Free Republic

Florida Pizza Kitchen. It doesn’t have quite the ring to it that California Pizza Kitchen does. But had the iconic chain been dreamed up in the 2020s rather than the 1980s, it would have been FPK rather than CPK, not because the California Pizza Kitchen’s co-founders moved to Florida, though one did a couple of years ago, but due to the Golden State’s corrosive business policies. Not that long ago, California was “the greatest place to do business,” Rick Rosenfield, the CPK co-founder who fled to the Sunshine State, told Fox News Digital. “If it were me today, I would...

Nearly 150,000 California voters had their mail-in ballots rejected for the state’s June primary, a spike from recent elections even as the state attempts to make voting easier with the goal of boosting participation and counting every ballot. California has become notorious for its ponderously slow vote counts that can drag on for weeks and sometimes longer, largely the result of multiple changes over the years that were intended to increase turnout but have done little to achieve that. Among the changes: Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still...

We keep hearing about the Democratic Socialists of America now that several openly bold Communists and Marxists have been elected to public office, or have made it through primary elections. They typically run as regular Democrats, sounding fairly normal, promising the usual: universal healthcare, offering up Land Acknowledgements, defunding the police, making the wealthy and big corporations “pay their fair share,” Medicaid expansion, free child care, expanded paid family leave, ending “corporate greed,” rental assistance, student loan debt relief, yada, yada, yada, and then they pivot to communist ideals once in office. Rather than explain the DSA, let’s hear from...

In summary According to state law, campus police can own military weapons to uphold safety as long as they report it to the public. However, not every college follows every part of the law, according to an investigation by CalMatters into all 148 public colleges and universities in California. ================================================================================== For many public colleges and universities in California, keeping their campuses safe includes owning military-grade weaponry — AR-15s, stun grenades designed to cause temporary blindness and sonic weapons that resonate so loudly they are known in the armed forces as the voice of God. According to state law, campus police...

You have to admit that what Gavin Newsom lacks in brains and sound policy he makes up for in sheer hubris. That's the only reason that Newsom could say with a straight face that his state is a global model for fire management. Perhaps that's true in a sense; Canada was burning so much that people as far south as Virginia were seeing, smelling, and feeling the impacts. That's because Canada, like California, refuses to do basic fire management like clearing brush and old growth. This is nothing to brag about, of course. But brag Newsom did. "I can say...

A California ex-con was found guilty of murder for fatally shooting an innocent woman in a beef over a stolen motorcycle in Kern County. Luis Villachana, 51, of Kern County, faces life in prison for opening fire on Ruth Ann Cummings, 44, in her car in 2024 as she arrived at a home in Oildale where the Villachana had threatened to kill her husband and daughter. “I’m gonna smoke all you guys,” Villachana said before pulling the trigger, according to court papers. The drama began on the morning of August 29, 2024, when a motorcycle belonging to Villachana was stolen...

California policymakers are dangerous not only to their neighbors but to the entire country because their ideas are often adopted by imitators in state houses and city halls. Plastic bag bans. Overbearing climate regulation. Draconian COVID rules. A crusade against condiment packets. Almost added to that list is a punishment for retail chains that dare close their stores. One San Francisco city supervisor, Bilal Mahmood, had hoped to tax shuttered grocery stores and pharmacies, because, in his view, “no San Franciscan should be forced to choose between long walks, expensive rides, or going without basic necessities.” Had Mahmood had...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday he’s stopping more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota over suspected fraud. “We are not sending Medicaid dollars out the door until we have confidence that they are being spent lawfully and appropriately,” Kennedy said at an announcement on Tuesday. Kennedy said if California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) want the money to fund low-income healthcare, “they need to provide documentation that these payments are legitimate.” Kennedy blamed the Biden administration and the Democratic leadership in both blue states...

Tennessee is courting David Ellison’s Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. In a letter to Ellison on July 2, Tennessee Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter urged the Paramount CEO to relocate the studio’s corporate headquarters amid a rift with California over its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. “Our success is rooted in fiscal discipline, low taxes, predictable governance, and a steadfast belief that government should be a partner in private-sector growth,” stated the letter. “Companies that choose Tennessee find more than a favorable business climate — they find a state committed to helping them succeed.” The invitation was delivered...

Ruby Rippey-Gibney — the former San Francisco City Hall aide whose affair with Gov. Gavin Newsom nearly upended his political career — will tell her side of the story for the first time in an upcoming Vanity Fair piece, The California Post has learned. Details of the piece remain unclear, but a source familiar with the matter said Rippey-Gibney intends to recount her perspective on the affair that rocked San Francisco politics in 2007 and has remained one of the most embarrassing moments in then-mayor of San Francisco Newsom’s life and career. The story comes as Newsom is widely expected...

