News
Compiled by Michael Hernandez, 3-3-25
(Editor’s Note: Election 2026 Countdown reflects the author’s vision/mission to see the rise of a New California Coalition of conservatives: Gen Z (ages 13-28), Latinos, Christians with biblical traditional values and their pastors with the goal of turning California red by the 2026 elections.)
Jan. 27: CalMatters By Lauren Hepler and Byrhonda Lyons
CalMatters Lawsuit Forces LA officials To Turn Over Secret Homeless Shelter Complaints
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, better known as LAHSA, agreed to a settlement with CalMatters in Superior Court last month, committing to release at least 175 incident reports every other week until the public records request is fulfilled. The agency estimates there are 5,000 such reports.
CalMatters filed the legal complaint in the fall, after LAHSA repeatedly denied our requests for copies of internal shelter incident reports — documents designed to track serious issues inside taxpayer-funded homeless shelters, including deaths, assaults, domestic violence and medical emergencies. We first requested the reports in January 2024
Feb. 17: The Federalist By Logan Washburn
The Department Of Defense Has Allocated Millions Of Dollars To Create Phony Social Media Profiles The Government Could Turn Against Americans
The Department of Defense funded a “large scale social deception” program, according to public spending disclosures. The Federalist has uncovered documents showing how the federal government used “social engineering” programs to develop networks of fraudulent social media accounts capable of violating Americans’ rights to speech and privacy online — and, potentially, psychological warfare.
The DOD awarded more than $9.1 million for Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) for “Active Social Engineering Defense…Large Scale Social Deception” starting in 2018, according to government funding disclosures. Of the total amount promised, the federal government reportedly paid — or “outlaid” — more than $268,000 for the project.
TRSS is a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, which owns the lmedia outlet Reuters. According to the company’s website, it offers “scalable solutions to governments and global institutions,” and its leadership “leverages real-world experience in the US Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, law enforcement and the private sector.” The Air Force awarded the contract, and the DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — the military’s shady research branch — funded the work in “large scale social deception.”
Feb. 20: LA Times By Anabel Sosa
Black lawmakers renew push to assist California descendants of enslaved Americans
The California Legislative Black Caucus on Thursday proposed a package of reparations for the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved in the United States, proposals that include preferences for public university admissions and financial assistance for first-time home buyers. The package contains 15 bills in what caucus members said will be a multiyear effort to repair the generational harms and discrimination suffered by the descendants of the enslaved in California.
In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers formed a “first in the nation” state task force to study and propose remedies for the legacy of slavery. During the end of the legislative session last year, reform advocates were frustrated that the Legislature, which was limited by a tight state budget and a high-stakes election year, passed only 10 of the 14 bills prioritized by the Legislative Black Caucus.
Feb. 24: LA Times By Alan Wigglesworth
Coordinated Train Heists In The Mojave Target Nike Sneakers
That’s the modus operandi described by investigators in a string of at least 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in California and Arizona since last March. All but one resulted in the theft of Nike sneakers, their combined value approaching $2 million, according to investigators.
New sneaker releases may have touched off at least some of the recent incidents. In Perrin, Ariz., thieves allegedly cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train on Jan. 13 and unloaded 1,985 pairs of unreleased Nikes worth more than $440,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Many were Nigel Sylvester x
Air Jordan 4s, which won’t be available to the public until March 14 and are expected to retail at $225 per pair, the complaint states.
Theft crews typically scout high-value merchandise on rail lines that parallel Interstate 40 by boarding slow-moving trains, such as when they are changing tracks and opening containers, said Keith Lewis, vice president of operations at Verisk’s CargoNet and a deputy with the Mohave County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department.
Lewis said the thieves are sometimes tipped off to valuable shipments by confederates working at warehouses or trucking companies. Other times they simply look for containers with high-security locks, which they cut with reciprocating saws or bolt cutters, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent said in affidavits filed in federal court.
Once the desired loot is found, the thieves alert “follow vehicles,” which track the train. The stolen goods are tossed off the train after it comes to a halt — either for a scheduled stop or because an air hose has been cut or control wires inside signal boxes have been sabotaged, said the federal agent, Brynna Cooke.
