LOS ANGELES — Authorities say 19 people aboard a cruise ship reported flu-like illnesses as they reached a Southern California port. The Los Angeles Fire Department says authorities were called early Sunday to evaluate patients after they fell ill on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship. Authorities say the patients were...
Las Vegas to California Traffic Backup Tops 20 Miles
LAS VEGAS — Holiday travelers returning to California from the Las Vegas area caused a severe backup lasting for more than 20 miles. The westbound lanes of Interstate 15 moved at a trickle Sunday as the Thanksgiving holiday weekend wrapped up. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada says the...
Walters: The GOP's Decline and Fall in California
The very rapid decline of California’s Republican Party — from near-dominance in the 1980s and early 1990s to its current irrelevance — has been one of the state’s most dramatic political events. Thirty years ago, in 1989, Republicans were on a roll in California, to wit: —GOP candidates dominated the...
Med School Free Rides and Loan Repayments: California Tries to Boost Dwindling Doctor Supply
Primary care doctors are a hot commodity across California. Students are being lured by full-ride scholarships to medical schools. New grads are specifically recruited for training residencies. And full-fledged doctors are being offered loan repayment programs to serve low-income residents or work in underserved areas. These efforts are intended to...
'Bomb Cyclone' Snowstorm Closes I-80 Near Lake Tahoe
A snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada has shut down a highway in the mountains west of the Nevada-California line. The California Highway Patrol said traffic on U.S. Interstate 80 was being held Tuesday on both sides of Donner Pass north of Lake Tahoe so crews could clear the highway of...
Wildfire Burning in California Mountains Grows
GOLETA — A wildfire burning Tuesday on Southern California mountains north of Santa Barbara forced as many as 6,300 people from their homes, but an approaching storm offered hope that the flames would be doused, authorities said. The fire was a threat to an estimated 2,400 structures, Santa Barbara County...
California Legislators Must Stop the Attorney General From Rigging Ballot Initiative Descriptions
Imagine that in next year’s presidential race, election officials scrambled the letters in Donald Trump so it appeared on ballots as Daldon Prumt. Most people would agree this is not acceptable. Voters need their ballots to accurately convey who it is they are voting for or against. Yet for decades,...
California Boosts Pot Taxes, Shocking Unsteady Industry
LOS ANGELES — California is increasing business tax rates on legal marijuana, a move that stunned struggling companies that have been pleading with the state to do just the opposite. Hefty marijuana taxes that can approach 50 percent in some communities have been blamed for pushing shoppers into California’s tax-free...
A Better Way: Let’s Give PG&E's Customers the Reins
“I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game 'Monopoly.' ”— Steven Wright The light at the end of the utilities’ tunnel has been shut off for the hundreds of thousands of California residents who have recently lost their power, been evacuated from their homes, or worse. The...
Don’t Eat Romaine Grown in Salinas, U.S. Officials Say
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials on Friday told people to avoid romaine lettuce grown in Salinas, California, because of another food poisoning outbreak. The warning comes almost exactly one year after a similar outbreak led to a blanket warning about tainted romaine. The officials urged people not to eat...