California

Noemi Valencia's 2-year-old reached a 0.12 BAC at Fujiyama Sushi and Hibachi in Salinas after a server poured cooking wine from a kitchen container marked apple juice. The child recovered;…

A Los Alamos post-office box holder slipped an AirTag into a package, reported the next theft, and led Santa Barbara County deputies 16 miles to two suspects holding mail from…

Elliott Dugan, 51, died on April 6, 2024, after a stolen 2019 Lamborghini Huracan hit 113 mph on Sherman Way in Los Angeles and tore apart on the median. No…

Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas's SB 1446 died in 2024. SB 442 stalled after a Senate pass. Long Beach and Costa Mesa wrote clerk-to-kiosk rules, and most Long Beach stores shut the…

Pier 39's 2024 sea lion count smashed 2,100 after an anchovy boom. In 2026 a 2,000-pound Steller named Chonkers sat down on the same dock and then vanished.

Two experienced snowboarders triggered a wind slab on Mount Shasta's Avalanche Gulch route. One broke a femur. An 11-hour ground rescue got them out.

Mint Butterfield, 16, child of Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield, was found uninjured in a Tenderloin van. Two adults were charged with child abduction.

Brie'ann Battle sued Kinder Kids and Artea Kirkland after classroom video showed a worker pinning her 4-year-old and lifting him by the ankles.

Compton couple Alex and Daisy De La Rosa filled neighborhood potholes themselves after years of blown tires. The city sent a cease-and-desist. They halted after three weeks and 36-plus patches.

Operation Protect the Innocent arrested 141 people in seven days across five California counties. Later ICAC sweeps in the same region produced hundreds more arrests.