A group of Los Angeles labor unions is proposing a ballot measure they say would combat income inequality in the city by raising taxes on companies whose chief executive officers make at least 50 times more than their median-paid employee.

The so-called Overpaid CEO Tax initiative was announced Wednesday at a rally outside Elon Musk’s Tesla Diner in West Hollywood, and featured union workers holding signs that read “Taxing greed to pay for what we need,” and a cartoon cutout of a boss carrying money bags and puffing a fat cigar.

“It’s high time the rich paid more taxes,” said Kurt Petersen, the co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which represents airport and hotel employees.

The proposal is sponsored by the Fair Games Coalition, a collection of labor groups that includes the Los Angeles teachers union, and comes on the heels of a statewide ballot proposal for a one-time 5% wealth tax on California billionaires that would raise money for healthcare for the most vulnerable.

Revenues raised by the CEO tax would be earmarked for specific purposes and not go directly to the city’s general fund.

According to proponents, 70% would go to the Working Families Housing Fund; 20% would go to the Street and Sidewalk Repairs Programs and 5% would go both to the After-School Programs Fund and the Fresh Food Access Fund.

In order to place the measure on the November ballot, supporters must collect 140,000 signatures in the next 120 days.

Critics say the proposal is misguided and would drive business away from the city.

“It would encourage companies that have minimal contact and business in Los Angeles to completely pull out,” said Stuart Waldman, head of the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. “You’ll never see another hotel built in Los Angeles. It’s just one more thing that will drive business away.”

He added that $350 million for affordable housing would create about 350 units of affordable housing per year, which would not do much to affect the city’s housing crisis.

“That does nothing to help people. But on the contrary, that tax would do more to hurt people by pushing businesses out of Los Angeles and pushing jobs out of Los Angeles,” he said.

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz said teachers support the proposal because it would not only raise money for after-school programs, but also help teachers find housing in L.A.

“They can’t live where we teach, because the prices are out of reach,” Myart-Cruz said.

Supporters argue that the tax will not chase businesses out of Los Angeles.

Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, speaks in favor of a measure that would increase taxes on companies whose chief executive officers make at least 50 times more than their median paid employee.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“Sure if they want to leave the second largest market in the country, go for it. But no one’s leaving that,” Petersen said.

The ordinance, if passed by voters, would impose an additional tax of up to 10 times the company’s regular business tax, based on the pay difference between the highest-paid employee at the company and the lowest, the initiative said.

According to the coalition, the current city business tax is between 0.1% and 0.425% of gross receipts.

If a top manager at a company makes between 50 and 100 times the median employee, the company will pay an “Overpaid CEO tax” equal to the business tax otherwise paid by the company. If the top manager makes greater than 500 times the median employee, the business would be required to pay an additional tax of 10 times the business tax otherwise owed.

“The bigger the gap, the higher the tax,” Petersen said.

Republican lawmakers are jumping on a social media trend to show their support for the anti-regime protesters in Iran.

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., posted photos of themselves using burning photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light up a cigarette and a cigar respectively. Both lawmakers used the caption “Smoke ’em if you got ’em.”

The lawmaker’s images mirror a social media trend in which people are using burning photos of Khamenei to light cigarettes and cigars. The trend emerged as the people of Iran hold increasingly intense protests against the Islamic regime. The movement against the regime has seen increasing support from abroad as world leaders back the people of Iran.

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Khamenei’s regime has started to crack down on protests and even instituted a sweeping internet blackout to try to quell the unrest. Some have posited that the internet blackout was also meant to impede the spreading of information about and visuals of abuses committed against protesters by regime-backed forces.

Recently, exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi has publicly urged President Donald Trump and the U.S. to back protesters in Iran as they fight the decades-old regime.

Sheehy told Fox News Digital that he takes the issue personally, saying that Iran has participated in the torturing, kidnapping and killing of Americans across the globe, “including friends of mine.”

“The Iranian regime are a bunch of murderous b——- who have been chanting ‘death to America’ for the past 46 years. They have backed up this chant by kidnapping, torturing, and killing thousands of Americans all over the world, including friends of mine. For me, it’s personal; it’s time to take out the trash,” Sheehy said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital via email.

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The senator also expressed his solidarity with the people of Iran and encouraged them to keep fighting the regime.

“To the Iranian people — we applaud your courage, keep fighting, and know we fully support your brave efforts to topple this evil regime,” he added.

Tenney’s office also spoke with Fox News Digital about the congresswoman’s post, praising the bravery of the people of Iran for standing up to the regime. Additionally, Tenney’s office expressed the congresswoman’s solidarity with the Iranian people.

“The bravery of the Iranian people in the face of decades of oppression by a brutal, extremist regime is extraordinary. Men and women across Iran are risking their lives to stand up to authoritarian mullahs who have denied them basic freedoms for generations,” Tenney’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

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“The congresswoman stands firmly with the Iranian people and their demand for dignity and self-determination, and believes their courage must be recognized and amplified. Today, the Iranian people finally have an ally in the White House, President Trump, who has made clear that the United States stands with those fighting for freedom against tyranny,” Tenney’s office added.

Trump has been vocal about his support for the people of Iran and has warned that the U.S. would be ready to step in if the regime used violence against protesters.

“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Jan. 10. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”

SACRAMENTO — California announced an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Wednesday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom saying that the social media site owned by the billionaire is a “breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsenual sexually explicit AI deepfakes.”

Grok, the xAI chatbot, includes image-generation features that allow users to morph existing photos into new images. The newly created images are then posted publicly on X.

In some cases, users have created sexually explicit or nonconsensual images based on real people, including altered depictions that appear to show individuals partially or fully undressed. Others have generated images that appear to show minors, prompting criticism that there are not sufficient guardrails to prohibit the creation of child pornography.

The social media site has previously said “we take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”

Newsom called the sexualized images being created on the platform “vile.” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said his office will use “all tools at our disposal to keep Californians safe.”

“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Bonta said in a statement Wednesday. “This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further. We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material.”

Newsom signed a pair of bills in 2024 that made it illegal to create, possess or distribute sexually charged images of minors even when they’re created with computers, not cameras. The measures took effect last year.

Assembly Bill 1831, authored by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), expanded the state’s child-porn prohibition to material that “contains a digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated depiction [of] what appears to be a person under 18 years of age” engaging in or simulating sexual conduct. Senate Bill 1381, authored by Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward), amended state law to more clearly prohibit using AI to create images of real children engaged in sexual conduct, or using children as models for digitally altered or AI-generated child pornography.