Newsom Diverted Taxpayer Funds That Could Have Stopped Palisades Fires

According to those critics, some grants appear only loosely connected to wildfire resilience, leading to allegations that the program has evolved beyond its stated purpose and is functioning as a taxpayer-supported slush fund to tribes, City Journal reports.

The outlet adds:

In recent years, CalFire has awarded grants that have dubious fire-management benefits: $1 million for a grant that will help a tribe provide “forest-themed ingredients” to tribe-owned restaurants; $599,000 for another to help renovate land for use as a Native American summer camp; $166,000 to one that will pay for “[t]ribal staff and members” to observe spotted owl nests; $746,000 to one supporting a tribe’s “food sovereignty” and “Fire-Centered Climate Action Plan”; and $521,000 to one that will help a tribe maintain “close kinship” with plants, animals, and “other natural relatives such as water and fire.”