California Senator Says State Won’t Cooperate with Trump Mass Deportation Operation

Alex Padilla

The state of California won’t cooperate with President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plans, according to Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.

“There’s an important distinction here. No state’s government, not Texas, not California, not any state in the nation has a constitutional authority to impose federal immigration law. That is the responsibility of the federal government,” Padilla said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

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California Voters Reject Record-High Minimum Wage Increase

Servers

California voters rejected a ballot measure that would have raised the minimum wage to the highest in the country.

Proposition 32 was rejected by a slim margin, with 50.8% opposing and 49.2% supporting, with 100% of precincts reporting, according to the unofficial tally and the Associated Press. The measure would have raised the minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2026, the highest in the country.

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Democrat Governors, City Leaders Pledge to Shield Illegal Immigrants from Trump’s Agenda

Democratic Governors

Democratic governors and other liberal elected officials have lined up to declare that they will fight back against President-elect Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.

Trump, who won the election on Tuesday in an electoral landslide, has promised to conduct mass deportations across the country and withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities, along with a slate of other hawkish enforcement proposals. However, Democratic governors in Massachusetts, California and Illinois — all of whom have been speculated as potential 2028 presidential contenders — and other elected leaders have said they will use their authority to push back against the upcoming administration’s agenda.

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Blue States Succeed in Stripping Defunct Definitions of Marriage from the Books

Gay Marriage

California and Colorado have successfully stripped definitions of marriage from state law, repealing same-sex marriage bans that have not been in effect for nearly a decade.

Californians are poised to pass Proposition 3, according to the New York Times, guaranteeing a constitutional right to marriage between same-sex couples and striking down Proposition 8, a previous law passed in 2010 banning same-sex marriage in the state. Colorado is poised to pass Amendment J, according to the NYT, striking similar language from the state’s constitution prohibiting the act.

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Catholic Hospital Forced to Provide Emergency Abortions After California AG’s Lawsuit

Rob Bonta

A Catholic hospital in California has agreed to provide emergency abortions after the state Attorney General sued the hospital in September for allegedly breaking state laws.

California AG Rob Bonta sued Providence St. Joseph Hospital’s Eureka location, claiming that the hospital illegally denied patients emergency abortions. Through the stipulation released Tuesday, Providence St. Joseph will have to comply with California’s Emergency Services Law (ESL), allowing its physicians to provide emergency abortions, according to a press release from Bonta.

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‘Take the Red Pill:’ Musk’s Support for Trump Follows Wave of Government Probes into His Companies

As Elon Musk ramps up his $1 million-a-day support for Donald Trump, what appears to be a record of progressive harassment of his many companies may explain how the world’s richest man went all-in for Republicans.

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Voters Overwhelmingly Say Schools Should Not Keep Student Gender Transitions Hidden

Kids in Class

The overwhelming majority of Americans do not believe schools should hide a student’s gender change at school from parents, according to a recent poll of over 2,200 likely voters.

The issue of parental notification regarding a student’s gender transition has been hotly contested in recent years, especially in California, where the state has sided against school districts that have passed policies to let parents know students are using different names or pronouns.

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At Least 1.5 Million Illegal Southwest Border Crossers Reported in Fiscal Year 2024

Migrants in Group

A minimum of 1,525,210 foreign nationals illegally crossed the Southwest U.S. border in fiscal 2024, according to preliminary data The Center Square exclusively obtained from a Border Patrol agent on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The data excludes Office of Field Operations data, gotaway data (those who illegally entered and evaded capture), and northern border apprehension data, meaning the overall number is likely much higher.

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Commentary: An Economy That Serves Nobody Except Those in Charge

Suits

As we outlined in Part One, here in California, we have an economy that would be the fifth largest in the world if it were to be separated as a standing nation. Home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, world-class agriculture, and medical schools, California is an economic powerhouse.

