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Calls are growing for California’s high-speed rail to be abandoned completely after revelations the estimated cost of completing Gavin Newsom’s fantasy train project has ballooned to a staggering $231 billion. The latest cost revisions for the project — revealed during a Senate Transportation Committee meeting — left lawmakers fuming after the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office flagged numerous concerns. State Sen. Tony Strickland, vice chair of the STC, said the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan continues to obscure true costs — and now he’s calling for the entire project to be scrapped.

California’s High-Speed Rail boondoggle is now estimated to cost taxpayers $231 billion, up from its original $33.5 billion price tag in 2008 when voters passed Proposition 1A. “Our country has never seen a fiscal disaster of this magnitude,” California Rep. Kevin Kiley said on X Monday. Voters were deceived by the original ballot summary and language in Proposition 1A from 2008, but the state’s lawmakers seem to find that fact inconvenient. And, the entire project is lacking in private, public and debt funding to complete even the most minor operating segment – nearly 20 years later. “If it is built,...

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - A former youth soccer coach in Los Angeles County is facing trial for the 2025 murder of a 13-year-old boy and a string of alleged sexual assaults involving two other teenagers.

Riddle of the day: When is deed theft not actually deed theft? Answer: When state Attorney General Tish James tries to have it both ways. That’s what happened Friday when the AG was asked about fellow lefty Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé’s arrest. Ossé was cuffed Wednesday as he tried to prevent an eviction he claimed stemmed from “deed theft.” At the time, James’ office issued a statement denying the case involved any such thing. It said the matter involved a property dispute between heirs and relatives of the home’s former co-owners. Yet on Friday, James sang a different tune. “Technically...

California has licensed at least 17,000 Commercial Drivers' Licenses to illegal aliens, and was forced to revoke them at the risk of losing their federal funding for transportation. The current candidates for governor in California think that's racist, as is requiring truck drivers to speak English and be able to read and understand road signs. Welcome to California, where people live in tents on the sidewalk, poop in the street, rot from drug abuse, and are used as an excuse to fund a multi-billion-dollar NGO complex that can't tell the government where all that money went. MODERATOR: “Should language proficiency...

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release announcing an investigation into gender self-identification policies in women’s prisons. The decision comes against the backdrop of mounting allegations of “rape, voyeurism, and a pervasive climate of sexual intimidation” in states where male inmates are housed according to their self-declared “gender identity.” Under the authority of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), the Justice Department will determine whether facilities in California and Maine have exposed incarcerated women to “unconstitutional risks of harm from male inmates.”Massachusetts should be the next jurisdiction on the list. Just west of Boston,...

Two years and two weeks have passed since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his first return-to-office order, which directed state employees to begin working from government offices two days a week. Newsom upped the in-office requirement to four days last year, but subsequently postponed that mandate after facing steep push-back from state employees and labor groups. In the intervening time, unions have filed lawsuits, lawmakers have introduced legislation and state workers have continued rallying, all to push back against the governor’s mandate.

Authorities in Louisiana are searching for answers after a man shot and killed eight children, including seven of his own, and critically wounded two women, including his wife, in Shreveport, La., early Sunday, in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years. “I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback,” Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said at a news conference. “I cannot begin to imagine how such an event could occur.” The gunman, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, was killed during a police pursuit after hijacking a car, according to police.

Editor's note: Welcome to the second installment of Corruption Watch, WC Dispatch's investigative series exposing the leftists, illegal aliens, and NGOs defrauding John Q. Taxpayer from coast to coast. We're proud to partner with Restoration News to amplify these on-the-ground investigations, beginning in Michigan. Read the first installment HERE What do a demolished building, a dental office, and an immigrant hub have in common? In Michigan, they’re all billing Medicaid, and you’re paying for it. We went looking for a lead. All we found was a demolition team eating lunch. That crew gave us information that sent us to 21...

The 2028 Democratic primary has already begun — and this time, the candidates aren’t trying to hide it. Potential contenders including former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are openly embracing — or at least acknowledging — their interest in a White House run. It’s a departure from the political gamesmanship that once defined presidential politics, when would-be candidates sought to intentionally cloud their intentions out of fear that acknowledging them could backfire. It also reflects the wide-open nature of the race, with no clear front-runner — or anointed figure — for the first time in years....

