On Tuesday, the group secured another landmark property in Santa Clara County, announcing it had purchased Mead Ranch, a 1,921-acre parcel between San Jose and Morgan Hill, for $24.3 million.

The ranch, located in the picturesque rolling foothills along Uvas Road, will be preserved as open space, according to the organization, commonly known as POST. It’s the latest property in recent years to be set aside for wildlife, farming or open space in and around Coyote Valley, an area west of Highway 101 on San Jose’s southern edges where tech giants Apple and Cisco once proposed to build huge campuses in the 1980s and 1990s.

“There are rolling hills, oak-studded grasslands, ponds and beautiful views,” said Gordon Clark, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, during a recent visit to Mead Ranch. “This property is a key linchpin that connects the Santa Cruz Mountains to Coyote Valley.”

Clark said the purchase, which was funded in large part by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, is the latest example of a wider strategy to provide places to roam for mountain lions, deer and other wildlife that are increasingly isolated by freeways and development across California.

“We’ve been filling in puzzle pieces on the valley floor at Coyote Valley and bigger pieces on the hillsides around it,” Clark said. “We’re trying to protect big blocks that wildlife can use as habitat, and which link to the  Diablo Range and the rest of the state.”

The ranch is roughly twice the size of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. From its highest hills, visitors can see Mount Hamilton to the east, and Mount Umunhum and Loma Prieta to the west. With the purchase, about 49,000 acres of open space now exists between Mount Umunhum and Highway 101 — an area six times the size of Stanford University.

Since 1954, Mead Ranch had been owned by the family of Stephen D. Bechtel Jr., who from 1960 to 1990 served as president of Bechtel, a major American engineering and construction company. Bechtel was married to Elizabeth Mead Hogan, who died two years ago. Stephen D. Bechtel Jr., died in 2021 at age 95, with a net worth estimated at $3.5 billion.

Founded in San Francisco in 1898, the Bechtel company built Hoover Dam, BART and the Channel Tunnel between England and France, along with airports, nuclear plants and other huge projects around the world. Over time, some Bechtel heirs have moved out of the Bay Area, and the company shifted its headquarters to Virginia in 2018.

Along with his friends and family, Bechtel used Mead Ranch for getaways and hunting trips. In 2007, he hosted the National Retriever Championship on the property, an annual event in which hunting dogs from around the United States compete to retrieve birds, like ducks or pheasants, while navigating challenging terrain.

Evan Johnstone of Reno, Bechtel’s grandson, declined to comment on the sale.

In 2023, another branch of the family sold an adjacent property called Lakeside Ranch to POST for $22 million.

POST transferred that property to the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency, a government agency that preserves open space as part of a broad countywide plan in which developers pay fees to offset harm they do to endangered species on their properties so they can obtain permits. Clark said the same outcome is likely with Mead Ranch.

Santa Clara County’s landscape and politics have shifted considerably since the Bechtels, who also have lived in San Francisco and Piedmont, first bought the two ranches during the Eisenhower years.

From the 1950s until the 1980s, San Jose sprawled in all directions. With a booming post-war economy driven by military contractors, electronics companies and computer firms, city leaders eagerly approved bulldozing orchards and farms that had given the area the name “Valley of Heart’s Delight” for freeways, subdivisions and businesses.

By the 1980s and 1990s, political views began to shift. San Jose, neighboring cities and Santa Clara County began passing rules to limit development on hillsides and some farmland. Environmental groups and land trusts began pushing for new parks and open space preserves. Many old-time ranching families sold their properties, which have increasingly become parks and open space preserves.

“It used to be that Grandpa bought the land,” said Henry Coletto, a retired game warden with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office from 1988 to 2004, who also worked as a county parks ranger starting in 1967. “His family raised cattle, then the second generation raised their family there, and the third generation sold the property because they didn’t want to be in the cattle business. It’s a tough life. Today, there are only a handful of cowboys who own their own land in this area. The rest are renting it from open space and parks agencies.”

Coletto said that amid the working ranchers, several wealthy families from the Peninsula and San Francisco, including the Hewletts and Packards, bought large pieces of land in rural Santa Clara County in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Back then, it was a trend for people who had money to have a big ranch and be a cowboy or raise horses,” Coletto said. “The Bechtels didn’t spend a lot of time on the property. But they did invite friends to do pheasant hunting and work with dogs. They did a beautiful job of maintaining the fences and the corrals and the houses.”

The Bechtel family allowed cattle grazing on the ranch, which POST will continue. The family also built six homes on the property. POST says it’s not sure yet what it will do with them or if there ever will be public access to the property, although it could provide a 1.5-mile addition to the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Coletto said he hopes it’s not too heavily grazed in the future, particularly around two sensitive streams that run through the property, Uvas and Llagas creeks.

“The big thing is that the land is not going to be developed,” he said. “It’s like its own little mountain range back there. There are some good water areas there on the west side. The whole area is pretty important for wildlife.”

Friday’s startling appellate court ruling overturning that murder conviction reopened wounds they had tried not to revisit.

