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Tag: California News

  • California’s Newsom Signs a Reparations Study Law but Vetoes Other Racial Justice Proposals

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a mixed bag Monday for proponents of bills aimed at addressing the state’s legacy of racist and discriminatory policies against Black Americans.

    He signed a law authorizing $6 million for California State University to study how to confirm an individual’s status as a descendant of an enslaved person.

    But he vetoed other bills the California Legislative Black Caucus championed as tools to atone for the state’s history.

    One of them would have authorized public and private colleges to give admissions preference to descendants of enslaved people. Another would have required the state to investigate claims from families who say their property was taken by the government unjustly on the basis of race through eminent domain. A third would have set aside 10% of the money from a loan program for first-time homebuyers for descendants of enslaved people.

    Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who authored the university admissions preference bill, said Newsom’s veto was “more than disappointing.”

    “While the Trump Administration threatens our institutions of higher learning and attacks the foundations of diversity and inclusivity, now is not the time to shy away from the fight to protect students who have descended from legacies of harm and exclusion,” he said in a statement.

    But Newsom called the bill unnecessary, saying colleges already have the authority to make such admissions decisions.

    A first-in-the-nation state task force studying reparations for African Americans released a report in 2023 recommending how California should offer redress for descendants of Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century. The Black caucus introduced a slate of bills over the past two years inspired by the report in an effort to fight decades of discrimination in housing, education, the criminal justice system and other areas. None of the proposals on Newsom’s desk would have directly paid descendants of enslaved people.

    California entered the union as a free state in 1850. In practice, it sanctioned slavery and approved policies and practices that thwarted Black people from owning homes and starting businesses. Black families were terrorized, their communities aggressively policed and their neighborhoods polluted, according to the task force’s report.

    Newsom signed a law last week creating a Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to verify Black Californians’ family lineage and determine their eligibility for possible reparations programs. Lawmakers blocked a similar bill in the Legislature last year.

    Democratic state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, who chairs the Black caucus and authored the law, said it will help the state acknowledge its painful past.

    “This bill represents hope, responsibility, and a commitment to make right what was wrong for far too long,” she said.

    But some advocates said the bill will delay true reparations and have urged lawmakers to introduce proposals to directly compensate descendants of enslaved people.

    “Let’s be clear — SB 518 is not real Reparations, nor is it a step closer to real Reparations,” said Chris Lodgson, spokesperson for reparations advocacy group, the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California. “Reparations delayed, Reparations diverted, is Reparations denied.”

    Bryan introduced the university admissions bill more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed affirmative action in college admissions. California also has a state law voters approved in 1996 banning the state from giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, ethnicity, color or national origin in public employment, education or contracting.

    Newsom said he didn’t sign the bill aimed at increasing first-time homebuyer assistance for descendants of enslaved people because creating an “ancestry-based set-aside” could pose legal risks.

    Under the eminent domain bill, the state’s Civil Rights Department would have determined whether a family is entitled to have their property returned or be compensated by the state or a local government. Newsom rejected it because, he said, the agency lacks the expertise to implement it successfully.

    He vetoed a similar bill last year since it was tied to another proposal lawmakers blocked that would have created an agency to administer reparations programs.

    The governor signed a law last year to formally apologize for slavery and its lingering effects on Black Californians.

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

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  • Election 2025: Everything Bay Area voters need to know before Nov. 4 election

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    Odd-numbered years usually bring an election respite for most Californians.

    That’s not the case in 2025.

    On Nov. 4, California voters will decide the fate of Proposition 50, the initiative pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would redraw the state’s congressional districts. Newsom called the initiative a necessary response to partisan redistricting initiated first by Texas Republicans, while Republicans shot back that the plan was “illegal.”

    In addition to that, voters in Santa Clara County have two other races to weigh in on; in Alameda County, there’s one extra race.

    Here’s what voters should know before Nov. 4:

    Prop. 50

    On the ballot: Newsom signs Democratic gerrymandering law, sends plan to voters

    Which district is mine?: How your congressional district could change under California’s redistricting

    Pro or con?: How will California’s redistricting measure impact special elections in Santa Clara, Alameda counties? 

    Big money: Here’s how much the special election for California’s partisan redistricting measure will cost

    Dollars flowing in: Who’s winning the fundraising battle in California’s redistricting race?

    So many questions: What is redistricting? Your questions about maps, California’s feud with Texas and more, answered maps

    Bay Area measures

    Measure A: Santa Clara County will ask voters in November to approve new sales tax to cover cuts from Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”

    Measure B: Parcel tax measure to fund East Bay hospital system goes before voters this fall

    Santa Clara County assessor: Four candidates look to replace Larry Stone in November

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    Bay Area News Group

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  • California’s Prop. 36 Promised ‘Mass Treatment’ for Defendants. A New Study Shows How It’s Going

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    It’s been nearly a year since Californians overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure providing what backers called “mass treatment” for those facing certain drug charges. But few defendants have found a clear path to recovery under the law, according to new data released by the state.

    Prop. 36 gave prosecutors the ability to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony, which would give them a choice between behavioral health treatment or up to three years in jail or prison. If they accept, they would enter a guilty or no contest plea and begin treatment. Those who complete treatment have their charges dismissed.

    In the first six months since the law took effect, roughly 9,000 people have been charged with a treatment-mandated felony, according to the first-of-its-kind report released this month by the state’s Judicial Council. Nearly 15% — or 1,290 people — elected treatment.

    So far, of the 771 people placed into treatment, 25 completed it.

    The data reflects how different counties are using the law, with the highest number of treatment-mandated felonies charged in Orange County at 2,395. Kings and Napa counties each had one such charge.

    San Diego County accounted for roughly one-third — or 427 of 1,290 — cases in which defendants chose to pursue treatment, but did not report how many were placed into treatment or completed it.

    The report notes that this missing data contributes to “a substantial portion of the drop-off” in regards to the overall number of people who elected treatment but have not yet been placed.

    Francine Byrne, director of criminal justice services at the Judicial Council, said counties are still figuring out how to implement the law — and in many jurisdictions, it can take people a while to opt-in to treatment as they move through the court process.

    “It’s not acceptable that so few people are actually going into treatment,” said Jonathan Raven, an executive at the California District Attorneys Association, which supported the measure. “The goal of this ballot measure was to take that population of people who have a substance use disorder and get them help, find them a pathway out of the criminal justice system and dismiss their cases. And that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening across the state.”

    Raven said that district attorneys have been trying to implement Prop. 36 based on the will of the voters, but have been doing it “with one hand tied behind their back.”

