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Tag: California

  • Robert Luna Defeats Scandal-Plagued Alex Villanueva In Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Race

    Retired Lengthy Seashore Police Leader Robert Luna is projected to win the Los Angeles Sheriff election, ousting a scandal-plagued incumbent who has time and again coated up deputy misconduct and retaliated in opposition to public officers who attempted to carry the dept responsible.

    Simply 4 years in the past, Alex Villanueva made historical past, changing into the primary Democratic sheriff and the primary candidate to defeat an incumbent sheriff in additional than 100 years. However by the point Villanueva used to be up for reelection, his fortify had evaporated. The Los Angeles County Democratic Celebration known as on him to renounce in 2021 and in the end recommended Luna previous this yr. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors additionally moved to invite citizens to present the board the authority to take away an elected sheriff. Right through the June number one election, Villanueva gained simply 30.66% of the vote, which induced a runoff with Luna, who got here in 2nd with 25.85% of the vote.

    Villanueva conceded the race Tuesday because it become transparent that the remainder uncounted ballots may now not shut the just about 20-percentage-point hole between him and Luna. County Measure A, which might give the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors the authority, by means of a supermajority vote, to take away an elected sheriff for motive, may be anticipated to cross, an extra rebuke of Villanueva. As of Tuesday, the sure votes have been forward by means of greater than 40 proportion issues.

    Regardless of operating as a Democrat with obscure guarantees of reform, Villanueva temporarily pivoted to open contempt of the individuals who voted him into place of job. He known as for placing “wokeism” “out of its distress in 2022” and refused to put in force COVID vaccine mandates amongst his team of workers. He has constantly denied the life of a well-documented gang disaster throughout the division, the place in line with whistleblowers, teams of deputies perform a shadow department of presidency. He has defied subpoenas from the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Fee associated with his dealing with of COVID-19 within the county’s jails and allegations that he attempted to hide up his deputies sharing pictures from Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash.

    Those that labored to carry the sheriff’s division responsible have confronted non-public assaults from Villanueva. For years, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division (LASD) investigated LA County Manager Sheila Kuehl, an outspoken critic of Villanueva, for taking bribes. After prosecutors declined to document fees, mentioning a loss of proof, armed LASD deputies confirmed up at Kuehl’s house and seized telephones, iPads and laptops, a transfer a Los Angeles Instances columnist described as a “vindictive political stunt.” Underneath Villanueva, LASD has additionally introduced a felony investigation into Inspector Normal Max Huntsman and sooner or later banned the county’s best watchdog from coming into LASD amenities and databases.

    After the Los Angeles Instances reported on LASD officers’ try to quilt up an incident through which a deputy knelt at the head of a handcuffed incarcerated guy for 3 mins, Villanueva threatened to head after the journalist who broke the inside track as a part of a felony leak investigation.

    Retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna has won the Los Angeles County sheriff's contest.
    Retired Lengthy Seashore Police Leader Robert Luna has received the Los Angeles County sheriff’s contest.

    Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Pictures

    As sheriff, Villanueva presides over the most important prison device within the nation, which incarcerates just about 15,000 other people — maximum of whom have now not been convicted of a criminal offense. In September, the American Civil Liberties Union accused officers of operating a “barbaric” device the place incarcerated persons are chained to chairs for days, left to sleep at the ground with out blankets, and denied get right of entry to to bogs and drugs to regard psychological sickness.

    Luna has made obscure guarantees to “reform and modernize” the sheriff’s division and “get rid of” deputy gangs, however progressives have expressed skepticism about his pastime in significant alternate. Balloting for Luna is “about hurt relief,” Knock LA, a innovative impartial media outlet, wrote in its voter information.

    “Luna meets the naked minimal necessities for a viable selection to Villanueva as sheriff — he has demonstrated that he’s able to interacting with different elected officers in a practical, optimistic style; he sees the function of sheriff as current to meet a public function past the pursuit of private grievances and political witch hunts; and he isn’t devoted to the use of his platform to magnify essentially the most disgusting right-wing conspiracy theories and extremist positions,” Knock LA wrote. “It’s an embarrassingly low bar, however he clears it.”

