California
California Supreme Court Justice Edward Panelli dies at 92
Justice Edward Panelli, who rose from a hardscrabble childhood in Depression-era Santa Clara Valley to the state’s highest court, died Saturday evening in Saratoga at the age of 92.
Panelli’s illustrious legal career spans six decades, beginning as a lawyer in the 1950s, then serving as a Superior Court judge before his appointment to the California Supreme Court in 1985. After retiring, he continued to work as an arbitrator, mediator, legal scholar and educator.
Panelli’s son, Jeff, told this newspaper he would like his father to be remembered as a “hardworking and humble” man, the son of Italian immigrants.
“He was a fair, hardworking man who came from very humble roots. He always kept his immigrant roots close to his heart and kept that as the driving force in his life,” Jeff said. “English was his second language. He never forgot his community and transcended political and idiological thought with common sense. He was a common man.”
In a previous conversation, Edward Panelli talked about his understanding of the human condition and how that affected his judicial career.
“I’ve kinda seen life from the street,” Panelli told Mercury News staff writer John Hubner in a 1986 interview for West magazine. “I know when to zig and when to zag, when to duck and when not to duck. I may not be Oliver Wendell Holmes, but I know what makes people tick. I know how they hurt and why they hurt. I’ve got a much broader feel of the world than if I’d come from a cloistered or protected environment.”
Panelli brought to his career the lessons of living without much.
He was born at home in Santa Clara to Italian immigrants. Pidale Panelli wrestled 100-pound gunnysacks of prunes; Natalina Panelli toiled in the packing sheds, sometimes two shifts a day. Young Edward learned the value of his own work in a field of onions, pulling them for 40 cents an hour.
He earned a tuition scholarship to Santa Clara University in 1949 and graduated with honors. After moving on to SCU’s law school, he finished at the top of his class. His father, who was 54 when Edward was born, died 10 days after his son passed the bar exam in 1955. The new lawyer married Lorna Mondora in 1956, and they had three sons. His mother was 95 when she died in 1990.
Panelli is survived by his sons, Tom, Jeff and Mike, and three grandchildren. Panelli’s wife died in 2019.
Panelli’s mentor at the university was the Rev. Patrick Donohoe, a Jesuit political science professor. When Donohoe later became SCU president, he directed some legal work to his former student, then practicing with cousin Louis Pasquinelli. Panelli later became an SCU trustee and chairman of the board in the 1980s.
His first appointment to the bench was in 1972 by then California Governor Ronald Reagan, and he served all manner of duty in 11 years as a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge: juvenile, civil, probate, family, and criminal courts.
“When I was a juvenile judge, I used to walk out of the courtroom and go around and talk to people,” Panelli said in the 1986 interview. “People would say, ‘Gee, you don’t act like a judge.’ I’d say, ‘If I start to act like a judge, maybe somebody ought to kick me in the ass.’”
He got to use his one-on-one skills after serving on the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. He then was appointed in San Jose by former Gov. Jerry Brown as presiding judge of the new 6th District appellate branch. In a storied settlement between litigants whose demands had been stuck for 18 months at $2 million vs. zero, Panelli managed a settlement at $665,000 in two days.
His jurisprudence changed dramatically with his next appointment in 1985.
In his eight years on the state Supreme Court, the death penalty did not define Panelli’s tenure, but it certainly dominated his first year in 1986.
Panelli had joined the court late in 1985, the first of Gov. George Deukmejian’s appointments, and he had to stand for reconfirmation the following fall. On the ballot, too, were justices Rose Bird, the chief, and Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin, as well as the court’s senior liberal, Stanley Mosk, and conservative Malcolm Lucas. Bird and the liberals had overturned numerous death penalty verdicts and were the targets of Deukmejian, a coalition of conservative politicians, and special-interest groups.
Panelli chose to distance himself from the battle — so much so that he chose to run in and complete the New York Marathon in under four hours two days before the November election. But he also acknowledged in the 1986 interview with Hubner that his tough upbringing didn’t forecast his stance:
“You would think that my background would incline me to be liberal because I’ve seen some injustices and had some economic difficulties. On the other hand, I tend to be conservative because I’ve been through it and I think, ‘By golly, if I can do it, why can’t everybody?’
