|
|
| Trump admin says it needs to fight SNAP fraud, but problem is unclear | | President Donald Trump ’s administration is talking tough about SNAP, saying the government’s biggest food aid program is riddled with fraud that must be stopped.
His appointees are looking at Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from an enforcement perspective, seeing fraud as a major and expensive problem, perpetrated by organized criminal organizations, individual recipients and retailers willing to break the laws for profit. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-12-15 | | | | Settlement over death of child in care of adoptive family totals $31.5 million | | The suit was brought on behalf of the two younger sisters of Arabella McCormack, who died in August 2022. The girls were 6 and 7 at the time. Their adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, and her parents, Adella and Stanley Tom, are facing charges of murder, conspiracy, child abuse and torture. [Article] | | by , Times of San Diego. 2025-12-15 | | | | Will California OK lower utility company profits? How a pending vote could affect your electric bill | LAist | | State regulators are poised to vote on how much profit utility companies can make, a decision with big implications for Californians’ bills and the aging power grid. [Article] | | by , . 2025-12-15 | | | | Gas and electric rates in San Diego set to increase in 2026 – NBC 7 San Diego | | The average San Diego Gas & Electric customer can expect to see about a $4 increase in their energy bill next month, an SDG&E representative said Monday.
SDG&E executives participated in an annual presentation on Monday to update the city council about how rates are forecast to increase, and the council was able to ask questions about any efforts to mitigate costs going up. [Article] | | by , KNSD NBC San Diego. 2025-12-15 | | | | Column: Australia just banned kids from social media. Shouldn't we all? - Los Angeles Times | | Last week, Australia became the first country in the world to enact a social media ban for kids under 16. As the children of Oz wept and gnashed their teeth (I presume), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged them to “start a new sport, learn a new instrument, or read that book that has been sitting there on your shelf for some time.”
The ban is an incredibly bold, life-affirming move. You can only imagine how hard tech companies fought against it. (Reddit has already filed a legal challenge to the new law.)
“I’ve always referred to this as the first domino, which is why they pushed back,” said Julie Inman Grant, the country’s e-safety minister.
Indeed. Denmark is poised to ban social media for kids under 15. Norway, too. French officials have recommended banning the platforms for kids under 15, and instituting a curfew for those between ages of 15 and 18. In the U.S., many states are experimenting with bans, including California and New York targeting the “addictive” qualities of the platforms.
I can tell you from personal experience that all of these moves are long overdue.
Next month, my 15-year-old niece and I will celebrate the seventh anniversary of her arrival on my doorstep. I never expected to raise another child, especially not as a single mother during this stage of my life. We’ve managed — pretty spectacularly at times — to make a go of it.
But the biggest source of tension for us, bar none, has been her iPhone. We’d signed the pledge to “Wait Until 8th” for a smartphone. In 6th grade, while a lot of her friends had the latest smartphones, she used a Gabb, which looked like an iPhone but lacked Internet connectivity. She started eighth grade, got a smartphone, and that’s when many of our troubles began. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-12-15 | | | | Some areas in Humboldt County open for recreational crabbing | | The recreational crabbing season has opened in southern Humboldt County, after a delay surrounding elevated levels of domoic acid in the shellfish.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday part of the Humboldt County coastline had opened for recreational crabbers, but a large stretch remains closed.
The open areas start at Cape Mendocino (located near Redcrest) ranging south to the Mendocino/Humboldt county line. North of Reading Rock (near Orick) is open to the Oregon border, though a trap restriction is in place in this section due to the potential whale entanglement risk — “only hoop nets or crab snares may be used in this area,” CDFW said.
“The remaining area within Humboldt County continues to be closed due to elevated levels of domoic acid,” the release said.
Domoic acid is a neurotoxin from marine algae that can temporarily build up in some fish and shellfish.
According to CDFW, local testing of Dungeness crab will continue to determine when the fishery can safely reopen. [Article] | | by , Eureka Times-Standard. 2025-12-15 | | | | With financial challenges ahead, San Diego County gives out bonuses | KPBS Public Media | | First, county employees get $1,000 bonuses despite financial challenges to come –we explain why. Last week the Trump administration designated most of the US-Mexico border in California as a militarized zone. Then, the fight over a data center in the Imperial Valley is now heading to the courts. Followed by, the San Dieguito Union High School District passed new rules following a pair of controversies. Lastly, we interview Jake Gotta for our weekly segment ‘The Pod Behind The Package.’ [Article] | | by , KPBS - San Diego. 2025-12-15 | | | | A year ago, Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall should have closed; here’s where it is today – Daily News | | One year ago, state regulators, fed up with Los Angeles County’s repeated failure to maintain minimum standards for juveniles in its custody, took the nearly unprecedented step of ordering the county’s largest juvenile hall to close its doors indefinitely until improvements could be made. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-12-15 | | | | Fines, subsidies and recycled bins: How San Diego’s once-chaotic switch to paid trash pickup is going – San Diego Union-Tribune | | San Diego met a key deadline in its chaotic revamp of its trash service last week when the share of former city customers searching for new private service fell below 20% for the first time.
