Category Archives: California

LA mayor ‘terrified’ of tragedy as half-built skyscraper becomes stunt magnet

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Karen Bass fears ‘someone’s going to fall or be pushed’ from Oceanwide Plaza, used by graffiti artists and parachutists

An abandoned high-rise tower in downtown Los Angeles has become a magnet for graffiti artists and parachuting stunts, leaving city officials furious.

“This isn’t art. It’s a crime,” Los Angeles police chief Michael Moore warned on Monday, saying the police were remaining at the site of the half-built development “as the city mobilizes resources to remove the graffiti and fortify the location”.

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Nigerian bank CEO and family among six killed in California helicopter crash

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Access Bank CEO Herbert Wigwe, his wife and son die in crash, along with former group chairman of Nigeria’s stock exchange

The chief executive of Nigeria’s largest bank, his wife and his son were among six people killed in a Friday night helicopter crash in a remote part of the Mojave desert along the California-Nevade border, according to officials.

Access Bank CEO Herbert Wigwe, his wife, Doreen Chizoba, and son Chizi, died in the crash along with the former group chairman of Nigeria’s stock exchange, Abimola Ogunbanjo. Those identities were first released by the director general of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in a post on X.

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US hospital treated 441 patients with severe injuries from border wall last year

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California doctors say growing number of patients have ‘fractures all over their body’ after falls from wall ‘like a three-story building’

Doctors at the University of California, San Diego’s trauma center (UCSD) have treated 455 patients with serious injuries sustained while trying to cross the US-Mexico border in 2023, a marked increase from the year before.

Ninety-seven per cent of the injuries, or 441 of them, occurred when people fell off the wall on the US side, said Alexander Tenorio, a resident neurosurgeon at UCSD who treats brain and spinal cord injuries.

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Weather tracker: ‘Pineapple express’ atmospheric river deluges California

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Weather system brings heavy rainfall, strong winds and mudslides. Elsewhere, Nova Scotia declares state of emergency

During the first week of February two storms hit California in quick succession, both featuring intense precipitation thanks to the “pineapple express” atmospheric river.

Atmospheric rivers are long narrow channels of very moist air that flow through the atmosphere, transporting impressive amounts of water vapour that eventually fall as heavy rain or snow. The pineapple express is a famous recurring atmospheric river that forms near the Hawaiian Islands and flows northe-east to the Pacific coast of North America.

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Five US marines confirmed dead in helicopter crash in California mountains

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Names of troops not yet released after aircraft went down in stormy weather in mountains near San Diego

Five marines who disappeared in a helicopter crash in the mountains outside San Diego, California, were confirmed dead, the military said on Thursday morning.

The names of the marines were not immediately released. They were first reported missing on Tuesday.

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Missing marine helicopter with five onboard found near San Diego

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Aircraft located near Pine Valley but snowy conditions hamper rescue teams trying to access it

A Marine Corps helicopter that had been missing with five troops onboard as an historic storm drenched California was found on Wednesday morning in a mountainous area outside San Diego.

The aircraft was located just after 9am local time by civil authorities near the mountain community of Pine Valley, about a 45-mile (72km) drive from San Diego but rescue crews said snowy conditions were making access challenging on the ground.

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Rain to worsen in LA as hundreds of thousands remain without power in California – live

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Up to 9in of rain had already fallen in the area and more is expected; 400,000 homes and businesses are without power around California

California is grappling with another round of strong storms this week and the dangerous potential for flash flooding, landslides, and furious winds expected to come with them.

Much like last year, when record rainfall lashed the state, the storms are attributed to atmospheric rivers (ARs), systems that have long played a role in California’s precipitation levels – both for good and for bad.

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Three people dead from California storms as rain and floods wreak havoc

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Nearly 38 million people under flood alerts across state and into Arizona as officials warn dangers still lurk in the waters

A deadly, atmospheric-river fuelled storm caused chaos across California on Monday, battering the state with record amounts of rain, destructive mudslides, and violent winds that left at least three people dead from falling trees.

Nearly 38 million people are under flood alerts across the state and into Arizona, including about 10 million people in Los Angeles county. At least three people have died due to the storm, all struck by trees that toppled over in the fierce weather. But officials warned dangers still lurk in the waters that could continue to rise.

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‘Life-threatening’ storm system batters California, with flooding and high winds

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First-ever hurricane-force wind warning along coast, with millions of people under flood watches and power out for close to a million

An enormous atmospheric river-fueled storm unleashed rain and furious winds across California on Sunday, leaving destruction and hazards in its wake.

Howling winds tore down power lines and trees, and scattered debris in communities across the state, prompting officials to issue the first-ever hurricane-force wind warning along the coast. By late afternoon, streets in both northern and southern regions of California were left submerged, with far more rain on the way.