Yet we, in California, have the highest poverty rate in the nation. We have a majority of the nation’s homeless people. We have the highest overall tax rates in the nation. Our energy costs are double that of the national average. Our per-student spending in schools is well above the national average, yet our students consistently have below-average grade-level test scores. Our major cities are crime-ridden, our power grid is woefully vulnerable, and our beaches are regularly closed due to raw sewage contamination.

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Commentary: Kamala Harris’ Record as a Prosecutor Is Scary

Kamala Harris

The American people deserve to hear from Vice President Kamala Harris about how she plans to rectify the failures of her past decisions.

Does she still stand by her defiance of the court orders that worsened California’s public safety crisis? Or will she acknowledge that her actions contributed to the very injustices she claims to fight against?

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Commentary: Kamala Harris’ War on Housing

Kamala Harris

As Kamala Harris campaigns to become the most powerful person in the world, her detractors claim, among other things, that she has no idea how to manage the economy. She has certainly demonstrated that with her recent pronouncements. Even her usual supporters have been critical of her economic policy suggestions. Price controls on groceries. $25,000 grants for first-time homebuyers. A tax on unrealized capital gains. But while Harris backpedals from some of her most economically illiterate schemes, it’s only to attract more votes. Don’t be fooled. She hasn’t changed.

To demonstrate Harris’s long-standing record of waging economic war on productive citizens, consider her actions while serving as California’s Attorney General. She used that office to support policies that made homes unaffordable. Those policies roll out from California and infect the rest of the country.

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Commentary: The Legacy of California’s Political Impact on America

Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsome

California has finally arrived. A female former California attorney general and U.S. senator is at the top of the Democrat presidential ticket. This is the culmination of generations of California politicians who have heavily influenced American politics and culture and are now, once again, on the verge of taking the top political office in the Free World.

“California is having a moment,” said Don Sipple, a California political strategist. To be more accurate, on a nationwide political basis, California has been having a lot of moments for decades.

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Commentary: Cell Phone Bans in Schools Is a Growing Trend

Student with Cell Phone

Navigating the complexities of smartphone use in K-12 education is a collective effort that requires ongoing adaptation as technology evolves. We expect the Tennessee General Assembly to draft legislation on this issue in the next session. There is an increasing push to safeguard young individuals from spending too much time in front of screens.

States and public school districts are advocating cellphone bans in schools, driven by concerns about distractions and their adverse effects on student well-being. This growing trend should not just be about restrictions but about creating a more focused and conducive learning environment. Teacher buy-in is critical to this process.

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California Could Approve $150K in Taxpayer-Funded Home Loans for Illegal Aliens

The state of California could soon pass a law that will make illegal aliens eligible to receive as much as $150,000 in taxpayer-funded loans to purchase new homes.

According to Fox News, the “California Dream for All” act is likely to pass through the overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled state legislature. The bill would implement a statewide program that provides 20% in down payment assistance, as high as $150,000, for illegals who seek to buy homes in the state. The only requirements to apply are that one must be a first-time homebuyer and a first-generation homebuyer; the program will also require income levels to be below a certain limit relevant to the county where the applicant lives.

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ACLU Struggles to Explain Why California’s Conversion Therapy Ban Doesn’t Protect Idaho’s Trans Ban

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California outlawing talk therapy for minors with unwanted same-sex attraction, it must likewise uphold Idaho’s ban on invasive and potentially irreversible medical treatments to make gender-confused minors resemble the opposite sex, the Gem State’s outside lawyer told a three-judge panel Thursday.

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Case Could Make Unenforceable a Law That Prohibits Schools From Disclosing Gender Transitions to Parents

Aurora Regino in front of Chino Unified School District building (composite image)

A California mom’s lawsuit against the school district that helped her daughter identify as a boy without her knowledge could block the enforcement of a new California law that mandates schools hide students’ so-called gender identities from parents.

