California
Bird flu spreads to California’s dairy cows
A form of avian influenza that is highly fatal in birds has been confirmed in California dairy cattle, the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture announced on Friday afternoon.
No human cases have been confirmed and the virus, an influenza subtype known as H5N1, is not considered a significant public health threat, according to state health officials. At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk or food supply, they said.
But doctors are monitoring the farm workers who may be exposed to infected animals to ensure quick isolation and care, should they sicken, said the California Department of Public Health. Officials said they would provide official confirmation of any human cases associated with this outbreak.
It is the first time that cows infected with the virus have been identified in the state. California is the 14th state in the nation to report H5N1 infection in dairy cows.
The animals, located in the Central Valley, showed signs of illness on Sunday, reported CDFA. Test results were confirmed on Friday by the nation’s veterinary testing lab. The herds have been quarantined.
“We have been preparing for this possibility since earlier this year when … detections were confirmed at dairy farms in other states,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “Our extensive experience in poultry has given us ample preparation and expertise to address this incident, with workers’ health and public health as our top priorities.”
Other states have reported four human cases in dairy workers since April 2024: one each in Texas and Colorado, and two in Michigan. All four of those people recovered and there have been no reports of further spread among the people around them.
Until recently, California’s dairy farms seemed to have been spared from the crisis. The state’s 1.7 million dairy cows supply about 20% of the nation’s milk.
“This is a tough time for our dairy farmers given the economic challenges they’re facing in a dynamic market,” said Ross, “so I want to assure them that we are approaching this incident with the utmost urgency.”
Experts say it is crucial to gain more information about how the people were infected, and whether the virus has evolved to infect people more readily.
There is no state or federal requirement to routinely sample cows or milk. Clinical signs of flu occur in only a fraction of cases, so some experts fear that the virus may be hiding in untested animals.
State health officials recommend that personal protective equipment, or PPE — masks, gloves, caps, face shields, and safety goggles — be worn by farm workers and emergency responders when working with animals or potentially infected materials.
“I’ve been worried about this for months,” Krutika Kuppalli, medical officer for COVID-19 Health Operations at the World Health Organization, said in a social media post. “This is why we need enhanced surveillance and transparency of testing protocols.”
Over the past three years, the deadly and highly contagious virus has circled the globe, taking a staggering toll on birds in more than 80 nations.
After emerging in 2020, the virus triggered major outbreaks in Europe, Africa and Asia. It arrived in the U.S. in January 2022 and stormed through the nation’s largest concentrations of poultry farms in the East and Midwest, pushing up egg prices.
The virus has become so widespread in wild birds that it has repeatedly spread to mammals, especially species, such as foxes, that feed on infected birds.
Signs of H5N1 bird flu virus have been detected in wastewater sites in San Francisco, Palo Alto and the West County Wastewater facility in Richmond, among other sites.
But it is thought to have originated from wild bird waste in the sewer system that collects and treats both wastewater and stormwater.
The virus has already been found in wild birds and domestic poultry in the state. Last winter, it barreled through Sonoma County’s historic poultry region, forcing the slaughter of 1.1 million birds.
The source of the new cattle infections is not known. The federal government requires that lactating dairy cattle must be tested for the virus before they can be moved across state lines.
“The main reservoir of the virus are waterfowl — the ducks and geese that like the really rich habitat that California supplies,” said veterinarian Maurice Pitesky of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Pitesky studies the spread of avian diseases.
For the most up-to-date information regarding avian influenza in livestock in California, go to the Department of Food and Agriculture’s website at www.cdfa.ca.gov/AHFSS.
Originally Published:
California
Man charged with murder, kidnapping their 5-year-old child before fleeing to Mexico
A 40-year-old Los Angeles man was charged with murder after allegedly killing his girlfriend and kidnapping their young child before fleeing to Mexico, according to authorities.
Ruben Fregosojuarez has been charged one count of murder and one misdemeanor count of child abuse under circumstance or conditions other than great bodily injury or death, according to a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office news release. Authorities first identified him as Ruben Fregoso but Los Angeles County prosecutors listed him as Ruben Fregosojuarez.
On Monday around 12:39 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a welfare check in the 2600 block of South Alsace Avenue in West Adams, police said in a news release.
Officers found a woman dead inside the home “as a result of violence” and the woman’s daughter missing, police said. On Monday night, the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for the child, Daleza.
Photos obtained by NBC4 appear to show Fregosojuarez in a parking garage in San Ysidro with the girl on Sunday. The California Highway Patrol has listed her age as 4 years old but Los Angeles police say the girl is 5. She is also described as the suspect’s daughter.
