Category Archives: California

California Uber and Lyft drivers push for settlement in wage theft claims

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Ride-share drivers held demonstrations from San Francisco to San Diego amid ongoing negotiations affecting 250,000

Ride-share drivers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego held demonstrations in front of city hall buildings on Wednesday as California state attorney General Rob Bonta, city attorneys and attorneys representing ride-share drivers continue negotiations next week with Uber and Lyft to settle thousands of claims of wage theft for drivers.

At least 250,000 individual ride-share drivers in California who drove for the apps between 2016 and 2020 are estimated to be eligible for the settlement for wage theft claims of tens of billions of dollars, according to Rideshare Drivers United in California.

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More US states report measles cases amid vaccine misinformation

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Ohio, Maryland and Alabama among states to report new cases, with 378 confirmed in first few months of 2025

More US states are reporting measles cases as the Texas outbreak expands, surpassing last year’s total, amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.

The Texas outbreak could take a year to get under control, one health official said – during which time it may spread to more states. Yet the parents of the six-year-old girl who died of measles in Texas have spoken against measles vaccination as misinformation continues to proliferate, including from figures such as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

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Three people die attempting to cross US-Mexico border amid California storm

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Authorities found two men and one woman dead in Otay Mountain wilderness due to harsh terrain and cold weather

Three people died last week as they attempted to cross the US-Mexico border near San Diego, California, amid a storm that brought near freezing temperatures to the challenging mountain terrain, according to the US border patrol.

Border patrol agents responding to two separate distress calls – that came within less than an hour of each other on 14 March – discovered two men and one woman deceased in the Otay Mountain wilderness area, the agency said in a statement. The following evening authorities responded to another call from someone stranded in the mountains with a broken ankle, according to the statement.

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University of California imposes hiring freeze in response to Trump cuts

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President Michael Drake also directs campuses to cut costs, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel

The University of California has imposed a system-wide hiring freeze and made additional cuts, its president said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to mitigate the expected impact of sharp cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration.

In a letter to staff and students, the school’s president, Michael Drake, said he had also directed all UC locations to implement cost-saving measures, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel, to help conserve funds.

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Atmospheric river to wallop California as study finds storms getting worse

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Thunderstorms and high winds forecast for San Francisco Bay while southern California under flood watch

A powerful atmospheric river storm was set to wallop California on Wednesday evening, drenching large swaths of the state with rain and bringing several feet of snow to the mountains – the latest in a wave of intense storms that new research shows are getting worse.

Much of northern California was under a winter storm warning because of the gusty winds and heavy snow in the forecast that the National Weather Service (NWS) said would lead to “difficult to impossible travel conditions”. Severe thunderstorms and high winds were predicted across the San Francisco Bay area, according to reports.

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Mormon church rocked by child sexual abuse allegations in California

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Look-back window results in nearly 100 allegations against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in the US has been rocked by a slew of sexual abuse allegations launched against it in California in the latest scandal to hit the organization that is better known as the Mormon church.

A three-year look-back legal window that allows adult survivors of sexual assault to file claims in California has produced almost 100 allegations of childhood sexual abuse by Mormon leaders.

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Pamela Bach, Baywatch actor and David Hasselhoff’s ex-wife, dies

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Actor also known as Pamela Hasselhoff died on Wednesday and the cause is still under investigation, authorities say

Pamela Bach, an actor and the ex-wife of the Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, has died.

The Los Angeles medical examiner’s office reports that she died on Wednesday and the cause is still under investigation. Also known as Pamela Hasselhoff, Bach appeared on The Young and the Restless and met her future husband on the set of his series Knight Rider.

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Trump administration revises directive to fire probationary employees

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It is unclear how the revised guidance will affect probationary federal workers who have already been fired

The Trump administration appears to be walking back its directive to fire probationary employees.

The reversal comes less than a week after a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the US defense department and other agencies to carry out the mass firings of some employees, including probationary employees who typically have less than a year of experience.

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Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he was fired from coaching job after Maga protest

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  • 43-year-old was arrested at city council meeting
  • Former player was coaching local high school

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he has been fired from his job as a high school football coach after his protest at a city council meeting in California.

Kluwe was arrested at the Huntington Beach city council meeting last week, at which he spoke out against the decision to erect a plaque at a local library. The plaque features the words “Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing and Adventurous” and the city commission confirmed it was a reference to Maga. The former Minnesota Vikings player then made critical comments about the Trump administration before saying he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience” and walked on to the meeting’s stage. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting an assembly.

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Newsom orders parole board to assess public risk if Menendez brothers freed

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California governor’s intervention could offer avenue of freedom for siblings jailed over 1989 LA killing of parents

The California governor has ordered the state parole board to examine whether the Menendez brothers would pose a risk to the public if they are released from prison – which could offer an avenue to freedom for the siblings who have been behind bars for almost three decades.

Attorneys for Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, reported on Wednesday that the board will complete a “comprehensive risk assessment” to determine if the brothers have in fact been rehabilitated since the 1989 killing of their parents.

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Wildfire debris washes up on LA beaches after major rainstorm

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Beaches in southern California littered with timber, twisted metals, charred silt and urban runoff from Palisades fire

Los Angeles county beaches are contending with the aftermath of recent wildfires and winter storms as debris from the Palisades fire and urban runoff are carried to the shoreline.

