Severe thunderstorm warning for parts of Vermont, New York, Vermont and Ohio Valley – live

Latest storm warning comes just days after areas of Vermont and New York were hit with flash flooding, raising concerns over more damage

Meterologist Ben Frechette from NBC5 reported that a tornado risk is going up slightly in north-eastern NewYork state:

As some parts of the US are sweltering, Vermont was bracing for more rain on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Hollywood actors announce strike in first joint action with writers in over 60 years

Simultaneous strikes by WGA and Sag-Aftra are expected to halt the majority of Hollywood’s film and TV production

The union representing Hollywood actors formally announced a strike on Thursday, expanding the standoff between Hollywood workers and studio executives over wages, AI technology and how to divide the profits of the new digital streaming era.

The strike by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra) marks the first time in 63 years Hollywood writers and actors are striking simultaneously.

Continue reading...

LA sheriff’s office under scrutiny after deputy punches mother holding baby

Officer is seen hitting woman twice in face as she holds her baby in video released by LA county sheriff Robert Luna

For the second time in a week, the Los Angeles sheriff’s department is facing scrutiny over a brutal force incident, this time after a deputy was caught on camera punching a mother twice in the face as she held her newborn baby.

The LA county sheriff, Robert Luna, on Wednesday released footage of the July 2022 incident in Palmdale, north-east of the city of Los Angeles.

Continue reading...

An ‘aggressive’ sea otter is snatching surfers’ boards. Experts are puzzled

There is no clear explanation for the sea mammal’s behavior, say authorities, who has been seen riding and gnawing surfboards

A California otter is making headlines for her unique, and worrying, interactions with surfers.

In recent weeks, Mark Woodward, a photographer who goes by Native Santa Cruz on Twitter and Instagram has been sharing photos and videos of southern sea otters riding on surfboards they’ve commandeered. Authorities are particularly concerned about one sea otter, known as 841, who was involved in multiple incidents and can be seen in a video relentlessly gnawing on a board that the aquatic mammal scared a rider off of.

Continue reading...

Ex-Manson follower Leslie Van Houten released from prison after 53 years

Van Houten, now 73, is out on parole after her conviction for participating in the 1969 LaBianca murders at age 19

Leslie Van Houten, who was sentenced to life for participating in the infamous murders by the Charles Manson cult when she was 19, walked free from a California prison on Tuesday after 53 years behind bars.

Van Houten, now 73, was convicted for helping Manson’s followers carry out the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.

Continue reading...

Geological mystery in California as homes slowly slide into canyon

Cause of landslide that destroyed a dozen homes remains unclear as officials say nothing can be done to stop descent

Three days after a landslide destroyed a dozen hillside homes in southern California, the cause of the disaster is still unclear, even as the homes continue their slow descent into a canyon.

Sixteen people have been displaced since the land between the homes began shifting and sliding over the weekend.

Continue reading...

Bottoms up: pilot escapes with minor injuries after plane plunges into hangar

A Cessna 172 nosedived into a roof with its tail sticking straight up after a landing and takeoff practice went wrong

A pilot escaped with only minor injuries after a single-engine plane nose dived into the roof of a hangar Monday at a southern California airport, authorities said.

The crash happened around 2.30pm while the pilot of the Cessna 172 was “practicing landings and takeoffs” at Long Beach airport, south of Los Angeles, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Missing California teen found inside Marine Corps barracks in San Diego

The 14-year-old’s grandmother had reported the girl’s absence and authorities said a marine had been taken briefly into custody

Two weeks after a 14-year-old girl’s grandmother reported that she had run away in early June, the teenager was found in an unusual location: inside the barracks at a California Marine Corps base north of San Diego.

Federal law enforcement officials said Monday that they are investigating and had taken a marine with the combat logistics battalion 5, 1st marine logistics group into custody briefly for questioning. He has since been released to his command while the investigation continues, said Marine Capt Charles Palmer of the 1st marine logistics group at Camp Pendleton, about 40 miles (65km) north of San Diego.

Continue reading...

Six victims who died in California plane crash identified

The Cessna C550 crashed on approach during its second attempt to land at French Valley airport, where visibility was limited

Authorities have identified the six California residents who died on Saturday when the small plane they were traveling in crashed after after taking off in Las Vegas.

A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, Mina Kaji, told the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, that the Cessna C550 business jet took off from Harry Reid international airport at about 3.15am on Saturday. The plane crashed about an hour later at French Valley airport in Murrieta, California, about 80 miles (130km) south-east of Los Angeles. All those onboard were killed.

Continue reading...

California governor says he won’t contest parole ruling of Manson follower Leslie Van Houten

The Charles Manson follower could be free in about two weeks, after spending more than 50 years in prison for two murders

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten could be freed in about two weeks after California governor Gavin Newsom announced he will not ask the state supreme court to reverse her parole. The move paves the way for Van Houten’s release after spending more than 50 years in a southern California prison for two murders in 1969.

The governor’s office said an appeal against a parole ruling by a California appeals court was unlikely – the court only accepts reviews in about 3% of cases petitioned – to succeed and that Newsom was disappointed. The governor had previously rejected parole for Van Houten but on 30 May an appellate court overturned that decision.

