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2 weeks ago | 
mercurynews.com | Linh Tat |Erika Ritchie |Beau Yarbough
The bill is partly in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed local jurisdictions to ban homeless encampments, even if a city or county doesn’t have enough shelter beds. Under the proposed Right to Rest Act, local governments would still be allowed to clear encampments; they just wouldn’t be permitted to fine or arrest a person simply for living on the streets — penalties Sen.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough |Dorothy Elder
When polling places and voter centers in California close at 8 p.m. following the Nov. 5 General Election, the wait will begin for official results — and it could be a long one. So why does it take so long for California to finalize election results? Large turnoutThe state has more registered voters than any other. But that’s largely because California makes it so easy for citizens to be able to vote.
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Sep 8, 2024 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
The out-of-control Line fire grew to 17,459 acres on Sunday morning, with zero containment and additional evacuation warnings issued as the number of homes threatened soared. The total number of homes and structures at risk in the region jumped to 35,405, Cal Fire said in its Sunday morning update. As of 9:45 a.m., evacuation warnings were announced for Angelus Oaks, Seven Oaks and Mountain Home Village.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
A child born the day Tad Honeycutt and Charles Steven Cox were indicted would be a senior in high school now. Former Hesperia mayor Honeycutt and charter school founder Cox were indicted on Sept. 4, 2007, charged with misappropriating $5.5 million in charter school funds. Seventeen years later, they haven’t stood trial or accepted a plea deal. How it all startedFounded in 1999, Victorville-based California Charter Academy eventually became the largest chain of charter schools in the state.
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Aug 4, 2024 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
Four years later, more work remains to be done, he and other Native American leaders say. Councilmember Mary Ann Andreas, with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, addresses those in attendance during a meeting of the California Native American Legislative Caucus on suicide prevention within the Native American community at Morongo Tribal Council Chambers near Banning on Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Assembymember James C.
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Mar 7, 2024 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
The March 5 California primary is over. And now the waiting begins. In Los Angeles County, the registrar’s office released its semi-official results around 2 a.m. Wednesday, March 5, and then its first post-election day update in the afternoon. But there are still a lot of outstanding ballots — including those that haven’t arrived in the mail yet. County election officials across the state must certify the results of the vote by April 4, 30 days after the primary.
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Feb 26, 2024 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
Capt. Craig Harris starts the engine. The enormous vehicle vibrates as it comes to life, the passenger compartment filled with new-car smell. This isn’t a car or truck, but an enormous orange Sno-Cat. The tracked vehicle recently acquired by the San Bernardino County sheriff’s Twin Peaks station is meant to help plug gaps in emergency response exposed by winter storms in spring 2023. “Here at the (Twin Peaks) station, we couldn’t leave the station for four days,” Harris recalled.
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Nov 27, 2023 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
It has been a generation since California had an accredited tribal college serving the state’s Native American residents. An Inland Empire college is trying to change that. “We have more than 1.4 million American Indians living in California,” said Celeste Townsend, president of California Indian Nations College. “And yet not one (accredited) tribal college.”Compare that to Oklahoma — the state has one-third the Native population of California but three tribal colleges.
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Oct 23, 2023 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
This year, lawmakers in Sacramento introduced bills to make it easier to build shelters, study what’s killing homeless Californians and improve mental health services in the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom had until Oct. 14 to decide the fate of bills passed by the Legislature. Here’s how some of those targeting the homelessness crisis fared:Assembly Bill 42Status: Signed by Newsom on Oct. 10.
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Oct 17, 2023 | 
mercurynews.com | Beau Yarbough
Newsom had until Oct. 14 to decide the fate of those bills. Here’s a look at how they fared:Assembly Bill 5Status: Signed by Newsom on Sept. 23. About the bill: AB 5, the “Safe and Supportive Schools Act,” sponsored by Assemblymember Rick Zbur, D-Los Angeles, requires the implementation of new “LGBTQ cultural competency training” for teachers and school staff in California.
