Category: Sacramento, California Local News

WASHINGTON — State Farm announced Thursday it will pay a historic $5 billion dividend to qualifying auto insurance customers, marking the largest dividend in the mutual company’s 103-year history.

The insurer said the one-time cash-back dividend is possible due to its financial strength and stronger-than-expected underwriting performance. The payments are expected to go out this summer and will vary by state and by the amount of premium paid.

According to Forbes, State Farm said customers do not need to take any action to receive their dividend. Policyholders may receive a check directly or be notified by email to initiate a digital payment. The cash back will not be issued as a credit.

Customers can expect refunds averaging about $100, though amounts will differ.

The payout comes as auto insurance affordability has become a major concern. By early 2025, motor vehicle insurance rates had climbed more than 50% over three years, the highest inflation in that category in 50 years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by CNBC.

However, industry trends have recently improved. Auto repair costs have begun declining and accident frequency dropped in 2025. State Farm said it lowered auto premiums by about 10% across 40 states, totaling $4.6 billion in savings.

Insurance shopping has also become routine for many consumers. “At this point we can safely say that regular insurance shopping is just the new normal,” Patrick Foy, senior director of strategic planning for TransUnion’s insurance business, told CNBC.

State Farm reported total revenue of $132.3 billion in 2025, up from $123 billion the previous year, and net income of $12.9 billion, more than double its 2024 results.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For the first time in seven years, the Sacramento City College Panthers are back in the playoffs — and they believe they’re just getting started.

“What’s the reason why these players are here? They believe in what we’re doing,” head coach Caleb Theodore said. 

That belief has fueled a turnaround that hasn’t happened in years. The Panthers clinched a playoff berth for the first time since the 2018-2019 season and followed it up with a postseason win over Napa Valley on Wednesday night.

“It’s truly a blessing. To be a part of it is just amazing. With all these girls and the coaching staff. It’s a really fun experience,” said freshman Rheanna Nobleza. 

For sophomore Sierra Tuliau, the mission was clear from the moment she arrived on campus.

“Just coming into Sacramento College and knowing they haven’t been to the playoffs in 7 years. My goal was to come into this program being a leader and doing what I can to help us to the playoffs,” Tuliau said. 

Tuliau delivered in a big way. The sophomore scored a game-high 45 points in Wednesday’s playoff victory over Napa Valley, a performance that underscored the confidence she’s had in the group since the offseason.

“I knew we could make it this far. We had faith. We work hard. We had summer workouts, and I knew coming into this season, based off summer workouts, it looked really good,” Tuliau said. 

That confidence is rooted in what players describe as an unmatched work ethic.

“Nobody works harder than we do. You’re not in the gym at 4 a.m. This is where we live. We may lose a few games, but nobody is as disciplined as we are,” said sophomore Madeline Young. 

Much of the program’s rise has come under Theodore, now in his second year as head coach. He points to four pillars that shape the team’s identity: winning at the highest level, excelling in the classroom, engaging the community and developing leaders.

“Win at the highest level. Competing for state. Operating like a high level 4-year program. Second pillar is to excel in the classroom. We are a top academic program in the country. Third pillar is to engage the community. The last pillar is to develop leaders in the world,” Theodore said. 

The goals for this season leave little room for doubt.

“We want to win the first state championship in the state capitol. It’s never happened before,” Theodore said. 

“To win state,” Tuliau said. 

“Finish strong. Do what we can do. Hopefully win state. Actually no, we will win state,” Nobleza said. 

WASHINGTON — Actor Bobby J. Brown, known for playing Officer Bobby Brown in the HBO Series “The Wire” has died. He was 62.

TMZ was the first to report the news of his death. 

According to the outlet, Brown died after being caught in a barn fire in Maryland. His daughter told TMZ on Thursday that “The Wire” actor died Tuesday from smoke inhalation.

Family members said Brown entered the barn to jumpstart a vehicle when a fire broke out. He had called a relative asking for a fire extinguisher, but by the time help arrived, the barn was ablaze. Brown’s wife suffered burns while trying to rescue the actor, according to TMZ. 

“Everybody is still trying to process it,” his daughter Reina told PEOPLE. “It’s been difficult for all of us.”

She said his death still “doesn’t feel like it’s real.” 

No official cause of death is yet known.

