Team circumvented salary cap rules to sign star
Owner Steve Ballmer lands one-year ban
The NBA has handed down one of the biggest punishments in the history of the league to the Los Angeles Clippers after finding that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules when it courted Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.
The league has stripped the team of five first-round draft picks, giving the team no natural pick in the draft from 2029 through 2033.
Continue reading...In a major LGBTQ+ rights victory, the justice department cannot force the state to ban trans girls from women’s sports
A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging California’s policy of allowing transgender youth to play on sports teams that match their gender, a major loss for Donald Trump and the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The justice department had been fighting for a year to force California to ban trans girls from women’s sports, with the president directly singling out one trans track and field athlete in online attacks and regularly mocking trans athletes in his speeches.
Continue reading...Los Angeles were already Super Bowl favorites
Defensive tackle was 10-time Pro Bowler with Rams
35-year-old aiming to win second Super Bowl in LA
Aaron Donald, one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history, is coming out of retirement to rejoin his only professional team, the Los Angeles Rams.
During a 10-season career with the Rams, who drafted him with the 13th overall pick in 2014, Donald was a three-time defensive player of the year and an eight-time first team All-Pro. He won a Super Bowl with the Rams at the end of the 2021 season before announcing his retirement in March 2024 at the age of 32.
Continue reading...Nearly 600 days after the devastating 2025 fires, thousands of Los Angeles residents are still waiting for more than $15bn in federal funds to rebuild their communities
As thousands of residents in Spokane, Washington, begin to grapple with a long recovery after a destructive set of blazes that consumed hundreds of homes in the state’s second most populated city this month, victims of the Los Angeles firestorm broke a grim record – they have faced the longest delay in modern history for federal aid.
Nearly 600 days since a historic firestorm roared into communities across Los Angeles, reducing more than 16,000 structures to ash and toxic debris, the Trump administration has failed to appropriate more than $15bn in long-term recovery funds that are crucial to rebuilding. The delay in supplying the badly needed funds is months longer than the last record set when victims of the Maui fires had to wait 500 days to receive the support, LAist noted this week.
Continue reading...Authorities suspect Benjamin Charles Parker, 36, died by suicide after he was found in vehicle in Washington state
A man suspected of killing five people in rural Oregon was found dead in a suspected suicide, local law enforcement officials said on Sunday.
The five homicide victims were found on Saturday at a home in a rural community near Forest Grove, Oregon, about 30 miles (48km) outside Portland, when authorities responded to a report of a vehicle fire.
Continue reading...State senator beats rival Melissa Hernandez and will replace US congressman who quit amid sexual misconduct claims
Progressive Aisha Wahab has been elected to Congress in a special election following a bitter intra-party battle over the seat formerly held by Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April after facing sexual misconduct allegations. Swalwell has denied the allegations.
Wahab, a state senator, was widely considered the frontrunner in the district in California’s East Bay and had the backing of the state Democratic party as well as Our Revolution, labor unions, local officials and the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta.
Continue reading...State sought to stop system off coast of Santa Barbara from resuming operations after Trump ordered its reopening
An oil pipeline can continue to operate off the California coast after a judge gave it the green light this week, despite the opposition of state regulators and environmental groups.
The system off the coast of Santa Barbara resumed operations earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade after Donald Trump ordered Sable Offshore Corporation to reopen it, citing US energy needs during the war in Iran.
Continue reading...Federal agents also ‘seized electronic devices’ from former Democratic representative at San Francisco airport
Authorities are said to have searched the Washington DC home of disgraced former California Democratic representative Eric Swalwell on Sunday amid an ongoing law enforcement investigation into sexual assault allegations.
CNN reported that federal agents on Saturday also “seized electronic devices” from Swalwell at the San Francisco airport, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. Multiple other outlets have confirmed the federal search; the Daily Mail was the first to report this law enforcement activity.
Continue reading...Officers reportedly believed invitees were trying to make unauthorized entry on to Vandenberg base in California
Five news reporters and two members of the military who were invited to an event at Vandenberg space force base in California were briefly detained at gunpoint by security officers who thought they were gatecrashers, according to local news reports.
The incident happened Monday ahead of an invitation-only groundbreaking for a new training facility for missile operators at the federal airfield near Santa Barbara, California. Reporters from Noozhawk and KEYT were among those detained, and both outlets published articles detailing the detainment.
Continue reading...Regulations that would block sale of older tires praised by environmental groups amid rightwing backlash
California has become the first state in the nation to mandate that replacement tires be energy efficient, a major auto industry regulation set to block the sale of older tires and make vehicles on the road greener.
