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Opinion: Some of those most responsible for Maui wildfires won’t pay a cent

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Maui faces devastating economic costs beyond its intolerable human loss and suffering from recent wildfires. Scorched homes and businesses reduced to rubble won’t be rebuilt quickly; cleaning up their remnants, some of them toxic, won’t be cheap. Rebuilding costs have been estimated at $5.5 billion.Who will pay for this? Most of us will, to varying degrees, but some of those most responsible — the fossil fuel companies that play a key role in such climate-related disasters — won’t.Extreme weather events always take their highest economic toll on the communities directly hit. Maui’s families, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, have suddenly lost both jobs and homes. They’ll now struggle to meet their most basic needs. Even those who have some savings will have to figure out how to make them last through long delays for inspections, insurance payments and federal aid.Taxpayers will keep some emergency shelters and food supplies going and fund longer-term federal assistance. Over ...

Opinion: Big Pharma’s playbook to bankrupt those who can’t afford drugs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

America’s pharmaceutical giants are now suing to block the federal government’s first effort at drug price regulation. Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act included what on its face seems a modest proposal: The federal government would for the first time be empowered to negotiate prices Medicare pays for drugs — but only for 10 very expensive medicines beginning in 2026 (an additional 15 in 2027 and 2028, with more added in later years). Another provision would require manufacturers to pay rebates to Medicare for drug prices that increased faster than inflation.Those provisions alone could reduce the federal deficit by $237 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office has calculated. Those savings would come from tamping down on drug prices, which are costing an average of 3.44 times (sometimes 10 times as much) as what the same brand-name drugs cost in other developed countries, where governments already negotiate prices.Without any guardrails, drug prices in the U.S. for ...

Here’s where California’s power grid is most at risk for high winds and fire threat

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Wildfires swept by intense winds like those on Maui last week are something Californians have become very familiar with.Here’s how the state is trying to prevent more destruction:After years of study and debate, electrical utilities are shutting off power to high-risk areas across California during high heat and wind events. The Public Safety Power Shutoffs are being implemented but there is concern for the few who rely on electricity to survive around the clock. Some areas of the state have power outages longer and more frequently than many others.While wildfires can be started by a broad variety of causes (lightning, arson, smoking, etc.), electrical power lines were shown to be on the rise as an ignition source. Historically, electric utility infrastructure has been responsible for less than 10% of reported wildfires.RELATED: ‘This is hell’: Repeat outages mar PG&E’s wildfire safety shift from tree trimming to circuit breakersHowever, wildfires attributed to electrical infras...

In aftermath of Hilary, San Bernardino Mountains resident remains missing as search of river continues

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Searchers in the Seven Oaks area of the San Bernardino Mountains on Tuesday, Aug. 22, found a mobile home that might have belonged to the missing woman whose residence was swept away Sunday by the surging Santa Ana River, but there was no sign of her.The mobile home was located downstream and was filled with mud and debris, said Eric Sherwin, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.“It was destroyed,” Sherwin said.He estimated that 100 people were involved in the search for the woman and rescue of residents of the community north of Highway 38 in the wake of the pounding by Tropical Storm Hilary.The mobile home had been placed at Camp Seven Oaks.Meanwhile, after rescuers hoisted eight residents to safety Monday, authorities came up with a plan to extract the remaining 20 or so who declined to be reeled into a helicopter before being flown to a turnout on Highway 38. A hand crew built a landing zone for a helicopter in a nearby campground, allowing those to wished t...

‘Senseless killing’ of California business owner over pride flag shocks LGBTQ community, residents

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Colorful flower bouquets threaded through the door handles, handwritten cards, and rainbow pride flags hanging in the awnings — this has been the scene for several days outside the Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen, a mountain community bordering Lake Arrowhead.Locals, members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies are mourning the death of the business owner, whom officials say was shot during a dispute over a pride flag hanging outside her shop.On Friday, Aug. 18, Laura Ann “Lauri” Carleton, 66, confronted Travis Ikeguchi, 27, of Cedar Glen, outside of the store, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said. According to witnesses, Ikeguchi tore down the pride flag hanging outside the shop, and Carleton confronted Ikeguchi in the street. During the conflict, Ikeguchi reportedly shouted homophobic slurs before shooting Carleton, and fled on foot. Carleton died at the scene.San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies who responded to multiple 911 calls located Ikeguchi about a mile awa...

