r/CaliforniaUncensored

Xavier Becerra, the Democratic frontrunner in the California gubernatorial race, is being accused of “immigrant stolen valor” after a viral social media post poked holes in his campaign’s family origin story.

Conservative Latino activists and organizations are blasting Becerra over his repeated description of himself as the son of immigrants who arrived in the US with $12 — despite his father having been born in Sacramento before bouncing back and forth between Mexico and California.

“Latino Free Minds” podcast host Daniel Reyes, who called the Dem’s narrative about his father “stolen valor” in a reference to the term for military frauds, accused Becerra of exploiting immigrant hardships to win votes.

He’s trying to get a vote, so he took his dad’s hard work and that success story, and just turned it into some pandering statement just for votes,” Reyes told the California Post. “That’s the embarrassing part.”

Becerra’s Republican rival, Steve Hilton, is scheduled to deliver “The Case Against Xavier Becerra” Wednesday, attacking the former President Joe Biden health secretary for “campaigning as if the job is already his,” according to a Hilton press release.

Hilton is expected to hammer Becerra over his limited campaigning, alleged political indifference and his handling of the border crisis, which Hilton claims forced children into overcrowded facilities, The Post learned.

Hilton also took shots online over Becerra’s “immigrant” claims.

Becerra’s campaign has defended itself against accusations of lying to voters. However, in remarks the night of the June primary election, Becerra described his parents’ coming-to-America story as “two immigrants, $12 and a dream.” His campaign website still uses the same description.

Jesse Holguin, a former Los Angeles-area gang leader from La Puente who founded Latinos Exiting the Left, accused Becerra of using his parents’ story to manufacture a connection with Latino voters.

“That’s why he tried to act like his parents were from over there because he’s trying to pander to the Latinos,” Holguin said. “He just thinks that’s gonna make him sound more Latino to them, and they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s a real Latino, and he’s really for us.’”

**Common Sense would be You should be using some Type of Certified Breathing apparatus when working around This Industry.-------------------------------------/

California is looking to ban the creation or installation of man-made quartz amid cases of a fatal lung disease that increasingly affects workers who carve the material to make kitchen countertops.

California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is expected to pass the emergency regulation for man-made quartz in October, indicating a growing concern over the preferred alternative to granite and marble.

The ban would be for manufactured stone that contains more than 1 percent of crystalline silica.

The state is expected to review the regulation before it becomes law.

This can, in turn, affect the lungs, which react with an aggressive immune response. Scar tissue forms, leading to the killing of the lung.

Once patients begin suffering from silicosis, they often need a single or double lung transplant.

The number of Californians suffering from the disease has surged in recent years, jumping from 31 cases in 2019 to a staggering 631 as of mid-August, one study found.

Nearly all of the victims have been men, with about half of them in Los Angeles County, the report said. Their median age is 52.

One of those victims is Enrique Gonzalez, a San Fernando Valley stone worker who has been unable to work for the past two years after developing silicosis from years of working in granite and stone manufacturing.

Gonzalez’s family previously told the California Post his disease left the family struggling to cover medical expenses and everyday costs.

His daughter, Edith Gonzalez, 30, said that her father’s health started improving only after the lung transplant he received this summer.

“He has recovered really well from the lung transplant. His body took it really well. He is showing signs of improvement, like right away,” Gonzalez said. “Before he got his lung transplant, he got really, really bad. Like his condition was very bad, where he got intubated because he couldn’t breathe, even just a little bit.”

Fortunately, Gonzalez said, her father was already on the transplant list by the time his condition became critical. The family had initially been warned that finding donor lungs could take years.

“So thankfully, when his condition got really bad, he had that lung transplant,” she said.

Before the procedure, even walking short distances had become extremely difficult. Gonzalez said her father used a cane and often needed a wheelchair to get from the car to medical appointments or the emergency room. Even while using supplemental oxygen, he would frequently become short of breath.

Now, his life looks dramatically different.

“Right after he got his lung transplant, obviously yes he had some help with walking and support, but now he doesn’t need a cane. He doesn’t need a wheelchair,” Gonzalez said. “He’s able to do his morning and evening walks. He’s like a new person.”

His daughter described him as a quiet, family-oriented man who spent much of his life working and was the household’s primary breadwinner.

“He’s always just been at home, gone to work, and back home,” she said.

The transplant marks a major turnaround for Gonzalez, but his recovery is far from over. His daughter said he remains under significant restrictions and spends much of his time attending medical appointments, undergoing physical therapy and following up with doctors.

