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California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday he is pulling the plug on the state's massive high-speed rail project from Los Angeles to San Francisco that was more than a decade behind schedule and billions in the red. "Let's be real," Newsom said in his first State of the State address. "The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There's been too little oversight and not enough transparency." CALIFORNIA BULLET TRAIN PROJECT ON TRACK TO BLOW THROUGH BILLIONS OF MORE DOLLARS Newsom added that while California has "the capacity to complete a high-speed rail...

alfornia Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) just announced in his State of the State address to the legislature that he’s giving up on statewide high-speed rail from Sacramento to San Diego: !! AP: California Gov. Gavin Newsom abandoning plan for high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, says too costly. — Jon Passantino (@passantino) February 12, 2019 “Let’s be real,” he says a little too late: Gov Newsom on high speed rail: “Let’s be real… the project as currently planned would cost too much and take too long.” — Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) February 12, 2019 It’s almost as if conservatives...

The decision by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a dedicated progressive, to curtail California's high-speed rail project over cost concerns is a sign that the Green New Deal is doomed. The creation of a vast high-speed rail network is just one small part of the massive overhaul the Green New Deal contemplates for transportation, energy, healthcare, education, agriculture, housing, and a host of other issues. Yet now it's gone down in flames in a state that previously voted for it, and in which liberals have overwhelming control of government. The California high-speed rail project started when residents approved a ballot measure in...

The Evening Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) This afternoon, California Governor Gavin Newsom kicked Jerry Brown’s great high-speed rail boondoggle to the sidelines, announcing a major scaling-back of the $100 billion Bankruptcy Express: “Let’s level about the high-speed rail,” Newsom said. “Let’s be real, the current project as planned would cost too much and, respectfully, take too long. Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were.” Oh. But wait – what about this “Green New Deal”, and its pipedream promise to...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that the state will no longer pursue plans to build an estimated $77 billion high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco because the project "would cost too much and respectfully take too long," per the AP. The big picture: The project was years behind schedule with an estimated completion date of 2033. It had been hamstrung by political backlash in the state, and polling showed that a majority of Californians disapproved of the plan as costs ballooned. Similar proposals for high-speed trains on the East Coast, including along the heavily trafficked Northeast...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday he's abandoning a plan to build a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, a project with an estimated cost that has ballooned to $77 billion. "Let's be real," Newsom said in his first State of the State address. "The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There's been too little oversight and not enough transparency." The idea long championed by Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown, is years behind schedule. The latest estimate for completion is 2033.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s missed budget in his first month in office by $1.81 billion on a $2.53 billion crash in personal income tax collections. Despite the State of California tax collection in December missing budget by -$4.82 billion, newly inaugurated Gov. Newsom proposed a record $144.2-billion spending plan for  the 2019-2020 Budget on January 9 that included spending another $5.2-billion for "Cradle-to-Career" education, $1-billion for earned income tax credit for the poor, and $100 million for refuge immigrants fleeing Central America violence. California officials at the time, claimed December’s huge revenue miss was due to high-income taxpayers making...

San Diego, CA – Operation Rescue has learned that Robert J. Santella, passed away unexpectedly last year at the age of 74. Santella was a long-time abortionist for the Family Planning Associates (now FPA Women’s Health) abortion facility in San Diego County. He also operated a private practice where abortions were sometimes done near the campus of San Diego State University. Santella was best known for an incident captured on video in June 2016, which showed him in a demonic rant against a pro-life activist outside the FPA abortion clinic office where he was working. Santella was seen in surgical...

A California-based federal appeals court on Monday sided with the Trump administration in lawsuits brought by state and environmental groups brought challenging the U.S. government’s authority to expedite construction of barriers along the border with Mexico. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 gives the Department of Homeland Security broad authority to construct the border barriers and waive environmental laws in the process. The ruling affirms a district court's decision that allowed the federal government to construct wall "prototypes” in San Diego and replace primary fencing near...

The Continuing Scandal at the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Office San Diego Plans to Hire “Immigration Affairs Manager” The Continuing Scandal at the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Office You have followed our extensive coverage of Veterans Affairs officials in Los Angeles who are blatantly ignoring the needs of veterans and appear to be running some kind of business out of their offices. Despite our lawsuits, the outrages continue, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports . The Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) facility that illegally rents its sprawling grounds to institutions that don’t serve veterans just evicted several groups dedicated...

