The State of California is suing to block President Donald Trump’s plan to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, the top lawyer for the state told reporters Tuesday.
The lawsuit set to be filed in federal court in San Diego will argue that the effort violates federal law and the Constitution by intruding on state authority, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.
“They’re violating the Tenth Amendment and infringing on a lot of state laws, not just federal laws, that affect our state. At the same time, they’re trying to do something that only Congress can do,” Becerra told journalists in Washington in advance of an official announcement he plans to make in San Diego Wednesday.
Becerra said the suit will argue that federal officials are running afoul of the law by declaring the expansion of the border wall to be an emergency that justifies waiving environmental studies and usual contracting procedures.
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to create a border wall that the Mexican government would pay for. Mexican officials have flatly rejected contributing any funds to such a project. With most Democrats in Congress staunchly opposed to the idea, it’s unclear how Trump will get money for construction.
Nevertheless, Trump administration officials are pressing forward with studies and prototypes. In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security awarded contracts to eight companies to produce prototypes of potential barriers. Half the awards were for concrete wall designs, while the others will explore use of other materials.
Becerra is set to announce the suit during a press conference at a state park near the border.
One of the Trump administration’s most outspoken supporters of tougher measures at the border—Attorney General Jeff Sessions—is also set to be nearby a bit earlier on Wednesday to announce record drug seizures.
Tami Barker, an Airbnb host who invoked President Donald Trump’s name when she told a woman that she was cancelling her reservation because she was Asian, has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in damages for racial discrimination.
The Guardian reports that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) ordered Barker to pay out $5,000 to Dyne Suh, a 26-year-old Asian-American law student whose reservation at Barker’s cabin got cancelled earlier this year.
“In addition to paying monetary damages and taking a college-level course in Asian American studies, Barker must agree to comply with anti-discrimination laws, make a personal apology to Suh, participate in a community education panel and volunteer with a civil rights organization,” the Guardian reports.
In messages sent to Suh after cancelling her reservation, Barker wrote that “I wouldn’t rent it to u if u were the last person on earth” and “One word says it all. Asian.” She also explained that “it’s why we have Trump… and I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners.”
Suh, who has lived in the United States for the past 23 years, posted an emotional video earlier this year shortly after her Airbnb reservation got cancelled in which she lamented that many people treated her like “trash” due to her race, despite the fact that she has lived in the United States most of her life.
Anthony Robert Hammond, 34, is being held in the Lake County Jail on $1 million bail for felony charges of aggravated mayhem, battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, felony resisting executive officer, hate crime and two outside agency felony arrest warrants, and two misdemeanor charges of battery on a person, and obstructing or resisting a peace officer.
According to the Lake County News, a local newspaper in the central-northwest region of California, a white man has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing a black man with a machete in what police believe was a racially-motivated attack.
Anthony Robert Hammond, the Clearlake, California resident arrested in the incident, was reportedly “yelling racial slurs at numerous people” in the parking lot of his apartment complex when he went into his apartment and came back out with a machete.
“As he continued yelling racial slurs at the victim,” the Lake County Newsreported, “Hammond struck the victim on the shoulder with the machete, causing serious bodily injury.”
The victim, whose identity hasn’t been revealed “due to the severity of the crime” was reportedly rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. His current condition has not yet been reported.
After the police were called during the attack, authorities engaged in a multi-hour standoff with Hammond, as they believed he had a firearm as well as the machete used to stab the victim. He was then arrested at the scene.
The Clearlake attack happened three days after two men were killed in Portland, Oregon for standing up to a racist man yelling slurs at two young minority women.
A devastating report on tax dollars being spent to re-segregate schools by setting up discriminatory “Charter Schools” in California opens with:
From less than 200 schools in 1998, the California charter school industry has grown by more than 600%, to over 1,200 schools serving nearly 600,000 children, or nearly 10% of the state’s students. One of the sources fueling this growth is an extensive network of government programs that provide public funding or tax subsidies for charter school buildings. Over the past 15 years, California charter schools have received over $2.5 billion in tax dollars or taxpayer subsidized funds to lease, build, or buy school buildings. This report finds that this funding is almost completely disconnected from educational policy objectives, and the results are, in turn, scattershot and haphazard. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent each year without any meaningful strategy. Far too much of this public funding is spent on schools built in neighborhoods that have no need for additional classroom space, and which offer no improvement over the quality of education already available in nearby public schools. In the worst cases, public facilities funding has gone to schools that were found to have discriminatory enrollment policies and others that have engaged in unethical or corrupt practices.
