San Diego

Larry Lucchino, the Padres president behind Petco Park, dies at 78

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Larry Lucchino, the former president of the San Diego Padres who spearheaded the development of Petco Park, died on Tuesday. He was 78 years old. “We are heartbroken to share that our beloved brother and uncle, Lawrence Lucchino, passed away on April 2 surrounded by his family. The Lucchino family wishes to thank his friends and caregivers who, over the past few months, have surrounded him with love, laughter, and happy memories,” the executive’s family said in a statement shared by the Boston Red Sox. Lucchino presided over the Padres as president between 1995 and 2001 — a period in which the Padres made multiple runs in the playoffs, including a trip to the 1998 World Series. He was also instrumental in the vote to authorize construction of the city’s crown-jewel stadium Petco Park. In 2022, Lucchino was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame by owner Peter Seidler, who similarly passed away last year after a battle with cancer. “We mourn the passing of former Padres executive Larry Lucchino. Larry’s passion and leadership was instrumental in the design and

Sacramento

Young voters are more concerned with the economy. That’s bad for Biden

Jarrell Dillard | Bloomberg News (TNS) WASHINGTON — They’re weighed down by student debt. They’re shut out of the housing market. They’re hit by higher costs of living. And they want President Joe Biden to listen. At a time when Donald Trump is cutting into Biden’s 2020 advantage with young adults, the growing list of grievances among those between the ages of 18 to 29 is a worrying sign for Biden as he seeks a second term. People in that age cohort are more than twice as likely to cite the economy as their top concern compared with older adults in recent Gallup data. And while all voters are more worried about the economy now than they were heading into the 2020 presidential election, the pessimism has spiked the most among those under 30. That concern is being reflected in polls. Trump is currently leading the president 47% to 40% with voters aged 18 to 34 in swing states, according to a March Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll. By contrast, Biden won 61% of voters under 30 last cycle. Though the November election is months off

Sacramento

Expect to see AI ‘weaponized to deceive voters’ in this year’s presidential election

Alfred Lubrano | (TNS) The Philadelphia Inquirer As the presidential campaign slowly progresses, artificial intelligence continues to accelerate at a breathless pace — capable of creating an infinite number of fraudulent images that are hard to detect and easy to believe. Experts warn that by November voters will have witnessed counterfeit photos and videos of candidates enacting one scenario after another, with reality wrecked and the truth nearly unknowable. “This is the first presidential campaign of the AI era,” said Matthew Stamm, a Drexel University electrical and computer engineering professor who leads a team that detects false or manipulated political images. “I believe things are only going to get worse.” Last year, Stamm’s group debunked a political ad for then-presidential candidate Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ad that appeared on Twitter. It showed former President Donald Trump embracing and kissing Anthony Fauci, long a target of the right for his response to COVID-19. That spot was a “watershed moment” in U.S. politics, said Stamm, director of his school’s Multimedia and Information Security Lab. “Using AI-created media in a misleading manner had never been seen before

Sacramento

Why are Black people more likely to develop glaucoma? Scientists discover new clues

Tom Avril | The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS) A team led by University of Pennsylvania scientists has discovered three genetic variants that offer the first strong clues as to why glaucoma disproportionately affects Black people. The variants are common in people with African ancestry and are associated with a significantly higher risk of developing the sight-robbing disease, the researchers found in their study of more than 11,000 volunteers, including 6,300 from the Philadelphia area. More research is needed to determine if these variants — each consisting of just a single “letter” among the 3 billion pairs of letters that spell out the human genome — play a direct role in causing glaucoma. But if they stand up to scrutiny, the findings someday could be used to develop better treatments and identify people who could benefit from them, said Shefali Setia Verma, one of the lead study authors and an assistant professor at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. “The idea is that this can help identify individuals who are at higher risk before any symptoms occur,” she said. Previous studies have found more than 170 other genetic variants

Sacramento

Severe weather carves path across several states, at least 1 dead

By Bruce Shipowski | Associated Press Thousands of homes and businesses were without power Tuesday as severe weather roared through several states, causing at least one death and spawning possible tornados. Meanwhile, a spring snowstorm was expected to drop more than a foot of snow in Wisconsin. One of the hardest-hit areas was northeastern Oklahoma, where a strong weather system containing heavy rains produced three suspected tornadoes. The storms were also blamed for the death of a 46-year-old homeless woman in Tulsa who died inside a drainage pipe, police said. Tulsa Fire Department spokesperson Andy Little said the woman’s boyfriend told authorities the two had gone to sleep at the entrance of the drainage pipe and were awakened by the flood waters. National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Darby said up to 1.5 inches (3.81 centimeters) of rain fell in Tulsa in about one hour before moving northeastward out of the state. “It wasn’t a whole lot. But when it came down it was pretty rapid,” Darby said. In Ohio, firefighters came to the rescue of two people who were trapped under a bridge early Tuesday

