Category Archives: California

Families confirm five people died in blast at California fireworks warehouse

Posted on by

Remains of two victims of seven people who went missing in the explosion are yet to be recovered

Family members are still searching for answers following last week’s explosion at a fireworks warehouse in northern California. Authorities confirmed on Sunday that the remains of the seven people missing in the blast have been recovered.

Family and community members have confirmed five of the victims as Jesus Ramos, Jhony Ramos, Joel “Junior” Melendez, Angel Voller and Carlos Rodriguez. Two victims are still unidentified.

Continue reading...

Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a cartel henchman, Mexican prosecutors claim

Posted on by

Prosecutors say Chávez treated gang rivals ‘like a punchbag’ after Ice arrested the former world champion in California

The Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a henchman for the Sinaloa drugs cartel and used his skills to pummel rival gang members “like a punchbag” before his recent arrest in the US, prosecutors in Mexico have alleged.

Chávez, 39, son of legendary world boxing champion Julio César Chávez Sr and himself a former middleweight titleholder, was arrested in California on Tuesday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, who cited cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime.

Continue reading...

‘I want my vote back’: Trump-voting family stunned after Canadian mother detained over immigration status

Posted on by

Family of Cynthia Olivera reconsiders support for president after Ice detained her at green card interview

The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants say they are feeling betrayed after federal agents recently detained the woman in California while she interviewed for permanent US residency – and began working to expel her from the country.

“We feel totally blindsided,” Cynthia Olivera’s husband – US citizen and self-identified Trump voter Francisco Olivera – told the California news station KGTV. “I want my vote back.”

Continue reading...

Michael Madsen, star of Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Donnie Brasco, dies aged 67

Posted on by

The actor, best known for his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, was found unresponsive in Los Angeles

The actor Michael Madsen has died aged 67 at his home in Malibu, according to authorities and his representatives. No foul play is suspected, the sheriff’s department confirmed, after deputies responded to the Los Angeles county home following a call to the emergency services on Thursday morning.

He was pronounced dead at 8.25am. In an email, Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, confirmed his client had died from cardiac arrest.

Continue reading...

Ice raids leave crops unharvested at California farms: ‘We need the labor’

Posted on by

Trump’s immigration crackdown has made many immigrant farmworkers scared to go to work

Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura county, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the US illegally.

Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, have frightened off workers.

Continue reading...

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and son Justin accused of rape in new US lawsuit

Posted on by

Suit filed in Los Angeles court accuses mogul, son and two other men of ‘brutal gang-rape’ in 2017

As closing arguments got under way in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs this week, the music mogul and his son Justin Combs were hit with a new lawsuit, accusing them of a “brutal gang-rape” in 2017.

In the suit filed in a Los Angeles court on Monday, a woman alleges that Justin Combs used his father’s celebrity status to “lure [the] plaintiff, a young female, from Louisiana to Los Angeles where she was literally held prisoner for a weekend and repeatedly raped” by the pair and two other masked men, according to the complaint.

Continue reading...

California legislature acts to keep film and TV production at home

Posted on by

Legislation will more than double current tax incentives under larger bill slated to be signed by Gavin Newsom

Hollywood’s home state of California will more than double annual tax incentives for film and television production to $750m under a measure passed by the Democratic-led legislature on Friday.

The increase from the current $330m was approved as part of a broader tax bill that is expected to be signed into law by California’s governor, Gavin Newsom.

Continue reading...

Home owned by Brad Pitt broken into in Los Angeles

Posted on by

LA police say suspects broke in through the front window, ransacked the home and fled with property

Police are investigating a break-in at a home reportedly owned by Brad Pitt, who has been on a globe-spanning promo tour for his new movie, F1, after three people allegedly “ransacked” the property.

The Los Angeles police department confirmed they responded to a break-in Wednesday night at a house on the 2300 block of North Edgemont Street in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Continue reading...

California officials say seventh person found dead after Lake Tahoe boat capsizes

Posted on by

Fast-moving weekend thunderstorm caused high winds and swells as authorities say one person still missing

The El Dorado county sheriff’s office confirmed Monday that it had found a seventh person dead after a boat capsized on Lake Tahoe during a fast-moving weekend thunderstorm that caused high winds and swells of up to 8ft. One person is still missing.

A 27ft-long gold Chris-Craft vessel with 10 people aboard overturned Saturday afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park on the lake’s south-west edge, according to the US Coast Guard.

Continue reading...

Six people dead and two missing after boat capsizes on California’s Lake Tahoe

Posted on by

Boat overturned after apparently being hit by a large swell, in a region that’s a popular spot with tourists

Six people have died and two others were missing after a boat capsized on Saturday on California’s Lake Tahoe, local authorities have said.

A 27ft-long boat overturned in the afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park, according to the Coast Guard. Lake Tahoe and its surrounding wilderness region is a hugely popular spot with tourists.

Continue reading...

Los Angeles Dodgers donate $1m to families affected by Ice raids

Posted on by

Team, which said it stopped Ice agents entering parking lot on Thursday, makes donation to immigrant families

The Los Angeles Dodgers have donated $1m to assist families affected by two weeks of immigration raids in southern California.

The World Series champions also said they intend to form partnerships with the California Community Foundation, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and other organizations to continue providing aid to immigrant families.

Continue reading...