“He can’t really be outside. He can’t go to a lot of places,” she said. “So right now it’s all been about his recovery of just staying home and going to the doctors.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed legislation cracking down on the practice of luxury-car buyers in California registering cars out of state to avoid taxes.

Senate Bill 1406, introduced by state Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton), closes the so-called Montana loophole, in which tax evaders create shell companies in Montana or other states without sales tax or vehicle registration fees and use them to purchase Ferraris, Porsches and other luxury cars. The state estimate it loses millions of dollars annually because of such schemes.

The new law expands California’s definition of who is a resident under state sales tax law in an effort to weed out phony shell companies, making a company liable for state taxes when at least one member of the business is a California resident.

The law, which went into effect immediately, also authorizes the state tax agency to impose tax liability on individual members of a business.

California had already looked to enforcement efforts to investigate suspicious out-of-state car sales, which officials estimate amount to $10 million annually in lost tax revenue.

Under state law, residents were already required to pay California sales tax on vehicles unless they are first used out of state and stay out of state for at least 12 months. Dealers are required to maintain records showing sales of vehicles so that authorities can ensure vehicles sold to buyers in another state are actually delivered there.

Earlier this year, the state’s Department of Justice charged 14 people — including auto dealers and customers purchasing cars — with concealing the purchase of more than $20 million worth of high-end vehicles including Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis, and evading upward of $1.8 million in state taxes.

Text messages included in the criminal complaint showed buyers seeking to conceal their purchases. One Lamborghini buyer boasted about fees avoided: “70k saved — I can’t believe Montana registration lasts for 5 years — that’s crazy. Stupid California. Paid 3k to own a 600k car for 5 years — lol in Cali that’s like 75k for 5 years. Hella dumb.”

The new law further develops criteria to help show an LLC as a shell company involved in a potential tax evasion scheme.

If the LLC lacks a specific business activity or purpose, fails to maintain a physical location outside California, fails to employ people, or fails to file federal tax returns in another state, it could now be considered as evidence of such a scheme.

Republican Steve Hilton calls the no-show pathetic; Independent reporter Anthony Cabassa says Becerra did not want to be asked why he lied about his family’s history

By Megan Barth, October 5, 2026 3:38 pm

Democrat Xavier Becerra has pulled out of a scheduled Los Angeles Times debate with Republican rival Steve Hilton, Hilton announced Monday, a retreat that comes on the heels of independent reporter Anthony Cabassa’s exposure and challenge of Becerra’s claim that his parents arrived as immigrants with twelve dollars in their pockets.

Hilton posted the announcement on X Monday afternoon, calling the withdrawal a break from a pledge Becerra made in August to participate in multiple debates.

“Becerra PULLS OUT of tomorrow’s LA Times debate,” Hilton wrote. “The move comes after a new poll found CNN debate viewers favored Hilton 74% to 20%. In August, Becerra promised MULTIPLE debates. Now after losing the first, he’s back in hiding—taking voters for granted. Pathetic!”

The only televised matchup between the two nominees so far was CNN’s California gubernatorial debate on Sept. 30 in Burbank. During that hour, Becerra repeatedly tied Hilton to President Donald Trump. Hilton answered that the Democratic nominee was offering “more of the same” after years of one-party rule in Sacramento.

On that same stage, Hilton charged that as Health and Human Services secretary, Becerra was responsible for hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children and had weakened the vetting of the sponsors who took them. Hilton said thousands were sent to sex and labor traffickers and that many children the department placed are still missing. Becerra brushed the charge off as a Trump talking point. Hilton shot back that the reporting came from the New York Times, which won a Pulitzer Prize for it.

Cabassa, whose Oct. 4 thread on the family story drew tens of thousands of engagements, connected the cancellation directly to that reporting. “Following my viral report that Xavier Becerra LIED about his family’s immigrant story, Xavier Becerra has abruptly CANCELLED his debate with @SteveHiltonx tomorrow with @latimes,” Cabassa wrote Monday evening. “I guess he didn’t want to be asked why he lied to millions about his family’s history.”

The timing is hard to separate from the claim Becerra repeated on the CNN stage.

Cabassa’s original reporting found that Becerra told debate viewers his parents “came to this country with $12,” a line he has used throughout the general-election campaign. Cabassa traced the wording to an April 2, 2025, Contra Costa News press release issued the day Becerra announced for governor: “My parents came to California with $12 in their pockets. They built a life they were proud of.”