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2019 DHS Issues Waiver to Expedite Secondary Fence Replacement Project in San Diego WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a waiver to ensure the expeditious construction and replacement of approximately 12.5 miles of secondary wall near the international border in the state of California. The waiver was published in the Federal Register on February 7, 2019. This waiver is pursuant to authority granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security by Congress. Congress has provided the Secretary of Homeland Security with a number...

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) said Monday it will buy Maxwell Technologies Inc. (MXWL) , a battery technology firm based in San Diego, for around $218 million. Telsla will pay $4.75 for each Maxwell share, the company said, a 54.7% premium to its closing price Friday of $3.07, and bring the company into the corporate fold as a wholly owned subsidiary. "We are very excited with today's announcement that Tesla has agreed to acquire Maxwell. Tesla is a well-respected and world-class innovator that shares a common goal of building a more sustainable future," said Maxwell CEO Franz Fink. "We believe this transaction...

The Trump administration began implementing a new hard-line immigration policy by sending a single asylum-seeker from Central America back to Tijuana, Mexico, to await his assigned court date later this year in San Diego. The first asylum-seeker to be returned to Mexico was a Honduran man identified as Carlos Catarlo Gomez. He appeared confused and scared by the throng of reporters waiting for him Tuesday on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro border crossing, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was whisked away by Mexican authorities. Officially dubbed "Migrant Protection Protocols," the policy was announced by Homeland Security...

President Trump on Monday challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has called the White House's proposed southern border wall "an immorality," to explain why she is not insisting on the removal of existing physical barriers, or opposing ongoing construction of new wall projects near San Diego, Calif. Trump, in a follow-up tweet, asserted that the country needs a "powerful Wall" to deter the incoming migrant caravan that marched freely through the Guatemala-Mexico border last Friday, after the gates were left wide open by officials seeking to avoid a confrontation. The caravan, which consists of approximately 1,000 Central American migrants, was...

A San Diego television station is standing by its contention that CNN declined to use one of its reporters for a border-wall story because it didn’t fit with the network’s narrative. KUSI accused CNN this week of asking for a local perspective on the effectiveness of the border wall, then pulling back when the station offered reporter Dan Plante, who has previously reported that the wall is in fact effective. KUSI digital content manager Mike McKinnon III wrote on the network’s website, “We believe CNN declined a report from KUSI because we informed them that most Border Patrol agents we...

“We can all play games but a wall is a necessity," he said, via a pool report. "If you don't have the wall, it doesn't matter. A drone isn’t stopping a thousand people running through." Trump said. “We gotta get the politics out of this and go back to common sense. They say it’s a medieval solution. It’s true. It’s medieval because it worked then and it works even better now."

Bre Payton, a writer for The Federalist, was a longtime collaborator with and friend of The Daily Signal. Bre, who died Friday, was in and out of the Daily Signal offices on a near-weekly basis, as the co-host of “Problematic Women” podcast, which she worked on with our Kelsey Harkness, Lauren Evans, and more recently, Ginny Montalbano. I knew it was “Problematic Women” day because I’d often see Kelsey, Bre, and Lauren huddled up in Kelsey’s office, discussing what stories to cover. They had fun, too; when they came out of the podcast studio, they’d often be all smiles. They...

Cortney wrote about the sudden passing of Bre Payton, who was a regular fixture on Fox News and a staff writer for The Federalist. She was only 26. According to reports, she succumbed to the flu (H1N1) and possibly meningitis. Her friend Morgan Murtaugh found her unresponsive last Thursday in San Diego; Payton was in California guest hosting a show on One America News Network.I only met Bre a couple of times, but she was always a class act, very kind, and respected by many. She was talented, smart, and the Federalist was lucky to have her. She was prolific...

Wednesday brings the first full business day after several government departments and agencies closed up over the weekend due to a budgetary stalemate between President Donald Trump and Congress. And there is no end in sight.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the presumed incoming chairman for the House Armed Services Committee, voiced his extreme displeasure after the Department of Defense extended the deployment of active-duty service members on the U.S.-Mexico border. They will stay at the border until January 31.The Department of Homeland Security requested the extension due to the “ongoing threat” of large, and sometimes violent, migrant caravans.“I continue to strongly question the deployment of U.S. military service members at our southern border. Furthermore, the decision to extend this deployment to the end of January 2019 is not a responsible use of Department of Defense resources...