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Democrats gained a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers of the California legislature on Monday after picking up two more seats in the state Senate. Democrats Melisa Hurtado and Assemblywoman Anna Caballero were declared victors after vote totals were updated following last week’s election, The Associated Press reported. The two female candidates won seats in the Fresno area. Hurtado won the open 12th seat and Caballero beat out California Sen. Andy Vidak (R) in the 14th District. Democrats now have a two-thirds advantage in the 40-person Senate and in the 80-person Assembly. The massive supermajority gives the party the ability to...

Over 1 million American workers with over 100 companies are set to receive a bonus, pay hike or retirement increase as a direct result of President Trump’s tax reform package.The latest list from Americans for Tax Reform, which has been collecting the names of firms paying the Trump bonus, finds that some are paying as much as $3,000.Many of those firms have reached out to Secrets to get added to the list since we’ve been publishing ATR’s list compiled by the tax reform advocate’s communications chief John Kartch.One company, IAT Insurance of Raleigh, N.C., wrote Secrets today asking to be...

When America's powerful pro-gun group told doctors to mind their own business, the response was swift, furious and viral. "Unless you've had someone's heart stop beating in your hands, you don't get to tell those of us who have what is and is not our 'lane'," trauma surgeon David Morris, 42, told the BBC. The National Rifle Association's tweet on Wednesday sparked anger. It came just hours before a gunman killed 12 people in a California bar. "Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane," the NRA tweeted.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has done what we all knew she was going to do if the Democrats retook the House: mount a bid for speaker (again). It’s a slam-dunk, right? Well, she isn’t exactly the real face of the party. Moreover, she’s incredibly unpopular, a figure that jacks up the GOP base (and fills its campaign coffers), and a whole host of new Democrats don’t support her bid in the leadership. The question is whether the new class sticks to their word. Pelosi did raise money for them, despite their explicit opposition to her reassuming the House speakership. In all...

When I was in a liquor store not far from Thousand Oaks, California, a few months back, a guy came up to the counter with his shirt half over his head and what I perceived as a gun protruding underneath it. I'm slightly (insanely) paranoid, so I ran out with my daughter in her pram, leaving my purchases on the counter, and legged it across the street. My daughter was wondering why we didn't get her apple juice, and I was vexed I didn't have my Mexican beers after my ordeal. You can't but be jumpy. There are up to...

PARADISE, Calif. — The dead were found in burned-out cars, in the smoldering ruins of their homes, or next to their vehicles, apparently overcome by smoke and flames before they could jump in behind the wheel and escape. In some cases, there were only charred fragments of bone, so small that coroner's investigators used a wire basket to sift and sort them. At least 29 people were confirmed dead in the wildfire that turned the Northern California town of Paradise and outlying areas into hell on earth, equaling the deadliest blaze in state history, and the search for bodies continued...

California Gov. Jerry Brown blamed climate change Sunday for the California wildfires, despite a complete lack of evidence — a day after President Donald Trump was widely criticized for blaming poor forest management. According to the Associated Press, Brown, described as an “evangelist” for climate change, also blamed climate change deniers for the deadly fires, saying they were responsible for the deaths of California residents. “Managing all the forests in everywhere we can does not stop climate change,” he said. “And those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we’re now witnessing, and will continue to witness...

Fox News called the U.S. House of Representatives for the Democrats on Tuesday night just after 9:30 p.m. EST — with polls still open in California for nearly an hour and a half. https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2018/11/06/critics-question-fox-news-calling-house-for-democrats-with-california-polls-still-open/

How “green policies” are burning the Golden State to a crisp. As huge wildfires continued to devour forests, homes, and businesses across California over the weekend, President Trump lashed out at the destructive, deadly policies long pushed by environmentalists that set the stage for the Golden State’s now-routine fiery catastrophes. “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” President Trump tweeted Nov. 10 at 3:08 a.m. “Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy...

President Trump on Saturday faced criticism from a firefighters' union after he appeared to blame several wildfires in California on mismanagement by state and local officials. The International Association of Firefighters called the president's comments blaming "gross mismanagement" for the severe conditions in California an "irresponsible" and "reckless" act on behalf of the Trump administration.

