California

Voters will choose nominees for president and weigh in on state and local contests that could have big ramifications.Voting in Delhi on Super Tuesday in 2020.Max Whittaker for The New York TimesPrimary season is officially underway for the 22 million registered voters in California.Ballots have already gone out for the March 5 primary, in which voters will choose their nominees for president, and also weigh in on a number of state and local contests that could have big ramifications for the state’s future.Voters will have their say on a ballot measure championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would finance mental health treatment; choose candidates for the State Legislature; and decide many local races, including the crowded contest for district attorney in Los Angeles.Ballots were sent on Feb. 5 to every registered voter in the state, and they can be returned by mail or handed in at secure drop-off locations or county elections offices. Some locations for early in-person voting will open on Saturday.Here are some of the key races.Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seatWhen Dianne Feinstein died in September, the U.S. Senate seat that she had held for more than three decades fell vacant. Newsom swiftly appointed Laphonza Butler to serve until elections could be held to fill the vacancy, and Butler decided not to run, clearing the way for an open primary race.Four leading candidates have emerged from a crowded field:Representative Adam Schiff, 63, Democrat of Burbank, currently the front-runner in polls and perhaps best known for having served as the lead prosecutor in the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump;Representative Katie Porter, 50, an Orange County Democrat known for grilling powerful leaders during congressional hearings;Representative Barbara Lee, 77, Democrat of Oakland and a longtime progressive;Steve Garvey, 75, a former first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres and the only Republican among the four leaders.In California’s election system, all candidates, regardless of party, compete in a single primary, and the two who receive the most votes advance to the general election. For a while, it seemed that Schiff and Porter were headed for an intraparty battle in November. But Garvey’s fame and some strategic ads from Schiff have made Garvey a serious threat to knock Porter out of the running, as my colleague Shawn Hubler explained Tuesday.An Emerson College poll released on Tuesday showed Garvey overtaking Porter for second place in the primary race. Since Schiff appears to be well positioned to survive the primary, the main question is whether Porter will as well, and give him a serious challenge in November. Garvey would stand little chance of winning the general election; California voters haven’t elected a Republican in a statewide race since 2006.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

In Dana Point, three cliffside mansions teeter on the edge of beauty and peril after storms seemed to weaken the ground beneath them.Seen from the air, cliffside houses along Scenic Drive in Dana Point stand close to the fresh scar of a recent landslide. Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register, via Associated PressFew places are as enjoyable as the headlands in Dana Point, where ocean waves lap rhythmically at the coastline and, on a clear day, the outline of Santa Catalina Island emerges from the Pacific Ocean, the silhouette of a bold sentry in the distance.I walked the headlands trail last week, not only to soak up the beauty that has drawn so many of us to California, but also to get a glimpse of three houses perched on the edge of a cliff off Scenic Drive. A round of storms had sent rocks and dirt cascading down the cliff there, seemingly weakening the ground beneath those residences.Increasingly severe winter storms have led to erosion, flooding and mudslides in many parts of the state as the soil has become saturated with water. Two weeks ago, heavy rain from an intense atmospheric river sent mud oozing through some hillside neighborhoods in Los Angeles, severely damaging homes and forcing evacuations.Residents were anxious once again over the holiday weekend as another atmospheric river blew in from the Pacific. The storm system brought heavy rain on Monday to the southern part of the state, as well as severe thunderstorms and wind gusts to the Bay Area and warnings from forecasters about flooding, hail and possible tornadoes.The Dana Point houses in Orange County drew particular attention after The Los Angeles Times and several TV stations obtained drone footage of their seemingly precarious situation. City officials and two Scenic Drive residents told me this week that the mansions remained structurally sound. “We’re absolutely fine,” one resident, Lewis Bruggeman, said through the speaker at the gate outside his home.Still, the literal edge between beauty and peril on the coast seemed clear to people passing by. “Evidently, Mother Nature has kind of taken over on this one,” said Roger Parsons, 73, who was on a hike with his wife, Laurie.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Union members reached a tentative deal with the California State University system after mounting a strike last month that was the largest by university professors in U.S. history.California State University faculty members and other employees on strike last month in Los Angeles.Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe California State University system and the union representing thousands of professors and lecturers reached a tentative agreement last month to raise wages, ending the largest strike by university faculty members in U.S. history a few hours after it had begun. A ratification vote is being conducted this week.Some faculty members voiced their displeasure with the deal soon after it was reached, saying that the leaders of the union, the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches, could have secured better terms if they had not settled so quickly.If it is ratified, the contract agreement would immediately increase salaries for all faculty members by 5 percent, retroactively to July 1, 2023, with another 5 percent raise scheduled for July 1, 2024, if the state does not cut funding for the university system. The salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty members would immediately rise by $3,000 a year, and paid parental leave would grow to 10 weeks from six.A simple majority of votes is required to approve the contract. Voting began Monday and runs through Sunday; results are expected next week.Union members from Bay Area campuses held a rally last month and formed an enormous “No” on the San Francisco State University campus to trumpet their disapproval.“My belief is that we can get something better,” said Mark Allan Davis, a tenured professor of Africana studies at San Francisco State. He told me that he planned to vote against the contract.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Car No. 53 took a special Valentine’s Day ride up Nob Hill, stopping at the hotel where Bennett debuted “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in 1961.Susan Benedetto, left, and Mayor London Breed enjoying a ride on cable car No. 53, which was dedicated to Tony Bennett.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesCable car No. 53 took a special Valentine’s Day ride up Nob Hill in San Francisco on Wednesday morning, including a stop outside the Fairmont Hotel, where the car was officially dedicated to the singer Tony Bennett, who died in July at age 96.It was inside that hotel — at the Venetian Room, in 1961 — that Bennett first publicly performed his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” with its lyrics about cable cars climbing halfway to the stars. The tune still stirs pride and nostalgia in many San Franciscans, and the Giants play it after every home victory.The dedication, attended by Susan Benedetto, Bennett’s widow, added to a recent string of positive news about the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates the city’s buses, streetcars and light rail lines.Not long ago, the agency’s director, Jeffrey Tumlin, was worried that it was barreling toward a “fiscal cliff,” when it would run out of money and have to make big cuts in service.But like a cable car climbing steep California Street, the agency’s fortunes are slowly rising.The system now has 71 percent of the ridership it had before the pandemic, Tumlin said, which is fairly high compared with other public transportation agencies in the Bay Area. The figure for weekend ridership is even better, at 86 percent. Some bus lines have more riders than ever before, and Tumlin said the system’s three historic cable car routes, loved by tourists, were once again fairly full.“The cable cars are thriving,” he said. “Everyone who visits San Francisco is apparently getting on our cable cars.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

