California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system.

More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will address the Democratic Party faithful Saturday as he mounts a campaign to keep his job.

His address to thousands of activists at the California Democratic Party’s annual convention, held virtually, comes on the heels of state elections officials announcing that a preliminary count shows the recall effort against him has enough signatures to make the ballot.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police in the Northern California city of Alameda released body cam footage late Tuesday that shows officers pinning a man to the ground for more than five minutes during an arrest last week that ended in his death.

Mario Gonzalez, 26, stopped breathing after an April 19 scuffle with police at a park in Alameda.

A police statement said Gonzalez had a medical emergency after officers tried to handcuff him.

His family contends he was killed by police who used excessive force.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Organizers of the recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, state election officials said Monday, likely triggering just the second such election in state history.

“The people of California have done what the politicians thought would be impossible,” said Orrin Heatlie, the retired county sheriff’s sergeant who launched the recall effort last year. “Our work is just beginning. Now the real campaign is about to commence.”

LOS ANGELES, April 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Los Angeles police said officers shot dead a driver wearing body armor who had reversed into a patrol car in Hollywood.

The officers were responding to a call when a car pulled in front of them on Sunset Boulevard, hit the brakes and backed into their vehicle, the LA Police Department tweeted Saturday.

“The driver of the car exited, was wearing body armor, & had his right hand concealed behind him,” LAPD tweeted.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A white sheriff’s deputy in the San Francisco Bay Area shot and killed a Black man in the middle of a busy intersection about a minute after trying to stop him on suspicion of throwing rocks at cars last month, newly released video showed.

Graphic body camera footage showing Deputy Andrew Hall shooting Tyrell Wilson, 33, within seconds of asking him to drop a knife was released Wednesday, the same day prosecutors charged Hall with manslaughter and assault in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Filipino man more than two years ago.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Standing in the dry, cracked bottom of Lake Mendocino, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency Wednesday in two Northern California counties where grape growers and wineries are major users, an order that came in response to arid conditions affecting much of the state and the U.S. West.

Sacramento (US), Apr 18 (AP-PTI) The man accused of going on a shooting rampage at a Southern California business, killing four people, should not have been allowed to buy or own guns because of a California law that prohibits people from purchasing weapons for 10 years after being convicted of a crime.

LOS ANGELES, April 14 (Xinhua) -- A research project led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that neighborhoods in Los Angeles County with poor air quality had the highest death rates from the coronavirus.

The paper, titled "Spatial Analysis of COVID-19 and Traffic-Related Air Pollution in Los Angeles" from the Fielding School of Public Health, was scheduled to be published in the August edition of the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, and is now available online.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Flores was the last person seen with Kristin Smart before she vanished from a college campus on California’s scenic Central Coast nearly 25 years ago and suspicion has followed him ever since.

He went from being a “person of interest” to a “suspect” to “the prime suspect.”

Investigators never had enough evidence to charge him with a crime related to her disappearance until Tuesday when Flores was arrested on suspicion of murder in Smart’s death. His father, Ruben Flores, was arrested as an accessory to the crime.