FULL TITLE: STUNNING! California Republicans Face More Losses as Late Votes for Democrats Continue to Trickle In #StopTheSteal Republican candidates who led their races on election night continue to suffer losses as Democrats across the nation have been able to manufacture tens-of-thousands of new votes since election day. Democrats stole races in Florida, New Mexico and California since election results were announced on Tuesday night. Democrats have mysteriously found thousands of new votes in Georgia on Saturday after losing the governor’s seat on Tuesday. And now several California Republican candidates who led their races by significant margins on election night...

Local Mexican officials were once again Sunday helping thousands of Central American migrants find rides on the next leg of their journey toward the U.S. border... The government of Queretaro said via Twitter that 6,531 migrants had moved through the state between Friday and Saturday... after staying in three shelters it had prepared... raising the possibility that other migrants have caught up to the main caravan. The migrants appear to be on a path to Tijuana across the border from San Diego, which is still some 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) away.

Republican candidates who led their races on election night continue to suffer losses as Democrats across the nation have been able to manufacture tens-of-thousands of new votes since election day. STUNNING! California Republicans Face More Losses as Late Votes for Democrats Continue to Trickle In #StopTheSteal Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft November 11, 2018 1.1KShare 214Tweet Email Republican candidates who led their races on election night continue to suffer losses as Democrats across the nation have been able to manufacture tens-of-thousands of new votes since election day. Democrats stole races in Florida, New Mexico and California since election results were...

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said by commenting on the Florida recount of the Senate and gubernatorial races, President Donald Trump was attempting “obstruction” and “suppression of the vote.” [snip] PELOSI: Yes to the second part. Let’s go to the first part first. My experience with the president is any time charges somebody with something he’s just projecting what he might have done himself."

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said “under no circumstances” should the so-called migrant caravan be allowed to cross into the United States. Partial transcript as follows: BRENNAN: You were very critical of the Obama administration for taking action via executive fiat as you said, you called it dangerous. This week President Trump on immigration has issued orders bypassing Congress to restrict how migrants crossing the border illegally can claim asylum. Are you OK with that now? CRUZ: Well I’m still studying this specific immigration order, but I’ll tell you look, here’s my view on executive...

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican fixture in California who represented Orange County for 15 terms, has lost his bid for re-election. His defeat underlines the party’s setbacks in a part of the state that was long a symbol of its political dominance. The Associated Press called the race on Saturday, with Harley Rouda receiving 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Rohrabacher’s 48 percent. Mr. Rouda, 56, is a former Republican turned Democrat who became a symbol of the Democratic efforts to win back Congress this year. Mr. Rohrabacher, 71, was viewed as particularly vulnerable because he defended Russia in...

“Recognize one point,” Pelosi told me during an interview in the conference room of her minority-leader suite in the Capitol late Friday: “What Mueller might not think is indictable could be impeachable.” Pelosi said people should pray for the country as long as Trump is in charge. She’s not sure of his mental condition. She thinks he’s degraded the Constitution and American values.

Globally, wildfire size, severity, and frequency have been increasing, as have related fatalities and taxpayer-funded firefighting costs (1). In most accessible forests, wildfire response prioritizes suppression because fires are easier and cheaper to contain when small (2). In the United States, for example, 98% of wildfires are suppressed before reaching 120 ha in size (3). But the 2% of wildfires that escape containment often burn under extreme weather conditions in fuel-loaded forests and account for 97% of fire-fighting costs and total area burned (3). Changing climate and decades of fuel accumulation make efforts to suppress every fire dangerous, expensive, and...

The size and swiftness of this weekend's deadly Valley Fire in California was startling. But could it (and the other fires currently raging out west) have been smaller if fires in previous years had been allowed to burn? The authors of a new paper published today in Science certainly think so. In looking at forest fires in the United States, the researchers found that the vast majority of wildfires were kept extremely small, with 98 percent limited to less than 300 acres. Keeping fires small has been a goal for decades, as firefighters tried to preserve the forest the best...

Scientists at the cutting edge of ecological research, Dr. Hanson among them, argue that the century-old American practice of suppressing wildfires has been nothing less than a calamity. They are calling for a new approach that basically involves letting backcountry fires burn across millions of acres. In principle, the federal government accepted a version of this argument years ago, but in practice, fires are still routinely stamped out across much of the country. To the biologists, that has imperiled the plants and animals — hundreds of them, it turns out — that prefer to live in recently burned forests. “From...