Free Republic

A bill signed into law this week by California Governor Gavin Newsom may signal the beginning of the end of a decades-long dispute between the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the heirs of a Jewish collector over the rightful ownership of a work sold under duress during the Nazi regime. In 1939, Lilly Cassirer Neubauer was forced to sell an 1897 oil by Camille Pissarro to a Nazi art appraiser in order to flee Germany before the impending war. According to court documents, the Pissarro, titled Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain, fetched only $360 (modern USD). The...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a first-of-its-kind “deepfake” law after conservatives created a powerful and hilarious parody video mocking Kamala Harris’s candidacy. In a post on the X platform, Newsom confirmed that he had signed the bill after Elon Musk shared the anti-Kamala video using an altered version of her voice. I just signed a bill to make this illegal in the state of California. You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content — including deepfakes. https://t.co/VU4b8RBf6N — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 17, 2024 Politico has all the details: The...

Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday threatened a possible lawsuit against the city of Norwalk if a recently adopted moratorium on emergency shelters for the homeless as well as single room occupancy and transitional housing isn’t reversed. The Norwalk City Council adopted the urgency ordinance on Aug. 6, which put a moratorium on various establishments, including emergency shelters, along with transitional and supportive housing. ... Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “It is counterproductive and immoral for any community to throw up their hands and say they’ve done enough while still having people in need. We can’t leave people in dangerous...

35 years in business, family-owned market in South Beach is closing... Co-owner David Pesusic said high operation costs and mounting neighborhood crime were driving factors.Bayside Market, at 120 Brannan St. near the Embarcadero, will cease operations on Sept. 13. Some of its 12 employees will be transferred to RJ’s Market near Fisherman’s Wharf, the owners’ other location, but most will be laid off, Pesusic said. In addition to inflation-fueled bills and declining foot traffic, the small grocery and deli has suffered from “rampant” crime, near-daily shoplifting and three break-ins in the past couple years, Pesusic said. He blamed city officials...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to the Apalachee High School attack by pushing gun control Sunday that would not stop attacks on schools from occurring. Newsom posted to X: Notice 75 percent of Newsom’s proposed gun control deals with point-of-sale: 1) Add background checks to private sales, 2) Raise minimum purchase age to 21, and 3) Put a waiting period in place for gun purchases. None of these gun controls would have had the least impact on the Apalachee High School attacker as he was only 14-years-old, which means he was already too young to buy a gun, period....

In his first court appearance, the 17-year-old who shot San Francisco 49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall claimed he was “very sorry that this did happen.” That message came through his court-appointed attorney Bob Dunlap, who said the shooting was “completely out of character for him,” while confirming that the juvenile has another “outstanding matter” in San Joaquin County. The “matter” was not revealed and neither was the suspect’s identity. No photos of Pearsall’s assailant have appeared and a courtroom sketch portrays him with light brown hair, beard and pony tail, the style of a Malibu surfer. His mother, also unnamed, needed...

Former President Donald Trump will attend a fundraiser in the Bay Area next week during his second trip to the region in roughly three months. Presidential candidates coming to the wealthy nine-county area isn’t abnormal. What is abnormal, though, is that the billionaire hosting the event at his Woodside home on Sept. 13 is related to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The tickets for next week’s fundraiser, hosted by Tom and Stacey Siebel, are going for as much as $500,000 per couple, according to the Los Angeles Times. Tom, a software developer, is a second...

Gloria Romero, former Democratic majority leader in the California state Senate, has announced that she is switching to the Republican party and will be voting for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Speaking on Fox News, Romero said that the Democratic Party "has moved so far to the left, it's been the party that marched towards war, towards censorship, towards authoritarianism." Romero served in office from 1998 to 2010, initially as a member of the California State Assembly for the 49th district, then as a member of the California State Senate for the 24th district, and between...

Hundreds of homes in the coastal Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes have lost power due to a slow landslide that has resulted in several houses being deemed unsafe for occupancy. NBC Los Angeles reported: Power was shut off to an additional 105 homes Monday night due to accelerating landslides in a Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood. The latest round of shutoffs occurred at 7 p.m. Monday in the Seaview area of the Los Angeles County seaside community overlooking the Pacific. On Sunday, power was shut off in 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend area. Those residents also remain under...