The Charter Schools of today are noting more than reinvention of tha anti-Civil Rights Academies.
A Segregation Academy. Opened after the Supreme Court forced School Integration, specifically to deny entry to minority children.
Over the past 15 years, California charter schools have received over $2.5 billion in tax dollars or taxpayer subsidized funds to lease, build, or buy school buildings.
• Nearly 450 charter schools have opened in places that already had enough classroom space for all students—and this overproduction of schools was made possible by generous public support, including $111 million in rent, lease, or mortgage payments picked up by taxpayers, $135 million in general obligation bonds, and $425 million in private investments subsidized with tax credits or tax exemptions.
• For three-quarters of California charter schools, the quality of education on offer is worse than that of a nearby traditional public school that serves a demographically similar population. Taxpayers have provided these schools with an estimated three-quarters of a billion dollars in direct funding and an additional $1.1 billion in taxpayer-subsidized financing.
• Even the worst charter schools receive generous facility funding. The California Charter Schools Association identified 161 charter schools that ranked in the bottom 10% of schools serving comparable populations last year, but even these schools received over $200 million in tax dollars and tax-subsidized funding.
• At least 30% of charter schools were both opened in places that had no need for additional seats and also failed to provide an education superior to that available in nearby public schools. This number is almost certainly underestimated, but even at this rate, Californians provided these schools combined facilities funding of over $750 million, at a net cost to taxpayers of nearly $400 million.
• Public facilities funding has been disproportionately concentrated among the less than one-third of schools that are owned by Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) that operate chains of between three and 30 schools. An even more disproportionate share of funding has been taken by just four large CMO chains— Aspire, KIPP, Alliance, and Animo/Green Dot.
• Since 2009, the 253 schools found by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California to maintain discriminatory enrollment policies have been awarded a collective $75 million under the SB740 program, $120 million in general obligation bonds, and $150 million in conduit bond financing.
• CMOs have used public tax dollars to buy private property. The Alliance CollegeReady Public Schools network of charter schools, for instance, has benefited from over $110 million in federal and state taxpayer support for its facilities, which are not owned by the public, but are part of a growing empire of privately owned Los Angeles-area real estate now worth in excess of $200 million.
What is the connection between the Chump’s Reichminister of Education and racism?
Has been labeled the “four star general” of school vouchers (Source), which have repeatedly been challenged in the courts by the ACLU for undermining the separation between church and state, enabling discrimination, and lowering educational outcomes. (Source)
Supports the Center for Individual Rights (Source), an organization largely concerned with overturning affirmative-action legislation. (Source)
Contributed to the Southeastern Legal Foundation (Source), which works to overturn affirmative action and voting rights legislation. (Source)
While the report deals with California – the same thing is happening across the country. And with the racist Betsy DeVos in charge…Segregation is assured.
With the rise in hate crimes driven by the Chumph’s selection of several of their own to his Cabinet – Neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groupd feel that they are free to spread their hate.
The local reception hasn’t been all that “welcoming…
A white nationalist was punched in the face last week while handing out neo-Nazi literature on a California campus.
The man, who police have not identified, went Wednesday to the campus of California Polytechnic State University and passed out fliers in front of the Robert E. Kennedy Library, reported Mustang News.
The fliers promoting the American Nazi Party showed a swastika, which the papers identify as “a symbol of white power.”
Campus police were called to the scene and spoke to the man, but officers found no laws were broken and allowed him to remain outside the library.
The man returned Thursday to the San Luis Obispo campus to pass out fliers.
Another man, whose face was covered, approached the neo-Nazi and punched him in the face before running away.
The neo-Nazi declined to file a police report or give officers his name.
Another neo-Nazi, Richard Spencer, was famously punched in the face during inaugural festivities for Donald Trump last month in Washington, D.C.
Good move California! Pretty soon the few states opposing the TrumPutin will be the only safe places to live in America.
