The rolling electrical blackouts that hit California in mid-August were — or should have been — a wake-up call about power supply deficits that have been building for years. Simply put, state political leaders have committed California to phasing out nuclear- and hydrocarbon-powered generation in favor of “renewables — primarily...
Man Charged With Shooting Elephant Seal Near San Simeon
LOS ANGELES — A 30-year-old-man was charged Tuesday with shooting and killing a protected northern elephant seal on a California beach, federal prosecutors said. Jordan Gerbich, of Santa Maria, faces one count of taking a marine mammal, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It wasn't immediately known...
California Closer to Banning Sale of Most Flavored Tobacco
SACRAMENTO — California is on track to ban the sale of most flavored tobacco products, joining states like New York and Massachusetts in an effort to slow the spread of the harmful habit among children. The state Assembly passed the ban on Monday, two months after the state Senate passed...
Tulare County DA: Space for Evil Like Golden State Killer Is Getting Smaller. ‘The DNA Will Never Forget.’
SACRAMENTO — A former California police officer dubbed the Golden State Killer told victims Friday he was “truly sorry" before he was sentenced to multiple life prison sentences for a decade-long string of rapes and murders that terrorized a wide swath of the state. Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, pleaded guilty...
Collision of Crises: Central Valley’s Searing Heat, Smoke, Virus Hot Spots
As ash drifted down from the fires burning through Solano County, a woman sweating under the smoke-reddened sun dug through her car, searching for an adapter for her husband’s oxygen machine. The couple had fought traffic on Wednesday to reach the evacuation shelter at Vacaville’s Ulatis Cultural Center — but,...
Pilot Killed Fighting Coalinga Wildfire Leaves Grieving Family
The helicopter pilot who died fighting one of the hundreds of wildfires raging across California was making water drops over hilly, rugged terrain when his aircraft suddenly plunged to the ground, leaving behind a grieving family as authorities begin a painstaking effort to try to determine what caused the tragedy....
Wildfires Turn Valley and All of California Into a Sci-Fi Landscape
As crews battle 367 wildfires in heatwave-baked California, the satellite view from above shows a state enveloped in smoke. On the ground, firefighters are doing their best to contain the blazes — many of them ignited by nearly 11,000 lightning strikes during a 72-hour period. Strong winds are spreading some...
Walters: Blackouts Reveal Our Power Shortage
The prolonged heat wave of 100-degree-plus temperatures that grips California has strained the state’s electric power grid to the breaking point, resulting in rolling blackouts for the first time in nearly two decades. California’s Independent System Operator (ISO), which manages the distribution of power for the state’s investor-owned utilities, imposed...
Walters: California’s Crisis of Competence
Year by year and article by article, Ralph Vartabedian has revealed to Californians the woeful shortcomings of the state’s largest public works project, a north-south bullet train. Vartabedian, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, has made a virtual career of uncovering the project’s managerial, financial and political failings, lending...
US West Faces Reckoning Over Water but Avoids Cuts for Now
CARSON CITY, Nev. — The white rings that wrap around two massive lakes in the U.S. West are a stark reminder of how water levels are dropping and a warning that the 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River face a much drier future. Amid prolonged drought and...