SAN FRANCISCO — An Israeli teenager visiting Yosemite National Park in California fell hundreds of feet to his death while hiking near the top of an iconic waterfall. The Mariposa County coroner's office said 18-year-old Tomer Frankfurter of Jerusalem was near the top of Nevada Fall when he fell. Assistant...
State Says Seniors Abandoned in California Wildfire
SACRAMENTO — Staff at two senior care centers abandoned residents during an evacuation as wildfires swept through Northern California last October, state officials said Thursday as they moved to revoke licenses from the Santa Rosa facilities and their top administrators. Nobody in either facility died. A Department of Social Services...
Woolf Resigns from Westlands Board. What's Next for Water District?
Prominent Valley grower and water-management consultant Sarah Woolf has resigned from the board of directors at Westlands Water District. In a letter sent to the district, Woolf cited differences with the board majority on how best to increase water supplies for district growers as a primary reason for her resignation....
Retirement Approaches for Dyer. This Time, It's Really Goodbye.
It's the speculation that never rests at City Hall. Somehow, someway, Police Chief Jerry Dyer will remain Fresno's top cop past his scheduled retirement date of Oct. 16, 2019, insiders say. That's the date listed in his contract, and also when Dyer reaches a retirement benefit milestone. In addition, Dyer announced...
Fire Roaring Through Northern California Triples in Size
REDDING — An explosive wildfire that closed down dozens of miles of a major California freeway nearly tripled in size overnight, just weeks after a nearby blaze that left neighborhoods in ruins and killed eight people, officials said Thursday. The fire that erupted Wednesday afternoon and devoured timber and brush...
Patterson Renews Call for DMV Audit After 'Motor Voter' Snafu
Assemblyman Jim Patterson of Fresno again called for an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles after it was revealed Wednesday that agency technicians may have botched about 23,000 Californians' voter registrations under the state's new "motor voter" law. The DMV sent the secretary of state's office incorrect information for...
California GOP Attorney General Candidate Faces Ethics Panel
SACRAMENTO — A Republican candidate for California state attorney general is facing an ethics tribunal just two months before the November election. Former judge Steven Bailey is accused of using his office to further his statewide campaign, improperly accepting gifts and steering business to a firm where his son worked...
Trump Critic Becerra on MS-13 Gang: Not Animals, But Not Human Either
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra didn’t quite share President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the gang MS-13, but he came close. “When you talk about maiming human life, scarring them to the point that you don’t recognize them, I don’t know if you would call them human beings,” Becerra said at...
Bullet Train Sets Speed Record . . . For Burning Through Cash
Long before it's done, California's bullet train project is setting speed records. Not land speed records, mind you. Spending records. Ralph Vartabedian, the high-speed rail watchdog for the Los Angeles Times, reports that the project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year. Spending...
Life's Many Challenges Only Make These 'Modesto Girls' Stronger
California changes so fast you can’t count on anything here anymore. But you can count on the Modesto Girls. These five sisters — my first cousins, once removed—never had glamorous jobs. They didn’t get fancy educations. Little came easy to them. But they are always there when you need them....