Silicon Investor - California - The Golden State?

[Thomas M.] Why Is The Central Valley So Bad? by Scott Alexander astralcodexten.com If the...

Thomas M. — 6/30/2026 9:24:14 AM

Why Is The Central Valley So Bad?

by Scott Alexander

astralcodexten.com

If the Central Valley were its own state, it would be the poorest in America, even worse than Mississippi.This was kind of shocking. I always think of Mississippi as bad because of a history of racial violence, racial segregation, and getting burned down during the Civil War. But the Central Valley has none of those things, plus it has extremely fertile farmland, plus it’s in one of the richest states of the country and should at least get good subsidies and infrastructure. How did it get so bad?

The farms in the Central Valley used to be manned by migrant workers, who would come from Mexico, work for a season, then go back to Mexico and live off their earnings for the rest of the year. Later, policies shifted to welcoming them and granting them citizenship, so many of them came over and brought their families. But around the same time there was a drought, the farm industry crashed, the remaining farms mechanized, all the immigrants were left without work, they got on welfare, and they weren’t able to get off of it.

He doesn’t say exactly when this happened, but he says times were good when he was a child, and he looks like he’s in his 30s or 40s. So if he’s 35 and things started going bad when he was 10, that would mean he thinks things started going bad around 1995 to 2000.

Tom

[Thomas M.] [graphic] Tom

Thomas M. — 6/26/2026 11:29:14 AM

Tom

[Thomas M.] Inside California’s Gay-Certification Program The state is pressuring utilities...

Thomas M. — 6/17/2026 12:35:42 PM

Inside California’s Gay-Certification Program

The state is pressuring utilities to award $633 million in contracts to “LGBT” businesses.

by Christopher F. Rufo

city-journal.org

The slippery slope:

Americans are used to handouts for favored groups. Affirmative action in university admissions, corporate “diversity” initiatives, and minority-owned contracting requirements direct opportunities, resources, and contracts to supposedly “oppressed” groups, such as women, Native Americans, blacks, and Hispanics.

In California, state Democrats have embraced another kind of favoritism: contracts for state-certified gay-owned businesses.

The scheme operates through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates privately owned utility companies. California utilities spent more than $43 billion in 2024 on contractors—fuel suppliers, surveyors, engineers, and others—whose work helps deliver water, gas, electricity, and internet service to California’s 39 million residents.

In 1986, Governor George Deukmejian signed Assembly Bill 3678, which required certain CPUC-regulated utilities to submit annual “plans” for buying goods and services from woman- and minority-owned companies. Two years later, CPUC created its “Supplier Diversity Program,” which would enforce the law and set contracting “goals” for large utilities.

Under a series of Democratic governors, the program has expanded to include gay-owned businesses. In September 2014, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation requiring CPUC to recognize “LGBT-owned businesses” as eligible for supplier-diversity benefits. Five years later, Governor Gavin Newsom expanded the program further, “encouraging” other companies involved in the energy sector to award contracts to gay-owned firms.

In the years that followed, CPUC faced activist pressure as it implemented the gay expansion. BuildOUT California, a since-rebranded LGBT building-industry organization, sent a letter to the commission arguing that “homophobia” existed within “the ranks of the utility companies.” The state’s legislative LGBTQ caucus suggested in a 2021 letter that even considering lower gay-procurement targets was “an insult to the LGBTQ+ community.”

Flagrant discrimination:

During the hiring process, Horton told us, a company official said that being on the diversity list made the contract much easier to secure.

“If I was a straight, white male, I might be concerned I don’t have the same opportunity,” Horton said. “It worked out great for me.”

Yes, this program violates state and federal law:

In California, preferential public contracting is technically illegal. In 1996, voters approved Proposition 209, which banned the state from granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity in public employment, education, and contracting. More than two decades later, in 2020, they rejected an effort to repeal the ban.

Tom

[Thomas M.] There are 46 vagrant fires per day in Los Angeles. That’s over 17,000 fires per...

Thomas M. — 6/9/2026 10:57:40 PM

There are 46 vagrant fires per day in Los Angeles. That’s over 17,000 fires per year.

[X]

There are 46 vagrant fires every single day in LA…rubbish and encampment fires that destroy property, vehicles, kill pets, spread to vegetation, and compromise infrastructure. That’s 17,000+ fires per year. Until you clear vagrants from the streets, don’t pretend you’re serious… pic.twitter.com/EAsOtu7fYx
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 16, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[Thomas M.] Not only do the late ballots mysteriously lean toward Democrats, but they myste...

Thomas M. — 6/7/2026 10:29:46 AM

Not only do the late ballots mysteriously lean toward Democrats, but they mysteriously lean toward the specific Democrat who needs them.

Bass clinched the #1 spot, so she doesn't need help. Now Dems want Raman to overtake Pratt because only the top 2 make it to the final election. Pratt might win the final election, but even if he doesn't it would still mean 6 more months of national spotlight on how Dems have trashed California.

So, right on cue, Raman is getting huge ballot dumps.

Tom

[Thomas M.] Nate Silver: The fact that California elections often can't be resolved for wee...

Thomas M. — 6/4/2026 6:40:34 PM

Nate Silver:

The fact that California elections often can't be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world.

Like honestly "it's going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election" is failed state shit and should be much more stigmatized.

The fact that it's tolerated is a textbook example of learned helplessness.

x.com

Tom

[Thomas M.] Time to deliver election results Brazil: 2 hours (124M ballots) France: 4 hours...

Thomas M. — 6/4/2026 8:51:09 AM

Time to deliver election results

Brazil: 2 hours (124M ballots)
France: 4 hours (34M ballots)
Argentina: 6 hours (25M ballots)
Germany: 8 hours (51M ballots)
India: 24 hours (640M ballots)
California: 37 DAYS (10M ballots)

x.com

Tom

[Broken_Clock] June 3, 2026 Boris Bazhanov was a good Communist. Like many young people in...

Broken_Clock — 6/3/2026 3:05:36 PM

June 3, 2026

Boris Bazhanov was a good Communist.

Like many young people in the early 1900s who came from a prominent Russian family (his father was a successful physician), Boris developed a sense of guilt… almost remorse for the ‘privilege’ that he had enjoyed in his youth.

He was 16 when the revolution took hold in Russia in 1917, at which point he became completely radicalized to the Communist movement and its promise of equality for all.

His energy and dedication led him to rocket through the ranks of the Communist Party until, at just 23 years of age, he became personal assistant to none other than Joseph Stalin.

Boris spent years shadowing Stalin. He was practically in every room, every meeting… privy to every decision and conversation.

And it didn’t take long for Boris to finally learn that “equality” under Communism actually meant that the vast majority of people were “equal” in their poverty and misery… while party bosses like Stalin lived lives of fantastic wealth, power, and privilege.

After watching the brutal suppression of popular dissent, petty power struggles from within the party, murder, poisoning, intrigue, assassination, political persecution, and the general impoverishment of his country, Boris had finally had enough.

So, on New Year’s Eve in the year 1927, he used his position and influence to travel to the city of Ashgabat in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Turkmen— supposedly on official business.

Boris reportedly brought a treasure trove of secret Kremlin documents with him… then quietly slipped across the nearby border into Iran as the clock struck midnight into 1928.

From there, he made his way to British-controlled India where he received help to make his way to Europe, and then he eventually settled in France (only to become a KGB target for the rest of his life).

Boris was an ardent anti-communist for the rest of his life, and he eventually published a book which exposed the corruption and incompetence of the Communists in the Soviet politburo.

