Northern California

Several colleges and universities in Northern California were forced to shut down this week due to an ongoing power outage affecting millions of local citizens.

California’s largest public utility announced Monday that large parts of northern California could face blackouts to prevent wildfires from starting.

Throngs of protesters from Irvine, Huntington Beach, and Laguna Niguel shouted-down an Orange County Supervisors meeting to force a reversal of the plan to set up homeless tent camps next to local city parks.

The Los Angeles City Council voted last week to develop an “emergency” plan that could operate trailer and tent encampments to house 34,000-homeless — similar to the plan developed by Orange County.

The three cities where Orange County planned to erect tent camps to warehouse evicted Santa Ana River homeless people are threatening lawsuits to block the move.

Orange County found 13,950 used hypodermic needles left by evicted homeless people along the Santa Ana River, confirming public health concerns that led to the camps’ removal.

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan may soon make good on claims that federal agents will soon conduct more immigration enforcement actions in newly minted “sanctuary state” California, if a source for the San Francisco Chronicle is

A gunman went on a shooting spree in Tehama County in rural Northern California on Tuesday, killing four people before he was shot and killed by law enforcement.

The New York Times has published an extensive look at California’s “far north,” the group of conservative counties in the high Sierra country whose residents often feel alienated from state government, and where a movement to form a new “State of Jefferson” remains strong.

The water storage at San Luis Reservoir (shown above in March 2016, mid-drought) jumped from just 10 percent of capacity in August to 100 percent last month. But none of the $7.5 billion from the Proposition 1 Water Bond passed by voters in 2014 has been spent to increase water storage by raising the height of the dam.

Over 40 percent of California is now drought-free, thanks to recent rain and snow across the state and especially in Northern California.

There is something decidedly odd about the California State Legislature’s decision to hire former Attorney General Eric Holder, now back at the prestigious Covington & Burling law firm, to fight the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

California’s crippling five-year drought has come to a temporary halt in the northern part of the state, as roughly 350 billion gallons of water came pouring into the region’s biggest reservoirs over the past few days, boosting storage to levels not seen in years.

Just five months before the deadly Oakland blaze where at least 36 people perished Friday night, Derick Ion Almena, 46, the man who is considered the brains behind the “Ghost Ship” artists’ colony claimed to be “the thriller love child of Manson, Pol Pot and Hitler,” and said, “I can proverbally [sic] get away with murder.”

The man who heads the “Ghost Ship” artists collective, where the deadly Oakland fire broke out late Friday night, is facing a backlash over an insensitive Facebook post in which he lamented over losing “everything [he] worked so hard for,” as 24 people have been confirmed dead and at least two dozen more are still missing.

The “Ghost Ship” warehouse, where the deadly Oakland fire broke out during a party around 11:30 p.m. on Friday evening, reportedly only had one second-floor exit, down an unstable staircase made of pallets.

California state officials may betray the promise they made to Southern Californians that the projected $68 billion bullet train’s first completed section would run from Burbank to the Central Valley.

Young Bay Area Democrats who viewed Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate were most impressed (or frightened) by Marco Rubio.

A massive wildfire in Northern California called the Rocky Fire has scorched 60,000 acres and threatened thousands of structures as firefighters struggle to contain the fast-moving blaze.

A study of California’s Bay area and Sonoma County suggests that the most under-vaccinated children in California are the very poor–and the very smart.

#BlackLivesMatter protesters caused major traffic jams for commuters in Boston on Thursday by attaching themselves to 1200-lb. barrels on a major freeway and earning themselves the title “#Douchebarrels” on social media. In San Francisco, #BARTFriday protesters who blocked commuters from getting to work the following morning earned themselves the same title while causing a cacophony of irritating noises, using spoons, that immobilized the working masses for a while.

Facebook briefly shut down a page dedicated to informing activists planning a Friday protest for charges to be dropped against the arrest of 14 activists who chained themselves to trains and shut down the West Oakland BART station last November. The page was restored a few hours later.