News For Reasonable People

A PSU student told KOIN 6 News that they saw people in black smashing the windows at the campus safety office and spraying graffiti on the building. Another student journalist, Gabriel Elmosleh, recorded the video of people in black taking hammers to the windows at a Starbucks. The crowd regrouped outside the library soon after. Some people started fighting, and a woman, Eily, said when she took her phone out to film, someone knocked her phone to the ground. The incident escalated as both the woman and her boyfriend got assaulted by at least a dozen people.

Following the death of woman on the Metro B (Red) Line and a series of violent attacks on bus drivers, the transit agency's Board of Directors declared a public safety emergency Thursday while agreeing to procure safety barriers for bus drivers and taking other steps to enhance safety on the system. Metro's Board of Directors unanimously adopted a recommendation to acquire barriers for hundreds of buses, in response to a "sudden, unexpected increased severity of assaults on operators." According to Metro, assaults on bus operators increased from 92 attacks in 2019 to 160 in 2023, and they continue to escalate this year. Metro board member and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger also introduced a motion, co-authored by several of her colleagues, to quickly explore solutions to bolster public safety, prompted by the death of 66-year- old Mirna Soza Arauz, who was stabbed in an apparently unprovoked attack earlier this week.

Proving once again that the press never learns its lesson, the Washington Post graced us this week with a humdinger: “Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden.” This followed a New York Times headline from December, “As Fury Erupts Over Campus Antisemitism, Conservatives Seize the Moment.” In short: Nothing is ever a problem because it’s a problem. It’s only an issue because conservatives “seize” on it, or better yet, “pounce.” But Americans, particularly Jewish Americans, are coming to their own conclusions about how terrifying these protests are.

Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey delivered sharp words Thursday about college students protesting the Israel-Hamas war, repeatedly calling them “terrorists” and urging university leaders and law enforcement to take action. “What they’re saying is: they’re pro-Hamas,” he said at a press conference in Los Angeles, standing in front of Israeli flags. “They’re pro-terrorists. They’re supporting terrorism.” The remarks from Garvey, the former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star running against Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff for the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat, comes a day after police arrested hundreds of students around the country for protesting the war, including in Los Angeles. At the University of Southern California, officers arrived in riot gear on Wednesday night to remove protesters who had set up an encampment at the center of campus, arresting 93, and leading them away with their hands in zip ties.

A handful of the migrants shipped off to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 18 months ago are now legally allowed to work in the US — because they’re considered victims of a crime, their attorney says. The migrants applied last year for a special type of visa designated for crime victims — known as a U-visa — after they claimed they were duped into boarding charter flights from San Antonio, Texas, to the upmarket liberal enclave in Massachusetts with the false promises of jobs and housing. At least three of the 49 migrants involved in the flight operation — spearheaded by DeSantis in September 2022 — received “bona fide determinations” for their U-visa applications this week, their immigrant attorney, Rachel Self, told the Boston Globe.

San Francisco Mayor Breed is announcing new legislation to put a curfew in a section of the Tenderloin district, a part of the city that is notorious for high crime, homelessness and public drug use. In a post on X, Breed touted the measure. "Shutting down open air drug markets requires strong enforcement and new approaches," she wrote. "Last year SFPD doubled the arrests of drug dealers from the year before. This year we are continuing that work and federal agents are bringing even more enforcement." In a press statement from Tuesday, the Mayor's office revealed that it would introduce legislation to "prohibit some retail establishments selling prepacked food or tobacco products from operating between 12 a.m. (midnight) to 5 a.m. in part of the Tenderloin."

The 955 Market Street building that was once home to Burning Man headquarters, and then a whole bunch of WeWork offices, is now empty and just sold for a measly 10% of the price it fetched in 2016. Let’s look back to the days of 2016, when the 16-story office building at 995 Market Street was on the market for sale, drawing the San Francisco Business Times headline “WeWork’s Mid-Market landlords prepare to cash in.” The Burning Man office headquarters called Black Rock LLC had once been a tenant, as was the Eviction Defense Collaborative, but WeWork had pretty much taken over the whole building. And the place ended up selling for $62 million in 2016, with marketing materials from 2015 (seen below) calling it “San Francisco's most sought after and dynamic submarket.”

Migrants again are riding trains to the El Paso-Juarez border by the hundreds, intent on seeking asylum in the U.S. Images obtained by a Border Report camera crew show the arrival in Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday afternoon of a lengthy cargo train with people packed tightly atop each boxcar. The train was coming from Chihuahua City, where authorities recently disbanded hundreds of migrants staying in tents behind a convenience store next to train tracks. The migrants set up the camp several weeks ago because Mexican immigration officials got them off Juarez-bound trains. One migrant told local news media he and some of his peers armed themselves with rocks to prevent agents of Mexico’s National Migration Institute from getting them off the trains, as the agents had been doing for the past several weeks.

