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Walters: In deep-blue California, progressives growing frustrated

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

Seemingly, California is a deeply blue state in which Democrats hold virtually all of the levers of political power, including all statewide offices and three-fourths of the Legislature’s seats.However, California’s most frustrated political bloc these days are the progressives who yearn to remake the state into a model of economic and social egalitarianism with an extensive array of free or low-cost services ranging from universal health care and family income supports to child care and higher education.Their movement seemed to be making some gains last year when Gov. Gavin Newsom, outwardly the most progressive governor in history, was bragging about a $97 billion state budget surplus and approving expansions of child care, health coverage for undocumented immigrants and other points of the progressive agenda.It was a fleeting moment at best.The massive surplus has since become a massive deficit — $68 billion according to the Legislature’s budget analyst — while Newsom...

Review: ‘Zone of Interest’ is harrowing, evil and mundane

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

By Jocelyn Noveck | Associated PressIt’s just a woman trying on a fur coat alone in her room, and sampling a lipstick. It’s just a few friends discussing toothpaste orders over coffee in the kitchen. It’s just a housewife showing off her new garden and children’s pool, or a dad taking his kids fishing in a river.The crucial context is that these scenes are occurring only a stone wall away from the gas chambers and crematoriums of Auschwitz. And it’s their very mundanity that makes them evil — the “banality of evil,” to use Hannah Arendt’s well-known phrase. In his meticulous and harrowing film “The Zone of Interest,” writer-director Jonathan Glazer has found a way to convey evil without ever depicting the horror itself. But though it escapes our eyes, the horror assaults our senses in other, deeper ways.How does one even begin to depict the Holocaust? The question has challenged filmmakers for eight decades. Attempts to hum...

Chevron slashes California spending on ‘adversarial’ fossil-fuel policies

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

By Kevin Crowley and Chunzi Xu | BloombergChevron Corp. is slashing oil-refinery investments in California because of “adversarial” policies toward fossil fuels, a move that may boost what already are the highest pump prices in the nation.The oil giant headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area has cut spending in the Golden State by “hundreds of millions of dollars since 2022,” according to comments filed with the California Energy Commission this week. Chevron is a key supplier of jet fuel to the San Francisco and Los Angeles airports.The comments come as California lawmakers consider limiting the profits in-state refiners can reap. The most-populous US state already has the nation’s toughest fuel standards as well as a carbon cap-and-trade program that critics say forces consumers to pay more at the pump.“California’s policies have made it a difficult place to invest so we have rejected capital projects in the state,” Andy Walz, president of Chevron’s Americas Products business,...

Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Terren Davis, Berkeley soccer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

Editor’s note: Thank you for voting in this week’s poll. The Athlete of the Week poll will return after the Holiday season on Jan. 8.Berkeley soccer player Terren Davis is the Bay Area News Group’s girls athlete of the week for Dec. 4-9 after she received 43.98% of the vote by the deadline Wednesday.Washington-Fremont basketball player Mikaela Dumagan finished second.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Related ArticlesHigh School Sports | Poll closed: Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week High School Sports | Poll closed: Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week High School Sports | Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Nat Javier, Christopher basketball High School Sports | Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week: Matthew Tahir, Foothill soccer High School Sports | Poll closed: Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week Davis, a sopho...

Contra Costa Fire crews containing vegetation fire in Pittsburg

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

(BCN) -- Contra Costa County fire crews are containing a two-alarm vegetation fire in Pittsburg, fire officials said early Friday morning.The fire occurred at 901 Bailey Road near the border of Bay Point, just south of a landfill in the area, the Contra Costa Fire Protection District said on social media shortly before 2:15 a.m. Friday.Crews have contained the blaze at 50 acres so far, with no structures affected, according to fire officials, who added that the fire is dwindling-driven. The portion of Bailey Rd between Bay Point and Concord is shut down in both directions. Motorists are advised to avoid the area.Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

Santa Clara County extends homeless services contract amid controversy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

(BCN) -- Santa Clara County officials are moving ahead with a temporary contract extension for homeless support services, despite uneasiness over allegations of discrimination by the nonprofit provider.The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a three-month, $2 million contract extension with homeless service provider HomeFirst to operate the Boccardo Reception Center in San Jose and Sunnyvale Family Shelter. But the extension was met with controversy, after advocates spoke out against HomeFirst during public comment, calling for the county to divest from the organization and investigate allegations of discrimination within the organization. Two candidates enter early race for Santa Clara County education seat Speakers cited a recent incident involving a homeless Black woman who police removed from the Sunnyvale Family Shelter in mid-November and was subsequently banned from all HomeFirst shelters for an alleged assault.Raj Jayadev, co-founder of ...

