California
How are people supposed to rebuild Paradise, California, when nobody can afford home insurance?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Heidi Lange was among the first to rebuild after the deadliest wildfire in California history destroyed her home in 2018 along with much of the town of Paradise.
After the fire, she got divorced, which left her with only half the money paid out by insurance — but she budgeted, planned ahead and even paid extra for stucco siding and a metal roof to make her new house more resistant to fire. She thought the hard part was over. So the office manager was stunned to learn nearly four years living in the same home, this month the annual premium on her home insurance would rise dramatically — from $1,200 to $9,750.
“To see we’ve come so far, only to have the legs kicked out from under us,” she said. “This is so crazy to me. How is this the biggest thing we’re dealing with?”
The soaring cost of home insurance has consumed the town of Paradise, residents and officials say, as it prepares to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Nov. 8, 2018, Camp Fire. Residents have received annual premiums that near or exceed $10,000 — leaving many to wonder how they’re supposed to rebuild their hard-hit community when insurance is so shockingly high for houses in an area that is supposed to be among the most affordable in California.
The wildfire that ripped through Paradise and surrounding areas, killing 85, sounded an alarm to national home insurers about the costs of wildfires fueled by climate change. Seven of the 12 top home-insurers in California — including Farmers Insurance, State Farm, Allstate — have paused or restricted new business in California, saying they can’t afford to take on new clients.
California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is trying to step in to reform the system and to make the private market more robust, but the bulk of the changes won’t take effect for at least another year.
Neither the state Insurance Department nor a major industry lobbying group could explain the sharp price increases five years after the fire, when so many steps have been taken to protect the community against future wildfires, including initiatives to bury power lines, and clear brush and trees away from buildings. The state did not have data on the average premium increase for the town.
Michael Soller, spokesperson for the Insurance Department, said premiums depend on a number of factors, including the cost of rebuilding, increased coverage or decreased deductibles as well as rate increases approved by the state. He said private insurers should be able to offer discounts for community fire-hardening efforts sometime early next year, but the risk of wildfire still exists in Paradise.
Farmers Insurance was cited by several residents as the company that raised their premiums, but residents also said they couldn’t find other insurers offering more affordable policies. Farmers declined an interview request.
“Homeowners insurance rates are determined using a number of different variables, including historical loss data, loss trends, age and construction-type of structures, etc. These and other factors, combined with inflation adjustments, are reflected in customer rates,” the company said in a statement.
Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, said insurers lost more than two decades’ worth of profits from the wildfires of 2017 and 2018, and people may have to pay more to live in wildland areas.
Carl Johnsen, a retired drywall contractor, has lived in the same house since 1979, when he moved to Paradise. It survived the 2018 fire but his previous insurer dropped him, and he received a new quote of over $14,000 that he’s not inclined to pay, he said.
Johnsen doesn’t feel good about going without fire and liability coverage, but feels he has little choice.
“I guess I’d rather do that and have a place to live, unless it burns down,” he said of forgoing insurance. “I gotta have money to buy food … and pay taxes.”
Gene Robinson, 61, and his wife purchased a new home in Paradise with the insurance proceeds from the house that burned in the Camp Fire. This year, the insurance premium offered by Farmers on their four-bedroom, three-bath home soared from $2,800 to $9,550.
The couple opted for basic fire coverage through California’s insurer of last resort, which is quickly becoming the only option left for people in Paradise. The Robinsons are paying $4,500 through the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, and $750 with another insurer for supplemental liability coverage.
“It’s a beautiful home, but it really makes you think about staying in the state,” said Robinson, a retiree.
The FAIR Plan is averaging 1,000 new applications a weekday from homeowners unable to find affordable home insurance in the private market. As of September, it had written more than 330,000 policies — up from nearly 273,000 plans last year and 127,000 in 2018.
Lara, the insurance commissioner, wants to allow insurance companies to consider climate change when setting their rates, but only if they write more policies for households that live in areas threatened by wildfire.
