California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Where does the Los Angeles City Council go from here?

Three of its members – including the former Council president – are facing calls from President Joe Biden to resign after a recording surfaced of them participating in a closed-door meeting in which racist language was used to mock colleagues while they schemed to protect Latino political strength in Council districts.

Three current or former Council members have been indicted or pleaded guilty to corruption charges, and it’s possible resignations in coming days could create new vacancies.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration is developing plans for Venezuelans with financial sponsors to be granted parole to enter the United States, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted after Russia’s invasion, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Four officials offered broad outlines of the plan to deal with a large increase in Venezuelans arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from the post Monday after she was heard making racist comments and other coarse remarks in a leaked recording of a conversation with other Latino leaders.

Council President Nury Martinez issued an apology and expressed shame.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Almost 14.8 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Nearly 238,000 of these cases have been added in the past four weeks. Approximately 6.9 million reported cases have been added in 2022, according to the report.

FAIRMEAD, Calif. (AP) — As California’s drought deepens, Elaine Moore’s family is running out of an increasingly precious resource: water.

The Central Valley almond growers had two wells go dry this summer. Two of her adult children are now getting water from a new well the family drilled after the old one went dry last year. She’s even supplying water to a neighbor whose well dried up.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- NASA has revealed the first picture of Jupiter's ice-encrusted moon Europa, which was taken by the Juno spacecraft as it was flying by.

The image was captured during the solar-powered spacecraft's closest approach on Thursday at a distance of about 352 kilometers.

This is only the third close pass in history below 500 kilometers altitude and the closest look any spacecraft has provided at Europa since Jan. 3, 2000, when NASA's Galileo came within 351 kilometers of the surface, according to the agency.

(AP) --- One member of Rabbi David Wolpe’s diverse congregation left because Wolpe would not preach sermons criticizing Donald Trump. Scores of others left over resentment with the synagogue’s rules for combating COVID-19. But Wolpe remains steadfast in his resolve to avoid politics when he preaches at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.

“It is not easy to keep people comfortable with each other and as part of one community,” he said. “A great failing of modern American society is that people get to know each other’s politics before they get to know their humanity.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Three decades ago, finding opportunities to learn Cantonese in San Francisco wasn’t hard. But today in the city that’s drawn Cantonese speakers from South China for over 150 years, there’s fear that political and social upheaval are diminishing a language that is a cultural touchstone.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in U.S. military history has been arrested in Venezuela after fleeing before his sentencing, authorities said Wednesday.

The international manhunt for Leonard Glenn Francis ended with his arrest by Venezuelan authorities Tuesday morning at the Caracas airport as he was about to board an airplane for another country, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Disease experts predict that COVID will remain among the top 10 causes of death in the United States for the foreseeable future, said a report of NBC News.

After U.S. President Joe Biden said the coronavirus pandemic was "over" in an interview Sunday, many people were left wondering how to reconcile his comment with the fact that the country is still averaging about 500 COVID deaths every day, said the report published on Monday.