• Disney Settlement with California Highlights Complexities of Data-Privacy Opt-Out Requests

    The Recorder
    February 24, 2026

    (Subscription required) The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay a record $2.75 million to resolve allegations it violated the California Consumer Privacy Act by failing to fully effectuate consumer requests to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their data. The California Attorney General's Office alleged that when consumers opted out of such use of their data on one device, the opt-out didn't carry over to other devices they used—an express violation of the 2018 act. 

  • Water and Southern California: Past, Present, and Future

    PBS SoCal
    February 24, 2026

    Every 30 years since 1900, a new generation of Southern Californians faced a distinct water challenge. The first three generations met that challenge by developing a new imported water source and transporting it to Southern California. The last generation used new tools to use water more efficiently and maximize the value of the existing resources. The challenge for this generation will be dealing with a need to face the impacts of climate change and modernize an aging system while managing in a shrinking economic environment.

  • Constitutional questions flow through Kern River case

    SJV Water
    February 24, 2026

    Briefs and replies are piling up in the Kern River case pending review by the state Supreme Court. The court agreed to look at an appellate decision that tossed out an 2023 court order to keep water flowing in the river through Bakersfield. There are two central questions in this fray: Can a Fish and Game statute be applied as it’s written under the state constitution? And who has the burden to prove that either way?

  • California, 14 states sue HHS over changes to vaccine recommendations

    Sacramento Bee
    February 24, 2026

    California and 14 other states are suing the federal government to reverse a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that reduced the number of diseases children should be inoculated against from 17 to 11, calling it a departure from standard medical advice that ignored federal laws.

    Related: Associated Press, Reuters