  • Any individual Simply Paid A Lot Of Cash For Steve Jobs’ Outdated Sandals

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California space the place Steve Jobs co-founded Apple is a historic website online, and now the sandals he wore whilst pacing its flooring were bought for just about $220,000, in keeping with an public sale space.

    The “neatly used” brown suede Birkenstocks relationship to the mid-Seventies set a document for the very best value ever paid for a couple of sandals, Julien’s Auctions mentioned Sunday.

    “The cork and jute footbed keeps the imprint of Steve Jobs’ ft, which have been formed after years of use,” the public sale space mentioned within the record on its site.

    The sandals have been anticipated to deliver $60,000, however the ultimate sale value with an accompanying NFT used to be $218,750, Julien’s mentioned. The consumer used to be no longer named.

    Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 at Jobs’ oldsters’ space in Los Altos, California. In 2013, the valuables used to be named a historical landmark by means of the Los Altos Historic Fee.

    Jobs died in 2011 from headaches of pancreatic most cancers.

  • Bob Dylan’s Teenage Love Letters Going On The Public sale Block

    A deeply private choice of love letters during which a teenage Bob Dylan tells his high-school sweetheart that he envisions converting his identify and promoting one million data goes up on the market in Boston.

    The Hibbing, Minnesota, boy — nonetheless identified then as Bob Zimmerman — wrote the 42 letters totaling 150 pages to Barbara Ann Hewitt between 1957 and 1959. The missives, to be auctioned through RR Public sale, have by no means earlier than been made public and make clear a length within the folk-rock icon’s existence for which now not a lot firsthand data is understood.

    “This archive is without doubt one of the maximum culturally necessary of the twentieth century now we have ever presented,” stated RR Public sale Govt Vice President Bobby Livingston, a large Dylan fan.

    The gathering, together with a lavish Valentine’s card, is a “first-person account of Dylan’s youth,” he stated.

    Hewitt’s daughter discovered the letters after her mom died in 2020. They, along side the unique envelopes addressed in Dylan’s handwriting, are being presented as a unmarried lot with a beginning bid of $250,000. Bidding closes on Nov. 17.

    RR Public sale isn’t freeing the precise content material of the letters forward of time, however they handle undying and common teenage considerations: garments, automobiles, and musical tastes, the public sale space stated.

    Dylan, now 81, additionally integrated snippets of poetry and professed his love for Hewitt. Most likely maximum impressively, he additionally imagined his long run good fortune.

    In a single letter, he asks Hewitt for comments about converting his identify (Little Willie and Elston are discussed within the letters), and writes about promoting one million data (he’s if truth be told offered about 125 million) and showing on “American Bandstand” in entrance of throngs of screaming ladies.

    “They in reality give an perception into how he’s going to provide himself,” Livingston stated. “It displays that Dylan dreamed all this up, and all of it got here true — he foresaw it.”

    Alas, like maximum teenage romances, it got here to an finish. In one of the most closing letters, the long run Nobel laureate asks Hewitt to go back the images he despatched her.

    However it sort of feels most probably Dylan didn’t forgot her. Hewitt’s daughter informed RR Public sale that Dylan known as her mom someday within the past due Nineteen Sixties after he’d hit the massive time and requested her to come back to California. She grew to become him down.

    Hewitt was once a redhead, and Livingston speculates that Dylan’s references to redheaded or auburn-haired ladies in some songs have been impressed through Hewitt, together with “Tangled Up in Blue” the place in a single line he wonders “if her hair was once nonetheless crimson.”

    Hewitt moved on, it sounds as if. She married any other Hibbing guy, however divorced within the past due Seventies after seven years and not remarried, her daughter informed the public sale space.

  • California Votes To Enshrine Abortion Protections In State Charter

    A California poll measure enshrining the precise to abortion and birth control within the state charter is projected to move, making sure that the Golden State will stay an oasis for reproductive rights for years yet to come.

