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Digital business entrepreneur Katherine Power has bought a century-old mansion in Bel-Air for $27 million — or $16 million off its initial asking price.
The co-founder of fashion e-commerce site Who What Wear and her husband, celebrity photographer Justin Coit, purchased the 8,800-square-foot English Tudor-style mansion at 620 Siena Way in an off-market deal, according to the Robb Report.
The seller was Canadian media heiress and actress Taylor Thomson, who listed the house in late 2021 for $43 million. Thomson bought the eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom house in 2001 for $7.4 million.
The stone mansion, built in 1926, was designed by Hoover Dam architect Gordon Kaufmann.
The billionaire Thomson conducted a meticulous restoration of the 1-acre estate, among the first in Bel-Air.
As a result, many of its coveted architectural and interior-design qualities remain, including beamed ceilings, arched doorways, a stone fireplace in the living room and a wood-paneled library, according to Robb.
Thomson updated the kitchen with new appliances, retaining its 1920s-style floor-to-ceiling tiled walls.
A fan of decorative tiling, Thomson also added a guest house to the property, outfitting it with elaborate tile and stone floors and tile features inspired by Moroccan and Turkish designs. The guest house, with a three-car garage, has a bathtub made of an old copper cheese vat.
The grounds, dotted with mature sycamores and redwoods, has an English-style garden, a fruit and vegetable garden, and a chicken coop. A large pool and spa is surrounded by a grassy lawn.
Power, the home’s new owner, runs beauty brands Merit and Versed, and owns the organic wine brand Avaline with actress Cameron Diaz. Her fashion-shopping website Who What Wear was acquired in 2022 by the British media company Future for an undisclosed sum.
Power and Coit still also own a 1920s Spanish-Colonial home in Little Holmby they bought in 2015 for $4.2 million, which they renovated and showcased in Architectural Digest.
Thomson, ranked as Canada’s second-richest woman and heir to the media empire founded by her grandfather Roy Thomson, has a family share in Woodbridge, a holding company with a controlling stake in Thomson Reuters.
Before she listed her Bel-Aire estate, Thomson bought a 14,000-square-foot Pacific Palisades home in 2021 from Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith for $48.6 million, according to Robb. She also owns a Santa Monica compound with a starring role in “Beverly Hills Cop” and an 1880s mansion once owned by Gordon Lightfoot in Toronto’s Bridle Path neighborhood.
Santa Monica, subject of more than a dozen builder’s remedy housing applications, has won recognition as a “prohousing” city by the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the beach city earned the designation by accelerating housing approvals and maneuvering around red tape, L.A. Business First reported.
He also named Eureka, Healdsburg, Mountain View, Petaluma, San Luis Obispo and Tulare County among the California jurisdictions supportive of home development.
Officials in each city will work with the state on affordable housing growth.
Prohousing communities, of which 37 have been named, aim to support a state goal of building 2.5 million new homes by 2030 by reducing barriers to construction and relaxing housing policies.
The communities, which include Los Angeles, Long Beach, Riverside, Moreno Valley, Fontana and Needles, are also favored by the Department of Housing and Community Development when it comes to state incentives and infrastructure funding.
Santa Monica has made strides in housing in part through its Affordable Housing Production Program, according to the state.
The program requires developers of market-rate apartment projects to contribute to affordable housing.
Some 30 percent of newly constructed multifamily housing in Santa Monica must be affordable to and occupied by low- and moderate-income households. Restrictions in income are placed on the property for a 55-year period.
Santa Monica was among the first cities where developers took advantage of the builder’s remedy. The loophole in state housing law allows builders to bypass local zoning rules in cities that had failed to certify their housing plans, provided the project includes at least 20 percent affordable housing.
In 2022, Santa Monica-based WS Communities helped kick off a statewide mania — and a local panic — by filing more than a dozen builder’s remedy applications that totalled more than 4,500 units.
Newsom said the state needs to “aggressively build more housing” to support Californians.
“Prohousing cities move to the front of the line when it comes to incentives, funding and other state resources. It’s critical for more communities to join in this distinction and build their fair share of housing,” the governor said in a statement.
We often say that motion is the lotion for your joints.
The impact of movement, even gentle movement, can be extremely beneficial to overall health.
But many of our jobs have become more sedentary, with long days sitting at a desk. This inaction negatively affects your joint mobility and health by tightening your hip flexor and hamstring muscles, putting excessive stress on your joints and stiffening them.
Prolonged sitting with poor posture overworks the muscles in your neck, back and spinal ligaments – straining the discs and surrounding structures in the spine. Inactivity for long hours may also cause your bones to lose strength, contributing to osteoporosis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 15 million Americans have severe joint pain. This pain can limit a person’s ability to perform basic functions and compromise their quality of life.
While most people associate joint pain or loss of bone strength with older adults, that doesn’t mean it can’t impact young people too. Young people may brush off their symptoms because they think they’re too young, but if you’re experiencing joint pain, don’t ignore it.
Too much damage to your joints leads to chronic pain and may require you to have joint replacement surgery, so it is important to take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening.
Research points to the simple fix – less sitting and more moving.
Physical activity helps you maintain a healthy weight, prevent muscle loss, improve bone density, and protect your joints from excessive wear and tear by absorbing the forces impacting them. When you walk, jog, climb stairs or lift weights, your bones and muscles become stronger to provide stability for your body while moving.
When movement is not possible, using an ergonomic chair provides benefits by supporting your posture and reducing the strain on your spine, neck and joints while sitting. Try to keep the spine in a neutral position and adjust your computer so it is high enough to avoid looking downward.
Other ways to prevent negative effects of sitting on your joints include:
Stand up for five minutes every hour.
Take brisk walks throughout the day, especially during phone calls.
Incorporate stretches or yoga into your workday.
If you are experiencing chronic joint pain and find yourself needing medical intervention, MemorialCare Joint Replacement Center at Long Beach Medical Center is ranked among the best U.S. hospitals in orthopedics by U.S. News & World Report. Orthopedic surgeons at Long Beach Medical Center diagnosis your injury or disorder, provide treatment with medication, exercise, surgery or other treatment plans depending on your specialized needs.
If medication and physical therapy fail to provide relief, the Joint Replacement Center offers the latest robotic technology for a complete spectrum of care, including hip, knee, shoulder and ankle replacement.
Dr. Andrew J. Wassef is a fellowship-trained, board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Long Beach – Lakewood Orthopedic Institute in Long Beach. He serves as the medical director of the MemorialCare Joint Replacement Center at Long Beach Medical Center.
An atmospheric river storm has moved into Southern California. It’s expected to be stronger and slower (meaning it will last longer), leading to flooding risks, heavy mountain snow and strong winds.
The National Weather Service called the weather system “the largest storm of the season” and is expecting the storm to have “dangerous, even life-threatening impacts.” A number of evacuation orders and warnings have been issued across the region in preparation.
Here’s what you need to know about the storm:
When will it rain in Southern California?
The rain slowly moved into the region from the north Sunday morning, brining light showers to Ventura County. The storm will only intensify moving forward and is expected to last into Tuesday and Wednesday. The storm system could produce 48 hours of continuous rain.
3 a.m. Monday: Ventura County gets a break as brunt of the storm moves into San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.
Monday into Tuesday: The storm continues to push through the region dumping rain and snow. Flooding is a major concern with this storm system.
When will it snow in Southern California mountains?
The snow began Sunday in the mountains. Snow is expected to hit the mountains for most of the week.
