California gas prices expected to soar
as Valero shutdown worsens oil crisis
Posted By: Mercedes44, 2/5/2026 6:41:17 AM
California’s already sky-high gas prices are expected to surge after Valero abruptly shuttered its Benicia refinery amid a spiraling “oil crisis,” a new report claims. The Benicia refinery began shutting down on Saturday, four months earlier than planned, a former Valero manager told the California Globe Tuesday. Thermal imaging showed the facility went cold as the Crimson Pipeline – which transports crude oil from Southern to Northern California – was also taken offline. “We are in an unprecedented oil crisis,” oil expert Mike Ariza told the publication. Valero Energy Corp. announced its plans last spring to pull the plug on its 145,000-barrel-per-day refinery by April,
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A high-ranking immigration official committed an unforgivable betrayal of his personnel and is paying the price.
As Fox News reported , the Department of Homeland Security announced they had fired a senior Customs and Border Protection official on Thursday for leaking sensitive, personal information about CBP personnel to the corporate media.
The CBP official also allegedly leaked details of negotiations over the border wall to the press.
A DHS spokesperson called the official’s conduct “abhorrently dangerous” during an interview with Fox News.
Republicans are heading into the midterms with a huge advantage — a strong economy that is finally working for American families. Under President Trump and a GOP Congress, growth is up, inflation is down, wages are rising, and businesses are investing again. After years of economic pain, Americans are starting to feel real relief. Yet, too many Republicans are failing to make the case. As Larry Kudlow recently said on X: “The GOP needs to tout the red-hot economy at every campaign stop. There’s a business boom, a productivity boom, and Trump Accounts and wages are outstripping inflation.
The two deaths during ICE operations in January have led to an inundation of left-wing outrage to begin the new year. Thankfully, however, the amount of screen time allotted to America’s vocal minority is not indicative of how successfully — or unsuccessfully — any given issue is being handled. When it comes to illegal immigration, President Trump has, perhaps unsurprisingly, quelled the issue while exhibiting mastery in responding to pushback, just over one year into his second term.
Trump Looks on to the Next Generation
3 replies
President Trump has always understood a truth that much of Washington either ignores or refuses to confront. Nations do not endure on rhetoric alone. They endure because they raise strong families, cultivate capable citizens, and think beyond the next election cycle.
The twin initiatives announced recently, Trump Accounts and TrumpRx, should be understood through that lens. Together, they represent a domestic strategy aimed not merely at governing the present moment, but at securing the future of the country itself.
Respect is nothing more than an abstraction until somebody refuses to show it; that's when symbols clarify moments.
Flags matter because they represent authority, sacrifice, and ownership. The World Health Organization (WHO) crossed that line when it decided to keep the United States' flag after President Donald Trump withdrew from the organization. That decision led to a rare action on the world's political stage: Somebody acted. President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the WHO because of decades of mismanagement, compliance with hostile governments, and repeated failures during global health scares. There are consequences resulting from the withdrawal: legal, diplomatic, and symbolic.
During a special Thursday evening Founders Roundtable with Breitbart Fight Club, #1 New York Times bestselling investigative journalist and Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer said China is exploiting birthright citizenship policies around the globe to exert control, an issue he elaborates on in his latest book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon. Among other revelations in The Invisible Coup, Schweizer said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is actively involved in encouraging its nationals to gain American citizenship through America’s birthright citizenship policy that allows the U.S.-born—
The ongoing struggle to protect the right of public employees to disassociate themselves from unions whose values they don’t share has a number of heroes. There’s Pamela Harris, for example, plaintiff in Harris v. Quinn, which affirmed the right of homecare providers to opt out of union membership and dues in 2014. Or Rebecca Friedrichs, whose lawsuit against the California Teachers Association would have extended the same right to all public employees had it not been interrupted by the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. And Mark Janus, who finally championed those rights in Janus v. AFSCME.