The Center for American Liberty first filed a lawsuit against Chico Unified School District in January 2023 on behalf of Aurora Regino, whose 11-year-old daughter “socially transitioned” at school and started identifying as male. The district has what the lawsuit calls a “Parental Secrecy Policy,” requiring Chico schools to socially transition students upon their request, regardless of parental support and without consent.

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Judge Declines to Dismiss Hunter Biden’s Tax Case over Special Counsel Challenge

A federal judge declined Monday night to dismiss Hunter Biden’s tax case after he challenged special counsel David Weiss’ appointment.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys filed motions in July to dismiss both his tax case in California and his gun case in Delaware due to “lack of jurisdiction,” arguing Weiss’ appointment was unlawful. While Judge Mark Scarsi previously rejected their argument about Weiss, Hunter Biden’s attorneys raised it again after a judge decided to toss former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case after finding special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment unconstitutional.

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Grandmas in Chains: Harris Legacy of Pursuing Pro-Life Activists Set Stage for Wider Legal Fight

Heather Idoni

Defending the abortion industry helped define Vice President Kamala Harris as California attorney general, especially a controversial 2016 raid on pro-life activist David Daleiden to seize and suppress undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials who thought they were talking to “laboratory wholesalers” in Daleiden’s sting.

Some of those videos, released years later at a congressional proceeding, show Planned Parenthood tried to preserve fetal tissue to sell for research and avoid prosecution by detaching extremities.

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Kamala Harris Sent Agents to Raid Pro-Life Journalist’s Home After She Met with Planned Parenthood, Emails Show

David Daleiden

In March 2016, top Planned Parenthood officials in California eagerly emailed one another about an upcoming meeting with the state’s then-attorney general, Kamala Harris. The meeting carried so much import that the Planned Parenthood officials met with Harris’ staff ahead of time “to discuss prep,” emails reviewed by The Daily Signal show.

About two weeks later, on April 5, 2016, California Department of Justice authorities raided the home of a pro-life journalist in his late 20s—David Daleiden, the head of the Center for Medical Progress, who had recently published videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials gruesomely describing how they extract aborted-baby body parts. Daleiden says the videos prove that Planned Parenthood was selling the aborted baby body parts for profit.

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Trump Can Win (or Lose) the Election

President Donald Trump

The good news for the Trump campaign is that the sure Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is a lifelong California hard leftist at a time when the state is emblematic of progressive nihilism. Her extremist advocacies as a San Francisco county and city attorney, state Attorney General, and senator are on record. And they are consistent with what has virtually destroyed the state.

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Apple Files to Dismiss DOJ Antitrust Case Against Its Smartphone Business

Person holding an iPhone

Apple has filed a motion to dismiss a case from the United States Department of Justice claiming that it monopolizes the smartphone market using anticompetitive practices making it harder to switch to another phone. Antitrust experts say this case, if won by the DOJ, could set dangerous precedent by granting the government power to more easily define companies as monopolies and practices as monopolistic, and determine what companies must do or cannot do to avoid the label. 

The United States Department of Justice and 16 Attorneys General — including California and the District of Columbia — filed a lawsuit in March alleging Apple illegally monopolizes the smartphone market, such as green boxes with “social stigma” for non-Apple text messages and Apple smartwatch incompatibility with other operating systems. 

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Biden EPA Cuts Big Check for Pro-Defund the Police Activists to Pursue ‘Climate Justice’ for Convicts

Climate Protest

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sending up to $3 million to an activist group that advocates for slashing police budgets and prison closures to pursue “climate justice” for convicts and “reentry communities.”

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (Baker Center) and the Insight Garden Program were selected for receipt of between $1 million and $3 million to pursue “Environmental and Climate Justice in Prison and Reentry Communities.” The Baker Center has previously endorsed or advocated for left-wing activist positions like defunding the police, effectively decriminalizing shoplifting, closing prisons and more.

