Free Republic

The Los Angeles County Superior Court has revealed that 147,000 cases of felony convictions were not successfully reported to the California Department of Justice.The public notice of the backlog of errors was posted on February 24, 2026. Because they were not reported to the DOJ, they were not included in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database. It is possible some convicted felons were able to obtain firearms through licensed dealers because of this oversight. From lacourt.org:Of the approximately 464,000 impacted cases, the Court has identified approximately 380,000 instances with convictions where the case’s ADR was not successfully...

Part II of ‘Cash for Ballots’ reveals forgery pyramid scheme targeting homeless petition This article has been edited to include a response from the White House. In a second video drop of an ongoing series, independent investigative journalist James O’Keefe and the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG), working with citizen journalist Cam Higby and the Citizen Justice League, have released explosive hidden-camera footage documenting what appears to be a brazen, large-scale election fraud operation on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. Titled “Cash for Ballots Part II,” the undercover videos show petition circulators (petitioners) paying homeless individuals as little as $2–$3...

On March 17, 2026, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, the court certified a settlement between the Attorney General of California and the plaintiffs in the case of Junior Sports Magazines Inc. et al., and Rob Bonta. The First and Second Amendments were big winners. From the Court Order: III. JUDICIAL DECLARATION IT IS HEREBY DECLARED that Section 22949.80, in its entirety, violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution on its face and as applied to Plaintiffs.IV. PERMANENT INJUNCTIONIT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant shall be permanently enjoined from enforcing section 22949.80....

A California school district is teetering on the verge of collapse after out of control spending and hiring. Santa Rosa City Schools, which are about 1.5 hours north of San Francisco, have been reprimanded by Sonoma County education chiefs for blowing stacks of cash. Staff saw bumper pay packets and brought in too many new workers for the revenue it was generating, authorities said. Meanwhile the district has seen student enrollment dwindle from 16,000 in 2016 to under 12,000 last year across 24 schools in the region. In a stark warning, Michael Fine, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management...

Federal prosecutors have charged a former Bay Area resident with carrying out a massive health care fraud scheme that allegedly sought to steal more than $90 million from government programs. A federal grand jury indicted Anar Rustamov, a 38-year-old Azerbaijani national who previously lived in Sunnyvale, on multiple counts tied to health care fraud and money laundering. The Justice Department said he is currently at large and could face significant prison time and fines if convicted. According to prosecutors, Rustamov, who entered the U.S. illegally, played a main role in submitting thousands of fraudulent claims through the Medicare Advantage program....

When California Attorney General Rob Bonta set out to sue ExxonMobil, alleging deception in its claims about advanced plastics recycling, he probably didn't expect the company would sue him for defamation. Bonta tried to get the case dismissed, but a federal judge in Texas has given the lawsuit the green light to proceed. California Attorney General Rob Bonta hoped to earn his anti-fossil fuel credentials when he filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil in 2024, alleging the company was engaging in deceptive practices related to its “advanced recycling” program. He probably didn’t expect that the company would fight back the way...

Federal officers are searching the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, The California Post confirmed. The searches are being conducted at Carvalho’s San Pedro home, his office at LAUSD in downtown Los Angeles and another location in Miami tied to the investigation, according to a law enforcement source. An affidavit filed concerning the search was under seal, officials said. Carvalho is the LAUSD’s chief employee and has led one of the nation’s largest school systems since 2022. It’s unclear why authorities are searching Carvalho’s home and office. The progressive LA schools boss has voiced his opposition...

They make Jeffrey Epstein look like Mother Teresa. Even while Epstein drama is consuming the country, David Allen Funston is being set loose. Funston became notorious for luring children as young as four years old in Sacramento into his car with candy and dolls then raping them. A little girl had a knife held to her throat while he raped her so badly she bled. One 5-year-old girl was raped, beaten and left by the side of the road. He raped a little boy and kidnapped two sisters, 4 and 5, before he was finally stopped. Funston was known as...

Republican Steve Hilton has opened up a surprise lead in the California governors race, according to a new poll. The Fox News contributor and staunch critic of Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading the crowded field, with 17% support, according to the Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and GOP candidate Sheriff Chad Bianco are tied for second at 14%, followed by former Rep. Katie Porter at 10%. Billionaire Tom Steyer trails one point behind her. About 21% of voters remain undecided, a 10-point decrease from the last poll in December, with Hilton gaining 5 points since...

