Tag Archives: California

California Prepares for the Next Big Earthquake

Scientists are admitting the likelihood of a massive earthquake along the San Andreas Fault is higher than previous predictions.

The Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, released in March, states that newly discovered fault zones could see a quake jumping between them.  The cascading quake could reach an earthquake of 8.0 or greater.

The odds of a mega-quake increased from 4.7 percent to 7 percent.

The report also said that the odds of a medium level quake has decreased along the lines of the increase of a massive quake.

The southern section of the San Andreas Fault has not seen a massive earthquake in almost 300 years.  The last major quake along the fault took place in 1989 near Santa Cruz, California during Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.   63 people died in that earthquake.  The state’s last major quake overall was the 1994 Northridge quake along a previously undiscovered fault line that left 57 dead and 5,000 injured.

California’s Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says that he worries about the next “big one.”

“If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it’s the strong likelihood of a large earthquake,” he said.

Amazingly, despite the fact the state is hit with 1,000 earthquakes a year (most of very small magnitude), only 11 percent of homeowners and renters in the state have earthquake insurance.  Only a comparable number of businesses have insurance.

“It has been 21 years since the last major earthquake in the state and many rationalise that they can do without,” Robert Hartwig of the Insurance Information Institute said.  “Unfortunately, too many seem willing to play Russian roulette with what is likely to be their most valuable asset, their home.”

California Church Mobilizes $2 Million “Weekend of Service”

A California church mobilized members for a weekend of service that provided the community with over $2 million in billable labor hours and materials.

North Coast Church said their outreach benefitted over 100 locations in six cities in North San Diego County.

Pastor Larry Osborne told the Christian Post ahead of the event what kinds of things the church would be doing for the community.

“We’ll be making improvements at 50+ public schools, ranging from elementary to high school … We’re serving a wide cross section of organizations both secular and faith-based,” said Osborne.  “The other roughly 60 locations include everything from resource centers to homeless shelters, community centers, a hospital, city parks, veteran and senior housing, and other non-profits that serve the community.”

Osborne said the church focuses on small groups which allows them to serve multiple parts of the community at the same time.

“The Bible says that faith without works is dead. This is one way we can put our faith to work and show our community the love of Jesus with no strings attached,” said Osborne.  “We’re always trying to help our congregation understand that church is not something we simply go to. It’s what we are. There’s no better way to do that than to have a ‘Weekend of Service.’”

California Airports Increased Security Over ISIS Threat

A number of California airports increased security measures over the weekend after intelligence officials intercepted messages about a possible terror plot against the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security did not release details of the threat other than saying they had intercepted chatter and other information that raised concerns.  They also confirmed the chatter was connected to ISIS.

“Over the last few months, we have made a number of security adjustments, including enhanced screening at select overseas airports and increasing random searches of passengers and carry-on luggage on flights inbound to the U.S., reflecting an evolving threat picture,” a spokesman with the department told CNN.

In addition to the airport security upgrades, DHS confirmed they had been increasing security at federal installations since February.

“The department has conducted significant outreach efforts … with state and local law enforcement partners regarding these trends and engaging in a series of meetings and events with local community leaders across the country to counter violent extremism,” the spokesman stated.

The TSA alerted local law enforcement that the airlines might not be the target but rather an individual actor focusing on uniformed personnel at various locations.

The increase in DHS actions and security comes after the head of the FBI admitted they have intelligence of people in all 50 states with sympathy toward the terrorist organization ISIS.

“Those people exist in every state” Comey said at a law enforcement event. “I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none, which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group, so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states.”

California Legislative Committee Approves Ordering Pregnancy Centers To Give Abortion Info

A California legislative committee has approved a bill that would force all pregnancy centers in the state to tell women about getting abortions at state-funded facilities.

AB 775, the so-called “Reproductive FACT Act”, is being called the “bully bill” by pro-life groups in the state.  The author of the act, Democrat David Chiu, is specifically aiming at pregnancy centers that focus on providing life for babies rather than rushing pregnant women to abortion mills.

“The author contends that, unfortunately, there are nearly 200 licensed and unlicensed clinics known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in California whose goal is to interfere with women’s ability to be fully informed and exercise their reproductive rights, and that CPCs pose as full-service women’s health clinics, but aim to discourage and prevent women from seeking abortions,” the bill states.

The act would require all pregnancy care centers to give in print directions and phone numbers for abortion clinics through state social services.

The act passed the committee despite 80 people speaking against the bill versus only 24 supporting it.

“This is a bully bill,”said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, a co-founder of a pregnancy center and father of two adopted children. “This is an effort to strip out free speech and to strip out religious practice rights. This is an exceptionally dangerous, unconstitutional effort that must be defeated.”

CareNet, a pregnancy care center group, posted this on their website: that this act is specifically aimed at silencing Christians.

“AB 775 specifically targets Christian pro life pregnancy centers to: silence their voice of opposition, encourage potential clients to look to state funded programs that promote abortion and abortifacient birth control, and lastly to force the center and it’s volunteers to violate their conscience by referring for an abortion and abortifacient birth control,”Josh McClure wrote on the site.

California Governor Orders Mandatory Water Restrictions

For the first time, the governor of California has ordered mandatory water restrictions on all residents, businesses and farms.

