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Most of California Man's Body Eaten by Black Bear

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Photo Credit: Jason EmpeyA wild black bear ate most of a Northern California man who likely died earlier of a heart attack, officials said Friday.

Humboldt County Deputy Coroner Roy Horton said he believes 65-year-old Marion Williams died outside his trailer in a remote area before the bear came upon him.

Authorities discovered the remains on Monday after friends reported Williams missing for five days.

Officials tried to trap and kill the bear but called off their attempt because it is doubtful the bear is still in the area near the man’s home in Redway, about 75 miles south of Humboldt, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Man Rescues Baby from Dumpster; Names her ‘Milagros’ – Miracle

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Photo Credit: CBS video screenshotA California man who helped rescue a newborn girl from a dumpster says he believes that the girl’s rescue was a miracle.

Jimmy Alvarez responded when he heard Jorge Miranda call for help Thursday just before 6 a.m.

Miranda was looking for cans and bottles in a south Merced apartment complex dumpster to sell for recycling, according to the Merced Sun-Star, when he found the baby girl wrapped in a towel under pizza boxes and plastic trash bags.

“He was shocked, he was scared,” Alvarez said of Miranda, who speaks limited English. “The baby was lying in the corner of the dumpster, half naked, the umbilical cord hanging.”

Miranda said the discovery made him feel “very bad.”

Read more from this story HERE.

California: Christians Must Pay for Abortions

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Photo Credit: WNDCalifornia has changed its state health insurance rules to require that churches pay for elective abortions, drawing protest from some of the largest pro-life legal teams in the nation and a formal complaint.

“Forcing a church to be party to elective abortion is one of the utmost-imaginable assaults on our most fundamental American freedoms,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox.

Mattox said California “is flagrantly violating the federal law that protects employers from being forced into having abortion in their health insurance plans.”

“No state can blatantly ignore federal law and think that it should continue to receive taxpayer money,” he said.

The case is just the latest in recent months against aggressive federal and state government efforts to force religious individuals and organizations to fund abortion, including through Obamacare.

Read more from this story HERE.

CA Gov. Signs New Gun Restriction: Authorities Can Seize Guns from People Who 'Pose a Threat'

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Photo Credit: AP / Rich PedroncelliBy Don Thompson.

California will become the first state that allows family members to ask a judge to remove firearms from a relative who appears to pose a threat, under legislation Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday he had signed.

The bill was proposed by several Democrats and responds to a deadly rampage in May near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Relatives of the victims and other supporters of the bill said the parents of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger were thwarted in their attempts to seek help for their troubled son before the rampage.

Supporters had said such a measure could have prevented the attacks, winning out over critics who said it would erode gun rights.

“If both of these laws had been in place on May 23, things could have been very different,” Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, said in a statement Tuesday night. “California, today, is a safer state because of this legislation. Let’s hope other states follow.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APCalifornia becomes first state to ban plastic bags

By FENIT NIRAPPIL.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed the nation’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores, driven to action by pollution in streets and waterways.

A national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers immediately said it would seek a voter referendum to repeal the law, which is scheduled to take effect in July 2015.

Under SB270, plastic bags will be phased out of checkout counters at large grocery stores and supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Target starting next summer, and convenience stores and pharmacies in 2016. The law does not apply to bags used for fruits, vegetables or meats, or to shopping bags used at other retailers. It allows grocers to charge a fee of at least 10 cents for using paper bags.

State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, credits the momentum for statewide legislation to the more than 100 cities and counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, that already have such bans.

The law marks a major milestone for environmental activists who have successfully pushed plastic bag bans in cities across the U.S., including Chicago, Austin and Seattle. Hawaii is also on track to have a de-facto statewide ban, with all counties approving prohibitions.

Read more from this story HERE.

With Dry Taps and Toilets, California Drought Turns Desperate

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Photo Credit: Jim Wilson / The New York TimesAfter a nine-hour day working at a citrus packing plant, her body covered in a sheen of fruit wax and dust, there is nothing Angelica Gallegos wants more than a hot shower, with steam to help clear her throat and lungs.

“I can just picture it, that feeling of finally being clean — really refreshed and clean,” Ms. Gallegos, 37, said one recent evening.

But she has not had running water for more than five months — nor is there any tap water in her near future — because of a punishing and relentless drought in California. In the Gallegos household and more than 500 others in Tulare County, residents cannot flush a toilet, fill a drinking glass, wash dishes or clothes, or even rinse their hands without reaching for a bottle or bucket.

Unlike the Okies who came here fleeing the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the people now living on this parched land are stuck. “We don’t have the money to move, and who would buy this house without water?” said Ms. Gallegos, who grew up in the area and shares a tidy mobile home with her husband and two daughters. “When you wake up in the middle of the night sick to your stomach, you have to think about where the water bottle is before you can use the toilet.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Daily Water Allocation Could Be the Next California Drought Strategy

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Photo Credit: AP / Rich Pedroncelli
You probably know your Social Security number, your driver’s license number and perhaps the latest wrinkle in mattress marketing, your sleep number.

But do you know your drought number?

The latter represents the amount of water you are allowed to use per day. If you don’t know it, you probably should. Not knowing could cost you money. As California’s severe drought moves into a fourth year, state and local water agencies are working on something called “allocation-based rate structures,” a kind of precursor to water rationing that’s all the rage in Sacramento and in some areas such as Santa Cruz, Irvine and Santa Monica.