KB Home, one of the largest homebuilding companies in the U.S., plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to Arizona, marking the latest example of a major company shifting leadership operations out of California. The homebuilder announced it will move its headquarters from Westwood to Tempe beginning in spring 2027, transferring executive leadership and key corporate functions to the Phoenix metro area, according to a report from LA Magazine. Company leaders cited lower costs, operational efficiency and Arizona’s business climate as major reasons for the move. The shift reflects a broader trend in which some large companies have...

Just hours after a mass shooting that left eight children under the age of 15 dead in Louisiana, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is bashing the NRA “and their lackeys in Congress.” “This is an unspeakable tragedy. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones suffering in Louisiana,” Newsom’s press office said on X. “Repeated horrors like this don’t happen anywhere else but this country.” Calling the mass shooting a “total moral failure,” Newsom’s press office said the National Rifle Association “and their lackeys in Congress are complicit in this madness.”

Thugs waving Palestinian flags blocked traffic, took over the street, lit a fire, and performed car stunts in the family-oriented neighborhood of Middle Village, Queens, NY, last night. This is Mamdani’s NYC. Queens, NY has one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in New York City.

A lawless mob wreaked fiery havoc on a Queens intersection during a late-night car takeover as local lawmakers demand a crackdown on these unhinged meetups. Shocking video shows reckless drivers whipping around the intersection at 69th Street and Eliot Avenue in Queens early Saturday morning. Over 100 vehicles clogged up the roads along the Maspeth-Middle Village border. A man appeared to wave a Palestinian flag as he burned rubber, just narrowly missing those standing around the car while it made donuts around a massive street blaze. Flames arose from the street as hordes of brazen participants filmed the dangerous drivers...

I met with two guys from Paris last week. They suggested in the Loop across the street from the James R. Thompson Center. I hadn’t been in the Loop for a couple of years but followed @CWBChicago on X for the latest on shootings, street takeovers, and general mayhem. I emailed back that no one meets in the Loop anymore by choice. Let’s meet at the Firehouse Grill in Evanston. Due to previous commitments they couldn’t switch. Not wanting to screw around with parking I took an Uber. Twenty minutes early, with time to kill, oops, an unfortunate choice of...

Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters. Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator. We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it.

California’s gasoline market is entering a period of acute supply shortages directly attributable to prior refinery closures, and the long-term systemic decline in in-state crude oil production which have been further exacerbated by the ongoing war in the Middle East. For California, there is a clear trajectory toward increasing supply deficit conditions through April and a high probability of physical shortages by May accompanied by consumer price increases at the pump.

Seattle is ramping up cleanup efforts as it prepares to welcome tens of thousands of visitors for the FIFA World Cup this summer, with a new report highlighting millions of pounds of waste removed, hundreds of thousands of sharps collected, and growing community participation across neighborhoods. The Seattle Clean City 2025 Community Impact Report, released April 14, outlines what the city calls a year of major milestones, stronger partnerships, and expanded, data-driven strategies aimed at keeping streets and public spaces cleaner and safer. In 2025, Seattle Clean City and its partners collected and removed 5.3 million pounds of waste from...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first city-owned grocery store will be in East Harlem and cost about $30 million, a report said Sunday. The store will be in La Marqueta, a marketplace under the train tracks running over Park Avenue, and be up and running for business by the end of his first term in 2029, according to the New York Times. La Marqueta is already owned by the city. Mamdani was expected to announce the Manhattan market plan at the party he was throwing at a Queens concert hall Sunday to celebrate his first 100 days in office, a milestone that...

A former Yolo County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant is one of five people charged with murder following a fireworks warehouse explosion that killed seven workers in the rural Northern California community of Esparto last summer, authorities said. Samuel Machado is accused of illegally having 1 million pounds of fireworks on his property at the time of the blast and using his law enforcement position to shield the illicit operation from scrutiny for years, according to the Yolo County district attorney’s office. Machado was placed on administrative leave following the violent July 1 explosion, which was felt by residents up to 20...