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On July 7, 1846, a contingent of Marines raised the American flag over Monterey, California, to mark a proclamation by U.S. consul Thomas Larkin that the territory was being annexed as a consequence of the war with Mexico. Much of the future state had already been taken from Mexico's nominal control by an uprising of American settlers under the Bear Flag. Victory in the Mexican War meant that the country gained Texas, California, and everything in between, comprising most of what is now New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Next to the War of Independence and the Civil...

A Chicago man says he did the unthinkable when he discovered alleged squatters in his property: He decided to move in with them. Marco Velazquez is the owner of a South Side property, which is on the market to be sold. He says his Realtor came by with a potential buyer, but there were already people inside. "I couldn't believe it. It was like a nightmare," Velazquez said. Velazquez says a woman named Shermaine and her boyfriend, Codarro, moved in, claiming they recently purchased the property. He says the couple showed police a mortgage document, but Cook County confirmed that...

Most people worry about their bike or car being stolen — not their home. But that’s exactly what happened to D’Andrea Turner when squatters took over her Phoenix home and sold it without her knowledge. “It feels so surreal,” Turner shared in an interview with ABC 15 Arizona. “I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. Really, I didn’t even think something like this could happen.” But it did. After Turner’s ex-husband, Keith — a long-haul trucker — left the house unattended for a period of time, two strangers, Aaron Polmanteer and Lledera Hollen, forced their way in. Once inside,...

A Malibu real estate agent warned California homeowners about the need to protect themselves after a serial squatter reportedly targeted the beachfront community for years, a problem she said could become worse after the Los Angeles wildfires. “I don’t know how she got away with it for so long in Malibu with the amount of people that she did,” Liz Benichou, a Malibu real estate agent and lifelong resident of the area, explained to Fox News Digital about the accusations against Ellie Mae McNulty. “It’s a very small, tight-knit community. You see the same people. You get this familiarity. You...

Renters who have taken in people displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires now have some eviction protections due to a new executive order. The new order, from Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, Jan. 17, prohibits landlords from evicting tenants who violate an occupancy provision of their lease because they are sheltering at least one person due to the ongoing emergency. “At a time when so many have been suddenly displaced, we need more housing and shelter than ever,” Newsom said in a statement. “Opening your place of residence to help shelter those in need is not only encouraged and generous,...

In his last interview as President, Joe Biden claimed that Israel could not sustain itself without a commitment to a Palestinian state.

The Morrison Hotel, the famous backdrop for The Doors’ 1970 album named after it, was destroyed by a huge fire Thursday while being occupied by dozens of homeless squatters. Almost 100 firefighters worked for at least two hours from 11 a.m. to control the fire at the downtown Los Angeles hotel best known for being on the cover of the legendary rock album. The blaze destroyed the roof of the building now red-tagged as being unlivable. Henry Diltz, the photographer who shot the album cover, said he was “very sad” to see the landmark so badly damaged, telling CBS News...

A Georgia homeowner was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after attempting to move back into her home, which was being occupied by an alleged squatter. 'I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions. While this woman, this squatter slept in my home,' Loletha Hale told WSB-TV Atlanta. On December 9, Clayton County police and Sheriff's deputies were called to the home on Livingston Drive after Hale tried to regain access. A deputy, captured on body camera footage, advised Hale to consider the alleged squatter's perspective. 'Just think of it from this perspective, though....

Squatters have taken over an abandoned Los Angeles mansion belonging to the son of the Philadelphia Phillies owner while neighbors view the high-end property as an eyesore and are scared for their safety. The home located at 7571 Mulholland Drive in the posh Hollywood Hills has been left vacant for over a decade, a few years after John Powers Middleton — the only son of businessman John S. Middleton — purchased the property, according to ABC 6. Squatters and taggers began breaking onto the empty premises over two years as taggers began leaving blasting their artwork all over the house.

A Kentucky homeowner says he has been forced out of his own home after letting some guests stay in his garage while they fixed their car. Daniel Toma says the guests ended up staying three months and a court order has now taken him out of his house. “I just want this nightmare to end. I’ve been homeless the last few days,” he said. Toma said he wished he never invited his friend, Amy Davis, and her boyfriend, Tyler Sencuk, to his house over the summer. According to Toma, he let them stay at his home until their car could...

