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California forces retailers to have ‘gender-neutral’ toy aisles. Why not let kids be kids?

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California forces retailers to have ‘gender-neutral’ toy aisles. Why not let kids be kids?



Rather than meddle with the private sector, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers should focus more on a problem that is their responsibility: California’s record $68 billion budget deficit.

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I recently took my three young nephews shopping at a big-box store to pick out a few presents. 

When we reached the toy section, none of them wasted time reading aisle signs. Rather, they beelined it for the dinosaurs and Legos. 

Kids know what toys they like to play with, and they don’t care how adults label them – or group them together. 

That hasn’t stopped California from swooping in with a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Starting this year, retailers with at least 500 employees are required to have “gender-neutral” toy aisles.

It’s a vaguely worded law dictating that stores “maintain a gender neutral section or area, to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer, in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”

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Yet the penalties are clear: Stores that fail to comply face up to $500 fines for “repeat” offenses.

It sounds like extreme government overreach to me.

This is how California is celebrating the New Year: with new heavy-handed regulations that will burden businesses and likely lead to higher costs and fewer jobs. 

Legislating ‘kindness’ always comes with consequences 

When introducing the bill, Assemblymember Evan Low, a Democrat, said his motivation was to prevent kids from feeling “pigeonholed” when wandering the toy aisles. 

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“No child should feel stigmatized for wearing a dinosaur shirt or playing with a Barbie doll, and separating items that are traditionally marketed for either girls or boys makes it more difficult for the consumer to compare products,” Low said in a statement. “It also incorrectly implies that their use by one gender is inappropriate.”

Kissing his progressive ways goodbye: It’s a new year and a whole new Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

Low said he was inspired to pursue the legislation after an 8-year-old asked, “Why should a store tell me what a girl’s shirt or toy is?”

Toy sections (at least ones I’ve seen) aren’t labeled specifically for “boys” or “girls,” but rather organized in ways that make sense for most consumers. Why would you put Barbie dolls next to monster trucks unless you want to frustrate shoppers? It would be like interspersing shampoo with the milk and eggs ‒ or power tools with cooking supplies. 

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The law is purportedly to “let kids be kids.” By politicizing their toys, however, California lawmakers are doing the opposite. 

And the additional layer of government oversight and micromanaging will only cause a headache for employers – or encourage them to leave the state. 

When the toy-aisle mandate was signed by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted: “In Texas, it is businesses – NOT government – that decide how they (retailers) display their merchandise.”

Anna May Wong is still making history: ‘Incredible for Barbie to expand my aunt’s legacy’

California should worry about its budget instead 

In addition to fretting about the gender affiliation of toys, California politicians also hiked the state’s minimum wage to $20 an hour for fast-food and health care employers – a favorite policy initiative of progressives. That change will take effect in April.

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And guess what? Businesses are reacting. Pizza Hut has said that it will lay off at least 1,200 delivery drivers this year. Another pizza franchise has similar plans to downsize its drivers.

$20 for flipping burgers? California minimum wage increase will cost consumers – and workers.

Other fast-food chains have announced that they’ll raise menu prices to compensate. Expect more of these restaurants to replace employees with mobile ordering and self-serve kiosks. 

Rather than meddle with the private sector, Newsom and fellow Democratic lawmakers should focus more on a glaring problem that is their direct responsibility: the state’s record $68 billion budget deficit. (For comparison, Republican-controlled Florida has a $7 billion budget surplus.) 

Newsom has claimed that California is a place where freedom thrives. These new laws make that assertion even harder to believe. 

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Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques





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Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years

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Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years


While we may lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend, one clock store in California is gearing up for one of its busiest times of the year: daylight savings.

It’s the House of Clocks, the largest clock company in Northern California, which was recently celebrating 55 years of business.

It’s a place frozen in time. Just visit the store’s 240-year-old grandfather clock. It’s got plenty of stories to tell, dating back to 1780.

“This is the oldest piece we have right now,” clocksmith Joey Hohn said.

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The House of Clocks is on the outskirts of Downtown Lodi in San Joaquin County.

“We have new, we have vintage, we have antique,” co-owner Sandy Hohn shared. “Honestly, it feels like not a day goes by that we don’t get a phone call or an email of somebody wanting to sell something for 100 different reasons.”

The clock store has been with the Hohn family for three generations. It’s all thanks to one family heirloom.

“When the first war started, [my grandparents] left everything and had to move,” Joey Hohn explained. “After the Second World War, my grandpa was stationed in Germany. They went back to the house that had been abandoned and the neighbor who they left the property to said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, everything in the house is still yours.’ They went back and got this, so this is my great-great-grandparents’ clock.”