    The measure did not include dedicated funding when voters passed it, which was one of the reasons why Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed the measure. Behavioral health experts have long sounded the alarm over the lack of behavioral health treatment and staffing across California, but proponents argued that Prop. 36 would be the great “forcing function” for the state to scale up treatment.

    Since the law passed, Republican and Democratic state lawmakers requested upwards of $600 million annually to implement it. Newsom and the Legislature ultimately approved a one-time state budget allocation of $100 million.

    On top of that, Newsom last month announced that the state had awarded $127 million in grant funding to build more behavioral health treatment capacity. Those funds were made available through Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that reduced the penalties for certain non-violent drug and property crimes and stipulated that the resulting savings would be used for, among other things, substance use disorder and mental health treatment.

    None of that funding was available during the time period associated with the report, which looked at case counts between Dec. 18 and April 30.

    Kate Chatfield, executive director of the California Public Defenders Association said the data proves that Prop. 36 “is a fail” — not because people are treatment resistant but because treatment is not available.

    “There’s no indication that anything will change,” she said. “Meanwhile, proponents are spending precious county resources on prosecution and incarceration in local jails and saying — magically — some money will appear for treatment. Proponents are the ones preventing those resources from being spent on treatment.”

    This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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

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  • Californians spend $8,640 more than other Americans. Where did it go?

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    We all know that California is a pricey place to live.

    However, what drives those higher expenses is not just housing, although putting a California roof over your head is the largest expense.

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    Jonathan Lansner

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  • From ‘Annie Hall’ to ‘Something’s Gotta Give,’ 6 Great Diane Keaton Films and Where to Watch Them

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    Diane Keaton never really played the part of glamorous movie star. She was in iconic films and she dated some of the biggest stars of her generation, and yet she somehow remained other and defiantly herself despite so many years working in the Hollywood system. Eccentric and approachable, with a sort of effervescent charm, it’s no surprise that she played muse to so many, from Woody Allen to Nancy Meyers.

    People often describe her as self-deprecating, as if it was a choice and not a product of deep-seated insecurity. Keaton was someone who thought herself ugly, who battled eating disorders and who never seemed to give herself enough credit for her successes. But she was also able to channel that into her performances spanning five decades unlike none other.

    There are so many Keaton films worth noting, including her full run with Allen. There are the Instagram favorites like “The First Wives Club” (available to rent), nostalgic classics like “Father of the Bride” (streaming on Hulu) and dramatic turns in “Marvin’s Room” (streaming on Kanopy) and “Shoot the Moon” (available to rent).

    Here are six essential roles to get you started.


    “The Godfather” (1972)

    Kay Adams, the future Mrs. Corleone, could have been a wallpaper role. But Keaton, in her breakout role, held the screen next to her flashier counterparts. She was the wife who had something going on behind her eyes, who could hold the screen in the chilling final shot of the first film. Social media doesn’t often produce anything worthwhile but in 2023 Francis Ford Coppola and Keaton had an exchange on an Instagram story “ask me anything” session. She wondered why he’d picked her.

    “I chose you, because although you were to play the more straight/vanilla wife, there was something more about you, deeper, funnier, and very interesting. (I was right),” Coppola wrote.

    WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms including Prime Video.

    “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” where to even begin with “Annie Hall?” It is the quintessential Keaton role, a love-letter to her quirks, eccentricities, insecurities and charm all wrapped up in this fictional tie-wearing WASP from Chippewa Falls.

    Allen encouraged her to wear what she wanted to wear, and so she assembled her iconic outfit — khaki pants, vest, tie — from “cool-looking women on the streets of New York.” The hat was lifted from actor Aurore Clement.

    “No one had any serious expectations. We were just having a good time moving through New York’s landmark locations,” she wrote in her memoir. “As always, Woody concerned himself with worries about the script. Was it too much like an episode of ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’? I told him he was nuts. Relax.”

    WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Fubo TV.


    “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977)

    Keaton’s OTHER great film from 1977 drifted into cult classic status as it wasn’t released on home video or DVD and has only recently been made available on digital platforms. The part of Theresa Dunn makes Annie Hall look like a nun. With her Catholic upbringing and “good girl” job teaching deaf children by day, at night Theresa cruises bars looking for men to hook up with — the more dangerous (like Richard Gere’s character) the better.

    WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.

    Warren Beatty directed, produced, co-wrote and starred in this historical epic about the journalists documenting the Bolshevik Revolution alongside Keaton, playing journalist and activist Louise Bryant. They were dating by the time they started making the film and their relationship curdled during production.

    “Everyone knew I didn’t take well to Warren’s direction,” she wrote in her memoir. “It was impossible to work with a perfectionist who shot 40 takes per setup. Sometimes it felt like I was being stun-gunned. Even now I can’t say my performance is my own. It was more like a reaction to Warren — that’s what it was: a response to the effect of Warren Beatty.”

    WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Kanopy.

    In this comedy from Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers, Keaton plays a Manhattan yuppie who unexpectedly inherits a 14-month-old and begins to reassess her life, eventually moving to Vermont where she meets a veterinarian played by peak handsome Sam Shepard. An ahead-of-its-time commentary on the have-it-all discourse of the next 30 years, Roger Ebert wrote at the time that “’Baby Boom’ makes no effort to show us real life. It is a fantasy about mothers and babies and sweetness and love, with just enough wicked comedy to give it an edge.”

    WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.


    “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003)

    Oh Erica Barry and her fabulous Hamptons home and ivory turtleneck sweaters. This was purely the brainchild of Meyers, the writer-director who had the glorious idea to make a 50-something woman the object of desire in a mainstream romantic comedy. Keaton plays this brilliant playwright who catches the eye of both an older playboy (Jack Nicholson) with a proclivity for much younger women and a young, handsome doctor (Keanu Reeves). Keaton has called it her favorite movie, in part because she got to kiss Nicholson (who she had acted alongside before, in “Reds”) “because it was so unexpected at age 57.”

    WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.

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

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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  • Southern California Beachgoers Watch Helicopter Spiral Out of Control, Slam Into Palms

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    HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A helicopter that was coasting above a popular Southern California beach Saturday suddenly lost control and began spiraling in midair, eventually losing altitude and slamming into a row of palms as stunned sunbathers and beachgoers looked on.

    Multiple videos posted online show the aircraft twirling clockwise above Huntington Beach, then plunging toward the edge of the beach, where it becomes wedged between palms and a staircase near Pacific coast Highway.

