SALINAS – A Salinas man has been convicted for stabbing his fiancé to death in 2021. On Monday, a Monterey County Superior Court jury found Richard Ruiz, 61, guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced this week. Ruiz’ sentencing is scheduled for May 18. In February 2021, Ruiz was engaged to Gabriela Guzman. On Feb. 17, Guzman’s son, Richard Chavez, contacted the Salinas Police Department dispatch and requested officers conduct a welfare check of his mother, as Guzman had not shown up to work for two days and no one wa ..read more

A strange-shaped, 3,300-foot-tall underwater volcano has been discovered just 184 miles off the Northern California coast. The sea mountain, or “seamount,” appears more like a smooth-sided circular tower, with near-vertical sides, than a craggy mountain. It was found in February by an ocean mapping autonomous sailboat as part of a multi-agency survey led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Typically seamounts have sloped sides, like Mount Fuji,” Dr. Aurora Elmore, the program manager for NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, tol ..read more

SANTA CLARA — The 49ers’ 9-year-old home needs a makeover, and the Santa Clara-based franchise wants to tap into the NFL’s proverbial equity line for upgrades ahead of hosting 2026 World Cup soccer games. Seats and scoreboards will be enhanced if the 49ers secure $120 million from the NFL’s stadium fund, which the franchise sought to secure Tuesday at the league meeting in Phoenix, The Athletic reported. Enhancements could also lead to the Super Bowl’s return to Levi’s Stadium, which is owned by the city of Santa Clara and managed by the 49ers in what’s been a contentious relationship. The NFL ..read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A powerful weather system originating in the Gulf of Alaska pushed into Northern California on Tuesday, bringing more wind, rain and snow to a state battered by months of storms. Forecasters warned of heavy snow in the coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevada, where accumulations of up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) were possible. An avalanche warning was issued for the greater Lake Tahoe area. The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to pull a plume of Pacific moisture into California as it tracked south, but the rainfall was not expected to be as intense as t ..read more

Question: I am appalled as I started receiving my Social Security benefits last year and was shocked to discover that my benefits are taxable. This seems unfair as I am being taxed on the same income twice since I paid into Social Security. Can you please explain how it works? Answer: Many individuals collecting social security are unaware of the taxability of these benefits. For state purposes, the benefits are NOT taxable. However, the benefits MAY be taxable for federal purposes (not for California) depending upon your filing status and level of income. Like most of the Internal Revenue Cod ..read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the state’s most infamous death row will be shuttered, transforming San Quentin State Prison into a “restorative justice facility” over the next few years. The $20 million plan will change the prison’s name to the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and Newsom said by 2025, a panel of civilian experts, former inmates and crime victims will help advise on the facility’s changes. “We want to be the preeminent restorative justice facility in the world — that’s the goal,” Newsom said March 17. As part of the shift, the more than 500 inmates ..read more

Don’t be deterred by a title like “My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons” (Countryman Press, $30). We may not have six seasons — until this winter, we barely had three — but there are plenty of delicious things for Californians to savor in this new cookbook by Gesine Bullock-Prado. The renowned pastry chef, cookbook author and King Arthur Flour baking instructor is actually a California transplant, who spent a decade in Hollywood as a film executive, before moving to Vermont in 2004 to relaunch her career in a dramatically different, delicious direction. Gesine Bullock-Prado’s new co ..read more

If you’ve ever scrolled through social media posts only to be gripped with envy when you see a friend posing in front of their beautiful house or enjoying themselves at a luxurious resort, then you understand how easy it is to want what other people have. Financial envy is real, and sometimes it can be ugly. “Financial envy is absolutely normal. It’s part of the human condition,” says Yvonne Hampton, who holds a doctorate in personal financial planning and runs a financial therapy practice in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing, she adds. “It’s an opportunity ..read more

SACRAMENTO — Republican lawmakers say that, before California spends even more money battling homelessness, the public deserves to know exactly how the tens of billions of dollars already put toward the epidemic are being spent and whether the state is getting results. Among the GOP lawmakers calling for greater accountability is state Sen. Roger Niello, a businessman who returned to the Capitol in December after a 12-year hiatus. As a fiscal conservative from the Sacramento suburbs, with more than a decade of experience in local and state politics, Niello wants to work with Democrats. Bu ..read more

Kyle Shanahan accepts the fact the 49ers could be without Brock Purdy to start the regular season in six months. So the task at hand is to prepare Trey Lance for the starting quarterback role he held a year ago, even if Purdy showed enough last season to reclaim the job once his surgically repaired elbow allows. “With Brock being hurt, it does open (the job) up, and it does give him a chance,” Shanahan said Tuesday at the NFL owners meeting in Phoenix. “I don’t know how Brock’s going to come back. I don’t know exactly when he’s going to come back, so I don’t have the exact answer for that. “Bu ..read more