In the simmering race for governor, Democratic Party insiders are coalescing around Xavier Becerra, a lifetime placeholder who is neither left nor right but who can be counted on to do absolutely nothing. Also: Ritchie Valens, Elon Musk, Kamala Harris, heroic El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, and the guy who burned down Pacific Palisades. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• “La Bamba” (Original) 
• “Come on, Let’s Go!” (Ramones) 
• California braces for uncertainty as last shipment of Persian Gulf oil arrives in Long Beach
• The Torching of Los Angeles Was Anti-Capitalist Vigilantism
• California Regulators Apologize to Elon
• Willie Brown endorses Tom Steyer for California governor
• Democratic and Republican candidates for Calif. governor lead latest poll
• How Xavier Becerra became the Joe Biden of California’s governor race
• Kamala Harris endorses L.A. Mayor Karen Bass for reelection
• Kamala Harris bought a Malibu home. Her neighbors think that means something.
• LAO: California spent more than it could afford
• El Cajon sues California, alleges state ‘sanctuary’ laws illegally entice undocumented immigrants

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We discuss the bizarre manifesto of Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, Calif. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Hightower agrees to buy $9.5bn practice The Bahnsen Group
• A May Day Push to ‘Shut It Down’ Takes Shape Across the Country
• Read Here: The full manifesto by accused shooter at White House Correspondents' Dinner
• The pile-on that wasn’t
• Anti-Billionaire ‘OUR REVOLUTION’ Endorses Billionaire Steyer for Gov
• California Voter ID Measure Qualifies For November Ballot
• ‘A betrayal:’ California to share data on immigrant drivers nationally
• Governor Newsom launches first new conservancy in 15 years to accelerate progress at the Salton Sea
• Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea | KQED Truly CA

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Just six weeks from the California gubernatorial primary, Democrats are still auditioning for a lead — and risk watching Republicans steal the show. Can someone please introduce candidate Tom Steyer to the U.S. Constitution? State Senator Scott Wiener’s attempt to muzzle ICE melts in the Ninth Circuit. A fake bear wreaks fake terror on luxury vehicles in Lake Arrowhead. Bonus! A brief history of California’s Modoc War. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Trump ally Roger Stone hired to lobby for Bay Area tribe seeking control of Presidio
• ‘San Francisco treasure’: City, state leaders blast Trump for firing Presidio Trust board
• 3 sentenced for insurance fraud after using bear costume to stage fake attacks on luxury cars
• Takeaways from the first California governor’s debate since Eric Swalwell’s exit
• ‘Becerra Bounce.' How Xavier Becerra surged from behind to be a frontrunner in governor's race
• ‘Dark Horse’ Gets Sudden Jolt in Packed California Race
• Steyer proposes ending ICE, jailing police
• 9th Circuit blocks California limits on anonymous immigration agents
• G.B. V. Environmental Protection Agency (9th Cir. 2026)
• How Newsom Boosted His Book Sales With $1.5 Million From His PAC
• CA hasn’t signed off on a promised deal to help bail out LA if the Olympic Games lose money

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United Teachers of Los Angeles activists are celebrating the massive salary hike they won on Tuesday, but Lance Christensen says all Californians will pay the price. That same day, attorneys for Rocklin Unified School District asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a little-known California administrative court that California Justice Center attorney Emily Rae says violates the federal rights of parents of schoolchildren. Music by Metalachi.

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Emily Rae:

Follow @EmilyRaeCJC

• Rocklin Unified Takes Parental Notification Fight to U.S. Supreme Court

Lance Christensen:

Follow @lancelands

• The price of LAUSD union peace will be $1.2 billion a year. Next up is paying for it
• Strike or not, Los Angeles Unified is on an unsustainable trajectory

