Free Republic

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,...

Democrat governors, many believed to be vying for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination, gathered on Thursday for a pricey Los Angeles fundraising event. The private gathering — where tickets cost as much as $100K a pop — was attended by top party members like Gov. Gavin Newsom, Arizona’s Gov. Katie Hobbs, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among others, the LA Times reported. A ticket to attend the event, closed to the press, cost anywhere from $45,000 up to $100,00, with the money going to the Democrat Governors Association (DGA). The evening was expected to rake...

A ratbag group of cop-hating Black Lives Matters activists were handed the floor at City Hall as they launched a campaign to block extra funding to hire more police in Los Angeles. Everyday Angelenos were left frustrated as they were locked out of the first public budget hearing — while lefty activists led by Black Lives Matter–Los Angeles and People’s Budget LA were given 20 minutes to air their radical views. At stake is the city’s $14.9 billion budget, the single most consequential decision City Hall makes each year. The group, led Friday by Melina Abdullah, demanded the council shift...

If you go to NASCAR to watch the cars crash, the Democratic gubernatorial race in California has been a thrilling pile-up. From Katie Porter spewing profanities at employees, to Eric Swalwell fleeing the race on the heels of prosecutors, it has been something to behold. However, some elements of the campaign have been more predictable, including the use of racial politics. The first major debate was canceled after Former Biden Health and Human Services Secretary and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra declared that his exclusion (due to low polling numbers) was racist.

Ten days ago, Congressmember Eric Swalwell was getting very close to becoming the Democratic candidate for governor of California. But then he imploded amidst sensational accusations of sexual harassment and assault. Within hours of the revelations, Swalwell abandoned his campaign and then resigned from Congress and is now under criminal investigation. Why Swalwell was leading the field of Democratic hopefuls was never clear. His only claim to political fame was being one of President Donald Trump’s most persistent critics — which, of course, has little to do with governing the nation’s most populous state. It seemed he was seen as...

Overton@overton_news·13hHe flipped the script on them instantly.California Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton (R) gave a masterful response to the debate moderator who tried to use President Trump’s endorsement of him as an attack against him.MODERATOR: “Mr. Hilton, you said you were ‘deeply honored’ to recently receive President Trump’s endorsement.”“That’s despite the fact that 62% of Californians disapprove of the job he is doing. Are those Californians wrong?”HILTON: “One of the proudest days of my life was the day I became an American citizen.”“It happened in a ceremony right here in San Francisco.”“So it is a deep honor for me to be...

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....

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.”

Hunter Biden critiqued the Democratic Party’s leadership as overly civility-focused and driven by a consultant class, arguing they lack the spine to counter a re-energized Republican opposition. He praised California Governor Gavin Newsom as the party’s “greatest warrior” and urged a shift toward aggressive advocacy and fighting in hostile terrain to redefine the party’s strategy. The remarks, linked to tensions with DNC elites and perceived disloyalty to his father, cast internal party dynamics in a light of loyalty challenges and vision gaps. Biden’s comments call for broader unity beyond party labels and signal potential implications for 2028 contenders. Analysts note...

"Middle Aged Man in a Hurry to Put Donor Money in His Pockets" Every presidential candidate is expected to pay a ghostwriter to write a memoir about the sheer wonderfulness of being him and the lessons he learned along the way. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s was titled, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.” Maybe it should have been titled “Middle Aged Man in a Hurry to Put Donor Money in His Pockets” instead. Who was really going to plonk down thirty bucks (currently ten and change at Walmart) to read how Newsom at once insisted he was a...

The California governor's race is heating up, with Emerson College polls showing two Republicans leading after Eric Swalwell's departure. Steve Hilton leads with 17%, followed by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 14%. Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer is tied with Bianco at 14%. Trailing Democrats include former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Representative Katie Porter both tied at 10%. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan follows with 5%. The poll also found that 23% of likely voters said they are still undecided, meaning the race remains wide open.

A cousin of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is throwing his tech fortune behind two of the governor’s biggest critics. Siebel Systems founder Tom Siebel, second cousin of Siebel Newsom, gave $50,000 to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s bid for California governor and another $10,000 to Republican former Fox News Host Steve Hilton. Siebel sold Siebel Systems, an enterprise software firm, to Oracle to 2006 for approximately $5.8 billion, making him a billionaire with an estimated net worth of around $4 billion currently.