“My dad was an amazing human being,” she said. “He was super awesome. He was a pillar in the community, and he’s going to be missed by a lot of people.”

The Maryland Office of the Medical Examiner told TMZ and PEOPLE that the actor’s death was ruled an accident.

Brown was known for his role on “The Wire,” and also had roles in “Law & Order: SVU” and “We Own this City,” according to his IMDB.

Brown’s agent, Albert Bramante, described Brown as an “actor of immense talent and even greater integrity” to PEOPLE.

“He approached his work with a discipline and a passion that were truly inspiring to witness,” Bramante said. “While his career included many notable performances, it was his unwavering dedication to the craft of acting that defined him as an artist.”

The family asked for privacy at this time. 

HAVANA, Cuba — Cuba’s government said late Wednesday that the 10 passengers on a boat that opened fire on its soldiers were armed Cubans living in the U.S. who were trying to infiltrate the island and unleash terrorism.

The announcement came hours after Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered speed boat that had entered Cuban waters and opened fire on the soldiers first, injuring one Cuban officer.

Cuba’s government said the majority of the 10 people on the boat “have a known history of criminal and violent activity.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told reporters earlier that he was made aware of the incident and that the U.S. is now gathering its own information to determine if the victims were American citizens or permanent residents.

“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us now,” Rubio said while at the airport in Basseterre, St. Kitts, where he was attending a regional summit with Caribbean leaders.

The Cuban government identified two of the boat passengers as Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, who are wanted by Cuban authorities “based on their involvement in the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission of actions carried out in the national territory or in other countries, in connection with acts of terrorism.”

The government said it also had arrested Duniel Hernández Santos, adding that he was “sent from the United States to guarantee the reception of the armed infiltration, who at this time has confessed to his actions.”

The Associated Press was not immediately able to independently verify that information.

Cuba’s government said it obtained the details about the passengers aboard the boat from the suspects detained following the shootout.

It identified seven of the 10 passengers, including Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra. Cuba’s government said that one of the four killed was Michel Ortega Casanova. Three others have not yet been identified.

“The investigation process continues until the facts are fully clarified,” the ministry said in a statement.

Misael Ortega Casanova, brother of Michel Ortega Casanova, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that he was mourning his brother’s death but lamented that he fell into what he called an “obsessive and diabolical” quest for Cuba’s freedom.

“Only us Cubans who have lived over there understand,” Misael Ortega Casanova said, referring to the “great suffering” that he and other Cubans on the island have faced.

He noted that his brother, who was a truck driver and an American citizen who lived for more than 20 years in the U.S., leaves behind his wife, his mother, two sisters — one of whom lives in Cuba — and a daughter who is pregnant.

“No one knew,” Misael said of his brother’s plans. “My mother is devastated.”

He added: “They became so obsessed that they didn’t think about the consequences nor their own lives.”

Misael said that he did not recognize any of the names that the Cuban government released.

He said that while he doesn’t believe in heroes — “because that is ignorance” — he hopes that his brother’s death might be a worthwhile sacrifice: “maybe it will justify that some day Cuba will be free.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top diplomat refused to speculate on what happened, saying that it could be a “wide range of things,” and that the U.S. will not solely rely on what the Cuban authorities have provided thus far.

“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time,” Rubio said.

He said both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard are investigating the incident and stressed that he wants to verify the facts.

“The majority of the facts being publicly reported are those by the information provided by the Cubans. We will verify that independently as we gather more information, and we’ll be prepared to respond accordingly,” Rubio said. “We’re going to have our own information on this. We’re going to figure out exactly what happened.”

He said it was not a U.S. government operation and that he wasn’t “going to speculate about whose boat it was, what they were doing, why they were there, what actually happened.”

One of the men identified by the Cuban government, Conrado Galindo Sariol, was interviewed in June 2025 by Martí Noticias, a U.S.-based news site that has long called for a change of government in Cuba.

Galindo, whom the host called “a legend” and a former political prisoner, was quoted as saying that he wants to support the struggles that Cubans face, especially in the eastern part of the island “to achieve the freedom that is needed.”

He said that the protests in Cuba at that time were “not a spark that’s going to be extinguished.”

“The regime’s leaders are crisscrossing Cuba, trying to mitigate what’s coming very soon because … they know they’re out of power, that they can’t do anything about it, and they’re looking for ways to prevent the protests from growing in other parts of the country,” Galindo was quoted as saying.