The cargo is then loaded into box trucks, or hidden in nearby brush until they arrive — provided the surveillance crews that are following the train don’t detect law enforcement, Cooke said. These tactics are often employed by transnational criminal groups that consist primarily of Mexican citizens from Sinaloa, she said.
There were at least 65,000 railroad cargo thefts last year, a 40% increase from 2023, according to industry estimates compiled by the Assn. of American Railroads. The thefts — which are typically classified as burglaries because they don’t involve directly confronting victims, as with robberies — are believed to have cost the nation’s largest rail companies more than $100 million, according to the trade group.
Feb. 25: CalMatters By Lauren Hepler
Inside The Scandals And Abuse Pushing California’s Homeless Out Of Shelters
The records catalog the chaos inside California homeless shelters. Among the findings:
- California spent big on a shelter boom. No state agency could provide an estimate for how much total taxpayer money is spent on shelters, so CalMatters analyzed local contracts and state funding data. We found that governments have invested at least $1 billion since 2018. The number of emergency shelter beds in the state more than doubled, from around 27,000 to 61,000, federal data shows. There are still three times as many homeless people as there are shelter beds in California.
- Those shelters are deadlier than jails. Annual shelter death rates tripled between 2018 and mid-2024. A total of 2,007 people died, according to data obtained from the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. That’s nearly twice as many deaths as California jails saw during the same period.
- Scandals have plagued fast-growing shelter operators. Oakland’s Bay Area Community Services saw revenue climb 1,000% in a decade to $98 million in 2023. At the same time, it faced a long list of allegations against staff at one taxpayer-funded shelter, including fraud and inappropriate relationships with clients. LA’s Special Service for Groups brought in $170 million in 2023, a nine-figure jump since 2017, while drawing complaints and lawsuits over violence and sexual misconduct.
- Oversight is failing at every level. While the state sends local governments hundreds of millions of dollars for shelters, it does little to ensure accountability. Nearly all of California’s 500-plus cities and counties have ignored a state law that requires them to document and address dangerous shelter conditions, Cal Matters founds. Meanwhile, audits and complaints show that the local agencies that directly pay and monitor shelter contractors often fail to follow up on reports of unsafe conditions, unused beds or missed housing targets.
- The result: Shelters become a bridge to nowhere. California shelters fail to move the vast majority of residents into permanent housing. Shelters operators, governments and researchers don’t always agree on the best way to calculate their effectiveness — but even under the most generous formula, the state’s shelters delivered housing for just 22% of residents from 2018 to early 2024. Shelters often kick out far more people than they place in housing.
Feb. 27: Gateway Pundit By Mike LaChance
Washington Post Reporter Lays Out Grim New Reality For Democrats In The Age Of Trump
Dan Balz of the Washington Post recently spoke at the Harvard Kennedy School and went over some basic numbers about the electorate. None of it was good news for Democrats.
Balz outlined how Trump managed to almost flip the two parties in terms of how they appeal to voters. He pointed out that Trump had won certain groups that haven’t gone to Republicans in years. He also noted that Democrats have not even begun to figure out what they are going to do about it. People in attendance were obviously taking all of this very seriously. You could hear a pin drop.
Donald Trump has won 25 states in the past three elections. In those 25 states, the Republicans have 22 governors, 24 state legislatures, and all 50 senators. About 40 percent, maybe slightly less of the voting-age population has college degrees. Kamala Harris got about 55 or 56 percent of that vote. The rest of the population, without college degrees, Trump got 56 percent of that vote. That is a problem that the Democrats haven’t solved and need to solve.
Balz also pointed out how Trump won in households with income below $50K, which usually would be the bastion of the Democrats — the first time that had happened “since the 90s.” Trump also won with the next bracket up — the $50k to just under $100k. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris won with over $100K.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/washington-post-reporter-lays-grim-new-reality-democrats/
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Michael Hernandez, is co-founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service and writes for CitizensJournal.net. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor and is editor of the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and “Election 2026 Countdown.”Mr. Hernandez mentors citizens journalists and can be contacted at [email protected].
Feb. 24: CalMatters By Ben Christopher
‘Limited To No impact’: Why A Pro-Housing Group Says California’s Pro-Housing Laws Aren’t Producing More
Feb. 21: CalMatters By Ben Christopher
ADUs and HOAs
Note to readers: we are publishing some of these California articles to temporarily provide an online platform for people who will be establishing a new publication.
