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The distinction is politically significant as the public has become increasingly frustrated over homeless camps in Los Angeles and other California cities, seeing them as a blight on neighborhoods and a threat to public safety. Some critics were quick this weekend to suggest that homeless campers might have been responsible for the latest blaze, which shuttered a freeway traversed by about 300,000 vehicles daily. “It’s an ongoing issue, but I don’t want to conflate it with the source of this fire,” Mr. de León said. “We need to see where the investigation goes.”Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles similarly urged caution and asked the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions about who had set the fire. There is no reason to assume that the origin of this fire or the reason this fire happened was because there were unhoused individuals nearby.”

Persons: Kevin de León, Mr, de León, Karen Bass, ”, “ Locations: Los Angeles, California, Angeles

Tens of thousands of demonstrators were expected to fill the streets of Washington and other cities across America on Saturday to protest the scope and scale of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza for last month’s terrorist assault by Hamas. Most Americans say that they sympathize with Israel, even as they dread the war’s fallout for their own country. But as Israel escalates attacks on Gaza and fatalities reported by Gazan authorities rise, U.S. support for Palestinian civilians has surged as well. Nonetheless, a 51 percent majority supported sending more military aid to Israel for their campaign against Hamas, and 71 percent supported humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Washington was expected to be a hub of protest.

Persons: Saturday’s, Washington Organizations: Quinnipiac University, Hamas, White, Museum of, Palestinian People, Freedom Locations: Washington, America, Gaza, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Orono , Maine, Israel, U.S, United States, Pennsylvania

The terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israelis, in particular, were triggering for her, she said. “I understand that there has been a fight between the two for years and years,” said Ms. Lucas, 58. They could not condone terrorist attacks, they said, but sympathized with Palestinians and what they see as the long discrimination they have endured. “There are times when I sit in the middle, because I can see both sides of it,” Janet Lucas said. “And then I also think, is there another way, could the United States or any other country get involved to help them to come to some form of peace?”

Persons: Randy Schmidt, Mr, Schmidt, Trump’s, “, ” Mr, “ It’s, Janet Lucas, ”, Lucas, Michael, ” Janet Lucas Locations: Wisconsin, Lone Rock, Wis, Richland County, Israel, Milwaukee, East, Ukraine, Brookfield, Tampa, Fla, United States

☆ Laphonza Butler Will Not Run for Senate in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Laphonza Butler, who was appointed 18 days ago to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Dianne Feinstein’s death, said on Thursday that she would not run for the office next year, clearing the way for a truly open race in California that features three Democratic congressional members and a former Major League Baseball star. In an interview with The New York Times, Senator Butler said that she intended to be “the loudest, proudest champion of California” in the 383 days remaining in her term in office, but that she had realized “this is not the greatest use of my voice.”Ms. Butler has never been elected to office and was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom less than three weeks ago, helping him to fulfill his promise to name a Black woman to complete Senator Feinstein’s term. Even without Ms. Butler in the running, Californians will have a wealth of candidates to choose from. Three high-profile Democratic members of Congress — Representatives Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee — had been campaigning for months when Senator Feinstein died at 90 in late September.

Persons: Laphonza Butler, Dianne Feinstein’s, Butler, Ms, Gavin Newsom, Feinstein’s, Katie Porter, Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee —, Feinstein Organizations: Democratic, Major League Baseball, The New York Times, Gov Locations: California

Jan Sramek was 15 years old the first time he tried to get a government to do something he wanted. The problem was his town of 1,400 people had only dial-up internet service. He persuaded the local government to pay an internet service provider to bring the town a broadband connection. He was even paid a commission for it, Mr. Sramek wrote in “Racing Towards Excellence,” a sort of self-help book for ambitious young adults he co-wrote in 2009. The next campaign for Mr. Sramek could be more profitable.

Persons: Jan Sramek, Sramek Organizations: Silicon Locations: Drevohostice, Czech Republic, Northern California

☆ California Attorney General Seeks to Block Transgender Notification Policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The attorney general, a Democrat, said the policies amounted to the “forced outing” of transgender students. The other districts include Anderson Union High School District in Northern California and the Murrieta Valley and Temecula Valley school districts in the Inland Empire. Mr. Bonta filed his lawsuit in San Bernardino Superior Court asking for a temporary injunction against the Chino Valley policy and seeking a permanent order blocking it. He argues that the policy violates the California Constitution because it discriminates against transgender students, denies their right to education and violates their right to privacy. “This is another ploy to stop all the districts around California from adopting a common sense legal policy.

