The post The Homes That Inspired Us in 2025 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

By John Towfighi, CNN

New York (CNN) — The US stock market is about to achieve something so rare that it’s only happened five times since the 1940s: three consecutive years of double-digit gains.

The S&P 500 is set to rise 17% this year, after rising 23% in 2024 and 24% in 2023. That gain comes despite concerns about tariffs, geopolitical turmoil, nerves about a bubble and the longest government shutdown in history.

A three-peat of double-digit gains is relatively rare. The index has only experienced it five times before this year, with two occurrences ending in a four-peat and one — in the 1990s — ending in a five-peat, according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Stocks were boosted in 2025 by robust corporate earnings, enthusiasm about AI and optimism about interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

“Equity markets are ending the year on a high note, with the S&P 500 on track for its third consecutive year of double-digit returns, driven by AI momentum and a resilient economy that has shrugged off fiscal and political headwinds,” Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler, said in a note.

A year of extreme volatility

The S&P 500 entered the year on the heels of its strongest back-to-back yearly performance since the 1990s. As President Donald Trump prepared to take office, Wall Street was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of further gains.

Stocks tumbled in late January after Chinese tech upstart DeepSeek unveiled an AI chatbot that raised concerns Silicon Valley was pouring unnecessary amounts of money into AI companies. But markets reclaimed higher ground as investors doubled down on bets that US companies were poised to win a race for superior AI technology — a theme that has propelled markets higher this year despite nerves about a bubble.

Markets experienced a bout of historic volatility in the spring as Trump rolled out his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, levying import duties on nations across the globe and threatening to upend the global trading system.

But stocks rebounded sharply after Trump walked back his most severe tariff threats, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in late June hit their first record highs since February. Stocks have largely coasted higher since, buoyed by strong corporate earnings and Fed rate cuts, which can make stocks relatively more appealing than bonds and support higher stock prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 13.7% this year. The blue-chip index entered the year trading around 43,000 points, tumbled below 37,000 points in April, and then rebounded as Trump delayed most of his tariffs. The Dow hit a fresh record high above 45,000 in August and then surpassed 46,000, 47,000 and 48,000 points in quick succession, sometimes hitting those milestones in just a few weeks.

AI has been the story of the year and, consequently, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has risen 21%, making it the best performer of the three major indexes each of the past three years. Tech and artificial intelligence stocks have powered US markets higher since October 2022, when OpenAI first debuted ChatGPT, marking

By CNN Meteorologist Briana Waxman

(CNN) — Another series of atmospheric river-enhanced storms is set to soak California as the new year begins, bringing a flood threat back to the state just days after a destructive Christmas-week storm left rivers high and soils waterlogged.

The midweek storm lacks the extreme ingredients of last week’s flooding, but it arrives in a state already pushed to its limits. With little room for additional water, rainfall rates rather than totals will determine where problems emerge as California rings in the new year under another active weather pattern.

The first low-pressure system is expected to reach Southern California late New Year’s Eve, then spread north through much of the state into New Year’s Day. The Weather Prediction Center has placed much of Southern California in a Level 2 of 4 flood threat Wednesday and Thursday.

Coastal and valley areas such as downtown Los Angeles could see 1 to 2 inches of rain, with 2 to 4 inches possible in foothills and mountains. Even moderate bursts of rain could trigger flooding, mudslides or debris flows, especially near burn scars and steep terrain.

Evacuation warnings are in effect for parts of Los Angeles County near recent burn scars as rain moves in Wednesday night. The voluntary warnings begin at 11 a.m. PT and are meant to give residents time to prepare for possible mud or debris flows.

The Wrightwood area in San Bernardino County, devastated by Christmas Eve flooding in the Bridge Fire burn scar, is again under an evacuation warning as the threat of mud and debris flows returns.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state has prepositioned crews and equipment in Los Angeles and Ventura counties ahead of the rain.