After last week’s major rainstorm, beaches in southern California have been littered with timber, twisted metals, construction materials and charred silt and sediment originating from the Palisades fire in January. That blaze, along with the Eaton fire, killed at least 29 people.

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Newsom threatens to pull funds unless California cities crack down on homelessness

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‘We’re not going to fund failure,’ says governor, who warned local authorities they could lose out on millions of dollars

California’s governor warned cities and counties that they could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if they do not make progress in clearing out encampments and tackling homelessness.

Gavin Newsom’s comments on Monday, while announcing $920m in funding to address the crisis, come as he escalates efforts to push local governments to take greater action. Last summer, Newsom told counties he could withhold state support if they failed to do more homeless encampment sweeps.

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Clint Hill, Secret Service agent who leapt on to car after JFK was shot, dies aged 93

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Hill received awards and was promoted for actions that day but for decades blamed himself for then president’s death

Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leapt on to the back of John F Kennedy’s limousine after the then president was shot, then was forced to retire early because he remained haunted by memories of the assassination, died on Friday. He was 93.

Hill died at home in Belvedere, California, according to his publisher, Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. A cause of death was not given.

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Mass firings hamstring federal land agencies and wildfire response

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Concerns are mounting that depleting already thinned ranks will only hamper extreme weather response efforts

Federal agencies that play crucial roles in administering conservation, recreation and resource development across roughly than 640m acres of the nation’s public lands were thrust into a state of chaos this week after the Trump administration fired thousands of federal workers, leaving key operational gaps in its wake.

The agencies are also on the frontline of mitigating the escalating effects from the climate crisis and concerns are mounting that the depletion of already thinned ranks will only hamper efforts to respond and recover from extreme weather events.

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‘It’s definitely not moving’: another bear makes evacuated LA home its own

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Black bear weighing 500lb found in crawlspace in Pasadena, two weeks after Altadena man discovered unfamiliar tenant

Two 500-plus pound black bears have laid claim to homes evacuated during the destructive Eaton fire in southern California.

Last month, when Samy Arbid returned to his Altadena home, he found “Barry” – a 525lb black bear – living under the house. This week, another Californian reported a different unexpected visitor living in his house’s crawlspace in neighboring Pasadena: another 500 to 600lb bear.

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Storm-fueled mud submerges roads in California town hit by LA wildfires

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Residents in Sierra Madre begin cleanup effort after strongest storm of year sweeps through southern California

Residents of a southern California mountain community near the Eaton fire burn scar dug out of roads submerged in sludge on Friday after the strongest storm of the year swept through the area, unleashing debris flows and muddy messes in several neighborhoods recently torched by wildfires.

Water, debris and boulders rushed down the mountain in the city of Sierra Madre on Thursday night, trapping at least one car in the mud and damaging several home garages with mud and debris. Bulldozers on Friday were cleaning up the mud-covered streets in the city of 10,000 people.

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California insurance plan asks private insurers for $1bn after wildfires

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Private plans, such as State Farm, required to give to Fair plan so all residents have access to fire insurance

California’s home-insurance safety net does not have enough money to pay all of the claims from damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires and has asked private insurers to contribute $1bn toward those claims.

All private insurers operating in California are required to contribute to the Fair plan, a plan of last resort established so all Californians would have access to fire insurance. More than 450,000 California homeowners got their insurance through the Fair plan in 2024 – more than double the number in 2020. As of 4 February, the plan had received more than 4,700 claims from the Palisades and Eaton fires, almost half of which were for “total losses”.

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California allocates $50m to fight Trump administration and deportation efforts

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Governor signs laws assigning half for state’s justice department and half for legal groups defending immigrants

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, signed laws on Friday setting aside $50m to help the state protect its policies from challenges by the Trump administration and defend immigrants amid the president’s mass-deportation plans.

One of the laws allocates $25m for the state’s department of justice to fight legal battles against the federal government, and another sets aside $25m in part for legal groups to defend immigrants facing possible deportation. During his first presidency, Trump sparred with California over climate laws, water policy, immigrant rights and more, and the state filed or joined more than 100 legal actions against the administration. The same fights are re-emerging in the early days of Trump’s second term.

The headline on this article was amended on 8 February 2025 to clarify that California now has $50m both for legal battles against the federal government and for legal groups defending immigrants facing possible deportation, not solely for the latter.

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A$AP Rocky’s prosecutors rest case at his felony trial over two assault charges

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Five witnesses called in eight days, including accuser A$AP Relli, who was on stand for three day’s worth of testimony

Los Angeles county prosecutors rested their case on Thursday at the trial of rapper and fashion mogul A$AP Rocky, who is charged with firing a gun at a former friend on a Hollywood street in 2021.

They called five witnesses in eight days of testimony, including two police officers, a police detective and a firearms expert.

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State Farm seeks emergency 22% rate hike in California after LA wildfires

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State’s largest home insurer, which has paid customers over $1bn, claims fires put firm under increased financial strain

State Farm General, California’s largest home insurer, is seeking an emergency rate increase for homeowners following the Los Angeles wildfires last month. If approved, the hike would average a 22% increase for policyholders.

The insurance giant claims that the fires have put the company under increased financial strain. The company has already received at least 8,700 claims and paid more than $1bn to customers and expects to pay out “significantly more”, according to a press release.

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