Category Archives: California

California governor pardons formerly incarcerated firefighters

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Bounchan Keola and Kao Saelee were facing deportation to Laos after spending decades in prison for teenage convictions

California’s governor has issued pardons to two formerly incarcerated firefighters who had been threatened with deportation to Laos after spending most of their lives in the US.

Gavin Newsom on Friday announced the pardons for Bounchan Keola, 39, and Kao Saelee, 41, who were both sent to US immigration authorities last year after spending decades in prison for teenage convictions and had battled wildfires as incarcerated firefighters.

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San Jose gunman stockpiled weapons and 22,000 rounds of ammunition

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Officials say the guns Samuel James Cassidy used to kill nine of his coworkers at a California rail yard appear to be legal

A gunman who killed nine of his co-workers at a rail yard in San Jose, California, had stockpiled weapons and ammunition at his home, including 12 guns and 22,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said on Friday.

Investigators found the cache of weapons at the home of Samuel James Cassidy, the Santa Clara county sheriff’s office said in a news release. They also turned up multiple cans of gasoline and suspected molotov cocktails. Authorities have said that Cassidy set his house on fire using a timer or slow-burn device to coincide with his attack.

The guns he used to open fire on his co-workers appear to be legal, officials said. They have not said how he obtained them.

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‘What is going on?’: California governor reacts after nine people killed in shooting – video

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The California governor, Gavin Newsom, has spoken emotionally about the latest US mass killing, after an employee gunned down nine people at a San Jose rail yard and then killed himself as law enforcement arrived.

'There’s a numbness I imagine some of us are feeling about this. Because there’s a sameness to this,” he said. “It begs the damn question of what the hell is going on in the United States of America?'

It was the 15th mass killing in the nation this year, all of them shootings that have claimed at least four lives each for a total of 86 deaths, according to a database compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University

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San Jose shooting: multiple people dead, police say

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Police say ‘multiple injuries and multiple fatalities’ and say suspect among dead after shooting at railyard in California city

Police reported multiple fatalities and injuries after gunfire erupted early on Wednesday morning at a light rail maintenance yard in San Jose, California.

A Santa Clara county sheriff’s spokesman, Deputy Russell Davis, said he could not specify the number of fatalities and injuries, but said that the suspect was confirmed to be among the dead.

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How a ranger stumbled upon one of the largest fossil finds in California history

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While on a routine patrol, Greg Francek came across bone fragments from prehistoric animals that existed millions of years before humans

Imagine a California with volcanoes erupting to the east and Los Angeles buried under the Pacific Ocean. Giant camels, rhinoceros and four-tusked miniature elephants graze on a lush landscape, only to be preyed upon by bone-crushing dogs.

This is the prehistoric scene conjured up by a trove of new fossils discovered in California’s Sierra foothills – a hugely significant find, and one of the largest in the state’s history.

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Ordered online, assembled at home: the deadly toll of California’s ‘ghost guns’

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Loopholes surrounding these weapons make them untraceable – and a hot commodity in many vulnerable communities

When Brian Muhammad, a program manager at a gun violence prevention group in California, asked a 16-year-old boy in 2018 how young people were getting guns, he assumed the answer would be Nevada, the neighboring state with looser gun laws.

“Who would waste time going to Nevada when you can just get them in the mail and put it together?” the Stockton teen nonchalantly replied.

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Free solo … with a permit: will Yosemite’s new rules put a damper on climbing culture?

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The national park is instituting a permitting system for overnight rock climbers. Many see it as inevitable as the sport gets more popular

For years, rock climbers Graham Ottley and Keith Bouma-Gregson dreamed of scaling the 2,800ft (853 meters) pillar of granite known as the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite national park.

In early May the pair finally got their chance, making a climb that required spending two windy nights camped on tiny ledges with harnesses holding them to the rocks. But Ottley and Bouma-Gregson realize that soon it may not be as easy to enjoy Yosemite’s anything-goes climbing culture.

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Tesla crash driver posted videos of himself riding without hands on wheel

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  • Steven Hendrickson, 35, killed earlier this month in fatal crash
  • Authorities say car may have been operating in autopilot mode

The driver of a Tesla car in a fatal crash that California highway authorities said may have been operating on autopilot posted social media videos of himself riding in the vehicle without his hands on the wheel or foot on the pedal.

The 5 May crash in Fontana, a city 50 miles east of Los Angeles, is also under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It is the 29th case involving a Tesla the federal agency has investigated.

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California declares drought emergency across vast swath of state

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Majority of counties now under emergency declaration as California faces extensive dry spell and dwindling water supply

California has expanded a drought emergency declaration to a large swath of the nation’s most populated state amid “acute water supply shortages” in northern and central parts of California.

The declaration, expanded by Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, now includes 41 of 58 counties, covering 30% of California’s nearly 40 million people. The US drought monitor shows most of the state and the American west is in extensive drought just a few years after California emerged from a punishing multiyear dry spell.

