Five crew members escape but 33 passengers and one other crew member missing or dead
Twenty-five people have died and nine remain missing after a boat was engulfed in flames and sank off the coast of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
The US Coast Guard said five crew members escaped from the 23 metre (75ft) commercial scuba diving boat but 33 passengers and one other crew member were missing or found dead after the fire early on Monday morning.
Continue reading...75-year-old killer hospitalised after being wounded in jail in San Diego, government source confirms
Sirhan Sirhan, who has been jailed for more than 50 years for the assassination of Senator Robert F Kennedy, was in stable condition in hospital on Saturday after being stabbed by a fellow inmate at a San Diego prison.
Related: James R Leavelle, detective handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot, dies aged 99
Continue reading...Videos appear to show students marching with German flag and wrapping themselves in Confederate flag
School officials in southern California are reportedly reopening an investigation into a group of high school students seen giving Nazi salutes on video, after more racist video and images surfaced on Wednesday.
The initial video obtained by the Daily Beast shows members of the boys’ water polo team at Pacifica high school in Orange County in an empty room that administrative officials say was later used for an athletic banquet. The video, which according to the Daily Beast was taken before an awards ceremony late last year, showed about 10 boys in a stiff-arm salute while singing a Nazi marching song.
Continue reading...Animal ‘fled the scene’ after smashing hood and windshield, causing vehicle to roll onto its side and burst into flames
They probably don’t train people for this at the sheriff’s academy.
A patrol car was struck by a falling bear in northern California last weekend, causing the vehicle to crash and explode.
Continue reading...After being reported for illegally renting out her home, one California woman took revenge with a mural, neighbors say
A California woman’s decision to plaster emojis on her outside walls, a move neighbors say came after they reported her for renting out her home on Airbnb, has made headlines around the world. But the war in Manhattan Beach, a city in southern California, sums up a wider problem for neighborhoods transformed by the tech platform: what happens if your neighbors hate it?
Neighborly disputes over Airbnb and other home-share properties are frequent, said Dan Weber, the founder of Airbnb Hell, a website that collects horror stories from hosts, renters and neighbors of Airbnb homes.
Continue reading...Tragedy in Encinitas comes as nearly 75% of state’s coastlines erode, endangering lives, homes, and infrastructure
Three women were killed last week while sunning on a beach in Encinitas, California, when the bluff above them gave way.
The sudden tragedy that befell Anne Clave; her mother, Julie Davis; and her aunt Elizabeth Cox, who had gathered at the resplendent coastline in the seaside community north of San Diego to celebrate Cox surviving cancer, made headlines around the world. But cliff erosion continues to imperil people and property around the state. California is falling into the sea piece by piece, and coastal conditions will only grow more dire with worsening climate crisis.
Continue reading...New Mexico tops the list, followed by California, Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska as problem could intensify with global heating
A handful of US states – including New Mexico and California – are facing significant strains on their water supplies that will only intensify with global heating, according to new rankings.
Related: Extreme water stress affects a quarter of the world's population, say experts
Continue reading...US lawmakers renew calls for federal gun reform after shooter purchased weapon legally in Nevada
California has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, including a ban on the type of rifle that a shooter used to kill three and wound 15 at the garlic food festival in Gilroy on Sunday.
But the gunman had legally purchased the “assault-type rifle”, in the style of an AK-47, from the neighboring state Nevada on 9 July before carrying it illegally over state lines into California, highlighting what some gun control advocates say is a loophole in the way laws operate, state by state.
Continue reading...Four people including the gunman are dead and 15 injured after an attack on the Gilroy garlic festival in California. Police said the man was armed with a rifle and cut through a fence to avoid tight security. Gilroy police chief Scot Smithee said the gunman was shot dead by police but a second suspect was believed to still be at large
Continue reading...Police kill assailant, whose motive remains unclear, amid reports of a possible second suspect
Three people have been killed and at least 15 injured after a gunman opened fire at a food festival in northern California before being shot dead by police.