Kamala Harris is caught in an electoral pincer movement along with her boss Joe Biden. What Harris and Biden do now are not going to be in the interest of the people of the United States. The pincer movement is represented by two parts: the Israel/Hamas conflict and the issue of reparations in California. First, Hamas. The murder of six hostages has caused a great uproar among the pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian factions, especially in Michigan. Harris needs Michigan in the 2024 election. Protests have been taking place at the University of Michigan and elsewhere, demanding Biden force Israel into a...

California will not be creating a new state reparations agency this year, and at least one elected official is pointing the finger of blame at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). The state was considering a reparations bill that aimed to "repair harms from institutional racism," according to Politico, but its scope was greatly reduced on the final day of California's legislative session. The bill could have created a new Freedmen Affairs Agency, but was watered down to propose spending $6 million for a California State University study on the issue of reparations, and how to confirm whether someone seeking reparations is...

A major California health insurer must hire a dedicated case manager for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria after state regulators found it improperly denied coverage to some patients.

Six Shake Shacks are closing in Democrat-run California. The company explained the locations are “not projected to provide acceptable returns in the foreseeable future.” Five of those six California closings are in Democrat-run Los Angeles. Shake Shack is also closing one location in Ohio and two in Texas. The Post adds that this is “the first time the chain will close restaurants for purposes that were not construction-related,” according to a Shake Shack spokesperson who spoke with Restaurant Business, a trade publication that first reported on the closings. All the closings will be complete by September 25. This is what...

As Jean Jacques celebrated her 96th birthday in July, she never considered that just one month later, she would be advocating for the roof over her head. Jacques has called Pacific Grove Senior Living her home for 22 years. On Aug. 16, the facility gave Jacques a three-day eviction notice. The notice states that Jacques must pay her outstanding balance of about $110,000 or vacate her unit. Advertisement The issue? It was Jacques' understanding that she would be taken care of for life — regardless of whether she outlived her savings. The eviction notice was issued by Pacifica Senior Living,...

California government officials and Big Tech are nearing an agreement to jointly provide at least $242.5 million in funding for journalism, including local and ethnic outlets. The agreement, first reported on by KCRA, would put an end to bills that would require tech companies to pay newsrooms a portion of their search and display revenue. Under the California Journalism Preservation Act, which this agreement would stop from advancing, social media companies and search engines would be required to pay a share of their advertising revenue to news organizations based on how much organizations’ content shows up in social media feeds...

An 'inhuman' pedophile who was sentenced to 350 years in jail for abducting and molesting a five-year-old girl in 2003 could now be freed under a controversial California law. Charles William Mix was 47 when he kidnapped his friend's daughter and smuggled her over state lines to Utah before subjecting her to his sordid fantasies in June of that year. Her family believed he would spend the rest of his life behind bars, but 20 years later, Mix, 69, could be freed under California's relatively new Elderly Parole Program due to his age after serving just six percent of his...

Gavin Newsom appeared to take a swipe at Kamala Harris' controversial path to the Democratic presidential nomination. When asked about the selection of her as the nominee, the California Governor joked he was 'told to say' it was 'a very inclusive process.' Last month, Joe Biden made the bombshell announcement he would not be seeking reelection, later endorsing Harris.

When Joe Biden was elected in 2020, an overjoyed Los Angeles Times boasted that his goal was to “make America California again.” Biden has fulfilled the Times’s vision, if with less than complete success.Over the past few weeks, however, lunchbucket Joe from Scranton has been unceremoniously dumped by the Golden State elite — Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, George Clooney and a passel of tech oligarchs — to be replaced with one of their own, Vice President Kamala Harris. But given the chances of a GOP win this year, the Californians have another favorite in the wings, Governor Gavin…When Joe Biden...

Amajority of likely California voters support stiffer penalties for crimes involving theft and fentanyl, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times. The results of the poll released Friday showed that 56% of Californians would support Proposition 36, an initiative on the November ballot that would impose stricter sentences for repetitive theft and offenses involving the deadly drug fentanyl. The proposition has been at the center of a battle in the state Capitol this year as Republicans and law enforcement advocates call for the undoing of Democratic reform policies that downgraded some felonies...

Linda Lynch, a KTLA viewer in the Antelope Valley, was shocked to see that her electric bill skyrocketed to $900 this month, hundreds MORE than usual. Linda writes that she can barely afford food, never mind electricity. We should point out that the Antelope Valley in Southern California saw excessive heat warnings issued for stretches of days this month. The warnings are issued when heat is forecast to be extreme and often come with an advisory to keep cool and only go out if necessary. And Linda wasn’t the ONLY one who emailed. Carla Chang writes, “Hello! Please look into...