US drops charges against LA protester accused of assaulting officers: ‘A huge relief’

Posted on by

Federal prosecutors reverse course in case of Jose Manuel Mojica, who came forward to Guardian to say he was brutally attacked by agents

Federal prosecutors in California have moved to dismiss charges against a Los Angeles protester accused of assaulting border patrol agents, a major victory for the demonstrator who said he himself was brutally attacked by law enforcement.

US attorney Bill Essayli, a Donald Trump appointee, filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss a complaint against Jose Manuel Mojica, a 30-year-old Los Angeles resident who was present at one of the first major protests of immigration raids in southern California this month. Mojica, a father of four born in LA, came forward last week to the Guardian, which published footage of his arrest by a group of officers.

Continue reading...

Brush fire forces evacuation of 50 Maui residents as other wildfires burn in continental US

Posted on by

Kahikinui fire is 85% contained as firefighting crews battle blazes in Pacific north-west, California and the Rockies

A fast-moving Hawaii brush fire fueled by fierce winds forced the evacuation of about 50 Maui residents on the opposite side of the same island where a devastating blaze killed more than 100 people two years ago.

The fire started on Sunday in a sparsely populated area with land set aside for Native Hawaiians.

Continue reading...

Ice agents detain US citizen as LA immigration raids continue: ‘It’s racial profiling’

Posted on by

Officers arrest people at swap meet in Santa Fe and detain people in Montebello as curfew in LA remains in place

US immigration raids continued to target southern California communities in recent days, including at a popular flea market and in a Los Angeles suburb where US citizens were detained.

On Saturday, as mass protests swept the nation, including tens of thousands demonstrating in LA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents descended on a swap meet in Santa Fe Springs in southeast LA county. Video showed dozens of heavily armed, masked officers carrying out the raid before a scheduled concert at the long-running event that features vendors, food and entertainment every weekend

Continue reading...

Doctor charged with supplying Matthew Perry ketamine agrees to plead guilty

Posted on by

Salvador Plasencia, who gave Friends star the drug in month leading to overdose, to plead guilty to four counts

A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the Friends star’s overdose death has agreed to plead guilty, authorities said Monday.

Dr Salvador Plasencia has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a statement. They said the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and Plasencia is expected to enter the plea in the coming weeks.

Continue reading...

California bill proposes misdemeanor for officers who cover their face on duty

Posted on by

Law enforcement officials would also be required to be identifiable by uniform carrying their name

Local, state, and federal law enforcement officers who cover their faces while conducting official business could face a misdemeanor in California under a new proposal announced Monday.

The bill would require all law enforcement officials show their faces and be identifiable by their uniform, which should carry their name or other identifier. It would not apply to the national guard or other troops and it exempts Swat teams and officers responding to natural disasters.

Continue reading...

Trump ally Ric Grenell says he’d ‘look at’ California bid if Kamala Harris runs

Posted on by

Kennedy Center interim director says he would have consider running for California governor if Harris opts in

Donald Trump loyalist Ric Grenell says he would “have to” strongly consider running for California governor in 2026 if former vice-president Kamala Harris signs up to campaign for the position.

Grenell – a foreign policy adviser to the president and the interim director of Washington DC’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – made the remark during an interview airing Sunday on the Politico podcast The Conversation with Dasha Burns.

Continue reading...

Judge seems skeptical Trump can call in national guard and will rule ‘very soon’

Posted on by

California governor Gavin Newsom filed suit challenging US president calling up troops to suppress protests against Ice

A federal judge expressed skepticism on Thursday with the Trump administration’s arguments that the president has the power to federalize national guard troops and deploy them to suppress protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles.

The US district judge, Charles Breyer, said he intends to rule on California’s request for an injunction halting the deployment “very soon”, and that he was hopeful his ruling would come by the end of the day. He said he would also decide on whether the justice department could stay the order pending appeal.

Continue reading...

LA police announce ‘mass arrests’ as Newsom intensifies criticism of Trump | First Thing

Posted on by

Protesters defy overnight curfew as California governor issues searing rebuke of administration. Plus, who is behind the hedonistic party palaces of New York’s Fire Island?

Good morning.

Los Angeles police have announced they are making “mass arrests” in the city’s downtown area, as people gathered in defiance of an overnight curfew imposed after days of protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployment.

What has Newsom said? Trump’s decision to deploy the national guard in LA was “a brazen abuse of power”, that has “inflamed a combustible situation”, Newsom said in a searing rebuke of the administration.

What about Trump? In an address to troops at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina yesterday, Trump spread conspiracy theories, maligned California’s Democratic leaders and misleadingly portrayed protesters as part of a “foreign invasion”.

Were they really armed by Israel? Yes. Israeli defence officials acknowledged last week that they had been arming the group, with the aim of undermining Hamas. Aid workers said the group had a long history of looting from UN trucks.

Continue reading...

LA public schools will protect students and families at graduations from Ice

Posted on by

‘Perimeters of safety around graduation sites’ aim to prevent any immigration enforcement action

Public schools in Los Angeles have announced a new security plan to keep immigration officers away from any potentially undocumented students and their families who are attending this week’s school graduations.

“Every single graduation site is a protected site,” said Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the country’s second largest school district, at a Monday press conference, having previously said he was “dismayed by recent immigration enforcement activity occurring near our schools”.

Continue reading...