not characteristic threats of 500 years of settled history, but leveraged as proof of global warming as well as the state's abject inability to put them out.  When the inept state can't extinguish them as it has in the past, it suggests that it's more "natural" to let them burn.  Jerry Brown's team told us that the drought's toll — millions of dead trees and tens of millions of acres of parched grass and calcified shrubs on hillsides — provided a natural source of food and shelter for bugs and birds and thus need not be grazed or thinned or harvested.  And so the wages of drought could be in a sense good for an "ecosystem" that otherwise proved to be green napalm for the people of foothill communities.

An old Indian trick.  As wise stewards of the land, North America's Indians routinely started forest fires.  They wanted grazing grounds for the animals they hunted and open spaces to live and hunt on.  So before Columbus arrived, there was a lot less forested land than we have today.  The Europeans put an end to the Indian fires, and for centuries, they harvested the forests for timber.  But that has ended in many parts of the country, California in particular.  After the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco was rebuilt using lumber from the Santa Cruz forest, just south of the city.  But I don't believe it's been harvested since. [...] If the Indians managed the land, the fires they started would have resulted in the firebreaks necessary to stop the spread of a forest fire.  Or if this forest had been managed according to the best practice, limited timber cutting would have been allowed, creating man-made firebreaks.  But because the state of California is governed by lunatics, it just burns.

What Is The Cause Of The Recent Power Blackouts In California?  You may have read in the past few days that residents of California have been experiencing rolling power blackouts.  This has occurred in the middle of a strong heat wave, meaning that large numbers of people have had their air conditioning, light, refrigeration, and everything else dependent on electricity, go out just when they are most needed.  The blackouts have not been the result of technical failures of the grid, but rather have been intentionally imposed by the electricity system operator (known as CAISO — California Independent System Operator) via the various local utilities.  So what has caused these blackouts?  The official explanation is that the heat wave is the cause.  It has just gotten so unusually hot that demand has risen beyond the capacity of the system.  Many articles in the media reporting on the situation go further to associate the unusual heat with "climate change."  This explanation is complete[ly false].  Yes, there is a strong heat wave going on, at least in certain areas of the state, but it is not unusual in historical context.

Democrats Promise to Bring California-Style Blackouts to Everyone.  Gotta say, it was bold of Democratic Party convention organizers to let voters know they plan on passing federal energy policies that would transform the rest of the country into California.  The Golden State is experiencing rolling blackouts even as the Democrats speak.  Millions of people are having their electrical power turned off in the middle of a heat wave — more specifically, their air conditioners.  Blackouts aren't merely an inconvenience, it is an economic drag and dangerous to vulnerable populations.

Green California has the nation's worst power grid.  More than a million Californians suffered power blackouts last Friday evening [8/14/2020].  When high temperatures caused customer demand to exceed the power available, California electrical utilities used rotating outages to force a reduction in demand.  The California grid is the worst in the nation, with green energy policies pursued by the state likely furthering reduced grid reliability.  At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Pacific Gas and Electric, California's biggest utility, began shutting off power in rolling outages to force a reduction in demand.  Southern California Edison also denied power to homes, beginning just before 7 p.m.  Shutoffs impacted a rotating group of up to 2 million customers until 11 p.m.  The California Independent System Operator declared a Stage Three Electrical Emergency, the first such emergency since 2001. Spot electricity prices soared to more than $1,000 per megawatt-hour, more than 10 times the usual price.

Why California's Climate Policies Are Causing Electricity Blackouts.  Millions of Californians were denied electrical power and thus air conditioning during a heatwave, raising the risk of heatstroke and death, particularly among the elderly and sick.  The blackouts come at a time when people, particularly the elderly, are forced to remain indoors due to Covid-19.  At first, the state's electrical grid operator last night asked customers to voluntarily reduce electricity use.  But after power reserves fell to dangerous levels it declared a "Stage 3 emergency" cutting off power to people across the state at 6:30 pm.  The immediate reason for the black-outs was the failure of a 500-megawatt power plant and an out-of-service 750-megawatt unit not being available.

California forced to defend green goals amid blackouts.  Rolling blackouts have forced California to defend its ambitious renewable energy plans.  In recent days, Republican politicians have blamed the blackouts on California's efforts to limit fossil fuel energy use and phase out nuclear energy.  The outages were imposed on a rotating basis over the weekend amid a severe heat wave made worse by climate change.  "This week in California, there were rolling blackouts because the radical Democrats have mandated impossible restrictions on energy production," President Trump said Thursday during remarks in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.  Trump has also sought to link California's woes with the climate policy plans of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.  Biden, in his revamped climate plans unveiled in July, sets a target to eliminate carbon emissions from the power sector by 2035.  That's even more ambitious than California's goal, which targets 100% carbon-free power by 2045.

Wildfires, Blackouts, High Gas Prices:  Californians Fight Familiar Foes Amid Pandemic.  Californians are struggling with raging wildfires, roving blackouts, and sky high gas taxes while simultaneously dealing with government-imposed economic lockdowns and a pandemic that has so far killed more than 11,000 people in the state.  Northern California had roughly 33 active wildfires Wednesday that had burned more than 141,000 acres as they spread, media reports show.  The ongoing fires are accompanied by an intense heatwave, Reuters reported, that has prompted citizens to crank up their air conditioners, placing pressure on California's already-taxed energy grid and triggering roving blackouts.

Californian Blackout Fury:  "It's Not Just the Heat, It's Also the Anti-Nuclear Power Stupidity".  The utter failure of renewables to deliver during the Californian heatwave appears to be creating a surge of interest in reliable energy. [...] Renewables have failed to deliver this time, and will do so again.  Californian anger at the blackouts will eventually spill over into action, the scrapping of renewables in favour of reliable energy sources.  The only question is, how many blackouts it will take before Californian voters get the message?

For Their Own Safety — Amid a Heat Wave — LA Mayor Shuts Off Power to a Party-Hosting Home.  In Los Angeles, it's lights out for those who don't listen to the mayor.  In case you've not heard, LA's in the midst of a heat wave.  And if you haven't before felt the West Coast's severe summer simmer, imagine there's an oven heated to 350 degrees.  And your spleen is inside.  Nonetheless, on Wednesday [8/19/2020], Mayor Eric Garcetti shut off some residents' power — and, therefore, their AC.  Why?  Public health and safety.  As reported by The Daily Wire, a group of TikTok personalities share an abode in the Hollywood Hills.  And according to police, they've recently hosted at least two shameless shindigs.  That, of course, goes against the city's COVID clampdown.

The Editor says...
The Covid crackdowns are all about compliance and submission.  They have nothing to do with public health.  Maybe they did for the first few weeks, but they don't now.

Rolling blackouts, no Uber, businesses flee — California is Democrats' dream for America.  After spending the bulk of his lieutenant governorship waging war against California's last remaining nuclear power plant, Gov. Gavin Newsom is begging residents to turn up their thermostats as the state battles excruciating heat waves, roaring wildfires, and now, state-sanctioned blackouts to preserve its worst-in-America power grid.  California's power is not as carbon-efficient as clean nuclear energy, nor is it as cheap as traditional mass fossil fuels.  If you're looking to drink your problems away at your favorite dive bar, too bad; Newsom shut the indoor dining rooms.  If you want to sit on a patio, you have to seek out the establishments that survived the state's shutdown.  Soon enough, you might be better off just binging in your basement, as the California machine has mobilized to abolish the ride-sharing apps that revolutionized the state.

CAISO President:  California Power Grid teetering close to the edge of collapse.  I sent an email to a relative earlier today predicting that politicians in California would start leaning on system operators to reduce their safety margin or contingency power in order to avoid rolling blackouts.  I had no idea they were teetering this close to the edge already.  In response to rolling blackouts over the weekend, California ISO President Steve Berber warned that California must maintain its current electricity reserves or risk 'collapse of the entire system of California and perhaps the entire West.'

California's Power Failure Is A Frightening Preview Of Democrats' 'Green New Deal'.  Among the nightmares ready to descend on America, should the Democrats win in November, is the so-called Green New Deal.  It promises lots of renewable green energy at a "modest" $2 trillion cost.  Just one more scary, extreme policy idea out of the all-digital 2020 Democratic National Convention.  Sound good to you?  If so, take a look at California, where some of the worst of these ideas are already being tried, with disastrous results.  The state, once known for its plentiful, cheap and reliable energy supplies, is now dealing with rolling blackouts as its green energy infrastructure buckles under the strain of summer heat.  This week, as the DNC holds its virtual convention, some 3 million California homes could be periodically without power as some areas experience 100-degree-plus heat.  In addition to major discomfort and inconvenience, such blackouts if sustained can be dangerous to health — especially for the elderly and kids.

Green energy push blamed in California's rolling blackouts.  California's electricity grid picked an inconvenient moment to stumble, at least for Democrats seeking to drum up support this week for Joseph R. Biden's $2 trillion green-energy plan at the Democratic National Convention.  The Golden State's ambitious renewable portfolio standard is coming under fire as the state's energy grid buckles under the strain of an oppressive heatwave, prompting rolling blackouts that have left millions without power as the state moves to replace nuclear and natural gas as energy sources with solar and wind.  California seeks to generate 60% of electricity via renewables by 2030, but Mr. Biden's Green New Deal is even more aggressive, calling for a 100% carbon-free grid by 2035 "to meet the existential threat of climate change while creating millions of jobs with a choice to join a union."

California is reduced to third-world status.  Although I left California some time ago, I'm still connected to alerts from the emergency services in my former Bay Area home.  That's how I first learned that California has been suffering from rolling blackouts as citizens try to cope with a heat wave. [...] Once upon a time, California had a power grid that was large enough to serve the state's population.  As the population grew, though, the grid did not.  Additionally, California had five nuclear power plants that helped provide stable energy.  Two years ago, though, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to close the last nuclear power plant in California, which PG&E owned, although that plant will remain online until 2025.

Here's Why California Can't Keep The Power on During Heat Wave — and Newsom's Deflecting.  [Scroll down]  Rolling blackouts affected more than 200,000 customers in the Bay Area Saturday night, but were averted Sunday.  By Monday morning the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO), the entity that oversees the state's power grid, warned that "millions" of Californians would be affected by rolling blackouts Monday afternoon, and Gov. Newsom sprung into action.  Just kidding.  Gov. Newsom leaped into "Blame" mode.  Since demand was less than what was seen in July 2006, and no blackouts were needed then, why do we need them now?  Newsom knows the answer — the stupid energy policies that he and Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown before him enacted — but instead promised an "investigation," likely headed by a blue-ribbon panel, since he's fond of such committees.

California Issues First Rolling Blackouts Since 2001, As Heat Wave Bakes Western U.S..  California electricity providers instituted rolling blackouts Friday night [8/14/2020] — the first since 2001 — as an intense and prolonged heat wave settled over much of the Western U.S.  Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have experienced brief power outages through the evening, after the body that manages most of the state's electric utilities declared a Stage 3 emergency to help reduce stress on the larger grid.  Electricity demand surged through the day as temperatures topped the triple digits in many parts of the state and people cranked up fans and air-conditioning units to try and stay cool.  The emergency order was rescinded before midnight and power was fully restored to all affected households, the California Independent System Operator said in a tweet.

PG&E starts rotating power outages impacting up to 250,000 customers at a time.  San Francisco-based power provider PG&E Corp said on Friday it has started rotating power outages at the direction of California's grid operator, impacting about 200,000 to 250,000 customers at a time, given the strain on the power grid during the statewide heatwave.  The company said in a statement it is not calling a public safety power shut-off, which is conducted during specific high fire threat conditions.  PG&E said its outages, directed by the California Independent System Operator, are expected to impact up to 250,000 customers at a time in rotations of one hour each.

California Will Use Diesel This Summer to Help Keep Lights On.  Despite environmental concerns, California will allow PG&E Corp. to use diesel-powered mobile generators to keep some electricity flowing when the utility proactively cuts power to prevent live wires from sparking fires in high wind.  State regulators signed off Thursday [6/11/2020] on PG&E's plan to use about 450 megawatts of diesel generation to power homes, businesses, hospitals and other critical facilities as part of the utility's effort to reduce disruptions during the shutoffs.  Last fall, regulators criticized PG&E for intentionally blacking out millions of customers to prevent power lines from sparking fires during dry, windy conditions.

When Silicon Valley Goes Dark This Time, There Will Be No Refuge.  Blackouts that hit millions of Californians in 2019 could be doubly calamitous this year with tech giants Google, Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. among the many companies keeping offices closed until the fall or later in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic.  If utilities cut power again, home offices set up during the pandemic could go dark and stay dark for days, and they'll have no corporate offices to flee to for power.  In October 2019, more than 3 million people were affected by a series of rolling blackouts over more than a week as PG&E Corp. and Edison International tried to prevent live wires from sparking wildfires.  Call it a collision of crises.  Blackouts could limit California's push to revive an economy largely paralyzed by stay-at-home orders this spring.  The state, utilities and individual companies are all seeking ways to deal with blackouts before a wildfire season forecast to be worse than normal.

California's governor says he's ready to take over embattled PG&E.  One year after filing for bankruptcy, PG&E has worked out deals to borrow money and guarantee more than $25 billion in payouts to wildfire victims, insurers and local municipalities.  It's even come to terms with bondholders.  As a result, its shares have skyrocketed 37 percent so far in January.  Mizuho upgraded the stock this week to a "buy."  That optimism may be premature.  The company has to exit Chapter 11 by a crucial June 30 deadline, and there is one huge remaining obstacle:  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has long talked about a state takeover of the company.

Experts blame humans starting blazes for 'major shift' in cause of US wildfires.  The number of human-caused wildfires has increased in recent decades, sparking a shift in what is 'normal' for the devastating blazes, research has found.  The new study of wildfires in America between 1984 and 2016 has found that the leading cause is 'shifting away from lightning and towards human activity'.  In the past, the strongest fires were caused by natural ignition types, like lightning strikes or El Niño winds, which also tended to be seasonal and easier to predict.  Human-caused, or anthropogenic, fires can be caused intentionally, by arson, or accidentally, for example by dropped cigarettes, fireworks or other negligence.

Climate Experts Suggest Trump Was Right When He Blamed California's Wildfires On Land Management.  Climate experts are apparently backing President Donald Trump's repeated arguments that California's wildfires were a result of poor land management rather than climate change-driven, E&E reported Thursday [1/9/2020].  Roughly 75% of damage stemming from California's wildfires was a result of "the way we manage lands and develop our landscape," Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley, said Wednesday at a conference in Washington.  Wildfires used to burn through 4.5 million acres a year in the 18th century, when indigenous communities populated California's countryside, Stephens noted.  "Fire was almost as important as rain to ecosystems," he added.  Stephens was not the only researcher at the National Council for Science and the Environment to made that point.

How power shutoffs are changing California's way of life.  At all levels of government — from state officials to small-town mayors — California leaders are in uncharted territory, and scrambling to adjust their plans and operations to the realities of regular disruption.  For now, their only answer to calamitous wildfires is shutting off power to millions of residents in advance, which residents now lament as a man-made disaster.  Mike McGuire, the state senator representing the Santa Rosa area devastated by fires in 2017, said California is "the canary in the coal mine" as climate change threatens to upend life across the world.  Residents in some of California's most bucolic settings are stuck figuring it out on their own, rich and poor, urban and rural alike.

PG&E begins new mass power shutoff likely to affect up to 450,000 people.  California's largest power utility began shutting off power Wednesday [11/20/2019] to hundreds of thousands of people in 18 northern and central counties in the state as the region faces extreme fire weather that has lasted since October.  Up to 450,000 people could be affected by the outage, according to the LA Times.  A virtually rainless fall has left brush bone-dry and forecasts called for low humidity and winds gusting at times to 55 mph.

California Burns, Gavin Newsom Fiddles.  "Forest management" is not an original concept with the current administration.  The clearing of debris from forest floors, the considered culling of trees to create fire-breaks, and the building of better access roads to and from forested areas make abundant good sense.  So does the idea of not locating rural communities too close to the wilderness, and of making housing closer in to urban areas more affordable.  But even as the president emphasizes such cautionary measures, he is dismissed as an ignorant nuisance.  Those who are allowed an opinion on the subject must first pledge allegiance to "global warming" as Public Enemy Number One.  (Next to Trump himself, of course!)  On the other hand, those who question the extent of man's role in climate change are labeled "flat earthers" by a global warming establishment that unscientifically cherry-picks opinions among scientists and excludes those that contradict the party line.

California's Burning.  Public utility companies are the antithesis of the free market.  They combine the worst of both worlds — a profit motive married to complete government regulation and control.  These are government-granted monopolies that operate at the behest of regulators and often are indeed poorly managed. [...] The other big issue has nothing to do with climate change and everything to do with climate-change policies.  It involves inadequate brush clearance, which has provided fuel for the fires.  To its credit, the Newsom administration is trying to increase some brush-clearance measures, but its difficulty in doing so speaks to the broader problem.  "In March, the governor declared a state of emergency that exempted the projects from the California Environmental Quality Act, a law mandating an in-depth analysis of a development's impacts on land, water, species and other elements," Scientific American explained.  "Clearances under CEQA can take months or years, Newsom aides said.  State officials argued they're still conducting analyses to ensure projects don't hurt species or natural or tribal resources."

Was There Another Reason for Electricity Shutdowns in California?  The blades of the wind turbine are airfoils, just like the wings of an airplane.  Adjusting the pitch (angle) of the blades allows the rotor to maintain constant speed, which, in turn, allows the generator to maintain the constant speed it needs to safely deliver power to the grid.  However, there's a limit to blade pitch adjustment.  When the wind is blowing so hard that pitch adjustment is no longer possible, the turbine shuts down.  That's the cut-out speed.  Now consider how California's power generation profile has changed. [...] By 2018, the state's renewable portfolio had jumped to 43.8 percent of total generation, with wind and solar now accounting for 17.9 percent of total generation.  That's a lot of power to depend on from inherently unreliable sources.  Thus, it wouldn't be at all surprising to learn that PG&E didn't stop delivering power out of fear of starting fires, but because it knew it wouldn't have power to deliver once high winds shut down all those wind turbines.

Is California Becoming Premodern?  More than 2 million Californians were recently left without power after the state's largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric — which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — preemptively shut down transmission lines in fear that they might spark fires during periods of high autumn winds.  Consumers blame the state for not cleaning up dead trees and brush, along with the utility companies for not updating their ossified equipment.  The power companies in turn fault the state for so over-regulating utilities that they had no resources to modernize their grids.

How Big-Government Regulation Contributed to California's Wildfires.  Fires are nothing new in California, and there's something of an interesting history to them that used to not be nearly as tragic as we see today.  Chuck DeVore, vice president of national initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, reminds his readers at Forbes that as "a citizen soldier in the California National Guard for two decades, I often heard the gallows humor that California's four seasons were:  flood, fire, earthquake, and riot."  DeVore takes to task the editorial board at the Sacramento Bee for their commentary around the Carr Fire of 2018, in which they suggested that the recent fires are the result of "climate change, for real and in real time.  We were warned that the atmospheric buildup of man-made greenhouse gas would eventually be an existential threat."  "The problem with the Bee's editorial is that making a passionate argument is no substitute for the truth," DeVore writes.

Gavin Newsome.  Your Carbon Offsets Are Burning.  Those who leave their energy-guzzling multi-million-dollar mansions when they fly off on their private jets to save-the-planet climate change conferences like to ease their consciences and explain their hypocrisy by pointing to their carbon offsets like paying for trees to be planted somewhere that might mature in a hundred years or so.  There are a lot of trees in California and a good number of them are on fire, thanks to environmental regulations and policies that are supposed to protect the environment but are in fact destroying it.  The irony in California that the very trees that are supposed to be sucking up those nasty carbon emissions are now a major producer of carbon emissions.

Here's How State Regulators Played A Role In California's Rolling Blackouts, Wildfires.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other critics are blasting the public utility company responsible for rolling blackouts, but some experts argue regulators' obsession with climate change is partially to blame.  Newsom suggested Friday [11/1/2019] taking over Pacific Gas & Electric, a public utility company that shut off electricity recently to nearly 1 million customers to prevent potential wildfires.  The California Democrat argued that PG&E's greed and corruption are leading to the massive blackouts.  "It's about dog-eat-dog capitalism meeting climate change.  It's about corporate greed meeting climate change.  It's about decades of mismanagement," Newsom told reporters on Oct. 25.

California Is Becoming Unlivable.  Right now, wildfires are scorching tens of thousands of acres in California, choking the air with smoke, spurring widespread prophylactic blackouts, and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.  Right now, roughly 130,000 Californians are homeless, and millions more are shelling out far more in rent than they can afford, commuting into expensive cities from faraway suburbs and towns, or doubling up in houses and apartments.  Wildfires and lack of affordable housing — these are two of the most visible and urgent crises facing California, raising the question of whether the country's dreamiest, most optimistic state is fast becoming unlivable.  Climate change is turning it into a tinderbox; [...]

The Editor says...
Whoa, there!  The state was turned into a tinderbox by tree-hugging left-wing Democrats who mismanaged the state for decades.  The climate has not changed.  Does anyone really believe that the climate in California is hot enough to ignite trees?

California's Gavin Newsom, now running scared.  [Scroll down]  PG&E has no money to put its electrical wires under the ground after all the "green mandates" the socialists in the California state assembly have foisted on them, forcing them to convert to pricey, unreliable and wire-transmitted solar and wind power instead of efficient, reliable, cheap fossil fuels.  That's a money pit right there.  Now PG&E has even less money to make even that happen and still supply reliable electricity what with all the billions in lawsuit payouts it must make to residents who have lost their homes in past wildfires based on this lack of investment.  Why did that happen?  Not just the greenie mandates for wind and solar power from the state central planners, the company also was forbidden to clear brush from its electrical lines.  Another greenie diktat from the top that didn't end well.

California Democrats waste billions on useless climate alarmist schemes while the state burns uncontrollably.  The Wall Street Journal published a superb article that exposes the government lunacy in California where its climate alarmist propaganda driven Democratic politicians have wasted tens of billions of dollars on energy schemes that are totally useless in having any meaningful impacts on global emissions levels while ignoring the statewide wildfire disaster that is destroying massive amounts of property, thousands of homes and taking hundreds of lives.

California blackouts are a self-inflicted mess — Don't just blame PG&E for the new Dark Ages.  California, the richest state in the nation — and one that's often portrayed as the progressive harbinger of the future for the rest of the country — has been hit with its latest Third World-style disaster.  On top of high poverty rates, skyrocketing homelessness, rising crime, and the return of medieval-sounding diseases, the state has been hit by a series of rolling, widespread blackouts.  Millions of Californians, many in the most densely populated parts of the country have had their power shut off by the utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric. [...] Though it's easy to criticize PG&E, which hardly looks good in this whole mess, there is a lot of blame to go around — and no, it doesn't have anything to do with "climate change."

PG&E Warns: 10 Years Of Power Shut Offs Coming To Californians.  California residents are facing up to a decade of widespread, precautionary, power shut-offs until Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., the bankrupt utility giant, will be able to prevent its power transmission lines from sparking fires, the company's top official said.  Californians could experience power shut-offs for the next ten years.  Chief Executive William D. Johnson said at an emergency meeting Friday of the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco, that ten years is a probable timeline.  "I think this is probably a 10-year timeline to get to a point where it's really ratcheted down significantly."  Of course, that isn't sitting well with Californians or politicians.

The Editor says...
In other words, the problem will persist for at least ten years, or until politicians with some common sense take over and start managing the forests more effectively.  In the meantime, you should shop for a generator, or install a Tesla Powerwall!

California Faces "Biggest Blackout Ever" As 2.5 Million PG&E Customers May Have No Power For Days.  Earlier this week we joked that with PG&E now scrambling to enforce intentional blackouts every time there are powerful winds for fears the bankrupt company's aged infrastructure could cause a new fire, "every time the wind blows California will become Venezuela."  Turns out it wasn't a joke.

California's blackouts are a cautionary tale, warns former CA Republican Party Chairman.  California power company PG&E is coming for residents' tax money and you could be next, former Chairman of the California Republican Party Tom Del Beccaro warned Saturday [10/26/2019]. [...] Arguing that "Democrats seeking their party's 2020 presidential nomination have already embraced some of the same Big Government and radical environmental policies that have brought blackouts to California — and could bring power outages and shortages to our entire nation should one of them become the next president."

California Is Burning and It's Not Because of 'Climate Change'.  California power company PG&E is preparing to pull the plug on 850,000 of its customers.  PG&E has been deliberately cutting power to its customers in an effort to avoid wildfires.  It isn't working.  Massive wildfires erupted in areas where PG&E provides service.  The Tick Fire has burned down several homes and caused the evacuation of more than 40,000 people so far, and other wildfires are burning throughout the state.  In Sonoma County, the Kincade Fire has already torched 34 square miles and destroyed 49 homes.  That fire was likely caused by a broken transmission line belonging to PG&E.  But PG&E's equipment couldn't start these huge wildfires without a bunch of dead brush fueling the flames.  As Chuck Devore writes in Forbes, "the outrageous cost to remove a few dead trees from private land is a consequence of California's Byzantine environmental regulatory patchwork."  It's not climate change that's responsible for these massive fires, "it's decades of environmental mismanagement that has created a tinderbox of unharvested timber, dead trees, and thick underbrush."

Wildfires Caused By Bad Environmental Policy Are Causing California Forests To Be Net CO2 Emitters.  This is California's big secret:  it's not climate change that's burning up the forests, killing people, and destroying hundreds of homes; it's decades of environmental mismanagement that has created a tinderbox of unharvested timber, dead trees, and thick underbrush. [...] The irony is that forest management is so bad on public lands that a new report, ordered by the California legislature in 2010, shows that the portion of California's National Forests protected from timber harvesting is now a net contributor to atmospheric carbon dioxide due to fires and trees killed by insects and disease.  Every year about 3.8 billion board feet of new timber grows in the Golden State, capturing almost one metric ton of CO2 per acre in the productive timberland areas.  Trees grow until they die, burn, or get harvested.  If harvesting declines, tree mortality and fires increase.  It's the tyranny of math.

11 Empty Climate Claims.  Claim [#5]: Global Warming has increased U.S. Wildfires.  Fact:  Wildfires have been decreasing since 1800s.  The increase in damage in recent years is due to population growth in vulnerable areas and poor forest management.

End of Discussion:  MSNBC Declares CA Wildfires Caused by Climate Change, Nothing Else.  As wildfires ravage California again, after last year's deadliest wildfire season on record, the media wants you to remember:  This is climate change's fault.  MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi explained this to his liberal audience on Tuesday's [10/29/2019] MSNBC Live With Velshi and Ruhle, by touting data from a climate alarmist organization, and not offering any other viewpoints into his explainer segment.  Co-host Stephanie Ruhle began by gushing over the sheer number of wildfires the state has been facing lately, plus the extended burning season.  With that prompt, Velshi responded, "It does make you wonder, right?" adding, "Why are these fires getting worse and worse every year?"  Of course, he had the reason ready:  climate change.

Of Electricity and Ideology.  [Scroll down]  "For decades," [Kay] Grimes wrote, "traditional forest management was scientific and successful — that is until ideological, preservationist zealots wormed their way into government and began the overhaul of sound federal forest management through abuse of the Endangered Species Act and the 're-wilding, no-use movement.'"  U.S. Representative Tom McClintock, whose Northern California district includes the Yosemite Valley and the Tahoe National Forest, told Grimes that the U.S. Forest Service 40 years ago departed from "well-established and time-tested forest management practices."  "We replaced these sound management practices with what can only be described as a doctrine of benign neglect," McClintock explained.  "Ponderous, byzantine laws and regulations administered by a growing cadre of ideological zealots in our land management agencies promised to 'save the environment.'  The advocates of this doctrine have dominated our law, our policies, our courts, and our federal agencies ever since."

No Evidence That Climate Change Causes Weather Extremes: [Part 5] Wildfires.  Probably the most fearsome of the weather extremes commonly blamed on human-caused climate change are tornadoes — the previous topic in this series — and wildfires.  Both can arrive with little or no warning, making it difficult or impossible to flee, are often deadly, and typically destroy hundreds of homes and other structures.  But just like tornadoes, there is no scientific evidence that the frequency or severity of wildfires are on the rise in a warming world.  You wouldn't know that, however, from the mass hysteria generated by the mainstream media and climate activists every time a wildfire breaks out, especially in naturally dry climates such as those in California, Australia or Spain.  While it's true that the number of acres burned annually in the U.S. has gone up over the last 20 years or so, the present burned area is still only a small fraction of what it was back in the record 1930s, as seen in [...] data compiled by the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center.

Green Policies Turned California A Charred Black.  More than half of California's roughly 105 million acres are owned by the federal and state governments.  It is on these sprawling parcels that the wildfires tend to rage before devouring private land, homes, and businesses.  Public lands "have proved far more vulnerable to forest fires than properties owned by private groups," Hoover Institution scholar Richard Epstein wrote in California's Forest Fire Tragedy. [...] The loudest voices assign blame for the fires to man-made climate change.  But the human activity primarily responsible for the destructive spread of wildfires is public policy favoring burned timber over harvested timber.  While maybe well-intended, laws inspired by the 1970s environmentalist movement, which is determined to make sure saw blades and trees never meet, have stoked the furnaces.

Hero Citizen Tackles Suspected Arsonist Setting Wildfire in Los Angeles.  Legal Insurrection readers may recall that in the autumn of 2017, a series of wildfires broke out in Southern California.  One of those blazes threatened the famed Getty Center Museum.  On Easter Sunday this year [4/21/2019], a suspected arsonist, who set off fires in the Sepulveda Pass near the Getty Center, was taken into custody after a an alert citizen saw the man lighting the fires and tackled him. [...] The suspect has been identified as Steven William Adkison, a 31-year-old transient.

False flag environmentalism is dangerous for America and the world.  California suffered some of the worst wildfires in the State's history in mid-2018.  Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is in bankruptcy over the damages where entire towns went up in flames over faulty electrical infrastructure and high winds, which led to devastating wildfire.  But the real culprits causing this destruction were environmental regulations, green organizations and high-powered, faux environmentalists like Tom Steyer stopping excess brush and dead trees from being cleared throughout California cities, towns, forests and wilderness areas.

Did forced focus on green energy lead to California's devastating wildfires?  California's bureaucratic behemoth, the Air Resource Board, implements its "cap and trade" scheme to control carbon emissions.  However, the carbon emissions from the wildfires dwarfed those from standard anthropogenic sources.  The 2018 fires released the rough equivalent of about 68 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, about the same amount of carbon emissions as are produced in a year to provide electricity to the state.

California's Wildfire History — in one map.  Here is an interesting interactive graphic that depicts perimeters of more than 100 years of California wildfires recorded by Cal Fire and the U.S. Geological Survey.  The map [left] shows all the cumulative fires from 1878 to 2018.  It seems as if there is very little of California that has not been touched by wildfire.  Large areas of desert in the southeast are mostly untouched due to lack of vegetation.

Judge: California Wildfires Caused By Uninsulated Power Conductors NOT Climate.  U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that equipment owned by the utility company Pacific Gas and Electric was the cause of some wildfires due to tree limbs and other debris knocking uninsulated power conductors together, NBC News has reported.

The Editor says...
Only a few power lines are insulated, and most of those are underground, so "uninsulated power lines" is not an unusual situation.  If tree limbs are in contact with the lines, that's because the utility hasn't routinely trimmed the trees.  I don't know how things work in California, but in Texas, the utility companies have tree trimming crews in residential neighborhoods all the time.  It could be that environmental activists in California have made this unpopular or illegal, but that's just a guess.

Climate Change:  The Poetry of Dreams and the Prose of Reality.  Recent fires in Southern California demonstrated that Mother Nature can produce in several days more greenhouse gases than all the cars in the region in a whole year.  California's yearly fires have been known since the Spanish conquistadors first visited it in 1542.  If we add volcanoes spitting into the air millions of tons of CO2 every year for millions of years, then according to the proponents' theory, we should already be living on small islands surrounded by an ocean of melted Arctic ice.

Big Government Helped Create the Horrendous Nature of the Cali Fires.  A new report revealed that incompetent state regulators in The California Public Utilities Commission failed to implement plans required by state law that could have prevented the devastating California wildfires.  Senate Bill 1028 required the three big California power companies, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, to provide detailed strategies for reducing fire threats, according to The San Diego Tribune.  The California Public Utilities Commission was supposed to review the filings, make comments, and follow up to ensure they followed the plans.  They NEVER DID!  They did NOT issue directives to the power companies, and it's been more than two years since the law was passed.

Democrats use vote fraud to play their last hand: global warming.  By reopening the old playbook of making global warming (the flip side of the 1970s anticipated ice age, also caused by man's meddling with the environment) a crisis is the best strategy left to the Left.  In order to execute their gameplan, using and abusing the natural world is not beyond their scruples or, rather, lack thereof.  Throwing communities into chaos by devastating them with flood and fire — please be reminded of the near collapse of the Oroville Dam last year and now the all-consuming fires wiping out whole towns — through mismanagement of resources, states such as California have placed millions of citizens in jeopardy.  Yet it goes further according to some credible reports deriving from survivors of the Camp Fire, Woolsey Fire and the conflagrations that wiped out the wine country just last year.  Following the lead of democrat legislators trying to place all the blame on power companies, the media conveniently forgot their initial reporting of the illegal immigrant who was caught setting some of the major burns in Northern California.  They also have turned a blind eye to the change of fire patterns and how many blazes began by simply bursting into flame, no spark or ember witnessed anywhere about.

Watch the gender-reveal explosion that ignited a 47,000-acre wildfire.  A border patrol agent's gender reveal party took an explosive turn and caused a 47,000 acre wildfire.  Dennis Dickey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of U.S. Forest Service regulations for starting the Sawmill Fire.  He has to pay more than $8 million in restitution according to the Department of Justice.  [Video clip]

Even California Cannot Defy Nature Forever.  [Scroll down]  Last year, we saw near-normal levels of precipitation.  If our life-giving reservoirs of the state's vast California Water Project and federal Central Valley Project are currently not full, it is mostly because millions of acre-feet of stored water were released to flow into the San Francisco Bay estuaries and the delta — contradicting most of the original mandates of the water projects of providing flood control, power generation, lake recreation, and irrigation for California residents. [...] Left unsaid is that more than 130 million trees died throughout the state's foothills and mountain ranges during the drought of 2011-2016 and were not removed from the forest floor, providing an immensity of natural kindling for fires.  To walk in a Sierra Nevada forest during summers requires navigating not just over fallen limbs and branches, but also rotting trees — all amid dead brush and dead but still-towering brown pines.  Gone are the periodic meadows and open spaces of the 1960s and 1970s, when logging companies harvested trees, thinned out the forests, replanted what was cut, and cleaned up the forest floor.  Yet given California's stringent anti-logging regulations of the last 20 years, there is no real California timber industry left, at least as it once was.  And scavenging even dead trees prompts a great debate, as environmentalists lecture on the advantages of letting the dead wood be.  Or, as Sierra Club organizer Daniel Barad put it in a January 2018 Sacramento Bee op-ed:  "Dead trees are vital components of the forest ecosystem and should be removed only when necessary."

How Governor Jerry Brown Burned California — And Why President Trump Was 100% Right.  Nine years.  That's how long a it took a California agency to create a fire zone map.  Seven of those years were under the governorship of Jerry Brown.  The fire map was to be a tool for agencies to monitor and manage areas most prone to fires started by utility companies/power lines.  In short, it would require those utility companies to clear out dangerously dry vegetation, the very practice President Trump said should he been done to prevent the very kinds of disastrous fires that swept across California taking lives and property.  The media lambasted the president for his remarks.  As is often the case, the media was wrong and President Trump was 100% right.

California Burning:  How the Greens Turned the Golden State Brown.  Opinions vary regarding how much of this disaster could have been avoided, but nobody disputes that more could have been done.  Everyone agrees, for example, that overall, aggressive fire suppression has been a mistake.  Most everyone agrees that good prevention measures include forest thinning (especially around power lines), selective logging, controlled burns, and power line upgrades.  And everyone agrees that residents in fire prone areas need to create defensible space and fire-harden their homes.  Opinions also vary as to whether or not environmentalists stood in the way of these prevention measures.  In a blistering critique published earlier this week on the California-focused Flash Report, investigative journalist Katy Grimes cataloged the negligence resulting from environmentalist overreach.

Actually, even California says Trump is right about the wildfires.  President Trump's critics are belittling him for not buying the lefty narrative that global warming is to blame for the California wildfires.  Instead, Trump points to decades of mistakes by government agencies that caused the woodlands to become overly dense and blanketed with highly flammable dead wood and underbrush.  He's exactly right.  Just ask California officials.  Two months ago, the state legislature enacted a measure that would expedite the removal of dead trees and use "prescribed burns" to thin forests.  In other words:  the very same reforms that Trump is now being mocked for proposing.  The September law followed a Gov. Jerry Brown executive order earlier this year that also called for "controlled fires" to improve forest health.  This scientific approach isn't easily conveyed in Trump's preferred mode of communication, the 280-character tweet.  But University of California forest expert Yana Valachovic conceded in a Washington Post interview that Trump's "general sentiment is correct — that we need to manage fuels."  That is, to get rid of dangerous buildups of dead and dying trees.

Sec. Ryan Zinke Backs Trump:  Years of Mismanagement Led to California Fires.  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke backed President Donald Trump on the years of forest mismanagement that led to the California fires as Zinke joined Breitbart News Sunday radio with host Amanda House.  He suggested that even photos of the devastation don't do justice to what it was like to see it in person.  Pointing to years of neglect and dead and dying timber, he observed, "It was like a flamethrower of embers shooting through the forests."

Trump Was Right:  Jerry Brown Eased California Logging Rules Back In August.  Months ago, California Gov. Jerry Brown urged state lawmakers to loosen restrictive logging regulations put in place to appease environmentalists — a move that appears to have confirmed that President Trump's recent critiques of state logging practices was correct.  The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported back in August that Brown was proposing one of the most significant changes to the state's logging rules in nearly half a century.

Loggers support Trump's claim that wildfires caused by 'poor forest management'.  A national logging organization is offering support to President Trump following catastrophic wildfires in California and a political debate over the causes of the destructive blazes.  "President Trump blamed poor forest management for wildfires in California and throughout the West, and there is truth to statements he has made," said Daniel Dructor, executive vice president of the American Loggers Council, a coalition of state and regional associations that represents independent contract loggers.

How Misguided Environmentalism Is To Blame For California's Wildfires.  Part of the reason it is so difficult to manage California forests is the bureaucratic milieu.  The Forest Service manages 193 million acres of land, has 28,000 employees, and has an annual outlay of $7 billion a year, according to a 2017 Analytical Perspective from the budget of the U.S. government.  For decades, environmental protection schemes have usurped common sense.  For example, most fire ecologists say that the surest way of preventing massive forest fires is to use prescribed burns.  The California Environmental Protection Agency states that "prescribed burning is the intentional use of fire to reduce wildfire hazards, clear downed trees, control plant diseases, improve rangeland and wildlife habitats, and restore natural ecosystems."  Prescribed burns keep forests healthy by burning up the underbrush that accumulates on the forest floor and by thinning trees.  Yet for decades the Forest Service has suppressed most fires.  According to a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection executive summary:  "Land and fire management have in many cases increased fire hazard.

Apaches stave off wildfires with timber industry, active forest management.  The catastrophic blazes that thrive in eastern Arizona's thickly forested yet arid landscape have a way of fizzling once they jump from the dense national forests to the Apache reservations, and that's not by chance.  On a scorching summer day with fire danger at the extreme level, forestry superintendent Michael Gutierrez and his crew spent the morning chain-sawing the overgrown junipers surrounding Seneca Lake on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.  Soil conservationist Paul Buck discussed his experiments in fighting tough alligator juniper using the terrestrial version of the herbicide Round-Up, and forest manager Dee Randall explained how the scrubby trees could be converted into slabs and sold for furniture as part the tribal timber business.

California's Devastating Fires Are Man-Caused — But Not In The Way They Tell Us.  California is once again on fire.  Northern California's Carr Fire has killed six people, two of them firefighters, and continues to burn out of control, claiming more than 700 homes and about 100,000 acres.  As a citizen-soldier in the California Army National Guard for two decades, I often heard the gallows humor quip that California's four seasons were:  flood, fire, earthquake and riot.  But, what was once an expected part of living in the Golden State is now blamed on larger forces.  A crisis, we are told, should never go to waste.  In that vein, the Sacramento Bee editorial board blamed the Carr Fire foursquare on a man-caused buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  In an editorial headlined, "The Carr Fire is a terrifying glimpse into California's future," they write, "This is climate change, for real and in real time.  We were warned that the atmospheric buildup of man-made greenhouse gas would eventually be an existential threat."

