Tag: California

California Mayor Cites Surge in Border Encounters as Evidence of Federal Enforcement Failure

Virginia Star Staff
Mayor Bill Wells

Republican El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells cited a surge in border encounters as proof of federal enforcement failures, Newsweek reported.

Wells pointed out the concerning surge in border encounters within San Diego County, noting a major shift in migration patterns and federal border enforcement efforts. He stated that San Diego County experienced an unprecedented 37,370 border encounters in April, exceeding the figures in sectors like Tucson, El Paso, and Del Rio for the first time in over two decades. Wells expressed astonishment and concern over the escalating border encounter numbers, according to Newsweek.

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More Than 100 Colleges Cave Closed or Merged Over Last Eight Years

Virginia Star Staff
University of Saint Katherine

The University of Saint Katherine, a small nonprofit in North San Diego County, recently announced it will close May 18, citing “financial pressure due to unprecedented inflation and rising state-mandated labor costs.”

It’s not alone. Nationwide, universities face financial hardships that appear to be getting worse. More than 100 colleges and universities have closed or merged, or announced plans to, over the last eight years, according to a tracker updated this month by Higher Ed Dive.

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California Border Fentanyl Seizures Double as Texas Strengthens Border

The Center Square

California seized over one million fentanyl pills just last week, more than was seized in all of February, highlighting how much smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants has shifted to California since Texas strengthened its border.

In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom increased the California National Guard’s San Diego border region presence from 40 to 60 soldiers for narcotics operations.

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California Sues Huntington Beach over Voter ID Law as State Pushes Back on Conservative Locality

Just the News
California Attorney General Rob Bonta with Secretary of State Shirley Weber (composite image)

The State of California is suing the city of Huntington Beach over a new voter ID law passed by voters last month, claiming it violates state law, in another pushback against a conservative locality in the liberal state.

Huntington Beach and Shasta County have both passed election integrity measures for their jurisdictions, but the California executive branch and state legislature — both supported by far-left donors — have shown their displeasure by responding with lawsuits and legislation to counter them.

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Music Spotlight: Presley Tennant

Bethany Bowman
Presley Tennant

One thing I have learned about TV singing shows is that the finalists are nearly always as good (if not better) as the actual winner. So, I try to interview as many country singers from these shows as possible.

Presley Tennant is a powerhouse singer from Norco, California, a horse town that is 35 miles east of Los Angeles. She was a finalist on Season 16 of NBC’s The Voice in 2019 when she was just 16. She has often been compared to Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood.

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Soros-Funded DA Faces Recall Vote After Crime Ravages Blue County

Virginia Star Staff
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price

An effort to recall a George Soros-funded California district attorney has received enough signatures to advance, according to a county document.

Organizers seeking to oust Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price have collected 74,757 verified signatures in support of their effort to hold a recall election, over 1,000 more than needed, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced Monday. Save Alameda for Everyone, one of the primary committees campaigning for Price’s removal, argues that Price has been prioritizing offenders over victims, contributing to an uptick in crime in their community.

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California’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Could Spell Trouble for Public Schools

Virginia Star Staff
Kids being served lunch at school

Two policies backed by Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom could place serious strain on California’s already fiscally unhealthy public schools.

California’s new minimum wage law, which took effect Monday, guarantees a wage of at least $20 an hour for workers at fast food chains with 60 or more locations across the country, The Associated Press reported. The new law, however, does not apply to food service workers in the state’s public schools, forcing them to compete in a more expensive labor market just as schools are preparing for an increase in demand for food workers due to the state’s new universal free lunch program.

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Chinese Nationals Illegally Entering U.S. in Record Numbers Since 2021

The Center Square

The number of Chinese nationals illegally entering the U.S. – primarily single, military age men – has skyrocketed under the Biden administration.

Of the more than 140,000 Chinese who’ve illegally entered the country since fiscal 2021, one recently was apprehended at a Marine Corps base at the southwest border.

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High Energy Costs Drive Revolt Against States’ Climate Policies but Commitments Hard to Dislodge

Just the News
Arizona Corporation Commissioners in front of power station

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) recently took the unusual step of voting to pull back on the state’s renewable energy targets, over concerns they are too costly and produce few benefits.

Most states are moving in the other direction, following California’s lead, but there are signs of some hesitation as the real costs of these policies are realized.

