Someone had put cotton balls in the box so postal workers wouldn’t hear the snake’s rattle, the 60-year-old truck driver said.

“That’s attempted murder, if you ask me,” he said.

Bowles picked up the package Thursday and asked a friend to open it as they drove away from the post office that serves the Mojave Desert town near Joshua Tree National Park.

“When she opened the box, she threw it at me almost,” he said. “And she says, ‘There’s a snake in there.’”

Bowles pulled over and put the box by the curb, then used a stick to open it. He estimates the snake was about 2 feet long. He called 911 and Animal Control.

Animal Control picked up the snake, and a San Bernardino County deputy took a report that was forwarded to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is handling the investigation, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Patricia Mendoza, a postal inspector, said in an emailed statement that an investigation is ongoing.

The package, marked “fragile” in black marker, listed as a return address a home in Palm Coast, Fla., but tracking information indicates that it was mailed May 3 in Hayward, Calif.

“This is a first for me,” said Rick Boyd, the Animal Control supervisor for the city of Twentynine Palms, who responded to the incident. It was a Western rattlesnake, he said. The species, also known as the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, is common in Northern California but isn’t usually found in Southern California.

Boyd said he doesn’t believe it’s possible that the snake slithered into the package while it was in transit and noted that it appears to have been intentionally mailed.

Assassination attempts by rattlesnake have precedent in Southern California.

In 1978, Los Angeles trial attorney Paul Morantz nearly died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake that someone had placed in his mailbox. Police arrested Charles Dederich, who led the Synanon paramilitary cult, against which Morantz had won a judgment, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder; they also arrested two of Dederich’s foot soldiers, known as Imperial Marines, on suspicion of attempted murder.

The preliminary hearing featured the snake, floating in formaldehyde, introduced as Exhibit 1. All three men pleaded no contest, avoiding trial.

While the Twentynine Palms incident may seem improbable, it is possible, according to local wildlife experts.

Rattlesnakes are resilient — they can survive for up to six months without food or water, as long as temperatures aren’t too extreme, said Danielle Wall, a snake wrangler who serves the high desert.

“It is 100% possible for a snake to survive in the mail like that, as long as they don’t overheat or freeze,” she said.

Bowles on Monday learned that a second, virtually identical package was recently mailed to his home in Florida. He has directed family members to take it to the police station rather than open it, he said.

“I’m trying to figure out, do I have any enemies?” he said.

“I’m not a gangster,” he added. “I’m a truck driver.”

The post He picked up a package and found a live rattlesnake inside: ‘Do I have any enemies?’ appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

DeSantis convened his allies this week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to press them to raise money to support Trump, making the case over a seafood and steak dinner that they need to work together to prevent Democratic President Joe Biden from winning a second term. The governor and about 30 people then spent Thursday morning in a hotel conference room raising money for an outside group that supports the former president’s 2024 White House campaign.

Trump called into the gathering to thank members of the group for their work, according to four people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to publicly discuss the private session and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In what three people present described as a warm and gracious call to the group that was heard over speakerphone, Trump praised DeSantis and the effort, saying “Ron, I love that you’re back.”

A reconciliation helps both of them. Trump is trying to make up fundraising ground against Biden while DeSantis hopes to preserve a potential future White House run for which Trump’s supporters could be key.

DeSantis and his top donors raised more than $3 million on Thursday for the super political action committee Right for America, backed by big Republican donors such as Ike Perlmutter, who has agreed to match at least a portion of the DeSantis team’s fundraising rather than funneling money directly to Trump’s campaign.

That arrangement, reached after talks between the Trump and DeSantis camps, is designed to address concerns among DeSantis supporters about their money going to pay the former president’s legal bills, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the private talks. Trump notably blessed the structure when he called into the group’s meeting Thursday.

“This is where I want you to focus,” Trump said in a roughly 15-minute call, according to a senior political adviser to DeSantis who was not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

DeSantis’ decision to push money to the PAC instead of giving directly to Trump’s campaign has raised eyebrows among some Trump campaign officials, according to a person familiar with the former president’s campaign thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the arrangement.