Heavy rain is also expected in the area. Flooding is very possible in mountain communities.
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What is an atmospheric river and what does it have to do with this storm?
The storm is a combination of a cold front flowing down from Alaska and an atmospheric river pushing across the Pacific.
Atmospheric rivers “typically occur ahead of cold fronts across the Pacific,” said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Oravec. “And when they interact with the West Coast topography, you often get some very heavy rain both along the coastal ranges and also inland through the Sierras.”
Models suggest the storm could intensify as it approaches the coast of California, a process called bombogenesis in which a spinning low-pressure system rapidly deepens, said Daniel Swain a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles in an online briefing Tuesday. The process is popularly called a bomb cyclone.
How much rain can Southern California see?
“This system will likely produce 24 to 36 hours (or more) of continuous rain,” the weather service wrote Thursday in a forecast update.
Los Angeles and Orange counties could see up to 5 inches of rain between Sunday and Tuesday. The valleys and the Inland Empire could see between 3 inches to 7 inches of rain.
In the mountains and foothills, communities could see 6 to 12 inches of rain — possibly 15 inches.
The high desert could see 2 to 3 inches of rain by Tuesday.
How much snow is expected in the mountain communities?
Mountain communities could see 2 to 4 feet of snow at 6,000 feet elevation.
Significant rain and, at higher elevations, snowfall are then expected to hit Southern California from Monday through Wednesday, which could cause mudslides and dangerous flooding.
The most significant threat of flooding is expected on Sunday and Monday.
Ventura and Santa Barbara counties could see the biggest impact from the storm because of flooding. There is a 20% to 25% chance the Ventura River could reach flood stage by Monday due to the back-to-back storms.
The storm is also expected to produce strong winds, with the weather service reminding people to secure all objects outside.
A high surf advisory is also in effect. People are advised to avoid the open ocean.
The NWS advises people to charge batteries and phones in case of outages.
How is California preparing for the storm?
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services activated its operations center and positioned personnel and equipment in areas most at risk.
Brian Ferguson, the office’s deputy director of crisis communications, characterized the situation as “a significant threat to the safety of Californians.” He said an area from the state’s border with Oregon all the way south to San Diego and from the coast into the mountains could be affected over the next 10 to 14 days.
“This really is a broad sweep of California that’s going to see threats over the coming week,” Ferguson said.
When will the rain end in Southern California?
Another storm is expected to move into the region Wednesday, which is expected to be much lighter. The rest of the week has rain in the forecast.
King Charles III has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and has begun treatment, Buckingham Palace announced Monday. The palace did not say what form of cancer the 75-year-old monarch was diagnosed with or the stage.
Last month, Charles was hospitalized to treat an enlarged prostate. During his procedure, doctors noted “a separate issue of concern.” Further diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer, the palace said.
Charles began treatment Monday for the cancer and will postpone public-facing duties for the time being.
“The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure,” Buckingham Palace said. “He remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible.”
The palace added that the king “has chosen to share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer.”
Charles, who ascended the throne 16 months ago, was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate on Jan. 17 after he experienced undisclosed symptoms. He underwent treatment on Jan. 26 and was released three days later on Jan. 29.
The prostate is a small gland that surrounds the urethra — the tube that carries urine out of the body. An enlarged prostate can put pressure on the urethra and make it more difficult to urinate.
News of the king’s cancer diagnosis comes amid a flurry of royal medical news over the past month.
His daughter-in-law Kate, Princess of Wales, is recovering from abdominal surgery that saw her hospitalized for about two weeks.
The duchess, 64, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew and the mother of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, was once a favorite target of Britain’s tabloids. The former Sarah Ferguson, often called by her nickname, “Fergie,” has written a number of children’s books, as well as a historical romance for adults.
An ill-advised ocean outing turned into a fight for survival Sunday afternoon for 19 people after a boat crashed into the rocky breakwater off Long Beach as a powerful storm lashed the Southland.
“Apparently they’d gone out sailing and met with some gale-force winds,” said Brian Fisk, a firefighter and public information officer for the Long Beach Fire Department.
The 40-foot sailboat found itself in choppy, storm-riled waters when winds snapped its mast, rendering it difficult if not impossible to control. The craft ended up battered and tossed against the Long Beach breakwater near the mouth of Alamitos Bay, with those aboard scrambling up the rocks, temporarily safe but stranded and in danger.
The distress call came in to the Long Beach Fire Department at 2:50 p.m. over Channel 16, which is reserved for emergencies, Fisk said. The department sent two rescue boats and lifeguards.
Before the professional rescuers arrived, eight people already had been extricated — either by people who heard about the situation on a scanner, were alerted by those on board or saw what was happening. Fire Department rescuers brought the remaining 11 to safety.
“The weather not only caused the accident,” Fisk said, “but hampered our rescue effort.”
One person suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Los Angeles Unified School District schools will remain open Monday amid heavy rain and potential flooding expected as a storm system makes its way over the region, district officials said on Sunday, Feb. 4.
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said during a news conference on Sunday that schools will remain open, with the decision heavily weighing on students who rely on school-provided meals throughout the week.
“Considering the fact that our students depend on nutrition at school, we have made the decision at this point to maintain our schools open going into tomorrow,” he said. “After this weekend, many (students) will depend on their breakfast, lunch, a snack, and in many cases their dinner.”
Plans to keep campuses open were initially tentative on Sunday, but around 7 p.m., the district announced that all school will be open on Monday, except for Vinedale College Preparatory Academy in Sun Valley as the area was under an evacuation warning.
Students and staff at Vinedale will instead be moved to Glenwood Elementary, about a mile away.
Carvalho urged parents and staff to make the decision on whether it is safe to make the drive to campuses on Monday.
“We recognize the severity and the threat that this storm brings,” he said. “We will be exercising a great deal of grace, patience and understanding both with our students and our workforce.”
Plans on whether to remain open on Monday were still subject to change, the district said, with another update expected to be posted on the district’s website and social media channels at 6 a.m. Monday.
“We do not expect them to change dramatically but if they do, we are ready to make decisions,” Carvalho said.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during a keynote address announcing ChatGPT integration for Bing at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, Feb. 7, 2023.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
When Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO in February 2014, the software company was mired in mediocrity. Its market cap was just over $300 billion.
A decade later, Microsoft’s valuation has swelled tenfold, to $3.06 trillion, making it the world’s most valuable public company, ahead of Apple. It’s firmly entrenched as a leader in key areas, such as cloud and artificial intelligence.
As Nadella marks his 10-year anniversary at the helm, he’s widely praised across the tech industry for changing the narrative at Microsoft, whose stock fell 30% during Ballmer’s 14 years at the top. In that era, the company was squelched by Google in web search and mobile and was completely left behind in social media.
Many tech industry analysts and investors would say that, thanks largely to Nadella, Microsoft is now set up to be a powerhouse for the foreseeable future.
Nadella “is special and someone to be considered as one of the GOATs among tech CEOs,” said Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of AI startup Perplexity, which has the backing of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The acronym GOAT stands for greatest of all time.
There are plenty of obstacles in Nadella’s way as he pursues further growth.
Regulators are concerned about Microsoft’s power. Rivals are jealous. Some clients are skeptical about spending even more money on the company’s AI tools when they already allocate so much budget to so many Microsoft products. And Microsoft, along with its tech peers, has dealt with mass layoffs of late, cutting 10,000 jobs in early 2023, and eliminating 1,900 in January from its gaming division.
