A HUNDRED MILLION HERE AND HUNDRED MILLION THERE, AND SOONER OR LATER, YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT REAL MONEY: California’s unfinished wildlife ‘bridge to nowhere’ tops $100M.

In 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California.

At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick.

Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project — which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments — would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.

Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”

Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the national Wildlife Federation. In 2021, the group received a $25 million grant from “Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation” for the bridge that bears the late philanthropist’s name.

Related: Bridges and Cougars and Butterflies, Oh MY! Chris Rufo Exposes Yet ANOTHER Gavin Newsom Boondoggle. “If you are asking yourself why butterflies could possibly need a bridge, then you are a sane person who is in no way qualified for elected office in California…Now we know why his cringy social media team is so mad at Nick Shirley.”

UPDATE: David Barron, call your office:

Releasing wild cougars into a suburban neighborhood means that people's pets are going to get chomped up, digested, and spit out onto the 101. Good work, Gavin!

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026

The craziest thing about Newsom's $100 million wildlife bridge is that it will allow cougars, an apex predator, direct access into a suburban neighborhood filled with pets, children, and the elderly. It's like the radical environmentalist version of The Purge. pic.twitter.com/KqUKaBlyyf

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT? Scientists May Have Figured Out How to Unlock The Energy of Ocean Waves.

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT: I really appreciate a number of you ordering my book His Side recently. I sincerely appreciate it.

THE LESSON’S THERE TO BE LEARNED, IF PEOPLE WILL LEARN IT:

This is Qatar tonight.

They were the regime in Iran's greatest ally in the region and consistently did Khamenei's bidding.

But when push came to shove, none of that mattered and Qatar was bombed regardless.

Let this be a lesson.

Never trust a mullah. pic.twitter.com/wGlbmZlJuH

— 𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) March 18, 2026

FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Turn Bacteria Into Tiny Tumor Hunters That Kill Cancer.

Toniiq Liposomal NAD+ and Resveratrol Supplement. #CommissionEarned

UNVERIFIED BUT TOO GOOD TO CHECK:

🔴 پزشكيان يتنصل من أي مسؤوليات ويقول إنه "بلا صلاحيات ومنقطع تماما عن الأطر القيادية ولا مبرر لاستهدافه".

دولة خليجية – خاص

أكد مستشار سياسي في دولة خليجية أن الرئيس الإيراني مسعود پزشكيان أبلغ عددا من نظرائه في الخليج العربي ودول أخرى منها روسيا وتركيا أنه "في ظل انهيار… pic.twitter.com/g9W01v27Vm

— أنور مالك (@anwarmalek) March 18, 2026

Translation:

[President of Iran Masoud] Pezeshkian disavows any responsibilities and says he is “without authority, completely cut off from the leadership structures, and there is no justification for targeting him.”

A political advisor in a Gulf state confirmed that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian informed a number of his counterparts in the Arab Gulf and other countries, including Russia and Turkey, that “in light of the collapse of the constitutional leadership structure in the country and his disconnection from communicating with its components, he absolves himself of responsibility and emphasizes that there is no justification for targeting him.”

Pezeshkian fancies himself a moderate — whatever that means in the Islamic Republic regime — so who knows?

THE E.V. BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Report: The 2026 Volvo EX30 is Dead for the U.S. Market.

THIS ISN’T JUST AN EMBARRASSMENT, IT INVITES AGGRESSION: 82 Percent Of U.S. Navy Warships Being Built Are Behind Schedule And It Won’t Be Easy To Solve.

Not only do we have too few ships, but in a major war, each one lost to enemy action is almost certainly an irreplaceable lost within the duration of the war.

I WANT TO BELIEVE:

🚨Well this is interesting… https://t.co/FxX7z1YCjY

Name: https://t.co/3BsAKAvqOx
Registry Domain ID: DF133F918-GOV
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited

Nameservers:https://t.co/But0rJixvU
Dates

Registry Expiration: 2027-03-17 18:55:49 UTC

Updated:… pic.twitter.com/1xy3e1YrGn

— Skywatch Signal (@UAPWatchers) March 18, 2026

ICYMI: Israel Is Now the Regional Hegemon Iran Wanted to Be.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Airmoto Tire Inflator Portable Air Compressor. #CommissionEarned

THANKS, FELLAS:

Ukraine has deployed roughly 200 personnel across the Middle East to aid gulf countries in shooting down Iranian drones

Ukrainian teams are already in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and are on the way to Kuwait -Zelensky to the British Parliament

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 18, 2026

GUN RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS: If You Need a Lesson in the Value of Gun Rights, Just Look at Iran.