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says 'environmental terrorist groups' enabled wildfires.  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's claim that "environmental terrorist groups" created the conditions that enabled California's wildfires triggered substantial blowback from environmental groups, who chastised the Trump administration official for downplaying the role of climate change in the blazes.  Zinke said in a radio interview with Breitbart News that environmental extremists were preventing the government from properly managing forests — leaving excessive fuel on the ground for the deadly blazes.  The statement is just the latest as the Trump administration moves aggressively to open more public land to natural resource extraction, including logging.

Ryan Zinke takes ax to climate change narrative in push to save forests from wildfires.  Here in the town dubbed the "gateway to the Sierras," the haze from the Ferguson Fire is fading as Yosemite National Park prepares to reopen, but the debate over how to stop wildfires from razing the state again next year continues to smolder.  California's catastrophic wildfire season has illuminated the yearslong stalemate between those who want to cut back the overgrown, beetle-infested national forests and environmentalists who have axed efforts to fell more trees, blaming the destructive fires on climate change.

Adam Schiff gets schooled on his California green canards.  See, the left has been spreading the flammable rubbish that as California burns, it's not the green left's fault.  It's global warming's fault, see, so let's have more green regulation.  California's Jerry Brown, who runs the place, is the prime propagator of this dreck, but [Adam] Schiff is happy to be his dutiful parrot.  [Kimberley] Strassel presented him with a Deep State document showing that even the Deep Staters could see that the problem with the fires was too much uncleared fuel for them left lying around, what with 129 million uncleared dead trees.  Those trees are left up to keep the environmental wackos happy.  Yet truth never deterred Schiff, who snottily hectored President Trump in claiming that environmental regulations had nothing to do with the sudden upswing in vast forest fires, which are threatening California's suburbs.  ["]Environmental protections have nothing to do with the wildfires in CA.  Climate change does.  We're not going to let you use fires as an excuse to clear-cut our forests.["]  Umm, Adam?  The fires are clear-cutting California's forests.  No need to get Trump involved, let alone blame him.  Clear-cutting is happening whether you like it or not; all you can do is choose whether you want it done orderly or you like the current free-for-all system, blaming global warming.

California Fires:  Government Policies, Not Global Warming.  As large swaths of California are yet again on fire, environmentalist groups, the leftist media, and Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown are quick to blame climate change.  But the burning in California has more to do with misguided and short-sighted environmental regulations than with weather or climate. [...] The Endangered Species Act has made it nearly impossible for private-property owners to clear dead brush from their own land because it may destroy habitats of protected species.  From 1993 until 2003, residents of Riverside County were prohibited from removing brush from their properties because such brush had become a habitat for the endangered kangaroo rat.  When a wildfire broke out there in 2003, the dry, dead brush served as kindling as the blaze destroyed 2,700 homes and killed 27 people.  The rat's habitat was also destroyed.  So, in what can charitably be described as a misguided attempt to save the environment from the ravages of human activities, government regulations have made the fires worse.

How Federal Policies, Not Just Warmer Weather, Have Made Wildfires Worse.  [Scroll down]  WildfireToday.com acknowledges that warmer and drier weather make fires more difficult to suppress, but adds that important man-made factors exist that could be far more influential on wildfires.  These include:  [#1] 100 years of fire suppression making forests denser, for fires to burn with greater intensity;  [#2] fighting large fires less aggressively for safety reasons;  [#3] environmental demands to let fires burn naturally; and  [#4] initially responding with less equipment and personnel to fires.  The biggest man-made change in fighting wildfires appears to have been the U.S. Forest Service slashing the average number of large air tankers on exclusive use contracts by over 70 percent — from 44 in 2002 to 13 in 2018, according to the Fire Aviation website.

It's Not Climate Change that is Fueling Destructive Wildfires.  The environmental movement got all excited about preserving our forests and put enormous pressure on governmental agencies to stop cutting down trees, stop logging, and stop building logging roads into the beautiful forests.  Logging provided lumber for building homes, and the price of lumber went way up, so nobody is building "starter homes" anymore.  Ending logging meant that forests were not thinned as they were when logs were harvested, which means the trees are too close together, and there's more deadwood and brush, which means more fire danger.  There are always consequences for your actions.

California burns:  The "new normal" thanks to Obama Era Environmental Regulations.  This past week, the New York Times reported on California's wildfires stating that "Since 2012, according to state emergency management officials, there has not been a month without a wildfire burning — a stark contrast to previous decades, when fire officials saw the fall and winter as a time to plan and regroup."  What's the significance of 2012?  It is interesting that the New York Times mentioned the 2012 date, but only attributed the wildfire increases to "the recent historic drought," and "rising temperatures," caused by climate change.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As California burns, many Californians have been asking why the dramatic increase in wildfires in the last five years?  Except for Governor Jerry Brown.  Governor Brown claims that devastating fires are the "new normal."  Supporting Obama-era regulations have resulted in the new normal:  an endless and devastating fire season.

Democrats [are] turning California into a third-world hellhole.  Democrats are turning California into a third-world hellhole without electricity, water, and freedom.  Due to Democrats' love for trees, at least 800,000 Californians will be without power for several days.  Instead of properly managing California forests to reduce the chances of big fires, Democrats are saying Californians have to go without lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioning.  Democrats could also avoid this by not making the power company financially liable for all forest fire damages, but since PG&E is a company, not an illegal alien, the Democrats couldn't care less about doing what's best for California.

California burns:  The "new normal" thanks to Obama Era Environmental Regulations.  This past week, the New York Times reported on California's wildfires stating that "Since 2012, according to state emergency management officials, there has not been a month without a wildfire burning — a stark contrast to previous decades, when fire officials saw the fall and winter as a time to plan and regroup."  What's the significance of 2012?  It is interesting that the New York Times mentioned the 2012 date, but only attributed the wildfire increases to "the recent historic drought," and "rising temperatures," caused by climate change.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As California burns, many Californians have been asking why the dramatic increase in wildfires in the last five years?  Except for Governor Jerry Brown.  Governor Brown claims that devastating fires are the "new normal."  Supporting Obama-era regulations have resulted in the new normal:  an endless and devastating fire season.

A New Dark Age:  California's Blackouts Are Self-Inflicted.  California, the richest state in the nation — and one that's often portrayed as the progressive harbinger of the future for the rest of the country — has been hit with its latest Third World-style disaster.  On top of high poverty rates, skyrocketing homelessness, rising crime, and the return of medieval-sounding diseases, the state — specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area — has been hit with a mass blackout.  About 1 million people in one of the most densely populated parts of the country have had their power shut off by the utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric.  The local utility, PG&E, initiated the blackout in an effort to limit the potential for mass wildfires, which ravaged the state in 2018 and bankrupted the company.

At Least We're Not Cuba!  I'm so old that I remember when the prime responsibility of your state's Public Service Commission was ensuring the public utilities under their jurisdiction were physically and financially capable of delivering the services they were chartered to provide.  Accordingly, the PSC role was to balance citizens' need for reliable services and reasonable rates with the need for utilities to earn a reasonable return on investment.  When both sides of this contract begin to operate outside the parameters of their respective charters, i.e. the utility fails to provide basic maintenance services to maintain the integrity of transmission lines and the PSC to verify they have done so[,] and instead begin to pursue and promote a "green energy" agenda, this is what happens[.]

California's Gavin Newsom calls power outages needed.  Socialism, including greenie socialism, is always about blaming Those Greedy Capitalists for whatever hideous policies the government cooks up, which inevitably prompts an unintended consequence.  California's Gov. Gavin Newsom is right there with the best of them, blaming the wreckers and hoarders for California's massive power outages, taking northern California back to a state of nature and, in the full greenie spirit, telling us it's needed, necessary, all for our own good.

The Lights Are Out in California, And That Was the Plan All Along.  The power is out in Northern California.  More than 1 million Californians are now without electricity, one of modern life's essentials that is frequently taken for granted.  The blackout was done on purpose — to prevent sparks from powerlines that could ignite deadly wildfires.  Before planned blackouts are through in two or three days, as many as 3 million Californians may go without power.  On the surface, the blackout and its causes are simple to understand.  But the deeper causes are complicated, span decades of public policy, and dozens of overlapping unintended — and intended — consequences of decisions, both related and unrelated.

PG&E Power Outage Shut Off:  Agency explains why turning power back on could take 5 days.  Pacific Gas and Electric says it could take as long as five days to turn the power back on for nearly 800,000 customers across California.  It's part of preemptive power shutdown due to fire danger, impacting the Bay Area and surrounding counties.  The utility says re-energizing power lines takes time.  Crews will need to inspect every power line by land and air before restoring power.

California's Devastating Fires Are Man-Caused — But Not In The Way They Tell Us.  In 2005 while a freshman California Assemblyman, I had the chance to visit Northern California and meet with the forest product industry professionals who grew, managed, and harvested trees on private and public lands.  They told me of a worrisome trend started years earlier where both federal and state regulators were making it more and more difficult for them to do their jobs.  As a result, timber industry employment gradually collapsed, falling in 2017 to half of what it was 20 years earlier, with imports from Canada, China, and other nations filling domestic need.  As timber harvesting permit fees went up and environmental challenges multiplied, the people who earned a living felling and planting trees looked for other lines of work.  The combustible fuel load in the forest predictably soared.  No longer were forest management professionals clearing brush and thinning trees.  But, fire suppression efforts continued.  The result was accurately forecast by my forest management industry hosts in Siskiyou County in 2005: larger, more devastating fires — fires so hot that they sterilized the soil, making regrowth difficult and altering the landscape.  More importantly, fires that increasingly threatened lives and homes as they became hotter and more difficult to bring under control.

California Fires:  Government Policies, Not Global Warming.  As large swaths of California are yet again on fire, environmentalist groups, the leftist media, and Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown are quick to blame climate change.  But the burning in California has more to do with misguided and short-sighted environmental regulations than with weather or climate. [...] The Endangered Species Act has made it nearly impossible for private-property owners to clear dead brush from their own land because it may destroy habitats of protected species.  From 1993 until 2003, residents of Riverside County were prohibited from removing brush from their properties because such brush had become a habitat for the endangered kangaroo rat.  When a wildfire broke out there in 2003, the dry, dead brush served as kindling as the blaze destroyed 2,700 homes and killed 27 people.  The rat's habitat was also destroyed.  So, in what can charitably be described as a misguided attempt to save the environment from the ravages of human activities, government regulations have made the fires worse.

Fire and Water in California.  Liberals exploit natural disasters — drought, hurricane, blizzard, you name it — to promote their anti-fossil fuels agenda.  Yet now they're outraged that President Trump is daring to fight fire with fire by making a connection between California's wildfires and destructive green policies. [...] Governor Jerry Brown keeps lecturing Californians that they need to adapt to a new "climate normal," yet the state government has done little to prepare for warmer and drier times if that is the future.  Lawmakers instead have subordinated fire prevention to pleasing the green lobby.

Fire and fury:  How government failures make wildfires even worse.  While East Coasters are heading off for their August vacations, many families out West are worried that if they leave their home, it may not be standing when they return.  That's the reality when there have been 4,500 wildfires this year so far. [...] Everyone is quick to blame global warming for this and all other natural disasters.  But changes to local weather in this or that part of the country are by no means part of the same scientific consensus that climate change is real and caused in large part by human activity.  Western droughts and forest fires have been around a long time, and so has climate change, but the fires have gotten much worse very recently, and government mismanagement of forests is part of the reason.

Jerry Brown blames everyone but himself for California wildfires.  Jerry Brown is at it again.  Blaming Californians for the devastating series of California wildfires month, he went Full Moonbeam and declared the problem a function of global warming, calling it a new normal about which nothing is to be done.  As if wildfires that sweep away homes in California's unique Mediteranean microclimates have never happened before this past week.

Why the California Wildfires Are Not Due to So-called Climate Change.  Climate alarmists such as California Governor Jerry Brown would like us to believe that global warming is causing (and worsening) the recent spate of wildfires in the Golden State.  Unfortunately for Governor Brown, the facts and the science simply don't line up with his opinion.  Wildfires are natural occurrences that have been happening since flora first appeared on the Earth.  Scientists and others involved in land and forest management not only accept that such fires will happen as part of the natural ecosystem, they also see them as beneficial in certain ways.  Wildfires occurring naturally reduce fuel loads such as downed trees, fallen limbs, brush, leaves and other combustible material.  When fires burn naturally, they release nutrients into the soil which would otherwise be wasted in leaves and undergrowth.  Some habitats — such as the California Chaparral — actually depend on fire to a certain extent.  Periodic fires burn off species of plants that are not native and less fire resistant, which gives the native species a leg up in the competition for space.

California wildfires are burning down public utilities.  California's Democrat-controlled Legislature has mastered the game of deviously nudging public utility regulators to raise fees and surcharges to pay for its progressive environmental initiatives rather than suffering the voter backlash from raising taxes.  California residents, due to abundant hydro resources and being the nation's third largest oil-producer, used to have some of America's lowest retail electricity rates.  But residents paid 18.32 cents per kilowatt-hour (/kWh) in 2018, about 47 percent more than the national average of 12.47 cents/kWh.  Much of that staggering $14.8-billion-a-year extra cost was siphoned off through environmental mandates and crony spending.

Environmentalist Policies Are Exacerbating Wildfires.  It's Time to Rethink Forest Management.  [Scroll down]  As a Reason Foundation study noted, the U.S. Forest Service, which is tasked with managing public wildland, once had success in minimizing widespread fires in the early 20th century.  But many of these successful methods were abandoned in large part because of efforts by environmental activists.  The Forest Service became more costly and less effective as it increasingly "rewarded forest managers for losing money on environmentally questionable practices," wrote Randal O'Toole, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.  Spending on the Forest Service has risen drastically, but these additional resources have been misused and haven't solved the underlying issues.

Homeless people supported (or at least tolerated) by California taxpayers

San Francisco Suddenly Wants to Clear Out the Homeless.  The situation out on the streets in San Francisco has been alarming (to say the least) for long enough now that it's almost become a footnote in the wreckage that the Biden administration has left in its wake, particularly when combined with the pro-crime, anti-police impulses of Gavin Newsom's governorship.  By this point, you've all seen the stories and we've covered them here often.  Homeless encampments clog up the streets while addicts overdose on the public sidewalks.  Petty crimes combined with some that are far more serious have plagued formerly prime real estate.  But now there are signs of a rapid transformation taking place.  San Francisco Mayor London Breed, taking advantage of a recent Supreme Court ruling regarding ordinances forbidding public camping, has been cracking down on the encampments and clearing them out.  But what could have brought on this sudden change of heart after the problem had been festering for years?  Could it have something to do with the upcoming elections?

LA County Has Decided It Won't Comply with Gov. Newsom's Homeless Order.  In the wake of a Supreme Court case which overturned a 9th Circuit decision on public camping, Gov. Newsom got aggressive on cleaning up homeless camps.  Just over a week ago he signed an executive order calling on other state officials to clean up their rooms, so to speak. [...] Some cities, including San Francisco, got right to it.  Mayor London Breed ordered aggressive sweeps of homeless camps with outreach efforts backed by police.  This is exactly the sort of effort that the 9th Circuit had long prevented. [...] Homeless advocates have noted that city shelters are already near capacity but the reality is that most of the people living in these camps won't accept an offer of shelter even if it's available.  Most of them are outside because they want to be outside.  And sure enough only 10% of the people who were in these camps have accepted offers of shelter.  Mayor Breed is also using another strategy to get people off the streets, one that has been employed by San Francisco and other cities for years:  If you're homeless, the mayor has a free, one-way bus ticket for you.

Cleaning Out The Homeless Encampments Just In Time For The Election.  Imagine being a homeless guy in the state of California.  For most of the year, you're untouchable.  You can sleep completely naked right outside of an art gallery, and if the gallery owner sprays you with a hose to get you to move, he's the one who gets arrested — as happened recently.  The district attorney will issue statements about how "unhoused folks" have the right to sleep wherever they want, wearing — or not wearing — whatever clothes they want.  On top of that, the state provides millions of free syringes to help facilitate your drug habit — complete with "safe injection sites" that function like open-air drug markets.  Plus the weather's always nice.  So generally speaking, as a homeless person in the Golden State, you have it pretty good.  But every once in a while, on a dime, California's government completely changes its approach.  It's quite a role reversal.  The politicians suddenly become the schizophrenic ones.  They decide, without any warning, that all homeless encampments have to be dismantled.  They hose down the sidewalks themselves.  They clear the place out like it's Tiananmen Square.  And they issue statements about the importance of orderly streets and ending the scourge of lewd behavior in public libraries.

Newsom Will Remove Homeless Encampments across California after Supreme Court Decision.  California governor Gavin Newsom directed state officials to remove homeless encampments across the Golden State on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled in June that local governments have a right to ban public camping and impose fines for violators.  Newsom announced the guidance in an executive order, advising cities to crack down on encampments on public property while providing social services and housing alternatives.  The order, first reported by the New York Times, represents a sharp departure from the accommodative homelessness policies adopted by progressive state governments over the last decade.

Homeless Account for 12% of Fire Calls in Los Angeles.  In a typical day in the city of Los Angeles, the fire department will go on about 1,500 calls for service.  That's fires, medical issues, cats in trees and everything else.  Also on a typical day, the city's homeless population of about 75,000 will account for about 180 of those calls.  That's 12% of every fire department call.  For perspective, the homeless make up about 2% (a horrible number in and of itself) of the city's population but are the cause of 12% of the fire calls for service.

Los Angeles Will Require Photo ID For Homeless Luxury Hotel Living But Not Voting.  Los Angeles just opened a state-of-the-art luxury hotel for the city's homeless and, unlike voting, will require a photo ID to participate.  On Wednesday, city officials opened the brand new 19-story residential high-rise with 278 units that cost as much to build as a five-star resort.  To lease an apartment in the downtown luxury tower, however, homeless residents must provide their "photo identification, and social security card."  Repeat Los Angeles voters, however, don't need any photo ID to turn in their ballots.  [Advertisement]  [Tweet]  California is one of 12 states, plus the District of Columbia, with no voter ID law on the books.  Residents must only present their identification for their first-time voting.  According to the California Globe, a conservative statewide paper, "The project cost about $165 million dollars and the studio apartments are essentially the equivalent of what one would find at a decent 'extended stay' hotel — large room kitchenette, bed, tables, chairs, bathroom, TV, etc."  "At $594,000 a unit, that works out be a bit over $1,000 per-square-foot to build," the Globe reported.

How many illegal aliens arrive in San Diego only to become homeless?  President Joe Biden is limiting asylum claims, but a lack of federal aid still risks leaving some on the street.  For the past few years, Catholic Charities has had shelter space for about 1,800 asylum seekers in San Diego and Imperial counties.  That total dropped by half last summer when some pandemic-era funding through the state wound down, according to Appaswamy "Vino" Pajanor, CEO of Catholic Charities, Diocese of San Diego.  While more vulnerable arrivals are still taken in, like the elderly, there's often not room for healthy single adults, many of whom may struggle to navigate a new country's transportation system even when they have housing lined up.

The Age of Micro.  [Scroll down]  California assemblyman Matt Haney is a trifecta for the purposes of this essay.  The San Francisco Democrat has a background in non-profits, education, and law.  In more than a decade of public activism, he has distinguished himself for a failed effort to rename his hometown's George Washington High School and for a $1.7M Noe Valley public toilet.  The latter, a project for which Haney personally secured funding, was almost derailed when a New York Times exposé questioned the cost of the project.  Feeling the heat, Haney re-positioned himself as one of the toilet's biggest critics, demanding to know why the project cost so much.  A letter from the city's manager of the Recreation and Parks Department pointed to key guidance passed while Haney was a member of the Board of Supervisors.  A feel-good ordinance, for example, restricting San Francisco's ability to contract with states that restrict abortion access added time and labor to the cost.  What I want to focus on is that 1) Haney did not know how much a public toilet should cost (about $200,000) and 2) his preoccupation with national debates wasted taxpayer time and money.

Report: $165 Million Luxury Apartment Building to Open for Los Angeles Homeless Population.  A taxpayer-funded luxury apartment building is reportedly set to open in Los Angeles's Skid Row neighborhood to provide hundreds of homeless people with housing and high-end amenities.  The 278-unit, 19-story tower is going to open in a matter of weeks, and is meant to be a "self-contained environment that will insulate its formerly homeless residents from the squalor and hopelessness around them," the Los Angeles Times reported.

It isn't "free food" if it's "taxpayer-funded."
San Francisco opens city's first $5 million taxpayer-funded free food 'market'.  San Francisco opened its first $5.5 million free food "market", where approved residents can show a benefits eligibility card, put what they want in their carts, check out to keep track of outgoing inventory, and leave without paying.  The Bayview-Hunters Point facility aims to be a food pantry alternative that replicates the supermarket experience in an area where many grocery stores have come but few have remained due to high crime.  The 4000-square foot District 10 Market is the first of San Francisco's food empowerment "markets" funded by the San Francisco's Human Services Agency.  Eligible individuals receive a Costo-like benefits card that allows use of the facility once per month.  Eligibility is limited to individuals who live within one of three zip codes, are verified social services clients, have dependents under 25 or a qualified food-related illness, and be referred by one of eleven community organizations in the market's referral network.

The Editor says...
In other words, whoever is declared the biggest victim gets the "free" food.

Widow speaks after husband murdered outside California home during fight between homeless men.  This is a tragic, yet all too common, pattern emerging in Newsom's state.  Nicolas Gandara, a father of six children, was killed execution-style outside of his home after trying to stop a fight between two homeless men.  [Tweet with video clip]  Why [...] are we allowing these homeless encampments to exist in California?

Stop signs replace traffic lights at 'busy' Oakland intersection, reportedly on account of area homeless.  The City of Oakland, California, has replaced traffic lights with stop signs at one intersection, and some area residents believe criminal behavior on the part of local homeless persons led to the potentially dangerous change, KPIX reported.  Earlier this month, the intersection of E. 12th Street and 16th Avenue, about two miles east of Downtown Oakland, went from a traffic light to a four-way stop.  A Fox News report described the intersection as "busy," and KPIX-TV video shows the intersection teeming with businesses and vehicles.  According to the sources who spoke with KPIX, the city made the change to stop signs because people living in a nearby homeless encampment have been stealing copper wire from electrical boxes connected to the traffic lights at the intersection.  As a result, the lights malfunctioned for months, often blinking red or blacking out entirely, KPIX reported.

The Editor says...
Instead of rounding up and incarcerating the thieves, whether homeless or otherwise, the city put another Band-Aid on the problem and made the intersection more dangerous for everyone else.

San Francisco Will Be Spending 5 Million Per Year On Free Booze for the Homeless.  San Francisco has been spending $5 million a year for four years on a taxpayer-funded program that hands out bottles of beer, glasses of wine, and shots of vodka to homeless alcoholics.  Under the 'managed alcohol program', nurses distribute shots of vodka and beer multiple times a day as part of patients' healthcare plans[.]  [Video clip]

San Francisco Exemplifies Leftist Logic Perfectly With Program to Help Alcoholic Bums Get Free Vodka Shots.  The City of San Francisco has decided to take a rather peculiar approach to address the issue of homeless alcoholics.  They've initiated a "Managed Alcohol Program," which, in the most cynical sense, can be summed up as providing free beer and vodka shots to homeless individuals suffering from alcohol addiction.  This program, funded by the taxpayer's hard-earned dollars, is a part of a little-known pilot program.  Experts claim that this program can save lives or at least prolong them.  But let's be honest here, it's not like the city is investing in their recovery or sobriety.  Instead, they're simply making sure these individuals stay off the streets and out of emergency services, which apparently saves the city a few bucks.

San Francisco Slammed For Spending Millions Of Dollars For Vodka And Beer For Homeless Alcoholics.  San Francisco is spending around $5 million a year to give vodka shots and glasses of beer to homeless people with severe alcohol addiction in an effort to cut down on calls to police and hospital stays, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.  The city's "managed alcohol program" started during the COVID pandemic, but came under fire earlier this week after Adam Nathan, the chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Advisory Board, posted a thread on X, saying he "stumbled upon the building where they have this program."

S.F. program gives homeless people free booze.  Here's why the city says it's helpful.  For a small slice of San Francisco's homeless population that struggles with severe alcohol addiction, nurses offer treatment not in a pill, but in a shot of vodka or a glass of beer.  It may sound counterintuitive, experts say, but it helps keep people off the streets and out of emergency rooms, jails — or the morgue.  San Francisco set up a "managed alcohol program" four years ago as a way to care for vulnerable homeless people who drank excessive amounts of alcohol and were among the city's highest users of emergency services.

California Didn't Track Effects Of $24 Billion Homelessness Spending.  A new state audit found that the California Interagency Council on Homelessness stopped tracking whether its programs were working in June 2021 and has no consistent way of measuring the outcomes of its spending.  Only two of the five programs analyzed in the audit are "likely cost-effective."  The other three have not collected enough data to prove that their initiatives are useful.

Nonprofit Tasked With Tackling Homelessness In San Francisco Accused Of Stealing $100k From City.  San Francisco's city attorney on Monday accused a nonprofit that has received tens of millions of public dollars to provide homeless services of stealing public funds.  Providence Foundation, led by Patricia Doyle, allegedly "took over $100,000 of public money meant to benefit people experiencing homelessness" by submitting fraudulent invoices to San Francisco, according to a press release from the city attorney's office.  Doyle's foundation has received roughly $100 million in contracts from the city, though its tax forms don't include information on how much of its revenue went toward executive compensation, as is standard practice among nonprofits.  "There's a difference between having challenges with financial compliance and intentionally defrauding the City and its taxpayers," City Attorney David Chiu said.  "This nonprofit took over $100,000 of public money meant to benefit people experiencing homelessness.  That cannot be tolerated."  Providence Foundation operates the Oasis Hotel in the city as a shelter for homeless families.

The Editor says...
Notice that homeless bums are now called "people experiencing homelessness," to put it in a passive voice, as if the vagrants are the victims of homelessness, as opposed to deadbeats and addicts reaping what they have sown.

Long Beach Hotel Housing "Homeless" Sparks Tuberculosis Outbreak.  A health crisis has emerged for Democrat officials in Long Beach, California, following a tuberculosis outbreak linked to a hotel housing 'homeless' people, according to Fox News.  On Thursday, health officials declared a public health emergency after an alarming tuberculosis outbreak was reported at an unnamed hotel housing.  The city has so far confirmed 14 cases of tuberculosis in people "associated with a single room occupancy hotel."  Nine of them were hospitalized with one fatal case.  Another 170 people were "likely exposed" to the deadly bacteria.

California city OK's $1M per unit homeless housing project after audit found state wasted billions on crisis.  Santa Monica city officials last week approved a multimillion-dollar apartment unit for the homeless just days after the release of an audit which found California could not account for the $24 billion it spent on the state's burgeoning homeless crisis.  The 122-unit building for the homeless will include a mix of studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, along with ground floor retail and residential and commercial parking spaces.  A design concept available on the city's website shows that the multi-apartment unit will cost more than $123 million, for a cost of just over $1 million each for the 122 apartments.  A second design concept would have cost even more, north of $200 million for 196 units.

How companies made $100m clearing California homeless camps.  [Scroll down]  In total, private firms have been paid at least $100 [million] to clear homeless camps, an investigation by the Guardian and Type Investigations has found.  The 14 municipalities and public agencies from which spending details could be obtained represent a small slice of such spending in the state.  Astrid Stromberg, who oversees encampment cleanups for Tucker, said its business has expanded dramatically since 2020.  The company had about a dozen laborers working full-time on encampment cleanup.  Now there are 30, and its clients include roughly a dozen municipalities and public agencies across Silicon Valley.  "[Tucker] basically created the industry here," she said.  "I could talk about it for hours."

Billions Disappear Into the Black Hole Of California Homeless Programs.  I've covered the homeless industrial complex here several times, both here in Austin and in California.  Now California itself has done an audit on its homeless programs, only to find billion unaccounted for. [...] I'm sure the programs are considered a "success" by Democrats because they provide a giant bucket to dole out graft and fraud to the leftwing activists working in the Homeless Industrial Complex.  But I have a deep suspicion that things are even worse than we think.  Remember the effort to recall Newsom, and how Democrats from across the country sprang immediately to his aid?  At the time, Scott Adams said that protecting Newsom was "the top process in the system."  I suspect that California's homeless programs are not just a channel for graft and fraud to left-wing activists in California, but a way to rake off money directly to Democratic Party campaigns and coffers nationwide.  (Though certainly not the only source.  Remember how $850 million in the hands of New York City Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio's wife just sort of magically disappeared?)

No Wonder Gavin Newsom Didn't Want an Audit to Track $24 Billion in Homeless Spending.  Gavin Newsom's California put billions of tax dollars into a cannon, aimed it in the general direction of homeless "expert" NGOs, lit the fuse, and walked away.  The BOOM came when someone started asking questions about where the $24 billion went.  That day of reckoning is finally here.  And we learn that Gavin Newsom and his Democrat super-majority in this one-party state have no idea where it went or whether it did any good whatsoever.  A new state audit — fought tooth and nail by Newsom, according to former state legislator turned Congressman Kevin Kiley, who called for the audit — has revealed that California was not tracking the spending.  The state has a $73 billion deficit for the year under Gavin Newsom.

Environmental watchdog sues San Francisco for 1.2 billion gallons of raw sewage and trash-filled runoff entering the bay each year.  San Francisco has long been at the forefront of all things progressive: it was one of the first locales to begin decriminalizing marijuana, which of course devolved into the druggie free-for-all it now is; home to pederasts like Harvey Milk, the LGBTQ++ community, no matter how obscene (Folsom Street Fair) is always celebrated; it's home to social programs like GIFT, which isn't just ordinary welfare, but a handout that can pay out as much as $21,600 per enrollee and is exclusively for "trans" people; and the city has an official "Poop Patrol" department to clean up all the human fecal matter plopped around the sidewalks thanks to the sizable vagrant population.  And predictably, all that progressivism only reaps total destruction, coming back to bite the city in the rear-end in grand fashion; a longstanding nonprofit committed to the environmental health of the bay filed a lawsuit against the city's utility commission for 1.2 billion gallons per year of sewage and trash-filled runoff flowing into the San Francisco Bay.  [Tweet]

Fuming San Diego residents lash out at city officials over vagrants living in their cars and RVs.  Residents of a San Diego suburb known for its seclusion from the busy downtown and beachfront views is furious as a group of vagrants have started living in their cars and RVs on the streets of the neighborhood.  San Diego County is one of the largest segments of California's homeless population, with more than 10,000.  Locals in Pacific Beach say that the vagrants have moved from the city's downtown to their neighborhood and are openly defying laws banning them from camping out in their vehicles.

Los Angeles City Council Member Pushing for New 'Department of Homelessness'.  American cities across the country are experiencing a massive uptick in homelessness, but perhaps none more than Los Angeles, California.  Skid Row used to be confined to a one block area but now tents and other makeshift shelters can be seen throughout the city.  Billions of dollars have been spent trying to address this issue but it only seems to get worse, and now one member of the city council wants to create a new city department to focus on the problem.  How many more millions will be wasted as this new government entity fails to solve the problem?

California Officials Clear Homeless Encampments for the Wrong Reasons, Again.  California officials are doing it again.  Homeless encampments in Downtown Sacramento were cleared to accommodate the filming of a new movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.  Homeless camps are common near Cesar Chavez Park.  Sacramento officials gave the homeless 24 hours to leave the area and take their belongings with them.

Garbage from homeless population clogs storm drains, floods San Diego County homes.  Here in San Diego, we get very little rain.  But when we do get it, it's a torrent.  Even it isn't a torrent by, say, Florida standards, it's a torrent to us, enough to create disruptions. [...] So they've been tolerating homeless tent encampments for years, despite laws against illegal camping, and instead of ensure that those messes made are cleaned up, city officials let them clog the storm drains, which creates flooding conditions for tax-paying residents who paid for the drains, and whose lives don't revolve around obtaining illegal drugs.  That's what the bum encampments are about.  And as far as the City goes, apparently nobody's in charge, nobody regulates that big chunks of litter and garbage from these homeless encampments might affect the flood control in place to save homes.

Blue State Flushes Plans For $1.7 Million Public Toilet.  A $1.7 million planned public restroom in a San Francisco neighborhood is unfinished over a year after it was announced.  The city obtained $1.7 million in taxpayer funds in October 2022 to build the high-end bathroom in the Noe Valley Town Square, which lacked such a facility.  But taxpayer outrage and bureaucratic red tape have ground its construction to a halt, and now what remains are patches of dirt and mulch where an alternative modular option has yet to be built, The New York Times reported on Thursday.  "Why isn't there a toilet here?" a Noe Valley resident told NYT.  "I just don't get it.  Nobody does.  It's yet another example of the city that can't."  [Tweet]

Things in San Francisco Have Gotten 'Back to Normal' Since All the Dignitaries Left.  Joe Biden has been taking a lot of vacation lately, even more so than usual.  He was at Camp David over Christmas with members of his extended family, including his son Hunter.  [Tweet]  That comes after Hunter Biden defied a subpoena from the House and essentially gave them the finger from the steps of the Capitol, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted Joe Biden knew about Hunter's statement ahead of time.  As I wrote, this raised the question of possible obstruction by Joe Biden and raised another possible impeachable offense.  Now, the House Oversight Committee is also looking into that.

Electing a black female mayor doesn't automatically fix anything.
Homeless In Karen Bass' Los Angeles.  This week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated her first year in office, and highlighted the "success" of her Inside Safe project.  However, as the Globe and other outlets have pointed out, her program has been far from a success, with LA's homeless problem growing even worse under her tenure.  Homelessness has gone up 10% under her watch, with only 255 homeless people out of 46,000 getting permanent housing through a $67 million program.  While 21,000 were housed in some way, shape, or form, almost all of these were temporary slots, with no statistics showing how many stayed in shelter long-term or went back on the streets.

San Francisco Cleaned Up For Xi Visit.  Now, Things Are Back to Normal.  If there's anything that indicates a politician or group of politicians isn't taking something seriously, it's when they apply a Band-Aid over a problem when it's noticeable, and then let things go back to the way they were.  That's what happened in San Francisco when the city cleaned up their homeless encampments and open-air drug bazaars during the visit of the Chinese dictator Xi.  Now, according to one San Francisco business owner, it's once more business as usual in the city by the Bay.

San Francisco Democrat says homelessness crisis in his district is 'absolutely the result of capitalism'.  San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston claimed the city's homelessness problems were "absolutely the result of capitalism," and it was "counterproductive" to arrest people openly doing drugs.  Preston's District 5 includes the Tenderloin District, an area known for its open-air drug market.  Nearly half of the city's homeless population lived in this district in 2022, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  The Democratic Socialist supervisor argued his district was particularly affected by homelessness because of the country's economic structure.  "I think what you're seeing in the Tenderloin is absolutely the result of capitalism and what happens in capitalism to the people at the bottom rungs," the local leader reportedly remarked in a new documentary by the UK outlet, UnHerd.

Mayor Karen Bass's $67 Million Homeless Program Has Only Housed 255 So Far.  A year after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spearheaded her "Inside Safe" program to house the city's homeless, results look shaky.  Bass has shelled out roughly $67 million on the program but only moved 255 of L.A.'s 46,000 unhoused individuals into permanent housing, so far.  Naturally, she told NBC's I-Team that she was "not satisfied with those numbers."

I'm a little surprised they're still alive.
We Found 'Em!  Here's Where Gavin Newsom Hid the Homeless From Xi.  Ever since Gavin Newsom moved hundreds of fentanyl-addled homeless squatters so that there would be a pretty backdrop to kiss the ring of Chinese Dictator for Life Xi Jinping and other "fancy leaders," the question everyone has been asking is: where did they go?  The people who claim that 1) walls don't work, and, 2) walls are racist erected walls to keep out the homeless addicts while the meetings continue through Friday are liberal.  City Hall, the Governor's Mansion, and the White House pretended not to notice the irony.  [Tweet with video clip]  And they pretended not to notice where the homeless went.  So where did they go?  The San Jose Mercury News has at least partially answered the question.  It turns out the homeless "people were just forced to go to the alleys," said Javier Bremond, a human rights organizer with the San Francisco advocacy group Coalition on Homelessness.  "And a lot of people are under the freeway."  An APEC representative from Thailand told the Mercury News he was still shocked at the number of homeless street addicts that remained after the so-called cleanup.

China exposes California's moral corruption.  California Democrats spent billions over the past decade on dozens of programs to solve the state's homelessness crisis, only to see more homeless people on the street than ever.  Then, overnight, many of the homeless suddenly disappeared.  Turns out the solution to homelessness, at least in Democratic-controlled San Francisco, is a simple visit by a genocidal dictator.  When China's Xi Jinping meets with President Joe Biden in the city by the bay, unlike most tourists who visit, he won't see a single tent.  They've all been cleared out.  "I know folks are saying, 'Oh, they're just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town,'" Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said at a press conference last week.  "That's true because it's true." [...] That California Democrats would be so willing to snap their fingers and clear homeless encampments just to impress some rich guy would be bad enough.  That they are doing it for an authoritarian kleptocrat like Xi is even worse, especially considering that no one has done more to put more homeless people on San Francisco's streets than Xi and his fentanyl-exporting minions.

The Editor says...
Where are all the bums now?  In a hotel?  In a mental hospital?  In a FEMA camp?  Homeless people put themselves in jeopardy in several way by living on the street.  If they have cut their ties with all their relatives, and the local government has the sudden need to "relocate" them, as in the example above, the homeless bums could "disappear" permanently.

We Now Know What Caused That Devastating LA Freeway Fire.  "Bad actors" caused the fire, according to State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant.  Some unknown arsonist is believed to have started Saturday's blaze, but that's not the "bad actor" to whom Berlant was referring.  You see, the city government leases underpass space to people and companies for storage.  In this case, "bad actors" filled the underpass with wooden pallets and containers of alcohol-based hand sanitizer.  In my report on Monday (and at the top of this story), you can see the pallets stacked so high under the freeway that they're almost touching the underside of the elevated road.  The photos were courtesy of Google Street View, so it isn't like the towers of literal kindling were some dark secret.  The city is currently in a legal battle with a company called Airspace that leased the underpass storage area.  Let us pause here to consider the ill-considered wonder of stuffing underpasses full of kindling and flammable goo.  Let us pause again to consider the bone-crushing stupidity of allowing unpoliced homeless encampments filled with vagrants, addicts, and the mentally ill to cohabitate with pallets and accelerants.

Misguided environmentalists have made our cities filthy.  If you've visited a big city in recent years, you've probably noticed that the streets are strewn with trash, litter is scattered all over the sidewalks, the buildings are covered in graffiti, and off-putting smells seem to emanate from every corner.  Take San Francisco for example, which not that long ago was considered one of the most beautiful cities in America.  Today, the Golden City is one of the filthiest, with a "dirtiness index of 189.03, ranking 9th among the 40 cities included in the report" and a "litter index of 210.2," which ranks fifth.  San Francisco's streets are riddled with garbage, needles, and human feces.  Its sidewalks are overrun with homeless encampments.  And its public spaces, once enjoyed by tourists, have become open-air drug markets in which vagrants can do as they please.

Bum encampment fire shuts down major Los Angeles highway artery.  [Scroll down]  Ahh, a pallet fire, they said.  A storage-area fire, they said.  A rent dispute with a bad tenant...  According to the local presses, it was bums camping out under the Santa Monica freeway with no zoning enforcement whatsoever.  Some were said to be stealing electricity.  Others were reportedly using propane tanks for cooking.  [Numerous tweets]  But as the press puts it "cause unknown." [...] Sure, there will be an investigation.  California's Gov. Gavin Newsom says it will be quick.  But based on what we have seen elsewhere, if the results are not what they want, it will be an extended investigation, one with no disclosures owing to the investigation, like the Nashville shooter case.  That said, it's pretty obvious that allowing a bum encampment full of illegal drug users is just a matter of time before some kind of disaster occurs.  And that raises questions about the wisdom of this.  Does a disaster have to occur before they can clear a bum encampment and place drug addicts either in jail or involuntary rehab until they clean up?

Democrats Will Clean San Francisco for Dictators but Not Voters.  It took a Chinese dictator to get the city of San Francisco, California, cleaned up after five years of deterioration.  The Democrats who run San Francisco and California finally, Finally, FINALLY cleaned up that city's filthy streets and removed the dystopian homeless encampments.  At long last, San Francisco has been beautified in a dozen ways.  Yes, after some five years of increasingly dangerous streets littered with dirty needles, feces, trash, and filthy tents, not to mention aggressive vagrants, drug dealers, the deranged and addicted, the city took action.  Why?  Because China's dictator, President Xi Jinping, is coming to town for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.  And if anyone still harbors doubts about just how much contempt Democrats hold for American citizens, watch Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) admit that the arrival of Xi is why they finally cleaned the city.

