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West
Child predator cleared for parole arrested after surprise warrant drops hours before prison release
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A convicted California child molester who was set to walk free this week was instead turned over to law enforcement after a new arrest warrant was issued in Placer County, state officials confirmed.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said that at approximately 7:30 a.m., David Allen Funston, 64, was transferred to law enforcement authorities after Placer County filed new criminal charges and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Funston had been granted parole Tuesday and was scheduled for release later this week.
CDCR said Funston was sentenced in 1999 to life with the possibility of parole in connection with sexual abuse of children, including kidnapping and lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age.
David Allen Funston, 64, was originally sentenced in 1999 to life with the possibility of parole for crimes including kidnapping and lewd acts involving children under 14. (Placer County, Calif. Jail)
Funston is accused of kidnapping and molesting a child in Roseville in 1996, according to Placer County prosecutors.
Funston was convicted in 1999 of kidnapping and child molestation involving multiple victims. He was originally sentenced to three life terms in prison. However, under California’s Elderly Parole Program, he was granted parole suitability and scheduled for release from CDCR custody.
The Placer County District Attorney’s Office said it refiled charges against Funston stemming from the 1996 case within the state’s statute of limitations.
He was found suitable for parole at a hearing before the Board of Parole Hearings on Sept. 24, 2025.
On Jan. 9, 2026, Gov. Gavin Newsom referred the case back to the Board of Parole Hearings for an en banc review, in which a majority of appointed commissioners reconsider the prior parole decision. On Feb. 18, 2026, the board reaffirmed its recommendation that Funston receive parole.
A guard walks outside the California Institution for Men in Chino, a state prison facility. (Ann Johansson/Corbis via Getty Images)
Funston qualified for consideration under California’s statutory Elderly Parole Program, which allows individuals to be considered for release once they reach age 50 and have served at least 20 consecutive years of incarceration.
California GOP Chair Corrin Rankin said the last-minute arrest does not resolve what she described as broader failures in state policy.
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“This last-minute warrant doesn’t fix the problem — it exposes it. California Democrats, led by Gavin Newsom, built a parole system that was ready and willing to release a violent child predator back into our community. Newsom signed the laws that created these loopholes, appointed the people who uphold them, and the Democratic majority in the legislature continues to prioritize the well-being of criminals over victims,” Rankin said.
The former prosecutor who helped put Funston behind bars also weighed in after news of the arrest.
“God bless Placer County DA for charging David Funston for crimes committed by this serial child predator,” the former prosecutor said. “Let’s remember that @CAgovernor signed the law allowing this to happen. But Placer DA stepped in to stop this insanity.”
For victims, the controversy remains deeply personal.
One of Funston’s victims, identified as Amelia, voiced outrage this week after learning the parole board had approved his release.
“I’m disgusted with the fact that they would even believe anything that he would happen to say,” Amelia told “The Ingraham Angle.” “I don’t believe that people like that change.”
Amelia said Funston’s abuse has had lasting consequences on her life, including ongoing trauma and difficulty conceiving.
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“I would love to have a child, and this is what this man took from me. And I feel like, personally, that’s very hurtful,” she said. “I have trauma. I don’t trust anybody. I don’t trust anything.”
She also expressed concern for younger family members if Funston were to return to the Sacramento area.
“If he gets out, who knows if he’ll do it again?” Amelia said. “I was told that he fantasizes still about children… why would you let this man out? When he gets out, how do you not know if he will continue?”
Funston reportedly told the parole board he was “disgusted and ashamed” of his past behavior and “truly sorry” for the harm he caused. Amelia rejected that apology.
Funston’s impending release had drawn sharp criticism from Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper and District Attorney Thien Ho, who warned he remained a danger to the community and sought intervention to stop his release.
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It remains unclear when Funston will make his first court appearance in Placer County.
Fox News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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Alaska
An Alaska vacation can remind Israelis the world doesn’t revolve around them | The Jerusalem Post
For Israelis, it can also inspire humility. Not because the Jewish state is smaller than Denali National Park, but because in Alaska, one is reminded that the world neither revolves around Israel nor is obsessed with it.
That realization came on a trip The Wife and I took to America’s Last Frontier last month.
“Where is your final destination today?” the woman checking us in for our flight home at the Anchorage airport asked chirpily.
“Tel Aviv,” I replied. “Where’s that?”
When I said it was in Israel, she smiled and said, “Oh.”
Lest one think this was just a fluke: on the plane a few hours later, another Alaskan asked where we were going. When we answered “Tel Aviv,” she said she had never heard of it.
Granted, two people do not a Pew Poll make, but they do offer a small corrective to the perception – fed by the media most of us follow – that the world is preoccupied with Israel, thinking about us obsessively, talking about us constantly, and cursing us unremittingly.
The last part, at least in Alaska, is also not true. During our two weeks there, we saw no “Free Palestine” graffiti, nor were we subjected to dirty looks or “child killer” comments when we said we were from Israel.