Persons: Bonta, Tony Thurmond, Sonja Shaw, Mr, Thurmond, Ms, Shaw, ” Organizations: Unified School District, Democrats, Anderson Union High School District, Inland Empire, San Bernardino Superior Court, New York Times Locations: Chino, San Bernardino County, California, United States, Chino Valley, Los Angeles, Northern California, Temecula Valley, Inland, San Bernardino

At least four people were dead, including a gunman, and six others were injured after a man believed to have been a retired law enforcement officer opened fire at a popular biker bar in Southern California on Wednesday evening as a crowd gathered for a rock music show and spaghetti night, the authorities said. The shooting occurred at about 7 p.m. at Cook’s Corner, a bar in Trabuco Canyon, a rural community in eastern Orange County, Jeff Hallock, undersheriff at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said. The injured were taken to Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif. Two of the patients were in critical condition, and four were in stable condition, the hospital said. Undersheriff Hallock said the shooting erupted in front of as many as 40 people. He called the incident “an absolute tragic event.”

Persons: Jeff Hallock, undersheriff, Undersheriff Hallock, ” Organizations: Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Providence Mission Hospital Locations: Southern California, Trabuco, Orange County, Orange, Providence, Mission Viejo, Calif

☆ For Hawaii’s Governor, a Balancing Act With No Margin for Error
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

At the Capitol, Mr. Green was neither part of his party’s progressive wing nor a player in the mainstream party apparatus, Professor Moore said. After focusing on homelessness and public health as a legislator, Mr. Green ran for lieutenant governor in 2018 and won again. When Covid hit in 2020, David Ige, who was then the governor, informally made Mr. Green the administration’s pandemic point man. But their relationship was not always harmonious, and the early call on the cruise lines fed perceptions that Mr. Green was prematurely campaigning to succeed Mr. Ige, who was prevented by term limits from running for re-election in 2022. A year later, Mr. Green defeated six other Democrats in the primary and won the general election easily.

Persons: Green, Moore, Jill Tokuda, Covid, David Organizations: Capitol, Congress

Hours before the wildfire became an inferno that wiped out the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, officials at the West Maui Land Company reached out to the state with an urgent request. The company, a real estate developer that supplies water to areas southeast of Lahaina, took note of the dangerous combination of high winds and drought-parched grasses Maui was facing. It asked for permission to fill up one of its private reservoirs in case firefighters needed it. In the interim, a brush fire that had been contained that morning flared up once again and swept through Lahaina, burning everything in its path. It is unlikely that filling up the private reservoir would have changed the course of the Lahaina wildfire, state officials say, and winds were so high that day that helicopter crews would have been unable to reach it.

Organizations: Maui Land Company Locations: Lahaina, Maui

It was moments later when she caught a glimpse of smoke in the distance. At first it was a wisp, but within minutes it had grown thicker, rippling down the hillside on violent winds. Ms. Denton Fuqua, 32, and her husband were worried. They grabbed a few essentials and prepared to leave in their cars. “People were just like, ‘Oh, are you heading out?’ Ms. Denton Fuqua recalled.

Persons: Chelsea Denton Fuqua, Denton Fuqua, —, Ms, “ Organizations: Chelsea Locations: Lahaina, Maui

The losses in Lahaina from the fire now include the historic Baldwin Home, which houses the restoration foundation’s main office and was considered the oldest house still standing on the island of Maui. It was built between 1834-35 by the Rev. Ephraim Spaulding, a missionary from Massachusetts who prized its proximity to the waters where whaling ships once anchored. The home contained the wooden rocking chairs that the family of the Rev. Unlike others in Lahaina whose families in the area stretch back generations, Ms. Morrison, 75, from Berkeley, Calif., happened upon the town while sailing around the Hawaiian islands in 1975.

Persons: Baldwin, Ephraim Spaulding, Dwight Baldwin, Morrison, Mark Twain, ”, “, — Organizations: East Coast Locations: Lahaina, Maui, Massachusetts, East, Berkeley, Calif, ”

☆ Lahaina, Devastated Town on Maui, Is a Trove of Hawaiian History
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For many visitors, the town of Lahaina is a place to go for tropical beaches. Its heritage museum, in a landmark courthouse, houses artifacts from before the rest of the world knew Hawaii existed. Its oldest building, the Baldwin Home, was occupied by the 19th-century physician who saved Maui from an epidemic of smallpox. “We had no preparation, no warning, nothing,” said Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which manages more than a dozen historic sites in the town. She left Maui a day before the fires had broken out on Tuesday night, bound for Europe on family business, she said.