One of Microsoft’s biggest sore spots when Nadella took over was the closed nature of its products. Microsoft was known to defend its proprietary Windows and Office software and denounce open-source alternatives. Interoperability wasn’t the most popular word.
“There was a little bit of a take-it-or-leave-it culture,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of cloud storage vendor Box, which spent its early years going directly after one of Microsoft’s products. Nadella has made the company more attentive to customers’ needs, Levie said. The two companies now have multiple product integrations.
Larry Ellison, co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle Corp., speaks during the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2018.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nadella’s Microsoft has also formed partnerships with some of its fiercest rivals. In 2023 Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison visited Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, for the first time, as the companies made a joint cloud announcement. In a 2020 interview, Pat Gelsinger, then CEO of VMware, said offering his company’s software on Microsoft’s Azure cloud was akin to a “Middle East peace treaty.” Gelsinger now runs Intel, which makes chips for PCs running Microsoft Windows and clouds such as Azure.
In the Nadella age, Microsoft has also contributed to open-source projects, released software under open-source licenses and released a version of its Teams communications app for Linux.
Nadella has surprised people in other ways.
Michael Nathan was a senior director at Microsoft until 2016, when he left for a job in venture capital. Nathan said he told Nadella about the opportunity after the two of them left a customer meeting in Silicon Valley. Instead of getting angry or making the situation awkward, Nadella told him to take what he’d learned at Microsoft and share it.
“I was like, ‘What?’” Nathan said. “That was amazing. He totally lifted the burden of having that conversation.”
He’s also decisive. In 2018, Nadella came to believe in the idea of buying GitHub just 20 minutes after Nat Friedman, then a Microsoft corporate vice president, started pitching him on it. Right away, Nadella suggested that Friedman become GitHub’s new CEO, Friedman said. Microsoft paid $7.5 billion for the code-storage startup.
Microsoft declined to provide a comment for this story.
Nobody would mistake Nadella for Ballmer, the showman. His predecessor was known for dancing on stage at conferences and hyping up crowds of thousands. Ballmer is now the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and can frequently be seen behaving similarly courtside.
Steve Ballmer, former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., gestures as he speaks during a news conference after he was introduced as the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers in Los Angeles, California.
Kevork Djansezian | Bloomberg | Getty Images
While Nadella may not bring as much entertainment value, he’s proven to be more effective than Ballmer when it comes to dealmaking. In addition to GitHub, Nadella has made pricey acquisitions such as LinkedIn, Minecraft parent Mojang, and Nuance Communications that have contributed to Microsoft’s top line. Ballmer was not so lucky. His aQuantive and Nokia deals were disastrous.
More recently, Nadella helped Microsoft land the $75 billion acquisition of game publisher Activision Blizzard, a deal that investors won’t know how to assess for a while. And in AI, Nadella is credited for investing billions of dollars in startup OpenAI, leading to product enhancements and cloud revenue from customers both new and old, and giving Microsoft a leadership position in an emerging market.
Nadella is perhaps best known in the tech industry for pushing Microsoft deeper into cloud computing. Azure, which delivered 30% revenue growth in the most recent quarter, was started during the Ballmer years. But Nadella brought it to life, transforming it from a research project into a product, said Kevin Dallas, CEO of database software company EDB and a 24-year Microsoft veteran.
“I’m shameless in saying I look at him as a leader that I’ve learned from, grown from,” Dallas said. “I continue to watch him.”
In looking at the road ahead for the 56-year-old Nadella, here are some of the biggest challenges in his way:
Microsoft looked at buying TikTok in the U.S. in 2020, but nothing came of those discussions. While some in the younger generations have Microsoft software at work, it’s not necessarily what they grew up using and may not be what they prefer. The company must prepare for the era when Gen Z is in charge of IT budgets. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which some students use, could be a start.
Some Microsoft employees have been there for over 20 years. Many will leave after far less time. For years, employees have said they can make more money at other big tech companies. Some have received higher compensation after leaving and then returning. Microsoft has $81 billion in cash and might want to use more of the stash to keep talent — especially the top tier — around for longer.
Microsoft critics often say the company rarely gets it right the first time with new hardware or software and that it’s best to wait for the third version. Reviewers didn’t take kindly to the original 2012 Surface tablet, for example. Today’s Surface gets better marks, but it’s nowhere near the most popular tablet on Amazon — the iPad is. Microsoft remains weak when it comes to building products in new categories, a former executive said. The company’s dual-screened Surface Duo phones running Android haven’t caught on, and Microsoft Loop, a response to modern productivity apps such as Notion, has yet to catch fire in app stores.
Antitrust officials have recently blocked acquisitions at Adobe and Amazon. They tried and failed to squash Microsoft’s purchase of Activision. But Microsoft’s big push in AI has come through an investment, not a purchase. The Federal Trade Commission’s Lina Khan said in January that the agency will examine cloud providers’ investments in AI startups. Microsoft has also drawn inquiries in Europe over its cloud practices. Regulatory crackdowns are nothing new at Microsoft, which infamously changed some of its behavior following a high-profile case brought by the U.S. Justice Department in the 1990s.
In regulatory filings, Microsoft calls OpenAI “our strategic partner.” The unusual nature of the arrangement was on display in November, as Nadella worked overtime to get Sam Altman back on top at the startup after the board fired Altman suddenly. Microsoft and OpenAI compete to sell AI services to companies and have a relationship that can cause internal tension. In allocating graphics processing units to OpenAI, for example, Microsoft is sometimes depriving its other departments of them, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Altman told Nadella onstage at an event in November that the two companies have “the best partnership in tech.” However, OpenAI isn’t always satisfied relying on Microsoft as its cloud supplier, one of the people said.
Following the November brouhaha, Nadella was at least able to get Microsoft a seat on OpenAI’s board. An OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC that the company views Microsoft as a very good partner.
Nadella is constantly searching for the next category that can generate revenue and profit. The company’s HoloLens augmented reality headset, announced in 2016, hasn’t become a big hit. Nadella hoped that an AI Copilot added to the Bing search engine in February 2023 would convert into share gains, but Google remains the clear leader in that category. Nadella did say on a conference call this week that Bing gained share in the fourth quarter. While AI might be Microsoft’s next big thing, the company will have to continue to find new ways to drive growth.
Nadella has plenty to keep himself busy for now. Analysts on average see enough expansion to project a 12% gain in the stock price over the next year, according to FactSet.
Several evacuation warnings and orders were issued in counties across Southern California.
There will be little relief from the inclement weather as the slow-moving storm will continue to dump generous amounts of rainfall through Monday.
Elevations of 6,500 feet and above may get 2-to-4 feet of snow in the mountains. Travelers are advised against going to the mountains due to low visibility and treacherous conditions.
A slow-moving storm powered by an atmospheric river will make for a wet morning commute on Monday as widespread rain will drench Southern California for much of the day.
Already the winter storm has delivered measurable rain to the region, and it isn’t finished quite yet. The inclement weather will continue to batter SoCal with strong showers and mountain snow at high elevations.
Monday’s commute is slated to be a challenging one with localized flooding, downed trees and the possibility of downed powerlines. Motorists are urged to take extra caution on the road and take their time getting to their destination.
“As you wake up tomorrow morning, certainly allow for some extra time,” NBC4 forecaster Melissa Magee warned.
That rain isn’t going anywhere and may even impact the evening commute.
