SAN DIEGO — A Southern California woman who spent 29 years behind bars after being convicted of killing her three children by setting their home on fire was released from state prison on parole Tuesday. JoAnn Parks, 54, was granted clemency last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, nearly a decade...
California Sees Bright Spot in ‘Most Intense Surge’ of Virus
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has lifted a stay-at-home order for 13 northern counties with improving hospital conditions, but most of the state’s population remains under tight restrictions in the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The state on Tuesday lifted the order in the Sacramento region — a rare turn of good news...
Walters: Newsom Budget Spends Windfall on Pandemic Victims
While California’s overall economy is still being battered by the COVID-19 recession and unemployment remains high, its tax revenues have shown amazing resiliency. The recession’s impact has fallen largely on lower-income Californians while those on upper rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, whose taxable incomes are the most important source of...
California Virus Deaths Top 30,000 After Deadliest Weekend
LOS ANGELES — California's coronavirus catastrophe reached a staggering new level Monday as Johns Hopkins University data showed the nation’s most populous state has recorded more than 30,000 deaths since the pandemic started nearly a year ago. Deaths have exploded since a COVID-19 surge began in October. It took California...
Walters: How Did California Lose Control of COVID-19?
With the COVID-19 pandemic surging to critical levels in California, we naturally wonder how it happened. How did California go from exemplifying success in taming the coronavirus last spring to an epicenter of disease, with 2.5 million COVID-19 cases, nearly 28,000 deaths and the second highest infection rate of any...
California Woman Who Accused Black NYC Teen of Stealing Phone Is Jailed
NEW YORK — A woman who falsely accused a Black teenager of stealing her phone and then tackled him at a New York City hotel was arrested in her home state of California. Miya Ponsetto, 22, was jailed Thursday in Ventura County, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office there said....
California’s New Goal: Vaccinate a Million People in 10 Days
Getting the coronavirus vaccines into the arms of as many Californians as possible has become a race against time as COVID-19 cases continue to spiral upward and a more infectious variant of the virus takes root. Many questions remain unanswered about how the next — and much larger — wave of...
‘Crisis of Epic Proportions’ as California Sees Two-Day Record for Virus Deaths
California health authorities reported Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths as many hospitals strain under unprecedented caseloads. The state Department of Public Health’s website listed 583 new deaths, a day after 459 deaths. The previous two-day record total was 1,013 deaths at the end of December. California’s...
No Charges for California Police Officer Who Injured Woman in May Protest
LA MESA — A San Diego-area police officer who struck a woman with a beanbag projectile during a protest in May, leaving her blind in one eye, acted reasonably and won't face criminal charges, authorities said Wednesday. Eric Knudson, a police detective in La Mesa, thought that 59-year-old Leslie Furcron...
California Congresswoman Tests Positive for Coronavirus
LOS ANGELES — California Rep. Michelle Steel has tested positive for coronavirus, her office announced Wednesday. The newly elected Orange County, California, Republican said in a statement that she learned had been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Steel, 65, said he had no symptoms but had...