With the Chumph able to pack the courts with sycophants and white supremacists, the Blue States will need to de-legitimize the authority of the new Xterme Court due to Obama’s dithering and cowardice in appointing Judges.
Perhaps a good way to start is to deny seating of any Trumputin Judge in any courtroom in the state – including the Federal Courts.
“Having the former attorney general of the United States brings us a lot of firepower.”
Democratic lawmakers in the California legislature have retained former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help in any legal battles with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The move is an indication that lawmakers in the nation’s most populous state, where Democrats hold two-thirds majorities in both houses of the legislature, are girding for possible court battles after Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Last month, leaders of both houses introduced bills to protect undocumented immigrants from anticipated efforts by a Trump administration to increase deportations . In addition, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has made combating climate change a priority for the state.
“Having the former attorney general of the United States brings us a lot of firepower in order to prepare to safeguard the values of the people of California,” Kevin de León, the Democratic leader of the state Senate, told the Times. “This means we are very, very serious.”
A representative from de León’s office could not immediately be reached for comment early on Wednesday.
Holder served as attorney general under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015. He is a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling, which represents companies and helps them navigate government regulations.
“I am honored that the Legislature chose Covington to serve as its legal adviser as it considers how to respond to potential changes in federal law that could impact California’s residents and policy priorities,” Holder said in a statement, according to the Times.
California voted decisively for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election, choosing the former first lady over Trump by 28 percentage points.
Those of you who have had experience with a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s know that the victims are in another world, and may not be cognizant of their surroundings.A hot shot cop killed this man believing he had a gun in his pocket…Instead of a Crucifix.
A California man believed to be armed was found to be carrying just a wooden crucifix after police shot him dead early Monday morning, according to local media reports. Bakersfield Assistant Police Chief Lyle Martin said officers responded to a report of a man acting strangely. Officers had been told that he was holding a revolver. When they arrived, Francisco Serna, a 73-year-old who was struggling with dementia, allegedly failed to respond to orders that he stop walking toward them and take his hands out of his jacket pocket. Seven officers responded to the scene, and one of those officers, identified as Reagan Selman, fired seven shots at Serna, CNN reports. Serna died at the scene. He was unarmed, officers later learned he was carrying the religious object. His daughter, Laura Serna, told a local CNN affiliate that police “murdered my father for no reason.” Martin told reporters, “This is a tragic incident for their family, for the community as a whole, and for the police department.”
For years, conservatives have been telling us that a healthy business-friendly economy depends on low taxes, few regulations and low wages. Are they right?
We’ve had an experiment going on here in the United States that provides an answer.
At the one end of the scale are Kansas and Texas, with among the nation’s lowest taxes, least regulations and lowest wages.
At the other end is California, featuring among the nation’s highest taxes, especially on the wealthy; lots of regulations, particularly when it comes to the environment; and high wages.
So according to conservative doctrine, Kansas and Texas ought to be booming, and California ought to be in the pits.
Actually, it’s just the opposite. For years now, Kansas’s rate of economic growth has been the worst in the nation. Last year its economy actually shrank. Texas hasn’t been doing all that much better. Its rate of job growth has been below the national average. Retail sales are way down. The value of Texas exports has been dropping.
But what about so-called over-taxed, over-regulated, high-wage California? California leads the nation in the rate of economic growth — more than twice the national average. In other words, conservatives have it exactly backwards.
So why are Kansas and Texas doing so badly? And California so well?
Because taxes enable states to invest in their people — their education and skill-training, great research universities that spawn new industries and attract talented innovators and inventors worldwide, and modern infrastructure.
That’s why California is the world center of high-tech, entertainment and venture capital.
Kansas and Texas haven’t been investing nearly to the same extent.
California also provides services to a diverse population including many who are attracted to California because of its opportunities.
And California’s regulations protect the public health and the state’s natural beauty, which also draws people to the state — including talented people who could settle anywhere.
Wages are high in California because the economy is growing so fast employers have to pay more for workers. And that’s not a bad thing. After all, the goal isn’t just growth. It’s a high standard of living.
Now in fairness, Texas’s problems are also linked to the oil bust. But that’s really no excuse because Texas has failed to diversify its economy. And here again, it hasn’t made adequate investments.