Lawsuit claims DC police department harbors culture of sexual harassment and sexism

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

A suit against the District of Columbia filed by three Metropolitan Police Department employees Monday alleges the police force has fostered a culture that tolerates sexual harassment and gender discrimination, including retaliation for reporting such behavior.The three plaintiffs, all Black women — two of whom are current officers and one is a civilian employee — claim supervising officers often subjected them to inappropriate sexual advances and comments.They also say they were retaliated against by an “old boys club” environment that punished them for speaking up and reporting such behavior. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of women at the department being “subjected to constant hyper-scrutiny” and “disciplined for the smallest infraction” after they reported inappropriate behavior.“I was walking on eggshells all the time, I was terrified to go to work,” said one plaintiff.The three women are asking the city for $2 million each in damages.In the l...

Companies announce partnership to release dengue-fighting mosquitoes in the Caribbean

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Two private companies announced Friday a partnership to release mosquitoes across the Caribbean bred with a bacterium that blocks the dengue virus as the region fights a record number of cases.Orbit Services Partners Inc., a company registered in Barbados, is partnering with Verily, a San Francisco-based health technology company, for the project. The companies have been meeting with government officials in the region in hopes of launching the project early next year, said Orbit chairman Anthony Da Silva.It would target nations including Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Suriname, Dominican Republic and Haiti.Similar projects using the Wolbachia bacterium already have been implemented elsewhere in the world. Mosquitoes are infected with Wolbachia in a laboratory and then released into the wild, where they pass it on to their offspring. The bacterium prevents the dengue virus from replicating inside a mosquito̵...

Migrant dies and another is in critical condition after boat partially deflates in English Channel

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A boat carrying more than 60 migrants encountered difficulty Friday as it attempted to make the dangerous crossing across the English Channel from France, and authorities said one person died and another was hospitalized in critical condition after a rescue operation. French maritime authorities said in a statement that the boat carrying the migrants had partially deflated and that the individual who died was unconscious when rescue ships arrived. They said another person was in critical condition and flown by helicopter to a hospital in the French port of Calais.Rescue vessels picked up 66 people in all, including the person who died, after the boat in distress was spotted around five miles (8 kilometers) off the coast of Grand-Fort-Philippe at around 12:30 a.m. local time. The U.K. coastguard said it sent a helicopter to assist the French authorities coordinating the operation.The French coast around Calais has long been a jumping-off point for people fleeing conflic...

Así es el Tren Maya de México: ruta, mapa, precios de los boletos y más

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:11 GMT

(CNN Español) — El Tren Maya, impulsado por el Gobierno del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador en México, comenzará a operar este 16 de diciembre su primer tramo terminado. Mientras continúa la construcción de las demás rutas, el trayecto que va de Campeche a Cancún, Quintana Roo, quedará habilitado para su uso a partir de esta fecha.El tren, considerado una de las obras más importantes del Gobierno de López Obrador, recorrerá en su totalidad poco más de 1.5oo kilómetros y atravesará los estados del Golfo de México, en el sureste del país, de acuerdo con la página web oficial del proyecto.La tercera etapa del proyecto, es decir los tramos 5, 6 y 7 que aún no terminan de construirse, comenzarán a operar en febrero de 2024, según lo confirmó el director general del proyecto, Óscar David Lozano Águila, a pocos días de la inauguración del tramo Campeche-Cancún.Comienza la venta de boletos del Tren Maya 15 días antes de su inauguraciónEl proyecto, que se sometió a una controver...