    The Huntington Beach Fire Department said five people were hospitalized, including two who were in the helicopter and were “safely pulled from the wreckage.” Three other people on the street were injured. Details on their injuries were not immediately available.

    The department said the helicopter was associated with an annual “Cars ‘N Copters” fundraising event planned for Sunday.

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

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  • S.F.: Man convicted of torching 10 vehicles on downtown streets

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    By Bay City News

    A 63-year-old man has been convicted of setting fire to 10 vehicles in San Francisco’s Union Square and Yerba Buena districts.

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    Bay City News Service

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  • Shutdown closes Bay Area home of the ‘father of the national parks’

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    In fewer than 15 minutes, two separate carloads of people pulled up to the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez last Saturday. But then they turned away because the 325-acre park, with its Victorian mansion, historic pear orchard and visitor’s center, had been closed to the public without notice.

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    Martha Ross

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  • Two Jurors Claim They Were Bullied Into Convicting Harvey Weinstein and Regret It, His Lawyers Say

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Two jurors who voted in June to convict Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault said they regret the decision and only did so because others on the panel bullied them, the former movie mogul’s lawyers said in a newly public court filing.

    Weinstein’s lawyers are seeking to overturn his conviction for first-degree criminal sex act, arguing in papers unsealed Thursday that the guilty verdict was marred by “threats, intimidation, and extraneous bias,” and that the judge failed to properly deal with it at the time.

    In sworn affidavits included with the filing, two jurors said they felt overwhelmed and intimidated by jurors who wanted to convict Weinstein on the charge, which accused him of forcing oral sex on TV and film production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006.

    One juror said she was screamed at in the jury room and told, “we have to get rid of you.” The other juror said anyone who doubted Weinstein’s guilt was grilled by other jurors and that if he could have voted by secret ballot, “I would have returned a not guilty verdict on all three charges.”

    “I regret the verdict,” that juror said. “Without the intimidation from other jurors, I believe that the jury would have hung on the Miriam Haley charge.”

    Weinstein, 73, was acquitted on a second criminal sex act charge involving a different woman, Polish psychotherapist and former model Kaja Sokola. The judge declared a mistrial on the final charge, alleging Weinstein raped former actor Jessica Mann, after the jury foreperson declined to deliberate further.

    It was the second time the Oscar-winning producer was tried on some of the charges. His 2020 conviction, a watershed moment for the # MeToo movement, was overturned last year. Now his defense team, led by attorney Arthur Aidala, is fighting to eliminate his retrial conviction and head off another retrial on the undecided count.

    Judge Curtis Farber gave Manhattan prosecutors until Nov. 10 to conduct its own investigation and file a written response before he rules on Dec. 22. That means a decision and a possible retrial or sentencing won’t come until after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is up for reelection on Nov. 4.


    Jurors said they feared for their safety

    In the affidavits, which blacked out juror names and identifying numbers, the two jurors said they feared for their safety and the foreperson’s safety. They said that when the foreperson asked for civility, another juror got in his face, pointed a finger and told him: “You don’t know me. I’ll catch you outside.”

    One of the jurors said deliberations were poisoned by a belief among some jurors that a member of the panel had been paid off by Weinstein or his lawyers. That claim, which has not been supported by any evidence, shifted the jury of seven women and five men “from an even 6-6 spit to a sudden unanimous verdict,” the juror said.

    Some of what was said in the affidavits echoed acrimony that spilled into public view during deliberations. As jurors weighed charges for five days, one juror asked to be excused because he felt another was being treated unfairly.

    After the jury returned a verdict on two of the three charges, Farber asked the foreperson whether he was willing to deliberate further. The man said no, triggering a mistrial on the rape count.

    After the trial, two jurors disputed the foreperson’s account. One said no one mistreated him. The other said deliberations were contentious, but respectful.


    Jurors spoke with the judge

    When jurors came forward with concerns, Farber was strict about respecting the sanctity of deliberations and cautioned them not to discuss the content or tenor of jury room discussions, transcripts show. In their affidavits, the two jurors said they didn’t feel the judge was willing to listen to their concerns.

    When jurors were asked if they agreed with the guilty verdict, one of the jurors noted in her affidavit that she paused “to try and indicate my discomfort in the verdict.” Afterward, when Farber spoke with jurors, she said she told him “the deliberations were unprofessional.”

    Weinstein denies all the charges. The first-degree criminal sex act conviction carries the potential for up to 25 years in prison, while the unresolved third-degree rape charge is punishable by up to four years — less than he already has served.

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

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  • Hard-fought battle over Alameda County ethical investment policy comes to a mixed resolution — and a muted response

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    The debate over Alameda County’s investment policies has been raging since December, when Alameda County Treasurer Henry Levy sold the county’s holdings in Caterpillar Inc. as the company faced accusations of supporting illegal Israeli settlements amid the political firestorm over Israel’s war in Gaza.

    The Board of Supervisors directed Levy to create an ethical investment policy for its $10 billion investment portfolio. Alameda County, which previously boycotted apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s, has not been shy about stepping into the political fray. Meanwhile, supporters of the policy have lobbied hard for it, and opponents have just as vehemently claimed that it is not actually about avoiding companies that do business with human-rights violators around the globe, but specifically a tool to punish Israel for its ongoing military assault on Gaza.

    That’s why it was a strange scene when the Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to adopt the policy, with silence from the scores of pro-Palestinian activists in the room who had demanded it. Their ambivalence stemmed from the supervisors’ motion to seek a peer review of the policy that would delay its implementation for months.

    Ultimately, for both the policy’s supporters and opponents, the results of the Oct. 3 meeting were a mixed bag. Israel supporters like Oakland resident Ofra Pleban, a representative of the Oakland Jewish Alliance, had argued the policy would foment antisemitism in the community, unfairly single out Israel and harm future yields from the county’s portfolio.

    “It’s driven by anti-Israel activists and could lead to blacklisting companies simply for doing business with Israel,” Pleban said at the meeting. “Policies like that only make things worse, legitimizing efforts to demonize Israel and creating a more hostile environment for Jews.”

    But Palestinian supporters, many of whom identified as Jewish, said the county had a moral responsibility to approve the policy. Supporters said it did not single out any one country, but offered a universal standard for the county. Berkeley resident Cynthia Papermaster, who said she had lost family members in the Holocaust, encouraged the supervisors to adopt it.

