Episoder
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“We have a huge opioid crisis on our hands, we have a huge mental health crisis. But we’re so focused on ideology versus practicality and common sense, and who’s in what political group and who’s saying it, that we haven’t solved the problem. Organizations have spent tens of thousands of dollars to spread toxic, negative information about candidates running to help serve our city instead of focusing on the issues at hand, and that is what scares me because people are so misinformed.”
Siyamak sits down with Lana Negrete, the vice mayor of Santa Monica. She shares her insights on some of the city’s most pressing issues, such as homelessness, crime, and quality of life, and how special groups and politics are impacting the city’s ability to unite and improve as a whole.
“If we continue to go down this path of letting small groups and organizations lead campaigns with misinformation and negative tactics, we will be so distracted by that and we will step farther and farther away from the real issues that we need to be focused on in Santa Monica.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.
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“San Francisco was a working little town with an enormous cash flow that was right for the boys to move in and take it over. It was a tourist town, within a business town, within a high real estate town, unlike any other city in America. It never had a negative cash flow. This is why the boys came in and took it over.”
Siyamak sits down with former San Francisco supervisor Tony Hall, who shares an insider view on why the city is struggling and what it will take to fix it and return San Francisco to its glory.
“They got themselves elected to office. And they proceeded to monetize city services. Anything that can be farmed out to another agency and money made on it. Outside special interests became a huge force in San Francisco, starting in the ‘70s. Now, as they got control, they set up a political machine.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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Manglende episoder?
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“In the COVID era people ended up on unemployment and the federal government send out about $100 billion to California and a huge amount of it, about $55 billion, was lost to criminal gang. Fraudster show up from all over the world. We’re talking about international crime, gangs, people in California prisons and jails.”
Siyamak sits down with William Swain, the president of the California Policy Center. We'll discuss how California now has about $55 billion in unemployment benefit liabilities, of which a significant amount was due to EDD fraud during the pandemic, the biggest fraud of its kind in any state. Now, California businesses are liable to cover these costs.
“They’re not just going to eat that out of their profit these businesses, they’re going to raise their prices. You wouldn’t know a whole lot about this because the business community itself is really hesitant to raise objection or afraid that if they do the regulator’s will descend on them and find something wrong with their business.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.
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“Too many people are going to the FAIR Plan. Nobody should want to be in the FAIR Plan; it’s meant to be a temporary market of last resort. It’s an unvirtuous cycle. Under the law, any deficiency that the FAIR Plan has, and the amount of money it has to pay claims, it just turns around to the admitted insurance companies. That has huge cascading impacts on the entire insurance industry.”
Siyamak sits down with Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California and former deputy Insurance Commissioner of California. Some Californians are losing their insurance coverage, and key insurance companies are avoiding writing more insurance in California. Rex is here to tell us what’s happening behind the scenes, why we are here, and if there is a way out.
“California has by far the most complicated rate formula in the US. We have these extreme problems because of the rules that we put in place in the early 1990s. We haven’t updated them. Every other state has updated them. The tough part now is that we’re just waiting on the regulations to change.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.
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“She destroyed hundreds of deputies’ careers; they used to call her the ‘badge collector.’ The effect of that was catastrophic to the organization. People started leaving in droves. No one wanted to be a deputy sheriff, and they started shrinking.”
Siyamak sits down with Alex Villanueva, former sheriff of Los Angeles County. There has been an unprecedented indictment in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office by the Attorney General of California. Alex is here to tell us what’s behind this and how it will impact Los Angeles.
“They’re in panic mode now. What’s going to happen is, in two or three years, you’re gonna see a bunch of cases of corruption and dirty cops. What Diana Teran did is just the tip of the iceberg.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.
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“We’re talking about homeless housing located on some of the most expensive land on Earth, occupying what used to be a much-needed parking garage, at a cost of $2 million per unit. The value of that land was around $120 to $150 million. If they’re building 120 units on there, that’s a million dollars per unit of just land value, taxpayer land value. The council is justifying it by saying it’s very needed.”
Siaymak sits down with Dr. Herman Hemmati, an activist and resident of Los Angeles, who over the years has been observing how LA is dealing with the homeless in the county in different cities, including the city of Santa Monica.
“I’ve seen people who’ve owned buildings and wanted to develop them for medical purposes, who’ve given up and said, you know what, I’m turning it into homeless housing, I’m going to make more money quicker, because the city will just write me unlimited checks. And that’s what’s happening.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.
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“What we should understand about Los Angeles is that everybody complains about homelessness. Online, on Twitter, on Nextdoor... Everyone has something to say. But very few people have taken it upon themselves to try to push things along and find solutions where the city or the county falls short.”
Siyamak sits down with Beige Luciano-Adams, the Epoch Times reporter in Los Angeles. She'll tell us what LA residents are organizing to clean up trash and deal with the encampments in the city. We also sit down with Keith Johnson, April Silverman, and Cameron Flanagan, who have been instrumental in cleaning up homeless encampments in their communities.
