Free Republic

Salmon, beef, organic produce and Amy’s Kitchen meals: These are just some of the luxury foods that California welfare recipients can have delivered to their homes each week, for free. Californians like TikTok user “Lupita” are taking full advantage. Earlier this year, she posted a video of herself opening a taxpayer-funded grocery box, apologizing to her manicurist as she unboxed it by hand. Inside, she found carrots, heads of broccoli, apples, oranges, celery, rice, lettuce and more. “Yesterday, I was like, ‘I need some lettuce,’ but the lettuce was like $5,” she said. “And look at this. Fresh lettuce! Thank...

A convicted Wall Street swindler who was named New York’s No. 1 tax deadbeat a decade ago has been living it up in California, running a charity praised by Gov. Gavin Newsom and hawking erectile dysfunction pills — all while dodging a tax bill that has soared to $59.1 million, The Post has learned. Daniel Gordon — an ex-Merrill Lynch trader who pleaded guilty in 2003 to bilking the bank out of $43 million in a brazen wire fraud scheme — lives with his wife, Kate, in a 10,495-square-foot spread near Palm Springs, Calif. that’s worth more than $5 million,...

California funneled nearly $369 million in federal aid intended for victims of its deadliest wildfire year to low-income housing developers — without requiring them to house a single wildfire survivor, a California Post investigation found. The staggering sum was awarded to developers while thousands of Californians struggled to rebuild their lives after the devastating 2018 fires, which killed 103 people and damaged or destroyed more than 24,000 structures. Among them is motivational speaker and comedian, Mickey Schechter, 62, who lost his Cornell home and $60,000 in plumbing tools when the Woolsey Fire tore through the Santa Monica Mountains, destroying 37...

‘Racial wealth gap’ – the catch-all phrase that would serve to justify anything the committees wanted When I read that “New California reparations law requires companies to disclose past profits from slavery,” I thought it was a joke. I’ve covered California Democrat’s years-long attempts to pass legislation to authorize reparations. In June, I reported “DOJ Case Applies to California: Reparations Program is Discriminatory and Illegal.” I thought once again, reparations in California is so stupid and factually ignorant – California wasn’t a slave state. Slavery has existed on every inhabited continent for at least 4,000 years of recorded history. And...

California advocacy groups are celebrating a "big, important victory" in their push for state-level reparations after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation bill requiring large corporations to investigate and disclose historical ties to chattel slavery. Kristin Nimmers, policy and campaign manager for the California Black Power Network (CBPN) and the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth, told Fox News Digital Newsom’s signature on Assembly Bill 2599 — the Truth in Disclosure Act — marks a significant milestone for corporate accountability. "There are connections right now from slavery to current wealth of individuals and current wealth of corporations whose foundation and...

With estimates of the annual toll on taxpayers for welfare fraud now estimated to exceed $250 billion, an outraged President Trump is demanding that "Congress enact a law mandating prison sentences for individuals who are stealing this money from hard working Americans. I think if you steal from the American people, you should go to prison and for a long period of time. And the more you steal, the longer you'll stay in that prison." "In addition, if a state or local politician knows about fraud and has the ability to stop it, but does nothing about it, they should...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have given the watchdog of California’s expensive, delayed high-speed rail project the powers it says it needs to quickly staff up and provide expert oversight. The Democratic governor vetoed Assembly Bill 1608, which would exempt the Inspector General of high-speed rail from a lengthy job reclassification process for qualified auditors and give it a $1 million purchase authority to avoid drawn-out contracting rules. Those tools are “absolutely essential” for its auditing, the inspector general previously said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that formally recognizes two Muslim holidays as state holidays on Sunday, making it the second state to formally recognize both holidays statewide. California Assembly Bill 2017 officially added Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the list of state holidays, which would permit public schools and colleges to close and allow state employees to be eligible to observe the holidays. However, schools and businesses will not be required to close on these days, and courts will be required to stay open. This makes California the second state in the country, after Washington...

Despite lingering concerns about the bill, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed a major new subsidy that aims to support California’s local newsrooms. Assembly Bill 2222 creates a refundable tax credit that would provide millions of dollars to news organizations across the state. Newsom said the benefits of the bill far outweigh his concerns, particularly in light of recent actions by President Donald Trump. “I could have vetoed it, but at this moment of anxiety and stress — everything that Donald Trump is trying to do — I couldn’t do that,” the governor said at a news conference in Sacramento,...

Under Assembly Bill 435, California is revising its regulations for child passenger safety. Currently, most children transition out of booster seats by age 8. But starting in 2027, kids aged 8 to 16 must. If they do not meet all five criteria, they’ll need to stay in a car seat that offers better protection, and families who don’t comply could face fines of up to $490.

