West

Newsom urged to halt progressives' 'scheming' to derail popular anti-crime initiative

Published

1 week ago

June 16, 2024

California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley and the rest of the state’s Republican delegation are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats to drop what they say is “cynical political scheming” to legislatively undermine a popular bipartisan anti-crime effort.

On Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s Office announced voters will have their chance to repeal key portions of the controversial Prop. 47 law – which significantly lowered the penalties for certain categories of drug and theft crimes – in the November general election after the petition garnered more than 600,000 valid petition signatures to secure a spot on the ballot. The initiative only needed 546,651 to qualify, according to the state secretary’s office.

But Newsom and Golden State Democrats oppose the initiative and are working to fast-track their own public safety bills pertaining to curbing criminal retail theft without reforming Prop. 47. Some Democrats plan to introduce inoperability clauses into the set of proposed public safety bills to prevent them from going into effect if voters approve the Prop 47 reforms. They contend that it’s a way to ensure there aren’t any inconsistencies in the law.

“This measure will repeal the most problematic provisions of Proposition 47 from 2014. It is a vitally needed policy correction to address the growing problems of retail theft, open-air drug markets, and homelessness in our state,” Kiley wrote in a letter to Newsom on Tuesday.

NEWSOM PROPOSES DEFUNDING LAW ENFORCEMENT, PRISONS, PUBLIC SAFETY AS CALIFORNIA FACES MASSIVE DEFICIT

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (Getty Images)

The California Republican added that not only have hundreds of thousands of Californians signed the petition, but it has also received bipartisan support from lawmakers such as San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.

Tuesday’s letter was signed by every Republican member of the California U.S. House delegation.

“It is clear that the only purpose of this novel legislative maneuver is to equip opponents of the ballot initiative with a talking point – to be used on the campaign trail, and likely even on the ballot itself – to confuse voters and undermine the will of the people of California,” the letter reads.

“While there is a long and troubling tradition of ballot initiative language being skewed, the current scheme represents an unprecedented threat to the entire initiative process. This tactic could be used by legislators to defeat any unwanted ballot initiative going forward, simply by picking a popular piece of existing legislation and stipulating that if the initiative passes, that legislation will be repealed. This will defeat the entire purpose of the initiative process, which is designed to give voters a direct say on issues affecting our state.”

SACRAMENTO MASS SHOOTING SUSPECT FOUND DEAD IN JAIL CELL WHILE AWAITING TRIAL

California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes efforts to reform Prop. 47. (California Governor Gavin Newsom YouTube channel)

Leaders of the initiative to roll back Prop. 47 measures, called the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, argue that the law led to the uptick in theft and robberies after the threshold for shoplifting was dropped to $950. It also lowered grand theft and receiving stolen property to a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

According to Kiley’s office, Newsom and the Democrats’ bill package would “take effect immediately and make it so they will be automatically reversed if the ballot initiative passes.”

“Cynical political scheming designed to turn the initiative upside-down is an affront to every California voter,” Kiley wrote.

A spokesperson for Newsom’s office told Fox News Digital via email that “California law provides existing robust tools for law enforcement and prosecutors to arrest and charge suspects involved in organized retail crime – including up to three years of jail time for organized retail theft.”

“The state has among the lowest (i.e. toughest) thresholds nationally for prosecutors to charge suspects with a felony, $950. The majority of states – including red states like Texas ($2,500), South Carolina ($2000), and Mississippi ($1,000) – have weaker laws that require higher dollar amounts for suspects to be charged with a felony,” the spokesperson added.

The letter comes as progressives in the state in recent months have appeared to backtrack on their soft-on-crime policies. According to a Public Policy Institute report in February, researchers tracked a rise in shoplifting, especially in the Bay Area, and a larger rise in commercial burglary among urban counties in California between 2020 and 2022. Shoplifting rose 29% statewide from 2021 to 2022.

Nationwide, a 2023 report from the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail association, found that organized retail crime was a primary driver of the massive amount of “shrink” retailers saw in 2022, with nonemployee stealing making up 36%.

