Tag: California

Multiple Analyses: The California ‘Single-Use Plastic Bag’ Ban Is a Flop

The Center Square

According to a new analysis from the Los Angeles Times, California’s ban on thin plastic bags is a failure, as thicker, “recyclable” replacement bags are largely unable to be recycled in California, and the majority of consumers still opt not to bring their own bags to reuse for shopping.

Additional analyses have also found increases in purchases of plastic trash bags chip away at the plastics savings from single-use plastic bag bans, the pounds of plastic bags per-capita placed in landfills has increased since the ban, and many of the alternatives to single-use plastic bags typically end up being worse for the environment. Nonetheless, a major decrease in grocery bag litter suggests at least a partial success.

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California Doctors Sue to Stop Mandated ‘Implicit Bias Training’

Virginia Star Staff

A medical nonprofit and two California doctors are suing the state medical board to block a law requiring mandatory implicit bias training in continuing medical education.

“Under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the government cannot compel speakers to engage in discussions on subjects they prefer to remain silent about,” the suit argued.

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The Number of Illegal Immigrants in Colleges Soar to Nearly 2 Percent of United States’ Population, Study Finds

Just the News

At least 408,000 students without legal documentation to be in the country enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, yet another system impacted by the surge in illegal immigration, according to a new study.

The new report by the American Immigration Council and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education, found that undocumented migrants now account for nearly 2 percent of the higher education population.

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California Adds Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming to Those Banned for State-Paid Travel, over LGBTQ+ Bills

Just the News

California is adding Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming to its list of states to which government-paid travel is restricted, over legislation considered to be anti-LGBTQ+.

A 2016 California law banned state-funded travel to any state determined by the California Justice Department to be discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. And state Attorney General Rob Bonta must maintain and post a list of such states whose total numbers is now at or nearing 26, according to The Center Square.

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Commentary: There is a Good Reason Why Democrats are so Frightened of ‘Moms for Liberty’

Virginia Star Staff

For most Americans, “Mom” evokes images of kindness, courage, sympathy and love. Likewise, “liberty” calls up concepts like individual rights, freedom of expression, equality and justice. Yet, the perversity of the current political environment is such that a parental rights group whose name combines these two words has been demonized by Democrats, the corporate media and the reactionary left. Just recently, a New Hampshire Democrat denounced the group as “Assholes with casseroles,” the Hill ran a story titled, “Six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization,” and the Southern Poverty Law Center added them to its Hate Map.

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Voters Officially Launch Recall Campaign Against California Soros-Backed D.A.

Virginia Star Staff

A new political committee was created Tuesday aimed at recalling a California County district attorney with ties to left-wing megadonor George Soros.

The political committee, filed under the name “Save Alameda For Everyone (Safe): Recall DA Price,” is part of an effort to remove Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price from office, according to public filings. Price is one of many District Attorneys that have received funding from liberal billionaire donor George Soros in an effort to elect reformist candidates, according to the Capital Research Center.

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California PTA Pushing Transgender Ideology Against Wishes of Most Parents

Susan Berry, PhD

The California State Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is co-sponsoring a bill that seeks to establish a framework for parenting that enshrines in law the idea that failing to affirm a child’s self-identified gender will be considered detrimental to his or her well-being, a press release from Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) announced Monday.

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New California Bill Would Make Social Media Platforms Liable for Harm Caused to Children

The Center Square

Parents of children who are harmed by the use of social media platforms are one step closer to holding those platforms accountable, thanks to a new bill passed by the California Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The bill was authored by State Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and is being sponsored by Attorney General Bonta.  

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Environmental Activists Push to Cancel July 4th Fireworks Shows

Virginia Star Staff

Multiple fireworks shows slated for July 4th along Los Angeles’ coastline have been canceled in the wake of a county mandate that was initially spurred by environmental activists, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board implemented a firework permit rule in an effort to clamp down on pollutants from firework displays, which reportedly affect nearby water sources, the LA Times reported. The Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation (CERF) brought a lawsuit against Long Beach’s Big Bang on the Bay, alleging that a firework show in 2022 violated the Clean Water Act.

