Search and rescue operation under way after group went over Dillon Falls on the Deschutes River
One person has died while two others remain missing after six people were swept down a waterfall in Oregon over the weekend.
On Saturday, the Deschutes county sheriff’s office announced a multi-agency search and rescue operation after the group went over Dillon Falls on the Deschutes River west of Bend on Saturday afternoon.
Continue reading...Children removed from California home of couple who were arrested in May and had said they ‘wanted a large family’
More than 20 children are in the custody of a California child-welfare agency while authorities investigate a Los Angeles-area couple and whether they misled surrogate mothers around the country.
Fifteen children were removed from the couple’s opulent home in Arcadia after an abuse allegation in May, and another six living elsewhere were also located, said Arcadia’s police lieutenant, Kollin Cieadlo. They range in age from two months to 13 years, with most between one and three.
Continue reading...Bob Becker of Fort Lauderdale finished the Badwater 135 ultramarathon held in California’s sweltering Death Valley
An 80-year-older runner has made history as the oldest person to complete the Badwater 135, nicknamed “the world’s toughest foot race”.
Last week, Bob Becker of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, became one of 93 people to complete the ultramarathon course – which covers 135 miles, beginning 282 feet below sea level in California’s sweltering Death Valley and climbing to 8,360 feet at the trailhead to Mt Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.
Continue reading...Samuel Bond Haskell, whose father represented major stars, was charged with dismembering his wife and killing her parents
A California man who was charged with murdering and dismembering his wife and her parents in the home they shared in the Los Angeles suburbs, then dumping his wife’s remains into a garbage bag, has died by suicide in jail, the Los Angeles county district attorney confirmed on Monday.
Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 37, was arrested in November 2023 and charged with the murders of his wife, Mei Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li. Haskell pleaded not guilty to the three murder counts in January 2024 and was being held without bail pending trial. He was facing a sentence of life in prison with no parole.
Continue reading...Jaime Alanís, 57, died a day after falling off a greenhouse roof during an immigration raid of a cannabis farm
The farm worker who died from injuries he sustained after falling from a greenhouse roof during an Ice raid of a California cannabis farm was a “hard-working, innocent farmer” and the sole provider for his wife and daughter, his family says.
Jaime Alanís died a day after a frenzied immigration raid of Glass House Farms in Ventura county where authorities arrested at least 200 workers. The 57-year-old, who was from the town of Huajúmbaro in Michoacán, Mexico, is the first known person to die during the Trump administration’s enhanced immigration enforcement operations in southern California.
Continue reading...Grand Canyon Lodge consumed by two wildfires that have burned more than 45,000 acres in area
The historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the monument’s North Rim has been destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire, the park said on Sunday. The blaze has forced officials to close access to that area for the season.
The Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging inside the park at the North Rim, was consumed by the flames, park superintendent Ed Keable told park residents, staff and others in a meeting Sunday morning. He said the visitor center, the gas station, a waste water treatment plant, an administrative building and some employee housing also were lost.
Continue reading...Jaime Alanis died after sustaining injuries during raid where authorities say they arrested about 200 people
A farmworker died Friday from injuries that he sustained a day earlier in raids on two California cannabis farm sites as US immigration authorities confirmed they arrested 200 workers after a tense standoff with authorities.
Jaime Alanis’s death was confirmed in a social media post by the United Farm Workers advocacy group. “We tragically can confirm that a farm worker has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday’s immigration enforcement action,” the post read.
Continue reading...Justice department says state policy violates Title IX, which offers legal protection against sex discrimination
The Trump administration has sued California over its policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that their participation violates federal anti-discrimination laws.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California’s policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.
Continue reading...Remains of two victims of seven people who went missing in the explosion are yet to be recovered
Family members are still searching for answers following last week’s explosion at a fireworks warehouse in northern California. Authorities confirmed on Sunday that the remains of the seven people missing in the blast have been recovered.
Family and community members have confirmed five of the victims as Jesus Ramos, Jhony Ramos, Joel “Junior” Melendez, Angel Voller and Carlos Rodriguez. Two victims are still unidentified.
Continue reading...Family of Cynthia Olivera reconsiders support for president after Ice detained her at green card interview
The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants say they are feeling betrayed after federal agents recently detained the woman in California while she interviewed for permanent US residency – and began working to expel her from the country.
