40,000 people died on California roads. State leaders looked away
CalMatters, ROBERT LEWIS and LAUREN HELPER: "At a California State Senate committee hearing this year, the director of CalTrans, Tony Tavares, showed a simple chart that might have caused the assembled lawmakers some alarm. It was a series of black bars representing the death toll on California’s roads in each of the past 20 years.
Fatalities had been falling until 2010, when the bars started getting longer and longer. A blood-red arrow shot up over the growing lines, charting their rise, as if to make sure nobody could miss the more than 60% increase in deaths."
Lake Tahoe to get another underwater cleanup, with divers hauling out a different type of trash
Chronicle, JACK LEE: "After fishing out more than 25,000 pounds of underwater junk from Lake Tahoe, divers are gearing up for another round.
On Thursday, environmental nonprofit Clean Up the Lake plans to start a multi-year effort to remove trash from deeper parts of the lake, where divers expect to find bigger and heavier items than in shallower areas. The project presents technical difficulties, but “without a doubt it helps with the environmental protection of Lake Tahoe,” said Colin West, founder and CEO of Clean Up the Lake."
Sacramento-area Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump sentenced in child porn case
SacBee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "A Sacramento County man pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced this week to nearly 7 years in federal prison on a charge of receiving child pornography, court records show.
Kyle Travis Colton, 38, was found guilty in July of receiving sexually explicit materials involving a minor and, on Monday, was sentenced in Sacramento federal court to 80 months in federal prison. The Citrus Heights man was immediately remanded to the prison system by U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd, court records show."
How California’s county fairs have become cotton candy for fraud, theft and mismanagement
LA Times, JESSICA GARRISON: "Like many of California’s fairs, the one in Humboldt County is a cherished local institution, beloved for its junk food, adorable baby animals and exhibits of local arts and crafts. Rock star chef Guy Fieri, who grew up in town, even turns up to host the chili cook-off.
But along with its Ferris wheels and funnel cakes, the Humboldt County event shares something darker in common with a number of California’s 77 local fairs: It has been racked with fraud and mismanagement."
With Altadena burning, L.A. County lacked satellite mapping tool used by other agencies
LA Times, GRACE TOOHEY: "When the Eaton fire broke out in the foothills near Altadena, the Los Angeles County Fire Department did not have access to a satellite-based fire-tracking program regularly used by other agencies, depriving officials of intelligence that could have been helpful in determining evacuations.
The National Guard’s FireGuard program, which analyzes images from military satellites to distribute real-time fire progression maps several times an hour, is considered particularly helpful to fire officials when aircraft can’t fly. But officials with the L.A. County Fire Department said they weren’t aware of the resource during the Eaton fire and therefore didn’t utilize FireGuard’s data or maps."
California cities pay a lot for water; some agricultural districts get it for free
CalMatters, RACHEL BECKER and NATASHA UZCATEGUI-LIGGET: "California cities pay far more for water on average than districts that supply farms — with some urban water agencies shelling out more than $2,500 per acre-foot of surface water, and some irrigation districts paying nothing, according to new research.
A report published today by researchers with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and advocates with the Natural Resources Defense Council shines a light on vast disparities in the price of water across California, Arizona and Nevada."
Newsom wouldn’t budge on his duplex ban for the Los Angeles wildfire rebuild. So, a YIMBY group is suing him.
POLITICO, LIAM DILLON: "A pro-development organization has sued Gov. Gavin Newsom over an executive order blocking duplexes in Los Angeles neighborhoods stricken by January’s wildfires.
The lawsuit, filed by YIMBY Law on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges the governor unlawfully restricted homeowners’ ability to rebuild after the fires by allowing local governments to set aside Senate Bill 9, a 2021 state law that permits duplex construction and lot-splitting on single-family-home parcels."
Southern California mountain lions recommended for threatened status
LA Times, LILA SEIDMAN: "The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has recommended granting threatened species status to roughly 1,400 mountain lions roaming the Central Coast and Southern California, pointing to grave threats posed by freeways, rat poison and fierce wildfires.
The determination, released Wednesday, is not the final say but signals a possibility that several clans of the iconic cougars will be listed under the California Endangered Species Act."
The Bay Area weather pattern is finally shifting — but don’t believe the app forecasts just yet
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "It’s been cool, dry and persistently cloudy in the Bay Area during the last few weeks. This dry streak, now at 20 days, is starting to show subtle impacts. One reader reported that dirt trails in the East Bay hills are hardening like it’s mid-summer, while another noted they had to turn on their sprinkler system to water flowers.
So, it may come as a relief to some that the weather apps suddenly are showing a flurry of rain icons for next week. But how realistic is this forecast?"
Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI, licenses Mickey Mouse to Sora AI platform
LA Times. MOLLY SCHUETZ: "Walt Disney Co. agreed to invest $1 billion in OpenAI and license iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and Cinderella to Sora, OpenAI’s short-form, artificial intelligence video platform.
As part of the three-year licensing pact, Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that can be viewed and shared by fans, drawing from a library of more than 200 animated and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, according to a statement from Disney on Thursday. The deal doesn’t cover any talent likenesses or voices."
Why does Oakland pay millions to a security firm linked to the FBI corruption case?
Chronicle, KATE TALERICO: "A year after former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was swept out of office amid a federal corruption probe, the city still hasn’t replaced a security company with one of the city’s biggest contracts despite the firm’s ties to the investigation.
That vendor, ABC Security, is not accused of wrongdoing. But the firm has ties to political operative Mario Juarez, who co-founded a housing company with the owners of the city’s recycling contractor, David and Andy Duong, who allegedly bribed Thao in return for her promises to award their company a major city contract."
California delays wildfire rules that would force homeowners to clear vegetation
Chronicle, BROOKE PARK: "California officials are again delaying the finalization of rules that could require nearly 2 million homeowners to remove plants and other combustible materials within 5 feet of their homes — a move that has attracted controversy but that experts say could provide a property-saving buffer against fires.
The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection aims to complete the rules in the first half of 2026, said Tony Andersen, the board’s executive officer. In March, the board will resume work on defining Zone Zero, the ember-resistant area immediately surrounding the perimeter of homes in high-risk wildfire zones — blowing past the state’s second deadline for finalizing the regulations. At the earliest, the rules would take effect for existing homes in 2029."
California lawmakers discuss protecting actors, creators from AI exploitation
SacBee, KATE WOLFFE: "Artists, lawmakers and artificial intelligence collided this week during a hearing of two legislative committees that drew a standing-room-only crowd.
At issue was copyright law and how it intersects with artificial intelligence, an issue that’s been gaining prominence since Scarlett Johansen called out OpenAI in May 2024 for giving ChatGPT a voice that sounded remarkably like hers."
