Rob Reiner was known to millions as a TV actor and film director.
But the Brentwood resident, known for the classic films “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally,” was also a political force, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes and a Democratic Party activist who went beyond the typical role of celebrities who host glitzy fundraisers.
Reiner was deeply involved in issues that he cared about, such as early childhood education and the legalization of gay marriage.
Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, were found dead inside his home Sunday, sparking an outpouring of grief from those who worked with him on a variety of causes.
Ace Smith — a veteran Democratic strategist to former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Jerry Brown and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — had known Reiner for decades. Reiner, he said, approached politics differently than most celebrities.
“Here’s this unique human being who really did make the leap between entertainment and politics,” Smith said. “And he really spent the time to understand policy, really, in its true depth, and to make a huge impact in California.”
Reiner was a co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization that successfully led the fight to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage. He was active in children’s issues through the years, having led the campaign to pass Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, which created an ambitious program of early childhood development services.
Proposition 10 was considered landmark policy. Reiner enlisted help in that effort from Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, and his own father, comedy legend Carl Reiner.
“He wanted to make a difference. And he did, and he did profoundly,” Smith said.
After Proposition 10 passed, Reiner was named the chair of the California Children and Families Commission, also known as First 5 California. He resigned from the post in early 2006 after the commission ran $23 million in ads touting the importance of preschool as Reiner was gathering support for Proposition 82.
The measure, which was unsuccessful, would have taxed the wealthy to create universal preschool in California.
The filmmaker and his wife spent more than $6 million on the failed proposition. They also donated significant sums to support national Democratic Party groups and candidates including Jerry Brown, Gray Davis, Ed Rendell and Andrew Cuomo.
Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy, called Reiner “a caring and vigilant advocate for children. He added cachet and cash to California’s movement to open preschools for tens of thousands of young families over the past quarter-century.”
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had known Reiner since he was a state lawmaker in the 1990s, worked with him on Proposition 10 and was impressed with how Reiner embraced the cause.
“He was a man with a good answer. It wasn’t politics as much as he was always focused on the humanity among us,” Villaraigosa said. ‘When he got behind an issue, he knew everything about it.”
“Just a really special man. A terrible day,” the former mayor said.
Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” by the day’s events, saying Reiner “always used his gifts in service of others.”
“Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,” the mayor said.
“I’m holding all who loved Rob and Michele in my heart,” Bass said.
Newsom added, “Rob was a passionate advocate for children and for civil rights — from taking on Big Tobacco, fighting for marriage equality, to serving as a powerful voice in early education. He made California a better place through his good works.”
“Rob will be remembered for his remarkable filmography and for his extraordinary contribution to humanity,” the governor said.
An urgent advisory warning people against eating foraged mushrooms was issued by the California Department of Public Health on Friday due to recent amatoxin poisonings.
As of Friday, there were 21 poisonings confirmed by the California Poison Control System linked to eating wild, foraged mushrooms, such as death caps, the CDPH said.
Death caps are typically found near oaks and other hardwood trees, and they can be easily mistaken for safe, edible mushrooms, the CDPH said.
California Department of Public Health
One case resulted in death, and several other patients, including children and adults, have suffered severe liver damage, the CDPH said. A liver transplant may even be needed for at least one of the patients.
The CDPH said the poisonings were reported in clusters in the Monterey area and Bay Area. However, the risk of poisoning is statewide as rain during the fall and winter months creates beneficial growth conditions for death caps.
They can typically be found near oaks and other hardwood trees, including pine trees, and are easily mistaken for safe, edible mushrooms. But neither cooking, boiling, drying or freezing them will render them safe to eat, the CDPH said.
Symptoms such as watery diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and dehydration can begin between six to 24 hours after eating one, and it’s possible symptoms will go away after a day, but the CDPH warns the recovery is “deceptive.”
“Patients may still develop serious to fatal liver damage within 48 to 96 hours after eating the mushrooms,” the CDPH said.
“Because the death cap can easily be mistaken for edible safe mushrooms, we advise the public not to forage for wild mushrooms at all during this high-risk season,” said Dr. Erica Pan, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer.
The CDPH advises people to buy mushrooms from reputable stores or known commercial sources.
A man was arrested Saturday evening after a police pursuit on Highway 1 in San Mateo County that included an officer firing a single shot, authorities said Sunday.
The California Highway Patrol said officers responded at around 5 p.m. to reports of a black Acura driving recklessly on Highway 1 near Highway 84.
Officers attempted to stop the driver after the Acura was spotted on Highway 1 near Verde Road, but the driver kept going, authorities said. CHP officers pursued the vehicle northbound and coordinated with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
The pursuit ended when officers were able to stop the Acura driver near Triple D Ranch, the CHP said.
An officer discharged one shot while responding to the incident, but there were no injuries.
The man driving the Acura was taken into custody without further incident, authorities said.
Traffic on Highway 1 was closed between Lobitos Creek and Tunitas Creek in coastal San Mateo County on Saturday night while authorities investigated, according to the CHP.
California’s potential to lead a national Democratic comeback was on full display as party leaders from across the country recently gathered in downtown Los Angeles.
But is the party ready to bet on the Golden State?
Appearances at the Democratic National Committee meeting by the state’s most prominent Democrats, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom, crystallized the peril and promise of California’s appeal. Harris failed to beat a politically wounded Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race and Newsom, now among President Trump’s most celebrated critics, is considered a top Democratic contender to replace the Republican president in the White House in 2028.
California policies on divisive issues such as providing expanded access to government-sponsored healthcare, aiding undocumented immigrants and supporting LGBTQ+ rights continually serve as a Rorschach test for the nation’s polarized electorate, providing comfort to progressives and ammunition for Republican attack ads.
“California is like your cool cousin that comes for the holidays who is intriguing and glamorous, but who might not fit in with the family year-round,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a veteran Democratic strategist who worked for former Govs. Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harris when she was the state’s attorney general.
Newsom, in particular, is quick to boast about California being home to the world’s fourth-largest economy, a billion-dollar agricultural industry and economic and cultural powerhouses in Hollywood and the Silicon Valley. Critics, Trump chief among them, paint the state as a dystopian hellhole — littered with homeless encampments and lawlessness, and plagued by high taxes and an even higher cost of living.
Only two Californians have been elected president, Republicans Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. But that was generations ago, and Harris and Newsom are considering bids to end the decades-long drought in 2028. Both seized the moment by courting party leaders and activists during the three-day winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee that ended Saturday.
Harris, speaking to committee members and guests Friday, said the party’s victories in state elections across the nation in November reflect voters’ agitation about the impacts of Trump’s policies, notably affordability and healthcare costs. But she argued that “both parties have failed to hold the public’s trust.”
“So as we plan for what comes after this administration, we cannot afford to be nostalgic for what was, in fact, a flawed status quo, and a system that failed so many of you,” said Harris, who was criticized after her presidential campaign for not focusing enough on kitchen table issues, including the increasing financial strains faced by Americans.
While Harris, who ruled out running for governor earlier this year, did not address whether she would make another bid for the White House in 2028, she argued that the party needed to be introspective about its future.
“We need to answer the question, what comes next for our party and our democracy, and in so doing, we must be honest that for so many, the American dream has become more of a myth than a reality,” she said.
Many of the party leaders who spoke at the gathering focused on California’s possible role in determining control of Congress after voters in November approved Proposition 50, a rare mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts in an effort to boost the number of Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation in the 2026 election.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass rallied the crowd by reminding them that Democrats took back the U.S. House of Representatives during Trump’s first term and predicted the state would be critical in next year’s midterm elections.