In one passage in his book, Boris wrote about a meeting with Stalin in which the dictator remarked, “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.”

This quote is sometimes miswritten as “it is not he who votes that counts, but he who counts the votes.”

Or perhaps better put in California, “it is not they/them who votes that counts, but they/them who counts the votes.”

Sometimes this quote is the only way my brain can explain certain election outcomes to itself.

For example-- like many people, I was astonished that Spencer Pratt did not completely dominate yesterday’s LA mayoral race with 99.9999% of the vote.

Pratt’s entire platform is based on a promise to enforce the law in order to make LA safer for children. This is literally the most sane and reasonable promise a candidate could make.

Yet multiple whack job celebrities denounced him as a “MAGA FASCIST” while “journalists” whined that he constitutes a threat to democracy.

His opponent, incumbent mayor Karen Bass, believes that taxpayers should pay for new teeth for the city’s homeless meth addicts, while the even more loony candidate Nithya Raman complains that Mayor Bass isn’t socialist enough.

Sure, there will always be some lunatics who go in for that sort of policy: f**k the kids, let’s get them meth addicts new teeth!

Perhaps there are still others who haven’t noticed $6+ gas prices, or the obvious decline in the local economy or quality of basic services.

But are the majority of voters (the roughly 70% who voted for Bass, Raman, etc.) that suicidal to want more destruction?

Perhaps. But one thing I find noteworthy is that six different states held primary elections yesterday—California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

Yet at the time of this writing (around 9am central time on Wednesday morning), FIVE of those six states have counted nearly all of their votes. Iowa is at 99%. New Mexico is at 97%. Even New Jersey is at 95%.

But California, whose elected leaders shriek more about ‘threats to democracy’ than just about everyone else, are still sitting at just 58% of votes counted.

They love democracy… they just can’t seem to do the very thing that democracy depends on, i.e. count the votes. Or at least count the votes that living, breathing, verified US citizens actually fill out.

To your freedom,

James Hickman
Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign LLC

[Thomas M.] Dems are putting gangbangers on their payroll! Michael Angel Alvarez, a convict...

Thomas M. — 5/31/2026 7:19:37 PM

Dems are putting gangbangers on their payroll!

Michael Angel Alvarez, a convicted first-degree murderer and active 18th Street gang member, was arrested by federal agents after being paid over $58,000 last year by a city-contracted nonprofit to serve as a so-called “Peace Ambassador.”

[X]

🚨 OMG. Federal law enforcement have arrested an LA Mayor Karen Bass "PEACE AMBASSADOR" who's also a convicted murderer and active 18th Street gang member — and the man did it via an NGO

SPENCER PRATT: "Karen Bass has turned LA City into a criminal cartel."

DOJ says Michael… pic.twitter.com/66Y6bmY25M
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 31, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[Thomas M.] California's Attorney General is trying to outlaw journalists investigating gove...

Thomas M. — 5/28/2026 2:33:57 PM

California's Attorney General is trying to outlaw journalists investigating government fraud.

California just voted to pass AB 2624 aka “The Stop Nick Shirley Act”. This bill would have made it criminal to expose fake hospices in LA or the Somali “learing center” in Minnesota if they then claim “reasonable fear” and the business owner gives a written demand not to post the video.

Plain and simple, California is trying to make it harder to expose fraud and scare individuals from investigating fraud in their communities, as they could be sued for an injunction to remove the video + forced to pay their attorney fees + minimum $4,000 in damages.

The Attorney General's wife, Mia Bonta, created this bill and is now trying to make it law.

[X]

🚨 California just voted to pass AB 2624 aka “The Stop Nick Shirley Act”:
This bill puts journalists at civil risk for investigating fraud and makes it harder to expose fraud in “immigration support services,” including NGOs, nonprofits and health care facilities that receive… pic.twitter.com/8XLOkTGpku
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) May 26, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[Thomas M.] California has the lowest literacy rate in the country. [graphic] Tom

Thomas M. — 5/23/2026 12:21:52 PM

California has the lowest literacy rate in the country.

Tom

[miraje] Gavin Newsom declares war on Chevron and California small businesses as he tells...

miraje — 5/22/2026 1:06:04 AM

Gavin Newsom declares war on Chevron and California small businesses as he tells drivers to avoid gas stations

Message 35525167

[Thomas M.] Vote Spencer Pratt![X] These Spencer Pratt videos keep getting better and bette...

Thomas M. — 5/20/2026 1:42:28 PM

Vote Spencer Pratt![X]

These Spencer Pratt videos keep getting better and better pic.twitter.com/21h3As31mh
— kevin smith (@kevin_smith45) May 20, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[miraje] Rotten regulations: Even your trash can't escape California's red tape It's no ...

miraje — 5/6/2026 11:48:48 AM

Rotten regulations: Even your trash can't escape California's red tape
It's no surprise Golden State residents are moving out

foxnews.com

California's green new scam could cost you $20,000
The state's current path is unsustainable

foxnews.com

[Selectric II] This is incredible... [X] JUST IN: Homeowners in fire-ravaged Pacific Palisade...

Selectric II — 5/4/2026 8:20:33 AM

This is incredible...

[X]

JUST IN: Homeowners in fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades say they’re now getting “noncompliance” notices in the mail over brush clearance inspections — even as their burned lots sit empty, waiting to rebuild. pic.twitter.com/LAXvcs6Fue
— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) February 23, 2026

[/X]

[Thomas M.] [X] They not like us pic.twitter.com/78hducHDUE— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) ...

Thomas M. — 5/2/2026 7:07:08 PM

[X]

They not like us pic.twitter.com/78hducHDUE
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) April 29, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[miraje] CNN will host a California gubernatorial primary debate next month, a potential...

miraje — 4/30/2026 11:18:00 AM

CNN will host a California gubernatorial primary debate next month, a potential inflection point in a crowded campaign that Democrats are concerned could provide an opening for Republicans.

The two-hour debate will be held May 5 at 6 p.m. Pacific time (9 p.m. Eastern time), just under a month before the June 2 primary

..It's been years since I've watched anything on CNN, but I'll tune in for this one. CA (and LA, for that matter) might just be ripe for major changes politically. Time's running out for them if they don't change course..

[miraje] Superbloom in Death Valley I saw one of those some years ago when I lived in NV...

miraje — 4/28/2026 5:46:12 PM

Superbloom in Death Valley

I saw one of those some years ago when I lived in NV. The whole desert floor covered in purple, yellow and red. Definitely worth a trip to see it in person. I miss the desert...

[Thomas M.] Superbloom in Death Valley [X] A rare “superbloom” event in Death Valley Natio...

Thomas M. — 4/28/2026 2:19:57 PM

Superbloom in Death Valley

[X]

A rare “superbloom” event in Death Valley National Park occurs about once every decade under special conditions, where flowers bloom across the cracked desert ground, attracting global attention, California+Nevada. USA pic.twitter.com/DhnKIS2bhO
— March (@MarchUnofficial) April 27, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[Thomas M.] Ilhan Omar husband’s California winery suddenly closes amid investigation into h...

Thomas M. — 4/25/2026 6:08:08 PM

Ilhan Omar husband’s California winery suddenly closes amid investigation into her finances

A California winery co-owned by Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, has shut its doors for good amid scrutiny of the congresswoman’s family wealth.

The winery ceased business operations on April 4, two months after Republicans sent a letter demanding answers into the discrepancies between Omar’s congressional financial disclosures for 2024 and the one she filed just one year earlier, according to California business records.