Right for America is competing for donors with MAGA Inc., the chief super PAC backing Trump. Such groups are prohibited from directly coordinating with a presidential campaign, something that hamstrung DeSantis during his presidential run due to conflicts between his campaign and his support of Never Back Down, the largest super PAC backing DeSantis’ candidacy.

Other supporters of both men support the arrangement. Right for America is run by Sergio Gor, a longtime Trump ally who is close to the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The two run Winning Team Publishing, which published two of the former president’s books.

“We are thrilled by the support we are receiving from Governor DeSantis,” Gor said in a statement. “We look forward to ensuring President Donald Trump is elected in November.”

Some DeSantis donors had been reluctant to give to Trump because they worried their money would help pay Trump’s lawyers in his criminal cases instead of being used directly to focus on beating Biden.

A number of big-name Florida contributors who have given to DeSantis remain hesitant about contributing to efforts to support Trump, said Al Hoffman, a Palm Beach County Republican donor and former Republican National Committee finance chair.

“I know that there are Republican conservative, big-money donors that are very reluctant to endorse Trump,” said Hoffman, who was also chairman of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s 2002 reelection campaign.

DeSantis endorsed Trump when he dropped out of the race and promised in a face-to-face meeting with the former president in April to work for his campaign. The 45-year-old governor, who has won two terms and pushed a longtime swing state increasingly to the right, may run for the White House again and would need the backing of Trump voters in a future Republican primary.

DeSantis called his allies to Fort Lauderdale this week to raise money for Trump, telling them on Wednesday night that they needed to work to prevent a second Biden term.

The meeting was the kickoff for what is expected to be a coast-to-coast fundraising effort by DeSantis allies, with upcoming events likely in Texas, California, Washington state and perhaps New York.

Trump and DeSantis have also discussed a role for the governor at the Republican National Convention. Aides to DeSantis said it was Trump’s suggestion and was not contingent on any fundraising effort on DeSantis’ part.

Donors who discussed the Thursday event were struck by the collegiality between Trump and DeSantis during the call. One person who spoke on condition of anonymity about the closed-door gathering called the conversation “very gracious” and noted that Trump and DeSantis talked about golf, a favorite Trump pastime.

The post ‘Ron, I love that you’re back’: Trump and DeSantis put an often personal primary fight behind them appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Dan Walters | CalMatters

The cross-country game of oneupmanship between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Republican governors of Florida and Texas is becoming more intense with every passing week.

The latest move from Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texas’ Greg Abbott is to send planes and buses full of Latin American migrants to California cities.

Newsom – backed by Attorney General Rob Bonta – has threatened legal or even criminal action for what they described as virtual kidnappings. “I know one was on the basis of all the interviews and all the facts that are now in evidence,” Newsom said on NBC’s “Today” show after a plane brought immigrants to Sacramento. “Now we have to prove it. “They’re human beings used as pawns for a guy’s political advancement.

That’s pretty sad and pathetic,” Newsom continued. “This is California – fourth- or fifth-largest economy on planet Earth. We mean business. And so Ron DeSantis should know that.” Bonta has fired off demands to Florida for details about the decision to send the migrants to California, and tweeted, “State-sanctioned kidnapping is immoral.”

DeSantis and Abbott contend that those sent to California agreed to being transported and their actions illustrate the Biden administration’s lack of action on border security. “Texas border towns are overwhelmed & overrun because of Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott tweeted. “Texas buses migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities like LA to provide relief to our border communities. We will continue this effort until Biden secures the border.”

Predictably, the episode triggered another round of vitriol. After Newsom denounced DeSantis, a presidential hopeful, again during a Fox News interview last week, DeSantis unloaded on Newsom during a bill-signing ceremony last week saying he “has a real serious fixation on the state of Florida. I think it’s just bizarre that he does that.

What I would tell him is – you know what, stop pussyfooting around. Are you going to throw your hat into the ring and challenge Joe (Biden)?” “Are you going to get in and do it, or are you going to sit on the sidelines and chirp?” DeSantis continued. “So why don’t you throw your hat into the ring, and then we’ll go ahead and talk about what’s happening.”