Her mother, Marlene LaMar, who had helped organize hundreds of volunteers for years to search through fields and gullies after Sierra vanished in 2012, said Saturday she was too devastated to speak about the ruling. But in a text message, she explained her pain.

“Just when we thought we had peace and were able to move forward with our lives,” she wrote, “we now have to relive this horrific nightmare.”

The ruling underscores the tension between defendants’ rights and the anguish families endure when convictions are overturned, legal analysts say. It also opens the possibility of a retrial, but with limits. The appellate court barred prosecutors from pursuing certain first-degree murder theories and first introducing prior kidnapping allegations. If jurors were instead to convict Garcia Torres of second-degree murder, he could face a sentence as low as 15 years to life, they said.

“I absolutely agree with the family that this is awful, but that’s the way our laws read, and they do make sense,” said East Bay lawyer Michael Cardoza, who consulted with the defense in the Scott Peterson case. “For first-degree murder, a jury has to find that it was willful, deliberate and premeditated. In this case, the court said it’s too speculative to come back with that type of verdict, because you don’t have a body.”

Despite the higher court ruling, Garcia Torres, 34, remains at Corcoran State Prison while Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen decides a path forward. Rosen declined an interview Saturday. But he may ask the California Supreme Court to review the decision or seek a new trial.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement late Friday defending its investigation and expressing disappointment in the ruling.

“Our detectives have continued to diligently pursue new information and remain unwavering in their commitment to this investigation,” the statement said. “They will not rest until Sierra is found and closure can be brought to her family.”

In its 50-page ruling, the 6th District Court of Appeal determined that the trial court erred and that the jury was prejudiced by allowing three attempted kidnapping allegations from 2009 — three years before Sierra’s disappearance — to be tried alongside the murder charge. It also concluded that insufficient evidence supported certain murder theories presented to the jury and barred prosecutors from pursuing those theories in any retrial.

Prosecutors will still be able to argue a first-degree case if they convince a jury the death occurred during a kidnapping and that Garcia Torres was “an active participant,” legal analyst Steve Clark said.

“But the court cut off one aspect of being able to argue that it was premeditated and deliberative,” Clark said. “The court said it was too speculative to say that, without a crime scene, without a body, without a murder weapon.”

Prosecutors had also argued during the trial that the prior kidnapping allegations constituted a “training ground” for Sierra’s abduction and killing. If granted a retrial, prosecutors would not be allowed to introduce those prior allegations or pursue theories of willful, deliberate and premeditated murder, according to the ruling.

Messages left with Garcia Torres’s defense lawyer, Danalynn Pritz, weren’t immediately returned Saturday.

Although Sierra’s body was never found, her school backpack was discovered days later in a field; inside were extra clothes, makeup and her phone. In the trunk of Garcia Torres’ Jetta, detectives found rope with a 12-inch hair consistent with Sierra’s DNA profile.

The disappearance of Sierra, a cheerleader who hung posters of Marilyn Monroe in her bedroom and talked about makeup with her girlfriends, made national news. It brought out more than 750 volunteers who plastered photos of the teen with a broad smile and long dark hair across Santa Clara County. Schools were opened on weekends as base camps for search parties, with groups cooking meals for volunteers. The effort drew San Jose Sharks hockey players, including Logan Couture, to help search and raise money.

A full year later, when search efforts were still attracting 40 volunteers every weekend, one of the missing posters still clung to a telephone poll at the rural bus stop at Palm and Dougherty avenues.

By then, Klaas was a well-known advocate for tougher sentencing laws and had helped propel California’s three strikes legislation. He had also created the KlaasKids Foundation and helped organize the search parties for Sierra and, along the way, bonded with her mother, her father Steve and her older sister Danielle.

“Unless you’ve been through it, you can’t really understand the nightmare of it — the loss of control and the anger and the loss of hope and the questioning of your spirituality and your humanity,” Klaas said. “That’s where the bond is.”

Midsi Sanchez, who was 8 when she escaped her kidnapper three days after being abducted in 2000 on her way home from school in Vallejo, and the family of Michelle Le, who was killed in 2011 by a jealous friend after leaving her nursing class in Oakland, have also supported the LaMar family through the years.

All of their support for the LaMars, Klaas said, was to “demonstrate to them that it’s not always going to be hideous, that at some point, you’re going to have an opportunity to try to put your life together again.”

Indeed, Sierra’s parents, who had been divorced at the time of Sierra’s disappearance, have found new partners. Her sister graduated from college and married a year ago.

In 2023, Marlene LaMar joined Klaas at a reception to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Polly’s murder.

“Even though we never found her remains,” Marlene said of her daughter at the time, “knowing that everything possible that could be done was done, that gives me peace.”

Sanchez also attended the commemoration near Klaas’s home in Sausalito. She struggled for years with nightmares and addictions before finding relief and freedom in her faith. But the 251-year sentence imposed on Curtis Dean Anderson helped her cope.

“I felt safe and I knew that he would never be able to do the disgusting things that he did to me, to anybody else,” said Sanchez, who is now married with three children, “and I got boldness from that, knowing that no other girl would ever be hurt.”

That Sierra’s parents and sister still have to consider the prospect that Garcia Torres might be released if a retrial doesn’t produce another guilty verdict is “shocking,” she said.

