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Walters: California consumer price regulation often protects companies

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

In the 19th century, California began experimenting with regulating the prices of vital services and commodities. Nearly 150 years later, Californians still don’t know if it’s working as we debate whether to expand the practice.Years of bitter conflict between Central Valley farmers and the monopolistic Southern Pacific Railroad over freight rates led to creation of a railroad commissioner’s office in 1878. It later became a commission and in 1945 morphed into the California Public Utilities Commission with broad authority to set rates for transportation services, electric power, natural gas and water supplied by privately owned utilities.The CPUC, whose members are appointed by the governor, has become a vast bureaucracy that oversees tens of billions of dollars in service charges affecting the budgets of virtually every California household and businesses large and small.The immensely complicated applications that utilities file for rate changes involve not only what customers mus...

Disney has ‘enough room to build another Disneyland’ in Anaheim, theme park chairman D’Amaro says

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

Disney touted plans to expand its theme park business to the tune of $60 billion over the next decade and boasted of plenty of space to play with in Anaheim where there is “enough room to build another Disneyland.”Disney CEO Bob Iger was joined by Disney theme park chairman Josh D’Amaro on Tuesday, Nov. 28 during an employee town hall in New York City at the Amsterdam Theater, the Broadway home to “The Lion King.”Related ArticlesBusiness | Who really makes the decisions at Disneyland? Business | Disneyland files construction permits for $8 million food hall Business | Naked man arrested at Disneyland wandering around It’s a Small World Business | Disneyland lamppost falls and injures visitors during high winds Business | Man jumps to his death at Disneyland parking garage; Third incident in less than a year “We’ve got so much space to play with,” D’Amaro said at the town hall, according to the Hollywood ...

Study: Salton Sea has enough lithium to make more than 375 million EV batteries

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

The mineral-rich stew bubbling thousands of feet beneath the shores of Southern California’s Salton Sea contains one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, with enough of the valuable metal to make batteries for more than 375 million electric vehicles, according to a long-awaited analysis published Tuesday.“It’s pretty exciting how much is there,” said Michael McKibben, a geology research professor from UC Riverside who worked on the 371-page report commissioned by the Department of Energy.Since there are fewer than 300 million vehicles on the road in the United States today, the study suggests there’s ample lithium in this remote desert outpost to help replace every gas-guzzler in the country with an emission-free EV. That should allow us to eventually halt problematic lithium imports from South America and China, which McKibben said would boost U.S. energy security as we push toward President Biden’s goal of making 50% of vehicles electric by 2030.That could also leave enou...

California mother charged with murder, accused of drowning 9-year-old disabled daughter

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

A 32-year-old mother was charged with murder Tuesday, Nov. 28, after prosecutors accused her of drowning her 9-year-old daughter, who was disabled, in a bathtub at their Westminster home and leaving the girl there for several days before her body was discovered by police, authorities said.Khadiyjah Aliyyah Pendergraph, of Westminster, made her first court appearance Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, according to court records. She was scheduled to return Dec. 15, where she may enter a plea to the charge.Pendergraph was arrested Friday in a grocery store parking lot in Aliso Viejo, hours after police found her daughter’s body decomposing in the bathtub at their home in the 14100 block of Goldenwest Street, said Kimberly Edds, Orange County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman.Pendergraph claimed to have attempted suicide on more than one occasion after her daughter’s death.Her daughter, identified by prosecutors as Victoria, was confined to a wheelchair and could not speak, Edds s...

Doctor strangled wife, California prosecutor says, making it appear she fatally fell down stairs

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

A fertility doctor strangled his wife and then staged her body to make it look like she had a fatal fall down the stairs in their San Clemente home, a prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at the outset of the doctor’s murder trial.Dr. Eric Scott Sills, now 58, has denied that the 2016 death of  Susann Sills, 45, was the result of foul play. His defense attorney argued during opening statements in a Santa Ana courtroom that the death was a tragic accident and accused investigators of wrongly focusing on Dr. Sills.The couple was married for more than 10 years and worked together at the Center for Advanced Genetics, a fertility clinic in Carlsbad. He handled the medical work while she ran the business side. The Sills had twins, a boy and girl who were 12 years old at the time of their mother’s death.Eric Scott Sills listens during opening statements in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana on Tuesday. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Senior Deputy Distri...