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LA police arrest two people in spate of graffiti across 30 floors of skyscraper

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Tagging stretches across a large portion of a $1bn unfinished project across from venue of Grammy awards on Sunday

Los Angeles police arrested two people this week in connection with a spate of graffiti on nearly 30 floors of an unoccupied and unfinished downtown skyscraper.

The tagging stretches across a large portion of a tower in the $1bn Oceanwide Plaza, a stalled mixed-use retail and residential project that has sat unfinished since 2019. The site is located just across from the Crypto.com Arena, where this year’s Grammy awards will be held on Sunday.

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‘I choose you!’: nearly 35,000 Pokémon cards stolen in California store heist

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Thieves broke into Tofu’s Trading card store in San Jose, but missed the special collection of cards to be released days later

The thieves entered a San Jose business under cover of the night to execute their heist. They broke in, with one crawling along the floor to avoid detection, and began searching in the dark.

Within minutes, they made off with the goods – more than 35,000 Pokémon cards.

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Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

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But federal judge in California says lawsuit aimed at stopping US military support for Israel is outside court’s jurisdiction

A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.

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Aircraft crashes on San Francisco Bay Area city street, killing pilot

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No one else on board single-engine plane that crashed at busy junction along golf course by Buchanan Field airport in Concord

The pilot of a single-engine plane was killed on Tuesday when the aircraft crashed on a city street near a small San Francisco Bay Area airport, authorities said.

The crash was reported at about 11am at a busy intersection along a golf course adjacent to Buchanan Field airport in Concord, officials said.

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Five charged with murder over fatal shootings of six men in Mojave desert

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Bodies were found at remote crossroads on 23 January in California desert in what investigators say was dispute over marijuana

Prosecutors filed murder charges Tuesday against five suspects in the fatal shootings of six men at a remote dirt crossroads in the southern California desert after what investigators said was a dispute over marijuana.

The suspects each face six felony counts of murder with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, the San Bernardino county district attorney’s office said in a statement. They were each also charged with six felony counts of robbery.

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California man who tried to blame twin brother for two rapes jailed for 140 years

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Kevin Konther, 58, convicted of rape of girl in 1995 and woman in 1998, confessed to crimes in secret recordings

A California man who attempted to blame his identical twin brother for rapes he committed in the 1990s has been sentenced to 140 years in prison.

Kevin Konther, 58, of Highland, California, was sentenced after being convicted of the rapes of a girl in 1995 and a woman in 1998, the Orange county district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Baby shark! Researchers may have captured first image of newborn great white

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California scientist and film-maker spot apparent pup – never before seen in the wild – in drone pictures

Researchers in California may have gotten the first ever look at a newborn great white shark, which they captured in drone images taken last summer.

The newborn animal has never before been spotted in the wild. But in July, the wildlife film-maker Carlos Gauna and Phillip Sternes, a biology doctoral student at the University of California, Riverside, glimpsed something unexpected in the waters near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast.

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Police make five arrests after six bodies are found in southern California desert

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Officials say suspects were arrested in the fatal shootings and believe killings were from a dispute over an illegal marijuana trade

Authorities say arrests have been made in the investigation surrounding six bodies found last week at a remote dirt crossroads in the southern California desert.

Five suspects have been arrested in the fatal shootings, according to the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department. Officials say they think the killings stemmed from a dispute over an illicit marijuana trade.

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‘Existential’ avian flu outbreak forces US egg farmers to kill entire flocks

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Highly contagious virus has particularly ravaged California’s Sonoma county, know as the ‘Egg Basket of the World’

Last month, Mike Weber got the news every poultry farmer fears: his chickens tested positive for avian flu.

Following government rules, Weber’s company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens – 550,000 birds – to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma county north of San Francisco.

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Woman trapped overnight in freezing cold as Tahoe gondola grinds to a halt

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Monica Laso survives ordeal on Heavenly gondola in California ski resort, where temperatures fell to 23F (-5C)

A snowboarder visiting a California resort survived freezing temperatures after accidentally getting stuck in a gondola overnight.

Monica Laso’s story, as she told it to NBC affiliate KCRA, vividly illustrated how suddenly and unexpectedly leisure trips can turn into near-death experiences.

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Jury to decide fate of LA socialite for fatally striking two kids with her car

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Prosecutors allege Rebecca Grossman, 60, was speeding when she hit brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jakob Iskander, eight

More than three years ago, a Los Angeles socialite allegedly fatally struck two young boys as they were crossing the street. Now a jury will decide whether Rebecca Grossman is guilty of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving.

This week jurors heard opening statements in the long-awaited trial of Grossman for the deaths of brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, eight.

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