Newsom knows if the true scale of CA fraud comes to light, his presidential campaign is over’ California Governor Newsom, our own International Man of Mystery has been focused on anything but California as he gallivants around the world – first to Davos, then Germany last week where he threatened “climate deniers.” Today he is in London signing a climate agreement with the UK. I’m sure Californians are relieved that Gov. Newsom is single handedly saving us from climate change. While he gallivants, California’s climate is normal, but the state of the state is a hot mess. Another $370 million...

$16 billion and still no train and no track 18 years later California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state’s elected Democrat politicians show a strange level of desperation to build any part of California’s boondoggle High-Speed Rail system. $16 billion has already been spent on the High Speed Rail project, originally slated to be completed in 2020. But there is no track and no trains, and a missing $16 billion. A quick refresher on California’s High Speed Rail project: In 2008, California voters approved the Proposition 1A bond initiative, authorizing $9 billion in bond money for the construction of a...

SBA suspends more than 111,000 borrowers in the state Earlier this week, the White House announced plans for a new anti-fraud task force targeting welfare abuse in California and other states, and assigned Vice President J.D. Vance, Andrew Ferguson of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Attorney General Pam Bondi. California Attorney General Rob Bonta fell all over himself Thursday claiming that the California Department of Justice was working to tackle fraud in the state. He even “pushed back” against the Trump Administration’s characterization that California programs are overrun by fraud and that state government is somehow facilitating this fraud....

Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block California's new congressional map that could net Democrats five seats in the upcoming midterm elections. The decision from the high court clears the way for California to use for now the newly drawn lines for most of its 52 House districts in this year's congressional elections. There were no noted dissents. The map was crafted in response to a rare mid-decade redistricting by Texas Republicans last year, which aimed to help the GOP maintain its control of the lower chamber in Congress. California officials sought to draw a map that...

Governor Newscum May Be Involved in Dirty Money Laundering Scheme From Mexican Cartels

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to expedite rebuilding in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon after wildfires ravaged the Los Angeles communities in January 2025. According to a White House fact sheet, the order directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Karen Evans and the Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler to establish regulations preempting procedural permitting requirements at the state and local levels.

It’s the blue state blues. Democratic strongholds New York and California will lose a combined six congressional seats after 2030 to the booming Sun Belt, according to an analysis of census figures released Tuesday. The Redistricting Network projected that New York state will lose two more seats in the House of Representatives in the next decade because of stagnant population growth, which critics say is more evidence of an Empire State in decline. And Americans are no longer California dreamin’ after decades of population growth — with the Golden State projected to lose four seats, the analysis said. By contrast,...

Newsom has presided over the annihilation of what was once the crown jewel of American prosperity—the Golden State California now accounts for roughly one quarter of the nation’s homeless, more than any other state by far. Since Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019, $37 billion has been spent on homelessness programs—yet the homeless population has grown by roughly 20,000 people, not declined. At the same time, according to U.S. Census data, California has suffered net domestic population losses every year since 2020—the first sustained population decline in state history. Between 2020 and 2023, more than 430,000 residents left the state,...

The governor has been an unmitigated disaster for California. Why is he urging global resistance to a duly elected president? Mr. Newsom is in Davos, Switzerland this week, not for a ski holiday, but to attend the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting. His latest appearance exemplifies the petulant, sore-loser mentality that plagues him, the California legislature, and the national Democratic Party post-2024. Newsom is using the global stage not for constructive dialogue but to shockingly lambaste world leaders for their supposed “complicity” in dealing with Trump, urging them to instead “buck up” and “grow a backbone” against the president’s...

Proving once again that he’s a few screws short of a hardware store, California Gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell opened his mouth this weekend and inserted his foot, confirming that evolution can go in reverse. Swalwell, who donated his brain to science before he was done with it, vowed to strip Immigration Customs Enforcement officers of their driver’s licenses in a candidates forum — even though California grants drivers licenses to illegal aliens, the NY Post reported. “They’re going to lose their immunity, they’re not gonna be able to drive. I will take your driver’s license. Good luck walking to work,...

California lost a mind-boggling nearly $1 trillion in wealth in the past month alone thanks to fears over its proposed “Billionaire Tax,’’ according to one of the state’s wealthiest residents. The under-fire measure, which even lefty Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes, would slap a onetime 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion as of Jan. 1, 2026. “Collectively, the amount of Billionaire wealth that has left California in the last month (!) is now in excess of $700B,” fumed venture capitalist and former Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya on X on Friday. “That means the $2T of California wealth they...