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Commentary: Kamala Harris and the Californication of America

Kamala Harris

If you have ever confronted the astonishing hatred that San Francisco Bay Area Democrats have for anything Republican, much less MAGA Republican, then you understand why Kamala Harris may become the next president of the United States.

This isn’t a hate that is grounded in reality. It is nurtured by decades of propaganda, backed by trillions of dollars in big tech wealth, and, lately, the most powerful tools of mass hypnosis and Pavlovian conditioning the world has ever seen. If you question any of their pieties—climate, race, gender, Trump—you are instantly and permanently dehumanized. It is impossible to change their minds. There is no room for nuance. There is no tolerance for alternative perspectives. You are hated. You are garbage. Give up. Die.

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Online Network Run by Chinese ‘Cyber Police’ Agent Promotes Prostitution, Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

A Telegram channel used by Chinese nationals to illegally immigrate to the U.S. also appears to be aiding and abetting prostitution and sex trafficking, a months-long Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

The “American Self-Guided Tour Channel” on Telegram is one of several that facilitates Chinese illegal immigration into the U.S., serving as a hub for documents detailing things like border wall gaps and scripts for obtaining asylum, the DCNF recently reported. The 8,000-member channel is controlled by a self-proclaimed Chinese “cyber police” agent, who regularly bans accounts critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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California Punished Female Inmates for Reporting Male Assault with Revoked Parole, Solitary: Suit

Woman Inmate

With leading Democrats lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the party’s presidential nomination and their telegenic party attack dog California Gov. Gavin Newsom seen as a potential second banana, Republicans are likely to warn voters what they can expect if the woke Californians reach the White House.

That includes taxpayer funding for prison inmates who identify as the opposite sex to get so-called gender-affirmation surgery, for which Harris took credit as California attorney general, and a law signed by Newsom (SB 132) that grants inmates placement based on their self-declared gender identity, setting off a wave of transfer requests to women’s prisons.

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California School District Partners with LGBTQ Center That Recommends Transgender Surgeries for Minors

Child at doctor's visit

A California high school refers students to an LGBTQ+ nonprofit that helps minors get transgender surgery referrals, documents obtained by The Daily Signal reveal.

The high school in the Newport Mesa Unified School District in Southern California has scannable QR codes in its hallways that take students to a number of “LGBTQ+ Resources,” including the LGBTQ Center of Orange County’s website, according to photos shared with The Daily Signal.

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Commentary: The Top Three Vulnerabilities of Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris

Now that the will of primary voters has been discarded and President Joe Biden has been pressured out of the race by the oligarchs and powerbrokers of the Democrat Party, what are the most potent lanes of valid criticism that could make an already deeply unpopular candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, even less palatable to sensible Americans?

The three most important vulnerabilities of this radical and untested career politician are listed below.

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Election Integrity Expert Says States Need to Stop Non-Citizens Voting: America Doesn’t Know the Extent of the Problem

An election integrity expert told The Tennessee Star that states need to start taking steps to prevent non-citizens from voting in their elections. “I think states need to make it clear in their constitutions that you have to be a citizen to vote in all elections in the state to prevent local school boards, local town councils, and others from legalizing alien voting,” said Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative.

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Chinese-Owned EV Company Showered Dems with Campaign Contributions

BYD Car

The U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer and its top executive have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democrats in recent years.

Stella Li, a top executive for BYD Americas, and the company itself have given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democratic candidates and organizations in California and beyond over the past decade, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of federal and state political spending records. Based in China, BYD is the biggest EV producer in the world, and Congress moved in January to ban the Pentagon from buying its batteries due to security risks, according to Bloomberg News.

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Retired Sheriff Says Putting Men in Women’s Prisons is Causing ‘Unprecedented Rise in Violence’

Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff Detective Sergeant Richard Valdemar

A retired California sheriff says in a newly-released documentary series that state and federal transgender inmate policies have led to an “unprecedented rise in violence” in women’s prisons.

