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Elias: California’s groundwater needs to become a priority in Sacramento

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

California has had drought years and wet years, several “years of the woman” and the last few years may well have been called “years of housing increases,” at least in terms of making new laws. Fully 56 such laws passed in 2023.Related ArticlesLocal News | Elias: California’s increased housing units haven’t meant lower rents Local News | Elias: Newsom got what he needed from Fox debate with DeSantis Local News | Elias: California utility bills to rise for decades after PUC’s solar move The state has never had a “groundwater year,” though. Yet few resources are as important or as diminished as the unseen aquifers that sustain everything from apricots to avocados, almonds and asparagus, just to name a few crops.This is not to mention what the aquifers do for millions of city dwellers, who also get substantial parts of their water from underground basins. Drive almost any major highway in the agricultural San Joaquin Val...

Opinion: California’s struggle with homelessness needs congressional help

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

The latest Annual Homelessness Assessment Report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, a 12% increase since last year. California counted 181,399 homeless people, the most of any state.These numbers are devastating but expected.Years of research, including efforts from UC San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, show homelessness rates are tied to the disconnect between income and housing costs for the lowest-income households. California has only 24 units of housing available and affordable for every 100 extremely low-income households.At the pandemic’s outset in 2020, fears that homelessness would increase dramatically due to economic disruptions led to the federal government releasing unprecedented levels of emergency funding. These included rental assistance, stimulus payments, unemployment assistance and enhanced tax credits for families. Combined with eviction mo...

Ex-student found competent to stand trial for stabbing deaths near UC Davis

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

DAVIS — A former college student accused of stabbing two people to death and wounding a third in Northern California was found competent to stand trial, a prosecutor said Thursday.Carlos Reales Dominguez will return to court on Jan. 5 and criminal proceedings will be reinstated if there isn’t any challenge to his mental state, according to Yolo County assistant chief deputy district attorney Melinda Aiello, the Sacramento Bee reported.Dominguez had been a third-year student at the University of California, Davis majoring in biological sciences until April 25, when he was expelled for academic reasons.Stabbings near campus began shortly after. He is charged in the deaths of a 50-year-old homeless man and a 20-year-old UC Davis student. A homeless woman who was attacked in her tent survived.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Teen charged with involuntary manslaughter, not murder, in East Bay homicide Crime and Public Safety | A skull found near ...

Good Samaritan’s efforts lead to conviction of Northern California child predator

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

On Dec. 21, 2023, a Yolo County jury convicted Jayson Proctor, a 45-year-old Sacramento transient, of one count of communicating with a minor with the intent to commit an illegal sex act and one count of arranging a meeting with a minor to engage in lewd and lascivious behavior.According to a Yolo County District Attorney’s Office press release, Proctor’s behavior was exposed by a good Samaritan behind an online organization known as “People v. Preds.” This organization utilizes decoy profiles on online dating apps and artificial intelligence to pose as minors and engage with predators who are seeking sexual encounters with children.The individual behind the decoy profile documents these conversations and arranges meetings with these predators. That information is then reported to local law enforcement, who respond to the location of the meeting at the designated time to collect evidence and arrest those communicating with the decoy profile.While using a popular dating app, Proctor ...

Bay Area peace groups rally outside Travis assails base’s ‘complicity in genocide’ in Gaza

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

Religious literature tells us that there is a time for war, a time for peace, a time to sow, a time to reap, a time for all things.On Thursday morning it was time for several Bay Area peace groups to rally outside Travis Air Force Base gates to assail the U.S. government’s “complicity in genocide” as the ferocious Israeli siege of Gaza continues.The morning was also was a time for Fairfield police officers and Solano County Sheriff’s deputies to arrest more than a dozen of the estimated 150 protesters who, some time after they assembled at 6 a.m., blocked the north and south gates to the sprawling base just south of Vacaville.Jennifer Brantley, a spokeswoman for the Fairfield Police Department, confirmed in an email that the protest was prompted by the base sending “supplies” to the state of Israel and that protesters blocked off several gates with barricades.Fourteen people were arrested and booked into Solano County Jail on suspicion of refusing to disperse during the protest, whi...

