Californians

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, March 13.Californians entered March with the state’s COVID emergency order newly lifted. In three years of a global pandemic, many aspects of our daily lives changed. Some familiar features seem to have circled back to something resembling normal, but the long-lasting impacts of a global health crisis can’t easily be quantified. That’s why we wanted to hear from Californians directly and give them a space to share their experiences.Last week,…

LA VENTANA, Mexico —  Days after Kirk Robinson got fired from a corporate job he hated, he and a windsurfing buddy loaded their gear into his Volkswagen van and headed south from Los Angeles in search of a mythic beach.It was the early 1990s, and the two had heard vague reports of a remote spot near the end of Baja where the wind blew strong and smooth from noon to sunset.In about three days, they covered more than a thousand miles with no luck. They were tired and discouraged, studying a map at a restaurant in La Paz,…

A near-record amount of snow in California could ease some water restrictions after years of climate-change-fueled drought A near-record amount of snow in California could ease some water restrictions after years of climate-change-fueled drought FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS Read original article here Denial of responsibility! Techno Blender is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to…

Good news for most Californians who owes taxes to the federal or state government: The deadline for filing your return and paying what you owe has been pushed back to October.The relief is available to anyone living or working in the 44 counties covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s emergency declaration. That includes Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties. FEMA’s action came in response to the severe winter storms that caused floods, landslides and mudslides between Dec. 27 and Jan. 31. State and…

After two years of record growth, the University of California received a smaller number of applications for fall 2023, with state students holding steady but nonresidents declining, according to preliminary data released Friday.Overall, UC drew 206,405 applications for first-year seats, a 2% decline over last year, with international students accounting for the steepest drop. The number of California first-year applicants stayed essentially flat overall at 132,226 — increasing at six of the nine UC undergraduate campuses…

Brent Eldridge had heard that prices for natural gas were high this winter, but nothing prepared him for how bad it could be. When he opened the envelope from Long Beach’s utility department, he couldn’t believe the total: $907.13, nearly eight times higher than his bill at the same time last year. “It made me want to puke,” said Eldridge, 48, a pastor.Household budgets in the Golden State, already stretched thin as prices soar for everything from rent to eggs, are being pummeled by monster gas bills. Southern…

If you’re from California and thinking of moving to Utah, think again. You may not be welcomed in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah said Friday that Californians should “stay in California,” in part because his state is beset by problems including housing and water shortages.Cox, a Republican, delivered his remarks in front of the White House last week alongside Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat, as the pair were in Washington for the National Governors Assn. annual winter meeting.Murphy and Cox, who…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Feb. 1.This morning before work, I decided to walk to grab coffee and a light breakfast. I usually make this under-half-a-mile trip once or twice a week, but I’m almost always in my car.That’s fairly common by U.S. mobility standards. In 2021, more than half of daily vehicle trips in the U.S. (including car, rail, transit and air travel) were less than three miles, according to research compiled for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. An…

The woman clung to a tree in pitch darkness. Nearby, her gray pickup was submerged in murky, brown water.She was trapped along a fair-weather bridge, a causeway built over Coyote Creek just north of Ventura. The creek had overflowed and flooded the crossing after a powerful storm barreled into the area Monday.About 100 feet away, voices called out over the rushing water. Hold tight, they told her. A rescue swimmer is coming.The job of getting the stranded, soaking-wet woman to safety fell to the Ventura County Fire…

The Internal Revenue Service offered a lifeboat of sorts Tuesday to California residents and businesses floundering in the atmospheric river: More time to pay their income taxes.The agency announced that taxpayers in any county covered by a federal emergency declaration would have until May 15 to file their income tax returns for 2022. So far, 31 of the state’s 58 counties are in that group, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties; if the declaration is extended to more counties, the IRS will grant…