California's coronavirus death toll reached another once-unfathomable milestone — 70,000 people — on Monday as the state emerges from the latest infection surge with the lowest rate of new cases among all states.
A small plane crashed in a densely populated San Diego suburb Monday, killing at least two people, including a UPS driver, and leaving a trail of destruction that sent neighbors scrambling to help neighbors. At least two others were injured.
Surfers and swimmers returned to the waves Monday at a popular Southern California beach that was shut for more than a week after an undersea pipeline leaked crude oil into the ocean.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes in the nation's most populous state on Tuesday, giving judges more discretion to impose alternative sentences.
The mandatory sentencing law Newsom signed Tuesday grew out of what Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco called a failed war on drugs that disproportionately incarcerated people who are Black or Latino.
The severity of California’s housing crisis is difficult to exaggerate. Families in which spouses both have solid middle-income jobs struggle to afford mortgages for condos, not just single-family homes. Families in which spouses both have lower-income jobs often share apartments with others. Many single employed people — and some families — have no choice but to live in their cars. The nation’s richest state is also, perversely, its most impoverished.
The Hemet Police Department cited 28 drivers Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in a distracted-driving operation from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Twelve citations were for hands-free cell phone violations and 16 for dangerous driving behaviors.
Reese Whitney, 21, of Hemet died Friday on McCall Park Road in Mountain Center, the Riverside County coroner said. CHP is investigating under Log No. 9655. Next of kin have been notified.
A Hemet man, Alex Mancia-Caceres, 54, died early Friday in a single-vehicle crash at Ramona Expressway and E Seventh Street in San Jacinto. Deputies responded at 2:24 a.m.; the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause remains under investigation.