Los Angeles I-10 shut down indefinitely after massive fire.  One of the busiest stretches of interstate in the country is now closed indefinitely in both directions because of a massive fire in Los Angeles, the city's mayor Karen Bass confirmed Monday.  The shuttered section of I-10 is routinely used by 300,000 daily drivers and its sudden closure has officials raising the alarm over the impending impact.

The Great San Fran Cleanup Begins.  When we previously learned the details of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference (APEC) currently kicking off in San Francisco, I asked what seemed like an obvious question.  San Francisco is a complete mess these days, with boarded-up buildings and homeless drug addicts littering the sidewalks.  Graffiti abounds.  Did anyone plan to clean the downtown area up before thousands of foreign dignitaries began arriving?  It turns out that they did have some plans in place.  They started clearing the paths that the visitors would travel, bringing in additional law enforcement, and "sweeping" the homeless camps away.  This has some of the locals upset, particularly the aforementioned homeless people.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Announces Plan to 'Master Lease' Hotels for Consolidating Homeless Encampments.  Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass recently issued an order allowing the use of residential hotel rooms, typically reserved for low-income, disabled, and elderly residents, as temporary shelters for the homeless.  This move, part of the Inside Safe initiative, aims to address the city's homelessness crisis by providing immediate shelter, despite potentially conflicting with a 2008 city law designed to protect these residential units. [...] Legal experts and housing advocates have expressed concerns about the plan's long-term implications for permanent housing availability.  Despite clearing numerous street encampments and housing over 1,600 people in temporary shelters, the challenge of finding permanent solutions remains significant.

Potemkin San Francisco sweeps its bums out of sight ahead of China potentate Xi Jinping's APEC visit.  So the City of San Francisco can clean up its act ... when it wants to.  And now that it's going to be hosting luminaries such as China's Xi Jinping, suddenly, the place isn't a homeless, drug-addicted, shoplifting-plagued, assault-and-robbery dump any more.  Funny how that happens.  So they could have cleaned it up all along, but they didn't — because the only people who were affected by the disaster were mere taxpayers who lived there, major retailers and restaurants, and ordinary tourists who just wanted to give the city their money so they could see the place.  That was too much to ask.  But let China's Chairman of the Community Party of China, Xi Jinping, with all his communist-regime police-state security apparat drop by, and all of a sudden, the place has become Potemkin Village II.

Drug addicts, homeless plaguing San Francisco's downtown miraculously disappear ahead of Biden, Xi Jinping summit.  Drug addicts, dealers and homeless who have plagued San Francisco's downtown have miraculously disappeared this week as the city cleans up for a huge international event.  Sources tell The Post the homeless have been pushed to other parts of the city in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which starts tomorrow and runs through Nov. 17.  However, residents and business owners said city officials' attempts to "herd" transients and drug addicts is only a "Band-Aid" to a severe problem as drug overdoses continue to plague the city.

Teachers' union in California threatens to strike if homeless people can't camp in parking lots.  The Fresno Teachers Association, a union with around 4,000 members, is headed towards a strike, largely because the superintendent of the Fresno Unified School District, Robert Nelson, hasn't budged on allowing school parking lots to become homeless camps; as Nelson says, the proposal isn't within the district's "area of expertise."  But according to the president of the union, Manuel Bonilla, it is; from a new report at The Washington Free Beacon:  The Fresno Teachers Association laid out the policy in a contract proposal, which calls to 'open high school parking lots to homeless families to park their car.'  The union acknowledges the move would require 'paid security' at a cost of at least $500,000, one of many expensive proposals union president Manuel Bonilla is pursuing in an attempt to address what he calls 'societal things.'  "Families" huh?  Are these the same people who called the thousands of military-aged men pouring across our border "families" too?

San Francisco Prepares to Clear Homeless Camps after Court Clarifies Definition of 'Involuntarily Homeless'.  San Francisco leaders are preparing to ramp up efforts to clean up and clear out homeless camps in the city after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified that people who decline shelter should not be classified as "involuntarily homeless."  The clarification could also be critical for other western cities, which have struggled with the proliferation of homeless encampments on sidewalks and in public parks in the wake of two Ninth Circuit rulings — Martin v.  City of Boise and Johnson v.  City of Grants Pass — that limited the enforcement of camping bans on people who have nowhere to go.  San Francisco mayor London Breed announced Monday that the clarification provides the city with a "path forward" to enforce laws against "voluntarily homeless individuals."  The clarification by the Ninth Circuit comes nearly a year after the city was sued by a coalition of advocates for the homeless who claimed that the city violated state and federal laws, as well as its own policies on clearing homeless camps and trashing people's belongings.

Another Day, Another Body-Bag For Another Dead Junkie In San Francisco, 473 So Far This Year.  473 people in San Francisco have died due to overdose so far this year, 18 of them allegedly coming in a single day last week.  So, what is San Francisco Democrat mayor London Breed actually doing to solve this matter?  [Video clip]

Sacramento's homeless problem is one of the nation's worst.  Sacramento's homeless problem has grown worse than ever before.  Walk around PRI's offices in Midtown and you'll be greeted by frustrated individuals with varying degrees of illness or addiction while trying to pass down grime-filled sidewalks and get around tent encampments.  You may not realize it, but Sacramento's homeless problem is one of the nation's worst.  Homeless grew to about 9,300 in the 2022 Sacramento County point in time homeless count measurement, which was a 67 percent increase over the 2019 figures.  Last year, the number of homeless in Sacramento was found to be even higher than San Francisco's count.  Frustrated residents are expecting action and strong leadership from city officials to address the problem, but all there seems to be are press conferences and soundbites.  Though the city has enacted ordinances prohibiting camping on sidewalks, the city isn't really enforcing its own laws.

Historic LA hotel devolves into housing projects, repairs cost taxpayers more than $11.5 million.  Built in 1926, The Mayfair Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was a historical treasure, a unique marriage between the glamor of Old Hollywood and the elan of the Roaring Twenties, and then California Democrats got ahold of it.  The Mayfair once hosted the first ever Academy Awards after-party, but now it houses Skid Row. [...] (How could anyone think inviting drug-addled derelicts into a luxury hotel wouldn't end up this way?)  Like stereotypical crazy bums, the transients housed at the Mayfair "punched through walls," trashed appliances and bathrooms, smashed windows to throw objects onto the street below, and left fentanyl-covered tinfoil sheets strewn about.  And, in predictable fashion, the idiotic decisions of the left aren't limited to only affecting leftists, and the havoc spilled out onto the street.

Free parking for the homeless in CA.  Did you know that homeless people enjoy a constitutional right to free parking?  That's the main takeaway from a California Court of Appeals opinion issued Friday that ruled cities that tow cars with five or more unpaid parking tickets violate the 4th Amendment's prohibition of search and seizure without a warrant.  The Coalition on Homelessness sued the City and County of San Francisco seeking an injunction against towing scofflaw cars that piled up parking tickets, and the trial court had denied the petition.  But the Court of Appeals reversed, because "appellant [Coalition on Homelessness] presented declarations regarding the severe impacts of vehicle tows on unhoused San Francisco residents."

Why Homelessness in California is Worse Than In Other States.  If you've wondered why homelessness in California seems so much worse than in other states, Siyamak Khorrami's interview with El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson for California Insider provides some answers:  [Video clip]

Homeless continue to take over LA's iconic Venice Beach boardwalk.  Homeless encampments are back in Venice Beach, after nearly 200 people were cleared from the iconic boardwalk last summer.  Almost a year later, footage from the Los Angeles town show dozens of tents back up, and some 120 vagrants overtaking the beach once again.  Residents are now complaining about a renewed stream of garbage littering the promenade, as well as elaborate processions erected by individuals camping outside.

San Diego opens first 'safe sleeping site' tents for homeless people after council voted to ban homeless encampments.  San Diego opened its first of two 'safe-sleeping' areas in the border-city just weeks after the San Diego City Council voted to ban homeless encampments.  Democrat Mayor Todd Gloria announced the plan to open the areas in June as a way to combat the city's homeless crisis, which has been exacerbated by opioids.  San Diego has more than 2,000 individuals living on the streets and in 2019, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that the county had the fourth-highest homeless population in the country.

Homelessness up 10% in LA despite a flood of money for programs.  If LA County's homeless population were its own city, it would be the 124th largest city in the entire state.  Every year the city does a homeless count designed to help keep track of whether the problem is getting better or worse.  This year, despite a flood of money directly at programs, the news was pretty bad.  ["]Unsheltered homelessness — which refers to people living outdoors in vehicles, tents and makeshift shelters like propped-up tarps — is up 40% over the past five years, rising to 55,155 people countywide...["] [...] It's pretty hard to argue that LA hasn't focused on the problem enough or devoted enough money to dealing with it.  And yet the numbers get worse every year.

Number of homeless residents in Los Angeles County jumps by 9% in annual count.  The number of homeless residents counted in Los Angeles County has spiked again, increasing by 9% since last year in the latest marker of how deep the crisis is of people sleeping in cars, encampments or shelters in California.  Results released Thursday from a federally required tally conducted in January found 75,518 people were homeless on any given night across LA County, compared with 69,144 in 2022.  About 46,260 were within the city of Los Angeles, where public frustration has grown as tents have proliferated on sidewalks and in parks.

San Francisco struggles with spiking crime, rampant homelessness and brazen drug use.  News of Park Hotels & Resorts' plan to surrender ownership of two of San Francisco's largest hotels is the beginning of what could potentially become a mass exodus of hotels from the city as 30 additional properties are facing massive loans due over the next two years.  The company behind the hotels announced Monday it had stopped making payments on its $725million loan that is due in November for the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels.  Though Park Hotels owns the largest and fourth largest hotels in San Francisco, they are by no means the only hotels suffering and going under as loan repayment date close in.

San Francisco's doom loop accelerates.  The owner of 2 major San Francisco Hotels, including the city's largest hostelry, has announced that it is walking away from its mortgage on the two properties, surrendering them to the lender. [...] "Concerns over street conditions" is a delicate way of describing the takeover of much of downtown SF by drug addicts, currently termed "the unhoused" as if the main problem were high rents, when in fact the thousands of vagrants ruining the city are attracted from all over the country by the tolerance and active financial and social services support they receive.  They leave feces and urine on the streets, shooting up in front of the dwindling crowds of passers-by who have learned to avoid what was not very long ago one of the most attractive and vibrant cities in the world.  The high office vacancy rates, the lower return of workers to offices, and the reduced convention schedule that trouble Park's management are all closely related to the takeover of downtown (and other neighborhoods) by bums and junkies.

Just how gross was it at that San Francisco Whole Foods?  Whole Foods on Monday shut down its ritzy new flagship store in San Francisco, after just a year in operation, citing crime and safety concerns. [...]Obviously, the bums were taking over, or, as another commentator noted, Whole Foods had become "a food bank for the druggies and homeless."  Another said it was "never a good sign to see your grocery store filled with cops and security."  Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera noted that what went on in that store and throughout the crumbling city amounted to an utter rejection of civilization.  Every now and then, Geraldo gets one right.  Who would want to shop at such a place, particularly for food?  When the bums are allowed in repeatedly, bringing in sanitation issues with them, and can make drug-addled spectacles of themselves, customers go other places.  That's why Whole Foods just shut the place down.

SF Mayor announced a crack-down on open-air drug markets, but was shouted down and had a brick thrown at her.  The city of San Francisco was having a normal one yesterday.  One observer called it a "circus" and that seems entirely fair given what happened.  So the story here is that San Francisco's rate of violent crime is relatively low for a big city but it's rate of robberies, shoplifting, car break-ins and drug overdoses (268 people have died so far in 2023) have all skyrocketed in recent years.  Visitors to the city aren't likely to be murdered but they are likely to trip over a zombified fentanyl addict while someone else is breaking out their car windows.  A lot of people are sick of it.

London Breed holds presser in SF junkie nest to denounce fentanyl, gets chased out by violent, screaming mob.  Breed's city has been turned into a crime-and-homeless-infested hellhole on her watch — a feces-strewn open-air drug market in many quarters where junkies, addicts, criminals, vagrants, and bums all gather together for their drug deals, panhandling, and shoplifting projects.  This particular hellhole, at United Nations Plaza, has always been a center of mayhem — I remember it as a trash-strewn, urine-soaked, junkie redoubt when I lived in the city 30 years ago.  It hasn't changed any, except that an infusion of city money to NGOs to "help" the homeless has made it a lot nastier.  Anyone who's ever lived in that city would know that that's not the place you go for a well-heeled press conference announcing all the new government money you are going to be spending to end crime in the city.  You don't go into a tiger's lair to talk about how you'll be taming the tigers.

Massive 2-Mile Long Homeless Encampment Plagues Posh Marin County, CA.  In April, I wrote about the many dilapidated RVs with homeless people living inside them that plague neighborhoods in Los Angeles and bring crime and filth to the surrounding streets.  I told the story of how one RV exploded in a fiery ball (powered by propane tanks that were presumably used to make meth) barely two blocks from my residence.  As bad as that situation is, it's nothing compared to what residents in Marin County, California wake up to each morning — both the NY Post and the Daily Mail reported Friday on the massive, two-mile-long homeless camp with dozens of RVs parked alongside Binford Road in the pricey neighborhood of Novato: [...]

San Francisco's homeless hotels beset by health violations, violence and overdose deaths.  The San Francisco Chronicle investigated the city's efforts to give homeless people housing in former hotel rooms and found that many of the rooms are often vacant.  In some hotels up to half the rooms are vacant.  The Chronicle blames the problem primarily on the mayor's referral process, but the story itself suggests significant problems with the tenants and with the nonprofits the city pays to keep the buildings maintained.

San Fran drops charges against crowbar attacker.  Earlier this month, former San Francisco Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani was attacked by a homeless person with a crowbar.  The attacker, Garrett Doty, was one of a group of vagrants who had been blocking Carmignani's mother's driveway and acting in a threatening fashion.  The attack sent the former fire chief to the hospital for emergency surgery with a hole in the back of his skull.  He also had a broken jaw and required fifty stitches.  This looked like a fairly open-and-shut case, but last night the San Fran District Attorney's office suddenly dropped the charges against Doty and dismissed the case.  How is this happening in a major American city?

How bad has it gotten in San Fran?  This bad.  San Francisco is only one of many once-beautiful cities that have gone to hell in a handbasket after years of supermajority Democratic rule and soft-on-crime policies.  This largely explains the number of people fleeing the Bay area, leading to the lowest population seen there in more than a decade.  But while homelessness and crime in general are making the city unlivable for many, one area where they are really being hit revolves around the ongoing fentanyl crisis.  It seems like the drug is everywhere at this point and people are literally dropping dead in the streets.  In response, Governor Gavin Newsom has resorted to something he previously refused to do.  He's sending in the National Guard to help shut down the flow of the deadly drug.

Just how gross was it at that San Francisco Whole Foods?  Whole Foods on Monday shut down its ritzy new flagship store in San Francisco, after just a year in operation, citing crime and safety concerns.  I wrote about that astonishing event yesterday, brought on by the city's failure to enforce its own laws, noting that the company had a good customer base and had shelled out big to make the place attractive, but that was no match for the chaos the one-party government had allowed the area to fall into. [...] Obviously, the bums were taking over, or, as another commentator noted, Whole Foods had become "a food bank for the druggies and homeless."  Another said it was "never a good sign to see your grocery store filled with cops and security.["]  Fox News commentator Gerald[o] Rivera noted that what went on in that store and throughout the crumbling city amounted to an utter rejection of civilization.

Downtown S.F. on the brink: It's worse than it looks.  The downtown area, the city's primary economic driver, is teetering on the edge, facing challenges greater than previously known, new data shows.  The wounds suffered by the economic core are deep, and city officials have yet to come up with a plan to make the fundamental changes that some economists and business leaders argue could make the area thrive again.  "A general economic decline is what we're trying to avoid," said Wade Rose, president of Advance SF, a business group that advocates on behalf of several major employers in San Francisco.  The group is working with the city on short-term ideas to bring more people back downtown, but Rose agrees that the problem needs a rethink in the long run.

San Francisco, RIP?  [S]omething like three-quarters of San Franciscans who deserted the city during covid have not returned.  The same phenomenon has been observed in cities like Portland and Minneapolis, while other cities, like Salt Lake City, have rapidly bounced back.  But Salt Lake City is not run by liberal goofballs. [...] When you go downtown and you don't feel safe and you see people "using the street as a toilet," you stop going downtown.  There is nothing mysterious about this.

Downtown San Diego condo owners grow weary as homeless incidents escalate.  As he pushed the stroller with his two young children up Ninth Avenue during his mid-day walk in downtown San Diego, Jarvis Leverson stopped at the intersection of F Street.  "This is where I have to divert my route," he said.  "I can go that way," gesturing his head in one direction, "or that way."  Across the street, the sidewalk was crammed with tents and makeshift canvas shelters erected by the homeless people who have lived there for weeks, even months.  Discarded cartons of food and piles of trash were scattered outside the tents, in the gutter and on the street.  Leverson opted to avoid Ninth Avenue and turned left on F Street, then took a right on Eighth Avenue.  Once again, he found the sidewalk impassable, and he rolled the stroller onto the street to avoid tents and people.  It's a daily occurrence for Leverson, who lives in the Parkloft condominiums on Island Avenue.

Have you heard about the proposed $1.7 million toilet in San Francisco?  We know that San Francisco has been the open defecation capital of the U.S.  for more than a decade.  This once-fine city has been ruined by the misgovernance of the Democrats.  In other words, all progress has been ruined by 'progressive' politics.  One of the solutions to this crisis which causes the surroundings to be unhygienic and unsafe for walking is to build public toilets that are freely accessible.  This is exactly what the powers that be in San Francisco set forth to do.

Have you heard about the proposed $1.7 million toilet in San Francisco?  We know that San Francisco has been the open defecation capital of the U.S. for more than a decade.  This once-fine city has been ruined by the misgovernance of the Democrats.  In other words, all progress has been ruined by 'progressive' politics.  One of the solutions to this crisis which causes the surroundings to be unhygienic and unsafe for walking is to build public toilets that are freely accessible.  This is exactly what the powers that be in San Francisco set forth to do.

Biden installed: What could possibly go wrong?  Crime is up all over the nation because the left is pro-criminal.  Criminals are coddled, and turned loose to prey on citizens again.  Los Angeles district attorney is a case in point:  George Gascón never met a violent criminal he didn't want to set free.  Downtown LA is no longer safe to enjoy, nor is it the thriving hub of culture it once was; it has been taken over by the homeless population (as has San Francisco).  The homeless, a population almost entirely mentally ill and/or drug addicted, are often a danger to those who cross their paths.  They need psychiatric care, but in California they get syringes.  They're left to taunt the public, to defecate on the streets, and ruin the cities they inhabit.  Like so many other Democrat-run hellscapes, LA and SF are unlikely to recover without a political shift.

Tensions flare as crews dismantle several homeless encampments on Skid Row.  Tensions flared Monday morning as crews dismantled several homeless encampments on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles while police officers stood guard.  Video from AIR7 HD showed a dump truck's crane grabbing one encampment's canopy tent, which had apparently been constructed with a raised floor and walls.  All of the debris was then hoisted into the truck and hauled away.  That sparked an angry reaction from some bystanders, who stood behind yellow police tape at the intersection of Fifth and San Pedro streets.

EV skid row!  How LA's 'Electric Avenue' has become overrun with homeless.  A conservative commentator has warned electric vehicle drivers in Los Angeles that charging stations for their $60,000 cars are littered with homeless encampments.  Alexandra Datig shared a video of her driving in downtown LA on Wednesday, with one of the local Blink EV charging stations surrounded by trash and tents.  'When you live in Los Angeles, it's better to have a charging station at home for that $60,000 EV,' Datig wrote on Twitter.

Santa Monica becomes unliveable.  Seems the bums, who are normally always present in the city, have gotten a strengthened entitlement mentality and are now aggressively going after shops, customers, foot traffic, and anyone in their vicinity.  Pay them money for drugs, or they'll cut you. [...] Apparently, no one can go out at night.  Daytime is probably O.K., provided you avoid the panhandlers and passed-out bums, but at night, the city turns into an obstacle course to avoid assaults and killings.  It's got a crime rate now like Compton's.

Federal judge blocks San Francisco from clearing homeless camps.  I've written about the Boise decision before but it has been a while.  Back in 2018 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in a case called Martin v Boise.  The judges concluded that laws punishing homeless behavior, such as sleeping on sidewalks, was a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment unless the city could provide an alternative. [...] San Francisco has been trying to clean up its streets after years complaints from residents and businesses but the city was sued by the ACLU over the sweeps back in September.

24 Hours in Nancy Pelosi's District Will Kill You - This is NOT America.  Democrat rule has destroyed California.  We travelled to the district of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to see what life is like for her constituents.  What we found not only shocked us, but put our own lives in danger.  [Video clip]

America's Growing Political Impotence.  [Scroll down]  Then there are the homeless encampments that now plague urban landscapes.  Especially in California, they are virtually small cities filled with the mentally ill who exhibit little respect for public decency or elementary hygiene.  Rat-attracting garbage is everywhere and streets are used as public toilets.  These homeless destroy local businesses and turn neighborhoods into "no-go" zones.  In San Francisco, luxury downtown hotels have removed all lobby furniture for fear of being overrun by squatters.  LA recently counted some 42,000 homeless residents.  Of the utmost importance, cities blithely ignore residents' demands calling for their removal.  Instead cities try to cure the problem by even greater spending on everything from substance abuse programs to job training, which, unsurprisingly, only seems to exacerbate the problem.

California could end homelessness by 2035 with $8.1B per year, report says.  Over the past two weeks, officials in the city and county of Los Angeles have taken actions to address the region's homelessness crisis, from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declaring a state of emergency on homelessness to the county Board of Supervisors voting Tuesday, Dec. 20, to partner with the city in its efforts.  Now, a report out this week is drawing attention to the role the state can play in getting people off the streets.  The state could end homelessness in California by 2035 if it invested $8.1 billion annually in each of the next 12 years — $6.9 billion more than its current average annual investment — to pay for housing and support services for those facing homelessness, according to the report.

The Editor says...
Ri-i-i-ight.  And for only a few billion more per year, California could eliminate all poverty, hunger, ignorance, disease, prejudice, confusion, addiction, crime, obesity, poor TV reception, laziness, and bad weather.

A year after opening in Los Angeles, a 600-room hotel for the homeless is still mostly empty: Report.  Amajor homeless housing project in Los Angeles is reportedly struggling to attract tenants a year after it opened, according to media reports.  The Cecil Hotel, built in 1924 and long known for its proximity to Los Angeles's notorious Skid Row district, was debuted in December of 2021 as a re-imagined housing complex for homeless city residents.  Yet "two-thirds of the Cecil remains unoccupied" after a year, according to the Los Angeles Times, with roughly 400 rooms sitting vacant there.  The Times claimed the project was beset with "a slow-moving bureaucracy and multiple failure points."  The Cecil is "one of the few affordable housing projects in Los Angeles of [its] size that is fully privately financed."

The Wasteland of Leftist Compassion.  Compassion is one of the greatest of human virtues.  But effective compassion comes with an obligation to do more than what merely feels and sounds good. [...] In many cases, the consequences of unbalanced compassion are obvious, as anyone can see if they visit the coastal cities of California.  It was compassion that motivated state legislators to decriminalize hard drug addiction, now dubbed "substance use disorder."  Compassion was the moral justification to empty California's prisons and downgrade property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.  Compassion compelled politicians and judges to rewrite laws that kept mentally ill people safely off the streets.  Compassion was the bludgeon that beat down objections to the disastrous "housing first" rule, which denies funding for drug treatment or job training until free housing — with no conditions for entry — are provided to homeless people.  And "compassion" pressured local and state authorities to forego inexpensive shelters in favor of more "equitable" apartment complexes, brand new and located in expensive neighborhoods, at a cost of over $500,000 per unit.  None of this is compassionate, of course.

This is what it takes for Los Angeles to clear a homeless encampment.  For a while during the runup to the elections last month, it looked as if former Republican real estate developer Rick Caruso might pull off a miracle and defeat Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass to become the next Mayor of Los Angeles.  In the end, Bass squeaked out a six-point victory and will be inaugurated as the first female Mayor in the city's history.  Out on the campaign trail, Bass made a point of repeatedly promising to tackle the city's endemic homelessness crisis.  Not coincidentally, a large group of homeless people have been living in an encampment that activists set up right next to City Hall earlier this year, trying to draw the attention of the Mayor and the City Council to the problem.  That wouldn't make for very good visuals for the new Mayor's inauguration, however, so the city leaped into action by packing them all up in buses on Thursday and shipping them elsewhere.

San Francisco's Tenderloin Center closes - did it do any good?  Earlier this year San Francisco declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin district.  Part of that effort involved the creation of a new "linkage center" so named because it was intended to link the homeless and drug addicts on the streets to needed services: [...] Shortly after it was set up, Michael Shellenberger wrote that the Linkage Center had become the city's leading open-air drug market: [...] The center's last day was Sunday.  So did it accomplish anything?  The San Francisco Chronicle reports the answer is that it was a mixed bag at best.  It may have helped a few hundred homeless people get through the day but there's not much evidence it had an impact on homelessness overall.

San Francisco Hotels Demand City Compensate for Damage by Homeless.  San Francisco hotels are demanding millions of dollars from the city to compensate them for damage incurred while housing the homeless under a municipal government program launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Under the program, known as "Shelter-in-Place" (SIP), hotels were used to move homeless people off the streets for fear of spreading the coronavirus in tent cities.  Ironically, as COVID became better understood, officials began recommending against clearing homeless encampments, because the virus spread less easily outdoors.  However, the practice of housing the homeless in hotels was embraced by Democratic officials in state and local government, though it was expensive, as a temporary way of tackling an ongoing homeless crisis.

San Francisco Flushing $1.7M to Construct One Public Toilet.  The City by the Bay is not known for being well-run or fiscally responsible.  Homelessness, a drug overdose crisis, spiking crime, and ample sidewalk fecal matter have made it a punchline of what leftist "utopias" actually end up becoming in practice when radical Democrat policies are implemented.  Now, San Francisco is working on trying to address one issue by constructing a public toilet — that will apparently cost $1.7 million and won't be finished until 2025.  Even more comically, California state Assemblyman Matt Haney was set to celebrate the boondoggle with a press conference, but he was forced to cancel his potty party after public backlash.  The million-plus dollar price tag is being covered by state funds secured by Haney collected from Golden State taxpayers in order to build, unbelievably, "just one toilet in 150 square feet of space," according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Bill Walton calls out Mayor Todd Gloria for allowing the homeless to destroy San Diego.  As we all know, San Diego's homeless crisis is only getting worse under the leadership of Mayor Todd Gloria, who continues to pretend like he is working to fix the issue.  But all his efforts have failed.  In downtown San Diego alone, there is a record high 1,609 homeless residents.  Back in July 2022, KUSI reported that there was a record number of deaths in our homeless population, and literally nothing has been done.

The Sovietization of American Life.  Everyone knows that the status of our homeless population in Los Angeles or San Francisco is medieval, dangerous, and unhealthy.  And everyone knows that any serious attempt to remedy the situation would cause one to be labeled an apostate, counterrevolutionary, and enemy of the people.

You Pay Super-High Taxes.  You Deserve Nice Things.  Why Don't You Demand Them?  We Californians pay more for taxes than anyone else in America.  We have a nearly $100 billion surplus.  And yet we have the worst public services.  Just take crime and homelessness.  You can't walk safely through many neighborhoods in our largest cities.  Street addicts feel entitled to sleep, smoke meth, and terrorize passengers on mass transit and public parks.  And despite spending more on homelessness and mental health, per capita, than any other state, homelessness increased 31% in California and declined 18% in the rest of the U.S., over the last ten years.

The number of homeless people dying on the streets of LA is going up.  The NY Times published a story today [4/18/2022] about the rising number of homeless people who are dying on the streets.  In a county as large and populous as Los Angeles, there was an average of five deaths per day last year.  Some of this death toll is connected to the surge of fentanyl as a cheap street drug. [...] The death toll is particularly high in California where an estimated 4,800 homeless people died on the street last year.  Almost every conceivable cause of death is much more likely for people on the street.

California's big cities are shrinking.  Last year the state of California announced its first population decline in state history.  Yesterday, newly published census data showed there have been significant population declines in major US cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. [...] There was some additional data last December which showed it's not just that people are leaving California.  It's also that fewer people are moving here.  The timing of all of this, July 2020 to July 2021, is clearly timed to the pandemic.

People In California Libraries Aren't Safe From the Homeless.  Police in Anaheim are looking for a man they say attacked a library employee unprovoked.  The incident happened at the Anaheim Central Library back on March 3.  According to police, around 6:15 p.m. a male employee was approached by another man, and shoved to the ground.  Police say the employee fell back and hit his head on the tile floor, causing him to cut his head and even lose consciousness.  He was transported to a local hospital.  [Video clip]

Free stuff for the homeless doesn't work out the way Oakland's 'tiny houses' advocates thought it would.  Seems the idea of "free homes" for the homeless, touted as a panacea to end the problem, isn't quite working out the way its advocates said it would.  In Oakland, at a concentrated community of "tiny homes," given out by the city to the homeless, the result was this, according to The Oaklandside:  ["]A fire Monday morning incinerated three tiny-home shelters at a city-run transitional-housing site at E. 12th Street and 2nd Avenue, across from Lake Merritt.  Nobody was injured, according to authorities, but five people who were living in the scorched shelters were displaced.  A fourth tiny-home was damaged as well.["] [...] The press accounts state that the buildings, which were built cheaply as a sort of transitional housing for the homeless, were in themselves a fire hazard, flaming up fast when someone inside one does something dangerous enough to start a house fire.  And it didn't take too long for this to happen, given that the encampment was just opened last December.  Some activists blamed the proximity of the homes to one another.  Others blamed the fact that the buildings were not sufficiently fireproof.

Los Angeles is Spending Up To $837,000 for [Each] Housing Unit for the Homeless.  In 2016, voters in California approved a $1.2 billion program to build housing for the homeless. [...] Californians should be applauded for their compassion and generosity.  But six years later, only 1,200 units have been built out of the 10,300 that have been paid for.  One project under development would cost $837,000 for each housing unit, according to a report published by Los Angeles city controller Ron Galperin.  Another 14% of units exceeded $700,000 in cost.

Among the homeless in San Francisco, the "vast majority" are homeless due to addiction.  [Thread reader]  People say high rent causes homelessness but Ben, who has been homeless in San Francisco for 7 years, says the "vast majority" are homeless due to addiction.  Just 6-7% are from SF.  Ben says he "boosts" (shoplifts) and breaks into cars to pay for his $60/day heroin habit. [...] Ben's is a common story from honest homeless.  Not everybody on the street is as honest.  Many naive liberal journalists are hoodwinked by people who tell them what they want to hear, ie, that they're just down on their luck, can't afford the rent, that it's not about the drugs etc[.]  We should do what they do in Netherlands and Portugal, where homeless are required to stay in shelters and arrested for using drugs publicly, as the head of Portugal's program explains: [...]

San Francisco residents are being asked to house a homeless person in their own homes.  Homelessness in the Bay Area has become such a problem people are being urged to give their spare rooms over to the homeless.  Some charities have urged local families — who are sick of seeing the homeless crisis on their doorsteps — to do something about it personally by taking unhoused people into their own homes and spare rooms — and some schemes have little to no compensation.  Christi Carpenter, executive director of East Bay nonprofit Safe Time, which places homeless families and college students in spare bedrooms, for one-six months, told Mercury News:  "This is something that someone can do when they just feel that despair of '[...], I just can't stand seeing these poor people on the streets near my home.'"  Since 2017, the group has made more than 60 placements.

The Editor says...
[#1] The group has made 60 "placements" in the last five years.  That's one per month.  With hundreds of homeless people in the streets, that's not a solution.  [#2] Bleeding heart liberals apparently don't know the adage, "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile."  It's far better to leave the homeless bum out on the sidewalk, rather than invite him to live in the spare bedroom, because (aside from the mess he makes in the first 30 minutes) sooner or later he will either steal everything in the house to pay for drugs, or he will burn down the house while smoking crack, or he will someday claim partial ownership of the house.  The homeless guy is probably homeless because of his history of faulty decisions.  He will almost certainly refuse to listen to constructive criticism or sound advice.  Use your head.  [#3] If enough people sign up for this program, it will result in a condition in which the rest of the citizens won't be able to refuse to participate.  Much like the way cell phones, when they became ubiquitous, led to the extinction of coin-operated telephones.  Or the way debit cards are displacing cash.  Eventually, the overwhelming majority rules, and everyone else must play along.

San Francisco's open air drug market proves [the] city's woke effort to connect homeless addicts to rehab is not working.  A new 'linkage center' aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities opened in San Francisco last week — but distressing images show an open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight.  Images taken by DailyMail.com show a woman slumped over in a wheelchair, her pants down around her ankles, preparing to inject a needle into her thigh.  The woman sitting on the ground next to her has a needle to her neck.  Many others are sitting on the ground among trash, empty food containers and dirty blankets, as they fumble in with drug paraphernalia in the cold weather.

L.A. City Council Okays 'Affordable Housing' Project on Edge of Pricey Venice Beach Neighborhood.  Homeless and people with low incomes will soon be housed next to the iconic and expensive Venice Beach neighborhood after the Los Angeles City Council approved last week a 136-unit apartment building.  The project, which will be built on city property that is now a parking lot, will cover 2.7 acres and the Venice Dell Community project will cost $75 million.

LA residents say homelessness crisis is city's biggest problem.  Los Angeles residents say the city's homelessness crisis is the biggest problem it currently faces, with many saying they feel unsafe as a result — and that they're now considering moving.  A whopping 94 percent of people living in the City of Angels say homelessness is a serious or very serious problem.  It was the biggest concern among residents polled, ahead of housing affordability, or traffic, air quality and climate change.

Residents in Los Angeles have to deal with violent Homeless Daily, Here's an Example.  Lifelong residents of California are fleeing for red states in droves because of what you see in this video.  The homeless epidemic has reached levels unseen in this country since the great depression.  While the media continues to claim inflation isn't hurting people and is actually a good thing (New York Times article) the truth is millions are losing their jobs and ending up homeless since Biden took over.  This video shows just a single example of how bad the homeless are to live around.  Once prosperous areas now look like third world nations.  Los Angeles could be considered the capitol of the desperate.  [Video clip]

Terrified residents of luxury San Fran condo building see an adjoining alleyway become city's biggest homeless encampment.  Residents of a San Francisco condo building where units sell for $1 million say they're living in fear after an adjoining alleyway became the city's biggest homeless encampment.  The massive tent city — occupied by a feces-hurling man and an assortment of other untoward characters — is paces away from The Artani, an eight-story Van Ness Avenue complex where residents say they're being spooked by a growing number of vagrant neighbors.  Condo resident Amber Lusko said the encampment, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, has drawn rats, thieves, and mentally unstable adults who are turning their neighborhood into a state of bedlam.

Los Angeles railroad lined with homeless encampments sees rash of cargo container burglaries.  The backlog of cargo containers making their way from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach saw widespread burglaries as they were carried on trains through an area of tracks lined by homeless encampments.  Thousands of boxes were seen laying near the train tracks "as far as the eye could see" in Los Angeles' Lincoln Park, NBC4 reported.  A FedEx container and several others had their doors wide open and boxes tipping over.  The area is lined by homeless encampments on either side of the tracks.  The outlet also spotted two men jumping off of a moving train and carrying what appeared to be bolt cutters.

Los Angeles bans homeless encampments in 54 spots across city.  The city of Los Angeles outlawed homeless encampments Wednesday at 54 locations across the city.  The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-2 to ban the actions of sleeping, sitting, or lying at the specified spots throughout three city districts.  The measure also outlaws homeless camps within 500 feet of schools, parks, libraries, and daycare facilities.  The homeless in the restricted areas will be given notice at least 14 days prior to their removal with signs, and "outreach teams will continue to engage anyone remaining on the site," the Los Angeles Times reported.  Placing the signs at the 54 approved locations will cost the city roughly $2 million.  Homelessness has risen to a severe problem in Los Angeles throughout the pandemic, analysis shows.  Some officials in the city say the ordinance is akin to violence against the homeless.

The Democrats War on Blacks Keeps Growing in the Pandemic.  Readers will — excuse the redundancy — recall that one made two votes in that election, the first deciding whether to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom and the second for whom to replace him if recalled.  [Larry] Elder won the latter in a landslide.  But just who were the people (along with the predictable corruption) who blocked his way from the governor's office by voting to preserve Newsom?  I submit that many of them were what we used to call "limousine liberals" and might today be called "Tesla-crats."  They are the rich, often mega-rich, almost always white, people who drive by the myriad horrific homeless encampments of California, trying not to look, as they head for the next trendy restaurant or their magnificent home.  And what is the largest group on a percentage basis in those homeless encampments?  Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that it's blacks.

Family of 5 allegedly attacked by two homeless people with machete in Malibu; dad loses eye.  An argument between a dad and two homeless people on a beach in Malibu took an extremely violent turn over the weekend, ending with the father losing an eye.  The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department responded to a call on Dan Blocker Beach on Sunday.  Deputies were told a man was with four family members when they were approached by two suspects, both believed to be homeless.  The two homeless people confronted the dad, saying they were not allowed in the area, sparking an argument between the three people.  One of the suspects, later identified as Richard Franck, whipped out a machete and began slashing the dad multiple times.

The Reason They're Letting Fentanyl Kill Kids Is Because They Think Drug Dealers Are The Real Victims.  Tomorrow at 2 pm, I will join a Livermore, California mother named Jacqui Berlinn in a protest against dangerous drug dealers who may end up killing her son.  They could kill him indirectly, by selling him fentanyl, or directly, as a consequence of his failing to pay them.  Twice already he has been stabbed, and nearly died.  Our first two protests were in San Francisco and Venice Beach and this time we will protest in Sacramento.  Parents whose kids were killed by fentanyl will join her.  One of them, Jaime Puerta, lost his 16 year-old son, Daniel, to fentanyl poisoning in April last year.  Daniel took a pill he thought was a prescription opioid.  When the parents come together, it is powerful.  Our Venice Beach protest helped motivate the L.A. City Council voting to shut down the open drug scene and homeless encampments.  Just putting homeless people in hotel rooms is only a temporary fix that won't last.  But our protest proved that we can force the politicians to act.

Woman sues LA after she was hit by car and suffered brain injury when she was forced to step into busy Hollywood street because of homeless encampment on sidewalk.  A Los Angeles woman struck by a car after being forced to step into a busy street because a homeless encampment blocked the sidewalk has slapped the city, county and state with a lawsuit.  Debra Todd, 64, was hit by a Nissan at the 101 Freeway overpass on Gower Street in Hollywood on Oct. 4, 2020, while attempting to deliver food and water to individuals living at the freeway encampment.  She sustained injuries to her head, hip, back, arm and leg, according to the lawsuit filed Monday at the Los Angeles Superior Court.

After Years Of Mad Max Violence On Venice Beach, Police With AR-15s Clear Out The Homeless.  Venice Beach has gone viral again amid its surge in homelessness.  A TikTok video shared widely across social media on Tuesday shows Los Angeles Police Department officers with assault rifles detaining a group of homeless people after responding to reports of a man with a gun at Venice Beach.  [Video clip]

Venice Beach Has Devloved To The Point It Resembles A Scene Out Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.  Watch as this group of mentally deranged homeless men go at each other while sane people try to pretend nothing is out of the ordinary on Venice Beach.  Venice Beach has been occupied and destroyed by massive homeless encampments for years now and no one seems to really tackle the issue.  [Video clip]

Venice Beach Doesn't Have a Homelessness Crisis.  Last weekend, the New York Times Magazine ran an article on homelessness in Los Angeles. [...] The article zeroes in on Venice Beach, part of the Venice area of Los Angeles.  Venice Beach is a once-gritty area that's now "gentrified."  Except: it wasn't that gritty.  Twenty-five years ago, Lowe reports, the going rate for a house was $300,000.  In 1996, the median home price in the U.S. was $112,000.  If Venice Beach was ever the itinerant artist's paradise that nostalgists depict it as, that was a long time ago.  Today, the same house in Venice Beach goes for $2 million — a sign that its residents ought to consider some well-planned construction so that theirs doesn't become a stagnant community.  In any case, though, such new housing won't fix the homeless crisis.  Nowhere in her 6,000-word article does Lowe find an example of the archetypal homeless person of casual understanding: a down-on-his luck, working-class man or woman who had a house in Venice Beach — whether rented or owned — and lost it after getting fired, having a spouse die, or suffering a disability or illness.  That's not to say that such cases don't exist, but they're certainly not the norm for the hundreds of people who have pitched tents and cardboard boxes or built plywood shanties along the beach, boardwalk, and sidewalks.

