Tea Pot Dome Water District has agreed to pay Friant Water Authority $1.4 million in exchange for relief from its role in a contract designed to pay for damage to a 33-mile section of the Friant-Kern Canal. It also agreed to give Friant pumping data that's at the heart of...
LA County Sues Southern California Edison, Alleging Utility’s Equipment Sparked Wildfire
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County said Wednesday that it's suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility's equipment sparked January's Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people in the Altadena area. The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged...
Instead of Policing Student Use of AI, California Teachers Need to Reinvent Homework
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The education sector has sleepwalked into a quagmire. While many California high schools and colleges maintain academic integrity policies expecting students to submit original work, a troubling reality has emerged: Generative AI has fundamentally compromised the traditional take-home...
US, Hamas Hold Direct Talks Over Hostages in Gaza, Officials Say
U.S. and Hamas officials held talks in Qatar about hostages held in the Gaza Strip, breaking with a long-running U.S. policy of refusing to directly engage with the militant group, according to an Israeli official and a diplomat briefed on the matter. Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be...
CIA Director Says US Has Paused Intelligence Sharing With Ukraine
WASHINGTON — CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that intelligence sharing with Ukraine had been paused alongside military aid to pressure its government to cooperate with the Trump administration’s plans to end the country’s war with Russia. Speaking on Fox Business, Ratcliffe applauded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement Tuesday praising...
Al Green, Who Heckled Trump, Is No Stranger to Dramatic Political Gestures
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who was removed from the House chamber for heckling President Donald Trump during his speech Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, has a history of dramatic political gestures. Green, 77, shook his cane as he interrupted Trump’s speech, shouting that the president had “no mandate...
Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to Freeze Foreign Aid
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid in a closely divided decision indicating that the justices will subject his efforts to reshape the government to close scrutiny. The court’s brief order was unsigned, which is typical...
Sylvester Turner, Sworn In as US Representative in January, Dies at 70
Sylvester Turner, a former mayor of Houston who was sworn in as a U.S. representative in January, died Wednesday in Washington. He was 70 and had been in attendance at President Donald Trump’s speech on Capitol Hill on Tuesday night. His press secretary, Gregory Carter, said Turner had been taken...
Have Federal Agents Served Warrants at California’s Capitol? The Legislature Doesn’t Want You to Know
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California's legislative leaders don't think the public should know whether federal agents are investigating state lawmakers for public corruption, nor do they believe taxpayers should know how much of their money the Legislature is spending on criminal defense...
Trump Delays Auto Tariffs on Mexico and Canada Imports by One Month
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is granting a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada for U.S. automakers, amid fears that the trade war could harm U.S. manufacturers. The announcement comes after Trump spoke with leaders of the “big 3” automakers, Ford, General Motors,...