Sacramento

Some Medicaid providers borrow or go into debt amid ‘unwinding’ payment disruptions

Katheryn Houghton | KFF Health News (TNS) Jason George began noticing in September that Medicaid payments had stalled for some of his assisted living facility residents, people who need help with daily living. Guardian Group Montana, which owns three small facilities in rural Montana, relies on the government health insurance to cover its care of low-income residents. George, who manages the facilities, said residents’ Medicaid delays have lasted from a few weeks to more than six months and that at one point the total amounted to roughly $150,000. George said the company didn’t have enough money to pay its employees. When he called state health and public assistance officials for help, he said, they told him they were swamped processing a high load of Medicaid cases, and that his residents would have to wait their turn. “I’ve mentioned to some of them, ‘Well what do we do if we’re not being paid for four or five months? Do we have to evict the resident?’” he asked. Instead, the company took out bank loans at 8% interest, George said. Montana officials finished their initial checks of

Sacramento

State of emergency declared as 1 million people expected to visit Niagara Falls during solar eclipse

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 7:06PM How cities are preparing for a ‘super bowl’ of travel as fans fly across the country to catch a glimpse of the total solar eclipse. NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — Ontario’s Niagara Region has declared a state of emergency as it prepares to welcome up to a million visitors for the solar eclipse in early April. The total solar eclipse on April 8 will be the first to touch the province since 1979, and Niagara Falls was declared by National Geographic to be one of the best places to see it. The city is in the path of totality, where the moon will entirely block the sun’s rays for a few minutes. Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said earlier in March that he expects the most visitors his city has ever seen in a single day. The regional municipality of Niagara is proactively invoking a state of emergency to prepare for the event. The declaration announced Thursday sets in motion some additional planning tools to prepare for the day, which could involve major traffic jams, heavier demands on emergency services and

Sacramento

Freight railroads must keep 2-person crews, according to new federal rule 2 years in the making

Major freight railroads will have to maintain two-person crews on most routes under a new federal rule that was finalized Tuesday in a milestone in organized labor’s long fight to preserve the practice. The Transportation Department’s Federal Railroad Administration released the details of the rule Tuesday morning after working on it for two years. Out of more than 13,000 comments on the rule, about 60 opposed it. There has been intense focus on railroad safety since a fiery February 2023 derailment in Ohio, but few significant changes have been made apart from steps the railroads pledged to take themselves and the agreements they made to provide paid sick time to nearly all workers. Such changes include adding hundreds more trackside detectors and tweaking how to respond to alerts from them. A railroad safety bill proposed in response to the derailment has stalled in Congress. Rail unions have long opposed one-person crews because of safety and job concerns. Labor agreements requiring two-person crews have been in place for roughly 30 years at major railroads, although many short-line railroads already operate with one-person crews without problems. The

Sacramento

Disneyland plans to electrify Autopia, convert popular attraction’s gas-powered cars

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 6:55PM ABC7 Eyewitness News Stream Southern California’s News Leader and Original Shows 24/7 ANAHEIM, Calif. — Plans are in the works to replace the gas-powered cars at Disneyland’s popular Autopia attraction as part of the Anaheim resort’s ongoing decarbonization efforts and its goal of net zero emissions, Disney officials said Tuesday. “Since opening with Disneyland park in 1955, Autopia has remained a guest-favorite most popular with young kids experiencing driving for the first time,” Disneyland Resort spokesperson Jessica Good said in statement. “As the industry moves toward alternative fuel sources, we have developed a roadmap to electrify this attraction and are evaluating technology that will enable us to convert from gas engines in the next few years.” Whether the cars will be replaced by electric vehicles or hybrids was not immediately confirmed. Disneyland Resort’s net zero emissions target includes a holistic view of driving energy efficiency, increasing the theme parks’ reliance on renewable energy, and shifting pollution-intensive fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy where feasible. File image of Autopia in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, August 10

Los Angeles

Hollywood celebs are scared of deepfakes. This talent agency will use AI to fight them

As advancements in artificial intelligence proliferate, talent agencies are bulking up their defenses to protect Hollywood stars against misleading, manipulated images or videos that can put their clients at risk. The rise of generative AI and “deepfakes” — or videos and pictures that use a person’s image in a false way — have led to the wide proliferation of unauthorized clips that can damage celebrities’ brands and businesses. These clips purport to show famous people saying and doing things they never said or did. For example: fake nudes of a famous person, or videos crafted to make it look like a Hollywood star is endorsing a product they haven’t actually used. And the problem is expected to grow. Now there are technological tools that use AI to combat that threat, and the entertainment industry has come knocking. Talent agency WME has inked a partnership with Loti, a Seattle-based firm that specializes in software used to flag unauthorized content posted of clients’ likenesses on the internet. The company, which has 25 employees, then quickly sends requests to online platforms to have those infringing photos and videos

