Cal Fire Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox said at a press briefing Tuesday: “Across California, since August 15, 1.25 million acres of land have burned…that’s larger than the state of Delaware.” The department confirmed 136,000 people remain evacuated from their homes and communities. There have been 13,000 lightning strikes, including 233 new strikes, that have caused a total in excess of 650 fires since August 15. Increased humidity, reduced temperatures and low winds have helped firefighters gain better control of the fires in the past day....

According to the latest short-range forecast from the National Weather Service (NWS), this “rapidly intensifying” weather system will impact areas from northern California and up the coast into the Pacific Northwest. It anticipates that the total precipitation over the coming days will range between 3 and 7 inches. The latest storm to hit the state on Monday brought on average between 5 and 10 inches of rain across coastal regions, it said earlier, with rain levels as high as 15....

Democrat Josh Harder, Howze’s opponent in the election, shared screenshots of some of the social media posts allegedly authored by the GOP candidate to Twitter earlier today. Newsweek could not find the posts on Howze’s account. It appears they have been deleted. Harder referred to Howze as “unfit for office” in his tweet, where he also attached the allegedly deleted posts that describes advocacy group Black Lives Matter, Muslims and undocumented immigrants in a disparaging way....

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent Republicans an order to cease and desist operation of the unofficial drop boxes, some of which were marked “official,” on Monday. GOP officials claim that the boxes do not violate the law, are refusing to comply with the order and say they hope to add more boxes. “We are going to continue this program,” California GOP spokesman Hector Barajas told WABC....

Newsom, a Democrat, made the remarks during a speech at a COVID-19 vaccination event in San Francisco on Monday. He described multiple high-profile Bay Area robberies, including the organized storming of a Nordstrom luxury department store on Saturday, as “unacceptable” before noting that California had recently reestablished a retail theft task force. Newsom said the task force had resulted in almost $20 million in stolen merchandise being returned after over 770 investigations and hundreds of arrests....

Death Valley is known as a location of extremes. It is the hottest place on Earth, setting the world record highest air temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 Celsius) in July, 1913. Plus, it experienced its hottest month on record in July, 2018, with an average temperature of 108.1F, including overnight lows. Death Valley is also the driest place in North America—though August 5 this year marked the park’s rainiest day on record when it received three quarters of its 2....

Cheerleaders from Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, California, were allegedly targeted by Temecula Valley High School fans during last week’s game. Sabria Rose, a junior on the varsity cheerleading squad for Valley View, told KTLA5 that she and her teammates had racial slurs directed at them and were told they were “on the wrong side of town.” “This boy stopped me and said that he liked my hair and kind of played with the ends,” she told the news outlet....

Jacob Blanco of Fresno initially pleaded guilty in May 2020 to five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography. He also admitted to the police as part of his plea agreement that he communicated with at least 50 underage children and received sexual images from many of them. “Today’s sentence is warranted due to the seriousness of the defendant’s conduct, the large number of minor victims, and the impact that the defendant’s conduct has had – and will continue to have – on the dozens of children victimized by the defendant,” said Acting U....

According to a press release from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the incident occurred on Saturday at around 9:40 p.m. local time, when an officer with the Guadalupe Police Department recognized a suspect wanted on a “no-bail felony arrest warrant.” The officer noticed the suspect near the intersection of Birch and Obispo Streets, the press release said. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said when the Guadalupe Police Officer noticed the suspect, he fired his service weapon....

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Cal Fire, the Dixie Fire has burned at least 749,713 acres and is currently 45 percent contained. WildFire Today reported that at least 690 residential structures and 139 commercial structures have been destroyed by the Dixie Fire. Data from Cal Fire shows that the Dixie Fire has also damaged at least 92 commercial, residential and other structures as it has continued to grow....

“We now have 17 confirmed—and I underscore ‘confirmed’ tragically, just confirmed—dead,” he told a press conference. “Two more related to lightning strikes and a vehicle accident in the Tulare County area.” Noting that at least three more highly-charged storms were anticipated to head California’s way until at least January 18, Newsom added: “That number, tragically […] is likely to grow.” The latest deaths include a pickup truck driver and a motorcyclist—who died Tuesday morning when a tree fell on them on Highway 99 in the San Joaquin Valley—reported the Associated Press, citing the California Highway Patrol (CHP)....

Manuel Reyes, 19, traveled from his home in Hayward to Lagos de Moreno, in Jalisco, in early April to visit his sister. But, Manuel and his friend Jesus “Jessy” Ramon Corona, 36, vanished after they went out on a motorcycle to buy some tacos in the San Miguel area at around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 2. Since they left to eat nothing has been heard from either Manuel or Jesus, according to local media outlet Cuadrante7....

Senate Bill 1042, introduced by Republican state Senator Shannon Grove, would have changed California law to include human trafficking in the list of crimes that are classed as “violent” and “serious.” Under current California law, human trafficking is defined as a “non-serious” and “non-violent” crime. The legislation would have also included human trafficking as a strike under California’s Three Strikes sentencing law. Under that law, anyone convicted of a third violent or serious offence is sentenced to at least 25 years in prison....

California’s wet season usually begins at the start of October, but low humidity and dry vegetation so far this fall have factored into ongoing fire safety concerns, including for the coming weekend. “Any gusty winds coupled with the prevailing dry conditions can increase the fire threat across the region,” AccuWeather meteorologist Max Gawryla stated. A storm system could appear in the U.S. Northwest on Friday and will travel south into the Rocky Mountains....

Karissa Foster, who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant with twin boys, spoke to KGTV after her family were all found dead on the same night at their home in Vista, California, on June 11. While toxicology results have not been returned yet, Foster, a recovering drug addict herself who has been clean for nearly nine years, said she believes her mother Cheryl, 48, father Michael, 50, and 27-year-old brother Ethan, all died after taking methamphetamine that had been cut with fentanyl....

On Wednesday, the state energy grid operator called for voluntary conservation of electricity from 4 to 9 p.m. to prevent the risk of a power outage as there was an expected high demand for air conditioning. No major power outages were reported after the alert ended, but the request was extended to 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday. An excessive heat warning was issued by the National Weather Service across the desert into Nevada, and a heat advisory covered the Central Valley and through inland Southern California....

Being a functional member of society and having a mental disorder is an intricate balancing act. Every morning I send my son to junior high school, put on professional garb and drive off to my job as alumni-magazine editor at a prep school, where I’ve worked for six years. Only a few people at work know I’m manic-depressive, or bipolar, as it’s sometimes called. Sometimes I’m not sure myself what I am....

This is the kind of opportunity which may come once in a lifetime. Every Democratic senator and representative has already voted for the outline of a $3.5 trillion spending bill. No matter what lies they tell back home about being moderates, their names are right there in the Congressional Record. When it mattered, there were no moderate Democrats. The only Democrats serving in Congress were unanimously willing to vote for big-government socialism....

American voters aren’t the only ones growing disenchanted with Clinton. His handling of the Bosnian crisis has Americans and their allies snapping at each other across the Atlantic. Europeans complain that he seems indecisive and unsure of himself. “We started with a clear impression of a man with a lack of knowledge background and depth when it comes to foreign policy,” says Col. Michael Dewar, deputy director of the IISS....