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Eric Kay, the Los Angeles Angels’ staffer who provided Tyler Skaggs with illicit opioid pills, told a Texas detective that years before the pitcher’s death Kay had informed a vice president of the ballclub that he had used drugs with Skaggs, according to testimony Tuesday, Dec. 9 in an ongoing wrongful death trial. Delaney Green, who investigated Skaggs’ death in a Texas hotel room at the start of an Angels’ road trip in July 2019, confirmed that Kay, in an interview with law enforcement, alleged that he previously had spoken to Tim Mead — a former Angels’ vice president and…

By SETH BORENSTEIN WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has removed any mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — from its popular online page explaining the causes of climate change. Now it only mentions natural phenomena, even though scientists calculate that nearly all of the warming is due to human activity. Sometime in the past few days or weeks, EPA altered some but not all of its climate change webpages, de-emphasizing and even deleting references to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which scientists say is the overwhelming cause of climate change.…

RIVERSIDE — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed a new fire chief for Riverside County and bid farewell to the man who has served in the top spot for the last five years. The board voted unanimously in support of the appointment of Robert Fish, a Cal Fire firefighter for almost 35 years, to head the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department. He assumes the position previously held by Chief Bill Weiser, who is slated to officially retire on Dec. 31. Robert Fish. (Photo courtesy Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department) “Chief Weiser exemplifies the best in Riverside County,” Supervisor Jose…

By JEFF AMY ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has permanently ordered Georgia’s prison system to keep providing some kinds of gender-affirming care for transgender prisoners, although the state plans to appeal. U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert last week ruled that a new state law denying hormone therapy to inmates violated their protection against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She ordered the state to keep providing hormones to inmates who had been receiving therapy and to allow others medically diagnosed as needing hormone therapy to begin receiving treatment. “The court finds that…

LOS ANGELES — As Bob Chesney walked to the podium in the Luskin Hotel ballroom on UCLA’s campus, a Bruin-branded football rolled off the table in front of the 48-year-old as he whisked by. Chesney, introduced Tuesday morning as UCLA’s 20th head football coach, pointed at athletic director Martin Jarmond. “Ooh, that’s not good,” Chesney said, before laying down a joke. “That was you that fumbled it – not me,” he said. In years past, such a moment before Chesney’s opening remarks, just minutes after first addressing his new football team in the Wasserman Football Center, could’ve been viewed as…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI said Tuesday it has picked Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue, a message to wary investors that the ChatGPT maker is serious about making a profit from its artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI said Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and “help more businesses put AI to work in their day-to-day operations.” Dresser had already spent more than a decade at Salesforce when the software pioneer announced in 2020 it was buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion. She helped integrate Slack into the software company before Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff picked…

By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday challenged a court order that complicated efforts to seek a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey by making a trove of evidence off-limits to prosecutors. An order issued over the weekend by a federal judge in Washington barred the Justice Department at least temporarily from accessing computer files belonging to Daniel Richman, a close Comey friend and Columbia University law professor who prosecutors see as a central player in any potential case against the former FBI director. Prosecutors moved Tuesday to quash that order, calling Richman’s request…

EL SEGUNDO — Veteran reserve guard Marcus Smart practiced Tuesday and expects to make his return to the court in the Lakers’ NBA Cup quarterfinal matchup against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena. “Back’s feeling good,” Smart said after Tuesday’s practice. “Felt good in practice. We did some tests, passed the tests. We’re gonna give it a shot [on Wednesday], see how it feels. But right now, I’m playing. Hopefully, can continue to feel better with another day … and it stays that way. But as of right now, everything is good to go for me.”…

By DEE-ANN DURBIN Cracker Barrel posted lower-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter and trimmed its revenue forecast for the year as it continued to feel the fallout from a botched plan to revamp its logo and restaurants. The Lebanon, Tennessee-based restaurant chain said Tuesday its revenue fell 5.7% to $797.2 million in the three months ending Oct. 31. That was lower than the $800 million Wall Street anticipated, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Cracker Barrel said its same-store restaurant sales dropped 4.7% while sales in its retail shops dropped 8.5%. Those declines were also slightly higher than analysts…

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday her country intends to send more water to the United States but not immediately despite threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to raise tariffs by 5% on Mexican imports if more water is not delivered as part of a water-sharing agreement. Sheinbaum said Mexico is proposing a water delivery this month and another one in the coming years. The proposal will be discussed in a virtual meeting with U.S. officials Tuesday, she said. Mexico is behind water deliveries to the United States from the Rio Grande River because of drought…