The U.S. and California economies will experience near-record growth this year thanks to widespread vaccinations for COVID-19 and massive federal relief for struggling workers and businesses, UCLA forecasters at the Anderson School of Business predict.

"A waning pandemic combined with fiscal relief means a strong year of growth in 2021 - one of the strongest years of growth in the last 60 years - followed by sustained higher growth rates in 2022 and 2023," according to the quarterly economic outlook released Wednesday.

California, buoyed by high-earning technology and professional sectors that shifted to at-home work during the pandemic, will recover somewhat faster than the U.S., even though a full rebound in the tourist-dependent leisure and hospitality businesses will lag.

"This is a very 'good news' forecast," said Leo Feler, senior economist of the forecasting group based at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. "We have finally turned the corner." Catalytic Thieves Arrested

Santa Monica PD reports that it also arrested two suspects on 2/17, who were stealing a