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CalPERS boss pushed sports deals before calling it quits

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

By Eliyahu Kamisher and Dawn Lim | BloombergIn her first year atop the California Public Employees’ Retirement System as chief investment officer, Nicole Musicco gathered dozens of staff and laid out an ambitious vision for the largest US public pension fund.She desired innovation, she told the audience at its Sacramento headquarters. She wanted “stadium deals” and identified professional sports as a frontier for more investing.During her tenure the fund explored buying a stake in its hometown basketball team, the Sacramento Kings, said people familiar with the matter. CalPERS also invited Tony Ressler, the billionaire Ares Management co-founder who owns the Atlanta Hawks, to speak to its board.But Musicco’s plans for transforming the $463 billion pension fund — informed by her background at pioneering Canadian public pensions and an investment shop known for sports deals — would never come to pass. On Friday, the 49-year-old resigned after just 18 months, the latest in a string of ...

Where’s the bleach? Clorox products in short supply after cyberattack

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

Have you noticed the sky-high prices for bleach — if you can find it at all on store shelves?A cyberattack at Clorox is causing wide-scale disruption of the company’s operations, hampering its ability to make its cleaning materials, Clorox said Monday.Clorox said some of its products are now in short supply as it has struggled to meet consumer demand during the disruption. Clorox didn’t specify which of its products are affected.A recent scan of store shelves at Target and Walmart in Orange showed scant liquid bleach products by Clorox. Other brands topped $5.50 a gallon.The company on Monday revealed in a regulatory filing that it detected unauthorized activity in some of its information technology systems in August. Clorox said it immediately took action to stop the attack, including reducing its operations. It now believes the attack has been contained.Still, Clorox has not been able to get its manufacturing operations back up to full speed. The company said it is fulfilling and ...

Sexual assault allegation against Russell Brand received by British police in wake of media reports

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

By JILL LAWLESS | Associated PressLONDON — British police said Monday that they had received a sexual assault allegation after media outlets published claims by several women against Russell Brand. Promoters postponed the remaining dates in a string of live gigs by the comedian, who denies the allegations.A talent agency and a publisher also parted company with Brand over the claims, which have left the U.K. entertainment industry facing questions about whether the comedian’s bad behavior went unchallenged because of his fame.Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.London’s Metropolitan Police force said that since the allegations were made public it had received “a report of a sexual as...

Opinion: The real reason Hunter Biden is in trouble with the law

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

Hunter Biden was charged Thursday with three felonies related to lying on a 2018 application to buy a gun. But it’s hard not to conclude that his true offense is being the son of a president whom Republicans are hell-bent on vilifying and defeating.The indictment largely relies on Biden’s false claim that he was not using illegal drugs when he applied to purchase the firearm. In fact, he was then in the depths of the cocaine addiction that drove a series of travails that Republicans continue to weaponize against his father.The Justice Department had previously negotiated a plea agreement with Biden that included a gun charge following some five years of investigation by David Weiss, Trump’s U.S. attorney for Delaware, whom President Joe Biden allowed to remain in office in a departure from standard procedure. Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses and enter a pretrial diversion under which the felony gun charge would be dropped if he stays on the straigh...

Child sues California school district over alleged failure to protect him from repeated attacks by students

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

LOS ANGELES — A child is suing the Claremont Unified School District, alleging district and school officials failed to protect him from unruly fellow intermediate school students who bullied and attacked him on campus this spring and forced his mother to withdraw him from the campus for his protection.The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was brought on the minor’s behalf by his mother and it alleges assault and battery, dangerous condition of public property, negligent supervision and negligent hiring, training and retention. The plaintiff seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.RELATED: $27 million settlement ends lawsuit over 13-year-old Californian student’s bullying deathA CUSD spokeswoman issued a statement regarding the complaint filed Sept. 11, stating that the district is aware of the suit.“The district takes all allegations seriously and is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all our students,” the statement read. “District policy prioritizes th...