“The concentration shifts on onto the east across areas in eastern LA County as well as Orange County and San Bernardino and Riverside Counties and it’s very good for a good portion of the morning,” Magee said. “We’ve got that rain concentrated over the same area before we get into Monday night.”
Timeline for the rain in SoCal
While the storm takes its time passing through Southern California, the timeline for the forecast is as follows:
4 a.m. – still widespread across most of SoCal, but likely clear around Oxnard for a break
10 a.m. – clearing a bit above Malibu for a break and remains widespread across the region
2 p.m. – rain will begin to creep back into Oxnard and Malibu as it drenches everything east and south to those areas
6 p.m. – widespread with a possible break around Santa Clarita before it moves back in around 7 p.m.
Significant rainfall may fall in the mountains and those showers will likely trickle down to the basin.
“Some of the rain rates across the mountain spots might actually be into half-an-inch to an inch per hour rate,” said NBCLA forecaster David Biggar said. “All that water’s got to go somewhere, that’s why we have the high risk for some flooding.”
Most areas of SoCal can expect anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of rain, while the foothills and low-elevation mountains may face 6 to 12 inches. Mountain elevations of 6,500 feet may get 2-to-4 feet of snow. Visibility will be reduced at these elevations, so travelers are advised against going to these areas.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said schools will remain open amid the winter storm, saying the district is an “essential service” to its students that must continue to provide for them. Jonathan Gonzalez reports for the NBC4 News on Feb. 4, 2024.
How to prepare for the rain
According to NBC4 meteorologist Belen de Leon, here are some tips on how to prep for the storm:
Change travel plans to avoid dangerous roads
Fill and place sandbags in vulnerable areas
Move parked cars out of flood-prone, low-lying areas
Charge up batteries and phones in case of power outages
Secure any loose objects outside
Change plans involving boating over open waters
Get extra supplies and gas in mountains, residents might be stranded for days
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office issued a state of emergency for Southern California counties in the storm’s path.
February is typically the wettest month of the year in Los Angeles with downtown LA averaging 3.64 inches of rain for the month. This multi-day storm is expected to bring that amount and possibly more over a 24- to 48-hour period and rival some of the highest rain totals from last year, including the nearly 3 inches of rain produced over two days by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hillary in August.
“If you are not home already, please get home and stay home,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday afternoon.
The significant rainfall threat led to evacuation warnings that went into effect for some flood- and slide-prone areas. Those included the La Tuna Canyon area in the Los Angeles’ northern San Fernando Valley.
“Because it’s moving slow, that is the cause for that flooding potential we’ll see here in Southern California,” said NBCLA forecaster Shanna Mendiola.
A winter storm batters Santa Barbara, forcing the city to close its beaches and warn residents to stay safe. Karma Dickerson reports for the NBC4 News on Feb. 4, 2024.
Resources for unhoused residents
Those who are unhoused can head to several winter shelter locations that have opened in Los Angeles. Those who need transportation to the shelters can call 211 for assistance.
The following locations are open for residents who are experiencing homelessness:
Mid Valley Senior Citizen Center — 8825 Kester Ave., Panorama City, Calif. 91402
Lincoln Heights Senior Citizen Center — 2323 Workman St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90031
South LA Sports Activity Center — 7020 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90003
Oakwood Recreation Center — 767 California Ave., Venice, Calif. 90291
Safety officials urged unhoused residents to stay away from riverbeds as water levels were expected to rise amid the rainfall.
Impact on schools
Despite the heavy rain, LAUSD schools will remain open, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced Sunday. Vinedale College Preparatory Academy in Sun Valley, which was under an evacuation warning, was set to close on Monday, however. Its students and staff were being moved to Glenwood Elementary.
California State University announced its campuses in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Fullerton will be remote on Monday. CSU Dominguez Hills canceled all classes and in-person activities for Monday, it said in a text sent to students and staff.
Pepperdine University announced classes would be canceled on Monday due to the storm. Graduate schools would communicate with students if their classes will be remote.
Flood warnings and advisories in Southern California
Click here for severe weather alerts throughout Southern California.
Most of Los Angeles County was under at flash flood warning Sunday night.
A flash flood warning was issued for the Ventura River at Foster Park through late Monday morning. Residents can expect flooding at Terro Ranch upstream of the Main Street bridge in Ventura.
A flood watch will go into effect Sunday for inland Orange County and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
High wind warnings and coastal flood advisories were in effect for the LA and Ventura county coasts. A less severe wind advisory was in effect for inland LA County and downtown Los Angeles.
WASHINGTON — The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But Washington once more did not directly target Iran as it tries to find a balance between a forceful response and intensifying the conflict.
U.S. Central Command said its forces conducted an additional strike on Sunday “in self-defense against a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” according to a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“U.S. forces identified the cruise missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined it presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels,” the post added.
The strikes on Saturday against the Houthis were launched by U.S. warships and American and British fighter jets. The strikes followed an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.
The Houthi targets on Saturday were in 13 different locations and were struck by U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter aircraft and by the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials and the U.K. Defense Ministry. The U.S. officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. warned its response after the soldiers’ deaths at the Tower 22 base in Jordan last Sunday would not be limited to one night, one target or one group. While there has been no suggestion the Houthis were directly responsible, they have been one of the prime U.S. adversaries since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said that more than 26,000 people have been killed and more than 64,400 wounded in the Israeli military operation since the war began.
The Houthis have been conducting almost daily missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and they have made clear that they have no intention of scaling back their campaign despite pressure from the American and British campaign.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, said “military operations against Israel will continue until the crimes of genocide in Gaza are stopped and the siege on its residents is lifted, no matter the sacrifices it costs us.” He wrote online that the “American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation.”
The Biden administration has indicated that this is likely not the last of its strikes. The U.S. has blamed the Jordan attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act independently of its direction.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the military action, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”
He added: “We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”
The Defense Department said the strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars and helicopters. The British military said it struck a ground control station west of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, that has been used to control Houthi drones that have launched against vessels in the Red Sea.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the strikes before he left Delaware on Saturday for a West Coast campaign trip, according to an administration official.
The latest strikes marked the third time the U.S. and Britain had conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. The strikes in Yemen are meant to underscore the broader message to Iran that Washington holds Tehran responsible for arming, funding and training the array of militias – from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen – who are behind attacks across the Mideast against U.S. and international interests.
Video shared online by people in Sanaa included the sound of explosions and at least one blast was seen lighting up the night sky. Residents described the blasts as happening around buildings associated with the Yemeni presidential compound. The Houthi-controlled state-run news agency, SABA, reported strikes in al-Bayda, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Taiz and Sanaa provinces.
Hours before the latest joint operation, the U.S. took another self-defense strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to launch. The day before the strikes the U.S. destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea and the destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and U.S. forces took out four more drones that were prepared to launch.
The Houthis’ attacks have led shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea, sending them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope – a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel the critical waterway that runs from the Suez Canal down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time.
In the wake of the strikes Friday in Iraq and Syria, Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, said Washington “must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But in an AP interview in Baghdad, he also struck a more conciliatory tone. “We do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions,” he said.
Iraqi officials have attempted to rein in the militias, while also condemning U.S. retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for an exit of the 2,500 U.S. troops who are in the country as part of an international coalition to fight the Islamic State group. Last month, Iraqi and U.S. military officials launched formal talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely take years.
Chilling rain, swirling gray clouds and blustery winds rolled into Southern California on Sunday as the strongest winter storm of the season geared up to deliver near-record rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding in the region through Tuesday.
