{"id":285677,"date":"2026-04-25T15:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285677\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T15:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:49:11","slug":"california-news-guilty-plea-meta-layoffs-election-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285677\/","title":{"rendered":"California news: guilty plea, Meta layoffs, election update"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Burbank<\/p>\n

Burbank High School students Samantha Martinez and Mellisa Gonzalez hold signs during a student-led protest against ICE at the state Capitol on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

HECTOR AMEZCUA<\/p>\n

hamezcua@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

California saw major developments in politics, public safety and tech this week, while Sacramento saw a former city council member take a plea deal. Here are the top stories from April 19-24.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Former state controller Betty Yee suspended her campaign<\/a> for governor, citing a lack of resources needed to remain competitive. She had polled at 2% in recent surveys.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Former Sacramento City Councilmember Sean Loloee pleaded guilty<\/a> to federal charges including obstructing U.S. Department of Labor investigations, underreported taxes tied to off-the-books pay at his Viva Supermarket stores and fraudulently obtaining nearly $1.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds. He agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution and forfeit about $1 million.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sacramento council members unveiled a proposed resolution<\/a> to ban the use of city-owned property for immigration enforcement. Advocates said the measure lacked a timeline and enforcement power.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A California bill would require autonomous vehicle manufacturers<\/a> to be cited for traffic violations committed by their driverless cars.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Kenneth Kin Chee, founder and CEO of Devastating Pyrotechnics, made his first court appearance<\/a> on seven murder counts tied to the July 2025 Esparto warehouse explosion that killed seven workers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A group says it gathered more than 1.1 million signatures for a ballot measure<\/a> that would hold ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft legally liable for sexual misconduct during rides.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and other sites, announced plans to lay off about 10% of its workforce<\/a> \u2014 nearly 80,000 employees \u2014 starting May 20.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A 25-year-old Southern California mountain biker died<\/a> after being bitten by a rattlesnake while cycling at a trailhead.<\/p>\n

This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Samantha Sullivan<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Samantha Sullivan is the engagement and retention editor for McClatchy\u2019s California newsrooms. Before joining McClatchy in 2023, she spent nine years at The Union newspaper in Grass Valley. She grew up in Fresno and graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Burbank High School students Samantha Martinez and Mellisa Gonzalez hold signs during a student-led protest against ICE at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-285677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}