Los Angeles

Editorial: California snow survey makes it official — we’re all wet

At the end of the rain and snow season, California is officially wet. The crucial April snow survey conducted Tuesday morning showed above-average Sierra snowpack. That means there will likely be enough melt over the rest of spring and summer to keep reservoirs from being depleted. It’s not unexpected, but it’s a relief, because the season’s first survey showed a snowpack of only 25% of normal. A series of storms helped the state to catch up. The snowpack is now 64 inches, or slightly more than 5 feet, which is 113% of average at the measurement spot in El Dorado County. Surveys in other locations show about 105% of average snowpack statewide. “Average is awesome,” California Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said Tuesday at the survey site. Things could still go bad. A strong heatwave could melt the snowpack too quickly and lead to flooding. It might even cause portions to evaporate, as happened during the worst of the recent drought years. That’s part of the menace of climate change: Even when we get enough precipitation, it might not come at the right

Los Angeles

Canelo responde a De la Hoya sobre comentario de que sus peleas son aburridas

El campeón del peso supermedio, Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, enfrentará a su compatriota Jaime Munguía este próximo 4 de mayo, en la que defenderá sus cinturones en el T-Mobile Arena de Las Vegas, Nevada. Será la primera ocasión en la que Álvarez enfrenta a un mexicano desde que venció a Julio César Chávez Jr. en 2017. Canelo, en una entrevista reciente con LA Times en Español, expresó su molestia con una publicación en las redes sociales hecha por Óscar de la Hoya, su expromotor y ahora promotor de su rival. Y es que De la Hoya había sido muy respetuoso en la conferencia de prensa realizada hace unos días en Beverly Hills para promover el duelo del 4 de mayo. Pero en un giro dramático de opinión y actitud, De la Hoya dijo al día siguiente que la conferencia de prensa había estado aburrida, “como las peleas del Canelo”, algo que no sentó nada bien con el peleador mexicano. “Imagínate, y si no tiene el valor para decirlo ahí mismo en la conferencia de prensa. Y ahora imagínate que su peleador, Jaime Munguía, está en esa

Los Angeles

Former MGM film executive Jonathan Glickman named CEO of Miramax

Former MGM Motion Picture Group president Jonathan Glickman has been named chief executive of Miramax. Glickman most recently was chief executive of independent film and TV production company Panoramic Media, which he founded in 2020. There, he produced the film “Creed 3” for Amazon MGM Studios and executive produced the popular Netflix series “Wednesday.” He served as MGM’s Motion Picture Group chief for more than eight years, and revived the Rocky franchise with “Creed” and “Creed 2,” in addition to overseeing multiple James Bond films. Miramax will acquire “certain film, television and other projects” of Panoramic Media, according to a statement from the studio, though it did not specific which ones. Under Glickman, Miramax is expected to capitalize on its intellectual property, as well as produce original content. Founded in 1979 by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein, Miramax dominated the ‘90s and ’00s market for indie films with such critically acclaimed hits as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.” Qatar-based broadcaster beIN Media Group acquired the studio in 2016, and Paramount Global (then known as ViacomCBS) purchased a 49% stake in

Los Angeles

Costco offering weight-loss subscriptions to members

Costco memberships now come with a new perk. The warehouse retailer is now offering its U.S. members access to prescriptions for GLP-1 weight loss drugs through its partnership with Sesame, a direct-to-consumer healthcare marketplace. The new program launched on Tuesday. Costco CFO comments on yearly membership price hike: ‘We haven’t needed to do it’ Costco members can now subscribe to Sesame’s weight loss program for as low as $179 per subscription period. Non-members also have access to the subscription but must pay $195 per subscription period. “We are witnessing important innovations in medically supervised weight loss,” David Goldhill, Sesame’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Sesame’s unique model allows us not only to make high-quality specialty care like weight loss much more accessible and affordable but also to empower clinicians to create care plans that are specific to — and appropriate for — each individual patient.” Because of customers’ interest in weight loss, Costco and Sesame developed the renewable three-month program, Goldhill said in an interview with USA Today. Costco using new scanners to stop membership sharing Under the subscription, Costco members can: Receive

Los Angeles

Authorities pursue suspected stolen vehicle

The Alhambra Police Department is in pursuit of an allegedly stolen vehicle Tuesday morning. Sky5 is overhead. The vehicle, a white pickup truck, is attempting to elude officers on surface streets, taking turns on residential streets at high speeds and, at times, nearly losing control. At one point, the pickup drove over a curb and median to get past an SUV that was blocking its way, then later drove on a sidewalk to avoid a fire truck. The Police Department is only the latest agency to chase this truck, as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department previously chased it and was in contact with the the California Highway Patrol about them possibly picking up the pursuit. Check back for updates to this developing story.