Continue reading...

Six people killed after plane crashes into field in California

Plane departed from Las Vegas before crashing in Murrieta in Riverside county on Saturday morning

Six people died after a plane crashed over a southern California field on Saturday morning before bursting into flames.

The plane was engulfed in fire along with about one acre of vegetation when deputies arrived. The plane crashed near an airport in the city of Murrieta, California, in south-west Riverside county, about 85 miles (136.79 km) south of Los Angeles.

Continue reading...

Kanye West sued by teacher fired from his California private school

Former employee Isaiah Meadows of Yeezy Christian Academy says he was fired in retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions

Kanye West is facing legal action after a former employee of his private school in California alleged that he was fired after reporting unsafe conditions in the school.

Ye, as the rapper now goes by, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by former employee Isaiah Meadows of the Yeezy Christian Academy, a private Christian school started by Ye, according to the lawsuit shared with the Guardian.

Continue reading...

‘One hell of a mess’: volunteers clean up three tons of trash from Lake Tahoe

Cleanup effort after Fourth of July was ‘one of the worst’ in years, says founder of group behind trash collecting

A team of volunteers that included scuba divers, kayakers and snorkelers has collected more than three tons of trash from Lake Tahoe left behind by Fourth of July revelers.

Colin West, founder and CEO of Clean up the Lake, the group behind the cleanup effort, said the mess was “one of the worst” he’d seen in his years of trash collecting.

Continue reading...

Yosemite hiker missing after being swept away by fast-moving creek

Hayden Klemenok, 24, went missing while backpacking with group at Upper Chilnualna Falls, National Park Service says

A hiker has been missing in Yosemite national park since the holiday weekend after being swept away by a cold and fast-flowing creek as California’s epic winter snowpack melts.

Hayden T Klemenok vanished while backpacking with a group at Upper Chilnualna Falls on Sunday, the National Park Service said in a statement.

Continue reading...

California man hid mother’s death for more than 30 years to collect benefits

Donald Felix Zampach collected over $830,000 in his mother’s social security and military retirement payments

A California man has pleaded guilty to hiding his mother’s death for more than three decades while he collected her social security and military retirement payments, a scheme the US attorney said is believed to be the longest-running and largest fraud of its kind in the district.

Donald Felix Zampach of Poway, about 20 miles north of San Diego, collected over $830,000 of public funds and nearly $30,000 in fraudulently opened credit cards over the course of three decades, US attorney Randy Grossman said last week.

Continue reading...

Thousands of hotel workers in LA area begin strike for better pay and benefits

As the tourist season is taking off, workers walked off the job at more than 60 hotels for higher pay and better benefits

Thousands of hotel workers in southern California walked off the job on Sunday, as the Fourth of July extended holiday weekend begins, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what their union is calling the largest strike in its history.

Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist season is ramping up.

Continue reading...

US ‘mom influencer’ guilty of falsely accusing Latino couple of trying to kidnap her children

Kathleen Sorensen, of California, sentenced to three months in prison for knowingly making false report of crime

A white California woman who styled herself on social media as a “mom influencer” has been ordered to spend three months in prison for falsely accusing a Latino couple of attempting to kidnap her children.

State jurors in Sonoma county found 30-year-old Kathleen “Katie” Sorensen guilty in April of knowingly making a false report of a crime in a case that involved her publishing a December 2020 social media post that asserted a man and a woman had tried to steal her two children from her in the parking lot of a Michaels craft store about 40 miles outside San Francisco.

Continue reading...

Minimum hourly wage in swanky West Hollywood is the highest in the US

Business owners are concerned about growing labor costs they say could force them into financial hardship

The swanky, celebrity-studded city of West Hollywood officially has the highest minimum wage of any US city after pay zoomed to $19.08 an hour Saturday.

Workers in West Hollywood welcomed the increase amid rising rent, gas and food prices, although employers grumbled about growing labor costs that they say could drive them out of business.

Continue reading...

Warm temperatures return to California after cool spring bringing wildfire risk

Weather probably milder than previous summers but wet winter spurred growth in grasses and vegetation that is ‘ready to burn’

It’s been a slow start to the summer in California, where an extremely wet winter and unseasonably cool spring have left the landscapes lush. But a timely spike in temperatures is forecast for the holiday weekend, providing both ideal weather for revelry and the return of high risks.

State officials have issued strong warnings to residents and visitors alike: California has been spared a ferocious fire so far this year – but the dangers still loom large.

Continue reading...

California’s first-in-nation reparations taskforce releases final report

The 1,100-page document details examples of discrimination and recommends how to address the harms of chattel slavery

California’s first-in-the-nation reparations taskforce released its final report with recommendations for how the state should atone for its history of racial violence and discrimination against Black residents on Thursday.

This document, which could serve as a national model for how governments can attempt to right the wrongs of the past, marks the end of a nearly three-year effort that began in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing reckoning around systemic racism and anti-Blackness in the US.

Continue reading...