Bay Area cities prepare to
restrict gas leaf blowers.
A statewide ban could be next
Posted By: konocti95, 6/30/2021 12:09:07 PM
Two more Bay Area cities took sides in the region’s long-running crusade against gasoline-powered leaf blowers in recent weeks, with officials in Novato and Hayward moving toward banning the contraptions, increasingly derided as noise, smoke-belching nuisances. Oakland, too, has vowed to get serious about enforcing its rules against their use. And the entire war may swiftly come to a head if a state Assembly bill seeking to ban new leaf blower sales statewide wins approval.
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A parachutist from Camp Roberts torpedoed through the roof of a Southern California home and into the interior of the house, authorities said.
The man, who was reportedly a British soldier in the midst of a training exercise, dealt with a chute that didn’t fully open before he plunged through the house in Atascadero just before 5 p.m. July 6, police said in a news release.
A month after a gunman killed nine workers at a rail yard in San Jose, the city is taking steps to become the first in the nation to require firearms owners to buy insurance and pay fees to relieve taxpayers of the costs of responding to gun violence.
The San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to draft an ordinance that would order gun owners in the city to obtain insurance and pay an annual fee to subsidize police responses, ambulances, medical treatment and other municipal expenses related to shootings, injuries and deaths.
The amount of the fee hasn’t been determined, but Mayor Sam Liccardo said
Two more Bay Area cities took sides in the region’s long-running crusade against gasoline-powered leaf blowers in recent weeks, with officials in Novato and Hayward moving toward banning the contraptions, increasingly derided as noise, smoke-belching nuisances.
Oakland, too, has vowed to get serious about enforcing its rules against their use.
And the entire war may swiftly come to a head if a state Assembly bill seeking to ban new leaf blower sales statewide wins approval.
As the longtime artistic director of Celebration Theatre, the city’s leading LGBTQ stage, Michael A. Shepperd has been an outspoken advocate for social justice. As a gay Black theater-maker, Shepperd has pushed for inclusion and diversity in the arts. (Snip) But in interviews with The Times, nine people who worked with Shepperd, 58, painted a different portrait of the artistic director, and two men accused Shepperd of sexual misconduct in incidents spanning 13 years.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Senate moved Friday to make the state’s assisted death law permanent and significantly shorten the time a terminally ill patient must wait for a fatal dose of medication.
The state Department of Public Health reported that 337 terminally ill people took drugs to end their lives in 2019, the most recent figures available, and 452 people received prescriptions that year under the law.
Nearly 2,000 people deemed to have six months or less to live have received a prescription since the law took effect on June 9, 2016.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Authorities on Friday closed a section of a Southern California beach and adjacent water near the carcass of a dead fin whale that washed ashore.
The Orange County Health Care Agency’s environmental health division determined that the decomposing remains posed a health hazard at Bolsa Chica State Beach.
Authorities believe the whale is one of two that were struck by an Australian navy ship last week and then towed out to sea from San Diego.
Bolsa Chica is about 90 miles up the coast from San Diego Bay.
Arizona State University reached a settlement with one of its students on Thursday following that student’s decision to sue the school for allegedly violating her First Amendment rights.
Rae’Lee Klein was removed from her position as station manager of ASU’s Blaze Radio in September after tweeting out a New York Post story about Jacob Blake — a black man shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, back in August — with the caption, “Always more to the story, folks. Please read this article to get the background of Jacob Blake’s warrant. You’ll be quite disgusted.”
The firing of a makeup artist from the buzzy new Amy Poehler project is causing ruptions in the TV world, we’re told.
Earlier this month, Page Six reported that the artist in question was canned from the “Untitled Tracy Oliver Project” — the new show from the “Girls Trip” creator dubbed the “Black Sex and the City” — for allegedly saying the N-word repeatedly in front of one of the show’s lead actresses, while singing along with a rap song. (We know both the name of the actress and the makeup artist, but we aren’t going to print them due to the sensitivity of the situation.
REDDING — A man wanted for his role in an alleged $35 million Ponzi scheme was arrested Monday after evading FBI agents by swimming into California’s largest reservoir using an underwater “sea scooter,” federal prosecutors said.
