Sam Ribakoff

Los Angeles

I’m in San Diego and Imperial counties for Courthouse News. I teach at Santa Ana College, and play music at KNSJ . Stuff like that. [email protected].

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Articles

Judge halts repairs to oil pipeline involved in 2015 spill

1 week ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA (CN) — The owner of an offshore oil drilling system that caused a devastating spill in 2015 will have to temporarily stop trying to repair their extensive pipeline system after a Santa Barbara Superior Court judge found credible evidence they violated California’s Coastal Act. In February, Sable Offshore Corp.
One decade after disaster, drilling returns to Santa Barbara

2 weeks ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (CN) — Set among rolling hills and dotted by palm trees and flower patches, Refugio State Beach offers a picture-perfect look at the Central California coast. It’s also the site of one of the worst oil spills in California history. In May 2015, a corroded oil pipeline burst in the sea here, pouring 142,800 gallons of crude into the Pacific Ocean.
DOGE cuts cut deep at this Mojave Desert oasis

3 weeks ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

NYE COUNTY, Nev. (CN) — Outside the gleaming visitor center at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a cerulean pool of sparkling spring water bubbles up from the dry earth like a mirage. Located in the Mojave Desert halfway between Death Valley National Park and the town of Pahrump, Nevada, Ash Meadows was once home to tribes like the Southern Paiute and Timbisha Shoshone, who used the springs for farming. Settlers moved in beginning in the late 1800s.
Journalist pushes back on arrest while filming Vegas Trump protest - Editor and Publisher

3 weeks ago | editorandpublisher.com | Sam Ribakoff

Posted Thursday, May 15, 2025 10:15 am A journalist arrested while trying to document a protest outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in 2017 argued Wednesday to a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal panel that he was factually correct when he disagreed with an officer that he couldn’t film on private property and he had a constitutional right to argue. “The principles underlying this case are the facts that a member of the public does have a right to disagree with police and officers are...
Judge pauses dragnet-like rules for California border businesses

3 weeks ago | ij.org | Sam Ribakoff

The judge halted enforcement only in Southern California counties, leaving border businesses in Texas still subject to reporting all cash transactions over $200. SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the government to stop enforcing a new requirement that check cashers, currency exchangers and other money service businesses along the Mexican border report all cash transactions over $200 to federal law enforcement while a lawsuit moves forward in California.
Judge pauses dragnet-like rules for California border businesses

3 weeks ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

The judge halted enforcement only in Southern California counties, leaving border businesses in Texas still subject to reporting all cash transactions over $200. SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the government to stop enforcing a new requirement that check cashers, currency exchangers and other money service businesses along the Mexican border report all cash transactions over $200 to federal law enforcement while a lawsuit moves forward in California.
Journalist pushes back on arrest while filming Vegas Trump protest

3 weeks ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

(CN) — A journalist arrested while trying to document a protest outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in 2017 argued Wednesday to a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal panel that he was factually correct when he disagreed with an officer that he couldn’t film on private property and he had a constitutional right to argue.
Prosecutor argues ex-San Diego deputy willfully killed fleeing unarmed man

3 weeks ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

Gunshots shocked other officers, who expected to chase and apprehend Nicholas Bils when he ran from police custody, not shoot and kill him, a federal prosecutor argued. SAN DIEGO (CN) — A former San Diego County sheriff's deputy shocked fellow officers when he fatally shot an unarmed man outside San Diego’s downtown jail because the man he shot wasn’t a threat to anyone, an attorney for the federal government said during opening arguments in the officer’s criminal trial on Tuesday.
SoCal Kaiser mental health workers vote to end six-month strike

1 month ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A majority of mental health care workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California voted to sign a new contract and end their more than six months of striking, the National Union of Healthcare Workers said on Thursday. “These negotiations were like fighting a battle,” said Adriana Webb, a medical social worker at Kaiser and a member of the NUHW’s bargaining committee, in a press release sent by the union.
Kaiser mental health workers testify at California Legislature to ‘factory-like’ system

1 month ago | courthousenews.com | Sam Ribakoff

SACRAMENTO (CN) — As mental health care workers are ratifying an agreement to end more than six months of striking against Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California, a parent, a therapist and their union president asked California lawmakers Tuesday to keep pressuring the company to improve their mental health services. “The root of the problem is the ongoing systemic undervaluation of behavioral health care by Kaiser Permanente.