‘One more embarrassment’: McCarthy debacle wearily received in California home town

Bakersfield, in California’s unfashionable Central Valley, has been thrown back into focus by the sorry saga in Congress

Kevin McCarthy’s home town – the hardscrabble city of Bakersfield, in California’s Central Valley – has experienced plenty of bruised feelings over the past week, but not necessarily because people have felt the pain of their congressman’s tortured path to the House speakership.

Many have bristled at being under a national spotlight during what even Fox News has described as a political clown show. Local Republicans appeared increasingly defensive as McCarthy fell short in vote after vote – before finally prevailing in the early hours of Saturday morning. Democrats, meanwhile, expressed growing concern that McCarthy had been taken captive by his party’s far-right wing and, especially, by apologists for the violent insurrection at the US Capitol two years ago.

Continue reading...

‘It never stops’: killings by US police reach record high in 2022

Law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people or about 100 people a month last year, making it the deadliest for police violence

US law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence since experts first started tracking the killings, a new data analysis reveals.

Police across the country killed an average of more than three people a day, or nearly 100 people every month last year according to Mapping Police Violence. The non-profit research group maintains a database of reported deaths at the hands of law enforcement, including people fatally shot, beaten, restrained and Tasered.

Continue reading...

Two dead as ‘bomb cyclone’ brings heavy winds and rain to California

Officials order evacuations in high-risk coastal area in latest in rapid series of ‘atmospheric rivers’ to hit state

It has been a deadly and destructive start to the year in California, as a series of severe storms slammed the state this week, toppling trees, submerging streets and sending water cascading into homes and businesses.

The latest storm hit hard on Thursday – a powerful “atmospheric river” that brought with it hurricane-force winds and torrents of rain. At least two deaths have been reported in connection with the latest storm, including a child whose home was hit by a falling tree in Sonoma county. By Thursday morning, more than 163,500 people were without power, with little reprieve in sight.

Continue reading...

Bruce’s Beach heirs to sell land back to Los Angeles county for $20m

California had returned land seized from Willa and Charles Bruce in 1920 to their heirs last year as part of its reparations policy

A southern California beachfront property that was taken from a Black couple through eminent domain a century ago and returned to their heirs last year will be sold back to Los Angeles county for nearly $20m, officials said on Tuesday.

The sale comes as the state of California continues to consider sweeping financial reparations for the government’s treatment of Black Americans, including government confiscation of property, housing discrimination, over-policing and health disparities.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Renner out of surgery after accident, but remains in critical condition

The Avengers star suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries in an accident while plowing snow and remains in intensive care

Jeremy Renner has undergone surgery after suffering blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries sustained in an accident on Sunday, and remains in a critical but stable condition, the actor’s publicist has confirmed.

The 51-year-old actor was seriously injured while driving a snow plow near his home in Reno, Nevada, on New Year’s Day, and was airlifted to hospital.

Continue reading...

Flood warnings in northern California after powerful New Year’s storm

San Francisco experiences second wettest day on record as one person found dead in submerged vehicle near Highway 99

Flood warnings and watches were in effect on Monday in parts of northern California in the aftermath of a powerful “atmospheric river” storm that drenched the state over New Year’s weekend.

A new weather system was predicted by afternoon or evening, but the National Weather Service said the rain would be modest until the arrival late on Tuesday of another strong atmospheric river, a long plume of Pacific Ocean moisture.

Continue reading...

Northern California flooded after powerful storm brings drenching rain

Sacramento area residents were warned of ‘imminent levee failure’ as snow in the Sierra Nevada made driving hazardous

Flash flood warnings were issued on Sunday in parts of northern California after a powerful storm brought drenching rain and heavy snowfall overnight, snarling traffic and closing highways as the state ushered in the new year.

Residents in the area of Wilton in Sacramento county were urged to seek higher ground by emergency officials amid the threat of “imminent levee failure” on a portion of the local Cosumnes River, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Continue reading...

Suspected Stockton serial killer charged with four additional deaths

Wesley Brownlee, arrested in October while allegedly ‘out hunting’ for another victim, now faces seven charges for slayings

A man suspected in northern California serial killings has been charged in four additional slayings this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.

The shootings terrorized the Central Valley city of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man clad in black who appeared to be “on a mission” as he hunted victims for ambush-style shootings. He was also tied to violence in Alameda county.

Continue reading...

‘Atmospheric river’ pummels California with heavy rain and snow

While rest of US digs out from arctic blast, the Golden State sees welcome showers to mitigate dry days in coming new year

A major storm known as an “atmospheric river” is pummeling California with heavy rain and high winds, continuing a streak of weather whiplash that has jolted the state from unseasonal heat to downpours in a matter of days.

The storm, spawned by a low pressure system off the Pacific north-west, delivered deluges across the San Francisco Bay Area as it made landfall on Monday night, prompting the National Weather Service to issue flood advisories and watches through large parts of central and northern California. The storm is forecast to soak the southern part of the state by Tuesday evening, although it will soften as it moves down the coast. Forecasters said California will experience unsettled weather through the week.

Continue reading...

Largest-ever US higher education strike ends after ‘landmark’ deal

Agreement hailed as a new national standard, boosting wages and working conditions for students employed at public universities

Academic workers in California have ended a nearly six-week strike, described as the largest ever to hit US higher education, after approving a “landmark” agreement for higher wages on Friday.

The strikes across the University of California (UC) system ground campus life to a halt, disrupting classes and exams as thousands formed picket lines and staged noisy protests to demand better pay.

Continue reading...

