Free Republic

(The Center Square) - California’s main state retirement fund, CalPERS, announced the hiring of a new chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer whose listed duties include integrating DEI principles into investment practices, and recruiting staff for DEI-informed proxy voting and ESG investing, The Center Square has learned. CalPERS, which faces an estimated $166 billion shortfall, insists the position won't influence financial choices. Shari Slate was hired for the job with base compensation of $221,580, though neither her Linkedin profile nor the news release indicate she has any experience in the finance industry. CalPERS’ May 2025 state paperwork for the position...

"I got more water coming outta my eyes than DWP had in both of our reservoirs" -@spencerpratt Television personality Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades Fire and has been a vocal critic in the months since of the city's and state's preparation for and response to the conflagration, announced Wednesday that he is running for mayor of Los Angeles. Speaking at a "They Let Us Burn" rally held by the Palisades Fire Residents Coalition to mark the one-year anniversary of the fire's start, the 42-year-old Pratt again repeated his complaints about authorities' handling of the blaze, then...

Indian illegal alien truck drivers aren't just killing Americans with their reckless driving; they're running drugs nationwide, too. Gupreet Singh of Fresno, CA, and Jasveer Singh of Santa Clara, CA were arrested in Putnam County, Indiana on Saturday on a charge of dealing narcotics after over 300 pounds of cocaine were found in the sleeper berth of the semi tractor-trailer during a routine DOT inspection. Now those both those drugs and the truckers are off the street, and both Mr. Singhs are subject to ICE deportation holds. From the Indiana State Police: Saturday, January 3, 2026, at approximately 1:30 p.m.,...

Open carry is unquestionably part of our Nation’s history and tradition of ‘the right to keep and bear arms California lawmakers and governor Newsom were once again smacked down, this time by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the state’s open-carry ban violates the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.” This isn’t the first time California has received such a constitutional smack down. “Judge Lee, joined by Judge VanDyke, write a concurring opinion ‘to highlight how California has apparently resorted to subterfuge to deny its citizens their Second Amendment rights,” the Firearms Policy Coalition reported....

After a bruising presidential election loss in 2024, this year proved decisive for a Democratic Party looking to recover from its defeats and regain momentum. Heading into 2026, all 435 districts in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the U.S. Senate are up for election in the midterms. Republicans currently have a three-seat majority in the Senate, while they hold 219 seats to Democrats’ 213 in the House. - Rep. Thomas Massie’s Primary Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, has made an enemy of President Trump by leading the campaign for the release of the files relating to...

Because the cost of living in California is so high, Democrat lawmakers think increasing the minimum wage to $16.90 per hour will help hourly workers afford a median-priced $900,000 home California residents will be impacted by more than 900 new laws effective January 1, 2026. Because we need 900 new laws in the leading regulatory hell state in the nation. Minimum WageBecause the cost of living in California is so high, Democrat lawmakers think increasing the minimum wage to $16.90 per hour will help hourly workers afford a $900,000 home – the median home price in the Golden State. Even...

The plan imposes an unsustainable financial burden on taxpayers today and in the future After last week’s near unanimous approval by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors (our 11-member City Council) to establish a “fund” to accept and distribute so-called Reparations to qualified city recipients, will Mayor Daniel Lurie veto it? In July 2023, San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee unveiled a sweeping reparations plan aimed at “addressing historical injustices against Black residents.” Make no mistake, this scheme goes far beyond a mere 7-figure payout. The 100-point Reparations proposal includes the highly publicized $5 million lump-sum payments to eligible Black...

Federal prosecutors have charged a longtime California welfare worker with carrying out a multi-year fraud scheme involving food assistance benefits and dead people. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of former Madera County benefits eligibility worker Leticia Mariscal, 55, of Madera. Prosecutors alleged that Mariscal stole tens of thousands of dollars in CalFresh benefits by exploiting her access to county databases. CalFresh is California’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. According to the Justice Department, the alleged scheme took place between December 2020 and April 2025. Mariscal is accused of improperly accessing identifying information for elderly and...

Diversity is not our strength California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, posted to X his support for the “migrant community” in California over the state’s legal immigrants and citizens. “Migrant” is the new word for “illegal” alien. “Migrant communities are vital to California’s vibrant culture and world leading economy. In CA, we’ll continue to protect our migrant communities this #InternationalMigrantsDay and every day.” Because as Democrats love to say, “Diversity is our strength.” Yet nothing is further from the truth. British historian Arnold Toynbee warned, “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” “According to Toynbee, civilizations start to decay...

As an immigrant, I’m disgusted by the behavior being revealed in Tim Walz’s Minnesota… But whatever is going on there, the corruption in Gavin Newsom’s California is a thousand times worse. Our Employment Development Department paid out at least $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits during the pandemic — over a billion alone in the names of state and local prisoners, even inmates on death row. The corrupt “homeless industrial complex” grabbed $24 billion in state spending, as crony nonprofits and developers pocketed taxpayer cash while homelessness increased. Working families who pay into the system cannot afford groceries, rent or...

