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Borenstein: Oakland used wrong boundaries for key school board election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

In yet another election error affecting the Bay Area’s third-largest city, Oakland officials have been using the wrong district boundaries as they prepare to hold a special election that will determine the balance of power on the city’s badly divided school board.Until I raised questions this week, City Clerk Asha Reed was planning that ballots for the Nov. 7 election to fill a school board vacancy would go to voters in “new” boundaries that were created during the city’s 2021 redistricting.But the “old” pre-redistricting boundaries in effect three years ago are the ones that should be used. That’s because the special election for the school board’s District 5 seat will select someone to fill out the remaining year of a term that was first decided by voters in 2020.That was the advisory opinion of the office of state Attorney General Rob Bonta in a legal analysis last year for an identical case. Reed now acknowledges that, based on that opinion, her office should have been using the...

Plea negotiations may mean no 9/11 defendants face death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Jennifer Peltz | Associated PressWASHINGTON — The suspected architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his fellow defendants may never face the death penalty under plea agreements now under consideration to bring an end to their more than decadelong prosecution, the Pentagon and FBI have advised families of some of the thousands killed.The notice, made in a letter that was sent to several of the families and obtained by The Associated Press, comes 1 1/2 years after military prosecutors and defense lawyers began exploring a negotiated resolution to the case.The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been troubled by repeated delays and legal disputes, especially over the legal ramifications of the interrogation under torture that the men initially underwent while in CIA custody. No trial date has been set.“The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is conside...

Ex-Santos fundraiser pleads guilty to fraud, ID theft

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

By Jake Offenhartz | Associated PressNEW YORK — A former fundraiser for U.S. Rep. George Santos was indicted Wednesday on federal charges that he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide while soliciting contributions for the New York Republican’s campaign.Sam Miele, 27, was charged with four counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in an alleged scheme to defraud donors and obtain money for Santos under false pretenses. Prosecutors said Miele used a fake name and email address to impersonate a “high-ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities.”The indictment did not name the person who was impersonated, but the details of the charges match with multiple news reports identifying the aide as Dan Meyer, now retired as the longtime chief of staff to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who at the time was minority leader.Santos was not charged in the indictment. The facts of the case rest on events that overlap with the co...

Bay Area activist loses appeal of Oakland murder conviction after contentious trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

OAKLAND — A California appeals court has ruled against a local justice reform activist who was convicted of murder, won his appeal in 2020, and re-convicted in 2021, court records show.Deangelo Cortijo, 30, was convicted twice of murdering his sister’s ex-boyfriend, 26-year-old Oakland resident Jamad Jerkins, in a shooting outside the sister’s apartment. Cortijo argued at trial that he believed Jerkins was about to attack him and that the shooting was self-defense.The First Appellate District’s 39-page decision found that Judge Don Clay did not err by refusing to grant a continuance when Cortijo claimed he needed time to recover from a beating at the hands of Alameda County deputies inside the jail, so that he could call defense witnesses. The appeals court justices also found that the prosecution’s cross-examination of Cortijo was not improper, as he argued.“(Cortijo) made no offer of proof demonstrating that the facts he expected to prove by the testi...

Bradley Cooper got OK for prosthetic nose from Leonard Bernstein’s kids

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

Leonard Bernstein’s children are dismayed that Bradley Cooper has faced backlash over his decision to wear a prosthetic nose to capture the look of the legendary composer in his upcoming biopic, “Maestro.”After the trailer for the film dropped Tuesday, some social media users said that Cooper’s prosthetic appeared to be a larger, “exaggerated” version of Bernstein’s nose, the Daily Beast reported. These critics suggested that a non-Jewish actor donning a prominent prosthetic nose played into the antisemitic “hooked nose” stereotype, as described by the Media Diversity Institute. Others thought it was problematic in other ways for Cooper, who is Irish-Italian, to be playing the Jewish musical icon.The backlash to Bradley Cooper's prosthetic nose in "Maestro" ignites an ongoing debate over Jewish representation https://t.co/aJK23z4zND— TIME (@TIME) August 16, 2023“This isn’t about making a non-Jewish actor look more like Leonard Bernstein; it’s ab...

