JANIE HAR

Homeowner Kelly O'Hare stands on her balcony overlooking South Lake Tahoe, Calif. on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, where voters will decide whether to approve Measure N, which will mandate a tax to homeowners who leave their homes vacant for more than half the year. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
California voters consider controversial vacation homes tax in iconic Lake Tahoe area
Voters in the scenic mountain town of South Lake Tahoe in Northern California are considering a tax on vacation homes. Measure N on Tuesday’s ballot would levy a flat $3,000 tax on homes that are vacant 182 days within a calendar year.
 
FILE – David DePape, who bludgeoned Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer, is seen, Dec. 13, 2013, in Berkeley, Calif. (Michael Short/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)
Man serving 30 years for attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband gets a life term on state charges
The man who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in their California home has been given a life term without the possibility of parole following a separate state trial.
 
FILE - Nima Momeni, the man charged in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, makes his way into the courtroom for his arraignment in San Francisco, May 2, 2023. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool, File)
Tech consultant goes on trial in death of Cash App founder Bob Lee
A tech consultant has gone on trial over a year after the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco. Prosecutors on Monday told jurors that Momeni planned the April 2023 attack after a dispute over Momeni’s younger sister.
 
FILE - San Francisco Mayor London Breed delivers her State of the City address at the Pier 27 cruise terminal in San Francisco, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
San Francisco’s first Black female mayor is in a pricey battle for a second term
London Breed became the first Black woman elected mayor of San Francisco six years ago. It was a pinch-me moment for a girl who grew up in public housing. But now she is in a heated contest for a second term in office.
 
FILE - California Attorney General Rob Bonta takes questions from the media as he announces charges made against suspects involved in an organized retail crime ring during a news conference in Los Angeles Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
Catholic hospital in California illegally denied emergency abortion, state attorney general says
California’s attorney general is suing a Catholic hospital, saying that Providence St. Joseph Hospital illegally denied emergency abortion care to a woman. Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the complaint Monday in Humboldt County Superior Court.
 
Members of the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team, Edgar Tapia , left, and Maria B., talk to a homeless person in the Mission District, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Moving homeless people from streets to shelter isn’t easy, San Francisco outreach workers say
Outreach workers in San Francisco visit homeless people living in tents to match them with shelter. But it’s not a straightforward process.
 
FILE - An ExxonMobil fuel storage and distribution facility in Irving, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
California sues ExxonMobil and says it lied about plastics recycling
California is suing ExxonMobil for allegedly deceiving the public for half a century by promising that recycling would address the global plastics pollution crisis. His office filed a lawsuit Monday.
 
A person walks under a Mission Cabins sign at the Five Keys transitional housing location in San Francisco, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
More shelter beds and a crackdown on tents mean fewer homeless encampments in San Francisco
San Francisco’s sidewalks were once notorious for sprawling tents belonging to homeless people but are now largely clear. There are still thousands of homeless people living in RVs and cars and in expanded shelter beds.
 
FILE - New York Knicks owner James Dolan, center, watches the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, April 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson, File)
Judge dismisses an assault lawsuit against Knicks owner James Dolan and Harvey Weinstein
A U.S. district judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit against New York Knicks owner James Dolan alleging sexual assault a decade ago.
 
FILE - San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall walks on the field during an NFL football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets in Santa Clara, Calif., Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
Attorney: Teen charged in shooting of San Francisco 49ers rookie shouldn’t face attempted murder
The attorney for a 17-year-old high school senior charged in the daytime shooting of San Francisco 49ers rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall says that new video evidence supports his theory that the teenager should not be charged with attempted murder.
 
Norma Terrazas, right, gets her blood pressure checked by medical assistant Henry Gil Maturell in Wesley Health Centers' mobile clinic in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Health insurance providers to fund street doctors and clinics to serve LA’s homeless population
Officials with L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net say they will commit $90 million over five years to build a robust and highly coordinated health care network for homeless people.
 
San Francisco Police officers walk past a homeless encampment Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Everyone agrees there’s a homeless crisis in the US. Plans to address it vary among mayor candidates
Homelessness is at the top of the agenda for candidates in mayoral races across the U.S. West. But they differ on whether it’s OK to clear encampments that have spread as the crisis has deepened and how much to rely on temporary housing.
 
