Free Republic

LATEST Feb. 18, 12:45 p.m. The CEO of California’s High-Speed Rail Authority is on voluntary leave after an arrest earlier this month at his Sacramento-area home, multiple outlets reported. Politico and the Los Angeles Times both reported that the rail authority confirmed Ian Choudri’s leave. The rail authority did not respond to SFGATE’s inquiry. “While CEO Choudri has informed the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board that he is not aware of any evidence of wrongdoing, he has voluntarily agreed to take a temporary leave to allow the Board and our parent agency, the California State Transportation Agency, to fully review...

In his famous 20th century novel "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway’s character, Mike Campbell, was asked by a friend how his financial ruin had happened. Campbell replied to the question simply, "Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly." Just a cursory look at today’s headlines and one can see this very idea of "gradually and then suddenly" playing out in the fiscal health of many blue states. California, the poster child for a state heading down the road to financial ruin, is slated to lose four congressional seats in the 2030 census due to population loss. Moreover, major companies such...

It's not hard to understand why people live in California, nor why it boomed in the decades after World War II. There are few places more blessed by God than California, even with its mudslides, wildfires, and earthquakes, which deterred not a single person from moving there. It is, in most ways, a paradise. If there was anyplace that could be said to embody the American Dream, or at least the postwar American Dream in which anybody could aspire to be middle class, it was California. New York City may be where people went to strike it big, but California...

The Democratic Socialists of America LA chapter has released a 40-page, 9,000-word manifesto that lays out an aggressive, six-to-eight-year plan to seize control of the nation’s second-largest city and impose full-blown socialism In what can only be described as a chilling blueprint for economic destruction and social chaos (see below), the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles chapter has released a 40-page, 9,000-word manifesto that lays out an aggressive, six-to-eight-year plan to seize control of the nation’s second-largest city and impose full-blown socialism. This radical document, published in 2025, doesn’t mince words: Los Angeles is “on the burning edge...

Gov. Newsom is single handedly sending California into energy poverty, rather than economic and energy prosperity Most California residents recognize that California’s highest-in-the-nation gas prices are self-inflected, as is the gasoline crisis in the state. This has subsequently increased dependency on foreign oil suppliers and shippers to supply fuels, and as we reported recently, this poses a direct threat to U.S. military force readiness on the West Coast. California today produces less than 23% of its own in-state petroleum needs and imports over 65% of its crude oil from foreign sources, yet the oil and gas industry in California account...

“Cheers” star and Pixar voice actor John Ratzenberger announced his support for Republican California gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco, calling out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership.With California’s June primary approaching, the race between Democrats and Republicans is heating up. Endorsements have continued to roll in as party leaders and public figures weigh in on who they believe can steer the state forward; Ratzenberger is the latest to do so. The actor has worked in Hollywood for over 20 years, featuring as Cliff Clavin in “Cheers” and voicing notable characters in Pixar films such as “Toy Story,” “Cars” and “Monsters, Inc.”In an...

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...

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.

The one thing Newsom is good at is destroying the Golden State If I was the leftist governor of the largest state in the U.S. and my unspoken goal and unholy plan was to destabilize and destroy my state, there are certain policies I would impose, and executive orders I’d make, while insulating myself from my own policies: Cut water off to rural areas in the state; remove dams and hydroelectric plants. Limit water deliveries to farmers and ranchers, forcing farmers and ranchers to shut down. Create a housing shortage. Raise the minimum wage so high, restaurant owners are forced...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom unleashed a vulgar tirade against Louisiana’s female attorney general yesterday as he defending allowing illegal abortion pills to flow into pro-life states. Newsom told a female Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill to “go ---- yourself” as he defended his state’s refusal to extradite abortionists accused of illegally mailing abortion pills to Louisiana residents, a move pro-life advocates say endangers women and unborn babies by circumventing state laws designed to protect life. The exchange erupted on social media after Newsom posted about Louisiana’s plans to sue him and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for blocking extradition requests....

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just stunned Gavin Newsom by signing an executive order for the feds to TAKE OVER the LA wildfire rebuild and permitting process Newsom has FAILED and Trump is saving the people. This generational failure will be on the front stage in 2028 when Gavin tries to run for President against JD Vance. One of the worst governors in modern history.

California Governor Gavin Newsom accused TikTok on Monday of suppressing content critical of President Donald Trump as he launched a review of the platform’s content moderation practices to determine whether they violated state law. The step comes after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, said it had finalised a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture that will secure US data, to avoid a US ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans. “Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports, and independently confirmed instances, of suppressed content critical of...

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,...

California Governor Gavin Newsom was reportedly barred from entering and speaking at a scheduled “fireside chat,” hosted by Fortune magazine, at USA House — a U.S.-linked venue in Davos, Switzerland — during the World Economic Forum (WEF) event on Wednesday. USA House is an official U.S. venue in Davos where political and business leaders from throughout the globe gather for the WEF. It is a privately funded sidebar space supported by the U.S. State Department. Newsom (D-Calif.) had initially been invited by Fortune magazine to participate in a fireside chat on Wednesday afternoon. However, shortly before the event was set...

REPORTER: “Any comment on Don Lemon charging into the church in Minnesota?” GAVIN NEWSOM: “What? Don Lemon? Into a church? I literally know nothing about it.” Holy smokes… This is not a serious person.

🚨 HOLY CRAP! Scott Bessent just PUMMELED Gavin Newsom in Davos "He's here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros!" 🔥 "I think it's very, very ironic that Newsom — who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ben — may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris!" BOOM!

IRS Study shows California is losing a taxpayer every minute to states like Florida, Texas, and North Carolina California Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing a retroactive billionaire tax targeting the roughly 220 billionaires residing in California in 2025, ignoring that these individuals are the most financially mobile and can live anywhere. Expecting them to remain in the state as if they will happily and willingly hand over even more of their wealth surely must be facetious. SEIU is sponsoring the “2026 Billionaires Tax Act.” The measure, recently listed on the Attorney General’s website, would impose a one-time 5% tax on...

Belem, Brazil) — Crowned by global media outlets as the most important American at the United Nations “climate” summit in Belem, far-left California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) slammed U.S. President Donald Trump as an “invasive species” while signing deals with hostile foreign governments. The American president, Newsom suggested, must be stopped in order to save the world from alleged man-made climate change. Among other major announcements, Newsom inked a number of unconstitutional quasi-treaties with foreign governments — several of which are dominated by self-proclaimed communist and socialist leaders hostile to the United States. These “partnerships,” signed on the third day...

California election officials are preparing for scenarios where Trump administration officials demand ballots or place agents at voting sites. State Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta vows to seek restraining orders within hours if the administration interferes. In recent weeks, Marin County Registrar Natalie Adona has been largely focused on the many mundane tasks of local elections administrators in the months before a midterm: finalizing voting locations, ordering supplies, facilitating candidate filings. But in the wake of unprecedented efforts by the Trump administration to intervene in state-run elections, Adona said she has also been preparing her staff for far less ordinary scenarios...

Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating illegal hospice facilities — officials announced Friday in a bombshell press conference. “We have witnessed a sevenfold increase in hospice in LA County, sevenfold. That doesn’t happen naturally,” Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Post during at the press conference. “There is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago. These are fraudsters, and these do tend to be foreign influences, either Russian and Armenian gangs, mafia,...