“He’s a fighter, that’s what we need!” a top-tier producer, and reliable Dem ATM over the decades, told Deadline of Newsom. “I just wish more Democrats, like Schumer and the leadership (in Congress), would emulate him, not take any sh*t from Trump,” the producer added of Newsom and his Trump 2.0 strategy of throwing punches online and off line at the authoritarian “loser” White House. With legislation like the January 1 effective ICE unmasking “No Secret Police Act” and his landslide Proposition 50 redistricting victory last month mentioned, admiration for Newsom’s fightin’ ethos is a sentiment echoed throughout town time...

A ridiculous bill was really just legislation about guns that look scary to the Assemblywoman from Berkeley Four people including three children are dead, and 19 in total were shot in Stockton, California Saturday night, at a family event inside of a banquet hall, ABC 10 reported. California Democrats have imposed the strictest gun laws in the U.S., but on lawful citizens and legal gun owners. Rather than focusing on those who commit violent crime, Democrats obsess over guns. And it’s not really working, is it? When guns are outlawed, only the outlaws have guns, as this horrific shooting in...

Although the legal and clinical definitions may differ, popular conception defines “insanity” as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. By that definition, leftist voters in New York City, California, and elsewhere recertified themselves as insane last week. Year after year, election after election, voters in “blue” cities and states follow the same recipe that has brought self-imposed economic and demographic decay for decades: bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation, unsustainable benefits, and sprawling public-sector obligations. They keep repeating their behavior, even as jobs evaporate, families leave, and businesses take investment elsewhere. Decades of left-leaning politicians and public policies...

The Encinitas Union School District withdrew its appeal of a ruling in a gender ideology lawsuit. Instead, the San Diego County district will comply with a lower federal court decision and notify parents and provide opt-outs for parents in gender ideology lessons and programs, according to district officials and lawyers representing the plaintiffs. The lawsuit, filed September 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges that the school district violated parents’ and students’ First Amendment rights by compelling students’ speech. A copy of the initial complaint said the district violated parents’ First Amendment right to...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will hold a rally in Texas on Saturday opposing the state’s redistricting efforts alongside local Democratic lawmakers, days after Golden State voters backed a measure to redraw their own congressional districts. Texas was the first of several red states that followed President Trump’s directive to change their congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. Though some blue states considered redrawing their maps through the legislatures, Newsom elected to have voters choose if California should proceed with his plan. “California stepped up. Now, we are taking this fight across the country — helping Democrats in other...

During his first month in office, Mayor Daniel Lurie achieved something remarkable: He received near-unanimous approval from San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors to make himself more powerful. The board voted to broaden Lurie’s power to dole out contracts related to homelessness, mental health and drug abuse, and to reduce its own control over the process. In interviews with over a dozen people who work in city politics, most agreed that the new administration is a sea change from former Mayor London Breed’s way of doing things, which was marked by interdepartmental animosity, bad blood with supervisors, and corruption. “There’s a...

As mail-in ballots began arriving for California's redistricting plan, voters in some counties have found a strange feature in their ballot envelopes: A hole that shows if they voted "no." Check it out: VIDEO AT LINK............. And lest anyone think this is just a bunch of conspiracy theorists overreacting, the Los Angeles Times addressed the issue with a statement from the California Secretary of State. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Monday pushed back against a torrent of misinformation on social media claiming that mail-in ballots for the state's Nov. 4 special election are purposefully designed to disclose how...

The decision, which hinges on an exception to the Gun-Free School Zones Act, does not say whether that law is consistent with the Second Amendment. A couple of years ago, Gabriel Metcalf was charged with a federal felony because he stepped onto the sidewalk in front of his house in Billings, Montana, while holding a shotgun. Metcalf, who had armed himself because of a dispute with a neighbor who was subject to a restraining order, was not violating state law. But because Metcalf lives across the street from an elementary school, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District...

Halfway into a recent weeklong backpacking trip through California’s Sierra Nevada, nine members of a scout troop and their scoutmaster came across a man standing alone in a meadow deep in the Emigrant Wilderness. He appeared disoriented and didn’t have any hiking or camping gear. The California Highway Patrol confirmed the man was Douglas Montgomery. The group soon learned the 78-year-old was an experienced outdoorsman and former scoutmaster himself. The group also learned that he was stranded after veering 15 miles off his intended route, had lost his backpack, and had been battling hypothermia for two days. “We started very...

On July 1, 2025, United States District Court Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo granted summary judgment to Firearms Policy Coalition members to obtain California Concealed Carry Permits. Judge Bencivengo ordered the Plaintiffs and Defendant to submit proposed orders within 30 days. From the order: For the above reasons, the Court grants Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment as to their facial challenge pursuant to the Second/Fourteenth Amendment and denies the request for relief pursuant to the Privileges and Immunities Clause. The parties are ORDERED to meet and confer and submit a proposed order for an injunction consistent with this order within 30...