His review found no earlier recorded use of the line in Becerra’s years in Congress, as California attorney general, or as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden.

The paper trail Cabassa published does not match Becerra’s pitch. An obituary for Becerra’s father, Manuel Guerrero Becerra, who died in 2020, states that he was born in Sacramento on July 14, 1928—in California, not Mexico—the eldest of eight children.

The same obituary says the family later moved to Tijuana and that Manuel returned to California as a young teenager, not as an adult immigrant arriving with a wife and a few dollars. It further states that he worked on the railroad for several years before marrying a woman he met in Jalisco, Mexico, bringing her to California, and that the couple purchased a home soon after the wedding.

Cabassa reported that he contacted Becerra’s campaign press team and that staff declined to comment after asking which outlet he represented.

Becerra finished first in the June 2 top-two primary with about 28%of the vote. Hilton, a former Fox News host endorsed by Trump, took the second spot with roughly 25%, ahead of Democrat Tom Steyer. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted Sept. 15–20 and sponsored by the Los Angeles Times still showed Becerra leading Hilton 58% to 33% among likely voters.

Hilton’s campaign has pointed to post-debate viewer surveys and its own polling as evidence the race tightened after the CNN broadcast.

Hilton has spent the general election casting Becerra as the “ultimate career politician” and arguing that California’s highest-in-the-nation costs are the product of the Democratic machine Becerra has served for decades.

Monday’s announcement frames the next week as a test of whether Becerra will face those attacks, and Cabassa’s questions about the origin story, on a debate stage, or keep running on the lead public polls still give him while avoiding reporters.

Challenge Becerra journalists, and make him answer your questions

By Katy Grimes, October 5, 2026 3:00 pm

Breaking news today: Xavier Becerra PULLS OUT of tomorrow’s LA Times debate, the Hilton campaign reported. “The move comes after a new poll found CNN debate viewers favored Hilton 74% to 20%.”

This makes us question what should voters expect from candidates applying for the job of California Governor?

Ideologically, this goes beyond Steve Hilton or Xavier Becerra.

The Governor’s job is uniquely important, and can improve and advance, or harm and destroy a state. Voters should never treat the race and election lightly.

California has one of the largest economies in the world. The governor oversees a massive state government: approximately 570,200 total state employees, in 158 state agencies, plus in higher education.

The governor makes decisions affecting nearly 40 million residents, in a state that encompasses 163,700 square miles.

If you are applying for that job, shouldn’t voters expect you to show up, answer questions, defend your record, and explain what you would actually do?

Let’s look at the two current gubernatorial campaigns.

For the past year, there has been a Steve Hilton media advisory, press release or press event every day. Steve regularly does three or four events in a day, crisscrossing the state. He talks to reporters constantly. He gives reporters his cell phone number. He calls them himself. He answers questions, including the uncomfortable ones.

Hilton has accepted 12 debate invitations and several forums.

He is running like someone who actually wants to earn the job.

Compare that with Xavier Becerra.

Becerra promised Californians multiple debates. With less than 30 days remaining, will these debates take place?

There are no California debates currently on the calendar. The one debate he agreed to was with CNN, a national news organization using its national moderators rather than a California news organization and California journalists.

Why?

If Becerra is running to lead California, why isn’t he willing to debate his opponent before California reporters, with broadcasting on California local news stations?

The contrast extends beyond debates.

Reporters regularly call Steve Hilton directly and quote him in stories. With Becerra, his communications staff frequently answers for him.

Hilton holds events and takes questions. Becerra has held few traditional press conferences and has been seen leaving events without taking questions.

This doesn’t mean reporters should go easier on Steve – quite the opposite. But Becerra should receive the same attention:

Challenge him.

Question his numbers.

Scrutinize his advertisements.

Ask him how he will accomplish what he is promising.

That is exactly what political reporters are supposed to do, and Steve Hilton has been challenged, questioned, scrutinized and had his policy positions dissected.

Shouldn’t the same standard apply to Xavier Becerra?

There are serious questions about Becerra’s record that deserve answers. His tenure as President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary, and the government’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children, which has been the subject of extensive investigative reporting, including by The New York Times. Migrant children are still missing and legacy media doesn’t seem too interested.

Whatever Becerra’s explanation is, shouldn’t California voters hear it directly from him?