Mayor Karen Bass speaks at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Newsom, who championed Proposition 50, basked in that victory when he strode through the hotel’s corridors at the DNC meeting the day before, stopping every few feet to talk to committee members, shake their hands and take selfies.
“There’s just a sense of optimism here,” Newsom said.
Democratic candidates in New Jersey and Virginia also won races by a significant margin last month which, party leaders say, were all telltale signs of growing voter dissatisfaction with Trump and Washington’s Republican leadership.
“The party, more broadly, got their sea legs back, and they’re winning,” Newsom said. “And winning solves a lot of problems.”
Louisiana committee member Katie Darling teared up as she watched fellow Democrats flock to Newsom.
“He really is trying to bring people together during a very difficult time,” said Darling, who grew up in Sacramento in a Republican household. “He gets a lot of pushback for talking to and working with Republicans, but when he does that, I see him talking to my mom and dad who I love, who I vehemently disagree with politically. … I do think that we need to talk to each other to move the country forward.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom looks on during an election night gathering at the California Democratic Party headquarters on November 04, 2025 in Sacramento.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
Darling said she listens to Newsom’s podcast, where his choice of guests, including the late Charlie Kirk, and his comments on the show that transgender athletes taking part in women’s sports is “deeply unfair” have drawn outrage from some on the left.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, another potential 2028 presidential candidate whose family has historically supported Newsom, was also reportedly on site Thursday, holding closed-door meetings. And former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, also a possible White House contender, was in Los Angeles on Thursday, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show and holding meetings.
Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, cast the DNC meetings in L.A. as “anti-Trump sessions” and pointed to the homeless encampments on Skid Row, just blocks from where committee members gathered.
“We need accountability and solutions that actually get people off the streets, make communities safer and life more affordable,” Rankin said.
Elected officials from across the nation are drawn to California because of its wellspring of wealthy political donors. The state was the largest source of contributions to the campaign committees of Trump and Harris during the 2024 presidential contest, contributing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Open Secrets, which tracks electoral finances.
While the DNC gathering focused mostly on mundane internal business, the gathering of party leaders attracted liberal groups seeking to raise money and draw attention to their causes.
Actor Jane Fonda and comedian Nikki Glaser headlined an event aimed at increasing the minimum wage at the Three Clubs cocktail bar in Hollywood. California already has among the highest minimum wages in the nation; one of the organizers of the event is campaigning to increase the rate to $30 per hour in some California counties.
“The affordability crisis is pushing millions of Americans to the edge, and no democracy can survive when people who work full time cannot afford basic necessities,” Fonda said prior to the event. “Raising wages is one of the most powerful ways to give families stability and hope.”
But California’s liberal policies have been viewed as a liability for Democrats elsewhere, where issues such as transgender rights and providing healthcare for undocumented immigrants have not been warmly received by some blue-collar workers who once formed the party’s base.
Trump capitalized on that disconnect in the closing months of the 2024 presidential contest, when his campaign aired ads that highlighted Harris’ support of transgender rights, including taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for inmates.
“Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you,” the commercial stated. The ad aired more than 30,000 times in swing states in the fall, notably during football games and NASCAR races.
“Kamala had 99 problems. California wasn’t one of them,” said John Podesta, a veteran Democratic strategist who served a senior advisor to former President Biden, counselor to former President Obama and White House chief of staff for former President Clinton.
He disputed the argument that California, whether through its policies or candidates, will impact Democrats’ chances, arguing there’s a broader disconnect between the party and its voters.
“This sense that Democrats lost touch with the middle class and the poor in favor of the cultural elite is a real problem,” said Podesta. “My shorthand is, we used to be the party of the factory floor, and now we’re the party of the faculty lounge. That’s not a California problem. It’s an elitist problem.”
While Podesta isn’t backing anyone yet in the 2028 presidential contest, he praised Newsom for his efforts to not only buck Trump but the “leftist extremists” in the Democratic party.
The narrative of Californians being out of touch with many Americans has been exacerbated this year during the state’s battles with the Trump administration over immigration, climate change, water and artificial intelligence policy. But Newsom and committee members argued that the state has been at the vanguard of where the nation will eventually head.
“I am very proud of California. It’s a state that’s not just about growth, it’s about inclusion,” the governor said, before ticking off a list of California initiatives, including low-priced insulin and higher minimum wages. “So much of the policy that’s coming out of the state of California promotes not just promise, but policy direction that I think is really important for the party.”
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Police in Rhode Island said early Sunday that they had a person of interest in custody after a shooting at Brown University’s campus that killed two people and wounded nine others.
What You Need To Know
Police in Rhode Island say they have a person of interest in custody after a shooting at Brown University killed two people and wounded nine others
The incident happened Saturday afternoon in a classroom during final exams
Surveillance video shows the suspect, dressed in black, calmly walking away
The mayor says a shelter-in-place is in effect for the area and people living near the campus are encouraged to stay inside or not return home until it is lifted
Police spokesperson Kristy dosReis confirmed the information. A news conference was called for 7 a.m. to provide more details.
Hundreds of police officers had been scouring the Brown University campus along with nearby neighborhoods and poring over video in the hunt for the shooter who opened fire in a classroom.
The shooting erupted Saturday afternoon in the engineering building of the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, during final exams.
Surveillance video released by police shows the suspect, dressed in black, calmly walking away from the scene. His face is not visible and investigators said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect is a student.
The suspect was last seen leaving the engineering building and some witnesses told police the suspect, who could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask, Providence Police Deputy Chief Timothy O’Hara said.
University President Christina Paxson said she was told 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting but it was not clear if the victim was a student, she said.
The search for the shooter paralyzed the campus, the nearby neighborhoods filled with stately brick homes and the downtown in Rhode Island’s capital city. Streets normally bustling with activity on weekends were eerily quiet.
Students sheltered in place for hours into the night. Officers in tactical gear led students out of some campus buildings and into a fitness center where they waited. Others arrived at the shelter on buses without jackets or any belongings.
Emergency personnel gather on Waterman Street at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Mayor advised people to stay home
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom. Outer doors of the building were unlocked but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
He encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside or not return home until a shelter-in-place order was lifted.
“The Brown community’s heart is breaking and Providence’s heart is breaking along with it,” Smiley said.
Authorities believe the shooter used a handgun, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Democratic Gov. Dan McKee vowed that all resources were being deployed to catch the suspect. Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S.
Nine people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where one was in critical condition. Six required intensive care but were not getting worse and two were stable, hospital spokesperson Kelly Brennan said.
Law enforcement officials walk near an entrance to Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Exams were underway during shooting
Engineering design exams were underway when the shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. The building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices, according to the university’s website.
Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the building’s lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side. Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building where she sheltered for several hours.
Former ‘Survivor’ contestant had just left the building
Eva Erickson, a doctoral candidate who was the runner-up earlier this year on the CBS reality competition show “Survivor,” said she left her lab in the engineering building 15 minutes before shots rang out.
The engineering and thermal science student shared candid moments on “Survivor” as the show’s first openly autistic contestant. She was locked down in the campus gym following the shooting and shared on social media that the only other member of her lab who was present was safely evacuated.
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as armed officers surrounded his dorm.
Students hid under desks and inside stores
Students in a nearby lab turned off the lights and hid under desks after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene.
Mari Camara, 20, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus.
“Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said.
Brown, the seventh oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. Tuition, housing and other fees run to nearly $100,000 per year, according to the university.