The term “shrink” typically means theft and other forms of inventory losses, and retailers nationwide experienced $112 billion in losses in 2022.

19 STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL CHALLENGE BLUE STATES’ RADICAL CLIMATE POLICIES IMPACTING OTHERS

owners of jewelry store confronting thief

The owners of Meza’s Jewelry in El Monte fought back against a would-be smash-and-grab thief. (Meza’s Jewelry)

The NRF found that Los Angeles was one of the hardest-hit cities in California for ORC, leading the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to create the Organized Retail Theft Crime Task Force. Many law enforcement officials have blamed the measure for the uptick in theft and smash-and-grabs that have plagued California in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the same time, California became synonymous with smash-and-grab crimes as videos of groups of thieves brazenly ransacking stores gained traction online.

Meanwhile, opponents of tough-on-crime laws argue the harsher penalties are too extreme for the crimes and could prevent a person from being rehabilitated, especially minorities.

homeless encampment on sidewalk in California

People inhabit encampments on the streets of San Francisco on April 15, 2023. (Flight Risk for Fox News Digital)

“There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of negotiations concurrently happening,” Newsom told reporters on Friday. “Prop 47 is included.”

Last year, the Democrat governor announced more than $267 million to increase arrests and prosecutions for organized retail crime across the state. Earlier this year, Newsom recalled how he witnessed a shoplifter stealing from Target in Sacramento. He confronted a store employee moments later.

“I said, ‘Why didn’t you stop him,’” Newsom said during a Zoom meeting on mental health in January. “She goes, ‘Oh, the governor.’ Swear to God, true story on my mom’s grave. ‘The governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability.’ I said, ‘That’s just not true.’”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.

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San Francisco, CA

49ers overrated per same writer who believes they lost offseason

Published

7 mins ago

June 25, 2024

Press Room

49ers overrated per same writer who believes they lost offseason

There’s a particular writer at the Athletic who isn’t a believer in the 2024 San Francisco 49ers.

After naming the 49ers an offseason loser because they lost Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw, and hired a new defensive coordinator, Mike Jones of the Athletic listed San Francisco among the overrated teams heading into this NFL season.

Again, Jones focuses heavily on the losses on the defensive line:

Kyle Shanahan always gives them a chance, and Brock Purdy again has a talented supporting cast, although Brandon Aiyuk faces an uncertain future. Questions loom over the defense, however, with first-year coordinator Nick Sorensen directing a unit that lost Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw to free agency and must deal with the extended absence of Dre Greenlaw, who is recovering from Achilles surgery. The 49ers hope to put another heartbreaking Super Bowl defeat in the past and make another run at a ring, but doing so could prove more challenging than many expect.

It’s worth noting the 49ers replaced Armstead and Kinlaw with Maliek Collins and Jordan Elliott. The fixation on Kinlaw is interesting given the defensive tackle’s general lack of effectiveness last season, but it wouldn’t be Earth-shattering if Elliott was a better rotational DT option for San Francisco this season. Whether Collins and others can replace Armstead in the aggregate remains to be seen and is certainly a sizable question mark for the 49ers to answer this year.

The Greenlaw absence is also a pretty significant blow. San Francisco signed former All-Pro De’Vondre Campbell to replace him. Second-year LBs Dee Winters and Jalen Graham could also be in the mix to start at Will LB, but none of those three are liable to be as effective as Greenlaw is.

Alas, calling the 49ers ‘overrated’ when they were a couple plays from winning the Super Bowl last year seems like a stretch based on the reasoning listed. After all, both Pro Football Focus and ESPN agree San Francisco has the best roster in the NFL.

A better argument would focus more heavily on the 49ers’ offensive line which they made only marginal moves to improve this offseason. There’s a case to be made they could conceivably be worse on the offensive front which would certainly have an impact on Purdy. Last year in his first full season as a starter Purdy had pretty good turnover luck which could wind up coming back to bite him and the 49ers this season.

There are also some questions in the secondary with uncertainty about who will start in nickel packages with cornerbacks Deommodore Lenoir and Charvarius Ward. Strong safety Talanoa Hufanga is coming back from an ACL tear which leaves a question mark about whether he’ll return to All-Pro form, and second-year safety Ji’Ayir Brown is an unproven commodity who figures to start alongside Hufanga.