House Oversight Chairman James Comer recently accused Xavier Becerra when he was HHS Secretary of potentially hiding Anthony Fauci’s COVID-era diary and cellphone from Congress — documents that contained references to “COVID-19,” “gain-of-function,” and “Wuhan” that Republicans specifically requested in November 2023. Becerra either intentionally withheld the materials or failed to conduct an adequate search, according to Comer.

Becerra already had his own troubles in D.C. as he was up to his eyeballs in the House Democratic Caucus Awan Brothers Congressional IT Scandal. Then-Rep. Xavier Becerra was the caucus chairman when he gave a fake server to the cops in order to obstruct their investigation.

Crickets on that issue.

What about the debates Becerra promised?

What specifically would he do differently from the Newsom administration that has governed California for the past eight years, and the Brown administration eight years before that?

What does he think California government has gotten wrong? Or right?

What would he change? What does he like about California government?

Where does he disagree with Gavin Newsom and Sacramento Democrats?

What does he think he personally got wrong – or right – during his decades in public office? Why does he deserve to be governor?

Those aren’t Center Right or Center Left questions. They are basic questions for someone applying to be governor.

There is also a larger media question worth examining.

Are we seeing the “Karen Bass effect,” when she declared that the governor’s election is over and Xavier is the next governor of California? Because if everyone assumes a Democrat will win, the Republican candidate risks being covered as the challenger who must prove everything, while the Democratic candidate is treated almost like an incumbent who merely has to avoid mistakes. And hide in the basement.

That would be a disservice to voters.

A campaign strategy of minimizing risk may be politically smart. But journalists aren’t obligated to accommodate it.

If a candidate won’t hold a press conference, he needs to be asked why.

If a candidate promised debates and isn’t doing them, he needs to be asked why?

If campaign staff answers questions instead of the candidate, reporters need to keep asking for the candidate, and only for the candidate.

If there are difficult questions about a candidate’s record, ask them. Voters deserve answers.

And if one candidate is doing three or four public events a day while the other is maintaining a dramatically lighter public presence, that contrast itself is worth examining.

There is something refreshing about a candidate actually campaigning, and one so accessible.

Steve Hilton knows this is an uphill race. He knows reporters are going to challenge him. He shows up anyway, and answers the questions asked of him.

That is what running for office is supposed to look like.

You don’t have to agree on everything with Steve Hilton. You don’t have to like all of his policies. Journalists certainly shouldn’t give him a pass.

But Xavier Becerra shouldn’t get one either, and it appears the California press are providing him that pass.

California voters deserve to see both candidates questioned, challenged, and forced to defend their records and their plans before Election Day.

The governor’s office is too important for anything less.

The story isn’t that the media should be nicer to Steve Hilton.

The story is much simpler: Why isn’t Xavier Becerra being required to work for the job he wants?

This is about legacy media not doing their job. Why? Do they support Xavier? Shouldn’t they be intellectually curious enough to want to know how Becerra will govern? What his policies are?

They never fail to write about how Steve said this and Steve did that, and they scrutinize ads by Steve, discussing on social media who favors it and who opposes it. But shouldn’t that same level of scrutiny apply to Xavier Becerra?

Just because Becerra is mostly MIA doesn’t mean journalists shouldn’t ask the same questions of him they ask of Steve Hilton. And if they get crickets, report the crickets.

Why give him a pass?

Is Becerra just applying this absence as a campaign strategy to avoid holding events, avoid screwing up, or showing how unqualified he is?

Challenge him, and make him answer your questions. Make all politicians and candidates answer all of your questions.

Too good to be True.

Celeb-backed clean eating restaurant True Food Kitchen announced this week that they are filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — citing $42 million in debt.

The staple of tony Southern California shopping malls and downtowns abruptly shrank its local footprint — suddenly shuttering stores in Century City, El Segundo and San Diego.

Other locations in Miami; Chicago; New Orleans; Bethesda, Maryland; Edison and Hackensack, New Jersey; Garden City, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and Reston, Virginia are gone as well, a spokesperson confirmed to the California Post.

Sunday, October 4 marked the last day of operation for those locations.

“True Food Kitchen is a pioneering brand with a distinctive position in wellness-driven dining, a loyal community of guests, and a mission that is more relevant than ever,” said Jeff Chandler, Chief Executive Officer of True Food Kitchen, in a written statement released on Monday.

“This process is the best path forward to simplify the business and focus on what we do best: delivering craveable, health-forward food and genuine hospitality. We are confident this step will help us build a stronger True Food Kitchen for the future.”