Florida and Texas taxpayers are financing the planes and buses that ferry migrants to California, and a little-noticed order by a federal judge revealed that one Newsom gesture is costing Californians more than a half-million dollars. After Texas enacted a law to authorize private lawsuits against anyone who aborted a fetus with a detectable heartbeat, and made it virtually impossible to defend such a suit, Newsom persuaded the California Legislature to pass a copycat measure affecting manufacturers of banned firearms.

At the time, Newsom acknowledged that it was a stunt designed to highlight the absurdity of the Texas law rather than a serious expression of policy. The Texas law has survived legal challenges so far, but the California law was quickly voided by federal Judge Roger Benitez as unconstitutional because it would have required defendants to pay the costs of litigation even if they won.

Newsom, who had been sharply critical of Benitez for previous gun rights decisions, praised the judge’s rejection of the law he had championed, saying, “I want to thank Judge Benitez. We have been saying all along that Texas’ anti-abortion law is outrageous. Judge Benitez just confirmed it is also unconstitutional.” Later, Benitez awarded the gun rights groups which had challenged the California law almost $557,000 in attorney fees – money they can use to pursue many other challenges to California gun controls. Taxpayers, not Newsom, are paying the price for his stunt.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Taxpayers finance political stunts by California, Florida and Texas governors appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The feud between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis is getting nastier — and that’s how both of them want it. The two governors have spent more than a year sparring over book bans, abortion, guns and more.

Then yesterday, the California Democrat suggested DeSantis could face state criminal charges after more than a dozen asylum seekers were flown to Sacramento and left at a Catholic church. The flight was similar to one the DeSantis administration facilitated last fall carrying almost 50 mostly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard that caused a national furor and re-ignited the long-running debate over immigration.

While Newsom has made a habit of publicly attacking his red-state rival, the threat of criminal charges thrust the standoff into even more rhetorically combustible territory now that DeSantis is officially a candidate for the GOP’s 2024 nomination. The conflict between the two men escalated even further after a second flight touched down in Sacramento Monday carrying migrants that California authorities said appeared to have Florida documentation.

In a Monday tweet, Newsom called DeSantis a “small, pathetic man” and asked “kidnapping charges?” while citing California criminal code that states anyone who transports someone “by force or fraud” is guilty of kidnapping. The attacks intensify a mutually-advantageous conflict between Newsom, who leads the largest Democratic stronghold in America and has constructed a national persona around confronting Republicans, and DeSantis, who has made railing against “woke” ideologies and liberal policies a main selling point as he campaigns in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond.

At the same time, it allows both men to highlight their own partisan politics to their respective bases. “The best thing that could happen to Ron DeSantis is the liberal governor of California attacks him as he’s running for president,” said Matt Rexroad, a California-based Republican consultant. “And the best thing for Gavin Newsom, who wants to be plan B for the nomination this time or plan A next time, would be to be attacked by the governor of Florida.” “I’ll call it right now that Governor DeSantis will be making a big deal out of this in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he added. Officials with DeSantis’ administration have not responded to repeated requests for comment.

This is hardly the first time Newsom has publicly excoriated DeSantis. He has lambasted the Florida governor over his policies on education, guns, abortion and more. He launched a committee to buoy Democrats in Florida and other red states. He has simultaneously worked to solidify support for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, including by sending out a fundraising email the same day DeSantis officially entered the race. In May, Newsom directed his staff to demand records from Florida education officials over the Sunshine State’s successful campaign to convince social studies textbook publishers to change their content. Newsom also asked more than a dozen educational publishers to explain whether and how they changed their textbooks under pressure from Florida Republicans, warning in a letter that California would “not be complicit in Florida’s attempt to whitewash history through laws and backroom deals.”