A Kentucky homeowner was forced out of his house after his 'friends' moved into his garage while they fixed their broken-down car and then they refused to leave. 'I was just trying to be kind', said homeowner Daniel Toma after he allowed a friend, Amy Davis, and her boyfriend, Tyler Sencuk, into his home in Louisville, Kentucky. The pair were visiting him during the summer when their car broke down. He offered his garage as a place for them to stay while they worked on it. 'Working on the car for days in the driveway, I didn't want to throw...

A single mom in Durham, N.C. is finally getting her home back after squatters took it over. Two people booked Farzana Rahman's two-bed, two-bath property via Airbnb for seven months. They then refused to leave when their stay was up in May 2024, claiming they're "legal residents" of the home. Rahman ended up taking them to court to get her property back. But after they didn't show up to the hearing, the judge sided with Rahman and issued an eviction order. The Durham Sheriff's County Office served it to the guests on July 3, 2024. Rahman changed the locks and...

A popular hiking trail in Hawaii had to close this week after 24 hikers became sick from what is believed to be norovirus — an outbreak many blamed on illegal squatters defecating along the remote path. A portion of the Kalalau Trail on the Kalalau section of the Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park on the island of Kauai was shuttered for seven days beginning Sept. 4, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources posted on Facebook this week. The DOH received reports of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea from hikers who had been on the 11-mile trail, which runs from...

Bright MLS is one of the nation's leading real estate listing services. Their chief economist Dr. Lisa Sturtevant recently told Fox News that "the upward pressure on home prices is making this the most unaffordable housing market in history. First-time and moderate-income home buyers, in particular, increasingly are being left out of the housing market." House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo) blames "the Biden Administration's reckless spending and suppression of domestic energy production for the rising cost of living that Americans now face. Billions of tax dollars were wasted on inefficient 'green energy' boondoggles that failed to...

From George Orwell’s 1984 comes one of the author’s most memorable lines: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”Well, while the fictional party of Oceania illustrated a society in which the people were to dismiss reality in authoritarian submission, Colorado governor Jared Polis prefers to gaslight us, describing the “evidence of [our] eyes and ears” as a mere figment of our “imagination.” We don’t need to “reject” anything because it’s all just in our crazy heads!Yesterday I wrote a blog on a surreal and terrifying situation in...

You worked hard your whole life. You saved for a down payment and bought your dream home. The neighborhood is great, and you never have to worry about crime. The only thing your local police department has to do is hand out the occasional parking ticket. You did everything right — and you thought you were safe from the scourge of squatters who can only take over in “bad neighborhoods.” You were wrong. The Daily Caller’s new documentary, “American Squatter,” exposes the dirtiest secret in the housing market: squatters are king. And they can take over anywhere — even in...

States that have permissive policies on squatting—a growing phenomenon in the United States—need to make the practice a criminal offense, the writers of a new report from Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) say.Squatting is occupying an unoccupied or abandoned area of land or a building without having legal permission to use it. Although squatters don’t pay rent and sometimes damage the properties they take over, evicting them can be difficult and costly.Most states are reluctant to allow criminal prosecution of squatters as trespassers and prefer treating incidents as landlord and tenant disputes. Police who wish to avoid potentially violent confrontations often...

The ‘migrant influencer’ encouraging others to invade the US and squat the homes of citizens skipped out on authorities shortly after arriving in the country and is now on the run from immigration officials, The Post can reveal. Venezuelan national Leonel Moreno crossed the southern border illegally in April 2022 at Eagle Pass, Texas, and was enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, which allows federal authorities to track migrants either using ankle monitors or other technology. However, Moreno didn’t follow the rules and is now listed as an “absconder” from the program, according to internal ICE documents seen by...

Was this illegal part of a Venezuelan or Cuban military intelligence operation? Why, again, was he let in? Joe Biden's open borders may be about more than just replacing the electorate. The New York Post found that one of the most malevolent of the border surgers, a Venezuelan illegal named Leonel Moreno, who famously urged other illegals to squat in Americans' homes and waved hundred-dollar bills around to boast of his public benefits on TikTok, is being investigated by the feds for his military intelligence work for the Marxist dictatorship back home. According to the Post: Joe Biden's open borders...

Who knew that the “despotic inroads on the rights of property” referenced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their grotesque work of political ideology (The Communist Manifesto) against property owners would mean devaluation of said property through government policy?The obvious implication was physical violence, as the authors describe “wresting” away capital and wealth, and taxation, as state-sponsored theft is a given for non-producing and envious failures like Marx, but as we’ve seen time and again, the left’s policies also rob from us by devaluing the properties in which we invest.Here’s the latest example, out of New Hampshire, via a...