    Proposition 1, offered to citizens by way of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) after passage within the state legislature previous this 12 months whilst the U.S. Best Court docket weighed an finish to Roe v. Wade, cements that the state “shall now not deny or intervene with a person’s reproductive freedom of their maximum intimate selections, which incorporates their elementary proper to select to have an abortion and their elementary proper to select or refuse contraceptives.”

    The ones rights are already coated by way of state legislation, however placing them within the state charter prevents them from being simply retracted if decision-makers adverse to reproductive rights ever acquire regulate in California. That’s been the truth in numerous different states the place lawmakers seized at the fall of Roe to move near-total abortion bans.

    “California is not going to stand idly by way of as extremists roll again our fundamental constitutional rights; we’re going to struggle like hell, ensuring that each one ladies — now not simply the ones in California — know that this state continues to acknowledge and offer protection to their elementary rights,” Newsom mentioned in Would possibly.

    Newsom additionally signed a number of new abortion protections into legislation in September to enlarge reproductive freedoms in California, together with by way of introducing expanded coaching choices for nurse practitioners and midwives to accomplish abortions, a ban on employers discriminating at the foundation of reproductive well being selections and necessities that medical insurance suppliers quilt some contraceptives and vasectomies with out cost-sharing.

    He additionally signed a number of items of law geared toward making it more secure for out-of-state sufferers to go back and forth to California for abortion well being care. The ones efforts come with two bans: one on well being care suppliers liberating abortion-related affected person data in accordance with out-of-state criminal movements, and one on state legislation enforcement cooperating with out-of-state jurisdictions to punish any person for coming to California for abortion care.

    Constitutional amendments to offer protection to abortion had been additionally at the ballots in Michigan and Vermont this election. Kentucky, in the meantime, introduced citizens with the chance to enact a constitutional modification stating there’s no proper to an abortion within the state.

  • Powerball Price ticket Bought In California Snags Document $2.04 Billion Jackpot

    DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Any person who purchased a Powerball price ticket in Southern California has gained a report $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot after greater than 3 months with out somebody hitting the highest prize.

    The successful numbers drawn Tuesday morning on the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee have been: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the purple Powerball used to be 10.

    The jackpot price ticket used to be offered at Joe’s Carrier Middle in Altadena, an unincorporated group within the foothills northeast of Los Angeles. A voicemail left for Joe’s Carrier Middle used to be now not in an instant returned.

    The jackpot used to be through a ways the biggest lottery prize ever gained, topping the former report $1.586 billion prize gained through 3 Powerball ticketholders in 2016. Handiest 4 earlier jackpots have crowned $1 billion, however none of the ones are with regards to the present prize, which began at $20 million again on Aug. 6 and over 3 winless months has grown huge. Nobody has gained the jackpot since Aug. 3.

    People stand in line to buy Powerball lottery tickets at the Wo Won Mini market in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles on Monday.
    Folks stand in line to shop for Powerball lottery tickets on the Wo Received Mini marketplace within the Chinatown district of Los Angeles on Monday.

    The jackpot used to be to start with reported as an estimated $1.9 billion on Monday, however the prize used to be larger to $2.04 billion Tuesday morning after up to date calculations.

    The Multi-State Lottery Affiliation stated Monday night time’s scheduled drawing used to be not on time through just about 10 hours till Tuesday as a result of a collaborating lottery had problems processing gross sales.

    The issues in preserving a drawing Monday night time have been blamed on one collaborating lottery’s lack of ability to procedure its gross sales information. After the lottery, which wasn’t known, finished its pre-draw procedures, the drawing used to be in a position to head forward.

    “Protective the integrity of the draw is of upmost significance, and we have been in a position to do this right through this historical drawing with the cooperation of all collaborating lotteries,” stated Drew Svitko, the chairman of the Powerball Product Crew and govt director of the Pennsylvania Lottery.

    Terry Wealthy, a former director of the Iowa Lottery who additionally served at the Powerball board, stated the extend used to be most probably because of a two-part verification machine of price ticket gross sales that uses an out of doors dealer to make sure all is so as earlier than the sport’s numbers are drawn.

