Le Journal

Why Brooklyn Beckham Prefers His Wife’s Much Wealthier Family Over His Own: And What About Those Peltzes? Remember Chandi Heffner?
We’ve been dealing with soccer star David Beckham and designer wife Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham for 27 years. They’ve built a life being tabloid fodder. There isn’t a magazine cover they didn’t want to be on. Affairs, fights, you name it. But you know what? They made it. They’re still together. They have three children. […] The post Why Brooklyn Beckham Prefers His Wife’s Much Wealthier Family Over His Own: And What About Those Peltzes? Remember Chandi Heffner? appeared first on Showbiz411.

California’s Bloated Healthcare Sector and the Push for a Billionaire Wealth Tax
California’s healthcare system stands out as one of the most expensive and labor-intensive in the world. This bloat is evident in employment trends, skyrocketing hospital costs, and recent legislation like SB 525, all of which set the stage for SEIU-UHW to seek a billionaire wealth tax to sustain the status quo rather than reform it. Healthcare employment in California is climbing as a share of the overall workforce, even as the state’s population has remained largely stagnant. Since 2016, overall healthcare employment in California surged from 1.6 million to 2.1 million and the proportion of workers in the industry is approaching 12%. Analysts have predicted continued healthcare employment growth through the 2020s, but that trend may be interrupted by federal Medicaid reforms. Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (last two quarters estimated from Industry Employment & Labor Force – by Month) And healthcare workers are getting more expensive, largely due to legislation backed by SEIU-UHW. SB 525, signed into law in October 2023, mandates phased minimum wage increases for healthcare workers up to $25 per hour for many facilities, with variations based on employer size and type. Legislators passed the bill without a comprehensive fiscal impact analysis available at the time of voting, leaving uncertainties about its full budgetary effects on Medi-Cal, private insurers, and overall spending. Estimates developed after Governor Newsom signed the bill suggest it could boost hospital operating costs by 4.5%. The union-backed bill will cement California’s position as the most expensive state for hospitalization. According to KFF data, the state led the nation with adjusted expenses per inpatient day at $4,471 in 2023, far exceeding the U.S. average of $3,132. Notably, California’s giant not-for-profit hospitals are more expensive than the government-run hospitals and much more expensive than for-profit facilities, which cost $1,871 per day less. California policymakers have been hostile to investor owned hospitals for decades, minimizing their share of the healthcare market and thus the impact of their efforts at cost control. Healthcare unions, hospital management, and other special interests have also pushed to maximize federal funding for California’s bloated healthcare sector. Besides advancing so-called provider taxes (like the one established by 2024 Proposition 35) to attract more federal matching funds, the healthcare establishment has extended coverage to illegal aliens and tried to get the federal government to pay for it. Even during the Biden Administration, the Health & Human Services Inspector General identified $53 million of improper federal reimbursements for California illegal alien healthcare. But that was just the tip of the iceberg: CMS Director Dr. Mehmet Oz recently announced that his team had identified $1.8 billion of such improper payments with the lion’s share going to California. With Congressional and Administration Republicans implementing cost controls at the federal level. SEIU-UHW needs other funding sources to continue feeding California’s insatiable healthcare sector. Enter the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act—a ballot initiative that would impose one-time 5% wealth tax on California’s roughly 200 billionaires, potentially raising $100 billion. Ninety percent of this money would go to healthcare spending with much smaller bones thrown at teachers and those concerned with nutrition. But this initiative appears to be backfiring with many billionaires leaving the state prior to the measure’s January 1, 2026 deadline date, and others making future departure plans. To the extent that these ultra-wealthy individuals take existing companies and new startup funding with them, SEIU-UHW’s gambit may well result in a long term decrease in tax revenue available to feed the healthcare behemoth. Rather than continue the search for ever more money, California policymakers should instead look for…

