"A criminal-justice 'reform' measure unleashes thousands of predators," says Frontpagemag. And crime has gone up in the Golden State.

As one professional predator put it, “I can go do a burglary and know that if it's not over $900, they'll just give me a ticket and let me go."

So La-La Land has enacted a "chirpy" thing called "The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act" -- which has resulted (as expected) in "some 14,000 fewer inmates in California State prisons and local jails" -- and yet, for some unfathomable reason, in 2015 all kinds of crime increased in that Left-Coast bastion of moral and social sanity.

That is to say, "improved public safety . . .  failed to materialize" in 2015, according to relevant cirme stats noted in the Frontpage article. 

Someone needs to study this to figure out what's going on.

Meanwhile, there's progress: Career criminals can now operate in a safer place. 

Here's the story at Frontpagemag.com.

Paul Bremmer reports at WND:

Todd Starnes writes:

British moms and dads were fuming after a school instructed students to write an essay explaining why they had converted to Islam.

Gemma Gough posted the assignment on Facebook -- and said her child would not be completing the assignment.

"This is not acceptable," she wrote. "Kids are too impressionable and imagine if these letters got in the wrong hands in years to come."

"The 12- and 13-year-old kids at Beaucamps High School in Guernsey were told to consider what it would be like to become a Muslim," Starnes explains. "They also had to write a letter to their loved ones explaining their decision to become a Muslim."

According to Starnes, the "controversial lesson was part of a creative writing exercise as part of a religious education lesson, The Daily Mail reports. The school pointed out that it was a make-believe scenario -- and no child was actually forced to convert to the Islamic faith."

No doubt appropriately skeptical, "local residents were not convinced," Starnes notes.

Read more.

"They'll throw the establishment over, and you'll find Donald Trump and Ted Cruz running, probably with Trump as president and Cruz as vice president," pollster Matt Towery predicts on Newsmax TV.

We now know the GOP Establishment's game plan, writes Steve McCann at American Thinker:

The Republican Establishment has finally exposed their game plan for the 2016 presidential nominating process. Go all out for Rubio, destroy Cruz’s character and set up a one on one between Trump and Rubio. 

If Rubio cannot win the nomination outright, then make certain that the entire process ends up in a brokered convention. They are convinced that Trump, as he appears to have a ceiling of around 35-40% among Republican voters, easily can be defeated by another candidate. 

The question is who, and their overwhelming answer is Rubio, as the donor class is opening up their wallets and the endorsements of establishment politicians are flowing.

 But that game plan, even if successful, may not end well for the GOP.

"Marco Rubio is the epitome of the perfect candidate of the Ruling Class," McCann writes, "as he will perpetuate their strangle hold on the levers of power and will insure that their standard of living and status will not be threatened."

Is Trump a viable alternative? Perhaps not.

McCann writes, "I do not support Trump for various reasons having to do primarily with his unbridled narcissism as well as not being able to fully trust who he is, as he has been and still is on both sides of the political spectrum on virtually every issue.” 

McCann concludes with a warning that GOP Washington elites will surely ignore, based on their previous performance.

"If the Establishment succeeds in foisting Marco Rubio on the Republican electorate at the expense of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz," McCann writes, "the Republican Party will end up on the ash heap of history. There will be a political earthquake."

Daniel Horowitz writes at Conservative Review:

It's quite evident from the exit polling and the mood of the electorate that voters did NOT vote for the following . . . :

• Single-payer health care
• Eminent domain
• Women in combat
• Being an "honest broker" between Israel and the Palestinians
• Open borders
• The homosexual agenda
• Judicial supremacy
• Abortion and Funding Planned Parenthood
• Raising taxes on the wealthy
• Cutting deals with the Democrats and establishment Republicans

See more.

"Radio host and Conservative Review editor Mark Levin tells Breitbart News Daily Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) showed 'enormous disrespect' by cancelling his scheduled speech at the Conservative Review conference Thursday night only five minutes before he was set to appear on stage," Katie McHugh reports at Breitbart.com.