    “I do not speak for all Jews, and I very much resent the Jewish people in this room who are turning this issue into one about antisemitism. It has nothing to do with antisemitism. It has only to do with ethical investing,” Cynthia said. “I urge you to vote yes on this policy to make us proud and take a historical step in favor of justice.”

    Levy said he was proud to have started what he considered a necessary discussion on the county’s principles when investing, despite the polarizing effect of the proposal.

    “People took what they wanted to mean from that, that I’m part of (the Boycott, Divest, Sanction movement against Israel), and I did it for personal reasons,” Levy told the Board of Supervisors. “I’m proud – I’m glad I did it. I feel like this discussion about ethical investment policy wasn’t going to happen unless I got rid of the one sort of sore point.”

    Supervisor David Haubert pushed Levy on the impacts of the ethical investment policy on the county’s coffers and its relevance to Israel’s war in Gaza. He brought up examples of human rights violations in China against Uyghers, a Muslim ethnic group subjected to mass surveillance, detainment and religious persecution by the Chinese government.

    “Essentially, slave and imprisoned labor in China doesn’t rise to the level of wanting to get out of an investment? All the other genocides that happened there? None of that seemed to matter?” Haubert said. “It just seems again and again and again like (the ethical investment policy) was made for this particular situation and not another.”

    Levy defended the policy, arguing it wasn’t about the Gaza conflict, but to provide a new standard for the county’s investments. But Haubert and Supervisor Nate Miley remained skeptical and said they worried that the ethical investment policy could lead down a slippery slope, inhibiting the county from achieving its financial benchmarks.

    Miley then made a motion to approve the policy, subject to independent peer review. Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas voted against the peer review, calling it “disheartening and disappointing” to delay the policy’s implementation. The Board passed the vote 4-1, with Bas voting against the measure.

    Though Levy questioned the validity of the peer review, he said the policy carries on the county’s long tradition of standing for human rights which goes back to boycotting the apartheid regime of South Africa in the 1980s and divesting from Burma in the 1990s.

    “This is not about a single issue we face today, but a long-term commitment to Alameda County stakeholders to incorporate their values into decisions made about how their money is invested,” Levy said.

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  • High Tides Raise Flood Risk in Carolinas as Tropical Storms Churn in Atlantic and Pacific

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    MIAMI (AP) — A storm without a name and unusual king tides were causing some flooding on the Carolina coast early Friday as tropical storms churned in the Atlantic and along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

    About a dozen streets were already flooded in Charleston, South Carolina, and the city offered free parking in some garages. A high tide of 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) was forecast Friday morning, which would be the 13th highest in more than a century of recorded data in Charleston Harbor.

    The unnamed coastal storm and unusually high king tides, when the moon is closer than usual to the Earth, threatened to bring days of heavy winds that could cause coastal flooding, especially along the vulnerable Outer Banks of North Carolina and around Charleston.

    Along the Outer Banks, forecasters said the worst weather should occur Friday through the weekend. They warned it was likely that highway N.C. 12 on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands would likely have to close again because of ocean overwash.

    In the Pacific, Tropical Storms Priscilla and Raymond threatened heavy rain along the Mexican coast, and Priscilla could cause flash flooding across the U.S. Southwest through the weekend. Flood watches were issued for parts of Arizona, California and Nevada.

    Priscilla was centered about 190 miles (300 kilometers) west-northwest of Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico, and moving north at 6 mph (9 kph) with maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph (85 kph).

    A tropical storm warning associated with Raymond was issued from Zihuatanejo to Cabo Corrientes, Mexico. Raymond was forecast to remain off the southwestern coast of Mexico through Friday before nearing Baja California Sur on Saturday and Sunday.

    Raymond was about 95 miles (150 kilometers) south-southeast of Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph), forecasters said.

    In the Atlantic, Jerry was passing east of the northern Leeward Islands and causing heavy rainfall. Officials in Guadeloupe warned of potential power outages.

    Jerry was centered about 65 miles (100 kilometers) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph).

    A tropical storm warning was in effect for Barbuda and Anguilla, St. Barthelemy and St. Martin, Sint Maarten and Guadeloupe and the adjacent islands. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat and Saba and St. Eustatius, the hurricane center said.

    The storm should strengthen into a hurricane Saturday. The Nor’easter expected to send rain and pounding waves into the Southeast U.S. is helping steer Jerry away from the islands and into the open Atlantic, forecasters said.

    Also Thursday, Subtropical Storm Karen formed far from land in the north Atlantic Ocean. Karen had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was expected to maintain that strength through the day.

    A subtropical storm tends to have a wide zone of strong winds farther from its center compared to a tropical storm, which generates heavier rains, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

    About seven weeks remain in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, and meteorologists warned the Pacific Ocean cooling pattern called La Nina, which can warp weather worldwide and turbocharge hurricanes, has returned.

    It may be too late in the hurricane season to impact tropical weather in the Atlantic, but this La Nina may have other impacts from heavy rains to drought across the globe.

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

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  • Oklahoma’s GOP Governor Opposes Sending Out-Of-State Troops to States That Don’t Welcome Them

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    OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the chair of the National Governors Association, said Thursday that he opposes sending National Guard troops across state borders without the permission of the state receiving them.

    The position from a sitting Republican official posed a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump’s push to send National Guard troops to cities in states where Democrats are in charge, including Chicago where Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are waging a court fight to try to halt the deployment of Texas Guard members.

    Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt, said he supports Trump’s effort to help impose law and order in some cities and to aid federal agents removing immigrants who have committed crimes, but that National Guard troops from one state should not be deployed to another over the objection of the receiving state’s governor.

    “When it’s governors working together, it’s a very different story, but this whole situation where one state’s governor is sending their national Guard troops over the objections of another state’s governor, that sets a very dangerous precedent,” Cave said.

    Speaking to The New York Times on Thursday, Stitt said “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

    Stitt drew one key distinction: While he opposes sending groups across state lines where they’re not welcomed by the governors, he said that Trump should have federalized National Guard from Illinois instead to protect federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That’s the approach Trump took over the summer went he sent National Guard to Los Angeles during protests there.

    The National Governors Association, a bipartisan group, has experienced turmoil, with Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening to leave the organization because of its silence over the troop deployments. The organization has still not taken a stance.

    Stitt’s position puts him at odds with the state’s Republican Attorney General and officials in most other Republican-controlled states.

    Oklahoma’s Gentner Drummond was among 20 Republican attorneys general to file a brief Wednesday supporting Trump’s administration in its legal battle to allow him to deploy Oregon and California National Guard troops in Portland.

