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Aurora Police Department reforms are a “paper change” so far, but leaders say substantial payoff will come

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

State-mandated reform in the Aurora Police Department is coming — albeit slowly — more than a year after the city entered into a consent decree with the Colorado attorney general.In the first year, the department changed its policies surrounding the use of force, biased policing and hiring. But police, community leaders and the monitor hired to oversee the five-year deal cautioned that it will take years before significant change is felt by the community as a whole.“It’s paper change more than anything at the moment,” said Reid Hettich, lead pastor of Mosaic Church of Aurora and a co-chair of the consent-decree monitor’s Community Advisory Council. “You don’t get that payoff for a couple more years.”The consent decree implemented by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser mandates reform in policy, training, hiring, use of force, accountability and transparency for Aurora’s police and fire departments.The city entered into the agreement with the attorney ...

Woman left to die in street after Rialto hit-and-run

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck a woman and left her to die on a Rialto street late Monday night.The crash occurred around 11:15 p.m. near the intersection of Riverside Avenue and Santa Ana Avenue, a Rialto Police Department spokesperson said.Arriving officers found a woman in the roadway who had apparently been struck by a vehicle.Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck a woman and left her to die on a Rialto street on June 12, 2023. (OnScene.TV)The woman, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver involved in the crash had fled, the spokesperson said. Investigators did not provide a description of the hit-and-run vehicle or the driver.The department's Major Traffic Collision Team is taking over the investigation and is searching for any surveillance video.

Trump to appear in court over charges he mishandled secret documents

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

Donald Trump was set to make his first court appearance Tuesday in a historic criminal case charging the former president with hoarding top secret government documents, boastfully displaying them to visitors and trying to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.Trump approached his Miami court date with characteristic bravado, insisting as he has done through years of legal woes that he has done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for political purposes. But the gravity of the moment is unmistakable as he answers to 37 felony counts that accuse him of willfully retaining classified records that prosecutors say could have jeopardized national security if exposed.The case is laden with political implications for Trump, who currently holds the dominant spot in the early days of the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But it also poses profound legal consequences given the prospect of a years-long prison sentence. Even for a defendant whose post-president...

Writer behind plagiarized $1 million county history book was privately accused of misreporting pay invoices

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

The cancellation of a heavily plagiarized Santa Clara County-commissioned history book appeared to be the final chapter in a breathtaking scandal that brought major scrutiny to local government’s contracting practices.But apparently there was more to this saga.Months before the project was officially nixed this spring due to widely known plagiarism concerns, the county privately accused writer Jean McCorquodale of misreporting invoices she submitted for the project that ultimately cost the county over $1 million.County Counsel James Williams told McCorquodale — the wife of former longtime South Bay politician Dan McCorquodale — he was troubled that meetings and interviews for which she had submitted invoices did not appear in the draft of the book McCorquodale turned in last year, according to a January letter obtained this month through a public records request.Despite the twin allegations of plagiarism and distorting her invoices, Williams dropped all potential l...

Mall operator Westfield gives up downtown San Francisco shopping center, latest business to pull back from city

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

By Samantha Delouya | CNNShopping mall operator Westfield said it plans to give up control of the San Francisco Centre mall after more than 20 years of operation in another sign of San Francisco’s economic struggles.The company attributed its decision to the “challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic.”The mall operator’s decision to surrender its San Francisco space comes after several of the mall’s major stores announced closures, including Nordstrom and Banana Republic.Last month, a Westfield spokesperson attributed Nordstrom’s closing to “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees.”Once a bustling retail center in the heart of San Francisco, the San Francisco Centre has taken a significant hit in the past few years. Total sales have fallen from $455 million in 2019 to $298 million in 2022, and foot traffic has plunged from 9.7 million visits in 2019 to 5.6 million in 2022, according t...