After Garcia Torres’s lawyers made their appeal based on numerous issues they raised, including the admission of certain DNA evidence at trial, the appellate ruling concluded that the conviction was improper and prejudicial.

Clark, the legal analyst, said it is still possible the California Supreme Court could reverse the decision. There is another possibility, he said.

“This is going to put renewed attention on the case, and maybe more tips will come in,” he said. “And maybe new developments will happen that could lead to her body being discovered, and that would be the game changer.”

But to Klaas, the ruling shows that “the only thing that seems to matter anymore are the rights of the killer.”

Sierra’s family, he said, must now be thrust back into stress and anguish.

“It opens them up to the reality,” he said, “that it will never end.”

Mexicano’s father was sentenced to 30 years behind bars when Mexicano was just five. Two years later, he saw his stepfather lying on the ground, dead or dying from a gunshot wound suffered at his sister’s baptism. Two of his uncles were murdered, and another survived a shooting. By age 14, he’d lost two close friends to gun violence, according to court records.

By his 18th birthday, Mexicano had not only joined a notorious subset of the Norteños, he’d killed for the gang, twice. Both shootings targeted homeless men in Salinas, who were perceived as rivals by their killers. After the first fatal shooting, he became a “certified” member of the Salinas Acosta Plaza Norteños by getting an “SAP” tattooed on his chest. After being sent to jail for selling drugs on behalf of gang leaders at age 19, he and others stabbed a man in the Monterey County jail in a targeted attack known as a “removal,” court records show.

Now 22, Mexicano has been sent to federal prison to serve a 19-year sentence, according to court records. He is currently at an Oklahoma City transfer center prison, but his final destination has yet to be announced. His prison sentence, handed down on Jan. 13 by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman, was part of a massive prosecution aimed at Norteño “regiments” in Salinas and San Jose, as well as seasoned members of the Nuestra Familia prison gang who control them.

Mexicano’s tragic life, detailed in court filings before his sentence, began a dark turn when he became a gang member or associate at age 11. In September 2020, when he was 17, he and other SAP members accosted two men in a dark, wooded area around Carr Lake, behind the Acosta Plaza townhomes in Salinas. They made the victims get on their knees, then shot them. Prosecutors say Mexicano shot one of the men in the head, and another person shot the second victim — but authorities didn’t specify who they believe shot whom. One of the men, Roberto Vargas Hernandez, 38, died. The other, 28 at the time, survived.

The second killing, also committed before Mexicano’s 18th birthday, involved SAP members accosting a man in the same wooded area, forcing him to strip to check for gang tattoos, and shooting him dead. A magazine with Mexicano’s DNA was found at the homicide scene. Mexicano later admitted to involvement in both killings and other gang crimes while pleading guilty to a federal racketeering charge, court records show. The victim has never been publicly identified, but died on March 23, 2021.

In accepting a lengthy prison sentence, Mexicano joins dozens of others who felt the federal government’s wrath in 2021. A series of indictments that year targeted Nuestra Familia members or associates with charges that included murders, prison stabbings, drug smuggling, robbery plots, extortion, and money laundering throughout the Bay Area and Monterey County.

Almost all of the cases have resolved since then, court filings show, mostly through guilty pleas. Last year, four Nuestra Familia leaders were sentenced to federal prison after a jury convicted them of ordering attempted murders and other violence from behind bars.

The large-scale prosecution has resulted not only in lengthy prison terms, but also some unexpected transformations. One of the defendants, formerly a San Jose gang leader, found new purpose painting murals inside the Dublin jail where he was housed while his case was pending. Another talked about the fulfillment he got from volunteer work while out of custody awaiting a resolution in his case. A third became a government informant, testifying against his former fellow Nuestra Familia leaders about the split in the gang that caused him to leave that life behind, culminating with a prison riot where he was stabbed and nearly lost his life.

As for Mexicano, his attorney expressed hope for his future after prison, writing in a sentencing brief that the teenaged killer was once described by elementary school teachers as a “very dedicated student” who was “very well-behaved,” “very polite,” and a “good boy.”

“When he is eventually released, Mr. Mexicano will be decades older than when he engaged in the racketeering activity and he’ll have been long-removed from the neighborhood and violence that have led him to this point in his life,” defense attorney Matthew Dirkes wrote on Mexicano’s behalf.

It began so dry that Lake Tahoe ski resorts couldn’t open for their usual Thanksgiving kickoff. Then, 10 feet of snow fell around Christmas, saving ski season and bringing totals up to historic averages. But five weeks of warm, dry weather followed. Then in mid-February blizzards dumped another 9 feet in five days, contributing to deadly avalanche conditions.

On Thursday, the statewide Sierra snowpack — which provides nearly one-third of California’s water supply — stood at 68% of its historical average and falling, with at least two more weeks of dry weather forecast.

“It’s a weather-whiplash scenario,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab near Donner Summit. “We are going from warm and dry to really intense snowstorms, and right back to dry within a few days. It’s been chaotic.”

