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This city paid $1.1M to keep faucets running through March as the price of water skyrockets in California | CNN

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This city paid .1M to keep faucets running through March as the price of water skyrockets in California | CNN




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Miles of brittle, uprooted almond timber lay lifeless on their sides on parched farmland in Coalinga, California, as an intensifying drought, new restrictions and skyrocketing water costs are forcing farmers to sacrifice their crops. Roadside indicators warn towards watering entrance lawns as residents brace for increased water payments as the valuable useful resource disappears.

That is what a metropolis on the point of working out of water seems to be like.

“We are able to’t proceed this. It’s not sustainable for our neighborhood,” Coalinga metropolis councilman Adam Adkisson advised CNN.

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Coalinga normally will get its water by means of an aqueduct which runs from the San Luis Reservoir, about 70 miles northwest of the town. However because the West’s megadrought pushes reservoir ranges to precarious new lows, the US Bureau of Reclamation this yr decreased the quantity of water Coalinga may take from the reservoir by 80%, metropolis officers advised CNN.

The restriction left Coalinga brief about 600-acre ft of water by means of March 2023, which is almost 200 million gallons, and the equal of about 300 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools.

With the town on monitor to expire of water by mid- to late November, officers turned to the more and more costly open market to make up the distinction. They finalized a purchase order from a California public irrigation district final week.

Town’s price ticket for all times’s most simple necessity was roughly $1.1 million {dollars}. Adkisson tells CNN the identical quantity of water used to value $114,000.

The Nasdaq Veles California Water Index, which tracks water transactions within the state, confirmed the value has gone from round $200 in 2019 to greater than $1,000 at the moment for the quantity of water it might take to fill half of an Olympic-sized pool.

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“I used to be simply floored,” Adkisson stated of their water buy. “I couldn’t imagine they might promote water at that worth — however that was really an inexpensive fee, that’s the most affordable fee we discovered.”

The largest concern is for the residents of Coalinga. It’s the water residents use for all times’s primary actions; to wash, prepare dinner and clear. Town introduced Monday the state permitted a grant request to assist offset its million-dollar water invoice, which is able to probably ease residents’ prices.

“We’re a really poor neighborhood,” Adkisson stated. “These individuals out right here that you just see strolling by, driving by, can’t afford a 1,000% enhance of their water payments.”

That is the primary time Coalinga has had to purchase water on the open market. However because the local weather disaster intensifies the West’s drought and wet winters change into few and much between, native leaders worry they’re heading right into a financially unsustainable future, the place water might be bought to the best bidder.

“Positive, there may be provide and demand,” Adkisson stated. “However for the essential wants of people we want the water to be at an inexpensive fee.”

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Farmers grow frustrated as the cost of water rises precipitously in California, putting their food crops at risk.

California’s hovering water costs are squeezing the farmers round Coalinga, too. Many are fallowing farmland to avoid wasting water which has change into unaffordable.

Farmers Deedee and Tom Gruber advised CNN their water allocations have decreased to quantities inadequate to develop their 11 crops, which embrace thirsty walnuts and almonds. The Grubers estimate the water wanted to develop simply certainly one of their crops subsequent season — walnuts — would value them $40,000.

“It could value us extra for water than what we’ll get for our walnuts,” Deedee Gruber advised CNN.

California farmers say water shortage, tightening water restrictions and now skyrocketing water costs are making it not possible for farmers to develop crops in any respect. The Grubers imagine it’s going to culminate in two methods: bankrupt farmers and better meals costs on the nation’s groceries.

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From protests on the California’s state capitol this week to a front room filled with anxious farmers, California State Senator Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat who represents a part of California’s southern Central Valley, has been listening to farmers’ tales about how drought and excessive water costs have affected them.

In an August letter, Hurtado and a bipartisan group of California legislators urged the US Justice Division to analyze “potential drought profiteering.” Hurtado suspects there could possibly be worth gouging in drought-stricken western states.

In an e mail response to Hurtado’s letter, the Justice Division stated in October the grievance was “forwarded to the suitable authorized workers for additional assessment.” The company declined remark to CNN on what if any investigative actions it would take.

“Persons are making a living off of much less water availability,” Hurtado advised CNN. “And that’s hurting actual individuals — actual farmers and actual communities.”

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California

2 dead, 3 injured in shooting in Louisville’s California neighborhood

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2 dead, 3 injured in shooting in Louisville’s California neighborhood


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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.

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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

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This story has been updated to add video. 



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California man beheaded his 1-year-old son with a knife, authorities say

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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.

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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.



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Protests Swept California Campuses Last Year. Schools Are Now Blocking Them | KQED

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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.

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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.

Pro-Palestinian protesters demand police officers go home during a protest outside of Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on April 22, 2024. (Mark McKenna/CalMatters)

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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