California Insider Siyamak Khorrami

“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.”

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.