Wildland firefighters don’t admit to fearing much, but lightning is one terror that even the most experienced veterans say they hope to never encounter. The worry is not being struck by a bolt, although it can be deadly. Instead, their primary concern is that lightning, slashing down in remote areas, can trigger unseen fires that […]
California
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Students with Disabilities Across California Stuck in Limbo
The school year at Duarte Unified School District, 20 miles east of Los Angeles, started a month ago, but Brady, Ellie and Jack Fitzgibbons have yet to receive any instruction from their teachers. The 13-year-old triplets are on the autism spectrum, and their mother Julie Fitzgibbons didn’t feel safe sending them to school because she […]
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California Commits $500 Million More to Student Housing: ‘A Drop in the Bucket’
Free tuition is great, and California excels at that compared to the rest of the country. But with rents sky high, affordable housing has become the chief expense for most students – and relief is harder to come by. Lawmakers have a plan for that: They’ve poured $500 million into this year’s state budget so […]
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Polling error: How One Survey Changed the Newsom Recall Campaign
The panic started to set in for California Democrats in the last week of July. First, there was a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll on July 27, which showed that likely voters were just about evenly split on whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom deserves to keep his job. A few days later […]
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State Parks Seeks Public Input on Patrick’s Point Name Change to Honor Yurok Tribe
California State Parks is seeking public input on a proposal to change Patrick’s Point State Park to Sue-meg State Park to honor the original name as used by the Yurok Tribe since time immemorial. “At the formal request of the Yurok Tribe to rename the park, State Parks supports the proposal to change the park […]
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California Recall Candidates Stretch the Truth on COVID, Climate Change and More
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. That holds true for politicians, including the candidates in California’s Sept. 14 recall election and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Campaigning during a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic and deadly, unprecedented wildfires, their approaches to the state’s problems can vary. But the facts behind some of those […]
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Bill to Protect Dudleya from Poaching on Newsom’s Desk
A California bill aimed at protecting dudleya, sometimes called “live-forevers,” from the international black market by imposing stiff fines for illegally taking the succulents from public and private lands is now sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The bill authored by Assembymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) and sponsored by the California Native Plant Society comes […]
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California Can Keep Thirstiest Crops, State Ag Chief Tells ‘State of Mind’ Podcast
The head of California’s agriculture agency said on the California State of Mind podcast that even devastating drought doesn’t mean the state must uproot its thirstiest crops. Instead says Karen Ross, head of state Department of Food and Agriculture, improvements in water usage among some of the state’s biggest water consumers will help solve the problem. […]
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Not Enough Subs: California Schools Face Severe Teacher Shortage
Kelly Rhoden, the principal at Nevada Union High School, spent her morning Monday scrambling to find substitutes for her absent teachers. The school, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, has 86 teachers. Thirteen were out on Monday. “We have quite a few teachers out either because they’ve tested positive, they’re symptomatic, or they have their […]
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Register to Vote by Monday to Get a Recall Ballot in the Mail
The last day to register to vote in order to receive a mailed ballot for next month’s recall election is Monday, according to the Humboldt County Elections Office. The Sept. 14 vote will determine whether Gov. Gavin Newsom, who took office in 2019, keeps his job. Voters are being asked two questions on the ballot. […]
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Humboldt Judge Rescinds Release of Convicted Sex Offender
A Humboldt County Superior Court judge issued a ruling last week striking his December of 2016 order for the conditional release of a local man who’s been designated as a Sexually Violent Predator. According to a Humboldt District Attorney’s Office news release, Judge John Feeney’s Aug. 13 ruling was based not only on the inability […]