The slow-moving atmospheric river was gathering strength Sunday afternoon, spurring the declaration of a state of emergency from Gov. Gavin Newsom in eight Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The National Weather Service in Oxnard warned that “all systems are go for one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory.”
“Storms can change quickly, but let me be clear: This storm is a serious weather event,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference. “This has the potential to be a historic storm — severe winds, thunderstorms, and even brief tornadoes.”
Palm trees in Santa Barbara bend in the wind on Sunday as hurricane-force gusts battered the seas off California.
(Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Indeed, forecasters said the brunt of the storm appears focused on the Los Angeles area, where the system could park itself for an extended time over the next few days. The storm could drop up to 8 inches of rainfall on the coast and valleys, and up to 14 inches in the foothills and mountains. Snowfall totals of 2 to 5 feet are likely at elevations above 7,000 feet.
“Los Angeles County now seems to be the area of most concern, where the heaviest rain will last the longest,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the NWS in Oxnard. The agency has issued dozens of flood watches and storm advisories across the region and the state, including urgent flash flood warnings in parts of Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
“If anyone has an opportunity to work remotely on Monday, that’s definitely the day to do it,” he said.
At the Ventura Harbor just north of L.A. County, as the storm moved into the region, rain was beating down on shops and restaurants that ordinarily draw tourists. It had been hours without a customer at Harbor Market and Liquor, and at a nearby hair salon, stylist Danielle White was weighing whether she should hit the road, worried that flooding could strand her there.
“We’re clearly not going to get any inquiries,” she said, gazing out at the rainfall.
Here’s the latest rain timing/intensity graphic, indicating some minor changes. – Rain totals have been increased: – 4-8″ for coasts/valleys and 8-14″ foothills/mountains – Lower totals for San Luis Obispo County – FLOOD WATCH still in effect for all areas #CAwxpic.twitter.com/YR4WwgWGsA
The storm is expected to “bring a multitude of dangerous weather conditions to the area,” forecasters said.
Evacuation warnings and notices were issued in portions of Ventura, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Los Angeles counties — including parts of Topanga near the Owen and Agua fire burn scars; the Juniper Hills and Valyermo areas near the Bobcat fire burn scar; the Lake Hughes and King Canyon area near the Lake fire burn scar; and the La Tuna Canyon area of Sun Valley near the Land fire burn scar.
Burn scars are subject to an increased risk of flooding and debris flows, and officials urged Angelenos to heed all evacuation orders.
“Make your personal safety your top priority,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. “Follow all evacuation orders, avoid travel … If you do have to travel, please, please, slow down and avoid any flooded areas.”
Swift-water rescue teams, urban search-and-rescue teams and other personnel were standing by in preparation for the storm, Crowley said.
Newsom also mobilized a record 8,500 emergency response personnel across the state to assist communities in the path of the storm, his office said.
In addition to a high risk of flash flooding and excessive rainfall, the storm also has the potential to deliver damaging winds. That includes gusts of up to 70 mph in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties through 6 p.m. Sunday, with isolated gusts of up to 90 mph possible in mountain areas.
Ventura and Los Angeles counties could see wind gusts of up to 50 mph between 1 p.m. and 1 a.m., with isolated gusts of up to 70 mph in mountains and hills. The Ventura River is expected to swell and reach its flood stage around 11 p.m. Sunday night.
Inside Ventura’s Pierpont Tacos on Seaward Avenue, Joseph Kenton and Anna Tyler were taking a break from delivering firewood from Ojai on Sunday morning.
“People were freezing in this weather,” said Kenton, who had been out driving for hours making deliveries, between bites of his tacos. “They want wood to stay warm. Anna got up at 5 o’ clock and started splitting wood.”
As the rain started to fall, “it was real dangerous,” he said. “We had to go real slow.”
On Sunday evening, celebrities also began arriving for the 2024 Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A. as the storm began to churn. Several stars were spotted scrambling from their cars to the red carpet with umbrellas.
Waves crash over a breakwater in Alameda, Calif., with the San Francisco skyline in the background on Sunday.
(Noah Berger / Associated Press)
The storm barreled through Northern and Central California before making its way south.
In Northern California, monster winds and downpours began to inundate the region late Saturday, with the worst of the weather kicking into high gear early Sunday. Thousands were without power by late morning, with officials scrambling to respond to downed trees and power lines across the Bay Area and Central Coast, as well as growing concerns about increased flooding.
Delays and cancellations at San Francisco International Airport led the nation Sunday morning, with almost a third of incoming and outgoing flights delayed as of noon Sunday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Bob Rotiski, spokesperson for the airport, said the airport reduced its capacity for flights because of the weather, expecting continued delays through 1 a.m. Monday. He said the average flight was delayed more than 4 hours as of noon Sunday, with the possibility for that to increase.
In Sonoma County, a tree early Sunday fell onto a home; in Palo Alto, a massive tree blocked the eastbound lanes of the Oregon Expressway. Downed power lines closed a stretch of State Road 1 in San Mateo County, and in San Francisco, fallen lines forced traffic detours.
Some of the highest winds early Sunday were recorded in the Big Sur area — up to 88 and 85 mph, said Sarah McCorkle, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the Bay Area. But gusts had also reached as high as 60 mph in the East Bay and were expected to remain a major threat throughout the day, with a high wind warning in effect for much of the state through late Sunday or Monday.
In San Jose, city officials declared a state of emergency ahead of expected flooding along the Guadalupe River, fueled by heavy rains in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where 6 inches of rain is expected through Monday. Officials there ordered the evacuation of people living along the river’s banks, offering free rides and shelter. The river is forecast to peak over 11 feet — almost 2 feet over its flood stage.
Fallen trees and power lines block a road in Pebble Beach, Calif., on Sunday.
(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
The Carmel River at Robles Del Rio in Monterey County was also expected to flood, reaching almost a foot over its 8.5-foot flood stage by Sunday night, according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
McCorkle said the massive winter storm uniquely strengthened directly off the Northern California coast, where a low pressure system dropped down from the Pacific Northwest to merge with a moisture-heavy system moving in from the eastern Pacific.
“That helped intensify the storm from the eastern Pacific,” she said. That rapid intensification Saturday could mean the storm underwent a bombogenesis, often referred to as a bomb cyclone, but McCorkle said that will require post-analysis to confirm.
“Once it strengthened, [the low pressure system] helped draw in the moisture from the subtropics,” McCorkle said, forming a type of atmospheric river that has become known as a “Pineapple Express.” Those two dynamics — the intensified low pressure system and heavy moisture — have helped drive the dangerously high winds and severe rainfall moving across the state, she said.
Although the Bay Area and Central Coast have experienced some significant impacts, “it will be a different story when the storm moves into Southern California,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA.
“This will have a broader contiguous band of heavy rainfall developing from about Santa Barbara County eastward, and it’s going to be very slow moving,” Swain said during a briefing Sunday.
A man swims chest-deep through flood waters with his cellphone near cars that are submerged in the 2300 block of West Willow Street in Long Beach on Thursday after rain flooded several areas of the city.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Areas south and east of Los Angeles also will not be spared. Conditions in Orange County, the western Inland Empire and the San Bernardino Mountains were expected to deteriorate Sunday into Monday as the storm moves toward San Diego and the Mexican border, according to the National Weather Service in San Diego.