In September 2020, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, which allowed women’s prisons to accept biological males as inmates if they identified as “transgender women.”Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff Detective Sergeant Richard Valdemar claims that he has witnessed an “unprecedented rise in violence” in not just California prisons but around the country due to recent policy changes regarding inmates that identify as the opposite sex that have so far been obscured from the public in an episode of a new docuseries titled “Cruel and Unusual Punishment” by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Democrats Draw Backlash, Suspicion over Opposition to Hill Republicans’ Citizen-Only Voting Bill

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark

Democrats’ opposition to the passage of GOP-led congressional legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections is drawing backlash and suspicion.

“Why are Democrats so adamantly against ensuring only American citizens vote in our elections?” GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson asked Monday on X above a repost of a Fox News story on such opposition.

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California Joins 26 States in Requiring Students Take Personal Finance Class

Students in Class

Over half of U.S. states now require high school students to receive a financial literacy course before they graduate after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill passed by the California Legislature.

With the passage of California’s law requiring schools to offer a course in personal finance by the 2027-28 school year and requiring the class of 2031 to receive at least one class, a total of 26 states now require students to take a course on how to manage money, according to a nonprofit spearheading efforts to pass such laws.

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Commentary: Democrats Options to Replacing Biden

Joe Biden plane

Amid the Democrats’ chaotic meltdown over President Biden’s Thursday night debate performance, one image stood out: A shrewd observer on X.com posted a video of a baseball pitcher just off the field dramatically engaged in big, arm-circle warm-ups.

“Gavin stretching in the bullpen,” the observer commented.

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Ten States Ban Ranked-Choice Voting as Others Push for It in November Ballot Measures

As the number of states banning ranked-choice voting (RCV) is increasing, some are facing ballot measures this November that would implement the voting system.

While 10 states have banned RCV and more may join them this November if voters vote for the ballot measures, six other states will have ballot measures to switch their elections to RCV.

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Reports: California Exodus Continues, Southeastern States as Primary Destinations

Austin, Texas

As the California exodus continues, a new migration trend is occurring, with southeastern and Appalachian states taking the top spots as inbound migration destinations, according to new reports.

According to a new Consumer Affairs 2024 Migration Trends report, “California’s mass exodus continues to ensue,” with the South and Southeast region of the country being the “hottest regions for people moving.”

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New Documentary Details Female Sexual Assault Survivor’s Story of Being Incarcerated with Trans Inmate

Female inmate

A sexual assault survivor gave an inside look at living in a female prison with male criminals identifying as transgender in a new documentary by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) released Tuesday.

The six-minute documentary, part of IWF’s “Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Male Takeover of Female Prisons” series, focuses on the story of Evelyn Valiente, a sexual assault survivor and former inmate at the Central California Women’s Facility. Valiente, who is using a pseudonym to protect her identity, was forced to share a housing unit with a male inmate identifying as a woman while serving time for killing someone in a shooting.

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Big Tech Championed Zero Emissions but Now Its Power-Hungry Data Centers are Straining the Grid

Data center

For years, tech giants in California and Washington have been leading the charge to eliminate fossil fuels from the grid. Microsoft, Google, Meta and Apple, for example, are members of Climate Group RE100, an organization of major corporations who are dedicated to accelerating “change toward zero-carbon grids at scale by 2040.”

In 2018, Apple proclaimed that it was globally powered entirely by 100 percent renewable energy.

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Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Allowing Arizona Doctors to Perform Abortions in California

Gavin Newsom

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday allowing Arizona doctors to become temporarily licensed in California to perform abortions should their state’s near-total ban on the procedure ever take effect.

California Senate Bill 233 passed the state legislature on May 23 in response to a recent Arizona Supreme Court ruling effectively banning abortion in the state. The Arizona ruling went into effect on April 9, but was quickly overturned by the state legislature.