In a February letter to Mynett, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said financial disclosures filed by his wife Omar “show eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital LLC, which you hold ownership stakes in, went from being worth as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024.”

Comer said the discrepancy sparked “serious public concerns” about how the Santa Rosa winery and venture capital firm “increased so dramatically in value only a year after reporting very limited assets.”

“Given that these companies do not publicly list their investors or where their money comes from, this sudden jump in value raises concerns that unknown individuals may be investing to gain influence with your wife.”

nypost.com

Tom

[Selectric II] Inside Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud By Christopher Rufo, Ryan Thorpe, ...

Selectric II — 4/16/2026 9:12:47 PM

Inside Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud

By
Christopher Rufo,
Ryan Thorpe,
Kenneth Schrupp and
Haley Strack

Published April 1, 2026, 11:00 a.m. ET

California is a cash machine.

The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $300 billion per year.

And yet, everywhere you look, California seems to be falling apart.

8
And yet, everywhere you look, California seems to be falling apart. The roads are crumbling. Mismanaged wildfires have turned neighborhoods into ash. Drug addiction and homelessness have metastasized, turning parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco into no-go zones.

And the cost-of-living crisis is pricing middle-class taxpayers out of basic necessities like groceries and gas, even as the state spends billions on welfare programs that never seem to lift anyone out of poverty.

Californians are beginning to ask: Where is all this money going?

On paper, it funds public services. But beneath the surface, something else is happening: massive, systematic, brazen fraud.

We conducted interviews with public officials, fraud experts, and political figures, and reviewed hundreds of pages of government reports, state audits, criminal indictments, and other public records on California fraud.

Seemingly every state program has been compromised by criminals.

8
Welcome to Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud. Getty Images The best estimates suggest that, on the governor’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.

Welcome to Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud.

Fourteen months after Newsom began his first term as governor, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. The state’s leaders imposed some of the country’s most restrictive public-health measures. In response to the crisis, Newsom sought to dump pallets of cash across the state — as quickly as possible.

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One way to inject money was through California’s massive unemployment insurance program (UI). Unemployment insurance is administered by the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), which can process billions of dollars in payments monthly. Before the state turned on the cash machine, however, experts had warned that the system was ripe for fraud.

Haywood Talcove, one of America’s leading fraud specialists and CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, said: “I was begging [federal officials] not to let the money go out like that, because it was going to be the biggest fraud in the history of our country. Obviously, I wasn’t successful.”

For many reasons, California was particularly susceptible to the large-scale fraud schemes that Talcove foresaw.

8
For many reasons, California was particularly susceptible to the large-scale fraud schemes that Talcove foresaw. Getty Images “They literally suspended all of the rules for the [unemployment insurance] program,” Talcove said. “[That made] it possible for anyone to get that benefit even if they weren’t entitled to it. It was very intentional. They knew what they were doing. But it caught up to them because it just got so out of control.”

The scams began almost immediately, with criminals from around the world reportedly siphoning cash from the program. In one case, a Romanian-led fraud ring orchestrated a $5 million unemployment-insurance scheme. Many of the fraudsters wired the stolen funds to Romania.

Around September 2020, Fontrell Antonio Baines, a rapper from Memphis known as Nuke Bizzle, released a music video on YouTube entitled “EDD.” In the song, Baines bragged about ripping off California’s UI program. “Go to the bank with a stack of these,” Baines rapped, holding up EDD envelopes. Another rapper can be heard saying: “You gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim.” All told, Baines obtained more than $700,000 in stolen funds using preloaded EDD debit cards. He pleaded guilty to federal charges.

California’s prison population apparently got in on the action, too: The EDD allegedly paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims in prisoners’ names, including those of at least 133 inmates on death row.

Remarkably, EDD not only failed regularly to cross-reference its unemployment payouts with a list of state prisoners, but it also had just two bureaucrats assigned manually to inspect reports of suspected fraud.

State officials eventually admitted to having paid out approximately $20 billion in fraudulent claims during the pandemic, and to making an estimated $55 billion in improper payments. Talcove claims those figures don’t even tell the full story: “In California, at one point, you had more people applying for unemployment insurance benefits than you had people over the age of 18.”

8
California’s prison population apparently got in on the action, too. Getty Images While Newsom has conceded that “bad actors” took advantage of the UI program, he has also defended his government’s record, saying they took swift action as soon as the alleged prison scheme surfaced. The EDD, for its part, has a webpage documenting its anti-fraud efforts. But any suggestion that California has fraud under wraps is contradicted by findings from its nonpartisan state auditor.

Newsom also came to power vowing to pursue “guaranteed health care” for Californians. Under his leadership, the state extended Medi-Cal coverage to illegal aliens, covered sex-change surgeries for Medi-Cal enrollees, and offered “gender-affirming care services” to enrollees of “all ages.”

Total budgeted Medi-Cal spending — which includes federal, state, and local contributions — has more than doubled on the governor’s watch, rising from $93.5 billion the year before he took office to $196.7 billion in the current annual budget. During the same period, California’s resident population declined by 0.2%.

In-Home Supportive Services, a Medi-Cal sub-program, has presented major fraud concerns. In 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated that IHSS fraud could be as high as 25%. That same year, a Sacramento grand jury report on the county’s IHSS program claimed IHSS fraud was “reported to be rampant and out of control.”

Yet, even in light of these worries, Newsom has dramatically increased funding for IHSS. According to recent estimates, taxpayers are funding nearly 800,000 IHSS providers, who offer caregiving, cooking, shopping, cleaning, and laundry services to elderly and disabled people. In about 70% of cases, providers and recipients are family members. According to co-author Schrupp’s reporting, the IHSS program is responsible for 41% of all “job gains” during the Newsom administration.

The IHSS program almost seems designed to facilitate scams.

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The IHSS program almost seems designed to facilitate scams. Anadolu via Getty Images According to sworn testimony summarized in the Sacramento report, IHSS participants have falsely represented recipients’ needs; misrepresented hours worked timecards; and even secured payment after a recipient has died. The system operates largely on trust, with providers “working” in the privacy of the recipient’s home. The state’s IHSS protocols explicitly prohibit random unannounced home visits, which would be the best tool to uncover any potential rackets.

Beginning in 2024, federal officials announced multiple prosecutions for IHSS fraud. In one case, prosecutors alleged that Cindy Lynn Fromm claimed to have provided services for more than a year while the recipient was incarcerated. In others, prosecutors said that IHSS caregivers falsified timesheets and claimed to have provided services while beneficiaries were in hospitals, care homes, other facilities — or dead.

The other major target for fraudsters is California’s expansive welfare state. The state is famously home to enormous wealth, but also to millions living in poverty, and, as of 2024, to more than 180,000 homeless people.

Responding to these realities, Newsom has unleashed a wave of spending on welfare initiatives.

He has overseen much of a $24 billion state spend on homelessness projects, roughly doubled food-stamp benefits during the pandemic, and has maintained high levels of cash assistance. Just like unemployment insurance and Medi-Cal, though, these welfare programs proved easy targets for swindlers. The homelessness spending, for example, was a massive transfer of funds into a complicated web of nonprofits and other contractors, with apparently little oversight.

Unsurprisingly, fraud cases followed.

8
Responding to these realities, Newsom has unleashed a wave of spending on welfare initiatives. Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP Cody Holmes served as chief financial officer of Shangri-La Industries, a Los Angeles–based affordable-housing developer. His company reportedly received nearly $26 million from the state to develop properties under a program aimed at housing the homeless. Prosecutors allege that Holmes, who pleaded not guilty, embezzled roughly $2.2 million to pay for “exotic cars” and monthly rent for a “6,500-square-foot mansion.”

