California

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A heat wave was developing in California on Monday but winds were light as firefighters battled a wildfire that poses a threat to a grove of giant sequoias and a small community in Yosemite National Park.

The Washburn Fire on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada had scorched about 3.6 square miles by Monday morning, an increase of about 300 acres (121 hectares) overnight, according to an incident update.

LOS ANGELES, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States had reported 767 confirmed monkeypox cases in 39 states as of Friday, and experts criticized the weakness in the country's public health system to address the snowballing outbreak.

New York had the highest monkeypox case count in the country with 153 cases, followed by California at 136 and Illinois at 91, according to latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

JACKSON, Calif. (AP) — Favorable weather early Wednesday aided the fight against a wildfire in California’s Gold Country that has forced evacuations in two counties.

The size of the Electra Fire remained unchanged at about 6.1 square miles (15.8 square kilometers) and containment doubled to 10%, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a daily report.

“Humidity recovery in the early morning hours moderated fire activity,” Cal Fire said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors found a 32-year-old man guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday for the 2019 fatal shooting of rapper Nipsey Hussle.

The Los Angeles County jury also found Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter instead of two attempted murder counts as prosecutors had sought for two other men who were hit by gunfire at the scene.

Holder, wearing a blue suit and face mask, stood up in the small court room next to his lawyer as the verdict was read. He had no visible reaction.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A sprawling, privately run detention center in the wind-swept California desert town of Adelanto could house nearly 2,000 migrants facing the prospect of deportation. These days, though, it’s nearly empty.

The Adelanto facility is an extreme example of how the U.S. government’s use of guaranteed minimum payments in contracts with private companies to house immigrant detainees might have a potential financial downside. In these contracts, the government commits to pay for a certain number of beds, whether they’re used or not.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters will weigh in on seven ballot measures this fall, the fewest to appear on a statewide general election ballot since 2014.

Thursday was the deadline to qualify measures for the November ballot. Secretary of State Shirley Weber confirmed that seven questions will appear in November. Six are ballot initiatives that supporters gathered enough signatures to place before voters and one was placed on the ballot by the state Legislature.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The Fourth of July holiday weekend is jamming U.S. airports with their biggest crowds since the pandemic began in 2020.

About 2.49 million passengers went through security checkpoints at U.S. airports Friday, surpassing the previous pandemic-era record of 2.46 million reached earlier in the week, according to figures released Saturday by the Transportation Security Administration.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Southern California woman who, along with her doctor husband, billed insurers $44 million for unnecessary cosmetic surgeries was sentenced Friday to eight years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

Linda Morrow, 70, also was ordered to pay $14 million in restitution. She pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit health fraud and contempt of court.

Morrow and her husband, David Morrow, ran The Morrow Institute, a surgical clinic in Rancho Mirage in the California desert near Palm Springs.

LOS ANGELES, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Tuesday it will start distributing the monkeypox vaccines across the country to address the spread of the virus, focusing on people most at risk and communities with the highest numbers of cases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will immediately send 56,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine to areas with high transmission. An additional 240,000 doses will be distributed over the next few weeks, with even more to come this summer and fall.

LOS ANGELES, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted on Thursday to support recommending the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for use in people ages 6 through 17 years old.

The vaccine received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week.

This recommendation reinforces the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine as an important tool in the pandemic and provides another vaccine option for children and adolescents, said the CDC in a statement.