Wildfire breaks out in Southern California, mandatory evacuations issued
A fast-moving wildfire erupted Tuesday, Jan. 7, in the Pacific Palisades, roughly 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. Residents have been issued mandatory evacuations as firefighters battle the flames in steep, rugged terrain.
The Palisades Fire, fueled by a strong windstorm and ongoing drought, broke out near a neighborhood between Santa Monica and Malibu. By evening, the fire had spread to Los Angeles, growing to over 2,900 acres.
Los Angeles officials declared a state of emergency, as nearly 30,000 people had to evacuate their homes.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on X that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant to support local fire departments with response costs.
Numerous fire crews are working to contain the fast-moving flames. However, firefighters have had difficulty getting their trucks up Palisades Drive after residents abandoned their vehicles in the middle of the roadway.
KTLA spoke with actor Steve Guttenberg, who lives nearby and offered to help.
“If anybody has a car and they leave their car, leave the keys in the car so that we can move your car,” said Guttenberg. “So that these fire trucks can get up Palisades Drive. What happens is people take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot. This is not a parking lot. We really need people to move their cars.”
California declares state of emergency over H5N1 virus in dairy cattle
California has declared a state of emergency after it reportedly has the country’s highest rate of H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu, affecting dairy cattle. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation Wednesday, Dec. 18, to “further enhance the state’s preparedness and accelerate the ongoing cross-agency response efforts” to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The state’s Department of Food and Agriculture is reporting 645 infected dairy herds. 311 of those detected are in the last 30 days. California is now experiencing more bird flu outbreaks in cattle than any other state.
Newsom said, “This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need.”
The state of emergency follows a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which confirmed the first severe human case of bird flu in the U.S. The patient, hospitalized in Louisiana, caught H5N1.
However, the CDC notes that this particular genotype of the virus differs from the one currently found in dairy cattle.
While the source of the patient’s infection remains unclear, the CDC confirms the patient was in close proximity to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks.
To protect yourself, the CDC advises avoiding contact with sick or dead birds, particularly wild birds and poultry. The agency also warns against touching surfaces or materials contaminated with bodily fluids from birds or other animals suspected of being infected with avian influenza.
So far, there are 61 reports of human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the United States. The CDC also states there have been no cases of person-to-person transmission of the virus. Pasteurized milk remains safe to consume.
California voters made their voices heard, loud and clear, during November’s election to clean up crime across the state. A sweeping majority checked “yes” to Proposition 36 to punish repeat criminal offenders.
Prop. 36 became law on Wednesday across the state of California. It makes some theft and drug crimes a felony charge, including crimes involving the controlled substance fentanyl.
The law received the backing of law enforcement, businesses and lawmakers. They said it would address the state’s homelessness and fentanyl issue. During the pandemic, Los Angeles, Alameda, Sacramento and San Mateo counties saw an influx in shoplifting and burglaries.
District attorneys are working together on protocols under the new law, which will make it easier for big box stores and customers to report crimes.
Sacramento County’s District Attorney Thien Ho said the new law adds another tool for prosecutors.
“If you have two prior convictions for theft. The third can be charged as a felony. We can now combine and aggregate multiple cases together to charge a felony. When arrested, you will be taken to jail,” Ho said.
The new measure counters Proposition 47, reversing parts of what voters approved ten years ago to reduce California’s overcrowded prisons. Theft and drug crimes were reduced from felony convictions to misdemeanors.
While some touted the landmark law as a reform to crime, retailers and law enforcement blame the 2014 passage for the state’s rise in crime. The Public Policy Institute of California reported that shoplifting merchandise worth up to $950 increased by 28% over the last five years.
Supporters said since the law gives some people an option to seek drug help instead of prison time, it will address California’s drug crisis.
Prop. 36 creates a new category of crime called “treatment-mandated felony,” allowing a judge to order treatment and prevent people from returning to the streets.
Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the law. He said Prop. 36 is based on lies and said there aren’t any residential treatment facilities for drug users in 21 of California’s counties. He tried to launch a countermeasure on the November ballot but ultimately canceled his efforts.