Telegram platform founder Pavel Durov is one of very few tech CEOs who is consistent in his efforts to protect information from the grip of government censorship. Today, Durov used his platform to warn Telegram users in Spain what is pending: [VIA Pavel Durov X Account] – Today, Telegram notified all its users in Spain with this alert:
Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms. Announced just yesterday, these measures could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of “protection.” Here’s why they’re a red flag for free speech and privacy:
1. Ban on social media for under-16s with mandatory age verification:
In the past few years people have heard the term “rare earth minerals” or “critical minerals” as they relate to the manufacture of component goods that are vitally important in the lives of everyone. However, the term “rare” is somewhat of a misnomer. The minerals themselves are not rare; indeed, they have been around for hundreds of millions of years in abundant supply. It is the processing of those minerals into stable second stage commodities that has become rare.
As a result of western environmental rules and regulations, U.S, EU and developed nations have outsourced critical mineral processing (the dirty stuff) to China and Asia.
California’s already sky-high gas prices are expected to surge after Valero abruptly shuttered its Benicia refinery amid a spiraling “oil crisis,” a new report claims.
The Benicia refinery began shutting down on Saturday, four months earlier than planned, a former Valero manager told the California Globe Tuesday. Thermal imaging showed the facility went cold as the Crimson Pipeline – which transports crude oil from Southern to Northern California – was also taken offline.
“We are in an unprecedented oil crisis,” oil expert Mike Ariza told the publication.
Valero Energy Corp. announced its plans last spring to pull the plug on its 145,000-barrel-per-day refinery by April,
LA Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered Palisades
fire analysis to downplay LA’s failures: report 14 replies
fire analysis to downplay LA’s failures: report 14 replies
Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered the official Palisades Fire response report to downplay the failures made by the city and fire department when the deadly blaze erupted, a new report said.
Bass, after seeing an early draft of the after-action report, wanted key findings of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s shortcomings scrubbed or watered down — and even warned then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva the unedited conclusions could expose the city to legal liability, sources close to the Democrat’s staff told the Los Angeles Times.
Bass was cautioned that the self-serving tweaks in with the report was a “bad idea” that could torpedo her political career,
Can the Center Hold?
3 replies
It’s a worn-out trope by now to conjure yet again Yeats’s immortal poem, yet perhaps forgivable if we dissect its most famous phrase, “the center cannot hold.” Because exactly what we mean by “the center,” and how we determine what holds it together, may answer the question of how we might do exactly that.
As it is, one example of the “center” is millions of friendships that remain strong, held between left-of-center pro-business Democrats who are skeptical about MAGA, and right-of-center Republicans who believe MAGA policies are the best route to our country achieving goals we all share: broadly distributed prosperity and an affordable middle-class lifestyle.
But those friendships are fraying.
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Tucson, Ariz. — The sheriff investigating the apparent kidnapping of "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother was spotted sitting near the front row at a college basketball game Saturday night, even as Guthrie and her two siblings posted a plaintive plea on Instagram for the safe return of their mother. Fox News Digital obtained photos of Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who is facing increased scrutiny as the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance drags on, attending a matchup between the University of Arizona and Oklahoma State. Early Sunday morning will mark one week since Guthrie, 84, disappeared from her suburban Tucson home.
Since the start of the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, federal prosecutors have reportedly charged 158 anti-ICE agitators with federal crimes, including “FACE Act violations, conspiracy charges, and obstruction of federal agents.” Some of the offenses carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that she “expect more arrests to come” as the Justice Department is poised to crack down on similar anti-ICE insurgencies nationwide.
Those arrested in Minnesota include nine agitators who disrupted a church service (including Don Lemon, and a number of “ICE Watch” insurgents who “blocked, assaulted,
The Left is beginning to panic about Tulsi Gabbard's investigation into the massive election fraud in 2020.
They have good reason to. For the first time since then, I actually have hope that the fraud will be exposed for all to see. I would say that the evidence produced will be undeniable, but the left will always deny what they find inconvenient. But still, by the time Gabbard is done, a lot more people will believe what has been pretty obvious for a long time:
Respect is nothing more than an abstraction until somebody refuses to show it; that's when symbols clarify moments.