The ceaseless spotlighting helps Newsom trumpet California as a progressive alternative to Republican-leaning Florida — often in emails to donors as he solicits more money for his “Campaign for Democracy” committee. DeSantis jabbed back at Newsom when the Florida governor landed in California in March to deliver a speech and raise money for local Republicans. “I know you guys have a lot of problems out here, but your governor is very concerned about what we’re doing in Florida, so I figured I’d have to come by,” DeSantis told people at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Christian Ziegler, chair of Florida’s Republican Party, on Monday highlighted the influx of people moving to Florida from California, asking “if Gov Newsom is calling Gov DeSantis ‘pathetic’, how should we refer to the Governor of California, who has seen tens of thousands of his own citizens literally flee his failed leadership in order to end up in DeSantis-led Florida?” DeSantis is set to return to California for a fundraising swing later this month, including a planned stop in Sacramento.

Polls show he has slid behind former President Donald Trump as Republicans vie for California’s rich trove of presidential delegates. Newsom’s office did not explain on Monday why the latest flight of asylum seekers would be grounds for state charges, referring questions to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. The attorney general said in a Sunday statement that he was “evaluating potential criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of these vulnerable immigrants” and condemned “state-sanctioned kidnapping.”

Bonta’s office said the first group of migrants arrived with documentation recording their participation in Florida’s “voluntary transportation program” conducted by Vertol Systems Company, Inc., the contractor that conducted the prior flights. Bonta told the New York Times he believed the arrangement “wasn’t fully consensual,” which could be grounds for prosecution. Dan Newman, a political adviser to the governor, said Newsom viewed the flights as “inhumane and potentially illegal.” It also bolsters Newsom’s standing as a combative partisan who is eager to challenge Republicans.

The governor regularly describes this conflict as an existential fight over democracy, and he traveled to DeSantis’ state in April to meet with students at New College, a small liberal arts college in Sarasota that DeSantis has transformed into a conservative institution — and then fundraised off of his visit. Democratic political consultant Garry South said in an interview that Newsom’s threat of prosecution was unlikely to hurt Newsom in deep-blue California. But he argued Newsom had to act to deter more flights. “This was a stunt that plays well in their [Republicans’] home states, I guess,” South said. “But I just don’t think from a human decency standpoint that this can be allowed to become standard operating procedure.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post ‘Pathetic man’: The California-Florida rivalry just exploded appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The state of Florida picked up asylum-seekers on the Texas border Monday and took them by private jet to California’s capital city at taxpayer expense for the second time in four days, California officials said, prompting allegations that migrants were misled and catching shelters and aid workers by surprise.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials were mum, as they were initially last year when they flew 49 Venezuelan migrants to the upscale Massachusetts enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, luring them onto private jets from a shelter in San Antonio.

As California Attorney General Rob Bonta investigated the migrants’ transportation, local officials and faith-based groups sought to provide housing, food and other resources to the more than three dozen new arrivals. Many were from Colombia and Venezuela, and California had not been their intended destination.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, lashed out at DeSantis as a “small, pathetic man” and suggested the state could pursue kidnapping charges.

And as the migrants arrived in California, a Texas sheriff’s office announced Monday it has recommended criminal charges over the two flights to Martha’s Vineyard last year.

Johnny Garcia, a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, said at this time they are not naming suspects. It’s not clear whether the district attorney will pursue the charges, which include misdemeanor and felony counts of unlawful restraint, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have previously sent thousands of migrants on buses to New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., but the rare charter flights by DeSantis mark an escalation in tactics. The two groups sent to Sacramento never went through Florida. Instead, they were approached in El Paso by people with Florida-linked paperwork, sent to New Mexico, then put on the private flights to California’s capital, California officials and advocates said.

DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president, has been a fierce critic of federal immigration policy under President Joe Biden and has heavily publicized Florida’s role in past instances in which migrants were transported to Democratic-led states.

He has made the migrant relocation program one of his signature political priorities, using the state legislative process to direct millions of dollars to it and working with multiple contractors to carry out the flights. Vertol Systems Co., which was paid by Florida to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, appears to be behind the flights to Sacramento, California officials said. The company didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

In Sacramento, the flight that arrived Monday with about 20 migrants followed the arrival Friday of 16 others from Colombia and Venezuela. The newest arrivals remained at the airport for a couple of hours and were fed before being transported to a “religious institution,” said Kim Nava, a Sacramento County spokeswoman. Nava said she didn’t know the nationalities of the new arrivals or where they had intended to go in the U.S.

