Author: admin

In Los Angeles, raw political power was laid bare in a leaked secret recording. In Sacramento, raw power is now being dressed up as “reform” and sent to the November 2025 ballot as Proposition 50. These two episodes show how lines on a map become lines of fracture for communities and fuel for partisan advantage. Los Angeles has 15 City Council districts. When leaked audio of a private meeting among several council members emerged in 2022, it revealed how even small numbers of seats can produce intense fights. Then-Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin DeLeon, and one…

By MAKIYA SEMINERA High school history teacher Katharina Matro often pulls materials from the Smithsonian Institution website as she assembles her lessons. She trusts its materials, which don’t require the same level of vetting as other online resources. She uses documents and other primary sources it curates for discussions of topics like genocide and slavery. As the White House presses for changes at the Smithsonian, she’s worried she may not be able to rely on it in the same way. “We don’t want a partisan history,” said Matro, a teacher in Bethesda, Maryland. “We want the history that’s produced by…

Containment of a brush fire that has burned more than 520 acres in mountainous terrain in Jurupa Valley and prompted evacuation orders has grown to 20%, Cal Fire said on Sunday, Sept. 7. “Evacuation warnings remain in effect,” officials said in an update. “No injuries have been reported.” Firefighters responded at approximately 5:20 p.m. Friday near Pyrite Street and Granite Hill Drive to reports of a brush fire that initially consumed about 15 acres of vegetation, according to Cal Fire. There were nearly 300 firefighters on the scene, including eight hand crews. They were aided by water drops from two…

Julian Medina completed 19 of 26 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns as Norco outlasted Orange Vista 28-24 on Friday in a nonleague game played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Norco improved to 3-0, matching its win total from each of the previous two seasons. It is the program’s first 3-0 start since 2021. Blake Wong caught eight passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns, and Lee White ran for 152 yards and a touchdown for Norco. Khalil Abdul-Aziz , completing 19 of 29 passes for 323 yards and four touchdowns for Orange Vista. Traycee Washington caught two touchdowns…

In the absence of a safe and sane national wellness policy, form a West Coast Health Alliance with California, Oregon and Washington? Yes, please. And, breaking news. Hawaii says it’s in as well. Hawaiians are literally the healthiest people in the United States. Welcome, Islanders! E komo mai! Why not invite British Columbia in, too? Oh — wait. Canada doesn’t need any more meddling from south of the border. But we’ll take your rational advice anyway, given the know-nothing medical insanity coming out of the White House. When Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Tina Kotek of Oregon and Bob Ferguson…

RIVERSIDE — Everywhere you look… Those three words started the theme song to the television show “Full House.” And everywhere you looked Saturday night at RCC’s Wheelock Stadium, Riverside Poly senior defensive tackle Benji Matthews was in the backfield, making life difficult for Redlands East Valley quarterback Isaac Vitela. Matthews led an opportunistic Bears defense that forced three turnovers with six sacks as Poly scored 20 straight points over a stretch from the second and third quarters to defeat the Wildcats 20-14. “Our defensive line did a great job of getting pressure against a very athletic quarterback but it takes…

Let’s play, “Who said it, and when?” “…the American people have accepted centralization of government, regimentation of activities and restriction of liberty to a greater extent than ever before in their history.” Need a hint? The first part of the first sentence is, “In the process of winning this war…” While 30 seconds of perky and mildly suspenseful music plays, let’s think. Is the quotation about the war on terror after 9/11, with its full-body searches at the airports and permanent government collection of everybody’s phone data and electronic communications? Is it about the war against COVID, with Americans ordered…

The Trump administration is considering restricting the Second Amendment rights of transgender Americans, reports media outlets as varied as CNN and the New York Post. This would be an unjustified attack on the constitutional rights of Americans to defend themselves and it is absurd the administration is even considering it. The Constitution, as affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, protects the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.  Broad identity-based exclusions from this right are wholly unjustified. It is true that some transgender Americans commit crimes, even horrendous crimes like the mass shooting at a Minneapolis school last…

In 2001, then-Rep. Loretta Sanchez explained to the Orange County Register how gerrymandering worked after the 2000 U.S. Census. “If my colleagues are smart, they’ll pay their $20,000, and Michael [Berman] will draw the district they can win in. Those who have refused to pay? God help them.” As columnist Dan Walters explained, Berman was a top Democratic Party honcho who pioneered “microtargeting voters” through computer algorithms to gerrymander legislative and congressional districts, which then were drawn by the Democrat-dominated Legislature. As a result of that and other outrages, in 2008 voters passed Proposition 11, the Voters FIRST Act. It…

In Proposition 50, California Democratic Party leaders have asked voters to approve a new map for California’s congressional districts to “fight fire with fire,” in response to Texas Republicans’ drawing a new map for their state’s congressional districts. Their announced purpose is to turn the House Democratic to check President Donald Trump. Even if they are successful, however, there is nothing they can do without a 2/3 majority in each chamber of Congress to check the president. Any bill they pass to constrain President Trump will be vetoed by him, and it takes 2/3 of both houses to overturn a…