“Precipitation intensity will only increase across these areas on Monday, and life-threatening flash flooding will be possible. By Monday night into Tuesday, the axis of the moisture plume begins to shift farther south and east, reaching Riverside and San Diego Counties,” the agency said.
Rainfall rates in the southernmost part of the state will be modest — up to 0.30 inch per hour — but the relentless nature of the rain will still lead to impressive totals through Tuesday, the agency said.
That includes up to 7 inches in the Santa Ana Mountains; 5 inches in Orange County; 4 inches in the Riverside County Mountains; 2 inches in the Apple and Lucerne valleys; 1.5 inches in the Coachella Valley and 0.75 inch in the San Diego County deserts. The San Bernardino County mountains could see up to 11 inches on south-facing slopes.
Regional public utilities, including California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, were preparing to respond to service outages and downed power lines. More than 380,000 people were without power statewide by Sunday afternoon.
“We are taking this storm system very seriously to ensure we are accurately prepared,” Edison spokesman Jeff Monford said. “Our meteorologists discuss the current conditions and the forecast with the teams handling operations and grid management so we can place crews in the most affected areas. We do this to get crews in location before roads may be closed due to flooding or ice.”
The LADWP “will monitor the storm system closely and respond accordingly, with the ability to schedule crews to be available around the clock,” the utility said in a statement. It has also beefed up staffing at call centers to respond to potential increases in calls from customers without power.
“During the storm, winds could blow down large objects such as trees, or cause branches and palm fronds to strike power lines, which could cause power outages,” LADWP said. “This is especially true when soil becomes oversaturated by the rain, causing it to loosen and uproot trees.”
In addition to downed trees, flooding and water intrusion into underground electrical systems may also cause power outages. Repairs may be slower if the affected equipment is underground and crews need to go from vault to vault to identify the source of the damage before repairs can take place.
The utilities urged people to be careful around downed power lines, which can electrify puddles, wet grass and surrounding areas.
“Always assume a downed wire is energized,” Edison said. “Stay away and call 911 immediately.”
As steady rain fell on Sunday, George Camarena, a lifeguard and longshoreman in Ventura, brought his Nintendo down to play video games with friends inside Pierpont Tacos. Earlier in the day, he had gone out to keep an eye on the beach.
“You never want to see someone down in the water” in this weather, he said. A faraway seal had made him look twice, but he was relieved to see no one in the water, just a few neighbors walking their dogs on the beach.
When a rogue wave hit the same area back in December, he had seen people standing on top of their trucks to avoid the water; elderly people with scraped faces; women who wanted to leave but whose keys had been swept away from them, he said.
“Today I’m just keeping my eye out,” he said.
Times audience engagement editor Nicholas Ducassi contributed to this report.
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Hayley Smith, Grace Toohey, Emily Alpert Reyes, Roger Vincent
Forecasters on Sunday urge Los Angeles area residents to avoid roads and freeways this evening through Monday morning, as a potential life-threatening, multiple-day storm is now forecast to stall over the county when it arrives.
The National Weather Service expanded its high-risk warning for flash flooding in the area, as the slow movement of the storm will create widespread issues, causing major delays on soaked freeways and in local neighborhoods.
While it will rain on Sunday afternoon, “very heavy” rainfall is expected from 6 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday in Los Angeles County, with a 20% chance of thunderstorms. Heavy rainfall, around 4-8 inches now is anticipated in Los Angeles County until midnight on Tuesday, before turning into more moderate rain the rest of the day.
Mountain and foothill areas could see up to 8-14 inches – and possibly 15 inches of rain throughout that window.
“That’s a lot of water, people,” National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Kittell said in a briefing on Sunday morning. “Just a real mess.”
Those who can work remotely should do that, or at least stay off freeways during the Monday morning commute, Kittell said.
Airport delays are expected, including at the Los Angeles International Airport, as the county anticipates wind gusts of 30 to 50 mph through Sunday night, with winds steadily increasing and peaking from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. Much lighter winds are expected Monday.
Residents in the La Tuna Canyon Road area north of Hollywood Burbank Airport were ordered to evacuate Sunday due to the high risk of debris flow triggered by the heavy rain expected to hit Southern California today through Tuesday. The affected area borders Horse Haven Street to the north, Martindale Avenue to the east, Penrose Street to the south, and Ledge Avenue to the west, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Evacuation centers for people and household pets have opened at Sunland Senior Citizen Center at 8640 Fenwick St. and Lake View Terrace Recreation Center at 11075 Foothill Blvd. Large animals can be evacuated to Hansen Dam Horse Park at 11127 Orcas Ave. in Lake View Terrace, and the LA Equestrian Center at 480 Riverside Drive in Burbank.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday said that the United States will conduct further military action against Iran-backed groups, heightening tensions in the Middle East despite Sullivan insisting that the U.S. is not seeking a wider conflict in the region.
“The president has been very clear from the beginning, which is that when American forces are attacked, we will respond, and we’ve responded several times over the course of the past few months,” Sullivan said during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” adding that the recent strikes from the U.S. were “not the end” of the president’s ongoing military response. “We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked or our people are killed.”
Whether or not the U.S. will conduct strikes inside Iran remains unclear.
“I’m not going to get into what we’ve ruled in and ruled out from the point of view of military action,” Sullivan said in response to moderator Kristen Welker’s question about whether or not the U.S. has ruled out strikes inside Iran.
“What I will say is that the president is determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people. The president also is not looking for a wider war in the Middle East,” he added.
On Friday, the U.S. carried out retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iran-backed militants it backs.The strikes were in response to a Jan. 28 drone strike on an American base in northeastern Jordan that killed three U.S. troops and injured dozens of others. The base, known as Tower 22, lies near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria, and is also close to the Iraqi border.
A day after those strikes, the U.S. and Britain led attacks against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, in a second effort to further destabilize Iran-backed groups. The Houthis, which have close ties to Iran, have been firing at commercial ships and warships in the Red Sea, saying their actions are in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war. These are “distinct but related challenges,” Sullivan said about the spreading conflict in the region, which he maintained the Biden administration is trying to prevent.
Iran has denied involvement in the Jordan drone strike, emphasizing that militants are acting independently. Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned the overnight U.S. attacks in Iraq and Syria.
When asked how worried he is that Iranian-backed forces could again retaliate against U.S. forces, Sullivan responded: “That’s always a risk…if we see more attacks, you’ll see more responses.”
Sullivan also appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning.
LOS ANGELES — The 66th Grammy Awards are set to take place Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and there’s a lot to be excited about.
Women outpace men in the major categories, so expect to see a spotlight on its female nominees.
“That’s the same throughout the show, really – it’s dominated by women,” Grammys executive producer Ben Winston told The Associated Press. “That is something we’re really celebrating,” his fellow EP Raj Kapoor added. “It’s almost unprecedented.”
Comedian Trevor Noah will host for a fourth year in a row, history could be made, and unlike those other award shows, the Grammys doubles as a concert featuring the biggest artists in the world.
THE NOMINEES
SZA is the lead contender with nine nominations, followed closely by Victoria Monét and Phoebe Bridgers with seven. Bridgers’ band boygenius has six, as does Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Brandy Clark, Batiste and producer Jack Antonoff.
“Barbie” fans have a reason to celebrate. Just like its performance at the box office, the film will make its presence known at the Grammys: Music from the hit film’s soundtrack earned 11 nominations, including nabbing four of the five slots in the visual media song category.
There are a few history-making opportunities as well: A Black woman hasn’t won album of the year since 1999, when “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” was awarded the top prize. This year, SZA or Janelle Monae could change that.
