The threat to Sheriff Chad Bianco’s life that caused a 21-year-old Riverside college student to be arrested and served with a gun violence restraining order is a one-sentence Instagram caption: “We need to kill this guy ASAP.”
It’s Oct. 5. As a reminder, all articles published on Sept. 21 are now free to read. Review that edition here.
The threat to Sheriff Chad Bianco’s life that caused a 21-year-old Riverside college student to be arrested and served with a gun violence restraining order is a one-sentence Instagram caption: “We need to kill this guy ASAP.”
Danielle Lopez’s attorney, Jay Monico of the San Diego firm Seven Legal, said his client did not own any guns, and that he knew of no other evidence against his client beyond the post. He stressed his client’s innocence until proven guilty.
“Miss Lopez has the presumption of innocence, and there was no ill will or malicious intent,” Monico said by phone Oct. 3.
The order requires Lopez to surrender her firearms—but does not claim that she ever owned any.
Justin Halstenberg of Norco will serve at least 16 years in state prison for starting the 44,000-acre Line Fire on Sept. 5, 2024.
San Bernardino Superior Judge Cheryl Kersey handed down the sentence, which could result in life in prison, on Oct. 1. At the same hearing, Halstenberg pleaded guilty to one count of arson of forest land. He had been convicted by jury of eight other counts of arson on May 22.
The Line Fire started near Baseline St. and Alpine St., north of Highland. It destroyed one structure and injured six firefighters. Nobody died from the fire, according to CalFire.
San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney’s Justin Crocker and Andrew Peppler prosecuted. Public defenders Luke Byward and Justin Ewaniszyk defended.
President Donald Trump's suspension of birthright citizenship is stopped—again.
A three-judge appellate panel on Oct. 3 upheld a Massachusetts judge’s July injunction that paused Trump’s executive order.
The plaintiffs were likely to prove that the executive order violates the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, the judges ruled. Babies born on American soil receive American citizenship through the 14th Amendment, the 1898 Supreme Court ruling Wong Kim Ark, and the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, they ruled.
They also found that children born without legal status will be harmed by lacking healthcare and the threat of deportation.
“Laying off” refers to a widespread practice in the Capitol: Instead of casting a “no” vote, lawmakers regularly choose not to vote at all. Not voting counts the same as “no.” It also counts the same as when a lawmaker isn’t there to cast a vote.
An analysis of the CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database, which tracks every vote in the Legislature, found that the average Democratic lawmaker missed close to 100 votes on bills this year. Republicans miss even more votes, despite, on average, casting a “no” vote 53 times more than the average Democrat. The minority party’s 30 lawmakers missed an average of nearly 400 votes this year, the analysis found.
Assemblymember Robert Garcia (D-Rancho Cucamonga) is bucking the trend by voting no.
“I did feel that if you’re … going there to Sacramento, it’s to know the bills and to take a position and, you know, and not be on the sidelines.”
From CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang:
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure into law Friday that safeguards the identity of abortion providers in California. The law allows doctors, pharmacists and other authorized medical staff to prescribe abortion pills without putting their names or the patient’s name on the prescription label. It goes into effect immediately. Doctors in California and New York have been sued for providing abortion medication to residents in states where the procedure is not allowed. The new law heightens the contrast between California’s abortion protections and laws in states like Texas, which heavily restrict or ban abortion, and allow their residents to sue out-of-state abortion providers. Newsom said he was proud to sign the bill “in the face of amplified attacks on the fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” The new law also requires state health insurance plans to cover the abortion pill even if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yanks its approval.
Two Ivy League brothers. Two Beverly Hills parents. Two tabloid murders. The true crime spotlight refuses to let go of Erik and Lyle Menendez.
From the first news of their arrest in 1990, the Menendez brothers have been defined by sensationalized headlines. Their separate trials dominated cable television in 1993. Plot twists of witness tampering, an unscrupulously recorded therapy confession and claims of lifelong sexual abuse all played out in the public eye before juries deadlocked.
Thousands of parole proceedings go largely unnoticed each year. But on Aug. 21 and 22, the Menendez hearings brought heightened focus to what is normally a standard procedure that, in theory, balances concerns for public safety against giving offenders a genuine second chance opportunity.
The outcome of each brother’s hearing was not surprising. Both received three-year denials, which are common.
But when the list of attendees includes Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo — as well as the Board of Parole Hearings Executive Officer Scott Wyckoff and a Los Angeles Times reporter to update dozens of other news outlets — a common event turns almost circus-like.
On the eve of what was expected to be a long and gut-wrenching trial, a small school district in Santa Barbara County has settled a sexual abuse lawsuit for $7.5 million with two brothers, now 65 and 68 years old, who claimed a long-dead principal molested them in the 1970s.
The brothers had sought $35 million for the harm they said they suffered, an attorney for the youngest brother said.
The settlement equals about 40% of the 350-student district’s 2025-26 budget, although the district did not disclose the terms and timetable for the payment. The district’s superintendent acknowledged in a statement that there would be an impact on the budget.
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