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California Bill Would Enable Therapists to ‘Emancipate’ 12-Year-Olds from Their Own Parents

Virginia Star Staff

On Tuesday, Democrats in the state of California advanced a bill that would allow therapists and other mental health “professionals” to have children forcibly removed from their homes and placed into state custody without the consent of the parents.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the State Senate’s Judiciary Committee approved Assembly Bill 665, which passed by a party-line vote. If the bill became law, children as young as 12 would be legally allowed to check themselves into state-run shelters with the unconditional approval of a therapist or counselor, and without the parents’ knowledge.

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State Bar of California Begins Trial to Disbar Trump’s Attorney John Eastman Over 2020 Election

Rachel Alexander

The State Bar of California (SBC) began a trial on Tuesday seeking to disbar conservative legal scholar John Eastman over his role advising former President Donald Trump and state legislatures on challenging the 2020 election results. The proceedings arose out of a complaint against him made by the States United Democracy Center (SUDC). SUDC is run by a former Obama appointee, Norm Eisen, and its advisory board includes former Arizona governor and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The SBC charged Eastman with 11 ethics violations in January. Eastman filed a 100-page response containing thousands of attachments, and published a rebuttal on his Substack. He said the SBC’s complaint “is filled with distortions, half truths, and outright falsehoods.”

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Chinese Intelligence Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ in Seven U.S. Cities

Admin

by Philip Lenczycki   A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work…

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Commentary: California’s War Against Prosperity

Admin

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, generating 44 percent of all business activity. Take them out of the equation, and the economy collapses. But that is exactly what’s happening. The cards are stacked against small businesses in America today, and nowhere is it worse than in the state of California. 

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Alleged Crime Family Orchestrated Multi-State Illegal Immigrant Smuggling Ring, Feds Say

Admin

Several members of a family allegedly coordinated a scheme to smuggle illegal immigrants across the southern border and into the U.S. interior, according to Border Report.

Authorities arrested six members of the Lopez family, while four others remain on the run, according to Border Report. The group allegedly operated in New Mexico, Arizona, California and Virginia, Jorge H. Uribarri, assistant special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, said, according to Border Report.

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Prominent Trans Activist Jailed For Murdering Entire Family: ‘Most Depraved Crime I Ever Handled’

Virginia Star Staff

Dana Rivers, a longtime transgender activist, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the 2016 murder of a lesbian couple and their son.

Rivers garnered national fame in 1999 for suing the Center Unified School District in Sacramento and winning a $150,000 settlement after being fired for talking to students about transitioning genders, according to Mercury News. Rivers attacked two women, aged 56 and 57, in their bed as they slept, shooting both women and their 19-year old son before stabbing one of the women 47 times and setting their garage on fire.

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Texas Sends First Bus of Illegal Border Crossers to Los Angeles

The Center Square

A bus of foreign nationals who illegally entered Texas and were apprehended and released by the Biden administration were taken to Los Angeles for the first time, Gov. Greg Abbott said. They were dropped off at the Los Angeles Union Station Wednesday evening.

“Texas’ small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden’s refusal to secure the border,” Abbott said. “Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status. Our border communities are on the frontlines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border.”

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Drug Manufacturers, CVS, Walgreens Settle Another Opioid Lawsuit with 22 States for $17.3 Billion

The Center Square

Thirteen attorneys general announced settlements with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan on Friday, while 18 states settled with CVS and Walgreens for a total of $17.3 billion.

The attorneys general said settlement funds will start flowing into state and local governments by the end of this year and will be used for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.

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Gavin Newsom Proposes 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Restrict Gun Rights

Just the News

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said he is proposing the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which will restrict gun rights. 

The proposed amendment would raise the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21, implement universal background checks, create what Newsom called a “reasonable waiting period for gun purchases” and ban civilians from buying so-called “assault weapons,” according to the governor’s announcement on Twitter.

