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SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) Drivers heading up Highway 154 couldn't help but notice temperatures going up 

Temperature hit 104 on Cachuma Lake --where there is no body contact with the water.

"We still have fun out here we just pulled up cars marking 100 degrees but we would love to get in there but at least the fishing great so beautiful day," said Julio Valenzuela of Santa Maria.

The heat didn't stop people from enjoying the summer day/.

Locals in Solvang said it was in the triple digits by noon and some people wine tasting looked forward to the sunset.

"Earlier we were in the air conditioning. We only really ventured out this time of night because it is very comfortable now,"said Karin Lee of Long Beach.

"We are doing okay when we planned this over-nighter from down south ,we realized it was going to be the hottest day of the week, but so far we are doing well in the wineries," said Keena Vince.

Some people cooled off by coast in Santa Barbara

But it still felt hotter than usual.

The captain of the Land Shark promised a cool tour.

"As you can see it is open air and on the ocean nothing beats a day like today. We saw harbor seals seal ions and we had dolphins follow up come join us on the land shark," said Natalie Sampila.

The heatwave could set a record in July.

Your News Channel will have more on the heat tonight on the news.

The post Heatwave Temps Soar from the beach to the valley appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — The New York Times has taken legal action to challenge unusual subpoenas issued to several of its reporters last week.

The subpoenas, which attempt to compel the reporters to testify before a grand jury about their anonymous sources, were “abusive and improper” and should be quashed by a court, the Times’ top newsroom lawyer, David McCraw, said in a statement Wednesday night.

“As we set out in our motion, these subpoenas are brought in bad faith to punish The Times for its coverage,” McCraw said. “They violate the constitutional rights of The Times and its journalists.”

The demands for testimony were delivered just two days after The Times published a story contradicting President Donald Trump’s claims about the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One.

News reporting about the new plane’s security deficiencies angered the president and triggered a sprawling leak investigation. CNN reported new details about the leak hunt earlier on Wednesday.

When The Times revealed that several of its reporters had been subpoenaed, the Justice Department responded by saying that “reporters are not the targets; those leaking classified information are.”

Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick for attorney general, defended the investigative process at a Senate confirmation hearing. Blanche confirmed that he authorized the subpoenas and likened the reporters to “material witnesses, just like a reporter would be a material witness to a car crash. They are witnesses.”

Some conservative groups have similarly justified the subpoenas, while progressives have argued that the government is trying to unduly punish leakers who undermined Trump’s claims and journalists who shared what the leakers said.

Subpoenas are often shrouded in secrecy, and McCraw noted that his motion “was delivered under seal, pursuant to court order,” meaning it is hidden from the public.

“The Times believes that the public has a right to information about this case and is also seeking to have the papers unsealed,” McCraw said.

The subpoenas to the Times, issued last Friday, originally called for the reporters to testify before a grand jury on Wednesday.

But that did not happen on Wednesday as the news organization mounted its legal challenge.

The Times has asserted that US law protects journalists from retaliation, which it believes this case represents. A wide array of First Amendment groups and news media advocates have backed up The Times.

The newsroom’s executive editor, Joe Kahn, said Wednesday that “we see this… as an attempt to intimidate the journalists and The Times itself, and we’re going to continue to report — both about Air Force One, and on the circumstances around the government use of prosecutorial power to intimidate the independent news media.”

“I’ve been a foreign correspondent in China,” Kahn added in an online video, “and I’ve seen the way an authoritarian government can keep journalists from reporting on a huge amount of news and information that’s very clearly in the public interest. It’s really essential to American democracy that that kind of erosion of press freedoms not happen here.”

On Wednesday morning, the attorney who signed the subpoenas also addressed the matter,

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Elon Musk’s xAI sued a user on Tuesday, alleging he used the Grok chatbot to create child sexual abuse materials. It’s one of the first lawsuits filed by a tech company against users who allegedly create explicit content with AI.

Musk’s company alleged in the lawsuit that a user named Terry Wayne Harwood violated its terms of service “to convert non-sexual photographs into sexually explicit images without the photograph subjects’ knowledge or consent.” Harwood, along with three other men, was arrested earlier this year in South Carolina on multiple counts of alleged sexual exploitation of a minor.

CNN has reached out to the attorney representing Harwood in his criminal case for comment.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges Harwood created multiple xAI accounts and entered “misleading prompts” to create explicit deepfakes of both minors and adults.

The lawsuit further alleges that Harwood designed prompts it characterized as “misleading” in order to “circumvent” what it described as “built-in safeguards” to prevent against the creation of explicit material depicting minors.

“Defendant breached the xAI Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy by leveraging Grok to generate non-consensual sexually explicit images and CSAM,” or child sexual abuse material, the suit adds.

