Government

BY RACHEL BECKER (This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.) With an El Niño winter threatening heavy rain, the State Auditor warns that California’s aging dams “continue to pose a risk to public safety,” especially in the Bay Area, San Diego, and Los Angeles areas. Lawmakers gave the state the power to penalize dam owners that…

By Charlie McCarthy (Republished from NewsMax) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly has begun an operation to go after the “worst of the worst” as well as noncriminal illegal aliens in California. The enforcement campaign, internally called “Operation Safe California,” began several days ago in the San Diego area and is expected to continue for…

Republican Steve Hilton calls the no-show pathetic; Independent reporter Anthony Cabassa says Becerra did not want to be asked why he lied about his family’s history By Megan Barth (Republished from The California Globe – californiaglobe.com) Democrat Xavier Becerra has pulled out of a scheduled Los Angeles Times debate with Republican rival Steve Hilton, Hilton announced…

BY RACHEL BECKER (This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.) Even with an El Niño winter looming and memories of flooding still fresh, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill aimed at shoring up the Delta’s aging levees and protecting the region and vital water infrastructure from flooding and sinking land. In his veto message, Newsom said the…

BY BEN CHRISTOPHER (This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.) California voters will soon be asked whether they want to keep taxing the incomes of the rich. And they’ll be asked whether to start taxing the accumulated wealth of the even richer. Wait, there’s more. They’ll also get to weigh in on whether we should ban wealth taxesaltogether, subject the…

Hilton went on offense from the start, pressing Becerra on his record as attorney general and as Biden HHS secretary By Katy Grimes (Republished from The California Globe – californiaglobe.com) The debate Wednesday night on CNN was the only scheduled head-to-head between Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, moderated by Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. It was an…

BY ADAM ECHELMAN (This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.) Firefighting is grueling work — 24-hour work days, backbreaking labor, and of course, the heat. It’s no different for incarcerated firefighters, who are responsible for nearly half of the emergency hours spent combatting California’s wildfires. Once they leave prison, many former firefighters struggle to find work,…

BY BEN CHRISTOPHER AND  NIGEL DUARA (This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.) Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco broke the law and created “a substantial risk to election integrity”  when he seized more than 650,000 ballots California’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday morning. The justices ruled unanimously that Bianco must return the ballots to the county’s top election administrator and…

If the boot doesn’t fit, you probably should not force your foot into it By Katy Grimes (Republished from The California Globe – californiaglobe.com) California Governor Gavin Newsom just had a “Talarico” moment of inauthenticity, of epic proportions. Poor James Talarico is trying so hard to convince Texans that he is one of them: rugged, manly,…

BY YUE STELLA YU AND  JULIET WILLIAMS (This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.) California’s High Speed Rail Authority paid nearly $600,000 in unallowable travel expenses to “questionable locations that appear unrelated to state business,” including trips to gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge over a two-year period, according…