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East Bay shopping center lands movie theater, fighting sports academy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

DANVILLE — An East Bay retail and restaurant plaza has gotten a hefty boost with big leases that will bring the shopping mall a movie theater, a fighting sports facility and a wellness center as new tenants.Blackhawk Plaza, a Danville mall that has struggled with brutal vacancies in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, has landed new tenants that will fill up more than 53,000 square feet of space in the complex.These are the new tenants at Blackhawk Plaza:— Apple Cinemas is leasing 26,200 square feet, a movie house that will bring a welcome replacement for the Century Theaters that abruptly closed in December.—  Combat Sports Academy, which offers training in an array of fighting sports, has leased 26,600 square feet.—  Osteostrong, a health wellness business, leased 1,500 square feet.All three of these tenants are slated to open in 2024, according to JLL commercial real estate brokers Jeff Badstubner and Justin Choi, who arranged the leasing deals on behalf...

Calls grow to evacuate Gaza’s largest hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

By Najib Jobain, Jack Jeffrey and Lee Keath | Associated PressKHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Palestinian authorities on Tuesday called for a cease-fire to evacuate three dozen newborns and other patients trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital as Israeli forces battled Hamas in the streets just outside and seized more ground across northern Gaza.For days, the Israeli army has encircled Shifa Hospital, the facility it says Hamas hides in, and beneath, to use civilians as shields for its main command base.Hospital staff and Hamas deny the claim. Meanwhile, hundreds of patients, staff and displaced people were trapped inside, with supplies dwindling and no electricity to run incubators and other life-saving equipment. With refrigeration out for days, morgue staff on Tuesday dug a mass grave in the yard for more than 120 bodies, officials said.The standoff at Shifa and other hospitals comes as Israeli forces control larger swaths of Gaza City and the surrounding northern part of the Gaz...

ASU athletics: Anderson resigns, social media celebrates and Crow steps back into the spotlight as a big hire looms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

One of the most enduring questions in Pac-12 athletics — How does Ray Anderson still have a job? — finally has an answer.He doesn’t.Arizona State’s controversial athletic director announced his resignation Monday, effective immediately.So ends a nine-year reign that featured the standard array of hits and misses typical of college sports administration, along with a blunder for the ages that will define his legacy in Tempe.The architect of the Herm Edwards Experiment had a partner, of course: ASU president Michael Crow signed off on all the major decisions, including the bowl ban announced days before the start of the season.But Crow’s the big boss and has done first-rate work for the university. Anderson was responsible for oversight of the football program and bears responsibility for hiring Edwards, his friend and former business partner, and for the NCAA recruiting transgressions that have engulfed the program for 2.5 years.News of Anderson’s ...

San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler dies at 63

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

By Bernie Wilson | Associated PressSAN DIEGO — Padres owner Peter Seidler, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to bring a long-elusive World Series championship to San Diego, died Tuesday, the team announced. He was 63.A cause of death wasn’t disclosed. Seidler, a third-generation member of the O’Malley family that used to own the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, was a two-time cancer survivor. The team announced in mid-September that Seidler had an unspecified medical procedure in August and wouldn’t be back at the ballpark the rest of the year.The Padres planned to open Petco Park on Tuesday afternoon for fans who wished to gather to pay respects.“Today, our love and prayers encircle Peter’s family as they grieve the loss of an extraordinary husband, father, son, brother, uncle and friend,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a statement. “Peter was a kind and generous man who was devoted to his wife, children and extended family. He also consi...

See the list of Starbucks’ 28 California shops that will strike on Red Cup Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

By Josh Eidelson | BloombergUnionized Starbucks baristas plan to hold their biggest strike yet this week, accusing the coffee giant of refusing to fairly negotiate at cafes that voted to organize.Thousands of employees at hundreds of sites will mount one-day work stoppages on Thursday, according to the union Starbucks Workers United.Also see: Here’s what this year’s Starbucks holiday cups look likeThe strike is pegged to the company’s Red Cup Day, a popular promotional event when Starbucks gives out holiday-themed reusable cups. The union says Starbucks has illegally refused to negotiate in good faith over issues including staffing and scheduling that are particularly onerous during such promotions.“Starbucks has made it clear that they won’t listen to workers, so we’re advocating for ourselves by going on strike,” Oklahoma City employee Neha Cremin said in an emailed statement.In an email, Starbucks said it’s the union that’s refusing to fairly negotiate. The two sides have disagre...

