Politics
Column: Lorena Gonzalez is a foul-mouthed Latina troublemaker. That’s good for California workers
Lorena Gonzalez, former politician and present union troublemaker, dislikes quite a lot of issues — and folks, for that matter.
Most cancers, arsonists who gentle her home on fireplace, Elon Musk, Pearl Jam, being known as Lo-rain-a as an alternative of Lo-wren-a, simply to call a number of.
However what she hates most are poisonous employers. The sort who don’t pay additional time, who deliver on costly attorneys to maintain unions out, who laid off of us in the course of the pandemic and tried to rent again cheaper employees when enterprise picked up. When she talks about such predatory bosses, it’s typically with an intense, no-holds-barred disdain that features greater than occasional F-bombs.
As soon as, she ran a complete invoice about vacation pay after being outraged that her waitress at a Thanksgiving meal wasn’t getting extra cash to work the day. Gonzalez cried when the invoice failed (although it’s true that even a well-done cat industrial can get her tears flowing). When a colleague instructed her weeping on the Meeting flooring made her look weak, “I used to be like, come at me, I dare you,” she says. And she or he meant it, as a result of she’s high quality with metaphorically stepping out into the alley, if that’s how issues go.
“The eagerness was by no means an indication of weak point. It was all the time the signal of my power,” she says.
Which is why a number of weeks in the past, she resigned from the state Legislature (the place she was representing components of San Diego) and her essential job as head of the Meeting Appropriations Committee (which decides cash issues and the place the ax comes down on quite a lot of payments) and signed as much as lead the California Labor Federation. There have been political issues, too — the governor handed her up for secretary of state, and he or she was dealing with a Democratic challenger for her seat due to redistricting. However principally, she needed to grab an opportunity to be true to herself and the values she’s most keen about — in a job that harnesses the may of two.1 million employees throughout 1,200 unions.
Then-Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and husband Nathan Fletcher assist arrange a COVID-19 altar in San Diego in November.
(Kristian Carreon / For the San Diego Union-Tribune)
“Nothing you’ll be able to legislate ever makes the world nearly as good for employees as a union contract,” she instructed me, evangelist-style, a number of weeks in the past in her new workplace a block from the state Capitol. And it feels “so good” to be freed from the constraints of the Legislature, the place being herself was typically a disadvantage.
“I felt confined. And also you don’t even notice how confined you are feeling till you’re gone,” she says. “It’s a constructing with guidelines and norms that have been created by white males who have been very previous like 100 years in the past.”
When she formally takes over the Labor Federation in July, virtually a 12 months to the day she was identified with breast most cancers (which is now in remission after a double mastectomy), she’s going full-Lorena to assist unions battle for extra collective contracts for extra sorts of employees, and extra laws to maintain California on the chopping fringe of labor rights. Anticipate speak of elevating the hard-fought $15-an-hour minimal wage ever greater, and persevering with battles over gig employees (who by some estimates make up 40% of the state’s labor power) and their standing as workers or contractors.
And California, I’d not guess in opposition to her.
Gonzalez has a means of delivering in opposition to the percentages. Having her on the helm of union labor within the state is a shake-up that, to make use of a phrase her frenemy Gavin Newsom is keen on, meets the second.
Unions are having fun with a reputation and approval not seen in many years throughout the nation (bear in mind Strike-tober?). Biden is arguably essentially the most union-friendly president ever, and California essentially the most union-friendly state — in 2020, about 16% of California employees have been in a union, in contrast with about 11% nationwide. There’s momentum for employees’ rights, fueled by the inequalities the pandemic laid naked and anger over the rising problem of incomes a paycheck that covers the fundamentals — particularly for younger folks and folks of shade (ladies particularly) who’re over-represented in low-wage jobs.