Scarcity, Not Landlords, is Driving California’s Rent Crisis
California’s rent debate is often reduced to a simple story: tenants are hurting, and landlords are to blame. That narrative may be easy to repeat, but it overlooks some of the real causes of high rents. I have spent almost half my life as a renter. I have family members, from aunts to cousins, who have only ever rented. There is real anxiety about rent increases and the fear of being priced out. Californians just rejected Proposition 33, the latest attempt to expand rent control statewide, because many voters recognize a hard truth: rent caps feel like action, but they do not solve the disease. AB 1157, and similar efforts to make California’s statewide rent cap stricter and permanent, would double down on the same mistake. The bill proposal would tighten the allowable annual increase, expand coverage to more housing types, including many single-family rentals, and remove the existing sunset date. This past week, AB 1157 failed to advance out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. That outcome was correct, even if the underlying frustration driving the bill is legitimate. If the goal is lower rents, the answer is not ideological control. It is supply. It starts and ends there. When supply expands, price pressure eases. When supply is constrained, every other policy becomes a fight over scarcity. Look at gasoline. The national average is about $2.81, while California remains around $4.23. The same country, different policy choices, different outcomes. Housing works the same way. California can choose abundance or permanent conflict. Here is the challenge for rent control activists: stop treating builders, contractors, lenders, apartment owners, and housing associations as the enemy. They are the only path to scale. If you want affordability, you need a pro-building coalition that can actually deliver units. That means cutting permit timelines and fees, standardizing approvals, reforming regulatory barriers that add cost and delay, and stopping new taxes and mandates that make land acquisition and development harder. It also means labor flexibility, so projects can staff up with both union and non-union crews where appropriate. Remember that delays and construction costs are not neutral. They are rent increases. This will not be quick. But every year spent chasing caps instead of capacity guarantees worse rents, fewer choices, and more displacement. Renters deserve real relief, but that relief will not come from policies that slow construction or reduce housing supply. The only path to lower rents is to build more homes and expand supply, so families have more choices and less market pressure.

Federal Audits Demand California Repay Over $1 Billion in Misused Medicaid Funds for Illegal Aliens
In a major escalation of federal oversight, audits by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Trump administration have determined that California must repay more than $1 billion in improperly claimed federal Medicaid funds tied to healthcare for illegal aliens. The findings highlight California’s role as the “biggest culprit” among several blue states—including Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and the District of Columbia—that collectively face demands to return $1.35 billion in questioned reimbursements. The revelation, first highlighted in a Fox News alert on Monday, underscores the ongoing fiscal strain caused by the state’s decision to extend full Medi-Cal coverage to all “undocumented migrants”, a move that has ballooned costs to the near point of fiscal insolvency. BREAKING: California is being required to return over $1B in federal healthcare funds spent on services for undocumented migrants, according to federal audits.pic.twitter.com/M4XjsNB8zX — Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) January 19, 2026 According to the CMS preliminary audit conducted in late 2025, California alone accounts for the lion’s share of $1.35 billion in improper federal reimbursements across several blue states. The audit found that these funds were used to subsidize non-emergency healthcare for non-citizens violating federal restrictions that limit Medicaid reimbursements to emergency services only for non-citizens without satisfactory immigration status. Fox News reported that the Trump administration, through CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, is aggressively pursuing recovery of these funds, labeling the expenditures a “terrifying reality” of taxpayer dollars being diverted to support illegal immigration. Oz’s office emphasized that California was the “biggest culprit,” with over $1 billion in questioned costs, some of which allegedly benefited individuals with violent criminal records. The California Globe has extensively covered the fiscal fallout from Newsom’s Medi-Cal expansions. In 2022, the governor expanded coverage to undocumented seniors, and by January 2024, the program was opened to all undocumented immigrants regardless of age. This led to a massive enrollment surge, with an estimated 1.7 million non-citizens now on Medi-Cal rolls—representing about 11 percent of total participants. Costs have skyrocketed to nearly $10 billion annually, far exceeding initial projections and contributing to a $6.2 billion Medi-Cal deficit in early 2025. Recent reports showing Medi-Cal is basically insolvent–costing taxpayers $23 billion over 2 years, forcing Newsom to get both an emergency loan and a bailout during the Biden administration. That Gavin Newsom wants to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants is not speculation. He literally drove Medi-Cal insolvent by doing precisely that. The program cost California taxpayers $23 billion over 2 years, forcing Newsom to get both an emergency loan and a bailout. pic.twitter.com/aLrsRV5jDk — Rep. Kevin Kiley (@RepKiley) September 30, 2025 Republican lawmakers and analysts have long warned of this outcome. “We warned him,” said Senator Brian Jones (R-San Diego) in a statement. “I urged the governor to immediately freeze his reckless Medi-Cal expansion for illegal immigrants a year and a half ago, before it buried our healthcare system and bankrupted the state. Had he listened, we wouldn’t be in this crisis—breaking promises, scrambling for loans, and cutting services for legal Californians just to keep this broken program afloat. Let’s be clear: Democrats are prioritizing illegal immigrants over citizens. With a massive deficit largely driven by this policy, our focus should be on preserving Medi-Cal for those it was originally designed to serve. Even Governor Jerry Brown understood this was a bad idea and refused to go down this path. After seven years of reckless expansions, Newsom is now backtracking to the same position Brown held from the beginning. It’s time to end…

