A real life horror story unfolded at a high school in Yuba County after a body was found hanging on campus. Sheriff Wendell Anderson said deputies found the 14-year-old's body dangling from the second floor of a building at Lindhurst High School yesterday. He said the death appears to be a suicide. Marysville Joint Unified School District officials said the teen was a middle school student within the district. Classes were canceled yesterday and today at the high school. Grief counselors were available to talk to students at the affected schools.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has launched a new political action committee to boost Democrats in Republican states. Newsom announced on Thursday the Campaign for Democracy. Newsom is using $10 million of money left over from his 2022 campaign for governor. Newsom and his family plan to visit Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi next week. A Newsom spokesperson says he will also appear at a fundraiser Saturday in Florida for the Democratic Governors Association. Newsom has said he is not interested in running for president. But he has continued to use campaign funds to expand his national profile.

More than half of California is no longer in a drought. That's according the U.S .Drought Monitor update yesterday. It said over 70-percent of the state is drought-free. The entire Central Valley, including the state capitol, is no longer in a drought. Most of Southern California is out of the drought too, including Los Angeles County.

The leader of California's reparations task force said it won't take a stance on how much the state should compensate individual Black residents. Economists estimated that residents may be owed more than $800 billion for over-policing and housing discrimination. The $800 billion estimate is more than 2.5 times California's annual budget. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the reparations task force in 2020. It has until July 1 to submit recommendations on how the state can atone for its role in perpetuating damage done by slavery. Ultimately, it's up to lawmakers to decide which reparations to approve, if any. Opponents say California taxpayers are not responsible for slavery.

A Butte County judge awarded the City of Chico more than $36,000 in sanctions against the petitioners who claimed the city and its election official improperly rejected an argument against Measure H, according to the City of Chico. In late August, Chicoans Against Financial Mismanagement - No On Measure H (CAFM-NOMH) and Karl Ory filed a petition claiming the City of Chico and Deborah Presson improperly rejected an argument against the measure

California Gov. Gavin Newsom - who recently called the oil industry the second most powerful force on earth - signed a new law that gives state regulators the power to penalize oil companies for making too much money, the first of its kind in the country. It’s the type of legislation the oil industry might have crushed in the past. But on Monday, the bill cleared the state Assembly with only one Democrat voting against it…

Disney is set to begin layoffs this week. According to a memo sent by CEO Bob Iger, it's the first of three rounds of cuts that will total about seven-thousand employees. The belt-tightening is part of a broader effort to trim corporate spending and streamline operations. The layoffs are expected to affect Disney's media division along with parks and resorts and ESPN.

California lawmakers have approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump. The state Assembly passed a bill on Monday that would empower state regulators to punish oil companies for profiting from price spikes. The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has said he will sign it into law.

The Butte County Board of Supervisors is set to vote on whether to approve a $2.5 million loan for the Honey Run Covered Bridge Association (HRCBA) at its meeting Tuesday morning. Phase 1 is already complete with the foundation of the covered bridge, but there is still lots of work to be done. The nonprofit over the covered bridge says this money would allow them to finish the last two phases.

Highway 70 between Jarbo Gap and the Greenville Wye remains closed due to more than a half dozen slides, according to Caltrans District 2. Caltrans said the most active slide is at post mile 15.2. This slide has completely blocked the road. Crews are waiting for a stretch of dry weather to make progress on the slides. Caltrans said there is extreme danger involving moving material.

A federal judge has blocked key provisions of a California law that drastically restricts the sale of handguns, saying parts of the legislation violate the Second Amendment. A lawsuit challenging the law was filed last year shortly after a landmark 2022 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. That ruling set new standards for evaluating firearm restrictions. A U.S. district court judge wrote Monday that California's requirements for new handguns are unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The law requires new models of handguns that wished to be sold in the state to have certain features. The state has two weeks to appeal the decision before a preliminary injunction takes effect.

A 48 year-old Chico man will be in a Butte County courtroom today facing murder and attempted murder charges Timothy Wayne Wiechert is suspected a killing 61 year-old Daniel Niles and stuffing his body in a shopping cart and leaving it near (the entrance to the Food Maxx store in Chico) a Chico supermarket. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey says suspect was already in police custody after the attempted murder of a 28 year-old woman last week. Police arrived to find Wiechert strangling a woman and fending off a neighbor Wiechert was arrested and police discovered he was driving a truck owned by Daniel Niles....police discovered the body of Niles two days later. Ramsey says forensic evidence also tied Wiechert to the murder. He faces two life terms if convicted.

A new report says California Governor Gavin Newsom and his family had deep business ties to the now failed Silicon Valley Bank. The Intercept reports Newsom maintained personal accounts at the bank for years and at least three of his wineries have financial ties as well. The report also says a bank president sits on the board of his wife's charity and that a Silicon Valley Bank executive made a 100-thousand-dollar donation to the California Partners Project - a charity founded by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. A spokesperson for the governor's office told the SF Gate that the governor's financial holdings are managed in a blind trust. GOP leaders are challenging Newsom to turn over any further state dealings with the SVB bailout to the Lieutenant Governor and ask the State Attorney General to review the matter for any law violations.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants state regulators to decide whether to impose the nation's first penalty on oil companies for price gouging. At first, Newsom had asked state lawmakers to pass a law that would impose hefty fines on oil companies if their profits rose above a certain threshold. It was a reaction to last summer, when gas prices spiked to record highs as oil companies recorded supersized profits. But the bill has not gotten traction in the state Legislature. Wednesday, Newsom said he would ask lawmakers to empower the California Energy Commission to decide whether to impose a penalty on oil companies.