On this day dedicated to love, I’m sharing readers’ poignant reflections about California.Mount Baldy in the distance seen from Los Angeles.Nick Ut/Associated PressHappy Valentine’s Day!On this day dedicated to love, I’m sharing some poignant reflections readers have sent me about California and what they love about their part of the state.I was recently struck by California’s seemingly endless bounty when I stumbled upon the banks of Folsom Lake, where local residents were riding bikes and walking dogs in the crisp morning air.As a reporter, I often hear about Folsom Lake, about 25 miles east of Sacramento, in conversations about drought — it’s one of the state’s biggest reservoirs. But I somehow hadn’t realized there was so much beauty and community to be enjoyed along its shores until I ended up there by accident.I can see that sort of delight in many of the emails readers have sent me about why they love living here. You can send your own California love letter to CAtoday@nytimes.com.Here are some, lightly edited:“Up here in Humboldt County, I am lucky enough to live surrounded by redwoods, with beaches less than five minutes away. A bike ride to work allows me to catch the morning sunrise over the ocean, view the river as I cross a bridge above it, followed by pedalling a winding road through cow pastures. I have all this natural beauty, yet still live only 12 minutes away by car from a college town where I am fortunate to work with students who give me hope for our future.” — Jennie Brown, Trinidad“As a native of Los Angeles, I remember back in the 1980s when my boyfriend at the time drove me on the back of his motorcycle one winter. We traveled up to Mount Baldy to see the snow, then we rode all the way to Santa Monica Beach to watch the sunset — all in one day. How many people can say that?” — Pamela Fender, Rohnert ParkWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Evelyn Persico spending time with Edith Ceccarelli before her birthday celebration in Willits last weekend.Alexandra Hootnick for The New York TimesEdith Ceccarelli, done up in pearl earrings and a silk shawl, rested in an easy chair next to her birthday cake, adorned with the number 116.What otherwise might have been a quiet birthday gathering on a Sunday morning was instead a grand celebration of the oldest known person in America. Before a parade of a hundred vehicles decorated with balloons and garlands began arriving outside the care home where Ceccarelli lives, I joined a group of reporters and photographers who sang to her and wished her a happy birthday.Mayor Saprina Rodriguez of Willits, the small town in Mendocino County where Ceccarelli (formerly Recagno) has lived most of her life, read a proclamation: “1908 was the year that gave us the Ford Model T. Theodore Roosevelt became president. And Edith Recagno was born — three timeless American classics.”Read my article on Ceccarelli, including her advice for living such a long life.Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group, an organization based in Los Angeles that studies supercentenarians (people who reach 110), told me that Ceccarelli was the 29th person on record to turn 116. Her contemporaries, if they were still alive, would be Lyndon B. Johnson, Lucille Ball and Mother Teresa.Edith Ceccarelli graduated from the Willits Union High School in 1927. The Historical Society of Mendocino County has a copy of her class’s yearbook with her photo at top right.Alexandra Hootnick for The New York TimesWhat advice does Young offer for living into your 110s? “No. 1: Be a woman.” Of the 45 oldest people now alive worldwide, he pointed out, 43 are women.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More