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Faces of Monterey County floods: Out of work, overlooked and afraid

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

Less than 5.5%. That’s how much of Monterey County’s productive farmland felt the impacts of rain and flooding this winter.Just under 20,100 of 366,000 acres.One 18th.And still, losses and damages to the local ag industry are expected to top $600 million. Individually, growers are frustrated, left wondering if cropland that suffered while runoff charged down the Salinas River could have been spared. Field work was delayed, in some cases, for months. Houses were lost, rent payments were put on hold, costs condensed, anxieties heightened and security ebbed.That 5.5% starts to feel pretty big. Especially for those facing the strain of a sodden start to the growing season firsthand.Farmworkers in Gonzales agricultural fields on May 5, 2023. (Tess Kenny/Monterey Herald) Over the last month and a half, as floodwaters receded and dry weather set in, the Herald interviewed farmworkers and ag laborers impacted by storms in January and March. Through interpreters, they detailed challenge...

Downtown San Jose lands several new merchants as area rebound sprouts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

Fox Tale Fermentation Project (left) and Hula Bar And Kitchen restaurant (right), located at 30 East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)SAN JOSE — Some sections of downtown San Jose are starting to land a fresh crop of restaurants, bars and other establishments as new businesses sprout in the economic rubble left behind by the coronavirus pandemic.A burst of leases bringing new ventures to several spots is raising hopes that downtown San Jose’s post-coronavirus recovery has finally begun to take root.Fountain Alley, South First Street and East Santa Clara Street are among the areas seeing some activity in the form of new leases. Still, if a rebound is underway, it’s likely only in the very early stages.Downtown San Jose is characterized by a block here or there of lively activity. Yet each hub is akin to an oasis of vibrant energy hemmed in by economic wastelands of empty commercial fronts that stare out at pedestrians ...

Downtown San Jose housing and office complex may add live/work spaces

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

SAN JOSE — Office and retail spaces in a prominent downtown San Jose residential and commercial complex near the footprint of Google’s transit village might become live/work units under a new proposal.Vespaio, a seven-story building at 130 Stockton Avenue near the SAP Center and Diridon train station in downtown San Jose, is a mixed-use complex with residences, retail and creative office spaces.The building features 162 residential units and offers office and other commercial spaces on its first, second and third floors. The commercial space totals 32,600 square feet.To be sure, the Vespaio complex has managed to attract some high-profile commercial tenants — but the office and retail spaces still remain mostly empty.Surfaceink, a pioneer in product design and engineering for consumer electronics and tech firms, leased a large chunk of office space in Vespaio, taking about 6,900 square feet of office space on the second floor in 2021.Mayweather Boxing + Fitness, Th...

Opinion: California teaches Florida and Texas harsh public policy lesson

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

Back in 2015 when California had the seventh-largest economy in the world, outperforming the rest of the US, economist Irena Asmundson attributed her native state’s trajectory to a government increasingly in harmony with the diversity of its constituents. The cost of clean energy will “continue to fall” because of the convergence of “public policy and people’s preferences,” she said amid the proliferation of solar roofs and zero emission electric vehicles from Balboa Park to Yosemite Valley. “Everyone can see the writing on the wall, that climate change is happening. These clean technologies are going to be more valued in the future.”That’s especially true for business in the Golden State, whose gross domestic product is poised to overtake Germany’s and where the 30 publicly-traded companies deriving more than half of their revenue from alternative energy are mostly California-based. Those companies delivered a total return of 1,600% the past 10 years, exponentiall...

