California

California

The loss of the federal EV tax credits may have been a huge blow to prospective buyers, but California wants to fill that gap for its residents. Governor Gavin Newsom's proposed budget for 2026-2027, which was released on Friday, includes a "light-duty zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) incentive program" that details a one-time infusion of $200 million. According to the budget summary, this incentive program is "a critical part of the Administration's strategy to keep ZEVs affordable and accessible for all."

The ads, from a straightforward-looking news site called the California Courier, often felt a lot like campaign commercials, linking to articles hammering Democrats in the state, including Gov. Gavin Newsom. Few punched in the other direction, toward Republicans. One said, "California Democrats just rewrote their gerrymandering plan so voters will see their partisan map on the ballot this November." Another called Proposition 50, which passed in November, "a scheme critics say is meant to undermine voter-approved protections and entrench one party rule in California."

Scott Wiener has an unusual distinction in American politics: He upsets almost everybody. In the months before I met the California state senator-who is now running for Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat-he had been harangued at one public meeting after another. In October, pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted his campaign's pumpkin-carving event to shout: "Wiener, Wiener, you can't hide; we charge you with genocide." (This was not an isolated incident.) His usual response in these situations is to wait calmly and then carry on as normal.

The Napa Lighted Art Festival is a celebration of creative arts, technology and lights, and supports innovative techniques using light and light technologies as a growing art medium. This walkable outdoor experience is free in Downtown Napa, featuring 15 lighted art installations for 5 weeks from January 17 - February 15, 2026. Projection artwork will be displayed on three iconic downtown buildings for the first 9 nights of the festival: January 17-25, 2026.

More than a thousand people gathered Saturday in Oakland for a celebration of life for Beam, who lost his life last November after being shot. "When I was younger, he was my hero -- strong, driven," said Monica Beam. John Beam's daughters spoke from the heart at their dad's celebration of life.

The city of Los Angeles violated the state's open meeting law when council members took up a plan to clear 9,800 homeless encampments behind closed doors, a judge ruled this week. In a 10-page decision, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Curtis Kin said the City Council ran afoul of the Ralph M. Brown Act by approving the encampment strategy during a Jan. 31, 2024, closed session.

Humberto Rodriguez Martinez, 39, is accused of working with a friend to kill his romantic rival outside his ex-girlfriend's apartment in 2017, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Martinez is a Mexican citizen and was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the killing, prosecutors said. Prosecutors charged Martinez in 2017 with the murder of 32-year-old Daniel Reyes, as well as with felony enhancements for allegedly lying in wait and for using a knife.

We write to you today in alarm. It has come to our attention that the Administration is planning to move parking enforcement from OakDOT to Finance. While this may appear as a simple administrative shift, it is a strategic error that will undermine Oakland's transit, safety, and economic goals. Please initiate review with Council through issuing a Statement of Purpose for their review, and delay these changes until approved by Council.

Fresno has long struggled with deep-rooted poverty. In 2005, a report by the nonprofit think-tank Brookings Institution broke this out in the open, revealing that Fresno had the highest concentration of poverty of any U.S. city. The study showed that a significant number of Fresno's census tracts had at least 40 percent of residents living at or below the poverty line.

They would get into my bed and bite me. Not only were these ants tiny, but they were also kind of smart! I soon learned that these were Argentine ants, an invasive species in Southern California. Native ants are beneficial to the environment. They will eat pest insects such as fleas and termites. They also aid in breaking down organic matter such as dead plants and animals.

SUNNYVALE An investigation is underway into the shooting death of a woman Wednesday night in Sunnyvale, authorities said. The shooting happened around 9:40 p.m. in the 1200 block of Vienna Drive, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said in a news release. Officers arrived to find the woman inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Most years, when storms roll through Southern California during the winter holiday, local mountains transform into a wonderland blanketed in snow. But instead, the recent storms featured relentless rains, bringing a downpour of destruction and disappointment. A woman sits near the North Shore Lookout Point next to Big Bear Lake as Snow Summit is seen in the distance in Big Bear on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.

A 24-year-old woman suspected of causing a crash that killed two people in Long Beach over the weekend is also accused of fatally striking a bicyclist in the city's Alamitos Beach neighborhood in October, authorities said. Ahkeyajahnique Owens, 24, of Long Beach on Wednesday, Jan. 7, pleaded not guilty to one count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence to an Oct. 6 crash along Fourth Street near Bonito Avenue that left 35-year-old Raul Augustin Gallopa critically injured, according to authorities and court records.

There are going to be policy fights this year in terms of how to close the deficit. We are at a point where we can't cut our way out of it.

The central aspect of the PACE plan calls for removing the state superintendent as the head of the California Department of Education. Instead, that department would be run by an appointee of the state Board of Education. Members of the state board are appointed by the governor to fixed four-year terms. The PACE report envisions the "governor as the chief architect and steward responsible for aligning and advancing California's education system."

"They let us burn,"