Persons: Baldwin, ”, Theo Morrison, Morrison Organizations: Lahaina Restoration Foundation Locations: Lahaina, Hawaii, Maui, East Coast, Europe

☆ Feinstein Briefly Hospitalized After a Fall at Home in San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California was hospitalized on Tuesday afternoon after a fall at her home in San Francisco and returned to her residence after an examination showed no serious injuries, her spokesman said. Senator Feinstein, 90, tripped over a chair in her kitchen around 1 p.m., according to her office. She was admitted briefly to the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center “as a precaution,” Adam Russell, her spokesman, said on Wednesday. He added that she remained there for an hour or two until doctors determined that her scans were clear. TMZ first reported that Ms. Feinstein had suffered a fall.

Persons: Dianne Feinstein, California, Feinstein, ” Adam Russell, Russell, ” Organizations: University of California, San Francisco Medical, Capitol, TMZ Locations: San Francisco

Raised in affluence, Senator Feinstein has long been among the wealthiest members of Congress. Among the backdrops to the fight over Mr. Blum’s estate, however, are questions about the extent of his fortune, as well as the out-of-pocket cost of home health care that Senator Feinstein has received since her bout with shingles earlier this year. During his lifetime, Mr. Blum, Senator Feinstein’s third husband and a private equity magnate, was often referred to in public accounts as a billionaire. However, people familiar with the family’s finances dispute that characterization and say that Mr. Blum’s wealth was less than some heirs had expected. Mr. Blum’s friends said that the pandemic cut deeply into his investments, particularly his extensive holdings in hotels.

Persons: ”, Jerry Roberts, Dianne Feinstein, Feinstein, Blum, Feinstein’s, Blum’s Organizations: Senate Locations: San Francisco neighborhood, Pacific Heights, Aspen, Colo, Hawaii, Kauai, Washington ,

London Breed sailed to victory as the mayor of San Francisco. Times were good; the pandemic had yet to happen. If homelessness and crime worried San Franciscans, few of them blamed her. Now San Francisco is reeling, its downtown plagued by fentanyl markets and tent camps, its employers straining to repopulate office buildings with a decidedly more remote labor force. More than 70 percent of voters have told pollsters that the city is on the wrong track, and some 66 percent disapprove of the mayor’s job performance.

Persons: London Breed, pollsters, Breed, Ahsha, Daniel Lurie, Levi Strauss Organizations: London, Times, San Francisco, Supervisors, San Locations: San Francisco, Francisco

☆ Without Hollywood, What Happens to Los Angeles?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Los Angeles County has 88 cities. And a nine-letter sign that, for much of the world, defines the entire region: HOLLYWOOD. Los Angeles has long been regarded as the global “company town” for show business, and as a rare actors’ strike upended the signature industry this week, the potential for cascading economic impacts across Southern California has emerged as a critical local issue. But economists disagree on just how extensively the simultaneous actors’ and writers’ strikes will be felt. Yet Hollywood pervades Los Angeles life in ways as big as a movie backdrop or as small as a street detour on some awards night.

Persons: ’ Organizations: Hollywood Locations: Angeles County, HOLLYWOOD, Los Angeles, Southern California, Southern

A dozen hilltop homes in one of the most affluent areas of coastal Los Angeles County were collapsing into a canyon on Monday after a landslide over the weekend forced the evacuation of a neighborhood in the community of Rolling Hills Estates. California’s disastrously wet winter may be to blame for saturating the underlying soils in the neighborhood, a hazard that in the past few months has threatened other idyllic perches in the state. After crews found cracks and other damage to homes on the block, authorities said, residents were given 20 minutes to pack up and leave. Behind yellow caution tape, utility crews inspected power, cable and gas lines. Periodically, a sickening crash and rumble of something cracking or falling would disrupt the quiet of the neighborhood.

Organizations: Rolling Hills Estates . Local, Palos Locations: Los Angeles County, Rolling

☆ California Leaders Seek Federal Inquiry of Florida for Migrants Trips
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Shawn Hubler | More About Shawn Hubler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Greg Abbott of Texas, Republicans who have claimed responsibility for sending migrants to Democratic-led states, said the individuals volunteered to travel elsewhere. Democratic leaders, including Mr. Bonta and Mr. Newsom, have in return denounced the relocations as a partisan and callous political stunt. Mr. DeSantis did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the call for a federal investigation. A spokesman for Mr. Newsom said that Mr. Garland’s office had not yet replied to Thursday’s request. Last month, the Florida program paid for two planeloads of Latin American migrants to fly to Sacramento, prompting civil and criminal investigations by the California Justice Department.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott of, Biden’s, Bonta, Newsom, DeSantis, Abbott Organizations: Gov, Republicans, Democratic, Republican, California Justice Department, Mr Locations: Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, California, Idaho, Texas, Sacramento

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