The state is also moving to allow insurers to make discounts available for homeowners who take certain measures, such as installing roofs that are fire-resistant rated and upgrading to multi-paned windows, said Soller, the department spokesperson.
He said home insurance premiums in California increased about 35% on average between 2017 and 2022, driven by historic wildfire losses, but are still lower than other large states with major climate risks, including Louisiana, Texas and Florida.
Kathy Ehrhart, a litigator in Chicago who focuses on the insurance industry, applauds California’s efforts to persuade insurance companies to stay in the state, because that should eventually promote competition and stability.
“Unfortunately for the homeowner today paying their bill,” she says, “that takes some time.”
Lange, a lifelong resident of the area, is frustrated that elected officials and insurance companies can’t figure out a fix. She may have to go through the state to insure her home, although that will still cost $7,300.
She considered leaving Paradise after the fire.
“But this is where my friends and my family and my church and my work — it’s where my village is,” she said, breaking down in tears. “And I just wasn’t going to let that be taken away.”
California
2 dead, 3 injured in shooting in Louisville’s California neighborhood
USA epidemic of gun violence and mass killings
Find out about the growing problem of gun violence and mass killings in the USA and learn how the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) categorizes different types of gun violence.
Two men are dead and three others injured in a mass shooting in the California neighborhood Saturday night, Louisville Metro Police said.
Second Division officers initially found four men with gunshot wounds in the 2200 block of Garland Avenue when they arrived at 7:30 p.m., LMPD spokesperson John Bradley said in a statement.
Two men were pronounced dead at the scene, while the other two were taken to the University of Louisville Hospital for treatment. As of Sunday, one man was in “critical but stable condition,” while the other was in stable condition, Bradley said.
A fifth man was later found in the area, Bradley said Sunday. He was also taken to UofL Hospital, but his condition was unknown.
Police had not located a suspect Saturday night. LMPD’s homicide unit is investigating, Bradley said. Anyone with information about the shooting could call LMPD’s anonymous tip line at 502-574-5673.
The two men who died have not yet been identified.
Reach reporter Leo Bertucci at lbertucci@gannett.com or @leober2chee on X, formerly known as Twitter
This story has been updated to add video.
California
California man beheaded his 1-year-old son with a knife, authorities say
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A man has been arrested on suspicion of beheading his 1-year-old son, Northern California authorities said.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Friday that deputies responding to an early morning family disturbance call found a woman outside a home who told deputies that her husband Andrey Demskiy, 28, assaulted her and her mother.
Deputies forced their way into the house in northern Sacramento County when they learned Demskiy was inside with the boy. As they took him into custody, they found a “severed child’s head” in the bedroom where Demskiy was detained.
Detectives said Demskiy used a knife to behead his son after his wife and mother-in-law left the house, according to the statement. He was in custody and ineligible for bail, and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
The sheriff’s department and the county public defenders office did not respond to emails seeking information on whether Demskiy had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
California
Protests Swept California Campuses Last Year. Schools Are Now Blocking Them | KQED
At UC Santa Cruz, police arrested one student who was using a megaphone during a demonstration on Oct. 7, according to an eyewitness who spoke to LookOut Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office public arrest reports show one person was arrested on the Santa Cruz campus for obstruction of a public officer and battery without injury that day.
While no arrests were made, Pomona College has suspended 12 students for the remainder of the 2024–25 academic year following an Oct. 7 demonstration in which they entered, damaged and vandalized a restricted building, according to the student newspaper. The college also banned dozens of students from the four other campuses of the Claremont Colleges, a consortium that includes Pomona.
Private colleges have implemented their own policy changes. Pomona College now requires students and faculty to swipe their ID cards to enter academic buildings. Since last semester, students and visitors entering USC are also required to show a school or photo ID.