Here are the 30+ Disney characters appearing at Disneyland’s first Pride Nite

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

More than 30 Disney characters along with a pair of openly gay superheroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe will make meet-and-greet appearances this week during the first Pride Nite at Disneyland.The first-ever after-hours Pride Nite events will be held at the Anaheim theme park on Tuesday, June 13 and Thursday, June 15.The sold-out, separate-admission Pride Nites are the first time Disneyland has hosted an official LGBTQ special event. Unofficial Gay Days Anaheim mix-in events with theme park meet-ups, trivia games, scavenger hunts and parties have been a regular fixture at Disneyland for more than two decades.Here’s a round-up of the meet-and-greet characters, entertainment, dance parties, photo op locations and specialty food that will be available during Pride Nites at Disneyland, according to Blog Mickey.Pride Nite CharactersMain Street USACruella de Vil from “101 Dalmations”AdventurelandJane Porter and Terk from “Tarzan”New Orleans SquareGoofyPrincess Tiana and Prince Navee...

Former California AYSO coach convicted of having sex with 14-year-old

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

Redlands AYSO has long been a place where families and their children come together to not just play, coach and referee soccer games, but to connect in the spirit of community, often forging lifelong friendships.But that community was shattered in March 2022 when Jonathan Jeremy Ledesma, a Redlands AYSO coach for a decade, was arrested on suspicion of having sex with a 14-year-old girl he had known for five years and previously coached.“It was almost like somebody died. That’s how we feel even to this day. The person we thought we knew is dead,” said Esther Cash, whose 14-year-old daughter has been playing in Redlands AYSO since she was 6 years old and whose family knew, and trusted, Ledesma for five years.Ledesma, who had been married for 17 years at the time of his arrest and has three daughters who played in Redlands AYSO, was sentenced in San Bernardino Superior Court on May 23 to three years in “county prison,” a county jail where inmates serve state prison sentences.In a plea ...

Opinon: A BART bailout should come with state oversight and other conditions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

When it comes to finding a solution to the operating crisis facing California’s transit systems, there is only one plan coming from transit leaders and their political advocates.BART Director Debora Allen (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)More money.That’s it. That’s the plan.More money. Please.The words “reform” and “accountability” are rarely spoken when addressing transit agency operating deficits, especially from BART, which currently is running deficits of over $300 million a year.BART managers continue to place all the blame for its fiscal problems squarely on the disruption of ridership caused by COVID-19, forgetting that the agency was projecting annual deficits before the pandemic struck. COVID simply accelerated the process.The $1.6 billion federal gift from taxpayers that filled BART’s operating deficits for the last 3 years may be gone in 22 months, but the annual operating deficits won’t be. The dilemma facing BART is how to keep trains running when federal ...

East Bay man accused of killing of Cash App founder was accused of stabbing two teens in 2005, according to SF Chronicle

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

By Veronica Miracle and Jeffrey Kopp | CNNThe suspect in the stabbing death of CashApp founder Bob Lee was also accused of stabbing two teenagers in 2005, according to documents uncovered by the San Francisco Chronicle.Nima Momeni, 38, is accused of fatally stabbing Lee in April in San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood. He pleaded not guilty in May.Momeni, who was 20 years old at the time, was investigated but not charged for stabbing a 19-year-old and 16-year-old during a possible dispute over drugs, according to a police report from the Albany, California, police department obtained by the Chronicle. The police report revealed the injuries to the two teens were minor and the altercation may have started when the 16-year-old attacked Momeni.The report says Momeni was released due to a lack of evidence and conflicting statements. The Chronicle reports that police labeled Momeni as both a potential suspect and victim and had listed potential charges of assault with a deadly weapon...

National Transportation Safety Board releases final report on fatal 2021 Monterey plane crash

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:50 GMT

MONTEREY – The National Transportation Safety Board has determined the probable cause of the Monterey plane crash that killed two people and a dog in July 2021 was “spatial disorientation” of the pilot, causing her to lose control of the airplane.The NTSB released its final report on the accident earlier this year, more than 20 months after an initial investigation into the crash began.On the morning of July 13, 2021, a Cessna 421C crashed into a home in Monterey’s Monterra Ranch community, less than five minutes after taking off from the Monterey Regional Airport. The home was reportedly unoccupied at the time of the crash but suffered severe damage.The plane was piloted by Pacific Grove resident Mary Ellen Carlin, family members confirmed following the accident. Carlin, 74, was accompanied by Rancho Cordova resident Alice Diane Emig, as well as Emig’s dachshund, Toby. All three died in the crash.Carlin and Emig were longtime friends, family members previously told the Herald. Carl...