Those are a lot of hurdles for Sorensen to clear in his first season as a defensive coordinator, which are much bigger reasons to have concerns than just the losses of Armstead and Kinlaw.

Injury luck was also, for the most part, on the 49ers’ side last season. They had the injuries to Hufanga in Week 11 and to Greenlaw during the Super Bowl, but outside of that they avoided major injuries and were relatively healthy going into the final game of the season. It wouldn’t be irrational if a person wanted to bet against injury luck for them again in 2024.

For now though on paper the 49ers figure to field one of the best teams in the NFL. Whether they can be just the second team since the turn of the century to return to the Super Bowl after losing it remains to be seen, but saying they’re ‘overrated’ for the reasons listed in the Athletic feels a tad off base.

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Denver, CO

Over 400 flights delayed Tuesday amid high winds at Denver International Airport

Published

24 mins ago

June 25, 2024

Press Room

Over 400 flights delayed Tuesday amid high winds at Denver International Airport

More than 400 flights were delayed Tuesday afternoon at Denver International Airport as high winds blew across the area, according to flight tracking data from FlightAware.

There were 406 flights delayed and five canceled as of 5:20 p.m. as wind gusts at the airport hit 43 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., 70 flights were delayed and one was canceled, according to live flight tracking by FlightAware’s Misery Map.

United, Alaska Airlines, Southwest, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Key Lime Air, SkyWest, WestJet, American Airlines and Air Canada all had delayed or canceled flights.

Southwest had nearly half of the delayed flights, with 168 delays and one cancellation. United delayed 128 flights, according to FlightAware.

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Seattle, WA

Seattle city attorney, SPD propose new street racing measures to city council

Published

29 mins ago

June 25, 2024

Press Room

Seattle city attorney, SPD propose new street racing measures to city council

SEATTLE – Seattle is at a breaking point as fearless street racers continue to scoff at the law.

City Attorney Ann Davison is determined to change that by proposing hefty fines and making video, including social media posts, admissible as evidence.

“We need to have our laws matter,” Davison said. “With our understaffing with Seattle Police, we need to be smart in how we address this.”

Seattle Police Department street takeover dashcam video

On June 22 and 23, 2024, Seattle Police officers responded to street takeover events in the city.

On Tuesday morning, Davison and leaders with the Seattle Police Department presented their proposal to members of the City Council Public Safety Commission.

Seattle Police report that social media posts often inspire swarms of people to attend these dangerous events. What begins as death-defying donuts often escalates into deadly consequences: gunfire, hit-and-runs and even homicides.

One example of that blatant disregard is Miles Hudson, the man-behind-the-wheel of the infamous “Belltown Hellcat.” Despite a slew of criminal charges, thousands of dollars in fines and constant demands to stop, Hudson continues to post videos of him speeding and revving his souped up car on his Instagram.

Belltown Hellcat exploits WA’s new street racing law

Despite facing two reckless driving charges and over $80,000 in fines, “Belltown Hellcat” driver Miles Hudson is still on the streets and posting new content in his 2023 Dodge Charger.

“I saw how people were laughing at officers because it felt like they couldn’t do anything,” remarked Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth. “I’m assuming people come to Seattle to do it because we don’t have particular laws that prevent this from happening.”

Davison suggests imposing a $500 fine for cars caught spinning out. She also argues that video evidence, including dash or body camera footage and social media content, should be used to prosecute offenders.

During the discussion, Councilmember Rob Saka expressed strong support for following the city of Kent’s lead in criminalizing spectators too. Saka promised to reach out to Kent mayor Dana Ralph to learn more.

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Joe Biden, Barack Obama And Jimmy Kimmel Warn Of Another Donald Trump Term; Star-Filled L.A. Fundraiser Expected To Raise At Least $30 Million — Update

News1 week ago

Joe Biden, Barack Obama And Jimmy Kimmel Warn Of Another Donald Trump Term; Star-Filled L.A. Fundraiser Expected To Raise At Least $30 Million — Update