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Newsom announces California redistricting plan; ICE raid conducted nearby
Governor Gavin Newsom was joined by state lawmakers at a press conference in LA Thursday. | Photo courtesy of Governor Newsom / Facebook
after the 2030 Census. He defended the move, saying it is essential to counter what he called a clear attempt to rig the 2026 mid-term congressional elections -- noting that Trump called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and told him to come up with five more GOP seats to ensure the party maintains a majority in the House. “He’s going to lose the mid-terms. He knows ... his presidency ends in 17 months,” Newsom said. “He knows it. Why else would he try to rig the system? Why else would you make the phone call?” He added, “These guys are not playing by any set of rules.” And he urged other Democrat-majority states to also redraw their district lines to counter the GOP effort. Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, issued a statement this week saying the party would go to court to fight Newsom’s plans to redistrict the state. “The California Republican Party will fight it in the courts, at the ballot box and in every community,” Rankin said.
Menifee cop charged with sexually assaulting girl, woman
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the legislature’s ability to achieve a quorum and vote on the issue. But Newsom said Thursday California won’t stand by and watch GOP leaders try to rig the 2026 mid-term elections. “Today is liberation day in the state of California,” Newsom said. “ ... Donald Trump, you have poked the bear and we will punch back.” He said California is the size of 21 state populations combined. “I know they say `Don’t mess with Texas.’ Well, don’t mess with the great Golden State,” he said. He said the California legislature will take up the issue next week to call a Nov. 4 special election to put new maps before voters to increase Democratic representation in Congress -- offsetting the actions of Texas. The move would set aside the current California district maps that were drawn by an independent commission. Newsom stressed that the move would only be temporary, with the state returning to the independent redistricting process
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By City News Service
By City News Service ov. Gavin Newsom joined statewide Democratic leaders in downtown Los Angeles Thursday to announce a Nov. 4 ballot measure that would redraw California’s congressional districts to add more Democrat seats in the U.S. House -- countering a similar move in Texas aimed at bolstering the GOP’s hold on Congress. The highly anticipated announcement, which was hyped by the governor himself with a series of social media posts this week taunting President Donald Trump, became more of a spectacle when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid outside the Little Tokyo venue where Newsom was speaking. “You think it’s coincidental?” Newsom asked the partisan crowd at his news conference. “Donald Trump and his minions ... decided coincidentally or not that this was a location to advance ICE arrests.” The raid didn’t stop Newsom and other Democrats gathered for the event from lashing out at the Trump administration and vowing to follow through with the redistricting process to offset Republican efforts underway in Texas and possibly other GOP strongholds. Newsom has repeatedly criticized efforts in Texas to redraw that state’s congressional districts ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, with the new maps potentially adding between three and five Republican seats in Congress, bolstering the GOP’s slim majority in the House of Representatives. That redistricting effort has been on hold due to Texas state Democrats leaving the state, blocking
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Abbott told Fox News that if California does move to redraw its district, Texas will simply counter by amending its lines again to add even more Republican seats in Washington. “If California thinks they’re going to move their needle to the extreme and eliminate five Republican numbers of the United States Congress there, Texas is not going to do five: We will add 10 more Republican seats using the same procedure they are using in California,” Abbott said. Christian Martinez, Western regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a statement Thursday blasting Newsom’s proposal. “Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,” Martinez said. “Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s See Newsom Page 28
Menifee policeman accused of sexually assaulting a woman and girl while on and off duty, one of whom was a domestic violence victim he exploited, was charged Thursday with forcible rape and other offenses. Juan Jose Pesina Jr., 32, of Murrieta was arrested Tuesday following a two-week investigation handled by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Unit. Along with rape, Pesina is charged with felony sexual battery, attempted forcible sodomy, first-degree burglary, forced oral copulation, attempted forced oral copulation and two counts of assault with intent to commit rape, as well as sentence-enhancing allegations of perpetrating sexual offenses during a burglary. The defendant, who is being held on $1 million bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, was slated to make his initial court appearance at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta Thursday. Pesina is on unpaid administrative leave from his position at the Menifee Police Department. The agency released a statement Tuesday saying the Professional Standards Unit had received a complaint from a woman on July 22 alleging encounters with the lawman over two years earlier in which he had sexually abused her. “A preliminary internal investigation was immediately conducted,” Menifee police Sgt. Raul Perez said. “In order See Cop charged Page 28
House subcommittee chair tours SB County, talks infrastructure, fires, supply chain By Staff
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he chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit toured San Bernardino County earlier this month to view firsthand regional infrastructure and wildfire-prone areas critical to California’s emergency response capabilities and the national supply chain, county officials announced. Rep. David Rouzer, a Republican from North Carolina, emphasized the inland Southern California region’s role in supporting national logistics and goods movement and the ever-critical need for funds to pay for public safety infrastructure. His tour, hosted by the county Board of Supervisors, included an aerial overview of major regional transportation projects over Interstate 10 and the 15 Freeway, one of the nation’s worst bottlenecks, officials said. The tour also included the Cajon Pass and key corridors in the High Desert that are vital to the movement of goods and people, See David Rouzer Page 27