As landslides continue to threaten the community of Rancho Palos Verdes, hundreds of homes in the southern California city have lost power.

Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a state of emergency on Monday as officials cut power to 245 homes in the seaside community, about 25 miles (40km) south of Los Angeles, due to worsening land movement. The electricity provider in the region, Southern California Edison, shut off power to 140 homes on Sunday and another 105 on Monday, citing the risk of igniting fires.

While the city has long dealt with landslides, a historic storm in February intensified and accelerated the movements leading to shifts as great as 1ft a week. Rancho Palos Verdes is now grappling with buckling streets, buildings sinking and cracking and hundreds of families forced to leave their homes, said Janice Hahn, a Los Angeles county supervisor, at a news conference on Monday.

“I think we’re all learning there is no playbook for an emergency like this one,” Hahn said. “What we do know is many families are struggling, are suffering, are feeling great anxiety about what is happening. They are watching their homes – they are watching their streets – crumble around them.”

The supervisor called on the governor to visit the region, adding, “This is bigger than Rancho Palos Verdes. This land movement is so gigantic and so damaging that one city or one homeowners organization should not have to bear this burden alone.” She said that although this had been an issue for decades, the movement was now accelerating “beyond what any of us could have foretold”.

Southern California Edison notified Rancho Palos Verdes that electricity service would be discontinued at multiple homes due to fire risk because of the ongoing movement.

Larry Chung, SoCal Edison’s vice-president of the customer engagement division, said the land movement had “created such a dangerous situation that we must make that difficult decision to disconnect power indefinitely”. Residents of the affected neighborhood previously suffered gas shutoffs in July.

Chung called the current emergency “unprecedented”, saying: “We have an obligation not only to serve but a higher obligation to ensure the safety of our community.”

City officials said they were “identifying hotels and other accommodations that can offer discounted rates for residents” affected by the loss of power.

The latest power shutoff will affect the Seaview neighborhood, which was designed in 1960 by the architect Paul Williams.

Earlier this year, landslides in the region led to the dismantling of the Wayfarers chapel, Frank Lloyd Wright Jr’s celebrated glass sanctuary. The chapel’s leaders took it apart before it was destroyed by the land movement, with hopes of someday relocating it to a more stable site.

Last year, hillside homes in the affluent Rolling Hills Estates in Los Angeles crumbled and cracked due to similar cliffside shifts, leading to rushed evacuations.

A California cop has been placed on leave after an illegal marijuana farm was found in his five-bedroom home. 

Samson Liu, 38, of Antioch in the Bay Area, was placed on administrative leave on April 30 after the farm was found on his property.

The Oakland Police Department said it was aware of the allegations against Liu, it told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. 

‘The matter is under investigation,’ it said in an email. ‘This is an ongoing personnel matter. OPD is unable to provide further details at this time.’  

The state Department of Cannabis Control referred the matter to the internal affairs department of the Oakland Police Department, according to CNN. 

Liu’s home was raided in April by officers with the Department of Cannabis Control, who used a power saw to cut through a steel-enforced door at the back entrance, CNN reported. 

They removed 80 pounds of marijuana from the sprawling home, filling a dump truck with around $1million worth of the drug. 

Authorities removed 80 pounds of weed from his five-bedroom home, filling a dump truck with around $1million worth of the drug

It is unclear if Liu lives in the home or has other tenants who do. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to Liu and the Oakland Police Department for comment. 

Antioch has grown a reputation for developing plenty of high-yield, indoor grow operations. The Department of Cannabis Control has raided at least 60 homes in the city over the last two years. The agency suspects around 100 more homes could also be locations of illegal farms, according to CNN. 

Unlicensed operators often leave homes in a state of disrepair as growing the popular plant can lead to mold and house fires. 

Authorities said Liu’s home was set up for the purpose of cultivating the plant as the doors were fortified, windows were boarded, a heavy-duty generator was stationed in the laundry room to help maximize power, and industrial air ducts were used for ventilation, CNN reported. 

Officers also raided several homes on the same street, leaving neighbors shocked, according to KTVU. 

Antioch has grown a reputation for developing plenty of high-yield, indoor grow operations (Pictured: Cannabis from a raid last week) 

Authorities said Liu’s home was set up for the purpose of cultivating the plant as the doors were fortified, windows were boarded, a heavy-duty generator was stationed in the laundry room to help maximize power, and industrial air ducts were used for ventilation

Last week, the agency executed four search warrants in the same county, finding more than 1,300 pounds of weed worth $2million. 

A significant amount of mold was found in each property, according to KTVU. 

Despite the large number of illegal farms in Antioch, only two people have been arrested and charged with misdemeanors, according to the Department of Cannabis Control. 

‘It’s actually just a joke,’ Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue told CNN. ‘You can have seven plants or 70,000 plants and it still is that same misdemeanor violation.’ 

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said it’s a ‘very small risk’ for growers to take for a ‘very high reward.’ 

A significant amount of mold was found in each property raided last week

California Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce in 2022, and so far this year, it has seized more than $120million worth of illegal cannabis.  

Weed has been legal in the liberal state since 2016. Illegal growers do not follow California’s strict rules and guidelines around growing.

Some of the illegal products make their way into legal dispensaries without customers knowing it. 

‘People are smoking pesticides,’ Department of Cannabis Control Commander Kevin McInerney told CNN. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray has attributed the nation’s illegal marijuana activity to Chinese organized crime, whose members have snapped up about 100 homes in the Greater Sacramento area since 2018, CNN reported. 

Department of Cannabis Control Chief of Law Enforcement Bill Jones said the Antioch raids bear the markings of the ‘Chinese criminal syndicate.’ 

Chinese nationals have dominated the illegal weed farm space in California over the past five years, he said. 

Antioch is made up of roughly 15 percent of residents with Chinese names, CNN found. 

Dear Eric: I recently married the love of my life. It’s a second marriage for both of us and we are an interracial couple. We had a small wedding, about 50 people, with only family and close friends. We had family travel in from many states.

My brother, who lives in Texas, declined to come and said it was because the wedding was in California. He is very conservative. I was very hurt that he didn’t come to my wedding for political reasons and because I’m not sure if it goes beyond politics.

Based on his views, I suspect he may not have approved of my divorce and my subsequent choice to marry a Latino. My parents are deceased and I only have two siblings. It would have been nice for him to try to fill the void of my dad and let me have more than one of my family of origin present on this important day in my life.

Now his son is getting married in Texas. I feel, as Californians, we may not be welcomed with open arms based on the refusal of my Texan brother to come to our state. Although we received an invitation via mail, I’m not sure he wants us there. My husband feels we should go to show this is what family does for each other, show up and support despite our different beliefs.

– Conflicted Sister

Dear Sister: It’s news to me that Texans can’t go to California and vice versa. If residents of the two largest states in the “lower 48″ aren’t welcome across each other’s borders, we’re in big trouble. How will famed Texan Matthew McConaughey film his movies?

If you feel that your nephew’s wedding will be a safe environment, psychologically, for you and your husband, you should go as a way of living into your values. Talk it through with your husband; you know your family better than he does and can point out any potential trouble. Neither of you should willingly put yourselves in a situation where you’ll be discriminated against.

Hopefully, the issue is just with your brother and not the rest of the family. Whether you go or not, you and your brother should have a talk because there’s a lot that’s unsaid and it’s going to come out one way or another. Tell him how you felt when he skipped your wedding and challenge him on any racist beliefs he has. For family, showing up is great, but saying the hard thing is key.

Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.

Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.