Photos: High surf pounds Monterey coast

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

The Carmel Lagoon is being watched as hazards are in the weather mix over the next day or two and rain is in the forecast through Sunday.The County of Monterey reported Thursday evening that the lagoon that had been backed up by high surf had stabilized at about 12 feet and flooding had been contained onto 16th Avenue. The County also reported that pumps would be operating through the night to keep the lagoon water out of the surrounding neighborhoods.County public information officer Maia Carroll said that county crews mobilized on Wednesday afternoon to manage the Carmel Lagoon sandbar by constructing a small pilot channel with hand tools. Another one was dug Thursday evening.Waves batter the coast near Yankee Point Thursday. (Austin Robertson — Special to the Herald)The scene at Carmel River lagoon Thursday. (Austin Robertson — Special to the Herald)The scene at Carmel River lagoon Thursday. (Austin Robertson — Special to the Herald)County of Monterey crews mobi...

Marin’s 10 most expensive home sales of 2023

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

With all the bustle of the holidays, many Marin residents risk being distracted from their normal focus — real estate. Fortunately, there’s help.Data on the top residential sales of the year in the county offer a stimulating reminder of the market’s possibilities.Marin’s 10 most expensive home sales of 2023 cost a collective $144.6 million, according to the county assessor’s office. Six of the homes are in Belvedere, two are in Stinson Beach, one is in Ross and one is in Mill Valley.Butch Haze, a real estate agent who specializes in Marin and San Francisco properties, said the “double-digit” sales this year — meaning $10 million and up — show the health of the market, even in a climate of elevated interest rates and low sales volume.“It’s an indication the market is starting to turn,” he said. “It looks like 2024 is off to a good start. We found a tremendous amount of buyers wanting to wait till next year. It was almost a buyer mantra: Look this year, buy next year.”According to dat...

Photos: Waves batter Santa Cruz County

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

 A spectator near Lighthouse Point takes a selfie as massive waves come crashing into the coast Thursday. (Aric Sleeper/Santa Cruz Sentinel) A wave set repeatedly pushes up against the bottom of the Capitola Wharf on Thursday morning. The damaged wharf remained closed and under repair from a series of damaging storms at the beginning of the year. (Jessica A. York — Santa Cruz Sentinel) A man carris a woman through storm debris in the Rio Del Mar neighborhood of Aptos, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023. Powerful surf is rolled onto beaches on the West Coast and Hawaii as a big swell generated by the stormy Pacific Ocean pushes toward shorelines. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)  Related ArticlesWeather | Big surf slams Southern California beaches for exciting end to 2023 Weather | Watch: Monster waves crash into streets, cars, pedestrians along Northern California coast Weather | ‘Smart to stay away:’ High surf slams coast, Ba...

No evidence 2 students who brought guns to California school had plans for school violence, officials say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

Police and school district officials said they found no evidence that the two students who brought loaded guns to Redondo Union High School had any plan to commit campus violence.Despite that, police and school officials said extra security measures would continue until Jan. 19 in the form of a police presence and third-party security, according to a joint statement.Police were called both on Dec. 4 and on 5 after receiving calls about a gun on campus. While the first student was found and detained quickly, police ordered a campus lockdown for about an hour the next day until they detained that student and found the weapon.The Redondo Beach Unified School District kept the campus closed on Dec. 6 so police could check the campus for weapons using K-9 dogs in classrooms, restrooms, lockers and common areas.Both 15-year-old sophomores were detained and charged by the the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for bringing loaded weapons to campus, police said, but the specific ...

La población mundial superará los 8,000 millones el día de Año Nuevo, según la Oficina del Censo

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:15 GMT

La población mundial aumentó por 75 millones de personas este último año y el día de Año Nuevo superará los 8,000 millones de habitantes, según las cifras publicadas el jueves por la Oficina del Censo de Estados Unidos.La tasa de crecimiento mundial el año pasado fue ligeramente inferior al 1%. A principios de 2024, se esperan 4.3 nacimientos y dos muertes por segundo en todo el mundo, según las cifras de la Oficina del Censo.La tasa de crecimiento de Estados Unidos el año pasado fue del 0.53%, aproximadamente la mitad que la mundial. Estados Unidos sumó 1.7 millones de personas y tendrá una población el día de Año Nuevo de 335.8 millones de habitantes.Si el ritmo actual se mantiene hasta el final de la década, la de 2020 podría ser la de crecimiento más lento de la historia de EEUU, con una tasa de crecimiento inferior al 4% en el periodo de 10 años comprendido entre 2020 y 2030, según William Frey, demógrafo de la Brookings Institution. Lo que viene en el 2024: la li...