You can find just about anything in the House of Clocks, from old grandfather clocks to clocks that can fit in the palm of your hand.

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What you can’t find anywhere else is the Hohns’ love for Lodi.

“We’ve made so many friends over the years out of customers,” Sandy Hohn said. “Friends that are just wonderful, that love collecting, and we keep them repaired for their families, which is awesome. They have sentimental value that’s passed down.”

That same love for the city and their community runs in the family.

“We had a customer that wanted to repaint their dial,” Joey Hohn explained. “We told them no because it was her father’s who had passed away. Every time he went to wind the clock, he placed his thumb in the same spot. When we told her that smudge there on the dial was her father, she said, ‘Back away, don’t you dare.’ It was just a good memory we have.”

While you can’t turn back time, what we can do is keep memories alive and treasure the present moment.

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“There’s so many personalities,” Sandy Hohn said. “We just try to find a good home for them.”



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Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter

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Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter


It’s beginning to look a lot like spring!

The warm and wet weather this winter has led to the start of a dazzling super bloom at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

“We had an unseasonably warm winter as well, so there’s actually a lot of growth,” said Callista Turney with California State Parks. “We’re having early wildflowers that are already at the park. So if you look at the poppy live cam, it shows a lot of orange already.”

The rain has helped the early blooms, but it’s actually the heat that accelerated the growth of the flowers.

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“It will actually speed up the growth of the plants, so some of them were already blooming and that’s going to cause those blossoms to accelerate faster towards seed production. And the blossoms that are in the process of being formed, those are going to open up soon as well.”

We also sometimes see great super blooms in Death Valley National Park, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree and the Mojave National Preserve.

“It’s definitely a rare occurrence because we don’t always have the right conditions. It’s gotta be the weather, the wind, the rain, all coming together,” said Katie Tilford, Director of Development and Communications with the Theodore Payne Foundation.

If it continues to stay unseasonably warm, we’ll see a shorter bloom. The key to a longer season is milder weather.


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Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’

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Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’


We are counting down to the California governor’s race. Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, is one of the two biggest names running on the Republican ticket.

In a one-on-one interview with Eyewitness News political reporter Josh Haskell, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said, “I am the antithesis to California state government because I am going to take a nuclear bomb into that building and absolutely destroy everything that they do to us behind closed doors.”

Although he’s been elected by the voters twice, Bianco says he’s not a politician — which is why he believes his campaign for California governor is resonating, as reflected in the polls.

“President Trump, in one year, from 2025 when he took over, until now, did absolutely nothing to harm California. What’s harming California is 30 years of Democrat one-party rule that have created an environment here that no one can live in anymore. They’ve only been successful here in California because we vote D no matter what. You vote D or die. I mean, that’s it. Charles Manson would be elected in California if he was the only Democrat on the ballot,” Bianco said.

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Bianco isn’t the only conservative Republican running for governor, and according to polling, he’s neck-and-neck with former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

SEE ALSO: CA governor candidate Steve Hilton says ‘everybody supports’ Trump’s immigration policies

Leading in some polls in the wide-open California Governor’s race as the June primary creeps closer is Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

“Steve has no chance of winning in November. The Democrats know that I’m going to win in November, and so they have to do everything they can to keep me out of that,” Bianco said.

When asked about the affordability crisis in the state, Bianco said, “Almost the entire issue of affordability in California is because of regulation, excessive regulation imposed by government. Every single regulation can be signed away with the governor’s signature.”

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“It is a drug and alcohol addiction problem that, and a mental health problem,” he said about the homelessness crisis. “Every single bit of money that is going to these nonprofits that say ‘homeless,’ zero money. You’re getting absolutely nothing. I can’t tell you that we would end what we see in the homeless situation within a year, but I guarantee you we would never see it again after two years.”

When challenged on that prediction, pointing to how the state doesn’t have the facilities to treat the number of people living on our streets, Bianco responded, “We have been conditioned to believe that buildings take five years to build. It takes 90 days or less to build a house, but in California, it takes three to five years because the government won’t allow it. The regulations that are destroying this state are going to be removed with me as the governor.”

Bianco also said California jails shouldn’t have to play the role of treatment facilities.

Although he says he supports the Trump administration and wants the president’s endorsement, Bianco has been traveling the state — meeting not just with Republicans, but Democrats and independents as well. He says all of our state government officials have failed.

The primary election is June 2.

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No clear front-runner in race for California governor, new poll shows

A new poll shows there’s still no clear front-runner in the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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