“These people are also becoming citizen journalists. They’re doing Public Records Act requests, they’re digging into the records, they’re looking at the numbers. They’re doing a better job than a lot of media.”
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“You can literally walk into a retail store every single day of the year and steal $949 worth of merchandise and you will never do a minute in jail. No compounding consequence. The voters I believed were duped because the summary and title said it was the Safe Neighborhoods and Safe Schools Act. So that’s all you see in this Prop 47.”
Siyamak sits down with John McGinness, former sheriff of Sacramento County and a radio host. There is currently a movement to change Prop 47, and it is about to get enough signatures to be on the ballot this November.
“Under California law, ironically, rape of the unconscious is not a violent crime. Assault on a peace officer with anything other than a fully automatic weapon is not a violent crime. Domestic violence, with the word ‘violence’ right in the crime title, is not a violent crime. So we really truly need some truth and justice in the state of California.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“I constantly see these white buses coming down full of illegal immigrants who are claiming asylum. Not through the port of entry—they’re coming through the fence, cutting the fence, around the fence, over the fence. I have found documents giving them exact instructions. This is a very regimented, professional operation. Who’s doing it?”
Siyamak sits down with Cory Gautereaux, a resident at the border in San Diego. Over the last year, we’ve been covering the situation at the border around the San Diego area. There have been a lot of border crossings, and Cory has been documenting what’s happening around the border. He’s here to tell us his story.
“I went out there one day, and there were 200 people standing there. They had tents, and there were fires going out. I was blown away. He talked to a Venezuelan gentleman who explained to me that in Venezuela, on their own media and radio, they’re talking about how easy it is to come to the United States right now. This isn’t a political issue for me. This is a case of ’something’s not right.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“I’ve sent an open letter to [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom. Not only have we seen the cost of almost everything go up exponentially in the last few years, but also faced new regulations and mandates. If I were to match our increased costs with menu pricing, we would be forced to charge about $40 for a cheeseburger. We can’t explain that to the customer.”
Siyamak sits down with Brian Back, who established his restaurant in the Bay Area to serve as a community asset and foster unity among people. He shares the challenges he faces with laws, regulations, and escalating costs. Additionally, we speak with John Kabateck, president of the National Federation of Independent Business, who has observed several restaurants and their owners within his organization’s membership facing difficulties in California.
“I wanted to do something that was neighborhood-scaled; I wanted to do something in my community. I wanted to have a place where family could be generating tax revenue and building community. I was naive until I opened this business. I’m spending most of the money that we earn on debt obligations to the state,” Mr. Back said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“It really has been the biggest dam removal experiment in modern history. People who were very much in favor of dam removal are now beside themselves because they had no idea this would be the outcome.”
Siyamak sits down with Theodora Johnson, a sixth-generation rancher from Siskiyou County. The Klamath Dam removal project is the largest of its kind in the US. Ms. Johnson will discuss its impact on the community, environment, and wildlife in the area. Siskiyou County recently declared a state of emergency over this dam removal.
“What’s happened with the suspended sediment in the water has brought the dissolved oxygen level down to zero twice since the dams were removed. Now, you see muck and mud, dead fish floating to the banks, crawdads, and we see animals trying to crawl out of the water to escape.” - Ms. Johnson said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“It’s being sold to the voters as treatment. But you’ve got $2 billion going into housing that can be for people who are still using hard drugs. If you have a building with, let’s say, 40 units, and 15 of the people in them are addicted to hard drugs, that is going to have an impact on the community, and the community has no say in that land use at all. That’s in Prop One.”
Siyamak sits down with Susan Shelley, columnist at the Southern California News Group. Proposition One passed barely in California. Ms. Shelley tells us what the impacts are and whether it will cause tax increases in California.
“If someone wants to do hard drugs in free housing, they have every right to do so in California. We’re not differentiating between people who are making a choice to use drugs on the street and people who are domestic violence victims and are on the street. Everybody’s entitled to free housing equally.”
“To wait until people are arrested and are jailed, and that’s where they receive mental health services, is a terrible policy. The Los Angeles County jails are the largest mental health hospital system in the nation. That’s appalling. That’s not worthy of the state of California,” the longtime columnist said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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‘It’s almost like we’re living in an open-air mental health facility. There are people walking down the streets; you don’t know if they’re going to shoot you, stab you, punch you, spit on you... And we, as parents, are kind of teaching our kids and grandkids how to be numb to the situation.’
Siyamak sits down with Matthew King, former homeless and a community advocate from Sacramento. He has seen the capital deteriorate over the last few years and will talk about homelessness, drug addiction, and crime issues that his community is facing.
We also talked to Travis Gillmore, our reporter in the state capitol. He has been talking to the state legislature, the homeless people, and police officers.