    In the filing, they say the president needs to be able to federalize National Guard and send troops to Oregon so that federal immigration resources are not diverted there. “Otherwise, states will continue to bear the costs of nonenforcement of federal immigration laws,” they said.

    Most Republican-controlled state including Oklahoma, have also requested permission to file similar papers in the Illinois court case.

    The Democratic attorneys general or governors of 24 states also filed jointly Wednesday to side with California and Oregon.

    There’s a similar partisan split over the use of troops in Washington, D.C.

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

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  • Troops Will Miss Paychecks Next Week Without Action on the Government Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Campbell lost her job working for a food bank over the summer because of federal funding cuts. Her husband serves as an officer in the Air Force, but now he’s facing the prospect of missing his next paycheck because of the government shutdown.

    If lawmakers in Washington don’t step in, Campbell’s husband won’t get paid on Wednesday. Because the couple lacks the savings to cover all their expenses, they expect to survive on credit cards to pay the mortgage and feed their three children, racking up debt as the political stalemate drags on.

    “You’re asking us to put our lives on the line or the people we love to put their lives on the line,” said Campbell, 39, who lives outside Montgomery, Alabama, near Maxwell Air Force Base. “And you’re not even going to give us our paycheck. What? There is a lot of broken trust there.”

    The nation’s third shutdown in 12 years is once again raising anxiety levels among service members and their families because those in uniform are working without pay. While they would receive back pay once the impasse ends, many military families live paycheck to paycheck. During previous shutdowns, Congress passed legislation to ensure that troops kept earning their salaries, but time is running out before they miss their first paycheck in less than a week.

    “There are so many things that Congress can’t agree on right now,” said Kate Horrell, the wife of a Navy veteran whose Washington, D.C., company provides financial advice to military families. “I don’t want to assume that they’re going to be able to agree on this.”


    Paying the troops has support, but it’s unclear when a deal might pass

    When asked if he would support a bill to pay the troops, President Donald Trump said, “that probably will happen.”

    “We’ll take care of it,” Trump said Wednesday. “Our military is always going to be taken care of.”

    Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican and former Navy helicopter pilot, has introduced a measure to maintain military and Coast Guard salaries, and it has bipartisan co-sponsors.

    Amanda Scott, whose husband is an Air Force officer in Colorado, said the uncertainty goes beyond the stress of just getting by — it chips away at the military’s ability to retain the best people and their readiness to fight.

    “How ready and lethal are you if you don’t know if you can feed your family?” said Scott, 33, of Colorado Springs, who works for a defense contractor and volunteers as an advocate for military families. “A lot of these service members are highly skilled and can go out and make much more money in the civilian sector.”


    Aid is available for service members, but it’s not enough for some families

    Support is available for military families through nonprofits and charities. For example, some financial institutions are offering zero-interest loans, while each military branch has a relief organization.

    But Campbell said she and her husband in Alabama can’t apply for a payday loan because they’re refinancing their house. They lack a substantial emergency fund because they were paying off student loans and moved several times in the last few years to military posts. It was often challenging for her to find steady work and child care.

    “The opportunity to build up savings is really difficult on just one income,” Campbell said. “I don’t know many military families that have a month’s worth of income set aside just in case, let alone multiple months’ worth.”

    Jen Cluff, whose husband recently left the Air Force, said her family was on a food aid program during the 2019 shutdown. But even the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, which helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children, would run out of federal money within two weeks unless the shutdown ends, experts say.

    “We made so little and had three young children,” said Cluff, 42, of San Antonio. “We were definitely a family that had very little buffer.”

    If Congress had not passed legislation to pay troops during the last shutdown, missing more than two paychecks “would have been catastrophic for us,” she said.

    “Resentment can grow quickly,” Cluff said of the shutdown, adding that “the general public, and many in government, truly don’t understand the daily sacrifices our military members and their families make for our country.”


    Wider effects feared in military-heavy areas

    The economic impact will ripple through regions with large military footprints, like coastal Virginia, home to the nation’s largest Navy base and several other installations. The area’s 88,000 active duty service members and their families likely have pulled back significantly on spending, said Rick Dwyer, executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, an advocacy group.

    “Think about service members who are deployed right now around the world,” said Dwyer, who served in the Air Force during previous shutdowns. “They’re having to wonder if their families are going to be able to pay the rent, the child care bills, the car payments.”

    A shutdown contingency plan posted on the Pentagon’s website cites the use of funds to continue military operations from Trump’s big tax and spending cut bill. The Congressional Budget Office has said money appropriated to the Defense Department under the new law could be used to pay active duty personnel.

    It was not clear if the funding would be used for that. The Pentagon said Thursday that it could not provide information “at this time.”

    Its contingency plan says it will “continue to defend the nation and conduct ongoing military operations” as well as activities “necessary for the safety of human life and the protection of property.”

    Listed among the highest priorities are securing the U.S.-Mexico border, operations in the Middle East and the future Golden Dome missile defense program. The plan also noted that “child care activities required for readiness” would continue.

    Raleigh Smith Duttweiler, chief impact officer for the National Military Family Association, said most child development centers on military bases are still operating. But she said most service members pay for child care off base.

    “Last I checked, my kids’ babysitter doesn’t take an IOU from the federal government,” said Duttweiler, whose husband is a Marine.

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

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  • Federal Court to Weigh Trump’s Deployment of National Guard Troops in Chicago Area

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    President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois faces legal scrutiny Thursday at a pivotal court hearing that will occur the day after a small number of Guard troops started protecting federal property in the Chicago area.

    U.S. District Judge April Perry will hear arguments over a request to block the deployment of Illinois and Texas Guard members. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and local officials strongly oppose use of the Guard.

    An “element” of the 200 Texas Guard troops sent to Illinois started working in the Chicago area on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details not been made public. The spokesperson did not say where specifically the troops were sent.

    The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, arrived this week at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days.

    The Guard members are in the city to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, according to Northern Command. Trump earlier sent troops to Los Angeles and Washington, and a small number this week started assisting law enforcement in Memphis.

    Those troops are part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered by Trump to fight crime in the city. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee supports using the Guard.

    The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.

    Chicago and Illinois have filed a lawsuit to stop the deployments, calling them unnecessary and illegal. Trump, meanwhile, has portrayed Chicago as a lawless “hellhole” of crime, though statistics show a significant recent drop in crime.

    The Republican president said Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Pritzker, both Democrats, should be jailed for failing to protect federal agents during immigration enforcement crackdowns.