“I tend to be a little bit more severe on punishment. I understand the impact environment has, but you can’t use that as an excuse. Growing up, I was always told that you are responsible for the consequences of your actions. If you break the law and get caught, you’re going to pay a price. To me, that’s how the criminal justice system works.”
He survived the 1986 vote, but Bird, Reynoso, and Cruz didn’t, and the court gradually turned into a bench full of Republicans, with Mosk still serving in his late 80s (Mosk was 86 on Sept. 4, 1998).
Panelli said friends had known for years that he would probably serve only about 20 years as a judge. He could have retired with full pension benefits in March 1993 when he was 61 but said he delayed his departure until February 1994 after Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas asked him to stay on.
He was succeeded by Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, an appellate justice who had been Justice Panelli’s senior staff attorney during his first six years on the Supreme Court.
Panelli’s tenure in the California Supreme Court marked several noteworthy majority opinions. Chief among them was the ruling that surrogate-motherhood arrangements did not exploit poor women. “A surrogate’s agreement to bear another woman’s child is a valid contract,” he wrote.
There will be a memorial open to the public on Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. at Mission Santa Clara de Asis at 2 p.m.
Staff writer Ryan Macasero contributed to this story
Originally Published:
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As the nation prepares for its 250th Independence Day celebration, a decades-long California Fourth of July fireworks tradition that has raised millions for local children’s programs is going dark this year after the California Coastal Commission rejected a final effort to keep it alive, citing environmental concerns to protect the bay.
“We’ve raised over the past 14 years $2 million for kids programs here in Long Beach,” event organizer John Morris told Fox News Digital, adding the July 3 event is fully funded by the local community.
“This community pays for everything — everything. City fees, and the city doesn’t give us a break. We pay $20,000 to the city for police and fire, which I’m fine with, because there’s 100,000 people enjoying the fireworks,” said Morris, a Long Beach resident and business owner.
Morris, who owns the Boathouse on the Bay restaurant, had planned a scaled-up fireworks display this year to mark America’s 250th Independence Day.
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Long Beach residents have enjoyed the fireworks organized by John Morris for over a decade. (Scott Varley/MediaNews Group/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images)
In January, Coastal Commission staff rejected the proposal, and last week commissioners unanimously upheld that decision despite an appeal backed by local, state and federal officials.
Regulators warned Morris last year that 2025 would likely be the final year for fireworks at the event, as they continue pushing organizers to switch to drone shows they say are more environmentally friendly.
The decision stands in contrast to other approvals by the commission, including a permit granted to SeaWorld allowing up to 40 nights of fireworks.
“They get 40 nights in Mission Bay. All I’m asking for is 20 minutes — it doesn’t make any sense,” Morris said.
Morris, 78, also pushed back on the environmental concerns cited by the commission, pointing to years of testing around the event.
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Due to the lack of fireworks, Morris has decided to cancel the July 3rd celebration.
“We’ve had 10 years of environmental studies,” Morris said. “We test the water before and after the fireworks and send a robotic camera into the bay to check for debris — there’s never been any. It’s been spotless.
“We’ve also had eight years of bird reports to make sure we’re not harming wildlife. We’ve never had an issue. We’ve never been written up one time. So what is it really about?”
Joshua Smith, a spokesman for the California Coastal Commission, told Fox News Digital that permits are determined on a case-by-case basis, citing environmental concerns to “protect the bay.”
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Organizer John Morris said environmental studies are regularly conducted to measure the impact of the fireworks show on the bay. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Smith said Morris was approved for a permit to hold a drone show in lieu of fireworks. Morris told Fox News Digital such a show would cost about $200,000 — roughly four times more than traditional fireworks.
Smith confirmed that SeaWorld received a permit allowing 40 nights of fireworks. When pressed on the discrepancy, he reiterated that decisions are made individually and declined to provide further details.
Morris said the loss of the fireworks show will be felt across the community, from local businesses to families who have made the event an annual tradition.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
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