California is far from perfect. A housing shortage has been driving rents and home prices into the stratosphere. And roads are clogged. Much more needs to be done.
But overall, the contrast is clear. Economic success depends on tax revenues that go into public investments, and regulations that protect the environment and public health. And true economic success results in high wages.
So the next time you hear a conservative say “low taxes, few regulations and low wages are the keys to economic business-friendly success,” just remember Kansas, Texas and California.
This is truly funny…And true. Republican controlled states which have implemented the tax cut, destroy public services mantra are in free fall economically. The two most prominent examples of which are Kansas and Louisiana. Even in those states which have good economies such as North Carolina, Republicans rip the wheels off, passing one stupid law after another like the anti-LGBT laws which still may cost North Carolina billions more.
For the first time in American history, a Black woman has been convicted of “lynching.”
Last week, a California judge sentenced Jasmine Richards, a 28-year-old Black Lives Matter activist to 90 days in jail for lynching, defined in California as “the taking by means of a riot of another person from the lawful custody of a police officer”, reports Vox.
The conviction stems from an incident that took place last August, in which police were called because a Black woman had been accused of exiting a restaurant without paying.
As police attempted to arrest the woman, Richards, who was nearby at a Black Lives Matter protest, approached the officers. Video shows Richards standing by the woman, but police claim she was trying to pull her away.
Richards was arrested and charged with delaying and obstructing peace officers, inciting a riot, child endangerment and lynching.
Though other African-Americans in the state have been charged with lynching, Richards is the first to be convicted. Lawyers for Richards say that this is an attempt at silencing the activist.
“Clearly this is a political prosecution,” her attorney, Nana Gyamfi said to Vox. “Its intention is to stop people from organizing and from speaking out and challenging the system. There’s a political message that’s been sent by both the prosecutor and the police and, by conviction, the jury.”
There is no Republican candidate left standing in the California US Senate race. IN California’s system all candidates vie in an electoral “scrum”, and the top two become the candidates running for the Senate. This year, both candidates are Democrats.
The numbers right now significantly favor California Attorney General Kamala Harris, principally because of statewide name recognition – but, anything can happen between now and November. Looks like a win-win for the folks from California, and the country.
This is also the first time no Republican was selected by the voters to be one of the candidates for a statewide ticket. Looks like the Ch-trump is already paying dividends for Democrats.
Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez, both Democrats, are set to face off in November’s general election.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez came out on top in Tuesday’s primary for California’s open seat in the U.S. Senate, all but ensuring a woman of color will represent the Golden State in the upper chamber next year.
Harris and Sanchez are both Democrats. California has what’s known as a “jungle” primary system, where candidates from all party affiliations compete against each other in the nominating contest. The top two vote-getters advance to the general election in November. (Thirty-four candidates, including 12 Republicans, ran for the seat this year, but most failed to gain any traction.)
No matter who wins in November, the election is expected to break some important barriers. Sanchez would be the first Latina in the Senate, while Harris would be the first black woman elected to the upper chamber in over two decades. Harris’ motherwas from India, which means Harris would also be the first South Asian-American in the Senate.
Either Sanchez or Harris would be the first woman of color to represent California in the Senate. November’s election will also mark the first time a Republican does not appear on the ballot for a statewide race.
Violence returns as Trump’s campaign hits California’s biggest Republican stronghold — Orange County
Chaos broke out outside of a massive Donald Trump rally in Orange County, California, Thursday night.
The unrest erupted outside the Pacific amphitheater where Trump staged his first campaign rally in America’s most populous state at the Orange County Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.
ccording to ABC News, closer to 18,000 Trump supporters gathered inside as the Republican frontrunner gave the Golden State a tailored spin on his controversial campaign of xenophobia, parading a host of California families whose loved ones had been killed by undocumented immigrant in California and reaffirmed his pledge to build a giant border wall only miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Trump is here to save us all,” said Jamiel Shaw, Sr., whose 17-year-old son Jamiel Shaw, Jr., was killed by an undocumented immigrant in 2008.