In an period when political energy is as a lot about character and presence as it’s about precise wrangling of votes and allegiances, Gonzalez delivers much-needed charisma. Lately, the visibility of organized labor largely has come from particular person unions — Hollywood crews preventing for contracts, nurses demanding healthcare for all, quick meals employees placing for greater pay, and most lately, Starbucks baristas organizing. Although California has a storied historical past of turning out labor icons (Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong amongst its most well-known), labor in California has lengthy lacked a visual chief, the sort who’ll tackle an Elon Musk and even Newsom, and do it with a vivacious, pugnacious enchantment.
Although Artwork Pulaski (the present head of the Labor Federation) is probably not a family title, there’s not a politician within the state who doesn’t know him, or of him, or the ability he’s wielded behind the scenes for years. The Fed is the umbrella underneath which lots of the state’s largest and most influential unions come collectively to cross laws and win elections — Democrats want labor to win elections, its cash and its folks, who exit within the hundreds to knock on doorways, run cellphone banks and have the one-on-one conversations that change minds.
However regardless of his heft, Pulaski is the sort of man who solely makes himself recognized when it serves a aim. He’s powerful and devoted, however a consensus builder who stays out of the highlight. His final tweet (on an account I significantly doubt he handles himself) was in September.
Gonzalez, by her personal description, can’t assist speaking smack. I assure her final tweet was about 10 minutes in the past, and will have concerned something from Ukraine politics to why her children are interrupting her Zoom as a result of they can’t find the ketchup. It’s exhausting to not know her biography or what’s occurring in her life — daughter of an immigrant farmworker and a nurse, raised by her single mother who died of breast most cancers, levels from three prestigious universities, 5 children Brady Bunch-style together with her husband, Nathan Fletcher, a politician in San Diego. She places all of it on the market, typically in provocative methods.
The fireplace that broken Lorena Gonzalez’s residence Jan. 12 is being investigated as arson.
(OnScene TV)
Lately, she tweeted about waking up in the midst of evening to seek out her household’s home on fireplace (which is being investigated as arson), coming into the hallway and for a second, with out her glasses on, pondering her son was on fireplace. It’s a trauma so deep that the thought somebody focused her household is among the few issues she gained’t discuss after that put up within the instant aftermath, although final week she tattooed “unbreakable” from elbow to wrist on her forearm.
However on being instructed she’s too in-your-face?
“I’m not yelling at you. That is simply how I speak.”
On the anger she’s provoked in her battle with gig corporations?
“I take quite a lot of crap. It doesn’t trouble me to take quite a lot of sh—.”
On her viral F-bomb tweet about Elon Musk?
“It’s the one time I’ve been invited on CNN so no matter.”
On being the primary Latina to go the Labor Federation?
“It’s greater than symbolism. It’s a background.”
That final one could be the coronary heart of all of it. Gonzalez has the background of the ladies of shade she might want to attain to evangelise her love of unions and develop their energy in California. She’s considered one of them, and he or she understands that unionism isn’t and might’t simply be about work. It’s about schooling for the kids of working households. It’s about race, gender fairness, housing, immigration, LGBTQ rights, pathways to the center class and all the opposite considerations that working-class households grapple with, on and off the job.
However she’s additionally a troublemaker — a very good factor within the union world — the sort old-school unionists love as a result of organized labor is constructed by troublemakers, those who aren’t afraid to face their floor and curse at you whereas they’re doing it. Those who don’t care in the event that they offend, as a result of they discover oppression offensive.
And with out the constraint of being a publicly elected official, Gonzalez is about to indicate us much more of her earnest, profane, susceptible, fierce genuine self — and trigger quite a lot of conspicuous bother alongside the way in which.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
U.S. Border Patrol agents cut an opening through razor wire after immigrant families crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
A Venezuelan immigrant asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
Migrants attempt to cross the southern border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in February. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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President Elect Donald Trump, left, and new appointed Tom Homan, right (Getty)
“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
ARMED FELON ARRESTED FOR THREATENING TO KILL TRUMP ATTENDED RALLY WEEKS AFTER BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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