Los Angeles

$25K reward offered for man who shot electrical substation in Torrance

The FBI is looking for a man caught on security footage near the site of an attack on an electrical substation in Torrance last year, and a reward of up to $25,000 is available for helping track him down. The Aug. 20, 2023, attack involved shooting a transformer at the Southern California Edison substation at 21760 Madrona Ave. and turning off circuit breakers, the FBI said in a news release. The FBI provided this image of the suspect in a Aug. 20, 2023, attack on a Torrance electrical substation. “No one was injured during the incident, but property was significantly damaged,” the FBI said. Tampering with electrical equipment can result in felony charges, officials added. The man spotted nearby was wearing a tan overcoat with a hood, black pants and boots. If you have information about the suspect or any possible coconspirators, you are asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov. Information can be provided anonymously.

Los Angeles

Justice Department to meet with families of Boeing crash victims

Justice Department to meet with families of Boeing crash victims – CBS News Watch CBS News CBS News has confirmed that the U.S. Department of Justice will meet later this month with the families of Boeing crash victims. CBS News’ Lilia Luciano has more. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

Los Angeles

3 times to use a home equity loan to purchase a second home

We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. By Joshua Rodriguez Edited By Angelica Leicht April 2, 2024 / 2:55 PM EDT / CBS News Your home equity could be your key to owning a second home.  Getty Images Are you thinking about  purchasing a second home? Maybe you live in a cold climate and want a home in a warmer area during the winter months. Or, maybe you have adult children who moved away and you’d like to be near them during the holidays.  A traditional mortgage is one option for purchasing a second home, but your primary home could also help . For example, you may be able to tap into your home’s equity with a home equity loan  to get the money for a down payment or cover the full cost of purchasing of a second home. Home equity loans are often a smart option to consider because you can  borrow large amounts at a competitive rate . And, since the average homeowner  currently has about $193,000 in tappable equity

Los Angeles

Some House Republicans trying to rename D.C. airport after Trump

Some House Republicans trying to rename D.C. airport after Trump – CBS News Watch CBS News A group of House Republicans launched a longshot effort to rename Washington Dulles International Airport to honor Donald Trump. The bill would designate the airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport. The effort is highly unlikely to pass, with Republicans holding such a slim majority in the House and Democrats controlling the Senate. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

Los Angeles

Wisconsin Gov. Evers vetoes transgender high school athletics ban, decries “radical policies targeting LGBTQ”

U.S. By WCCO Staff Updated on: April 2, 2024 / 2:42 PM EDT / CBS/AP Talking Points: Minnesota is now safe haven for transgender community (Part 1) Talking Points: Minnesota is now safe haven for transgender community (Part 1) 12:05 Wisconsin’s governor vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have banned high school transgender athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity , promising he would veto “any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids.” The bill had passed the Republican-controlled Legislature despite Evers vowing he would veto it from the moment it was introduced. While Democrats did not have the votes to stop its passage in the Legislature, now Republicans don’t have the votes needed to override the veto. Evers said in his veto message that this type of legislation “harms LGBTQ Wisconsinites’ and kids’ mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ harassment, bullying, and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ Wisconsinites, especially our LGBTQ kids.” Evers vetoed it in the Capitol surrounded by Democratic lawmakers, transgender advocates, the mayor of

Los Angeles

Caltrans Completes $1.3M Beautification Project in SFV, Pasadena

The California Department of Transportation completed a $1.3 million beautification project and took efforts to address illegal dumping in northern Los Angeles County, officials announced Tuesday. Caltrans installed fencing along stretches of Interstate 5, Interstate 210, and the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway in San Fernando Valley and Pasadena to deter illegal dumping, improve litter collection and remove graffiti. The clean-up was made possible through Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative — a $1.2 billion, multiyear clean-up effort to remove trash, create jobs and help beautify public spaces. “I’m very pleased that this project benefits the traveling public and several underserved communities by enhancing neighborhood connectivity and aesthetics, Caltrans District 7 Director Gloria Roberts said in a statement. “This includes improving the visual quality of the communities, preventing unsafe freeway access, and reducing litter and graffiti.” Caltrans fenced off and cleaned up eight locations, including: — In Sylmar, along northbound I-5 at Hubbard Street and near the I-210 interchange; — In Arleta, along I-5 on the southbound side of Paxton Street; — In Pacoima, along the 118 Freeway from eastbound Dronfield Avenue to Foothill Boulevard; —