SANTA CLARA — Brandon Aiyuk has officially left the 49ers’ building — and roster, likely forever.
Aiyuk’s stalled comeback from last season’s knee injury turned into such a vanishing act that the 49ers reclassified his status Saturday as “reserve/left squad.”
Aiyuk did not previously count against the 53-man roster with his reserve/physically-unable-to-perform list, and now the 49ers are announcing he’s not returning this season — nor essentially in the foreseeable future.
Although the 49ers voided $27 million in 2026 guarantees back in late July for reportedly violating terms of his knee rehabilitation, Aiyuk maintained a very visible presence during training camp and the first month of the season as he shadowed wide receivers’ warmups.
He vanished from the media’s sight once October arrived, although 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch stated that Aiyuk continued to show up for early-morning therapy sessions.
Aiyuk has not officially commented to the media since last season.
Teammates have expressed concern for Aiyuk and, in recent days, the tone shifted to a past-tense about his 49ers career, which began as a 2020 first-round draft pick and peaked with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2022 and ’23.
Aiyuk and the 49ers clashed throughout the 2024 offseason before he agreed to a four-year extension worth $30 million annually. His right knee’s ligaments and meniscus were torn in a devastating hit against the Kansas City Chiefs in October 2024.
“At this point, it doesn’t seem like he’s coming back. I try my best not to think about it,” tight end George Kittle said Thursday. “I love Brandon. He’s one of my best teammates I’ve played with. We have a lot of moments together from his rookie year (in 2020). Every year we have a ton of memories. That’s the Brandon I remember.
“I wish he was here. It kind of just makes me sad so I just push it to the side,” Kittle added. “Look, we have to make to due with what we have in the locker room, and the guys that want to be here are here.”
Jauan Jennings is the only 49ers wide receiver with a touchdown catch this season, and his five are tied for the team lead with Kittle and running back Christian McCaffrey, the latter of whom surfaced on Saturday’s injury report with a back issue that has him questionable for Sunday’s game between the 49ers (9-4) and visiting Tennessee Titans (2-11).
Quarterback Brock Purdy, along with Kittle, praised how special Aiyuk was to the 49ers’ offense, when healthy.
“He did it all at receiver,” Purdy said Thursday. “So, he did a great job with that. And obviously I wish he was healthy to be able to be with us and play and roll, but like I said before, and I’ve said in the past, all the things off the field, that’s not my place to say anything. All I can say is I’d love to play with him and in the past we’ve had such great times together and so that’s all I can really say about it.”
The San Diego City Council approved one of the largest settlements for a police shooting in U.S. history on Tuesday — a $30 million payment to the family of a 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a San Diego police officer while running away from another shooting.
Konoa Wilson’s parents sued the city and the officer who shot him, San Diego Police Department Officer Daniel Gold, in connection with the teen’s shooting death on the night of Jan. 28. The council voted unanimously to pass the settlement.
According to the family’s lawsuit, the boy was fleeing gunshots fired at him by another person when he encountered Gold, who shot the boy twice in the back “instantly, without any warning.” Konoa was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour later.
“What happened to Konoa was a catastrophic failure of policing,” the Wilson family’s attorney, Nick Rowley, said in a statement. “A 16-year-old boy was running for his life. He was not a threat and not a suspect, yet he was shot in the back by a police officer who only saw him for one second before deciding to pull the trigger.”
The city of San Diego has agreed to a $25,000 settlement with a driver who accused the San Diego Police Department of violating his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
The settlement amount was disclosed in a San Diego City Council agenda posted on Friday and exceeds the $27 million the city of Minneapolis agreed to pay the family of George Floyd, whose May 2020 murder by a police officer who knelt on his neck sparked a nationwide racial reckoning, the Associated Press reported.
City Councilman Henry Foster III noted the Floyd murder in his statement on the Tuesday settlement.
“Where’s the progress? Where’s the protect and serve? Better yet, where’s the accountability?” he said. “As the father of a young Black man, this hurts. This could be my son. If only you could understand the fear I feel when my son leaves the house.”
He called on Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl to do better.
“Will you step up? Or will we see what we always see … business as usual?” Foster said. “I do ask the public to keep asking questions.”
The San Diego County District Attorney’s office said the case is still under review for potential criminal charges. San Diego police declined to comment on the settlement, but confirmed Officer Gold is on paid administrative duty and currently not on patrol.
Warning: Some of what you see in the video might be difficult to watch. Authorities released video of a police shooting that killed a 16-year-old boy on Jan. 28.
Gold and another officer were in the area responding to an unrelated report of an assault when the gunshots rang out.
The boy can be seen running down a corridor leading out of the station and emerging on Kettner Boulevard just as Gold was running towards the same corridor.
Body-worn camera footage shows the officer immediately fire on the teen at close range. Rowley said Gold shot the boy “before he even announced who he was.”
After he was shot, the video shows the boy screaming and running briefly before collapsing. Officers then began performing CPR on him and, while doing so, found a handgun concealed under the youth’s clothing near his right thigh, according to police.
There were no indications in the video that the teen fired his gun during the incident or was holding it when Gold, a two-year member of the police department, opened fire on him.
Rowley said the boy had the gun for self-defense, because he had recently been targeted and assaulted by gang members. The attorney said the gun was not believed to be loaded, but more importantly, was not brandished when he was shot.
The 16-year-old was shot and killed by a police officer last January. At the time, he was fleeing from someone firing shots at him at the Sante Fe Depot downtown. NBC 7’s Dave Summers reports.
“This settlement brings some semblance of accountability, but not closure,” Rowley’s statement continued. “You don’t get closure when your child is shot in the back for doing nothing wrong by the people who are supposed to be protecting him.
“We hope that Konoa’s story will send a message across the country: Cities will pay dearly when officers violate the law and take a life without justification. We expect the city of San Diego to ensure this never happens again.”
The boy was killed three months shy of his 17th birthday. In a statement, attorneys said he was “an only child, and his parents lost their only son.”
Police said the person who fired gunshots at Konoa — described only as a 16-year-old juvenile — was arrested just over a week later.
“I’m expressing my most sincere and deepest apologies for what is the deepest nightmare for any parent,” City Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera said at Tuesday’s meeting. “There’s no amount of money that can ever replace a child.”
Elo-Rivera demanded to know what would be done to prevent such shootings in the future, noting that the amount paid out of a public liability fund could and should go to other uses, not to preventable actions like the killing of Wilson.
Ashley Nicholes, a spokeswoman from Chief Wahl’s office, said the department was unable to comment on ongoing legal matters, but said Gold was still working with the department in an administrative capacity.
All shootings involving police undergo various levels of investigation, which are still ongoing in this case. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit investigates all SDPD shootings. Its report is then provided to the District Attorney’s Office, which determines if the officers bear any criminal liability for their actions.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office also monitor the investigation and the SDPD’s Internal Affairs Unit will conduct an internal investigation into the actions of the officer, according to Nicholes.
The SDPD Shooting Review Board will evaluate the tactics used and the internal investigation will be reviewed by San Diego’s independent Commission on Police Practices.
In a city document, the settlement is described as “not an admission of liability by any party.”
An agenda item posted Friday said the settlement would be paid from the Public Liability Fund.
The dreaded norovirus — the “vomiting bug” that often causes stomach flu symptoms — is climbing again in California, and doctors warn that a new subvariant could make even more people sick this season.
In L.A. County, concentrations of norovirus are already on the rise in wastewater, indicating increased circulation of the disease, the local Department of Public Health told the Los Angeles Times.