The trendy chain was founded in Arizona in 2008 and has been backed by Oprah Winfrey, who invested an undisclosed amount into the business in 2018.

True Food Kitchen told FOX Business that Winfrey remains a minority investor in the business — but does not have a representative on the company’s board, nor is she involved in True Food Kitchen’s management.

Just four years ago, the business raised $100 million from health-conscious investors including MannaTree Partners and Human Co., which is backed by Nick Jonas and wife Piryanka Chopra.

True Food Kitchen is now seeking a buyer “with the resources and mission alignment to support the brand’s future.”

Registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente hospitals across California announced Monday morning that they have successfully won an arbitration agreement mandating Kaiser pay stolen wages dating back to at least 2021.

More than 1,000 nurses will be awarded a sum in the tens of millions of dollars.

“Unfortunately, Kaiser wants to normalize stealing from nurses,” said Michelle Gutierrez Vo, a registered nurse in adult/family medicine at Kaiser Fremont Medical Center and a president of the California Nurses Association, representing more than 25,000 nurses at 22 Kaiser facilities.

“They changed their payroll system, messed it up, and let the mistake steal millions of dollars from nurses. When we called them on it, their fancy lawyers fought us tooth and nail for every single dollar. Nurses wouldn’t take no for an answer, and we won back millions of dollars in stolen wages, and we went above and beyond Kaiser’s earlier attempts to settle for less.”

The CNA was first notified by Kaiser nurses several years ago of issues with wage theft following a change in Kaiser’s payroll system dating back to at least early 2021. Because the union does not have direct access to Kaiser’s payroll system, the organization said it took years of nurses working together to piece together the true scale and extent of the problem, which Kaiser repeatedly tried to minimize and obscure. The organization believes the final sum could total in the tens of millions.

Nurses announced in a news release that they remain outraged that “Kaiser spent years and untold sums in legal expenses in their effort to avoid paying the wages they had stolen, which, while substantial, were still only a fraction of the organization’s billions of dollars in profits.”

“This entire experience has been a reminder for us that Kaiser would rather pay lawyers to fight nurses than pay nurses to take care of our patients,” said Vo. “It is another disgusting reminder of this company’s priorities. And, for us, it’s also another powerful reminder of what’s possible when nurses work together to demand what we’re owed from companies like Kaiser.”

During the past year, nurses have picketed across the state, including two recent protests in Solano County — at Vallejo and in Vacaville – that were part of 22 in California representing more than 25,000 Kaiser nurses represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. Kaiser was protesting Kaiser Permanente’s role in safe staffing and AI protections.

Registered nurse and Quality Liaison for Kaiser Vacaville, Cristina Stathopoulos, said at a recent protest that hearing car horns showing support from people passing by felt good.

“The support from the community has been wonderful,” Stathopoulos said in September. “I think a lot of the people honking are members here (Kaiser) so they see us working really hard and try to give the best support we can under the really short staffing that Kaiser has been providing them.”

However, Kaiser Permanente disagreed, saying in September that its nurses are “among the best-paid in California and the country.”

“A typical CNA Staff Nurse II in Northern California earns over $100 per hour, before overtime or premium pay, roughly 7 percent above the market for comparable roles at other health systems,” said Meghan Kielty-Swinford, the Regional Chief Nurse Executive, Kaiser Permanente, last month. “At our Los Angeles Medical Center, a typical CNA Staff Nurse RN earns roughly 21 percent more than comparable roles. In Fresno and Sacramento, pay for a typical CNA Staff Nurse RN is approximately 15 percent above market. Ninety-five percent of our CNA-represented nurses in Northern California and 93 percent at our Los Angeles Medical Center choose to remain at Kaiser Permanente year after year — one of the highest retention rates in the industry.

Most days, the California’s secretary of state’s tasks include overseeing business filings, historic documents and notaries public. But come election time, the state agency becomes a conductor in a symphony of activity essential to democracy.

Leading the orchestra is Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who thinks California’s elections are secure. Hoping to take her baton in the Nov. 3 general election is Don Wagner, who supports requiring voters to show identification before they cast ballots.

The secretary of state sets standards, enforces laws and certifies results in federal, statewide and state legislative elections in partnership with election officials in 58 counties. This includes overseeing how elections are conducted, from approving voting technology and setting deadlines to determining the order in which candidates’ names appear on ballots.

Weber first got her job through a round of political music chairs. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her to the role in 2020 after picking then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill the U.S. Senate seat held by Kamala Harris until she became vice president.