All of America, it turns out, is not Mamdani’s Manhattan, nor does social media present a proportionate picture of that country’s reality.
One of the problems with social media is that every incident of antisemitism is posted online. The incidents are real and rising at an alarming rate, but seeing them all in one place creates a disproportionate sense of how likely you are to encounter them while traveling.
Watch enough clips of a Jewish kid harassed on a New York subway or an Israeli couple berated at a hotel in California, and you begin to wonder whether the same thing awaits you when you ride an American subway or check into a hotel.
It doesn’t. Yet the cumulative effect is that you begin to wonder how open to be about your Israeliness. You don’t decide to hide it, but simply having to ask the question adds a mini-layer of apprehension before every trip.
When Israel comes along for the ride
You also learn to read the Uber.
“Honey,” I urged The Wife before we got into an Uber in Chicago during a brief layover, “you don’t have to say you’re from Israel.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “I’m not going to hide who I am.”
“Wonderful sentiment,” I replied. “The driver’s name is Rabah. Humor me.”
We didn’t volunteer our place of origin, nor did he ask.
But on the entire trip, that was the only time we consciously withheld that nugget of biographical information. Everywhere else, we proudly said we were from Israel – and it was fine. More than fine: it was often a conversation starter.
On a whale-watching excursion, we sat across from a young couple from China who work at Google. They were intrigued that we lived in Israel, and even more fascinated that we passed on the chicken sandwiches being served.
Instead of looking for sea creatures, The Wife spent a good part of the trip explaining why some of the fish in the sea we can eat and others we can’t.
“Honey,” I whispered at one point, a bit annoyed. “We didn’t pay all this money for you to give an introductory lecture on kashrut. Look for the damn puffins.”
Since October 7, another layer has been added to the anxiety of travel: whether your flight will be canceled at the drop of a ballistic missile.
One doesn’t just hop over to Alaska on a whim; it takes planning and a special occasion to justify the expense. For us, it was 40 years of wedded bliss, so we booked back in October after being warned that rental cars sell out months in advance.
We chose United. But just days after the war with Iran broke out, United – typically – canceled flights until mid-June, four days after our planned departure. We acted quickly – well, The Wife acted quickly – and switched to El Al. Still, it complicated the trip further.
Then came the more serious question: Do you leave the country when one of your sons or your son-in-law is in miluim in Lebanon, Gaza, or Syria?
My first instinct was no: you don’t leave when one of your children is serving. That may have worked before Oct. 7, when reserve duty meant a few weeks a year and could be planned around.
But today, when they have each logged upward of 350 days, saying you won’t leave while they are serving essentially means that you won’t leave at all.
Which, by the way, is hardly the end of the world. But what can I say? I like to travel.
So we went, even though as we were watching bears and sea otters, my youngest son was dodging drones in Lebanon.
“Go,” he said. “What are you going to be able to do by being here? And if, God forbid, something happens, you’ll come back.”
“That’s not the point,” I said. “How can we enjoy it if we are worrying about you?”
“You’ll figure out a way,” he teased.
And he was right. Sure, we worried, but less than if we were here. Distance, it turns out, has its advantages. I wasn’t glued to the news, tracking every development on his front.
Perhaps that was Alaska’s greatest gift. Not the calving glaciers, surfacing whales, or foraging bears, magnificent though they were. It was the realization that while Israel is the center of our world, it is not the center of everyone else’s. Every now and then, regaining that perspective is refreshing. ■
Arizona
Arizona AG continues to investigate Glendale apartment complex after Friday deadline to fix A/C
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is giving a Glendale apartment complex until 5 p.m. Friday, July 10, to fix the air conditioning in every unit or face legal consequences. In a demand letter dated July 8, Mayes called Spectra West Apartments’ failure to provide air conditioning “both unacceptable and unlawful.” The complex could face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation if it does not comply. Resident Javier Montes said he chose to live at Spectra West because of its proximity to his job. “The reason I decided to live here because my work is just down the street. So, it’s just a five-minute walk for me, and so it’s very convenient for me.”
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (KABC) — An Amber Alert was issued Friday by the California Highway Patrol for a 3-year-old child out of California City believed to be in imminent danger.
Emaria Peel, 3, was last seen Friday at about 7:17 p.m. in the area of Redwood Boulevard and 83rd Street in California City, according to police.
Authorities believe 31-year-old Charnay Mclin took Emaria. Investigators have not yet said what relationship, if any, Mclin has to the child.
The suspect was described as being 5 feet 9 inches tall, 185 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
The child was described as being 1 foot 6 inches, 20 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
Police believe they’re traveling in a gold-colored 2021 Kia Sorento with the California license plate: 36095DV
Mclin is considered armed and dangerous. Authorities wants anyone who sees them to call 911.
No further details were immediately known.
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