White House deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller on Tuesday accused the Democrat party of controlling its members through blackmail. Miller told Fox News host Jesse Watters Tuesday evening that “the real” takeaway from former California Rep. Eric Swalwell’s fall from grace is the Democrats’ blackmail regime. “Swalwell is a scumbag, he’s a terrible person, the worst of the worst the lowest of the low—the most dishonest,” Miller acknowledged. “The real story here is how the Democrat Party controls its members through blackmail!” The California Democrat suspended his campaign for governor Sunday and officially resigned from Congress Tuesday...

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released undercover video of a Finance Development Officer for Los Angeles Housing Department admitting to witnessing multiple instances of fraud. Donald Byers told the undercover OMG journalist that $10 to $20 million are going into people’s pockets and that homeless developers are embezzling money. Byers also said that the superiors look the other way to help corrupt Democrat Mayor Karen Bass maintain “re-election funds.” Per the O’Keefe Media Group: Donald Byers, a Finance Development Officer from the Los Angeles housing programs, admits on hidden camera that millions of taxpayer money disappear inside the city’s...

The vile street takeovers afflicting Los Angeles are getting more and more violent, police say, and they expect things will only get worse heading into the summer. Los Angeles cops swarmed more than 90 street takeovers already far in 2026, making at least 79 arrests, impounding 114 race cars, grabbing four stolen vehicles and seizing four firearms. At least five people were shot at LA county street takeovers this past weekend alone. Cops say the illegal gatherings are getting more and more bloody — and with warmer weather coming, things will only get worse. “There’s robberies, rapes, shootings, murders, stabbings,”...

WINTERS – Gavin Newsom was asked to comment about Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction being overturned on Thursday, and the California governor didn't mince words. "Harvey Weinstein is a stone-cold predator. He's a rapist, twice convicted. Not once, twice," Newsom said on Thursday. New York's highest court overturned the disgraced Hollywood producer's rape conviction on Thursday and ordered a new trial. The New York Court of Appeals said the judge in the Weinstein case made several improper rulings, preventing the now 72-year-old from getting a fair trial. Jennifer Siebel, Newsom's wife, testified in a different trial in Los Angeles in...

Once considered one of the most powerful and unimpeachable producers in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein learned he will now spend almost two more decades in prison, after the sentencing Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom on rape and sexual assault charges. Weinstein is already serving time for convictions in New York. ... A Los Angeles judge on Thursday sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in prison after a jury convicted him of the 2013 rape and sexual assault of an Italian actor and model. The sentence comes on top of the more than 20 years the 70-year-old Weinstein has left to...

A court livestream captured the moment when convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein learned that he will be extradited from a New York prison to Los Angeles to stand another trial on multiple sexual assault charges. The 69-year-old disgraced film mogul buried his head into his hands soon after an Erie County judge made the ruling Tuesday, as seen on a court livestream. Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence at the upstate New York Wende Correctional Facility on convictions of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act.

Meet Cali’s First Lady of optics and fairy tales, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Jennifer Siebel Newsom ran down her sister with a golf cart and told San Quentin convicts that their crimes were “probably accidents too.” This displays Democrats’ toxic empathy for criminals, but there’s more about Gavin Newsom’s wife people should know. Born in 1974, the Stanford grad (Latin American Studies plus an MBA) moved to Hollywood, where she gained roles in television shows such as “Strong Medicine,” a creation of Whoopi Goldberg. In 2008 the Barbie-style blond married Gavin Newsom, who boasts ties to the Brown, Pelosi and Getty...

The post-transphobia commonwealthWhat is the difference between an audacious and a mediocre dead-horse take? Frankly, I don’t know anymore. Some people may read what I have to say as the musings of a neoliberal bubble-inhabiting princess, and others may see them as a call from the Kremlin to stir workers of the world and unite against the master. Whatever you make of my positionality, I have an observation to share with my UC Berkeley compatriots in the Red Army: We may be deluding ourselves into thinking our particular tract of society is an egalitarian wet dream. Oftentimes, when I talk...