Elected to a four-year term in 2022, Weber, a Democrat and former state assemblymember who served on San Diego’s school board, is seeking reelection in November for an office that pays about $184,000 annually.

Opposing her is Wagner, a Republican and Orange County supervisor. Weber and Wagner advanced to the general election by finishing first and second, respectively, out of four candidates in the June primary.

Nationally, debate rages about whether U.S. elections are secure. Studies show voter fraud is exceedingly rare and nowhere near the level that would change an election’s outcome, but President Donald Trump continues to push for voting restrictions while repeating false claims that he won the 2020 election.

California’s elections “are free and fair,” Weber, 78, said in response to a Southern California News Group voter guide questionnaire.

“The best thing that could happen to reassure voters would be for the president to stop lying,” she said. “But that seems unlikely to happen given his temperament.”

“Absent that,” Weber added, “I will continue to be transparent and fair — our office investigates any claims of election irregularities, and we work tirelessly to get it right.”

A former Irvine mayor who also served in the Assembly and as a community college trustee, Wagner, 65, noted that he sued the secretary of state to clear what he said were more than 870,000 “ghost voters” from the voting rolls.

“That is not to say that the fraud is so rampant as to affect elections,” Wagner wrote responding to the questionnaire. “But those facts, and much else, makes it legitimate, even inevitable, for voters to question the integrity of our system.”

If elected, Wagner said he would start reforms “to count ballots faster, to actually do what state and federal law permit the secretary of state to do to clean the voter rolls of those who have moved, passed away, or have no right to vote, and by implementing a chain of custody for ‘harvested’ ballots.”

Ballot harvesting is a term, often used derisively by conservatives, referring to the legal practice of one person dropping off multiple ballots, each cast by an individual voter.

Wagner and Weber also differ on voter ID. Wagner supports Proposition 39, a November ballot measure that would mandate the practice.

“Most states have some form of voter ID, and those laws have been proven not to depress turnout or deny voting rights to anyone,” he said.

"The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says it is investigating the discovery of a rabies-positive raccoon in the backyard of a home in the Westlake Village area.

The last known confirmed rabid raccoon in Los Angeles County was detected in 1973, health officials said, when the skunk strain of rabies was still present in the county. That strain has not been detected in L.A. County since 1979, health officials say.

The raccoon found in Westlake Village reportedly appeared sick but was not aggressive towards people.

One dog that was up to date on its rabies vaccine may have been exposed to the raccoon, health officials say. The dog is under quarantine and is 'doing well.'

Four people at a worksite may have also been exposed to the raccoon and are receiving recommended follow-up for rabies post-exposure preventative care.

The rabies variant the raccoon was infected with has not yet been determined. Public Health is awaiting variant testing, which can take several weeks.

'Based on current knowledge of rabies occurrence in Los Angeles County, it is likely this raccoon was infected with rabies from a bat,' health officials said.

Rabies remains a public health concern world wide. While it’s preventable, it causes tens of thousands of human deaths globally each year, with most cases linked to exposure to dogs in counties where the dog strain of the variant is still present.

The dog strain of rabies was eradicated in the United States through routine vaccination of pets. However, other strains of rabies continue to circulate in wildlife, including bats.

All strains can infect any mammal and cause disease, health officials warn.

Rabies is a nearly 100% fatal viral disease in people and animals caused by the rabies virus. It’s most commonly transmitted through the bite or scratch of an infected animal, or when saliva from a rabid animal comes into contact with an open wound or mucous membranes such as the eyes, nose or mouth.

Symptoms include, in people, initially fever, weakness, and headache. It progresses to a tingling sensation, anxiety, agitation, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, difficulty swallowing, coma, then death.

In animals, symptoms include vomiting, respiratory distress before progressing into neurologic signs – circling, difficulties walking, behavior change, aggression, paralysis, hydrophobia (fear of water), death." - KTLA 5 News

A gym in the right district got $29 million because someone made a phone call

By Jose Navarro, October 6, 2026 9:30 am

Somewhere in Sacramento, a gym is getting $29 million. A farmers market is getting $13 million. A fund for retired MMA fighters is getting $1 million. None of it went through a grant application, a scoring rubric, or a public hearing where a citizen could ask why. It went in because a legislator asked for it, in the final 48 hours before the budget passed, with no name attached to the request.

