California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s new coronavirus testing laboratory won’t face sanctions for what state officials had called “significant deficiencies” that a whistleblower said threatened the accuracy of its results, authorities said Monday.

The Valencia Branch Laboratory was found to have problems with training and record-keeping but authorities couldn’t substantiate reports stemming from a whistleblower that the lab destroyed data or documents, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov 22 (Reuters) - Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is expected to retake the stand on Monday to defend against charges of defrauding investors and patients about the now-defunct blood-testing startup once valued at $9 billion.

More than 50 journalists and spectators gathered on Monday outside the courthouse in San Jose, California, where Holmes is on trial.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Scores of Mexican adolescents were bused to California on Thursday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as efforts get underway across Mexico to get shots in the arms of teens.

Mexico has resisted vaccinating minors ages 12 to 17, in part because the government focused on older adults believed to be more vulnerable. Mexico also has not had enough vaccine supply for most of its minors, who account for one-third of its population. The country this month is preparing to start vaccinating only teens ages 15-17.

18 Nov 2021; MEMO: Over 100 Hollywood celebrities have signed a letter criticising Israel's labelling of six Palestinian NGOs as terror groups, international news agencies reported yesterday.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — It’s a hidden crisis that has existed for years inside one of the most well-funded institutions on the planet and has only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. As many as 160,000 active-duty military members are having trouble feeding their families.

That estimate by Feeding America, which coordinates the work of more than 200 food banks around the country, underscores how long-term food insecurity has extended into every aspect of American life, including the military.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney is free. A Los Angeles judge on Friday ended the conservatorship that has controlled Britney Spears’ life and money for nearly 14 years.

The decision capped a stunning five-month odyssey that saw Spears publicly demand the end of the conservatorship, hire her own attorney, have her father removed from power and finally win the freedom to make her own medical, financial and personal decisions for the first time since 2008.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A new report found a 20 percent increase in hate crimes last year, in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, mostly due to a 53 percent jump in racial hate crime.

In 2020, reported hate crimes in the county, home to over 10 million residents, grew from 530 to 635, the largest number since 2008, according to the annual report, released by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations yesterday. The report noted that, hate crimes have been trending upwards, and since 2013 there has been a 65 percent rise.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Parents held children born while they were stuck abroad. Long-separated couples kissed, and grandparents embraced grandchildren who had doubled in age.

The U.S. fully reopened to many vaccinated international travelers Monday, allowing families and friends to reunite for the first time since the coronavirus emerged and offering a boost to the travel industry decimated by the pandemic. The restrictions closed the U.S. to millions of people for 20 months.

SAN JOSE, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Daniel Ortega easily secured a fourth consecutive term as Nicaragua's president, early results showed on Monday, after the former guerrilla fighter suppressed political rivals in a vote critics said was rigged but which won Russian recognition.

Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council said that with roughly half the ballots counted, a preliminary tally gave Ortega's Sandinista alliance about 75% of votes.

The European Union rejected the results, saying the elections "complete the conversion of Nicaragua into an autocratic regime."

LOS ANGELES, Nov 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Climate change caused overwhelmingly by human activity is the primary source of the unprecedented forest fires regularly ravaging the western United States, according to a study.

  Fires destroyed an average of 13,500 square kilometers per year in the American west between 2001 and 2018 — twice as much as between 1984-2000.

  “It’s happened so much faster than we previously anticipated,” Rong Fu, who led the study published by the US National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), told the Los Angeles Times.