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California Considers Expanding Assisted Suicide Access Without Terminal Diagnosis

Just the News
Senator Catherine Blakespear

The new law would allow people with early to mid-stage dementia to end their life.

The California legislature is considering a law that would greatly expand the state’s assisted suicide policies to allow people to end their lives without being diagnosed with a terminal disease, including dementia patients.

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California Fast Food Workers Face Layoffs as State’s $20 Minimum Wage Goes into Effect

Just the News
Auntie Anne's employees

All fast-food employees, regardless of age, will see a $20 an hour minimum wage in California, while the federal minimum wage is between $4.25 and $7.25, depending on age and length of time working.

California fast-food chains are laying off workers, raising prices and deciding against opening new stores as the state implements a minimum wage that is more than 175 percent higher than that required by the federal government.

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Analysis: Data Shows Most Migrant Flights Landing in Gov. DeSantis’ Sunshine State

Admin

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refuses to publicly identify the dozens of U.S. international airports for which it has approved direct flights from abroad for certain inadmissible aliens. At least 386,000 migrants through February have been allowed to fly to interior U.S. airports as part of a legally dubious admissions program the administration launched in October 2022. The rationale for the program is to “reduce the number of individuals crossing unlawfully” over the southern border — by flying them over it directly into the interior and then releasing them on parole.

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Judge Expresses Skepticism of Hunter Biden’s Move to Dismiss Tax Charges: Report

Just the News
Hunter Biden in courtroom (composite image)

Judge’s skepticism indicates trial could begin in June, coinciding with his father’s election campaign.

The judge handling the California tax case against the first son appeared skeptical of Hunter Biden’s attempt to have his tax charges tossed.

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Commentary: The Plague That Besets Our Schools Is Extensive

Virginia Star Staff
Students in classroom

The year, now a quarter old, reveals that the country’s rapid slide into educational purgatory is moving apace. Leading off the grossness parade is a school in Oklahoma where students lick and suck the armpits and toes of their fellow students in the name of charity. (This may garner a shrug in San Francisco, but Oklahoma?!)

While no district personnel were directly involved, video footage from Deer Creek High School in Edmond, OK, showed mid-teens participating in and watching the disgusting events unfold.

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Mandatory State Training Steers Judges to Question Fitness of Parents Who Don’t Affirm Gender-Confused Kids

Virginia Star Staff
Trans youth kids at public assembly

Judges who handle child abuse and neglect cases in California are required to take a training on LGBT issues that pushes them to consider whether parents who object to their child’s preferred pronouns should have custody.

The Judicial Council of California’s “LGBTQ+ Considerations” training, offered twice annually for judges working on juvenile dependency cases, instructs judges on how to handle youth gender identities, advising them to “be aware that LGBTQ youth may be at risk of harm at home, school and in other settings due to biased or uninformed attitudes or conduct by peers/adults,” according to a presentation from June 2023 obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation via a public records request. After citing statistics on mental health problems among LGBT youth and warning judges to stay alert about “physical or emotional abuse” by parents that does not have a “clear reason,” the presentation puts forward three hypothetical scenarios for the judges to sort through.

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Thousands of Pounds of Meth Smuggled Across Border in Vegetable Shipments

The Center Square
Meth confiscated by law enforcement

Mexican cartels for decades have devised creative ways to smuggle narcotics and other contraband across the southern U.S., including using produce, law enforcement officials say. This month, in one week, thousands of pounds of meth were seized hidden in shipments of peppers, tomatillos and carrots.

At the Otay Mesa, California, cargo facility this month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized large quantities of methamphetamine (meth) hidden under packages of the vegetables.

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Proposal would Halt Taxpayer Money to Medical Schools Promoting Racial Bias

The Center Square
Reps Greg Murphy, Brad Wenstrup, and Burgess Owens (composite image)

Educating from the podium and advocating for the inclusion of all, congressmen led by North Carolina’s Dr. Greg Murphy and Ohio’s Dr. Brad Wenstrup on Tuesday introduced legislation that would halt taxpayer money from going to medical schools promoting racial bias.

Multiple speakers, both Black and white and at least one saying she’s neither Republican nor Democrat, drove home the message directly and indirectly that health care is about the patients and their outcomes. Collectively, they explained how the best care comes from the best in education, that all can access it, and the promotion of “critical race theory-based woke philosophy based on DEI” will put Americans’ lives at risk.

