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How SF Giants stack up in Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

The Shohei Sweepstakes head this week to Music City, where the decision — or indecision — of the sport’s preeminent but enigmatic star on his free-agent destination will define the gathering of the baseball world in Nashville and the rest of its offseason.The San Francisco Giants, finalists for him the first time around and desperately seeking a star, identified Ohtani as a priority this offseason. But as for their chances as the bidding possibly comes to a head this week?Mum’s the word.With MLB’s Winter Meetings set to begin Monday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that some initial suitors — the Rangers, Mets and Red Sox — had shifted their focus elsewhere. He identified the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Cubs and the incumbent Angels as teams confirmed to still be alive. The Giants? They “have long had a fondness for Ohtani, though where they stand in these sweepstakes is unknown.”Whether by design, or simply the result of a generally airtight front office, th...

Milpitas High School opens student wellness center

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

Student wellness centerStudents at Milpitas High School now have a place on campus to go for mental health resources and the support. State Representative Ro Khanna, whose District 17 includes Milpitas, secured $300,000 in community project funding for the new student wellness center as part of the House Appropriations Committee fiscal year 2022 funding bills. Additional funding came from the Mental Health Student Service Act and California Schools Partnership Grants acquired through the Santa Clara County Office of Education.Since opening on Nov. 16, 554 students have visited the center, with 130 repeat visitors and 16 students in crisis.“Expanding access to mental health services ensures students receive the support they need to be successful at school and in their communities,” said County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan.“Now we have an established way of addressing the needs of our students and families who long before COVID have suffered traumatic events in their lives...

Latest line: A good week for Sean Hannity, a bad week for Lexi Reese

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

Sean HannityConservative Fox broadcaster convinces Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to appear in a hyped TV debate with him as host. It became a disjointed shouting match, but he still got the ratings.   Lexi ReeseFormer Google VP who has never held public office drops out of the race to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein, lamenting that “career politicians” who have won other elections and raised money have an unfair advantage.   Sam LiccardoFormer San Jose mayor files for a possible run to succeed retiring Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto. He’s well known. But can he beat supervisor Joe Simitian, who lives in the district and has already raised $680,000?        

Is historic preservation just another NIMBY tactic to avoid California housing laws?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

When residents of the leafy Baywood neighborhood in San Mateo got word that a 1933 Spanish Revival home would be demolished to make way for a much larger house with an attached in-law unit, they pleaded with the city to put a stop to it. But the Peninsula town’s hands were tied. A California law passed in 2021 gave the owner the right to build two units where only a single-family home previously had been allowed.For years, neighborhoods like Baywood — where the average home sells for more than $2 million — took their lower-density character for granted. That has changed in recent years as state lawmakers passed measures like SB 9 intended to create more housing everywhere — especially in areas previously zoned for single-family homes.These state housing laws, though, carve out one notable exception: historic properties.Earlier this month, the San Mateo Heritage Alliance applied to the California Office of Historic Preservation to designate Baywood as a historic district, raising the...

Share the Spirit: Oakley woman gets around fine without sight, with a little help from Lions Center

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

Kellie Robison knew when just a youngster that she was going blind.The 62-year-old Oakley woman was born sighted, but it soon became apparent, even as an infant, that she couldn’t see well. Her sister, six years her senior, was born with the same vision-robbing disease, and their mother knew the signs to look out for.In some ways, Robison says, she was lucky. Although her vision deteriorated with alarming rapidity as she approached her teen years, she was able to start preparing for a life of blindness, largely through the assistance of the Lions Club, and the Lions Center for the Visually Impaired, a 70-year-old nonprofit based in Pittsburg and serving clients in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano counties.“I’ve had a relationship with Lions for years, probably starting when I was a preteen,” Robison says. “The doctors told my mother to have me start learning Braille before I lost my vision. The Lions had a Braille section at the Oakland library where I’d check out Braille books. The...

They said it: White House 2024?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

“There’s one thing … that we have in common. Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”— California Gov. Gavin Newsom, to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in their televised debate Thursday.       

Wish Book 2023: Helping Hands Silicon Valley ‘is so very important to me’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

Every call for help is different. So Pratima Gupta didn’t know what was in store, when she answered a call from the front desk manager at the Motel 6 on Sunnyvale’s North Mathilda Avenue last winter.The motel needed help with an elderly blind man, who could no longer pay for his room. The man would have to leave the next day, if a solution couldn’t be found, and he seemed to have nowhere else to go.“They asked to come and help him for one night,” says Gupta, who is one of the co-founders of Helping Hands Silicon Valley (HHSV). “That was in December, and he has been our client ever since.”In the months that followed, Gupta and the HHSV team — including co-founder Alpana Agarwal — have rallied around 94-year-old Mir Sayed and helped him receive not only housing but other critical services as well.“This is so very important to me,” Sayed says of the assistance he receives from HHSV.Sayed is one of the dozens of people in need being helped by Sunnyvale’s HH...

FA Cup 3rd round draw: Arsenal hosts Liverpool, Man City vs. Huddersfield, Wigan vs. Man United

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Arsenal will host Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup after the Premier League rivals were drawn against each other on Sunday. The teams, who were among the favorites to win the competition and are likely to challenge each other in the race for the title, will meet at Emirates Stadium over the weekend of Jan. 6 and 7. Teams from the Premier League and second-tier Championship enter the FA Cup at the third round stage. Holder Manchester City was drawn to play division two Huddersfield at Etihad Stadium. Last season’s beaten finalist Manchester United travels to division three Wigan, which caused one of the biggest upsets in recent history when beating City in the final to win the trophy in 2013.Division two Sunderland hosts Newcastle in a north east derby. All-Premier League ties include Tottenham vs. Burnley, Crystal Palace vs. Everton and Brentford vs. Wolves.___More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerSource

Israel orders more people in crowded southern Gaza to evacuate as heavy bombardment shifts south

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s military ordered more areas in and around Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate on Sunday, followed by heavy bombardment, as it shifted its offensive to the southern half of the territory where it asserts that leaders of the Hamas militant group are hiding.Palestinians in Gaza said they were running out of places to go. The Gaza Strip, bordering Israel and Egypt, is sealed. Many of the territory’s 2.3 million people are crammed in the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war sparked by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.Before the latest evacuation orders, United Nations monitors said the areas told to evacuate made up about one-quarter of the territory.Heavy bombardment was reported overnight into Sunday around Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had...

Alabama man sentenced to more than 3 years for assaulting officers during Jan. 6 riot

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:11:50 GMT

An Alabama man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for assaulting officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.Dillion Colby Herrington, 31, of Madison, Alabama, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.Police said that he was carrying a knife and taser at the time and was attending the “Stop the Steal Rally” before the riot.Herrington was on the West Plaza of the Capitol grounds in a group of rioters who were “taunting” officers who were in a “defense police line,” according to court documents.The documents say that Herrington repeatedly approached police displaying his middle finger and approached one officer and shouted, “Look me in the f— eyes, m—f—! I’m coming for you.”Police say he had to be retrained by other rioter...