SAY ANYTHING:

Raskin: "Thomas Paine was an undocumented immigrant."

Jordan: "How was he an illegal immigrant? He was born in the UK and came to America, then a British colony."

Raskin: "I didn't say he was an illegal immigrant. He was an undocumented immigrant." pic.twitter.com/3H6fDV02rf

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 18, 2026

Kyle Becker summed it up best in the replies: “These people are absolute freaking morons.”

JOANNE JACOBS: Why teachers quit: ‘It was the wild West.’ “Another complained that behavior expectations kept changing. Instead of automatic punishments for disrespect, insubordination and violence, teachers were told to ‘have a buddy role.'”

DON’T GET COCKY:

Eugene is great. Best thing to happen for the state party Democrats in 15 years.
But the emphasis on this just as emphasis are on all special elections are often overblown.
Per the great Kyle Kondik there have been nearly 300 U.S. House special elections since the mid-1950s more… https://t.co/pfQldkO96f pic.twitter.com/jDPBtINJxO

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) March 18, 2026

I DUNNO, ASIDE FROM A TEMPORARY SPIKE IN OIL PRICES, SO FAR THEIR FREE-RIDERSHIP SEEMS TO BE WORKING FOR THEM: Trump Wonders if Crushing Iran Would Wake Up U.S. ‘Allies.’

Maybe this might wake them up: What are the odds that Trump puts a tariff-like “security fee” on all oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz? . . .

MUCH MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE:

A federal court revoked the U.S. citizenship of a man who orchestrated a massive $3.8 million COVID-19 relief fraud scheme, ruling he obtained naturalization through lies while actively committing fraud. The defendant submitted numerous fraudulent loan applications using false… pic.twitter.com/K9o80N2tPP

— US Attorney Reding Quiñones (@USAO_SDFL) March 17, 2026

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Belifu Dual Channel TENS EMS Unit 24 Modes Muscle Stimulator for Pain Relief Therapy. #CommisionEarned

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Trump Effect? Oscar Ratings Crater in Second Term.

These celebrity galas often feast on anti-Trump lectures, be it those “ICE out” pins or mocking the First Family. The messages may differ, but the target is typically the same.

President Trump.

And, as a result, Hollywood, Inc. watched awards show ratings slump.

Their ratings stabilized somewhat during the Biden years, but with Trump back in office, the ratings decline resumed. Just look at the just-released Oscar numbers.

Also, Hollywood largely stopped making (and awarding) movies people want to see. Trump or no Trump, why tune in to see which movie you never even heard of won Best Picture?

OLD AND BUSTED: Russian Election Interference.

The New Hotness? US intel hid Chinese 2020 election meddling from Trump because they opposed his policies, memo says. “Dr. Barry A. Zulauf, a member of the Senior National Intelligence Service reported that others in the intelligence community said ‘I don’t want my intelligence going to the White House where it will be used by that vulgarian in the Oval Office to support policies against China with which I personally disagree.’”

IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH:

Today in this episode of “Twitter is not real life,” Ro Khanna’s supposedly immense influence resulted in every single one of these socialists losing. https://t.co/vbwap6nGad

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 18, 2026

HISTORY: 100 years later, where is Robert Goddard’s first liquid-fueled rocket?

IN THE WORDS OF CURTIS LEMAY, IF YOU KILL ENOUGH OF THEM, THE REST STOP FIGHTING: Iranian Intelligence Minister Who Led Assassination Plots Against US Officials Eliminated In Israeli Strike, IDF Says. “Israel on Wednesday killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, during an airstrike in Tehran, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Khatib orchestrated the violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year and ran an agency that attempted assassinations against U.S. officials.”