Fragments of a heavily-decomposed whale carcass washed ashore near the La Jolla Shores Hotel Wednesday night, a city of San Diego spokesperson confirmed Thursday. The carcass was believed to be an 18-foot whale, San Diego spokesperson Jose Ysea said. NOAA scientists were called to take samples of the whale and determine where it could have come from. The decomposition was making it difficult for the researchers to tell much about the whale immediately, NOAA spokesperson Michael Milstein said. la jolla Feb 22 Juvenile gray whale that washed up on La Jolla beach towed away Jan 12 Floati ..read more

New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case. “We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” the court’s 4-3 decision said. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.” The state Court of Appeals ruling reopens a ..read more

On the left and right, Supreme Court justices seem to agree on a basic truth about the American system of government: No one is above the law, not even the president. “The law applies equally to all persons, including a person who happens for a period of time to occupy the Presidency,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in 2020. Less than a year earlier, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, then a federal trial judge, wrote, “Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.” But former President Donald Trump and his legal team are put ..read more

Declining enrollment in the South Bay has left parents, staff and district administrators with some tough decisions. The South Bay Union School District may have to consolidate schools and redistribute its students. Parents seem to recognize the need for saving money but struggle with the process. “No one knew what was going on, and now you don’t want to let parents speak,“ said parent Kayla Stanley, who confronted Superintendent Jose Espinoza at the district’s third community town hall on Wednesday night. Stanley has a child with special needs at Central Elementary School but feels left behin ..read more

San Diego County health officials issued a warning this week about counterfeit versions of botulinum toxin, often referred to as Botox, after a possible local botulism case. A woman from San Diego County purchased what appeared to be Botox online from an unlicensed source and took it to a “Botox Party” in Mexico, where she was injected with the product last month, the county said in a news release on Tuesday. The next day, she experienced a headache, blurred vision, voice hoarseness and felt weak, which are symptoms consistent with botulism: an illness caused by a toxin that attacks the body’s ..read more

The Los Angeles Police Department detained several demonstrators at a pro-Palestine protest Wednesday at the University of Southern California campus, where officers clashed with participants as tensions rose. Police officers clashed with protesters who set up encampments on the campus of USC as the students took part in the pro-Palestine demonstrations that were growing across the U.S. on Wednesday. According to LAPD, about 93 arrests were made as of 10 p.m. Amid the unrest, USC closed its campus gates after students and protests began an “occupation” of USC’s Alumni Park Wednesday to call fo ..read more

A Long Beach man who brought two teenage girls to the San Diego area to have them work as prostitutes was sentenced this week to nine years in federal prison. Deonathan Abdul Gaston, 26, transported the girls — ages 15 and 16 — to San Diego last summer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said Gaston was stopped by National City police on Aug. 13 “in a high-crime area known for prostitution,” and police did not let him drive away because he didn’t have a driver’s license on him. He called his “girlfriend” to come pick up the car and the girl who arrived turned out to be a teen ..read more

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said they seized 1.1 million fentanyl pills and 523 pounds of meth during the past week. Gretchen Burns Bergman, an addiction recovery and advocacy nonprofit co-founder, said fentanyl has replaced heroin as the new street drug. She has two sons who struggled with heroin addiction. The Scourge of Fentanyl fentanyl Dec 2, 2022 Poison Pill: San Diego County's Battle Against Fentanyl China Apr 16 House panel says China subsidizes fentanyl production to fuel crisis in the United States San Diego Apr 8 ..read more

Dozens of Logan Memorial High School students with megaphones, left class Wednesday in Logan Heights to protest potential teacher layoffs. The San Diego Unified School District has confirmed it may lay off teachers because of budget cuts due to declining enrollment and the end of COVID-19 relief funds. NBC 7 spoke with students, teachers and parents about the walkout and their goal to get the district to re-consider layoffs.    “Students feel safer and more connected with certain teachers, and they feel some of these teachers are the ones that advocate for these students,” said ..read more

San Diego County prison inmate Shawn Brown, who is at the center of a bribery trial involving the smuggling of diamond and gold dental “grill” into Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility and the bribery of a former guard, was in federal court on Wednesday to learn his fate. During the legal proceedings on Wednesday, the inmate, also known as HighClassJefe and BSmash, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in the case. Brown, who was originally sent to Donovan after a conviction for first degree murder, pleaded guilty in connection with the case in November of last year and agreed ..read more