California

Is Donald Trump closing all regional offices of the U.S. Forest Service? No, that's not true: Official terminology will change, but there will still be offices in many regions of the U.S. under the plan announced March 31, 2026. Fifteen new "State Offices", most of them in the national-lands-heavy western states, will replace the Forest Service's 1908 system of nine…

Does a video show a cyclist finding the Hidden Valley Ranch logo in real life? No, that's not true: While the clip of a man exploring a tranquil valley in Northern California is real, the logo derived from it is fake, and the landscape on Hidden Valley Ranch products does not match the valley in the video. Analysis also revealed…

Did a $100 million lawsuit filed by Gavin Newsom against Nick Shirley, Willie Nelson and a dozen other celebrities collapse after whistleblower testimony? No, that's not true: The story that California's governor filed a defamation lawsuit against a long list of people who "publicly criticized state-level financial handling" was made up by a network of foreign-run Facebook pages and websites.…

Did California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticize Nick Shirley, or did Sen. John Neely Kennedy criticize Adam Schiff, saying "Lock him up for lying to Congress, abusing power, and betraying the public trust!"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. A search of Google News…

Did California pay the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) more than $100 million mainly to fund protests as a viral social media post said? No, that's not true: California's payments to CHIRLA were overwhelmingly tied to immigration legal services and social welfare programs. There is no evidence in state budget records that any funds were used to pay or…

Did Rep. Ted Lieu say that the full, unreleased Epstein files show President Donald Trump raping children? No, that's not true: Lieu said at a Feb. 3, 2026, news conference that the files include "highly disturbing allegations" of Trump raping and threatening to kill children. He did not reference "unreleased" files, or say that child rapes are seen in them.…

Did Congressman Randy Fine write on social media that "the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one"? Yes, that's true: These words appeared on his official account on X. That account is linked to his congressional page. The statement appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on Feb. 15, 2026. It read: If they force…

Is a DJ Vlad "confession" that Roc Nation bribed the judge, jury, witnesses and police to convict Tory Lanez for shooting Megan Thee Stallion real? No, that's not true: While it was posted by DJ Vlad's X account, it concluded with a sentence calling the claims "these lies." DJ Vlad, a hip-hop producer turned journalist, posted replies on this and…

Does a viral video show real reactions of the people who watched Bad Bunny's 2026 Super Bowl halftime show in the stadium? No, that's not true: The clip was marked as containing AI generated media. The video showed characteristic, AI-associated glitches such as people with three arms and two hands. The claim originated from a video (archived here) published on…

Does a viral image show a real post on Craigslist that offered $200 for attending Kid Rock's performance at Turning Point USA's alternative to the NFL Super Bowl halftime show? No, that's not true: There was no proof the screenshot showed a real post. Lead Stories found differences between what other posts look like on Craigslist and the post in…