Dividing $800 million could just be the worst job ever
Two judges must decide the value of people who died and who lived through the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. California's paltry housing market could expand as boomers sell ... except they're likely to sell to other boomers who can actually afford the homes.
It's news for Friday.
But first, file this under zoinks: Last week's bomb cyclone produced a 75-foot wave off the California coast.
I'm Arlene Martínez and I write In California, a daily roundup of stories from newsrooms across the Paste BN Network and beyond. Sign up here and tell a friend.
How much is a death worth?
That is the impossible question two retired judges will need to answer as they divide $800 million among the families of those killed and injured in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. The gunman fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay into the open-air Route 91 Harvest Festival, killing nearly 60 people and injuring 800.
Chelsea Romo, 30, a single mom from Temecula, Calif., no longer has her left eye. Jason McMillan, 37, a sheriff’s deputy from nearby Riverside, took a bullet to the spine. More than 30 of the victims were from California. The process won't be easy, and no one will be happy.
“In my experience, justice, fairness, satisfaction, happiness, none of it enters into this equation,” says Kenneth Feinberg, whose Washington, D.C., law firm has administered some of the biggest victim compensation funds in recent memory, including $7.1 billion awarded to victims of the 9/11 attacks.
The first step for victims is opting into the settlement, which was agreed to by Mandalay Bay's parent company, MGM Resorts International.
GOP congressman will resign after the holidays
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R- Alpine, who earlier this week pleaded guilty to a count of misusing campaign funds for personal use, will resign after the holidays. "It has been an honor to serve the people of California's 50th District, and I greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me over these last 11 years,” he said in a statement released Friday. Hunter faces a possible five-year prison term and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced March 17. He was indicted on 60 counts of using campaign funds for lavish travel, dental expenses and other items and then lying about it.
Boomers selling houses ... to other boomers
A new report from Zillow finds that half of owner-occupied homes are owned by people over 50. As baby boomers downsize or pass away, homes across the country may open up for purchase. But that may be of little help to young, working Californians amid a severe housing crunch.
Why? Proposition 13, passed by voters in the 1970s, limits how much property taxes can go up each year. That gives longtime homeowners incentive to stay put, considering what buying a home costs. And when they do sell, high prices mean more established households—often boomers—are the only ones that can afford to buy.
You might remember the story of actors Jeff and Beau Bridges, who rent out their inherited Malibu beachfront estate for around $16,000 a month, or roughly half the cost of their annual property tax bill. In California, the only state that does this, those who inherit properties also get the benefits of Prop. 13.
Animals in the news
A barn owl found stranded on Highway 101 is being treated at a recovery center that specializes in birds of prey. The prognosis is grim.
The woman who lost her dog to a mountain lion attack earlier this week doesn't want the cat killed.
A beloved African lion and longtime Santa Barbara Zoo resident has died.
Global warming's ground zero
Santa Barbara, the birthplace of the Earth Day movement, is part of a stretch of California experiencing some of the fastest temperature increases in the country. The Washington Post took a deep dive into what that means for residents of the most impacted areas and provides an alarming look at how climate change is impacting the globe.
"The coastal curve that bends south from Santa Barbara through the Los Angeles metroplex to the arroyos along the Mexican border is warming at double the rate of the continental United States," the Post's analysis found.
It's a trend that has only accelerated in the past five years and it's threatening redwood forests, Joshua trees, and bird populations and diminishing once-expansive kelp forests around the Channel Islands.
What else we're talking about
Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein remains free on bail, despite prosecutors' arguments he violated conditions of his ankle bracelet.
A San Francisco planning commissioner who has been highly critical of developers ignoring planning and building codes to make megabucks on property flips is facing allegations he's part of an investment group doing just that.
Macy's is one of 2019's worst performers in the S&P 500, and don't blame e-shoppers.
Only about 1/3 of California's rural households subscribe to internet service. What does that mean for the future earning potential of the other 67% of students?
And related to that digital divide, I'll leave you with a question: Which California town has the slowest internet in the U.S.?
See you next week.
In California is a roundup of news compiled from across Paste BN Network newsrooms. Also contributing: Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, EdSource, San Francisco Chronicle, CNN.