Category: Sacramento

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 4:07PM Hundreds of Fresno city department supervisors, represented by the City of Fresno Professional Employees Association, are on the picket lines. FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A group of City of Fresno Employees are on the picket lines calling for higher wages and improvements to working conditions. Those on strike this morning are part of the City of Fresno Professional Employees Association or CFPEA, which represents 400 supervisors who oversee transit, wastewater and our local parks. The union wants a 3-percent pay increase, a guaranteed single day off for those on-call employees 24/7, and the ability to pick shifts based on seniority. Union members say nearly all public services will be impacted in some way just before the holidays. They’re hoping that a resolution can be reached soon. “We’re not trying to hurt the public; we’re not trying to hurt my members,” said union president Jesse Gonzalez. “It’s a rough situation for them as well because they will be without pay for two days at Christmastime.” Fresno’s City Manager, Georgeanne White, said in a statement that the city has made significant efforts

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 3:46PM DETROIT — A company that sells replacement winter tires is recalling more than 541,000 of them in the U.S. because they don’t have enough snow traction to meet North American standards. Prinx Chengshan Tire North America is recalling over 100 sizes of Fortune Tormenta and Prinx Hicountry tires with three-peak mountain snowflake symbols on the sidewalls. The company says in documents posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the tires passed European tests but likely would not meet traction standards in North America. The safety agency says tires without sufficient snow traction can increase the risk of a crash. Prinx Chengshan is working on a way to fix the problem. Owners will be notified by letter starting Feb. 1. Those with questions can call the company at (310) 205-8355, extension 109. Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

LOS ANGELES — A California man was sentenced Monday to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison for running an extensive business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States to deliver babies who would automatically have American citizenship. U.S. authorities had sought a more than five-year prison term for Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, who was convicted in September of conspiracy and money laundering for running a company known as USA Happy Baby. Phoebe Dong, Liu’s wife – though the couple have since separated – was also convicted in connection with the scheme and is expected to be sentenced early next year. After receiving a 41-month sentence, Liu was led out of the courtroom by authorities and taken into custody. He gave his attorney his belt and a folder and held Dong’s hand briefly while she sobbed. In court, Liu had pleaded for leniency to care for his elderly parents and 13-year-old son, all of whom depend on him, while about a dozen supporters, many from his church, attended to provide moral support. Liu said his family has suffered deeply for nearly a

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 3:30PM New video shows an infant being ejected from a van during a police chase in Ohio – then the emotional reunion with his mother. BRYAN, Ohio — New video shows an infant being ejected from a van during a police chase in Ohio. The incident happed on December 1 at about 9:30 p.m. in Bryan, Ohio. According to police, Zachary Chervenka, 32, of Butler, Indiana was at a Walmart near Toledo when someone recognized him from an arrest warrant. An officer approached Chervenka as he was in the driver’s seat with his 9-month-old and 5-year-old children in the back seat. Their mother was loading their groceries into the van when he sped off, video shows. According to police, Chervenka left the children’s mother behind, and a police chase ensued. He allegedly reached speeds up to 100 miles per hour with the van door wide open. Video of the chase shows the 9-month-old boy fly out of the vehicle as the man takes a round turn. The boy bounced multiple times while still in his car seat, which the officer did

Teen drug use hasn’t rebounded from its drop during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results from a large annual national survey released Tuesday. About two-thirds of 12th graders this year said they hadn’t used alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days. That’s the largest proportion abstaining since the annual survey started measuring abstinence in 2017. Among 10th graders, 80% said they hadn’t used any of those substances recently, another record. Among 8th graders, 90% didn’t use any of them, the same as was reported in the previous survey. FILE – A person smokes cannabis outside the Smacked “pop up” cannabis dispensary location, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File The only significant increase occurred in nicotine pouches. About 6% of 12th graders saying they’d used them in the previous year, up from about 3% in 2023. Whether that has the makings of a new public health problem is unclear. The University of Michigan’s Richard Miech, who leads the survey, said: “It’s hard to know if we’re seeing the start of something, or not.”

Rex Heuermann, the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer, has been charged with a seventh murder. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced the new charge Tuesday.

Researchers determined that dozens of men, women and children were violently killed and cannibalized in Bronze Age-era England.

