California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday asked a judge to order Amazon to comply with subpoenas his office issued nearly four months ago as part of an investigation into how the company is protecting workers from the coronavirus at its facilities. Becerra said the online sales giant hasn't provided...
Becerra’s Big Challenge: Vaccinating Americans Against Virus
WILMINGTON, Del. — In choosing Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, President-elect Joe Biden tapped a robust defender of the Affordable Care Act who will face questions about whether he possesses the health care and management experience needed to lead the massive effort to vaccinate a nation against a...
Biden Picks Xavier Becerra to Lead HHS, Coronavirus Response
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration's coronavirus response. Separately, Biden picked a Harvard infectious disease expert, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, to head the Centers for Disease...
Fresno Police Will Have Undercover Officers Near Polling Locations on Election Day
Fresno police will be in plain sight — but not easily identifiable — on Election Day as voters visit voting centers, a department spokesman said Monday. Police will be monitoring voting centers in plainclothes, said Sgt. Jeff LaBlue, to avoid concerns that uniformed officers could be viewed as intimidating to...
California Senate OKs State Reviews for Police Shootings
SACRAMENTO — California is close to requiring independent investigations any time police kill an unarmed civilian, a move that would strip authority from local prosecutors at a time of heightened distrust between law enforcement and communities of color. But the proposal that easily passed the state Senate on Sunday with...
Taxpayers Helped Make it, So Why Does Remdesivir Cost $3,200 a Patient?
Valley hospitals can barely keep the potential life-saving COVID-19 drug remdevisir in stock. And, when they can get it, the cost is $3,200 per patient. Fresno-based Community Medical Centers was completely out of remdevisir for 24 hours a few weeks ago. Visalia-based Kaweah Delta Medical Center — which is in...
California Sues Over Trump Order on Congressional Maps
SACRAMENTO — California on Tuesday became the latest state to sue President Donald Trump over his executive order excluding people in the U.S. illegally from being counted when congressional districts are redrawn after this year's census. The nation's most populous state stands to lose a congressional seat if the president's...
T-Mobile Pulls Back Pledge to Create 1,000 Jobs in Kingsburg
T-Mobile is backtracking on its promise to create 1,000 new jobs at a customer service center to be built in Kingsburg, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. On Tuesday, T-Mobile said in a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission that the COVID-19 crisis “makes the imposition of a mandate to create additional...
California Bans State-Paid Travel to Idaho Over New Laws
SACRAMENTO — Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday added Idaho to a list of 11 other states where state-funded travel isn’t allowed because he determined that they violate a California law. That 2017 law is intended to guard against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Becerra...
AG Becerra Says Deadly Force Should Be ‘a Last Resort’
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced his recommendations for police reform — including using "deadly force as a last resort" — in a Monday morning news release. Becerra's recommendations on use-of-force largely aligned with the national #8CantWait campaign. His recommendations are in the chart below: Source: California Attorney General's Office...