Missing hiker reported in California revealed as British actor Julian Sands

The 65-year-old, known for movies such as A Room with a View and The Killing Fields, went missing Friday near Mt Baldy

British actor Julian Sands has been reported missing after hiking in the San Gabriel mountains on Friday, according to the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department.

The 65-year-old actor, known for his roles in A Room with a View, The Killing Fields, and Naked Lunch, lives in North Hollywood.

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Hiker missing in California named as British actor Julian Sands

Actor, known for roles in Leaving Las Vegas and Warlock, was reported missing on Friday evening

A hiker reported as missing in southern California has been named as the British actor Julian Sands.

The 65-year-old was reported missing in the Baldy Bowl area of the San Gabriel mountains on Friday evening, with searches by local authorities continuing over the weekend.

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Shooting at Martin Luther King Day party leaves eight wounded in Florida

One person critically hurt after firing broke out at family event in park in Fort Pierce: ‘People were just running in all directions’

A shooting which erupted on a packed Martin Luther King Jr Day block party in Florida that left eight people wounded late on Monday was the 30th mass shooting in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Authorities said one person was critically hurt after the shooting during the event in Fort Pierce. Seven others were also shot and wounded, and at least four more hurt in the panic that followed.

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Mother and baby among six people killed in California shooting

Police searching for two suspects in what is believed to have been a targeted attack

Six people – including a 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby – were killed in a shooting early on Monday at a home in central California, and authorities are searching for at least two suspects, sheriff’s officials said.

Deputies responded around 3.30am to reports of multiple shots fired at the residence in unincorporated Goshen, just east of Visalia, the Tulare county sheriff’s office said.

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California storms: Biden declares major disaster as more flooding forecast

Death toll at 19 after prolonged spell of rain and snow caused by atmospheric rivers set to continue until Tuesday

Joe Biden has declared a major disaster in California following devastating winter storms leading to flooding and mudslides and the deaths of at least 19 people.

On Saturday, Biden ordered federal aid to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in areas affected by storms since late December.

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California storms: thousands without power as more wind, rain and snow hit

Storms are expected to follow into next week, with some dry weather predicted by Tuesday

Storm-battered California got more wind, rain and snow on Saturday, raising flooding concerns, causing power outages and making travel dangerous.

Bands of rain and wind started in the north and spread south, with more storms expected to follow into early next week, the National Weather Service said.

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Soaked California prepares for more flooding as thousands remain without power

Officials urge residents to remain on guard for further damage, with 6,000 under evacuation orders

With rain-soaked California expected to see several more rounds of stormy weather over the weekend and into next week, state and federal officials pleaded with residents on Friday to stay alert to the possibility of more flooding and damage.

A series of storms has walloped the state since late December, leaving at least 19 people dead. On Friday, 6,000 people were under evacuation orders and another 20,000 households were without power, said Nancy Ward, the director of the California governor’s office of emergency services.

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Dramatic spike in rain has helped counter California’s extreme drought, data reveals

Roughly 46% of state remains categorized in ‘severe drought’, a sharp shift from more than 71% just last week

A weeks-long onslaught of heavy rain has made a notable dent in California’s extreme drought, new data shows, even as the state braces for another round of punishing storms with no reprieve in sight until next week.

The storms have killed at least 18 people so far, with more fatalities likely to be confirmed in the coming days. The dramatic increase in precipitation has raised sunken reservoirs and boosted the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range, putting the state in a much better position to weather warm and dry days that probably lie ahead.

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Storm-ravaged California scrambles as fresh atmospheric river rolls in

Newest round of storms expected to produce torrential downpours and gale force winds along the northern coast

California is facing a new round of brutal storms that will bring torrential downpours and gale force winds in the north as the state scrambles to clean up and repair widespread damage amid a break in the weather.

The state has been ravaged by a relentless string of storms that have killed at least 17 people – a number the governor warned was likely to grow. The bout of extreme weather has closed highways, knocked out trees and infrastructure and cut power to thousands of people. More than half of California’s 58 counties have been declared disaster areas.

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‘Life-changing’: In-N-Out burger chain takes first eastward steps into Tennessee

The expansion of family owned fast food company, founded in 1948, has been met with great enthusiasm

In-N-Out Burger, the famous California fast food chain, is expanding eastward as far as Tennessee, a move Tennessee’s governor called “life-changing”.

The family-owned burger company will open an “eastern territory office” in Tennessee, as well as several Nashville-area restaurants, by 2026, according to state officials, and In-N-Out’s owner said further eastward expansion was in the works.

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‘Cruel and cold’: man faces backlash for dousing unhoused woman with water

Amid an escalating housing and homelessness crisis, San Francisco has seen increased attacks on unhoused people

San Francisco is once again reckoning with its treatment of unhoused people after a video of a business owner spraying a woman with water from a garden hose spread online.

Collier Gwin, the owner of Foster Gwin Gallery in downtown San Francisco, admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle that he blasted water on an unhoused woman sitting on the sidewalk in front of his business. The video, captured on Monday morning by the owner of a nearby bakery, shows Gwin spraying the woman, who was crying out in distress. In a calm voice, Gwin then tells her, “Just move,” before spraying her again.

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Death toll in California storms hits 17 and ‘likely to grow’, says state’s governor

Floods and mudslides forced thousands of people to evacuate as more than 100,000 homes and businesses left without power

At least 17 people have been killed in California as a relentless string of storms batter the state, turning rivers into gushing flood zones and forcing thousands of people to evacuate from towns with histories of deadly mudslides.

A catastrophic barrage of storms has caused destruction since late December, with the latest hitting in recent days and more storms on the horizon. Heavy rainfall and winds continued on Tuesday, putting entire communities under flood warnings and evacuation orders, knocking out power to tens of thousands and causing hillsides to collapse.

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‘It’s horrifying’: storm deaths of unhoused people highlight California crises

Fatalities call attention to the grave risks posed by extreme weather to those living outside in Sacramento

California’s devastating winter storms have killed at least two unhoused people, deaths that call attention to the grave risks extreme weather poses to more than 116,000 people living outdoors in the state.

Both deaths occurred in Sacramento, which endured winds of 60mph (96.5km/h) over the weekend and saw thousands of people lose power. Rebekah Rohde, 40, died after a falling tree crashed into her tent along the American River on Saturday. Steven Sorensen, 61, died on Sunday when a tree fell on his tent next to a light rail station.

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California faces ‘relentless parade’ of new storms with heavy rain

Evacuations ordered for communities in Montecito, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties as more rain is expected

A series of deadly and destructive storms continued to hammer California on Monday, as the drought-stricken state grapples with the sudden onslaught of a very wet January.

Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for California on Sunday, unlocking federal aid to support recovery as mud slides, engorged rivers and streams, and wind-strewn trees wreaked havoc on already-inundated infrastructure across the state. The California department of water resources warned that more than a dozen places were at high risk of flooding.

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‘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.

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‘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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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