California Dolphin

Two teenage brothers’ duck-hunting trip in Oroville, Calif., took a disastrous turn when one brother’s kayak flipped on a stormy lake and the other dove in to help. More than a week later, authorities are still unable to find either boy. Wesley Cornett, 17, and Andruw Cornett, 19, went missing Dec. 14 during a hunting expedition on the Thermalito Afterbay — a 4,300-acre lake in Butte County with weeds up to 10 feet tall and temperatures that threaten hypothermia, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. On Monday, the Sheriff’s Office announced that all efforts to find the boys beneath the surface using divers and sonar technology had been exhausted. The search-and-recovery mission is now shifting to a “continuous limited search” focused on scouring the surface of the lake, using aircraft, drones, trained dogs, boats and on-shore vehicles, the Sheriff’s Office said. Authorities first learned the boys were in trouble when Andruw dialed 911 to report that his brother’s kayak had turned over in the lake at 8:33 a.m. on Dec. 14, the Sheriff’s Office said. Dispatch staff advised Andruw to remain in his kayak

The “silly season” of news coverage used to refer to the dog days of summer, when there was so little of importance happening that newspapers and cable channels filled the vacuum with fluff. Not this year. Starting in October and gaining intensity through the season, Americans have found themselves awash in panicky health and safety warnings about previously unappreciated threats. Most people don’t look at the sky. They don’t know what airplanes look like up there, particularly at night, and they don’t know what the stars and planets look like. — Scientist Cheryl Rofer explains the drone panic It started with warnings about your black plastic spatulas and other such implements. Spurred by a study and press release issued Oct. 1 by the Seattle nonprofit Toxic-Free Future, news organizations from coast to coast — including The Times — posted articles advising consumers to ditch their black food utensils and children’s toys with black plastic pieces. The black spatula panic was soon outrun by the drone panic, which has Americans scanning the skies for menacing aircraft. Get the latest from Michael Hiltzik Commentary on economics and

It wasn’t long after becoming a police officer in the northern English town of Hull in the 1980s that Django Sibley realized patrolling without a gun meant “policing by consent.” His beat was the town’s public housing tenements, and Sibley said he quickly worked out that people responded better to persuasion than threats of force or arrest. De-escalation hadn’t yet hit the mainstream in law enforcement, but Sibley recalled spending most of his days doing just that. Instead of taking a “more coercive” approach, Sibley said, he tried to persuade people to act in their own self-interests. “You have to deal with violent situations usually through … taking the time to listen to people, get to know them,” he said. Those early lessons have stuck with Sibley, 52, since moving to L.A. more than two decades ago and recently becoming executive director of the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the police department and reviews shootings by officers. Sibley, who started his new role in September, said his prior experience gives him a unique perspective about when police should resort to drawing

More than 70 years ago, my French Canadian mother made a road trip from Montreal to Fresno to work as a registered nurse. She didn’t know anything about Central California. She had never heard of Armenia or its people. But love can surprise you. She met my Armenian American father and settled into life on a dusty vineyard. My mother wasn’t an expert in her adopted cuisine, but she had Armenian friends who were: Sally, our neighbor, and her sister Ruby. Each autumn after the grape harvest, the three women would gather in Ruby’s kitchen to make large batches of kufta, a stuffed meatball. It took two days to chop, cook, knead and assemble all the ingredients. Fine-grained bulgur was mixed with ground beef or lamb to make its outer covering. In my family, kufta became a Christmas Eve tradition. The meatballs were offered along with ham, turkey and yalanchi, lemony grape leaves filled with onions and rice. The dining table was filled with salads and desserts made by friends and neighbors. Our celebrations burst with energy. Everyone feasted on food and drink. Santa arrived

