Tag Archives: California

The Associated Press reports: California prosecutors have filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot who ran a red light, slammed into another car and killed two people in 2019. The defendant appears to be the first person to be charged with a felony in the United States for a fatal crash involving a …

The Hill reports: Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump last year, announced on Wednesday that he would be running in California’s newly drawn 22nd congressional district. “I’ll continue to be an independent member of Congress who will stand up to the divisive partisanship in Washington D.C., get things done …

The New York Times reports: Robert A. Durst, the former heir to a vast Manhattan real estate empire who was convicted of one murder and suspected in two others over four decades, died early Monday of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Stockton, Calif., according to his lawyer. Mr. Durst, 78, was serving a life sentence at the California Health …

Los Angeles’s ABC News affiliate reports: California’s indoor mask mandate has been extended one month, through at least Feb. 15, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced in a briefing Wednesday. The mandate went into effect on Dec. 15, 2021, and was set to expire Jan. 15, 2022. It requires that masks be worn in all indoor public …

The Orange County Register reports: Orange County Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby, who ran for state Assembly in 2020 and had become a leader with the Republican Party of Orange County, has died suddenly, a week after telling friends she was very sick with COVID-19. She was 46 years old. Ernby was a political newcomer when she ran for the …

Los Angeles’s ABC News affiliate reports: Southern California beaches soiled by a sewage spill will remain closed until testing of water samples shows bacteria levels are within state standards, officials said. A sewer main line failed in the city of Carson and millions of gallons of untreated sewage was discharged into the Dominguez Channel, a waterway that empties into Los …

From the Justice Department: John T. Earnest, a Rancho Penasquitos man who entered the Chabad of Poway on April 27, 2019, opened fire and killed one woman, injured three others, and attempted to kill 50 others, was sentenced in federal court today to life plus 30 years in prison for his crimes. Earnest previously pleaded guilty to a 113-count indictment …

The Verge reports: The California attorney general and 12 state officials filed a lawsuit against Walmart, saying it allegedly illegally disposed of electronic and hazardous waste, compromising local landfills. California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleges in a statement the company violated state environmental laws with their practices, and the waste included materials like lithium and alkaline batteries, insect killer sprays, …

The New York Times reports: Joan Didion, whose mordant dispatches on California culture and the chaos of the 1960s established her as a leading exponent of the New Journalism, and whose novels “Play It as It Lays” and “The Book of Common Prayer” proclaimed the arrival of a tough, terse, distinctive voice in American fiction, died on Thursday at her …

The New York Times reports: California will require health care workers to get booster shots by Feb. 1, officials announced today, as part of a series of measures intended to stave off hospital staffing shortfalls and to keep schools open despite the unsettlingly rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Public health officials said the Feb. 1 deadline …

Politico reports: Rep. Alan Lowenthal will not run for reelection, adding to a generational changing of the guard in California politics. The Long Beach Democrat said in a statement that he would not seek a sixth term in Congress, choosing instead to “pass the baton” and spend time with family. Lowenthal’s current seat is safely Democratic and will likely remain …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: The state of California will once again require that all residents — regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status — wear masks indoors. The mandate will apply to all indoor settings beginning on Wednesday, Dec. 15, and last at least until Jan. 15. Some counties, including San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma and …

The Los Angeles Times reports: After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a Texas state law that bans most abortions there, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’ll push for a new California law that deters the manufacture and sale of assault rifles in the state. “If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare …

The Sacramento Bee reports: The head of the California Medical Board says members of an anti-vaccine group known to spread misinformation about COVID-19 treatments targeted her at her home and workplace in Walnut Creek on Monday. Kristina Lawson, president of the state agency that licenses and disciplines medical doctors, first shared the “terrifying experience” on Twitter Wednesday. Lawson, through a …

The Sacramento Bee reports: With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court gives them the OK next year, California clinics and their allies in the state Legislature on Wednesday revealed a plan to make the state a “sanctuary” for those seeking reproductive care, including possibly paying for travel, lodging and procedures for people …

The Los Angeles Times reports: The caption read “hanging with the homies.” The picture above it showed several Black men who had been lynched. Another photo asked what someone should do if their girlfriend was having an affair with a Black man. The answer, according to the caption, was to break “a tail light on his car so the police …

The New York Times reports: On Monday, Mr. Nunes announced he would resign from Congress at year’s end to lead former President Donald J. Trump’s media and technology company, continuing an unswerving fealty to Mr. Trump that had turned him into a national figure of admiration on the right and contempt on the left. Mr. Nunes was prodded toward that …

The Associated Press reports: Northern California parents knowingly sent their COVID-19 positive child and a sibling to school last month in violation of isolation and quarantine rules, causing a coronavirus outbreak in an elementary school, officials said Saturday. The parents could face a fine or a misdemeanor charge for violating Marin County’s health order, under which people who test positive …

CNN reports: The United States’ first confirmed case of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been identified in California. The World Health Organization designates Omicron a “variant of concern.” In a technical brief released this week, WHO noted that the variant poses a “very high” global risk. The variant was first identified by scientists in South Africa, and has since been …

The Los Angeles Times reports: The COVID-19 surge still affecting Central California is so dire that health officials are pleading with state officials to make it easier to transfer hospital patients to areas like Los Angeles County. “We don’t have enough hospitals to serve the population and the needs,” said Dr. Rais Vohra, the Fresno County interim health officer. Hospitals …