That is the mechanism behind the $1.3 billion in earmarks CalMatters identified in this year’s state budget, and as a financial controller, the dollar figure is not what stops me. What stops me is the process that produced it. California’s Legislature allows individual lawmakers to submit private funding requests, capped by leadership, that get folded into budget bills introduced days before the session ends. The requester’s name is not published. The review is not public. By the time anyone outside the building can ask a question, the money is already appropriated.

Some of what came out of that process is defensible on its face. Turning a defunct Alameda County horse track into $125 million of public parkland is the kind of project a normal grant process might also fund, just with more paperwork and more time. But defensible outcomes reached through an indefensible process are still a process problem, because the process is what determines which $125 million projects get funded and which ones with equal merit get nothing.

The distributional pattern makes that concrete. Los Angeles County pulled in more than $300 million. Tulare County, similar in population but represented by the opposing party, received $200,000. Seventeen counties got nothing at all. That is not what a merit-based allocation looks like. It is what a system organized around who has a seat at the table looks like, and the seats at that table are not evenly distributed by population, need, or even party control of the chamber — they are distributed by who chairs which committee and who negotiates with whom in the final 48 hours.

Look at where the earmarks landed geographically and a second pattern appears. Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón’s Santa Barbara district picked up $83.7 million in projects, on top of the $29 million gym. Governor Newsom’s home region picked up the $13 million farmers market and food hub. I am not suggesting either dollar was illegally directed. I am pointing out that a process with no public attribution of who asked for what will, predictably and every single time, favor the people who hold the most leverage in the room where the list gets finalized. That is not a scandal. It is arithmetic.

Eighty-six million dollars went to arts and culture organizations — museums, dance troupes, a mime company. Twenty-five million went to a UC Berkeley genomics institute. Twenty million went to a Holocaust education center. Each of those, evaluated individually, might well be exactly the kind of public investment California should be making. But “might well be” is precisely the judgment a transparent, competitive process exists to make with evidence, not the judgment a closed-door earmark list makes by default. Julie Baker of California for the Arts, whose sector benefited from $86 million of this money, still called the process “done all behind closed doors” and “somewhat inequitable.” When an advocate for the winning side says that on the record, the process problem is not a partisan complaint. It is a description.

Geoff Green, who runs CalNonprofits, put his finger on the real cost to everyone who plays by the rules that supposedly govern state grantmaking: organizations that spent months on standard grant applications watched $1.3 billion move through a side door in 48 hours, and were left asking, in his words, why they’d bothered spending all that time and energy at all. That is the actual price of an earmark process like this one. It is not just the money. It is the message it sends to every nonprofit, every city, every county that followed the rules and got nothing, while a gym in the right district got $29 million because someone made a phone call.

The fix does not require abolishing earmarks, which exist in some form in every legislature in the country and occasionally fund things a formal grant process would miss. It requires attribution and daylight: publish every earmark request with the requesting legislator’s name attached, publish it before the vote rather than after, and give the public the same three-to-five days of scrutiny that a normal grant application has to survive. A controller reviewing any organization’s books would flag $1.3 billion in unattributed, last-minute disbursements as a finding, not a footnote. Sacramento should hold itself to the same standard it would demand of any agency it audits.

***California HSR is one of the absolute biggest Fraud Issues in Our State.------------------------------------/

Fraud could cost federal taxpayers as much as $521 billion annually, according to a Foundation for Government Accountability report citing a federal estimate.

The report estimates that improper payments by the federal government have totaled about $3 trillion since 2003.

Liesel Crocker, the report’s author and senior research fellow at FGA, spoke with The Center Square in an exclusive interview regarding the findings.

“Fraud against federal programs now runs about $521 billion a year, or seven percent of everything Washington spends. Only five federal agencies have bigger budgets than that,” Crocker said. “And that's just the fraud we know about. Of more than 2,200 federal payment programs, only 64 are reviewed for improper payments each year.”

Much of the fraud is funneled through federal programs like Medicaid, food stamps, Medicare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and a “pandemic grant for concert venues,” Crocker explained.

“They have a lot in common. Each one frequently fails to double-check applicant information, hands the paperwork to state and county offices, and pushes huge volumes of money out fast,” Crocker said. “Fraud shows up where the checks are easiest to get.”

While the FGA, a nonpartisan think tank, applauded President Donald Trump’s War on Fraud and other antifraud efforts, it said more needs to be done—both by states and the U.S. Congress.

“The bottom line: Congress and states should build on President Trump’s efforts to crack down on fraud and corruption and save taxpayers billions,” the report said.