The first wet Tournament of Roses Parade in two decades

The timing raises the stakes, especially in Southern California, where the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade takes place Thursday morning in Pasadena. Rain arriving Wednesday night will affect parade-goers camping along the route, with downpours continuing into Thursday morning. This is expected to be the first wet Rose Parade since 2006, according to the National Weather Service.

This system is only the first of three in a conga line that could affect the waterlogged state through early next week. Conditions change late Friday into Saturday as colder air drops snow levels below major passes, including Interstate 80 through Donner Pass. Over a foot of snow is likely at Sierra Nevada ski resorts, though exact totals remain uncertain and could make mountain travel hazardous.

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The post New Year’s brings new rainfall and flood threat to California appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) Most people celebrating the New Year with champagne will pop the cork and pour it into flutes, but some will open their bubbly with a saber.

But even experienced folks said it isn't always easy.

It may take a couple of tries to pour your toast from the sharp edges of sabor cut bottle.

The Skidmores explained how to use a sabor to strike the seam and the lip.

They said the key is to make sure you put the bottle on ice or in the freezer upside down beforehand.

The colder the bottler, the cleaner the break.

They toasted 2026 early and then shared their resolutions.

"To celebrate more ,have more reasons to celebrate and sabor more champagn," said Roberta Skidmore.

" Spend more time with friends and family and follow our grandkids, whatever they do, and just enjoy being together with my wife. We've got 46 years and still going," said Kevin Skidmore.

The couple are ringing in the New Year around a campfire at Refugio State Beach campground.

New Year's resolutions don't have to be hard to keep.

The idea is to savor the New Year.

The post Some Sabor Champagne to Savor New Year appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Luciana Lopez, Elijah Shama, Richard Quest, Erin Burnett, CNN

(CNN) — Warren Buffett has worn many hats over the years: The stock-picking Oracle of Omaha. An avuncular, Dairy-Queen-eating, Coke-drinking product pitchman. A living symbol of capitalism and its complexities.

But for generations of business leaders, the 95-year-old has also served as something else: a teacher.

Buffett’s combination of success and sagacity has made him one of the most famous investors in the world, “on the Mount Rushmore of business leaders in our country,” Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said. And through his advice-packed investor letters, his hourslong quote-fest annual meetings, his choices at work or in his personal life, Buffett has taught CEOs and executives around the world how to run their businesses and, in many cases, their lives.

Buffett, who’s spent much of his life among the top 10 richest people in the world, is stepping down Wednesday as head of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway; protégé Greg Abel will take the reins Thursday.

As the iconic investor steps down from his post, several business leaders told CNN about the lessons Buffett leaves behind.

‘Predicting rain doesn’t count’

As a journalist, I’ve covered countless earnings reports. None were as fun as Berkshire Hathaway’s, in large part because Buffett remains among the business world’s top communicators.

He said what he meant, and he never used a 10-cent word if a one-cent word would do. And he was flat-out funny in a way that made covering him a hoot.

“What I’ve always admired about Warren Buffett, and (his late business partner) Charlie Munger for that matter, is their use of plain English and plain language to explain difficult concepts,” Steve Hafner, the CEO of Kayak, said. “It takes a lot of skill to take a complex issue and just split it to the bare minimum.”

Their dry wit made “their shareholder letter one of my favorite reads,” he added.

Some gems among those shareholder letters:

• “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”
• “Predicting rain doesn’t count; building arks does.”
• “I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death – abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term ‘thinking outside the box.’”

‘Our favorite holding period is forever’

One theme among the CEOs who spoke to CNN: Buffett’s legendary patience. Buffett was known to sit on ginormous piles of cash at Berkshire, waiting for the right opportunity to invest. And when he did invest, he was in it for the long haul: “our favorite holding period is forever,” he wrote to shareholders in 1989.

Investor, podcaster, entrepreneur and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci wrote to Buffett 30 years ago, saying he was buying Berkshire shares for his daughter.

“And since she was one and a half years old with a life expectancy of 84 years, she had 82 and a half years left in which to hold her stock,” Scaramucci said.

“He wrote back very quickly and said that was a manifestation of short-termism. His own intention was to hold the stock for a hundred years.”

‘I will be rut