The gunman used a rifle and gained entry to the Gilroy garlic festival by cutting through a fence to avoid tight security, including metal detectors, police said.
Continue reading...Video posted to social media shows confusion after a gunman opened fire at the Gilroy garlic festival in northern California. At least three people were killed and 15 injured before the assailant was shot dead by police
Continue reading...Ghost Adventures’ Zak Bagans is buying the $1.98m house with ‘very, very strong energy’ where Charles Manson’s followers killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969
A Los Angeles mansion where Charles Manson and his followers tortured and murdered the former residents went up for sale this month, and attracted widespread interest from celebrity buyers.
Related: Behind the bloodshed: the chilling untold stories about Charles Manson
Continue reading...Police have arrested suspect who fatally shot his father, brother and two others in the San Fernando Valley
A man fatally shot his father, brother and two others on Thursday during a 12-hour rampage in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, eluding an intense manhunt until plainclothes officers arrested him soon after he gunned down a city bus passenger, authorities said.
Police said they did not know what had motivated the suspect, identified as Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, in the attacks. “It is obviously an individual that went on a violent spree,” Capt William Hayes said. “We knew he was a danger to the community.”
Continue reading...Case is one of several across the US of police targeting anti-Trump and anti-fascist groups with monitoring and criminal trials
The Los Angeles police department has revealed in court that it infiltrated an activist group planning anti-Trump protests, in the latest case of US law enforcement spying on leftwing organizers.
A confidential informant working with the LAPD secretly recorded multiple meetings of a group called Refuse Fascism in 2017, according to newly disclosed police documents. The LAPD transcripts, first reported by the Los Angeles Times and reviewed by the Guardian, were submitted in a criminal case against activists who blocked a California freeway during an anti-Trump demonstration.
Continue reading...Officials in southern California expressed relief on Saturday that damage and injuries were not worse after the largest earthquake the region has seen in nearly 20 years, but voiced concerns about the possibility of major aftershocks in the days and months to come.
Related: ‘We should expect more quakes’: a top seismologist on California’s tremor
Continue reading...Crews in California continued to assess damage to cracked and burned buildings, broken roads, leaking water and gas lines and other infrastructure on Saturday after the largest earthquake the region has seen in nearly 20 years was felt from Sacramento to Mexico.
The governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency and warned residents to be wary of new tremors, after the southern part of the state was hit by a second significant earthquake in as many days.
Continue reading...A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck southern California on Friday, resulting in fires, damaged buildings and roads, and swaying rollercoasters. The latest tremor, which followed a 6.4 magnitude quake on 4 July, was the most powerful in the region for 20 years. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake Friday morning was the largest aftershock thus far and damage appears limited to the desert region
Communities in California’s Mojave Desert tallied damage and made emergency repairs to cracked roads and broken pipes Friday as aftershocks from the largest earthquake in 20 years to hit the region kept rumbling.
The small town of Ridgecrest, close to the epicenter, assessed damage after several fires and multiple injuries that were blamed on the magnitude 6.4 quake. A shelter drew 28 people overnight, but not all of them slept inside amid the shaking.
Continue reading...A magnitude 5.4 aftershock followed Thursday’s 6.4 magnitude quake, the southern California region’s largest in two decades
A 5.4-magnitude aftershock hit southern California on Friday morning, one day after the region experienced its largest earthquake in two decades.
Thursday’s 6.4-magnitude quake landed in the small city of Ridgecrest, 100 miles (160km) from Los Angeles, and renewed fears about the potential for the “big one” to hit the west coast in the future.
Continue reading...With more than 500 active faults in California, the state is sure to see many more quakes in the future
On Thursday morning, southern California experienced its largest earthquake in two decades. The 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the remote city of Ridgecrest, near Death Valley national park and about 100 miles (160km) from Los Angeles.
Here’s what you should know about the impact of the quake, and whether more seismic activity will strike anytime soon:
Continue reading...