Norovirus levels are increasing across California, and the rise is especially notable in the San Francisco Bay Area and L.A., according to the California Department of Public Health.
And the rate at which norovirus tests are confirming infection is rising nationally and in the Western U.S. For the week that ended Nov. 22, the test positivity rate nationally was 11.69%, up from 8.66% two months earlier. In the West, it was even worse: 14.08%, up from 9.59%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Norovirus is extraordinarily contagious, and is America’s leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea, according to the CDC. Outbreaks typically happen in the cooler months between November and April.
Clouding the picture is the recent emergence of a new norovirus strain — GII.17. Such a development can result in 50% more norovirus illness than typical, the CDC says.
“If your immune system isn’t used to something that comes around, a lot of people get infected,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco.
During the 2024-25 winter season, GII.17 overthrew the previous dominant norovirus strain, GII.4, that had been responsible for more than half of national norovirus outbreaks over the preceding decade. The ancestor of the GII.17 strain probably came from a subvariant that triggered an outbreak in Romania in 2021, according to CDC scientists.
GII.17 vaulted in prominence during last winter’s norovirus surge and was ultimately responsible for about 75% of outbreaks of the disease nationally.
The strain’s emergence coincided with a particularly bad year for norovirus, one that started unusually early in October 2024, peaked earlier than normal the following January and stretched into the summer, according to CDC scientists writing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
During the three prior seasons, when GII.4 was dominant, norovirus activity had been relatively stable, Chin-Hong said.
Norovirus can cause substantial disruptions — as many parents know all too well. An elementary school in Massachusetts was forced to cancel all classes on Thursday and Friday because of the “high volume of stomach illness cases,” which was suspected to be driven by norovirus.
More than 130 students at Roberts Elementary School in Medford, Mass., were absent Wednesday, and administrators said there probably wouldn’t be a “reasonable number of students and staff” to resume classes Friday. A company was hired to perform a deep clean of the school’s classrooms, doorknobs and kitchen equipment.
Some places in California, however, aren’t seeing major norovirus activity so far this season. Statewide, while norovirus levels in wastewater are increasing, they still remain low, the California Department of Public Health said.
There have been 32 lab-confirmed norovirus outbreaks reported to the California Department of Public Health so far this year. Last year, there were 69.
Officials caution the numbers don’t necessarily reflect how bad norovirus is in a particular year, as many outbreaks are not lab-confirmed, and an outbreak can affect either a small or large number of people.
Between Aug. 1 and Nov. 13, there were 153 norovirus outbreaks publicly reported nationally, according to the CDC. During the same period last year, there were 235.
UCLA hasn’t reported an increase in the number of norovirus tests ordered, nor has it seen a significant increase in test positivity rates. Chin-Hong said he likewise hasn’t seen a big increase at UC San Francisco.
“Things are relatively still stable clinically in California, but I think it’s just some amount of time before it comes here,” Chin-Hong said.
In a typical year, norovirus causes 2.27 million outpatient clinic visits, mostly young children; 465,000 emergency department visits, 109,000 hospitalizations, and 900 deaths, mostly among seniors age 65 and older.
People with severe ongoing vomiting, profound diarrhea and dehydration may need to seek medical attention to get hydration intravenously.
“Children who are dehydrated may cry with few or no tears and be unusually sleepy or fussy,” the CDC says. Sports drinks can help with mild dehydration, but what may be more helpful are oral rehydration fluids that can be bought over the counter.
Children under the age of 5 and adults 85 and older are most likely to need to visit an emergency room or clinic because of norovirus, and should not hesitate to seek care, experts say.
“Everyone’s at risk, but the people who you worry about, the ones that we see in the hospital, are the very young and very old,” Chin-Hong said.
Those at highest risk are babies, because it doesn’t take much to cause potentially serious problems. Newborns are at risk for necrotizing enterocolitis, a life-threatening inflammation of the intestine that virtually only affects new babies, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Whereas healthy people generally clear the virus in one to three days, immune-compromised individuals can continue to have diarrhea for a long time “because their body’s immune system can’t neutralize the virus as effectively,” Chin-Hong said.
The main way people get norovirus is by accidentally drinking water or eating food contaminated with fecal matter, or touching a contaminated surface and then placing their fingers in their mouths.
People usually develop symptoms 12 to 48 hours after they’re exposed to the virus.
Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus — meaning that proper handwashing is vital, experts say.
People should lather their hands with soap and scrub for at least 20 seconds, including the back of their hands, between their fingers and under their nails, before rinsing and drying, the CDC says.
One helpful way to keep track of time is to hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice, the CDC says. Chin-Hong says his favorite is the chorus of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.”
If you’re living with someone with norovirus, “you really have to clean surfaces and stuff if they’re touching it,” Chin-Hong said. Contamination is shockingly easy. Even just breathing out little saliva droplets on food that is later consumed by someone else can spread infection.
Throw out food that might be contaminated with norovirus, the CDC says. Noroviruses are relatively resistant to heat and can survive temperatures as high as 145 degrees.
Norovirus is so contagious that even just 10 viral particles are enough to cause infection. By contrast, it takes ingesting thousands of salmonella particles to get sick from that bacterium.
People are most contagious when they are sick with norovirus — but they can still be infectious even after they feel better, the CDC says.
The CDC advises staying home for 48 hours after infection. Some studies have even shown that “you can still spread norovirus for two weeks or more after you feel better,” according to the CDC.
The CDC also recommends washing laundry in hot water.
Besides schools, other places where norovirus can spread quickly are cruise ships, day-care centers and prisons, Chin-Hong said.
The most recent norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship reported by the CDC is on the ship AIDAdiva, which set sail on Nov. 10 from Germany. Out of 2,007 passengers on board, 4.8% have reported being ill. The outbreak was first reported on Nov. 30 following stops that month at the Isle of Portland, England; Halifax, Canada; Boston; New York City; Charleston, S.C.; and Miami.
According to CruiseMapper, the ship was set to make stops in Puerto Vallarta on Saturday, San Diego on Tuesday, Los Angeles on Wednesday, Santa Barbara on Thursday and San Francisco between Dec. 19-21.
For most American infants, the hepatitis B shot comes just before their first bath, in the blur of pokes, prods and pictures that attend a 21st century hospital delivery.
But as of this week, thousands of newborns across the U.S. will no longer receive the initial inoculation for hepatitis B — the first in a litany of childhood vaccinations and the top defense against one of the world’s deadliest cancers.
On Dec. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s powerful vaccine advisory panel voted to nix the decades-old birth-dose recommendation.
The change was pushed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has long sought to rewrite the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule and unwind state immunization requirements for kindergarten.
California officials have vowed to keep the state’s current guidelines in place, but the federal changes could threaten vaccine coverage by some insurers and public benefits programs, along with broader reverberations.
“It’s a gateway,” said Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious disease epidemiologist in Los Angeles. “It’s not just hepatitis B — it’s chipping away at the entire schedule.”
Democratic-led states and blue-chip insurance companies have scrambled to shore up access. California joined Hawaii, Oregon and Washington in forming the West Coast Health Alliance to maintain uniform public policy on vaccines in the face of official “mis- and dis-information.”
“Universal hepatitis B vaccinations at birth save lives, and walking away from this science is reckless,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s ideological politics continue to drive increasingly high costs — for parents, for newborns, and for our entire public-health system.”