‘You’ve got union ironworkers, electricians; you’ve got a lot of people from various trades who are homeless. We’re not stupid people, either. We’re very intelligent, and we know how to do a lot of stuff. They’re selling stolen items right from the tent.’ Mr. King said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“The goal is to densify every town in the state. To densify it—so that‘d be walking around, not driving. In some places, it doesn’t work. But this whole policy has been applied as ’one size fits all' with no complaining.”
Siyamak sits down with Amy Kalish, with Citizen Marin. She’s been studying what the housing mandates are for different cities in California, and she tells us what’s happening with California communities.
“These are buildings built for profit, single-family homes for rent only. So they’re kept off the market forever. And whole neighborhoods do get bought up by corporations. What the state does is they bloat out the [Housing and Community Development] budget, hire a lot of people to come and bother every city to see what they’re doing. They write a ton of reports to spend millions of dollars on paying consultants to write reports, and none of that is going towards any kind of solution or housing.” Ms. Kalish said.
We also talked with Lydia Kou, former mayor and current city council member of Palo Alto, to see her perspective as a city leader, and what’s going on with California cities and the housing mandates.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
https://californiainsider.com/
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“The school adopted my daughter’s new identity, which was a boy, changed her records to be male name, called her that in class. They told me I was unsafe. So they were safer for my daughter. This is a new movement that all parents are bad until proven good.”
Host Siyamak Khorrami sits down with Erin Friday, executive committee member for Protect Kids California. She tells us about a new policy in California schools, and how it has impacted her and a lot of parents across the state.
“At what age do they teach this in schools? Now is TK, that’s four years old,” Ms. Friday said, “We’ve never done this in the United States. They called me conservative, right wing. I’m a Democrat. They don’t want to put that in the story, because that’s going to open it up for other Democrats that believe what I believe.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
https://californiainsider.com/
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“It is like working at a zoo, and they’ve opened up every single cage: to the bears, to the lions, to the panthers, to the giraffes, to the elephants. And you got the correctional officers like: “Oh my god, what have they done here?”
Siyamak sits down with Hector Bravo, a former correctional officer and lieutenant with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who worked in the prison system for 16 years. He provides insights into the deteriorating conditions in California prisons based on his first-hand experience, and critiques the implementation of the “Norway model” of reforms, which he says has actually made the prisons more dangerous for both inmates and staff.
“I’ve been involved in numerous riots and I’ve never seen blatant disregard for life like that,” said Mr. Bravo. “Everybody is at risk. That’s exactly what California prisons are like right now, in 2024.”
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“Who is leaving? That’s probably the most worrying aspect of all of this. The people who are leaving are the most productive, what I call the seed corn of California—people who are going into family formation stage, 30- to 50-year-old people who are mid-career, people who make $200,000 a year and above. And so what we’re left with, which is kind of ironic, is an aging, graying generation that need more services in the form of personal services and health care services, and the low-income people that service them.”
Siyamak sits down with Marshall Toplansky, innovation professor at Chapman University, who has been studying California’s exodus. He shares his findings from researching the demographics of the people who are leaving California, and how this population decline is going to impact Californians—our innovation, culture, and future prosperity.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“I remember that year; there was just so much shooting going on. Kids would sleep in bathtubs to avoid stray bullets.”
Siyamak sits down with Pastor Paul Baines from East Palo Alto. He will share how his city managed to turn around from being the murder capital of the state and the country to achieving zero homicides.
“Believe it or not, a lot of times, young people want discipline. They desire boundaries because of their upbringing. Perhaps the father wasn’t present, or maybe the parents were absent. What discipline does is show that you genuinely care about someone.”
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“You’re going to see housing supply dropped. Investors are no longer looking at the city of LA because it’s too risky. Why would you sell a property, if you would have to give all your profit to the city?”
Siyamak sits down with Chris Tourtellotte, managing director of LaTerra, a large real estate development company based in California. He'll discuss some key challenges facing developers, including the “Mansion Tax” in Los Angeles, the environmental review process, demand for different housing types, and the impact of policies such as rent control.
“I use the word ‘deceptive’ because it was called the ’mansion tax.‘ But when they realized that ... this applies to all classes of real estate, including affordable housing projects, you kind of go, ’Oh, wait a minute. That’s not a mansion tax,'” Mr. Tourtellotte said. “People say your land is not worth much because of this tax in the end.”
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“In the last three years, we’ve had a net outflow of 1 million people. I don’t want to leave; I want to help turn the state around because I think sooner or later the voters are going to wake up, and I want to be here when that happens.”
Siyamak sits down with Larry Elder, a radio and TV host, former gubernatorial candidate in California, former presidential candidate, and best-selling author. He shares his perspective on the major problems facing California, such as high taxes, budget deficits, low-performing public schools, rising crime, homelessness, and the high cost of living, as well as his experiences with the cultural changes in California politics.
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