In addition, a 2024 report from California’s state auditor highlighted the government’s limited data on homelessness programs. For three of the five initiatives the auditor examined, it was “unable to fully assess” their success because of a lack of outcome data.

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For many California watchers, the 2024 audit came years too late. In 2020, Rep. Kevin Kiley, then serving in the California Assembly, requested a similar report, he told City Journal, but state legislative Democrats rejected the proposal after Newsom intervened. “They likely knew what the audit would show and didn’t want taxpayers to get that window into how their money is, quite frankly, being squandered,” Kiley said.

Notwithstanding this steady drumbeat of fraud cases, at least one California Democratic lawmaker is pushing to lower penalties for those who steal from state welfare programs.

In April 2025, state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas sponsored a bill that would raise the threshold for felony welfare fraud from $950 to $25,000. The measure would also make it more difficult to charge perjury based on misstatements to county welfare departments. Republican state Assemblyman Carl DeMaio has said that if the bill becomes law, it will effectively “legalize welfare fraud” in California.

Federal prosecutors, however, are stepping up enforcement. Last year, Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, announced the creation of a federal task force to combat fraud and corruption in the state’s homelessness programs. The task force has already brought charges in several multimillion-dollar homelessness-fraud cases — and Essayli has vowed that more are coming.

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We reached out to Newsom’s office for comment on this story. REUTERS We reached out to Newsom’s office for comment on this story. A spokesperson called Kiley’s claims “ridiculous,” accused the Trump administration of “mak[ing] up numbers,” and suggested, remarkably, that California had “no missing homelessness funds.”

The culture of fraud in California is so pervasive that it has allegedly reached the governor’s own office. Between 2022 and December 2024, Newsom’s chief of staff was Dana Williamson. In November 2025, she was charged with fraud for allegedly “siphoning campaign and COVID-19 recovery funds into her and an associate’s pockets.” Two other “well-connected aides in state politics were also charged” and struck plea deals that reportedly confirmed the scheme’s existence. Williamson has pleaded not guilty.

Newsom’s office said they were made aware of an investigation into Williamson in late 2024 and immediately moved to place her on leave. When she officially left the governor’s office a month later, though, Newsom’s send-off message applauded her “insight, tenacity, and big heart,” while making no mention of the investigation against her.

The pattern that emerges in California is that of a vast system that almost seems to invite fraud.

According to California Assemblyman David Tangipa, “Sacramento is pervaded by a culture of corruption.” And he points the finger right to the top: Newsom, he says, has helped “create an environment where corruption thrives.”

Still, California’s fraud crisis is not a lost cause, nor is it beyond correction. On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The effort, led by Vice President JD Vance, will “coordinate government-wide efforts to combat widespread fraud, waste, and abuse in federal benefit programs.”

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The pattern that emerges in California is that of a vast system that almost seems to invite fraud. The Minnesota fraud scandal, brought to national attention by City Journal, offers a revealing case study of what can happen when a seemingly hidden problem — one long in plain sight — finally comes into view.

The extent of fraud in Minnesota had been an open secret for years. But once the scandal drew national attention, investigations snowballed, ultimately derailing the political career of Tim Walz.

It may seem unlikely today, but a similar outcome is possible for Newsom in California.

Newsom is not untouchable, and the scale of fraud in California appears far larger than in Minnesota.

What do you think? Post a comment.

Despite his claim to have taken “decisive action” against one form of fraud, the broader problem is real and ongoing, and taxpayers, in California and across the country, have reason to be furious.

Newsom will no doubt rely on charisma and partisan appeal to downplay the extent of these abuses. But listen closely, and you can still hear the California cash machine, steadily dispensing untold billions to criminals, scammers, and organized crime rings — funds taken from taxpayers and diverted from those most in need.

Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the author of America’s Cultural Revolution. Ryan Thorpe is an investigative reporter at the Manhattan Institute. Kenneth Schrupp and Haley Strack are investigative reporters at City Journal.

nypost.com

[Selectric II] [X] Swalwell’s congressional & campaign senior staff are out with a new stmt ...

Selectric II — 4/13/2026 5:57:04 AM

[X]

Swalwell’s congressional & campaign senior staff are out with a new stmt

“We’re horrified by the recent reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle and by CNN”

“The behavior detailed in these reports is abhorrent, beneath the dignity of those serving in public office and betrays… pic.twitter.com/Ho9NqkQqin
— Brennan Leach (@brennanleach) April 11, 2026

[/X]

[X]

pic.twitter.com/EZcQbNEczi
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) April 11, 2026

[/X]

[Selectric II] Yeah, but that was then, and this is now. Or, that was him, but this is ME! Or...

Selectric II — 4/11/2026 12:09:54 PM

Yeah, but that was then, and this is now.

Or, that was him, but this is ME!

Or, I didn't do it, and I'll never do it again!

lol.

[miraje] I hope he's clueless enough to stay in the race. It ain't just "Fang Fang, baby,...

miraje — 4/11/2026 10:44:50 AM

I hope he's clueless enough to stay in the race. It ain't just "Fang Fang, baby, sweet poon tang" any more. Now it's karma, baby. LOL!

foxnews.com

Swalwell ripped for changing his tune on how sexual assault victims 'deserve to be heard'

California gubernatorial candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is facing backlash on social media after it was reported that his lawyer was sending cease-and-desist letters to Swalwell's accusers a day before multiple bombshell allegations were published on Friday.

Swalwell, who once called on lawmakers to hear out women raising allegations against Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation hearings and said they "deserve to be heard," is now being slammed for hypocrisy.

[Thomas M.] Morocco is less dysfunctional than Gavin Newsom's California: [graphic] Tom

Thomas M. — 4/9/2026 2:57:08 PM

Morocco is less dysfunctional than Gavin Newsom's California:

Tom

[Broken_Clock] He blocked me. Wierd. He's the only SI-er I've ever met in person. He brought...

Broken_Clock — 4/5/2026 7:43:14 PM

He blocked me. Wierd.

He's the only SI-er I've ever met in person. He brought an offshore rig buyer out here to the old Kona Village Resort and we had dinner.

[miraje] I don't think that Big Dog is active on SI any more. He's certainly not moderati...

miraje — 4/5/2026 5:53:24 PM

I don't think that Big Dog is active on SI any more. He's certainly not moderating that thread now. Why don't you try to PM him and see what happens? The Politics of Energy thread is also not being moderated since Brumar died.

[Broken_Clock] I'm still banned from the Dog's thread after 18 years for having the audacity to...

Broken_Clock — 4/5/2026 1:59:09 PM

I'm still banned from the Dog's thread after 18 years for having the audacity to post this

Message 30149253

[miraje] You want more inflation? Here it comes. 8 bucks a gallon and climbing.. Message...

miraje — 4/5/2026 12:43:35 PM

You want more inflation? Here it comes. 8 bucks a gallon and climbing..

Message 35479526

[Selectric II] Speaking of miracles, So. California hospices miraculously cure vast majority of...

Selectric II — 4/4/2026 7:17:57 AM

Speaking of miracles, So. California hospices miraculously cure vast majority of terminal illnesses...

SoCal hospice owners bilked taxpayers for millions in false claims, federal officials say

latimes.com

[Thomas M.] California’s only nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, just won approval to stay open u...

