Legoland doesn’t have the same mindshare as a Disney or Universal resort, but Merlin Entertainments, the owner of those theme parks, is hoping to get onto the radar of more theme park enthusiasts with an upcoming $90 million expansion.

The Galacticoaster, scheduled to open in 2026 at both the Legoland Florida and Legoland California resorts, will be an indoor family coaster that’s themed to one of the first Lego space sets from the 1970s, when a 100-piece set was considered expansive.

This will be the first new roller coaster at Carlsbad’s Legoland California in nearly 20 years. In Winter Haven, Fla., it will be Legoland Florida’s first new coaster in 15 years.

Legoland hasn’t offered a lot of details about the coaster just yet. The building that will house it, however, will have the same footprint as 10 basketball courts. The track will be more than 1,500 feet long.

California’s Lego Galaxy expansion will also feature two additional themed rides, food and gift shop offerings, and a “Junior Astronaut Training Zone” for toddlers.

Legoland’s expansion comes as Disney is in the midst of a $60 billion capital investment between now and 2033, which includes a variety of planned updates and changes at its park, updating legacy attractions and unveiling what it called “the largest ever” expansion plans for the Magic Kingdom. The company is also adding seven ships to its cruise line fleet, including the Destiny, which will begin sailing on Nov. 20.

Universal, meanwhile, recently launched Epic Universe, a $6 billion new theme park that spans 110 acres, with hundreds more for expansion. Universal, in August, said revenue at its parks was up 19% thanks to Epic Universe.

A $90 million expansion doesn’t come close to matching those numbers, but Legoland doesn’t have to fight at the same level as those companies. Merlin Entertainment, earlier this year, said annual sales hit a record high last year, with revenues jumping 8% to £2.1 billion (about $2.8 billion) in 2024.

Beyond Legoland, Merlin owns the Madame Tussauds museums and the Orlando Wheel at Icon Park, Central Florida’s tallest ferris wheel.  

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful atmospheric river had mostly moved through California after causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state, but lingering thunderstorms brought the risk of mudslides in areas of Los Angeles County that were recently ravaged by wildfire.

Flood advisories remained in place through Sunday afternoon for LA, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, where localized showers were still possible after heavy downpours on Friday and Saturday.

“Due to the abundant rainfall the past couple of days, it will not take as much rainfall to cause additional flooding/rockslide conditions,” the National Weather Service said in a Sunday update.

Authorities on Sunday were still searching for a 5-year-old girl who was swept into the ocean by 15-foot (4.6-meter) waves at a state beach in Monterey County on Friday. The girl’s father, 39-year-old Yuji Hu, of Calgary, Alberta, was killed while trying to save his daughter, sheriff’s officials said.

In Sutter County north of Sacramento, a 71-year-old man died Friday after his vehicle was swept off a flooded bridge, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Off the coast of San Diego, a wooden boat believed to have been ferrying migrants toward the U.S. from Mexico capsized in stormy seas, leaving at least four people dead and four hospitalized, the Coast Guard said Saturday.

The long plume of tropical moisture that formed over the Pacific Ocean began drenching the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday night and then unleashed widespread rain over Southern California on Friday and Saturday. More than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara County as the storm approached Los Angeles. Parts of the Sierra Nevada received more than a foot of snow.

The weather service said scattered rain could continue through Tuesday in the southern part of the state. Another storm was expected to arrive on Thursday.

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California is pulling 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants. This comes following the discovery that the expiration dates on the licenses had passed the drivers’ legally allotted time to stay in the U.S.

The federal government says California issued them illegally, while the state says the feds are overreaching. Now, some people in the trucking industry say they’re the ones caught in the middle.

“I think the DMV of California messed it up, not those guys,” said Parmander Dayal, former trucker and the owner of the 99 truck wash and smog check near Yuba City.

Dayal says he’s already seeing licenses pulled.

“Yeah, obviously, I’m going to lose some customers. There’s a lot of guys that will probably lose their licenses in the Yuba City area, too. So it’s going to have a huge impact,” he said.

The announcement comes on the heels of two crashes involving drivers from the Northern California area.

Raman Dhillon, the CEO of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, says the blame shouldn’t fall on all the drivers.

“The cause of the problem is that your schools, your DMVs, they’re issuing licenses wrongfully. Schools are training people wrongfully. There’s a lot of factors involved. With one click, you take away licenses from all these people and disrupting the whole thing is not a wise decision,” said Dhillon.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy put out a press release this week stating in part, “The California DMV has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers.”

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office says the revocation is not due to dangerous foreign drivers, but due to inconsistency with California law. It was discovered that these license expiration dates went past the drivers’ legally allotted time to stay in the United States. 

“Once again, Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth – spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Newsom’s office said in a statement. 

“Doing it like this, not everyone is a culprit. Not everyone is a wrong person,” said Dhillon. “Some people are in the business five, 10 years and they invested in trucks, bought the houses, bought all kinds of stuff with it.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation says notices have been issued stating their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days.