A coalition of 12 Democratic attorneys general led by California filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the $110 billion merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, despite the deal having been approved by the Trump administration. “The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. The legal challenge comes just days after reports that advisers close to...

Misery on the menu? California shoppers could soon be paying even more at the checkout line as a sweeping new state recycling measure threatens to send grocery prices soaring, with dairy manufacturers warning some businesses may be forced to shut down or flee the Golden State. Senate Bill 54 is now entering its first phase of implementation, with companies expected to receive their first bills as early as next month, reported SFGATE. The measure aims to reduce landfill waste by making manufacturers financially responsible for the packaging they sell after it is thrown away. It charges companies impact fees on...

Californians are set to notice a major change the next time they stroll through a grocery store. State officials have ordered a sweeping overhaul of food packaging that will alter how millions shop. From July 1, food manufacturers and retailers across the Golden State will no longer be allowed to slap 'sell by' dates on most packaged foods sold to consumers, under a controversial new law aimed at tackling food waste and clearing up widespread confusion over expiration labels. The shake-up, which will be felt across supermarket shelves statewide, effectively strips out a long list of familiar date markings that...

A Southern California company just received approval to test a space mirror that would reflect sunlight to dark parts of planet Earth. The Federal Communications Commission issued a license on Thursday to Reflect Orbital, an energy company based in Hawthorne. The license officially allows Reflect Orbital to launch its Earendil-1 satellite using frequencies in UHF, S-band and X-band for “telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) and data downlink to support deployment and testing of a solar reflector.” Reflect Orbital will only be allowed to deploy one satellite at a time for now, the license states. “Earendil-1 will use a deployable, highly...

In Mayor Karen Bass’s Los Angeles, the rule of law is separate and not equal when it comes to street food — with illegal immigrants and rogue vendors getting a free pass on violations while citizen restaurateurs and licensed food stands are subjected to fines, high costs, burdensome regulations, and even closures. In short, L.A. and the surrounding counties have two sets of rules. Other progressively-run cities like New York and Minneapolis also are catering to “vulnerable” and undocumented immigrant street vendors. But California is leading the way in sanctuary food practices. The Los Angeles County Health Department, citing immigration...

There’s a new agency in California that promises to “protect consumers, support honest businesses, and advance affordability for Californians.” If Vegas were to give odds, they would be heavily against any of those ever occurring. It’s called the California Business and Consumer Services Agency, and it’s a cabinet-level department headed by Rohit Chopra, who was sworn in on July 1. It already has a bureaucratic acronym: BCSA. Catchy, isn’t it? Chopra promises his office “will sharpen and accelerate work to promote economic growth and protect the public from abuses.” Let us translate that from California-government-speak. What it really means...

Eric Swalwell launched a campaign of threats and intimidation to stop the sordid details of his alleged rape and sexual assaults from being spread wide. Records obtained by The California Post show the disgraced politician used a team of high-powered lawyers to fire off legal threats to a rival campaign in an effort to suppress rape and sexual assault allegations — just weeks before his own campaign imploded over those same claims. Attorneys representing Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter on March 20 to Ryan Hughes — general counsel for progressive billionaire Tom Steyer’s campaign — accusing him of...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A Bay Area goat landscaping company says it could be forced out of business if changes are not made to a new state law that would significantly increase compensation costs for goat herders. Green Goat Landscapers in Gilroy, which uses about 1,000 goats to clear vegetation that can fuel wildfires, said the law could threaten the future of grazing operations that play a role in wildfire prevention across the state. "We really provide a needed service, and it benefits all of California. Goats go where people and machines can't go, and that really reduces that...

SACRAMENTO, CA — Following reports that activists were pushing the introduction of Black English in California preschools, Governor Gavin Newsom proudly proclaimed: "We finna teach da' homies Black English, yo!" The California governor confirmed that he has many black friends and, as such, wanted to make Black English a centerpiece to every child's educational experience. "Because we want every child to learn to communicate with our black brothers and sisters, ya dig?" he said. California Department of Education officials were initially hesitant to add Black English to the preschool curriculum, but completely caved once Newsom showed how fluent he was...

Californians will have to pay for two new taxes next year after Gov. Gavin Newsom approved the state budget in June in what the California Taxpayers Association described as “the largest tax increase in state history.” Newsom and Democratic lawmakers agreed on proposals that would raise health insurance premiums and slap a new charge on software downloads in an effort to make up federal revenue loss from an antagonistic Trump administration, Democrats said. Republicans blasted the new taxes. “Record spending does not equate to better quality of life, and anyone living in California for the last decade would likely agree....