Meeting that goal by the city’s self-imposed Dec. 15 deadline prompted officials to delay plans to start sending warning letters about potential fines to the remaining 3,700 properties that still must make that transition.
Some new problems have emerged with landlords at small complexes not ordering enough new gray cans to adequately service their residents. But officials said those instances have been rare and isolated. [Article] | | by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2025-12-15 | | | | Board Approves Motion to Aid Families Recovering Final Paychecks After Immigration Raids | | The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Tuesday to explore an ordinance allowing families to recover an employee's last paycheck when the employee is unavailable, regardless of immigration status. The ordinance, if adopted, would apply only to small businesses in unincorporated areas of the county. [Article] | | by , . 2025-12-15 | | | | What RFK Jr.'s hep B vaccine rollback means for California - Los Angeles Times | | For most American infants, the hepatitis B shot comes just before their first bath, in the blur of pokes, prods and pictures that attend a 21st century hospital delivery.
But as of this week, thousands of newborns across the U.S. will no longer receive the initial inoculation for hepatitis B — the first in a litany of childhood vaccinations and the top defense against one of the world’s deadliest cancers.
On Dec. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s powerful vaccine advisory panel voted to nix the decades-old birth-dose recommendation.
The change was pushed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has long sought to rewrite the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule and unwind state immunization requirements for kindergarten.
California officials have vowed to keep the state’s current guidelines in place, but the federal changes could threaten vaccine coverage by some insurers and public benefits programs, along with broader reverberations.
“It’s a gateway,” said Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious-disease epidemiologist in Los Angeles. “It’s not just hepatitis B — it’s chipping away at the entire schedule.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-12-15 | | | | Trump plan to pump more water draws criticism from Calif. lawmakers - Los Angeles Times | | A Trump administration plan to pump more water to Central Valley farmlands is facing vehement opposition from Democratic members of Congress who represent the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and the Bay Area.
A group of seven legislators led by Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) said pumping more water will threaten the availability of water for many Californians, disrupt longstanding state-federal cooperation and put the Delta’s native fish at risk.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s plan “prioritizes partisan politics over California’s communities and farmers,” Garamendi said.
“Pumping even more water out of the Delta in the middle of worsening droughts isn’t just reckless,” he said. “It threatens the livelihoods of the people who live and work here, undermines the region’s fragile ecosystems, and jeopardizes the long-term health of our state’s water infrastructure.”
Federal officials have said the changes, adopted this month following an order by President Trump earlier this year, represent an effort to balance the needs of communities, farms and ecosystems.
Large agricultural water agencies, such as Westlands Water District, are supporting the Trump administration plan. Some of the valley’s farmers, who grow crops including pistachios, almonds, grapes and tomatoes, have long condemned state environmental rules as harmful and called for sending more water flowing in aqueducts.
The Bureau of Reclamation said in a summary of the plan, called Action 5, that the changes “are not expected to result in any significant negative effects to the environment,” and will allow California’s two major water systems — the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project — to deliver more water from the Delta south to farming areas and cities.
But the Newsom administration criticized the plan, warning that it could threaten fish and reduce the amount of water available for millions of people in other parts of the state.
“All Californians … deserve a water supply plan that prioritizes solutions over partisan games,” Garamendi and six other Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to Scott Cameron, the Bureau of Reclamation’s acting commissioner.
The group — which included Reps. Ami Bera, Mark DeSaulnier, Josh Harder, Jared Huffman, Doris Matsui and Mike Thompson — said they believe the changes will “endanger California’s water supply, disrupt coordinated operations between state and federal agencies, and weaken environmental protections.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-12-15 | | | | San Marcos farm cited for charging workers for unsafe housing | | The owners of a farm near San Marcos have been ordered to pay more than $245,000 in back wages and civil penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor found they were charging 30 agricultural workers rent for unsafe and unsanitary housing, the government agency announced Monday.
During a housing safety inspection at Lucky Growers, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined the company was charging some of its workers rent for housing with structural damage, mold, insect and rodent infestations, missing lighting and makeshift or missing doors, the agency said in a statement. The housing also lacked working smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
In addition to finding that the company was illegally charging workers for rent, investigators found that Lucky Growers, located off North Twin Oaks Valley Road in an unincorporated area north of San Marcos, neglected to give workers information about job and housing conditions as required by law. [Article] | | by , San Diego Union-Tribune. 2025-12-15 | | | | Opinion: Rental 'junk fee' ordinance is a solution in search of a problem | | Nearly half of San Diegans rent their homes, and every one of them is feeling the pressure of rising costs. From groceries to utilities to insurance, everything is getting more expensive. This is exactly why it’s so frustrating to watch our local governments focus on problems that don’t exist, while ignoring the ones that do. [Article] | | by , Times of San Diego. 2025-12-15 | | | | Violent online groups like 764 are threatening teen lives. Here's how to protect your kid - Los Angeles Times | | Teens across America are being recruited, groomed and extorted by network of online predators known as 764 that specializes in coercing minors to perform sexual acts and self-harm on camera and, in some cases, encourages teens to kill themselves.
Here is what parents need to know to keep their children safe on the internet and report online exploitation based on information provided by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.
