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Editorial: Newsom’s sleazy move to roll back police accountability

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

When it comes to police reform, Gov. Gavin Newsom is an opportunistic hypocrite.In 2021, the governor with much fanfare signed laws expanding access in California to records of police abuse and establishing a long-overdue process to investigate cops and revoke their certification.Now the governor is trying to slip through without public review changes that would roll back key transparency elements of that legislation he approved less than two years ago.State legislators should not enable this deceit. They should reject Newsom’s attempt to weaken law enforcement accountability just as it’s becoming apparent how widespread police abuse is in California.For example, we’ve learned of rampant racism in the Antioch Police Department, a lack of punishment for San Jose cops who inflicted serious injuries on civilians, and excessive and often reckless use of police dogs in Richmond. Meanwhile, more than 80 law enforcement officers working in California were convicted criminals with rap sheet...

Marin County neighborhood gets rare visit from a black bear

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

Caitlin Estrella was awake in the middle of the night comforting her daughter after a nightmare when she got an phone alert from her home security camera: animal detected.Usually, Estrella said, this meant a squirrel, skunk or the occasional stray cat. This time, she stared in disbelief as a large black bear strolling through her yard filled her phone screen.“I couldn’t even comprehend what I was looking at,” Estrella said. “It was so wild. I had to do a double take.”The bear passed through the Terra Linda neighborhood around 2 a.m. Tuesday. It is the second bear sighting recently, following one a few weeks ago in Larkspur. In 2021, a black bear was spotted in a tree in San Anselmo.Bear encounters are still rare in the area, mostly due to unregulated killing of the Point Reyes population that rendered them extinct by 1901, according to the National Park Service.“It’s still not a ton, and usually it happens in places with more open space … and typically in West Marin,” Marin Humane s...

In response to court ruling in Berkeley, Santa Cruz suspends natural gas prohibition

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — A recent court ruling on the city of Berkeley related to the use of natural gas in building developments is having an impact on policy here in Santa Cruz.The Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to suspend a natural gas prohibition ordinance it passed in 2020 after an April ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a similar ordinance in Berkeley that was OK’d in 2019.The Santa Cruz ordinance, which prohibited natural gas infrastructure in new buildings, was modeled after Berkeley’s. The city’s attorney analyzed the ruling and it was determined that, even with some notable differences between the two prohibitions, there was no way to avoid applicability in Santa Cruz.“Eventually we’ll come back with another ordinance of some kind for changes to our building code that might try to get at some of the same goals that this natural gas prohibition ordinance was getting at,” said Matt VanHua, principal planner in the city’s Planning and Communit...

Opinion: Bay Area’s largest port must consider environmental justice

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

With smoke blanketing the East Coast from Canadian wildfires, the dangers of polluted air are at the forefront of millions of Americans’ minds. This is something Californians are all too familiar with, but it’s also a danger that people in my West Oakland community face even outside of wildfire season.Air pollution is significantly worse year-round in port-adjacent communities like where I live, and decisions we make today can impact our air for generations. The Army Corps of Engineers recently announced a project that would widen the turning basins at the Port of Oakland to allow more visits from “ultra-large container vessels” — 1,300-foot megaships longer than the height of Salesforce Tower. Without more community input and a better environmental-review process, this project will move us in the wrong direction in our fight to correct decades of environmental injustice.Each megaship could carry over 19,000 containers that need to be unloaded and transported by truck, r...

Cabrillo College leaders reveal top five new names

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

APTOS — After months of deliberations and planning, Cabrillo College leaders on Wednesday revealed the top five potential new names for the school at a community meeting in Aptos.The proposed names are:• Aptos College, an Ohlone term for “The People.”• Cajastaca College, an indigenous name translating to “Place of the Jackrabbits” or “Village of the Jackrabbits.”• Costa Vista College, Spanish for “Coast View,” though it was pointed out that the literal translation would be “Vista De La Costa.”• Seacliff College, a reference to the unincorporated area near the Aptos campus.• Santa Cruz Coast College, a geographic reference identifying clearly where the school district is.The more than 40 community members that attended the meeting at Cabrillo’s Aptos campus received a detailed summary of the name exploration process.Attendees also had an opportunity to discuss the final five name options and ask questions about the process so far.The forum in Aptos is the first of three forums hosted...

Fire at San Jose storage facility continues to burn, explosions reported

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

(KRON) -- A fire at a Public Storage facility in San Jose continues to burn Thursday morning as crews deal with hotspots coming from the storage complex. The fire was upgraded last night from two alarms to three alarms, the San Jose Fire Department confirmed on Wednesday evening. The Public Storage is located on Blossom Hill Road at Cottle Road. Video of the fire shows a massive amount of smoke and flame billowing from the structure. Tesla involved in ‘major injury’ vehicle collision in Santa Clara Roads in the area are closed and traffic is delayed. People are being advised not to drive over fire hoses and to obey all directions from fire crews and police officers. There are no injuries and everyone is accounted for, fire officials confirmed.Fire officials also said there have been reports of audible explosions from the facility. In video from the scene, "popping" sounds could be heard emanating from the blaze. Traffic conditions in the area are described as "bad."The San Jose Po...

$50K in damages after fire on church property in Santa Rosa

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KRON) – Santa Rosa fire contained a residential fire on a church property Wednesday afternoon. At 1:48 p.m., firefighters responded to Holy Spirit Catholic Church on Saint Francis Rd. after receiving calls from members of the church that there was a fire coming from the crawlspace vents at the bottom of one of the residential buildings, said Santa Rosa Fire Department.  Fire at San Jose storage facility continues to burn, explosions reported After firefighters arrived at the scene, they determined the fire was underneath the building, however the crawlspace was too small to safely access from outside. Santa Rosa fire used thermal imaging to locate hot areas on the floor and used power tools to cut open the floor and gain access to the areas that were burning, officials said. Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to other parts of the residential building and within 30 minutes the fire was contained. The smoke, however, damaged the int...

Prosecutors say a man has attacked two women near the Neuschwanstein castle in southern Germany, and one woman has died

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say a man has attacked two women near the Neuschwanstein castle in southern Germany, and one woman has died.Source

European Central Bank raises interest rates by quarter-point to fight inflation after US Fed suspends hikes

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank raises interest rates by quarter-point to fight inflation after US Fed suspends hikes.Source

Shedding equity: Housing slowdown leads to first annual drop in US homeowner equity since 2012

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:02:40 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the first time in more than a decade, the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity than they did a year earlier.Among the roughly 63% of U.S. homes with a mortgage, average homeowner equity per borrower was $274,070 in the first quarter, down 1.9% from the same quarter last year, according to real estate data tracker CoreLogic. The last time average homeowner equity fell year-over-year was in the first quarter of 2012, when the housing market was still regaining its footing after the mortgage meltdown and ensuing foreclosure crisis that helped trigger the Great Recession. All told, U.S. homeowners with a mortgage lost a combined $108.4 billion in home equity between the first quarter of last year and the first three months of 2023, a drop of 0.7%, according to CoreLogic.Homeowner equity, which represents the current value of the property minus what’s still owed on the mortgage, tends to rise and fall along with home prices. In the first quar...