The alert said that the girl was last seen with Fregosojuarez, who allegedly abducted her in a 2019 Land Rover Discovery, on Sunday at about 4 a.m.
The CHP posted in an update that the vehicle was found but that the child and man were still missing. The girl is described as 3 feet tall, 45 pounds, and having black hair and brown eyes.
California
23andMe Sued by California Over Massive 2023 Data Breach
California’s attorney general is suing the consumer genetics testing company formerly known as 23andMe, alleging the company failed to protect customers’ sensitive personal information in a massive 2023 data breach that exposed the ancestry and genetic data of nearly 7 million people.
Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit on Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court against Chrome Holding Co., formerly known as 23andMe, accusing the company of failing to properly investigate or respond to numerous warnings that its systems had been compromised. The company’s mail-in self-testing kits became synonymous with DNA testing before it filed for bankruptcy in 2025.
In 2023, cybercriminals breached 23andMe’s systems by using a “credential-stuffing attack,” which involves bombarding online accounts with huge sets of user names and passwords stolen in previous unrelated attacks. Over a period of months, the intruders were able to make off with the personal data of more than 6.9 million people.
“23andMe’s security measures were so lax that the threat actor was able to operate undetected within 23andMe’s systems for over five months, and remarkably, 23andMe only began investigating after the threat actor offered the stolen user data for sale on the dark web and reached out to 23andMe to demand a ransom,” Bonta’s office said in the complaint.
The San Francisco-based company, which allowed people to submit genetic materials and get a snapshot of their ancestry, revealed in October 2023 that hackers had accessed customer information in the prolonged data breach that targeted customers with Chinese or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The stolen data of more than 1 million Asian-Pacific Islander and Ashkenazi Jewish users was later posted for sale on the dark web.
“The sale of this data on the dark web took place amidst a period of mounting anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander and antisemitic hate and violence,” Bonta said in a press release. “This is disturbing and incredibly dangerous.”
A January 2024 lawsuit accused the company of not doing enough to protect its customers and not notifying certain customers that their data had been targeted specifically. It later settled the lawsuit for $30 million.
23andMe representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
At its peak, 23andMe became the best-known name in the emerging area of DNA self-testing, with users paying upwards of $99 for kits that gave them insights into their genetic makeup, potential relatives and ancestry. But the company’s momentum slowed down in recent years after its $3.5 billion public offering in 2021.
Last July, TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit led by Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s cofounder and former CEO, acquired 23andMe’s assets for $305 million.
California
Newsom signs law to shield California elections from federal interference
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, signed legislation Wednesday that aims to shield California elections from federal interference, saying he expected Donald Trump’s administration to try to meddle in the midterms this year.
The law, which took effect immediately and came days before next Tuesday’s primary, prohibits any person – including federal agents – from accessing voter rolls or election technology without a court order. Law enforcement officers are restricted from disrupting election workers, except in public safety emergencies.
Trump administration officials so far have said they have no plans to send immigration agents to polling locations across the US, a concern raised this year by several Democratic secretaries of state. But Newsom warned “we have to be prepared for everything” because “there’s no rules any more with the Trump administration”.
Voting is already under way in California’s closely watched primary for governor, where a crowded field of Democrats and two viable Republicans are vying for just two spots on the November ballot. Under the state’s open primary system, only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.
Newsom, who cannot seek a third term, said the election law is a response to “legitimate anxiety” about Trump’s tactics, primarily in Democratic-led states, where the president has deployed federal agents over the objections of local leaders. The Democratic governor warned against underestimating someone who “doesn’t believe in free and fair elections”.
“I expect the worst with Trump because he’s done the worst,” he said at a news conference.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Associated Press later Wednesday that Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections.
“Instead of levying false attacks at the President, Newscum should look in the mirror,” she said in a statement, using Trump’s derogatory nickname for Newsom.
In an interview last year with Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, knocked down the idea that Trump would deploy the military to suppress voting, saying it was “categorically false”.
The California law also makes it a crime to knowingly take voted ballots out of the custody of election officials.
Earlier this year, the FBI under Trump seized the 2020 general election ballots from Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and has long been at the center of the president’s false claims that fraud cost him the race. The FBI and justice department also have sought records from previous elections in the largest counties in Arizona and Michigan.
Trump triggered a national redistricting frenzy ahead of the midterms when he urged Republicans in Texas and elsewhere to redraw their US House districts to help the party retain control of the closely divided chamber. Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee also have enacted new maps that could benefit Republicans, and Louisiana is expected to be next.
Republicans so far think they could gain as many as 14 seats from redistricting in November, while Democrats think they could gain six in California and Utah.
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