Photos: EBMUD clears illegally dumped cars from steep embankments

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

Larry Seidel fed steel cable Wednesday as his coworker rappelled 300 feet down the side of Pinehurst Road near Moraga to hook a mangled Pontiac Grand Prix that could have been contaminating runoff that feeds reservoirs for years.“Big fish on the line, coming right up,” Seidel said as he pulled the lever to start the Grand Prix’s gravity-defying ride back up the hillside to a flatbed to haul it for proper disposal.Bob Berry, left, works to remove an abandoned vehicle from a canyon along Pinehurst Road on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, near Moraga, Calif. Workers with Berry Bros. Towing and Transport removed three vehicles from the Upper San Leandro Reservoir watershed during an East Bay Municipal Utility District operation to clean illegal dump sites. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) Martin Quizhpe works his way hundreds of feet down a steep canyon to attach a tow cable to an abandoned vehicle along Pinehurst Road on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, near Moraga, Calif. Workers with Be...

San Jose mayor blasts Pink Poodle strip club firefighter probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

In his first public remarks since the release of the investigative report on the infamous incident involving the San Jose firefighters who dropped off a bikini-clad woman at the Pink Poodle strip club in October, Mayor Matt Mahan said he was “disappointed” and “concerned” by the contents of the internal probe and how it was conducted.Under court order after a lawsuit from this news organization, the city released 100 pages of documents about the Oct. 5 scandal last week, revealing that Fire Captain William Tognozzi was picking up a flash drive at the strip club that contained pictures of his colleagues taken by a Pink Poodle employee.But investigators also found that Tognozzi — along with firefighters Brian Dragges, Zach Clark and Matthew Westcott — made a second stop that night at A.J.’s, a bikini bar. None of the crew came clean about that part of the story, an apparent violation of the department’s code of conduct. Only Tognozzi, wh...

Social media 'challenges' suspected behind Alameda BB gun assaults

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

(KRON) -- Alameda police are encouraging parents to talk to their children about joining social media trends, such as "YouTube challenges," which can create real-world problems. "We are asking parents to have thoughtful conversations with their children about the dangers and consequences of participating in viral internet challenges that may compromise their safety or the safety of others," the Alameda Police Department wrote on Wednesday. Since this summer, police have been responding to numerous incidents where random people were shot with BB guns or gel pellets. Police suspect that the BB gun shootings are connected to social media videos that encourage people to shoot at complete strangers. In some cases, the toys are being altered to look real, according to police."These incidents seem to be occurring between the afternoon and early evening hours. While these bystanders were not seriously injured, other law enforcement agencies have reported pellets striking victims in the eyes...

East Bay school board to vote on controversial high school mascot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

(KRON) -- The Mt. Diablo Unified School District is taking up a vote at Wednesday night's meeting on whether to change a controversial high school mascot in the district. There has been ongoing debate and controversy surrounding Concord High School's current mascot, "The Minutemen."While some families in the community want to keep the mascot, a revolutionary war soldier armed with a rifle, current district policy is to avoid mascots depicting humans. At a meeting earlier this year, some community members suggested ideas to make the mascot more inclusive, such as removing the firearm, adding a woman beside the minuteman, or even an African American minutemen. Teen girls nabbed after San Francisco business ransacked Proponents of the mascot say the mascot represents something historically, both in the community and in terms of the nation's history. Others have argued that the amount of money required to change the mascot would be wasteful.If Wednesday's proposed resolution is passed...

Driver arrested after DUI crash in San Bruno involving 3 parked cars: police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:55 GMT

(KRON) -- A driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI after a crash Tuesday night, the San Bruno Police Department (SBPD) announced on social media. The crash happened on the 1300 block of Kains Avenue.The driver, who was alone inside the vehicle, crashed into three parked cars, police said. The driver showed signs of alcohol intoxication and was arrested for DUI. A woman says she heard the crash happen from her home one block away, according to a user comment on SBPD's Facebook post. She said she woke up to the crash and was "happy to hear" a police response two minutes later. Dead man found on street in Palo Alto, police investigating Earlier Tuesday night, police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driving "erratically." Turns out that was the same driver in this DUI crash that happened later in the night, according to SBPD. It is unknown if the driver showed signs of intoxication during the aforementioned traffic stop. No injuries were reported in this crash, SBPD said. Police...