Republicans wants to extend 2017 tax cuts that expire next year and could let ACA subsidies lapse to help pay the tab, according to analysts.

DETROIT (AP) — A company that sells replacement winter tires is recalling more than 541,000 of them in the U.S. because they don’t have enough snow traction to meet North American standards. Prinx Chengshan Tire North America is recalling over 100 sizes of Fortune Tormenta and Prinx Hicountry tires with three-peak mountain snowflake symbols on the sidewalls. The company says in documents posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the tires passed European tests but likely would not meet traction standards in North America. The safety agency says tires without sufficient snow traction can increase the risk of a crash. Prinx Chengshan is working on a way to fix the problem. Owners will be notified by letter starting Feb. 1. Those with questions can call the company at (310) 205-8355, extension 109.

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — The New York architect facing murder charges in a string of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach killings was charged on Tuesday in the death of a seventh woman. Rex Heuermann was charged with killing Valerie Mack, whose remains were first found on Long Island in 2000. Mack, 24, had been working as an escort in Philadelphia and was last seen by her family that year in New Jersey. Mack’s partial skeletal remains were first found in Manorville, New York, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of where more of her remains were discovered on Gilgo Beach more than 10 years later. They were unidentified until genetic testing revealed her identity in 2020. Human hair found with Mack’s remains was sent for testing earlier this year and found to be a likely match with the genetic profile of Heuermann’s daughter, prosecutors said in court papers. His daughter is not accused of any wrongdoing and would have been three or four years old when Mack died. Appearing on Tuesday in a courtroom in Riverhead, New York, Heuermann told the judge: “I’m not guilty of any of these

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Business Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers stepped up their spending at retail stores last month, providing a boost to the economy in the early phases of the winter holiday shopping season. Retail sales rose 0.7% in November, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, a solid increase and higher than October’s 0.5% gain. The boost in spending underscores that the economy is still growing at a healthy pace even with higher interest rates, a trend that could cause the Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs more slowly next year than they have previously signaled. The Fed will announce its latest rate decision Wednesday. The economy expanded at nearly a 3% annual pace in the July-September quarter and some economists forecast another solid gain in the final three months of this year. There are some signs of sluggishness in the job market, as hiring has weakened since last summer, but layoffs are also relatively rare and the unemployment rate is at a low 4.2%. Paychecks are growing a solid 4% pace, on average nationwide, which is modestly faster than inflation

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time of heightened political division, Americans’ confidence in their country’s judicial system and courts dropped to a record low of 35% this year, according to a new Gallup poll. The United States saw a sharp drop of 24 percentage points over the last four years, setting the country apart from other wealthy nations where most people on average still express trust in their systems. The results come after a tumultuous period that included the overturning of the nationwide right to abortion, the indictment of former President Donald Trump and the subsequent withdrawal of federal charges, and his attacks on the integrity of the judicial system. The drop wasn’t limited to one end of the political spectrum. Confidence dropped among people who disapproved of the country’s leadership during Joe Biden’s presidency and among those who approved, according to Gallup. The respondents weren’t asked about their party affiliations. It’s become normal for people who disapprove of the country’s leadership to also lose at least some confidence in the court system. Still, the 17-point drop recorded among that

SANTA CLARA _- De’Vondre Campbell won’t be the last 49ers defender out that door before next season. Just don’t expect an overhaul as jarring as this season’s. So says defensive end Nick Bosa, who’s circling the wagons and throwing support behind his loyal teammates and first-year defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen. Bosa insists the last-place 49ers (6-8) are hitting a stride that would be timed right for a playoff run, if only they hadn’t already fallen out of contention with three games left, including Sunday’s at the Miami Dolphins (6-8). “A lot of people – you guys, in particular – are going to say, ‘Get these guys out of there, get these guys out of there. It didn’t work, it didn’t work,’ ” Bosa said Monday at his locker. “There’s going to be a lot of criticism next year when it looks very similar. “That’s just what I feel, because we have the right people in terms of coaches and players. We have the right guys — defensively is what I can speak on.” Campbell never looked quite right starting in place of Dre Greenlaw, up

The officers became suspicious after noticing the female passenger “was not conscious and was not communicating.”

