Unified command was formed to look in to the origin of the sheen, which did not seem to be expanding since it was first detected
Authorities in southern California are investigating a 2.5-mile (4km) long oil sheen that emerged off the coast of Huntington Beach on Thursday evening.
The sheen doesn’t appear to be a crude oil spill – it could be the result of natural seepage – and federal and state teams have deployed to the area to determine the source.
Continue reading...Congressman and ex-Dodgers player emerge as top two contenders, boxing out progressives Katie Porter and Barbara Lee
Adam Schiff, the centrist Democratic congressman, is poised to be the next US senator from California after securing enough votes to advance to the November election. He will face off with Republican Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball player, who also performed well in the non-partisan primary on Tuesday.
Schiff, a pro-Israel Democrat, was quickly called a winner by the Associated Press, and Garvey secured his spot in the general election about an hour after polls closed.
Continue reading...Dundee the cat, survivor of 2018 Camp fire, was taken in a car theft – but he was reunited with his owner after locals rallied round
Susie Heffernan was just returning from the vet with her beloved cat, Dundee, last Wednesday when she stopped to pick up pet food at a Tractor Supply in Paradise, California. She covered Dundee’s carrier on the passenger seat, locked her truck and ran inside.
When she returned, the truck was gone, as was the eight-year-old Snowshoe Siamese. Video footage from a nearby store revealed someone had broken into her vehicle and driven off with Dundee still inside.
Continue reading...Donald Trump looks all but certain of Republican presidential nomination as Nikki Haley rejects suggestions of third-party bid and says she may keep fighting
Over at CNN, Ronald Brownstein has an analysis piece which looks a little at the potential weakness of Donald Trump support away from his core base. Brownstein writes:
[Trump’s] performance so far reflects his success at transforming the Republican Party in his image. He’s reshaped the Republicans into a more blue-collar, populist and pugnacious party, focused more on his volatile blend of resentments against elites and cultural and racial change than the Ronald Reagan-era priorities of smaller government and active global leadership that former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley has stressed.
But while the primaries have underscored Trump’s grip on the GOP, they have also demonstrated continued vulnerability for him in the areas where he has labored since he first announced his candidacy in 2015 – particularly among the white-collar suburban voters who mostly leaned toward the GOP before his emergence. The early 2024 nominating contests have shown that a substantial minority of Republican-leaning voters remain resistant to Trump’s vision.
Continue reading...Homeowners in wealthy towns watching anxiously in face of heavy storms that have caused flash floods and coastal erosion
The torrents of water coming from the sky are having ripple effects on the cliffs that hold up some of California’s most expensive real estate. In the first two months of the year, nearly 18in of rain has fallen in the southern California area, about 8in above normal to date – and more is on the way this week.
The California governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency in eight counties covering more than 20 million people, and flash-flood warnings were issued for parts of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
Continue reading...Shooting on Sunday evening at outdoor gathering in King City left four dead and seven others injured, police say
Police are offering a $20,000 reward for information on a shooting that took place on Sunday evening when a group of masked men pulled up to an outdoor birthday party in central California and opened fire, killing at least four.
Officers responded to a reported shooting at about 6pm in King City, California, about 106 miles south of San Jose, and found three men with gunshot wounds who were pronounced dead in a front yard, the King City police department said. A total of 11 people were hit by gunfire.
Continue reading...Winter storm warning remains in effect through Wednesday morning with up to 12in more snow expected in the region
Forecasters are warning that more snow is on the way for northern California mountains after a powerful blizzard that closed highways and ski resorts over the weekend had mostly moved through the Sierra Nevada by early Monday.
The storm began barreling into the region on Thursday. A widespread blizzard warning through Sunday morning covered a 300-mile stretch of the mountains. Fierce winds – with gusts that reached up to 145mph in some areas – ripped down trees and power lines leaving residents in the dark.
Continue reading...Donors raise more than $100,000 for man who gave his $17.74 paycheck for 136.50 hours of work to relief efforts in Gaza
Donors have raised more than $100,000 for an incarcerated man in the US who, earning 13 cents an hour in a California prison doing janitorial and porter work, donated his paycheck of $17.74 to Gaza relief efforts.
Last month, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Justin Mashouf who has been in correspondence with the 56-year old man – known only by the name Hamza – shared photos on social media of Hamza’s October time log and a check of $17.74 with the words, “California department of corrections and rehabilitation.”
Continue reading...Storm that pummeled Sierra Nevada closed I-80 and left thousands without power as second storm forecast to bring more snow
The powerful blizzard that has been pounding the Sierra Nevada mountains since Friday was expected to wane Sunday, but residents shouldn’t put away their snow shovels just yet as more heavy snow is on the way.
The National Weather Service said conditions would improve as winds weakened Sunday, but precipitation would quickly return, with heavy snow in some areas and rainfall in others.
Continue reading...Interstate closures, avalanche warnings and gale-force winds as storm pummels region with up to 10ft of snow
A powerful blizzard pummeling California brought double-digit feet of snow; 190mph wind gusts; closures of a main trucking artery, national parks and ski resorts; and even a tornado. And that was just day one.