    “Each and every state should examine via a twin procedure that all the gross sales and greenbacks fit earlier than the Multi-State Lottery Affiliation can do the draw,” stated Wealthy, who headed the Iowa Lottery for 10 years and used to be president of the North American Lottery Affiliation. “This can be a state-by-state process, which separates the entire procedure and has been very efficient.”

    Wealthy stated state lotteries take care of equivalent issues a number of occasions a 12 months however the delays typically don’t draw in a lot consideration since the doable jackpots are a ways not up to used to be up for grabs this week.

    The successful numbers and recorded video of the drawing have been posted to the Powerball’s YouTube channel.

    The $2.04 billion prize is for a winner who chooses an annuity, paid yearly over 29 years. Just about all winners as an alternative go for money, which used to be valued at $997.6 million.

    The chances of successful the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

    The sport is performed in 45 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

  • ‘Millionaire tax’ plans are at the poll in California and Massachusetts. Here is what that implies for taxpayers

    How states plan to spend ‘millionaire tax’ income

    Whilst the proposed taxes sound equivalent, there are variations in how every state plans to make use of the income. 

    In Massachusetts, assuming electorate move the measure, the tax is predicted to generate about $1.3 billion of income in 2023, in keeping with a Tufts College research. The state objectives to make use of the income to fund public training, roads, bridges and public transportation.

    California’s tax is projected to herald $3.5 billion to $5 billion every year must it move, and the state plans to make use of the income to pay for zero-emissions automobile methods and wildfire reaction and prevention.

    Whether or not electorate reinforce upper source of revenue taxes or no longer, income plans frequently impact the effects on Election Day, mavens say.

    “Now we have observed electorate reject source of revenue tax will increase on top earners, even if it applies to slightly few folks,” mentioned Jared Walczak, vice chairman of state tasks on the Tax Basis. “And we now have observed them include source of revenue tax adjustments that will impact many.”

    Now we have observed electorate reject source of revenue tax will increase on top earners, even if it applies to slightly few folks.

    Jared Walczak

    Vp of state tasks on the Tax Basis

    Total, there may be one transparent pattern with state tax ballots: Electorate care in regards to the plans for the cash, he mentioned.

    With price range earmarked for zero-emissions automobile subsidies, Proposition 30 is antagonistic via Gov. Gavin Newsom, who believes the measure will negatively affect the state’s economic system with no get advantages that “extensively accrues to Californians,” Walczak mentioned.

    There is been a push for revolutionary taxes in Massachusetts

    Every other issue that can impact electorate is the present source of revenue tax construction in every state, mavens say.

    “Massachusetts has been speaking about making a revolutionary tax price for a very long time,” mentioned Richard Auxier, senior coverage affiliate on the City-Brookings Tax Coverage Heart, noting the present flat source of revenue tax is 5% without reference to source of revenue.

    “A part of that is they would like that talent to shift one of the most total state’s tax burden up the ladder,” he mentioned.

    In contrast, California has a graduated state source of revenue tax device, with a most sensible price of 13.3% for people making over $1 million in step with yr.

    “California already has very top most sensible marginal [tax] charges,” Walczak mentioned. “Despite the fact that electorate are extensively in choose of revolutionary taxes and reinforce upper charges on top earners, they are going to really feel that it is going a ways sufficient.”

    Walczak mentioned he does no longer imagine the proposed millionaire taxes are a part of a broader pattern on the state degree. Since 2021, some 21 states have slashed person source of revenue taxes, and just one state, New York, and the District of Columbia have raised levies. 

    “You’ll’t learn a lot into what electorate need based totally simply on poll get admission to,” he added.

    Federal plans for upper taxes at the wealthiest American citizens have faltered

    In spite of the rising hobby in taxing the ultrawealthy, federal proposals have failed to realize traction. 

    After freeing dueling wealth tax proposals all through the 2020 presidential primaries, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in conjunction with different Democrats, in March 2021 floated the Extremely-Millionaire Tax Act, a 2% annual tax on wealth over $50 million and three% on wealth over $1 billion.

    And Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in October 2021 proposed a plan for a tax affecting American citizens with greater than $1 billion of wealth or an adjusted gross source of revenue exceeding $100 million for 3 consecutive years.

