Free Republic

California voters have voted to reject a wealth tax on its billionaires. The ballot proposal would have levied a one-time tax on the state's mega wealthy to help fund healthcare. It took nearly a week of counting votes after the midterm election to determine a projection on the measure. There are about 200 billionaires in the state, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, reality television star Kim Kardashian and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

Proposition 40 — the billionaire wealth tax — had the support of about 43% of ballots cast as of 8:33 p.m, according to preliminary returns from the California Secretary of State. The Associated Press estimates about 41% of votes had been counted. There are also two billionaire-backed measures on the ballot — Propositions 41 and 42 — that would void the tax if either wins majority support; those measures would also need to surpass Prop. 40 in votes to have that impact.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has signed an ordinance prohibiting new oil and gas drilling throughout the city and establishing a 20-year timetable to phase out existing wells. Under the new ordinance, current drilling sites are designated as "nonconforming uses" and must cease operations within two decades, unless an earlier deadline applies. The ordinance restricts the expansion and redevelopment of existing operations while establishing limited exceptions for work strictly necessary to address public health, safety or environmental threats. Bass, who is running for reelection on Tuesday against Los Angeles City Council member and fellow Democrat Nithya Raman, framed the legislation...

Nithya Raman is dominating Karen Bass in the Los Angeles’ mayor’s race, according to a bombshell new poll. The challenger has surged to an 11-point lead with less than six weeks until the vote, according to the UC Berkeley/LA Times survey. Far-left Raman is backed by 39% of likely voters compared with just 28% for Bass, the poll released Wednesday morning shows.But a whopping 33% remain undecided, leaving plenty of room for the race to move before the Nov. 3 election. Bass’ campaign quickly blasted the survey as an “outlier,” saying other recent polls have shown a much tighter contest.

There's an active debate in Democratic politics between progressives and moderates about how to build a winning coalition. A new report from a pair of California researchers, shared exclusively with NPR, argues that debate misses the point. The answer isn't centrism, they write, it's respect for where working-class voters are coming from. "It's about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes progressives are calling for," the authors write. The report's authors are, to put a label on it, college-educated coastal elites. Joan C. Williams is a law professor from San...

California Democrat starts by targeting billionaires, ends article demanding taxes on $50-million net worth — that threshold will keep dropping until it hits your 401(k)New York’s socialist mayor campaigned on taxing billionaires, immediately pivoted to hitting millionaires — same playbook progressives used with income tax over a century agoEvery dollar seized in wealth taxes gets ripped out of businesses like Walmart and Tesla, destroying jobs and innovation to fund left-wing NGOs and handouts for illegalsIf you ever wished you could be counted among billionaires, your wish might come true soon if the socialists get their way. Of course, it’s not...

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced she and her department are leaving Elon Musk's X platform. Explaining her decision in what seemingly will be her last post on X, Nandy said the platform "isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don't want to support it". "A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate," she wrote. The culture department becomes the second government department to stop using X after the attorney general's office, while several MPs also left the platform earlier this year over reports its AI tool was...

The new CA law requires automakers to provide an easy way for consumers to get the tracking on their car shut off under certain circumstances; the carmakers say they need at least a year more to do so.

Costa Rica’s illegal gold mining problem is no longer confined to the long-running Crucitas debate, the Colegio de Geólogos de Costa Rica warned, calling for a national strategy to track gold, strengthen state controls and respond differently to each mining region. The professional association said the country needs a technical plan for gold mining that goes beyond emergency police operations and political arguments over whether to reopen large-scale extraction. Its proposal centers on traceability, tighter regulation of processing plants, stronger oversight by the Dirección de Geología y Minas, and formalization in communities where mining is already a source of family...

In the November 2024 election, an overwhelming majority of voters in Washington, D.C. voted to pass Initiative 83 (I-83), which introduced ranked choice voting and semi-open primaries for elections in the District of Columbia. Campaign Legal Center, on behalf of our clients who proposed and supported I-83, has successfully defended the will of the voters in court against baseless claims that I-83 is unlawful. Ranked choice voting (also known as RCV) will be used for the first time in the District's history in primary and special elections this month. What is Initiative 83? Spearheaded by Campaign Legal Center’s clients in...