FILE - Fans walk outside of the Oakland Alameda Coliseum before a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. The Oakland Athletics have reached a tentative agreement to sell its half of the Coliseum to a private Black development group for $125 million. The Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, announcement paves the way for the African American Sports & Entertainment Group to build in a long neglected part of the San Francisco Bay Area city. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu,File)
Oakland A’s to sell stake in Coliseum to local Black development group
The Oakland Athletics has reached a tentative agreement to sell its half of the Coliseum to a private Black development group for $125 million.
 
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston speaks at a news conference opposing Mayor London Breed's crackdown on homeless encampments in San Francisco on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Police will start clearing out homeless residents who have refused to move from public areas under new policies. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
San Francisco police and street cleaners take aggressive approach to clearing homeless encampments
Police in San Francisco will start clearing out homeless residents who have refused to move from public areas under new policies.
 
FILE - A tarp covers a portion of a homeless person's tent on a bridge overlooking the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Can tech help solve the Los Angeles homeless crisis? Finding shelter may someday be a click away
Can tech help solve Southern California’s homeless crisis? A Los Angeles nonprofit is developing software intended to revolutionize shelter and services in the nation’s epicenter of homelessness.
 
Ryan Tucker, left and David Cortman, attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, and Yakima Union Gospel Mission CEO Mike Johnson, right, speak to reporters outside the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday, July 19, 2024. They are challenging a Washington state law that bars religious organizations from only hiring workers who share their religious beliefs. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Appeals court hears Christian homeless shelter’s challenge to Washington anti-discrimination law
A Christian homeless shelter is challenging a Washington state anti-discrimination law that would require the charity to hire LGBTQ+ people and others who don’t share its religious beliefs.
 
This image, made from a video provided by Arizona's Family, shows damage caused by the Watch Fire on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Ariz., on Friday, July 12, 2024. More than 400 residents on the reservation were told to leave after a wildfire spilled into the downtown area on Thursday, July 11, and destroyed at least 13 homes, officials said. (KTVK/KPHO/Arizona's Family via AP)
California reports first wildfire death of the 2024 season as fires persist across the West
Wildfires fueled by strong winds and an extended heat wave have led to the first death in California of the 2024 season. Mendocino County officials say they found human remains in a home of a woman that had burned in a fire that started Monday.
 
Teniah Tercero, right, pushes her two daughters Amairany, 8, left, and Valentina on a tire swing while spending time at a park Thursday, May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
8 homeless moms in San Francisco struggled for help. Now, they’re learning to advocate for others
Eight San Francisco women are part of a pilot program by a local nonprofit to engage more homeless parents in advocacy as family homelessness surges in the U.S.
 
FILE - A map of a new proposed community in Solano County, Calif., is displayed during a news conference in Rio Vista, Calif. on Jan. 17, 2024. A Silicon Valley-backed initiative to build a green city for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area has qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot. Voters will be asked to allow urban development on land currently zoned for agriculture. (AP Photo/Janie Har, File)
Silicon Valley-backed voter plan for new California city qualifies for November ballot
A Silicon Valley-backed initiative to build a green city for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area has qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot. Voters will be asked to allow urban development on land currently zoned for agriculture.
 
FILE – David DePape is seen, Dec. 13, 2013, in Berkeley, Calif. DePape, the man convicted of attempting to hold former Speaker Nancy Pelosi hostage and attacking her husband with a hammer two years ago, apologized in federal court Tuesday, May 28, 2024, but still received 30 years in prison at an unusual resentencing hearing that resulted from judicial error. (Michael Short/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)
Judge keeps punishment of 30 years at resentencing for man who attacked Paul Pelosi
The man convicted of attempting to hold former Speaker Nancy Pelosi hostage and attacking her husband with a hammer apologized for his crime at an unusual resentencing. But U.S.
 
University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students and other academic workers in the UAW 4811 union begin a strike and are joined by UCSC students for Justice in Palestine as they picket the main entrance to campus on Monday, May 20, 2024, in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)
University of California academic workers strike to stand up for pro-Palestinian protesters
Graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz walked off their jobs and went on strike Monday.
 