MADISON, Wis. — A 15-year-old student killed a teacher and another student in a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, police said. Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, also injured six others — leaving two in critical condition, according to officials. She was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound when police arrived on the scene at about 11 a.m. on Monday. Rupnow had attended the school along with some 390 students in grades Kindergarten through 12, police said. “I don’t know whether [the shooter] was transgender or not,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference on Monday night, when asked about Rupnow’s gender identity. “I don’t think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify,” he said. “And I wish people would kind of leave their own personal biases out of this.” “So, whether or not she was, he was, they were transgender is something that may come out later — but for what we’re doing right now, today, literally eight hours after

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 11:37AM Svetlana Dali, the alleged Delta stowaway who lives in Philadelphia, was arrested again for trying to flee the United States. PHILADELPHIA — Svetlana Dali, the alleged Delta Airlines stowaway, was arrested for the second time this month. She was first arrested by the FBI on Dec. 4 for allegedly stowing away on a Delta Air Lines flight from the United States to France. Dali had cut off her ankle monitor on Sunday and was trying to sneak into Canada, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The person she was staying with in Philadelphia discovered the bracelet cut and alerted authorities. RELATED | Stowaway arrested by FBI after returning to US from France: Official New video footage shows a Delta crewmember questioning the woman after she allegedly snuck onto a flight from JFK to Paris last week. An arrest warrant was issued for bail jumping on Monday morning out of the Eastern District of New York. The Russian national was apprehended in Buffalo on Monday afternoon. She was on a Greyhound bus trying to cross into Canada. When law enforcement asked

Jay-Z’s lawyer doubled down on claims of his client’s innocence on Monday, while disputing the timeline behind a rape accusation that has been leveraged against the music industry titan. Alex Spiro, the lawyer representing Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter as he faces a civil lawsuit alongside fellow music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, held a press briefing with handpicked reporters in New York City on Monday. In that briefing, Spiro outlined what he says are inconsistencies in the timeline account of Jay-Z’s accuser, who was 13 years old at the time of the alleged sexual assault. The plaintiff, who claims in her lawsuit Jay-Z and Sean Combs assaulted her at the after-party of the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000, has acknowledged inconsistencies with her account. However, she has stood by her allegations. “Obviously Jay-Z did not rape a child,” Spiro said. He added that he expects the case to be dismissed. “If it’s not, eventually this will all crumble, because it can’t possibly have happened mathematically,” he said. “You don’t even need witnesses. They don’t have any witnesses because this never happened and you don’t need witnesses

MADISON, Wis. — Details are still emerging about the course of the Madison, Wisconsin, school shooting that left three people — among them the 15-year-old female shooter — dead and several others injured on Monday. Police said that Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, used a handgun to kill one teacher and one fellow student in the shooting. Rupnow died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before officers reached the school, police said. Officers did not fire their weapons. Two students sustained life-threatening injuries and are in critical condition, while one teacher and two other students were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Some of the injured are now out of the hospital, but two students remain in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Police said in a Monday briefing that the shooting was contained to “a classroom in a study hall full of students from multiple grade levels.” Police have not yet suggested any motive for the attack nor said whether they believe the victims were specifically targeted. RELATED: Police looking into motivation of 15-year-old female Wisconsin school shooting suspect Devastated staff at Abundant Life Christian School returned

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Injured people were arriving at a hospital in Vanuatu as unconfirmed reports of casualties emerged after the South Pacific island nation was rocked by a powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck just off the coast on Tuesday. A tsunami warning was called off less than two hours after the quake. With communications still down hours after the jolt and official information scarce, witness accounts of casualties began to surface on social media and through patchy phone calls. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Port Vila, the largest city in Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands that is home to about 330,000 people. The jolt was followed by a magnitude 5.5 aftershock near the same location. It was not immediately clear how much damage was caused as phone lines and government websites remained down and official channels have not been updated, but reports of widespread destruction filtered out on social media and in interviews. Dan McGarry, a journalist based in Port Vila, told The Associated Press he heard

A deadly earthquake has struck the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, damaging buildings in the capital, including one housing the U.S. embassy.

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén created the most bloodthirsty gang of hitmen Mexico has ever known, the Zetas.