Thomas M. — 4/3/2026 9:14:29 AM

California’s only nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, just won approval to stay open until 2045. It was scheduled to shut down in August 2025.

sanluisobispo.com

Tom

[Thomas M.] In California, you had more people applying for unemployment insurance benefits ...

Thomas M. — 4/2/2026 10:58:40 AM

In California, you had more people applying for unemployment insurance benefits than you had people over the age of 18.

Inside Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud

California is a cash machine.

The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $300 billion per year.

And yet, everywhere you look, California seems to be falling apart.

The roads are crumbling. Mismanaged wildfires have turned neighborhoods into ash. Drug addiction and homelessness have metastasized, turning parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco into no-go zones.

And the cost-of-living crisis is pricing middle-class taxpayers out of basic necessities like groceries and gas, even as the state spends billions on welfare programs that never seem to lift anyone out of poverty.

Californians are beginning to ask: Where is all this money going?

On paper, it funds public services. But beneath the surface, something else is happening: massive, systematic, brazen fraud.

We conducted interviews with public officials, fraud experts, and political figures, and reviewed hundreds of pages of government reports, state audits, criminal indictments, and other public records on California fraud.

Seemingly every state program has been compromised by criminals.

The best estimates suggest that, on the governor’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.

Welcome to Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud.

Fourteen months after Newsom began his first term as governor, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. The state’s leaders imposed some of the country’s most restrictive public-health measures. In response to the crisis, Newsom sought to dump pallets of cash across the state — as quickly as possible.

One way to inject money was through California’s massive unemployment insurance program (UI). Unemployment insurance is administered by the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), which can process billions of dollars in payments monthly. Before the state turned on the cash machine, however, experts had warned that the system was ripe for fraud.

Haywood Talcove, one of America’s leading fraud specialists and CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, said: “I was begging [federal officials] not to let the money go out like that, because it was going to be the biggest fraud in the history of our country. Obviously, I wasn’t successful.”

For many reasons, California was particularly susceptible to the large-scale fraud schemes that Talcove foresaw.

“They literally suspended all of the rules for the [unemployment insurance] program,” Talcove said. “[That made] it possible for anyone to get that benefit even if they weren’t entitled to it. It was very intentional. They knew what they were doing. But it caught up to them because it just got so out of control.”

The scams began almost immediately, with criminals from around the world reportedly siphoning cash from the program. In one case, a Romanian-led fraud ring orchestrated a $5 million unemployment-insurance scheme. Many of the fraudsters wired the stolen funds to Romania.

Around September 2020, Fontrell Antonio Baines, a rapper from Memphis known as Nuke Bizzle, released a music video on YouTube entitled “EDD.” In the song, Baines bragged about ripping off California’s UI program. “Go to the bank with a stack of these,” Baines rapped, holding up EDD envelopes. Another rapper can be heard saying: “You gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim.” All told, Baines obtained more than $700,000 in stolen funds using preloaded EDD debit cards. He pleaded guilty to federal charges.

California’s prison population apparently got in on the action, too: The EDD allegedly paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims in prisoners’ names, including those of at least 133 inmates on death row.

Remarkably, EDD not only failed regularly to cross-reference its unemployment payouts with a list of state prisoners, but it also had just two bureaucrats assigned manually to inspect reports of suspected fraud.

State officials eventually admitted to having paid out approximately $20 billion in fraudulent claims during the pandemic, and to making an estimated $55 billion in improper payments. Talcove claims those figures don’t even tell the full story: “In California, at one point, you had more people applying for unemployment insurance benefits than you had people over the age of 18.”

While Newsom has conceded that “bad actors” took advantage of the UI program, he has also defended his government’s record, saying they took swift action as soon as the alleged prison scheme surfaced. The EDD, for its part, has a webpage documenting its anti-fraud efforts. But any suggestion that California has fraud under wraps is contradicted by findings from its nonpartisan state auditor.

Newsom also came to power vowing to pursue “guaranteed health care” for Californians. Under his leadership, the state extended Medi-Cal coverage to illegal aliens, covered sex-change surgeries for Medi-Cal enrollees, and offered “gender-affirming care services” to enrollees of “all ages.”

Total budgeted Medi-Cal spending — which includes federal, state, and local contributions — has more than doubled on the governor’s watch, rising from $93.5 billion the year before he took office to $196.7 billion in the current annual budget. During the same period, California’s resident population declined by 0.2%.

In-Home Supportive Services, a Medi-Cal sub-program, has presented major fraud concerns. In 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated that IHSS fraud could be as high as 25%. That same year, a Sacramento grand jury report on the county’s IHSS program claimed IHSS fraud was “reported to be rampant and out of control.”

Yet, even in light of these worries, Newsom has dramatically increased funding for IHSS. According to recent estimates, taxpayers are funding nearly 800,000 IHSS providers, who offer caregiving, cooking, shopping, cleaning, and laundry services to elderly and disabled people. In about 70% of cases, providers and recipients are family members. According to co-author Schrupp’s reporting, the IHSS program is responsible for 41% of all “job gains” during the Newsom administration.

The IHSS program almost seems designed to facilitate scams.

According to sworn testimony summarized in the Sacramento report, IHSS participants have falsely represented recipients’ needs; misrepresented hours worked timecards; and even secured payment after a recipient has died. The system operates largely on trust, with providers “working” in the privacy of the recipient’s home. The state’s IHSS protocols explicitly prohibit random unannounced home visits, which would be the best tool to uncover any potential rackets.

Beginning in 2024, federal officials announced multiple prosecutions for IHSS fraud. In one case, prosecutors alleged that Cindy Lynn Fromm claimed to have provided services for more than a year while the recipient was incarcerated. In others, prosecutors said that IHSS caregivers falsified timesheets and claimed to have provided services while beneficiaries were in hospitals, care homes, other facilities — or dead.

The other major target for fraudsters is California’s expansive welfare state. The state is famously home to enormous wealth, but also to millions living in poverty, and, as of 2024, to more than 180,000 homeless people.

Responding to these realities, Newsom has unleashed a wave of spending on welfare initiatives.

He has overseen much of a $24 billion state spend on homelessness projects, roughly doubled food-stamp benefits during the pandemic, and has maintained high levels of cash assistance. Just like unemployment insurance and Medi-Cal, though, these welfare programs proved easy targets for swindlers. The homelessness spending, for example, was a massive transfer of funds into a complicated web of nonprofits and other contractors, with apparently little oversight.

Unsurprisingly, fraud cases followed.

Cody Holmes served as chief financial officer of Shangri-La Industries, a Los Angeles–based affordable-housing developer. His company reportedly received nearly $26 million from the state to develop properties under a program aimed at housing the homeless. Prosecutors allege that Holmes, who pleaded not guilty, embezzled roughly $2.2 million to pay for “exotic cars” and monthly rent for a “6,500-square-foot mansion.”

In addition, a 2024 report from California’s state auditor highlighted the government’s limited data on homelessness programs. For three of the five initiatives the auditor examined, it was “unable to fully assess” their success because of a lack of outcome data.

For many California watchers, the 2024 audit came years too late. In 2020, Rep. Kevin Kiley, then serving in the California Assembly, requested a similar report, he told City Journal, but state legislative Democrats rejected the proposal after Newsom intervened. “They likely knew what the audit would show and didn’t want taxpayers to get that window into how their money is, quite frankly, being squandered,” Kiley said.

Notwithstanding this steady drumbeat of fraud cases, at least one California Democratic lawmaker is pushing to lower penalties for those who steal from state welfare programs.