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Begins Radio Campaign Urging Boycott of Los Angeles Dodgers ‘Pride Night’ for Honoring Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Susan Berry, PhD

The Catholic League began its anticipated radio campaign Tuesday that urges listeners in the Los Angeles area not to attend the Dodgers’ June 16 “Pride Night” game, during which the club is scheduled to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a self-described group of “queer and trans nuns” that puts on exhibitions that ridicule the Catholic faith and religious women, and desecrate Jesus Christ with sexual imagery.

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Big Tech-Backed Group Tries to Kill California Bill Because It Could Help Conservative Media

Virginia Star Staff

The Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition backed by companies such as Google and Meta, released statements and a study arguing against the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), stating it would primarily benefit conservative media outlets.

The California Assembly passed the CJPA on Thursday, a bill that compels companies like Google and Meta to pay publications for news links they post on their platforms, which would disproportionately enrich “disinformation giants like Fox News and the New York Post,” according to the Chamber of Progress. The coalition lists Google and Meta as corporate partners on its website and the Chamber of Progress’s founder and CEO, Adam Kovacevich, formerly headed Google’s U.S. policy strategy and external affairs team, according to its website. 

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California Accuses Florida of Shipping Migrants as Plane with More Arrives in Sacramento

Virginia Star Staff

Two privately chartered planes carrying Latin American migrants from New Mexico have arrived in Sacramento since Friday, and California officials are blaming Florida for flying migrants to the state’s capital. 

After the first plane arrived, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said Saturday that he met with the migrants and could confirm they possessed documents purporting to be from the Florida State government.

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School Districts Celebrate Pride Month with Drag Shows, LGBTQ Assemblies

Admin

School districts across the country are using drag shows, parades, assemblies and proclamations to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month.

Some school districts that are promoting the events throughout the month of June are located in Washington, Oregon, California and New Hampshire. The Pride celebrations are a part of the growing push to expand lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation into the classroom, education advocates told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Progressive Activists, Officials Work to Extend Voting to Prisoners, Noncitizens to Expand Base

Admin

by Fred Lucas   Inmate voting, noncitizen voting, and even mandatory voting have been among the initiatives pushed in Democrat-led jurisdictions this year to expand their voting base. “The Left wants to normalize voter classes that nobody took seriously a generation ago—criminals, foreigners—to help them win elections,” J. Christian Adams, president of the…

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Officials Discover Two Drug Tunnels at the Border

Admin

Mexican authorities discovered two drug tunnels along the border with the U.S. in recent days, according to Border Report.

The location of the tunnels was in Tijuana, which is just across the border from San Diego, California, according to Border Report. One of the tunnels was still under construction, but 45 feet from the U.S. border.

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California Gov. Newsom Demands Textbook Publishers’ Records to Determine If They Conformed to Florida Gov. DeSantis’ Education Laws

Admin

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is demanding records from textbook publishers to determine if they have changed any content used in California’s schools to comply with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education laws.

The DeSantis’ administration has enacted several laws in the past year prohibiting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and certain lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation from K-12 classrooms. In addition to the textbook companies records, Newsom’s office sent a public records request Saturday to DeSantis’ office and the Florida Department of Education (DOE) asking for all communications between the governor’s administration and the textbook publishers relating to revisions made to content to ensure compliance with the Florida education laws.

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Supreme Court Upholds California Law, Rejects Challenge Brought by Pork Industry

The Center Square

“Products may be marketed as free range, wild caught, or graded by quality (prime, choice, select, and beyond). The pork products at issue here, too, sometimes come with “antibiotic-free” and “crate-free” labels…Much of this product differentiation reflects consumer demand, informed by individual taste, health, or moral considerations. Informed by similar concerns, States (and their predecessors) have long enacted laws aimed at protecting animal welfare.” 

This is the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in Thursday’s  ruling which upheld a California law banning the sale of pork products in California that didn’t meet the state’s requirements. 

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Blue States Suffer Largest Population and Tax Revenue Losses as Red States See Largest Gains, IRS Data Shows

Just the News
Gavin Newsom

Even as Democratic governors such as California’s Gavin Newsom and Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker slam red state policies, their residents are fleeing in droves for Republican-controlled states.

