Free Republic

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill into law on Sunday that bans the use of plastic bags at grocery stores — after the state’s ten-year-old ban on single-use plastic bags was shown to have made plastic pollution even worse. Newsom’s office buried the news in a press release on Sunday in which it failed to identify the legislation as a plastic bag ban. The press release simply identified the law as “SB 1053 by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) – Solid waste: recycled paper bags: standards: carryout bag prohibition.” It was one of dozens of bills Newsom signed.

Sandwiched between the San Joaquin River and a trio of stunning national parks, the California city of Antioch seems like a peaceful part of the state's East Bay region, but in reality, it harbors an enormous underground criminal enterprise. You'd never know it based on the wealth of the neighborhood. In fact, residents fork out 93 percent more than the national average to live in the upscale area, with the median house costing $588,000, while renters pay a median $2,850 per month, according to Fly Homes. But the Golden State city's sunny exterior belies the shady underground weed trade that...

COMPTON, Calif. -- More and more stores across the Southland and the country are taking stricter measures to fight a growing epidemic of shoplifting. At least one Rite Aid store in Compton appears to be taking security to the extreme. The store on Long Beach Boulevard installed locked glass cases on every aisle, meaning a majority of items for sale apparently require the assistance of a store employee. It's a sign of a growing and disturbing trend that's been seen in social media videos and news reports of shoplifters taking items from retailers without significant resistance by employees or security....

These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI’

Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday threatened a possible lawsuit against the city of Norwalk if a recently adopted moratorium on emergency shelters for the homeless as well as single room occupancy and transitional housing isn’t reversed. The Norwalk City Council adopted the urgency ordinance on Aug. 6, which put a moratorium on various establishments, including emergency shelters, along with transitional and supportive housing. ... Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “It is counterproductive and immoral for any community to throw up their hands and say they’ve done enough while still having people in need. We can’t leave people in dangerous...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to the Apalachee High School attack by pushing gun control Sunday that would not stop attacks on schools from occurring. Newsom posted to X: Notice 75 percent of Newsom’s proposed gun control deals with point-of-sale: 1) Add background checks to private sales, 2) Raise minimum purchase age to 21, and 3) Put a waiting period in place for gun purchases. None of these gun controls would have had the least impact on the Apalachee High School attacker as he was only 14-years-old, which means he was already too young to buy a gun, period....

A major California health insurer must hire a dedicated case manager for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria after state regulators found it improperly denied coverage to some patients.

California government officials and Big Tech are nearing an agreement to jointly provide at least $242.5 million in funding for journalism, including local and ethnic outlets. The agreement, first reported on by KCRA, would put an end to bills that would require tech companies to pay newsrooms a portion of their search and display revenue. Under the California Journalism Preservation Act, which this agreement would stop from advancing, social media companies and search engines would be required to pay a share of their advertising revenue to news organizations based on how much organizations’ content shows up in social media feeds...

Amajority of likely California voters support stiffer penalties for crimes involving theft and fentanyl, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times. The results of the poll released Friday showed that 56% of Californians would support Proposition 36, an initiative on the November ballot that would impose stricter sentences for repetitive theft and offenses involving the deadly drug fentanyl. The proposition has been at the center of a battle in the state Capitol this year as Republicans and law enforcement advocates call for the undoing of Democratic reform policies that downgraded some felonies...

San Francisco’s last Denny’s diner has closed, with the franchise owner blaming vandalism and alleged dining and dashing for the store’s shuttering. The restaurant location closed on Aug. 1 with a sign saying such displayed in a storefront window and a yellow Denny’s sign outside painted over as of Monday. The owner of the restaurant, who previously closed another San Francisco location he owned in 2019, said people kept skipping out without paying their bills. “We’re the only store left, and we operated until the last day that we could,” Denny’s franchisee Chris Haque told local news site SFGATE Monday....

That makes him among the top earners in the Newsom administration, according to the state controller’s office. The governor, himself, drew a $234,101 salary last year.

A man is recovering after being brutally attacked and robbed earlier this month in downtown Los Angeles by a mob of young people on bicycles. Carlos Saucedo reports on Aug. 11, 2024.

San Francisco's glitzy hotels have been plunged into massive debt following a dramatic drop off in tourism to the Golden Gate City. The Californian city's two biggest hotels, the Hilton Parc 55 and Hilton San Francisco Union Square, have lost a combined $1billion in value, according to the Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Their worth is now $553.8 million.

From furniture installers to plant whisperers, businesses are reeling from record-high office vacancy rates.Bay Area carpet and flooring company Conklin Bros. has existed in one form or another for nearly a century and a half, starting with a mule-drawn wagon and weathering the 1906 earthquake and a constant cycle of economic booms and busts. An employee for the past 35 years, JoAnn Edson, can’t remember business ever being as slow as it is now. “We’re struggling,” she said. “We’re just trying to stay open and stay afloat.” Before Covid, Conklin Bros. bustled with flooring orders for local offices, hotels and...

Amid Friday afternoon’s heat, the five posh floors of Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco’s Union Square offered a cool elegance that belied the jarring news from the day before: the store is transitioning to an appointment-only model and laying off staff. What will it feel like to go on pre-arranged shopping trips inside a sprawling department store? That is an open question for customers and staffers. As part of the transition slated for Aug. 28, the store will lay off an unspecified number of employees, according to the Chronicle, which first reported the changes. The news comes at a...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill this week that allows schools to hide information from parents about their child’s gender identity.AB 1955 is the first of its kind in the United States. It prohibits school staff “from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.”The law—which passed through both chambers of the state’s Democrat-controlled Assembly—means that children can identify by their biological sex at home and a different...

Nearly 400 public water systems in California have failed to meet recommended safety standards for drinking water, according to a report last month from the State Water Resources Control Board, but a new climate bond measure recently joined the state’s November ballot may help.Some 913,000 Californians, approximately 2 percent of the state’s population, are potentially affected by 385 failing public water systems according to the report.Fifty-six of those systems “serve disadvantaged communities and 67 percent serve majority communities of color.”The annual report identifies California drinking water challenges, part of an effort to improve access to safe drinking water started by...

A district attorney in California has threatened to punish a Target store for repeatedly reporting thefts at the store in the crime-ridden state. Sacramento City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood's office said the retail store located at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in Land Park will be fined and slapped with a public nuisance charge if it continues to call police when there is a theft at the store. A person familiar with the incident, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told The Sacramento Bee that city officials warned that an administrative fine would also be charged. Pursuing legal...

Delivery drivers in the South Bay say they're increasingly worried about becoming robbery targets. It's happening enough that at least one company, Core Mart, is now hiring armed guards to escort its drivers. ... Flavio Lopez works for another delivery company and said he wishes he had a guard or at least a second person to help him keep an eye on the merchandise. Lopez hasn’t been robbed, but he has had run-ins downtown. "Stuff you gotta deal with downtown," he said. "It is what it is." Darrell Cortez, a retired San Jose police officer who now works in corporate...

OAKLAND, Calif. - A major sideshow erupted on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge overnight. It's becoming a common occurrence in the Bay Area. The sideshow in the middle of the night came to a close with a fireworks show. Participants shot them 30 feet into the sky with cars taking over the bridge around 2 a.m. Sunday, causing traffic to come to a halt for about an hour. Video shows multiple cars pulling donuts, getting dangerously close to spectators. Passengers hung out of car windows and sat in truck beds, as drivers spun in circles. "You could hear...