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A USC student whom police accused of fatally stabbing a man who had broken into a car on Greek Row will not be charged in the killing, prosecutors announced Thursday. Ivan Gallegos, 19, was being held on bail of $2 million after Los Angeles police say he and two others confronted Xavier Cerf, 27, as he was breaking into a car, and Gallegos pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed him. "After careful consideration and a thorough review of all available evidence, we have decided not to pursue charges against ... Gallegos. We believe that Mr. Gallegos’s actions were driven...

Senior Vice President at The Walt Disney Company details discriminatory hiring practices: "Nobody else is going to tell you this, but they're not considering any white males for the job," says Michael Giordano, a Vice President of Business affairs, "there’s no way we’re hiring a white male.” Giordano reveals Disney uses "code words and buzzwords" to avoid legal action and even mentions a candidate being rejected for not looking black enough. Giordano also admits Disney gives bonuses to executives for practicing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), agreeing that "diversity helps with financial incentives." Giordano further claims he’s been denied promotions...

A business-sponsored initiative that would have required voter approval for any increase in state or local taxes or fees must be removed from the November ballot because it is so far-reaching that it would be a “revision” of the state Constitution, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday. “The measure would fundamentally restructure the most basic of governmental powers,” the power of state and local lawmakers to raise taxes to fund the government, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in the 7-0 ruling. The court granted a request by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislators to remove the measure from the ballot....

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- A home owned by Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was raided by the FBI Thursday morning, a source tells ABC7 News. A neighbor confirmed to ABC7 News that the FBI was in the Lincoln Highlands neighborhood in the Oakland Hills. Security footage from another neighbor shows the FBI on the property. The FBI provided this statement Thursday morning: "The FBI is conducting court authorized law enforcement activity on Maiden Lane. We are unable to provide additional information at this time."

The Shasta Indian Nation will be returned 2,820 acres of ancestral land in northwestern California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday. The land return is the largest in California history and comes as a reconciliation effort to apologize to Native communities for historical injustices, the release said. Newsom's office said he discussed the land return with the Shasta Indian Nation earlier this month after visiting the Klamath River dam removal project, which is on ancestral lands near the California-Oregon border. The project is the largest dam removal and river restoration in the country intended to restore land and more than 300...

The California Senate has approved a bill that would ban school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents if their child asks to go by a new pronoun at school California Senate approves ban on requiring schools to notify parents of child’s pronoun changeBy SOPHIE AUSTINAssociated Press/Report for AmericaThe Associated PressSACRAMENTO, Calif. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — School districts in California would be barred from requiring teachers to notify parents if their child asks to go by a new pronoun at school under a bill the state Legislature is weighing amid legal battles over the rights of parents and gender-nonconforming students....

On November 8, 2023, the Sierra County Sheriff’s deputies performed a welfare check on 71-year-old Patrice Miller at her home in Downieville, California. At the house rented by Miller, they found a gruesome scene. The door had been broken in, and there was bear scat on the porch. What was left of Miller’s body was inside. The bear had been feeding on it for several days. California has a rapidly growing bear population and rapidly increasing numbers of bear-human conflicts.Downieville is a small village at the confluence of the Yuba and North Downie rivers, 54 miles west of Reno, Nevada....

A crime-plagued California city may be one step closer to reversing its misfortunes after taking drastic action against its progressive mayor. Sheng Thao will face a historic recall election in November amid anger over her failure to get a grip on the situation in Oakland. The progressive Democrat lawmaker is the first mayor in the city's history to be up for recall, after a campaign to oust her gained more than 40,000 signatures.

A suspect arrested in relation to arson attacks at University of California, Berkeley is a 34-year-old PhD student who lived in his parents' million-dollar home and called the U.S. a "fascist hellhole." California and federal law enforcement say that 34-year-old Casey Goonan was arrested on Monday for allegedly committing four acts of arson at Berkeley during pro-Palestinian anti-Israel protests on campus. His attorney confirmed that officials had raided Goonan's parents' home in Pleasant Hill on Monday at about 10 a.m. A CalFire news release said that Goonan had been booked into the Alameda County jail on suspicion of arson and...

Los Angeles-based affiliates of the Sinaloa cartel, the organization once helmed by infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, have partnered with underground banks in China to launder more than $50 million, authorities say.