    In March, President Joe Biden unveiled a wealth tax proposal as a part of his 2023 funds, calling for a 20% levy on families value greater than $100 million.

    Whilst many American citizens approve of upper taxes at the ultrawealthy, those plans have failed to realize vast reinforce.

  • This app will alert you ahead of an earthquake hits the West Coast

    1000’s of California citizens had been alerted forward of Tuesday’s magnitude 5.1 earthquake within the Bay Space, because of the MyShake app.

    The app, which used to be evolved via the Berkeley Seismology Lab, alerted 95,000 units of the earthquake as much as 18 seconds ahead of the quake, advising customers to “drop, quilt and cling on,” mentioned officers from the California Place of work of Emergency Control and USGS.

    Since Tuesday’s alert, signups for the app have surged, with over 2 million registered telephones, in keeping with the app’s information web page.

    Somebody can obtain the MyShake app, however the gadget is most effective totally operational in California, Oregon and Washington. You will have to obtain signals without reference to whether or not your telephone is on “Do Now not Disturb,” however the app will most effective mean you can know if a three.5 magnitude earthquake or above is detected.

    Here is the way to obtain and use it.

    Easy methods to use the MyShake earthquake alert app

    MyShake App detecting the magnitude 5.1 earthquake in California’s Bay Space.

    Sofia Pitt

    Obtain the MyShake app on Apple’s App Retailer, or within the Google Play retailer if in case you have an Android telephone.Open the app.It is going to ask if you wish to permit it to trace your location and ship you notifications and demanding signals. Choose “Permit” for notifications and signals. You can nonetheless obtain emergency signals even supposing you do not permit MyShake to trace your location.Select whether or not you reside in California, Oregon or Washington.Throughout the app, you’ll see contemporary earthquakes, document earthquakes you revel in and be told protection ways. Every of those choices is to be had via toggling in the course of the choices at the backside menu of the app this is situated horizontally at the display.You can obtain a noisy notification for your telephone when an earthquake is set to hit. A message will seem and advise you to “drop, quilt and cling on,” supplying you with a couple of seconds’ caution to offer protection to your self.Bonus tip: Be certain your iPhone apps do not mechanically uninstall

    In the event you’ve ever spotted that an app you wish to have for your iPhone has uninstalled, that is as a result of there is a atmosphere enabled known as “Offload Unused Apps” that mechanically uninstalls apps you have not used shortly so as to optimize cupboard space. You could most effective want this app while you use it, so that you will have to flip off this feature for your iPhone first. Here is the way to disable this atmosphere.

    Open Settings.Choose App Retailer.Flip off the Offload Unused Apps choice.

    That is it!

  • See Why This Surfer Is Having A ‘Sharknado’ Enjoy

    You recognize the tacky film franchise “Sharknado,” about tornadoes stuffed with airborne sharks?

    A Southern California surfer had his personal enjoy with a flying shark when a really perfect white breached the water as he rode a wave in San Onofre State Seaside on Saturday ― and photographer Jordan Anast captured the instant.

    Anast instructed HuffPost on Wednesday he had “by no means sooner than” shot such a picture.

    “My web page and my Instagram have blown up,” he stated. “The visitors is incredible as this factor has long past international.”

    “It’s a shot I’ll by no means get once more,” Anast instructed the newspaper. “It simply looks as if ‘Sharknado,’ it doesn’t glance actual.”

    The surfer, Tyler Warren, didn’t understand the shark amid the uneven stipulations throughout the once a year San Onofre Browsing Membership contest, Anast instructed For the Win.

    Different competition stated the good white looked to be ambushing a pelican, the membership wrote on Fb. Sharks can breach 10 toes within the air to seek however it’s uncommon, consistent with a Smithsonian web page.

    The photobombing shark was once stated to be a really perfect white juvenile about 9 toes lengthy, Chris Lowe of Cal State Lengthy Seaside’s Shark Lab estimated, consistent with For the Win.

  • Instructor Charged With Hiding Lacking California Teenager For Just about 2 Years

    A California schoolteacher is going through fees after being accused of harboring a lacking youngster in her house for almost two years.

