Happy New Year's Eve! We begin the morning with light showers for most of the area and some breezy winds. Have a jacket and umbrella ready as the heavier showers appear into the afternoon. The low pressure system associated with this storm will meander into the coverage zone after lunch bringing stronger winds and moderate rain. A Wind Advisory goes into effect for the entire area from 4pm through Thursday. Gusts will near 45mph and may knock down palm fronds and decorations. A Flood Watch is in effect for the entire area starting this evening and lasting through Thursday. Some areas are at risk for mudslides, rockslides and localized flooding. The strongest set of showers move through overnight, right in time for your New Year's Eve plans. Rainfall rates will be high and areas most impacts will be Santa Barbara South Coast and Ventura. Highs rise into the 60s and 70s.

Heavy rain and intense showers end by Thursday morning. The first day of 2026 will start out strange as one system dissipates and the next moves into the area. Expect some on and off lingering showers, overcast skies and it may feel a little muggy. Expect a slight cooling trend from the days prior, most areas rising into the 60s.

The next strom arrives Friday. This is an entirely different set of showers and you may notice a sharp difference. Where the first storm was rather warm and brought lighter to moderate rain this system will be cold and less impactful. Our temperatures will drop dramatically and winds will be additionally strong. This system falls apart by the time it digs to the south and will bring some scattered showers and thunderstorms. Rain chances hold through the first weekend of the new year.

The post Heavy rain New Year’s Eve night, tracking the next storm this weekend appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Billy Stockwell, CNN

London (CNN) — Britain’s Queen Camilla has spoken publicly for the first time about how she had to “fight back” after being assaulted by a stranger on a train when she was a teenager.

“When I was a teenager, I was attacked on a train,” Camilla told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program, aired Wednesday. “I’d sort of forgotten about it, but I remember at the time being so angry.”

“(It was) somebody I didn’t know. I was reading my book, and this boy, man, attacked me, and I did fight back,” she said.

After getting off the train, Camilla revealed how her mother had asked why her hair was “standing on end” and why a button was missing from her coat, pointing to the assault’s physical nature.

The identity of the attacker is not known, but Camilla said he was “probably not a great deal older than me,” even though at the time she thought he was an “old man.”

She said the memory of the attack has been “lurking in the back of my brain for a very long time.”

The Queen disclosed the incident in a radio discussion about violence against women, alongside BBC commentator John Hunt, whose wife, Carol, and two daughters, Louise and Hannah, were killed by Louise’s ex-partner. The couple’s surviving daughter, Amy, also joined the discussion.

Details of the train attack were previously included in an excerpt from the book “Power and the Palace,” released earlier this year by Valentine Low, a former royal correspondent for The Times of London newspaper.

The book included additional details about the incident, as told to Low by Guto Harri, who was communications director for former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his time as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016.

“She was on a train going to Paddington – she was about 16, 17 – and some guy was moving his hand further and further,” Harri told Low in the book, recounting a story Camilla had reportedly told Johnson at Clarence House.

At that point, Johnson asked what happened next, Harri told Low. According to Harri, Camilla replied: “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.”

“She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me’, and he was arrested,” Harri continued.

Buckingham Palace did not release an official statement at the time of the book’s release.

Camilla, who became Queen in 2022, has made it her mission to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. Last year, she teamed up with an all-female production crew in a powerful documentary in which she vowed to keep on working to eradicate domestic abuse.

CNN’s Jack Guy contributed to this report.

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By Jeff Winter, CNN

(CNN) — When Greg Pryer served in the Marine Corps three decades ago and then worked as a New York City police officer who experienced the trauma of September 11, alcohol was his go-to coping mechanism.

After retiring from the NYPD in 2015, his drinking habit only worsened, he said. Without the job, he had no structure or direction, just time, memories and the bottle.

“I went from being a veteran and being in law enforcement, over 20 years of really having an obvious purpose, and retirement somewhat stripped me of my identity,” said Pryer, who retired as a sergeant. “All I had, in a way, was my alcohol to deal with it.”

With liquor running his life, Pryer was arrested in 2019 on weapons and driving while intoxicated charges, and again in 2022 on similar weapons charges, in New York’s Suffolk County, on Long Island. He had been in courtrooms plenty of times as a cop. Being in one as a defendant was a difficult reality to accept.

Because of his military service, Pryer was eligible to have his cases transferred to the Suffolk County Veterans Treatment Court. A specialized part of the local court system, vets court helps troubled service members get into drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and mental health counseling in lieu of doing jail time. Veterans who complete their court-monitored treatments can have their sentences reduced, or charges dropped.

“Yes, it’ll help out your legal situation, but it’s also a chance to work on yourself, whatever that underlying issue that brought you into the legal system to begin with,” Pryer said. “It’s really a blessing that the court picked me up.”

For 15 years, hundreds of struggling vets like Pryer have received a lifeline through Suffolk’s veterans treatment court, run by those who served just like they did. Today, nearly 750 similar programs are found in 49 states, according to Department of Veterans Affairs data.

Like so many fellow veterans, Pryer was not aware of the treatment court’s existence until he wound up in the criminal justice system.

“I had to learn the hard way,” Pryer said.

The judge doesn’t wear a robe

The country’s first specialized court for vets started in 2008 in Buffalo, New York. Two years later, Judge John Toomey, a Vietnam War combat veteran, worked with the Suffolk district attorney’s office, the local VA health care system and a small group of volunteers known as the Green Jackets to create the Suffolk County Veterans Treatment Court.

The idea was so new it had no set guidelines or rules, providing Toomey and company freedom to develop their operation from scratch. Toomey, a two-time recipient of the Bronze Star, set a casual tone: He didn’t wear a robe on the bench, knew veteran defendants by name, and talked with their families about life at home. He even gave out his phone number.

“You had to put your trust that this is going to work out, and that this (person) is going to do the right thing,” Toomey said.

It worked because the veterans in the program wanted to get better. Toomey said they could have gone through the regular court system, served a few months of jail time and gone right back to what they were doing before their arrest.

The court accepts vets arrested for a gamut of crimes, including driving while intoxicated, misdemeanor and felony drug charges, robbery and criminal possession of weapons.

“They made the decision they want to turn their lives around. They’re sick of what’s going on,” Toomey said. “It gives you an advantage in helping them.”

To ensure accountability, the DA’s office developed a screening process to evaluate eligibl

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) — Bright full moons, dazzling meteor shower displays and remarkable total eclipses will give stargazers plenty of reasons to look to the sky in 2026.

The new year kicks off with the full wolf moon on Saturday, the first of three supermoons this year. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, will appear south of the silvery orb, according to EarthSky.

The luminosity of the supermoon, which appears brighter and fuller than a regular full moon due to its proximity to Earth, may prevent visibility of the Quadrantid meteor shower.

The Quadrantids are expected to peak from 4 to 7 p.m. ET Saturday — right when the full moon is dominating the night sky.

But there are many more meteor showers and celestial events to look forward to in 2026, according to Robert Lunsford, fireball report coordinator for the American Meteor Society.

Supermoons and full moons

Most years see 12 full moons with one occurring each month. But in 2026, there will be 13, with two in May.

The second full moon in a month is known as a blue moon — like the phrase “once in a blue moon.”

Typically, full moons happen every 29 days, while most months in our calendar last 30 or 31 days, so the months and moon phases don’t exactly align — resulting in a blue moon about every 2 ½ years.

After January’s supermoon, the next two supermoons will be in November and December. On average, the moon is about 238,900 miles (384,472 kilometers) from Earth. But December’s supermoon will be the closest of the year at 221,667 miles (356,740 kilometers) away, according to EarthSky.

Here are the rest of the full moons in 2026, according to the Farmers’ Almanac:

• February 1: Snow moon
• March 3: Worm moon
• April 1: Pink moon
• May 1: Flower moon
• May 31: Blue moon
• June 29: Strawberry moon
• July 29: Buck moon
• August 28: Sturgeon moon
• September 26: Harvest moon
• October 26: Hunter’s moon
• November 24: Beaver moon
• December 23: Cold moon

Meteor showers

After the peak of the Quadrantids in early January, sky-gazers will have to wait a bit until the Lyrid meteor shower in April.

Here are the dates for the rest of the meteor showers peaking in 2026, according to the American Meteor Society.

• Lyrids: April 21-22
• Eta Aquariids: May 5-6
• Southern Delta Aquariids: July 30-31
• Alpha Capricornids: July 30-31
• Perseids: August 12-13
• Orionids: October 21-22
• Southern Taurids: November 4-5
• Northern Taurids: November 11-12
• Leonids: November 16-17
• Geminids: December 13-14
• Ursids: December 21-22

“The Perseids and the Geminids will be the best showers of the year,” Lunsford said. “The Perseids are predicted to peak with no lunar interference.”

The Geminids produced a powerful shower in 2025 with hourly meteor rates as high as 135, Lunsford noted.

“There is no reason why we could not expect similar rates in 2026 once the moon sets.”

Solar eclipses

Sky-gazers can look forward to the dramatic appearances of two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses this year, according to NASA.

An

By Gloria Pazmino, CNN

(CNN) — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has spent the last several weeks sprinting towards a deadline.

After publicly committing to filling many of the top posts in his new administration before taking office, Mamdani, 34, is closing 2025 with a still-evolving image of the team that is going to help steer his government and enact an ambitious agenda to tackle the affordability crisis in the nation’s largest city.

During the campaign, Mamdani – a former state assemblyman who will make history as New York’s youngest mayor in a century when he takes the oath of office at midnight on New Year’s Day – battled criticism that he lacked the experience needed to lead the city’s massive bureaucracy.

Since his election, Mamdani’s transition has continued to try to swat away that criticism even as it has slow-rolled some of its appointments, leading critics and political insiders watching from the sidelines to wonder if the pace of the transition is an indication of what the Mamdani era of government will bring.

The appointments of newly elected mayors are closely watched affairs, as they provide an early test for a new administration. Mamdani has continued to name new appointees, including as recently as Tuesday afternoon.

Still, several members of the transition granted anonymity to speak freely about confidential proceedings acknowledged the transition has indeed moved slower than previous administrations, in part due to Mamdani’s limited network of seasoned government hands and a struggle to appease competing constituencies inside the transition.

“He wants to broaden his coalition,” said one Mamdani transition member granted anonymity to discuss confidential proceedings. “But he also has a lot of very hard left people internally who are less interested in compromising, and that push and pull is really delaying things.”

Another member described the effort as a “careful managing of everyone’s political feelings.” And while some have been quick to focus on the delays, members of the transition have also praised some of Mamdani’s picks so far, describing them as “sane, sober choices” that should put at ease anyone worried Mamdani would place a “bunch of radical kids” in charge.

“I feel confident about the team we’re putting together,” Mamdani said earlier this month when asked about the pace of his appointments. “We are going to be building out a team that New Yorkers will see being the ones who will help to make the decisions that will shape their lives and their ability to afford living in this city.”

A massive bureaucracy

Since winning the general election in November, Mamdani hasn’t quite stopped running.

He has held a series of quasi-campaign events in the past two months: Rallying alongside independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Starbucks workers on strike, distributing hot chocolate to tenants in the freezing December temperatures to highlight his proposal to freeze stabilized rents, meeting with daycare workers to talk about his universal childcare pitch and traveling to Washington, DC, for an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump.

All the while, his team has been working to fill out key roles in the administration.

New York City’s municipal gears turn with the help of more than 300,000 public workers and dozens of agencies, mayoral offices and boards. They’re tasked with everything from picking up the more than 10,000 tons of garbage the city produces daily, to leading the city’s public hospital system, helping small businesses, and awarding city contracts, to name a few of their collective responsibilities.

So far, Mamdani has named leaders to the