In April 2025, state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas sponsored a bill that would raise the threshold for felony welfare fraud from $950 to $25,000. The measure would also make it more difficult to charge perjury based on misstatements to county welfare departments. Republican state Assemblyman Carl DeMaio has said that if the bill becomes law, it will effectively “legalize welfare fraud” in California.

Federal prosecutors, however, are stepping up enforcement. Last year, Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, announced the creation of a federal task force to combat fraud and corruption in the state’s homelessness programs. The task force has already brought charges in several multimillion-dollar homelessness-fraud cases — and Essayli has vowed that more are coming.

The culture of fraud in California is so pervasive that it has allegedly reached the governor’s own office. Between 2022 and December 2024, Newsom’s chief of staff was Dana Williamson. In November 2025, she was charged with fraud for allegedly “siphoning campaign and COVID-19 recovery funds into her and an associate’s pockets.” Two other “well-connected aides in state politics were also charged” and struck plea deals that reportedly confirmed the scheme’s existence. Williamson has pleaded not guilty.

Newsom’s office said they were made aware of an investigation into Williamson in late 2024 and immediately moved to place her on leave. When she officially left the governor’s office a month later, though, Newsom’s send-off message applauded her “insight, tenacity, and big heart,” while making no mention of the investigation against her.

The pattern that emerges in California is that of a vast system that almost seems to invite fraud.

According to California Assemblyman David Tangipa, “Sacramento is pervaded by a culture of corruption.” And he points the finger right to the top: Newsom, he says, has helped “create an environment where corruption thrives.”

Still, California’s fraud crisis is not a lost cause, nor is it beyond correction. On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The effort, led by Vice President JD Vance, will “coordinate government-wide efforts to combat widespread fraud, waste, and abuse in federal benefit programs.”

The Minnesota fraud scandal, brought to national attention by City Journal, offers a revealing case study of what can happen when a seemingly hidden problem — one long in plain sight — finally comes into view.

The extent of fraud in Minnesota had been an open secret for years. But once the scandal drew national attention, investigations snowballed, ultimately derailing the political career of Tim Walz.

It may seem unlikely today, but a similar outcome is possible for Newsom in California.

Newsom is not untouchable, and the scale of fraud in California appears far larger than in Minnesota.

Despite his claim to have taken “decisive action” against one form of fraud, the broader problem is real and ongoing, and taxpayers, in California and across the country, have reason to be furious.

Newsom will no doubt rely on charisma and partisan appeal to downplay the extent of these abuses. But listen closely, and you can still hear the California cash machine, steadily dispensing untold billions to criminals, scammers, and organized crime rings — funds taken from taxpayers and diverted from those most in need.

nypost.com

more: christopherrufo.com

Tom

[miraje] Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. California's "wildlife" bridge to nowhere is ...

miraje — 3/27/2026 2:45:45 PM

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. California's "wildlife" bridge to nowhere is the latest taxpayer funded boondoggle..

foxnews.com

Newsom still backing $114M 'bridge to nowhere' for mountain lions and butterflies

...Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass "for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions."...

[miraje] California 'functionally bankrupt'. Trillion dollar shortfall looming and no eas...

miraje — 3/27/2026 9:17:02 AM

California 'functionally bankrupt'. Trillion dollar shortfall looming and no easy way out. They've really screwed the pooch. Full article at the link below..

foxnews.com

... Friedberg was asked to share an under-discussed "hot take" on politics and policy. He framed California's financial outlook as a largely overlooked issue with implications that could extend beyond the state.

"People don’t realize how screwed California is, and I worry that if California falls, so does the union," Friedberg said...

[Thomas M.] California Governor Debate Canceled After Criticism Over Lack of Diversity The ...

Thomas M. — 3/25/2026 8:55:03 PM

California Governor Debate Canceled After Criticism Over Lack of Diversity

The debate would have featured six candidates, all white.

nytimes.com

Tom

[Thomas M.] Gavin Newsom’s $114 Million Butterfly Bridge In 2022, California Governor Gavin...

Thomas M. — 3/19/2026 10:38:39 AM

Gavin Newsom’s $114 Million Butterfly Bridge

In 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California. At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick. Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project—which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments—would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.

Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”

city-journal.org

[X]

California already spent $114 million on this unfinished wildlife crossing bridge (leading nowhere) pic.twitter.com/sGzJ8fIkMj
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 18, 2026

[/X]

Tom

[Thomas M.] Home inheritances now outnumber new home sales in California. In California, Ab...

Thomas M. — 3/10/2026 11:41:01 AM

Home inheritances now outnumber new home sales in California.

In California, About the Only Way to Get a House Is to Inherit One

Nearly one out of every five property transfers last year was made through inheritance, a record for the state and double the national share

wsj.com

Tom

[miraje] California voters might be finally waking up. foxnews.com California voter ID ...

miraje — 3/6/2026 11:35:01 AM

California voters might be finally waking up.

foxnews.com

California voter ID initiative clears signature threshold, setting up November showdown with Newsom

'Polling overwhelmingly shows a supermajority consensus for voter ID requirements,' said a petition organizer

A petition to require voter ID and allow only U.S. citizens to vote has gained momentum in California and surpassed the required 875,000-signature threshold to qualify for the November ballot, the group leading the effort said.

According to Reform California, a nonpartisan political activism group, organizers submitted the "California Voter ID Initiative" petition to county authorities with 1.3 million signatures. The group says the petition has garnered bipartisan support, with signatures from Californians representing all walks of life and political persuasions across all 58 of the state’s counties.

Reform California believes the measure has a solid path to passage in November, citing polls showing 71% of Californians favor the initiative. If passed, the measure would bypass the Democratic legislative supermajority and amend the state constitution to require voter ID when casting a ballot, require election officials to verify the citizenship of registered voters and require the state to maintain accurate voter rolls...

[Broken_Clock] Convicted Child Sex Offender To Run For Office In California by Tyler Durden S...

Broken_Clock — 3/1/2026 1:56:41 PM

Convicted Child Sex Offender To Run For Office In California

by Tyler Durden

Sunday, Mar 01, 2026 - 07:15 AM

You can already hear some liberals and left-leaning libertarians now: "He paid for his crime, right? So what's the problem? What about the politicians mentioned in the Epstein files...?"

But "whataboutism" is not a valid argument for rationalizing societal decay. And if America isn't capable of applying the most basic standards at the lowest levels of government, then America is lost.

Rene Campos, a registered sex offender, is seeking elected office in California - launching a campaign for Fresno City Council amid fierce backlash and renewed questions about whether someone with his record should hold public office.

[url=][/url]

Campos was arrested in 2018 following a cyber tip to the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He was found in possession of child sex abuse material, according to court records. In 2021 he entered a no-contest plea to a single misdemeanor charge of possessing and controlling child pornography/child sex abuse material (likely under California Penal Code § 311.11). He served only one month in prison and a two year probation period.

Campos describes himself as a gay man who is running for office on the platform of "reduced crime and rehabilitation."

Possession of child pornography is typically treated as a felony, even in a woke haven like California. How the Fresno candidate was able to make a deal for a misdemeanor charge and spend only one month in prison is a mystery, but this does help to confirm ongoing suspicions that California's legal system is falling into steep decline.

California is notoriously soft on child sex abusers. Recently, a Sacramento parole board released Daniel Allen Funston, who was convicted in 1999 of sixteen counts of kidnapping and child molestation after a horrific crime spree in Sacramento County, during which he kidnapped, raped, and beat eight children ages 3 to 7.

Funston was originally sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 20 years, but was set free at age 64 due to a California elderly inmate program (maybe he'll run for office, too).