Matthew Piercey spent nearly 30 minutes in frigid Lake Shasta using the Yamaha 350Li submersible device before he eventually resurfaced and was handcuffed, the Sacramento Bee reported. It wasn't immediately known if the 44-year-old has an attorney.
When agents went to arrest Piercey, he hopped in a pickup and led them on a chase that ended at the shoreline of the lake north of Redding.
Egyptian antiquities officials on Saturday announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins, some with mummies inside, and around 40 gilded statues in a vast Pharaonic necropolis south of Cairo.
Colorful, sealed sarcophagi and statues that were buried more than 2,500 years ago were displayed in a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Archaeologists opened a coffin with a well-preserved mummy wrapped in cloth inside. They also carried out X‐raying visualizing the structures of the ancient mummy, showing how the body had been preserved.
It’s a whale of a tale.
On the 50th anniversary of the “Florence whale explosion” Thursday, a former Oregon TV newsman recalled what it was like to cover the infamous event — where authorities used half a ton of dynamite to blow up a beached whale.
“I was asked about it virtually every day of my life, or commented on it, by everybody, strangers alike,” Paul Linnman told KATU-TV in Portland.
On Nov. 12, 1970, Linnman and his cameraman Doug Brazil were just 23 when they were assigned to capture the blubber blast on a beach in Florence, Ore.
Using the Olympics as a metaphor, Outkick’s Jason Whitlock blasted white liberal “gatekeepers” in Hollywood who “define blackness” and influence black celebrities such as Dave Chappelle, LeBron James, Jay-Z, and John Legend, on how they can conform to their ideals of what it means to be “black.”
Whitlock had been writing about comedian Dave Chappelle for several days, and in his November 12 editorial, he seized onto analogy that “proper” black people in popular culture — including sports and entertainment — vie for the honor of being a proper black person in the “Unapologetically Black Olympics.”
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The National Football League (NFL) recently joined virtually every other American institution in lauding — and marketing to — the LGBT community during Pride Month in June. It did so by releasing a new 30-second commercial proudly proclaiming that "football is gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, bisexual and exciting."
The ad begins by stating "football is gay" to the sound of drums rolling and people cheering. (I'm not sure what Dick Butkus would have to say about this advertisement, but I digress.) [Tweet] The ad is in part a direct response to Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib's recent announcement that he is gay, a league spokesperson said.
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after celebrating America’s near “independence” from the coronavirus, President Joe Biden is confronting the worrying reality of rising cases and deaths — and the limitations of his ability to combat the persistent vaccine hesitance responsible for the summer backslide. Cases of COVID-19 have tripled over the past three weeks, and hospitalizations and deaths are rising among unvaccinated people. While the rates are still sharply down from their January highs, officials are concerned by the reversing trendlines and what they consider needless illness and death. And cases are expected to continue to rise in coming weeks.
The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found.
CCDH, a UK/US non-profit and non-governmental organization, found in March that these 12 online personalities they dubbed the “disinformation dozen” have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact. CCDH analyzed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found 65% came from the disinformation dozen. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, and Joe Biden focused on misinformation around vaccines this week
More than 74,000 mail-in ballots were received in Maricopa County, Arizona than appear to have been mailed out, a forensic audit has determined. According to the auditors, 74,243 mail-in ballots were counted with “no clear record of them being sent.”The Arizona Senate, led by Senate President Karen Fann, held a hearing on Thursday to discuss the preliminary results of the first phase of the audit in Maricopa County.(snip)The irregularities revealed during the hearing amounted to hundreds of thousands of votes.
Biden won Arizona by only 10,457 votes.
Here are the biased numbers for the recent Economist-YouGov poll that gives Joe Biden a 49% approval rating. (snip) Dem (324) Republican (235) Independent (260)
Ninety-nine more Democrats sampled vs. Republicans were included in the results. It is not hard to get the results you want if the polls are assembled in this way, and this is always the method with these polls.
A total of 819 from 1,500 participants. Does that mean the rest were dumped because they are not registered to vote or affiliated with a party? Were their answers included in the reported percentages?