So far, there are more than 8,000 fraud cases being prosecuted by attorneys general across the country, which the report called just a “small fraction” of the fraud that is being perpetrated.

Crocker added to that claim, pointing to Minnesota as a particular area of concern, while the report also highlighted California, Illinois, Colorado, Maine and New York.

Those states were among 21 states that refused to cooperate with federal efforts to vet their food stamp programs for fraud. In the 29 states that did cooperate, the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered 186,000 dead enrollees and half a million people collecting benefits in two states at once.

“Food stamp trafficking is estimated to cost as much as $4.7 billion a year,” Crocker said. “Every dollar that goes to someone abusing the system is a dollar taken from the truly needy.”

She is hopeful the federal government's efforts are a step in the right direction though.

“This is not hopeless. We can fix this," Crocker said. "For 20 years, Washington never had a meaningful answer to rampant fraud. President Trump is finally treating stealing from the taxpayer like the crime it is. If this much turned up in the states that cooperated, we can only imagine what's hiding in the states that refuse.”

The report encouraged the uncooperative states to work with the federal government on ending “widespread fraud.” It also recommended:

• The Office of Management and Budget encourage more agencies to vet for fraud.

• OMB collaborate with the Treasury Department's Do Not Pay system.

• All programs better verify eligibility, evaluate high-risk providers, and investigate allegations of fraud.

One San Fernando Valley family got a brutal reminder that staying cool in Los Angeles can come with a scorching price tag.

Micah Reed was stunned when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power sent him a September utility bill totaling about $3,300.

Reed, who lives with his wife and two sons, said in a social media video that he kept the thermostat at 74 degrees Fahrenheit during August so that his “family wouldn’t melt.”

“Am I powering the entire crypto mining grid of the San Fernando Valley, or did LADWP just decide that I pay my mortgage twice this month?” Reed questioned.

The video racked up nearly a million views and thousands of responses from Angelenos who said they had similar concerns.

Reed then launched a petition to “demand an independent audit and summer rate relief.”

He argues that keeping homes cool during Valley summers, when temperatures can soar past 100 degrees, is a basic health and safety necessity.

“Yet, because of LADWP’s aggressive tiered pricing system and opaque pass-through charges, residents are effectively penalized with a massive ‘Heat Tax’ just for trying to avoid heatstroke,” he wrote.

The petition calls on City Controller Kenneth Mejia to conduct a public, independent audit of LADWP’s rate calculations, tiered pricing and pass-through charges, including the Energy Cost Adjustment and Incremental Reliability Cost Adjustment.

“Living in Los Angeles is already unaffordable enough. Running an air conditioner shouldn’t force families into debt,” Reed added.

The petition also calls for higher Tier 1 and Tier 2 electricity-use thresholds from July through September, “so households aren’t pushed into top-tier penalty rates for essential cooling during triple-digit heat waves.”

Reed is also seeking flexible monthly billing, limits on sewer and sanitation add-ons during peak heat and interest-free payment plans for residents hit with extreme summer bills.

The petition also calls for a halt to utility shutoffs for residents struggling with sky-high summer bills.

A new report has named Sacramento the “Asthma Capital” of the West.

The 2026 report by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranks the largest 100 cities in the contiguous United States by how challenging they are to live in when you have asthma.

California ranked No. 10 on the national list and topped the list of cities in the West, the foundation said.

“Asthma is greatly influenced by where someone lives,” the organization said.

The report ranked cities by asthma rates, emergency room visits and deaths. Why did Sacramento rank so highly?

Risk factors for Sacramento and California’s Central Valley include poor air quality, few asthma specialists and low RSV vaccination rates, which can lead to higher asthma rates and emergencies, the report said.

The Sacramento Bee meteorologist Sean Macaday said the city’s location in the “bowl” between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges is also to blame. During sunny and warm summer days, the atmosphere becomes incredibly stable, Macaday said, and in turn traps pollutants from car exhausts, ground-level ozone and pollen in the bowl. How did other California cities rank?

Fresno ranked No. 2 in the West and No. 12 on the national list, the foundation said.

Other California cities making the list include San Francisco, Stockton, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Jose, Oxnard and Riverside. What are the top ‘Asthma Capitals’ in the nation?

Allentown, Pennsylvania, ranks as the “Asthma Capital” of the United States, followed by Detroit, Rochester, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Lakeland, Florida, Syracuse, Harford, Charleston and Sacramento.

Overall, Pennsylvania ranked the worst for people with asthma.