California

California

A woman was reported missing after she never returned from her hike along the Codfish Falls Trail in the Sierra Nevada Friday. She was last seen around 2:30 pm walking her dog, which was reportedly spotted wandering the trail alone 15 minutes later, and her phone and keys were found along the North Fork American River. [KRON4] The US Postal Service implemented a technical change regarding postmark dates,

California's wet winter continued Saturday as rain fell across the Southland, grounding flights coming in and out of Santa Barbara Airport and causing extensive road closures along the coast. The soggy weather is expected to continue through Tuesday with the heaviest downfalls tapering off by mid-day Monday, according to the National Weather Service. However, even light rain can have an outsized impact when it comes on the heels of other heavy winter storms, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The Altadena sheriff's station hosted the inaugural Altadena Forever Run, a benefit event featuring 10K and 5K runs and a 1K family walk that brought nearly 2,000 runners through the Eaton fire burn scar. The race featured survivor stories at mile markers, fire survivors running alongside neighbors, first responders and "community cheering stations." Proceeds were to benefit the Altadena Eaton Fire Relief Fund.

"She is dead because of them. A 72-year-old grandma, never been in trouble with the law. For her to die in the back of the police car? There are a lot of questions, and they are not answering anything," says Riche Ramirez, Yolanda's eldest son. Riche said the holidays have been tough for the family, since this is the first time without her.

All-ACC linebacker Cade Uluave, who led the team with 100 tackles this season, will enter the transfer portal, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel. The junior captain has one year of eligibility left and is reportedly open to returning to Cal. Uluave was fourth on the team in tackles as a freshman and second among the Bears last year as a sophomore. His breakout game this season was a two-sack, 19-tackle performance in a double-overtime loss at Virginia Tech in October.

Officers responded shortly after 12 p.m. to a report of a collision on Osgood Road and found the bicyclist had died at the scene. According to the Fremont Police Department, a semi-truck traveling north on Osgood stopped in the center left-turn lane to turn into a business parking lot. The bicyclist, wearing a helmet, was heading southbound on the west side of the road.

"This is just a great example of the work we wanted our Neighborhood Quality of Life Unit to be doing," Mayor Matt Mahan said. "In this case, the team stumbled upon a cache of stolen equipment," Mahan said. "It's not a crime to be homeless, but we expect people to accept shelter, housing services when they're available. And when they're not, to at least be abiding by our basic laws."

With a week to go before opening the Trinity League with a showdown against St. John Bosco at home, Santa Margarita continued its preparation Friday night, defeating defending state Open Division champion Eastvale Roosevelt 65-49 at JSerra. The Eagles are 18-2 and have one final tuneup Saturday against Fairfax at St. Francis before facing the Braves on Jan. 9. Santa Margarita almost lost a big lead in the second half before prevailing. The Eagles led 16-2 to start the game.

After a shark attack injured one of their own nearly three years ago, members of the Kelp Krawlers who swim weekly around Lovers Point in Monterey County began searching for something that might make the open ocean feel safer. They turned to wearable shark deterrents, including magnetic ankle bands designed to overwhelm a shark's electroreceptors the sensitive sixth sense pores the predators use to detect the faint electrical heartbeats of nearby prey.

They turned to wearable shark deterrents, including magnetic ankle bands designed to overwhelm a shark's electroreceptors - the sensitive "sixth sense" pores the predators use to detect the faint electrical heartbeats of nearby prey. Other products on the market rely on electrical currents, while some use scent. Erica Fox, a seasoned triathlete and Kelp Krawlers member, was wearing one such device Dec. 21, 2025, when she was found dead. Her body was discovered along the Davenport shoreline in Santa Cruz County, about 25 miles from where she was last seen. Fox's death - now under investigation and suspected to have involved a shark - has sparked scrutiny among swim club members about whether the devices meaningfully reduce risk. A Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office spokesperson said the agency could not confirm whether an autopsy had been performed or whether Fox had suffered a shark bite. Witnesses reported seeing a shark breach just offshore at Lovers Point that morning, where Fox was leading a group of about a dozen swimmers. Many of them had purchased Sharkbanz-branded products after a 2022 attack injured fellow Kelp Krawlers member Steve Bruemmer, who survived but suffered serious injuries.

Here are the morning's top stories on Wednesday, December 31, 2025... HSIs were created in the 1990s to ensure that colleges enrolling large numbers of Latino students received adequate funding to help those students graduate. In California, more than 90% of community colleges, and 21 out of 22 California State Universities and seven of nine University of California undergraduate campuses qualify as HSIs. Community colleges in the state estimate they will lose at least $20 million this year.

The year 2026 is sure to bring another round of big political battles and shifts in leadership ahead of what's expected to be a hotly contested midterm election season. Needless to say, it's going to be a busy year. That's right. We'll have several competitive and already expensive races throughout California that will impact not only the future of our state, but the balance of power in Congress.