    In a court filing in the lawsuit, the city and state say protests at a temporary ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement.”

    “The President is using the Broadview protests as a pretext,” they wrote. “The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the President’s administration to target jurisdictions the President dislikes.”

    Also Thursday, a panel of judges in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear arguments over whether Trump had the authority to take control of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. The president had planned to deploy them in Portland, where there have been mostly small nightly protests outside an ICE building. State and city leaders insist troops are neither wanted nor needed there.

    U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut on Sunday granted Oregon and California a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of Guard troops to Portland. Trump had mobilized California troops for Portland just hours after Immergut first blocked him from using Oregon’s Guard.

    The administration has yet to appeal that order to the 9th Circuit.

    Immergut, who Trump appointed during his first term, rejected the president’s assertions that troops were needed to protect Portland and immigration facilities, saying “it had been months since there was any sustained level of violent or disruptive protest activity in the city.”

    Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

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

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  • Here’s a Look at California’s Five Most Destructive Wildfires

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Palisades Fire was the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles to date and among the five worst in California‘s history.

    Federal authorities said Wednesday that they have charged Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old man who had lived in the area, with starting the deadly fire that destroyed much of the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood. The fire started on New Year’s Day and was initially extinguished by fire crews but continued to smolder underground before reigniting during high winds on Jan. 7.

    Here’s a look at the state’s five most destructive wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

    The Camp Fire in 2018 in Paradise is the state’s most destructive blaze and one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed more than 18,800 structures, including some 11,000 homes. The town was almost entirely destroyed. It caused over $12.5 billion in damages.

    At least 26,000 people were displaced. Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines sparked the Northern California blaze, officials said.

    The Eaton Fire that erupted on Jan. 7 destroyed more than 9,400 homes and other structures and killed 19 people in the community of Altadena in Los Angeles County. Southern California Edison said this spring that it was starting a program to compensate victims, even as the cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

    The creation of the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program seems to suggest that the utility is prepared to acknowledge what several lawsuits claim: Its equipmentsparked the conflagration in Altadena.

    The Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was the most destructive in the city’s history. The blaze killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 homes and buildings in Pacific Palisades. The fire ripped through hillside neighborhoods, destroying mansions with spectacular ocean views.

    Rinderknecht was arrested Tuesday in Florida and made his first court appearance Wednesday in Orlando on charges including malicious destruction by means of a fire, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison. He told a federal magistrate that he was not under the influence and did not have mental issues.

    The judge set a hearing for Thursday to consider bond and extradition proceedings. Aisha Nash, the federal public defender assigned to represent Rinderknecht, did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

    The October 2017 Tubbs Fire killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,600 buildings in Northern California wine country. The city of Santa Rosa, where many homes were destroyed, was hit especially hard.

    State investigators said it was caused by a private electrical system.

    The Tunnel Fire that started in October 1991 killed 25 people when it roared down the densely populated hillsides of Oakland, trapping people in homes and on narrow, winding streets. It began as a small grass fire that firefighters thought they had contained, only to see it roar back to life when smoldering embers ignited other brush as fierce winds erupted. It claimed 2,900 homes and buildings.

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

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  • Staffing Shortages Cause More US Flight Delays as Government Shutdown Reaches 7th Day

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    Staffing shortages led to more flight delays at airports across the U.S. on Tuesday as the federal government shutdown stretched into a seventh day, while union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners warned the situation was likely to get worse.

    The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing issues at airports in Nashville, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia, and at its air traffic control centers in Atlanta, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The agency temporarily slowed takeoffs of planes headed to the first three cities.

    Flight disruptions a day earlier also were tied to insufficient staffing during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1. The FAA reported issues on Monday at the airports in Burbank, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Denver.

    Despite the traffic snags, about 92% of the more than 23,600 flights departing from U.S. airports as of Tuesday afternoon took off on time, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

    But the risk of wider impacts to the U.S. aviation system “is growing by the day” as federal workers whose jobs are deemed critical continue working without pay, travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more likely it is to affect holiday travel plans in November, he said.

    “I’m gravely concerned that if the government remains shut down then, that it could disrupt, and possibly ruin, millions of Americans’ Thanksgiving holidays,” Harteveldt said in a statement.

    Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that there has already been an uptick in air traffic controllers calling out sick at a few locations. When there aren’t enough controllers, the FAA must reduce the number of takeoffs and landings to maintain safety, which in turn causes flight delays and possible cancellations.

    That’s what happened Monday afternoon, when the control tower at Southern California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport shut down for several hours, leading to average delays of two-and-a-half hours.

    When a pilot preparing for takeoff radioed the tower, according to communications recorded by LiveATC.net, he was told: “The tower is closed due to staffing.”

    Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the shutdown highlighted some issues his union’s members already face on a regular basis due to a national airspace system that is critically understaffed and relies on outdated equipment that tends to fail.

    A couple of controllers missing work can have a big impact at a small airport already operating with limited tower staffing, he said.

    “It’s not like we have other controllers that can suddenly come to that facility and staff them. There’s not enough people there,” Daniels said Tuesday. “There’s no overtime, and you have to be certified in that facility.”

    Air travel complications are likely to expand once a regularly scheduled payday arrives next week and air traffic controllers and TSA officers don’t receive any money, the union leader said. If the impasse between Republican and Democratic lawmakers on reopening the government persists, the workers will come under more pressure as their personal bills come due, Daniels said.

    “It’s completely unfair that an air traffic controller is the one that holds the burden of ‘see how long you can hang in there in order to allow this political process to play out,’” he said.

    Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter that represents TSA workers, said he was hearing concerns from members about how they will be able to pay bills, including child support and mortgage payments, and if they’re at risk for termination if they have to miss work during the shutdown.

    “The employees are struggling. They’re assessing what they need to do and they’re assessing how this is all going to work out,” said Jones, who has worked as a screener since the TSA was established.

    Some TSA officers already have called in sick, but Jones said he did not think the numbers were big enough to cause significant problems and delays at airports.

    Aviation unions and U.S. airlines have called for the shutdown to end as soon as possible.

    The unions are also making appeals to food banks, grocery chains and airports to secure support for workers during the shutdown. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was offering federal workers $15 food vouchers and allowing them to park in the terminal, according to Jones.

    John Tiliacos, the chief operating officer of Florida‘s Tampa International Airport, said the facility started preparing for the shutdown well before it began.

    Nicknamed “Operation Bald Eagle 2” among airport staff, the efforts center around pulling together resources for the roughly 11,000 federal employees who are working at the airport without pay, including security screeners and air traffic controllers.

