On March 19, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that all 40 million of the state’s residents were to “stay at home” until further notice. This means that all outside gatherings in the state are now prohibited, and nonessential businesses everywhere must close. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
American forces reclaimed remote Attu Island on May 30, 1943, after a 19-day campaign known as World War II’s forgotten battle. Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand, waged in dense fog and winds of up to 120 mph.
Casualties were high; only 28 of 2,500 Japanese soldiers survived. More than 500 U.S. soldiers died in the “forgotten battle.” American forces had trained in California for desert combat and were not prepared for the harsh Alaska weather. On the final assault on U.S. forces on May 29 1943, 200 Japanese soldiers were killed and another 500 held grenades to their bellies and pulled the pins. The battle for Attu proved to be unimportant to the rest of the war, but American planes did use the island to bomb the northernmost reaches of Japan.
San Francisco Wipes Out Weed Convictions From 1975 The city will retroactively apply California’s new marijuana laws to prior convictions. Misdemeanors and felonies from 1975 will either be reduced or expunged. This means nearly 5,000 marijuana convictions will be reviewed and about 3,000 misdemeanors will be dismissed. The new measure is part of California’s Proposition 64 which legalizes possession and purchase of one ounce of marijuana.
4 Famous Cases of People Held Captive Against Their Will David and Louise Turpin, are being charged with torture and child endangerment for holding their 13 kids captive in their home. These are 3 other held captive cases that made national news: 1. Josef Fritzl For 24 years, Fritzl held his daughter Elisabeth captive in his home’s basement, where he raped and assaulted her numerous times. He was later jailed for life in 2009. 2. Cleveland Kidnappings In 2002, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus were kidnapped by a man named Ariel Castro. The three were rescued in 2013 and he was sentenced to life without parole. He committed suicide in his cell in Sep. 2013. 3. Jaycee Dugard Dugard vanished in 1991 at the age of 11, when she was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido. Garrido and his wife Nancy held Dugard captive in a backyard shed for 18 years. She was raped and birthed two children by Garrido. After visit to UC Berkeley prompted an investigation, Dugard was found and freed by police in 2009. Garrido was sentenced 431 years to life and Nancy was sentenced 36 years to life.
A new forecast for the Colorado River says the outlook for the coming year is bleak. The National Weather Service predicts the river will flow at about 54% of its average volume from April to July. That’s when the river usually swells with snowmelt from the Rockies and other ranges, but precipitation this winter has been well below normal across the region. There’s still plenty of time for conditions to improve. The river basin tends to accumulate much of its snowpack in January, February and March. Lake Mead ended 2017 almost 2 feet higher than a year ago, as use of Colorado River water by Nevada, Arizona and California hit its lowest level since 1992. The lake can use all the help it can get. Its surface has dropped more than 130 feet since drought started in 2000. Projections for the lake are almost certain to get worse.