San Francisco has ranked as America's worst-run city, thanks to its looming $1.4 billion budget deficit and social problems from homelessness to crime and cash-strapped public schools. Researchers at WalletHub found that San Francisco was the worst-managed of all the 148 major cities assessed in its report, in a damning indictment of the administration of Mayor London Breed. The personal finance website ranked other big-name cities among the lowest-performing ten.

The mayoral debate in San Francisco, California, took a bizarre turn after Democrat Mayor London Breed asked her challenger to name three LGBTQ advisers to his campaign as well as three drag queens in the city or prove his loyalty to the cause. Breed pitched the question during Monday’s debate, putting the five candidates on the same stage. They were each given the opportunity to ask a fellow candidate a question, and Breed used the opportunity to ask challenger Mark Farrell to prove his loyalty to the LGBTQ2S+ community by naming three drag queens in the city. “I’d like to...

A man walking two dogs at San Francisco’s McLaren Park verbally attacked a Muslim group gathering for a communal prayer Monday morning for the annual Eid al-Adha holiday, members of the Islamic Center of San Francisco told SFGATE.

Who can you put next to President Joe Biden that will make him look good? We know it’s not the G7, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni had to wrangle the US commander-in-chief when he threatened to drift away from the group of world leaders during a parachuting demonstration. And Saturday confirmed that former president Barack Obama isn’t the answer either, after grabbing his former VP by the wrist and guiding him by his shoulders off the stage at a Los Angeles event as Biden appeared to freeze for about five seconds. Biden’s handlers have already equipped him with special...

Will the last person to leave California please turn off the lights? Assuming they aren't in the middle of one of California's increasingly frequent brownouts, that is. Relocation firm moveBuddha looked at searches for 100,000 moves just this year, and five of the top ten were people looking to get out of the Golden State for almost anywhere else. "5 of the top 10 exit metros are in California, the firm reported on Monday. "Los Angeles has the highest interest in outbound moves, with 42% more outbound inquiries than runner-up San Francisco. Per capita, the prize goes to San Francisco."The...

On April 28, 2023, the Santa Monica Daily Press ran this headline on page one: "Metro Rider Violently Beaten by Eight Teenagers at Santa Monica Station." The article, written by Magnolia Lafleur, reported the incident (which occurred on April 19) as a case of simple assault. But buried on page eight was this: "the teens jumped on him screaming insults and racial slurs". Now, when violent thugs shout "racial slurs" during an attack, is that not a hate crime? Yet LaFleur's long article -- 30 paragraphs -- never mentions "hate." Nor are we told the races of the "teenagers" or...

Does California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ever stop talking about his state's "climate leadership"?And we’re a state that at our best — not always — but at our best, we believe the world, in many respects, looks to us to see that it’s possible to live together and advance together across many imaginable differences. And that – that absolutely is the case when it comes to the issue of addressing the crisis of our time in climate change. ...We look forward to maintaining our position of leadership. And we look forward to all of us bringing into our positions of formal...

Pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly firebombed “the side of a building” on the University of California Berkeley (UCB) campus and claimed that students had been “attacked” on another campus. In a post on Instagram on Thursday, Palestine Action in the United States shared a post from an anonymous user who claimed responsibility for firebombing the side of Koshland Hall, a building at UCB that houses “labs from the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology.”

A galaxy of political and entertainment stars (of various wattage) arrived Saturday night at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater for a gala fundraiser for President Biden’s reelection campaign. Here’s a rundown of some of those who attended the event, which is expected to raise at least $28 million: First Lady Jill Biden Former President Obama Julia Roberts George Clooney Barbra Streisand Paul Anka Kathy Griffin Jeffrey Katzenberg Bryan Lourd Richard Lovett Jimmy Kimmel Jack Black Kathryn Hahn Jason Bateman Sheryl Lee Ralph Gov. Gavin Newsom L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) ***MORE

As Democrats make their case to voters around the country this fall, one challenge is that some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess. Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction? I’ll try to answer that question in a moment, but liberals like me do need to face the painful fact that something has gone badly wrong where we’re in charge, from San Diego to Seattle. ...the truth is that too...