WOODLAND, Calif. (AP) — Seven people have been arrested in connection with a fireworks warehouse explosion in Northern California that killed seven people and injured two others last July, authorities said Friday.

The deadly fireworks explosion near the small farming community of Esparto in Yolo County sparked a massive fire and led to nearby Fourth of July celebrations being called off.

The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office is expected to announce the indictments for those arrested at a news conference Friday. Several of those arrested have been booked on murder charges, according to jail records.

Those arrested include Samuel Machado and Tammy Machado, who owned the warehouse about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento. At the time, Samuel Machado was a lieutenant with the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office and his wife, Tammy Machado, was a non-sworn administrative employee. They were put on leave after the incident.

Kenneth Chee, owner of Devastating Pyrotechnics, whose illegal fireworks were being stored at the warehouse, was arrested in Florida. He appeared in a Florida courtroom Friday and was told he will be extradited to California within the week, KCRA-TV reported.

Authorities also arrested Jack Lee, the operations manager for Devastating Pyrotechnic, and Gary Chan Jr., whose name is on the company’s federal license, the television station reported.

Craig Cutright, the owner of Blackstar Fireworks, which operated at the Esparto property owned by the Machados, was also among those arrested. Cutright, was a volunteer firefighter for the Esparto Fire District and was also listed as an employee of Devastating Pyrotechnics, KCRA-TV reported.

One of Cutright’s employees, Ronald Botelho III, has been in custody since December. More than a dozen new charges were filed against him Thursday, jail records show.

(KTXL) — Northern California residents will have an opportunity to see the world’s largest steam locomotive when Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” makes numerous stops in the state over the next several days.

Big Boy No. 4014 is in the middle of a coast-to-coast tour that will take the train from California to Pennsylvania in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. The train began the journey last month in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the locomotive’s home base, and arrived in Portola, California on Wednesday.

After stops in Oroville, Marysville and Lincoln Thursday, Big Boy will arrive for a multi-day stay in Roseville, California.

“We’re proud to welcome the Big Boy back to Roseville, a city that owes its founding more than a century ago to the railroad,” Roseville Mayor Krista Bernasconi said in a news release. “Big Boy’s return isn’t just a nod to our past; it brings visitors from across the region to explore the shopping, dining, events and attractions that make Roseville such a vibrant place to be.”

The train will be on public display at 375 Atlantic Street in Roseville for two days: 1-5 p.m. on April 10 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 11.

While in the Golden State, the train will also make brief “whistle-stops” in several other area towns:

• Oroville, April 9, 2-2:30 p.m., 2181 High Street
• Marysville, April 9, 3:30-3:45 p.m., 7th Street Crossing
• Lincoln, April 9, 4:30-4:45 p.m., 7th Street Crossing
• Colfax, April 12, noon-12:45 p.m., Amtrak Depot, 99 Railroad Street
• Truckee, April 12, 4:45-5 p.m., 10065 Donner Pass Road

Admission is free, though Union Pacific warns that guests should always stay 25 feet back from the tracks and never climb on the locomotive.

U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, former Oregon congresswoman who now serves in President Donald Trump’s administration, will be in town to celebrate the visit. The cabinet member plans to talk with the Big Boy’s “steam team” and learn more about the locomotive, officials said.

Big Boy No. 4014 was one of 25 locomotives commissioned for Union Pacific Railroad beginning in 1941. According to the company, they were built to haul heavy equipment during World War II between Ogden, Utah and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The locomotives are 133 feet long and weigh 1.2 million pounds. They are “hinged,” which helps the huge trains navigate curves.

The Big Boys were eventually decommissioned, including the retirement of No. 4014 in December 1961 after traveling more than a million miles, according to Union Pacific.

But in 2013, the company reacquired the locomotive from a museum in Pomona, California. And in May 2019, Big Boy No. 4014 was returned to service, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Finding new ways to raise money for political campaigns is a big cottage industry, particularly in California with its 14 expensive media markets. Now a novel wrinkle is being deployed by gubernatorial candidate and San Jose mayor Matt Mahan, as the New York Times explains:

Two months ago, Silicon Valley could not have been more agog about Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat who had just entered the California governor’s race as a tech industry ally opposed to a billionaires’ tax …

Mr. Mahan quickly raised millions, including contributions from Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder. But he has struggled to gain traction among voters. Now, with the June primary fast approaching, Mr. Mahan’s supporters have concocted a rather unusual campaign-finance strategy.

The pitch: Help us raise $35 million by April 17, and you’ll get your money back if we fall short.

No, donors aren’t being promised a win or a refund. But they will get their money back if Mahan doesn’t raise enough money to become viable in the home stretch before mail ballots start being cast in early May (the end of the all-by-mail primary is June 3, the date by which those ballots must be postmarked). The conditional nature of these donations, moreover, means they will be anonymous until such time as Team Mahan hits the target and the money is transferred into an official campaign account. It provides a nice hedging device for big-money folk nervous about the fragile shape of the ten-candidate field that is vying for two general-election slots. And the cup-rattling is off to a pretty good start, says the Times:

The campaign is organized by David Crane, an influential California political fixer whose advocacy group, Govern for California, is popular among tech executives. Mr. Crane has told people in recent days that the group’s “escrow” account has $13.5 million so far with $5 million more in the pipeline, according to communications The Times reviewed. Donors pitching it include Michael Moritz, a billionaire venture capitalist and one of Mr. Mahan’s biggest supporters, and Blake Byers, a tech executive and investor.

Mahan’s money hustlers are his campaign’s strength and also one of his weaknesses. California progressives are intensely suspicious of the Silicon Valley bros who have been moving rapidly to the right in the last few years. Some have joined hands with Donald Trump and others have gravitated to “Abundance” Democrats, like Mahan, who have little tolerance for his party’s interest-and-constituency-group “base” and its policy preferences. If Mahan’s campaign did take off, it might stimulate a consolidation of support behind one of the more progressive candidates (probably Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, or Tom Steyer). That’s particularly true now that Trump’s endorsement of Republican Steve Hilton has likely limited the number of Democratic participants in the general election to one.

For the moment, any Mahan surge is hypothetical. His late entry into the race at the end of January means he wasn’t even being included in early polls. The one public poll where he does appear, a March 15 survey from Berkeley IGS, showed him tied for seventh place at 4 percent. Yes, he needs money to catch up, but he also needs a compelling message that goes beyond “lefties hate me!” Said lefties would undoubtedly shrug and support Mahan if he is in a general election with Hilton. But they have plenty of other options — at least one of whom, Steyer, has more money to burn than Mahan can ever raise — before it comes to that.