Category Archives: California

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...

Misinformation about LA Ice protests swirls online: ‘Catnip for rightwing agitators’

Posted on by

Many posts spread the idea that mayhem overtook LA while police confrontations were limited to a small part of the city

Since protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles began, false and misleading claims about the ongoing demonstrations have spread on text-based social networks. Outright lies posted directly to social media mixed with misinformation spread through established channels by the White House as Donald Trump dramatically escalated federal intervention. The stream of undifferentiated real and fake information has painted a picture of the city that forks from reality.

Parts of Los Angeles have seen major protests over the past four days against intensified immigration raids by the US president’s administration. On Saturday, dramatic photos from downtown Los Angeles showed cars set aflame amid confrontations with law enforcement. Many posts promoted the perception that mayhem and violence had overtaken the entirety of Los Angeles, even though confrontations with law enforcement and vandalism remained confined to a small part of the sprawling city. Trump has deployed 2,000 members of the national guard to the city without requesting consent from California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, which provoked the state to sue for an alleged violation of sovereignty. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has also ordered the US military to deploy approximately 700 marines to the city.

Continue reading...

Doechii blasts Trump administration’s ‘ruthless attacks’ in LA amid Ice raids

Posted on by

Rapper turns BET awards speech into call for justice after White House deployed military forces on demonstrators

The rapper Doechii turned her acceptance speech at the BET awards on Monday night into a powerful call for justice as she criticized the Trump administration’s deployment of military forces on protesters in Los Angeles.

The Grammy winner used the stage to highlight the immigration raids and protest crackdowns happening just miles from where the ceremony took place in Los Angeles.

Continue reading...

LA cleans up and protests some more after weekend of defiance against Trump

Posted on by

Cleaners remove graffiti and burned cars after mostly peaceful protests that saw some vandalism and violence

Outside the federal courthouse complex in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning, two cleaners carrying bins on wheels looked uncertainly at the daunting task in front of them – long walls in several directions covered in spray-painted graffiti after a weekend of vigorous street protest.

They donned black plastic gloves and reached for spray bottles and rolls of paper towels, but these seemed hardly adequate even for the black marble plinth bearing the name “Edward R Roybal Center and Federal Building” where they began. Indeed, the rest of the official writing on the plinth was illegible, defaced by three separate graffiti reading “Fuck Ice” and another saying “Dead Cops”.

Continue reading...

Glendale ends ‘divisive’ Ice detention contract amid California protests

Posted on by

Decision comes as federal action to enforce US immigration laws inspired three days of protests in the LA area

The California city of Glendale has terminated a contract to house federal immigration detainees, with local officials saying the arrangement had become increasingly “divisive” within the community.

The decision by the Los Angeles county municipality to sever ties with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) comes after three days of protests in other parts of the LA area. That included Sunday near the Metropolitan Detention Center, about nine miles from Glendale, where cars were set alight as anti-Ice protesters clashed with law enforcement officers, including the national guard.

Continue reading...

Newsom is warned of ‘criminal tax evasion’ if he withholds federal taxes

Posted on by

California governor made threat amid reports Trump is weighing huge federal funding cuts targeting state

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has warned California governor Gavin Newsom that he would be guilty of “criminal tax evasion” if he withholds his state’s tax payments to the federal government amid threats of a funding cut by Donald Trump.

Newsom had threatened to cut tax payments to the federal government two days ago after reports that Trump was preparing huge federal funding cuts targeting Democrat-dominated California, including its state university system.

Continue reading...

How can Trump use the national guard on US soil?

Posted on by

The US president says he’s deploying 2,000 troops to Los Angeles amid immigration protests. Here’s what to know

Donald Trump said on Saturday he’s deploying 2,000 California national guard troops to Los Angeles to respond to immigration protests, over the objections of the California governor, Gavin Newsom.

Here are some things to know about when and how the president can deploy troops on US soil.

Continue reading...

California leaders condemn Ice raids in LA: ‘We will not stand for this’

Posted on by

City mayor Karen Bass joins governor Gavin Newsom and others in denouncing arrests of at least 45 people

The Department of Homeland Security conducted raids on multiple locations across Los Angeles on Friday, clashing with the crowds of people who gathered to protest and prompting widespread criticism from California leaders.

Masked agents were recorded pulling several people out of two LA-area Home Depot stores and the clothing manufacturer Ambient Apparel’s headquarters in LA’s Fashion District. Immigration advocates said the raids also included four other locations, including a doughnut shop.

Continue reading...

Yoga classes resume at San Diego beach as court says they are ‘protected speech’

Posted on by

Instructors Steven Hubbard and Amy Baack had sued after a city ordinance restricted such activities on the beach

Yoga classes are back on at San Diego beaches this week after a federal appeals court ruled that a city ordinance restricting such activities was unconstitutional and that teaching yoga was “protected speech”.

The three-judge panel of the US ninth circuit court of appeals on Wednesday overruled a San Diego judge and decided in favor of two instructors who had sued over a law that San Diego passed in 2024 banning yoga classes of four or more people at shoreline parks and beaches.

Continue reading...

Man linked to fatal bombing of Palm Springs fertility clinic arrested

Posted on by

FBI detains 32-year-old from Washington state over links to blast in which authorities believe bomber died

The FBI arrested a man in connection with last month’s bombing of a facility clinic in Palm Springs, California, US authorities said on Wednesday.

Daniel Park, a 32-year-old US citizen who lives in Kent, Washington, was taken into custody at John F Kennedy airport in New York on Tuesday after he was deported from Poland, said Bill Essayli, a US attorney for California, at a press conference. Park allegedly provided materials for explosives to the person who carried out the bombing, which officials have described as the largest incident of its kind in southern California. Authorities believe the bomber died in the blast.

Continue reading...