SELMA, Calif. —  When Teresa Bynum first heard the high-speed rail was coming to California, her family blasted the project and was staunchly against it. Bynum, 30 of Riverdale, said her father remained opposed to the project as it took over farmland and pushed out agricultural companies. Over the years as the future of a high-speed rail wavered with decades-long delays and soaring costs, it was lampooned as a “ boondoggle ,” and the “ train to nowhere. ” But after losing her husband of 10 years, Bynum struggled to find seasonal jobs to pay her bills. She wanted stability, and the Central Valley Training Center, which offered a 12-week pre-apprenticeship program funded by the High-Speed Rail Authority, offered a pathway to a trade that could lead to one day working on the rail. “The minute I said I want to do high-speed rail, I mean, they lost their s—,” she recalled. “And it was like, the jobs are there. It’s happening. Whether you like it or not, you might as well capitalize on it.” Bynum graduated from the 12-week program — the only woman in

December 24, 2024 / 6:03 AM EST / AP Kenneth C. Davis on the power of reading Historian Kenneth C. Davis on the power of reading 05:39 Fayetteville, Ark. — A federal judge on Monday struck down key parts of an Arkansas law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors. U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks found that elements of the law are unconstitutional. “I respect the court’s ruling and will appeal,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement to The Associated Press. The law would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible to children. The measure was signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2023, but an earlier ruling had temporarily blocked it from taking effec t while it was being challenged in court. “The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest,”

December 24, 2024 / 5:14 AM EST / AP Washington — President Biden on Monday vetoed a once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal district judgeships, saying “hurried action” by the House left important questions unanswered about the life-tenured positions. The legislation would have spread the establishment of the new trial court judgeships over more than a decade to give three presidential administrations and six Congresses the chance to appoint the new judges. The bipartisan effort was carefully designed so that lawmakers wouldn’t knowingly give an advantage to either political party in shaping the federal judiciary. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure unanimously in August. But the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after Republican Donald Trump was reelected to a second term as president in November, adding the veneer of political gamesmanship to the process. The White House had said at the time that Mr. Biden would veto the bill. “The House of Representative’s hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully

Holiday shoppers feeling inflation pinch Consumers feeling inflation pinch this holiday shopping season 02:23 From grocery chains to stores and restaurants, most businesses, are open today on Christmas Eve 2024. If you’re looking to buy a last-minute present, stock up on food and groceries, dine out or visit a pharmacy, you’ll find that while many businesses are open, most likely operate on a holiday schedule that includes reduced hours.  Many stores and restaurants are closing early to give workers more time to spend with their families and loved ones, and because they anticipate fewer patrons. Here’s what’s open and closed on Christmas Eve. Are grocery stores open on Christmas Eve?  Albertsons-owned store chains and pharmacies including Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Randalls, Shaw’s, Vons and Tom Thumb will be open on Christmas Eve at reduced hours.  Aldi stores operate limited hours on Christmas Eve. Find your store’s holiday hours using the store locator. Food Lion stores close at 6 p.m. EST on Christmas Eve. Giant Food stores close at 7 p.m., with pharmacies closing according to their Sunday hours. Gas stations close at 6:30 p.m. Kroger stores

Updated on: December 24, 2024 / 3:25 AM EST / AP One of Colombia’s legendary drug lords and a  key operator of the Medellin cartel has been deported back  to the South American country, after serving 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence in the United States. A short while later, Fabio Ochoa was again a free man. Ochoa arrived at Bogota’s El Dorado airport on a deportation flight on Monday, wearing a grey sweatshirt and carrying his personal belongings in a plastic bag. After stepping out of the plane, the former cartel boss was met by immigration officials in bulletproof vests. There were no police on site to detain him. Fabio Ochoa, center, a former member of Cartel of Medellin, kisses a relative’s hand upon his arrival at El Dorado airport, after being deported from the United States, in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. Fernando Vergara / AP Colombia’s national immigration agency promptly posted a brief statement on the social media platform X, saying Ochoa was “freed so that he could join his family” after immigration officials took his fingerprints and confirmed through