With dry skies expected for the next two weeks, the chances are low of reaching 100% of normal by April 1, typically the date that ends California’s winter snow season, Schwartz added.

“We have a long way to go to get back to average, and not much time to do it,” he said. “The likelihood of big storms coming through in the second half of March and April is not high.”

In prior years, water managers in cities and farm communities throughout California would have been nervous. But after a rare three wet winters in a row leading up to this year, reservoirs across the state began the winter with more water than normal and now are near full.

On Thursday every major reservoir in California was above its historical average. The largest, Shasta, near Redding, was 82% full, or 115% of normal; the second largest, Oroville, in Butte County, was 83% full and 129% of normal. San Luis, east of Gilroy, was 84% full and 105% of normal; and Southern California’s largest reservoir, Diamond Valley, in Riverside County, was 94% full and 127% of normal.

“The good news is that our reservoirs are in good shape,” said Jeff Mount, a professor emeritus at UC Davis and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California Water Center in San Francisco.

“That’s our buffer. It is unlikely we will be seeing water restrictions this summer,” Mount added. “I don’t hear a lot of drought talk. But what happens next year matters. We’ll draw our reservoirs down and hope for the best next winter to keep them topped up.”

Mount and Schwartz agreed that if the Sierra Nevada snowpack is only about half its historical average by April 1, wildfires are probably more of a concern this summer than water shortages.

“Snowpack is so critical to maintaining soil moisture,” Mount said. “Without it, everything dries out earlier. Low snowpack is a proxy for an earlier and longer and possibly tougher fire season.”

In years when California has had many major snowstorms, summer wildfire season is delayed also for the simple reason that much of the mountains and foothills are covered with snow later into the spring and early summer.

This year, warm temperatures have been a major factor.

From November through the end of January, much of the American West, and large portions of the Sierra Nevada, experienced their hottest temperatures since modern weather records began in 1895, about 3 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the average from 1991 to 2020, according to data from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

So when storms were able to break through, much of the precipitation fell as rain instead of snow. And although none of California is experiencing drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly federal report issued every Thursday, all the other Western states are suffering through some level of drought, with conditions in Colorado and Utah particularly bad.

“We are going to be hearing a lot about worsening water crises on the Colorado River this summer, as well as about large forest fires in the Rockies and possible Cascades,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California’s California Institute for Water Resources.

Water shortages on the Colorado River, which flows through seven Western states and includes two massive reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — affect California, because the river and the reservoirs provide water to Los Angeles and other Southern California cities, along with irrigation water to Imperial County. When Southern California has limited Colorado River supplies, it puts more pressure for water to be pumped from Northern California through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Mount noted.

Climate change appears to be playing a role in the all-or-nothing conditions California is seeing, Swain said.

“There are clear climate links to the record warmth, and the generally low and variable snowpack,” he said.  “And modest evidence linking the recent ‘whiplashiness’ and record-breaking rain events to warming as well.”

In addition to hotter weather that melts snow, warmer conditions often bring bigger more drenching storms and blizzards when they do occur, because more water can evaporate into storms from the Pacific Ocean. Climate studies that Swain and other scientists have published in recent years say more “weather whiplash” with drier dry periods and wetter storms, are likely to increase as the climate warms in coming decades.

“I actually just received a photo from someone in South Lake Tahoe this morning who received 3-4 feet of snow last week,” Swain said. “And it is now already completely melted.”

After he lost by a landslide to Neysa Fligor in the Dec. 30 runoff election, Kumar turned that pledge into a statewide ballot initiative campaign. But a new state analysis sheds a sobering reality on his idea, noting it could cause “major fiscal effects” for local governments — with revenue losses in the billions.

The proposed measure, which was cleared for signature-gathering earlier this month, would exempt homeowners 60 years of age and older from paying property taxes if they have occupied their home as their principal residence for at least five years or lived in California for 10 years. Kumar will need 874,641 signatures by Aug. 4 to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Property taxes currently raise about $100 billion annually statewide and are split among schools and local governments that use the money for services like police, parks, libraries and roads. A new estimate from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found that Kumar’s exemption could trigger the loss of $12 billion to $20 billion annually in these key revenues across the state.

“Over time, these revenue losses would grow by 5 to 10% per year,” the office’s memo said. “About half of the revenue losses would go to cities, counties and special districts. The other half would go to schools. In some years, the state could face additional cost pressures to provide money to schools to offset their revenue losses.”

Kumar, who has called himself a “proven tax fighter” in the past, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

He acknowledged to ABC-10 in Sacramento that there will need to be a “little bit of adjustment” and “belt tightening” at the onset to account for lost revenues. However, he said the loss will ultimately be justified.

“When you look at money going back into the pockets of seniors, they’re going to spend it on the local economy,” he said.

California’s property tax landscape was massively reshaped in 1978 when voters passed Proposition 13 — a landmark initiative that capped the property tax rate at 1% of assessed value at the time of purchase. The measure has largely been considered the “third rail” of California politics.

Michael Coleman, a fiscal policy advisor and creator of the California Local Government Finance Almanac, said Prop. 13 was a “substantial hit” to both local governments and the state’s coffers. After the initiative passed, he said the state “had to shoulder more of the burden” in funding schools and help offset the impact that landed on cities and counties.