The issue is also already tied up in court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sent a lawsuit over New York’s vaccine rules back to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for review, signaling skepticism about the stringent shots-for-school requirements pioneered in California. On Friday, public health officials in Florida appeared poised to ax their schools’ hepatitis B immunization requirement, along with shots for chickenpox, a dozen strains of bacterial pneumonia and the longtime leading cause of deadly meningitis.
Boosters of the hep B change said it replaces impersonal prescriptions with “shared clinical decision-making” about whether and how to vaccinate, while preserving the more stringent recommendation for children of infected mothers and those whose status is unknown.
Critics say families were always free to decline the vaccine, as about 20% did nationwide in 2020, according to data published by the CDC. It’s the only shot on the schedule that children on Medicaid receive at the same rate as those with private insurance.
Rather than improve informed consent, critics say the CDC committee’s decision and the splashy public fight leading up to it have depressed vaccination rates, even among children of infected mothers.
“Hepatitis B is the most vulnerable vaccine in the schedule,” said Dr. Chari Cohen, president of the Hepatitis B Foundation. “The message we’re hearing from pediatricians and gynecologists is parents are making it clear that they don’t want their baby to get the birth dose, they don’t want their baby to get the vaccine.”
Much of that vulnerability has to do with timing: The first dose is given within hours of birth, while symptoms of the disease might not show up for decades.
“The whole Day One thing really messes with people,” Rivera said. “They think, ‘This is my perfect fresh baby and I don’t want to put anything inside of them.’ ”
U.S. surgeon general nominee Casey Means called the universal birth dose recommendation “absolute insanity,” saying in a post on X last year that it should “make every American pause and question the healthcare system’s mandates.”
“The disease is transmitted through needles and sex exclusively,” she said. “There is no benefit to the baby or the wider population for a child to get this vaccine who is not at risk for sexual or IV transmission. There is only risk.”
In fact, at least half of transmission occurs from mother to child, typically at birth. A smaller percentage of babies get the disease by sharing food, nail clippers or other common household items with their fathers, grandparents or day-care teachers. Because infections are often asymptomatic, most don’t know they have the virus, and at least 15% of pregnant women in the U.S. aren’t tested for the disease, experts said.
Infants who contract hepatitis B are overwhelmingly likely to develop chronic hepatitis, leading to liver cancer or cirrhosis in midlife. The vaccine, by contrast, is far less likely than those for flu or chickenpox to cause even minor reactions, such as fever.
“We’ve given 50 billion doses of the hepatitis B vaccine and we’ve not seen signals that make us concerned,” said Dr. Su Wang, medical director of Viral Hepatitis Programs and the Center for Asian Health at the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey, who lives with the disease.
Still, “sex and drugs” remains a popular talking point, not only with Kennedy allies in Washington and Atlanta, but among many prominent Los Angeles pediatricians.
“It sets up on Day One this mentality of, ‘I don’t necessarily agree with this, so what else do I not agree with?’” said Dr. Joel Warsh, a Studio City pediatrician and MAHA luminary, whose recent book “Between a Shot and a Hard Place” is aimed at vaccine-hesitant families.
Hepatitis B also disproportionately affects immigrant communities, further stigmatizing an illness that first entered the mainstream consciousness as an early proxy for HIV infection in the 1980s, before it was fully understood.
At the committee meeting last week, member Dr. Evelyn Griffin called illegal immigration the “elephant in the room” in the birth dose debate.
The move comes as post-pandemic wellness culture has supercharged vaccine hesitancy, expanding objections from a long-debunked link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism to a more generalized, equally false belief that “healthy” children who eat whole foods and play outside are unlikely to get sick from vaccine-preventable diseases and, if they do, can be treated with “natural” remedies such as beef tallow and cod liver oil.
“It’s about your quality of life, it’s about what you put in your body, it’s about your wellness journey — we have debunked this before,” Rivera said. “This is eugenics.”
Across Southern California, pediatricians, preschool teachers and public health experts say they’ve seen a surge in families seeking to prune certain shots from the schedule and many delay others based on “individualized risk.” The trend has spawned a cottage industry of e-books, Zoom workshops by “vaccine friendly” doctors offering alternative schedules, bespoke inoculations and post-vaccine detox regimens.
CDC data show state exemptions for kindergarten vaccines have surged since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with about 5% of schoolchildren in Georgia, Florida and Ohio, more than 6% in Pennsylvania and nearly 7% in Michigan waved out of the requirement last year.
In Alaska and Arizona, those numbers topped 9%. In Idaho, 1 in 6 kindergartners are exempt.
California is one of four states — alongside New York, Connecticut and Maine — with no religious or personal-belief exemptions for school vaccines.
It is also among at least 20 states that have committed to keep the hepatitis B birth dose for babies on public insurance, which covers about half of American children. It is not clear whether the revised recommendation will affect government coverage of the vaccine in other states.
Experts warn that the success of the birth-dose reversal over near-universal objection from the medical establishment puts the entire pediatric vaccination schedule up for grabs, and threatens the school-based rules that enforce it.
Ongoing measles outbreaks in Texas and elsewhere that have killed three and sickened close to 2,000 show the risks of rolling back requirements, experts said.
Hepatitis is not nearly as contagious as measles, which can linger in the air for about two hours. But it’s still fairly easy to pick up, and devastating to those who contract it, experts said.
“These decisions happening today are going to have terrible residual effects later,” said Rivera, the L.A. epidemiologist. “I can’t imagine being a new mom having to navigate this.”
Dec 12 (Reuters) – A California jury on Friday awarded $40 million to two women who said Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder was to blame for their ovarian cancer.
The jury in Los Angeles Superior Court awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers.
Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement the company plans to “immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically do with aberrant adverse verdicts.”
A spokesperson for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, according to court records. Schultz was diagnosed in 2018. Both women are California residents who say they used J&J’s baby powder after bathing for 40 years. Their treatments for ovarian cancer have involved major surgeries and dozens of rounds of chemotherapy, they testified at the trial.
In closing arguments that Reuters viewed on Courtroom View Network, Andy Birchfield, an attorney for the women, told the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew as far back as the 1960s that its product could cause cancer.
“Absolutely they knew, they knew and they were doing everything they could to hide it, to bury the truth about the dangers,” Birchfield said.
Allison Brown, an attorney for Johnson & Johnson, said the only people to tell Kent and Schultz that their cancers were caused by talc were their lawyers, as the alleged connection isn’t backed by any major U.S. health authority and there is no study that shows talc can migrate from the outside of the body to the reproductive organs.
“They don’t have the evidence in this case, and they hope you don’t mind,” Brown told the jury.
J&J is facing lawsuits from more than 67,000 plaintiffs who say they were diagnosed with cancer after using its baby powder and other talc products, according to court filings.
The company has said its products are safe, do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer. J&J stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product.
J&J has sought to resolve the litigation through bankruptcy, a proposal that has been rejected three times by federal courts, most recently in April. The bankruptcies had put most cases on hold. Brown and Kent’s cases are the first to go to trial since the latest Chapter 11 attempt was dismissed.
Before the bankruptcy attempts, J&J had a mixed record in talc trials, with verdicts as high as $4.69 billion awarded to women who said baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. The company has won some trials outright and had other verdicts reduced on appeal.
The majority of lawsuits involve ovarian cancer claims. Cases alleging talc caused a rare and deadly cancer called mesothelioma make up a smaller portion of the claims J&J is facing. The company has previously settled some of those claims but has not struck a nationwide settlement, so many lawsuits over mesothelioma have proceeded to trial in state courts in recent months.
