Connect with us

California

California spent $3.7 billion reducing wildfire fuel. Bill would make insurers factor that into coverage

Published

on

California spent .7 billion reducing wildfire fuel. Bill would make insurers factor that into coverage


Insurers in California have sounded the alarm: A warming climate has dramatically raised the risk of devastating wildfires, and with it the cost of providing coverage. But now a Peninsula lawmaker says those insurance companies should credit the state and homeowners for the work done to reduce our vulnerability to wildfires.

State Sen. Josh Becker, a Menlo Park Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require insurers to consider the state’s efforts to thin flammable brush and trees as well as property owners’ steps to make their homes more fire resistant, such as covering vents and clearing vegetation. Those efforts would need to be incorporated into their risk modeling to determine coverage decisions and costs.

“What we’re seeing is that in addition to the impact of home hardening, that forest treatment is going to have a big impact on wildfire risk, and that’s not being taken into account,” Becker said. “You have to take these into consideration.”

Becker’s bill, SB 1060, comes as state officials scramble to prop up a home insurance market on the brink of collapse, with major insurers restricting coverage and refusing to renew policies in many parts of the state. The bill is scheduled for its first hearing before the Insurance Committee on April 24.

Advertisement

The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, which represents insurers, said that while it supports wildfire mitigation efforts such as home and community hardening, the bill “has several complicating factors to consider.”

“The California Department of Insurance already requires insurers that use risk models to take into consideration specific mitigations and provide consumers discounts,” the industry association said. “The department is also in the process of developing regulations to authorize new types of catastrophe models that factor in the risk of wildfires and mitigation efforts taken by individuals and communities. We believe the department should be allowed time to adopt these regulations.”

Becker said the proposed law wouldn’t mandate any particular discount or result, only for insurers to account for wildfire risk reduction efforts.

“The bill just requires them to do the work to collect the data,” Becker said. “If the models show these activities aren’t helpful, then we shouldn’t be spending billions of dollars on this, we should be spending it on other things.”

California suffered 14 of its 20 most destructive wildfires on record in the last 10 years, a period that included a record drought. Insured losses from those blazes totaled more than $45 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Advertisement

Insurers say that as wildfire risks have risen with global temperatures, California’s regulations on what they can charge consumers haven’t allowed policy premiums to keep up, forcing them to reduce their exposure by discontinuing coverage in riskier areas.

The state’s elected insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, has promised to overhaul regulations by the end of the year to address the industry’s top complaints. That would speed approval of rate increases, let insurers base them on catastrophe models, and pass on their costs for reinsurance, which helps them absorb catastrophic losses. Lara in exchange wants insurers to commit to covering more homes in areas at greater risk of wildfire.

Consumer advocates have argued the changes would just end up costing homeowners more without guaranteeing more coverage, pointing to other disaster stricken states like Florida.

Some California homeowners have been stung with massive increases in premiums — if not stripped of coverage altogether and forced onto the state’s last-resort FAIR Plan. That plan is a private high-risk pool that provides minimal coverage at multiple times the cost of regular policies. Many homeowners in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the North Bay and East Bay foothills have had to switch to that plan after their traditional coverage was dropped.

“This is top of mind for so many of my constituents,” Becker said. “This is affecting thousands and thousands of households.”

Advertisement

Becker said that it’s gotten so bad that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection can’t even get insurance for at least two and as many as 11 of its fire stations.

Becker said higher temperatures weren’t the only factor that fueled the state’s destructive wildfires. Vegetation management policies over the years allowed fuels to pile up in and around forests that before modern fire suppression would have burned more regularly. Those accumulated fuels, left bone-dry by the drought, drove explosive wildfires.

But California since 2017 has spent $3.7 billion on wildland fuel reduction, thinning and vegetation management, Becker said.

He points to a 2021 analysis by the Nature Conservancy and Willis Towers Watson, the world’s third-largest insurance broker, which found that applying ecological forestry practices — prescribed burns and thinning to remove smaller trees and other vegetation in overgrown forests — could lower insurance premiums 41% on average for homes. That research was based on an ecological forest restoration project in the watershed of the Placer County Water Agency in the Tahoe National Forest.

State officials in recent years also have been promoting techniques in which homeowners can reduce their property’s wildfire vulnerability by removing vegetation, wood and other combustibles near the home and cover vents with screens to keep hot embers out. Lara has told insurers they must credit homeowners on their policies for those measures, though many say they have yet to receive such benefits.

Advertisement

But Becker said that as these home-hardening measures get adopted across communities, it reduces overall fire risk, and that also should be reflected in the modeling insurers use in their underwriting decisions.

“We need to see a number of homes in a community (do the work) to have an impact on that model,” Becker acknowledged. “But it helps. Whether it’s cities or individuals, the people doing the work should get the reward.”



Source link

California

Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years

Published

on

Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years


While we may lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend, one clock store in California is gearing up for one of its busiest times of the year: daylight savings.

It’s the House of Clocks, the largest clock company in Northern California, which was recently celebrating 55 years of business.

It’s a place frozen in time. Just visit the store’s 240-year-old grandfather clock. It’s got plenty of stories to tell, dating back to 1780.

“This is the oldest piece we have right now,” clocksmith Joey Hohn said.