Dismissal for Delay in Civil Actions

New Tax Calculator Shows Democrat Policies Add $35,000 a Year to Your Cost of Living

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for January 19-25

Newsom’s Proposed Education Budget: ‘Big Spending, Little Results’

Attorney General Aaron Ford’s Frequent Flyer Addiction Continues: Travel Extravaganza Totals Nearly $140K
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D), often dubbed the state’s “top cop,” continued his frequent travel habits into 2025, racking up $55,905.03 in campaign expenses for transportation, lodging, and meals, according to his latest filing with the Nevada Secretary of State. The 2025 Contributions & Expenses Annual Filing, covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2025, details a pattern of cross-country trips that critics say raises questions about priorities for the Democratic official, who launched an early gubernatorial bid against Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. Ford’s campaign spent heavily on air travel, with total airfare amounting to $26,980.89. Hotel stays totaled $16,174.64, with bookings spread across major U.S. cities frequently visited by Ford in prior years. Meals and restaurants came in at $1,807.45, featuring upscale dining in several destinations. Ground transportation relied heavily on rideshares, with Uber accounting for $9,750 across 374 line items and Lyft adding $807.05 over 33 entries, for a combined car travel total of $10,557.05. In 2024, Ford spent a staggering 137 days out of state—roughly one-third of the year—according to an investigation by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His campaign filings with the Nevada Secretary of State reveal a total of $82,100 in travel-related expenses, including campaign-funded trips and sponsored junkets that critics argue prioritize national ambition over local responsibilities. Ford’s 2024 campaign expenses are part of a total $284,100 spent that year. Adding to the tally, Ford accepted four sponsored trips totaling $35,000, paid by organizations like the bipartisan Attorney General Alliance and the National Association of Attorneys General. These included international jaunts to Normandy, France; Macau and Singapore; Tulum, Mexico; and Taipei, Taiwan. Ford served as AGA chairman in 2024, which his team has cited as justification for the travel. As Ford gears up for a 2026 gubernatorial run, these figures have intensified scrutiny from opponents who accuse him of running a “part-time” office. Critics, including the Better Nevada PAC aligned with Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, have lambasted Ford for what they call a “jet-set” lifestyle funded by donors. “Frequent Flyer Ford is more interested in hobnobbing with elites than fighting for Nevadans,” the PAC stated. Ford’s office has not directly responded to recent inquiries, but past statements emphasize that no state funds were used for out-of-state travel, and trips were for official or campaign purposes. While Ford’s filings show heavy reliance on campaign funds for frequent, often luxurious out-of-state trips, Lombardo’s reports reveal a more restrained approach focused on in-state governance and massive fundraising without comparable travel extravagance. Public reports show Lombardo’s campaign travel far more modest. A Review-Journal investigation found Lombardo out of state for only about 30 days in 2024—less than a quarter of Ford’s absences—while prioritizing Nevada duties as governor. No detailed breakdowns of luxury hotels, upscale dining, or heavy rideshare use appear in Lombardo’s filings comparable to Ford’s. His campaign finance reports emphasize broad fundraising rather than itemized travel splurges: In 2024, Lombardo raised over $3.2–3.4 million (with $5.5 million cash on hand by year-end), building a war chest supported by PACs like Nevada Way and Better Nevada. By early 2026, his official campaign held over $9 million in cash, with affiliated PACs adding millions more—totaling around $15 million in resources—without reports of equivalent “jet-setting” costs. Attorney General Aaron Ford has approximately $2 million in cash on hand. Ford’s travel has drawn sharp criticism from Republican-aligned groups like Better Nevada PAC, which has branded him “Frequent Flyer Ford” for prioritizing national networking, conferences, and Democratic events over state law enforcement. Critics point to stays at…

The ICE Martyr and Other Weapons of Mass Effect

Shocking, Pathetic Trump Letter to Norway: They Wouldn’t Give Him Nobel Peace Prize, So He’ll Take Greenland Instead