Earlier this year, Grok came under fire for a tool that allowed “digital undressing,” including AI-generated images of children. After users began noticing a surge in non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes late last year, Musk and xAI said they would take action against such illegal use of the AI. “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk write in a January 6 social media post quoted in the suit.

Harwood’s alleged misuse of Grok exposed xAI “to significant legal risk and reputational damage,” the lawsuit alleged.

In the lawsuit, xAI claims that it “has suspended 52,222 accounts and made 73,604 reports to (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) in 2026, resulting in (at least) 244 arrests.”

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that Harwood broke the site’s Terms of Service and unspecified damages.

xAI has faced scrutiny over its chatbot before. Last year, ​the company posted a lengthy apology for a series of violent and antisemitic posts from Grok, placing the blame on a system update.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Hadas Gold contributed to this report.

The post Elon Musk’s xAI sues user over allegedly creating child sexual abuse materials with Grok appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN

El vicepresidente J. D. Vance dijo que el Gobierno de Trump “metió la pata por completo” con la estrategia de comunicación sobre los archivos de Jeffrey Epstein y que debió publicar toda la información de inmediato, aunque insistió en que el Gobierno no estaba intentando ocultar información.

“Lo digo con toda franqueza: metimos la pata por completo con la comunicación sobre los archivos de Epstein, realmente lo hicimos”, dijo Vance en The Joe Rogan Experience al ser consultado sobre si había existido una “influencia indebida” para mantener los archivos bajo reserva.

“¿Pero creo que la razón por la que manejamos mal la comunicación fue porque intentábamos ocultar algo? No”, afirmó Vance en el episodio del pódcast, publicado este miércoles.

Los comentarios de Vance se producen mientras el Gobierno enfrenta críticas de la propia base política del presidente por el manejo de los archivos de Epstein.

Al explicar qué salió mal, el vicepresidente señaló las declaraciones públicas de la entonces secretaria de Justicia, Pam Bondi, quien sugirió que una supuesta lista de clientes estaba sobre su escritorio. También recordó que los archivadores con información entregados a influencers de derecha en febrero de 2025 contenían, “en gran medida, documentos que ya habían sido publicados”.

“No sé cuál era el propósito, pero sí sé que el efecto fue hacer que la gente desconfiara de todo el esfuerzo”, dijo Vance, al tiempo que agregó que no cree que Bondi estuviera haciendo “nada malicioso”.

“Creo que Pam estaba tratando de responder al momento político. Creo que exageró lo que teníamos y lo que no teníamos, y creo que mucha gente la criticó públicamente por eso, incluyéndome a mí”.

El vicepresidente reiteró que es “uno de los teóricos originales de las conspiraciones sobre Epstein” y aseguró: “Probablemente he explorado todas y cada una de las teorías posibles”.

Vance sostuvo que el “pecado original” de la investigación sobre Epstein se remonta a 2007 y 2008. Afirmó que la investigación fue “demasiado limitada” y responsabilizó al entonces fiscal federal Alex Acosta, quien negoció un controvertido acuerdo de culpabilidad con Epstein.

“Si hubo una conspiración más amplia —y saben que mi opinión es que probablemente la hubo—, la evidencia que existía en 2007 era la oportunidad para sacarla a la luz”, dijo Vance.

Consultado sobre las teorías que sostienen que Epstein pudo haber formado parte del servicio de inteligencia israelí Mossad, Vance respondió: “Sí, el Mossad, o la CIA, o algún otro Estado profundo”.

“Claramente tenía conexiones con los niveles más altos de la comunidad de inteligencia de Estados Unidos. Claramente tenía conexiones con los niveles más altos de la inteligencia de Israel”, agregó.

J. D. Vance también defendió el papel del presidente Donald Trump en la divulgación de los archivos de Epstein y rechazó las afirmaciones de que el mandatario fue presionado para hacerlo. Según Vance, Trump “podría haber frenado” el esfuerzo en el Congreso para obligar al Departamento de Justicia a publicar los archivos si hubiera querido. (Trump y los líderes del Partido Republicano trabajaron intensamente para intentar bloquear el esfuerzo destinado a forzar la publicación de los archivos, antes de que el presidente cambiara de postura en el último momento).

Aun así, Vance reconoció que al Gobierno le tomó más tiempo del debido publicar los archivos.

“Si la gente quiere decir que manejamos mal la divulgación de los archivos de Epstein, es cierto. La manejamos mal, especialmente en la forma en que la comunicamos”, dijo.

“Creo que simplemente debimos haber publicado todo desde el principio”, afirmó. “Debimos haberlo hecho lo más rápido posible”.

The-CNN-Wire