Outside, thousands more flooded the streets in protest of Trump and things quickly turned violent in the heart of the state’s biggest Republican stronghold, as the Associated Press reported:
Dozens of cars—including those of Trump supporters trying to leave—were stuck in the street as several hundred demonstrators blocked the road, waved Mexican flags and posed for selfies. Police in riot gear and on horseback pushed the crowd back and away from the venue. … The crowd began dispersing about three hours after the speech ended. …
Earlier in the evening, a half-dozen anti-Trump protesters taunted those waiting to get into the venue. Trump supporters surrounded one man who waved a Mexican flag and shouted “Build that wall! Build that wall!”—a reference to Trump’s call to create a barrier between the United States and Mexico to stop illegal border crossings.
Had a boss one time that would call his staff together to pray over our business proposals. Never quite figured out how somehow God had any reason to favor us over the other 10 of 15 companies making proposals, because at least some of those companies were made up of some folks who went to church too. Needless to say, it didn’t improve our win percentage.
One of the biggest problems with the far right is not understanding, and trampling all over the basic rules of our Constitution, and the rights of everyone who believes differently than they do. My personal philosophy always has been that if someone feels the need to pray to whatever Deity they believe in, then I owe them the common human decency to let them go about their personal business. That decency doesn’t extend to being forced to pray with them. Respect for other people seems to be the first thing the zealots lose, whether christians or any of the world’s other religions.
Members of a California school board who heavily used prayer during public meetings are being ordered to pay more than $200,000 in lawyers fees, theSan Bernardino Sun reports.
On February 18, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal ordered the Chino Valley Unified School Board to stop a years-long practice of “reciting prayers, Bible readings and proselytizing at board meetings,” the Sun reports.
On Thursday, the judge ordered board president Andrew Cruz, along with board members James Na and Sylvio Orzco to pay out $202,971.70 to the Freedom From Religion Foundation in association with their November 2014 lawsuit.
In the suit, the FFRF claimed that Na “often injects religion into his comments” at meeting conclusions while Cruz regularly concluded with a Bible reading. Prayers were also used to open the public meetings. But it didn’t stop there. Regular attendees complained the board members often stopped business to make long professions of their faith, according to the Sun.
Na at one meeting either mentioned or discussed Jesus 10 times.
“Our plaintiffs told us the board proceedings were more like a church service than a school board meeting,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said in February, according to American School and University. “So my reaction to the ruling is, ‘Hallelujah!’”
Violence broke out Saturday when Ku Klux Klan demonstrators and counterprotesters fought in Anaheim, California, leaving five people injured and 13 people arrested, authorities said.
Anaheim police spokesman Sgt. Daron Wyatt said the KKK planned a “walking protest” at Pearson Park. The counterprotesters arrived beforehand and attacked when the KKK got out of their vehicles around noon, he said.
Several fights broke out along a city block involving six KKK members — none wearing the traditional KKK robes — and 30 counterprotesters.
Three counterprotesters were stabbed — one with the decorative end of a flagstaff, one with a knife and one with an object the police did not describe, Wyatt said.
The person stabbed with the flagstaff was hospitalized in critical condition and the other two were in stable condition, police said.
Police witnessed one KKK demonstrator being stomped by by two male and a female counterprotesters. Another KKK member told police he’d been stomped and might have broken ribs, Wyatt said.
The first KKK member had minor injuries and was not hospitalized, police said, and the second one was hospitalized in stable condition.
Arrested were six male and one female counterprotesters and five male and one female KKK member, Wyatt said.
The district attorney’s office will decide what, if any, charges will be filed, he said.
Wyatt said anyone with cell phone video of the fight should contract police.
As many as 20 people have been shot near a California hospital.
Police are seeking three heavily armed men — who were wearing masks, military-style clothing and possibly body armor — at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
Up to 12 people were killed in the shooting, and at least eight others were wounded. Emergency crews were called about 11:30 a.m. local time to the shooting scene in the 1300 block of South Waterman Avenue.
A bomb squad was sent to dismantle a possible explosive device, and a SWAT team is seeking the gunmen.
The shooting happened several blocks away from a Planned Parenthood clinic, although employees there said the clinic was not a target.
The Inland Regional Center serves the developmentally disabled.
A spokeswoman for the medical center said the shooting took place in a conference room that had been rented Wednesday to an outside group, but she was not sure what organization was in the room.
Police were reportedly conducting a training exercise nearby and were able to respond quickly.
The gunmen may have fled the scene in a black SUV, according to reports.
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