    Holga Castillo Olivares, 61, used to be arrested Thursday following a monthslong investigation into the inexplicable go back of the 17-year-old to his Sacramento-area house again in March, the Rancho Cordova Police Division mentioned.

    Michael Ramirez, then 15, used to be final observed leaving his Rancho Cordova house on Would possibly 18, 2020, and used to be formally reported lacking a couple of weeks later, sparking what government known as an “intensive seek.”

    “You assume the worst. You assume absolutely the worst,” Katte Smith, one of the most youngster’s felony guardians, advised native station KCRA of her circle of relatives’s anguish.

    Smith mentioned Michael fled house after a confrontation over space regulations. When he in the end returned this spring, she mentioned he advised her that he had long gone to stick on the house of his former early life female friend, whose mom is Olivares.

    “We felt so robbed of all this time with him,” Smith mentioned. “You’ll’t simply conceal any individual’s child and assume that’s OK.”

    Olivares used to be charged final week with one legal rely of concealing a minor and one misdemeanor rely of luring a kid clear of their oldsters with out the fogeys’ consent, in keeping with a replica of the legal criticism.

    A spokesperson for the Sacramento County district lawyer’s place of job used to be no longer ready to mention whether or not Olivares has an lawyer. She used to be granted a pretrial unlock from custody Monday and ordered to haven’t any touch with Michael or his guardians, CBS 13 reported.

    The Sacramento Town Unified Faculty District showed her employment with the district and mentioned that she has been put on administrative depart pending the result of a district investigation. A district spokesperson declined to remark additional at the subject.

  • Regardless of Protests And Calls for, LA Town Council Participants Nonetheless No longer Resigning

    Two Los Angeles Town Council participants embroiled in an explosive racism scandal are refusing to renounce. Disregarding days of protests out of doors their houses and Town Corridor and rejecting calls for from as top up as President Joe Biden to step down, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo appear to be staying put.

    “No, I will be able to no longer renounce as a result of there may be numerous paintings forward,” de León instructed Noticiero Univision Tuesday, which launched a partial transcript of the interview.

    He used to be one among 4 town officers secretly recorded attractive in a dialog that used to be recorded a 12 months in the past however launched through The Los Angeles Instances previous this month. The since-resigned Council President Nury Martinez made a number of racist and crass remarks in it, similar to calling the Black son of any other council member “parece changuito” or “is sort of a monkey” ― taking part in right into a racist trope.

    Los Angeles City Council members Gil Cedillo, left, and Kevin de León, both Democrats, have been steadfast in their refusals despite immense pressure from the party.
    Los Angeles Town Council participants Gil Cedillo, left, and Kevin de León, each Democrats, had been steadfast of their refusals in spite of immense power from the birthday party.

    When Martinez mentioned that colleague, Mike Bonin, paraded his son round like an “accent,” de León didn’t chase away. As a substitute, he joined in at the merciless comic story, announcing Bonin treated his son the way in which Martinez carries her Louis Vuitton bag.

    In any other interview with CBS2 on Tuesday, de León showed he would no longer renounce however conceded that he “shouldn’t have made that flippant commentary.”

    Cedillo, the opposite council member provide for the taped dialog, has no longer spoken up since issuing an preliminary apology.

    “Obviously, I must have intervened,” he mentioned of his failure to talk up all through Martinez’s racist rant. However Cedillo maintained in his apology that he didn’t really “interact within the dialog” or make racist remarks.

    Former chief of the California Senate de León instructed CBS2 that because the scandal broke, he has no longer been in contact with Martinez, Cedillo or former Los Angeles County Federation of Exertions President Ron Herrera ― who used to be additionally provide for the dialog and used to be the primary to renounce from his place.

    Cedillo and de León, each Democrats, had been steadfast of their refusals in spite of immense power from the birthday party. Everybody from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to Biden has referred to as for them to depart place of work like Martinez and Herrera. Appearing Los Angeles Town Council President Mitch O’Farrell got rid of either one of them from all in their committee assignments on Monday, however that has no longer swayed them.