Ski resorts in the Sierra foothills reported more than 2ft of snow accumulated in the 24 hours from Thursday evening to Friday evening. Snowfall at the Northstar ski resort in Truckee, California, was up to 44 inches (1 meter) since Thursday afternoon.
Continue reading...Residents in California urged to shelter in place as possible record 12ft of snow forecast to be dumped over weekend
A dangerous winter storm has arrived in California, battering the Sierra Nevada with snowfall, gale-force winds and blizzard conditions as authorities urge residents to shelter in place and prepare for power outages.
Perilous conditions in the mountain region are expected to get significantly worse on Friday evening and over the weekend, with a high risk of whiteout conditions, near-zero visibility and avalanches across the mountain range, making travel impossible, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The severe weather, which forecasters described as life-threatening, could break snowfall records.
Continue reading...Heavy snowfall of up to 10ft in Sierras likely from what forecasters say may be strongest storm of the season
A Pacific storm packing powerful winds and heavy snow is shaping up to be the strongest of the season, forecasters say, as it pushes toward California with potential blizzard conditions in the Sierra and up to 10 feet (3 meters) of snow in the mountains around Lake Tahoe by the weekend.
The National Weather Service in Reno issued a blizzard warning on Wednesday for a 300-mile (482km) stretch of the Sierra from north of Lake Tahoe to south of Yosemite national park effective from early Thursday to Sunday morning.
Continue reading...Tesla had ditched an order for 4,000 mini pies, but the X owner paid the debt after the incident received attention
A California bakery that claimed Tesla did not pay an order worth thousands of dollars said the outstanding bill has been settled, after billionaire Elon Musk promised to “make things good” following press coverage of the incident.
Musk’s company Tesla had ditched an order for 4,000 mini pies from Giving Pies, a Black-owned bakery in San Jose, in central California, bakery owner Voahangy Rasetarinera said on the cafe’s Instagram account five days ago.
Continue reading...Series of new advertisements target Republican efforts to criminalize abortions and a ‘war on travel’ for reproductive care
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is launching a series of new advertisements in Republican states targeting Republican efforts to criminalize having an abortion and “a war on travel” for reproductive care.
The first advertisement by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom’s political action committee (Pac), will air this week in Tennessee, where lawmakers are considering legislation that would make it illegal for anyone who helps a minor obtain an abortion without permission from their parents. Anyone found guilty of the offense could face between three and 15 years in prison.
Continue reading...Jason Reitman, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg among those leading charge to buy the iconic Village theater
This week, a group of A-list Hollywood directors, including JJ Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, took a group photo outside of one of Los Angeles’ historic movie theaters.
This wasn’t an Oscars event. Instead, the directors were announcing they were “the new caretakers of the Village Theater in Westwood”.
Continue reading...Rebecca Grossman was found guilty of two felony counts and gross vehicular manslaughter for hitting Mark and Jacob Iskander
Rebecca Grossman, a Los Angeles socialite accused of fatally striking two young brothers crossing the street, was found guilty of murder and other charges on Friday.
Prosecutors had said the 60-year-old was impaired and speeding in her Mercedes when she hit brothers Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, at over 70mph. Grossman’s defense had argued that what happened was an accident and that the boys were first struck by another car.
Continue reading...Born in 1908, Ceccarelli loved to dance and died a little over two weeks after her hometown threw her a huge birthday party
Edie Ceccarelli, who was the oldest person in the US and the second oldest person on Earth, died on Thursday.
Ceccarelli died a little over two weeks after her home town – the small, redwood-crested northern California town of Willits – threw her a huge birthday bash, as is their yearly tradition.
Continue reading...Sheriff’s office said victims, pronounced dead at the scene, were caught in debris and fell down the northern California hillside
Two children were killed when a hillside collapsed along a river in northern California, which has been hit by a series of winter storms.
The Shasta county sheriff’s office said in a statement that the two victims were caught in debris that came down from a hillside near Shasta dam on Thursday morning and had fallen down the hillside. They were pronounced dead at the scene, the office said.
Continue reading...Alexander Smirnov, who claims to have Russian intelligence links, taken into custody after meeting at lawyers’ offices in Las Vegas
The former FBI informant who is charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving Joe Biden’s family was again taken into custody in Las Vegas, two days after a judge released him, his attorneys said.
Alexander Smirnov was arrested during a meeting on Thursday morning at his lawyers’ offices in downtown Las Vegas. The arrest came after prosecutors appealed the judge’s ruling allowing 43-year-old Smirnov, who holds dual US-Israeli citizenship, to be released with a GPS monitor ahead of trial. He is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.
Continue reading...North sees strong winds while central coast at risk of ‘significant flooding’ as storm moves south toward Los Angeles
The latest in a series of wet winter storms gained strength in California early on Monday, with forecasters warning of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days.
Gusts topped 30mph (48kph) in Oakland and San Jose as a mild cold front late on Saturday gave way to a more powerful storm on Sunday, according to the meteorologist Brayden Murdock with the National Weather Service office in San Francisco.
Continue reading...