“Our county social workers are en route and are going to assess all those folks, make sure they have the services and support that they need,” Nava said.

The first group of migrants was dropped off at the Roman Catholic Church diocese’s headquarters in Sacramento.

Speaking over the weekend about the first group to arrive in Sacramento, Eddie Carmona, campaign director at PICO California, a faith-based group that helps migrants, said U.S. immigration officials had already processed the young women and men and given them court dates for their asylum cases when “individuals representing a private contractor” approached them outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, and offered to help them get jobs and get them to their final destinations.

“They were lied to and intentionally deceived,” Carmona said, adding that the migrants had no idea where they were after being dropped off in Sacramento. He said they have court dates in cities throughout the country and that none of them meant to end up in California.

Asylum seekers can change the location of their court appearances, but many are reluctant to try and instead prefer sticking with a firm date, at least for their initial appearances. They figure it is a guarantee, even if horribly inconvenient.

The office of New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had no specifics as to why the immigrants were taken from Texas to New Mexico before being flown to California.

“Gov. Lujan Grisham stresses, yet again, the urgent need for comprehensive, thoughtful federal immigration reform which is rooted in a humanitarian response that keeps border communities in mind,” the governor’s spokesperson, Caroline Sweeney, said Monday.

Last year, DeSantis directed Republican lawmakers in Florida to create a program in his office dedicated to migrant relocations. It specified that the state could transport migrants from locations anywhere in the country. The law was designed to get around questions about the legality of transporting people on a flight that originated in Texas.

Florida’s alleged role in the arrival of the two groups in Sacramento is sure to escalate the political feud between DeSantis and Newsom, who have offered conflicting visions on immigration, abortion and a host of other issues. ___

Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Fla., Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post California officials: Florida picked up asylum-seekers on Texas border and flew them to Sacramento appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s attorney general said the state of Florida appears to have arranged for a group of South American migrants to be dropped off outside a Sacramento church.

“While this is still under investigation, we can confirm these individuals were in possession of documentation purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida,” Bonta said in a statement late Saturday.

The documents said the migrants were transported through a program run by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and carried out by contractor Vertol Systems Co., said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Bonta. Florida paid the same contractor $1.56 million last year to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and for a possible second flight to Delaware that never took place.

The 16 migrants who arrived in Sacramento on Friday are from Colombia and Venezuela. They entered the U.S. through Texas. They were transported to New Mexico then flown by a charter plane to California’s capital, where they were then dropped off in front of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, California officials said.

They were approached outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, by people who offered them jobs and travel assistance, said Eddie Carmona of PICO California, a faith-based group helping the migrants. They did not know they were being taken to Sacramento and arrived with few belongings, he said.

Vertol Systems Co. and the Florida Division of Emergency Management did not immediately respond Sunday to emails seeking comment.

Bonta said he is evaluating whether violations of civil or criminal law took place.

“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said in a statement.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post California attorney general says Florida responsible for flying migrants to Sacramento appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Nine people were injured Monday evening when gunfire erupted along a beach boardwalk in Hollywood, Florida, sending people frantically running for cover along the crowded beach on Memorial Day.

Several of the victims were taken to a children’s hospital, police spokesperson Deanna Bettineschi said. However, authorities have not yet released the ages of the victims.

The nine victims included six adults and three children, according to Yanet Obarrio Sanchez, a spokesperson for Memorial Healthcare System. All of the victims were in stable condition, she said.

A preliminary investigation shows that an altercation between two groups resulted in gunfire, police said. One person has been detained and another suspect is being still being sought.

The shooting happened about 6:30 p.m. on the broadwalk near a convenience store, a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream store and a Subway sandwich shop.

Alvie Carlton Scott III said he was on the beach when all of a sudden he heard numerous gunshots go off. He said he hid behind a tree and then fled the area after a police officer told people to run.

Jamie Ward, who was also on the broadwalk, said several young men were fighting in front of the stores when one pulled a gun and started shooting.

Videos posted on Twitter on Monday evening showed emergency medical crews responding and providing aid to multiple injured people.

Police said there would be a heavy presence of officers as the investigation continues. Officials were also setting up an area for family members to reunite.

