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California Tag

This week's battle between President Donald Trump's administration and California has escalated, as the state has officially filed a lawsuit over the cut-off of federal funding due to sanctuary city policies:
Intensifying California’s standoff with the Trump administration over immigration policy, the California attorney general sued the Justice Department on Monday over the administration’s plans to cut off millions of dollars in federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities unless they begin cooperating with federal immigration agents.

The war on male college students under the mantle of Title IX continues.  A USC student was accused of raping a fellow student in her dorm room, and after being cleared by security video, could still be expelled. CBS News reports:
Security video from outside a local nightclub has cleared a USC student of rape, CBS Los Angeles reports. Armaan Premjee was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old student in her dorm room but video from the Banditos club near campus tells a different story.

The wealthy residents of San Francisco's exclusive, gated Presidio Terrace haven't paid a $14/year tax bill for three decades. This led the city to auction off the tony street that boasts among its former residents House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA).  The auction was an attempt to recoup its delinquent tax losses valued at less than a thousands dollars (including penalties, interest, etc.). Officials hit the jackpot when a young couple purchased the street at auction two years ago for $90,100. The new owners are reportedly toying with the idea of charging residents and even outsiders (gasp!) to pay to park on their shiny new street. Now the current residents of the street are outraged and have filed formal complaints and even a lawsuit in an attempt to rescind the sale.

In the case of Brexit, ordinary British citizens defied the elites in Brussels who thought they know what's best for the British people. Calexit is the opposite. Proponents of Calexit are elitists who are angry that Americans elected Trump and they want a divorce. Let's give it to them. The initiative has a chance to appear on the 2018 ballot, as my colleague Leslie Eastman pointed out in her recent post: #CalExit is resurrected as measure approved for signature gathering

The last time we checked on #CalExit, the California secession movement, supporters of the #CalExit ballot measure officially ended their efforts. However, a second #CalExit proposal is moving forward as the state attorney general's office released an official title and summary for the initiative ("California Autonomy From Federal Government" initiative) and is permitting backers to gather signatures.

We’ve written before about convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, a military member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who murdered two university students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, in 1969 when she put a bomb in a Jerusalem supermarket. She also unsuccessfully tried to bomb the British Consulate. Odeh's complicity in the bombings has been documented thoroughly, including in recent video interviews with her two Palestinian co-conspirators, who now live in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Odeh was sentenced to life in prison, but spent 10 years in prison. She was released in a prisoner exchange in 1979 for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon, eventually making her way to the U.S. where she became a citizen.

Yvette Felarca, leader of the Antifa organization BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) has been arrested for inciting a riot. The charge stems from an incident in Sacramento last year.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is entangled in a new controversy only a week after the public lashed out at officials for refusing to release video footage of crimes over fears the videos would incite racism. Recent reports indicate that BART has seen double the amount of rapes in the first six months of 2017 than all of 2016.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority has decided not to release surveillance videos of robberies occurring at BART stations for fear they videos might incite racism. People have begun to fear for their safety due to the numerous crimes, but fears of stereotyping have taken priority with BART officials.

More than forty wildfires are raging across the western U.S., fueled by high temperatures and dry conditions.
The National Weather Service early on Monday issued red flag warnings, signaling critical conditions over the next 24 hours, for regions in at least six states. In some areas, firefighters have been battling fires for a week, trying to keep them from spreading across roads and churning through dry vegetation near populated areas.

Failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's defeat last November finally brought attention to what has happened slowly since 2010: Democrats are not only slipping at the national level but also the state level. At first, people focused anger on President Donald Trump and Republicans, but that has changed in Democrat-friendly California. The tipping point this month happened when the state assembly decided to shelve a universal health care bill. Activists stormed the capitol and even sent death threats to legislators.

As President Donald Trump continues his second international trip this week, it appears G20 climate change proponents are faltering at their attempts to isolate him after the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord.
“Huge efforts are underway now to make sure as many countries as possible hold the line and compensate for America’s withdrawal by redoubling their efforts. How far this goes, I have my doubts,” said Dennis Snower, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a leading German think tank advising the European Commission ahead of the summit meeting.

I have long joked about the negative feelings that Californians inspire among citizens in the remaining 49 states. However, new arrivals to Portland, Oregon were the victims of something more than a joke. Their home and auto were the target of a graffiti attack that told them to return to the Golden State.
A couple from California, who relocated to Portland 4 months ago, woke up Sunday to find their car and house vandalized.