Data from 2022 shows that the Golden State released over 7000 child sex offenders after less than one year of incarceration. Interestingly, "digital blocks" were added to the Megan’s Law website that prevent more recent analysis.

[url=][/url]

State Senator and LGBT activist Scott Weiner has supported multiple pieces of legislation that help to reduce punishments for sex offenders. He authored a bill in 2017, signed into law, which created a three-tier sex offender registry system in California. It allows some "lower-risk" offenders (including those convicted of misdemeanor possession of child pornography) to petition for removal from the registry after 10-20 years (Tier 1 or 2), rather than lifetime registration.

Perhaps the most disturbing factor is that in California a candidate like Campos actually has a good chance of winning. He is a member of the LGBT community, a minority, and he appeals to the progressive desire to prove that laws are "artificial constructs" and that criminal convictions should not "define a person." In other words, Campos could win the election simply because he gives leftists an opportunity to prove that even the worst criminals are merely downtrodden victims who were never given a chance to succeed.

[Broken_Clock] Outrage In Sacramento: California Parole Board Grants Release Of Serial Child Ra...

Broken_Clock — 2/25/2026 6:20:48 PM

Outrage In Sacramento: California Parole Board Grants Release Of Serial Child Rapist

by Tyler Durden

Wednesday, Feb 25, 2026 - 03:20 PM

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

The California Parole Board’s decision to release a serial child molester who used candy and toys to lure children as young as three years old has sparked outrage from victims, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials.

David Allen Funston, 64, was convicted in 1999 of sixteen counts of kidnapping and child molestation after a horrific crime spree in Sacramento County, during which he kidnapped, raped, and beat eight children aged 3 to 7.

[url=][/url]

The judge described him as “the monster parents fear the most” and sentenced him to three consecutive life terms plus 20 years.

Funston was recently granted parole under California’s Elderly Parole Program, which allows inmates over 50 who have served at least 20 years to be considered for release.

He was initially denied parole in May 2022 but was granted suitability for release in September 2025.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) requested a review of the decision and the Board of Parole Hearings reaffirmed it on February 18, 2026.

Newsom did not override the decision.

Former prosecutor Anne Marie Schubert, who prosecuted Funston in what she called “the worst child predator case I’ve ever seen,” has urged the state to screen him for the Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) program, which would allow civil commitment to a state hospital instead of public release.

“He was hunting for young children,” Schubert, now a victim’s rights advocate, told the Modesto Bee.

“It boggles the mind. He’s the poster child for why sex offenders should be exempt from elderly parole.”

Court records at the time showed Funston had a prior sexual assault conviction in Colorado before moving to California. According to authorities, he served time in a Colorado prison for third-degree sexual assault but was never required to register as a sex offender when he relocated to Sacramento County.

“He is a serial predator is what he is,” Deputy District Attorney Hillary Bagley said in 1996 as charges mounted ahead of his 2½ month trial, according to previous Bee reporting. “He is every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Schubert provided graphic details to the Los Angeles Times of a horrible case in 1995, where Funston used candy to lure a 5-year-old girl into his car, and then took her up into the hills and molested her.

“He beat her. He took her underwear and shoved it down her throat because she was screaming. He then raped her to the point that she has vaginal trauma,” Schubert recalled.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper held a press conference Monday and blasted the parole board’s decision to release the dangerous predator back onto the streets.

“He lured them with candy and Barbie dolls. He stole their childhoods. I’ve seen the reports. They’re horrific,” Cooper said.

The sheriff described how Funston kidnapped one little girl in 1995, “viciously” raped her and then drove her to another location where he punched her and kicked her out of the car.

“There’s no explanation. There are some folks who deserve a second chance at life—someone who does these types of things doesn’t deserve a second chance at life,” Cooper said. “The people of Sacramento and every parent across California, deserve answers.”

The sheriff questioned why California would “be okay” with this releasing an infamous child predator like Funston back onto the streets and said California’s parole program needs to be changed.

Sergeant Rafael Rodriguez, who had worked the case in the 1990s as a detective, said he was “outraged” when he read that the monster he helped put behind bars was about to be released. Rodriguez told reporters that the entire Sacramento police bureau has not forgotten the appalling Funston case.

The sergeant said he immediately called Sheriff Cooper and said, “we can’t allow this. This is wrong.”

He lamented that while Funston is being released back onto the streets, his victims are serving the life sentences that come with severe trauma.

“Wherever he is going to be released to better watch him,” Rodriguez warned.

During the presser, Undersheriff Mike Ziegler stressed that child molesters like Funston cannot be rehabilitated.

“There are certain crimes that cannot be rehabilitated and this is one of them,” Ziegler said.

Amelia, who was 3-year-old when she was molested by Funston, also spoke during the presser to plead with the state to keep him incarcerated for life.

“I feel that he does not deserve his freedom,” she said. “He does not need to be back in public society. He is a criminal child molester who is dangerous and deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars,” she added.

The Sacramento Sheriff’s Office provided additional details about the case in a statement on X Monday.

“The Elderly Parole Program was meant for those who no longer pose a danger. In cases like this, it fails. Our number one responsibility is to protect children. That should never be controversial or partisan,” the sheriff’s office stated. “Protecting children is not rhetoric. It is common sense. Protect children first. Always.”

Funston remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has not disclosed his release date or location, citing safety and security reasons. Ziegler told reporters however that the likelihood of Funston being released right back into Sacramento was “very high.”

[Thomas M.] [X] It's hard to capture the true scale of Oakland’s illegal dumping crisis in ...

Thomas M. — 2/19/2026 9:29:29 PM

[X]

It's hard to capture the true scale of Oakland’s illegal dumping crisis in words alone.

Simply put: they don’t really care about us. pic.twitter.com/EtTofD0c5b
— Seneca Scott (@SenecaSpeaks21) September 1, 2025

[/X]

Tom

[Selectric II] [X] Palantir CTO @ssankar in 2024: “For $10 billion, @elonmusk put 300 rockets...

Selectric II — 2/15/2026 11:41:27 AM

[X]

Palantir CTO @ssankar in 2024:

“For $10 billion, @elonmusk put 300 rockets in orbit.”

“For $11 billion the state of California has built 1600ft of elevated rail, with no rail.” https://t.co/phcs8e4Urw pic.twitter.com/ilhfPNSvIG
— Jawwwn (@jawwwn_) February 5, 2026

[/X]

[Thomas M.] [graphic] Tom

Thomas M. — 2/15/2026 10:56:27 AM

Tom

[miraje] The latest on Newsom's choo choo train to nowhere. A fake photo op.. foxnews.co...

miraje — 2/7/2026 12:19:34 PM

The latest on Newsom's choo choo train to nowhere. A fake photo op..

foxnews.com

...California governor uses diesel freight train on conventional track to create appearance of progress on high-speed rail boondoggle

In the dystopian novel "1984," George Orwell wrote, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." The true meaning of that line was never more clear than watching the truly bizarre photo op of Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom heralding the success of the greatest boondoggle in history: his high-speed train to nowhere. Without laying a single yard of track after burning $12 billion, Newsom showed a diesel freight train on a conventional track to create the appearance of a working railroad...

[Broken_Clock] Prepare for whattaboutTrump? in response

Broken_Clock — 2/5/2026 3:48:10 PM

[miraje] Mayor Bass facing blowback over explosive report that she altered wildfire repor...

miraje — 2/5/2026 3:09:37 PM

Mayor Bass facing blowback over explosive report that she altered wildfire report to downplay city's role

foxnews.com

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is under fire this week after a Los Angeles Times report claiming she successfully altered in her favor a critical after-action report on the devastating southern California wildfires that killed 31 people.