Teamsters support California bill requiring a human in self-driving vehicles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

Teamsters and supporters rallied on Monday, Sept. 18 in Arcadia, supporting a Legislative bill that would require a human operator in self-driving vehicles weighing 10,001 pounds or more.The union says Assembly Bill 316 would prioritize safety on the road and put the preservation of an estimated 200,000 California jobs “before the interests of Big Tech.” Opponents say it would derail the state’s move to deliver safe, lower-cost transportation of goods at a time when the trucking industry is struggling to attract and retain drivers.Smart Trucking, an online career and support organization for truckers, said many drivers are leaving the industry in search of jobs that offer better pay, benefits and working conditions, a trend that has resulted in a shortage of about 60,000 U.S. drivers.Smart Trucking added that drivers often get nothing for the time they spend stuck in traffic jams, construction zones, bad weather or other delays they encounter on the road.SB 316 — which a Teamsters r...

Allowing speed cameras in six California cities, including San Jose and Oakland, is up to Newsom

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

A bill that for the first time in California history would authorize speed cameras on roadways in six selected cities passed both houses in Sacramento last week and is now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk awaiting his signature.Assembly Bill 645, by principal author Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, represents the eighth attempt to bring speed cameras to California since 2005 and the first to make it all the way to the desk of the governor. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 14 to sign the bill into law or veto it.“We need new tools in our toolbox to stop traffic violence and the senseless loss of human life,” Friedman said in a statement. “I am confident the governor will sign AB 645 into law.”While there’s no word from the governor’s office about which way he’s leaning, Friedman said many of the provisions in her bill are included in a report from the California State Transportation Agency’s “Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force.”That report found that studies show roadway systems ...

Suspect in killing of LA County deputy battled mental illness, hallucinations, family says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

The family of a 29-year-old man arrested in the ambush-style killing of Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer offered a troubling portrait of the suspect Monday, saying he was in the throes of mental health crises that included auditory hallucinations.Although Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna called Kevin Cataneo Salazar a “coward” for shooting the deputy while he was stopped at a redlight Saturday near the Palmdale sheriff’s station, Salazar’s family blamed his mental illness for his actions.“I want you to know that my son has schizophrenia and delusional perceptions and the police know this,” his mother, Marle Salazar, wearily told a throng of reporters in Spanish on Monday as they converged on her residence in the 37600 block of Barrinson Street. “They know my son is sick. And if they are going to judge him, then they need to judge him with the condition he has.”Marle Salazar said she wasn’t minimizing Clinkunbroomer’s slaying, but added that if her son is...

Shannon Beador of ‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ arrested on suspicion of DUI, hit-and-run

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

“Real Housewives of Orange County” cast member Shannon Beador was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and hit-and-run in Newport Beach over the weekend, according to police.Beador, 59, was arrested and booked early Sunday, a public information officer for the Newport Beach Police Department told CNN. Alcohol-related DUI and a hit-and-run with property damage are both misdemeanor charges in Beador’s case, according to police.She was released shortly after. City News Service reported she was accused of a collision on residential property. Newport Beach Police Department Sgt. Steve Oberon said the collision occurred Saturday night at Via Oporto and Via Lido.CNN has reached out to Beador’s attorney Michael Fell for comment.“I spent quite a bit of time with Shannon yesterday. She is extremely apologetic and remorseful. We will be awaiting the official information on this case as it becomes available, and Shannon is prepared to accept full responsibility for her actions,” Fell told E...

Walters: Compromise settles dispute over status of fast food franchises

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:51 GMT

In some ways, the most interesting — and perhaps most significant — event of the 2023 legislative session’s closing days was a compromise agreement on state oversight of the fast food industry.Last year, unions pushed through legislation that would have created a new state commission to set wages and working conditions in the industry.Inferentially, the legislation set aside the industry’s franchise system and treated locally outlets of as merely branches of their corporate franchisors.While the wage increases that would have resulted garnered most of the media attention, erosion of the franchise model was most worrisome aspect to the fast food corporations and their franchisees.Immediately, big guns in the industry pledged tens of millions of dollars for a campaign to challenge the legislation via a referendum that qualified to go before voters in 2024.The Legislature’s response was entertaining another bill that would have doubled down on attacking the franchise model by making co...