    Tiliacos said the help would include a food pantry, free bus rides to work and a program with the local utility provider to keep the lights on at the homes of the workers.

    “Whatever we can do to make life a little easier for these federal employees that allows them to continue coming to work and focus on keeping our airport operational, that’s what we’re prepared to do,” he said.

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  • A Judge Has Blocked a Trump Administration Effort to Change Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs

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    A judge Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from requiring recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to comply with Trump’s orders aimed at curtailing “radical indoctrination” and “gender ideology.”

    The ruling is a victory for three Planned Parenthood affiliates — in California, Iowa and New York — that sued to try to block enforcement of a U.S. Department of Human Services policy document issued in July that they contend contradict the requirements of the grants as established by Congress.

    U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, blasted the administration’s policy change in her written ruling, saying it was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.”

    The policy requiring changes to the pregnancy prevention program was part of the fallout from a series of executive orders Trump signed starting in his first day back in the White House aimed at rolling back recognition of LGBTQ+ people and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

    In the policy, the administration objected to teaching that promotes same-sex marriage and that “normalizes, or promotes sexual activity for minors.”

    The Planned Parenthood affiliates argued that the new directives were at odds with requirements of the program — and that they were so vague it wasn’t clear what needed to be done to follow them.

    The decision applies not only to the handful of Planned Parenthood groups among the dozens of recipients of the funding, but also nonprofit groups, city and county health departments, Native American tribes and universities that received grants.

    The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the program, declined to comment on Tuesday’s ruling. It previously said the guidance for the program “ensures that taxpayer dollars no longer support content that undermines parental rights, promotes radical gender ideology, or exposes children to sexually explicit material under the banner of public health.”

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  • USDA Warns That Hello Fresh Meals May Contain Listeria-Tainted Spinach

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    Federal health officials late Monday warned people not to eat certain Hello Fresh subscription meal kits containing spinach that may be contaminated with listeria.

    The U.S. Agriculture Department issued a public health alert for the meals, which were produced by FreshRealm, the San Clemente, California-based company linked to an expanding listeria outbreak tied to heat-and-eat pasta meals.

    The products include 10.1-ounce containers of Hello Fresh Ready Made Meals Cheesy Pulled Pork Pepper Pasta and 10-ounce containers of Hello Fresh Ready Made Meals Unstuffed Peppers with Ground Turkey. Both were shipped directly to consumers.

    The pork pepper pasta is identified with establishment number Est. 47718 and lot code 49107 or Est. 2937 and lot code 48840. The unstuffed peppers with ground turkey is identified with Est. P-47718 and lot codes 50069, 50073 or 50698.

    The problem was discovered when FreshRealm notified the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service that the spinach used in the products tested positive for listeria bacteria.

    Last month, FreshRealm said that tests confirmed that pasta used in linguine dishes sold at Walmart contained the same strain of listeria linked to an outbreak in June. That outbreak, originally tied to chicken fettucine Alfredo, has killed at least four people and sickened 20, with the most recent illness reported Sept. 11.

    FreshRealm officials said genetic testing found the outbreak strain of listeria in samples of pasta made and supplied by Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California.

    Several additional companies including Kroger, Giant Eagle and Albertson’s have recalled pasta salads and other dishes made with products from Nate’s Fine Foods for potential listeria contamination.

    Listeria infections can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults, people with weakened immune systems and those who are pregnant or their newborns. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.

    About 1,600 people get sick each year from listeria infections and about 260 die, the CDC says. Federal officials in December said they were revamping protocols to prevent listeria infections after several high-profile outbreaks, including one linked to Boar’s Head deli meats that led to 10 deaths and more than 60 illnesses last year.

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Voting Is Underway in California on New Maps That Could Swing US House Control, Check Trump’s Power

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The midterm elections might be a year away, but the fight for control of the U.S. House is underway in California.

    The outcome of the 70-word, “yes” or “no” question could determine which party wins control of the closely divided House, and whether Democrats will be able to blunt Trump’s power in the second half of his term on issues from immigration to reproductive rights.

    The proposal is “a starting point for the 2026 race,” said Democratic consultant Roger Salazar.

    “2026 is the whole ball game,” he said.

    The national implications of California’s ballot measure are clear in both the money it has attracted and the figures getting involved. Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into the race — including a $5 million donation to opponents from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson. Former action-movie star and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out to oppose it, while former President Barack Obama is in favor, calling it a “smart” approach to counter Republican maneuverings aimed at safeguarding House control.

    The election that concludes Nov. 4 will also color the emerging 2028 presidential contest in which Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the face of the campaign for the new, jiggered districts — is widely seen as a likely contender.

    So goes California, so goes the nation?

    “Heaven help us if we lose,” Newsom wrote in a recent fundraising pitch to supporters. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for Democrats.”


    An election gamble that could check Trump’s power

    The unusual special election amounts to a Democratic gambit to blunt Trump’s attempt in Texas to gain five Republican districts ahead of the midterms, a move intended to pad the GOP’s tenuous grip on the House.

    The duel between the nation’s two most populous states has spread nationally, with Missouri redrawing House maps that are crafted state by state. Other states could soon follow, while the dispute also has become entangled in the courts.

    A major question mark has emerged in Texas, where a panel of federal judges is considering whether the state can use a redrawn congressional map that boosts Republicans.

    If the Texas map is blocked even temporarily, it’s not clear how that decision would influence California — if at all — where voting is underway. Newsom has previously indicated that California could keep its current map if other states pull back efforts to remake districts for partisan advantage, but that language was not included in the final version of what’s officially known as Proposition 50.


    GOP could be left with just four House seats in California

    If approved in California, it’s possible the new political map could slash five Republican-held House seats while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts. That could boost the Democratic margin to 48 of California’s 52 congressional seats, up from the 43 seats the party now holds.

    Liberal-tilting California has long been a quirk in House elections — the state is heavily Democratic but also is home to a string of some of the most hotly contested congressional districts in the country, a rarity at a time when truly competitive House elections have been dwindling in number across the U.S.

    The contours of the race have taken shape, with Newsom framing the contest as a battle to save democracy against all things Trump, while Republicans and their supporters decry the proposal as a blatant power grab intended to make the state’s dominant Democrats even more powerful while discarding House maps developed by an independent commission. Democrats crafted the proposed lines behind closed doors.

    Republicans hold a 219-213 majority in the U.S. House, with three vacancies.

