The Conservative Cave

A single tip about a quiet suburban home in California exploded into a massive human trafficking takedown that rescued nearly 20 children, uncovered residential brothels and netted more than 600 arrests statewide, authorities said Tuesday.

The week-long operation, dubbed Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, involved dozens of agencies and led to the rescue of 12 adults and five children in Los Angeles County alone, officials said during a news conference.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the entire investigation began with a single citizen complaint about a suspicious home in Walnut. That tip led to months of surveillance and the discovery of multiple trafficking locations in nearby suburban neighborhoods.

Among the 611 total arrests were suspected traffickers and hundreds of sex buyers, though authorities have not yet said how many will face felony human trafficking charges versus lesser solicitation offenses.
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"We have traffickers that are putting barely teenage girls on the streets of Los Angeles to be victimized, repeatedly, over and over again," said LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton. "These children did not come from one place. They came from Chicago, from Oklahoma, from Missouri, tribal lands... and from communities right here in the state of California."

College students are increasingly unprepared for serious study, with some professors recently reporting they are illiterate, raising significant questions about the overall quality of American education.

“It’s not even an inability to critically think,” Jessica Hooten Wilson, a Pepperdine University professor, told Fortune. “It’s an inability to read sentences.”

Wilson described that she is trying new pedagogical methods to convey the same information.

“I feel like I am tap dancing and having to read things aloud because there’s no way that anyone read it the night before,” Wilson stated. “Even when you read it in class with them, there’s so much they can’t process about the very words that are on the page.”

In a statement to Campus Reform, Wilson clarified that the students she described are not in Pepperdine’s Great Books program, who she says are eager to read.

“What I was lamenting was those outside of such honors programs who might have the desire but did not receive the instruction in public education,” she told Campus Reform.

More than a year after her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Kamala Harris is stepping back into the digital spotlight. Harris is helping launch a media project aimed at young Americans. The initiative rebrands her popular 2024 campaign accounts into a new online hub called Headquarters 67.

Harris announced Thursday that she is partnering with the liberal advocacy group People For the American Way to relaunch KamalaHQ as Headquarters. The project will focus on Gen Z audiences and youth political engagement.

The renamed accounts already bring a large following. The X account, now called @headquarters_67, has about 1.1 million followers. The TikTok account, @headquarters, has roughly 5.4 million followers. The group also plans to expand to YouTube, Substack, and other platforms. The X bio includes a pointed message. It reads, “Elon wouldn’t give us @headquarters.” The line nods to platform owner Elon Musk.

In a launch video posted on X, Harris described Headquarters as a place for connection and information. She said young people can use it to follow current events and hear from leaders across many fields.

The state of Idaho just won its case to keep its new school choice system, despite union pressure on behalf of failed public schools.

Idaho’s School Choice Tax Credit will move forward, and families who have applied will receive the tax credit, the state’s attorney general announced in a Feb. 5 press release. The program allots up to $5,000 per student or $7,500 for those with specific disabilities for refundable tax credits, which the students can use for tuition, tutoring, and other qualifying educational purposes, even for private and homeschool students. Because this empowers students who wish to seek educational alternatives, public school devotees loathe it.

Attorney General Raúl Labrador, however, celebrated the decision as a victory for students and parents within his state. No, children do not have to be trapped within the woke cesspool of public school education. “Today’s decision confirms that Idaho’s constitutional requirement to maintain a system of public schools does not prevent the Idaho Legislature from doing more to expand educational opportunities,” Labrador stated.

He added, “The Court rejected the Petitioner’s restrictive reading of the legislature’s power to legislate education matters. This ruling is a victory for Idaho families. It affirms their freedom to choose the educational path that best fits their children’s needs and futures.” The teachers’ unions never consult the good of children when it comes to their decision-making. They are only concerned with their own profit.

Petitioners in the case that wanted to ax the program included the Idaho Education Association, the Latah County school district, and the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution. They argued unsuccessfully that the state constitution prohibited taxpayer funds from going to any schools but public schools and that the tax credit does not serve the public interest.