Tag: California Politics

California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

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California has officially banned child marriage, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing legislation to end the practice that is still legal in 32 US states. The new law, which will come into effect on 1 January, states people must be 18 to get married in the Golden State. Newsom called it a “long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors”. He signed the bill into law with Courtney Stodden, whose parents allowed her to marry a 50-year-old Hollywood actor when she was just 16.

Stodden, who has been advocating to end the practice, called the change a “victory” and said survivors of child marriage should “never have been expected to carry this burden”. Gov Gavin Newsom called the law “overdue” Stodden said she would “keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states”. She was married to actor Doug Hutchison – known for roles in The Green Mile, A Time to Kill and I Am Sam – in 2011, spurring headlines internationally over the controversy and appearances on several reality programmes in the US, including the VH1 series Couples Therapy. Other survivors of child marriage also applauded the new law.

“California has sent a clear message to the world today,” Brittany Bee, a former child bride, told the BBC. “A message of hope for all children that they may be free from systemic violence. That they may choose their own path.” Bee told the BBC she was wed at the age of 17 to escape an abusive home – only to then be allegedly abused by her adult husband. “I was just going from one prison to another,” she explained. “People have the audacity to tell me that I made a choice – kids, they can’t consent.” Bee and other child marriage survivors have been working for years to have child marriages banned in California and across the United States. About a decade ago, the practice was still allowed across all US state but more and more states have been altering laws.

California is the 18th to ban it since 2018. In the state, there had been no legal age to wed, allowing children to get married as long as their parents consent and a judge signs off on the nuptials. There was also no mechanism for people under 18 to get divorced and many girls say they were trapped in abusive and predatory relationships. Unchained At Last, an advocacy group fighting to end child marriage across the US, said about 9,000 girls were wed each year in California and that almost all child marriages involved girls to adult men. Advocates say that many in the US don’t even know that child marriage is legal in so many US states, nor that is has led to allegations of abuse.

Sara Tasneem, who says she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age when she was 15 years old, told the BBC that it felt “surreal” to finally have the state recognise that child marriage should be banned. She says she started lobbying for this herself in 2017. She was introduced to her husband the morning of their arranged marriage. “I was forced to be his wife and that day, my entire life changed,” she told the BBC. She became a mother the following year, at the age of 16, and dropped out of school. “To have seen the arc of this bill come to fruition has been a marathon,” Tasneem said. “I’m just grateful that kids cannot get married after January 1, 2027 in California.”

Source: California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10

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Lawmakers expected to pass law ending child marriage in California

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Judge’s gavel beside framed colorful map of California

California lawmakers are expected to pass a new law ending child marriage within the state.  Currently, California is one of three states that allow children of any age to get married if a parent or guardian signs off. The bill passing through the legislature would end underage marriage with no exceptions.  “So many survivors of child marriage have been fighting for over nine years trying to get this bill passed,” said Courtney Stodden, a staunch supporter of the new law.  Stodden spearheaded the battle to end underage marriage in California and across the country after her own experience as a child bride. When she was 16, Stodden married 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison. 

“I was living in Washington state, and my manager at the time knew actor Doug Hutchison, who was teaching acting classes in Los Angeles,” Stodden said. “My mom signed me up for the acting classes.” Stodden said she grew closer with Hutchison after six months. They married in 2011 after her mother gave consent.  “He gained the trust of my mother,” Stodden said.  Advocates of the ban said that there were 35,000 underage marriages from 2000 to 2021, most of whom were girls. They said the ban is critical in protecting children from sexual assault.  “California must protect our kids and end child marriage once and for all,” said Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, who authored the bill.

“Notably, the age of sexual consent is 18 without exception, unless that individual is the spouse of the minor.” Thirty-three other states also allow underage marriage, but they have restrictions on the age of the child. The ban is set to reach Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, who is expected to sign off on it. 

Source: Lawmakers expected to pass law ending child marriage in California – CBS Los Angeles

Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5

Hunted for Following Jesus

In some communities, Muslims who leave Islam to follow Christ face rejection, threats, violence, and even death because of their faith. For Muslim-background believers, choosing to follow Jesus can place their…

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Gavin Newsom opposes a California wealth tax. He’s proposing a national billionaire tax instead

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Silhouette of a man standing on a balcony looking at the lit California State Capitol building at dusk

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed a national tax on billionaires that he says is the first part of an “economic reset for America” agenda, which aides explicitly say is part of his considering to launch a presidential campaign. “The system America’s founders built was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades,” Newsom writes. “We can reverse it together, as a country.”

