California Issues ...
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‘Where’s the Recovery in All This?’: SF Buying Beer, Vodka for Homeless Alcoholics with Taxpayer Money
The city’s Department of Public Health runs the Managed Alcohol Program (MAP) to give doses of alcohol to the addicted, Fox News reported on Saturday.
Officials hope the program will “keep the homeless off the streets” and decrease incidents in which emergency services have to step in.
“Experts say the program can save or extend lives, but critics wonder if the government would be better off funding treatment and sobriety programs instead,” Fox noted.
In 2020, the San Francisco Health Department confirmed that officials were giving alcohol, tobacco, medical cannabis, and other substances to people to keep them from going outside to get it themselves during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, Breitbart News reported at the time.
Per the Fox article, the California Health Care Foundation said in 2020 nurses and trained workers administered managed alcohol programs in homeless shelters and transitional and permanent homes.
Speaking of not lying, the LA Times ran a terrific story yesterday headlined, “SoCal district to pay $360K to teacher who was fired after refusing to follow transgender policies.”
Based PE Teacher
Believe it or not, California has been one of the most reliable jurisdictions for pro-freedom cases. Maybe it’s the pressure cooker of woke insanity, or maybe it just reflects how far Newsom overreached. Either way, California judges have issued excellent rulings lately, like re-opening churches and striking down medical censorship laws.
And now, they’ve guided a result that will hammer a new sense of respect into school districts nationwide.
Jessica Tapia, former PE teacher at Jurupa Valley High School, refused — hypothetically, in her statements to district personnel — to use students’ preferred pronouns. She refused to allow students to use the locker room matching their gender identity. And She refused to withhold information from parents about their child’s gender identity.
So of course they fired her.
Jessica’s termination came right after delicate students reported several of Jessica’s social media posts as offensive, mostly because they mentioned transgender people and religion. When school officials ordered Jessica to cancel her personal social media activity, and slavishly adhere to district policies about transgender privacy and rights, she again refused, citing her Christian beliefs.
Jessica even respectfully requested a religious accommodation, explaining the district’s policies violated her sincerely held beliefs “regarding human sexuality and lying,” but her request was denied.
They denied her request to not lie.
In her wrongful termination lawsuit, Jessica argued the school violated her free speech and religious liberty rights. After some litigation, which must have convinced the district it had a losing case, on Tuesday the school finally settled, agreeing to pay Jessica $285,000, plus $75,000 to her attorneys.
That kind of result will encourage more attorneys to bring these kinds of cases.
Julianne Fleischer, one of Jessica’s lawyers, called the settlement an “incredible victory.” She correctly added, “We think it sends a strong message that there’s a price to pay when you ask a teacher to lie and withhold information.” A $360,000 price.
A price to pay on this Earth — and elsewhere. Just saying.
That’s not all. In the process, they’ve managed to turn Jessica into an activist, expanding her influence far beyond her old PE classes. She is now helping lead a new campaign called “Teachers Don’t Lie,” offering support to other educators whose faith is being compromised by mendacious school policies.
And that’s progress. The conservative counter-revolution just won another important battle. And we’re still just getting organized.
☕️ CHATTY ☙ Thursday, May 16, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
Seductive new covid scariant; AI development breaks the 2024 record books; Putin interview offers geopolitical insights; Congress finds better Trump witnesses; heroic Cal. PE teacher scores; and more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
California Has Become a Billboard Advertisement for Trump Amid Rising Gas Prices
Californians pay more at the gas pump than residents of any other state in the United States despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) so-called “plan” to crack down on windfall oil profits.
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The governor’s initiatives would likely not sit well with former California residents who fled that state for more conservative policies and lower taxes.
The average gallon of gas in California costs $5.21 a gallon, while in Arizona it is $3.90. In Nevada, a gallon of fuel costs $4.38. These states’ prices tend to rise simultaneously with California.
Last year, Newsom introduced legislation that would allow California’s energy commission to impose a “penalty” on refiner gross margins exceeding a to-be-determined cap. As a result, refiners in the state lost between 10 and 38 cents on gallons they produced from October 2023 to February 2024. Meanwhile, the gross margins were between 56 to 79 cents a gallon.