Newsom also pointed to Prop. 47, which helped save taxpayers more than $800 million in prison costs for petty crimes.
Top Democratic leaders and civil groups joined Newsom. They said the new proposition marks a “War on Drugs” and fails to address poverty or crime.
According to the state’s legislative analyst office, the new law will cost California millions of dollars while the prison population increases and court officials’ workload spikes.
Huntington Beach gets Calif. lawsuit against its voter ID law dismissed
The state of California’s attempt to stop Huntington Beach’s voter ID law lost in court on Monday, Dec. 16. The city said a state judge dismissed a lawsuit from the California attorney general and secretary of state that argued the city mandate violated the state constitution.
Huntington Beach’s voter-approved rule requires a photo ID to vote starting in 2026 for city elections.
Huntington Beach’s Mayor Pat Burns celebrated the ruling by the superior court.
“This is a big loss for the state of California and a major success for the city of Huntington Beach,” Burns wrote on X.
California aims to protect kids with social media warning labels
A new bill introduced Monday, Dec. 9, in California’s Legislature, would, if passed, make it the first state to mandate mental health warning labels on social media sites. Supporters of the proposal say it is needed to protect children’s online safety and stop social media companies from viewing kids as a “commodity.”
Victoria Hinks, who says her 16-year-old daughter died by suicide after she was “led down dark rabbit holes” on social media that glorified eating disorders and promoted self-harm, supports the bill.
However, Big Tech is vowing to fight the measures, with industry officials arguing that the rule violates the First Amendment on the grounds it is “compelled speech.” They contend lawmakers should put their efforts toward online education and mental health resources.
State lawmakers have not given specifics on the bill but say the warnings could pop up once a week.
California’s past efforts to take on Big Tech involved the state suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in 2023 and TikTok in October. Both suits accused the companies of creating addictive features that keep children obsessed with their platforms.
House Republicans block release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
Republicans block efforts by their Democratic colleagues to release the House Ethics Committee’s report on its investigation into former Congressman Matt Gaetz. And the manhunt continues for the gunman in the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Friday, Dec. 6, 2024.
House Republicans block release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
The House Ethics Committee’s report on its investigation into former Congressman Matt Gaetz will not be made public — at least for now. Thursday, Dec. 5, House Republicans blocked two separate Democratic resolutions to release the report, voting to refer the matter back to the committee.
Lawmakers voted along almost entirely party lines to table an effort from Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) to force the report’s immediate release, saying the former Florida congressman is no longer under the House’s jurisdiction because he resigned.
Gaetz left Congress last month after President-elect Donald Trump announced he was nominating the Republican lawmaker to become the nation’s next attorney general. That all happened just days before the ethics report was supposed to be released.
Gaetz later withdrew from consideration for the job after it became clear he would not get the Senate support needed to win confirmation, amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor and illicit drug use. He’s also denied those allegations.
Another effort by Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee was also blocked.
Casten blasted the House’s decision in a statement after the vote, saying, “Today, the majority of the House of Representatives took the easy way out. They could have ensured a vote on whether or not former members should be held accountable when they face serious and credible allegations of sexual misconduct — including having sex with minors. Instead, the House voted to sweep these allegations under the rug and set an unfortunate precedent that, if you are ever facing scrutiny, resigning from Congress can make your problems go away.”
Casten added he will continue to try to get the report released.
Tonight the House of Representatives voted to sweep credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.
I retain options to pursue the release of the Gaetz Report.
Congressman Michael Guest (R-MS), the committee chairman, said there no longer is the same urgency to release the report because Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump’s choice to head the Justice Department.
Elon Musk spent more than $250 million getting Trump re-elected
Billionaire Elon Musk spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars in supporting Donald Trump’s reelection, according to Federal Election Commission filings released late Thursday, Dec. 5. While that accounts for just a fraction of Musk’s wealth as the richest man in the world, it’s a massive amount to come from just one single donor.
Musk donated most of that money to his America PAC, making three donations of $25 million each in the final weeks of the race. Over the course of the campaign, he gave America PAC a total of $239 million in cash and in-kind contributions.