How one city hacked California housing law to build ADU ‘apartment buildings’

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

In the minds of most Californians, accessory dwelling units — ADUs, short — bring to mind words like “small,” “subtle” and “cute.”None of which describe the side-by-side ADU duplexes on E Street.Perched at the edge of San Diego’s desirable Golden Hill neighborhood, there’s nothing dainty or diminutive about these three-story structures. “Backyard cottage” is another term used to describe accessory dwelling units, but these are out front, practically hiding the five-unit multiplex to which they are technically “accessory.”Like dozens of small and not-so-small apartment buildings across San Diego, the structures on E Street are ADUs in only one way: They were permitted under the city’s ADU Bonus Program.The city’s one-of-a-kind ordinance offers landlords a one-for-one deal. If they agree to construct an ADU and keep the rent low enough for San Diegans making under a certain income, they’re automatically permitted to build a second “bonus” unit, which they can rent at whatever price th...

Tracking map: Where it’s raining in the Bay Area

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

Light rain arrived in the Bay Area on Tuesday night and is expected to continue, on and off, Wednesday morning.Related ArticlesWeather | Bay Area rain showers could last into Wednesday morning Weather | UC Santa Cruz researchers build AI to prevent drownings Weather | Post-Thanksgiving weekend could see dropping temperatures, harsh waves on the Bay Area coast Weather | Brisk, clear week in store for Bay Area, most of Lake Tahoe as Thanksgiving travel season begins Weather | National Weather Service issues wind advisory for the Bay Area There is a small possibility of more showers into the weekend. In the Sierra Nevada, the greatest chance of snow and rain showers is Wednesday and Thursday.The updating real-time radar map above shows areas of precipitation in green, with greater intensities indicated by yellow and orange.Updates on Sierra road closures and chain controls can be found on CalTrans’ we...

California man gets 1-year probation for flying drone near gyrocopter, blimp, Coast guard copter

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

A Laguna Beach man who flew a drone too close to a gyrocopter, a blimp advertising “Shark Week,” and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter received one year of probation in federal court in Santa Ana on Tuesday, Nov. 28.Alexander Milinovic, 62, was handed the sentence after he agreed to plead guilty to three counts of unsafely operating an unmanned aircraft, all misdemeanors, in July.U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter also ordered Milinovic to pay a fine of $7,500 and to perform 120 of community service, said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.The incidents with the gyrocopter and the blimp both occurred last year, according to the plea agreement. Milinovic was only charged this past May. That was after he flew his drone near the Coast Guard helicopter in March.The plea agreement described what happened in each incident: On June 19, 2022, a father and son took off in their gyrocopter from Chino Airport for a Father’s Day flight over the Pacific Ocean. T...

California police officer under investigation after use of force caught on video

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

A San Bernardino police officer was placed on a modified assignment after a video showed the officer kneeing and punching a suspect, police said in a statement Tuesday.The use of force occurred Monday on 50th Street and Electric Street after officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle without license plates. The suspect proceeded to flee in the vehicle at reportedly “dangerous speeds” before losing control of the car and crashing into a telephone pole, the San Bernardino Police Department said in the statement.A video posted on X shows two officers holding the man down as one officer yells “give me your hands” repeatedly while the other officer punches and knees the suspect in the head multiple times. The man can be heard yelling out in pain as a third officer arrives and the officer who didn’t use force manages to put the man in handcuffs. Police confirmed the video posted on social media was the one referenced in the statement.Here's the San Bernardino police pro...

Ingles: Fiscal Q4 Earnings Snapshot

Published Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:00 GMT

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Ingles Markets Inc. (IMKTA) on Wednesday reported net income of $52.6 million in its fiscal fourth quarter.On a per-share basis, the Asheville, North Carolina-based company said it had profit of $2.77.The grocer posted revenue of $1.58 billion in the period.For the year, the company reported profit of $210.8 million, or $11.10 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.89 billion._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on IMKTA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/IMKTASource