What is 764 and how does it recruit children
The term 764 is used to describe a loose network of violent online groups that prey on youth — typically girls between the ages of 10 to 17 struggling with mental health — across the world.
They often groom their victims by establishing a friendly or romantic relationship and then threaten to dox them, publish their personally identifiable information online, or SWAT them, report a false 911 threat at their home.
Once predators have obtained recordings of self-harm or child sexual abuse they continue to blackmail the youth to produce more. The groups try to desensitize children and make them more easy to manipulate by sharing violent content such as rape and beheadings.
In later stages of abuse, they may attempt to coerce victims into committing suicide. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-12-15 | | | | Rob Reiner reshaped how California understands and invests in children - Los Angeles Times | | After his tragic death Sunday, the world remembers Rob Reiner as a cinematic force — and he was one, as an unforgettable presence on the ambitious 1970s sitcom “All in the Family” and later as the director of beloved films. I came to know him differently: as a restless thinker who transformed his own life story into bold public policy, reshaping how California understands and invests in its youngest children.
Reiner almost single-handedly conceived and led the successful 1998 campaign for California’s Proposition 10, a tobacco tax to raise funds for early childhood health and education. It established a statewide commission and 58 county commissions charged with investing in healthcare, parenting support, early education and other services for children from prenatal stages through age 5.
At the time this was a radical reframing of public responsibility — placing the earliest years of life at the center of social policy.
Reiner did not arrive at this work casually. He immersed himself in the science of early brain development and the evidence showing how experiences in the first five years shape lifelong outcomes. He articulated, clearly and persuasively, that investing early was not charity but a proven way to reduce crime, mitigate poverty and strengthen families and communities.
I saw his commitment up close when I was the founding chief executive of First 5 Alameda County, one of the county commissions Prop 10 created. Reiner never delegated the hard parts. He showed up, listened closely, asked tough questions and helped solve problems. He led with clarity and conviction, refusing to let bureaucratic inertia define the limits of what was possible. He knew that public policy, like storytelling, requires imagination, discipline and persistence.
As the founding chair of First 5 California, which was created by Prop 10, Reiner extended his leadership far beyond the campaign. He traveled the state, engaging with community leaders, educators, health professionals and families. He was deeply committed to evidence-informed action, not symbolic photo ops. Whether in Sacramento or small rural towns, he insisted on understanding both the data and the human stories behind the work. He seemed to find genuine joy in spending time with the children whose lives were improved. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-12-15 | | | | Six cities in the county have banned e-bikes for children — and San Diego may soon join them | | Carlsbad and Santee this month became the latest cities in to join a growing countywide program restricting children from using electric bicycles — and the city of San Diego could soon be joining them. [Article] | | by , Times of San Diego. 2025-12-15 | | | | The ugly, violent clearing of Chavez Ravine before it was home to the Dodgers | LAist | | Before Dodger Stadium was a legendary baseball venue, it was known as Chavez Ravine.
The area was home to generations of families, most of them Mexican American. [Article] | | by , . 2025-12-15 | | | | Researchers identify immune trigger behind myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination - Los Angeles Times | | A rapid, two-step immune reaction may underlie rare cases of heart inflammation seen after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination, Stanford University researchers found, shedding light on a mechanism that’s fueled scientific debate and political controversy since the pandemic.
The condition, myocarditis, appears most often in adolescent males and young men. It typically begins one to three days after a second vaccine dose, bringing on chest pain, shortness of breath or palpitations. Symptoms usually resolve quickly with supportive care — monitoring, rest and basic treatment to ease inflammation while the heart recovers on its own.
The new research, published in Science Translational Medicine, traces the reaction to a sequential surge of inflammatory signals. It begins with the immune system’s earliest sentinels — cells that act as first responders against infection. The scientists found that these cells, known as macrophages, release a wave of a signaling protein after an mRNA shot made by Pfizer Inc. and its partner BioNTech SE or by Moderna Inc.
The burst prompts T cells, another branch of the immune system, to produce the protein interferon-gamma. Together, the two molecules amplify inflammation and draw additional immune cells into heart tissue, where they can temporarily irritate or injure heart muscle in a small subset of people. The research was conducted using patient blood samples and on mouse and human tissue models.
The response reflects how the body defends itself against foreign genetic material, said Joseph Wu, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and senior author of the study.
“Your body needs these cytokines to ward off viruses,” Wu said in a statement. “It’s essential to immune response but can become toxic in large amounts.”
Although the absolute risk is extremely low — roughly a few thousand myocarditis cases per billion mRNA doses, concentrated in young men — the sheer speed and scale of global vaccination meant many cases were detected within a short window. That clustering made the complication appear more common than it was in statistical terms. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-12-15 | | | | Healthcare workers and activists march at White Memorial to protest ICE in hospitals | LAist | | Demonstrators, including healthcare workers, marched to Adventist Health White Memorial in Boyle Heights on Sunday, calling on hospital administrators to uphold the privacy rights of immigrant detainees and protect staff who advocate for patients. [Article] | | by , . 2025-12-15 | | |
| Showing matches 1 through 20 | |
|
|
|
|
|