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As his career prospects evaporate, disgraced former Representative Eric Swalwell now begs exemption from the “believe women” standard he applied to his conservative political opponents. An Easter Egg hunt in Long Beach leads to a human skull, Mayor Karen Bass celebrates the return of Baywatch but says nothing about the return of typhus to L.A., Kamala Korner is back, and the Wiener Watch never left! David offers an explainer on a clash of the tech titans in Musk vs. Altman. Bonus: Kenneth Schrupp discusses Manhattan Institute’s investigation into allegations of fraud in the state’s $30 billion annual In-Home Supportive Services Program. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Eric Swalwell Reaps What He Sows
• An Easter Egg Hunt in a California Park Leads to a Human Skull
• Mayor Bass welcomes Baywatch and major productions back to Los Angeles
• Typhus from fleas hits record level in L.A.:  Where the hot spots are and how to protect yourself
• World Cup: 2 Months Out, FIFA and Host Cities Sideline Rights
• ‘Thinking About It’: Kamala Harris Teases 2028 Presidential Run
• Newsom administration won't say how much Kamala Harris' CHP security detail is costing California taxpayers
• Senator Wiener Announces Bill To Protect Survivors Of Conversion Therapy
• Lawmaker backing transgender treatments for kids squirms as man says puberty blockers destroyed him
• Meta builds AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with staff
• Elon Musk Lawsuit Claims OpenAI Used a Fake Charity to Build an $800 Billion Empire
• California tries to criminalize journalism — to protect fraud
• California unveils hospice fraud arrests, pushing back on ‘kingdom of fraud’ claim by Trump official

Kenneth Shrupp, Manhattan Institute

• Gavin Newsom’s $30 Billion Fraud Magnet

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Angling for a White House run, Governor Gavin Newsom talks up his plan to bring white men back to the Democratic Party while his wife warns women that Republicans are working to push women “back into the straitjacket of femininity that is only in service of men.” In other news: Newsom will spend $19 million to persuade Americans that California is awesome and Trump endorses gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton. In the history department, Will and David discuss the 1972 state Supreme Court decision that ended the death-penalty convictions of 107 California killers including Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, and one Robert Page Anderson. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• People v. Anderson
• UCLA crushes the Other USC to win NCAA women’s basketball national championship
• ICE Busts Slain Iranian Military Leader’s Niece & Her Daughter Who Called US ‘Great Satan’ In L.A.
• San Diego warship to recover Artemis II astronauts when they splash down in ocean Friday
• Trump endorses Steve Hilton in California governor's race
• Billionaire candidate for California governor catching heat for past business interests, wealth
• Sexual Harassment Allegations Could Rock Swalwell’s Campaign For Governor
• Major global PR firm Edelman wins $19 million state contract to promote California in a better light
• For Democrats, the Era of the Girl Dad and Male Ally Is Over
• Governor Newsom convenes leaders to confront crisis facing boys and men
• CNN black sheep Scott Jennings gives withering take on Jennifer Newsom: ‘She’s a real problem’
• Jennifer Siebel Newsom Has Bleak Warning For MAGA Women After Recent Firings
• Gavin Newsom’s wife pushed weird gender films into California classrooms — while paying herself a fortune
• The great corruption of behested payments in California
• Air district fines Fairfield Budweiser brewery $2.3M over alleged emissions violations
• Major cheese producer closes Fresno-area facility, cuts jobs as it opens Texas site
• Yamaha moves US headquarters out of California after nearly 50 years
• Public Storage is the latest company to leave California for Texas
• Public Storage to Acquire National Storage Affiliates in $5.6 Billion Stock Deal
• The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate
• CCSF union president violated policies in antisemitic rant, investigation finds
• Long Beach City College votes to name its Labor Center in honor of Dolores Huerta

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Governor Gavin Newsom signed an emergency bill to rename the Cesar Chavez holiday “Farmworkers Day.” Will and David suggest we commemorate instead the East Los Angeles teacher who was the subject of the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver -- and was then driven from teaching by his own union. Representative Eric Swalwell earned a key campaign endorsement from the California Teachers Association -- a kind of Surgeon General’s Warning for voters in the state’s June primary. In other news: Tech’s very bad week in court, and it’s time for San Francisco to defund its corrupt “Defund the Police” campaign. Bonus tracks! Red State reporter Jen Van Laar on LAUSD’s all-in-the-family negotiations with the state’s largest teacher’s union, and former Los Angeles Times religion reporter Bill Lobdell on the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal, televangelists, Cesar Chavez, and California’s public schools. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes

• Newsom signs law renaming Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day
• A Calculated Move : Jaime Escalante Prepares to Leave to Teach in Sacramento
• UTLA’s response
• The USC professor at the center of the debate debacle
• A big weekend for Eric Swalwell
• F.B.I. Said to Dig Up Old Investigative Files on Democratic Lawmaker
• Swalwell campaign in the hot seat after accepting almost $15K from CCP-tied law firm: 'Stop playing footsie'
• Social media trials usher in Big Tech's latest moment of reckoning
• Top S.F. official who led Dream Keeper equity program charged with felonies: ‘abuse of power’
• Holed up: L.A. tries closing off manhole where people live, nearly sealing someone inside
• LA’s Declining Homelessness Numbers: Real or Illusory?
• California introduces financial literacy course starting with class of 2030-31
• 'New Era': Landmark Policy to Expand Tribal Stewardship for At Least 7.5 Million Acres in California