Democrat Adam Schiff had to slum it without a suit at a formal affair in the Bay Area after some sly San Francisco criminals broke into his car and stole his luggage. The House Democrat, who represents Burbank in Southern California, was in the city for a campaign event. He's currently running a competitive bid for the Senate to replace former Sen. Dianne Feinstein. During the trip, Schiff committed a cardinal sin - at least in crime-ridden San Francisco - leaving his luggage in his car while it was parked in a downtown garage. The lawmaker's car was broken into and his suit and other belongings were stolen ahead of the event. As a result, Schiff was forced to wear casual attire he had on hand at the more formal dinner meeting.

Santa Monica, California, is preparing to construct an apartment building for the homeless that would cost roughly $1 million per unit. The apartment building, which will be built in Santa Monica and will be home to “122 apartments” and two levels of underground parking, will cost more than $123 million, according to the website for the City of Santa Monica. A second design concept on the website found that the project could cost even more, totaling more than $200 million for 196 apartments. “Moving forward in bringing affordable and permanent supportive housing to city-owned land is a key step in our strategy to fulfill our Housing Element requirement,” Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock said in a statement. “I look forward to the next steps and ultimately seeing families move into these new homes and thrive.”

Standard & Poor's has downgraded its outlook on San Francisco's debt from stable to negative, signaling potential financial distress for the city. This change reflects ongoing challenges in San Francisco's commercial real estate market, where vacancies have soared to approximately 40%. The decline in office occupancy, driven by the shift to remote work and the city's high cost of living, has severely impacted San Francisco's economic recovery post-pandemic. This situation poses a significant risk to the city's budget, with fiscal projections indicating a looming deficit potentially exceeding $1 billion by 2027. Such economic indicators suggest that without significant adjustments, San Francisco may struggle to maintain its financial health, affecting its ability to manage debt without resorting to higher borrowing costs. #SanFranciscoDebt #EconomicDownturn #CommercialRealEstateCrisis

Officials in the San Diego area are urging Congress to pass stricter U.S. border laws amid an increase in migrants arriving on the shores of California’s beaches by boat. In the most recent incident, a speedboat navigated between surfers and beachgoers before it was abandoned in the suburb of Carlsbad, just north of San Diego. Several videos of Saturday’s incident circulated on social media, showing the boat running ashore when at least 15 people jumped out and some of them ran to the street and escaped in an awaiting vehicle. Others went into the residential and commercial district, frequented by tourists and locals, Reuters reported.

Across the country Monday, thousands of United States citizens were detained against their will by criminal protesters. In Seattle and Chicago , travelers were blocked from entering the airport. In New York City, the Brooklyn Bridge was shut down. In Philadelphia , all of Center City came to a standstill. In San Francisco , commuters on the Golden Gate Bridge were trapped in their cars for five hours, while across the bay in Oakland traffic in both directions on I-880 was blocked for six. None of these protests were legal. While all citizens have a First Amendment right to express their opinions, they do not have any right whatsoever to impede the free movement of others. The Supreme Court has always held that the government may impose content-neutral restrictions on the time, place, and manner of free expression as long as the government can also show there is a substantial government interest in the imposed restrictions.

Click here https://vnsh.com/reasonabletv to enter to win this $80,000 truck and get your VNSH holster $50 off for a limited time! California's expenditure of $24 billion on addressing its homeless crisis has come under scrutiny, with state auditors and GOP leaders questioning the effectiveness of the funds used. Despite this hefty financial commitment spanning the last five years, there appears to be little improvement in the homelessness issue, with concerns over lack of tracking and accountability being highlighted. The audit findings emphasize the need for a more structured approach to overseeing and evaluating the impact of these funds, with GOP leaders advocating for increased accountability to ensure that future expenditures lead to tangible results. This lack of transparency in fund utilization calls into question the efficiency of state-led initiatives in combating homelessness in California. #CaliforniaHomelessness #GovernmentAccountability #StateSpending

Branden Broadhead, 23, says he joined the military to help pay for school after struggling with his studies during COVID. “I was like, you know, I’ve always heard that the military (or) the Army will pay for your tuition, so I enlisted,” Broadhead said. He said he had good intentions when he took an oath to protect and serve, inspired, in part, by his grandma. “She always told me growing up (to) join,” he said. But then a friend connected him with a low-level cartel member, who promised him $5,000 in cash if he smuggled migrants who had crossed the southern border into Texas. He says his mom was sick and unable to work, so he said yes. Broadhead headed to Eagle Pass from Austin, where he picked up two migrants from Mexico — a woman and a man who said they were cousins. He made it to rural Kinney County but was surprised by a pop-up tactical Border Patrol checkpoint. He turned around, which alerted law enforcement. “I’m realizing I had a great life,” Broadhead said. “Huge mistake.” Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe said it’s a situation anybody might be lured toward.

Among the 46,000 people in Los Angeles experiencing homelessness, there are dozens living along the Arroyo Seco next to the 110 Freeway near Highland Park. Those living there have constructed a number of different makeshift structures, some with tents, tarps and other scrap materials, but at least one of the structures, complete with a stone wall, a walkway, a front door, electric-powered lighting and even a hammock for relaxing, stands out. The people living in the seemingly well-kept structure did not want to speak to KTLA, and as might be expected, those living near the riverfront domicile have differing opinions on the encampment. One woman who lives nearby told KTLA’s John Fenoglio in Spanish that unhoused residents don’t bother her, and that most of those living along the Arroyo are quiet and keep to themselves.

