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Brentwood council admonishes entire board

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

After having an outburst at a previous meeting, Brentwood Councilman Tony Oerlemans this week was admonished – along with the entire council — in a move to remind everyone to follow the rules.Councilmember Jovita Mendoza had asked her colleagues to consider censuring Oerlemans for policy violations after he had an outburst at the April 25 council meeting and later had a dialogue with a public speaker at the May 9 council meeting.Censure is the most severe of three actions the council could have taken in response to unethical conduct, contempt or serious disorderly behavior, while sanctions are less severe and an admonishment the least.Mendoza on Tuesday laid out her argument, saying she didn’t want to replay the video “because it was too crazy.”The April 25 exchange with Mayor Joel Bryant happened when Oerlemans tried to pull two consent calendar items while a motion was already on the floor to pull two other items, which was then seconded and unanimously passed. Orelemans, he...

CHP officer’s shooting of driver after crash was self-defense, state investigators say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

A CHP officer’s fatal shooting of a driver after a car crash on a Los Angeles County street was in self-defense and prosecution of the officer isn’t warranted, said a report issued Wednesday by the California attorney general’s office.The examination of the 2021 death of Leonel Chavez is the third report issued under a law that requires the state to investigate any shooting by a law enforcement officer that kills an unarmed person. Forty-two shootings have been put on the list since Assembly Bill 1506 took effect in July 2021.Chavez, 24, was shot on the afternoon of Sept. 28, 2021, in an industrial area just beyond the Los Angeles city limit in the Ramona Gardens area. He had been driving home from a gym at 3 p.m. when he was involved in a non-injury crash with one other car. He allegedly tried to drive away from the scene but his car was damaged and made it only 500 feet.When two California Highway Patrol officers — Daniel Castaneda and trainee Jennifer Sanc...

Man sentenced to federal prison for robbing Oakland mail carrier at gunpoint, feds say he hoped to impersonate mailman

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

OAKLAND — A city resident was sentenced this month to six years and five months in federal prison for robbing an Oakland mail carrier in 2021, court records show.Javon Zachary, 34, was sentenced May 9 by U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, after pleading guilty to gun charges and robbery, court records show. He was immediately remanded to the Bureau of Prisons service, and must be on supervised release for three years after his prison term is over.Zachary was originally charged with two robberies, but prosecutors dropped charges as part of a plea agreement. In court filings, prosecutors quoted Zachary’s alleged explanation for robbing a postman, saying that Zachary told authorities he wanted to take the victim’s satchel, “Because if you dress up as a mailman, it keeps the investigators out because nobody knows what you really are.”“It is particularly alarming that the defendant intended to impersonate a postal worker to carry out additional crimes foll...

Hey, California bosses: 2 workers quit for every 3 you hire

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

To: California bossesFrom: Columnist with trusty spreadsheetRe: Your quitting workersI know it’s been a tough few years on the staff retention front. Your workers seem to have forgotten loyalty to the employer and switch jobs as quickly as fashions change.Who knew employees would want better pay and benefits plus the flexibility of working from home – and would leave to get those amenities elsewhere?Ponder what my spreadsheet found inside the federal government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey – dubbed “JOLTS” by economists – that tracks what’s moving the job market.Seems the quitting fad cooled lately. California quits totaled 4.83 million in the 12 months that ended in March – that’s down 6% from 5.13 million who left voluntarily in the previous 12 months.Yet no reasonable boss should view this chill in quitting as a signal employee loyalty has returned. The history of California quits confirms saying “goodbye, boss” is still very popular.California averaged 3.4 million qu...

Saratoga’s residential burglary rate rises for second year in a row

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

Saratoga is known as a safe, family-friendly city, and while its crime rates are lower than its neighbors’, incidents are on the rise.The affluent area saw its residential burglary rates rise for the second year in a row, according to data presented by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.So far this year there have been 34 residential burglaries in Saratoga, compared to 18 during the same period last year – an 88% increase. There was a total of 75 residential burglaries in the city last year, and 56 in 2021.The last time the city of 30,000 residents saw an increase in burglaries was 2014, when that number rose from 47 to 52 cases during the first four months of the year.Police say that crime rates are increasing across the Bay Area. Capt. Neil Valenzuela, who manages the West Valley Patrol Division of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, presented Saratoga’s data during a May 17 neighborhood watch meeting.“The Sheriff’s Office is stepping up our effor...

What’s long, dark purple, sweet and packed with nutrition?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

“All fruits are beautiful, but the mulberry is the king of fruits.”– Persian ProverbMove over cherry, there’s a new berry in town.Thousands of cherry lovers throughout the Bay Area make their way each spring to one of dozens of U-pick farms in Brentwood for the plump, juicy round fruits, but now – for the first time – there’s another option that is arguably just as sweet: the Himalayan purple mulberry, which looks a bit like an elongated blackberry with tiny clusters of fruit.Not only is Habitera Farms the only one allowing visitors to partake in the picking of the tasty, dark-colored fleshy fruit — the season lasts about eight weeks — but it appears to be the only business selling mulberries on such a large scale commercially in the United States.A farmworker picks mulberries that fell onto nets attached to carts designed to shake trees as part of the harvest season at Habitera Farms in Brentwood, Calif., on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) ...

IndyCar driver Stefan Wilson has surgery to repair fracture in back

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — IndyCar driver Stefan Wilson had surgery to repair a fractured vertebrae that he sustained in practice for the Indianapolis 500, and car owner Don Cusick said Thursday that he was “in great spirits and feeling better.”Wilson was about halfway through a two-hour practice Monday when he was hit from behind by Katherine Legge as they went through Turns 1 and 2 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Legge’s car hit the wall with the rear, but Wilson was turned nearly head-on when he made contact. The safety team needed about 10 minutes to remove him from the car.Wilson was taken to Methodist Hospital and underwent surgery Wednesday for a posterior fusion and internal fixation of the fracture. The procedure took about three hours and it was unclear when Wilson would be released.“When he came out of the anesthesia,” Cusick said, “he told the surgeon he was dreaming about running qualifying laps.”Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, who partnered with Cusick Motorsports for the...

Supreme Court rules in favor of 94-year-old woman who got nothing when county took her condo

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday gave a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman a new chance to recoup some money after the county kept the entire $40,000 when it sold her condominium over a small unpaid tax bill.The justices ruled that Hennepin County, Minnesota violated the constitutional rights of the woman, Geraldine Tyler, by taking her property without paying “just compensation.”“The County had the power to sell Tyler’s home to recover the unpaid property taxes. But it could not use the toehold of the tax debt to confiscate more property than was due,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.Tyler, who now lives in an apartment building for older people, owed $2,300 in unpaid taxes, plus interest and penalties totalling $15,000, when the county took title to the one-bedroom apartment in 2015. The county said she did nothing to hold onto her one-time residence. The apartment sold the next year.Minnesota is among roughly a dozen states and the District of Col...

Japan nuclear watchdog asks Fukushima plant operator to assess risk from reactor damage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — A nuclear watchdog has asked the operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant to assess possible risks resulting from damage that was found in a key supporting structure inside one of the three melted reactors.A robotic probe sent inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s Unit 1 primary containment chamber found that its pedestal — the main supporting structure directly under its core — was extensively damaged. Most of its thick concrete exterior was missing, exposing the internal steel reinforcement.About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the plant’s three damaged reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information, but the status of the melted debris is still largely unknown. Based on data collected from earlier probes and simulations, experts have said most of the melted fuel inside Unit 1, believed to be the worst hit, fell to the bottom of the primary containment chamber, but some might have fallen through to t...

Foxtrot, a tiki boat, others coming to The Yards

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:52 GMT

Sea Suite Cruises now offers tiki party boat river cruises. (Courtesy Sea Suite Cruises)Phase II of The Yards at Capitol Riverfront has some new tenants.Foxtrot Market will open its eighth D.C.-area location in the next few weeks. Its 4,300-square-foot store is at 1275 New Jersey Avenue, S.E. Chicago-based Foxtrot opened its first D.C. location in Georgetown in 2021.Another out-of-town transplant, New York French bakery Maman, will open a 3,500-square-foot store at The Yards, its fourth in D.C. Its first area location opened at Bethesda Row in 2022. It has others at Union Market and Georgetown.Playa Bowls will open its newest location at The Yards, bringing along acai bowls and smoothies. It has several locations in the D.C. area, and will open its 1,400 square foot store at The Yards in 2024.Local plant shop Jungle & Loom will open a 2,000-square-foot store at 1275 New Jersey Avenue, S.E. in 2024.As previously announced, Sea Suite Cruises now offers river cruises with a tiki pa...