California confirms the country’s first case of a variant of Omicron. The variant’s presence in the Golden State – reported Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – is not unexpected. Nonetheless, his arrival comes at a time that was already proving particularly precarious in California. Los Angeles County reported its first case Thursday and five cases were confirmed in Alameda County on Friday.

Maintain ban on large capacity magazines. A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday to uphold California’s ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines.

From gun theft to the LAPD scandal. What began as a missing firearms investigation in the Los Angeles Police Academy’s gun shop has sparked a spiral of allegations of criminal activity, misconduct and corruption on the part of officers and commanders.

Cities are trying to blunt the new duplex law. With California on the verge of allowing apartment buildings in neighborhoods that were previously reserved for single-family homes, some cities are rushing to put restrictions on the new developments. Meanwhile, a majority of Los Angeles County’s voters support new state laws.

Poisonous locations threatened by flooding. A new nationwide mapping project finds the ocean could flood more than 400 dangerous facilities by the end of the century – exposing local residents to dangerous chemicals and polluted water.

Nine charged with shoplifting. San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin said Tuesday he had charged nine people with crimes in a number of shoplifting incidents, including a mass busting of luxury stores in Union Square.

Anger and frustration over the LA homelessness crisis. Los Angeles voters want the government to act faster and focus on housing for people who live on the streets, even if those efforts are short-term and do not provide permanent housing, a new poll of the county’s electorate shows. Nearly half of Los Angeles County’s black voters have been homeless, have experienced housing insecurity in the past year, or know someone who has.

Crime on LA trains is increasing, buses picking up when passengers return. From 2021 through September, violent crime reports rose 25% from the same point in time last year and 9% from 2019, according to data from the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Passengers say poor commuters suffer the most.

A beloved philanthropist and a shocking murder in Beverly Hills. Jacqueline Avant, a Los Angeles philanthropist and wife of legendary record producer Clarence Avant, was shot dead in her Beverly Hills home early Wednesday, police said. Police said Thursday they had arrested a 29-year-old man from Los Angeles.

A California without snow could come sooner than you think. A new study led by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that the dwindling snowpack in California and the western United States could continue to shrink dramatically, or in some cases, disappear in some cases, with “potentially catastrophic results” before the end of the century .

ICYMI, here are this week’s great reads

The toll of a man’s mental illness: John Samuel Maurer plunged into a vortex of mental illness, staggering from place to place, slipping through virtually every institution in a safety net so torn that not even his savvy siblings could make it.

A prolific serial killer left LA detectives hunting for ghosts. When Sam Little released details of the 93 murders he allegedly committed in the United States, the number of casualties rose in Los Angeles. Authorities remain at a loss about 16 allegedly occurring in LA County, and detectives are starting a public urge for answers.

How hackers play online abuse reporting systems. The practice of mass reporting has become a kind of boogeyman at TikTok, where removing a video can mean losing the chance of going viral, building a brand, or attracting the attention of corporate sponsors. It’s an especially scary prospect as many TikTokers believe that mass reporting works well against posts that aren’t actually against the rules.

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