IRS migration data released late last week shows that California lost more residents than any other state, with a net loss of nearly 332,000 people and more than $29 billion in adjusted gross income in 2021. The state with the second largest population loss is New York, which saw a net loss of over 262,000 residents and $24.5 billion in income. Illinois, meanwhile, suffered a net loss of 105,000 people in 2021 and $10.8 billion in income.

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Advocates Warn of ‘Desperate’ Movement to Undermine the Electoral College

Admin

An organization’s efforts to circumvent states’ rights are “getting desperate” as they try new ways to push their interstate compact through state legislatures, two pro-Electoral College advocacy groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The National Popular Vote (NPV) is a group initiative to reform the U.S.’ two-step, Electoral College system by ensuring that the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide becomes the president. Now that NPV has enacted its interstate compact in all of the “easy,” bluer states as a standalone bill, it is getting creative to force the law through in swing states like Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan and Maine, Trent England of Save Our States and Jasper Hendricks of Democrats for the Electoral College told the DCNF.

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Supreme Court Declines to Hear Energy Companies’ Appeals to Climate Damage Lawsuits

Admin

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear local governments’ climate damage lawsuits against energy companies on Monday.

The companies, who localities want to hold financially accountable for burning fossil fuels they allege damaged the climate, appealed their cases to the Supreme Court, asking it to weigh in on whether the claims should be heard in state or federal courts. The Court’s decision benefits the environmental activists behind the lawsuits, who prefer the matter to play out in state courts, where judges may be more inclined to rule in their favor, experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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California Mom Furious After School Kept 11-Year-Old’s Gender Transition Hidden Due to ‘Parental Secrecy Policy’

Susan Berry, PhD

A California mother whose 11-year-old daughter had allegedly been helped to transition from female to male by school personnel accused the school district of keeping information about her child’s gender transition from her.

Aurora Regino, whose daughter attends an elementary school in the Chico Unified School District, told the school board last Wednesday that, during a meeting with her daughter and a school guidance counselor last school year, the child told the counselor she wanted her mother to know about her new identity.

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Two Federal Judges Refuse to Hire Clerks from Stanford Law After Far-Left Protests

Admin

In the aftermath of unruly protests by far-left activists at Stanford Law School, two federal judges have now publicly declared that they will not hire clerks from the law school.

According to the Daily Caller, U.S. Circuit Court judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch said that they have imposed hiring moratoriums on law clerks from Stanford, after a protest in March saw law students and several faculty members shout down and ultimately chase out Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump-appointed judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, at a Federalist Society event.

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California’s Reparations Plan Could Cost over $800 Billion

Virginia Star Staff

After economists estimated that California’s reparations plan could spend as much as $800 billion, the leader of the state’s “reparations task force” has refused to commit to such a staggering amount.

According to ABC News, the $800 billion figure would be paid to all black residents in the state in return for past historical circumstances such as slavery and segregation, as well as alleged “racism” in policing, incarceration rates, and housing.

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Los Angeles, Cook Counties Post Biggest Population Losses in U.S. in 2022

Virginia Star Staff

The number of people who used to live in Los Angeles County and Cook County in Illinois continues to plummet.

Los Angeles County posted the largest population decline of all counties in the United States in 2022, falling by 90,704 and continuing a downward trend. It lost nearly twice that amount (180,394) in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2022 estimates released Thursday.

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California School District Hires CRT Critic Consultant to Teach Staff, Parents, and Students

Susan Berry, PhD

The governing board of the Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) in California has voted 3-2 to approve a consulting contract with an anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) attorney who will educate teachers, parents, and students about the ideology and the “myth” of systemic racism.

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‘Apparently, I Am the Wrong Kind of Black’: California Equity Director Fired for Viewpoint Diversity

Virginia Star Staff

Dr. Tabia Lee, faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education at De Anza College, alleges that she is being terminated for not adhering to anti-racist “orthodoxy.”

Lee, a Black woman who grew up in central California, was fired last week from her position as a tenure track Faculty Director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education at the community college in Cupertino, California, according to Inside Higher Ed.