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‘They’re chilling’: endangered condors take up residence outside California woman’s home

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More than 15 rare birds, whose population is at about 160 in the state, showed up at Cinda Mickol’s home – and they’ve made a mess

Giant California condors are rare – but not at Cinda Mickols’ home.

More than 15 condors, an endangered bird whose population hovers at around 160 in the state and under 500 in the US, have recently taken a liking to Mickol’s house in Tehachapi – and they’ve made quite a mess.

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Three dead and dozens injured after boat capsizes near San Diego

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  • Officials believe boat was being used to bring migrants into US
  • Commercial boat reported vessel overturning on rocks

The US coast guard has ended its search for survivors after a boat capsized off the coast of San Diego, leaving three people dead and dozens injured.

Officials believe the boat, which had at least 30 people onboard, was being used to smuggle migrants into the US and the man who was captaining the vessel has been taken into custody.

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US beekeepers sue over imports of Asian fake honey

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Commercial beekeepers in the US say counterfeit honey from Asia is forcing down prices and pushing them to financial collapse

Imports of cheap, fake honey from Asia are pushing American beekeepers to financial collapse, according to a lawsuit.

Thousands of commercial beekeepers in the US have taken legal action against the country’s largest honey importers and packers for allegedly flooding the market with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of counterfeit honey.

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California drought forces 15m salmon to take unusual route to Pacific: by road

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State officials will truck the young fish to the ocean, with the waterways they use to travel downstream historically low

California officials will truck more than 15 million young salmon raised at fish hatcheries in the state’s Central Valley agricultural region to the Pacific Ocean because projected river conditions show that the waterways the fish use to travel downstream will be historically low and warm due to increasing drought.

Officials announced the huge trucking operation on Wednesday, saying the effort is aimed at ensuring “the highest level of survival for the young salmon on their hazardous journey to the Pacific Ocean”.

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Britney Spears to address LA court about father’s control of her career

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Singer rarely takes part in hearings but has asked to speak directly to court, lawyer says

Britney Spears will personally address the Los Angeles court dealing with her long-running conservatorship in June, a judge agreed on Tuesday.

Spears, 39, has been under a conservatorship since 2008 but rarely takes part in hearings. Her lawyer said on Tuesday that she had asked to speak to the court directly, but he did not say what matters she wished to raise.

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Platinum pop-punks the Offspring: ‘We’re outcasts among outcasts’

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They scored a UK No 1 single and the biggest-selling independent album ever. Thirty-seven years into their career, the California band ponder middle-aged sex – and being denied respect

“It’s very fashionable now to say, ‘When we were young, we didn’t fit in,’” says Dexter Holland, frontman for multi-platinum punk-rockers the Offspring, Zooming from the band’s plush Orange County recording studio. “But it really was true for us in high school, where everything was about looks, athleticism and popularity. I mean, look at us!”

Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman, guitarist and Holland’s long-standing foil, leans in and taps his milk bottle-lensed specs. “And you should have seen me back when I had braces and headgear,” he grins.

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Marine scientists ‘alarmed’ after four gray whales found dead in San Francisco Bay

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Deaths discovered over a course of nine days are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’ for the species, says expert

Four dead gray whales have washed ashore on San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days, with experts saying on Friday one had been struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three had died.

“It’s alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species,” says Dr Padraig Duignan, the director of pathology at the Marine Mammal Center.

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Tiger Woods driving at 87mph in 45mph zone at time of car crash, police say

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  • Police reveal details of crash that left golfer seriously injured
  • Officials have said drugs and alcohol not a factor in accident

Tiger Woods was driving at speeds up to 87mph (140km/h) in a 45mph zone when he was involved in a serious car crash earlier this year, Los Angeles police revealed during a press conference on Wednesday.

Los Angeles county sheriff Alex Villanueva said the speed was “unsafe for the road conditions” and Woods did not brake in the run-up to the collision, perhaps because he pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal in a state of panic. Villanueva said Woods will not receive a citation over the crash and blamed the incident of Woods’s excessive speed and loss of control of the vehicle.

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California scrambles as maskless crowds flood vacation hotspots

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Tens of thousands flood Santa Monica Pier as authorities send mixed messages about coronavirus safety

Authorities across southern California are scrambling to contain large holiday crowds on beaches, boardwalks, and piers this weekend, anxious about a possible new surge in Covid-19 cases.

But they face a restive public eager to party in the sun after more than a year of lockdowns, and appear to have few tools at their disposal to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing.

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California shooting: four killed, including child, in office building in Orange

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Police arrived as shots were being fired; suspect taken to hospital after being shot by officers

Four people, including a child, have been killed and a fifth person injured in a shooting at a southern California office building, with the suspected shooter wounded by police.

It happened at around 5.30pm on Wednesday at a two-storey office building in Orange, south of Los Angeles.

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