Residents in New York City who are accused of being squatters can qualify for free legal assistance, a housing lawyer told Newsweek on Wednesday. Squatting has emerged as a top-button issue in recent weeks after incidents in New York captured headlines creating the impression of a crisis. However, experts have pointed out that cases of people establishing residency in properties they have no legal right to are rare. Asked if someone accused of being a squatter with an eviction hearing in New York City qualifies for free legal assistance, Ami Shah, deputy director of citywide housing at Legal Services NYC, said: "Yeah, they do." "That language is very laden and we're seeing more and more landlords claim people are squatters and as soon as you look at the facts and the law around their possession of that apartment, in fact, they do have legal rights," she added.

For the third time, a man who claims he has permission to build a cabin and plans to mine for gold in a Seattle city park has been arrested. Police took Steven Irwin, 41, into custody at his encampment in the park on Friday, according to a Seattle police report. The city of Seattle banned Irwin from all parks for one year after he used an excavator to tear up a hillside in October and then ripped out vegetation to build a cabin.

Officials in the San Diego area are urging Congress to pass stricter U.S. border laws amid an increase in migrants arriving on the shores of California’s beaches by boat. In the most recent incident, a speedboat navigated between surfers and beachgoers before it was abandoned in the suburb of Carlsbad, just north of San Diego. Several videos of Saturday’s incident circulated on social media, showing the boat running ashore when at least 15 people jumped out and some of them ran to the street and escaped in an awaiting vehicle. Others went into the residential and commercial district, frequented by tourists and locals, Reuters reported.

Acondominium in downtown San Francisco, an area that's been rocked by several problems in the past few years, was sold last week for about half of its purchase price in 2019, as shown on real estate marketplace Zillow. The property, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo on 1075 Market St, a five-minute driving distance from Union Square and a three-minute driving distance from the troubled neighborhood of Tenderloin, was listed for sale on Zillow on January 18 for $695,000. After spending months on the market, it was sold on April 8 for $675,000—about half of the price commanded by the condo in late May 2019, when it was sold for $1,250,000.

San Diego saw a staggering 6,997 migrant encounters in just seven days at the start of April in an alarming indicator of the worsening border crisis, DailyMail.com can reveal. The number is around the same as other sectors normally see in an entire month, and only reflects those who were caught - meaning the true scale is likely higher. 'Unfortunately, I'm not surprised,' San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond told DailyMail.com Thursday.

“Poner el dinero en la bolsa.” That is what a Venezuelan national tried to translate into English in his failed attempt to rob a bank in Ohio. The suspect used a translator app, which presumably translated the aforementioned phrase to “put the money in the bag.” But the bank tellers did not acquiesce to his pathetic demands. Subsequently, the 20-year-old foreign national was arrested. When the bank tellers refused to give the suspect the cash he simply left. Police found him shortly after, where he denied the allegations and said that he just “went to the bank and asked them to put money inside a bag,” according to the outlet. But the Venezuelan national added that he did lose his job and that he needed money.

Gordon Ramsay once said he doesn’t “run restaurants that are out of control” — but that’s apparently not the case at one of his London eateries. A swarm of squatters have shacked up inside the celebrity chef’s $16.1 million pub — using Ramsay’s own kitchen appliances to barricade themselves inside, according to a report. Shocking photographs taken by The Sun show the “professional squatters” holed up inside York & Albany pub, which the “Hell’s Kitchen” host was about to sign over to new partners in a multi-million dollar deal. One person was seen barefoot and sprawled across on a black leather sofa inside the restaurant, with their personal belongings and debris, including empty wine bottles, strewn across the floor. What appears to be a filthy plush dog toy is seen tossed on the floor near the swanky front bar that months earlier had been adorned with fresh flowers and pricey cocktails.

Democrat St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has initiated a bold approach to combating crime within her city, one that diverges from traditional strategies typically centered around bolstering law enforcement. Jones, instead, has proposed a new tactic: holding local businesses accountable for crimes occurring on or around their premises. Her strategy seeks to engage the private sector in a more proactive role in fostering community safety. Jones’ inspiration for this approach stemmed from her attendance at the Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime, held in Memphis, Tennessee. It was there that she became acquainted with a program in Atlanta targeting nightclub owners, prompting her to contemplate the applicability of such measures to St. Louis. Jones’ inspiration for this approach stemmed from her attendance at the Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime, held in Memphis, Tennessee. It was there that she became acquainted with a program in Atlanta targeting nightclub owners, prompting her to contemplate the applicability of such measures to St. Louis. Jones’ inspiration for this approach stemmed from her attendance at the Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime, held in Memphis, Tennessee. It was there that she became acquainted with a program in Atlanta targeting nightclub owners, prompting her to contemplate the applicability of such measures to St. Louis.