Gavin Newsom finally admits closing beaches during COVID was “insane,” and Bill Maher says he should have figured that out WHEN IT MATTERED! He adds Newsom's COVID rules were the exact OPPOSITE of what should have been done. Closing beaches was just the start: • Banned singing at church • Banned indoor church services until the Supreme Court stepped in • Shut down Bible studies in private homes until the Supreme Court blocked it • Rammed through the country's first COVID vaccine mandates for kids • Told diners to keep their masks on “in between bites” • Signed a law...

Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom are both drawing low levels of enthusiasm for potential 2028 presidential bids, with the California governor holding a lead over Harris among the state’s Democratic voters. The September survey, conducted by the UC Berkeley Citrin Center and POLITICO, found that 37% of registered California voters said they would be excited about a Newsom presidential run, compared with 28% who said the same about Harris. The figures mark a substantial decline from the February-March survey, when 48% of registered voters said they were excited about a Newsom bid and 41% were excited about Harris entering the...

A California family gave over $4.4 million in political donations to Governor Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris and other leading California politicians. And now, that family's alleged past links to infamous suspected honeypot spy Fang Fang, also known as Christine Fang, and other Chinese government officials have thrust them into an ongoing debate over foreign influence in American politics. The Yin family made millions running McDonald's franchises in the Golden State — and became prolific donors to politicians, according to state and federal campaign records. Newly released FBI files about Fang describe the family patriarch Chei Chen Yin, commonly known by...

For most people of a political bent, the big takeaway from Jake Tapper's interview of Gavin Newsom while engaged in performative fly fishing together in Montana which was aired by CNN on Monday was Newsom's pledge to not run for president in 2028 if fellow Californian Kamala Harris decides to once again throw her hat into the presidential race. However, wildlife experts focused in on the inadvertent comedy entertainment provided by the cosplaying fly fishermen.You can get a sense of just how hilarious such outdoorsmen found the duo by reading the opinions of a couple of them in Wyoming's Cowboy...

Gov. Gavin Newsom, currently polling 4th in the 2028 Dem presidential primary behind AOC, took another victory lap claiming that he protected California from ‘election interference’ especially from the federal government, by signing a bunch of illegal laws banning examination of ballots. Three of these are especially problematic. AB 282 (Pellerin) – Makes it a felony 1) to seize or cause or assist in the seizure of ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before election results are certified by the elections official and 2) for any person with authority to direct another person subject to their supervision or authority...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was spotted rubbing elbows with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in Malibu Friday night as the drama over Paramount’s merger battle dragged on. Newsom was seen leaving the hot spot restaurant Nobu along along with actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Tobey Maguire. De Niro co-owns the iconic Japanese spot, where the actors sat down for dinner with the governor, according to TMZ. De Niro has been one of President Trump’s fiercest celebrity critics, urging Americans to “resist, resist, resist” during a podcast interview in February. He has also praised Newsom for his confrontational approach...

Gov. Gavin Newsom has revealed one factor that could tank his expected presidential bid: fellow Democrat Kamala Harris. Newsom was asked in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper about his expected White House run, and he didn’t hold back on how the former vice president, his former colleague and rumored frenemy, could change his decision. “I wouldn’t run if she ran,” Newsom said while fly-fishing with Tapper in Montana. “I wouldn’t do that to her … I wouldn’t waste anyone’s time,” Newsom explained, calling it “mutually assured destruction.” The governor, who recently returned from a much-publicized trip to South Carolina...

Federal investigators are reportedly expanding their scrutiny of California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, issuing subpoenas seeking years of financial records and communications involving a nonprofit that has helped bankroll the governor’s international travel and other expenses. The development puts fresh attention on Newsom and his political operation as the California governor continues to be viewed as a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. According to documents reviewed by the San Francisco Standard, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California issued subpoenas in early September seeking roughly six years of records connected to the California...

A depraved illegal alien who was previously deported and later slipped back into the United States is now wanted for allegedly sexually abusing and impregnating his own teenage daughter. Sergio Galvez-Perez, a 38-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, is wanted in Monterey County after authorities say he fathered a child with his own 14-year-old daughter. Investigators say the girl was only 13 when she became pregnant. The newborn, named Baby Angelita by detectives, was found dead on the side of Struve Road near Moss Landing on August 1, umbilical cord still attached, with signs of traumatic injury. Monterey County Sheriff Tina...

California is one step closer to banning disposable nicotine vapes — with environmentalists arguing the gadgets’ metals would be better off in electric vehicle batteries. State lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 762 Wednesday, sending the measure to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for a signature or veto — with repeat violators facing civil fines of up to $2,000. The bill would permanently ban disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation devices containing tobacco products, prohibiting anyone from “importing or manufacturing” them for sale in California starting Jan. 1, 2027. It would also prevent the sale of those kinds of e-cigarettes starting on Jan. 1, 2028....