California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rosita Lopez said armed gang members demanded money from her and her partner at their small grocery store on the Guatemalan coast and threatened to kill them when they couldn’t pay. When her partner was shot soon afterward, they sold everything and fled north.

Lopez was eight months pregnant when the couple arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border last year with their 1-year-old daughter. Just over a year later, an immigration judge in Los Angeles heard her case, denied her asylum and ordered her deported.

“I’m afraid of going back there,” she told the judge.

03 August 2019; AFP: San Francisco International Airport is banning the sale of single-use plastic bottles and will require fliers to buy refillable bottles if they're not already carrying their own, US media reported on Friday.

The new rule comes into effect on August 20, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, and is part of a five-year plan to lower landfill waste, net carbon emissions and net energy use to zero.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The gunman who opened fire on a California food festival killed himself after officers shot him multiple times, officials said Friday, correcting previous police accounts that the officers fired the fatal bullet.

Police gave the update soon after the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office said 19-year-old Santino William Legan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Death Valley National Park, injuring seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts watch military pilots speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon, officials said.

The crash sent dark smoke billowing in the air, said Aaron Cassell, who was working at his family’s Panamint Springs Resort about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and was the first to report the crash to park dispatch.

LOS ANGELES, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration had forcefully separated more than 900 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year in defiance of a previous court ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a court filing on Tuesday.

GILROY, Calif. (AP) — A gunman cut through a fence to avoid security and opened fire at Northern California’s popular Gilroy Garlic Festival, killing three and wounding at least 15 before police fatally shot him as terrified people and performers ran for cover.

Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said the gunman was armed with a rifle and sneaked in through a fence that borders a parking lot next to a creek.

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — A Scottish man who authorities say faked his death off California’s Carmel coast to avoid rape charges back home has been arrested, authorities announced Friday.

Kim Vincent Avis, 55, also known as Ken Gordon-Avis, was arrested in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last week and is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service, Cmdr. Kathy Pallozolo with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said. The Associated Press has identified him as Kim Gordon.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Donald Trump has vowed to slap tariffs on Apple’s Mac Pros if the company shifts production of the computer from Texas to China.

The pledge made in a Friday tweet rebuffs Apple’s attempt to shield its products from taxes being imposed on goods made in China as part of Trump administration’s trade war with the world’s most populous country.

Apple recently sent a letter to the Trump administration warning that the U.S. economy and its ability to compete will hurt if its products are hit with the tariffs.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — An investigation into Marines accused of helping smuggle migrants into the United States led to the arrest Thursday of 16 of their fellow Marines at California’s Camp Pendleton, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a dramatic move aimed at sending a message, authorities made the arrests as the Marines gathered in formation with their battalion.

None of the 16 Marines were involved in helping enforce border security, the Marine Corps said in a news release. They are accused of crimes ranging from migrant smuggling to drug-related offenses.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man fatally shot his father, brother and two other people Thursday during a 12-hour rampage across Los Angeles’ sprawling San Fernando Valley, eluding a manhunt until he was arrested after gunning down a bus passenger, authorities said.  

Police said they did not know what motivated Gerry Dean Zaragoza to launch the attacks in neighborhoods dotting the vast, largely suburban valley that is home to nearly 2 million Los Angeles residents.