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School District Enlists ‘Black Lives Matter Task Force’ to Help Teach 7th Graders How They’re Implicitly Biased

Admin

A California school district enlisted its Black Lives Matter Task Force to help teach 7th graders about their implicit bias during Black History Month, according to the curriculum obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In an effort to address “issues related to racial justice,” Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) requires 7th through 12th grade teachers to use a curriculum created by the schools’ Black Lives Matter Task Force, a coalition dedicated to creating equity for African American students and staff within the district, according to screenshots of the curriculum obtained by the DCNF. The curriculum teaches students about the “daily effects of white privilege” and “implicit bias.”

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Catholic Bishop Fatally Shot in California

Just the News

A Los Angeles Archdiocese auxiliary bishop known as a “peacemaker” was shot to death Saturday afternoon, officials said.

Bishop David O’Connell, a 69-year-old native of Ireland, was shot and killed Saturday just before 1 p.m. local time inside his home in the neighborhood of Hacienda Heights, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said.

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California Christian Teacher Allegedly Fired for Refusal to Comply with District Gender Policies: ‘The District Cannot Accommodate Your Religious Beliefs’

Susan Berry, PhD

A California Christian physical education teacher was allegedly fired for refusing to lie to parents about their children’s gender identities at school and reject having males in female locker rooms – both policies that violate her faith beliefs, Fox News Digital reported Wednesday.

Jessica Tapias apparently shared with Fox News Digital the notice she received from the office of Jurupa Unified School District Superintendent Trenton Hansen.

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California Democrat Sen. Feinstein Announces Won’t Seek Re-Election

Just the News

California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced Tuesday she’s retiring at the end of her term and won’t seek 2024 reelection. “I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein, 89, tweeted.

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The Progressive Movement to Ban New Homes from Having Any Natural Gas Gains Steam

Admin

by John Hugh DeMastri   A growing number of states and cities are considering or implementing bans for the future construction of not just gas stoves, but natural gas hookups themselves, a move that would raise costs for consumers and potentially have negative environmental consequences, natural gas advocates told the…

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California School District Refuses to Let Parents Opt Kids Out of ‘Anti-Racist’ Classes

Admin

In California, a public school district is ordering its teachers to tell the parents of students that their children cannot opt out of diversity classes featuring “anti-racist” lessons, and gender and sexual identity.

According to the Daily Caller, the Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) gave the order in a staff-wide email dictating the terms of the district’s “Non- Discrimination & Harassment and Equity & Anti–Racism” policy. The order declares that any effort to let children opt out of such classes would be enabling “active discrimination.” While the email does say parents are allowed to opt their children out of classes on “comprehensive sexuality education,” they are still required to take classes with “anti-bias lessons about people who are LGBTQ.”

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Commentary: Gun Control Laws Backfiring in California

RealClearWire

After the three public shootings over the last two weekends in California, Democrats are again clamoring for even more gun control laws. To California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the solution is to ban more places where people can carry permitted concealed handguns. Unfortunately, the proposal has nothing to do with stopping these attacks, and more gun-free zones only encourage these attacks. Other heavily Democratic states such as New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are making similar pushes.

Concealed handgun permit holders didn’t commit those or other mass public shootings. Permit holders are also extremely law-abiding, being convicted of firearms-related violations at 1/12th the rate of police officers.

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California Issued Driver Licenses to Over a Million Illegal Aliens Since 2015

Virginia Star Staff

A new report shows that California, a Democrat-controlled sanctuary state, has issued over one million driver’s licenses to illegal aliens living in the state since 2015, after a law was passed that eliminated the state’s legal resident requirement for obtaining such licenses.

As reported by Breitbart, the figures were revealed in a study published by CalMatters, which showed that roughly 4 out of every 10 illegals in California have been given a state-issued license. There are estimated to be at least 3.3 million illegals living in the state.

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Eighteen State AGs Voicing Support for New York Gun-Industry Liability Law

The Center Square

A coalition of 18 state attorneys general, all Democrats, on Wednesday submitted an amicus brief in support of New York’s firearms industry accountability law.

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