“Thank you to the good samaritans, paramedics, police and emergency room doctors and nurses for their immediate response to aid the victims of today’s shooting,” Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said in a statement.

Hollywood Beach is a popular beach destination about 11 miles (17 kilometers) south of Fort Lauderdale and 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Miami. The beach was expected to see more visitors than usual with the Memorial Day holiday.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post 9 injured in shooting near beach in Hollywood, Florida; some taken to children’s hospital appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California added five more states, including Florida, to the list of places where state-funded travel is banned because of laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, the state attorney general announced Monday.

Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia to the list that now has 17 states where state employee travel is forbidden except under limited circumstances.

“Make no mistake: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country — and the State of California is not going to support it,” Bonta said.

Lawmakers in 2016 banned non-essential travel to states with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The 12 other states on the list are: Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee.

The five states newly added to the list have introduced bills in their legislatures this year that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, block access to health care and allow the discrimination of the LGBTQ community, Bonta said.

Florida, Montana, Arkansas, and West Virginia passed laws that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

North Dakota signed into law a bill allowing certain publicly-funded student organizations to restrict LGBTQ students from joining without losing funding.

Arkansas passed the first law in the nation to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender minors — regardless of the wishes of parents or whether a physician deems such care to be medically necessary.

These lawmakers “would rather demonize trans youth than focus on solving real issues like tackling gun violence beating back this pandemic and rebuilding our economy,” Bonta said.

The state law has exemptions for some trips, such as travel needed to enforce California law and to honor contracts signed before the states were added to the list. Travel to conferences or out-of-state training are examples of trips that can be blocked.

It’s unclear what effect California’s travel ban will have. Bonta did not have information about how many state agencies have stopped sending state employees to the states on the list or the financial impact of California’s travel ban on those states.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post California bans state travel to Florida, 4 other states appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Transgender women and girls couldn’t play on girls and women’s school sports teams under a bill passed by a Florida House committee on Wednesday.

The bill, called the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, would require that anyone participating in girls and women’s sports at the K-12 and college level be biologically eligible to do so. If challenged, they would have to get confirmation from a health care provider that they are female. That could include a doctor examining their genitals.

“The act is pro-women and pro-girls and only acknowledges the biological differences between men and women,” said Republican Rep. Kaylee Tuck, the bill’s sponsor.

But Democrats slammed the proposal, calling it discriminatory against transgender girls and women.

Republicans in Congress and more than 20 state legislatures are pushing for similar bans, though supporters, including Tuck, largely haven’t been able to cite examples of transgender students’ participation causing problems.

The House Secondary Education & Career Development Subcommittee voted 13-4 to approve the bill, with all “no” votes cast by Democrats. The measure is based on an Idaho law that has been blocked by a federal court while a lawsuit challenging its legality proceeds.

Tuck used Allyson Felix as an example. Felix is the only woman to win six track and field gold medals in the Olympics.

“Allyson Felix is the fastest woman in the world… but yet the personal best in the 400 meters can be beaten by hundreds of high school boys,” Tuck said. “If we allow biological males to compete in athletic events against biological females, we may never see another Allyson Felix again.”

Democrats who opposed the bill said there wasn’t an existing problem in Florida, and Tuck acknowledged she was unaware of any disputes about transgender students participating in female athletics.

Democratic Rep. Marie Paule Woodson said the bill is a dangerous piece of legislation that could lead to an attack on a group that is already vulnerable.

“Transgender have been ridiculed, they have been bullied, they are hated by so many, and if we’re talking about love — loving each other — it should not be based on condition of who you are,” Woodson said. “This bill will only marginalize and demonize the transgender community.”

Conservatives lawmakers across the nation are responding to an executive order by Democratic President Joe Biden that bans discrimination based on gender identity in school sports and elsewhere, which he signed the day he took office. Mississippi became the first state this year to enact such a ban when the state’s governor signed it into law last week.

