#california-politics

#california-politics

I had two horses in the governor's race already,

Williamson was charged with bank and tax fraud for allegedly siphoning campaign and COVID-19 recovery funds into her and an associate's pockets and claiming personal luxuries as business expenses on tax forms. According to the indictment, the campaign funds were drawn from a dormant state account of another top California Democrat: gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra.

Prosecutors said she created false backdated contracts after being subpoenaed for records related to a federal Covid-19 stimulus program and later made false statements to FBI agents. This is a crucial step in an ongoing political corruption investigation that began more than three years ago, said Eric Grant, interim US attorney for the Eastern District of California. Williamson pleaded not guilty during a court hearing Wednesday. Matthew Rowan, a lawyer for Williamson, declined to comment further to reporters after the hearing.

California YIMBY, an organization founded eight years ago to promote housing construction in response to an ever-increasing gap between demand and supply, held a victory party in San Francisco recently. Welcome to the most victorious of California YIMBY's victory parties, Brian Hanlon, founder and CEO of the organization, told attendees. Its acronym (Yes In My Backyard) symbolizes its years-long battle with NIMBYs (Not in My Backyard), people and groups who have long thwarted housing projects by pressuring local governments that control land use.

In 2024, roughly 59% of Californians voted for Kamala Harris and 38% for Donald Trump. The number is often used to describe California's partisan shares. Voter registration tells a different story: Democrats at over 44% and Republicans at 25%. Nearly 23% of voters have no party preference. Republicans claimed that because they only have 9 seats (17%), our current maps are gerrymandered and Republicans are underrepresented.

No mail-in or 'Early' Voting, Yes to Voter ID! Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is! Millions of Ballots being 'shipped,' GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is now saying that his state should consider rolling back its law allowing trans students to participate in school sports as their gender, while he argues that he isn't transphobic because he has signed many pro-trans rights bills and also has a trans godson. "I disagree with all the vitriol, but I agree on the issue of fairness in that respect, that it is unfair in these circumstances, and I haven't been able to reconcile it," he told KQED this past Friday about the issue of trans student-athletes.

If California had complied with the secretary's emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of this individual's driving privileges earlier this month, he would have never been able to get behind his big rig, a statement from the Department of Transportation reads. The emergency rule requires states to verify the legal status of drivers to restrict licenses being issued to non-citizens.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown once referred to overhauling the California Environmental Quality Act as the Lord's work because, he said, it made building much-needed things housing, transportation improvements, water storage, etc. too difficult and too expensive. In 2018, as he neared the end of his second stint as governor, Brown vetoed a bill that would have prevented developers from circumventing CEQA's laborious provisions by persuading local voters to directly approve projects.

We're a nation of laws and accountability - not a nation that turns a blind eye to abuse of power. Donald Trump, himself a convicted felon who pardoned felons convicted of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, is misleading the public with his false narrative that America, and especially California, is some lawless wasteland. But California is proving him wrong - in the courts and on the facts,