Gavin Newsom invites world's homeless to California.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged to house and feed the world's homeless population this week during a whirlwind "Comeback California" tour that is designed to stave off a September recall by angry voters.  The Golden State is already cracking under the weight of the nation's largest homeless population and one of the worst economic climates post-COVID-19.  With millions of middle-class residents and business owners fleeing to red states, those left behind have seen a burgeoning lower class emerge.  Gasoline is pushing $5 a gallon, 18 million homeless pack into all the blue cities, and dilapidated freeways are strewn with trash.

$20,000 trash cans?  S.F. looks to roll out costly prototypes for pilot on street corners.  San Francisco elected officials struggling to deal with complaints about garbage piling up on the city's sidewalks and streets have been waiting three years for a solution — only to get sticker shock when they heard the details this week.  Addressing the problem requires a good trash can, but on Wednesday, a committee of the Board of Supervisors wrestled with how to replace many substandard bins when it learned that a batch of new, custom-made design prototypes will cost $12,000 to $20,000 apiece.  When mass-produced, the cost per can will drop to an estimated $2,000 to $3,000.  Still, supervisors balked at the price to get there.  Supervisor Matt Haney said: "$20,000 a can is ridiculous."  Yet San Francisco's garbage wars are serious business.

Priorities: San Francisco Prepares to Blow $300,000 on Designer Trash Cans, as Homeless Crisis Worsens.  Not surprisingly, homelessness and crime are up big time in Democrat-run cities across the country, including in San Francisco, where criminals have been caught on video brazenly stealing from drugstores in the middle of the day in plain view of other customers and even security guards in some instances.  In some cases, violent crimes that were reported to police were found to have been committed by a homeless person.  It's gotten so bad in the city that a recent poll showed close to 40% of San Franciscans were making plans to relocate in the near future out of frustration.  With all of that in mind, you'd think the city would make good use of its resources by coming up with creative ways to combat the two issues that have become the most concerning to its residents.  Unfortunately, that's not what's happening.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city is prepared to blow $300,000 on fancy prototype trash cans (up to $20k each for 15 of them) because people weren't crazy about the existing green ones.

Furious Venice Beach residents say enough is enough as the homeless continue to swarm the boardwalk.  Less than a week after a massive clean-up of homeless encampments on the Venice Beach Boardwalk, new arrivals continue to swarm the area, DailyMail.com can reveal.  City officials promised they would return at the end of July to finish the job, but residents and shop owners say enough is enough, and tell DailyMail.com that last week's sweep was 'all for show'.  Last week, a concerned resident who asked not to be identified captured a couple on video taking up camp near the popular boardwalk.  'You can clearly see a man and a woman unloading their car at about 7 pm,' they said.  'The car had an Arkansas license plate, and they just went about their business, lugging their belongings and setting up a tent on the sand like it was no big deal.'

Does this mean other states can ship their vagrants to California?
Newsom: Out-of-state homeless welcome to 'new beginnings' in California.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he's not worried about a bill meant to combat homelessness exacerbating the problem because the state embraces everyone looking for "new beginnings."  The Democrat made the comment when asked about the possible unintended consequences of signing the $12 billion AB-140 housing bill.  Officials are required to "develop a framework for the California Dream For All Program, the goals of which would ... [make] home[ ]ownership more affordable."  "To the extent that people want to come here for new beginnings and all income levels, that's part of the California dream and we have a responsibility to accommodate and enliven and inspire, and the California dream is still alive and well," Mr. Newsom said Monday [7/19/2021] when asked if the Golden State — mired in a homeless crisis — might become a magnet for similar out-of-state populations.

Amid homeless crisis, California cities shell out huge sums for municipal tent encampments.  Numerous U.S. cities facing crisis levels of homelessness are shelling out millions of dollars to house local homeless populations in tent encampments, with per-tent costs in some cases rivaling the average monthly rent of the cities in question.  In a targeted response to homeless issues confronting the Los Angeles neighborhood of East Hollywood, city officials set aside a large parking lot with room for dozens of tents, which the city dubbed a "Safe Sleep Village."  Residents there are reportedly given access to food, restrooms and showers, and services such as counseling.  That project has raised eyebrows for its reported price tag:  A little over $2,100 per person per month, or very nearly the average cost to rent an apartment in Los Angeles.

San Francisco is paying $60,000 Per Tent for a homeless encampment and now city officials want an additional $20 million.  San Francisco's homelessness department is seeking $20 million in additional funding to extend an encampment program that already funds tents that cost over $60,000 a year.  This week, officials from San Francisco's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing went before the the Board of Supervisors' Budget and Appropriations Committee and requested $20 million over the next two years to keep six 'Safe Sleeping Village' tent encampments running.  The city's six encampment sites provide tents for the homeless as well as three meals a day, around-the-clock security and bathrooms and showers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The Editor says...
The most obvious difference between a mental hospital and a homeless camp with "three meals a day, around-the-clock security and bathrooms and showers," is that the homeless camp is outdoors.  Wouldn't everybody be better off if the homeless were put inside a nice big building?  Permanently?

Los Angeles Sheriff Urges State of Emergency on Homelessness.  In an unusual move, Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva has sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors urging them to declare a local state of emergency to address the spiraling homelessness crisis in the county, citing an increase in crime, lack of sanitation, and struggling businesses.  "We've been inundated with calls, with concerns, with images from the news, from people picking up the phone, emailing, sending us letters, about what's going on in Venice," Villanueva told reporters during a press conference inside the Justice Hall on June 23.  "And that is a microcosm of what's going on throughout the entire county of Los Angeles."  "Enough is enough, we need to kick this into high gear," he said.  There's an estimated 200 homeless people on the Venice Beach Boardwalk and 2,000 throughout the neighborhood, making it the second largest concentration of homeless people after Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

Bug infestations, tent-lined streets:  California's homelessness crisis is at a tipping point.  Tent-lined streets with belongings scattered everywhere.  Infected wounds with bugs living inside.  A man who hasn't showered in over a decade.  An 80-year-old woman who can't feed herself.  People who ride the metro rail lines because the trains are a safer place to sleep.  California's homeless problem has been out of control for decades.  Then came COVID-19.  The result has been a deadly combination of medical crisis, human hopelessness and bureaucratic red tape as the state, reeling from the effects of the virus, tries to rebound with a plan for the 160,000 homeless people.  That number eclipses any other state — and accounts for half of the country's entire unsheltered population.

The Editor says...
California's homeless population was already out of control before anybody heard of Covid-19.

The Tragic Demise of Venice Beach.  [Scroll down]  During a recent trip to Venice, [LA County Sheriff Alex] Villanueva said the tents need to be cleared by Independence Day, after reports of crime, arson, and filth went unaddressed for months.  He blames elected leaders for not handling the issue.  "When I was out there in Venice, I talked to a shop owner, and he was fit to be tied," Villanueva told The Epoch Times.  "He's tired of politicians, tired of people in the city doing nothing.  And it's impacting his ability for customers to come in, [with] the cost of people trying to break into his business and people causing scenes, fights, [and] outside fires.  It's like a third-world country."  But not all locals approve of the sweep.  Some activists quickly criticized the move on social media.  "Why is this @LASDHQ dressed like this to do outreach?  Why do they have guns?" the People's City Council asked on Twitter.  For some residents, the uptick in recent violent attacks by the homeless on workers, residents, and the elderly are justification enough.

San Francisco Shows Leftist Policies Can't Solve Homelessness.  San Francisco is coming undone.  In recent years, the city has manifested a series of visible and persistent inequalities, with a spoils-to-the-victor world for its technological elite and a chaotic, brutalized world for its dispossessed.  In the city's Tenderloin district, men openly hawk drugs on the street corners, desperate addicts are crumpled across the sidewalks, and first responders dart through the chaos to revive overdose victims.  The city has become a web of contradictions.  There are thousands of new millionaires and, by the latest estimates, 18,000 people in and out of homelessness.  The headquarters of Uber, Twitter, and Square are blocks away from the open-air drug markets of the Tenderloin, Mid-Market, and SoMa.  Wealthy families attending an art opening at the Civic Center have to cross through the tent encampments that line the sidewalks.

Recall Builds Against Mike Bonin as L.A. Residents Reject Plan to House Homeless Near Beach.  Los Angeles residents are signing petitions for the recall of city council member Mike Bonin, as public outrage against his efforts to house the city's homeless at the beach continues to grow.  The Los Angeles Times reported this weekend on the deteriorating conditions near Venice Beach, which has always attracted eccentric people but has become so unlivable that residents are afraid to walk there or even to look at what is happening in tent cities on their doorstep.

Why is Hunter Biden moving from his $25,000 a month Venice digs?  In a pretty intriguing development, Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is moving from his tony Venice, California, digs. [...] And the neighbors had welcomed him, not because they like his politics and celebrity status, but because of the Secret Service agents he brings in tow.  Supposedly, the agents' presence helps keep the crime and squalor and panhandling associated with the homeless down.

Moving truck is seen at Hunter Biden's $5.4 million rental home in Venice Beach.  [Scroll down]  Secret Service officers sitting outside of Hunter's home have had to contend with the stench from a small encampment on the other side of a parking lot.  The tent city itself has its dramas just like any other human settlement.  Last month a 30-year-old woman from Virginia gave birth in one of the oceanfront camps, the Venice Current reported.  A homeless man was shot and injured on April 28.  The gunman calmly walked away.  The victim is not cooperating with police.  Earlier the same week a tent was deliberately set on fire.  One local woman talks of how she was chased by a man with a sword.

Venice Beach Now Looks Like Mad Max During A Zombie Apocolypse Thanks To The Homeless Epidemic.  Residents in Los Angeles' coastal Venice neighborhood are calling for action over homeless encampments in the area that have been connected to a string of crimes, including shootings, fights, fires and drug use.  The city as a whole is grappling with a homeless crisis that has only gotten worse in recent years.  Over five years, the homeless population has increased by half, according to a January report released by the Luskin Center for History and Policy at the University of California in Los Angeles.  In Venice, some of the more violent incidents alarming residents and business owners include an April 28 shooting in which a man was shot but survived.  No suspects have been identified, the Los Angeles Police Department told Fox News.  Another includes a Monday [5/31/2021] explosion inside an encampment that caused a fire.  [Video clip]

Does 'Housing First' Help Homeless?  Here's What Happened in Los Angeles.  In 2016, influential political leaders, activists, and media outlets in Los Angeles said they had a simple solution to homelessness:  Build more housing.  Echoing an argument heard across the country, they claimed that rising rents have thrown people onto the streets and that by directly providing free "permanent supportive housing," cities can reduce the number of people on the streets and save costs on emergency services.  In response, 77% of Los Angeles voters approved a $1.2 billion bond for the construction of 10,000 units for the city's homeless.  That commitment made Los Angeles the most significant testing ground for the "Housing First" approach that has become the dominant policy idea on homelessness for West Coast cities.

The Editor says...
Spending $1.2 billion to build 10,000 "housing units" — which are probably just apartments or refurbished shipping containers — comes out to $120,000 each.  The homeless, many of whom are out on the streets for very good reasons, will inevitably ruin all 10,000 units in the normal course of being irresponsible bums.  The only reason this billion-dollar boondoggle was approved — or even proposed — is that left-wing do-gooders have no foresight.  They think all their benevolent plans, no matter how implausible, will work perfectly.

LA is Burning.  It's surprising, but letting crazy junkies camp out on your street doesn't lead to good things.  Beyond drug overdoses, typhus, and a high rate of violent assaults... there are fires.  A whole lot of fires.  ["]As the homeless crisis continues to grow in the city of Los Angeles, the fire department is responding to an increasing number of fires at encampments.  In 2018, there was an average of seven fires a day at encampments and in 2021, that number has more than tripled to 25.  Fires involving the few hundred homeless who live at the Venice Beach boardwalk has been such a problem, the L.A. Fire Department has added a fast-response vehicle on patrol to put fires out before they spread.["]  A few hundred homeless.  A whole lot of fires.  On a constant basis.  But that's what happens when you subsidize crazy junkies and shut down the criminal justice system.

LA residents revolt over shanty town plans.  Thousands of Los Angeles residents are in revolt over plans to house the homeless in tents and temporary cabins near popular beaches and parks throughout the city.  Councilmember Mike Bonin summitted a motion to add more shelters in areas such as the Los Angeles International Airport, Marina del Rey and Pacific Palisades.  Bonin, who represents affluent communities including Venice, Westchester and Brentwood, argues that the 'temporary solutions' will 'get people off the streets and into homes'.  But more than 19,000 people have signed a petition to stop the plans.  The petition asserts that the proposed camps are not a solution to homelessness and would bring the problems of drugs, mental illness, crime and danger into the communities where the tent cities would rise.

Homeless camps may soon come to LA celebrity neighborhoods.  Los Angeles's ever-expanding homeless problem is now likely landing on the doorstep of celebrity-filled beachfront neighborhoods as the beleaguered City Council looks for ways to alleviate some of the stress on world-famous Venice Beach.  The 2-mile strip of Venice, where actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others have pumped iron on an outdoor makeshift seaside gym, has now been claimed by thousands of homeless living in a tent city.  Venice is only 3 square miles, and an estimated 4,000 homeless live there, said Soledad Ursua, a member of the Venice Neighborhood Council's Board of Directors.

Homeless Camps Are Taking Over the West Coast.  Democrat cities have allowed hundreds of homeless encampments to pop up along the West Coast.  Homelessness isn't new to places like San Francisco, L.A., Seattle, Sacramento, and so on.  I was in Portland 12 years ago for a comedy gig.  The park in front of the club looked like a scene from Michael Jackson's Thriller video.  Today it looks like the Walking Dead. [...] A local barbershop owner was attacked by a homeless man and his pit bull.  The victim, Kevin Buttress, was knocked unconscious by a skateboard.  Before you know it we will see a swarm of recalcitrant, shaggy-bearded homeless dudes riding Segues through crowds on the boardwalk.  The skateboard-swinging attacker was arrested but was returned to the Venice Beach boardwalk within days because of jailhouse Covid restrictions.  Buttress said shootings, stabbings, and violent crime are now common on the boardwalk of one of Los Angele's most famous beaches.

Venice's world-famous beach and boardwalk have [had a] huge increase in robberies.  Residents of Venice Beach in Los Angeles say soaring crime rates and the exploding homeless population have made life in the elite beachside community unbearable.  A 'catastrophic' increase in homelessness in Los Angeles has seen hundreds of tents line the beach's famous boardwalk.  Business owners say they are being forced to close their doors and longterm residents are afraid to leave their homes after dark after being subjected to violent attacks and intimidation.

San Diego pulls migrant tent city plan after media coverage and calls it a mistake.  Immediately after the Washington Examiner reported that San Diego County was soliciting farmers for land for a migrant tent city, red-faced officials called the offer a mistake and told recipients to "please disregard" it.  The county officials blamed the state of California and said the term "tent city" was mistakenly used to describe "a soft structure build out" to house a COVID testing center.  Local activist Carl DeMaio said he suspects the county backpedaled after realizing that the news coverage would be a public relations nightmare.

The Shaky Foundations of L.A.'s Housing 'Entitlement' for the Homeless.  In 2016 influential political leaders, activists, and media outlets in Los Angeles said they had a simple solution to homelessness: build more housing.  Echoing an argument heard across the country, they claimed that rising rents have thrown people onto the streets and that by directly providing free "permanent supportive housing," cities can reduce the number of people on the streets and save costs on emergency services.  In response, 77 percent of Los Angeles voters approved a $1.2 billion bond for the construction of 10,000 units for the city's homeless.  That commitment made Los Angeles the most significant testing ground for the "Housing First" approach that has become the dominant policy idea on homelessness for West Coast cities.  Even before the passage of the bond, the concept's creator, Sam Tsemberis, was lavished with praise by the national media.  In 2015, the Washington Post wrote that Tsemberis had "all but solved chronic homelessness" and that his research "commands the support of most scholars."  In the years since, "Housing First" has taken even greater hold in California and the across the West.

San Diego County wants to build migrant tent city on private farmlands.  The county of San Diego is seeking to build a migrant tent city on individually owned farmland to house "immigrants coming across the border," according to an email reviewed by the Washington Examiner.  This is in addition to a mini-city constructed within the San Diego Convention Center last month, which welcomed 1,450 migrant children who came through the Texas border.  On Tuesday, the county created a $5 million fund to provide free legal services for migrants to fight deportation.  It's not clear where the population would come from because the Biden administration has said the California border is closed.

The Bay Area has descended into a post-apocalyptic hell-scape.  [Scroll down]  Even though I'd heard about the poop maps, San Francisco's decay didn't really strike me under three years ago, when a friend and I were in theater district one evening, walking back to our car.  We were on the edge of the Tenderloin but heading to a street that used to be safe enough.  In the 1990s, it might have a handful of homeless people, so we didn't weren't worried.  However, as we started down the street, my friend and I realized that it was wall-to-wall humanity:  No tents; just dozens of people on both sides of the street, sitting and lying there in their vomit and excrement, with needles scattered about.  When I'm near the homeless, I don't look at them because the paranoid ones get set off if you make eye contact.  My friend, however, grew up in a small town and believes that you must recognize the homeless as human beings (which is very decent for the ones who aren't paranoid).

Pediatrician's dog dies in suspected arson that destroyed her home in 'lawless' Venice Beach.  A California doctor has spoken out after losing her eight-month-old puppy in a Venice Beach house fire that is now being investigated as arson amid a growing homeless crisis plaguing the area.  Dr. Courtney Gillenwater, a pediatrician and US Navy veteran, was not at her one-story bungalow last Wednesday, when it suddenly went up in flames, trapping and killing her Husky-mix, Togo. [...] One week on, the cause of the fire is still unknown and remains under investigation by the The LA Fire Department's Arson Division and the LAPD's Major Crimes Division.  Residents, however, are now pointing to a nearby homeless encampment in the now 'lawless' beachside community.

Clinton Judge Declares Himself Supreme Ruler of Los Angeles.  It's inevitable that as conservative judges minimize their authority lefty judges maximize it.  As the Left tosses aside the Constitution and checks and balances, not to mention the minor matter of the rule of law, we end up with the rule of officials asserting their absolute power because of the moral authority of their politics.  The moral arc of the universe bends towards tyranny, after all.  And social justice.  Two ways of saying the same thing.  California is the capital of the new judicial ruling class where lefty judges assert absolute power over everything.  One of the more disgusting examples is Clinton federal judge, David Carter, who has been issuing decrees about the crazed junkie vagrant population that lefties call the homeless or more recently, the unhoused.

Federal Judge:  L.A. Must House Every Homeless Person on Skid Row by Oct. 18.  U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday [4/20/2021] ordering the city and county of Los Angeles to ensure that every homeless person living in the notorious Skid Row district has housing by October 18 this year. [...] Elsewhere in the decision, the Judge Carter — a Bill Clinton appointee — cited claims of "systemic racism," and argued that homelessness is partly a result of historical racial discrimination.  In an unusually complex set of instructions, Judge Carter also ordered $1 billion earmarked by the city for spending on the homeless, announced Monday evening as part of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's "Justice Budget," to be placed in an escrow account.  He also ordered a 90-day audit of city and county spending on the homeless, and a 30-day "audit of any funds committed to mental health (MH) and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment."

Somewhat related:
Oakland to offer guaranteed income, but only for minority families.  Officials in Oakland, California, announced the launch of a guaranteed income pilot program this week that will provide direct monthly payments to low-income minority families in the city.  The initiative, which is one of the largest guaranteed income experiments to be conducted in the United States to date, aims to find out if providing regular payments low-income families will lift them from their economic plight.  The program, called Oakland Resilient Families, will send 600 families in the city $500-a-month payments over the next 18 months as part of an effort to eliminate racial wealth inequalities in the city, which the program argues is the result of "ongoing systemic racism."

The Editor says...
[#1] Yes, widespread poverty could be the result of systemic racism.  But it's more likely the result of drug use, illegitimate children, incompetent education, and a lifetime of bad decisions.  [#2] Notice the misuse of the word family:  It apparently means unmarried women and their illegitimate children, with no men in the picture.  [#3] If white people are excluded from this program, that's "ongoing systemic racism" right there!

Oakland launches one of the largest guaranteed income programs in the country.  Oakland plans to start a guaranteed income program this spring for 600 residents — one of the largest such programs in the country, city officials said — as Bay Area leaders search for solutions to rising poverty and inequality in the wake of the pandemic.  Through the pilot program, residents will receive $500 a month for at least 18 months with no strings attached, Mayor Libby Schaaf said at a Tuesday news conference.  Checks could be in residents' hands by this spring or summer.  Low-income families — with at least one child under 18 — who are Black, indigenous or people of color will be randomly selected through an application process to vet eligibility, Schaaf said.  Officials said those groups suffer from the greatest wealth disparity, according to data on Oakland's population.  More than 70,000 people — or 16.7% of Oakland's population — live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.

125 low-income mothers of color in Marin County can receive $1K a month in guaranteed income.  Mirroring similar efforts in cities such as Stockton and Oakland, Marin County supervisors this week approved participating in a universal basic income experiment to give 125 low-income mothers of color $1,000 a month for two years.  The county will spend $400,000 and the remaining $3 million will come from the Marin Community Foundation, the Marin Independent Journal reported.  To qualify, the women must have a child under the age of 18.  Participants will be selected at random from among 4,600 people who have already received direct cash aid from the foundation with the help of the Family Independence Initiative.

Oakland California Begins $500/Month Payments to Low Income Residents, White People Not Allowed.  Oakland California is beginning a pilot for giving low income families $500/month with no strings attached for up to 600 families.  The goal is to bridge the income disparity gap; however, poor white residents are not permitted to apply for the program.

Crackdown at Echo Park homeless encampment begins as LAPD moves in, clashes with protesters.  Authorities on Wednesday night [3/24/2021] moved to close down a homeless encampment in Echo Park that has become a highly charged test of city leaders' struggle to balance constituents' demands for clean streets and public spaces with the ever-growing tragedy of people who have no homes.  Scores of police moved into the area, where they were met by more than 200 protesters who oppose the sweep.  The Los Angeles Police Department repeatedly told protesters to leave, and by early Thursday morning, the crowd had dwindled and the protest had mostly wound down.

San Francisco set up homeless tent villages during the pandemic.  Now, the city is paying more than $5,000 per month for each tent.  The City by the Bay has been dealing with serious homelessness for years, and during the pandemic things have gotten markedly worse.  San Francisco has gone beyond having its everyday poop-in-the-streets problem and rampant drug and alcohol abuse among its homeless population — which, by the way, was enabled when the city's health department announced it would provide free drugs and alcohol to homeless people staying at city-leased hotels in order to keep them from breaking pandemic quarantine requirements.  Now the city is realizing the financial hit it is taking with the longstanding homeless camps it authorized last May with its "safe-sleeping villages" as the state shuttered indoor homeless facilities.  The villages are a network of tent encampments spread across the city that were OK'd at the same time that it began placing hundreds of homeless in hotel rooms and RVs, MarketWatch reported last spring.  Now the financial chickens are coming home to roost.

San Francisco is paying $5,000 per month for each homeless tent.  Homelessness is really expensive for the people who are paying for it.  Last year, San Francisco set up six "safe sleeping villages" during the pandemic, including one right outside City Hall.  Basically these sites are sanctioned tent camps where the homeless live on city property with bathrooms and free meals.  It turns out the city is paying $5,000 per month for each tent.

Activists say 'Barney & Friends' theme song playing on repeat at vacant San Pedro property for weeks is anti-homeless harassment.  The theme song from "Barney & Friends" has been blaring 24 hours a day for weeks on Palos Verdes Street in San Pedro.  There are about two dozen homeless individuals who have pitched tents on the sidewalk there, and they say the blaring kids' music is a not-so-subtle way to get them to move.  "It's psychological," said Danielle Nunez of Street Watch LA, a mutual aid organization that helps the homeless.  "It is to keep people up.  They can't have a quiet space and it's playing at nighttime so that people literally cannot sleep."  The vacant property is run by Jerico Development, Inc., and is used for filming.

San Francisco's "Progressive" Drug Policies Kill Hundreds Annually.  Last year, 621 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco.  To put this in perspective, 173 people died from COVID-19, which is identified as the primary public health crisis in the Bay Area.  For years, San Francisco has tacitly encouraged drug abuse with remarkably lenient policies, and those policies are now inadvertently killing hundreds of people annually.  San Francisco uses a policy approach called "harm reduction," which stresses "culturally competent, non-judgmental treatment that demonstrates respect and dignity for the individual."  But this approach, as it is practiced within San Francisco, is inhumane and cruel.  It is destroying the dignity of the lives that some could have with more sensible policies.  In addition to overdose deaths skyrocketing, drug abuse has increased in San Francisco, and it is becoming more difficult for addicts to affect positive change.

Proposed corporate tax hike in California would aid homeless.  A California coalition is proposing legislation to boost taxes on wealthy multinational corporations to raise more than $2 billion a year to house tens of thousands of homeless people, addressing what has become a worsening problem in the country's most populous state.  Supporters say Assembly Bill 71 would reinvent California's approach to solving homelessness — providing for the first time an ongoing, sufficient state funding source to get people off the streets.  Opponents say it would contribute to the perception that California is hostile to business.

San Francisco To Hire Social Workers Instead Of Cops To Handle Homelessness, Drug Addiction, And Mental Illness On Public Transit.  San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has six vacancies for police officers but plans instead to fill those positions with social workers to handle issues involving the homeless and those with mental illness or drug addiction.  The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the public transit system has $2 million in its budget to fill the vacancies (for an average salary and benefits package worth about $333,000) but will instead hire a supervisor and "20 crisis intervention specialists," the outlet reported.  Last year, the board approved a plan that only added 10 specialists to BART's bureau of progressive policing.

Overdose Deaths Far Exceed COVID-19 Deaths In San Francisco.  The number of San Francisco residents who have died from drug overdoses during the past year far exceeds the number who have died from COVID-19.  A record high number of 621 people died from overdoses in 2020 compared to the 173 who have died from COVID-19, according to statistics reported by The Associated Press.  In 2019, 441 people died from drug overdoses in the city, which gives 2020 the grim distinction of having experienced a staggering increase of more than 40%.  The overdose statistics of 2019 were a 70% increase from those in 2018.

San Francisco Dems Threaten Paper for Reporting on Homeless Mess.  When you can't fix the problem, you can always shoot the messenger.  Whether it's election fraud, my topic yesterday, or eliminating crime reporting, also my topic yesterday, or the homeless mess, Democrats are increasingly trying to shoot the messengers and impose a broad spectrum censorship locally and nationally.  And San Francisco, as usual, points the way.

California, There It Goes.  [Scroll down]  Patrick's Roadhouse is still there, but Santa Monica, like the rest of the city, is a shell.  As I wrote a few months ago, 120 stores were smashed and looted in the business district during the May/June Floyd riots.  To this day, it's a ghost town with plywood on nearly every window.  You know what else is everywhere?  Homeless people.  Not just glassy-eyed gutter punks lounging in decrepit tents.  I mean ranting, fully naked zombies defecating and peeing on every corner.  It's been called Skid Row by the Sea for years, but today Skid Marks by the Sea is more accurate.  It looks like someone opened the prison in Aliens 3 and let the inmates out at Wilshire and Ocean Avenue.  (Side note:  the median price of a home in Santa Monica is $3,750,000, making it the third most expensive ZIP code in America.)

San Francisco, Homeless Encampment.  San Francisco's hotels and motels are slowly emptying of the homeless people that the city placed there during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The city simply can't afford the $260 per night, per person, price tag of housing approximately 2,000 people — just a portion of the estimated 8,000 people who live on the street.  Where will they go?  Elected officials have come up with a new plan:  turn the whole city into a network of homeless encampments.  In June, city officials and departments developed a list of 42 potential sites that could be equipped with spaces for tents and mobile bathrooms.  The urban campers, most with addiction and mental health issues, would be provided with free delivered meals and other services.  Several sites were erected, including one outside City Hall and one in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood.  Among the other proposed locations:  25 public elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as a Boys and Girls Club, city parks, and recreation areas.

The Real Cost of Homelessness.  In 2016, Los Angeles Mayor Gil Garcetti proclaimed, as might an emperor or king, he would empower citizens to "transform their streets and urban corridors into vibrant, walkable spaces that reflect the unique characteristics of their communities."  As of September 2020, Los Angeles has solved its homeless problem.  The approximate 60,000 homeless encamped on Los Angeles' streets, urban corridors, parks, and freeway underpasses vanished to be replaced by approximately 60,000 unhoused residents.  Empowered by Garcetti's hands-off the homeless order of protection issued for "public health and safety reasons," these unhoused are reimagining their lives free of health and safety regulations and taxation applicable to the housed.

San Francisco Residents On Edge Over Rising Number Of Home Burglaries.  "Our next-door neighbor got broken into and they had already experienced another break-in a month prior to that," said Ginny Fang, who lives in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.  A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said they're getting more reports of break-ins recently through the garage.  "We're doing all we can to step up patrols and to ultimately arrest those who are committing these crimes," said SFPD Officer Robert Rueca.  Fang said thieves several weeks ago stole four of her family's bicycles by breaking and entering.

California: The Golden State in Utter Decay.  Wildfires, unfortunately, are among the least of California's woes.  Homelessness in the state has become a major problem, and one that is having a significant impact on the quality of life for taxpayers.  According to a San Francisco Chronicle article published last December, "[w]hile the latest counts compiled by the federal government show that America's homeless population is growing again after more than a decade of declines, the entire national increase and more can be attributed to California alone."  In other words, homelessness continues to be on the decline in the U.S. if we exclude California.  So how does California plan on addressing the problem?  A bill passed by the state's Legislature earlier this month will empower Governor Newsom to appoint a "Homelessness Czar."  Government actions, including regulations which aggressively target landlords and programs that provide handouts enticing the homeless to settle in the state, have perpetuated the homeless situation, but more taxpayer dollars and government interference is always the solution for California.  Got a problem?  Throw money at it, and let the government make it worse.

Video: San Fran man smokes meth while skateboarding with mattress as a sail.  Just another day in San Francisco, with mentally challenged drug addicts being among the few using the streets and parks of the Paris of the Pacific.  Jaded city residents have become so accustomed to strange human sights they hardly shrug, but it's become so bad that the mostly liberal inhabitants are starting to turn on their progressive leaders.  @SFGotham, an independent researcher who exposes the city's crime, corruption and policy failures on Twitter, saw something this week that made the crusader look twice.  [Video clip]

San Francisco's Deathly Compassion.  San Francisco has a serious drug problem, particularly among its homeless population.  Roughly 8,000 people live on the city's sidewalks or in its alleyways, public parks, and playgrounds.  People with needles in their arms and legs, holding glass pipes and lighters, are a regular sight.  Users go limp in doorways and tents, or they career about, dazed and distraught, or angry and violent.  Dealers selling heroin, Fentanyl, methamphetamine, and crack are ubiquitous.  So, too, are the advocates for "harm reduction," which holds that widespread drug use should be accepted but its worst effects mitigated.  Organizations such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Harm Reduction Coalition, the Drug Users Union, and even the Department of Public Health, in partnership with The DOPE Project, focus almost exclusively on "safe drug use."  In fact, the Drug Users Union's goal is "to create a safe environment where people can use & enjoy drugs as well as receive services."  This attitude led to today's humanitarian crisis:  thousands of people living on San Francisco's streets, languishing in an endless cycle of homelessness and addiction.

Insufferable San Francisco.  Where I live, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the American city hardly exists at all. [...] I had figured I could stick around forever.  Then I took my daughter to see The Nutcracker.  The two blocks we had to walk from the train station to War Memorial Opera House made a greater impression on my nine-year-old than any magical offering from the SF Ballet.  The city greeted her with the army of cracked nuts, the ubiquitous 'zombies' who aimlessly roam our streets.  The need to be hyperaware of their presence while pirouetting to avoid discarded syringes and human excrement left her depressed and terrified for days.  My daughter refuses to go to the ballet at the War Zone Opera House ever again.

Hazmat crew cleans up homeless mess at luxury San Fran hotel.  One of the premier West Coast hotels required a hazardous materials cleanup crew, the result of the city's policy of housing the homeless on the taxpayer's dime during the Covid crisis.  The Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, a luxury hotel atop swanky Nob Hill, dispatched unruly guests to another undisclosed property.  Afterwards, a hazmat team showed up to tidy up the premises, according to ace KRON reporter Erica Sandberg.  "The guests wouldn't abide by the rules.  The city paid Ubers and cabs moved them to a different luxury hotel," she said.

The Editor says...
Homeless bums never "abide by the rules."  That's why they're homeless!

Meth lab found at San Francisco hotel room used as city COVID-19 shelter.  Police arrested two adults accused of operating a low level meth lab at a San Francisco hotel designated as a safe shelter for people on quarantine, at risk for COVID19, or without housing.  The call came in about a strong chemical odor coming from a hotel room and officers responded to the Civic Center Motor Inn about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday [8/1/2020].  Police and residents had to wait for a hazmat team to determine the safety of the site.

Police shut down alleged meth lab in SF hotel reportedly being used as COVID-19 shelter.  The San Francisco Police Department arrested two individuals Saturday [8/1/2020] for allegedly operating a meth lab in the guest room of a hotel in the 300 block of Ninth Street in the city's Civic Center neighborhood, officials said.  Multiple news outlets reported the incident occurred at the Civic Center Motor Inn, which is being used to offer temporary shelter for people without housing and at risk for COVID-19.

San Francisco drafts museum staff as drug gophers for homeless.  An interesting development since the Covid lockdowns in the City on the Bay has been the clandestine placement of homeless people in luxury hotels, such as the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins on Nob Hill.  As it turns out, the government is using unlikely public employees who otherwise would have been furloughed to serve as vice couriers for them.  One such city staffer, for example, was a curator with the San Francisco city museums before the shut down, said an informed city source who requested anonymity.

San Francisco reporter details 'disaster' of city's 'hotels for homeless' program: 'It is pandemonium'.  Thousands of homeless people have been housed in San Francisco's empty hotels in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.  However, City Journal contributor Erica Sandberg told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Wednesday [7/15/2020] the policy has been an "absolute disaster,"  "It's solving exactly nothing and as a matter of fact, it's making all the problems worse," said Sandberg, who described the scene inside the hotels as "about as bad as you can imagine, only exponentially worse."  "You are talking drug-fueled parties, overdoses, deaths, people are being assaulted.  You have sexual assaults going on, it is pandemonium," she said.  "It is extremely bad and it needs to stop."

San Francisco sends guests to luxury Nob Hill hotel ... in a jail bus.  San Francisco is housing 'emergency workers' at the Mark Hopkins on Nob Hill, one of the finest and most storied luxury hotels on the West Coast.  It seems some arrive in jail buses with metal screens and bars on them, as this exclusive PressCalifornia.com photo suggests.  And after they check in, the city pays for their alcohol and marijuana deliveries.  Who are these guests and why are they there?  The municipal government, under the guise of housing essential COVID medical teams and responders, is covertly placing the homeless in city hotels.

After a lawsuit by residents, San Francisco finally cleans homeless camps out of the Tenderloin district.  The coronavirus pandemic was (and still is) a potential disaster for the homeless.  In San Francisco, the city was forced to reduce the number of homeless people in each of the city's shelters to prevent them from becoming hotspots for the virus.  But doing that meant a lot more people living on the streets.  In the Tenderloin district, the number of tents went from 158 on March 3 to 391 by May 1.  Even the police officers who normally handle drug-dealing in the area were pulled out creating a defacto lawless zone, a homeless version of Seattle's CHOP.  And just as happened with CHOP, local residents quickly got fed up and filed a lawsuit against the city.

Sanctioned SF tent camp riles Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.  The cascade of tents hitting San Francisco's liberal Haight-Ashbury has stunned merchants and residents alike, and led to an outcry over the city's decision to set up a "safe sleeping site" at one of the neighborhood's busiest intersections.  "We have had a problem with homelessness for some time, but this is the first time we are seeing tents in the neighborhood," said resident Michelle Leighton, spokeswoman for Safe Healthy Haight, a neighborhood group formed this month to respond to the city's plan to put a sanctioned tent camp on the site of the old McDonald's restaurant at Haight and Stanyan streets just across from Golden Gate Park.

San Fransisco socially distances its homeless encampments amid coronavirus pandemic.  San Fransisco is giving homeless encampments the social distance treatment.  The city is joining others around the world in begrudgingly authorizing its homeless encampments by marking safely distanced spaces for tents and other makeshift shelters.  In San Fransisco's Civic Center, about 80 tents are now lined in tidy rows on a wide street near San Francisco City Hall, part of a "safe sleeping village" opened last week.  The village is one of two Mayor London Breed has planned to open, with another coming to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

Free Booze, Pot, and Smokes for San Francisco's Homeless.  San Francisco officials deny direct involvement in a controversial program, funded by private sources, that provides free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes to homeless people living in the city's hotels during the Covid-19 outbreak.  After news about the special deliveries was leaked and caused embarrassment on social media, the city's Department of Public Health issued a statement claiming that "rumors that guests of San Francisco's alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false."  Except they're not false.  DPH, which administers and oversees the program, is staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and security personnel.  The department manages, stores, and distributes the substances.  Employee time is involved.  Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding.  According to DPH spokesperson Jenna Lane, the philanthropists who helped purchase the substances wish to remain anonymous.

San Francisco neighborhood sues over 300 percent jump of homeless sidewalk tents during coronavirus outbreak.  San Francisco is being sued by a law school and residents and businesses in the inner-city Tenderloin District who argue sidewalks are "unsanitary, unsafe, and often impassable" as homeless people crowd streets amid the coronavirus pandemic.  The number of tents and makeshift structures in the Tenderloin has tripled since January, as homeless shelters are forced to operate at low capacity in order to enforce stringent social distancing requirements, reports say.  The federal lawsuit, filed last week in part by the University of California Hastings College of Law, does not seek financial damages but instead demands the city clean up streets littered with drug needles and human waste.  The litigants are also seeking help for people living in sidewalk tents, saying they are at increased risk of COVID-19.

Homeless People In San Francisco Hotel Rooms Are Being Given Free Alcohol And Drugs.  The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) confirmed in a tweet Tuesday that homeless people put up in hotels are being given free alcohol and drugs.  A Twitter user named "T Wolf" who calls himself a "formerly homeless addict," sent a tweet this week saying he's heard reports of homeless people getting free alcohol, marijuana and methadone.  "I just found out that homeless placed in hotels in SF are being delivered Alcohol, Weed and Methadone because they identified as an addict/alcoholic for FREE.  You're supposed to be offering treatment.  This is enabling and is wrong on many levels," he said.

Coronavirus Isn't Slowing the Destruction of San Francisco.  In almost any situation, learning through direct personal experience is preferable to learning from photos, videos, or a verbal description of another person's experience. [...] Knowing this, San Francisco-based writer Erica Sandberg has been organizing what she calls "see for yourself/think for yourself" walks through her city so regular residents can take in the sights, sounds, and smells of the homeless crisis for themselves and not rely upon the curated experiences of activists, politicians, and the mainstream media.  Even more importantly, her tours are not narrated, allowing participants to draw their own conclusions about what they're viewing.  What they're all seeing is terrifying and a city "spiraling out of control."  San Francisco residents have been subject to a "shelter in place" order since March 17, but most of the restrictions in the order don't apply to people "experiencing homelessness."  From what Sandberg has witnessed, drug dealing and abuse hasn't been affected in any way.

Supes vote to acquire more hotel rooms to shelter homeless.  San Francisco must quickly secure thousands of more hotel rooms to shelter the homeless amid the spread of coronavirus under legislation approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.  The board's vote comes just days after 92 unhoused people tested positive for the disease after an outbreak at one city shelter.  Board members have clashed with Mayor London Breed and her administration for weeks over the best strategy for how to thin out the shelter populations.  They have called for those living on the street to be moved into hotel rooms so that they can shelter-in-place, as those who are housed have done under a public health order since March 17.