"We can't divorce ourselves from what's happening in the civic society," Rev. Rafael Cruz says, according to WND.

"If we do not bring the moral fiber and the moral character of America to the forefront, America's going to crumble."

Click to read more.

Water Williams writes:

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders seek to claim the "progressive" mantle.

Both claim the other is not a true progressive. Clinton teased Sanders as being the "self-proclaimed gatekeeper for progressivism."

Bernie Sanders said that Hillary Clinton can't be both a moderate and a progressive and that most progressives don't take millions from Wall Street.

But let's talk about the origins of progressivism.

It's only historical ignorance that could explain black affinity for progressivism.

Read more.

Jumping right in: "After the warning and separation, comes the hitting -- hitting that does not make her ugly. The prophet [Muhammad] said: ‘Do not hit the face and do not make her ugly' . . . ."

James Lewis writes at American Thinker:

President Obama is constantly claiming unconstitutional powers, something that Justice Scalia opposed with all the intellectual force at his command. Meanwhile the Supreme Court itself has come under serious criticism ever since Chief Justice Roberts issued self-contradictory opinions favoring ObamaCare. Hillary Clinton is being credibly accused of national security felonies as Secretary of State, and the DOJ and FBI are said to be at odds on indicting Hillary. If she becomes President there is likely to be a bloodbath in the permanent government in DC. A Perfect Storm is rising in American politics.

As we can tell from the jubilation on the Left, Justice Scalia had hateful enemies, and he must have received death threats, which the FBI must now re-examine. The American public must also know on whose authority an obviously necessary post-mortem examination was avoided. The best way to restore public trust is to appoint a bi-partisan Congressional committee to oversee a medical pathology team.

"In the seven years of Obama Washington DC has become a city of fear," Lewis continues. "No one was afraid to smear and assault George W. Bush during his presidency. But Obama has been nearly immune -- and it's not just his magical charm.

"Obama and Jarrett use ruthless tactics to frighten the politicians in DC. Some Democratic City Machines, including Chicago, have a long history of gang collusion. Saul Alinsky advocated a Left-Syndicate alliance in Chicago, and Alinsky wrote the political agitation manual for Obama and Hillary.

"None of this comes close to proving that Justice Scalia died from anything other than natural causes," Lewis observes. "We simply do not know at this point. But we can know the answer by conducting the appropriate post-mortem examination."

"It is only reasonable to insist on that."

Pamela Geller writes:

The name of the popular Middle Eastern restaurant where the murderous machete attack took place is Nazareth -- the childhood home of Jesus.

The owner is an "outspoken Christian" from Israel.

Law enforcement said, "There's nothing to lead us to believe this is anything more than a random attack."

Right off the bat they are saying it isn't terror. Which means it's terror.

One witness told My Fox 28 Columbus that the scene in the restaurant was pure "carnage" and it seemed like a "systematic attack."

The Gahanna News tweeted this: "Breaking: Machete attack appears terror related. Suspect asked owner where he was from (Israel) before returning to attack."

Name of suspect: Mohammed Berry -- of "Somali background and may have traveled to Dubai in 2012," states TV10.com.

CBS reports "that law enforcement is concerned that this incident has the hallmarks of the type of so-called 'lone wolf' terrorist attack that they have been working to stop."

Terry Jeffrey writes at CNSNews.com:

In the budget message he sent Congress this week, Obama portrays himself as a president who led America back to economic good times . . . .

Is Obama the architect of an economic renaissance? A champion of the working man?

Is this what reasonable people a century from now will look back and see in the era of his presidency?

No. Nor should people see that now.

The truth is: Obama took office at a time when big-government liberalism had already put America on a downward trajectory. He not only kept this nation on that trajectory, he accelerated it.

For more on the Obama economic record, see "Obama Economy Destroying Businesses: Thousands of Stores Closed, Including Entire Shopping Malls."

Read the entire column by Terry Jeffrey.