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Super Tuesday Election Problems: Ballot Scanners, Voter Check-Ins, Wrong Redistricting Information

Just the News
Vote Line

Numerous election issues occurred in multiple counties throughout the U.S. on Super Tuesday – from malfunctioning ballot scanners to voters having problems checking in at polling stations and being directed to the wrong station.

Counties in Alabama, California, Texas and Utah all experienced problems, resulting in some voters leaving polling sites without casting a ballot.

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California Seized Enough Fentanyl Last Year to Kill Entire World ‘Nearly Twice Over’

Virginia Star Staff

The California National Guard seized a record 62,224 pounds of fentanyl in California and the state’s ports of entry – enough of the potent synthetic opioid to kill the entire world population “nearly twice over.”

Since 2021, fentanyl seizures supported by CalGuard have increased by 1066%, according to the governor’s office.

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Commentary: The Way Another Newsom Recall Effort Helps America

Virginia Star Staff
Gavin Newsom Meeting

California isn’t as bad as millions of people outside the state have been led to believe. No, not every downtown street is awash in homeless drug addicts, schizophrenics, and predators. No, not every retail shopping district has crumbled under the onslaught of brazen shoplifters and smash-and-grab gangs. And despite almost every major “news” network in the nation pretending that an allegedly unprecedented onslaught of bomb cyclones is literally washing the entire state into the Pacific Ocean, overall California still has the best weather in the world.

Nonetheless, California is broken. Even if you aren’t one of the millions of Californians who doesn’t have to step over syringes and feces day after day merely to walk your children to school or get to work and back, and even if you aren’t one of the hundreds of thousands of business owners who no longer has a business or one of their employees who no longer has a job, California is broken.

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Gavin Newsom’s PAC Raised Almost $10 Million in Less than a Year

Virginia Star Staff
Gavin Newsom Money

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy PAC raised over $9.5 million in 2023, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

The bulk of Campaign for Democracy’s 2023 revenue, about $6.2 million, was transferred from Newsom’s gubernatorial committee while the remaining $3.3 million came from individual contributions, according to FEC records. Though the majority of the PAC’s spending went toward advertisements, it also spent thousands of dollars on luxury travel expenses and gourmet food.

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Commentary: The Democrats’ Coming ‘September Switcheroo’ to Bench Biden and Nominate Michelle

RealClearWire
Michelle Obama

President Biden’s poll numbers seem set in quicksand. Now the special counsel’s justification for not recommending charges against Biden for having “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” is damning: Biden’s memory has such “significant limitations” that the special counsel believed he could not convince a jury that Biden has a “mental state of willfulness” that a serious felony (or, presumably, serving as president) requires. Cue the campaign commercials.

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Teacher Who Exposed School’s ‘Woke Kindergarten’ Program Put on Leave

Virginia Star Staff

The San Francisco-area elementary school whose test scores dropped following implementation of the so-called “Woke Kindergarten” program suspended the teacher who exposed the controversial program.

On Thursday, the teacher who blew the whistle on the program was “summoned […] to a video conference” during which he was told to “turn in his keys and laptop and not return to his classroom […] until further notice,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

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California Legislature Introduces Slavery Reparations Bills

Virginia Star Staff
California Money

On Wednesday, lawmakers in the state of California introduced a series of bills aimed at providing reparations for historical slavery, which would include giving out property and financial compensation for alleged descendants of slaves.

As Politico reports, the bills represent the first of their kind in the country, after a rising left-wing movement in favor of reparations first emerged shortly after the 2020 race riots. The California bills had been in the works for the last several years after Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) set up a reparations “task force” to make suggestions, which led to a 111-page report issued last year.

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Commentary: Big Labor State Politicians’ ‘Wall of Denial’ Is Starting to Crumble

RealClearWire
California Illinois

For decades, cold, hard data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have shown that states like New Jersey, Illinois and California are paying a high price for allowing dues-hungry union bosses to continue getting workers fired for refusal to bankroll their organizations.

Year after year, far more taxpayers have been leaving forced-unionism states than moving into them.  And the average tax filer moving out of a forced-unionism state has reported having an adjusted gross income (AGI) on his or her IRS form that is substantially higher than the average for a tax filer moving into a forced-unionism state.