Tatiana Alabsi, left, hugs her nephew Adam Khalid as she roams the Tenderloin neighborhood Wednesday, March 20, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
With a vest and a voice, helpers escort kids through San Francisco’s broken Tenderloin streets
San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is notorious for its open-air drug use and congested sidewalks. But it’s also home to thousands of laughing, playful school children and parents working toward a better life.
 
Jan Sramek, CEO of California Forever, speaks at a news conference announcing that his group has submitted signatures for a November ballot measure that would clear hurdles to build a new city in Solano County. Vallejo, Calif. April 30, 2024 (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Campaign to build new California city submits signatures to get on November ballot
A Silicon Valley-backed campaign to build a new city in California for up to 400,000 people says it submitted enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November election.
 
A newly adopted dog is held at Oakland Animal Services on Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. The city animal shelter has seen a surge in pets surrendered by tenants who can't find rentals that allow pets. A bill in California wants to make more rental housing available to tenants with pets. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Finding an apartment may be easier for California pet owners under new legislation
A bill in California wants to make more rental housing available to tenants with pets. Assembly Bill 2216 would ban blanket no-pets policies and prohibit landlords from charging extra for security deposit and rent for tenants who have cats, dogs or other common household animals.
 
FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a Clean California event in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 2023. On Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, Nearly $200 million in grant money will go to California cities and counties to move homeless people from encampments into housing, Newsom announced Thursday, April 18, 2024, pledging increased oversight of efforts by local governments to reduce homelessness. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
California governor pledges state oversight for cities, counties lagging on solving homelessness
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced nearly $200 million in grant money to cities and counties to move homeless people from encampments into housing.
 
A cable car dedicated to Tony Bennett makes its way up California Street to Nob Hill in San Francisco, Thursday, March 14, 2024. Tony Bennett loved San Francisco and its cable cars and in return, the city has dedicated one of those cable cars to the famous crooner who died in July. Cable car 53, built in 1907, has several plaques and painted gold ribbons remembering Bennett. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Riders can climb ‘halfway to the stars’ on San Francisco cable car dedicated to late Tony Bennett
The cable car dedicated to the late Tony Bennett rolls past the landmark Fairmont hotel where the singer first performed the song that would forever tie him to San Francisco.
 
People sit on the curb at the corner of Ellis Street and Jones Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, Thursday, March 14, 2024. Two hotels and unnamed residents of one of San Francisco's most problematic neighborhoods for drug use and tent encampments sued the city Thursday, demanding that city officials stop using the district as a containment zone. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Terrified residents of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district sue for streets free of drugs, tents
Two hotels and residents of San Francisco’s troubled Tenderloin district have sued San Francisco for streets free of drugs and tent encampments.
 
Melissa Nelson, chair of the board of directors of the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, middle, gestures while speaking at a news conference in Berkeley, Calif., Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, March 12, 2024, to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Area collective that works to return land to Indigenous people and that raised the funds needed to reach the agreement. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Indigenous people rejoice after city of Berkeley votes to return sacred Native land to Ohlone
Ohlone people and others are rejoicing over the return of sacred Native land dating back thousands of years. They said at a news conference in Berkeley, California, on Wednesday that the move rights a historic wrong.
 
San Francisco Mayor London Breed delivers her State of the City address at the Pier 27 cruise terminal in San Francisco, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
San Francisco mayor touts possibilities after voters expand police powers, gets tough on drug users
Mayor London Breed is pledging even greater improvements under a pair of controversial public safety proposals voters approved this week.
 
Mustard fills a vineyard in front of the historic Inglenook winery in Rutherford, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Brilliant yellow and gold mustard is carpeting Northern California's wine country, signaling the start of spring and the celebration of all flavors sharp and mustardy. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Spectacular fields of yellow mustard draw visitors to Northern California’s wine country
Brilliant yellow and gold mustard is carpeting Northern California’s wine country. The plants signal the start of spring and the celebration of all flavors sharp and mustardy in Napa and Sonoma counties. The plants are not just pretty to look at.
 
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