The Florida bill has two more committee stops in the House. A similar Senate bill hasn’t received its first hearing.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Florida bill seeks to block trans athletes from girls teams appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

My husband Lloyd and I are in St. Petersburg, to start our ten-day escorted motor-coach tour around Florida. Twenty-eight of us are from England, two from Malta, two from Israel, one from Australia, and seven of us are from the United States. A favorite retirement area since the 1880s, the American Medical Association Journal declared St. Petersburg to be an exceptionally healthy place to live.

We went past the Don Cesar Beach Resort, built-in 1926 for one million dollars, with $1,000-a-night Penthouses. Next, we crossed Tampa Bay and continued to Sarasota, the hometown of the famous circus master, John Ringling.

Sarasota, an ideal resort since the early part of the 20th century on Florida’s west coast, has been on Sarasota Bay since the 1700s. Scottish settlers in the 1880s increased the population. It was interesting to learn that Sarasota is the “Birthplace of American Golf,” wheregolf was introduced to Florida from Scotland in 1885, and the first course was installed in 1886. The name of golf came from G.O.L.F., which originally stood for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.”

We found the drive to Sarasota lovely, with wide boulevards, causeways sprinkled with attractive sailboats, and flowers all over. The offshore islands have 35 miles of beaches along the clear waters of theGulf of Mexico. Sun, sand and surf have branded Florida the same as the word vacation, and numerous companies find the Florida climate advantageous for business

Florida is the hometown of the renowned circus master, John Ringling. In 1912, while traveling along Florida’s west coast, he fell in love with Sarasota, which had installed electricity and a post office (the smallest post office in the world) the year earlier. Captivated by its beaches and sunny winter climate, Ringling felt the town had potential, and designated it as the permanent winter place for hisRingling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Lloyd and I visited the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, recognized all over the world for its exceptional assemblage of 14th to 18th-century artworks, which was established in 1927by John Ringling for the inhabitants of Florida. The facility is an Italian-style villa that has marble, sculpture and decorative pieces, which are adorned with statues. The area is strewn with banyan trees and Cuban laurels, along with flower gardens, sitting areas, and a delightful view of Sarasota Bay. The museum was constructed in the Italian Renaissance style and had an inner garden courtyard that has reproductions of many world-famous sculptures and is dominated by a bronze cast ofMichelangelo’s “David.”

John Ringling made a fortune through real estate transactions, railroads, and the circus that he shared with his brothers. They accumulated an art collection of more than 1,000 paintings, including masterpieces from the 14th to 19th centuries, representing the Western European cultures, and highlighting the baroque period. From 1924 to 1931, Ringling and his wife gathered notable works by foremost artists who worked predominantly from 1500 to around 1750. The Old Master collection is the most significant area of the museum’s assets, and the Italian paintings are among the rarest and most eminent in the country.

The museum also has an assemblage of 17th-century Italian paintings, an extensive Peter Paul Rubens collection (Lloyd put his glasses on, to see them better), modern creations, objects from Cyprus, and temporary exhibits. We saw almost 3,000 decorative art objects, which Ringling regarded as a significant aspect of his collection. After his death in 1936, the museum has sustained its founder’s interest in the decorative arts, such as jewelry, glass, watches, silver, medals, furniture, textiles, ceramics, fans, and other ornamental objects of a primarily functional nature.

The art collections contain over 10,000 objects, sheltered in numerous buildings on the estate. There are close to 3,000 decorative art objects, decorative pieces imported from Italy, approximately 27tapestries, and abundant statues. The museum has been given 150 decorative fans, which are exceptionally noteworthy. In the centuries before technology, when we were more affluent in crafts, decorative hand-held fans conveyed relief to an overdressed, overheated civilization.

Shapes and fabrics were wide-ranging according to taste, obtainability, and the culture that fashioned them. In the 18th century, fans in the Western world were used indoors and outdoors, during the summer and the winter. They were used as memory assistance, for parlor games, for political propaganda, as masks, lorgnettes, cryptic communicators, and accessories in the oldest game, when dalliance was a significant preoccupation. Fans exhibited ambitions, standards, and beliefs of those who carried them, exposing temperaments, character and personalities.

In the Courtyard of Sculptures, Lloyd and I saw numerous reproductions of world-famous gods, goddesses, and other mythological characters. The sculptures extend from up-to-date reproductions of ancient Greek and Roman, to Renaissance, Baroque, and 19th-century sculpture, crafted from bronze, marble, or stone.