Two injured in shooting on Hwy-87 in San Jose

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

(BCN) -- San Jose police are on the scene of a shooting early Tuesday that injured two people and has closed at least one lane of northbound Highway 87 near Willow Street, according to a 4:52 a.m. tweet from police.One man and one woman were injured in the shooting. No further information was immediately available. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

Juventus agrees to fine but won’t appeal in plea bargain over salaries probe

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

ROME (AP) — Juventus will be fined 718,000 euros ($770,000) but will agree not to make any appeals as part of a plea bargain with the Italian soccer federation on Tuesday after the club and seven former team directors were charged with alleged fraud for the way they handled player salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic.The only former team director who did not agree to the plea bargain was ex-Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, who will be judged on June 15.Juventus and the former team directors denied any wrongdoing.At the start of the pandemic, Juventus said 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis. But prosecutors claim the players gave up only one month’s salary.Juventus, which has already been docked 10 points for false accounting in a separate legal case, had risked a further points deduction.The decision leaves Juventus in seventh place and with a chance of qualifying for Europe entering its final game of the Serie A sea...

Stables, trainers try to move through grief over euthanized horses as racing thunders on

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Frank Sumpter has spent the past few weeks reflecting on Wild On Ice’s remarkable journey to somehow work through his grief over the horse’s catastrophic injury just nine days before he was supposed to race in the Kentucky Derby.Coming so close has provided some consolation through a rollercoaster of emotions.“I felt that if heaven felt like this, I can’t wait to get to heaven, you know?” the Texas owner and trainer said of his colt, who was euthanized after a pre-Derby workout at Churchill Downs on April 27. “It kind of jerks the rug out from under you. For the trainer, myself and his family, it’s very devastating.”The numbers suggest that horse racing is the safest it has been for the animals since at least 2009. Yet every death draws fresh criticism that the sport is far too cruel to continue and it sends every stable into mourning all over again, often out of sight.Trainer Joe Lejzerowicz said he frequently flips through his phone for photos of Freezing Po...

Man who rammed U-Haul near White House sought to end US democracy, prosecutors say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

The 19-year-old man charged with crashing a U-Haul truck into security barriers near the White House last week had plans of overthrowing the U.S. government, according to federal prosecutors.Those plans included writing a speech to announce the end of democracy, prosecutors said.Sai Varshith Kandula, of Missouri, is due in federal court for a detention hearing Tuesday afternoon, although his public defender is seeking a postponement, according to court filings.Friday, in a motion arguing that Kandula should remain in custody until trial for depredation of property of the U.S., prosecutors said his goal was to seize power of the government, which could involve killing the president.When he was approached by U.S. Park Police after ramming the box truck into security bollards along Lafayette Square on May 22, Kandula had unfurled a Nazi flag.In the filing, prosecutors said after his arrest, Kandula told U.S. Secret Service investigators he intended to “get to the White House, sei...

Western Maryland abortion provider will open in ‘abortion desert’ as other states further restrict abortion access

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

This content was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion protections, state legislatures have passed new laws to shape abortion access in their states.While some states aimed to severely restrict access to abortions, states such as Maryland are seen as “access points” due to more lenient abortion laws. People who wish to terminate their pregnancies are likely to travel into the state for those services.This dynamic is on display at a new clinic called the Women’s Health Clinic of Maryland, set to open in late June.The new Maryland clinic is an extension of the Women’s Health Clinic of West Virginia, which had to stop performing abortions due to that state’s near total abortion ban that went into effect in September.The new location is Cumberland, Maryland — just five miles from the border of West Virginia.Katie Quinonez-...

US ends probe into Tesla allowing video games while vehicles are moving, says feature was disabled

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:32:13 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. highway safety regulators have closed an investigation into Tesla allowing video games to be played on center touch screens while vehicles are moving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted Tuesday that Tesla disabled the feature called “passenger play” with an online software update in December of 2021, under pressure from the agency.The agency said in documents that removing “passenger play” resolved its concerns about distracted driving that could be caused by the feature.The software update covered more than 580,000 vehicles from the 2017 through 2022 model years. One month after software update went out, Tesla reported that 97% of the vehicles had received it. The agency said it opened the investigation in December of 2021 after getting a complaint from a Tesla owner that games could be played by the driver while the vehicles are moving. The investigation was opened to assess the driver distraction potential.It says in do...