Here’s how it works: Your local water company, special district or city assigns you and your household a number in gallons — a daily water allocation. Usually, one number applies to maximum indoor water use, i.e. showers, kitchen and bathroom faucets, dishwashers, clothes washers, etc., and an extra allocation is assigned for outdoor use such as lawn irrigation.

Using census records, aerial photography and satellite imagery, an agency can determine a property’s efficient water usage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Woman Punched on Film by California Highway Patrol Officer Reaches $1.5M Settlement

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Photo Credit: APBy Fox News.

A woman who was punched repeatedly by a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer in an incident caught on film earlier this year will receive $1.5M as part of a settlement reached Wednesday.

CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow announced the settlement in an emailed statement and an attorney for 51-year-old Marlene Pinnock confirmed the deal to the Associated Press. The agreement was reached after nine hours of mediation in Los Angeles.

As part of the agreement, the officer who struck Pinnock, Daniel Andrew, will resign. Andrew, who joined the CHP in 2012 and had been on paid administrative leave, could still be charged criminally in the case. The CHP forwarded the results of its investigation of the incident to Los Angeles County prosecutors last month, saying he could face serious charges but none have been filed yet.

“When this incident occurred, I promised that I would look into it and vowed a swift resolution,” Farrow’s statement said. “Today, we have worked constructively to reach a settlement agreement that is satisfactory to all parties involved.”

Pinnock’s attorney, Caree Harper, says they wanted to make sure the woman could have financial stability for the rest of her life and wanted to make sure that Andrew would not be an officer any longer.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ShutterstockNYPD Slams Pregnant Woman Onto the Street in Latest Rough Arrest Video

By Joe Coscarelli.

The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the 72nd Precinct in Brooklyn for the second time in two weeks — the first was for this uncalled-for kick — after a tough-to-watch video surfaced on Facebook of an officer throwing a pregnant woman onto the ground and holding her stomach-down. Sandra Amezquita, five-foot-four and visibly five months pregnant, attempted to intervene in the arrest of her 17-year-old son for possession of a knife when she was manhandled. A friend who ran up to check on her was sent flying down the street with a two-handed shove.

“The first thing I thought was they killed my baby and they’re going to kill my wife,” Ronel Lemos, the baby’s father, told the Daily News.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Voters Worry Over Illegal Immigration but Support Path to Legality

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Photo Credit: AP California voters broadly support a path to legalization for immigrants in the U.S. without proper documents, despite widespread worry about the effects of illegal immigration, a new poll shows.

Three in four of those surveyed support an overhaul of federal immigration laws, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows.

A majority of voters of all races, income levels and geography agreed that illegal immigration is a major problem, but there were significant differences over what to do about it, the Times reported Monday.

Beverly Bloom, a 59-year-old registered Democrat from Corona who works in physical education at a high school, said she doesn’t want to see punishment for the students and families she works with, many of them in the country illegally.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Drought: El Niño Chances Fall Again

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Photo Credit: Brian MurphyHopes of an almighty El Niño bringing rain to a drought-stricken California – with its fallow fields, depleted streams and parched lawns – were further dashed Thursday. The National Weather Service, in its monthly El Niño report, again downgraded the chances of the influential weather pattern occurring in the fall or winter.

The odds were 80 percent in May, but were placed between 60 and 65 percent this week.

Meanwhile, the agency also announced that the much-needed weather event is likely to be weak instead of moderate in strength – another retreat from the more robust projections made earlier this year that fueled speculation that California’s three-year dry spell might be snapped.

El Niños, defined by warming Pacific Ocean waters that release enough energy to shape worldwide weather, have been associated with wet winters in the Golden State. The strong 1997-98 event correlated with San Francisco’s biggest recorded rain year: a whopping 47.2 inches of rain.

But the correlation doesn’t always hold up. While El Niños carry the potential to bring quenching showers, this week’s climate report doesn’t necessarily doom the state to another year of drought.

Read more from this story HERE.

Nearly 1 in 10 California Workers are in Country Illegally, Study Finds

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Photo Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

Photo Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

By KATE LINTHICUM.

A Report released Wednesday by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state’s workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product.

The study, which was conducted in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center, was based on census data and other statistics, including data from the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security. It looked at a variety of ways the estimated 2.6 million immigrants living in California without permission participate in state life.

Among the study’s findings:

*Immigrants who are in California illegally make up 38% of the agriculture industry and 14% of the construction industry statewide.

*Half of the immigrants in the state illegally have been here for at least 10 years.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Judge Sets Hearings for Illegal Alien Minors–4 Years From Now

By Brittany M. Hughes.

Seventeen-year-old Cristian stepped through the swinging wooden door separating the crowded waiting area from the judge’s bench, straightening his slightly-too-big dress shirt as he slid behind the defendant’s desk. As his lawyer took the seat beside him, Cristian slipped on the court-provided headphones so he could hear the Spanish-speaking translator as his lawyer began to speak.

After a few pleasantries, Cristian’s lawyer told Immigration Judge John M. Bryant that his client conceded to the charge of being an undocumented alien in the United States and was subject to potential removal. Cristian wanted to plead for asylum for “protection from torture,” and “declined to state his country of removal at this time,” the lawyer added.

Within a minute, Bryant had accepted the plea and scheduled a hearing in which the court will determine if Cristian is eligible to receive asylum. The date was set for June 11, 2018.

“Are you available that day?” Bryant jokingly asked the lawyer.

“I don’t have my 2018 calendar in front of me, but yes, I believe so,” the lawyer responded.

Read more from this story HERE.