The Butte County Jail is en route to getting a large expansion after the Butte County Board of Supervisors approved a $33 million dollar contract with Slater & Son, Inc. for its construction. The project has been years in the making with efforts for funding, the design process and many hold-ups associated with local emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the new building, which will be detached from the primary jail facility, will be roughly 39,000 square feet. The long-planned facility will make some considerable additions to the jail, including more space for housing inmates and extra services and medical space.

An evacuation warning has been issued for three Glenn County zones. the Glenn County Sheriff's Office reporting is flooding in the area of Hambright Creek near County Road 200 west of County Road DD. Residents in the area from County Road DD to County Road H may experience flooding and should be prepared for evacuations.

President Biden on Tuesday meeting with survivors of the mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, as he takes action to curb gun violence. In a speech, the President laid out the details of his new executive order on gun control. It aims to increase background checks, raise awareness of red flag flaws and crack down on firearms dealers who are violating the law. Biden added Congress must act to implement universal background checks and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Eleven people were shot and killed in January in Monterey Park in a predominately Asian American community after a Lunar New Year festival.

A new California bill would mandate teachers, counselors and other school employees to notify parents if a student identifies as publicly transgender. It would make school employees, within three days, to notify parents if they learn that a student is publicly identifying as transgender. In January, the mother of a girl who was attending Sierra View Elementary School filed a civil suit against the Chico Unified School District alleging the a school counselor was helping her daughter socially transition her daughter's gender identity without her knowledge. The notification would be triggered if the student participates in gender-segregated sports or opts to use bathroom facilities for a gender other than the one appearing on their birth certificate. Trans advocates call it part of "culture war attacks." Assemblyman James Gallagher, Author of the Bill, , argues this is a way for parents to get involved in their child's well-being.

A California appeals court has ruled companies like Uber and Lyft do not have to treat their drivers as employees. The ruling means app-based ride hailing and delivery companies do not have to provide certain worker protections and benefits. The state Legislature passed a law in 2019 requiring these companies to treat their drivers as employees. Companies like Uber and Lyft spent $200 million in 2020 on a campaign to convince voters to exempt them from that law. Voters agreed. In 2021 a state judge ruled the companies were not exempt from the law. Monday, a state appeals court overturned that decision.

Winters in the U.S. appear to be getting warmer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports the average temperature for the U.S. this winter was 34-point-nine degrees Fahrenheit. That's about two-point-seven degrees above average. Meanwhile, this winter saw zero-point-nine inches of rain above average, making it the third wettest winter on record. Despite that, parts of the East Coast have had one of their least snowy seasons to date.

Chico Police have opened a murder investigation after an adult man was found in a Food Max parking lot wrapped in plastic paper and put in a shopping cart..... Police responded on Sunday afternoon to reports of a dead man in a shopping cart. When police responded they found the man in the shopping cart with visible injuries. This spurred the murder investigation. The California Department of Justice helped local officials process the crime scene. Chico Police are looking for witnesses and canvassed the shopping center looking for leads.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order aiming to increase the number of background checks to buy guns. The order also seeks to promote more secure firearms storage and ensure U.S. law enforcement agencies get the most from last summer's bipartisan gun control law. The Democratic president is expected to unveil his latest efforts at curbing gun violence during a speech Tuesday in Monterey Park, California, where a gunman stormed a dance hall and shot 20 people, killing 11, following a Lunar New Year celebration. The bipartisan legislation passed after the killings of 10 grocery store shoppers in Buffalo, New York, and 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

A Chico man pled guilty to shooting and killing his friend in 2019 over a monetary dispute about illegal marijuana sales, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Dylan Rice, 27, after they gathered enough evidence to connect him to the murder of Jacob McArthur. Detectives said they suspected the murder of McArthur was related to the illegal sales of marijuana.

Voters could soon be asked to make housing a fundamental human right in California. A Bill ACA 10, would send a message to the legilsalture and cities and counties. The ACLU is among the bill's sponsors. They say California has the second-highest rent in the nation, and most low-income households pay more than half of their small incomes to housing. Meanwhile, subsidized housing vouchers are available to only one in four eligible households. If successful in both houses of the legislature, it would then go to voters in order to update the state's constitution.

A state of emergency has been dcelared for Butte County as California is bracing for the arrival of an atmospheric river that forecasters warn will bring heavy rain, strong winds, thunderstorms and the threat of flooding even as the state is still digging out from earlier storms. Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency this (Thursday) morning to support storm response in 21 additional counties including Butte, Plumas, Sacramento and Yuba. The flood threat (starting Thursday) will come from the combination of rain and melting of parts of the huge snowpack built in California's mountains by nine atmospheric rivers early in the winter and later storms fueled by a blast of arctic air. Storms are expected to last through mid-March.