Because money is plentiful, and most vagrants are clean, sober, responsible citizens:
SF plans to lease 7,000 hotel rooms to isolate homeless people from the coronavirus.  San Francisco now plans to lease 7,000 hotel rooms to provide shelter for homeless people as well as first responders and health care workers battling the spread of the coronovirus, city officials said Wednesday [4/8/2020].  This would more than triple the rooms now under contract.  The city already has committed $35 million for the next three months to lease the first batch of units.  The overall effort would cost San Francisco roughly $105 million — some but not all of which would be reimbursed by the federal and state governments.

SF Ditches Plan To House Homeless At Moscone Center During Pandemic In Favor Of Hotel Rooms.  San Francisco officials have reversed a plan to shelter homeless people at the Moscone West Convention Center.  Instead, the city will continue with a plan to place homeless people at hotels in an effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, said Trent Rohrer, director of the city's Human Services Agency.

Bet Your Life — Vote for Democrats.  I can only imagine what the [Wuhan virus] death toll will be in California.  San Francisco has immune-suppressed HIV-AIDs affected citizens (about 12,985 people living with HIV in San Francisco) and thousands of homeless people living on the streets.  So far, the homeless do not seem particularly affected, but if (or once) it makes an appearance there, I suspect it will take a substantial toll.  I suppose many of these people are already quite unhealthy, live cheek by jowl outdoors on feces-heaped streets, and lack access to means to practice proper hygiene.

The New Favelas.  Progressives routinely denounce economic inequality, yet the nation's most liberal cities offer the most dramatic illustrations of it, with tech-driven wealth at the top and addiction-driven homelessness at the bottom.  In the past five years, some streets in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and Seattle have started to resemble Latin American favelas, or shantytowns, with thousands sleeping in tents, shacks, and packing crates.  One United Nations official recently compared West Coast encampments to the slums of New Delhi.  California governor Gavin Newsom has declared homelessness a "state of emergency."  And yet, as the coronavirus pandemic persists, West Coast cities have legalized and provided services to these encampments, rather than enacting emergency shelter and moving people off the streets.  This reckless decision follows a disturbing trend.  Last year, Oakland began supplying 22 officially sanctioned homeless encampments with services, sanitation, and supplies.

Coronavirus: L.A. to Move Homeless into Neighborhood Recreation Centers.  Mayor Eric Garcetti is going ahead with a plan to move thousands of homeless people in Los Angeles into recreation centers in residential neighborhoods as part of the city's response to the coronavirus pandemic.  Rumors have been circulating among residents, and were confirmed on Saturday by the L.A. Times.

The Editor says...
During the current lockdown, you and I can't go to church, or to a wedding or a funeral, but the homeless bums are being moved into "recreation centers" where they will presumably all live in one room.

Few homeless off California's streets as virus spreads.  Homeless people in California congregated in parks, popped into each other's tents on sidewalks and packed closely together to get food Friday, routine scenes that took on different and dangerous significance as state officials try to contain spread of the coronavirus.

A Real-Life Story of How Coronavirus Hysteria Oppresses People.  Commentators have noted the dishonest reporting of statistics to buttress the false claim that deaths from the coronavirus (hereafter, COVID-19) are far in excess of mortality from the common flu when in fact the opposite is likely the case. [...] I was indeed shocked when Nathan called me on March 17 to report that the wedding and reception, for which all the invitations had gone out and for which they had planned for over a year, were being canceled on the "Order of the Health Officer of the County of Riverside."  I obtained a copy of the so-called "order" that "prohibits" gatherings of ten or more individuals in the County of Riverside.  According to the text of the decree, "Violation of ... this Order is a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment or both."  The edict exempts gatherings of government officials, including those at the Health Department and their colleagues who drafted the order.  Another curious exemption from the order is those involved in "congregate living settings."  I suppose that's to cover Riverside County, California's resident population of homeless bums, who are stuck living in "congregate living settings" in their feces- and needle-infested encampments.

Because there's so much extra cash on hand...
California plans to house homeless in hotels during coronavirus pandemic.  Gov. Gavin Newsom estimates 60,000 homeless people will be infected with COVID-19 in the coming months and those people will need a place to recover in isolation.  On Wednesday [3/18/2020] Newsom allocated $150 million in emergency funding to deal with the crisis and announced a plan to house the homeless in hotels and motels across the state.  The state would lease the property and local counties would control the operations.  According to the governor's office, 950 sites have been identified across 53 counties.

Citing coronavirus, homeless families seize 12 vacant homes in Los Angeles.  A group of homeless and housing-insecure Angelenos seized more vacant, publicly owned homes in El Sereno on Wednesday [3/18/2020], arguing that government officials have failed to provide the shelter that's necessary for them to remain healthy during the coronavirus pandemic.  The occupation followed a similar takeover Saturday, when two families and a man moved into one of the neighborhood's dozens of empty homes — all owned by Caltrans.  The state agency bought them years ago as part of a now-failed plan to extend the 710 Freeway.

Watch Why People Are 'Fleeing California' — It Ain't Pretty.  Yes, those lumps of clothes really are people sleeping on the streets.  Cable car rides are often ruined by the unmistakable whiff of sun-soaked urine.  Small business owners — which employ 40% of the workforce — are held down by masochistic regulators.  And people are getting [...] out of California.  They're fleeing.  A new Prager University video called "Fleeing California" — which will probably be censored by one of the tech giants [soon] — highlights the lowlights of California and explains why so many are heading for Texas.

Language warning:  Non-stop profanity on the part of the cameraman.  Turn the sound off.
Democrat and Disease Infested San Francisco — where people bring dead animals to restaurants.  A crazy guy brought a dead raccoon into McDonald's.  [Video clip]

As Trump wins praise for effective coronavirus response, blue cities do opposite, threatening its spread it through homelessness.  The left's blue cities do all they can to encourage and reward homelessness, amounting to the country's great enabler of homelessness as a lifestyle.  Blue cities employ and are expanding gargantuan bureaucracies dedicated to "servicing" the homelessness, which encourages a hunt for more "clients."  San Francisco alone spends $77,000 per homeless "client."  They also refuse to enforce quality of life laws, such as those against vagrancy, public camping, drug use, public alcohol consumption, prostitution, and public urination and defecation, promoting homelessness even more.  Some are encouraging squatting on private property.  Others are permitting the homeless to take over public parks and spaces.  Some, such as Bill de Blasio's New York, are secretly busing the homeless to other cities to keep them from creating problems in their own cities.  It's a massive tax on those who own the overpriced homes in those cities, but taxes are the left's bread and butter.  It's a money merry-go-round, all done in the name of "compassion."

The Tired and Poor Are Already Here.  Twelve thousand children are homeless here in California, and our homeless population has risen to 151,000.  Last year, California was single-handedly responsible for the national increase in homelessness. [...] What does it say about our leaders, and our nation, that a closed fist for struggling Americans and an open hand for those who break our immigration laws is a winning political strategy?

GOP challenger says Schiff has done nothing to fight homeless crisis in California district.  ep.  Adam Schiff's Republican challenger accused the Democrat on Friday of ignoring the homelessness crisis in his California district.  "He's done nothing, or virtually nothing, for our district," Eric Early, who announced his candidacy to represent California's 28th Congressional District in July, told Fox News.  "Certainly not a darn thing for homelessness."  "It's a mess out here, it's terrible," he added.  Early, a Los Angeles attorney, made his comments about Schiff while walking through parts of Echo Park and Hollywood, meeting with homeless people and listening to their stories about their situations.

Mike Slater:  Newsom's call for 'housing prescriptions' to solve homelessness 'fundamentally misses' problem.  California radio host Mike Slater responded Sunday [2/23/2020] to Gov. Gavin Newsom's suggestion that doctors "should be able" to prescribe housing like they do medicine, calling it "so off the charts that you don't even know where to begin."  Newsom, a Democrat, initially expressed the idea during his State of the State address last Wednesday, arguing that housing and health care were intertwined.  "The Democrats have been really good at coming up with proposals that are so ridiculous, so off the charts, that you don't even know where to begin... like, deconstructing what they're talking about," Slater told "Fox & Friends" Sunday.

On Leaving the Golden State.  The fabled Ventura Highway is all that separates my artist loft from the beach where surfing first came to the United States. [...] Once my coffee is brewed, my cat and I go hang out on the patio where I may or may not have to chase someone away that is stealing electricity as for some crazy reason all the homeless have smart phones and other electric gadgets but few means to charge them.  From my patio on the 2nd floor landing, I can look down into the central courtyard and, if early enough in the day, sometimes see people crawling out of the bushes so as to relieve themselves against a wall.  Making this problem worse is the fact that I live around a bunch of retired hippies and there is no one on Earth less capable of doing anything than a hippie.  One thing that many of them have not figured out is that they should lock down their WiFi.  Frankly, the quickest way to attract the kind of person that would steal a cat toy, potted plant, bicycle or everything out of your car is to have a neighbor or two broadcasting free WiFi.

Homeless People Are Without Toilets and Going in the Streets.  We Asked the Mayor of LA Why.  Statistics estimate 36,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles, but the city isn't providing bathrooms to most of them.  As the NBCLA I-Team has found, the tons of human waste landing on city streets are creating an urgent public health threat.  In one act caught on camera, a homeless man is seen waking up on South Hope Street.  He unbuckles his belt, walks over to the front door of a business, pulls down his pants, and defecates right on the door mat in broad daylight.

Taking Property for Fun and Profit.  After a group of homeless moms simply moved into a vacant three-bedroom house in Oakland owned by a company that invests in local real estate, local progressives turned them into folk heroes.  These women weren't squatters who took something that wasn't theirs, but valiant protesters who were standing up for their communities against — all together now — corporate speculators.  As one of these Oakland moms said, "Housing is a human right.  I pay bills there.  I pay water, PG&E, internet.  We live there.  We want to purchase the home; it needs to belong back in the hands of the community.  It was stolen through the foreclosure crisis."  That certainly puts a new spin on the term "property ownership."

The Democrat Left is cruel and sadistic.  Anyone who has driven the streets of downtown Los Angeles or walked the streets of San Francisco should vote out every single person currently in office, for they have allowed the crisis to grow without doing a thing but surrender their constituents to the terrible impact on their quality of life.  Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi are among the worst offenders.  Neither of them cares about his own district; they care only about keeping the power they have in D.C.

Decriminalization of drugs fueling meth and homelessness in California.  The same people who demand that Congress and state governments spend even more money to "combat" the twin drug and homelessness crises never seem to connect the dots back to their decriminalization policies or admit that they are causing a rise in crime.  One journalist in California is not scared to pin the tail on the donkey — in the case of the Golden State, the infamous Prop 47.  Right around 2014-2015 is when the drug crisis exploded nationwide, including in California, roughly around the same time homelessness soared, particularly in the Golden State, along with the rise in theft and other crimes.  What else happened around the same time?  California passed Prop 47, which downgraded drug and theft crimes.  The result was a logical consequence to an illogical policy.  Bill Lamb, VP and general manager of Fox 11 in Los Angeles, delivered a TV commentary last week pinning the blame for the homeless and drug problems squarely on Prop 47.

Dr. Drew Pinsky hits Adam Schiff on homeless crisis in his own district: 'He's asleep at the wheel'.  Senate impeachment trial manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is "asleep at the wheel" when it comes to his own district and is ignoring issues that matter, like the state's homeless crisis, Dr. Drew.  Pinsky said Thursday [1/30/2020].  Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, Pinsky said he started thinking that maybe he should run against Schiff because, every day he doesn't do something, three more homeless people die in the county of Los Angeles.  While Pinsky said he is "categorically not running" for Schiff's seat, he couldn't ignore the crisis unfolding in front of him.

Why Are Liberal Cities Such a Mess?  Many major U.S. cities run by liberal Democrats are in rough shape.  They are afflicted by the problems of homelessness, violent crime, gangs, and unemployment to a far greater degree than the country as a whole. [...] San Francisco actually has maps so people can track where the worst incidences of human waste are on the sidewalks.  The homeless population now approaches 7000 and there is no law prohibiting sleeping on the streets, sidewalks, or other public places.  Discarded syringes are everywhere.  San Francisco's property crime rate is the highest in the nation and "smash and grab" thefts involving broken car windows are so commonplace that repair shops have waiting lists.  The DA's office no longer prosecutes "victimless" crimes like prostitution or drug possession, resulting in a massive influx of drug dealers into the city.

As California's homeless people camp out on railroad tracks, train-related deaths are rising.  California's railroad tracks are now lined with men and women sleeping in tents or under cardboard boxes, from the underpasses of Oakland and L.A. to the farmlands of the Central Valley.  As a result, train deaths have become the latest side effect of the state's vast unmet need for affordable shelter, according to experts who have linked the homeless crisis to the steady uptick in train deaths in California.  The state annually leads the nation in pedestrian railroad fatalities, even when accounting for its larger population.

San Francisco homeless crisis is a sad and terrible thing to see:  Maria Bartiromo.  FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo describes the homeless crisis as she witnessed it when visiting San Francisco, California and discusses the policy issues that have created the problem.  [Video clip]

18 Signs That The Social Decay In America Is Worse Than It Has Ever Been Before.  [#15] Tucker Carlson says that downtown San Francisco is now filthier than downtown Mumbai, India.

San Francisco homeless crisis worries some attendees at JPMorgan summit: 'The Bill Clinton of cities'.  JPMorgan is holding its annual health care conference in San Francisco this week.  But some attendees — when gazing out the windows of their $2,000-a-night hotel rooms or past the doors of another champagne-infused party — have reportedly noticed the city has lost ground in its fight against homelessness.  "I feel unsafe walking around at night, especially as a young woman," Selin Kurnaz, a co-founder of Massive Bio, told Bloomberg.  Other executives at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference have gone on social media to voice their concerns about the city's decline and have posted about watching city officials clean human excrement off the streets.

Homeless Mom Calls Offer To Help Squatters Occupying Oakland House 'An Insult'.  One of the homeless mothers who has been living in a vacant West Oakland house since Nov. 18 scoffed Saturday night [1/11/2020] at an offer by the house's owner to pay to move them out and shelter them for the next two months, calling the offer "an insult."  Earlier Saturday, the property owner planning to have two homeless mothers evicted next week from a West Oakland home offered on Saturday to pay to shelter them for the next two months.  Real estate investment firm Wedgewood Properties is offering to foot the bill for their move and to pay a nonprofit to house the women for the next two months, a spokesman said.

California waterways [are] polluted with alarming levels of dangerous fecal bacteria due to homelessness.  California's beaches, rivers, and streams have become contaminated with alarming levels of dangerous fecal bacteria thanks to the liberal state's escalating homelessness crisis.  President Trump recently spotlighted the terrifying epidemic on Twitter, [...] Predictably, the Left mocked Trump, saying he was wrong.  A San Francisco official even disputed his allegations.  However, experts say Trump is correct:  California's waterways are becoming increasingly polluted with disease-promoting bacteria because homeless people defecate and bathe in public rivers and streams.  This is dangerous not only for them, but for the public at large because the bacteria can cause an infectious disease epidemic.

Here's a Look Inside LA's New $600,000 to $700,000 Condos for the Homeless.  Sure, most of us can't afford a $600,000 condo in a trendy neighborhood, in one of the most expensive places to live in the country.  But if you're homeless in Los Angeles, a condo can be yours!  The new condo development is the first of 118 projects to be built over the next six years to house the homeless and other needy people in Los Angeles, California, according to the mayor's office.

A media that fails to report the biggest stories is no fit custodian.  In a year in which the homelessness crisis has been front and center of media attention, it seems that not everyone is pulling heir weight.  While there was a national improvement, the Golden State dragged down the numbers. [...] And this from the state represented by two of the Democratic Party's top dogs.  Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi both represent California, and in many ways, represent their party on the national stage.  These are the folks that are determined to shape the country if their team wins in 2020.

Homelessness Crisis in the Not So Golden State.  The nation of hope, hard work, wealth, and unlimited potential is reeling from a new Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report that claims our priorities do not include the care of the most vulnerable of our society.  During the season when charitable giving is on the minds of the people, the homeless population rates low on the humanitarian programs list.  The ironic and incredibly inconvenient truth is California leads the way, adding an implausible 16.4% of unsheltered families, veterans, and elder Americans attempting to survive on the streets.  The report also highlights a boost of 21,306 homeless people in the Golden State compared to last year, which essentially renders the progress other states have worked diligently to achieve null and void.  The unsheltered population decreased dramatically in 29 states — including Washington, D.C.  It should've been a banner year to celebrate, but California skewed the curve.

Ben Carson: I hoped to find more 'urgency in the leadership' in California on homelessness.  Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said Thursday that California's government is not showing "urgency" in finding constructive solutions to the state's homelessness epidemic.  Carson told Ed Henry exclusively on "The Story" that the U.S. has made great strides over the last 10 years to reduce homelessness — if the figures omitted the Golden State.  "It's truly amazing.  We've actually been making very good progress over the course of the last decade, in terms of homelessness, except in California," he said.

Homelessness crisis:  From houseboats to boulders, unconventional methods used to tackle problem in 2019.  [Scroll down]  The homeless situation in Oakland, Calif., is pretty grim.  The city has seen a 47 percent increase in homelessness in the past two years and elected leaders like Councilman Noel Gallo say the situation is only getting worse.  Currently, city council members are considering a proposal that would house 1,000 homeless people living in the Bay Area on a cruise ship.  The idea was introduced by City Council President Rebecca Kaplan who said her plan "could be a great way to house a lot of people quickly" and added that "cruise ships have been used for emergency housing after natural disasters and for extra housing for things like the Olympics."  Kaplan is expected to present her full proposal to the council in January and claims her plan will be at "no or low" cost to the city because the people on aboard would pay for their rooms based on their income.

The Editor says...
[#1] Most of the homeless have an income of zero, or near-zero.  Many have an income based largely or entirely on theft.  This idea will not pay for itself.  [#2] This is not "emergency housing."  It will not be temporary.  The bums will come aboard and stay for the rest of their miserable lives if no pressure is applied.  [#3] This 1,000-passenger ship will fill up immediately, and another one will be demanded.  [#4] Subsequent ships will fill up quickly with illegal aliens.  That might not be a bad thing.  Maybe they could all go on a nice cruise:  A one-way voyage to Yucatán!.

'Really bad job': Trump rips California governor over state's homeless population.  President Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom traded barbs over the growing homeless population in the state.  Following the Democratic debate last week, Newsom blamed the president's Department of Housing and Urban Development, led by Secretary Ben Carson, for the rise in homelessness in his state. [...] Trump didn't take Newsom's remarks lying down.  He fired back on Christmas Day, tweeting, "Governor Gavin N has done a really bad job on taking care of the homeless population in California.  If he can't fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!"

California Governor Gavin Newsom Blames Homelessness On President Trump.  California Governor Gavin Newsom says that California's failure to curb rising homelessness in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco is the fault of President Donald Trump and the Trump Administration, not a stalemate in the California legislature or failed progressive efforts to curb the rise of tent cities and transient populations.  Speaking in Sacramento, California, last week, Newsom claimed that Trump is deliberately withholding "key information" that California needs in order to properly address the homelessness problem, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.  "California is making historic investments now to help our communities fight homelessness," Newsom said.  "But we have work to do and we need the federal government to do its part."

Dorm Housing, Communal TVs, Underground Tunnels Envisioned For 'All-Inclusive' $3 Billion, 300-Acre City For The Homeless.  [Scroll down]  Residents would be provided RFID-enabled wristbands to gain access to their dorm rooms as well as perform tasks such as job check-in, purchasing items with credits, medicine consumption, and more.  Each of the four neighborhoods will have their own cafeteria and kitchen and multiple scheduled eating times to accommodate a 150,000-person population, according to [Daune] Nason.  The neighborhoods will also be fitted with tiered seating for residents to watch TV in a community setting within their neighborhood.

The Editor says...
That's great, except for a few details:  [#1] The taxpayers will pay for it all, as soon as the "crowdfunding" crowd tires of paying, or taxpayers will finish the work when private contributions dry up during construction.  [#2] This place is really going to need a lot of employees — mostly cops and janitors — because homeless bums have a reputation for defecating wherever they please.  [#3] The only thing this project will accomplish is that the residents will no longer be technically homeless.  Nothing about this project will encourage anyone to grow out of it.  [#4]  If U.S. citizenship is not required for residency, the whole place will soon be overrun by illegal aliens.  [#6]  Everyone will be provided with RFID-enabled wristbands.  But homeless bums are not exactly the most responsible adults in town; and before long, one of them will lose his wristband or barter it for drugs.  Then many more will do the same.  Then the government will make this announcement:  To keep you from losing your RFID chip, we will just inject it under your skin, just like we do for pets and livestock.  Then you won't be able to lose it.  If this scenario doesn't sound familiar, you haven't read the book of Revelation, Chapter 13.  [#7]  The proposed Homeless Mall can be built in the middle of nowhere.  It doesn't have to be in the middle of a city.  It doesn't have to be interconnected with tunnels.  It doesn't have to be a work of architechtural beauty.  The people who would be living there are currently living (and defecating) in the streets.  They don't have to live near their places of employment because they have none.  [#8]  Many homeless people are mentally ill and should be locked up.  Many of them are criminals and sociopaths.  Many of them don't want to be told where to live, and can't be forced to move into the Homeless Mall.  How are any of these people going to peacefully co-exist with indigent but otherwise normal families?  [#9]  If there are people living in the streets because apartment rent is too high, or the price of a house is too high, that's probably because of decades of Democratic Party union-pandering tree-hugging big-government regulations.  These conditions were created by the same people who now want to solve the problem by pouring more money on it.  [#10]  Watching TV doesn't help anything, especially if the TV is tuned to CNN.

California Governor Blames Trump, Republican Party for State's Homeless Problems.  Like every other problem facing California, the governor takes zero responsibility and calls on others to take action.  Democrats have been at the helm in California as the homeless problem has spiraled completely out of control.  But somehow it's the Republican Party and Trump's fault.

California's Approach To Homelessness:  That's Not How This Works.  California's festering experience with homelessness is a similar story.  Despite all the spending, and the pleas and plans for additional money, homelessness has spiked 30% since 2017 in San Francisco, grew 16% in the city of Los Angeles and 12% in the county over 2018, and swelled 42% in San Jose over two years.  In Alameda County, the number of homeless has jumped 43% since 2017.  The homeless population has been climbing sharply in Sacramento, and Santa Clara and Kern counties, as well.  Even Sonoma County, known for its wines, not urban problems, has a mile-long tent city.  The misery has reached the point that nearly half of the nation's homeless who sleep on the streets and in other public places are in California.  None can doubt homelessness in California is a genuine crisis.  Human urine and feces litter San Francisco streets (and at least one Safeway aisle), and diseases that plagued man during the Medieval period, as well running-wild rats and accumulating trash, are exhausting Los Angeles.  Violence has reached a point that even veterans of the street haven't seen before.

Dr. Marc Siegel:  San Francisco 'awash in human waste'.  Fox News medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel says San Francisco residents should be worried about the homeless crisis' effect on their health after video surfaced of a homeless man defecating in the middle of an aisle at a local grocery store.  "Isn't it ironic that a city of germaphobes, of exercise-conscious, environmentally conscious [people] ... are now in a city that's awash in human waste, which is spreading hepatitis A outbreaks every year," Siegel said on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday [12/17/2019].  "Big outbreaks of hepatitis A, rats in the streets feeding off of the garbage in sewage, typhus, typhoid fever, rotten bacterial infections and even the plague may be coming."

Homeless Drug Addicts Are Now [Defecating] in the Supermarket Aisles.  San Francisco has more drug addicts than public high school students.  The homeless problem is out of control.

California struggles under the weight of 130,000 people living on the streets.  Officials in Santa Rosa are set to unveil emergency proposals to shelter people in fairgrounds as the city - and the state - struggles with a homeless emergency where more than 130,000 people are living on the streets across California.  In Santa Rosa, around 185 people have set up a mile-long camp along the Joe Rodota Trail, next to Highway 12.  The proposed plan, set to be unveiled on Tuesday, will allow some of those living in the camp and the rest of the 3,000 homeless people in Sonoma County to move into the fairgrounds, The Press Democrat reports.  Leaders in the city, struggling with the biggest homeless camp in its history, are said to have been inspired by how the fairgrounds were used during wildfires and flooding.

Citing crappy streets, Oracle moves annual conference from San Francisco to Las Vegas.  I guess needle-strewn streets and Greta Thunberg murals are not the tourist draws that one would expect!  Citing dirty streets and high hotel costs, Oracle has decided to move its important annual conference from San Francisco. [...] The SFTA estimates the total loss of $64,000,000 a year to the local economy due to this decision.  Oracle's event is the second major conference that has relocated due to public health concerns.

Oakland official wants to house 1,000 homeless people on a cruise ship.  A San Francisco Bay Area city official wants to explore the possibility of using a cruise ship to house up to 1,000 homeless people as the state continues to struggle with the homelessness crisis.  Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan told a council meeting on Tuesday that the ship would be brought to the Port of Oakland, but port officials said Wednesday [12/11/2019] the move would be 'untenable'.  'We respect President Kaplan's desire to address homelessness but Port of Oakland docks are designed to work cargo ships, there isn't the infrastructure to berth a cruise ship,' port spokesman Mike Zampa said.

The Editor says...
[#1]  Who owns this ship?
[#2]  Is this a ship that will never be used for paying passengers again, after this experiment concludes?
[#3]  Who qualifies for admission to this program?
[#4]  Who will feed the thousand people?
[#5]  Are these the same people who are currently defecating in the streets and leaving used needles everywhere?
[#6]  Couldn't the same thing be accomplished with a barge instead of a cruise ship?

San Francisco's 'poor street conditions' a factor in city's loss of $64M Oracle tech conference: reports.  Oracle, a major Silicon Valley tech company, will move its annual OpenWorld conference to Las Vegas next year due to San Francisco's expensive hotel rates and the city's "poor street conditions," according to reports.  The loss of OpenWorld, which has been held in San Francisco for about 20 years, is raising new concerns about whether the city's struggles with homelessness, open drug use and street violence may be scaring off tourism and other business, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  "For the industry, for the city, to have a major conference leave us impacts all of us," Kevin Carroll, chief executive of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, which represents hotel owners, told the newspaper.

Immigrant doctor launches recall petition against California Gov. Newsom.  A San Diego doctor who emigrated from South America is pushing to oust California Gov. Gavin Newsom, arguing the state's left-wing leadership has allowed cities to become "overrun by homelessness."  "I came here legally at age 11.  Having grown up in extreme poverty and being homeless to now being one of San Diego's most prominent physicians, that's the American Dream, that's the California dream.  And that's what Gov. Newsom and left-wingers in the legislature are progressively destroying," James Veltmeyer said on "Fox & Friends" Monday [12/2/2019].  Homelessness is a growing problem in California.  For example, the homeless population in San Francisco has grown to more than 17,000, a 30 percent jump from last year, according to a city database.

A bill would make it harder to control California's thriving rats.  What is behind the rat boom?  Thanks to the end of California's long drought, more fruit has fallen from trees or is tossed into the compost piles that rats love.  Lengthening warm seasons have increased rodent breeding.  Also to blame are policies that have restricted homebuilding in California and thereby driven up rents.  Homelessness is soaring as a result — California is home to 12% of Americans but nearly half the country's "unsheltered", according to federal statistics.  The resulting outdoor defecation feeds roaches for rats to eat.  Clutter and food in homeless encampments offer rats hiding places and additional grub.

San Francisco's Poop Problem.  The City of San Francisco's Department of Public Works responded to tens of thousands of "human or animal waste" reports in the first 10 months of 2019, according to the city data.  The department responded to 25,084 such cases from January through October of this year, according to the city's 311 data portal.  The city is averaging more than 80 waste cases reported to the department every day in 2019 and is on pace to surpass last year's number of excrement reports, the publicly available records show.

Taking off the woke glasses.  Now, we are living in a time in which those committing crimes will not likely face up to consequences befitting their transgressions.  In California, it appears that homelessness and petty crime go together.  All kinds of offenses are occurring with little or no accountability for those involved.  New York is suspending bond and bail for criminality, including assault, arson, bribery, resisting arrest and so much more.  Radical mobs are outright intimidating and assaulting those who don't agree with their philosophy and are mostly getting away with their heinous behavior and actions.  The tiniest bit of common sense would indicate that bad behavior and disregard for law cannot be corrected with inaction.  In other words, bad behavior without consequences begets more bad behavior.  This is elementary stuff, right?

Homeless man hurls bucket of diarrhea at woman near Hollywood Walk of Fame.  A homeless man dumped a bucket of "hot" diarrhea on a Los Angeles woman near the Hollywood Walk of Fame — an unprovoked attack that's left her with PTSD, she said this week.  Heidi Van Tassel said she was about to drive home from a Thai restaurant near the famed tourist area in April when the alleged assailant, Jere Blessings, dragged her out of her vehicle, news station NBC4 reported.  He pulled her into the middle of the street, where he dumped a bucket of feces over her head, she said.

Homeless crimes in L.A. skyrocket [and] devolve into feces attacks.  Crimes committed by homeless persons in Los Angeles — along with the depravity of the attacks — are skyrocketing.  A local NBC affiliate's "Streets of Shame" series tallied the numbers over the past two years while interviewing a victim who was recently covered in human waste.  "It was diarrhea.  Hot liquid.  I was soaked, and it was coming off my eyelashes and into my eyes," victim Heidi Van Tassel said during an interview that aired Monday.  "Paramedics who came to treat me said there was so much of it on me, that it looked like the man was saving it up for a month."  The station said there were 6,528 homeless attacks in 2017, along with another 9,846 crimes reported in 2018.

Oakland's homeless stats soar as pressure grows from residents, businesses for a solution.  Oakland has seen a 47 percent jump in homelessness — one of the largest surges of any California city, according to a one-night street count released in July.  The count, which used federal guidelines, showed Oakland had 4,071 homeless people in 2019, up from 2,761 in 2017.  The increase puts the city's per capita homeless rate higher than neighboring San Francisco and Berkeley and comes at a time when several West Coast cities are struggling with a homeless crisis that's being driven by rising rents, drug addiction, mental illness and pushback from progressives.  The Point-In-Time Count also found that the number of people living in their vehicles had more than doubled, skyrocketing 131 percent.  At the beginning of the year, there were 1,430 people living in their vehicles, up from 618 in 2017.  Roughly half called their cars and vans home while the others sought shelter in recreational vehicles.

Welcome to 'Hotel California'.  After more than 20 years here, the landscape has changed.  Rarely does a day pass when I do not encounter the genderless homeless and their dogs encamped at a traffic signal or in the littered brush at the edge of a parking lot.  Errant shopping carts routinely make their way from local markets to freeway underpasses, where they function as the support columns for an endless tract of tent homes.  Sleeping bags, plastic bags, poly tarps, and cardboard are the cooperative building materials of the street.  With a burgeoning homeless population of some 50,000, Los Angeles now boasts one of the largest unsheltered communities in the United States.  It is a rough group of heroin addicts, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and folks who are simply down and out in Tinseltown.

Is California Becoming Premodern?  Californians know that having tens of thousands of homeless in their major cities is untenable.  In some places, municipal sidewalks have become open sewers of garbage, used needles, rodents and infectious diseases.  Yet no one dares question progressive orthodoxy by enforcing drug and vagrancy laws, moving the homeless out of cities to suburban or rural facilities, or increasing the number of mental hospitals.

The Derangement Syndromes of Our Time.  Who doesn't feel compassion?  Who wouldn't do whatever they can to help someone in need?  But there are intractable problems with compassion gone wild.  In practice, misguided compassion breeds debauchery and dependence.  Anyone wishing to see the former is invited to drive the streets of San Francisco, where they may smell human excrement, tons of which are deposited each week on the sidewalks and gutters by the city's nearly 10,000 homeless.  They may witness thousands of intravenous drug addicts buying and injecting this poison in state-sanctioned acts of slow-motion suicide.  Anyone wishing to see the latter is invited to tour pretty much any legacy housing project in America, where welfare checks and free rent made the presence of a father not merely unnecessary but economically disadvantageous.

Former San Francisco mayoral candidate:  Years of liberal policies have caused homelessness 'tragedy'.  Liberal policies in San Francisco are inflating California's homeless crisis and driving longtime residents out of the city, former mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg said Thursday [10/17/2019].  Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Ainsley Earhardt, Greenberg said that as the state government has moved farther and farther to the left over the years — adapting socialist ideals — the homeless population has only grown.

This city in Idaho is why L.A. can't legally clear its streets of homeless encampments.  The homeless men and women who live in Idaho's largest city are well-nigh invisible.  You might see a line waiting for the main library doors to open.  Or a solitary shape, wrapped in a blanket, sleeping at the base of a bridge along the Boise River.  Or maybe a grizzled veteran holding a cardboard sign at a busy corner.  But just one.  The difference between homelessness in Los Angeles and homelessness in Boise is stark — as in orders of magnitude stark.  There is no skid row here, no Tenderloin like San Francisco's, no American River Parkway as in Sacramento.  Yet, it is this midsize city with its relatively manageable homeless population that is setting the enforcement standards for its much bigger counterparts in the West.

The Homeless Myth:  It's not about the real estate, it's about the drug use and mental illness.  Los Angeles used to be known as the epicenter of the entertainment industry, nutty health fads, and compulsive narcissism.  These days, it's ground zero for the homeless crisis and its myths.  Every underpass harbors grimy tent cities with their own colonies of rats and roaches.  Schizophrenics wander the most fashionable streets shouting at the sky.  Human waste and needles litter downtown streets.  Typhus and Hepatitis A spread out from these oases of misery into the general population.  It's not that the city doesn't care.  If anything, Los Angeles cares too much.  Voters have passed multiple propositions spending over $4.6 billion on the homeless.  They raised their own sales tax.  They built homeless housing at as much as $500,000 per unit.  That's enough to buy a mansion in some parts of America.  Did that solve the problem?  Try walking through one of those tent cities and you'll find out.

Crazy and Woke on the Western Front of Progressive Insanity.  Thanks to progressive ideology as expressed in laws and court rulings, in California today you cannot arrest and hold vagrants for petty theft or possession of hard drugs; you cannot move them out of public spaces unless you can provide them with free and "permanent supportive housing;" you cannot commit demonstrably insane people to asylums; and publicly funded shelters must offer food and urgent care without any preconditions whatsoever.  Testimonials from residents of Venice Beach provide ample evidence of what happens when you impose these progressive policies on an urban area bordered on the west by some of the most inviting beaches and agreeable weather in the world.  An estimated 1,200 homeless people have set up permanent encampments in this three square mile beach town.  They almost never use actual toilets.

Audit Finds Cost of Building Supportive Housing in L.A. Exceeds Median Price of a Market-Rate Condo.  High fees, excessive regulation, and NIMBY ("not in my backyard") opposition to new housing have contributed to Los Angeles' worsening homelessness crisis.  Those same things are now frustrating the city's efforts to construct thousands of units of affordable and supportive housing, where social services can be offered on-site.  On Tuesday [10/8/2019], Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin released a damning audit of the performance of Prop.  HHH, a $1.2 billion bond issue passed overwhelmingly in 2016 to help finance the construction of 10,000 units of housing for homeless and low-income residents.

Some of Los Angeles' homeless could get apartments that cost more than private homes, study finds.  Having made a deep financial commitment to create housing for some of its 27,000 unsheltered homeless people, Los Angeles is falling short in building new apartments to take thousands of people off the streets, a new study finds.  Nearly three years after city voters approved a $1.2 billion construction program over 10 years, the city has yet to see the first building completed.  Average per-apartment costs have zoomed more than $100,000 past prior predictions, the study by city Controller Ron Galperin finds.

San Francisco, Hostage to the Homeless.  Everyone's on drugs here ... and stealing," an ex-felon named Shaku explains as he rips open a blue Popsicle wrapper with his teeth.  Shaku is standing in an encampment of tents, trash, and bicycles, across from San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church.  Another encampment-dweller lights a green crack pipe and passes it around.  A few paces down the street, a gaunt man swipes a credit card through a series of parking meters to see if it has been reported stolen yet.  For the last three decades, San Francisco has conducted a real-life experiment in what happens when a society stops enforcing bourgeois norms of behavior.  The city has done so in the name of compassion toward the homeless.  The results have been the opposite:  street squalor and misery have increased, even as government expenditures have ballooned.

Homelessness Isn't Just a Humanitarian Problem.  California has a homelessness crisis, but Californians don't agree about what it is.  To homeless advocates, social service providers, many politicians and most journalists, it's a humanitarian problem — a social tragedy of rapidly increasing numbers of men, women and families living without shelter, vulnerable to crime, disease and degradation.  This state of affairs, they believe, is a "moral disaster."  For pedestrians pushed into the street by blocked sidewalks, women afraid of unruly men screaming obscenities, patio diners beset by panhandlers and homeowners discovering human feces in their yards, it's an environmental catastrophe — the neighborhood equivalent of an oil spill.  They want someone to clean it up and prevent it from happening again.

San Francisco removes boulders meant to deter homeless campers because they were 'not big enough'.  The city of San Francisco on Monday [9/30/2019] removed about two dozen small boulders from a residential side street after a group of neighbors had them installed last week in an effort to deter homeless people from camping out on along the sidewalk amid the city's ongoing crisis.  San Francisco's Public Works removed the rocks set up along Clinton Park in the city's Mission Dolores neighborhood.  Residents last week said they pooled their funds to keep drug users from having a space to shoot up as they camp out overnight.

San Francisco residents use rocks to block homeless camping.  Fed up with what they see as the city's failure to combat homelessness and rampant drug use, the neighbors had boulders delivered to their sidewalk to block people from pitching tents on their street.  That started a fight that shows the frustration with an unprecedented homelessness crisis in California.

San Francisco residents line sidewalk with boulders to block homeless camps.  California has returned to its "Wild West" roots, as individuals strive to civilize the coast using their wits and initiative.  Case-in-point:  Residents of a San Francisco side street have trucked in boulders to discourage homeless camping near their homes.

Dems Will Make Homelessness Worse.  If Democrats capture the White House in 2020, your own neighborhood is likely to look like the disease-ridden tent slums taking over Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren insists it's wrong to ban living on the streets and in public parks.  Bernie Sanders is calling for a 3% cap on annual rent hikes, the kind of poisonous rent control law that deters new housing construction and worsens homelessness.

Scott Pressler's Group Cleaned Up L.A. Homeless Camp In 9 Hours; Removed 50 Tons Of Garbage.  Conservative activist Scott Presler continued to deliver on his pledge to clean up Democrat-led cities across the country.  He tackled his biggest project yet on Saturday [9/21/2019].  Wearing hazmat suits, he and a group of 200 volunteers spent nine hours removing 50 tons of garbage from an L.A. homeless camp.  The photographs show a remarkable transformation.

Carson outrages HUD staffers with comments about transgender homeless.  Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson made comments about transgender people that outraged some staffers at the HUD office in San Francisco, causing at least one of them to walk out of the room.  During a HUD meeting, Carson warned about "big, hairy men" posing as women to get into battered women's shelters, according to several sources who spoke to the Washington Post.  The remarks made several of the 50 present HUD staffers visibly upset and led one woman to walk out of the meeting, though an official who spoke to the Post clarified that Carson was not trying to single out transgender women with his comments.

Ben Carson Defends Putting Homeless Women Before Transgender Dogma.  Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson issued an agency-wide email Friday [9/20/2019] attacking a "blatant mischaracterization" of his comments about transgenderism during his visit to California this week, which reportedly offended bureaucrats in San Francisco. [...] Carson's concern — that women could be at risk from being housed together with those who are biologically male but who say that their gender identity is female — is not unique.

Trump admin's scathing letter rejecting Newsom's request for funds:  Clean up your act first!  Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson toured Los Angeles to get a first-hand view of the city's homeless epidemic.  His visit came after the state asked for federal money to help clean its disease-infested streets.  Trump has been vocal about California's disastrous situation, vowing something must be done to stop it.  California Gov. Newsom seized the moment and fired off a letter to President Trump demanding more money — so the local government can fix what it created.

California's Request for Federal Funding to Combat Homelessness Rejected by Trump Administration.  As the homelessness crisis in California escalates, state officials requested increased federal funding to combat the issue, only to be rejected by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, as reported by ABC.  The request letter was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) and "mayors of the state's 13 largest cities."  The letter points out California's recent increase in spending on welfare programs, and claims that the "[Trump] Administration has proposed significant cuts to public housing and programs like the Community Development Block Grant."

Trump, Carson reject California's request for federal help on homelessness.  At the same time that President Donald Trump and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson are promising federal action to intervene in homelessness in California, they're rejecting requests from local officials for help and escalating the blame game between the federal government and the state.  California Gov. Newsom and local leaders[,] including mayors of the state's 13 largest cities[,] wrote to Trump this week to ask for more federal funds to expand programs like housing vouchers that help people get off the street into stable living situations.