While Bass has repeatedly denied that she interfered with the report, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing two sources, that Bass was concerned that the city could be exposed to legal liability for its lack of preparedness and removed or softened language implicating the city.

One of the key changes, according to the Los Angeles Times, was altering details about failures to fully staff and deploy resources leading up to the fire, an issue that has drawn intense scrutiny over the past year.

The report cites a "Bass confidant" who said "the mayor didn’t tell the truth when she said she had nothing to do with changing the report."

SPENCER PRATT ENTERS LA MAYOR RACE, ACCUSES CURRENT LEADERSHIP OF 'CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE' OVER FIRE RESPONSE

Bass, who has also drawn criticism for flying to Africa for an event days before the fire broke out despite hazardous conditions in the forecast and warnings about fire risks, has denied the accuracy of the reporting.

Still, widespread outrage has resulted both on social media and from politicians.

"There’s no moving forward until we get the answers and the people that are responsible are fired, and that includes the fire chiefs, the fire battalion chiefs, that includes the mayor, it includes anybody that had anything to do with this," reality TV star Spencer Pratt, running for mayor of Los Angeles, told Fox Los Angeles while standing next to the burnt remains of his Palisades home that was destroyed in the fire.

Businessman Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Bass and is said to be mulling another run, called the report an "outrage" and said that Bass "actively covered up a report meant to examine the most significant disaster in Los Angeles history."

[Broken_Clock] The Golden State lives up to its billing... California's Hospice Fraud Explosio...

Broken_Clock — 2/3/2026 7:48:05 PM

The Golden State lives up to its billing...

California's Hospice Fraud Explosion: Billions Drained From Taxpayers

by Tyler Durden

Tuesday, Feb 03, 2026 - 02:15 PM

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The massive hospice fraud racket thriving under California’s lax oversight is finally getting the spotlight it deserves, as the Trump administration’s CMS chief Dr. Mehmet Oz hits the streets of Los Angeles to call out the billions in stolen taxpayer dollars.

[url=][/url]

With organized crime rings, including Russian-Armenian mafia elements, infiltrating the system through ghost patients and fake companies, the scam highlights how globalist policies have opened the door to foreign exploitation of U.S. resources. As fraudsters traffic beneficiaries like commodities, real Americans suffer denied care while the deep state looks the other way.

Los Angeles County alone accounts for 18% of the entire country’s home health care billing, a staggering figure that screams foul play.

One California physician billed the government $120 million in a single year, claiming to oversee 1,900 patients—a workload that defies logic and reeks of corruption.

The county boasts almost 2,000 hospice agencies, more than 36 states combined and 30 times the number in Florida or New York.

Dr. Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was forthright during his on-the-ground tour: “Hospice is crazy here… You’ve got hospice that’s grown seven-fold in the last five years. They represent about three and a half billion dollars of fraud, we believe, just in LA County.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has admitted the problem’s scale, calling it “an epidemic in California, specifically in the greater Los Angeles area.”

The fraud operates through recruiters who lure seniors with freebies like walkers or cash, harvest their Medicare numbers, and sell them to providers for $1,000 to $3,000 each. Providers then bill the feds $260 per day per patient, often for nonexistent services, while shuffling enrollees between sham outfits to evade detection.

In LA’s San Fernando Valley, particularly Van Nuys, the density is absurd: 210 agencies crammed into one square mile, with one building listing 112 hospices showing no actual operations.

Sheila Clark, president of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association, exposed the human cost: “A Medicare MIB number is more lucrative than a credit card… They’re human traffickers. They’re trafficking beneficiaries in and out of hospices, home health.” She added, “We need to listen to these people when they say, ‘I’ve been scammed.'”

A notorious example is the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian ring, where 73 members were prosecuted for $100 million in fraud using phantom clinics, netting light sentences for racketeering and money laundering.

This constitutes a direct assault on American seniors and the integrity of the U.S. healthcare system, enabled by years of Democrat-led neglect that prioritized open borders over accountability.

While Governor Gavin Newsom claims credit for a 2021 moratorium on new hospice licenses and revoking over 280, the damage was done under his watch, with fraud ballooning unchecked for years. Critics point out that the Trump administration’s renewed federal push, including DOJ investigations, is what’s truly turning the tide against these scams.

Newsom has responsed by filing a civil rights complaint against Dr. Oz for highlighting Armenian community ties to the fraud, a move that reeks of deflection rather than real reform.

This mess underscores the failures of unchecked immigration and weak enforcement, allowing foreign actors to siphon billions meant for American citizens. It’s time for America First policies to root out these parasites and protect seniors from exploitation.

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[Selectric II] Eric Swalwell, CA Rep. and now gubernatorial candidate. I'll just put this here...

Selectric II — 1/17/2026 7:30:06 AM

Eric Swalwell, CA Rep. and now gubernatorial candidate.

I'll just put this here:

Swalwell campaign in the hot seat after accepting almost $15K from CCP-tied law firm: 'Stop playing footsie'
foxnews.com

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U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-15) speaking with attendees at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, June 1, 2019. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Eric Swalwell Campaign Takes Nearly $15K from CCP-Tied Law Firm Where is Fang Fang?

By Katy Grimes, January 16, 2026 11:47 am

Rep. Eric Swalwell’s California gubernatorial campaign recently received almost $10,000 from the California-based office of a top Beijing law firm that has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and another $5,000 from a Chinese national, Fox News is reporting Friday:

A filing that was released this week reveals that Swalwell’s campaign received $9,999 from the DeHeng Law Offices PC on Dec. 30 and said that the office is based in Pleasanton, Calif. The law firm’s website reveals that this office is their “Silicon Valley Office” and appears to only have one lawyer who works there.

Keliang “Clay” Zhu, who donated $5,000 to Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign this past November and previously donated over $10,000 to his House campaigns, is a partner at the law firm and is the only name listed for the “Silicon Valley Office,” according to their website.

Oh my. Eric Swalwell already had serious issues when he dated accused Chinese Communist government spy Fang Fang, also known as Christine Fang, who successfully infiltrated a number of Democrat congressional campaigns in California, and even served as a fundraising bundler for Swalwell. Not only did Fang Fang fundraise for Swalwell, she was also sleeping with him.

She even placed an intern in his Washington, D.C. office... (cont'd)

californiaglobe.com

[Selectric II] Who could possibly have seen that coming? lol.

Selectric II — 1/11/2026 7:23:43 PM

[miraje] Heading for the exits. Full article at the link below.. foxbusiness.com Califo...

miraje — 1/11/2026 3:02:57 PM

Heading for the exits. Full article at the link below..

foxbusiness.com

California wealth tax proposal hemorrhages $1T as billionaires flee

Silicon Valley investor warns middle class will 'foot the bill' as ultra-wealthy residents leave state

Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says California’s proposed billionaire tax is accelerating an exodus of ultra-wealthy residents, a shift he argues will worsen and not solve the state’s budget deficit.

Palihapitiya, who has been tracking capital flight from the Golden State, said California has so far lost an estimated $1 trillion.

"We had $2T of billionaire wealth just a few weeks ago. Now, 50% of that wealth has left - taking their income tax revenue, sales tax revenue, real estate tax revenue and all their staffs (and their salaries and income taxes) with them," Palihapitiya wrote on X on Sunday.

Even as the measure remains under consideration for the November statewide ballot, some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures warn it could trigger an exodus of founders and capital...