Rubio said he found out about the shooting before the Cuban government posted on social media, noting that the U.S. has “constant contact” with the country “at the Coast Guard level.”

Earlier, Cuba’s Interior Ministry issued a statement that provided few details about the shooting, but noted that the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off Cuba’s north coast.

The government provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify details of the boat because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.

It wasn’t immediately known what the boat and its occupants were doing in Cuban waters. In the statement, the ministry said Cuba’s government was “safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said it would pursue answers “through every legal and diplomatic channel available,” adding that “facts remain unclear and conflicting.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said late Wednesday afternoon that Rubio had briefed him on the incident. He added that the White House was monitoring the situation.

“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” Vance said.

The shooting threatens to increase tensions between the U.S. and Cuba. Following the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive stance toward Cuba, which had been largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil.

The energy crisis Cuba has been grappling with in recent years entered new extremes last month when Trump signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The move put pressure on Mexico, which Cuba became largely dependent on for petroleum after Trump halted oil shipments from Venezuela.

Meanwhile, James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, said he has ordered prosecutors to work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to start an investigation.

“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he wrote on X.

Lee reported from Basseterre, St. Kitts and Coto from San José, Costa Rica. Associated Press reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Michael Biesecker, Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.     

WASHINGTON — For some of their conservative critics, this is the scandal that could finally topple them. Their resistance to testifying proved futile. And now, staring down another epic fight, they’re harnessing their considerable political skills to try and turn the table on their accusers.

For Bill and Hillary Clinton, the 1990s are back.

The Clintons are slated to testify Thursday and Friday in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, part of a deal with Republicans after it became clear that Congress — with the help of some Democrats — was on track to hold them in contempt if they refused to cooperate.

For the battle-hardened couple, it amounts to one more Washington brawl. Like so many of the battles that came before, this one is another mix of questionable judgment, sexual impropriety, money and power.

During his 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton pitched his candidacy as “two for the price of one,” previewing a presidential marriage like none that had come before, with a spouse whose professional credentials rivaled his.

In the years since, that partnership helped the Clintons weather repeated scandals, including those so personal that many other relationships would have shattered. When his political career was ending, hers was ascending when she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York, then served as secretary of state before becoming the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.

For those who have long watched the Clintons, this moment is a reminder that the couple — weaned on the politics of the Vietnam War and Watergate — has never been far from the heat of a cultural fight. With the Epstein case unfolding unpredictably around the world, the Clintons are once again ensnared in the scandal of the moment.

“It’s kind of a sad but fitting coda to extraordinary political lives,” said David Maraniss, who has written two biographies of Bill Clinton.

There’s no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either Clinton when it comes to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who committed suicide in 2019 while he was in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

But Epstein had ties to Bill Clinton for years, visiting the White House multiple times in the 1990s, according to visitor logs. After Clinton left office, Epstein was involved in his philanthropy and the former president flew multiple times on his private jet.

“Traveling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward,” Bill Clinton wrote in his 2024 memoir. “I wish I had never met him.”

By last summer, the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas for the Clintons.

For months, Bill Clinton, 79, and Hillary Clinton, 78, largely ignored the matter in public, but that became harder to sustain in December when the former president was featured prominently in the first batch of Epstein files.

Among thousands of documents made public, some photos showed him on a private plane, including one with a woman, whose face is redacted, seated alongside him with her arm around him. Another showed Bill Clinton in a pool with Epstein’s longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and a person whose face was redacted. Yet another photo portrayed Bill Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face was redacted.

The oversight panel’s chairman, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt if they didn’t comply with the subpoenas, a historic move considering a former president has never been compelled to appear before Congress. Between his first and second terms, President Donald Trump invoked that precedent to fend off a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

While there was no context surrounding the photos of Bill Clinton, they underscored how his political promise has always been tempered by personal indiscretions.

The 1992 campaign that represented the emerging preeminence of the Baby Boom generation was the same one dogged by rumors of an affair with Gennifer Flowers. A presidency largely defined by economic prosperity was nearly derailed when Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath and obstructing justice when he denied engaging in a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Each time, many Republicans thought they finally found leverage over the Clintons. But each time, the Clintons found a way out of the vise.

Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican congressman from Arkansas who was a House manager during Clinton’s impeachment trial, described the couple as “a smart lawyer and brilliant communicator.”

