Illustration of a perspn getting mortgage information online. (Image: Rawpixel.com, via Shutterstock)OPINION: When Californians think about home mortgages, we typically think of banks. But the top three mortgage lenders in California aren’t banks, they’re financial technology or “fintech” lenders. Typically known as nonbanks, they generally operate online only, have no branches and take no deposits.
An illustration using hard-drawn images on green data paper. (Maksim Kabakou, via Shutterstock)This past election cycle rewrote the rules for digital campaigning. Most media coverage, especially after the election, has focused on how a brand of digital terrorism – viral campaigns based on fake news stories, fueled by fake social media accounts and hacked computers – put before voters a mix of negative messages and falsehoods that had a huge impact on the U.S. presidential campaign.
Tour goers flank a mannequin of Dorothea Puente at the house on F Street. (Photo: Steve Martarano)Reporter’s Notebook: “If you’re interested in bodies,” the watch commander said cryptically, “go out to 14th and F streets.” I pulled up to the curb just a heartbeat ahead of a Channel 40 van. Unbeknownst to me, Sacramento’s most sensational serial murder case had started to unfold. I walked up to the excavated mound of dirt on the side of the yard and the homicide lieutenant there met me, and quickly said police had just found what they had been digging for all day: human remains. The officer pointed to a slab of concrete covering the side yard and said they would start digging it up the next day looking for more bodies.
A view of the California drought from Marine One during President Obama's visit earlier this year. (Photo: White House)OPINION: There is an Armenian proverb: “On a rainy day many offer to water the chickens.” And in a very dry year there are many who want to follow the call to tear out their lawns. The call is coming from the Department of Water Resources and others for urban homeowners to start tearing out their lawns, with financial incentives for doing so.