A similar scenario could play out if Kumar’s proposal is successful. If the state can’t backfill lost revenue, Coleman said there will be “greater pressure on other forms of taxes.”

“In California, any kind of a tax increase has to be approved by the people,” he said. “So would people want to increase some other kind of tax because they want to give a break to seniors? Hard to know.”

The California State Association of Counties, which represents the interests of the state’s 58 counties, said they only take positions on measures that have qualified for the ballot. But in a statement, CEO Graham Knaus expressed concern while also calling it “not a serious proposal.”

“You can’t cut billions and expect no consequences,” he said. “This ballot measure would obliterate county funding for emergency response, public safety, homelessness and elections.”

Kumar, however, has found some initial support for the measure, earning endorsements from former state Assemblymember Kansen Chu, former Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteves, former Monte Sereno mayors Liz Lawler and Rowena Turner and Milpitas Councilmember William Lam.

But getting the initiative on the ballot could still be an uphill battle if Kumar doesn’t have access to deep pockets.

Between 2016 and 2024, California saw the most spending on signature drives in the nation, according to Ballotpedia. During the 2024 election, the least expensive signature drive in the state that successfully qualified a measure on the ballot cost $7.4 million. The most expensive was nearly $10 million.

Kumar has yet to report any fundraising to his Property Tax Exemption committee.

The state agency announced Thursday that it acquired the 153-acre NoraBella property in Boulder Creek from Sempervirens Fund, California’s first redwoods conservation land trust.

The $2.41 million purchase will allow State Parks to expand the footprint of Big Basin Redwoods State Park as part of the first land addition to the local recreational resource in 15 years, according to a State Parks release.

“Big Basin is California’s oldest state park, and this keystone expansion will help accelerate the park’s recovery from the devastating 2020 CZU wildfire while supporting the Newsom administration’s Outdoors for All and 30×30 initiatives,” California State Parks Director Armando Quintero said in the release. “NoraBella is the gateway into Big Basin and will serve as a world-class entrance to the park’s new visitor center for generations to come.”

Commonly referred to as the “gateway to Big Basin” by those familiar with the mountainous region, NoraBella’s expansive natural ecosystem has long made it a conservation priority for state authorities and regional partners. State Parks had its eye on preserving the property even before it was severely impacted by the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fires and it will be a key addition to the park’s general plan that is meant to improve visitor-serving facilities.

Sempervirens, which played an integral role in establishing Big Basin in 1902, also has a long history of collaboration with State Parks and has been a key partner in the 124-year effort to protect Big Basin’s now 18,376 acres.

“The land, habitats, waterways, and redwoods at NoraBella have been through so much over more than a century — from clearcutting, to being treated like a junkyard, to the CZU wildfire — and it feels like redemption to finally secure the forest’s future as part of Big Basin,” said Sempervirens Fund Executive Director Sara Barth. “Even before the 2020 wildfire, we knew NoraBella would provide a dramatic entranceway to Big Basin, and enhance the conservation values of the park.”

The massive redwoods on the NoraBella property, which is the ancestral homeland of the Ohlone people, were clear-cut at the turn of the 20th century, but the trees were subsequently given more than a century to grow back to their former glory. Now, with the entire 153-acre property forested once more, it has become an important component of the local watershed with three ridges that lead down to creeks, waterfalls and canyons. The land, which forms a miniature basin that complements Big Basin nearby, includes a primary tributary to the headwaters for Boulder Creek, which flows into the San Lorenzo River. Mountain lions, gray foxes and other striking wildlife critters have been observed on the property, according to the release.

“NoraBella is a conservation gem,” added David Cowman, Sempervirens Fund’s director of land stewardship. “Permanent protection of NoraBella as part of Big Basin is critical to ensure the long-term health of the Boulder Creek watershed and the San Lorenzo River system it supports. The property has abundant and healthy stands of redwoods, as well as mixed evergreen forests of Douglas-fir, coast live oaks, tan oaks and madrones.”

In the wake of the 2020 fires, State Parks and its local partners established the Reimagining Big Basin project that is meant to guide the park’s recovery in a way that is mindful of current and future climate change impacts. That comprehensive plan aims to make NoraBella’s Saddle Mountain the site of a new welcome center for park visitors who can be shuttled in and out of the park, while operational facilities will be constructed on other parts of the land.

Placing the welcome center at Saddle Mountain is also advantageous because it will reduce the size of parking and other buildings in the heart of the old growth area, in turn, reducing the overall impact on these ancient behemoths.

In addition to its immense natural resources, NoraBella also has a fascinating history of local ownership. The property was previously owned by Roy Kaylor, an eccentric inventor who stored numerous cars and objects on the property, leading to heated disputes with the county as debris accumulated and chemicals leached out into the surrounding area. Kaylor’s quirks were broadcast to the world in the 2011 episode of “Hoarders” from the A&E network.

Verve Coffee Roasters co-founder Colby Barr acquired the property from Santa Cruz County in June 2020 and completed various environmental assessments with help from Sempervirens. Eventually, the cleanup effort resulted in the NoraBella property receiving a clean bill of health and Barr sold it to Sempervirens in February 2021.