Musk also spent more than $40 million on checks to voters in swing states who signed a petition in support of the Constitution.
According to the filings, Musk also put $20 million into a PAC named after the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That PAC was behind political ads claiming Trump does not support a federal abortion ban and he and Ginsburg had that in common.
New images released as manhunt continues in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing
Police have released new information about the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as the manhunt continues for the gunman. Investigators released new images Thursday of a hooded man who they say is “a person of interest” wanted for questioning in the slaying of the health insurance executive.
Police sources confirmed to multiple news outlets the images were taken from a surveillance camera inside a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Officials said the man used a fake New Jersey ID to check into the hostel.
The sources said the suspect is believed to have traveled from Atlanta to New York City on a Greyhound bus the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, then later checked in to the hostel. Greyhound is reportedly cooperating with the investigation.
The gunman shot Thompson multiple times at point-blank range as he was walking into a New York City Hilton hotel. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities said the shooting was “premeditated” and a “brazen, targeted attack.”
According to multiple reports, the bullet casings located at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them. The gun used in the shooting has not been recovered.
Police are still searching for a motive in the deadly shooting.
Aftershocks rock California after magnitude 7 earthquake
Dozens of aftershocks have been reported in California after a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake rattled a large part of the west coast Thursday. The epicenter of the earthquake was around 50 miles southwest of the northern port city Eureka in the Pacific Ocean.
A tsunami warning briefly went into effect from Oregon down to central California, but that has since been canceled. Evacuation orders have also been lifted.
California’s governor signed a state of emergency and said damage assessments are underway. So far, only minor damage and no injuries have been reported.
NASA delays next two manned moon missions
We’ve waited decades to see an astronaut walk on the moon again, and now, we’ll have to wait a little longer.
NASA announced Thursday it is delaying its next two Artemis moon missions to address an issue with the Orion crew capsule that will be housing the astronauts and its heat shield. The agency said the Artemis II mission that will fly a crew around the moon has been pushed from September of this year to no earlier than April of 2026.
The Artemis III mission, which will see the first moon landing in more than 50 years, set for 2026 will now happen no earlier than mid-2027.
Taylor Swift’s recording-breaking Eras tour ends this weekend
The tour kicked off in March of last year with Swift putting on the 3.5-hour concert more than 150 times in front of sold-out crowds across five continents.
Earthquake rattles California as a tsunami warning is sent out
An earthquake has rattled northern California, leading the National Weather Service to issue a tsunami warning to millions of people. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 7.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean near Petrolia, California, the morning of Thursday, Dec. 5.
Officials believe the earthquake had an epicenter of 40 miles with millions feeling the force of the quake.
California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, set up an emergency operations center following the earthquake as his office works to assess the impact. His team also plans to meet with local officials in the affected areas.
Local authorities sent out an evacuation order to coastal residents in the tsunami’s zone urging everyone to find higher ground, echoing the National Weather Service’s message.
“You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return,” read the message.
The yellow alert has since expired according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning System, it acted as a safety precaution to the coastline from southern Oregon all the way down to Santa Cruz, California.
Damage has not been reported but officials tell residents to prepare for continuous and smaller aftershocks.
Solar panels costing California residents, why energy bills increased in 2024
California’s solar panels are driving up electricity bills for residents while making power cheaper for customers in other states. The Golden State is producing more solar power than it can use, leading to significant energy waste and financial losses.
Over the past 12 months, California curtailed more than 3 million megawatt-hours of solar energy, enough to power over 500,000 homes for a year. This issue has grown as the state’s solar capacity increased about 20-fold over the last 11 years, with the amount of solar energy wasted in 2024 now more than doubling the total in 2021 and climbing eight times higher than in 2017.
Experts estimate the retail value of the curtailed energy in 2024 exceeds $1 billion. California’s sunny climate is ideal for solar energy production, but peak demand typically occurs at night, leaving a portion of what is generated in the daytime unused.
Industrial-scale batteries, which could store excess energy for later use, are costly, often twice as expensive as the solar panels themselves. Most current systems only store energy for four hours, which is insufficient to meet overnight demand.