Sailor’s last message to family during hurricane: ‘Pray for us’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

By Maria Verza | Associated PressACAPULCO, Mexico — During the first minutes of Oct. 25 when Hurricane Otis roared into Acapulco Bay with 165 mph winds, sailor Ruben Torres recorded a 10-second audio message from a yacht called the Sereno.“All things considered I’m alright, but it’s really horrible, it’s really horrible, it’s really horrible,” he said over the howling wind and the boat’s beeping alarms. “Family, I don’t want to exaggerate, but pray for us because it’s really awful out here.”The Sereno was one of 614 boats — yachts, ferries, fishing boats — that according to Mexico’s Navy were in the bay that night and ended up damaged or on the ocean floor. Of those aboard the Sereno, one person survived, while Torres and the boat’s captain remain missing.Otis killed at least 48 people officially, most drowned, and some 26 are missing. Sailors, fishermen and their families believe there are many more.Sailo...

The Steelers defense is banged up. Reinforcements will come from in-house, not on the open market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin won’t go looking on the open market to help out his banged-up defense.Tomlin said Tuesday he believes the answers to Pittsburgh’s depth issues — particularly at inside linebacker, where veterans Cole Holcomb (knee) and Kwon Alexander (Achilles tendon) have been lost for the season in consecutive weeks — are already on the roster.“We’ve got guys we’re comfortable with,” Tomlin said. “We’ve been forward-thinking, to be quite honest with you, in the acquisition of some of our people.”Particularly on the practice squad, which the Steelers have used to not just add developmental players but experienced ones such as inside linebacker Mykal Walker, who had 107 tackles last season for Atlanta before bouncing from Las Vegas to Chicago to Pittsburgh, which signed the 26-year-old in late October.“He’s on our practice squad to learn what to do at the position and to ready himself for a moment such as wha...

White House says it has intelligence that Hamas and other militants shelter in Gaza hospitals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.S. said Tuesday that it has unspecified intelligence that Hamas and another Palestinian militant group use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip — including Shifa Hospital — and tunnels underneath them, to hide and support their military operations, and to hold hostages.The White House’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the U.S. does not support strikes against hospitals.“We do not support striking a hospital from the air,” Kirby told reporters accompanying President Joe Biden aboard Air Force One to San Francisco for a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders. “Hospitals and patients must be protected.”Kirby said the U.S. also does not want to see “a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve.”When asked about evidence to support the claim, Kirby said “it comes from a variety of intelligence sourcing.” He wouldn’t be more specific.THIS I...

Iraq’s top court rules to oust the speaker and a rival lawmaker from Parliament

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s top court ruled Tuesday that the speaker and a rival lawmaker should be ousted from Parliament, following a high-profile feud between the two men. The Federal Supreme Court said in a statement it decided to terminate Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi’s membership in Parliament along with that of lawmaker Laith al-Dulaimi. It did not elaborate on why it was issuing the decision.Halbousi called the ruling unconstitutional, while his party said its members would protest the verdict by withdrawing from key positions in government and the Parliament. Halbousi, a former governor of western Iraq’s Anbar province who has maintained close ties to Gulf countries, was the highest Sunni official in Iraq. Under the country’s sectarian power-sharing system, the parliament speaker is always Sunni, the prime minister Shiite and the president Kurdish.The court decision came against the backdrop of a dispute between Halbousi and Dulaimi, also Sunni. Dulaimi had filed a la...

Big 12 quarterbacks have taken more than their fair share of lumps; 8 teams have lost starters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:12 GMT

Starting quarterback has been a precarious position in the Big 12. Whether due to injuries or coaching decisions, staying on the field has been a challenge for many of the league’s quarterbacks who started the season No. 1 for their programs. Injuries have knocked out starters at some point in the season for Texas, Kansas, BYU, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, West Virginia and Central Florida — more than half the league. Oklahoma State’s quarterback carousel lasted through the first few games before coach Mike Gundy settled on Alan Bowman. Even Kansas State, which won last season’s Big 12 championship game behind veteran Will Howard, put in freshman Avery Johnson when Howard struggled. The senior responded with his best play of the season. The position has been as jumbled as the league standings. Seven teams are within two games of conference leader Texas. Oklahoma and Iowa State have been injury- and rotation-free and the Sooners and Cyclones are still in the mix for the...