Jen Van Laar

• Literal bedfellows among teacher union activists and the district negotiating their pay package

Bill Lobdell

• “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America and Found Unexpected Peace”
• Newport Beach in the Rearview Mirror podcast

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The union behind the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act says it will generate $110 billion for public health programs, but Hoover Institution researchers calculate that it will actually cost California $25 billion. In the “Why Now Department,” Will and David consider multiple hypotheses about the timing of claims that United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez raped young women half a century ago. The legal case against Meta and YouTube asks us to believe that social media companies bear absolute responsibility for addictive use of social media. Will tells the true story of Ah Louis, a California Gold Rush-era immigrant who became the unofficial mayor of San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown. Bonus! Lance Christensen provides a first look at the year’s legislative Race to Absurdity. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Read the Statement From Dolores Huerta on Cesar Chavez’s Abuse
• From streets to murals, the erasure of Cesar Chavez is fast underway in California
• The complicated legacy of César Chávez
• ‘I will miss them’: Khanna mocks tech billionaires threatening to leave California for wealth tax
• Kathy Hochul’s Seller’s Remorse
• The Fiscal Losses from California's Billionaire Tax Act
• Gavin Newsom’s $114 Million Butterfly Bridge
• Jury deliberations continue in landmark social media addiction trial against Meta, Google
• Social media use is tied to well-being, according to the new World Happiness Report

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The once-powerful, still-iconic founder of the United Farm Workers is now getting the old Me-Too makeover with his own union reporting allegations that he was the radical left’s Jeffrey Epstein. Also: Newsom’s hypocrisy on surging gasoline prices, Oscar-winner Jessie Buckley’s defense of family, population-alarmist Paul Ehrlich is dead, L.A. County’s fraud problem, the Silicon Valley's deeply flawed initiative to block the wealth tax, and more! Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Cesar Chavez allegations jolt California’s labor movement
• Jessie Buckley’s Beautiful Homage to Mothers
• The End Is Still Near
• The sleeper initiative that could upend more than the wealth tax
• We visited “ground zero” for hospice fraud: Los Angeles, California
• Progressive lawmakers Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna unveil $4.4T wealth tax targeting billionaires
• SEIU California Endorses Eric Swalwell for Governor
• You get an endorsement! You get an endorsement!
• Sable’s president in shining armor
• Governor Newsom blasts Trump for raising gasoline prices on Americans with no plan and no accountability

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California Governor Gavin Newsom says taxpayers will spend $19 million on advertising designed to burnish his record in advance of his White House run. Will and guest Will O’Neill consider recent news stories that won’t make the final cut -- skyrocketing oil prices, gender transitioning in the state’s schools, the stabbing victim who died after his ambulance was stolen, and the governor’s own flirtation with antisemitism. Bonus! Remembering Edward Dickinson Baker, the first Californian to die in the American Civil War. Music by Metalachi.

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Show Notes:

• Army Reserve soldier from Sacramento among six killed in Kuwait drone strike
• Newsom planning $19-million push to polish California’s national image
• In a Political Campaign, City Officials Can Spend Your Money Against You. They Call it 'Education'
• He was stabbed while charging his car. He died after his ambulance was stolen
• Newsom likens Israel to ‘apartheid state,’ questions future military support
• Newsom Digs in After SCOTUS Rebuke, Claims Teachers ‘Forced to Be Gender Cops’
• Amid angry backlash, serial child molester is rearrested the same day he was set to be paroled
• Here’s how Newsom’s spending binge outstripped revenues, creating California’s chronic deficit
• Marathon, Chevron, PBF Warn Governor Newsom of Widespread Refinery Shutdowns, Fuel shortages, Economic Collapse
• California’s economy faces threats with new energy policy changes
• Nevada governor fires warning shot at Gavin Newsom over oil crisis: ‘Real-world consequences’
• Fearing GOP upset, top California Democrat urges lagging candidates for governor to drop out of race
• California Unions May Decide Which Republican Advances In The Governor’s Race — And Which One Doesn’t
• Poll: Hilton’s rise could spare Dems from disaster in California gov’s race
• Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley files to run as independent
• A budget plot twist in Oakland: From ‘fiscal emergency’ to $17 million in the black

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