Advertisement

The House of Clocks is on the outskirts of Downtown Lodi in San Joaquin County.

“We have new, we have vintage, we have antique,” co-owner Sandy Hohn shared. “Honestly, it feels like not a day goes by that we don’t get a phone call or an email of somebody wanting to sell something for 100 different reasons.”

The clock store has been with the Hohn family for three generations. It’s all thanks to one family heirloom.

“When the first war started, [my grandparents] left everything and had to move,” Joey Hohn explained. “After the Second World War, my grandpa was stationed in Germany. They went back to the house that had been abandoned and the neighbor who they left the property to said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, everything in the house is still yours.’ They went back and got this, so this is my great-great-grandparents’ clock.”

You can find just about anything in the House of Clocks, from old grandfather clocks to clocks that can fit in the palm of your hand.

Advertisement

What you can’t find anywhere else is the Hohns’ love for Lodi.

“We’ve made so many friends over the years out of customers,” Sandy Hohn said. “Friends that are just wonderful, that love collecting, and we keep them repaired for their families, which is awesome. They have sentimental value that’s passed down.”

That same love for the city and their community runs in the family.

“We had a customer that wanted to repaint their dial,” Joey Hohn explained. “We told them no because it was her father’s who had passed away. Every time he went to wind the clock, he placed his thumb in the same spot. When we told her that smudge there on the dial was her father, she said, ‘Back away, don’t you dare.’ It was just a good memory we have.”

While you can’t turn back time, what we can do is keep memories alive and treasure the present moment.

Advertisement

“There’s so many personalities,” Sandy Hohn said. “We just try to find a good home for them.”



Source link

Continue Reading

California

Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter

Published

on

Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter


It’s beginning to look a lot like spring!

The warm and wet weather this winter has led to the start of a dazzling super bloom at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

“We had an unseasonably warm winter as well, so there’s actually a lot of growth,” said Callista Turney with California State Parks. “We’re having early wildflowers that are already at the park. So if you look at the poppy live cam, it shows a lot of orange already.”

The rain has helped the early blooms, but it’s actually the heat that accelerated the growth of the flowers.

Advertisement

“It will actually speed up the growth of the plants, so some of them were already blooming and that’s going to cause those blossoms to accelerate faster towards seed production. And the blossoms that are in the process of being formed, those are going to open up soon as well.”

We also sometimes see great super blooms in Death Valley National Park, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree and the Mojave National Preserve.

“It’s definitely a rare occurrence because we don’t always have the right conditions. It’s gotta be the weather, the wind, the rain, all coming together,” said Katie Tilford, Director of Development and Communications with the Theodore Payne Foundation.

If it continues to stay unseasonably warm, we’ll see a shorter bloom. The key to a longer season is milder weather.


Copyright © 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

California

Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’

Published

on

Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’


We are counting down to the California governor’s race. Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, is one of the two biggest names running on the Republican ticket.

In a one-on-one interview with Eyewitness News political reporter Josh Haskell, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said, “I am the antithesis to California state government because I am going to take a nuclear bomb into that building and absolutely destroy everything that they do to us behind closed doors.”

Although he’s been elected by the voters twice, Bianco says he’s not a politician — which is why he believes his campaign for California governor is resonating, as reflected in the polls.

“President Trump, in one year, from 2025 when he took over, until now, did absolutely nothing to harm California. What’s harming California is 30 years of Democrat one-party rule that have created an environment here that no one can live in anymore. They’ve only been successful here in California because we vote D no matter what. You vote D or die. I mean, that’s it. Charles Manson would be elected in California if he was the only Democrat on the ballot,” Bianco said.

Advertisement

Bianco isn’t the only conservative Republican running for governor, and according to polling, he’s neck-and-neck with former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

SEE ALSO: CA governor candidate Steve Hilton says ‘everybody supports’ Trump’s immigration policies

Leading in some polls in the wide-open California Governor’s race as the June primary creeps closer is Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

“Steve has no chance of winning in November. The Democrats know that I’m going to win in November, and so they have to do everything they can to keep me out of that,” Bianco said.

When asked about the affordability crisis in the state, Bianco said, “Almost the entire issue of affordability in California is because of regulation, excessive regulation imposed by government. Every single regulation can be signed away with the governor’s signature.”

Advertisement

“It is a drug and alcohol addiction problem that, and a mental health problem,” he said about the homelessness crisis. “Every single bit of money that is going to these nonprofits that say ‘homeless,’ zero money. You’re getting absolutely nothing. I can’t tell you that we would end what we see in the homeless situation within a year, but I guarantee you we would never see it again after two years.”

When challenged on that prediction, pointing to how the state doesn’t have the facilities to treat the number of people living on our streets, Bianco responded, “We have been conditioned to believe that buildings take five years to build. It takes 90 days or less to build a house, but in California, it takes three to five years because the government won’t allow it. The regulations that are destroying this state are going to be removed with me as the governor.”

Bianco also said California jails shouldn’t have to play the role of treatment facilities.

Although he says he supports the Trump administration and wants the president’s endorsement, Bianco has been traveling the state — meeting not just with Republicans, but Democrats and independents as well. He says all of our state government officials have failed.

The primary election is June 2.

Advertisement

No clear front-runner in race for California governor, new poll shows

A new poll shows there’s still no clear front-runner in the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Copyright © 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending