9 Stories You Should Know About Today

Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had drifted between friends and family members for most of his short life, alienating most of them and failing at almost anything that he tried, decided to come home on Saturday. He boarded a bus in Baltimore, arrived in Midtown Manhattan just before 11 a.m., and then disappeared onto the N train at the Times Square subway stop. He was bound for Brooklyn, where he had been born 28 years before, carrying the silver Taurus 9-millimeter pistol he had used earlier to shoot his ex-girlfriend. Full story

The ambush killings of two New York police officers come at a terrible time for New York City. Between the killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island and the shooting of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn, many residents are wary of the police. And their protests against police brutality have fueled a counter-movement from cops and their supporters, who see criticism as hostile and “anti-police,” and who have scorned officials who sympathize with the protesters. Full story

State Attorney General Kamala Harris says she disagrees with those who say local district attorneys have an inherent conflict of interest when they investigate the police officers with whom they must work every day. ... “I don’t think it would be good public policy to take the discretion from elected district attorneys,” Harris said in an interview. “I don’t think there’s an inherent conflict. ... Where there are abuses, we have designed the system to address them.” Full story

The same Chinese firm responsible for cracked welds in the bridge also built a giant wind farm at the same time and in the same factory, working under one of the same prime contractors – Texas-based Fluor Corp. The wind farm towers also were plagued by cracked welds and generally shoddy work. Officials on each project knew about the others’ welding debacle. That’s where the stories diverge: The wind farm owners forced Fluor to pay for repairs; while California officials paid hundreds of millions of dollars extra to Fluor and the Chinese firm in an effort to overcome delays caused by the contractors’ welding blunders. Full story (subscription may be required).

In the wake of December’s storms, treasure hunters and scientists have found fossils on beaches and in sandstone cliffs in the Bay Area and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast that date back anywhere from 5,000 to 10 million years. Full story

The water dropped, a pure white ribbon fluttering down-down-down a towering granite. In other winters it was a sight to behold, but to be expected. This year, the return of Yosemite's waterfalls was more. Because they had disappeared. Full story

At 58 years old, Clarence Cook finally has a place of his own to call home. Living on the streets of San Francisco since 1997, the Army veteran has been in and out of jail for over 30 years, while battling a heroin addiction. Today, Cook has been clean for six months. Earlier this month, he become one of the first 30 residents to move into 250 Kearny — a single-room occupancy property on the edge of San Francisco’s Financial District that has been newly renovated to house 130 homeless veterans. Full story

There is a political subtext to the border posada. But the political sloganeering is kept to a minimum, replaced instead by traditional Christmas carols sung in Spanish and English and numerous speakers touching on the themes of shelter, family and welcoming the stranger. Full story

California's Department of Motor Vehicles will miss a year-end deadline to adopt new rules for cars of the future because regulators first have to figure out how they'll know whether "driverless" vehicles are safe. It's a rare case of the law getting ahead of an emerging technology and reflects regulators' struggle to balance consumer protection with innovation. Full story