Europe’s EU project has reached its limits: a centralized bureaucracy replacing politics itself, draining legitimacy, and pointing back toward sovereign, competitive states. Europe has reached the end of an era. Not the end of its history, but the end of its false form. For decades, the European Union served as the great substitute project of a continent that no longer dared to think politically. It promised peace without power, order without a people, unity without roots, and prosperity without cost. That was its founding lie, and it was a lie from the very beginning. Political order does not grow out...

By now, everybody is familiar with how absurdly stacked the political system is in California. The "jungle primary" system was introduced to almost ensure that the top two candidates who make it onto the general election ballot are Democrats, and a while back, when it looked like two Republicans might achieve that this year, Governor Newsom assured Democrats that there was a "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" contingency to ensure that a Democrat would win the election anyway. When asked about the possibility of ending up with two Republican candidates for governor and no Democrats, Gavin Newsom responded:“We all...

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman criticized Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom for attacking YouTuber Nick Shirley during a Wednesday “All-In Podcast” episode. Shortly after Shirley released a Monday video in which he claimed to document over $170 million in taxpayer fraud in California, Newsom’s press office X account posted a cartoon image of the YouTuber at a daycare, asking to see the children there. On the podcast, Fetterman appeared to reference the post, and accused Newsom of implying Shirley was a pedophile and suggested the governor should seek common ground with the YouTuber on reducing fraud. “Why can’t you celebrate...

🚨 BREAKING: 𝕏 and Elon Musk have awarded Nick Shirley $100,000 for his article detailing how exposed Somali fraud furthered by Tim Walz in Minnesota CONGRATS, @nickshirleyy! Well deserved! 👏 I’ve linked Shirley’s article in the replies.

A bill that critics say will stop journalists from reporting on government fraud passed the California Assembly today with votes in favor from Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, and Diane Papan, D-San Mateo. Assembly Bill 2624, dubbed the Stop Nick Shirley Act for the Youtuber who exposed fraudulent government-funded charities in Minnesota, now goes to the Senate. State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, said via text on Tuesday night that he hasn’t read the bill yet because, at that time, it was still over the in Assembly. The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, who is married to California Attorney General Rob...

A woman allegedly tied to Minnesota’s massive “Feeding Our Future” scandal has been charged in a daycare fraud scheme after being featured in a viral video by influencer Nick Shirley, authorities said. She is accused of pocketing millions of dollars meant for children’s meals. Fahima Egeh Mahamud was charged Wednesday with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to court documents. Earlier this year, Mahamud was indicted for her alleged role in the initial $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme. Prosecutors allege she enrolled Future Leaders Early Learning — a Minneapolis daycare where she served as CEO...

The video shows independent journalist Nick Shirley covering a massive London political rally where attendees protested immigration policies, government leadership, and restrictions on free speech.

🚨 Here is 10 minutes of me confronting the California politicians who authored the "Stop Nick Shirley Act"... When confronted about AB 2624: - Lied about authoring the bill - Couldn't justify the bill - Acted like they didn't know about the bill This bill will CRIMINALIZE exposing fraud, violates the 1st Amendment, protects NGOs from disclosing taxpayer dollars, and these politicians see no problem with it. The fraud is now exposed and they need new laws to hide it. EXPOSE ALL THE FRAUD.

Exposing California's corrupt "Stop Nick Shirley Act", instead of going after the fraudsters California is now going after the people exposing the fraud. This bill AB 2624 will: Criminalize journalists with misdemeanors, $10,000 fines, imprisonment, and content takedown Let immigrant based NGOs' funding be confidential Take away freedom of the press from journalists Protect any "immigration support services" information from being public (healthcare, legal services, etc) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leN6LYJlFUM Run time 25 m 39 sec

They don’t call it censorship anymore. They call it protection. Protection for communities. Protection for organizations. Protection from “threats.” The language is softer now, more strategic, designed to pass scrutiny without triggering it. But behind California’s AB 2624, the intent is harder to ignore: if you document the wrong thing, in the wrong place, involving the wrong people, the state may decide you shouldn’t be allowed to show it at all. And this time, they’re not going after institutions. They’re going after the individuals who don’t need one. In Sacramento, that effort now has a bill number. AB 2624. According...