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President Biden visits Los Gatos for campaign fundraiser

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

President Joe Biden visited the mansion-studded hills of Los Gatos Monday during his re-election fundraiser trip through Silicon Valley.Around 20 people stood on the side of the road to catch a glimpse of Biden’s motorcade as it sped down Cypress Way at about 2 p.m. and up the hill toward an event hosted by Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott and his wife Shannon Hunt-Scott, along with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.A group of five women were waving American flags. One carried a Biden sign from Biden’s 2020 campaign, with the second zero crossed out and replaced by a “4.”“We all support Joe, so we all want to come show him some support from our little town,” said Tina Giusto, a longtime Los Gatos resident. “It’s an honor to have the president in Los Gatos.”“It’s not every day the president drives past your house,” added Los Gatos resident Lola Feldman.First-grader Sofie Kakes, who was waiting to watch Biden’s motorcade with her family, said she w...

Costco gets nod of approval for East Bay warehouse, gas station

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

Despite some concerns about needed roadway improvements and potential traffic congestion, a proposed Costco warehouse south of Lone Tree Plaza Drive easily won the Brentwood Planning Commission’s approval Tuesday.Commissioners also unanimously approved plans to build a gas station with 32 pumps at the site.“We look forward to becoming a part of the Brentwood community,” said Pari Holliday, Costco real estate development director.The big-box giant plans to construct a 154,852-square-foot warehouse just south of Lone Tree Plaza Drive and east of Heidorn Ranch Road near the Antioch border. Its parking lot will have room for 864 vehicles.Brentwood senior planner Jennifer Hagen said the warehouse project would be built on two vacant parcels, with nearly 20 acres being developed and the rest undeveloped at this time. The warehouse will include a bakery, pharmacy, optical center, hearing aid testing center, food court, alcohol sales, and tire sales and installation center.The project does ...

California craft beer: What the helles is that clean, crisp beer?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

Now that summer is officially upon us, I started thinking about that perfect hot weather beer. You may be tempted to reach for a low-calorie light beer when the temperature rises, but resist that impulse. A lighter-bodied beer with full flavor is what you really want when it’s hot, something that really satisfies your thirst, not just a watery resemblance of beer.I was in Munich, Germany recently, pondering perfect summer beers. Pilsner may be the most popular brew throughout Germany and the rest of the world, but not in Munich. In the capital of Bavaria and the home of Oktoberfest, helles is the most popular beer.Because of its slightly profane name, at least to our American sensibilities, helles is not nearly as well known here, although it is imported and brewed everywhere. You just have to know what to look for — and why you should.In German, “helles” isn’t blasphemous. It simply means bright, light, pale or even blond. When applied to beer, a helles (or ...

Which California cities have the best mountain views? (It’s not the Bay)

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

Which California city has the best mountain views?Well, it’s certainly not San Jose or San Francisco – those have only C- and D-tier mountain views, several rungs below the S- and A-tier mountainscapes of Pasadena and Palm Springs or Weed up near the Oregon border. At least so says this new visualization of “California Cities by Impressiveness of Mountain Backdrop,” which applies hard science to a pastime Californians know and love – gazing lovingly into the distance at mountaintops. (You’ll find the tiered city ranking and a letter grade explainer at the bottom.)The visualization is the work of Bay Area native Kai Xu, a student-researcher at Yale University, who’s studying new ways to measure mountains on Earth, other planets and asteroids. He’s also the creator of PeakJut.com, a website that quantitatively ranks mountains by their awesomeness. Let’s just say, the guy likes mountains.Kai Xu, a student-researcher at Yale University who lives near San Ma...

Apple illegally interrogated staff about union, judge rules

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

By Josh Eidelson | BloombergApple Inc. “coercively interrogated” retail employees about their pro-union sympathies and restricted the circulation of union flyers, a US labor board judge ruled, marking a victory for labor organizers at the world’s most valuable company.In a Tuesday decision, a National Labor Relations Board judge wrote that Apple violated the rights of employees at its World Trade Center store in New York City, one of several around the country where workers waged union campaigns last year.The judge wrote that Apple should be required to “cease and desist” from coercively interrogating workers about their legally protected labor activism. It should stop confiscating pro-union literature in its break rooms and “interfering with, restraining or coercing employees” in the exercise of their rights, according to the decision.An Apple spokesperson didn’t have an immediate comment. The Cupertino, California-based company has previously denied wrongdoing.“Apple fosters an op...