Flags matter because they represent authority, sacrifice, and ownership. The World Health Organization (WHO) crossed that line when it decided to keep the United States' flag after President Donald Trump withdrew from the organization. That decision led to a rare action on the world's political stage: Somebody acted. President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the WHO because of decades of mismanagement, compliance with hostile governments, and repeated failures during global health scares. There are consequences resulting from the withdrawal: legal, diplomatic, and symbolic.
The diplomatic expansion signaled commitments by the two nations to strengthen their Arctic presence and partnerships with Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory that has become a focal point due to Trump’s assertion that U.S. control of the island is a national security priority.”
A delegation of senior Canadian officials, including Governor General Mary Simon, and foreign minister Anita Anand, travelled to Nuuk on Friday to formally open Canada’s consulate, accompanied by a Canadian Coast Guard ship.
At a flag raising ceremony, Anand said that the consulate symbolises Canada’s long-term commitment to ‘stand together with the people of Greenland and Denmark’.”
Removing adolescents' healthy body parts under the guise of treating gender dysphoria could soon become a "thing of the past" as doctors reckon with the reality of financial penalties. A detransitioner's landmark $2 million victory in her malpractice case and the first major medical association's new opposition to "gender-affirming" surgeries for minors will force medical professionals to seriously weigh the consequences of offering these procedures (snip.) [HHS] announced in December proposed rules that would strip Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that perform sex change procedures on minors.
Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley brushed off a question Wednesday about how her wealth jumped to as much as $8 million after initially entering Congress with a negative net worth.
Pressley entered Congress after upsetting incumbent Democrat Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts in a 2018 primary election, according to Ballotpedia, and her initial financial disclosure led some to conclude her net worth was in the negatives. Fox Business reporter Chad Pergram questioned Pressley after her financial disclosure for 2024 indicated a net worth of as much as $8 million, due to multiple rental properties in Massachusetts and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Gen Z, this will smart.
The generation born between 1997 and 2010 is the very first generation who did worse in school than the generation before them, according to a top neuroscientist.
And shockingly, they are proud of it.
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A Complicated Week
16 replies
The attention of those less politically minded is focused on the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy -- always fodder for the would-be Colombos and Miss Marples -- and the Olympics. Yet this week saw some victories for the administration along with some serious unfinished business. The ousted dictator Nicolás Maduro seems isolated, depressed, and devoid of funds sufficient to hire teams of lawyers to defend him. Any claims he might have for immunity seem destined to fail. The evidence establishes he was born in Colombia; his claim falls because only a native Venezuelan is entitled to hold the office of president.
For too long, America’s retirement system has worked for the few, not the many.
Wall Street insiders, wealthy elites, and big public pension funds have built wealth via the private markets – private equity, private credit, and real estate. Meanwhile, hardworking Americans are told to stay in their lane. If you work a regular job and save through a 401(k), you are effectively shut out from greater choice and investment access for your well-earned money.
That’s not an accident. Elites – like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) – don’t want this change because it erodes their interests and your opportunity for wealth creation.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations deemed “redundant, poorly managed, unnecessary, costly, ineffective,” or that were instruments of America’s adversaries. Among them are various United Nations agencies and, most significantly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the latter of which is the backbone of global climate governance.
During his first term, President Trump removed the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. But a newly elected President Joe Biden promptly returned the nation to the agreement in 2021, making ...
Among the people running to fill the seat vacated by former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of her former staffers, Jim Tully. Introducing himself on a local conservative radio show in January, he didn’t mention his connection to Greene until asked by the host.(snip)There’s a clear pattern in how the Republicans running to replace Greene address her resignation and her split with President Donald Trump. Those who are better known due to their prior involvement with local GOP politics strike a balance between showing loyalty to Trump and respect to Greene, while newcomers have less hesitation about taking shots at her.