Joseph Klein writes at Frongpagemag.com:

To single out Islam as an unabashedly positive force that has “always been part of America” is simply not supported by the historical record.

No mosques were even built in the United States until the early twentieth century.

Muslim slave traders enabled the market for slaves to grow in America.

The first war that the young United States fought against foreign powers was against Muslim states.

The founding fathers cited by Obama who owned copies of the Koran were not comfortable with the rigidity of Islamic doctrine and its warrior mentality.

Muslim Americans’ contributions to such fields as science and jurisprudence, such as they are, did not begin in earnest until well after the middle of the twentieth century.

And, by the way, Mr. Obama, the "oldest mosque in the U.S. was built in North Dakota in 1929," Klein writes.

That would be 153 years after the Declaration of Independence was set forth in 1776 and 322 years after the Jamestown was founded in 1607.

Steve McCann writes at American Thinker:

In the United States of 2016 the occupant of the White House is someone steeped in and aggressively implementing statist ideology. And one of the two major political parties has as its only candidates for the presidency a dedicated lifelong socialist in Bernie Sanders and a newly declared socialist in Hillary Clinton.

In recent polls nearly 59% of Democrats say they would vote for a socialist candidate as well as nearly 50% of independents and even more frightening nearly 70% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 in the country claim they would vote for a socialist. . . .

"Within the United States, because of the unrelenting socialist indoctrination of the people and the stealth takeover of the Democratic Party by the radical Left, plus the unwillingness of the only viable opposition -- the Republican Party -- to understand that one cannot compromise with those whose sole objective is the seizure of political power, this process is well on its way and the culmination, if not stopped now, will be the end of this nation as a bastion of freedom and opportunity," McCann explains.

"Yet the mindset of the Republican Party is still that of compromise and getting along with the opposition. Virtually all of the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination tout their ability to make deals and get along with their political adversaries. It is that mindset that has eventuated in the debacle the nation now finds itself in," McCann continues.

McCann concludes: "There can no longer be any consideration of compromise with the now unabashed socialist Democratic Party. They must be defeated and their gains rolled back. This election is the last opportunity to do so before it is too late, as the devastating polling statistics so frighteningly confirm and which the Republican Party chooses to ignore."

Mike Flynn reports at Breitbart.com:

A new NBC/Marist poll finds Donald Trump with a 13-point lead in New Hampshire, down 6 points from the middle of January. With the state voting Tuesday, Trump has 30 percent support, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) with 17 percent and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with 15 percent.

Trump's support is unchanged from two earlier NBC polls of the Granite State, going back to the beginning of January. Trump's lead has shrunk as both Rubio and Cruz have gained support in the past two weeks.

Rubio has gained 6 points since mid-January, while Cruz has gone up 3 points. Rubio's support is still fluid, however, as 13 percent of his supporters say they could still change their mind. Only 6 percent of Trump and Cruz supporters say they might change their mind.

"John Kasich and Jeb Bush round out the top five in New Hampshire, with 11 and 10 percent respectively," Breitbart reports. "Their support is also unchanged from the middle of January."

"Another Muslim world phenomenon being imported into the West," Frontpagemag.com states. Perhaps Mr. Obama could address this issue the next time he visits a mosque.

Here's the story.

"Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told Newsmax TV on Tuesday that the Iowa caucuses were a referendum on New York values -- and conservatives across the board rejected Donald Trump for Ted Cruz as a result, leading the Texas senator to victory," Todd Beamon reports at Newsmax.

"'Cruz did a great service to everybody when he talked about New York values,' DeLay told The Steve Malzberg Show in an interview," according to Newsmax. "It was 78 percent of the people that voted last night didn't vote for Donald Trump," DeLay said, Newsmax reports.

"That's onerous for Donald Trump," DeLay also said, accordiing to Newsmax. "I'm sure he is regrouping and firing people and throwing chairs out his Trump Tower window right now because he didn't get what he expected -- or at least what he told the American people."

Watch here.