State regulators have said the new rules will reduce emissions and drivers’ fuel costs. But the rules – which come as the Trump administrations fights to block other California restrictions to promote greener cars – have already sparked a rightwing backlash, with one conservative news outlet calling the policies a “massive overreach”.
Continue reading...President hosts Nathanial Rai and lifeguard Ryder Williams at White House after video of California rescue went viral
Nathanial Rai had been swept off his feet along the California coast, was rescued by a 16-year-old lifeguard – and was now sitting in the Oval Office with Donald Trump.
Of the rescuer, Ryder Williams, Trump said to Nathanial: “He’s a real hero. I don’t know if I’d do it.
Continue reading...Hurricane Lala downgraded after skirting Big Island as one person dies and 183,000 still without power
Hurricane Lala weakened to a tropical storm on Sunday after skirting Hawaii without making landfall, but it wasn’t done punishing the Big Island with hurricane-force gusts. Total rainfall of nearly 3ft (1 meter) was expected on the higher windward slopes, turning rivers into raging torrents and threatening mudslides.
The Hawaii governor, Josh Green, said at least one person died in a car accident in the South Point area of the Big Island, where more than 100 homes were destroyed. A little over 183,000 utility customers remained without power across Hawaii by Sunday mid-afternoon, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. At least three hospitals were operating on generator power, and 19 roofs were lost, Green said.
Continue reading...Tyler Muehl, 18, could face a year in prison for kicking marine animal four times on La Jolla coast
An 18-year-old California man has admitted he kicked a sea lion in a video that went viral recently – while referring to himself by the name of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor – and has pleaded guilty to a federal crime.
Tyler Muehl, of San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after acknowledging in court on Thursday that he violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act’s prohibition on harassment of wildlife, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Continue reading...Marni von Wilpert helped draft Protecting the Right to Organize act, and now wants work toward implementing it
Legislation that would modernize federal labor law began with a handful of lawyers meeting, of all places, in an ice-cream shop.
“We wrote for hours what we would do to amend the National Labor Relations Act,” said Marni von Wilpert, a member of the San Diego city council who was then an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Bringing together “our collective experience as labor lawyers over the years, really trying to unrig the rules so that working people could have a fair shot”.
Continue reading...Jacob ‘Jake’ Whisenant died in Sequoia and Kings Canyon wilderness in ‘climbing-related incident’, authorities say
A 30-year-old California climber known for breaking speed records died after falling in the Sierra Nevada wilderness last week, according to authorities.
Jacob “Jake” Whisenant, from Mammoth Lakes, California, died in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon wilderness on 3 August, according to the Tulare county sheriff’s office coroner unit and the National Park Service (NPS).
Continue reading...Nearly 500 personnel battle Timber fire in Los Padres national forest as blaze grows to 2,000 acres
Evacuations have been ordered for areas along California’s famous Big Sur coast as a wildfire burns in the nearby steep, rugged mountains.
The Timber fire in Monterey county started on Sunday and grew to 2,000 acres by Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency. Nearly 500 fire personnel had been assigned to the fire in the Los Padres national forest.
Continue reading...Police arrested Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, in connection with the Gann fire, which has burned more than 15 sq miles in Calaveras county
At least one person has died in a wildfire burning in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range that officials believed was sparked by a man using a chainsaw.
Police arrested Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, in connection with the Gann fire, which has destroyed seven buildings, scorched more than 15 sq miles in Calaveras county and killed a well-known dog breeder in the town of Angels Camp.
Continue reading...Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi, who served a decade for killing her husband, pleaded guilty to murder of Rebecca Marodi, a fire captain who fought the Eaton blaze
A California woman this week admitted to killing her wife, a decorated fire captain who fought the deadly 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, by stabbing her – the same fate she previously delivered to her husband and had served a decade in prison for.
Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi, 54, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to second-degree murder after killing her wife, Rebecca “Becky” Marodi, 49, a California fire captain, at their home in February 2025, just a month after Becky, as she was known, battled the Eaton blaze that killed 19.
Continue reading...‘Disturbing’ footage shared by California detainee surfaces amid wider complaints about conditions in ICE detention
Attorneys for a man detained in a California immigration detention center have released footage showing him holding up a bottle of water from inside the facility that appeared to be contaminated with worm-like creatures.
The footage came from a video call with Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a Los Angeles man who has been detained for months at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, north-east of LA.
Continue reading...Erica Fox left Lovers Point near Monterey in December alongside group of swimmers but never made it back
A single, devastating shark bite was fatal for an ocean swimmer whose body was found on a California beach in December, a new autopsy report confirmed.
Erica Fox, 55, drowned after that shark bite broke her pelvis and severed a major artery, according to the findings of the autopsy, which were first reported on by California’s Monterey Herald newspaper.
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