Samuel Woodward, 27, sentenced to life without parole over stabbing of Blaze Bernstein, who was gay and Jewish
A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate was sentenced Friday to life without parole in prison.
Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced in a southern California courtroom at the end of an all-day hearing for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago.
Continue reading...Palm Springs approves settlement for displaced Black and Latino families after decades-long fight for compensation
The Palm Springs city council on Thursday unanimously approved a $5.9m reparations settlement with former residents of a largely Black neighborhood that was leveled in the 1960s for commercial development.
The city council was also set to approve another $21m for housing and small business support aimed at the former residents and their descendants.
Continue reading...General Motors unit to pay $500,000 fine after failing to disclose key details of 2023 San Francisco crash to NHTSA
General Motors’ self-driving car unit, Cruise, admitted on Thursday to submitting a false report to influence a federal investigation and will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, the justice department said.
The department said Cruise failed to disclose key details of an October 2023 crash to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in which one of its robotaxis in San Francisco struck a pedestrian after she was hit by another vehicle and dragged her 20ft (6.1 meters).
Continue reading...Details of emerge in sworn depositions by employees of Israeli company as part of lawsuit brought by WhatsApp
Legal documents released in ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed for the first time that the Israeli cyberweapons maker – and not its government customers – is the party that “installs and extracts” information from mobile phones targeted by the company’s hacking software.
The new details were contained in sworn depositions from NSO Group employees, portions of which were published for the first time on Thursday.
Continue reading...Opponents say closing Great Highway to cars will increase traffic as supporters argue it will mitigate coastal erosion
Californians have voted to close part of a nearly century-old highway in San Francisco to cars, transforming a two-mile section into a park for pedestrians and cyclists.
On election day, city residents voted to approve Proposition K, extending the ban on vehicles on a portion of the Upper Great Highway along the coastline. The measure has sparked intense debate over whether cars should have regular access to the area.
Continue reading...Ten people have been injured so far by the Mountain fire, which was 17% contained by Saturday morning
As firefighting crews continued to battle the Mountain fire on Saturday, some residents were allowed to return to areas destroyed by the blaze to sift through the destruction to their homes.
As of 7am Pacific time on Saturday, the fire had been 17% contained, according to Cal Fire, the state’s wildfire-fighting agency.
Continue reading...Wealthy Democratic outsider unseats incumbent mayor London Breed in expensive race
After years of negative headlines and post-pandemic economic struggle, San Francisco has picked a wealthy Democratic outsider with no government experience to serve as the city’s new mayor.
Daniel Lurie, 47, is one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss jeans company fortune, and previously spent 15 years as the executive of a San Francisco non-profit he founded. He defeated several Democratic challengers, including the current mayor, London Breed, in an election that was expected to break local campaign spending records.
Continue reading...Mountain fire in Ventura county still at 0% containment, with footage showing smoldering structures
A wind-driven wildfire roared through rural and residential communities north-west of Los Angeles, charring more than 19,600 acres and leveling scores of homes.
The Mountain fire in Ventura county, California, continued to burn on Thursday morning, as footage showed dozens of structures turned to smoldering ruins now lining the streets where neighborhoods once stood.
Continue reading...Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to get back control of the lower chamber – here’s what to keep an eye on
Much attention has been paid to the historic race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but the results of down-ballot elections will determine whether the new president will actually be able to implement a legislative agenda next year.
With Republicans defending a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to wrest back control of the lower chamber, and both parties are going all out to win.
Continue reading...‘More and more divided’ Shasta is grappling with baseless conspiracy theories of voter fraud and election denialism
Residents of one of California’s most conservative counties are bracing for a contentious election, as the community grapples with a thriving election denialism movement that has amplified conspiracy theories about voter fraud and made life increasingly difficult for election workers.
In recent weeks, some residents of Shasta county, home to 180,000 people in the state’s far north, have urged the county not to certify the election results while one official warned that if Donald Trump is “cheated” out of the election, there would be “a price” to pay.
Continue reading...University of California, Berkeley, research shows people are committed to protecting democratic institutions despite differences
You know that uncle whose political takes threaten to turn family gatherings into food fights? Don’t decline his Thanksgiving invitation just yet. When it comes to support for democracy, left and right in America are much closer than you might think.