‘Dirty stories’: Vietnamese-American writer’s refugee life in 1980s San Jose becomes poetry

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

A poem in Lan Duong’s new book, “Nothing Follows,” describes a scene you would not see in any Hollywood movie about the Vietnam War and its aftermath.It’s the early 1980s and the San Jose-reared author, then a young girl, accompanies her father, a former lieutenant colonel in the South Vietnamese army, to the main public library on East Fernando Street. Duong is expected to read while her father finds other men to challenge in games of chess. That’s his way of decompressing. Once from a privileged class, her father works a patchwork of low-wage jobs to support the seven children he brought with him to California after the 1975 fall of Saigon.“At the library, I read to master the words of a language he can barely speak,” Duong writes in the poem, “Cloud Anchor House.” She also finds the sexually explicit passages in adult fiction that will shape her views on sex and recognizes expletives she’s seen on bathroom walls, sometimes to blast immigrants like her who “are taking over San Jos...

Backup cameras OK to use on behind-the-wheel DMV test: Roadshow

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

Q: I’m a senior citizen who will renew his driver’s license this year. In case I have to take a road test, does the DMV allow me to use the backup camera in my car? I really find it better to use it, such as when backing out of a 90-degree parking spot, especially when a van is parked next to me and limits visibility that direction.Jim MardockA: The purpose of the behind-the-wheel drive test is to determine a person’s skill in operating a motor vehicle in most road situations and evaluate their abilities, not the vehicle’s technology. Vehicle safety technology, including backup cameras and blind-spot monitors, may be used on the drive test, but are not a replacement for an actual visual check of the vehicle’s mirrors and blind spots and cannot solely be used on a drive test.Q: I had Lasik eye surgery in 1997 and have enjoyed seeing without contacts or glasses for years since then, until it was time to renew my license when I turned 70 a few years ago. I passed the vision...

CHP investigating 4 highway shootings in 6 days 

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

(KRON) – The California Highway Patrol Oakland Area office is investigating a series of highway shootings that have recently occurred within the past week. There have been four highway shootings spanning over the course of six days.On June 14, the passenger of a white Ford Crown Victoria fired two shots at fourteen landscaping employees who were contracted by Caltrans on Interstate 80 in Berkeley. The suspects were described as Black male adults with short hair, CHP said. Suspect arrested in Pier 39 shooting identified On June 18, a freeway shooting incident took place on eastbound I-80 in Albany around 7:40 p.m. The victim did not sustain any injuries, however, their vehicle sustained damage. The suspect is described as a Hispanic male who wore a green fitted hat and sunglasses. He is around 35 to 40 years old and his vehicle was described as a newer model silver BMW convertible, CHP said.At 8:40 a.m. on June 19, a shooting on I-880 in Oakland resulted in the victim's vehicle sus...

DC bars allowed to stay open 24 hours for Women’s World Cup

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

D.C. bars will be allowed to stay open for 24 hours for a month this summer to accommodate the Women’s World Cup, thanks to an emergency bill passed by the D.C. Council.The 2023 Women’s World Cup Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 was proposed by Council member Kenyan McDuffie earlier this month and is similar to the emergency legislation passed to accommodate the Men’s World Cup last summer. It is currently pending the mayor’s approval.The emergency amendment will be in effect from July 20 through the finals on Aug. 20. Alcohol will be available for sale around the clock, except between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Participating bars must pay a registration fee of $100 and alert the D.C. police department of their intent to participate in extended hours by July 17, three days before the tournament starts.The women’s tournament will take place in nine cities and 10 stadiums across New Zealand and Australia, meaning matches will have a significant time difference for ...

For a July 4 picnic or any summer table, Tortellini Salad adds color and flavor

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:44 GMT

Even though you can serve tortellini salad all year round, it feels like the perfect dish for summer. It speaks of picnics and potlucks, it’s easy to make in a big batch, and people go nuts for it.There are so many types of filled tortellini available, even in just a well-stocked grocery store. In a supermarket in Connecticut, I found these types of tortellini: Three Cheese; Spinach and Ricotta; Chicken and Roasted Garlic, Sweet Italian Sausage; Herb Chicken; Chicken and Prosciutto; and Spinach and Cheese. That’s a lot of choices, right there!Any of them will work just fine.I like to use a vegetarian cheese-filled tortellini for this salad. I always look to keep side dishes vegetarian if possible, so everyone can enjoy them, and I also think they hold better at room temperature.This is a colorful salad, and you can make it even moreso by using multi-colored tortellini. Switch up the vegetables as you like, depending on what you have on hand, and what looks good at the market. I like...