Free Republic

America, listen carefully. There is a man in California who presents himself as the embodiment of progressive elegance. Impeccable suits, polished rhetoric, and a vision that sounds transformative until you look at the results. His name is Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). For eight years, he has governed the Golden State with a style that puts spectacle ahead of substance. Now the rest of the country is being courted by his ambitions, and it falls to those of us who have watched this administration up close to sound the alarm: A Newsom presidency would be a fiscal and governance disaster of...

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...

There comes a point at which the velocity of stupid outpaces, and then laps, the rigors of reason. California is about to get lapped. Gov. Gavin Newsom and his leftist legislative supermajority and their union buddies have finally run out of other people's money. The left's fix for this is to chase away all the rest of the billionaires who still call California home by pushing a ballot initiative demanding a 5% retroactive wealth tax on the net worth of billionaires. The billionaires who still call California home are thinking about leaving. And it's all because the left prefers takers...

11 Los Angeles County employees charged in over $700,000 pandemic unemployment fraud scheme Eleven more Los Angeles County employees have been charged with felony grand theft for allegedly stealing unemployment benefits while working full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The new charges, announced by the office, follow an earlier round of filings in October against 13 county employees accused of similar conduct. In total, prosecutors say 24 employees fraudulently collected a combined $741,518 in unemployment benefits between 2020 and 2023. District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said his office intends to pursue the...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law requiring K-12 schools to provide gender-neutral bathrooms by July 2026.

Santa Barbara’s longtime Milpas Street Holiday Parade will not take place this year after organizers said many Eastside families and participants expressed fear about attending a large public event due to concerns of potential immigration-enforcement activity in the region. The Santa Barbara Eastside Society announced the decision Tuesday, saying it came “after many weeks of listening” to families, volunteers, local leaders and immigrant-rights partners who described a heightened sense of vulnerability.

Authorities have released of the name of the suspect accused of throwing Molotov cocktails into a federal building, adding that they believe he was “motivated by anti-immigration enforcement sentiment.” The incident occurred on Monday, with the suspect identified as 54-year-old Jose Francisco Jovel. Authorities have released images showing the moment Jovel allegedly carried out his act. Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement that the building he targeted “houses our U.S. Attorney’s Office, ICE, and is where illegal immigrants are processed.” “Jovel was targeting our immigration enforcement operations and wanted to...

Santa Ana police have arrested four adults and a 15-year-old boy in connection with a September shooting that left a 13-year-old dead and three other juveniles wounded, authorities announced Friday.

A California community is reeling after hearing the news that a local pastor was allegedly caught trying to meet a person he thought was a minor for sex. James David Stockton, 54, was arrested on Saturday by Signal Hill police after an online citizen group called "Caught Fished" said it had documented inappropriate messages with the pastor. Stockton is the pastor at South Bay Church of God in Torrance. He ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2024, and before that he was a leader of the NAACP in Marion County. The group provided some of the texts to KTTV-TV...

Iran, Qatar, other foreign actors backing anti-Israel demonstrations, LA Israeli consulate says. The Israeli LA consulate warned that authorities need to pay attention to aggressive and violent protests before another Washington shooting occurs. By Michael Starr. December 5, 2025. Foreign actors backed protests like the Wednesday Los Angeles synagogue demonstration, claimed the Israeli Los Angeles consulate, also warning that unless authorities checked belligerent behavior, it could lead to another Washington embassy staff terrorist attack. Some of the protesters at the Innovating Safety, Empowering Communities public safety event at Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Audrey Irmas Pavilion had no connection to the Israeli-Palestinian...

Ruh-roh. Sounds like trouble in Democrat Land. Seems Josh Shapiro caught wind of some things Kamala Harris wrote about him in her memoir, things he considers LIES. --SNIP-- Harris wrote that the governor wanted to be “in the room for every decision” if she became president, adding that he often hijacked conversations and frequently needed to be told he wouldn’t have equal power.

A military plane believed to be an F-16C Fighting Falcon from the U.S. Air Force crashed near Trona Airport in San Bernardino County Wednesday morning. A massive plume of black smoke can be seen in a video posted to X by DisasterAlert, followed by at least one person careening toward the ground with a parachute. The plane was part of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, the military’s official aerial demonstration team, the social media post said. A witness called the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office at 10:28 a.m. reporting that at least one pilot had ejected and was being transported...

President Donald Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for Oak View Group co-founder Tim Leiweke, who was indicted by the president’s own Justice Department earlier this year, according to a document released online. A federal grand jury indicted Leiweke, then the CEO of the live entertainment group, in July for “orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process for an arena at a public university in Austin, Texas,” according to a press release from the Justice Department announcing the charge.

An Orange County man is facing felony charges after he allegedly broke probation by tying a pregnant dog to an SUV and driving until it died, according to prosecutors. Eric Lyn Holliday, 58 of Buena Park, was charged with one count of animal cruelty and one count of possession of a hard drug with two or more prior convictions, as well as violating probation. In a news release, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said there's a "special place in hell for people who abuse animals."

As the company's sole owner and billing representative, Luke allegedly misled the VA's third-party administrator when it attempted to recover improper payments - allowing the scheme to continue for years. Federal prosecutors say a California health care executive, accused of a sweeping fraud that allegedly drained more than $7 million from a program meant to support aging veterans, was arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday just as he tried to board a flight to Nigeria. Cashmir Chinedu Luke, believed to be 66 and living in Antioch, now faces a criminal complaint alleging he billed the Department of Veterans...

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — The CEO of a Fresno-area home health care company is facing federal charges after investigators say he stole millions of dollars meant to care for American veterans.According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 66-year-old Cashmir Chinedu Luke was arrested at San Francisco International Airport while trying to board a flight to Nigeria.Federal prosecutors say Luke ran Four Corners Health LLC, a company that provided in-home, non-medical care for elderly veterans through the Veterans Community Care Program. The company served veterans in Fresno, Tulare, Merced, Mariposa, Madera, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties.Investigators say that between December 2019...

California’s top elected officials announced a new online portal Wednesday with the stated purpose of having members of the public share information with the state’s Department of Justice about “potentially unlawful activity by federal agents and officers across the state.” Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a press release from the governor’s office, acknowledging that “Federal agents have broad authority to enforce federal laws, including federal immigration laws,” but adding that “they must do so lawfully.”

n September the U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division filed federal lawsuits against six states for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request: — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. As the Globe said at the time, “That the DOJ is hauling California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania into court for hiding their voter rolls is monumental, and specifically the accountability Americans have been clamoring for.” Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division did it again, but filed federal lawsuits against six additional states — Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island,...

A man has been arrested for allegedly firebombing a federal building in downtown Los Angeles and is suspected in another blaze in a nearly century-old apartment building in Koreatown on Monday.

A strip mall at the left, to which is associated at the right, a free-standing building, next to a warehouse, Monkeyin Around, formerly Kudos Children's Theater CompanyIn Stockton California, four people are dead, among them, three children, ages 8, 9, and 14, after a total of 14 people were shot, shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday 11/29/2025.Police were extremely reluctant, to the point of suppressing information the public needs for self-protection, to precisely identify the location, but after extensive inquiries, it has finally emerged that it took place at Monkeyin Around play-place, (inexplicably termed "a banquet hall") at 1943 Lucile Avenue,...