EVERY MORNING TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #SHOOK Southern California has been hit with a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the second tremor along the US west coast in just two days. 

2. #AFRICA DAY Emails show that the Department of Justice contacted Dublin City Council about applying for funding to celebrate Africa Day.

3. #A DOG’S LIFE Transport Minister Shane Ross has called on government to say what it’s doing about the greyhound industry in wake of the recent RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme.

4. #HELP Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are being asked to assist asylum seekers living in hotels and B&Bs around Ireland.

5. #GLENANNE An independent investigation has been ordered into alleged state collusion with the loyalist Glenanne Gang in Northern Ireland. 

6. #DROWNED Water safety  has appealed for people to take precuations this weekend after the latest figures show that 103 people drowned in Ireland last year. 

7. #CREATIVITY Self-employed artists have been promised “breathing space” in a new scheme allowing unemployed creatives to focus on their own work for 12 months rather than taking part in normal jobseeker activities.  

8. #PRISON A mentally ill woman who kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach in an unprovoked attack has been jailed for two and a half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

9. #OVERCAST On the weather front, it will be mostly overcast today with patches of rain in some places – highest temperatures  of 15C to 22C.