In the past year, J&J has been hit with several substantial verdicts in mesothelioma cases, including one for more than $900 million in Los Angeles in October.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
The battle between California and the White House escalated as President Trump signed an executive order to block state laws regulating artificial intelligence.
The president’s power move to try to take over control of the regulation of the technology behind ChatGPT through an executive order Thursday was applauded by his allies in Silicon Valley, who have been warning that many layers of heavy-handed rules and regulations were holding them back and could put the U.S. behind in the battle to benefit most from AI.
The order directs the attorney general to create a task force to challenge some state AI laws. States with “onerous AI laws” could lose federal funding from a broadband deployment program and other grants, the order said.
The Trump administration said the order will help U.S. companies win the AI race against countries such as China by removing “cumbersome regulation.” It also pushes for a “minimally burdensome” national standard rather than a patchwork of laws across 50 states that the administration said makes compliance challenging, especially for startups.
“You have to have a central source of approval when they need approval. So things have to come to one source. They can’t go to California, New York and various other places,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back against the order, stating it “advances corruption, not innovation.”
“They’re running a con. And every day, they push the limits to see how far they can take it,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is working on behalf of Americans by building the strongest innovation economy in the nation while implementing commonsense safeguards and leading the way forward.”
The dueling remarks between Newsom and Trump underscore how the tech industry’s influence over regulation has increased tensions between the federal government and state lawmakers trying to place more guardrails around AI.
While AI chatbots can help people quickly find answers to questions and generate text, code, and images, the increasing role the technology plays in people’s daily lives has also sparked greater anxiety about job displacement, equity, and mental health harms.
The order heavily impacts California, home to some of the world’s largest tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, Nvidia and Meta. It also jeopardizes the $1.8 billion in federal funding California has received to expand high-speed internet throughout the state.
Some analysts said Trump’s order is a win for tech giants that have vowed to invest trillions of dollars to build data centers and in research and development.
“We believe that more organizations are expected to head down the AI roadmap through strategic deployments over time, but this executive order takes away more questions around future AI buildouts and removes a major overhang moving forward,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a statement.
Facing lobbying from tech companies, Newsom has vetoed some AI legislation while signing others into law this year.
One new law requires platforms to display labels for minors that warn about social media’s mental health harms. Another aims to make AI developers more transparent about safety risks and offers more whistleblower protections.
He also signed a bill that requires chatbot operators to have procedures to prevent the production of suicide or self-harm content, though child safety groups removed support for that legislation because they said the tech industry successfully pushed for changes that weakened protections.
States and consumer advocacy groups are expected to legally challenge Trump’s order.
“Trump is not our king, and he cannot simply wave a pen to unilaterally invalidate state law,” state Sen. Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista), who introduced the chatbot safety legislation that Newsom signed into law, said in a statement.
In addition to California, three other states — Colorado, Texas and Utah — have passed laws that set some rules for AI across the private sector, according to the International Assn. of Privacy Professionals. Those laws include limiting the collection of certain personal information and requiring more transparency from companies.
The more ambitious AI regulation proposals from states require private companies to provide transparency and assess the possible risks of discrimination from their AI programs. Many have regulated parts of AI: barring the use of deepfakes in elections and to create nonconsensual porn, for example, or putting rules in place around the government’s own use of AI.
The order drew both praise and criticism from the tech industry.
Collin McCune, the head of government affairs at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said on social media site X that the executive order is an “incredibly important first step.”
“But the vacuum for federal AI legislation remains,” he wrote. “Congress needs to come together to create a clear set of rules that protect the millions of Americans using AI and the Little Tech builders driving it forward.”
Omidyar Network Chief Executive Mike Kubzansky said in a statement that he is aware of the risks posed by poorly drafted rules, but the solution isn’t to preempt state and local laws.
“Americans are rightly concerned about AI’s impact on kids, jobs, and the costs imposed on consumers and communities by the rapid development of data centers,” he said. “Ignoring these issues through a blanket moratorium is an abdication of what elected officials owe their constituents — which is why we strongly oppose the Administration’s recent executive action.”
Investors seemed unimpressed by the possible boost the sector could get from the White House.
The stock market fell sharply on Friday, led by AI shares.
Bloomberg and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
NATIONWIDE — The weather outside is frightful, but there’s no need to frighten your pets this holiday season.
“As you gear up for the holidays, it is important to try to keep your pet’s eating and exercise habits as close to their normal routine as possible. Also, please be sure to steer pets clear of the following unhealthy treats, toxic plants and dangerous decorations,” the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) said.
ASPCA released these safety tips ahead of the holiday:
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
Christmas tree safety
Secure your Christmas tree so it doesn’t fall onto your pet. Additionally, make sure any tree water for live trees does not spill. Pets should not be drinking water from tree stands, as it can contain fertilizers and cause an upset stomach.
Plus, stagnant water can be a “breeding ground for bacteria,” leading to other stomach troubles, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea
Avoid tummy aches from greenery
Mistletoe and holly can cause both gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems if a furry family member eats them. Lilies can also cause kidney failure in cats. Poinsettias can cause an upset stomach.
To be extra safe, ASPCA suggested choosing fake plants made from materials such as silk or plastic. If you want to stick to genuine greenery, opt for a pet-safe bouquet.
Tinsel trouble
ASPCA said that if you have furry family members, it’s best to skip tinsel entirely.
Tinsel looks like a toy to some pets. They may want to play with it or even snack on it. If animals eat tinsel, it could cause vomiting or dehydration. Tinsel may also cause an obstructed digestive tract that may require surgery to repair.
(AP Photo)
Careful with candles
Pets have been known to burn themselves on unattended lighted candles, or even start a fire if they knock them over. ASPCA recommended using appropriate candle holders on a stable surface. If you leave the room, blow out the flame. Of course, flameless candles can also brighten up a room.
Watch your wires
Pets should not be able to get into wires, batteries, plastic ornaments or glass decor.
ASPCA said wires could shock a pet, while a battery could burn their mouth or esophagus. Breakable ornaments could also harm your pet’s mouth or digestive tract.
Skip these treats
Avoid giving your pets anything fatty, spicy or sweet.
”By now you know not to feed your pets chocolate and anything sweetened with xylitol, but do you know the lengths to which an enterprising pet will go to chomp on something yummy?” ASPCA said. “Make sure to keep your pets away from the table and unattended plates of food, and be sure to secure the lids on garbage cans.”
Plus, don’t give your pets any bones from your leftovers.
Keep an eye on your drink
If you’re indulging in alcoholic beverages, keep them in a safe place where your pets can’t get a taste. If a pet drinks alcohol, they “could become weak, ill and may even go into a coma, possibly resulting in death from respiratory failure,” ASPCA said.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Gift guide
If you’re gifting something special to your pet, make sure to choose toys that are “basically undestructible,” or Kongs and safe-to-digest chew treats.
While kittens love to play with long strings like ribbon and yarn, these can get stuck in intestines. ASPCA suggested choosing “a new ball that’s too big to swallow, a stuffed catnip toy or the interactive cat dancer” instead.
ASPCA also reminded pet owners to be mindful of wrapped gifts. Even if you can’t see what’s inside, your pet may smell it. Keep any food, even if wrapped, out of paws’ reach.
Visitor rules
If your house guests want to give your pets some extra TLC, encourage petting or snuggle sessions and nice playtime.
Ensure your medicines are locked or secured, and advise your visitors to do the same to avoid a pet ingesting medications.