Trump says EPA will cite San Francisco for pollution stemming from homelessness issues.  President Trump on Wednesday [9/18/2019] said he expects the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to slap San Francisco with a violation notice in the coming days related to pollution associated with the city's homeless people.  Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump again took aim at Los Angeles and San Francisco over the volume of homeless people in each city.  But he escalated his rhetoric, saying an announcement citing San Francisco for environmental violations would come in the next week.

The Broken Promise of American Cities.  Hope for a better future in California is rapidly becoming a stillborn dream, as the connection between decay and the politics of progressivism becomes painfully clear.  The proponents of this secular theology may be getting a wakeup call soon, as the Golden State's cities teeter on the edge of bubonic oblivion, with rats teeming through the streets of Los Angeles, even forcing temporary, partial closures of City Hall.  Skid Row has unfurled its filthy tendrils into the halls of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division station, with officers falling ill as vermin lay siege to their precinct.  But the explosion of the rat population, catalyzed by the feculence of homeless encampments across the state, has not deterred lawmakers from advancing a bill to ban rat poison in the name of human health and environmental concerns.  In the progressive mind, even mentioning the risk of disease caused by these policies is somehow tantamount to racist dog-whistling.  San Francisco, the rainbow flagship of our brave new world, even has a "no-kill, catch-and-release" policy for rodents.

Why California Keeps Making Homelessness Worse.  On Tuesday, fifteen officials from the White House toured Skid Row in Los Angeles with the head of a local homeless shelter.  "Four or five of them were from the Environmental Protection Agency," Rev. Andy Bales of Union Mission church told me.  "That's because human waste flows into storm sewers."  California is home to some of the world's toughest environmental and public health laws, but skyrocketing homelessness has created an environmental and public health disaster.  The 44,000 people living, eating, and defecating on the streets of L.A. have brought rats and medieval diseases including typhus.  Garbage is everywhere.  Experts fear the return of cholera and leprosy.

Report: Trump Wants To Shut Down California Homeless Camps.  President Donald Trump is reportedly fed up with the homeless camps that dot the California landscape and wants to move the residents into some form of transitional housing.  The camps are not only an eyesore but contribute to lawlessness.  The problem has intensified over the summer and Trump is apparently ready to move beyond criticizing the state's lack of response to proving solutions, sources told the Washington Post Tuesday [9/10/2019].

San Francisco shopkeeper considers closing his store after being bitten by a homeless person for the second time in four months.  A San Francisco shop owner who was been bitten by a homeless man for the second in time in months says he will close his store rather than put up with the 'nuisance'.  Gilles DeSaulniers, 67, said he was trying to subdue a homeless man who had pushed his sister after she tried to eject him for the second time that day from their South of Market store.  But while holding onto him, the man 'twisted his head' and bit the shopkeeper's arm in an attempt to escape.

With more homeless riding San Francisco trains, crime is up and ridership is down.  Not surprisingly, the numbers are highest in the winter when the number of homeless people is nearly 300 per every hundred train cars.  The increase in the number of homeless riding the trains coincides with an increase in reported crimes, including violent crimes.  In June, the Chronicle reported robberies were up 128 percent over five years while aggravated assaults were up 83 percent.  Those figures appeared in a Grand Jury report which specifically cited homelessness as a major contributor to declining ridership.  And that's the big problem for BART.  The train system was never intended to be a living space for the homeless but that's what it is becoming.

Los Angeles homeless dying in droves.  We've covered a number of stories here dealing with the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles which has been out of control and growing for several years now.  Most of these tales have to do with drug addiction, mental illness, crimes committed both by and against the homeless and people using the streets as their bathrooms.  But there's another, even darker element to this story featured in the LA Times this week.  As it turns out, the homeless are not just living on the streets.  They're dying on them and in large numbers.

Sacramento's business owners tell how they confront naked junkies and streets covered in feces, urine and syringes.  Cali Carlisle admits she is a heroin addict — 'but in a healthy way,' she insists, even if the visual evidence belies that claim.  Her nose is the brightest shade of red imaginable.  She constantly picks at scabs all over her body.  Her home is a makeshift bed beneath Interstate 80 in Sacramento.  And Monday was her 26th birthday.  Not that you would ever guess.  Anyone looking at her would think she is at least 15 years older.

Former Los Angeles city administrative officer: homeless problem 'going to get worse before it gets better'.  A former Los Angeles city administrative officer stepping down from a committee overseeing a homelessness program said this week the citywide problem is going to get worse before it gets better, according to a report. [...] Between 50,000 and 60,000 people sleep on the streets in Los Angeles County every night, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority — a number second only to New York City.

California salon owner claims the homelessness crisis is forcing her to relocate after 15 years.  A hair salon owner in California says she will be forced to move her business due to the problems of homeless people sleeping outside her shop.  Elizabeth Novak, who owns a hair salon in downtown Sacramento, posted a video on Twitter on Friday describing how she often finds people camping in tents across her front door.  She told how the vagrancy crisis gripping the state is affecting long-standing business owners and that her shop has been broken into and she has even been attacked.  Novak, who has run her salon for 15 years, said in her social media message that she often has to clean-up urine, feces and needles left by rough sleepers on her doorstep.

Frustrated California Woman Has Scathing Message For Gavin Newsom After Homeless Chaos Destroys Her Small Business.  A frustrated California woman took to Twitter on Friday to blast governor Gavin Newsom's disastrous policies that have created a desperate homeless problem.  The woman [...] was clearly upset as she posted a video detailing why she may be forced to close the doors of her business.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's claim about the homeless was so absurd even Politifact couldn't spin it.  Back in June, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made an incredible claim about homeless people in his state.  Asked why the homeless population hadn't declined when he was Mayor of San Francisco, Newsom said, "The vast majority (of San Francisco's homeless people) also come in from — and we know this — from Texas.  Just (an) interesting fact."  Newsom's claim was discounted by the LA Times last month but Politifact decided to investigate independently.  This week the least reliable fact-checker in the business agreed that Newsom's statement was absurd, giving it a "Pants on Fire" rating.

Bubonic Plague May Join Homelessness, Rats on List of Crises in Los Angeles.  Los Angeles's homelessness problems could soon turn into a much larger health crisis as the state is failing to address its growing rodent problem, Dr. Drew Pinsky, celebrity doctor and media personality, told Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams.  During an interview on Periscope, Dr. Drew, as he's commonly known, told Adams that just after Los Angeles had to deal with with a typhus outbreak, the city should brace for an imminent outbreak of the bubonic plague — the same disease that killed 60% of the European human population in the late Middle Ages.

Socialist utopia of Berkeley.  Already a bastion of the Left, in 2016 Berkeley, CA, a "sanctuary" city, tilted further to the left when residents voted as mayor 32-year-old Jesse Arregu'n, who had no prior government or administrative experience and had never held a private-sector job.  Although Arreguin is a homeless advocate "passionately committed to social justice," Berkeley's homeless marked his election as mayor by smearing feces on and around city hall.  Under Arreguin's far-left city government, Berkeley's homeless population increased 13% in just two years.

Homeless Surge Hits Oakland, Silicon Valley, San Francisco Suburbs.  San Francisco saw its homeless population rise by 17% in the last two years, but the rise in many surrounding counties has been worse.  A report Monday [7/22/2019] by Curbed San Francisco summarizing the figures noted:  "Five out of nine Bay Area Counties — i.e., all of those not located in the North Bay — saw their homeless counts spike during the same period, with each other county showing worse homelessness surges than SF."

Video Captures Shocking Extent Of L.A. Homeless Crisis In 4 Minutes.  The latest video by popular man-on-the-street interviewer Austen Fletcher efficiently captures the alarming homeless situation in the city of Los Angeles, particularly the infamous "Skid Row," wherein reside thousands of homeless people — most of whom are either suffering severe psychological problems or substance addiction, and among whom hundreds of sexual predators roam.

Amid Homelessness Crisis, SF Residents Sue To Block New Shelter.  Remember when we talked about the 30% increase in homelessness in San Francisco?  At the time I suggested that some combination of public and private investment might be needed to combat the problem.  As it turns out, just such a proposal is moving forward, with construction getting underway on a 200-bed temporary shelter located near the Giants baseball stadium.  Great news, right?  You might think so, but a large group of local residents doesn't agree.  Called "Safe Embarcadero for All," the group raised more than $100K, not to help the homeless, but to bring a lawsuit aimed at stopping construction of the shelter.  They're claiming everything from improper permit approval to a failure to study environmental impacts caused by the project.  But to listen to their spokespeople, what they really mean is they don't want a bunch of homeless people hanging around.

San Francisco: wealthy opponents of new shelter claim homeless are bad for environment.  The wealthy San Francisco residents who launched a crowdfunding campaign to block construction of a new homeless shelter in their waterfront neighborhood are employing a new tactic: arguing that homeless people are bad for the environment.  In a lawsuit filed against the city of San Francisco and the California State Lands Commission, the residents called for the project to undergo an environmental review before breaking ground.  "This project will have a significant effect on the environment due to these unusual circumstances, including by attracting additional homeless persons, open drug and alcohol use, crime, daily emergency calls, public urination and defecation, and other nuisances," the lawsuit states.

Desperate to get rid of homeless people, some are using prickly plants, fences, barriers.  L.A. has struggled to stymie the growing number of obstructions that residents and business owners are creating to target homeless people.  There are now about 59,000 people without homes in L.A. County.  Within the city of Los Angeles, the population soared 16% this year to more than 36,000 — the majority of whom are living outdoors on city streets.  In parts of South L.A., business owners have built chain link fences around their buildings.  Venice has seen a proliferation of sidewalk planters.  In Koreatown, orange mesh fences are so common that a Twitter account documenting their existence has sprouted up.  Still other Angelenos have taken to planting rosebushes and pointy cactuses in the "furniture zone," the city's designation for the sometimes paved and sometimes grassy area between the sidewalk and street.  That's where obstacles are being placed the most, usually without permission from the city.

The Editor says...
If you hose down the bums with a firehose, you'll probably have to do that "without permission from the city" also.  It is obvious that the city is not inclined to take any meaningful action against even the most presumptuous homeless squatters.  It will probably be necessary for someone to force the issue:  Some property owner is going to apply pressure to remove a homeless bum, inflicting discomfort to such a degree that the property owner will get arrested.  Then we will all find out what property rights really mean in California.

63-year-old woman in critical condition after random attack by homeless man in California.  A 63-year-old woman taking a break at work was beaten in an alley so badly that she was unrecognizable.  She was admitted to a hospital in critical condition.  The attacker was identified by witnesses and arrested.  He is 51-year-old Hector Manuel Ulloa, a homeless man who had recently been released from jail and who has many prior convictions.  NBC 4 reports he has now been charged with attempted murder.

LA allocates millions for trash clean up as NBC affiliate uncovers another rat-infested garbage pile.  The recent spate of negative press attention on LA's trash and rat infestation problem has apparently lit a fire under Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.  Last week, LA committed an additional $6.5 million for homeless clean-up efforts.  The additional money will fund 10 new crews with nearly 50 new sanitation workers.

The Editor says...
That's $130,000 per worker.  Yes, I understand it's in California, and the crews are cleaning up rat-infested trash piles, but that still seems like a lot of money.

Democrat homeless disaster killing San Francisco, Los Angeles, & Seattle.  A rising wave of homelessness is growing and spreading in the major Democrat controlled cities on the Left Coast.  Spreading disease, drug addiction, and social disorder in its wake.  From Seattle to San Francisco to Los Angeles the quality of life is plummeting.  Democrat municipal and state authorities seem oblivious, placing the rights of the homeless above their duty to their citizens, taxpayers, and public safety.

Violent Crime Up Sharply In San Francisco BART Stations.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that crime has more than doubled in San Francisco's BART stations since 2014.  The report highlighting the rise in violent crime also suggested that as many as 15% of people riding the trains are not paying fares. [...] That grand jury report identified four factors causing a decline in BART ridership (down 8% since 2016), first and foremost among them was homelessness. [...] If the homeless are living on the trains and sleeping on the trains, it's a good bet they are stealing to support their habits on the trains as well.

Bubonic Plague In Los Angeles?  Is California On The Verge Of Becoming A Third-World State?  A lot has happened.  We're still dealing with the border crisis, the Democratic debates are about to begin, and Iran is rattling the war sabers.  The city of Los Angeles should be thankful there are so many distractions.  The Democrat-run urban center has become a total disgrace.  And that's very common among the Left coast.  Tucker Carlson had historian Victor Davis Hanson on last week, where the latter said that California is on the verge of becoming the nation's first Third World state.  From trash being illegally dumped to city hall becoming a rat-infested den in the city of LA, it all points to the decay suffered when Democrats run things.

California:  Here Be Monsters.  California has endured its share of Old Testament calamities in the modern world.  Yet at times it seems that it will surely succumb to disasters created by its own hand.  There are real monsters loose in the streets.  Rats, "an army" of them "millions strong," reports KOMO News, have "overthrown" Los Angeles.  Not long ago, "officials briefly closed part of City Hall after reporting that rodents had invaded the building," said California Healthline.  "And where there are rats," says KOMO reporter Eric Johnson, "there is disease." [...] Maybe the rats were attracted to the "garbage mountain" that has bloomed in the city and produced quite a few unflattering, but deserving, comments.  Hepatitis A, which is spread through feces, and can be prevented through healthy hygiene and modern sanitation, is also enjoying an afterlife, sickening more than 1,000 in Southern California, which includes San Diego, in the last two years.  It's been suggested by one physician that the bubonic plague is lurking somewhere in all this.

With the Left in charge, Seattle and Los Angeles are dying.  It's no secret to anyone paying attention that the liberalism of the left and all its virtues control America's West Coast.  However, the warm and fuzzy "progressive" aura that seems so attractive to unschooled is a sham.  Sadly, to such voters, the phrase "somebody said so" is often the only proof they need to justify their ballot choices.  But, as has is far too evident here in Seattle and in Los Angeles, such myopia has a price.  The price of the Left in Charge.

Why Are There So Many Homeless in Los Angeles?  Now everybody knows about the 36,000 homeless on the streets of LA, over 60,000 in the county, replete with human feces and syringes littering the sidewalks, along with rats, typhus and even rumors of bubonic plague.  And those figures are what we're told.  No one, if you can trust the comments sections in the LA Times or the Next Door app for my old Hollywood neighborhood, remotely believes them.  They could be three or four times the number.  And how do you take a census of the homeless anyway?  They are inherently nomadic. [...] Shelters, some of them well built, have been constructed all over the city but the homeless don't want to stay in them.  The reason is these shelters are drug-free zones and the homeless of LA (and San Francisco and Seattle) are anything but drug-free.  Most are addicts.

Los Angeles shows the state how not to address homelessness.  It was a mistake to settle two lawsuits brought on behalf of homeless people by agreeing to create a right to sleep on the sidewalks (Jones v. Los Angeles) and to store mounds of personal property on the public right-of-way (Mitchell v. Los Angeles).  But Garcetti is the particular target of public rage.  He pushed for the approval of two tax increases for homeless housing and services in 2016 and 2017, and the problem has only gotten worse.  The recent Point in Time Count found that 36,300 people are homeless in the city of Los Angeles, an increase of 16 percent from 2018.  In 2017, the count was about 34,000, and that was a 20 percent jump from the previous year, when the problem was already disturbing enough that voters approved Measure HHH, a tax increase to build homeless housing.

Scenes from the collapse of a city that's lost control.  What century is this?  Is it the 21st century in the largest city of a state that ranks among the world's most robust economies, or did someone turn back the calendar a few hundred years?  We've got thousands of people huddled on the streets, many of them withering away with physical and mental disease.  Sidewalks have disappeared, hidden by tents and the kinds of makeshift shanties you see in Third World places.  Typhoid and typhus are in the news, and an army of rodents is on the move.

What's the matter with California?  California wants to look after its people, so it keeps expanding its social safety net.  It also wants to welcome all comers and so embraces illegal immigrants and protects them in sanctuary cities.  To see how this is working out, visit Skid Row in L.A. or neighborhoods in San Francisco or elsewhere where homeless camps are spreading.  Caring for all Californians is made harder by the state importing as many non-Americans as possible.

Medieval diseases spreading in Los Angeles prove twisted Democrat priorities endanger public health.  Americans don't have to look as far as Venezuela to see the massive failure of a government incapable of delivering the basics of what people need from their government.  A brief look at California shows how the twisted priorities of Democrat political leadership are creating a dangerous environment for the residents of the Golden State.  While combatting climate change remains a top priority for Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the streets of California's cities are filled with homeless camps, garbage, and disease-spreading rats.  In a throwback to medieval times, Los Angeles is facing an infectious disease epidemic caused by flea-borne disease linked to rat-infested streets.

Welcome to Garcetti's L.A.: heaps of trash, hordes of rats and very little leadership.  Los Angeles looks as if it's digging out from a hurricane, with hordes on the streets, tents everywhere and armies of rodents on the march, inciting fears of disease.  We learned from Dakota Smith and David Zahniser in last week's avalanche of Mad Max news that the rat circus at City Hall was tied to homeless people using the grates around the building as bathrooms. [...] And why do public officials seem so timid about pointing out that a lot of the trash is from the ever-growing numbers of homeless people they haven't been able to help, whether they're physically or mentally disabled, addicted, bomb-rattled from combat or evicted from the shrinking number of available rentals?

Mohammed, the Dirty Democrat in Charge of 'Cleaning Up' San Francisco.  San Francisco has the highest rents in the country.  At an average of $3,690 for a one bedroom, it's more expensive than New York City, Hong Kong, Paris and London. [...] Despite that, the City by the Bay is drowning in its own filth.  San Fran is covered in human waste.  There have been 118,352 cases of human waste on the streets of San Francisco since 2011.  That's also when Mohammed Nuru took over as the head of the city's Department of Public Works.  The Nigerian immigrant who calls himself Mr. Clean has been promising to clean up San Francisco back to the Willie Brown days.  Brown, the notoriously corrupt city boss, had picked Nuru as his point man, after some assistance on political campaigns, appointing him DPW deputy director in 2000. [...] But Mr. Clean was a protégé of Mayor Brown and complaints quickly rose from DPW employees about corruption, discrimination and intimidation.

Staggering homeless count stuns LA officials.  The stunning increase in homelessness announced in Los Angeles this week — up 16% over last year citywide — was an almost incomprehensible conundrum given the nation's booming economy and the hundreds of millions of dollars that city, county and state officials have directed toward the problem. [...] The new homeless count released Tuesday by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority showed nearly 59,000 people living in the streets across Los Angeles County, a 12% increase over the prior year; and 36,300 homeless people within the city limits of LA, a 16% increase over last year's count.

How do we deal with America's mental illness crisis?  California is no longer the paradise it was under Governor Reagan.  Radical leftism has taken root.  It is all but a separate country in many ways.  It has its own immigration policy, illegal under federal law.  At one point, its governor even floated the idea that the state should produce its own virtual currency in the form of accounting tricks, an action uncomfortably close to secession.  Radical leftist policies in California have put on public display the embarrassing appearance of a third-world hell-hole.  Swathes of the state, mostly in big cities, are heavily populated by semi-conscious (or even unconscious) drug addicts, and entire city blocks seem to be covered in garbage and human feces.  The problem is getting worse.  A harsh comedian suggested that conditions are so bad that illegal aliens might return to their native countries as refugees from America.

Filth from homeless camps is luring rats to L.A. City Hall, report says.  When faced with complaints earlier this year from city workers about rats infesting L.A. City Hall, most city officials said little about whether the problem was connected to several homeless camps right outside.  But a newly uncovered report from a pest control company hired by the city has raised fresh questions about whether officials wrongly downplayed that possibility during discussions at City Council meetings.  CatsUSA Pest Control, brought in to assess areas outside City Hall and nearby buildings, warned that homeless people create "harborage for rodents," according to the report issued Dec. 28 and obtained last month through a public records request by a frequent critic of City Hall.

Inside the squalor on 'Skid Row' as typhoid scare grips Los Angeles.  With rats running everywhere among piles of decaying garbage, these shocking images of a tent city look like a sordid third world shanty — but are actually downtown Los Angeles.  The horrifying photos show what the Los Angeles Times calls "collapse of a city that's lost control" — and what is believed to have left at least one LAPD cop with typhoid.

Ten Plagues of California Are Turning The Golden State into a Third-World Hell Hole.  In your typical Third-World megalopolis, basic city functions fall into disrepair, while once-eradicated diseases run rampant — and the local bigwig boasts about saving the world.  Los Angeles is quickly becoming a typical Third-World megalopolis, and the rest of the state isn't far behind.  Yesterday [6/2/2019] the New York Post reported "rats running everywhere among piles of decaying garbage," in a "sprawling 50-block area that is believed to be the base for around 4,200 homeless people."

Shocking new pictures from downtown LA capture the huge problem it faces with trash and rats amid fear of typhoid fever outbreak among LAPD.  These shocking pictures from downtown Los Angeles capture the growing problem it faces with trash and rodents in a desperate city also trying to contain a typhoid fever outbreak linked to worsening sanitary conditions.  A decision to not cap the total amount of property that homeless people can keep on Skid Row was announced last Wednesday and it sparked fury among some officials who say it will 'only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists' there.

Dr. Drew says LA public health in 'complete breakdown': 'No city on Earth tolerates this'.  The public health situation in the nation's second-largest city is in "a complete breakdown," Dr. Drew Pinsky said Thursday night on "The Ingraham Angle."  "We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now," Pinsky told host Laura Ingraham.  "We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, (and) rodent-borne.  We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn't have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down."

'Sky-High' Trash Piles Found In Los Angeles, Raising Concerns About Typhus.  Apparently, problems with waste are not limited to San Francisco.  NBC4 reported Monday [5/20/2019] that "sky-high" piles of rotting trash were found around Los Angeles, leading some to worry about a new typhus outbreak.  "Even the city's most notorious trash pile, located between downtown LA's busy Fashion and Produce districts, continues to be a magnet for rats after it was cleaned up months ago.  The rodents can carry typhus-infected fleas, which can spread the disease to humans through bacteria rubbed into the eyes or cuts and scrapes on the skin, resulting in severe flu-like symptoms," the outlet reported.  [Video clip]

San Francisco's Quality-of-Life Toll.  San Francisco is the nation's leader in property crime.  Burglary, larceny, shoplifting, and vandalism are included under this ugly umbrella.  The rate of car break-ins is particularly striking: in 2017 over 30,000 reports were filed, and the current average is 51 per day.  Other low-level offenses, including drug dealing, street harassment, encampments, indecent exposure, public intoxication, simple assault, and disorderly conduct are also rampant.  Many in law enforcement blame the crime wave on Proposition 47, which in 2014 downgraded possession of illegal narcotics for personal use and theft of anything under $950 in value from felonies to misdemeanors.  Anti-incarceration advocates disagree with that argument, but theft is indisputably booming, and narcotics activity is exploding on sidewalks, parks, and playgrounds.  When compounded with other troubles for which the city is now infamous (human feces, filth, and homelessness, which is up 17 percent since 2017), San Franciscans find themselves surrounded by squalor and disorder.

California's Housing Bubble's So Bad, 100s Forced To Live On Boats.  California's housing affordability crisis is getting worse.  Affordability in San Francisco is now at 10-year lows, and only one in five households can afford to purchase a median-priced single-family home in the Bay Area.  The crisis has driven many people onto the water, living on makeshift boats, outside marinas, and wealthy communities.  The floating homeless population in wealthy Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Strait from San Francisco, has doubled in the last five years to over 100.  The community of 200 barges, sailboats, and other vessels comprise of people who are employed but can't afford to live on land, jobless folks, the homeless, and some people who are mentally ill.

California homelessness is so out of control, people are turning to boats — Dems are clueless.  California is the country's wealthiest and most highly taxed state, but its politicians have utterly failed to tackle the state's most basic problem:  homelessness.  Estimates place California's homeless population at close to 130,000.  To grasp the magnitude of that figure, imagine the entire population of New Haven, Connecticut or Charleston, South Carolina living on the streets.  Much has been written about the problems of feces on San Francisco's streets and needles on the streets in downtown Los Angeles.  But the problem has expanded far beyond those cities.  It has now reached virtually all parts of the state, including, according to reports, the state's water.  In Sausalito just north of San Francisco, neighbors are sparring with local politicians over a homeless population floating off its shores in makeshift boats!

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to double spending on homelessness — to $1 billion.  Insisting that a fiscally responsible state government can also aid those in need, Gov. Gavin Newsom sent California lawmakers a revised budget Thursday that builds on his efforts to address poverty and homelessness while forecasting the largest tax revenue windfall in state history.  That windfall, Newsom said, will trigger the first-ever payment into a special cash reserve fund for schools and community colleges — a $389-million deposit stashed away specifically for education needs during a future recession.  He also proposed an increase in spending on helping the homeless, raising the total state investment in the upcoming budget year to $1 billion.

Do Most Homeless People In Seattle Have A Substance Abuse Problem?  In the wake of the "Seattle is Dying" news special which aired on KOMO last month, there was some coordinated pushback from Seattle elites.  A PR firm was hired to help coordinate talking points in opposition to the conclusions of the special and in favor of some of the programs already operating in the city.  Those talking points were then rolled out in a series of seemingly unconnected articles at news outlets like the Seattle Times and Crosscut.  One of the arguments made repeatedly in these pieces is that drug use (and also mental illness) are just one part of the problem.

In poop-covered San Francisco, the super-rich prey on the left's merely wealthy.  San Francisco is a city covered in excrement, and now even the wealthy inhabitants of its Embarcadero are going to experience more of it, up close to home and quite personal. [...] Maybe they should have thought of that before they elected an incompetent weakling like Mayor London Breed based on color considerations, or passed Proposition C in that same election, taxing big businesses to pay for More Homeless programs.  The residents aren't the most sympathetic people out there, given their voting patterns.  All the same, this could be some kind of watershed, widening a new fault line on the left, given that tech billionaires were the ones behind this, making a sort of warfare on the merely wealthy.  After all, in San Francisco, there's no one else left.

Squatting takes on a new meaning in San Francisco.  If you're not a resident of the area and are planning to visit the famous City by the Bay but don't have the locals' notorious open-mindedness, where logic falls out and anything else crawls in attitude and want to avoid the excrement, [Adam] Andrzejewski has helpfully included the ZIP codes with the most of it, along with an interactive map of its locations.  Other than this, enjoy your visit!

San Francisco sees 'brownout' amid spike in public pooping, reports say.  San Francisco's streets have long had a problem with human waste, but new reports show that the Bay Area's public bowel movements are worse than ever.  The poop-data was released by Open the Books, a nonprofit government watchdog, which includes all cases closed by the San Francisco Department of Public Works since 2011, Business Insider reported.  There were over 5,000 documented cases in 2011, according to the data.  In 2018, that number rose more than fivefold to over 28,000 reported cases.

This San Francisco Public Pooping Map Is Gross And Also Fascinating.  A group called Open the Books plotted tens of thousands of reported public pooping incidents on a map of San Francisco.  The result looks like a cloud of sewage blanketing the city.

Plan for homeless center in Pelosi's district leads to raucous public meeting; SF mayor jeered.  San Francisco Mayor London Breed was heckled and jeered during a raucous community meeting Wednesday to discuss a controversial homeless center proposal along the city's waterfront that has attracted dueling online fundraisers from critics and supporters.  "Homelessness is the number one problem that we face in our city.  You cannot be upset about homelessness and then when I propose a real solution, then you're upset about it," Breed said while trying to discuss plans to build a 200-bed Homeless Navigation Center in the city's Embarcadero section.  The area is part of California's 12th Congressional District, represented by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.

San Franciscans raise $46,000 to stop homeless shelter in wealthy area.  When residents from one of San Francisco's most desirable neighborhoods launched a crowdfunding appeal to block a new homeless shelter, the controversial tactic drew an angry response from the city's mayor.  Their campaign on GoFundMe, best known as a site that hosts fundraisers for medical expenses or victims of natural disasters, has raised around $70,000 from hedge fund managers, executives and authors, which will be used to pay for an attorney.  But it also spurred supporters of the shelter to try to beat them at their own game.  Since launching on Thursday, a rival GoFundMe has amassed over $73,000.  And it had drawn hefty contributions of $10,000 each from the Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, the Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson and from the company GoFundMe itself.

Wealthy 'NIMBY' libs in Pelosi's SF district raise $60G to fight center for city's homeless.  Rich San Francisco residents in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional district have collected more than $60,000 after starting an online crowdsourcing campaign to wage a legal challenge against a proposed center for the city's homeless.  The campaign, called "Safe Embarcadero for All," was launched March 20 after San Francisco Mayor London Breed proposed a 200-bed homeless Navigation Center in the city's most desirable location, the Embarcadero along the coast of San Francisco Bay, earlier this month.  "The planned location for Mayor Breed's #megashelter is home to thousands of families, visited by millions of tourists and at the center of some of San Francisco's most iconic events, including the San Francisco Marathon, San Francisco Giants stadium and on one of the busiest bicyclist paths in the city," reads the site posted by the group opposing the construction.

Leftists Have Turned San Francisco Into A Nightmare Of Drugs And Homelessness.  There's no denying that San Francisco is one of America's most beautiful and recognizable cities, but it has been racked with problems thanks to leftist policies that have driven drug addiction and homelessness through the roof.  The Daily Wire's Kassy Dillon and Colton Haas traveled to the city by the bay and spoke to experts and homeless people about the conditions that have encouraged the spread of drugs, disease, and more.  During their trip, they could see the awful condition the city is currently in.

I Went To San Francisco.  What Happened To One Of America's Most Beautiful Cities?  Erica Sandberg, a community advocate and journalist, broke it down for us:  "Right now the major issue — people always call it homelessness — but the major issue is drugs."  While San Francisco has always battled homelessness and currently has about 7,000 homeless people, the drug issue is exacerbating the problem.  The city currently hands out more than 400,000 syringes each month but only 246,000 are returned, leaving 154,000 syringes left on the streets.  We spent our first day walking around the Tenderloin District, only to see our fellow Americans defecating on the sidewalk, shooting up in broad daylight, and overall living in third-world conditions.  In one children's playground we visited, there were wrappers that once held drugs and caps of syringes.

The Crying of Lot 330.  The prospect of a 225-bed homeless shelter on the Embarcadero, one of San Francisco's most scenic and economically vital areas, took residents by surprise.  Only eight days earlier, the proposal had been unveiled to turn what is now a parking lot — Seawall Lot 330 — into the largest homeless shelter of its type in the city.  Neighbors arrived en masse at the Port Commission hearing to express their views.  It was standing-room only, with people crowded on floors and in aisles, and spilling out the door. [...] All spoke passionately about their ties to the neighborhood and how the shelter would erode safety and quality of life.  They worried that it would intensify drug use and other illegal activity and draw additional homeless people onto their property, leaving more needles and feces behind.

L.A. settles homeless rights case, likely limiting ability to clear skid row streets.  The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday [3/6/2019] agreed to settle a pivotal and contentious case on the property rights of homeless people — a decision that is likely to limit the seizure and destruction of encampments on skid row.  The 10-2 vote authorizes City Attorney Mike Feuer to settle a 2016 lawsuit, Carl Mitchell v. Los Angeles, brought by civil rights lawyers on behalf of homeless people and two skid row anti-poverty groups.  Downtown business groups had opposed such a deal, arguing that settling the case would deter redevelopment, and leave skid row and the people who live on its sidewalks mired in squalor.

Rats, Fleas, And Garbage Caused A Typhus Outbreak In Los Angeles.  Typhus is a bacterial infection which is spread by lice, chiggers, and fleas.  Usually, those pests find a home on rats.  The rats in most cases have a population boom because of excessive garbage.  And the disease infects people who come in contact with the rats.  That's what is driving the disease in Los Angeles where an outbreak has been traced to homeless encampments.

Slum by the Bay.  [Scroll down]  San Francisco authorities mostly leave the mentally ill to fend for themselves on the street.  Other vagrants complain about them.  "They make it bad for people like us that hang out with a sign," one beggar told us.  San Francisco is a pretty good place to "hang out with a sign."  People are rarely arrested for vagrancy, aggressive panhandling or going to the bathroom in front of people's homes.  In 2015, there were 60,491 complaints to police, but only 125 people were arrested.  Public drug use is generally ignored.  One woman told us, "It's nasty seeing people shoot up — right in front of you.  Police don't do anything about it!  They'll get somebody for drinking a beer but walk right past people using needles."

Typhus Epidemic Spreads Across Liberal Utopia of Los Angeles Due to Mountains of Trash, Growing Homeless Population.  A typhus epidemic is worsening in the liberal utopia of Los Angeles, California due to a growing homeless population and mountains of rat-infested trash.  Nothing says "progressive" more than a medieval infectious disease like typhus fever spreading through a city in the year 2019.

Typhus Is Spreading in Liberal, Rat-Infested LA County.  There are a lot of rats in LA, and, NO, for once we don't mean the politicians although many qualify.  We mean the little furry creatures who live in squalor and spread diseases.  Last September, a documentary called 'Rats' was screened as a Landmark Theatres Exclusive Midnight Event.  It was frightening because it's real.  Infestations of rats are seen in major cities and elsewhere, and when garbage is left to rot in homeless areas, they become a more serious threat to life.

The Destruction of Venice Beach Epitomizes California's Idiocracy.  Venice Beach, California, used to be one of California's great places. [...] Today, Venice Beach is off limits to families who used to spend their Saturdays on the sand.  It's too dangerous.  On the sand, beached seaweed now mingles with syringes, feces, broken glass, and other trash, and the ocean has become the biggest outdoor toilet in the city.  More than 1,000 vagrants now consider Venice Beach their permanent home.  At the same time as real estate values exploded all along the California coast, the homeless population soared.  In Venice, where the median price of a home is $2.1 million, makeshift shelters line the streets and alleys, as the affluent and the indigent fitfully coexist.

The high price of refusing to face facts about the homeless.  Along with homeless encampments come deadly outbreaks of hepatitis A, typhus and other communicable diseases, driven by attending drug addiction.  Some parts of the city [of San Diego] are littered with syringes.  A desperate San Diego now steam cleans its streets and sidewalks.  Even in expensive neighborhoods, unguarded greenery is often strewn with trash and toilet paper, revealing where homeless people have spent the night.  The city tries to keep the squalor at bay with improved shelter programs.  It even plans to provide 500 bins where the homeless can stash their belongings, but that effort alone will cost the city about $2 million a year in overtime for the cops who guard the lockers.

Homeless Surge Puts Hollywood's Progressive Ideals to the Test.  With swelling transient encampments abutting seven-figure homes, the beachside enclave has emerged as a flashpoint for the inequality shaping Los Angeles — and a real-world test case for the liberal ideology of the area's showbiz residents.

Los Angeles Vice Office Protected By Fence to Keep Out Homeless.  A new report detailing the growing scourge of homelessness in Los Angeles indicates that while many in the media and coastal liberals mock the idea of a border wall for America, they are fine with using fences to maintain their bubbles and keep homeless people out.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles office of Vice News is protected by a fence to keep out the homeless from building tent cities.

Wealth, Poverty, and Flight:  The Same Old State of California.  [B]oth legal and illegal immigration have also radically changed the demography of the state.  It is not just that about 40 percent of the nation's 11 [to] 20 million immigrants live in California, a state in which now one in four residents was not born in the United States.  Rather, it is the result of two or three generations of mass influxes of impoverished residents who on average arrive without a high-school diploma, English proficiency, capital, or often legality.  California now hosts one of three Americans who are on some sort of federal, state, or local welfare supplement.  About a fifth of the state lives below the poverty level.  Half of all births in California were paid for by the state-run Medi-Cal program, and 30 percent of Medi-Cal births were to mothers of undocumented immigration status.  The San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego is the world's busiest, where some 70 million people cross on foot and in cars into and out of California each year.

Residents of San Francisco are now documenting squalor of city's homelessness epidemic.  San Francisco has been battling an ongoing homelessness epidemic for years, but mounting piles of human feces in its streets have become intolerable for many residents — causing citizens to launch their own campaigns exposing the stinky (and dangerous) troubles of the Golden City.  Disgusted business owners and residents are using social media to show the magnitude of the tech-town's indigent encampments in hopes that officials will do more to end rampant public drug use and defecation on the sidewalks.

San Francisco resident says it's a war zone, others post poop and drug pics!  In another postcard from one of America's most liberal cities, San Francisco, residents are now posting poop pics from the homeless in order to protest the [dystopia] that city has become.

The impact homelessness and the opioid crisis are having on San Francisco streets.  Outside the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in downtown San Francisco, a woman urinates on the sidewalk and smokes a crack pipe.  Inside her purse are about a dozen used heroin needles.  She shoots heroin up to 10 times per day, she says.

Including police OT, storage for homeless people's belongings costs more than an SRO hotel room.  San Diego police expect to pay $2 million in overtime to officers patrolling the neighborhood around the storage center for homeless people that opened in Sherman Heights earlier this year.  The budget projection, which was included in a quarterly monitoring report released last month, pushes the total program expense past $3.7 million this year.  Including the patrols, it means costs associated with the 500 storage bins amount to $600 per bin per month — more than a studio apartment in many single-room occupancy hotels.

One percent of the population commits one eighth of the aggravated assaults in a city of four million.
Los Angeles Doubled its Homeless Budget, Doubled Homeless Crime.  It wasn't all that long ago that the nation watched transfixed in horror as fires tore apart California, destroying homes and claiming lives.  In all the debates about global warming and forestry management, one singular cause of the fire was left unaddressed.  Global warming wasn't starting the fires.  People were. [...] This November, the Los Angeles Zoo had to evacuate its animals over a fire in yet another homeless encampment.  That fire not only endangered lives, but diverted resources from fighting the much more serious fires in Ventura County.  But instead of shutting down the encampments, Mayor Garcetti, who has done more to legalize and subsidize homelessness in Los Angeles than any of his predecessors, sent "outreach workers" from the expanding behemoth of the LA Homeless Services Agency to ask them to please move.  That worked about as well as expected.

Homeless Crime in LA is Up 50%.  You get more of what you subsidize.  When you subsidize homelessness as Los Angeles, New York and a number of other cities driving a boom in homelessness have been doing, you get more of it.  And you also get more of the crime that comes with it.

Homeless Crime Jumps Nearly 50 Percent in Los Angeles, LAPD Says.  The number of crimes in which homeless individuals were listed as suspects increased by nearly 50 percent in the city of Los Angeles in 2018.  Crime data provided by the Los Angeles Police Department showed there were 8,906 crime reports between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 this year in which a homeless person was listed as the suspect, compared with 5,976 for the same time period in 2017.  LAPD officials said most concerning were the disproportionate number of homeless individuals listed as suspects in physical attacks that cause serious injuries, described as, "aggravated assaults," in police records.

Los Angeles Mayor Shouted Down by Protesters During Speech.  Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti was forced to end a speech at the University of Southern California on Monday prematurely after protesters began shouting over him about his administration's treatment of the city's homeless population.  The speech, which was intended to be a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, was interrupted after just a few minutes by a man who accused Garcetti of preventing the homeless population from organizing a local government.

Why won't liberals admit their homeless policies don't work?  It's appropriate that the UN special rapporteur devoted to adequate housing has visited encampments in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Mumbai — and San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.  The homeless situation in those cities and others around the country is positively Third World, a blight that shows the persistence of human folly, and misery, despite what we take to be our steady progress to greater enlightenment and prosperity.  San Francisco is a crown jewel of the new economy, and a sink of vagrancy.

Typhus cases hit 100 in Los Angeles as feral cats and rats spread disease among the homeless.  The number of flea-born Typhus cases in Los Angeles has hit 107.  So far this year 72 patients have been recorded by Los Angeles County Department of Public Health with a further 15 in Long Beach and 20 in Pasadena.  In the 2000s there were around 20 cases recorded per year and analysts are putting the dramatic rise down to a 47 percent increase in homelessness since 2012.  One official in Long Beach told NBC News that almost half a million potential cases are 'under investigation.'

San Jose to pay homeless $15 an hour to pick up trash.  San Jose, Calif., is combating its litter problem by paying 25 homeless residents to pick up trash around the city's "hotspots."  Downtown Streets Team and Goodwill, which initiated the program, said the idea was to ultimately help participants get back on their feet, the Mercury News reported.