California's median home price hits record high at $900,000, realtors association says
The average price to buy a home in California has reached a new historic high with the median price for a dwelling in the state hitting $900,000, the California Association of Realtors said in a recent report.
The new record of $904,210 was recorded amid a spike in home sales for April, the group said — with existing single-family home sales totaling 275,540 in April. That was up by 3% from 267,470 in March.
California Association of Realtors President Melanie Barker said the rebound "in both home sales and price shows the resilience of California’s housing market and is a signal that buyers and sellers are beginning to adjust to the higher interest rate environment."
California Lawmakers Propose Requirement for New Cars to “Beep” When Over Speed Limit
California’s crime-friendly environment has led to numerous Legal Insurrection reports of smash-and-grab robberies, Beverly Hills becoming a ghost town, piracy in Oakland Day, and a constant stream of organized retail theft.
And while we reviewed some of the states crazy new laws that became effective this year, it certainly hasn’t stopped Sacramento from churning out more insanity.
The California Senate recently passed SB 961, a measure that which would require “passive speed limiters” to be installed in all new cars manufactured or sold in the Golden State by 2032.
Of course, the more obvious reasons for the spike in incidents — distracted driving from cell phone use and illegal immigrants violating our road rules as well as those related to border control — are entirely ignored by these virtue signalers.
Store #1 in San Diego/Pacific Beach is 1/2 block from the motel Gilligan and I stay at when we are out there. I hope they can keep that store open.
Reform California chairman slams proposal mandating illegal immigrants be hired for taxpayer-funded state jobs
"I have seen a lot of outrageous proposals from California Democrat politicians, bending over backwards to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get in and to get taxpayer benefits. But this one absolutely tops the list of insane ideas," DeMaio told Fox News Digital.
If passed, Assembly Bill 2586 would provide state government jobs at taxpayers’ expense for illegal immigrants. DeMaio said specifically, it mandates that illegal immigrants with no U.S. work authorization should be given access to apply for and take jobs provided through taxpayer-funded universities run by the state government.
"By passing a law to mandate that illegal immigrants be hired for taxpayer-funded jobs in state government, California Democrats are not only making our border crisis worse, they are openly violating federal employment laws that prohibit the hiring of illegal immigrants!" DeMaio said.
Clem72
Well-Known Member
Way to bury the lede. "Burglary tourist" Colombian nationals arrested in connection to some of these.
But with the birth of a new legal industry also came a new maze of bureaucracy. California’s many layers of government also wanted a share of the newly flowing cash. The 2016 legalization initiative gave local governments nearly total control over regulations, which allowed politicians at both the city and county level to restrict how many licenses were allowed in their communities. They could also require hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees, a trend that one industry blog called “extortionate” in 2019. In some cases, California’s local pot laws allowed politicians to engage in outright criminal corruption, as Politico reported in detail in 2020.
In short, lawmakers across the state saw the new industry as a “cash cow that needed to be milked,” according to Dennis Bozanich, who worked as a cannabis regulator in Santa Barbara (he was once deemed the “cannabis czar” by a local paper) during the first years of legalization. He now runs his own consulting practice for government affairs.
“I think everybody got greedy,” Bozanich told SFGATE, referring to both private companies that expanded too fast and government officials who created expensive regulations.
When sales first opened in 2018, things looked strong. A multibillion dollar pot market grew from nothing in a matter of months. The COVID-19 pandemic gave the market an additional boost in 2020 and 2021, when consumers across the West Coast spent more money on pot as they were stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns.
But the growth didn’t last long. California’s pot sales peaked in early 2021 and have since been coasting at a lethargic and slightly downward trajectory, with overall sales much lower than the estimates from pre-legalization had predicted. For the thousands of new pot business owners who invested heavily on the assumption their businesses would grow quickly — and keep growing for years — that spelled disaster. By the end of 2021, California was offering not a money-printing machine, but an overinvested market with nowhere near enough people buying pot.
Now, midway through 2024, thousands of pot companies have gone out of business, from the state’s biggest players like MedMen and Herbl to small family-run companies like Skibola’s Cosmic View. She decided to shut down her business this past April.