Recharge
The holidays can be a stressful time for humans and animals alike. Make sure your pet has their own, quiet place to relax. It should include fresh water and a place to snuggle, ASPCA said.
“Shy pups and cats might want to hide out under a piece of furniture, in their carrying case or in a separate room away from the hubbub,” ASPCA added.
New Year’s noise
If you’re celebrating New Year’s, make sure to keep your pet’s comfort and safety in mind, too.
”As you count down to the new year, please keep in mind that strings of thrown confetti can get lodged in a cat’s intestines, if ingested, perhaps necessitating surgery,” ASPCA said. “Noisy poppers can terrify pets and cause possible damage to sensitive ears. And remember that many pets are also scared of fireworks, so be sure to secure them in a safe, escape-proof area as midnight approaches.”
The winter solstice will occur at 10:03 a.m. ET on Dec. 21 this year, and even though the day of the winter solstice is the shortest of the year, the latest sunrise and earliest sunset do not occur on this day.
What You Need To Know
The solar day impacts sunrises and sunsets
A solar day is longer near the winter solstice
The sun rises later in the winter and sets later
Understanding a solar day
Solar noon is when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. The time from one solar noon to the next solar noon is called a solar day.
The length of a solar day changes throughout the year because of the tilt and position of the Earth. Because of this, a solar day can be more than or less than 24 hours depending on the time of the year.
The problem is that we count our days as exactly 24 hours. So, with the solar day being more than 24 hours near the winter solstice, this means solar noon will occur at a later time each day. The sun will also rise later and set later.
If the sun is setting later each day before the solstice, that means the earliest sunset has already happened.
Since the sun also rises later each day, this means the latest sunrise has yet to occur. The latest sunrise will happen a few weeks after the official start of winter.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
Los Angeles County prosecutors have charged five men with felonies for allegedly working as unlicensed contractors in the Eaton fire burn scar and vowed to find and prosecute other workers trying to rebuild homes destroyed by the January wildfires without a license, officials announced Thursday, Dec. 11.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office accused the men of knowingly doing contract work without licenses during a natural disaster, a felony in California.
Property owners are drawn to unlicensed contractors after receiving insurance money because they often promise to rebuild their homes faster and cheaper than others, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. Unlicensed contractors bring a greater risk of fraud, he said.
Homeowners can be sued for any injury workers experience on their property, and it would be difficult if not impossible to recover losses or damages from unlicensed contractors, who often aren’t insured, he said. Unlicensed contractors may ask for significant money upfront and then leave homeowners high and dry or do a faulty job that leads to higher costs and issues in the long run.
“There’s a reason it’s quick and there’s a reason it’s cheaper,” Hochman said, “because of all these risks that can occur.”
Undercover operatives will search the area for unlicensed contractors in an effort to weed them out, he said.
“Get the heck out of our community, all you unlicensed contractors,” Hochman said.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said residents should turn to official lists of vetted contractors when planning to rebuild.
The men are expected to be arraigned on Jan. 8, Hochman said.
VTA’s annual Stuff the Bus, a donation campaign in partnership with the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots program, returns to Plaza de Cesar Chavez on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. VTA staff and U.S. Marines will be on hand to collect new, unwrapped donations of toys and books, as well any monetary gifts. They’re looking for gifts appropriate for kids ranging from newborns to mid-teens, with one caveat: No plush toys.
And on Sunday, the 14th annual Santa Run Silicon Valley will make its way through downtown San Jose, with the 5K’s runners and walkers finishing the race at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. You can still register for either the main race, which starts at 3 p.m., or the kids’ Reindeer Dash at 4:30 p.m. at www.santarunsv.com.
LOS ANGELES, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Rapper and entertainment mogul Snoop Dogg has joined Team USA as its first-ever honorary coach, a role the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee hopes will sprinkle a little West Coast cool on the American team at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
The USOPC said on Thursday that “Coach Snoop” would be part of the “Team Behind the Team” – the staff, coaches, medical experts, administrators and partners who support athletes as they chase medals in Italy.
“Team USA athletes are the real stars – I’m just here to cheer, uplift and maybe drop a little wisdom from the sidelines,” Snoop said in a statement.
“This team represents the best of what sport can be: talent, heart and hustle. If I can bring a little more love and motivation to that, that’s a win for me.”
USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland said Snoop’s first encounter with Team USA athletes looked less like a corporate partnership and more like a locker-room fit.
“From the moment Snoop met Team USA athletes, there was an instant connection – mutual respect, genuine curiosity and a lot of laughter,” she said.
“His enthusiasm for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement is contagious, and we’re thrilled to officially welcome him as a member of the Team Behind the Team.”
Snoop, born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., was a ubiquitous presence at the Paris Olympics, serving as a hype-man for Team USA and performing at a beach party in his native Long Beach during the handover ceremony for Los Angeles 2028.
“From the moment I rolled into Paris, I was instantly welcomed into the USOPC family,” he said.
“I felt the energy, the pride and the love of sport that makes this team special. The way the staff lifts up the athletes… the way the athletes inspire the world… it had me hooked from day one.”
The 54-year-old Californian has a long history in grassroots sport through the Snoop Youth Football League, which the USOPC says has supported more than 15,000 young athletes, including youngsters with disabilities.
The honorary coaching gig adds to Snoop’s previously announced role with Olympic broadcaster NBCUniversal during February’s Milano Cortina Games, further cementing his status as an unlikely but increasingly permanent character in the Olympic universe.
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “Let’s fire up Team USA together.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; editing by Clare Fallon)
That, or it’s been so long since they last played that the memories are getting fuzzy.
Did we really see Pat Spencer turning into the second coming of Jeremy Lin? Did the Dubs really beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and then dismantle the Chicago Bulls?
Did they have swagger? Momentum?
This Spencsanity that’s sweeping through the Bay is clearly infectious and possibly dangerous.
Maybe we should take a breath.
Because if you look closely at what actually happened this past weekend, you realize two things:
2. We still know absolutely nothing about this basketball team.
Let’s start with the Dubs’ victims: The Cleveland Cavaliers are swooning hard. They are a shell of last year’s team, a squad playing with all the cohesion of a middle school group project.
And the Bulls? The Bulls are doing that thing they do best: aiming for the bottom with the precision of a heat-seeking missile. Beating Chicago right now isn’t a statement; it’s a civic duty.
So, yes, the Warriors won. They entered this quasi-bye week — a scheduling quirk that feels like a gift from the heavens — feeling good, if a bit conflicted. But let’s be honest: Those wins don’t change anything. They’re just delicious, sugary, satisfying empty calories. They offer zero nutritional value for a team trying to figure out if it’s a contender or a pretender.
The actual test? That starts now.
The Warriors’ next five games leading into Christmas will tell us a lot.
No more tanking Bulls. No more crumbling Cavs. The upcoming slate features a gauntlet of teams sitting right there in the Warriors’ “corridor” of the Western Conference — the Timberwolves, Suns, Blazers and — sprinkled with an Eastern Conference playoff team — the Magic — that isn’t above resorting to pugilism to win.
This is the “put up or shut up” portion of the program for the Dubs. If the Warriors are actually turning a corner, this is where they prove it. If the swagger is real, it survives a Thursday night against a team desperate for playoff seeding, not just a Sunday stroll against a team whose success is determined by how many lottery balls they have at the end of the campaign.