Some students are still facing charges from last year’s protests
Few charges have been filed after UCLA’s encampment made headlines in April when counterprotesters led an attack on encampment protesters while law enforcement did not intervene for several hours. The following day, 254 people were arrested on charges related to the protest encampment. In October, two additional people were also arrested for participating in the counter-protester violence.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office is pursuing three felony cases against individuals arrested at UCLA in relation to violence during last spring’s protests.
Meanwhile, the city attorney’s office is reviewing 93 misdemeanor cases from USC and 210 from UCLA, according to information it provided to CalMatters last month.
Lilyan Zwirzina, a junior at Cal Poly Humboldt, was among the students arrested in the early morning of April 30 following protesters occupying a campus building and ignoring orders to disperse from the university. Law enforcement took her to Humboldt County Correctional Facility, where she faced four misdemeanor charges, including resisting arrest. Zwirzina thought she’d have to cancel her study abroad semester, which conflicted with the court date she was given.
“I was pretty frustrated and kind of freaked out,” Zwirzina said. Authorities dropped the charges against her in July.
The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office didn’t pursue charges against 27 of the 39 people arrested, citing insufficient evidence. The 12 remaining cases were referred to the Cal Poly Humboldt Police Department for investigation. Those cases remain under investigation, according to the university.
For 13 people, including students, arrested at Stanford University in June, the Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has not pressed charges as of Nov. 20, according to information his office provided CalMatters.
Elsewhere across the state, some district attorneys are pursuing misdemeanor and felony charges against student protesters. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is pursuing misdemeanor charges against 50 people, including two UCI professors, a teaching assistant, and 26 students, stemming from a protest at UC Irvine on Oct. 22, 2023. Charges include failure to disperse, resisting arrest and vandalism.
At Pomona College, 19 students were arrested on April 5 on charges of trespassing after some protesters entered and refused to leave an administrative building. Students arrested either had their cases dismissed or have accepted community service in lieu of further legal action. James Gutierrez, the attorney representing the arrested students, said he asked that the college drop charges against its students, citing their right to protest the use of paid tuition dollars.
“They are righteously demanding that their colleges, the ones they pay tuition to and housing fees and pour a lot of money into, that that university or college stop investing in companies that are directly supporting this genocide and indirectly supporting it,” he said.
Students fight back against campus protest policies
As administrators face the challenge of applying protest policies more uniformly and swiftly, the truer test of California public higher education institutions’ protest rules will be playing out in court.
In one already resolved case, UC leadership agreed in August to comply with a court order requiring the campus to end programs or events that exclude Jewish students. A federal judge ruled some Jewish students in support of Israel who were blocked from entering the encampment had their religious liberties violated — though some Jewish students did participate in UCLA’s protest encampment.
Now, students have filed at least two lawsuits against their campuses and the UC system for violating their rights while ending student encampments last spring. In September, ACLU NorCal filed suits against the UC and UC Santa Cruz for not providing students due process when they immediately barred arrested students from returning to campus.
“Those students should have gotten a hearing, an opportunity to defend themselves or to explain themselves, and the school would have shown evidence of why they created a risk of disturbance on campus,” Chessie Thacher, senior staff attorney at ACLU of Northern California, said.
UC Santa Cruz spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said the university “appreciates the court’s careful deliberation” and that the university “is committed to upholding the right to free expression while also protecting the safety of its campus community.”
In October, ACLU SoCal filed lawsuits on behalf of two students and two faculty members against the UC and UCLA, alleging the actions the university took to break down the encampment violated their free speech rights.
UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez told CalMatters via email that the university would respond in court and that UCLA “fully supports community members expressing their First Amendment rights in ways that do not violate the law, our policies, jeopardize community safety, or disrupt the functioning of the university.”
“The encampment that arose on campus this spring became a focal point for violence, a disruption to campus, and was in violation of the law,” Vazquez said in the email statement. “These conditions necessitated its removal.”
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