This oversupply contributed to California’s electric rates being around twice the national average, as residents effectively pay for unused power. Since 2021, the state’s largest utility providers have raised rates by 51%, but the situation could be worse if California was not sending some of its surplus solar energy to other states.
Ultimately, out-of-state utilities benefit more from this arrangement than Californians. For example, Arizona’s largest public utility saved $69 million in 2023 by purchasing California’s excess solar energy, passing the savings on to customers through bill credits. Similarly, New Mexico’s largest utility saved $34 million in 2022 by buying surplus solar power from California.
California’s increasing solar energy production also caused the price of electricity sold out of state to plummet. Prices have dropped so low that they occasionally become negative, forcing solar plants to pay energy traders to take the power.
Despite these challenges, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he plans to add another 70 gigawatts of industrial solar capacity by 2045. The plan requires enough solar panels to cover an area nearly half the size of Rhode Island. The initiative aims to make California’s electrical grid carbon-free over the next two decades, but experts warn that high curtailment rates could hinder this goal.
Newsom’s advisers are exploring solutions, including expanding industrial-scale battery storage to save excess solar power for high-demand periods, attempting to direct more of those renewable energy benefits towards the Californians who paid for it.
CA bill would prioritize descendants of slaves for college admissions
A California lawmaker plans to introduce a bill to the state’s Assembly on Monday, Dec. 2, that would give admissions priority to descendants of slaves at the University of California and California State University, The Associated Press reported. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat representing communities in Los Angeles and Culver City, is also a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus.
Bryan told the AP he intends to introduce the bill after new members are sworn in and gather for a special session aimed at protecting California’s progressive policies before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ended race-based admissions at colleges and universities when justices reversed affirmative action. However, legacy admissions remain acceptable, which critics argue favors alumni children and donors, making the admissions process even more biased against students of color.
Bryan told the AP, “For decades, universities gave preferential admission treatment to donors, and their family members, while others tied to legacies of harm were ignored and at times outright excluded. We have a moral responsibility to do all we can to right those wrongs.”
The state of California created a Black Reparations Task Force to study the effects of slavery on the state and how it impacts Black Californians. To date, the task force has been unsuccessful in getting any reparations recommendations written into bills, passed or signed into law.
“When folks think about reparations, they think about just cash payments. But repairing the harm and the inequality that came from slavery and the policies thereafter is a much bigger process,” Bryan said.
In September, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed Black families to file claims for land lost through discriminatory eminent domain practices.
Newsom to propose $25M in special session to ‘Trump-proof’ California
California lawmakers are meeting Monday, Dec. 2 for a special session with Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom set to propose a so-called “Trump-proof” legal defense fund. Newsom is trying to protect his state’s progressive policies. He called for the special session just days after President-elect Donald Trump won a second term.
The proposed $25 million plan is an effort to defend California’s investments, including federal disaster grants and clean air protections, as well as protecting climate change laws, abortion rights and immigration policies.
Trump responded to Newsom’s announcement in November on Truth Social.
“He is using the term “Trump-proof” as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to “Make California Great Again,” but I just overwhelmingly won the Election. People are being forced to leave due to his, & other’s, INSANE POLICY DECISIONS,” Trump wrote.
Newsom and Trump have a history of going back and forth on issues and trading insults. Trump gave Newsom the nickname “Newscum,” with Newsom calling Trump “deranged” and “unhinged.”
According to the Governor’s office, Newsom’s $25 million request for the California Department of Justice will go toward increasing staff and supporting ongoing legal challenges.
The state sued Trump’s administration during his first term more than 120 times, winning cases that protected California’s stricter vehicle-emission standards and protected the legal status of migrants brought to the U.S. as children.
“We will work with the incoming administration and we want President Trump to succeed serving all Americans,” Newsom said in a statement Monday, Dec. 2. “But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted. We will take action.”
Republican lawmakers, including California Rep. Vince Fong, criticized Newsom over the special session.
“Gavin Newsom’s actions are tone-deaf to the concerns of Californians who disapprove of the direction of our state and country,” Fong said in a video on social media.
Newsom said he wants the funding in place before Trump’s inauguration.