It is extremely early in the presidential campaign cycle for a policy proposal — but comes as Democrats continue to embrace economic populism and moves against the wealthy. It also comes as California voters in November will decide on a billionaires’ tax after the governor and opponents of the tax late Thursday failed to reach a deal to keep it off the ballot. Newsom, who is term-limited in California and will leave office in January 2027, lays out his proposal in a Substack post that went live on Friday morning, calling for a minimum tax on anyone worth more than $100 million so that they pay at least the same rate, rather than less, than the average American worker who doesn’t have loopholes and other maneuvers to benefit from.

Various wealth tax ideas have been proposed by Democrats before, including by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as part of her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Newsom says his idea comes out of wanting to create a bulwark against how artificial intelligence will reshape the economy, also proposing what he calls a “national public equity fund” to give every American, rather than just tech companies and investors, a share in the wealth likely to be produced. That fund, an aide said, would cover worker transition benefits, universal childcare, free higher education and career training, healthcare and a national industrial strategy for AI.

Newsom also called for rewriting the rules around inheritance, arguing that with what he says will be the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in human history coming over the next 20 years, “if we do not act, that transfer of wealth among the ultra-wealthy will lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth, with all the political consequences the founders warned us about.” Newsom explains why that he will personally vote no on the California proposal, which would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents with a net worth over $1 billion. Backers of the measure gathered more than 870,000 signatures and include progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Rep. Ro Khanna – himself a 2028 contender. Newsom and others fear it would drive businesses out of California, and that the revenue collected would not be spread around widely enough. “We’re competing with 50 states,” Newsom told the World Economic Forum earlier this year.

“Capital flows and move(s). That’s real. It’s not imagined. It’s very, very real.” In his Substack post, Newsom writes that while he understands “the anxiety” driving interest in the California proposed tax, it “turns a blind eye to safety-net clinics and reproductive healthcare providers that Planned Parenthood has fought for decades to protect. There is nothing for housing, nothing for childcare, nothing for public safety workers who must answer 911 calls, and nothing for our public universities that have powered California’s economy for a decade.” Khanna, however, called Newsom’s proposal a distraction, arguing in a call with reporters on Friday that it didn’t actually constitute a wealth tax. “Taxing the loans on assets is something that the tech oligarchs themselves have proposed,” he said.

“That will raise a fraction of the revenue of an actual wealth tax, the kind that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or I have proposed.” Long a presumed candidate for president in 2028, Newsom has begun to show his political hand more explicitly with a video last week about what he said was a Justice Department investigation into his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom: “Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets, he’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.”

Source: Gavin Newsom opposes a California wealth tax. He’s proposing a national billionaire tax instead | CNN Politics

Seek good and not evil, That you may live; So the LORD God of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken.
Amos 5:14

Plague in Russia?

Russian authorities have sought to allay global worries over the death of a young woman who worked at a Siberian anti-plague laboratory. But moves to isolate her…

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California veteran known for pro-Trump display outside his home dies after assault

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man in blue crew neck t shirt standing near american flags

A southern California man has died after an assault last week in front of his San Diego area home, which was well known for its extensive collection of US flags and signs supporting Donald Trump. Authorities confirmed on Monday that Kerry Sheron, a 69-year-old US army veteran, died days after he was attacked on Wednesday outside his home in Escondido. Police have arrested Thomas Butler, a 32-year-old who media outlets have identified as a navy veteran, on multiple charges including attempted murder, elder abuse and battery.

Officers were called to the street where Sheron lived for a reported assault on the afternoon of 20 May and came upon a badly injured Sheron as well as a bystander who was injured after intervening, according to a report from Military.com. Police arrested Butler a short time later after searching the area. Ross Garcia, a deputy district attorney, said the violence against Sheron was unprovoked, CBS8 reported. “It was a single punch to the jaw. The victim then falls to the floor, and there are subsequent hits to the victim’s head area, requiring the victim to be transported to the hospital,” Garcia said. Law enforcement officials have told media the motive is still under investigation but that investigators do not yet have information suggesting the incident was politically motivated. Sheron’s family has described it as a “brutal and unprovoked attack”.

The incident has sparked outrage, and Sheron’s wife and some public officials have suggested it was a result of his political beliefs. Brian Jones, California’s senate minority leader from San Diego, called Sheron’s death “unconscionable” and said he was “ruthlessly murdered” because of his support “freedom, patriotism, and our president”. “It was callous and it was evil. To kill an elderly man over his political beliefs is not only heartbreaking, it is un-American to its core,” Jones said in a statement. The San Diego district attorney’s office said that Butler will return to court on 3 June and is currently in custody without bail.