If Taylor Swift takes home album of the year, she break the record of the artist with the most wins, ever, with four. Lana Del Rey and Miley Cyrus may win their first Grammys.
If Victoria Monét ‘s “Hollywood” wins best traditional R&B performance, her 2-year-old daughter Hazel will become the youngest Grammy winner. Karol G could become the first female artist to ever win in the best música urbana album category if she wins for “Mañana Será Bonito.” Jack Antonoff could tie Babyface as the producer with the most consecutive wins in the producer of the year, non-classical category with a third win in 2024.
WHO WILL PERFORM?
A lot of people! The list includes: SZA, a first-ever Grammys performance from Joni Mitchell, and five-time Grammy winner and 23-time nominee Billy Joel.
The lineup also includes Grammy winners and current nominees Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Burna Boy, Luke Combs and Travis Scott.
Los Angeles Unified School District schools will remain open Monday as a powerful storm system moves through the region, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Sunday.
“Considering the fact that our students depend on nutrition at school, we have made the decision at this point to maintain our schools open going into tomorrow,” Carvalho said at a press conference.
Plans on whether to remain open or close could change with shifting conditions, Carvalho said. Updates for district employees and parents were expected at 7 p.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday.
“We do not expect them to change dramatically but if they do, we are ready to make decisions,” he said.
A flash flood warning was issued for a widespread part of Los Angeles County. NBC4’s Stephanie Olmo has the forecast for 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024.
Vinedale College Preparatory Academy in Sun Valley, which was under an evacuation warning, was set to close Monday. Its students and staff were being moved to Glenwood Elementary.
Parts of Los Angeles County faced a high risk of flooding.
Click here for severe weather alerts throughout Southern California.
As evening fell in her Glendale apartment, Dara Bruce fed her pet rats George and Fred, poured herself a glass of water, and dialed a complete stranger to discuss the dangerous virus detected in his blood.
“Is now a good time to talk?” she asked.
Bruce is a volunteer in the enduring fight against hepatitis C. The stealthy killer claims the lives of roughly 14,000 Americans each year, even though it can be readily cured with a few months of pills. Many people have no idea they are infected, going years without symptoms before the blood-borne virus devastates the liver.
Yet public funding to combat hepatitis C is so scant that in Los Angeles County — an area more populous than many states — the crucial work of contacting those who are infected is being done by unpaid emissaries like Bruce through a fledgling initiative called Project Connect.
A partnership between USC and the county public health department, Project Connect trains volunteers to call people who have tested positive for the virus to make sure they know their results and encourage them to get the medication they need.
Sitting behind her desk lined with anatomy textbooks — the artifacts of the master’s degree in integrative anatomical sciences that she had just earned from USC — Bruce double checked that she had the right person before giving him the news. His reaction made her brighten.
“Oh, beautiful!” she exclaimed after the man told her he had been treated. “I love to hear that.”
It isn’t something she hears a lot. Among those contacted by Project Connect through mid-January, less than a third had been treated. That echoes the dismal statistics across the U.S., where only about a third of people who test positive start treatment within a year.
Across the country, the number of new hepatitis C infections reported annually more than doubled between 2014 and 2021, topping 5,000. That same year, more than 107,000 longtime infections were newly discovered, according to federal data.
Some untreated infections may clear up on their own, but many will endure, leaving people at risk of illness and death. People with long-term infections can develop cancer or end up with liver scarring so grave they need an organ transplant.
Experts say the high number of untreated patients is tied to obstacles such as doctors unnecessarily shunting patients to specialists and insurers making it difficult to obtain the pills, which can cost upward of $20,000.Many don’t realize they’re infected: One in six people reached by Project Connect volunteers didn’t know their test results.
The virus has taken an especially heavy toll on people who are often disconnected from health systems, including those who inject drugs or are unhoused. And many at-risk people are unaware of the threat, including baby boomers who were infected long before the virus had been identified.
Having an effective hepatitis C medication on the market isn’t enough to solve the problem, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, an infectious disease specialist at USC. It has to reach the patients who need it.
“You need people to be aware of their infection. You need people to be seen by a treating provider. You need people to get the medications prescribed,” he said.
The problem is that “this is a disease without resources,” said Dr. Prabhu Gounder, medical director of the viral hepatitis unit at the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
That’s a common complaint across the country. In a national survey conducted by hepatitis organizations, only 3% of local jurisdictions said they could make progress toward hepatitis elimination goals at the current level of federal funding.
“It’s incredibly dangerously underfunded,” said Anne Donnelly, a member of the California Hepatitis Alliance who works with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
The Biden administration has been pushing for billions of dollars to wipe out hepatitis C, arguing that the investment would pay off in the long run as Medicaid recipients avoid liver ailments that require costly care. An analysis released by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the initiative would save the federal government more than $13 billion over a decade, exceeding its upfront costs.
Nobody in public health is unaware of “what needs to be done to address hepatitis C,” said Sonia Canzater, associate director of the Infectious Diseases Initiative at Georgetown’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. “The problem has always been the resourcing and getting the political and the social will behind it.”
In Los Angeles, Gounder said budget limitations have made it impossible to roll out a sweeping program for people with hepatitis C.
But “what if we were to just give them a call and make sure that they’re aware of their infection? Provide some education?” Gounder wondered. “That alone is not going to solve this epidemic. But we thought that was a low-resource thing that we could do to try to move the needle.”
The result was Project Connect. It began in April, tasking volunteers with reaching roughly 3,000 county residents, and is now adding another 3,000 cases to its rolls.
Klausner said the project relies on the part-time efforts of five university staffers and anywhere from six to 12 student volunteers, many of whom need to log hours of field experience for graduate degrees in public health.
The public health department taught them the rules about patient privacy along with some basics on the virus and its treatment. The USC volunteers now devote at least four hours each a week to and texting people about their test results, relying on reports that come into the county after patients test positive.
Learning about the ongoing toll of the virus “fired me up,” said Bruce, a 36-year-old former aerial arts performer.
Dara Bruce poses for a portrait in her home office inj Glendale on Jan. 11, 2024.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Her interactions with hepatitis C patients left her struck by “how prevalent it seemed to be across people from all different walks of life” — but also by the vast disparities in what had happened to people after they learned about their infections. “There were such different stories.”
Some people told her they wanted treatment but had no way to get to a doctor or couldn’t take time off work. There were also patients who didn’t feel a sense of urgency to get the pills, since it can take years for serious health problems to develop.
To them, it “just didn’t really seem like something they needed to get taken care of right now,” Bruce said.
More than 70% of the patients on volunteers’ lists can’t be reached, often because the phone numbers in their files were wrong. The team doesn’t have the resources to track people down in government databases or on the streets, the way that public health departments do for some other illnesses.
L.A. County’s public health department is not spending any of its own money on Project Connect, relying entirely on the USC volunteers and some support from county employees. Hiring a small team to tackle such work would cost roughly $250,000, Gounder estimated — not a massive sum but “not feasible with the budget we have.”
His viral hepatitis team gets roughly $1.2 million in grant funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health, but that must cover costs for hepatitis A and B as well as C.
In comparison, the county receives roughly $97 million in state and federal grants to address HIV. Gounder said funding for hepatitis C has been so scant that he cannot determine the exact number of cases in the county, but statewide estimates suggest it rivals or exceeds the number of HIV cases.
