SAN FRANCISCO — A Northern California county has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle a lawsuit by a Silicon Valley software engineer who was having a mental health crisis when a deputy shot him, paralyzing him from the waist down. Placer County agreed to pay Samuel Kolb, 50,...
Dry Start to Winter Drops California Water Allocation to Just 10%
SACRAMENTO — California's water managers on Tuesday preliminarily allocated just 10% of requested water supplies to agencies that together serve more than 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. The state Department of Water Resources cited the dry start to the winter rainy season in California's Mediterranean climate, along...
Santa Barbara Scuba Boat Captain Charged in Fire That Killed 34
LOS ANGELES — The captain of a scuba diving boat that caught fire and sank off the coast of California last year, killing 34 people who were trapped below deck, was indicted Tuesday on federal manslaughter charges for one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history. Jerry Boylan,...
California Plans for Arrival of First Virus Vaccine Doses
California expects the first batch of coronavirus vaccine to arrive in the state in weeks but it's not yet clear who will get the first shots and when those inoculations begin. Gov. Gavin Newsom said 327,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine should arrive in mid-December. He said more vaccine from Moderna...
Fraudulent Inmate Unemployment Claims Now Almost Triple Initial Estimate
SACRAMENTO — California sent about $400 million in fraudulent unemployment benefit payments to state prisoners, a state official said Tuesday, nearly triple the amount disclosed last week and a number that could grow as a criminal investigation continues. Nine county district attorneys and a federal prosecutor are investigating unemployment fraud...
Walters: Court Slaps Down No-Bid School Contracts in Fresno Case
An alternative view of California’s public school system is that it is a huge industry with six million customers who spend more than $100 billion a year. There’s big money to be made in supplying the goods and services those young customers demand, which translates into political jousting for pieces...
LA Serial Killer’s Death Penalty Upheld by State High Court
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of raping and strangling 10 women in Los Angeles. However, the court reversed his conviction for the death of one victim's fetus. Chester Dewayne Turner, a 54-year-old one-time pizza deliveryman, was convicted in...
COVID-19 Infections Hit Record High in California Prisons
Inside California’s prisons, coronavirus cases have exploded, reaching 3,861 active cases last week — the highest so far. Yet the state has slowed its early releases of inmates, raising questions about overcrowding as the infections spread through the prisons. Over the summer, jails and prisons released thousands of inmates through...
California Lawmakers Demand Unemployment Answers From Bank of America CEO
A bipartisan group of California lawmakers is asking Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan for answers about unemployment payment problems that have upended the lives of thousands of jobless Californians who rely on the bank’s prepaid debit cards. The letter made public today comes days after CalMatters detailed how the state’s exclusive...
California COVID Hospitalizations Break Record. Counties Impose Tighter Restrictions
As coronavirus cases surge in California, county officials enacted stricter COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, a day after the state broke a record with more than 7,400 coronavirus hospitalizations. Health officials are preparing for a wave of virus cases over the next two or three weeks that could be linked to...