All cities and towns are required to immediately cut their water consumption by 25 percent.

State officials say the cut of 25% will save 1.5 million acre-feet of water over nine months.

“This historic drought demands unprecedented action,” Brown said at a press conference.  “We have to pull together and save water in every way we can.”

The state suffered its lowest snowpack ever over the winter.  Experts say that over 11 trillion gallons of water will be needed for California to recover from this drought emergency.

“It is such an unprecedented lack of snow, it is way, way below records,” said Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources.

Christian Fraternity Loses Status

Chi Alpha, a Christian student fraternity that exists to “reconcile students to Christ, equipping them through Spirit-filled communities of prayer, worship, fellowship, discipleship and mission to transform the university, the marketplace and the world”, has lost its fraternity status at the California State University-Stanislaus because they required their leaders to be Christians.

The university claims that the Christian group requiring their leaders to affirm their Christian beliefs violates the school’s non-discrimination policy.

Matthew Jacob, Turlock City Councilman, feels the group is being treated unfairly.

“It’s nothing less than religious discrimination,” he told CBS Sacramento. “It goes against the very purpose of the organization to begin with,” Jacob added, “to have somebody that doesn’t even uphold that faith system to be teaching and mentoring other students in that capacity.”

“Cal State Stanislaus allows fraternities to limit their leaders and members to men,” said Adèle Keim, Legal Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, in a press release. “So why can’t a religious group require its student religious leaders to practice what they preach? We call on Cal State to reinstate the Chi Alpha chapter immediately.”

Oklahoma To Get New Earthquake Hazard Maps

Oklahoma is getting a new set of maps.

The U.S. Geological Survey announced they will be releasing new earthquake hazard maps for Oklahoma after collections of data from a swarm of quakes the last few years.

Oklahoma in the last year has received more quakes of 3.0 or greater than California.  The number of quakes in the state has been 300 times higher in the last six years compared to previous decades.

The news of the maps comes on the heels of another report from the USGS that Oklahoma is likely to see a major quake from reawakened fault lines.

“By identifying the faults, we are providing some guidance about where major earthquakes can happen,” Dan McNamara, USGS research geophysicist and lead author of the paper, said in a news release.

McNamara says that current maps are underestimating the earthquake hazard for not just Oklahoma but bordering states as well.

Risk of 8.0 Earthquake in California Rises

The U.S. Geological Survey has released a new estimate saying that the chance of an 8.0 magnitude or greater earthquake striking California is 7%, up from 4.7%.

The USGS said the increase in the percentage is due to new understanding that quakes aren’t always limited to separate faults.  A quake could start on one fault and jump to another causing a simultaneous mega-quake.

“The new likelihoods are due to the inclusion of possible multi-fault ruptures, where earthquakes are no longer confined to separate, individual faults, but can occasionally rupture multiple faults simultaneously,” USGS seismologist Ned Field, the lead author of the report, told the L.A. Times.

“This is a significant advancement in terms of representing a broader range of earthquakes throughout California’s complex fault system.”

Data for the report included the April 4, 2010 quake that triggered aftershocks in at least six different fault lines. The report also found quakes jumping over a gap in the fault of over seven miles, more than double the previously observed three miles.

“As the inventory of California faults has grown over the years, it has become increasingly apparent that we are not dealing with a few well-separate faults, but with a vast interconnected fault system,” the report said. “In fact, it has become difficult to identify where some faults end and others begin, implying many more opportunities for multifault ruptures.”

California Man Arrested For Attempting To Join ISIS

A California man has been arrested for lying on a passport application as he attempted to join the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

Adam Dandach, 21, has also been charged with obstructing justice by attempting to destroy records of his online activity before they could be seized by investigators.

Dandach was stopped at the Orange County airport while attempting to board a flight to Turkey.  He carried an “expedited replacement passport” that he obtained after claiming he threw away his old passport by accident.  Prosecutors say that the man’s mother confiscated the passport when she discovered his plan to join ISIS, so he knew the claim was false.

Court papers showed that Dandach was more disappointed in not being able to join ISIS than he was to be arrested for lying to officials.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison on a terrorism related count and 25 years on each of the other counts in the indictments.

Children Go To See Spongebob; Get Fifty Shades Of Grey

A drive-in theater in California is under fire from parents after their children were able to see the extremely sexually explicit film “Fifty Shades Of Grey” when they came to see the family-friendly Spongebob movie.

Deborah Powell told KTVU-TV that she had brought a large group of children to the West Wind Solano Drive-In to see “Spongebob: Sponge Out of Water.”  However, from where they had to park to watch the film, they could see the heavy-R Fifty Shades.

“[On the screen] at the time there was a woman being slapped, naked, bound up… so, we had to have our children close their eyes,” she told KTVU. “I could see another car behind us that had children in there with their eyes closed.”

Powell said she expressed her concerns to a theater employee before trying to shield the pornographic film from being able to be seen by her children.  Eventually, they had to leave.

“There is no way to avoid looking at that screen. It’s too tempting. So, we couldn’t stay. So, we had to turn around. My children were devastated.”

The theater company would not comment to KTVU.

Another California drive-in is also under fire because the screen showing Fifty Shades of Grey can be seen from Highway 50 at the Sacramento 6.