Three Texas House Democrats who traveled to
Washington, D.C., test positive for coronavirus 33 replies
Washington, D.C., test positive for coronavirus 33 replies
Three Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Texas House Democratic Caucus.
The three lawmakers are among House Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C., earlier this week to stave off GOP priority voting bills during the special legislative session. The three members who tested positive all have been fully vaccinated, which helps protect against severe illness.
On Friday night, one member tested positive for the coronavirus and immediately alerted colleagues, who, in addition to staff members, took rapid tests. On Saturday morning, two additional members tested positive after taking rapid tests. The cases were first reported by the Austin American-Statesman.
The other day I highlighted the disturbing remarks of a local NAACP leader in Fairfax County, Virginia. On Thursday night, Michelle Leete stood outside the Jackson Middle School and rallied protesters in favor of Critical Race Theory (CRT) into a round of applause as she declared "Let them die" about her opponents. On Saturday morning, the Virginia PTA announced over Twitter that she's since resigned from her position with them.Leete resigned from her position of Vice President of Training at the Virginia PTA. She's also the Vice President of the Fairfax NAACP and the Vice President of Communications for the Fairfax County PTA.
Three Texas House Democrats who traveled to
Washington, D.C., test positive for coronavirus 31 replies
Washington, D.C., test positive for coronavirus 31 replies
Three Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Texas House Democratic Caucus. The three lawmakers are among House Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C., earlier this week to stave off GOP priority voting bills during the special legislative session. The three members who tested positive all have been fully vaccinated, which helps protect against severe illness. On Friday night, one member tested positive for the coronavirus and immediately alerted colleagues, who, in addition to staff members, took rapid tests. On Saturday morning, two additional members tested positive after taking rapid
A 6-year-old girl was killed and five adults hurt after someone opened fire near a Popeye’s in Washington D.C., police said. The child was pronounced dead at Sibley Memorial Hospital, said cops, prompting Metropolitan Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Ashan Benedict to plea for the public to help “bring these shooters to justice.”(Snip) The incident unfolded just after 11 p.m. Friday. Officers heard shots ring out at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE and Malcolm Avenue X SE, and arrived at the intersection to find the victims, including the child, three men and two women, Benedict said.
Nautically correct Australian officials
to rebrand shark 'attacks' as
'negative encounters' 30 replies
to rebrand shark 'attacks' as
'negative encounters' 30 replies
Officials in Australia are rebranding shark “attacks” as “a negative encounter” as experts argue the former had given the nautical predators a bad reputation not based on science. At least two of the six Australian states have reportedly changed the way they officially describe shark attacks. In New South Wales, the government’s shark reports now refer to shark “incidents” or “interactions,” and in Queensland, the state government refers to them as “a negative encounter,” Sky News reported.(Snip)Proponents argue the word “attack” has created a culture of fear around sharks, one often depicted in movies. “Sharks are very curious animals,” Leonardo Guida, a shark biologist
MIT Study: Vaccine Hesitancy Is 'Highly Informed,
Scientifically Literate,' and 'Sophisticated' 29 replies
Scientifically Literate,' and 'Sophisticated' 29 replies
Vaccine hesitancy is a big problem, according to the Biden administration. Less than half the public is fully vaccinated while about 56 percent have received at least one jab.
The goal of fully vaccinating the American public appears to have stalled. This should not surprise us. When the vaccines were first approved for emergency use back in December 2020, 40 percent of Americans expressed skepticism about the vaccine.
Trying to shame the holdouts has failed spectacularly. Insulting and degrading them as “morons” or “ignorant” has resulted in a vicious pushback and a hardening of positions on getting vaccinated.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been accused of breaking his pledge to be 'nonpolitical' by sharing a statement blasting election laws in Republican-led Georgia as he honored the anniversary of civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis' death. Garland and the Department of Justice have gone after the state of Georgia over its voting law which he argues violates federal law by inhibiting voting rights on the basis of race.The Justice Department sued the state in June after Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a 98-page election law in March that made numerous changes to how elections will be administered,