Among the oldest and most legendary stories are those based on Greek and Roman myths, established over 2,000 years ago. Molded from Roman marble, in the first century A.D., the horse and chariotstatue was used as a throne in the Church of San Marco, Rome. Ceres, goddess of grains, sprinkled seeds over the earth, while driving her chariot through the skies. We also saw a statue that was cast from Roman marble in the 2nd and 3rd century B.C.

We saw two river gods bordering the reflecting pool in the courtyard. The River Tiber was alleged to have been named after King Tiberius, who drowned in its waters. About 250 miles long, the River Tiber is essential to trade in central Italy, through which it flows, headed to the Mediterranean Sea.

(Mabel Ringling Museum of Art)

The bearded river god represents the fertility of the Nile Valley, where much of the world’s wheat was cultivated. Each baby signifies one cubit, which is an ancient form of measurement, about eighteen inches. Multiply the number of babies by eighteen inches to get the amount the Nile overflowed each year before planting time!

Shortly after setting up, to house his staff members and circus animals, Ringling started to build Ca’d’ Zan, a magnificent 30-room mansion, on 68 acres of Sarasota Bay property. He filled this residence, which was finished in1926 at nearly two-million dollars, with invaluable antiques that were accumulated on world tours. Amongst the last of the grand palaces, it was constructed by affluent North American entrepreneurs.

Lloyd and I visited his Ringling winter residence, the splendid Ca’d’ Zan, which is the Venetian dialect for “House of John.” We admired decorative features, from the Italian and French Renaissance, Baroque, Venetian Gothic, and modern architecture, beautifying this exquisite terra-cotta mansion, which reminded us of a Venetian palace. Marble, tapestries, and ornately carved and gilded furniture dominate the lovely interior. The dining room is paneled in walnut, in French Renaissance-style, with coffered ceiling and painted panels.

Completed around 1880, the eight-piece bedroom suite is in mahogany, and is in the French Empire style. Ca’d’ Zan continues as Ringling left it, with marble floors, hand-wrought ironwork, solid-gold plumbing fixtures, and Venetian glass windows.

The prosperity that John Ringling received from the “Greatest Show on Earth,” and real estate investments, was well spent on his art museum and early 1920’s estate. He donated the entire estate and his collection, to the populace of the State of Florida, when he died in 1936. Ringling chose the town for his Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, made it his home, and the circus is a fundamental segment of Sarasota’s past.

Lloyd and I went to the Museum of the Circus, where we saw displays of gilded parade wagons, calliopes, costumes, photographs, posters, and a massive collection of circus memorabilia, including programs, artwork, old films, and an exhibit depicting life in a typical circus camp. We viewed the fantastic miniature circus in the Circus Galleries. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my slides (of which I have over 85,000) on this Museum of the Circus, so I have no photos of the Circus Galleries to accompany this article.

Ringling wielded a main impact on the evolution and progress of the city. His “Greatest Show on Earth” attracted not only performers from all over the world, but artists, musicians, and others who just wanted to relax by the sea.

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens has trails that meander through a ten-acre tropical jungle of palms, flowering shrubs and extraordinary plants, along with the Flamingo Lagoon, jungle trails, reptile and bird shows. The Gardens of Christ present hand-carved dioramas, portraying the life of Jesus.

The Sarasota Classic Car Museum has antique and classic automobiles, along with some cars owned by John Ringling, and Stephen King’s “Christine.” On view also are band organs, calliopes, music boxes, and player pianos.

Sarasota, along with the offshore islands of Lido, Longboat, St. Armand, and Siesta Key, has become a fabulous resort area, and one of Florida’s prime cultural centers. Departing Sarasota, we continued our enjoyable escorted tour throughout Florida. On the Atlantic side, barrier beaches enclose the historic Intracoastal Waterway, which Lloyd and I once sailed on for two weeks, from Florida up to Rhode Island.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Mabel Ringling Museum of Art

The post Sarasota, Florida, AND THE JOHN AND MABEL RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.