San Francisco:  Now so bad, it'll make you cry.  Twentieth-century San Francisco, Herb Caen's beloved Baghdad by the Bay, has ceased to exist.  It has been replaced by a city where the sidewalks around Market Street are, in places, caked in feces, urine, and vomit.  The stink as you emerge from the BART batters you like frozen sleet, shocking and overwhelming.  The hordes of homeless, sprawled in doorways and sleeping on the sidewalks, are a bitterly eclectic mixture of the mentally deranged; burnt out druggies; dead-eyed hippies; con artists; pickpockets; and hundreds of simply lost, forgotten souls. [...] As I walked the three blocks back to the BART, I was panhandled four times, plus two clumsy pickpocket attempts.  I didn't see a single cop in a car or on foot.  What could they do?  What finally broke my heart were the kids and women, also lying in the streets, drugged, shell-shocked, begging for food.

SF judge throws out charges against homeless people camping on sidewalk.  A San Francisco judge dismissed criminal charges Thursday against three homeless people who were arrested for camping or sleeping on the streets, a decision that follows a federal appeals court ruling barring cities from prosecuting such cases when no shelters are available.  District Attorney George Gascón, who has announced a new policy of charging people with illegal camping only when they reject an offer of an available shelter, did not challenge the dismissals.  But Gascón and Public Defender Jeff Adachi's office appear to be at odds on what a city has to do to make shelters "available."

SF police impound homeless man's car for unpaid parking tickets.  Judge says give it back.  A federal judge has ordered San Francisco police to return a homeless man's car that they towed and impounded because of thousands of dollars in unpaid parking tickets that the owner couldn't afford to pay.  Police cited a state law that allows them to tow vehicles with more than five overdue parking tickets.  But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of Oakland said Wednesday that, unless officers have a judicial warrant, no known legal precedent "can justify the seizure and retention of a vehicle if its owner cannot afford to pay the parking tickets."  The ruling has prompted homeless advocates to call on police to change their towing practices.

True Blue Liberal California Now Leads The Nation In Poverty.  It was recently revealed that the home of Jerry Brown, Hollywood, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris is now the most poverty stricken state in the country.  Anyone who has seen the sprawling homeless encampments of greater Los Angeles and San Francisco probably knew this would be the outcome.

I Left My Shoes In San Francisco.  Enter the search term "San Francisco feces map" into Google and it comes back with 1,040,000 results.  Yeah, it's a thing.  San Francisco was always grungy — back in the 1980s, I believe it was comic Bobby Slayton who called it "the city that makes its own gravy" — but it has gone from merely unwashed to actively unflushed.  Sure, it's funny to the rest of us, in a horrifying and disgusting kind of way, just like the fact that the socialist geniuses in Venezuela are forcing the famished locals to gnaw on its zoo's zebras and gnus for sustenance.  You look at these examples of leftism in action and you have to laugh, but what's not funny is that this is not some sort of aberration.  This is the future our liberal elite wants for us, and it's doing everything it can to make it a reeking reality.

Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose.  [Scroll down]  At a time when San Franciscans are dealing with mounds of human feces that foul that once-lovely city, lawmakers spent their summer stopping restaurants and convenience stores from giving out or selling plastic straws.  They also limited the use of packaged condiments.  Not long ago, officials banned the sale of flavored tobacco products, which means that smokers who are trying to quit the habit are out of luck.  The city's decision to hand out needles to addicts actually is a decent idea, but it's bizarre to simultaneously subsidize heroin needles and ban far-more mundane products such as ketchup packages.  It's easy to roll one's eyes at San Francisco, but a bill that would forbid restaurants from handing out plastic straws unless requested by the customer has just landed on the governor's desk.  Furthermore, a second bill that just landed on his desk requires fast-food restaurants to offer water or milk as the default option on any children's meals.  Advocates for the latter see it as a strike against childhood obesity, but it's really just a means to meddle in parents' minor life decisions.  Parents can still order soda for their kids, but restaurants could face $500 fines for providing a soda with the meal.  This is an almost literal example of the "nanny state."

A Perfect Storm Threatens America's Survival.  Except for the rich, American cities are becoming increasingly unlivable as illegal and homeless populations threaten to overwhelm city budgets.  It's so bad in San Francisco that the city has funded poop patrols as that once lovely City by the Bay has become a nightmare to citizens and visitors alike.  Large groups are canceling conventions.  Los Angeles has doubled its homeless budget to $450 million. Los Angeles County plans to spend $374 million.  That's 1 percent of a budget meant to service a population of over 10 million going to just 53,193 people.

San Francisco creates 'Poop Patrol' to clean up city's feces-ridden sidewalks.  San Francisco's decrepit, feces-ridden sidewalks are the residents' No. 1 complaint — so the city's newly elected mayor is creating a new clean up patrol to deal with "No. 2."  The California city, which has been battling increasing homelessness over the last couple of years, launched a new pilot program called the "Poop Patrol," which is set to scour targeted neighborhoods looking for human waste.  The city's 311 service has received nearly 14,600 calls about piles of poop, other human waste and dog feces since the beginning of the year.

San Fran Averages 78 Poop in the Street Calls a Day, Others in the Transit System.  San Francisco has been working on their homeless problem and have succeeded in cutting the tent encampments in half by offering shelter to the drug addicts, mentally ill, and others lining the streets.  The behavior of the homeless hasn't improved, however.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that they are averaging about 78 poop in the street calls a day.  There are about 45 syringes in the street calls a day.  There are more on the trains.  The transit system is littered with syringes, poop, blood, urine, and so on.  Since April janitors have cleaned up more than 13,000 dirty needles left behind at the Civic Center and Powell Street stations.

If You're Going To San Francisco... Think Again.  San Francisco has about 7,500 homeless individuals and is spending $280 million on homeless services for them.  Some simple math reveals that the city could give each homeless resident just over $37,000 per year, a figure well above the minimum wage in most other places, and call it a day.  If you take out the salaries of all the bureaucrats administering these "homeless services," there would likely be more than $100,000 available for each homeless person.  But you know that won't happen in a Democrat-run city, an administrative state, like San Francisco.  How can the city discourage the homeless from using the sidewalks as their toilets?  In their minds, spend more money.

Video appears to show homeless man using drugs on BART train in San Francisco.  A video of a homeless man apparently using drugs on a BART train in San Francisco last month has become another footnote in the city's struggles with quality-of-life issues.  Local news anchor Reggie Aqui posted footage of the man smoking an illegal substance on the BART train right before Powell Street station. [...] The video underscores a dangerous trend occurring in the city.  In April, commuter Shannon Gafford filmed dozens of drug users slumped over and others shooting up at the Civic Center BART and Muni stations.

San Francisco continues to spend big in fight against homelessness — but is it working?  It's a problem that's costing the city of San Francisco hundreds of millions of dollars annually to try to solve — and for its new mayor, something that's starting to become increasingly smelly too.  London Breed says the amount of feces scattered on the streets of the wealthy city in recent months is among the worst she has ever seen, and San Francisco reportedly is set to spend nearly $280 million in its next budget fighting homelessness — an average of $37,300 for each of the city's estimated 7,499 homeless residents.

New SF mayor will try asking homeless to be nice, instead of penalizing them for pooping on the streets.  San Francisco has a brand new mayor, Ms. London Breed, the result of the untimely death of Mayor Ed Lee, and it does not look good for the city coming to grips with a crisis on its streets.  The accumulation of human waste and contaminated drug needles posing a severe threat to the health of its residents and visitors is also a challenge to the survival if the city's biggest industry in terms of employment:  tourism.  A huge medical convention has announced that it will no longer visit San Francisco owing to the health and safety hazards the streets now pose.

The Left-wing Paradise of San Francisco.  Represented in Congress by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and run for years by almost all Democrats, San Francisco should be a mecca for the left.  But the city is fast becoming one of the worst places in the U.S. to live.  The homeless problem is out of control.  Experts say it "could exceed some of the dirtiest slums in the world."  There are around 7,500 homeless people in the city.  Human feces is strewn across public areas.  The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit examined over 150 blocks of downtown San Francisco and found 96 blocks littered with feces.  San Francisco's new mayor, London Breed, observed, "there are more feces on the sidewalks than I've ever seen growing up here."  She says that a cleaning crew will clean up an area, but "right after they leave, maybe an hour or two later, the place is filled with trash again."

SF Mayor Says Her City is Drowning in Poop: 'There's More Feces - Than I've Ever Seen'.  San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the streets of her city are flooded with the excrement of the homeless in an interview Friday [7/13/2018].  Breed, a Democrat who was inaugurated as San Francisco's mayor Wednesday [7/11/2018], urged homeless advocacy groups that receive money from the city to teach homeless people to "clean up after themselves."  "There is more feces on the sidewalks than I've ever seen growing up here," Breed told KNTV.  "That is a huge problem and we are not just talking about from dogs — we're talking about from humans."

San Francisco Is Absolutely Covered in Fecal Matter.  Recently elected San Francisco Mayor London Breed says that the city she loves is absolutely covered in fecal matter and "we are not just talking about from dogs — we're talking about from humans."  Talking about human feces, folks!  Particularly, feces from humans experiencing homelessness right now.  Apparently, the city is so overrun by poverty that people are using virtually all public spaces as their toilet because they cannot afford proper lavatories.  To this extent, Mayor Breed is asking that homelessness advocacy groups and non-profit encourage those they are helping to clean up after themselves.

San Francisco's crisis looks like New York's future.  What happened in San Francisco is obvious.  It stopped prosecuting quality-of-life offenses and, unsurprisingly, the quality of life for the city's residents and visitors decreased sharply.  In 2015, San Francisco courts stopped enforcing bench warrants for such offenses.  Police continued writing up tickets for public drunkenness or sleeping in parks, but when the accused failed to show up to their court appearance a judge simply dismissed the outstanding warrant.  New York started following San Francisco's lead in 2016 when Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. announced his office would no longer be prosecuting offenses such as public urination.  Both cities have accepted that they'll continue to have a large number of people living on their streets and inevitably using their sidewalks as a toilet.

Increasingly Putrid City by the Bay.  [Scroll down]  I love the city [of San Francisco] and find its decrepit situation depressing.  At least everyone is noticing its tawdriness.  "Trash bags full of approximately 20 pounds of human poop were left on the sidewalk over the weekend in downtown San Francisco," the Fresno Bee reported on Wednesday [7/4/2018].  "It's the latest — and perhaps most alarming — sign of the increased filthiness of one of the most popular cities in the United States."  Those smelly, possibly leaking bags were left in the downscale Tenderloin, but large swaths of upscale areas now resemble an outdoor sewer with human feces, open-air drug use, and other signs of the breakdown of civic order.  The problem of homelessness and drug abuse isn't confined to San Francisco, of course. [...] In fairness, I've seen similar situations throughout the country.  But in San Francisco the disorder isn't confined to alleys and bushes.  The encampments are in plain view and spreading.  The panhandlers can be frighteningly aggressive.

20 Pounds Of Human Feces Left On San Francisco Sidewalk.  According to the Fresno Bee, a trash bag filled with roughly 20 pounds of human feces was left sitting on the sidewalk over the weekend in downtown San Francisco.  "It's the latest — and perhaps most alarming — sign of the increased filthiness of one of the most popular cities in the United States," reports FB.  "The bags of human poop were said to be left in San Francisco's Tenderloin district."

San Francisco Logs Over 16,000 Feces Complaints in One Week.  A website and related app that allows local residents to request maintenance or non-emergency services from the city has received 16,015 complaints with the keyword 'feces' in the last week at the time of this writing, and many pertain to human waste in public places.  Additionally, words and phrases synonymous with 'feces' are found in thousands more grievances.  Many of the complaints also connect the fecal matter to vagrants and homeless encampments — a sight all too common now across California.

SF's appalling street life repels residents — now it's driven away a convention.  In a move that is alarming San Francisco's biggest industry, a major medical association is pulling its annual convention out of the city — saying its members no longer feel safe.  "It's the first time that we have had an out-and-out cancellation over the issue, and this is a group that has been coming here every three or four years since the 1980s," said Joe D'Alessandro, president and CEO of S.F. Travel, the city's convention bureau.  D'Alessandro declined to name the medical association, saying the bureau still hopes to bring the group back in the future.

The Editor says...
The Editor and Mrs. Editor went to San Antonio in mid-June for the Republican state convention, and it was surprisingly enjoyable.  It was rather hot outside, and there were some Austin-style eccentrics on the streets, but the area around the convention center is constantly patrolled by the police as well as a bunch of street-cleaning custodians like you'd see in an amusement park.  Forget California, people.  Bring your convention to Texas.

Left Coast Lawlessness.  Seattle's predicament is emblematic of the broader crises faced by many progressive West Coast cities, where local leaders have forced law enforcement to take a hands-off approach to policing unsanctioned tent cities and vagrancy at the expense of public safety and health.  San Francisco, long considered a model of progressive urban policy, is plagued by filth, chaos, and public-safety hazards.  Local leaders plan to spend an incredible $305 million on combatting homelessness for the current fiscal year alone, but disorder spreads as the city fails to enforce the rule of law and basic sanitary measures.  Block-by-block surveillance reveals the deterioration of downtown San Francisco.  Of 153 city blocks surveyed, 41 contained used drug needles and 96 had human feces present.  Tourists are dismayed to leave their downtown hotels, to be confronted by mentally ill and aggressive homeless people who are taking control of the streets.  University of California Berkeley professor Lee Riley, an expert on infectious disease, observes that some of San Francisco's streets are dirtier than Third World slums.

San Francisco Is, Quite Literally, a Toilet.  [Scroll down]  The "breaking point" for the main source for the story, a 46-year-old computer programmer named Ernst Schoen-Rene, was the discovery in April of "a black suitcase with wheels on the corner that had clearly been used as a toilet by homeless people."  "I actually started crying, I got so frustrated," Schoen-Rene tells the Chronicle reporter.  "I flipped out.  I started writing to everybody."  The trouble for these good San Francisco progressives is reconciling their ideology with reality.

Poop. Needles.  Rats.  Homeless camp pushes SF neighborhood to the edge.  "I don't mind a reasonable amount of urban grit," explained [Ernst] Schoen-Rene, a native of Chico who's lived in San Francisco since 1994, always opting for edgy neighborhoods.  He and his wife bought their Isis Street condo in 2010 for $748,000, and by the time he sent the email, he had come to regret it.  He felt stuck, unable to afford anything else in today's nutty housing market or the far higher property taxes that would come with a new purchase.

If You're Going to San Francisco.  You'll find lots of aggressive vagrants, discarded needles, and a few dead bodies there.

San Francisco Tourists Shocked By Aggressive Vagrants, Discarded Needles, Dead Bodies.  San Francisco[,] a Democratic stronghold known for cable cars, quaint architecture and its diverse culture, has become a bastion of squalor and crime as city dwellers and visitors alike dodge aggressive, drug-addled vagrants.

Tourists visiting San Francisco question if they're in 'bad side of town'.  Recent social media posts by tourists visiting San Francisco casts a troubling light on the City by the Bay over its homeless issue, open drug use and filthy streets.  Since the beginning of the year, reports have surfaced of hypodermic needles dotting the streets, piles of human feces and expanding shanty towns for the increasing homeless population — and now tourists are noticing, SFGate reported.  "Is this normal or am I in a 'bad part of town?'" an Australian Reddit user asked the San Francisco Reddit community Wednesday.  "Why is this city so terrifying?" a Canadian visitor asked on Reddit Sunday [6/10/2018].

Used Needles Littering San Francisco Streets As Heroin Crisis Grips NorCal.  San Francisco residents are complaining about a record number of used and discarded syringes littering the streets, as a growing heroin epidemic grips Northern California.  The city distributes nearly 5 million needles each year through various programs aimed at reducing HIV and other health risks for drug users who might otherwise share needles.

San Francisco's many free syringes are littering its streets.  San Francisco hands out millions of syringes a year to drug users but has little control over how they are discarded and that's contributing to thousands of complaints.

About those needles littering the streets of San Francisco... The city gave them out.  For all of City Hall's tough talk of late about getting needles off the streets, the city itself is responsible for helping fuel the problem — handing out millions of syringes a year with little or no controls over their return.  And while the easy access to clean syringes is intended to protect public health, the city's residents are not happy with the situation.

Asian immigrants put their foot down at liberals dumping homeless at their door in the O.C.  Liberals were in for a surprise when legal Asian immigrant families fought back at their efforts to dump the homeless of Orange County into their ICity of Irvine community, thinking that since they were Asians, they wouldn't complain. [...] The people they didn't want dumped into their community to mix it up with their school children and tiger moms were these:  [Photo at left]  According to MyNewsLA.com, the cleanup of this Santa Ana River camp has left 404 tons of garbage, 13,950 needles, and 5,279 pounds of human waste.  You kind of wonder who had to count those needles and weigh all the vomit and excrement.  Sound like great neighbors for property values and schoolchildren safety.  Which of course is why they protested.

Homeless 'mansion' pops up near Space Needle.  A group of homeless people built a tent "mansion" in a small patch of grass between Third Avenue and Broad Street.  It's a half a block from Seattle's most famous tourist attraction and surrounded by multi-million dollar high-rise condos.

Calif. Big Cities Face Public Health Issues Caused by Rise in Homelessness.  Two of California's biggest and richest cities are facing a public health issue, which centers around the growing homeless problem.

San Francisco Is Suffering From The Excesses Of Its Own Liberalism.  In November of 2017 alone, 6,211 needles were collected while via the 311 App, 1,498 requests were made to clean up human feces.  The public defecation problem has become so intolerable in San Francisco that private citizens have built an online map to track the concentrations of poop in the city, so that pedestrians may know to avoid certain areas.  And it's not just poop.  The overwhelming smell of urine on parts of Mission Street and Market Street would make your nose bleed.  I recall the first time I rode BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Francisco's subway system) and was nearly knocked over by the sheer stench of the station.  I was surprised to learn that exiting the station supplied little to no relief — the urine smell hangs heavy in the more populated areas of the city and is nearly inescapable.  In a dark twist of humor, the city has had to replace numerous different street poles due to urine eroding the foundation.  What drives a large part of the human waste issue is San Francisco's homeless population.  The homeless epidemic in San Francisco is tragic and frightening — in a 47-square mile city, we have around 7,500 homeless people, meaning there are approximately 160 homeless people per square mile.

Homeless encampment relocation plan has California residents outraged.  A plan to house hundreds of homeless people in a tent city near a popular Southern California park was met with fierce public resistance, forcing an upcoming vote to rescind the scheme.  The Orange County Board of Supervisors is set to meet Tuesday to figure out where to relocate people, after a federal judge forced the county to come up with a plan to house the homeless population located along the Santa Ana River.  One proposal would place about 400 people near the county-owned Orange County Great Park in Irvine, located 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles.  The park, which is home to a farmers market and a hot air balloon ride, is popular with families on weekends.

California Has Become a Disgraceful State.  At one time, California was the envy of America, attracting people from around the nation to move to a state offering opportunity and the chance to pursue ambitious dreams.  With scenic beauty, the Pacific Ocean coastline, the major cities of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California recruited entrepreneurs looking for economic growth.  As the home of Hollywood and multitudes of celebrities, California presented an enticing potential to enjoy "lifestyles of the rich and famous."  Today, California has become an economic and cultural disaster.  The state is home to over 114,000 homeless people, one quarter of the total in the nation.  In San Francisco, a health crisis has developed as the homeless have created a mess in the downtown area, littering it with fecal matter, spent needles and piles of trash.

How can a place with 58,000 homeless people continue to function?  Homelessness affects the lives of all Angelenos, not just those forced to live on the streets.  And it does so almost daily, in ways large and small.  Consider the pairs of thick gloves that George Abou-Daoud has stashed inside the nine restaurants he owns on the east side of Hollywood.  When a homeless person accosts his customers, Abou-Daoud says, he can no longer count on the police for help; unless there's an imminent threat to safety, he contends, they don't respond quickly and can't just haul the person away.  So he's had to take matters into his own hands, literally, by physically ejecting problematic homeless people himself.  That's why he has the gloves — to keep his hands clean.

The Politics of San Francisco's Homelessness Problem.  About a year ago, in January 2017, Leilani Farha visited the city of San Francisco and was appalled at the extent of the substandard housing conditions suffered by San Francisco's homeless population. [...] This is particularly disturbing when one considers that California is the most populous and the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country in the world.  San Francisco has made some effort to deal with homelessness.  The city spent $275 million on homelessness in the fiscal year that ended in June 2017 and is expanding that to $305 million for the year that ends in June 2018.  But that is not enough, since there is a long waiting list for nighttime shelters.  Visitors to San Francisco are appalled to see persons on sidewalks committing drug crimes such as injecting themselves with needles.  And the city has areas now fouled by the smell of human waste.

Orange County's Largest Homeless Camp Cleared Out.  Last September I wrote about a homeless camp which had grown up along the bike path which stretches along the Santa Ana River in Orange County, California.  Residents in the area complained about trash, human waste, and crime.  People living in the camps were constantly in fear of violence from those nearby, many of whom have substance abuse or mental health problems.  Last week, after a lengthy legal battle involving the ACLU, a judge ruled that Orange County could begin to clear out the camps so long as people were given a place to go.

'National disgrace': Community fights back as California overrun by homelessness, human waste, needles.  The specter of homeless encampments steadily expanding across the downtown streets of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco — bringing with them a public health crisis — has one southern California community taking tough action to dismantle a two-mile-long camp just a short drive from Disneyland.  In a departure from the approach taken by other local governments in the state, officials in Orange County, Calif., have started to clear out the camp — by moving occupants and hauling away literally tons of trash and hazardous waste.

6 Points to Consider in the Debate About Homelessness.  Homelessness isn't just an Orange County problem, of course.  It's a growing mess throughout California and the nation.  I've seen communities of all sizes and political dispositions wrestle unsuccessfully with it for decades.  Cities such as San Francisco that throw money at the problem become magnets for homelessness, with sections of the city resembling an outdoor sewer.  Other communities, including Los Angeles, have tried to more aggressively roust the people sleeping under freeways, along riverbeds and in public parks.

L.A. County's homeless problem is worsening despite billions from tax measures.  Los Angeles County's homeless population is increasing faster than the supply of new housing, even with the addition of thousands of beds in the last two years and millions of dollars beginning to flow in from two ballot measures targeting the crisis, according to a long-awaited report by the region's homelessness agency. [...] As a result, a $73-million annual shortfall in funding for the county's comprehensive homelessness program could more than triple, a [Los Angeles] Times analysis of the report found.

Los Angeles votes to tax itself to raise billions to support the homeless.  Homelessness advocates in America's second largest city were savoring a seeming double victory after Los Angeles voters appeared to choose to tax themselves to raise more than $3.5 [billion] for homeless services over the next decade, and comprehensively knocked down a second measure that would have slammed the brakes on many housing developments.  Tuesday's [3/7/2017] election was the second in a row in which voters aligned with LA's political leadership in calling for a massive funding effort to move tens of thousands of homeless people into permanent housing and provide the "wraparound" services they need to overcome addiction, mental health and other challenges.

Seattle Underbelly Exposed as Homeless Camp Violence Flares.  So dangerous is this city's biggest homeless camp, called the Jungle — three ragged miles stitched along the underbelly of Interstate 5 — that if a fire broke out there today, firefighters would not be allowed in without an armed police escort.  State lawmakers are considering a razor-wire fence around the camp, separating it from the city at a cost of $1 million.

San Francisco homeless remain in 'unhealthy' tent city despite order to vacate.  About 30 tents remained in place Friday [2/26/2016] as the deadline for homeless people to vacate a San Francisco tent city came and went without any action.  The homeless living in the encampment had until 5 p.m. Friday to clear out, Sam Dodge, the mayor's point person on homelessness, said.  City officials and the San Francisco Police have not said what they intend to do with the tent residents.

San Francisco homeless crisis sparks bitter debate over the tents lining its streets.  "A city of tents" — that is how a local government official chose to describe San Francisco, fuelling a bitter divide in a city that is dealing with a mounting number of homeless people.  Scott Wiener, who is on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is determined to close down the tents for homeless people on the city pavements.  Homeless charities, however, say these inhabitants have nowhere else to go.  In a Medium blog, Mr Wiener said:  "Permitting these encampments is neither humane nor progressive."

L.A. lawmakers to declare 'state of emergency,' commit more than $100 million to fight homelessness.  Los Angeles elected leaders announced Tuesday [9/22/2015] that they will declare a "state of emergency" on the growing homelessness problem in the city and commit $100 million toward housing and other services for homeless people.  The proposal, which was presented at a City Hall press conference attended by City Council members and Mayor Eric Garcetti, coincides with a Garcetti administration proposal, issued late Monday, that aims to free up nearly $13 million in newly anticipated excess tax revenue for short-term housing initiatives.

The Editor says...
Homeless people in the streets is a chronic problem, but it's not an emergency.  It is a condition that has developed over several decades, as a result of left-wing nanny-state policy, driven by emotion rather than reason.

Big Apple Versus Big Toilet.  Not long ago, I asked [San Francisco] Mayor Ed Lee what he sees as contributing factors to San Francisco's high P.U. quotient.  His answer:  The drought means less rain to wash away human waste.  Other cities have winters that prompt street people to move to better climates.  Development has claimed space that used to house homeless encampments.  He also credited "historic levels of drug use" from "people who don't get held responsible for their behavior."  Lee has a solid point on each of those factors.  I would add another:  pride.  San Franciscans are proud of the city's vaunted tolerance.  Lest they seem intolerant, many locals have been reluctant to complain about the pervasive smell of urine and occasional glimpses of public defecation until conditions become impossible to ignore.

San Francisco uses paint to fight public urination.  Public urination has gotten so bad in San Francisco that the city has painted nine walls with a repellant paint that makes pee spray back on the offender.

L.A. councilman takes aim at tiny homes on wheels.  Tiny wooden homes on wheels, roughly the size of garden sheds, have popped up on San Pedro streets as a temporary way to house the homeless. [...] But after a handful of similar structures appeared in San Pedro, Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino said he wants them removed immediately, calling them "a threat in many ways to our public safety."

Avert Your Eyes and Hold Your Nose.  Downtown San Francisco feels like a large public toilet without enough janitors.  More than once this year, I've seen men drop their pants in public places — including at Fifth and Market — to leave a smelly mess on the sidewalk.  You can walk for blocks and never escape the stench of stale urine.  At lunchtime, I see street people passed out on high-traffic sidewalks, and I am afraid to walk around them.  The homeless have been a problem in San Francisco for as far back as anyone remembers, but to me it seems this year is the worst.

$213 million earmarked to track L.A. homeless by computer, house 1,400.  A coalition of public and private agencies announced Tuesday that it is funneling $213 million to house 1,400 homeless people and to expand a tracking and placement system it hopes will end chronic and veteran homelessness in Los Angeles County over the next two years.  The placement tool, called the coordinated entry system, is designed to replace a confusing patchwork of entry points to homeless housing and services with a single computerized portal that reaches every corner of the county.

The Editor says...
That's $152,000 per homeless person — enough to buy a house for each of them.

Rise in gay homeless people threatens San Francisco's name as gay-friendly mecca.  Thanks to the equality rights work of pioneers such as the politician and activist Harvey Milk, San Francisco has a reputation as the gay capital of the world.  But as the city recovers from its 43rd gay Pride festival at the weekend, attended by more than 1.5 million people, it must confront an uncomfortable issue.

Paradise Lost: CA to Provide Free Cell Phones for Homeless.  In California, the unemployment rate may be above 10.2%, and the state debt may be above $16 billion, the state's GDP may be in serious trouble and businesses may be leaving in droves due to ever-increasing tax rates, but that isn't going to stop the gravy train for the state's poor and dispossessed.  The California Public Utilities Commission is all set to greenlight a new program that would give homeless and low-income people free cell phones — call them Obamaphones — with free service.

Homeless People Shower on New Bus in San Francisco.  In May, San Francisco introduced the "Hook-up Truck," providing intimate space for couples on the go.  Now, the city is welcoming the "Lava Mae," a public shower on a bus, aimed at the city's large homeless population.  San Francisco has been fighting a losing battle with homelessness for decades.  City officials concede that they have made little progress over the years despite massive spending, amounting to $34 per homeless person per day.

Oh, good!  Now they have the right to urinate in the street.
California lawmaker proposes 'homeless bill of rights'.  California law protects its residents from discrimination based on sex, race, religion and sexual orientation.  Now a state lawmaker is pushing to add another category to the list:  homelessness.  New legislation titled the "Homeless Bill of Rights" by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco is meant to keep communities from rousting people who have nowhere to turn.

The Editor says...
Somehow the writer failed to include words like vagrant and vagabond, and only the commenters used words like drifter and bum and panhandling.  Homeless people generally are homeless for a reason — usually a lifetime of bad decisions.  This makes them poor candidates for long-term employment, which is apparently the motivation for the proposed legislation discussed in the article above.  Please keep in mind that many of the chronically homeless who need protection are really in need of incarceration for their own good.  Street-corner beggars pay no taxes, so if they bring in $20 an hour, they're probably better off than you.  Even the ones who claim to be hungry will throw away food if someone gives it to them.  Give a couple of bananas to a "hungry" roadside beggar and see what he or she does with them.

California's $11 Billion Rail Bridge That Doesn't Go Anywhere.  California is taking heat for celebrating the completion of a high-speed rail bridge that has cost taxpayers $11 billion and took nine years to build — and goes nowhere[.]  Critics — including Tesla founder Elon Musk and Dogecoin creator Billy Markus — are ripping the California High-Speed Rail Authority after it boasted about last year's completion of a "Fresno River Viaduct," a mere sliver of the state's long-delayed, bullet-train project attempting to link San Francisco to Los Angeles.  "This is the most remarkable human achievement ever," joked Markus, the creator of the jokey cryptocurrency, on X Friday.  [Tweet]

"People Will Be Teleporting Between Planets" Before California Finishes High-Speed Rail Project.  X users mocked the California High-Speed Rail Authority's post on the social media platform, which celebrated building a bridge that goes nowhere.  "The Fresno River Viaduct in Madera County is one of the first completed high-speed rail structures.  At nearly 1,600 feet long, high-speed trains will travel over the riverbed and will run parallel with the BNSF Railroad," CAHSR wrote on X.  [Tweet]  Billy Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin, joked, "This is the most remarkable human achievement ever, 1600 feet of high-speed rail after 9 years and 11 billion dollars."  [Tweet]  Venture capitalist David Sacks said, "Building products on time and on budget requires a monomaniacal leader who kicks asses to make things run right.  Government, which is based on lobbying, backscratching and committee-based decision-making, is uniquely unsuited for this."  [Tweet]  "People will be teleporting between planets by the time California achieves high speed rail service from Merced to Bakersfield," one X user quipped.  [Tweet]  Another user said the partially built Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project could accommodate the homeless and migrants.  [Tweet]

Private Company Building $12B High-Speed Rail from L.A. to Vegas.  Work is set to begin Monday on a $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, with officials projecting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028.  Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida, aims to lay 218 miles of new track between a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip and another new facility in Rancho Cucamonga, California.  Almost the full distance is to be built in the median of Interstate 15, with a station stop in San Bernardino County's Victorville area.  In a statement, Brightline Holdings founder and Chairperson Wes Edens called the moment "the foundation for a new industry."

The Editor says...
The train goes 186 mph, so your gambling begins before you get to Las Vegas.

High-speed rail from Nevada to California breaks ground for planned 2028 opening.  The Transportation Secretary on Monday was on hand to break ground with other officials on what will be America's next high-speed railway.  "I'm convinced that the first time Americans actually experience American high-speed rail on U.S. soil, there's going to be no going back and people are going to expect and demand it all across the country," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC Monday.

California's high speed rail to nowhere.  California, one of the brokest states, is facing a $68 billion dollar budget deficit for 2024. [...] California's high speed rail to nowhere is darkly hilarious.  Back in 2008, voters approved a mere $33 billion for a "high speed rail" (HSR) system, supposedly from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  The project was always an obscene boondoggle and has become no less in 16 years.  Traveling that route, which will almost certainly never be completed, was to take no less than three hours.  Even in 2008, one could cheaply fly between those cities in less than half the time.  HSR would be no cheaper, but take much longer.  A reasonable person would ask why anyone would think high speed rail a good idea.  It was never necessary.  Because ego, paying off Democrat constituencies, lining Democrat pockets, and green of course.  Circa 2024, the LA to SF section is all but abandoned, there is no HSR service anywhere, and the unfinished and disconnected HSR infrastructure between Merced and Bakersfield resembles the wasted ruins of a long-dead society, mysteriously lost to time.  Who needs or wants any train at any speed between those two places?

Biden Puts Us On A Fast Train To Nowhere.  "At long last, we're building the first high-speed rail project in our nation's history.  And it's starting here."  That was President Joe Biden announcing last week that us taxpayers will be ponying up $3 billion to help a private company build a bullet train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas so gambleholics can start losing money more quickly.  The L.A. to Vegas train will supposedly be finished in time for the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028 — just four and half years from now.  Well, anything is possible.  A private company is planning to build the thing and claims to have the route and rights-of-way all figured out.  But when you consider that Biden put up $7.5 billion to get private companies to put EV chargers all over the country and two years later not a single one has been built, constructing more than four miles of complex high-speed electrified rail each and every month seems a bit optimistic.  (It took eight years to build an 11-mile extension to the Washington, D.C., Metro Silver Line.)

Off The Rails!  Scam-Trak Joe's EPA Punches Newsom's 'Electric' Ticket.  Fact:  California's government-imposed electric system is so bad, the main supplier, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), cannot handle the demand, already asked electric car owners to cut back on their charges, has acknowledged that its use of government land for power lines increases the risk of wildfires, and sees the state desperately trying to get other inputs of electric power from places like Arizona, and a power project running into conflicts with American Indian tribal rights.  Fact:  Gavin Newsom's pet "high-speed rail" project, designed to connect "northern California" with "southern California," is nowhere near completion, is titanically over-budget, and represents one of the biggest state boondoggles in US history.  Fact:  The federal Environmental Protection Agency, started under Richard "I-Am-Not-A-Crook" Nixon has no real constitutionally enumerated justification, is a big, authoritarian bully, prevents innumerable peaceful activities by imposing prohibitions on our use of private property, and punishes citizens and business owners for engaging in peaceful activity that has not harmed anyone.  And with those facts established, we see more idiocy from the feds and California.

California, the Great Destroyer.  In 1996, the California legislature created the high speed rail authority.  In 2008, voters passed a $33 billion bond to build an envisioned 800 mile project eventually to link Sacramento with San Diego.  Fifteen years later, a scaled-down plan from Bakersfield to Merced remains not even half finished.  Yet the envisioned costs will exceed that of the original estimate for the entire project.  The rail authority now estimates that just the modest 178 mile route — only about a fifth of the authorized distance — will not be completed at least until 2030.  Past high speed estimates of both time and cost targets have been widely wrong and perhaps deliberately misleading.  Total costs for the entire project are now estimated at nearly $130 billion.  Many expect that figure to double in the next quarter-century.  Planners also concede there will likely not be much high speed rider demand from San Joaquin Valley residents willing to pay $86 to travel at a supposed 200 mph from Bakersfield to Merced.

On the other hand...
What if they complete California High Speed Rail?  What happens if the only part of California High Speed Rail ever built is between Merced and Bakersfield... and it's successful?  And I mean landscape-changing, growth-driving successful?  Stranger things have happened — Las Vegas comes to mind.  If you had told someone in the 1920's that Las Vegas was going to be a city of two million people and one of the most visited places on earth, you'd have been laughed at and dismissed as crazy.  Same thing with Vail in the 1960's.  Most folks had doubts that people would make the journey along U.S. 6, from Denver, and doubted I-70 could even be built.  And Vail utterly failed at planning for success, and now they have a perpetual housing crisis for workers as a result.  What happens if HSR paves the way for Merced to explode to a city with a high density urban core of 400,000 people? [...] Does California have a plan for this possible outcome?  It would be the perfect test bed for building their carbon free utopia.  Problem is, they will need to completely destroy everything that exists in those towns to do it.  It won't really work if all those people are car dependent when they get off the electric train.  The other thing is water. [...]

California's HSR scar.  Although the California High Speed Rail "project" hasn't been officially declared dead, it's pretty obvious that it will only be a matter of time before this happens.  Officially the project has been "scaled back" to running only between Merced and Bakersfield, possibly the least desirable city pair to link with bullet trains on the planet.  YouTuber "the Four Foot" flew a drone over the entire 119-mile route last year and posted a two-hour video.  The images are very telling.  The site looks more like an abandoned movie set of a high-speed rail construction site, than an actual construction site.  There is a lot of rusting rebar, both in piles and sticking out of half-done concrete.  There's not a whole lot of porta potties, only two locations had a high density of toilets.  This is an indication of how many workers are (or aren't) involved.  The other thing:  There was no actual work happening in the video.

More than $600 million [has been] spent on environmental reviews for [a] high-speed train that isn't built yet.  The state of California has spent more than $600 million on environmental reviews for a high-speed rail project that has not yet been completed, according to documents obtained and reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.  The state shelled out a total of $618,038,924.01 for numerous companies involved in construction to conduct environmental reviews for the state's high-speed railway project, the records show.  California voters approved the funding of the undertaking to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and the Central Valley with high-speed rail in 2008, but it has encountered delays and budget overruns in the 15 years since California voters initially approved issuing bonds to finance the project.

California high speed rail is a slow motion fail.  In just "7-10" more years high speed rail "will debut" in California's Central Valley!  And you'd better plan on spending all your time riding back and forth to Bakersfield, because it cost a fortune to bring this level of climate change virtue-signaling to you!  Some $22.8 billion so far, on the easiest section to build.  How long exactly will it take for the line to break even?  California estimated the ticket price between Merced and Bakersfield to be between $48 and $78.  We'll go with the higher number.  In this little mental exercise, we will assume a few things; that California will run four trains on the route, those trains will be provided free of charge to California High Speed Rail (CHSR), each train carries 360 people, every train is full, trains run 24/7 every 15 minutes without ever stopping for maintenance, that there are absolutely no operating costs, 100% of ticket sales go to service the debt, which has 0% interest, that each one way takes an hour, and electricity is free.

California's high-speed rail is running out of money.  In 2008, California voted yes on a $9 billion bond authorization to build the nation's first high-speed railway.  The plan is to construct an electric train that will connect Los Angeles with the Central Valley and then San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes.  But 15 years later, there is not a single mile of track laid, and executives involved say there isn't enough money to finish the project.  The latest estimates from the California High-Speed Rail Authority suggest it will cost between $88 billion and $128 billion to complete the entire system from LA to San Francisco.  Inflation and higher construction costs have contributed to the high price tag.  The project has spent $9.8 billion so far, according to Brian Kelly, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

The Bullet Train Epitomizes Golden State Corruption.  This is one of history's greatness thefts.  If completed, $200 billion would have been taken from taxpayers and transferred to unions and greedy corporations.  In exchange for that money the train to nowhere will leave behind slums, deficits, a train with no money operate, no passengers and by 2040, the possible completion date, outmoded technology. [...] These are staggering numbers, a testament to a staggering waste of financial and material resources.  For this first segment of track, Californians are going to pay $206 million per mile, and that's if there aren't any more overruns.

The end of BART? California's bullet train isn't the only rail system in deep trouble.  Earlier this month we learned that California's ruinously expensive bullet train system had gone up in price once again.  The full system is now expected to cost $128 billion and that's if it's completed sometime in 2040.  The other bad news about the bullet train was just as worrisome.  A new estimate of anticipated ridership for the finished system showed a drop of about 25%.  Declining ridership isn't just a problem for the rail system of the distant future.  It's also a huge problem for systems that already exist and none has been hit quite as bad as BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system which connects the Bay Area.

The passengers want to get off this train, even before it is built.
California high-speed rail costs [are] going up and projected ridership [is] going down.  Last February the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced that the price for the state's planned bullet train had gone up from $100 billion to $105 billion.  A few months later they clarified it was actually going to be $113 billion.  Yesterday there were more reports about delays and price increases. [...] In case you've forgotten, this entire project was originally pitched to voters 15 years ago at a cost of $33 billion.  The fact that the estimated cost has gone up $28 billion in the last 13 months gives you an idea where we are at this point.  As mentioned above, the first section is still 7-10 years away from being opened but completion of the line from LA to San Francisco doesn't even have a projected deadline anymore.

BART Seeks Another $2.3B in Federal Funds for CA Train.  The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is now asking for another $2.3 billion from the federal government to see high-speed trains running from San Francisco to San Jose as part of the already years-delayed, over budget Bay Area Rapid Transit project, according to The Mercury News.  The total cost of this section of California's high-speed rail project has exploded to $9.3 billion, 35 percent higher than the last estimate of $6.9 billion and almost twice what it was estimated to cost in 2014, the Mercury News reported.  And it's unclear whether that $9.3 billion figure will go up again.