Much-hyped USC freshman Tackett Curtis set to play big role vs. San Jose State

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

The kid didn’t come all the way from a tiny town in Louisiana to Southern California to sit around.No, Tackett Curtis, as his uncle and Many High football coach Jess Curtis said, did not come to USC to kick around empty paper cups on the sidelines. The 2023 recruit saw USC, saw the glory days of Junior Seau and Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews, saw the program Coach Lincoln Riley was building – and saw himself as a missing piece, Jess Curtis said.He saw a need for help. And there would be no redshirt freshman year. No ease-into-fall-camp.“He’s there,” Jess Curtis said, “to help improve them right now.”It’s an audacious belief for a true freshman, particularly one entering a crowded linebacker corps. Shane Lee and Eric Gentry, the Trojans’ second- and third-leading tacklers in 2022, were still around, after all. But Curtis came into spring camp after graduating high school early with a heap of coaching praise behind his name – “Oooh, this freshman coming in,” as a smirking Caleb Willi...

Kidnapped 19-year-old California woman found dead; suspect arrested

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Detectives have found the body of a 19-year-old Downey woman in Moreno Valley and arrested a suspect in her slaying.Andrea Vazquez, a student at Fullerton College, was abducted in Whittier early Sunday morning, officials said.Gabriel Esparza, 20, of Whittier, was taken into custody around 3 p.m. on Monday at his job in Lakewood, according to a police statement. He was booked on suspicion of murder and kidnapping. Police also seized a firearm they believe was used in the early Sunday morning crime, as well as Ezparza’s 2013 white Toyota Tacoma truck.Police didn’t say how they identified Esparza as the suspect or why the two-day search for Andrea Vazquez happened “in large open land areas of Moreno Valley.” However, Vazquez’s sister, Edlyn, told KTLA that she traced her sibling’s phone to a field in Moreno Valley. She found blood there but not the phone or her sister.Investigators said they found Vazquez’ body in a field off Alessandro Boulevard and Merwin Street in Moreno Valley Mond...

California parolee out on bail accused of killing woman, domestic violence suspected

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

A parolee out on bail for possessing a gun while a felon was arrested Monday for fatally shooting a woman at her Pasadena apartment complex after a standoff with SWAT officers. Police say the shooting appears to be related to domestic violence but have not revealed the relationship between the suspect and the victim.Guary Lonnie Shuford III, 32, of Los Angeles barricaded himself in the victim’s apartment in the 200 block of South Raymond Avenue then surrendered to SWAT officers after several hours. He was arrested without incident, said Lt. Monica Cuellar, spokeswoman for the Pasadena Police Department.She identified the victim as Jamila Elysse Moss, 34, of Pasadena.Police headed to the 200 block of South Raymond Avenue after getting calls of gunshots in the area shortly after 10 a.m. Officers found Moss lying outside the apartment complex and facing the nearby train tracks, Cuellar said, adding the victim wasn’t on the railroad tracks. She was unresponsive and pronounced dead at th...

Republicans Pushed Almost 400 “Education Intimidation” Bills in Past Two Years

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

As students across the country grapple with mass shootings and the looming threat of a decimated planet, Republican lawmakers have trained their energy instead on education. Over the last two-and-a-half years, state lawmakers introduced 392 so-called educational intimidation bills, according to a report from PEN America published on Wednesday. As of earlier this summer, only four state legislatures had not seen this type of bill, according to the report, which spans legislative activity from January 2021 to June 2023. All but 15 of the bills were sponsored solely by Republicans. The wave of legislation documented in the report is complementary to but distinct from “educational gag orders” that explicitly ban materials and content, the authors wrote. Educational intimidation bills create “the conditions for censorship indirectly, threatening the freedoms to teach and learn with death by a thousand cuts.” Such efforts, the authors explain, “pressure educators to be more timid in ...

Kohl’s: Fiscal Q2 Earnings Snapshot

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. (AP) — MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. (AP) — Kohl’s Corp. (KSS) on Wednesday reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $58 million.The Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based company said it had net income of 52 cents per share.The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 24 cents per share.The department store operator posted revenue of $3.9 billion in the period, which met Street forecasts.Kohl’s expects full-year earnings in the range of $2.10 to $2.70 per share._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on KSS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/KSSSource