“We feel totally blindsided,” Cynthia Olivera’s husband – US citizen and self-identified Trump voter Francisco Olivera – told the California news station KGTV. “I want my vote back.”
Continue reading...Trump’s immigration crackdown has made many immigrant farmworkers scared to go to work
Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura county, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the US illegally.
Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, have frightened off workers.
Continue reading...Suit filed in Los Angeles court accuses mogul, son and two other men of ‘brutal gang-rape’ in 2017
As closing arguments got under way in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs this week, the music mogul and his son Justin Combs were hit with a new lawsuit, accusing them of a “brutal gang-rape” in 2017.
In the suit filed in a Los Angeles court on Monday, a woman alleges that Justin Combs used his father’s celebrity status to “lure [the] plaintiff, a young female, from Louisiana to Los Angeles where she was literally held prisoner for a weekend and repeatedly raped” by the pair and two other masked men, according to the complaint.
Continue reading...Legislation will more than double current tax incentives under larger bill slated to be signed by Gavin Newsom
Hollywood’s home state of California will more than double annual tax incentives for film and television production to $750m under a measure passed by the Democratic-led legislature on Friday.
The increase from the current $330m was approved as part of a broader tax bill that is expected to be signed into law by California’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
Continue reading...Fast-moving weekend thunderstorm caused high winds and swells as authorities say one person still missing
The El Dorado county sheriff’s office confirmed Monday that it had found a seventh person dead after a boat capsized on Lake Tahoe during a fast-moving weekend thunderstorm that caused high winds and swells of up to 8ft. One person is still missing.
A 27ft-long gold Chris-Craft vessel with 10 people aboard overturned Saturday afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park on the lake’s south-west edge, according to the US Coast Guard.
Continue reading...Boat overturned after apparently being hit by a large swell, in a region that’s a popular spot with tourists
Six people have died and two others were missing after a boat capsized on Saturday on California’s Lake Tahoe, local authorities have said.
A 27ft-long boat overturned in the afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park, according to the Coast Guard. Lake Tahoe and its surrounding wilderness region is a hugely popular spot with tourists.
Continue reading...Team, which said it stopped Ice agents entering parking lot on Thursday, makes donation to immigrant families
The Los Angeles Dodgers have donated $1m to assist families affected by two weeks of immigration raids in southern California.
The World Series champions also said they intend to form partnerships with the California Community Foundation, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and other organizations to continue providing aid to immigrant families.
Continue reading...Kahikinui fire is 85% contained as firefighting crews battle blazes in Pacific north-west, California and the Rockies
A fast-moving Hawaii brush fire fueled by fierce winds forced the evacuation of about 50 Maui residents on the opposite side of the same island where a devastating blaze killed more than 100 people two years ago.
The fire started on Sunday in a sparsely populated area with land set aside for Native Hawaiians.
Continue reading...Officers arrest people at swap meet in Santa Fe and detain people in Montebello as curfew in LA remains in place
US immigration raids continued to target southern California communities in recent days, including at a popular flea market and in a Los Angeles suburb where US citizens were detained.
On Saturday, as mass protests swept the nation, including tens of thousands demonstrating in LA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents descended on a swap meet in Santa Fe Springs in southeast LA county. Video showed dozens of heavily armed, masked officers carrying out the raid before a scheduled concert at the long-running event that features vendors, food and entertainment every weekend
Continue reading...Law enforcement officials would also be required to be identifiable by uniform carrying their name
Local, state, and federal law enforcement officers who cover their faces while conducting official business could face a misdemeanor in California under a new proposal announced Monday.
The bill would require all law enforcement officials show their faces and be identifiable by their uniform, which should carry their name or other identifier. It would not apply to the national guard or other troops and it exempts Swat teams and officers responding to natural disasters.
Continue reading...Kennedy Center interim director says he would have consider running for California governor if Harris opts in
Donald Trump loyalist Ric Grenell says he would “have to” strongly consider running for California governor in 2026 if former vice-president Kamala Harris signs up to campaign for the position.
Grenell – a foreign policy adviser to the president and the interim director of Washington DC’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – made the remark during an interview airing Sunday on the Politico podcast The Conversation with Dasha Burns.
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