California's $113 Billion Bullet Train to Nowhere.  [Scroll down] The fastest train in America is an Amtrak which tops out at around 100 MPH.  In a 14-year span, Amtrak had 222 deaths.  The Sunday New York Times contained an article on California's boondoggle of a bullet train.  Californians passed a bond initiative in 2008 to build a bullet train.  The track was to run from Los Angeles to San Francisco at a projected cost of $33 billion.  It was anticipated to complete in 2020.  How fast is California's bullet train?  It travels at zero miles per hour.  It hasn't been built.  The projected cost went from $33 billion to $113 billion, and only the most Pollyannaish politicians claim that California will have a bullet train anytime soon if ever[.]  Why hasn't it been built?  Dysfunctional California politics. [...] There is too much waste and indecision in California.  The California project is so dysfunctional that California was issuing and accepting bid contracts before they had acquired the land to build on.  Farmers in the central valley were not that keen on having their land split by an elevated rail line.  They sued and that added to the delay and layered on more billions.

NY Times: How California's high speed rail project became a 'loser'.  The very short answer, as revealed in this story published yesterday by the NY Times, is politics.  The attempt to build the first bullet train in the US between San Francisco and Los Angeles almost immediately turned into a boondoggle thanks to decisions that made no sense in terms of efficiency or ridership but only in terms of satisfying powerful politicians. [...] The cost increases are something we've been writing about here at Hot Air for more than a decade.  The initial budget for the project (back in 2008) was $33 billion with a completion date of 2020.  But earlier this year the California High Speed Rail Authority announced the budget had gone up to $105 billion and then a few months later raised it again to $113 billion.  When will it be finished?  Well...  ["]The rail authority said it has accelerated the pace of construction on the starter system, but at the current spending rate of $1.8 million a day, according to projections widely used by engineers and project managers, the train could not be completed in this century.["]

Slow Minds Run Over at High Speed.  Well, well, look at what we have here:  the New York Times has finally caught up with what every sensible person knew at least ten years ago — California's high-speed rail project is a joke.  "America's first experiment with high-speed rail has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare," the Times says in a long feature today.

How California's Bullet Train Went Off the Rails.  The state was warned repeatedly that its plans were too complex.  SNCF, the French national railroad, was among bullet train operators from Europe and Japan that came to California in the early 2000s with hopes of getting a contract to help develop the system.  The company's recommendations for a direct route out of Los Angeles and a focus on moving people between Los Angeles and San Francisco were cast aside, said Dan McNamara, a career project manager for SNCF.  The company pulled out in 2011.  "There were so many things that went wrong," Mr. McNamara said.  "SNCF was very angry.  They told the state they were leaving for North Africa, which was less politically dysfunctional.  They went to Morocco and helped them build a rail system."  Morocco's bullet train started service in 2018.  The goal in California in 2008 was to carry passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2 hours 40 minutes, putting it among the fastest trains in the world in average speed.

California has weaponized transportation against its own population.  In 2008, California voters approved what was supposed to be a $33 billion high-speed rail project to connect Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Francisco.  What they are actually getting is a project that may still never connect those cities but will cost at least $113 billion and won't be completed until at least 2030.  In the meantime, California's legislature is as determined as ever to make affordable transportation illegal, going so far as to ban gasoline-powered automobiles.  The high-speed rail project is a predictable rat's nest of rent-seeking by politically connected contractors.  Assuming it is actually ever finished, it will require constant operating subsidies and maintenance costs.  This California crazy train was back in the news last week because it received one of many environmental green lights required for its completion, which will come no sooner than 2033.  However, be prepared for disappointment — this project has consistently blown through every cost estimate and time projection that has been applied to it so far.

Give it up, already!
Costs of California's troubled bullet train rise again, by an estimated $5 billion.  California bullet train officials on Tuesday [2/8/2022] released a new draft project blueprint that acknowledges that costs have risen roughly $5 billion but seeks to address several issues that have generated blowback.  The 2022 business plan estimates that the full, 500-mile, high-speed system between Los Angeles and San Francisco will cost as much as $105 billion, up from $100 billion two years ago.  In 2008, when voters approved a bond to help build the railroad, the authority estimated that the system would cost $33 billion.  In its latest blueprint, the California High Speed Rail Authority abandoned a plan to save money by building only a single track for an initial 171-mile operating system between Bakersfield and Merced; instead, it plans to build a two-track system.

Feds Restore $929 Million in Funds for California's Billion-Dollar Bullet Train Boondoggle.  California's wasteful high-speed rail project is getting a predictable boost under train-loving President Joe Biden.  On Thursday, the Biden administration announced it was restoring $929 million in grants that had been revoked by the U.S. Department of Transportation under President Donald Trump.  Trump used the terrible state of the rail project — years behind schedule, billions over budget, and without a realistic plan for actually connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco — as a reason to shut the funding down.  His feud with California political leadership certainly played a role in the decision, but the reality is that the entire train project has been an expensive disaster that has lined a bunch of contractors' and consultants' pockets.  California sued the Trump administration to try to get the money back.  Yesterday's [6/10/2021] announcement is the result of a settlement agreement between California and the Biden administration to restore the grant.

Feds agree to restore $1B to California for bullet train.  The federal government has agreed to restore roughly $1 billion in funding for a bullet train project in California.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday night that the Transportation Department would provide nearly $929 million for the state's high-speed rail project.  Newsom said the money would help workers complete the initial operating segment of the project, which would be the nation's first high-speed rail system.  "Tonight's action by the federal government is further proof that California and the Biden-Harris Administration share a common vision — clean, electrified transportation that will serve generations to come.  Restoring nearly $929 million in grant funding back to California's High-Speed Rail project will continue to spur job creation, advance the project and move the state one step closer to getting trains running in California as soon as possible," said Newsom.

The Editor says...
Remember, "clean, electrified transportation" is only as clean as the power plant making the electricity.

Introduction by The Editor:
California has now given up on its intra-state high-speed rail line.  The taxpayers are stuck with the tab, but nobody else cares, because this was a service for which there was no demand.  The lesson is simple:  If there is a demand for high-speed rail service, and a sufficient number of passengers are willing to pay the high ticket price, a private company will build the system.  It's called capitalism.  The California method is an abject failure, which should be a harsh lesson about socialism, but the politicians don't get it.

California bullet train project to seek additional $4.1B amid delays and rising costs.  The California bullet train project will seek $4.1 billion in additional funding in order to finish construction in the state's Central Valley.  The additional money would be sourced from a bond fund that voters approved in 2008, according to a Monday report from the Los Angeles Times, citing newly released documents from the bullet train authority.  The report said an Assembly Transportation Committee hearing is expected to take place in the coming weeks.  The new disclosures reveal not only an increase in the cost of the project but also a delay in its projected timeline.  The Central Valley system, which will cover 171 miles and reach from Merced to Bakersfield, was supposed to be completed by 2028.  Its new opening date has been pushed to 2030.

California again delays bullet train first stage, begs feds for more time to avoid funding cutoff.  The fiasco of California's pathetic attempt to build a high-speed rail (HSR) line between Los Angeles and San Francisco continues to generate far more embarrassment than actual completed track.  Once again, for what seems like the umpteenth time, California is unable to meet the deadlines imposed by the federal government as a condition of receiving federal aid — in other words, subsidies from other states for building what should be commonly known as "Brown's Folly," after Jerry Brown, who go the itch to build it after riding bullet trains in Japan and Europe.

'Horrible sequence of mistakes': How bullet train contractors botched a bridge project.  A series of errors by contractors and consultants on the California bullet train venture caused support cables to fail on a massive bridge, triggering an order to stop work that further delayed a project already years behind schedule, the Los Angeles Times has learned.  The bridge is longer than two football fields and is needed to shuttle vehicles over the future bullet train right of way and existing BNSF freight tracks in Madera County.  Authorities have yet to finalize a plan to repair the bridge.  Late last year, crews installed temporary steel supports to prevent it from collapsing.  Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Times under a public records request show the steel supports snapped as a result of neglect, work damage, miscommunications and possible design problems.

How We Pale to Previous Generations.  We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.  Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?  Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line.  But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns, and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up.  The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno — and not yet a foot of track laid.

Bullet Train Workers Reportedly Told To Suppress Bad News, Lawmaker Reacts.  People working on California's high speed rail have reportedly been told to keep their mouths shut and not openly talk about about any bad news related to the project.  Several high-profile members of the construction management team in Fresno said the company overseeing the project told them not to say anything about why the project has repeatedly fallen behind schedule and why the cost has exploded, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.  However, that supervising company claims the article is wrong.  California Assemblymember Jim Patterson, a longtime opponent of the project, believes this is further evidence of wrongdoing within the High-Speed Rail Authority.  "This is something that I think is so serious that it calls into question criminal behavior," said Patterson.

California bullet train adds another $1.3 billion to projected price tag.  The California High-Speed Rail Authority on Wednesday bumped its overall cost estimate for completing the rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco to $80.3 billion, blaming inflationary increases and better cost projections for a $1.3-billion boost that still is smaller than in previous years.  After years of embarrassing cost overruns and delays, managers of California's ambitious bullet-train project insisted that they are on pace to meet a preliminary 2022 federal deadline for laying track along the first segment in the Central Valley.  But that will use up virtually all the money the project has available.

California Off the Rails, State a Disaster Zone.  When former California Gov. Jerry Brown announced his ill-conceived, ill-fated high-speed train that no one wanted, and no one ever thought would be completed, he unwittingly sent the message that the once Golden State would soon be spiraling into disaster.  Before current Gov. Gavin Newsom killed the train, California had squandered $5 billion on the boondoggle, and cost projections soared billions more from the original estimate.  New York Times' analysts pegged the train's final total at a staggering $100 billion.  Brown envisioned himself as a forward-thinking leader who would secure California's self-proclaimed position as the nation's preeminent cutting-edge state.  Brown put California on the cutting-edge, all right, but of catastrophe.

High-speed rail route took land from farmers.  The money they're owed hasn't arrived.  John Diepersloot squinted under a bright Central Valley sun, pointing to the damage to his fruit orchard that came with the California bullet train.  He lost 70 acres of prime land.  Rail contractors left mounds of rubble along his neat rows.  Irrigation hoses are askew.  A sophisticated canopy system for a kiwi field, supported by massive steel cables, was torn down.  But what really irritates Diepersloot is the $250,000 that he paid out of his own pocket for relocating wells, removing trees, building a road and other expenses.

Can California Be Saved, or Is It Too Late?  Jerry Brown's imaginary high-speed rail that was to initially run from Bakersfield to Merced in Central California is a bust.  The cost was projected to be $77 [billion] but has forecast to be $98 [billion]!  It most likely will never be completed.  Billions have been wasted.

California 'hi speed rail' plan now pondering old fashioned diesel trains to salvage something from the failed project.  Nobody with any authority over it can admit that Jerry Brown's pet project, a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is a multi-billion dollar fiasco and pull the plug to avoid squandering additional billions of dollars from taxpayers.  Governor Gavin Newsom has "temporarily" downsized the project, promising to build only the 165 mile segment from Merced to Bakersfield in the flat Central Valley, a trip that few people would ever make at the sort of fares necessary to sustain high speed rail service, a premium-priced commodity everywhere in the world with high speed rail.  (The barely high-speed Acela trains between DC and Boston charge fares comparable to airlines.)  Very few executives need to travel from Merced to Bakersfield quickly.

Trump Cancels California Rail Boondoggle Funding.  In a move that is certain to enrage the perpetually-enraged political left and our fake news media, the Trump Administration today moved to rescind a portion of the $3.5 billion in federal funds previously dedicated to California's disastrous high-speed rail boondoggle.

Taxpayers Can't Dodge Bullet Train.  [Scroll down]  Eleven years later, the critics have been mostly right.  A [Los Angeles] Times news story this week, based on an internal draft of the High Speed Rail Authority's forthcoming report to the Legislature, found, "The cost of building a 119-mile section of the California bullet train in the Central Valley is projected to increase by $1.8 billion."  Note that the cost overruns are in the simplest place to build, along a flat agricultural plain.  And just how many people are itching to ride this downsized rail line from Bakersfield to Merced? [...] The project is not going to do anything about climate change, but is more likely to be an underused monument to government waste.

Ballooning Costs, Missed Deadlines Derail California High-Speed Rail Project.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he is pulling the plug on the state's massive high-speed rail project after it incurred enormous cost overruns that pushed the potential price tag to more than $77 billion and put the project more than a decade behind schedule.  The controversial project championed by Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown, was intended to link Los Angeles to San Francisco.  Voters approved a ballot measure in 2008 to finance and build the approximately 520-mile rail line.  At the time, it was estimated the project would cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020.  Officials said they hoped to connect the line to San Diego and Sacramento eventually.

Canceled! California's billion-dollar boondoggle train.  The train never made practical sense in a state where automobiles, though vilified, are by far the principal mode of transportation.  After purchasing an expensive (though subsidized) train ticket, what were the few who chose to ride the train to do once they reached their destination — rent a car?  California already spent over $5 billion on the train, but estimates to finish the project have now exploded to a staggering $77 billion!  The completion date has been pushed back all the way to 2033.

US DOT cancels $929 million in grants for California's aborted high-speed rail project.  California's top officials spear-headed a lawsuit to end the implementation of President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration.  Now, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) has cancelled millions in grants for the high speed rail project that has been substantially scaled back by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Trump's plan to take back $2.5 billion in California's high-speed rail funding 'unprecedented'.  The Trump administration's decision to cancel a $929-million grant to California's troubled high-speed rail project and claw back $2.5 billion in funds already spent has thrust the federal government into uncharted legal territory and poses an existential threat to the state's largest investment ever.  Never before, experts say, has the federal government attempted to take back such a large sum of money from California, particularly after it was spent under federal supervision.

Trump Takes Back $1 Billion from California; Gavin Newsom Complains: 'Political Retribution'.  The Trump administration announced Tuesday [2/19/2019] that it was canceling a federal grant to California worth nearly $1 billion after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the cancelation of the state's high-speed rail project last week.  Newsom used his "State of the State" address Feb. 12 to cancel the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project, saying it "would cost too much and, respectfully, would take too long" to complete.  However, he told legislators he wanted to complete the portion of the bullet train under construction in the rural Central Valley, lest the state lose federal dollars granted to California by President Barack Obama as part of the 2009 stimulus:  "I am not interested in sending $3.5 billion in federal funding that was allocated to this project back to Donald Trump," Newsom said.

Trump administration to cancel $929 million in California high-speed rail funding.  The fate of California's high-speed rail project was cast into further doubt Tuesday when the federal government announced plans to cancel $929 million in grant funds, a move U.S. officials linked to violations of the grant agreement but some view as political payback.  The action marks an escalation in the battle between President Trump and the state of California since Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that the project lacked a path to complete a statewide system and vowed to scale back the $77-billion mega-project.  The Transportation Department also said it was "actively exploring every legal option" to get back an additional $2.5-billion grant that is being used to finance the construction of 119 miles of rail line in the Central Valley.

Trump Admin To Newsom:  We're Coming For The High-Speed Rail Money, Pal.  Gavin Newsom may want to keep the federal subsidies for California's stunted high-speed rail project, but the Trump administration wants the cash back.  After Newsom reset the project from a connection between the state's two largest metropolises to a ten-figure project to connect two cities with a combined population of under 600,000, the new governor also declared that he'd hang onto $3.5 billion from Washington.  It didn't take long for collectors to come knocking.

CA Gov. Newsom Just Delivered a Huge Blow to AOC's 'Green New Deal'.  During his State of the State address, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday said his administration is putting a halt to the highly anticipated high-speed rail that would travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  "Let's be real.  The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long.  There's been too little oversight and not enough transparency," Newsom said during his first address.  The cost of building the train, at last estimate, was put at $77 billion and wouldn't be completed until 2033, the Associated Press reported.

Gavin Newsom calls SF-to-LA high-speed rail unrealistic, pushes for route from Bakersfield to Merced.  During Gov. Gavin Newsom's first State of the State speech Tuesday, he surprised listeners by announcing he would put the quest for high-speed rail connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles championed by his predecessor far on the back burner.  Instead, Newsom offered a consolation prize:  high-speed rail between Bakersfield and Merced.

California's High Speed Rail Finally Stops Pining for the Fjords.  By the time [Governor] Newsom pulled the plug on the boondoggle, it had already swelled to $77 to $98 billion in projected costs for the unlikely goal of reducing automotive travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  The original cost was estimated to be $25 billion.  The good news is that the most incredibly expensive part of this colossal waste of taxpayer money is now cancelled.  No more worrying about paying for extremely expensive land or 13.5 mile tunnels or how to span active earthquake faults.  This is progress!

Could California's Doomed Bullet Train Fund Trump's Border Wall?  California Gov. Gavin Newsom just pulled the plug on the state's bullet train boondoggle.  President Trump should demand the $3.5 billion the federal government dumped into this black hole back, so he can put it to better use building the border wall.

Trump Demands Gavin Newsom Return $3.5 Billion for Canceled Bullet Train; Newsom:  It's 'California's Money' Now.  President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday evening that the State of California return $3.5 billion in federal funds after Gov. Gavin Newsom canceled most of the state's high-speed rail project, saying it was too expensive.  "California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars," the president tweeted.  "They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars.  We want that money back now.  Whole project is a 'green' disaster!"

California Further Proves that Public High-Speed Rail Projects Are Stupid.  California governor Gavin Newsom has now abandoned the high-speed railway that would have linked Los Angeles and San Francisco.  The ballot measure was proposed in 2008, then estimated to cost $33 billion, with an expected completion date of 2020.  Before being scrapped, the expected cost to complete the railway was $77 billion, and the timeline for completion stretched to 2033. [...] This particular project involved one high-speed railway connecting two cities less than 400 miles apart.  Construction of this railway began in 2013, and we have to imagine that, given what we've seen, a completion date of 2033 and a price tag of $77 billion is a wildly generous expectation.

Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously.  The bullet train is dead.  Mostly.  California's new governor, the prim and grim Gavin Newsom, announced that the project would be taken off its $650-million-a-month life-support apparatus and euthanized.  The end of the project leaves Californians with no way to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco except a 90-minute, $149 flight.  (Or driving.) [...] This is the "problem" that California has tried to solve with a $77 billion boondoggle.  At the time of its demise, the bullet train was years behind schedule, had spent more than seven times its originally allocated budget, and, of course, carried no passengers.

California scrapping plan for $77B high-speed rail from LA to San Francisco.  California is scrapping current plans to build a $77 billion high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to California due to high costs.  The state's governor, Gavin Newsom, said during his State of the State address on Tuesday that the proposal would "cost too much" and "take too long."

By Law, California High Speed Rail May Be Doomed To Fail.  For $100 billion Jerry Brown, Arnold and Gavin in are going to give you a train from Bakersfield to Madera!!  Of course they do not have the $100 billion and no idea where they money to build or operate the system — so very few riders will come from Bakersfield to go to Madera (a great community).  The 99 freeway will continue to have lots of cars using it — the train to nowhere will not operate due to lack of operating cash.

The Boondoggle Continues.  Well, a few remaining Republicans in Sacramento managed to get an audit done.  The price tag is up to 77 billion dollars.

Rushed construction cost high-speed rail $600 million and delays mount.  California's High Speed Rail Authority is still paying for a costly decision five years ago to begin construction in the Central Valley without securing land and before it had completed key plans, according to a report published on Thursday [11/15/2018] by State Auditor Elaine Howle.  Howle's office estimated that the rushed construction contributed to $600 million in cost overruns just for segments in the Central Valley.  They may require as much as $1.6 billion more.

California's $77 billion bullet train will be one of the state's great embarrassments:  Larry Ellison.  Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are on the same page when it comes to California's $77 billion high-speed rail project.  "Trains leave when you don't want to leave, from a place you don't want to leave from, and take you to a place you don't want to go to, at a time you don't want to get there, and then you have to get into a car and go wherever you're going.  It is a crazy system," said Ellison during an exclusive interview with Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with Maria" on Thursday [10/25/2018].  Ellison, who said he hasn't spoken to Musk about the train, noted that their views are in-line.

Gavin Newsom's Bullet Train To Nowhere.  Gavin Newsom is the Democratic candidate for Governor of California who is widely expected to win next month thanks to the state's overwhelming blue tilt.  This week Newsom was asked about his plans for California's bullet train project and he said he would settle for building half of it as a way to rescue the project that is already way over budget.

Californians To Try To Kill High-Speed Rail Project By Referendum.  Remember that high-speed rail project that was going to bring California's infrastructure into the 21st century?  The last we really heard about it was back in April when an audit was scheduled to take stock of just how far in the hole they were and if it could ever be finished.  Of course, that's been the story of this project from the beginning.  One delay after another compounded by flawed budget estimates and construction schedules.  Mix in a bit of political incompetence and malfeasance and you've got a recipe for disaster.  This running boondoggle has been dragging on for ages, creating a black pit of despair where Californians' tax dollars go to die.  But now that may be about to change.  Fresh off their advances in attempting to recall the recent gas tax package, one group is now working on a referendum plan to stop the entire mess and redirect the money to fixing their roads.

Inflation and delays could add billions more to bullet train project costs.  The California bullet train project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year — a construction spending rate higher than that for the Bay Bridge, Boston's Big Dig or any U.S. transportation project in recent history.  But still it's not enough, planners say.  In order to hit its 2033 deadline and $77-billion budget, the California High Speed Rail Authority will have to increase daily spending by up to nine times over the next four years or risk putting the already-delayed system further behind.

The Bullet Train No California Candidate Wants To Talk About.  The open primary for the California governor's race is coming up in a couple of weeks and there's a packed field of no less than 27 candidates on the ballot. [...] These folks are all out on the campaign trail and the Democrats are all competing to demonstrate which one of them hates President Trump the most and will be the best leader of the #RESIST movement.  On top of that, they all have to figure out how to deal with a housing crisis, disastrous roads in need of repair, an ongoing drought, wildfires, mudslides and a state economy which is somehow still in the black for the moment but is predicted to hit a wall by 2020.  But there's one thing you aren't hearing about from any of them.  Nobody is talking about the long-delayed and massively over budget bullet train.  Why do you suppose that is?

The Fatally Flawed Centerpiece of California's Transportation Future.  California's transportation future is bright.  In every area of transportation innovation, California-based companies are leading the way.  Consortiums of major global companies have offices throughout the San Francisco Bay area, pioneering self-driving cars that consolidate technologies from not just automakers, but cell phone manufacturers, chip designers, PC makers, telecoms, and software companies.  In Southern California from the aerospace hub surrounding LAX to the Mojave desert, heavily funded consortiums experiment with everything from passenger drones to hyperloop technologies to hypersonic transports.  It's all happening here.  It's wondrous.  Meanwhile, instead of preparing the roads for smart cars, or designing hubs that integrate buses and cars-on-demand with aerial drones and hyperloop systems, the centerpiece of California's transportation future is a train that isn't very fast, being built at what is probably the highest cost-per-mile in the history of transportation, which hardly anyone will ever ride.

Hyperloop Is Running Circles Around California's 'High Speed' Rail.  Just five years ago, Elon Musk proposed his breakthrough "hyperloop" transportation idea, and there is already talk of building it in major urban areas.  Over those same five years, California's government-funded high-speed rail project has seen nothing but cost overruns and delays.

Feds To Audit CA High-Speed Rail Project As Funding Flounders.  With a new study out showing that California doesn't have the funding to complete even the first phase of their high-speed rail project, the Inspector General for the Department of Transportation will open the books to see how federal monies have been spent: [...] That's bad news for a project that has already had plenty of bad news over the last several years.  The IG will apparently focus mainly on how the FRA has performed in reporting on California's progress rather than the performance of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

The great California train wreck.  Let me just say from the outset that I still miss California. [...] Somehow, we got along fine without a bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  A maniacal pipe dream of Gov. Jerry Brown, its price tag was increased last week to $77.3 billion.  The train's projected opening date has been pushed back another four years, to 2033.  When this thing is done, they claim, you will be able to zip between Southern California and Baghdad by the Bay in only three hours.  Minus any time spent restoring track after a particularly bad earthquake.

Jerry Brown's half-fast 'bullet train' front man admits Californians deserve another vote on the project.  In 2008, California voters were duped into narrowly approving (with 52.6% of the vote) a $9.95 billion bond issue for construction of a purported "bullet train" linking San Francisco and Los Angeles, based in specious cost estimates and promises that could not be (and have not been) fulfilled.

California's Bullet Train To Fiscal Oblivion.  California's bullet train project, also known as Jerry Brown's Folly, has turned into a fiscal nightmare for the Golden State.  Not only are the cost estimates soaring, but the time table has once more been shifted back.  Based on current estimates, it may turn out to be the biggest fraud in the history of public works.

Cost for California bullet train system rises to $77.3 billion.  The price of the California bullet train project jumped sharply Friday when the state rail authority announced that the cost of connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $77.3 billion and could rise as high as $98.1 billion — an uptick of at least $13 billion from estimates two years ago.  The rail authority also said the earliest trains could operate on a partial system between San Francisco and Bakersfield would be 2029 — four years later than the previous projection.  The full system would not begin operating until 2033.  The disclosures are contained in a 114-page business plan that was issued in draft form Friday [3/9/2018] by the rail authority before public hearings and formal submission to the Legislature in about 60 days.

California bullet train costs soar to $77B; opening delayed.  The projected cost of California's bullet train between San Francisco and Los Angeles has jumped to $77 billion and the completion date has been pushed back four years to 2033, according to a business plan released Friday [3/9/2018].  The plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority presents the latest setbacks for a project that's been beleaguered by delays and cost overruns since voters first gave it the green[ ]light in 2008.

Vacant lots, empty homes and dying orchards on bullet train route attract squatters, vandals and thieves.  Charlene Hook cherished her home of 30 years north of Corcoran, where pomegranate and pistachio orchards stretched for miles.  So choosing to burn it down last year was a difficult decision.  She and her husband had no plans to leave their 2½ acres until the day the state bullet train authority said its rails would go through their bedroom.  Not long after the couple moved out, thieves broke into the house and stripped almost everything of value — even taking the doors off her husband's shop where he restored classic cars.  Soon her former longtime neighbor's homes were being burglarized and vandalized.

Electricity Cost:  CA vs U.S. — and TX.  California has high income taxes.  Texas has none.  The workers in Texas do not have to pay bribes to work — in many places in California they have to pay extortion.  California is building a high speed rail from L.A. to San Fran, for $200 billion of taxpayers money.  Texas is building a high speed rail from Houston to Dallas, approximately 300 miles for NO tax dollars — all private funds.  Local cities will build the stations in exchange for development around the stations.

Will Unfinished Train Overpasses Become California's Stonehenge?  Californians thought high-speed rail was a great idea when they voted for it in 2008.  The state is overwhelmingly progressive.  Silicon Valley reflects California's confidence in new-age technology.  Californians are among the highest-taxed citizens in the nation.  They apparently are not opposed to borrowing and spending for ambitious government projects — especially to alleviate crowded freeways.  Planners assured voters that the cost for the first 520 miles was going to be an "affordable" $33 billion. [...] But projected costs have soared even before one foot of track has been laid.  The entire project's estimated costs, according to various projections, may have nearly doubled.

California's bullet train (and biggest boondoggle) is over budget by billions.  It's billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule, and appears to have no plausible way of living up to its goal of getting riders across the state in three hours or less.  Welcome to what's arguably the nation's largest infrastructure project and California's biggest boondoggle.  The highly hyped bullet train has been a challenge from the start.  No one thought it would be technically, financially and politically easy, but the way the project has been mishandled has some Californians fed up and demanding answers.

CA High-Speed Rail Contractor Gets 18% Raise After Missing Completion Date.  California High-Speed Rail agreed to increase payments to its construction manager by 18 percent after failing to complete its first 32-mile section within the seven-year deadline.  President Obama and his Democrat congressional majority voted in 2010 to fund the California High Speed Rail (Cal HSR) with $2.5 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as the centerpiece of a national network of 10 intercity corridors in California, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Southeast, The Gulf Coast, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, and New England.  Cal HSR contractually agreed to provide bullet train service with top speeds of 150 miles-per-hour over the 118-mile section between Madera and Bakersfield by September 30, 2017, or give the money back to the U.S. Treasury.

McCarthy: Time to Send California's Sputtering High-Speed Rail Project to the Scrap Yard.  After billions of dollars in cost overruns and missed deadlines, California's top Republican in Congress is again training his fire on his state's high-speed rail project, arguing that the mammoth $2.5 billion Obama-era stimulus boondoggle is still struggling to get off the ground and should be scrapped altogether.  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) has long opposed the state's plans for a bullet train linking San Francisco and Los Angeles even though the backbone of the rail system was supposed to run through his hometown of Bakersfield.  With construction of the main line of the project, straight through the state's Central Valley, set to miss a Sept. 30 deadline, McCarthy says it's past time to end the "colossal waste of precious taxpayer dollars."

How the Trump administration can stop the bullet train.  The only kind of news the troubled $64 billion California bullet train project seems to generate is bad news.  In January, a Federal Railroad Administration analysis was leaked that projected the initial 118-mile, $6.4 billion segment of the project would run 50 percent over budget.  Then last week, a Los Angeles Times report revealed that the project's price tag may continue to be pushed higher and higher by "the complex engineering needed for passenger safety."

Why High-Speed Rail Should Be Audited Before Caltrain Receives Federal Funds.  The California HSR project started in November 2008, when voters approved Proposition 1A establishing a $9 billion bond measure which included rigid restrictions on project administration and protections for taxpayers funding it.  Today, nine years later, not one inch of track has been laid.  Initially, the voters were told that the project would cost $33 billion; it was anticipated that about 1/3 would come from the bond; $10 billion from the feds; and the remaining money from enthusiastic private investors eager to invest in a winner.

The price of safety on California's bullet train is only now becoming apparent.  Engineers on California's high-speed rail project have worried for nine years about the sort of train wreck that occurred in New York last October.  Six hundred rail passengers were rolling across Long Island at 50 mph on a Saturday night when a maintenance train on a parallel track derailed and sideswiped their commuter train, injuring 33 and leaving others wandering in the dark through twisted wreckage.  Although construction on California's high-speed rail is already underway, designers are still sorting out safety's place in a delicate balance that also requires staying on budget and getting passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco on time.  One safety concern playing out at the moment stems from the fact that the bullet trains will run in some places at 220 mph, alongside lines carrying everything from toxic chemicals to military tanks.

California's Boondoggle Bullet Train Goes Off The (Fiscal) Rails.  The Golden State's vaunted bullet train project, planned to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, may be in its financial death throes.  If so, it's probably the best fiscal news for the Golden State in years.

Two construction firms seek an extra $300 million for bullet train work.  Two huge construction firms that are helping to build about 54 miles of bullet train structures in the Central Valley are seeking an additional $300 million on their fixed-price contracts, the Los Angeles Times has learned.  The increases, if the state ultimately agrees to cover them, would further bloat the bill for what has been touted as the easiest and most predictable section of the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco system.  The potential increases lend credence to the findings of a December risk assessment by the Federal Railroad Administration that costs for building the full 118 miles of work in the Central Valley could jump by 50%, or $3.6 billion, above current estimates.

High-Speed Train Going Nowhere Fast.  Six years have chugged by since the federal government awarded billions of dollars for California's high-speed passenger train but not a single track has been laid.  The "bullet train" promised to make the 520 mile trip from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area in less than three hours by traveling over 200 miles per hour. [...] With a price tag of nearly $100 billion, this rail system is the single largest public works project currently underway in the U.S.  Already billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, the only ones being taken for a ride by the train are taxpayers.

Obama Has Little To Show For His Lavish Spending On Roads, Green Energy And E-Cars.  Early in his administration, Obama fantasized about creating a network of high-speed rail lines across the country.  He poured $8 billion worth of stimulus money into the project, hoping to get rail lines started in 10 regions.  Only one has seriously pursued Obama's dream — California — which got $3.5 billion in federal grants.  But its effort is foundering amid skyrocketing costs and endless construction delays.

California's bullet train is hurtling toward a multibillion-dollar overrun, a confidential federal report warns.  California's bullet train could cost taxpayers 50% more than estimated — as much as $3.6 billion more.  And that's just for the first 118 miles through the Central Valley, which was supposed to be the easiest part of the route between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  A confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis, obtained by The [Los Angeles] Times, projects that building bridges, viaducts, trenches and track from Merced to Shafter, just north of Bakersfield, could cost $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared with the original budget of $6.4 billion.

Jerry Brown's bullet train fiasco and Trump.  California governor Jerry Brown has staked out the turf as President-Elect Trump's opponent, hiring Eric Holder to gin up a legal strategy and appointing Congressman Xavier Bacera as his A.G. to oppose anticipated Trump policies in sanctuary cities, the environment, and what some call California's "values."  But I have to wonder if Brown doesn't have a vulnerable flank in this battle:  the looming financial collapse of his most cherished project, the so-called "bullet train" between the Bay Area and Los Angeles.  Yesterday [1/13/2017], the Los Angeles Times published information from a "confidential" Federal Railroad Administration report that was leaked to it revealing absolute incompetence and out-of-control overspending on the first segment under construction.  The report by Ralph Vartabedian should be read in its entirety to grasp the level of chaos in the project.

California's bullet train on the track to extinction.  The windswept deserts east of California's Sierra Nevada are crisscrossed with thousands of miles of abandoned railroad beds, a legacy of the region's gold and silver boom town days.  Hundreds of now defunct railroad companies, with picturesque names like Tonopah and Tidewater, Va., and Truckee and Carson, Colo., operated until the gold played out or truck transport grew more common and less expensive.  Over the jagged spine of California's granite backbone, 100 miles to the west, a new railroad track is being laid.  But, unlike its narrow gauge cousins that sprang up 150 years ago, this railroad relies entirely on government funding and will likely never be completed.

California's $64 Billion Bullet Train To Nowhere Gets Delayed — Again.  In the late 1800s, it took railroad companies six years to lay 1,907 miles of track for what was to become the Transcontinental Railroad (or as Barack Obama calls it, the Intercontinental Railroad).  Building that railroad line required tunneling through mountains — at one foot a day — building bridges — including one that spanned 700 feet — and doing all the work almost entirely by hand.  As best, it will now take seven years for California to lay 119 miles of track — on relatively flat ground in the middle of nowhere.  That news came from a contract revision that the Obama administration approved late last week.

California's Ongoing Suicide Watch.  [Scroll down]  Such geniuses we have running California.  Thank goodness we're building high-speed rail.  It'll only take three times as long at twice the price of Southwest Air Lines to get up and down the state.

California Voters Want More Water and Less Bullet Train.  Less than a year ago, climate scientists were heralding the "Godzilla El Niño," which would generate historic rainfalls that could help alleviate California's mega-drought.  Climate reality has failed to confirm climate theory, as the term "dud" is now being used to describe the weather pattern.[...] At this point, it looks as if California is going to have to continue implementing a wide array of water-saving measures, which include "cash-for-grass" and drought-shaming neighbors.  However, courtesy of our proposition system, Californians may get a chance to divert funds from a loser project into sensible infrastructure construction that may actually alleviate some our state's water crisis.

Plagued by delays, California high-speed rail heads back to court.  Eight years after they approved funding for it, construction is years behind schedule and legal, financial and logistical delays plague the $68 billion project.

California's Bullet Train Will Take Even Longer To Go Nowhere.  California's high-speed rail project will never make its current 2022 arrival time, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Doesn't this strike anyone in charge of this costly boondoggle as ironic?  The Los Angeles Times does a commendable job of providing a reality check to the increasingly out-of-touch project.  After reviewing project documents and talking to various experts, the paper concluded, "The deadline and budget targets will almost certainly be missed," and state officials have "underestimated the challenges ahead."

Funding and subsidies worry potential partners in California's bullet train project.  Major construction, equipment and engineering firms around the world, responding to a solicitation to form a partnership with the California high-speed rail project, have raised serious concerns about the state's shortage of funding, the potential need for long-term operating subsidies and whether the project can meet the current construction schedule.  The comments were included in 36 responses sent by the international firms to the California High-Speed Rail Authority after it requested suggestions on how to complete the $68-billion project.

Chinese firms want to build, finance California high-speed train.  A team of Chinese firms, along with the Export-Import Bank of China, wants to build and finance a large part of California's proposed 800-mile high-speed rail project.

$68-billion California bullet train project likely to overshoot budget and deadline targets.  The monumental task of building California's bullet train will require punching 36 miles of tunnels through the geologically complex mountains north of Los Angeles.  Crews will have to cross the tectonic boundary that separates the North American and Pacific plates, boring through a jumble of fractured rock formations and a maze of earthquake faults, some of which are not mapped.  It will be the most ambitious tunneling project in the nation's history.

Dianne Feinstein's Husband Awarded Massive Fortune in Rail Boondoggle.  What a remarkable coincidence.  A guy who was just handed $1 billion of other people's money in the latest rail boondoggle happens to be married to someone we know: [...] The purpose of government spending in a socialistic corruptocracy like ours is to "spread the wealth around" — i.e., confiscate it from those who create it for redistribution to our rulers and those in their favor.  For this reason, it is totally unnecessary for rail and green energy projects to make any economic sense whatsoever.  All by itself this explains why capitalism works and socialism does not work.

Dianne Feinstein's husband wins near-billion dollar California 'high speed rail' contract.  To the surprise of absolutely no one familiar with the ways of Corruptifornia, the one-party state completely in the hands of the Democrats, a consortium whose lead firm is controlled by Richard Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, was awarded a nearly billion-dollar contract for the construction of the first phase of the so-called high-speed rail line to link San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Those paying attention to the project call it the "half-fast" rail line because it will share trackage with conventional commuter rail trains in the sprawling Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, lowering its average speed to levels achieved by American railways a century ago.

The closest high-speed rail will come to Sacramento?  The contractor for California's high-speed rail system is having an event on the Capitol grounds, featuring a model car that is "Connectin Cities at 220 miles per hour."  For $68 billion, they ought to be able to afford a "g" (in connecting).  Furthermore, this train will never go 220 mph — not with a blended route that goes slowly through populated areas on Caltrain lines.

California's High-Speed Rail Kicks Off Without Money To Finish It.  It finally happened last week:  California officially broke ground on its "high-speed" rail line, the wasteful $68 billion (and counting) project that promises to become the biggest public works boondoggle in the history of the U.S.  And that's saying a lot.

Construction Begins On California's $68 Billion High-Speed Rail Line.  One of the biggest transportation projects the country has ever seen broke ground Monday in Fresno, Calif.  In theory, building the much-delayed high speed rail line would allow a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than three hours, with speeds of over 200 miles an hour.  The milestone comes six years after voters first approved an almost $10 billion bond act to fund the project.  But that bond, plus about $3 billion in federal funds, still leaves the project about $55 billion short of the cost to get the line up and running by 2030.

California leaders set for high-speed rail groundbreaking Tuesday.  California on Tuesday [1/6/2015] will break ground in Fresno on its ambitious but controversial high-speed rail project, marking another milestone for Governor Jerry Brown and for foreign manufacturers waiting to bid on lucrative train contracts.

Washington Governor Imposes Cap-and-Trade Through Executive Order.  Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee is not waiting for the state legislature to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but instead has issued an executive order to implement a cap-and-trade program, eliminate coal power and fund green energy projects. [...] Inlsee argues that more action is needed if the state is to meet climate goals passed by the legislature in 2008.  Those goals call for the state to lower its carbon dioxide emissions by certain amounts by 2020.

California eyes plan to speed bullet train using cap-and-trade program proceeds.  As envisioned, California's $68 billion bullet-train system, the nation's first, would take passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco at speeds of more than 200 miles an hour.  The project, though, has been beset by planning delays, fluctuating cost estimates and court challenges that have threatened to kill or delay it indefinitely.  Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed using one-third of funds raised annually through cap-and-trade auctions to help pay for high-speed rail.

High-Speed Rail Decision Is [a] Victory for [the] Rule of Law.  California Judge Michael Kenny has barred state bond funding for the California high-speed rail system, finding "the state's High-Speed Rail Authority failed to follow voter-approved requirements designed to prevent reckless spending."  These protections had been important in securing voter approval of a $10 billion bond issue in 2008.  Judge Kenny's decision means California government officials cannot ignore the state's laws, even when its leadership finds them politically inexpedient.  The ruling forbids the state from arbitrarily casting aside legally binding promises.

52% want bullet train stopped, poll finds.  A majority of voters want the California bullet train project stopped and consider it a waste of money, even as state political leaders have struggled to bolster public support and make key compromises to satisfy critics, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found.  Statewide, 52% of the respondents said the $68-billion project to link Los Angeles and San Francisco by trains traveling up to 220 mph should be halted.  Just 43% said it should go forward.