Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc who both lost loved ones to suicide are helping the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide. Judd's mother, country star Naomi Judd, died nearly two years ago. Blacc's frequent collaborator, Tim Bergling, died in 2018. They began their work with the Biden administration at an event this week with Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, who helped unveil the administration's blueprint for reducing suicides in the United States. Some 132 people a day die by suicide in the U.S., the White House ..read more

New York City residents may soon see warning labels next to sugary foods and drinks in chain restaurants and coffee shops, under a law set to go into effect later this year. The rule requires food businesses with 15 storefronts or more to post a warning icon a black and white spoon loaded with sugar next to menu items containing at least 50 grams of added sugar. Businesses will also have to post the following written label to accompany the logo: Warning: indicates that the added sugar content of this item is higher than the total daily recommended limit of added sugar for a 2,000 calorie diet ..read more

A New Mexico man has gone missing, and is last thought to have taken a raft trip down the Colorado River with his dog. National Park Police say his abandoned 2001 Toyota Tacoma was found on April 21 at Lee's Ferry in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Thomas Lee Robison is thought to have taken that raft trip with his Welsh corgi on a raft he constructed himself, police say. Authorities said they did not have many more leads on Robison's whereabouts days after he was last seen, and released recent images of Robinson and his dog to urge the public to help. Robison is 58 years old with br ..read more

Americans have a new hunger for weight loss drugs but at what cost? A third of Americans in need of weight loss have an appetite for prescription pills or injections to help with weight loss. But do they work? Are there hidden side effects? Scripps News investigates semaglutides, a class of drugs used for weight loss which millions of Americans have started taking in the past few years. Nearly 3 in 4 Americans over the age of 20 are classified as either overweight or obese, and a growing number are warming up to the idea that prescription drugs may be the answer. Nearly 1 in 3 Americans who th ..read more

Video shows the current car seat requirements in California and how to properly install them. CHP Officer Tomas Martinez said children under 2 years of age must ride in a rear-facing car seat, in the back seat of the vehicle unless they are 40 or more pounds or 40 inches or more in height. Children older than 2 years old and over 40 pounds are required to sit in a forward-facing position. Community members can get their children's car seats inspected Friday at Garden in the Sun Park between 10am and 1pm. BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT: Several factors come into play when it comes to child safety seats ..read more

Local officials get the chance to address issues in this neighborhood, by identifying the main topics of concern among it's residents. City officials examined three main topics of conversation in 2024, homelessness, crime, and fire danger. 15th annual Taft Chamber of Commerce, state of the city luncheon, held at O-T Cookhouse. Taft City Mayor Dave Noerr, Kern County Fire Division Chief Cary Wright, and Taft Chief of Police Damon McMinn, spoke at the luncheon. BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT: Homelessness, crime, and fire dangers were on the menu at the O-T Cookhouse in Taft, during the 15th annual Taft C ..read more

The Chicago Bears picked the University of Southern California's star quarterback Caleb Williams No. 1 overall in Thursday night's first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Offensive players were expected to feature heavily in early draft picks this year. First-round offensive picks overall, and picks for quarterbacks and receivers in particular, could approach or even set new records. Nineteen offensive players went in the first round of the draft in 2009. Six quarterbacks were picked in 1983, and seven receivers in 2004. Thursday's draft order is determined by reverse order of how all 32 teams fini ..read more

A little under 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, according to provisional statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's about 76,000 fewer than the year before and the lowest one-year tally since 1979. U.S. births were slipping for more than a decade before COVID-19 hit, then dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020. They ticked up for two straight years after that, an increase experts attributed, in part, to pregnancies that couples had put off amid the pandemic's early days. But "the 2023 numbers seem to indicate that bump is over and we're back to the trends ..read more

On Thursday, 23ABC was invited for a tour of volunteer efforts to remodel the Shafter Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. The project is slated to be finished around late Summer. All volunteers working on the remodel are part of the Jehovah's Witness faith, with some coming from as near as Bakersfield or Wasco, or as far as Florida to help with the project. The project's manager Kevin Rosales said the project is broken up into chunks and right now, demolition work is taking place as they work to modernize the hall for visitors in the future. Bruce Spencer is overseeing the project's audio and ..read more

The search of Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner's home came after he was stabbed following an accusation of sexually assaulting one of his children, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Donny Youngblood held a press conference Thursday to discuss the incident. Youngblood said he received a call from Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer on Tuesday night that she was concerned about her nephew, Scrivner. Youngblood added that she told him he was having a psychotic episode and said he was armed with a gun. Deputies responded to his home in Tehachapi and learned that S ..read more