Both diseases can be deadly and put other people at risk of infection if left untreated. But the push to get antiretroviral treatment to HIV patients was bolstered by “an incredibly active community” that included wealthy people, said Dana Goldman, dean of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.
The same kind of mobilization hasn’t happened for patients with hepatitis C, he said, but “that doesn’t mean they’re any less deserving.”
Relying on volunteers has its limits: Among other things, it means the work can be interrupted during university breaks or exam periods, Klausener said. And phone calls only go so far: Among the untreated patients Project Connect was able to follow up with after three months, only 20% had gotten the pills.
Klausner believes the county has a responsibility to fund paid staff. And he wants the outreach teams to be able to schedule people for treatment and assist them with transportation vouchers, child care or other aid — the “linkage to care” he said has been missing.
But Bruce said that even a phone call can be meaningful for those on the other end of the line. “This is about listening to people and their stories,” she said.
In her Glendale apartment, Bruce asked if the man on the phone had time for a few more questions. The answers would help officials get a clearer picture of who is getting treated and who is not.
“I’m glad you’re a success story for treatment,” she told him before wishing him good night.
Bruce called the next number, only to be hung up on. She called again and left a message with her phone number.
As of 12:00 a.m. ET, Sunday, Biden had won 96.2% of ballots cast, with 97% of the total votes tallied.
The other two Democrats on the ballot, House Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and self-help author and 2020 Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson each won around 2% of ballots.
The win injects fresh momentum into Biden’s reelection campaign, and it offers a compelling rebuttal to the narrative that Democratic voters are ambivalent — or worse — about their party’s standard bearer.
“In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the Presidency,” Biden said in a statement following Saturday’s results.
“Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again.”
Biden will be awarded all 55 of the state’s Democratic delegates, NBC News projects, as neither Williamson nor Phillips broke the 15% threshold for being awarded any delegates.
Biden’s overwhelming margin of victory left no question about who Democratic voters want to be on the ballot in November.
But it came amid reports of lower than expected turnout, potentially a sign of weakened enthusiasm for Biden among Democrats.
In 2020, approximately 16% of the state’s 3.3 million registered voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary. On Saturday, that number dropped to roughly 4% of voters.
In particular, polls have shown Biden’s support lagging among Black voters, a core Democratic party bloc that was key to his 2020 win.
Black voters account for a majority of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina, so his victory there Saturday could help to ease some of those concerns.
Biden’s campaign has also been under pressure to show momentum, a real challenge this year given that Democrats’ official primary season kicked off late.
In Iowa, the Democratic party decided not to cast any ballots at their caucuses, denying Biden the chance to win there.
In New Hampshire, Biden’s name was not on the formal ballot, but he won the contest as a write-in candidate with 64% of the vote.
Republicans will vote in their party primary on Feb. 24, where former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will attempt to pull off an upset in her home state, against former President Donald Trump.
The GOP primary is expected to garner much higher turnout and more attention than Saturday’s vote.
Unlike the Republican battle, the Democratic primary has, so far, been notable for its civility.
“Congratulations, Mr. President, on a good old fashioned whooping,” Phillips wrote on X.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY (KABC) — Some residents living in the Topanga Canyon area received an evacuation order Saturday evening as Southern California prepares for a dangerous storm that’s expected to bring heavy rain to Los Angeles County.
An evacuation order was issued for areas along Santa Maria Road north of Topanga Canyon due to high risk of mud and debris flows. The order will remain in effect until 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Those in the area are being asked to leave the area as soon as possible and monitor weather conditions.
Meanwhile, evacuation warnings have been issued for several unincorporated parts of L.A. County near the Agua Fire, Bobcat Fire (specifically the north end), Lake Fire and Owen Fire burn scars.
All evacuations warnings will be in effect starting 10 a.m. Sunday through 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Agua Fire evacuation warning areas
Area along Soledad Canyon Road east of Agua Dulce Canyon Road
Bobcat Fire evacuation warning areas
Juniper Hills and Valyermo areas
Lake Fire evacuation warning areas
Lake Hughes and King Canyon areas including those in the following:
20000 block of Pine Canyon Road
18000 block of Ellstree Drive
46000 block of Kings Canyon Road
18000 block of Newvale Drive
43000 block of Lake Hughes Road
The City of Duarte has also used an evacuation warning for an area in the Fish Fire burn scar from 6 p.m. Sunday through 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Fish Fire evacuation warning areas
Mel Canyon Road between Fish Canyon Road and Brookridge Road
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden spoke on the importance of supporting Black businesses and entrepreneurship at a star-studded gala at Paramount Studios on Saturday evening.
The event was hosted by the Fifteen Percent Pledge, a nonprofit organization that asks businesses to commit 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned brands.
It was attended by some of the biggest names in Black fashion, beauty and entertainment including including actress Tracee Ellis Ross, comedian Robin Theade and designer Emma Grede.
Tracee Ellis Ross attends the 2024 Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. ..(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden speaks at the 2024 Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. ..(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Guests arrive to the 2024 Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. ..(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Megalyn Echikunwoke attends the 2024 Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. ..(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Guests arrive to the 2024 Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. ..(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
The First Lady and President Joe Biden landed in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon for a brief, one-day trip. She used the gala to highlight the Biden administration’s work to advance economic equity and make it easier for Black companies to receive funding.
Those efforts included doubling the amount of government loans given to Black owned businesses and investing $12 billion in community lenders to expand access to capital for minority owned businesses.
“I want you to know that my husband, President Biden, is your partner, he understands that systemic change requires direct action,” she said.
The First Lady spoke of the powerful reckoning brought on by the murder of George Floyd and the progress made to dismantle institutionalized racism since then. But she said that these advancements are under threat.
“The real work of lasting change lies in the moments when history zags, when progress seems to ebb, when the marchers have all gone home and the spotlight has receded, when the backlash has swelled and opponents are working harder to erase the hard fought gains that we’ve made,” she said. “We can’t let them prevail.”
Aurora James, founder of The Fifteen Pledge, also spoke about attacks on the diversity, equity and inclusion movement.
She launched the nonprofit during the peak of Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Since then it has directed almost $14 billion worth of revenue to Black owned businesses through partnerships with major brands including Sephora, Nordstrom and Macys.
James pointed to the Supreme Court’s overruling of affirmative action as an example of where progress has been lost.
“There are no longer protections in place to ensure that we have an equal shot at an education, a good job, a bank loan, really anything,” she said. “This campaign is coordinated, it’s premeditated and it’s no coincidence that it’s intensifying at a very, very critical election.”
Both James and Dr. Biden used the evening to call on event attendees — who represent some of the most influential Black voices in America — to help mobilize voters in November.
Capturing the Black vote will be essential for a Biden path to reelection, many experts say.
Biden was backed by 91% of Black voters nationwide in the last general election, according to AP VoteCast. And, it was his success with this community that helped him claim victory in swing states like Southern Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin.
But there’s no guarantee Black voters will support Biden with the same enthusiasm come November.
Only 50% of Black adults said they approve of Biden in an AP-NORC poll in December, compared to 86% in July 2021.
“I don’t think anyone’s taking anything for granted,” said Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo, referring to the Black vote. “So you roll up your sleeves, you work hard and you earn every vote. You don’t just assume they’re going to come to you.”
The president took advantage of his brief Los Angeles visit to meet with Black entertainment leaders and discuss the important role they have to play in the upcoming election, Deadline reported.
The couple are scheduled to depart the Southland on Sunday afternoon to attend a campaign event in Las Vegas.