As each crisis surfaced, a pattern emerged: The Clintons fiercely denied the allegations and often dismissed women who came forward with claims. They villainized the GOP and re-centered the public’s attention on more favorable themes like the booming economy of the era.

Bill Clinton, who famously told voters “I feel your pain,” always managed to stay connected with the public. He had some of the highest approval numbers of his presidency during his impeachment inquiry and trial, when about 7 in 10 U.S. adults approved of the way he was handling his job.

Hillary Clinton similarly dispatched Republicans who sensed an opening in her handling of a 2012 attack on a compound in Libya that killed four Americans. She came out of an 11-hour televised congressional hearing in 2015 appearing poised. Even the Republican chair of the committee probing the attack said he wasn’t sure she revealed anything new about an issue many in his party considered a scandal.

That experience has informed how the Clintons are approaching this week’s testimony. Hillary Clinton has been especially vocal in calling for the proceedings to happen in public, rather than in private as Comer currently plans.

“We have nothing to hide,” she told the BBC earlier this month.

Bill Clinton’s communication operation has taken a sharper tone, recalling the political “war room” popularized during the 1992 campaign to respond to negative storylines.

One release accused Comer of “lying in every appearance he’s made this week.” Another mocked GOP Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona with a “hypocrisy award of the day,” noting how the Oversight committee members defied subpoenas from the Jan. 6 panel.

Meanwhile, the Clintons released a four-page letter to Comer on social media defiantly belittling a process they said was “literally designed to result in our imprisonment.”

Much as they tried to refocus attention during the 1990s, the letter hit the White House for dismantling institutions, imposing a harsh immigration crackdown and pardoning those involved in the Capitol riot.

The Clintons’ rise to power paralleled the explosion of talk radio as a political force, with Rush Limbaugh using his daily show as a platform to constantly berate the White House. Today, conservative podcasters like Benny Johnson have filled Limbuagh’s space and were gleeful after the House panel moved last month to hold the couple in contempt.

“Do you understand Donald Trump made good on his oldest promise arguably which is he told all of us 10 years ago that Hillary Clinton would be going to jail?” Johnson said last month.

Still, some dynamics have changed.

The lockstep support the Clintons enjoyed among congressional Democrats has eroded as a new generation of lawmakers has taken office — nine Democrats joined with Republicans on the House committee to advance the contempt resolution. Trump, who has faced scrutiny over his own ties to Epstein and may be uncomfortable with the precedent of forcing a former president to testify, has expressed rare concern for the Clintons.

He told NBC News that it “bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton.” He has described Hillary Clinton as a “very capable woman.”

Even Hutchinson, who helped make the case for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, expressed sympathy for the couple.

“It’s frustrating and disappointing that President Clinton and Secretary Clinton are having to go through this fact-finding ordeal,” he said. “That’s difficult for them.”

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.     

CORRALILLO, Cuba — Four people were killed, and six others were hurt on board a boat registered in Florida after its crew shot at guards on the Cuban border, according to the Cuban government.

It reportedly happened on Wednesday morning within Cuban territorial waters near the Corralillo municipality, Villa Clara province, of the Cayo Falcones island.

It was unclear whether any U.S. citizens were aboard.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters late Wednesday that he was made aware of the incident and that the U.S. is gathering its own information to determine whether the victims were American citizens or permanent residents.

“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us now,” Rubio said.

Trump’s top diplomat refused to speculate on what happened, saying that its could be a “wide range of things,” and that the United States will not solely rely on what the Cuban authorities have provided thus far.

The Cuban government said that when five Cuban border guards approached the boat for identification, the crew opened fire, injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel.

In response, Cuban guards killed four people and injured six others on board the boat, the Cuban government said. The injured people were reportedly evacuated and provided medical assistance.

“In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region,” the Cuban Embassy to the U.S. wrote in a post.

An investigation by Cuban authorities is ongoing.

The Cuban government provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to verify details of the boat because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.

Officials with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon declined comment and directed questions to the U.S. Department of State, which did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, said he has ordered prosecutors to work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to start an investigation.

“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he wrote on X.

Skirmishes between Cuba’s Coast Guard and U.S.-flagged speedboats are not unusual in Cuban waters. There have been no recent reports of passengers opening fire or being killed.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.