As a historic US election approaches, both sides see each other as working to upend democracy. But it’s our assumptions about our political opponents – rather than their actual views – that drive polarization, according to new research. And if Democrats want to prove to voters on the fence that they’re acting in good faith, they might want to consider a surprising “grand gesture”.
Continue reading...Concerned students press for their high schools – some with $1bn endowments – to reinvest in clean energy
A high school in California has decided not to invest in coal, oil or gas, instead pledging to put money into clean energy. It’s the latest win in a new fossil fuel divestment campus campaign launched by high schoolers across 11 countries that is gaining support in the US.
The Nueva School, an elite private school outside San Francisco, pledged in spring 2024 to invest a portion of its $55m endowment in renewable power. The commitment followed months of pressure from students.
Continue reading...Plaintiffs accuse America Pac of several violations during its operation to support Orange county’s Michelle Steel
Elon Musk’s troubled canvassing operation on behalf of Donald Trump and the Republican party is now facing a lawsuit in southern California filed by two women who say they were cheated out of wages and expenses as they knocked on doors for an embattled Republican congresswoman.
The suit accuses Musk’s America PAC, which has poured more than $100m into this year’s election campaign, of “willful violations of the California labor code” by paying the plaintiffs less than it promised and refusing to make up the difference.
Continue reading...Residents told to flee as firefighters battle blaze, with two homes burned and several others damaged
A fast-moving fire fed by strong winds burned two homes on Friday and damaged several others in a hillside neighborhood in the city of Oakland, where roughly 500 people were ordered to evacuate, officials said.
Damon Covington, the city’s fire chief, said that at about 1.30pm, calls had come in reporting a fire in front of a home in the Oakland hills. Crews arrived as the inferno quickly grew with winds ranging from calm breezes to 40mph (64km/h) gusts during red-flag conditions.
Continue reading...Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher, retained his title, though he fell short of the world record he set last year
A Minnesota horticulture teacher remained the reigning champion on Monday of an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in northern California, where his massive gourds have won the top prize four years in a row.
Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, beat his closest competitor by 6lbs (2.7kgs) to clinch the victory at the 51st World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.
Continue reading...Snake appears in top of fifth inning of Dodger v New York Mets game before being wrapped in towel and removed
A snake slithered through the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dugout during game two of the National League Championship Series on Monday.
The reptile appeared in the top of the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 7-3 loss to the New York Mets. It wasn’t big enough to put a scare into anyone.
Continue reading...Democrats condemn ex-president for saying armed forces should turn against ‘enemy within’ when voters go to polls
Donald Trump has provoked an angry backlash from Democrats after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month’s presidential election.
In comments that added further fuel to fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he recaptures the White House, the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents that he called “the enemy within” when the election takes place on 5 November.
Continue reading...Former administration officials say Trump deliberately denied funds to states he deemed politically hostile
Donald Trump deliberately withheld disaster aid to states he deemed politically hostile to him as US president and will do so again unimpeded if he returns to the White House, several former Trump administration officials have warned.
As Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton have ravaged much of the south-eastern US in the past two weeks, Trump has sought to pin blame upon Joe Biden’s administration for a ponderous response to the disasters, even suggesting that this was deliberate due to the number of Republican voters affected by the storms.
Continue reading...Shasta county battles rising homelessness and high suicide rates, but its political agenda is focused on remaking the voting system – can the damage be undone?
This is the second of three stories on the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election in Shasta county, a region of 180,000 people in northern California that has emerged as a center of the election denial movement and hotbed for far-right politics. Read the first one here.
Tim Garman is worried about Shasta county. His community has been in the midst of a dizzying lurch to the far right, gaining national attention for its rowdy and radical politics and full-throated embrace of election conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...News comes after Iron Gate dam was removed to let river near California-Oregon border return to natural flow
For the first time in more than a century, salmon are swimming freely along the Klamath River and its tributaries, just days after the largest dam removal project in US history was completed.
Researchers determined that Chinook salmon began migrating on 3 October into previously inaccessible habitat above the site of the former Iron Gate dam, one of four towering dams near the California-Oregon border that were demolished as part of a national movement to let rivers return to their natural flow and to restore ecosystems for fish and other wildlife.
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