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Bay Area News Group comics contest — the vote results are in!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

Dear readers,Two weeks ago, we asked you to help us choose a newcomer — one of four contenders — for our comics pages. The votes have been tallied, and we’re delighted to announce that Loose Parts, the witty, offbeat strip by award-winning artist Dave Blazek, won by a landslide with more votes than the other three combined.

Study shows injuries decline up to 20 percent with slower city speed limits: Roadshow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

Q: Sadly, there was another speeding tragedy, at Leigh and Blossom Hill. When will this end? Yellow means STOP, if possible, not GO. I’m at Hamilton. Leigh is a racetrack here. I hear it every day. One second is all you get at a light before drivers hit their horn. Relax, y’all, and you and we will live longer, happier lives.Robert Wahler, San JoseA: Yes, yellow means come to a stop, not race through the intersection.As for speeding, a recent study in Seattle showed that lowering speed limits on arterial streets, where a large majority of accidents occur, cut the chance of injury in accidents by 20 percent.“Everybody thinks of highways when we talk about speed limits, but reducing speeds on city thoroughfares and residential streets is just as important,” said Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) president David Harkey. The IIHS sponsored the Seattle study.Researchers looked at the proportion of crashes involving fatal, serious or evident injuries, comparing inj...

Beloved San Jose Little League to get big check from county to abandon home fields

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

A year-long scuffle over a renowned East San Jose Little League whose baseball players were compelled to leave the home fields they’ve used for over half a century is nearing its end — but their deal is far from a grand slam.Eastridge Little League President Johnny Cisneros on Monday signed an agreement with Santa Clara County that will inject $225,000 into his league’s coffers, with the money intended for finding future fields as well as equipment costs.In exchange, the league’s 135 players must not step foot on the three baseball diamonds at Reid-Hillview Airport, fields that the county claims are a public health risk because of the leaded fuel expelled by nearby airplanes.Johnny Cisneros, president of the Eastridge Little League, watches as the All-Star team practices at Eastridge Little League Monday, June 13, 2022, in San Jose, Calif. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer) The infusion of cash will last until 2025 when the county will reclaim any funds that the ...

Berkeley Unified School District creates reparations task force

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

(KRON) -- Berkeley Unified could become the first school district to offer reparation payments to black students. An informational meeting was held Thursday night to create a task force that will eventually give recommendations to the school board.The task force will be comprised of 15 to 20 volunteers from the community who will explore how the Berkeley School District should offer reparations. One of the biggest tasks of all is figuring out how they will pay for it. SJPOA executive accused of dealing fentanyl due in court Thursday's meeting gave people the opportunity to learn more about the task force to see if they want to join it. Members will meet seven times this year in effort to form recommendations to the Berkeley School Board on how reparations can be done successfully.Many Bay Area cities are considering reparations for black residents who are descendants of slavery. And so is the state of California, which would cost $800 billion. Major track work will delay East Ba...

Forensic Re-creations of Police Abuse Lead to Landmark Legal Settlements

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

In an unprecedented settlement, the city of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $9.25 million to 343 protesters who were injured by police violence during the 2020 protests for racial justice.The announcement comes on the heels of another landmark settlement, reached earlier this month by New York City and the New York Police Department, which allocated $7 million to more than 300 protesters who were arrested and beaten in 2020 at a demonstration in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx.The two settlements are both historic in their size and implications for future lawsuits against police violence. Crucially, both cases relied on forensic reconstructions of the events, using video footage and eyewitness accounts to craft detailed timelines of police abuses.As technology advances and video footage of protests abounds, it’s becoming easier for protesters to win class-action lawsuits and settlements against cities and their police departments. While few staunch critics of the crimi...

WTOP’s Neal Augenstein: One-pill-a-day therapy clearing my stage 4 lung cancer, hoping for surgery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

WTOP reporter Neal Augenstein following a bronchoscopy for his stage 4 lung cancer. (WTOP/Neal Augenstein)The biopsy results are pending, but it appears the one-pill-a-day targeted therapy I’ve taken since December has cleared all but the tiniest remnants of my stage 4 lung cancer — and I may be able to have surgery, which can go a long way toward preventing my cancer from coming back.On Thursday, I had what’s called a restaging bronchoscopy, at Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, where my wonderful treatment team is based. It showed that four months after starting targeted therapy, almost all visible cancer has been resolved in both my lungs.More Health and Fitness NewsMore Inside WTOP NewsIn November, when I was diagnosed with stage 4 EGFR-mutated lung cancer, I had adenocarcinoma in my left lung. With follow-up tests in the hospital, I learned it had spread to include lesions and lymph nodes in both lungs, and a cancerous lymph node in the center of my ...

Biden to Russia on detained US journalist: ‘Let him go’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday urged Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich after the country’s security service arrested him on espionage charges — allegations that the newspaper denies.“Let him go,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday morning when asked about his message to Russia on the arrest of Gershkovich. Russia’s Federal Security Service has accused Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, of trying to obtain classified information. It is the first time an American journalist has been detained on accusations of spying since the Cold War. The Journal has said it “vehemently denies” the charges. The Biden administration said Thursday that it was working to secure consular access to Gershkovich. Asked Friday morning whether he would expel Russian diplomats or journalists in the U.S., Biden responded: “That’s not the plan right now.” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, called the targeting of U.S. citizens in Russia “u...

Wall Street opens higher, on track to close March with gains

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street, keeping the market on track for a winning March despite a long list of worries being thrown at it. The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher early Friday. The index is on pace for a gain for the month and a second winning quarter in a row after tumbling through most of 2022. The Dow rose 0.5% while the Nasdaq was up 0.2%. Friday’s gains came after a report showed inflation slowed in February, though it was still high on a historical basis. Worries about high interest rates have been dogging markets for more than a year.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street inched higher ahead of an inflation update Friday that could influence the Federal Reserve and its decision on interest rates at its next meeting.Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index inched up about 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% before the opening bell.On Friday, the Commerce Department releases its consumer spending...

Más de 75 millones de personas están bajo alerta de clima severo con posibles tornados, granizo y fuertes vientos

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

(CNN) — “Se esperan tormentas severas intensas y generalizadas este viernes por la tarde hasta la noche”, advierte el Centro de Predicción de Tormentas. Estas tormentas se esperan en todo el valle del Mississippi. En total, hay más de 75 millones de personas bajo amenaza de tormentas severas este viernes.Dos riesgos moderados de tormentas severas, nivel 4 de 5, están en su lugar para este viernes: uno para el Valle Medio del Mississippi y otro para el Valle Bajo del Mississippi.La amenaza moderada para el Valle Bajo del Mississippi incluye el oeste de Tennessee, el noreste de Arkansas, el sureste de Missouri y el noroeste de Mississippi, el suroeste de Missouri y el extremo suroeste de Kentucky. Memphis y Little Rock son las principales ciudades de esta región.El sureste de Estados Unidos se prepara para una nueva ronda de fenómenos meteorológicos severos tras los tornados y tormentas del fin de semanaLas principales amenazas en este riesgo moderado son tornados fu...

Oscar Pistorius denied parole because he hasn’t served ‘minimum detention period’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:28 GMT

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius denied parole because he hasn’t served ‘minimum detention period.’Source