By John Liu

(CNN) — Oil prices surpassed $123 a barrel on Thursday morning, its highest price since 2022, as President Donald Trump mulls an extended blockade of Iranian ports.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up more than 12% early Thursday, hitting $126 at one point. WTI crude, the US benchmark, was up more than 3%, surpassing $110 per barrel.

The latest surge comes as the national average US gas price reached a four-year high of around $4.23, according to AAA data, as a result of the skyrocketing energy prices triggered by the US-Iran war, which has driven prices up more than 27%.

Global crude prices have surged in recent days as face-to-face negotiations between the US and Iran broke down, keeping the Strait of Hormuz – a critical oil and gas shipping channel – effectively shut still.

In a meeting between Trump and his top advisers, the President said he wanted the US naval blockade of Iranian ports to continue, sources familiar with the talks told CNN, and his team has begun laying the groundwork for such an extension, including a longer-term closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Daily transits through the strait have reduced to near zero since the war began in late February, resulting in what the International Energy Agency called the “largest supply disruption in history.”

With the June Brent contract set to expire at the end of Thursday’s session, trading volume has shifted to the July futures. That more active contract pushed above $113 a barrel Wednesday night.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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The post Oil prices surge to highest level since 2022 as Trump mulls Iran blockade extension appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - Santa Maria Fairpark leadership is announcing a series of sweeping changes that are intended to transform the city's biggest event center into a more modern, functional and successful facility.

"Our board has a vision to move us forward," said Todd Ventura, Santa Maria Fairpark Interim CEO. "We call it Vision 2030, where we want to enhance every aspect of our property."

According to Ventura, over the next several years, the 34-acre state-owned property will undergo a dramatic renovation that remake and refurbish the aging facility basically from top to bottom.

"It starts with rebuilding our infrastructure," said Ventura. "It starts with enhancing the beauty of the campus. It's going to have a very different feel from a guest experience perspective. We want a complete refresh and it's about changing the entire esthetic and feeling of what we're doing here at the Fairpark."

The first significant move in the property-wide renovation is currently taking place in the livestock section where workers are demolishing an old second-story agriculture office that hasn't been usable for many years.

"The Fairpark was largely built in the 50's and 60's and a lot of our buildings date back to then," said Ventura. "Some of them are older and they need to change and so there's some older buildings that, are part of barns that we're taking out to enhance safety, as well as esthetics. We're bringing in some new buildings, a new livestock office, and new program areas that we started developing last year.

Already, the Fairpark has initiated a complete rebranding, with a new set of updated logos and a revamped website.

"We realized they were just done a few years ago, but we didn't really feel like that reflected where we want to go and what we want to be," said Ventura. "We've changed our Fairpark logo. We've changed our Santa Barbara County Fair logo and we've changed the Strawberry Festival logo. They're all a little more whimsical and a little more fun, so that that look is very different."

In addition to the physical changes coming throughout the Fairpark property, the Board is also announcing its two biggest annual events will also experience several changes within their appearance.

In fact, the community was able to experience several new changes this past weekend at the Santa Maria Valley Strawberry Festival, which ran from Friday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26.

 "The programing was very different," said Ventura. "The layout was very different. In 20 hours this year, we put through about 32,000 people in the faci

The post Book Smart appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT)  Local foil surfers had a close encounter with a shark on Saturday about a mile off the coast near Leadbetter Beach in Santa Barbara over the weekend.

Tavis Boise and Ron Takeda started at Campus Point and about half way into a 20 minute "foil run" to Carpinteria they saw a fin and splashing.

Tavis Boise had a camera attached to his paddle and managed that captured him alerting his friend Ron Takeda .

They both managed to keep their cool enough to stay on their rather narrow foil surfboards.

"The first thirty seconds was definitely alarming when someone says is that a dolphin it is never a dolphin it has got to be something else so I knew as soon has he said is that a dolphin it was go time and the tail started splashing the shark started chasing Ron," said Boise, " and it was really hard to kind of focus because I was trying to stay on foil you have to balance on these things keep your speed up.

He joked that he was trying to film the shark trying to eat my friend while trying to survive.

"I'm really bad at multitasking."

Ron Takeda is the more serious of the two.

" I knew I couldn't think so much, I knew I couldn't even look back at it, I knew it was happening I was totally aware it was happening, but I knew from experience I needed to focus on staying on foil, I knew that was my best bet to get out of the situation the way I wanted to stay on foil," said Takeda, "And so I just blocked everything out I knew Tavis had a better look at it than I did so when I did yell at him I wanted it to be a dolphin I knew it wasn't."

Boise posted on social media that after a 3 year media hiatus he had an exciting moment to share.

His video that was also shared by Kai Lenny is going viral.

They have had media requests to tell their story from as far away as Australia where surfing is popular.

While some people though the video was AI, shark experts they know think it may have been a mako or great white.

After several minutes the shark seemed to follow.

Once they felt safe hey kept going all the way to Carpinteria where they had a car waiting.

People hearing about what happened might wonder if when or whether they are going back in the water, well they already did.

They went another another long foil fun on Sunday and Monday and they will go again when the conditions are good.

Sometimes a downwind foil run last for hours.

They love it and they won't let a close call with a shark keep them away.

We will have more of their tale tonight on the news.

The post Foil Surfers Surf away from Shark appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Ray Sanchez, Matthew J. Friedman, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Warning: This story includes graphic and disturbing details.

Los Angeles prosecutors on Wednesday laid out a detailed and grisly timeline in the case against singer d4vd, who is accused of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, including that they met when she was 11 and he began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18. Prosecutors also allege he repeatedly stabbed her and watched her bleed out when she threatened to expose their relationship.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office’s brief on preliminary hearing evidence said d4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, killed the teen two days before the release of his album and then took “horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body.”

Celeste had been reported missing by family and friends multiple times, starting in early 2024. She was last seen alive going to d4vd’s home in April 2025.

Celeste died of “multiple penetrating injuries,” according to an autopsy report released earlier this month. She had wounds on her chest and abdomen that “may represent sharp force injuries,” the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said in the report, which was signed in December but sealed for months at the request of law enforcement.

The now-21-year-old singer was arrested earlier this month and has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder. D4vd’s attorney Blair Berk said after the singer’s arraignment that her client is innocent and evidence “will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”

Berk on Wednesday asked the court to seal the evidentiary filing, saying it was “one sided” and “replete with hearsay” and could potentially taint a future jury pool. The judge denied the request. CNN reached out to Berk for comment Wednesday evening.

The filing said on April 22, 2025 — the night before authorities say Celeste was likely killed — she had a lengthy argument with d4vd. Their text messages “reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together,” according to the court document.

“She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” prosecutors wrote, noting that his first studio album’s release date was April 25, 2025.

On April 23, 2025, the singer sent an Uber to pick up Celeste at her home in Lake Elsinore at about 8:40 p.m. and bring her to his Hollywood Hills home around 10:10 p.m., the court document said.

At about 10:30 p.m. that night, d4vd texted Celeste in what prosecutors described as part of his “premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time.”

“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” the filing said. “At no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to attempt to save her life.”

Celeste’s dismembered remains were found in d4vd’s Tesla in Los Angeles last September. The vehicle was apparently abandoned in the Hollywood Hills and towed to a police impound lot, where an employee noticed a foul smell emanating from the trunk and alerted authorities.

Prosecutors wrote that d4vd bought two chain