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Southern States Are Growing While The Northeast Shrinks

Virginia Star Staff
New Home

Over the past few years, states in the American South have come to economically surpass the Northeast, owing to policies like lower taxes and better business environments spurring prosperity and population growth, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The gross domestic product of Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee surpassed the cumulative economy of the Northeast in 2020 for the first time since data has been tracked and has continued to exceed growth since, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis compiled by Bloomberg. The growth comes as businesses and people flock to the region seeking affordability, job opportunities, lighter tax and regulation laws and freedom from dense urban areas, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

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Commentary: An Economic Bill of Rights for the 21st Century

Virginia Star Staff
Manual Labor

Beginning April 1, the minimum wage for employees working in California’s fast food chains and health care industries will rise to $20 per hour and, in some cases, up to $23 per hour. Many employers managing independent restaurants, retail, and other industries will have to match the higher hourly rate to retain employees. And for hourly employees whose wages are indexed to the minimum wage, mostly in California’s unionized public sector, wages will rise proportionately.

There is no national consensus on the impact of minimum-wage laws. It is part of a much larger debate over what constitutes an optimal economic environment to enable, quoting from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “economic security and independence.”

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California Secretary of State Keeps Trump on Ballot as Dems Call for His Removal

Virginia Star Staff
CA Secretary of State

California’s Secretary of State has decided to keep former President Donald Trump on the state’s presidential primary ballot as other states are disqualifying him based on the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

For his actions in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump has been disqualified by two states, Colorado and Maine, with the former temporarily reversing its decision pending a ruling from the Supreme Court on the matter. On Thursday, California’s Democratic Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, announced the state’s presidential primary ballot with Trump included.

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California to Lose Four Congressional Seats After 2030 Census, Texas and Florida to Gain

The Center Square
Capitol Hill

California is projected to lose four congressional seats after the 2030 Census, with Texas positioned to gain four and Florida to gain three, says the American Redistricting Project based on this week’s new Census data.

According to Thad Kousser, an expert in California and national politics and a professor of political science at UC San Diego, a reduction in California’s congressional delegation could have mixed effects.

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America Is Undergoing a Massive Population Shift

Virginia Star Staff
Family Moving

Democrat-run states are still losing population, new Census Bureau data reveal, a development that could have electoral implications when the government reapportions congressional districts in 2030.

Oregon, California, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, all states with Democratic governors and Democrat-controlled state legislatures, lost between 0.01% and 0.52% of their population between July 2022 and July 2023, according to the Census Bureau. Left-leaning states experienced similar declines in the lead-up to the 2020 Census, which led to them losing seats in the House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College, an outcome that could occur again in 2030 if current trends persist.

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Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks California Gun Law That Bans Concealed Carry in Most Public Places

Virginia Star Staff

A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked California from enacting a law barring permit holders from carrying firearms in numerous public locations.

United States District Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California, appointed by former President George W. Bush, issued a temporary restraining order, halting the law from taking effect on Jan. 1, The Associated Press reported. “The right to self-defense and to defend one’s family is fundamental and inherent to our very humanity irrespective of any formal codification,” Carney wrote in his ruling.

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Federal Figures Show Surge in Homelessness

The Center Square

The number of homeless people in the U.S. jumped 12 percent to more than 653,000 people as pandemic spending expired, the highest level on record since the counts started in 2007.

Figures released Friday provide a snapshot of the number of people in shelters, temporary housing and in unsheltered settings. The report found 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12 percent increase from 2022. That figure of 653,100 people is equivalent to about 20 of every 10,000 people in the U.S.

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Gavin Newsom’s California Has a $68 Billion Budget Deficit

Virginia Star Staff

California’s budget deficit has nearly tripled since last year, culminating in the largest revenue discrepancy the state has ever seen, according to a report from the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).

The state’s budget deficit ballooned to $68 billion this year after recording a deficit of $24 billion last year, owing to an unprecedented tax-revenue shortfall, according to the LAO report. The deficit is the highest in dollar terms that the state has ever seen, but not as a percentage of overall spending, according to Politico.

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Commentary: Mail Ballot Security Is Under Nationwide Assault

Virginia Star Staff
ballot drop box

The Left loves to tout universal mail-in voting. Liberal enclaves like California, Hawaii, and Oregon have implemented it, while activists push aggressively to impose mail-in voting on Americans. But even as they push it, despite repeated instances of fraud, the Left simultaneously attacks any efforts to make vulnerable mail voting more secure. Indeed, the Left holds outright disdain for even minimal safeguards for mail ballots.