The good news? Much-needed reinforcements are coming. Specifically, thereinforcement. Steph Curry is expected to be back for Friday’s game against the Timberwolves. He won’t solve all the Warriors’ problems, but he can cover up a great deal of them. He is still the deodorant for an organization that often carries a desperate scent.
With 30 back, anything is possible, even making sense of whatever this roster is.
But even Steph’s return can’t solve the Warriors’ biggest problem — the 6-foot-7 issue sitting on the end of the bench:
Against the Bulls, in a game where everyone ate, Kuminga starved. A ‘DNP-CD’ against a bottom-barrel team is not a “rest day.” It’s a message.
And for those of you hoping this was just a one-off—a little “tough love” motivational tactic—I wouldn’t hold your breath. Steve Kerr’s leash isn’t just short with JK right now; it’s non-existent.
He’s done to the point where he didn’t even try to sugarcoat things on his weekly flagship radio hit:
“He has not played well lately, that’s why I went away from him in the last game,” Kerr said Tuesday on 95.7 The Game (KBMZ-FM). “It’s no different than any other player on the team — other than the obvious: Steph, Jimmy, Draymond, those guys are going to play no matter what because… I know what I’m going to get from them every night.”
That’s Kerr making it clear: Stars get star treatment — and you, Jonathan Kuminga, are no star.
“He’s obviously a guy with a lot of ambition, which I love. He wants to be a star. He’s got the ability that gives him that hope and gives us that hope. But there has to be a consistent level of play in order to achieve that,” Kerr said. “The potential is there.”
“It has been a discussion for many years,” Kerr added. “His play tailed off… It is what it is.”
Kerr has always valued process over potential, execution over athleticism. Right now, Kuminga is offering buckets of the latter and thimbles of the former.
And after how many years of this back-and-forth, Kerr is ready to move forward. Jan. 15 — the first day the Warriors can trade Kuminga — can’t come soon enough.
But where will the Warriors stand then?
Can the “Pat Spencer Era” endure, or will it quickly be relegated to the “remember that?” category?
Can Curry get back in the lineup and take an operation that’s showing signs of cohesion to that next level?
Can this team get out of its own way for a couple of weeks?
It truly is never dull in the Bay. But don’t let that nice weekend getaway fool you — the Warriors are a long way from figuring this thing out, and real tests are coming.
Federal health officials on Wednesday said an outbreak of infant botulism tied to recalled ByHeart baby formula has expanded to include all illnesses reported since the company began production in March 2022.
Investigations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and ByHeart are still ongoing to determine what originally caused the outbreak, but health officials warned that all ByHeart formula ever produced could have been contaminated.
In an update shared Wednesday, the FDA said it “cannot rule out the possibility that contamination might have affected all ByHeart formula products.” Because of that, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is also investigating the outbreak, has expanded the scope of their probe to include any infant infected with botulism who was exposed to ByHeart formula since it came on the market more than three years ago.
The outbreak’s official tally now includes at least 51 infants in 19 states, the FDA said, adding that those infants have had either suspected or confirmed botulism in addition to confirmed exposure to ByHeart formula. The most recent illness was reported on Dec. 1.
To date, cases have been reported in Arizona, California, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, according to the FDA. California has the highest number of cases so far, with at lease nine, and Texas has the second highest, with at least seven or eight, the agency said.
Previously, health officials had said the outbreak included 39 suspected or confirmed cases of infant botulism reported in 18 states since August. That’s when officials at California’s Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program reported a rise in treatment of infants who had consumed ByHeart formula. Another 12 cases were identified with the expanded definition, including two that occurred in the original timeline and 10 that occurred from December 2023 through July 2025.
“They need to be held accountable”
ByHeart, a New York-based manufacturer of organic infant formula founded in 2016, recalled all its products sold in the U.S. on Nov. 11. The company, which accounts for about 1% of the U.S. infant formula market, had been selling about 200,000 cans of the product each month.
News that ByHeart products could have been contaminated for years was distressing to Andi Galindo, whose 5-week-old daughter, Rowan, was hospitalized in December 2023 with infant botulism after drinking the formula. Galindo, 36, of Redondo Beach, California, said she insisted on using ByHeart formula to supplement a low supply of breast milk because it was recommended by a lactation consultant as “very natural, very gentle, very good for the babies.”
“That’s a hard one,” Galindo said. “If there is proof that there were issues with their manufacturing and their plant all the way back from the beginning, that is a problem and they really need to be held accountable.”
Amy Mazziotti, 43, of Burbank, California, said her then-5-month-old son, Hank, fell ill and was treated for botulism in March, weeks after he began drinking ByHeart. Being included in the investigation of the outbreak “feels like a win for all of us,” she said Wednesday.
“I’ve known in my gut from the beginning that ByHeart was the reason Hank got sick, and to see that these cases are now part of the investigation brings me to tears — a mix of relief, gratitude and hope that the truth is finally being recognized,” she said.
In a statement late Wednesday, ByHeart officials said the company is cooperating with federal officials “to understand the full scope of related cases.”
“The new cases reported by CDC and FDA will help inform ByHeart’s investigation as we continue to seek the root cause of the contamination,” the statement said.
The FDA sent inspectors last month to ByHeart plants in Allerton, Iowa, and Portland, Oregon, where the formula is produced and packaged. The agency has released no results from those inspections.
The company previously reported that tests by an independent laboratory showed that 36 samples from three different lots contained the type of bacteria that can cause infant botulism.
“We cannot rule out the risk that all ByHeart formula across all product lots may have been contaminated,” the company wrote on its website last month.
Those results and discussions with the FDA led CDC officials to expand the outbreak, according to Dr. Jennifer Cope, a CDC scientist leading the investigation.
“It looks like the contamination appeared to persist across all production runs, different lots, different raw material lots,” Cope said. “They couldn’t isolate it to specific lots from a certain time period.”
A contaminated record
Inspection documents showed that ByHeart had a history of problems with contamination.
In 2022, the year ByHeart started making formula, the company recalled five batches of infant formula after a sample at a packaging plant tested positive for a different germ, cronobacter sakazakii. In 2023, the FDA sent a warning letter to the company detailing “areas that still require corrective actions.”
A ByHeart plant in Reading, Pennsylvania, was shut down in 2023 just before FDA inspectors found problems with mold, water leaks and insects, documents show.
Infant botulism is a rare disease that affects fewer than 200 babies in the U.S. each year. It’s caused when infants ingest botulism bacteria that produce spores that germinate in the intestines, creating a toxin that affects the nervous system. Babies are vulnerable until about age 1 because their gut microbiomes are not mature enough to fight the toxin.
Baby formula has previously been linked to sporadic cases of illness, but no known outbreaks of infant botulism tied to powdered formula have previously been confirmed, according to research studies.
Symptoms can take up to 30 days to develop and can include constipation, poor feeding, loss of head control, drooping eyelids and a flat facial expression. Babies may feel “floppy” and can have problems swallowing or breathing.
The sole treatment for infant botulism is known as BabyBIG, an IV medication made from the pooled blood plasma of adults immunized against botulism. California’s infant botulism program developed the product and is the sole source worldwide.
The antibodies provided by BabyBIG are likely most effective for about a month, although they may continue circulating in the child’s system for several months, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, an expert in pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.
“The risk to the infant is ongoing and the family should not be using this formula after it was recalled,” Nachman said in an email.
Families of several babies treated for botulism after drinking ByHeart formula have sued the company. Lawsuits filed in federal courts allege that the formula they fed their children was defective and ByHeart was negligent in selling it. They seek financial payment for medical bills, emotional distress and other harm.