The State Parks purchase was made possible with partial funds provided by the Land and Water Conservation Fund through the U.S. Department of the Interior and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, according to the release.

Assembly Bill 679, authored by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin and signed into law last October, is meant to streamline purchases of properties adjacent to Big Basin, Butano and Año Nuevo state parks. The bill was meant to reflect local and statewide prioritization of expanding outdoor connections, advancing climate resilience, protecting natural and cultural resources and strengthening the state’s economy.

Hogness meandered through the crowd gathered on the corner of Ocean and Water streets carrying a small light-purple sign encouraging rallygoers to ask him about the grassroots organization’s work and how they could get involved.

“Folks in the community — they’re vulnerable,” Hogness told the Sentinel at the time. “And not to do anything just feels like we’re letting them down.”

As it turns out, many community members were interested in having that conversation with Hogness and his colleagues, and have been for many months.

Organizers with the rapid response group told the Sentinel this week that they experienced a noticeable rise in training registrations since October or November of last year. Janet, an organizer with the group who declined to share her last name due to fear of federal retaliation, said “hundreds” of people have expressed interest in getting involved within this past month alone.

“Our training team is having a challenging time keeping up with the demand for trainings,” said Janet. “We have one coming up (next week) that filled in less than 48 hours I think.”

Your Allied Rapid Response for Santa Cruz County, which has been active since 2016, is run entirely by volunteers and is funded by donations only. Much of its function, Janet explained, revolves around a hotline established for reporting suspected U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that is monitored by English and Spanish speakers 24/7. The number is 831-239-4289 and the group’s website is at santacruzrapidresponse.org.

Once reported, trained volunteers travel to the location in question to confirm if ICE activity is occurring and they post a verification update on social media as quickly as possible.

“We value the work we do to reduce the spread of rumors that might panic people in the community and limit their willingness to go about their daily life,” said Janet. “Rumor control is something we feel really strongly about.”

The organization’s other primary function is to train interested community members about how they can lawfully and safely observe ICE operations in public spaces and document any potential civil rights violations. But to perform these verification and legal observation functions, Janet said participants must complete the group’s training program, which is based on criteria from other legal service groups and is vetted by local experts.

“We have an incredible range of volunteers within (Your Allied Rapid Response), both in terms of age and racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as professional experience, or training, or life experience,” said Janet. “We don’t have specific requirements (to register for a training). We do utilize the special skills that people show up and bring to us and share with us and we encourage people to let us know what those skills are and how they think they might deploy them.”

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the First Amendment generally protects an individual’s right to photograph or film anything in plain view in a public space, including federal buildings and law enforcement. But, according to the nonprofit’s website, you should not interfere with the actions of the government officials you are recording. Law enforcement may order you to move a reasonable distance away from them to avoid obstructing their work. If you think a command is unlawful, it is safest to follow the order, document the interaction and challenge it later.

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was also reportedly a trained legal observer, was killed Jan. 7 by federal immigration agents patrolling the streets of a Minneapolis neighborhood. Less than three weeks later, intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti was also shot and killed during a confrontation with federal agents as he appeared to be recording their activity with his phone.

The incidents sparked several local anti-ICE protests that attracted huge crowds, including a youth walkout where more than 1,000 middle and high school students left their classrooms and marched through downtown Santa Cruz.

Elected leaders have also joined the growing chorus of community members condemning recent immigration enforcement tactics. The county Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution at its meeting Tuesday that denounced escalating violence and harmful community impacts associated with recent ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations.

“Santa Cruz County is home to a diverse community in which immigrant families play an essential role in our economy, schools and civic life,” said 3rd District Supervisor Justin Cummings, who drafted the item. “This resolution affirms our shared values of safety, dignity and respect for constitutional rights for everyone who lives here.”

Included within the resolution was a request for California Attorney General Rob Bonta to hold all individuals — including federal agents — accountable for violations of the law. That commitment was publicly made by county District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell at a press conference hosted last month by U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta. At the same event, county Sheriff Chris Clark also said that local law enforcement has a “duty to intercede” should they witness excessive force and other unlawful actions from federal agents.

The board preceded its resolution this week by creating a subcommittee two weeks ago that is tasked with working alongside community partners and administrative staff to safeguard the rights and services of the local immigrant community in the event of a large-scale federal operation.

Meanwhile, Janet said members of the rapid response group remain deeply saddened by what has unfolded in Minneapolis in recent months, but it has not had a chilling effect.

“What I have heard from folks is more of a resolve,” said Janet. “That it’s important to show up; that it’s important for more of us to show up. Because the more of us that show up, the safer we all are.”

The investor-owned utility posted a profit of $2.59 billion in 2025, 4.8% higher than the $2.48 billion in profit in 2024, PG&E reported Thursday as part of the release of its latest financial results.

Shares of PG&E jumped 2.7% on Thursday and finished at $17.56. Over the most recent 12-month period, PG&E’s shares are up 9.5%.