Movement grows to abolish US prison labor system that treats workers as ‘less than human’

Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people work in US prisons as part of their sentences, often without basic protections and for little to no pay

For more than two decades imprisoned in California, Samual Brown worked more than a dozen different jobs and was transferred between penitentiaries throughout the state – earning less than a dollar per hour. At the beginning of the pandemic, he worked as a healthcare facility worker tasked with disinfecting areas where inmates with Covid had been held. He wanted to quit his job – he had asthma and risked his life – but was told he “had no choice”. By the time Brown was released in December 2021, he had paid just $3,000 of the more than $37,000 in restitution he owed the state.

“That is tied directly into the same type of practices from slavery,” Brown, who is co-founder of the Anti-Violence Safety and Accountability Project, says. “That’s the same practice, the same energy, the same spirit that you see in this prison setting. A person can be on one plantation, and then they’ll be moved to another plantation, and you’ll never see the people who you were with ever again. They can separate you from your wife, separate you from your children, from your family. It’s the same way in the modern-day carceral setting.”

Continue reading...

California county passes law banning criminal background checks for housing, becoming first in US

Alameda county in the San Francisco Bay Area adopts measure amid worsening homelessness catastrophe

A California county has become the first in the nation to pass a law banning landlords from conducting criminal background checks on applicants, a significant move meant to curb housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated people.

The Alameda county board of supervisors in the San Francisco Bay Area voted Tuesday to adopt a Fair Chance housing ordinance, which would prohibit landlords in private and public housing from using criminal records when considering prospective tenants. While a few cities have passed similar measures, and at least two counties have adopted partial restrictions, Alameda is the first county in the US to broadly prohibit this practice, advocates say.

Continue reading...

Two dead after 6.4 magnitude California quake leaves 70,000 without power

Eleven people were reportedly injured and assessment of total number is ongoing, said officials

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of northern California early Tuesday, jolting people awake, damaging buildings and roads and leaving tens of thousands without power. Two fatalities have been linked to the quake “as a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following” the incident, the Humboldt county sheriff’s office reported Tuesday afternoon.

Centered just south-west of the town of Ferndale in Humboldt county, a small community near the coast about 213 miles (343km) north-west of San Francisco, the quake took place in area where tremors aren’t uncommon. But locals called it the largest in recent memory.

Continue reading...

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles trial

The downfall of the former movie magnate played out over a six-week trial that included testimony from Jennifer Siebel Newsom

A Los Angeles jury has found Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault, five years after dozens of women spoke out against the Hollywood producer and galvanized the #MeToo movement.

After more than nine days of deliberation, the jury convicted Weinstein of three counts of rape and sexual assault against one woman, a European model and actor who testified anonymously as “Jane Doe 1”, while remaining divided on three other charges of rape and sexual assault by two other accusers, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California’s governor. Weinstein was also acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a fourth woman.

Continue reading...

Reparations panel deliberates on compensation for Black Californians

Taskforce to consider suggestions, including $350,000 proposal for descendants of enslaved Black people, and eligibility requirement

After more than a year delving into history and studies to make its case for reparations to California descendants of enslaved Black people, a first-in-the-nation taskforce began deliberations on Wednesday to quantify how financial compensation might be calculated and what might be required to prove eligibility.

Conversations for how to determine payments are in the early stages, with taskforce members acknowledging they have more questions than answers. Economists hired by the taskforce are seeking guidance in five harms experienced by Black people: government taking of property, devaluation of Black-owned businesses, housing discrimination and homelessness, mass incarceration and over-policing, and health.

Continue reading...

Examination reveals P-22, LA’s celebrity mountain lion, was probably hit by a car

Wildlife experts assessed the big cat’s health and said he will not be released back into the wild, with euthanization also an option

The famous Hollywood-roaming mountain lion known as P-22 is drastically underweight and was probably struck and injured by a car, wildlife experts who conducted a health examination on the big cat said on Tuesday.

The male cougar, whose killing of a leashed dog has raised concerns about its behavior, probably will not be released back into the wild and could be sent to an animal sanctuary or euthanized, depending on its health, the California department of fish and wildlife said.

Continue reading...

‘Going through torture’: Megan Thee Stallion testifies against Tory Lanez

Rapper takes stand in case against Canadian-born musician, emotionally recounting night when she was shot

Megan Thee Stallion delivered emotional testimony on Tuesday in the trial of Tory Lanez, the fellow musician and former friend who allegedly shot her following a party in Los Angeles.

The Texas-born rapper, whose real name is Megan Pete, shared the most in-depth account yet about the moment that led to the shooting in 2020. She described how the attack left her with constant pain in her feet and said the reliving the incident in the public eye had been “torture”.

Continue reading...

US National Weather Services warns of ‘widespread’ winter storm hazards

More than 15 million people under winter advisory while several areas in midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms

More than 15 million people are under a winter advisory as of Tuesday, as several areas in the midwest and Great Plains face intense snowstorms, Axios reported.

Storm warnings are in effect across a dozen states, including parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota.

Continue reading...

Los Angeles official involved in racism scandal caught fighting activist on video

Kevin de León, who has resisted resigning after the debacle, was involved in an altercation in which he appears to push an organizer

Kevin de León, the embattled Los Angeles city council member involved in a racism scandal that threw city hall into upheaval, is facing criticism again after video footage captured him in a physical fight with an activist.

De León, who has resisted calls to resign, made his first in-person appearance at a council meeting in nearly two months on Friday. Hours later he was involved in an altercation at a holiday toy giveaway in which video appeared to show him shoving a local organizer.

Continue reading...