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Democrats Deny Non-Citizens are Voting in Federal Elections While Republicans Seek to Prevent It

Rep. Joe Morelle

Democrats claim that non-citizen voting doesn’t occur while Republicans and most states are trying to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in elections.

As states are adopting constitutional amendments to prevent non-citizens from voting and Republicans are raising the alarm about the issue as more evidence has been presented, Democrats insist that it is not a concern because non-citizens are not voting in U.S. elections.

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California Considers Rules That Could Push Gas Prices up an Additional $1.11/Gallon by 2026

Gas Station

California gas prices could rise by at least $1.11 per gallon by 2026 if the California Air Resources Board adopts amendments to its low carbon fuel standard program, CARB says. The LCFS amendments proposed at the end of 2023 would phase-out credits for turning manure into renewable natural gas, ending that business, and add jet fuel to LCFS purview, increasing flying costs for every flight that starts or ends in California even if the fuel was purchased elsewhere. Because so much of America’s imports come in through California, the LCFS amendments would raise the costs of goods for every American. 

LCFS uses a system of credits and deficits to reward or punish producers that make fuel better or worse than the rising “clean” standard.” Current LCFS guidelines call for a 20% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030 compared to 2010, while the proposed amendments call for a 90% reduction by 2045, including significant step-downs starting in 2025 that would result in major fuel cost increases starting that year. 

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Commentary: American Schools Are a Big Reason Our Children Are Unwell

High School students

With “Teacher Appreciation Week” now behind us, it’s crucial that we pay close heed to the well-being of the students, and the news is not good. Gen Z-ers and the newest crop—Generation Alpha—are struggling, and schools are the focal point of the problem.

A new report from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation surveyed more than 1,000 Gen Z students between the ages of 12 and 18 and found that just 48 percent of those enrolled in middle or high school felt motivated to go to school. Only half said they do something interesting in school every day. On a similar note, a new EdChoice survey reveals that 64 percent of teens said that school is boring, and 30 percent feel that it is a waste of time.

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California Mayor Cites Surge in Border Encounters as Evidence of Federal Enforcement Failure

Mayor Bill Wells

Republican El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells cited a surge in border encounters as proof of federal enforcement failures, Newsweek reported.

Wells pointed out the concerning surge in border encounters within San Diego County, noting a major shift in migration patterns and federal border enforcement efforts. He stated that San Diego County experienced an unprecedented 37,370 border encounters in April, exceeding the figures in sectors like Tucson, El Paso, and Del Rio for the first time in over two decades. Wells expressed astonishment and concern over the escalating border encounter numbers, according to Newsweek.

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More Than 100 Colleges Cave Closed or Merged Over Last Eight Years

University of Saint Katherine

The University of Saint Katherine, a small nonprofit in North San Diego County, recently announced it will close May 18, citing “financial pressure due to unprecedented inflation and rising state-mandated labor costs.”

It’s not alone. Nationwide, universities face financial hardships that appear to be getting worse. More than 100 colleges and universities have closed or merged, or announced plans to, over the last eight years, according to a tracker updated this month by Higher Ed Dive.

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California Border Fentanyl Seizures Double as Texas Strengthens Border

California seized over one million fentanyl pills just last week, more than was seized in all of February, highlighting how much smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants has shifted to California since Texas strengthened its border.

In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom increased the California National Guard’s San Diego border region presence from 40 to 60 soldiers for narcotics operations.

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California Sues Huntington Beach over Voter ID Law as State Pushes Back on Conservative Locality

California Attorney General Rob Bonta with Secretary of State Shirley Weber (composite image)

The State of California is suing the city of Huntington Beach over a new voter ID law passed by voters last month, claiming it violates state law, in another pushback against a conservative locality in the liberal state.

Huntington Beach and Shasta County have both passed election integrity measures for their jurisdictions, but the California executive branch and state legislature — both supported by far-left donors — have shown their displeasure by responding with lawsuits and legislation to counter them.

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