The company offered an improved 2026 outlook for profits in a range of $1.64 to $1.66 a share with a midpoint of $1.65 a share – higher than the prior estimates that ranged from $1.62 to $1.66 with a midpoint of $1.64.

Thursday’s news came on the heels of the company’s report at the end of 2025 that monthly bills for residential customers who receive combined electricity and gas services would drop starting in January.

“We reduced our bills in January,” PG&E Chief Executive Officer Patricia Poppe said in an interview with Bay Area News Group. “Bottom line, electric bills have gone down four times since 2024. That’s the equivalent of a reduction of $20 a month for electric bills.”

PG&E stated in materials prepared with the earnings report that monthly bills were expected to be in a range of unchanged to a 3% increase during the course of 2026.

“We are looking at zero bill inflation,” Poppe said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “That’s a number to be proud of.”

Some critics of PG&E, however, believe that the company’s profits remain too high and that its primary regulator, the state Public Utilities Commission, has failed in its role as a watchdog.

“PG&E continues to post record profits year after year after year because the PUC continues to fail to rein in their profligate and unnecessary spending, all designed to boost their profits and pick Californians’ pockets,” said Loretta Lynch, a former PUC commissioner.

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said PG&E’s profits have emerged at a time when customers must still wrestle with significant power failures.

“PG&E needs to match its outstanding performance for shareholders with reliable service for its customers, hundreds of thousands of whom have lost power unexpectedly and repeatedly over the past few months,” Toney said.

Toney said the state Legislature needs to act to help rein in profits for California’s big utilities.

“PG&E’s record-breaking profits should motivate state lawmakers to adopt legislation for public financing and other strategies to reduce costs for capital investments and pass along the savings to residential and business customers,” Toney said.

PG&E reported that revenue totaled $24.94 billion in 2025, up 2.1% from 2024.

Electricity operations revenue rose 2.8% and totaled $18.32 billion in 2025, PG&E stated. Revenue from natural gas operations totaled $6.62 billion, up 0.1% from the year before.

The increases are at a reduced pace compared to previous years.

Overall revenue in 2024 was roughly unchanged from 2023. But in 2023, overall revenue hopped higher by 12.7% compared with 2022.

Electricity revenue in 2024 was up 2.2% over the prior year. In 2023, electricity revenue skyrocketed by 15.7% compared with 2022.

In 2024, gas revenue fell 5.7% compared with 2023. Gas revenue totals jumped 5.8% in 2023 compared with the year before.

Oakland-based PG&E also said it’s making progress to connect major electricity users to the grid.

The company said large electricity projects totaling 3.55 gigawatts were in the final engineering stage at the end of the fourth quarter, which lasted from October through December of 2025. That’s up from 1.6 gigawatts of large-load projects that were in the final engineering stage in the third quarter that ended in September 2025.

PG&E officials said these large projects, as well as several other endeavors, all have the goal of keeping customer bills rising slowly or even decreasing.

Nationwide, reports have emerged to suggest utility bills are rising as demand for electricity jumps due to data centers that help power future tech hubs for artificial intelligence and other high-level computing.

California state regulations, however, might avoid that costly dynamic. According to Poppe, regulators have obliged data center operators to pay for the anticipated electricity load before the complex requires the power.

“The data centers pay in advance, and we refund them as the load comes online,” Poppe said. “When the data center does come online, the price for the electricity is set correctly. This means everybody’s bills go down when the new electricity load goes on the grid.”

PG&E also is not encouraging development of vast data centers that are miles wide. Instead, the company is encouraging data centers that are efficient in size and well-located.

“We are building data centers that are near the tech companies,” Poppe said. “This way there is less risk when these projects come to fruition. It’s a more affordable way to build out to infrastructure.”

The utility believes that even more relief is on the horizon for customers as additional temporary expenses vanish from the rate base.

“Bills are scheduled to go down again in March,” Poppe said. “More things are rolling off the bills.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration.

No justices dissented from the brief order denying the appeal without explanation, as is common on the court’s emergency docket.

The justices had previously allowed Texas’ Republican-friendly map to be used in 2026, despite a lower-court ruling that it likely discriminates on the basis of race.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in December that it appeared both states had adopted new maps for political advantage, which the high court has previously ruled cannot be a basis for a federal lawsuit.

Republicans, joined by the Trump administration, claimed the California map improperly relied on race, as well. But a lower court disagreed by a 2-1 vote. The Justice Department and White House did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The justices’ unsigned order keeps in place districts that are designed to flip up to five seats now held by Republicans, part of a tit-for-tat nationwide redistricting battle spurred by President Donald Trump, with control of Congress on the line in midterm elections.

Last year, at Trump’s behest, Texas Republicans redid the state’s congressional districts with an eye on gaining five seats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is eying a 2028 presidential run, pledged to respond in kind, though he had to win over voters, not just lawmakers, to do so.

Newsom celebrated the court’s decision, saying on social media that Trump had “started this redistricting war” and would end up losing out in the November midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

The California Republican Party, which brought the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One longtime party strategist, Jon Fleishman, a former executive director of the California Republican Party, said in a post on X that the decision means “this year’s elections will take place on the new lines shrinking the already very small Republican delegation from California.”