Source: California veteran known for pro-Trump display outside his home dies after assault | California | The Guardian

For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.”
Romans 14:11

Christian Persecution September 25-October 2 2026

Recent reporting (roughly September 25–October 2, 2026) on Christian persecution centers on continued lethal violence in Nigeria, house-church detentions in China, and related pressures elsewhere. Nigeria Attacks attributed to Fulani militants continued…

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Eileen Wang resigns, will plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent

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SP Eileen Wang in handcuffs at press conference with police officer and media

A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, and has resigned from her city position, officials said Monday. Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, was charged in April with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. City manager Dominic Lazzaretto said in a news release that no city finances or staff were involved.

“We want to be clear: this investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022,” he said. Federal officials said she has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. Wang’s attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun said in a statement that she recognizes the seriousness of the charge and accepts responsibility for “past personal mistakes.” “She apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life,” Wang’s attorneys Jason Liang and Brian Sun said in a statement. “Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver.” According to her plea agreement, Wang and a colleague, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, worked on behalf of government officials for the People’s Republic of China from the end of 2020 to 2022 to promote their interests by promoting pro-PRC propaganda in the U.S. Sun is serving a four-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to the same charge last October.

He was also listed in campaign filings as the treasurer for Wang’s 2022 election campaign. Wang and Sun operated the news website U.S. News Center, aimed at the Chinese American community, and were instructed by Chinese government officials to post pro-PRC content on it. In one instance in June 2021, a government official sent Wang a link to a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times written by the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles. The piece refuted reports of the persecution, forced labor, and abuse of Uyghers in China’s Xinjiang province, stating, “There has never been genocide in Xinjiang or forced labor in the region’s cotton fields or any other sector.”

Source: Eileen Wang resigns, will plead guilty to acting as Chinese agent | CNN

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15

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California Fines Church $1.2 Million for Worship; Now the Supreme Court Must Decide if the Constitution Still Stands

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exchange of indian currency outdoors scene

Advocates for Faith & Freedom, in partnership with the American Center for Law & Justice, has filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn more than $1.2 million in fines imposed on Calvary Chapel San Jose and Pastor Mike McClure for the simple act of gathering to worship. This case stands as one of the clearest examples of government overreach against a church in modern American history. During COVID, California forced churches to close, restrict worship, and enforce mandates that violated Calvary Chapel’s sincerely held beliefs. At the very same time, the state allowed widespread exemptions for secular operations such as restaurants, athletic programs, and government offices.

Calvary Chapel chose obedience to Scripture over obedience to shifting political orders. The county retaliated with rapidly escalating fines that soared to $5,000 per day, ultimately exceeding $1.2 million, along with coercive demands for sworn compliance with orders later deemed unconstitutional. In addition to the $1,228,700 judgment, Santa Clara County is seeking $1,098,244 in attorneys’ fees and $45,753 in costs, which remain stayed pending appeal. If imposed, the total financial burden on Calvary Chapel would exceed $2.37 million – a staggering sum designed to punish a church for worshipping God during a crisis. The petition emphasizes that the Supreme Court has already ruled in Tandon v. Newsom that government cannot treat religious gatherings worse than comparable secular activities. California ignored that mandate and continued to target churches. “Government officials may not weaponize emergencies to suspend the First Amendment,” said Erin Mersino, Vice President and Chief of Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation for Advocates for Faith & Freedom. “California imposed some of the most aggressive restrictions on churches in the country, and this case is about ensuring the government never does this again.”

Source: California Fines Church $1.2 Million for Worship; Now the Supreme Court Must Decide if the Constitution Still Stands – Christian Newswire

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

CA Makes More Per Gallon of Gas in Taxes Than Oil Companies Do in Profit

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counterfeit dollar banknotes

When it comes to gas and oil prices, Democrats in California are facing increasing push-back, as the U.S. Oil and Gas Association and others blast claims that the Iran conflict, President Trump, or so-called corporate greed are responsible for the state’s prices, which are among the highest in the nation.  Advertisement Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office thought it would test its luck against Chevron, writing on X, “While America suffers, Chevron profits.”

For emphasis, the governor posted a picture of a Reuters article stating that Chevron expects to earn between $1.6 billion and $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026.  However, they got absolutely destroyed by a community note pointing out that the State of California actually makes more profit per gallon of gas than any gas company does in the state.

Source: CA Makes More Per Gallon of Gas in Taxes Than Oil Companies Do in Profit

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4