    New maps are typically drawn once a decade after the census is conducted. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among states that rely on an independent commission that is supposed to be nonpartisan — the Democratic ballot proposal would shelve that group’s work and postpone its operation until the next census.


    Creative boundary lines create districts to favor Democrats

    In some cases, the recast districts would slice across California, in one case uniting rural, conservative-leaning northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold north of San Francisco. In others, district lines are left unchanged or have only minor adjustments.

    With rural and farming areas in some cases being combined in new districts with populous cities, there is “worry about us losing our voice,” said John Chandler, a partner in almond-and-peach grower Chandler Farms in the state’s Central Valley farm belt. “It hurts us,” Chandler said during an online event organized by proposition opponents.


    Who will show up and vote?

    Democrats come to the contest with significant advantages — they outnumber registered Republicans in the state by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, and a Republican candidate hasn’t won a statewide election in nearly two decades.

    Still, ballot questions can be unpredictable. Voters are in a grumpy mood nationally and hold mixed views of both political parties.

    It’s difficult to determine precisely who might show up in an election with no candidate on the statewide ballot — only a question involving a constitutional amendment on the arcane subject of redistricting, or the realignment of House district boundaries. And campaigns are competing for attention in a nation of nonstop distraction, from wars abroad to the political stalemate in Washington.

    Supporters and opponents are running a cascade of ads in the state’s big media markets. Trump is trying to “steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election,” one ad from supporters warns. Opponents are spotlighting a recent appearance by Schwarzenegger, who in one ad clenches his fist and says, “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”

    In the state’s Central Valley, Kelsey Hinton is working to mobilize infrequent Latino voters hitched to hectic jobs and child care who are often overlooked by major campaigns. Her group, the Community Water Center Action Fund, dispatches canvassers to knock on doors to explain the stakes in the election.

    Operating separately from Newsom’s campaign, and backed by funding from a left-leaning political group known as the Progressive Era Issues Committee, they hope to boost voter participation in an area where turnout can be among the sparsest in the state.

    What are they finding? “People don’t even know there is an election,” Hinton said.

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

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  • Judge Remains Undecided on Treatment Plan for Man Charged With Stalking Jennifer Aniston

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge remained undecided Friday on the treatment and placement plan for a man charged with stalking Jennifer Aniston and ramming his car into the front gate of her home.

    Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, a 48-year-old from Mississippi, has pleaded not guilty to felony stalking and vandalism. But in May, Judge Maria Cavalluzzi found him not competent to stand trial after evaluations from two experts. At Friday’s hearing in a Los Angeles court dedicated to mental health cases, she heard arguments on Carwyle’s treatment and placement.

    Aniston’s lawyer, Blair Berk, spoke on her behalf for the first time, detailing two years of Carwyle’s harassment and stalking, including various failed attempts to make physical contact with the actor.

    Cavalluzzi said she leaned toward sending Carwyle to a mental health treatment alternative to imprisonment. She requested another hearing, scheduled for later this month, to hear from a mental health professional before making a final decision.

    Prosecutors and Aniston’s attorney will have a chance to weigh in, Cavalluzzi said.

    The judge acknowledged Aniston’s “very real” fear, but she said she can’t ignore the opinions of mental health professionals who have evaluated Carwyle and deemed him not a danger to society. The alternative treatment option offers community-based housing, treatment and support services as opposed to incarceration.


    Harassment started 2 years ago, prosecutors say

    Prosecutors alleged Carwyle had been harassing the “Friends” star with a flood of voicemail, email and social media messages for two years before driving his Chrysler PT Cruiser through the gate of her home in the wealthy Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles on May 5, “only feet away from where she was,” Berk said.

    Carwyle had a stated and “persistent delusion” to impregnate Aniston with three children, Berk said, and “there is simply no way to prevent him from carrying out his delusion if he walks out.”

    The prosecution expressed concern that if Carwyle were offered the treatment in Los Angeles, nothing would stop him “from traveling those few miles to Ms. Aniston,” Berk said.

    Berk and William Donovan, the deputy district attorney, argued Carwyle was a present danger to Aniston and those around her. Berk said he attempted to enter her property twice, but was turned away.

    Carwyle’s lawyer, Robert Krauss, said his client qualifies for alternative treatment, arguing that he hasn’t been convicted of violent crimes. Granting him alternative treatment, “is not like giving him a break or showing him leniency,” Krauss said. “Its just one thing and one thing only — and that is absolute, pure faithfulness of the law.”

    Krauss also referenced a report from the probation department, which recommended Carwyle be granted probation and 90 days in jail if convicted, much less than the over three years maximum sentence for his two charges. Carwyle has been in jail since May and, if convicted, could be let out with time served.


    Suspect says he won’t walk away from treatment

    Carwyle was present at the hearing and addressed questions from Cavalluzzi, saying he “wasn’t right in the head,” when asked about the text messages he sent Aniston. He said he has been taking medication, which is keeping him focused, and admitted his wrongdoing.

    When Cavalluzzi asked how she can be sure he won’t walk away from the treatment program — a stated concern from the prosecution — Carwyle responded, “You have my word.”

    Berk said Carwyle “traveled thousands of miles over a year ago “after sending thousands of messages” that reflected “his delusions and intentions to not just make contact with Ms. Aniston, but to commit criminal wrongs against her, sexual violence against her.” She added that Carwyle stressed in his messaging that he “would be unabated by doctors or others or FBI intervening.”

    Donovan argued that a state hospital is a “much safer, much more effective place for him to go,” and will offer the treatment Carwyle needs to address his delusions. The prosecution also argued there’s no evidence that Carwyle’s delusions toward Aniston have stopped, even with medication.

    Carwyle has been under involuntary medication for the past few months. Krauss said that Carwyle’s actions toward Aniston were “just the product of psychosis from someone who is unmedicated.” The government must keep its “promise of treatment rather than punishment and of rehabilitation rather than incarceration,” he said.

    The hearing was postponed several times in recent months as Carwyle at first objected to the incompetence finding and asked for an opinion, and both sides sought more time to examine the case.

    Carwyle remains jailed, but he is under a judge’s order not to contact or get near Aniston.

    Authorities said Aniston was home at the time of the gate crash, but he did not come into contact with her. A security guard stopped him in her driveway until police arrived. No one was injured.

    Carwyle also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm.

    Aniston became one of the biggest stars in television in her 10 years on NBC’s “Friends.” She won an Emmy Award for best lead actress in a comedy for the role, and she has been nominated for nine more. She currently stars in “The Morning Show” on Apple TV+.

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