Filing for congressional primaries in California begins on Monday.

Associated Press writers Michael Blood in Los Angeles and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Under the agreement, the Palo Alto-based non-profit Peninsula Open Space Trust will pay $23.04 million to Sargent Ranch Partners LLC, a San Diego development group, to purchase 2,284 acres of the bucolic ranch, one of the largest remaining pieces of undeveloped private property in Santa Clara County and home to mountain lions, bald eagles and steelhead trout.

“It’s classic California,” said Gordon Clark, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust. “Beautiful rolling hills, iconic oaks, creeks, wetlands and dramatic vistas. A stunning landscape that feels like you are stepping back in time. It’s very gratifying. This has been a goal that so many people have shared for so long.”

The deal, which closed Wednesday, kills plans for the quarry, a proposed 403-acre open-pit mine.

That project, which the investors first proposed in 2015, has been opposed by environmental groups, multiple city councils, including in Santa Clara, Mountain View and Sunnyvale, and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, which previously inhabited the area for thousands of years.

“I’m so elated,” said Ed Ketchum, chairman of the Amah Mutsun, a group of roughly 600 people who trace their ancestry back to Ohlone villages in the area they call “Juristac.” “From when I was a child, the elders would always say this is a special place that needs to be protected. It was meant not to be developed.”

Howard Justus, a San Diego businessman who leads the investor group that previously owned the property, said he would have no comment on the sale. In the past, he has said the quarry would have been located on just a small portion of the ranch and that its sand and gravel would have been important to Bay Area building projects.

This week’s sale is the third major piece of Sargent Ranch that the land trust has bought from Justus and his partners, culminating in one of the most significant land preservation deals in the Bay Area in recent years.

Last year and in 2024, the trust, known as “POST,” spent an additional $40.7 million to buy two other portions of the property totaling 3,830 acres. The latest purchase gives the trust ownership of 93% of the 6,594-acre ranch — an area six times the size of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

The land trust has signed an option with the investor group to buy the remaining 480 acres. That area contains 15 active oil wells — the only ones in Santa Clara County. They must be capped and the equipment  removed before the sale is complete, Clark said. That is expected to happen by the end of this year, he added. Part of the ranch has natural tar seeps, and oil drilling there dates back to the 1870s.

What will ultimately happen to the entire property, including whether there will be public access, remains unclear.

Clark said that in the next few years, his organization, which is funded largely by private donations from foundations and Silicon Valley contributors, will conduct studies of the wildlife and the landscape. Sargent Ranch is home to badgers, deer, hawks and other animals, serving as a key wildlife corridor between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo and Gabilan mountain ranges. On a visit earlier this month, a bald eagle was visible on the property.

The land trust will meet with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, and the Santa Clara County Department of Parks and Recreation, along with other groups, to map out an ownership and stewardship plan, Clark said.

The county parks department owns 55,000 acres across 28 parks in Santa Clara County. Several are as big, or larger, than Sargent Ranch, including Joseph D. Grant County Park in the hills east of San Jose, which is 10,882 acres, and Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park, on the east side of Highway 101 near Morgan Hill, which is 6,695 acres.

“We want to be supportive,” said Todd Lofgren, director of the Santa Clara County parks department. “We are going to work with the partners and community to help create a plan everyone is excited about.”

Any decision to make part or all of Sargent Ranch a new county park would require approval by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The parks department has roughly $40 million in a fund reserved for parkland acquisition, and under a voter-approved measure, about $9 million of county general fund money is added every year.

Sargent Ranch has a rich history.

In the late 1700s, when the Spanish built missions nearby at San Juan Bautista, Santa Clara, Carmel and Santa Cruz, natives often fled to avoid cruel conditions, tribal leaders have noted, hiding on Sargent Ranch, in the hills of Pacheco Pass, and other remote locations.

The property became a Mexican land grant in the 1800s and was later purchased by James P. Sargent, a New Hampshire native who came to California with his brothers during the Gold Rush. He became wealthy and eventually represented Santa Clara County in the state Legislature from 1871 to 1873.

During the late 1800s, there was a railroad depot, cottages, a hotel, a post office, a saloon and an open-air dance floor near the ranch.

After a series of other owners came and went, Justus’ group purchased the ranch in 2013 from Wayne Pierce, a La Jolla developer who tried to build golf courses, hotels, a casino and other projects there, only to run into public opposition, pile up debt and eventually file for bankruptcy.

The new owners announced plans for the quarry in 2015, sparking opposition from environmental groups, the Amah Mutsun tribe and others.

David Wallace, a Danville investor who helped broker this week’s sale between the land trust and Justus’ group, noted that the investors had waited a decade for county approval for the quarry.

“I think they would have gotten the permit ultimately for the quarry,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it was probably as much fatigue as anything. And POST put an offer on the table that was worthy of consideration.”

Acquiring the property is the largest land deal that POST has completed since its founding in 1977. The ranch has ranked near the top of Bay Area land conservation groups’ lists for decades.

“We haven’t been on this property since the 1800s,” Ketchum said of his tribal members. “We are all looking forward to exploring it. What a blessing.”