The faux fix touted by Fix Our Forests is a dangerous step backward for California's wildfire resilience. While it claims to protect communities, its emphasis on largescale mechanical thinning ignores scientific evidence showing that such practices can dry out forests, increase wind exposure and heighten fire risk. Proper wildfire prevention means investing in proven strategies: prescribed burns, defensible space around homes and restoring natural ecosystems that retain moisture.

Remember the springtime of 2025, when the federal government and the state of California forced everyone to get a new driver's license called Real ID because the previous version of your driver's license was not considered secure enough? State and federal officials assured us that the new Real ID was going to stamp out identity fraud and improve verification, because these new Real IDs were so much more reliable from an information security standpoint.

California's already wet winter is breaking rainfall records, with another powerful storm moving in this weekend along with the threat of new flooding and mudslides. After a remarkable dry streak in 2024 that helped fuel last January's firestorms, this winter is making up for it, with some areas already approaching average rain totals for the entire season. "It's been an interesting season," said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "We're way above normal for precipitation."

California's DROP program is now active, giving Californians the ability to stop data brokers from selling their personal information. DROP, which stands for Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, is a one-stop site to submit a data deletion request, requiring data brokers to delete your information. How do I prevent my personal information from being sold? To access the tool, go to privacy.ca.gov, and hit the "Get started" button. Fill out some basic information, including your name, address and email, and hit submit. Then, more than 500 data brokers will be asked to delete your information.

At about 8:20 am on this past Wednesday's morning of New Year's Eve, California Highway Patrol officers in Dublin observed a Chevy Camaro driving at speeds well over 100 miles per hour on Interstate 580. Naturally, they pursued the vehicle and gave chase. But the Camaro driver was able to leave those smokeys behind and eating his dust, not only because the driver simply sped away scot-free, but the vehicle eluded identification because the car was somehow equipped with disappearing license plates, according to KRON4.

ANTIOCH - A man suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol collided with an Antioch police car early Friday, sending a sergeant to the hospital, police said. The driver also was hospitalized in the crash that happened just before 2 a.m. at the intersection of A Street and W. 10th Street. Both the police sergeant and the suspect have been released and are expected to recover.

The newest Bay Area residents came in quick succession on Jan. 1, with two babies born at Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center at 12:03 a.m. and 12:07 a.m., respectively, followed shortly by a babe born at 12:11 a.m. at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, and another newborn at 12:29 a.m. in Redwood City.

FRESNO In the corner of Sammy Gill's sprawling Fresno truck yard, among other gargantuan rigs with 20-plus-inch rims, a bright red 2022 Mack Anthem sits idle. The truck hasn't moved since mid-November not because it's broken down, but because its owner, an immigrant driver, had his commercial driver's license canceled under a state crackdown whose timing and reach remains unsettled. Beautiful truck, said Gill, who co-owns Gill Freightways Solutions Inc., a trucking company that hauls refrigerated trailers, or reefers. But (he) can't drive it.

Firefighters on New Year's Eve were battling a blaze at an apartment complex in San Jose, according to authorities. The fire was reported around 4:50 p.m. at the Del Coronado Apartments, located in the 5200 block of Camden Avenue, the San Jose Fire Department said in a social media post. Multiple units were involved and residents were being evacuated, according to authorities. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Traffic is impacted, the fire department said. People are being asked to avoid the area.

PG&E will slash customers' bills in the new year, the utility announced on Tuesday. The utility said the cuts, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, come as "electric prices have stabilized and are going down." PG&E noted that this is the fourth decrease for electric rates in two years. Residential customers are set to receive a decrease of about 5%, which amounts to around $7 per month.

"I could hear rustling on our porch," Corral de Tierra resident Michael Antle told the television station. "Our family dog was taken off of our porch. The following night, the lion came for our goat and actually took the goat to the same spot. Didn't eat either animal, so I think it's out to kill."

When Sophia Johnson and her husband, Tyler Troy, were expecting a third child, their friends suggested names like Grizzly and Third Street. Though the couple understood that such suggestions were a big joke among their friends, for them, naming their children after Berkeley streets was a tradition they took seriously. Berkeley has a wealth of lovely, old-fashioned names to be found on its street signs, said Johnson.

State labor groups are calling for a one-time 5 percent emergency tax on several of California's wealthiest residents. "We are calling on California's approximately 200 billionaires to step up," said Renee Saldana, a spokesperson for SEIU United Health Care Workers West labor union. Many of those billionaires are heads of companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. If the proposal gets enough signatures, it will appear on the statewide ballot in November.

Over half a million Californians could lose access to the hugely popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs starting Jan. 1, 2026, after the state government decided to deny some Medi-Cal coverage for the prescription drugs in an effort to save money. GLP-1 drugs have become a blockbuster hit for people aiming to lose weight following the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the name-brand drug Wegovy in 2021.