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Anti-Israel Protestor Allegedly Beats 69-Year-Old Man to Death with Bullhorn

Peter D'Abrosca

A pro-Israeli protestor from Thousand Oaks has died after a pro-Palestinian protestor allegedly hit him over the head with a bullhorn during a clash between the two groups Sunday. 

Ynet News confirmed that Paul Kessler, 69, died of internal bleeding after the blow to the head. 

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In California, Violent Crime Rises While Arrests Fall

Virginia Star Staff

New crime statistics reveal that in the state of California, violent crime has risen sharply while arrests have fallen, despite a decrease in violent crime nationwide.

As reported by Just The News, the newly-released FBI statistics show that, from 2021 to 2022, the rate of violent crime in California for every 100,000 people rose from 481.2 to 499.5, despite a nationwide decrease from 387 to 380.7. Meanwhile, arrests declined all over the state, falling dramatically below pre-pandemic levels.

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New York, California, and Illinois See Incomes Decline for First Time Since 2009

The Center Square

America’s three largest Democratic states, along with Rhode Island, Mississippi, Louisiana and the District of Columbia experienced income declines in the last year while the nation as a whole saw incomes rise by 2%. New York incomes suffered the worst, declining 1.6%, while California incomes declined the least, at just 0.2%. 

These figures come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s revised numbers for 2022, which also reduced national growth from 2.1% to 1.9%, a cut in reported growth of roughly 10%.

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Potential Candidates California Gov. Gavin Newsom May Consider for Dianne Feinstein’s Vacant Seat

Virginia Star Staff

After Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California passed away on Friday, the Daily Caller News Foundation compiled a list of politicians who may be appointed to her seat by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, in keeping with his pledge to name a black woman to the position.

Newsom pledged to nominate a black woman to temporarily fill a potential vacancy in Feinstein’s seat in March of 2021, when health complications had raised questions about whether she would complete her term. After Newsom updated his pledge on Sept. 10, saying that he would only appoint someone who isn’t currently a candidate for the seat, the DCNF compiled a list of Democratic black women politicians from California who may be appointed based on his requirements.

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California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Longest-Serving Woman in the Senate, Dies at 90

Just the News

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, longest-serving woman in the Senate, dies at age 90, according to news reports Friday morning. The California Democrat has over the past several months and years struggled with health issues and was planning to retire at the end of her term this year.

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Commentary: Democratic-Run States Are Losing Population, Power, and Congressional Seats

Virginia Star Staff

For years, Americans who believe in limited government and putting the American people first have had to watch as states like California, New York, and Illinois have turned their cities into dystopian hellscapes and sent unhinged politicians to Washington DC to inflict their policies on the rest of the nation.

But something very interesting has been happening over the past decade and this trend is only accelerating – the most left-wing states are slowly losing power as their populations decrease and residents move elsewhere. California, New York, Illinois, and others are losing population as residents move to friendlier and freer states. What this translates into is a mathematical solution to leftism and centralized government control.     

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Elon Musk’s X Sues California over Alleged First Amendment Violations

Virginia Star Staff

Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued California to block a law requiring social media companies to publish their content moderation policies, alleging it violates the First Amendment and coerces censorship.

X, formerly known as Twitter, asserted that California’s Assembly Bill 587 infringes upon its freedom of speech under the First Amendment and California’s state constitution, according to court documents. The law mandates social media companies release reports on how they moderate issues including hate speech, extremism, disinformation and misinformation.

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California Bills Would Remove Visitation Rights for Parents Who Don’t ‘Affirm’ Child’s Gender Identity

Virginia Star Staff

Democrats in the state of California continue to double down on their support for transgenderism, and have now introduced legislation that would forbid parents from even seeing their child if they do not support the child’s “gender identity.”

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, Democrats in the state legislature have introduced two new bills, both of which would change California family law by making “gender affirmation” a part of children’s health, safety, and welfare. The first bill would grant judges the authority to take away custody from parents who do not “affirm” their child’s gender identity, while the second bill would force judges who are considering granting custody rights to take into consideration “a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression.”

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States with Weaker Marijuana Laws See More Impaired Driving, Report Finds

The Center Square

A new report found that states with less restrictive marijuana policies have higher incidents of residents driving while high.

The Drug Free America Foundation released a new report showing that states that have legalized or weakened restrictions around high-THC marijuana, either for medical or recreational use, saw 32% more marijuana-impaired driving than states that have not adopted the same policies.

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