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Local state of emergency declared after historic hangar goes up in flames in Orange County

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

County and city officials have declared a local state of emergency on Thursday after poor air quality, asbestos and toxins were found after a fire destroyed a historic air base hangar in Tustin.On Wednesday, samples of debris and ash were collected in areas near the hangar and lab testing confirmed the presence of asbestos lead, arsenic and nickel, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.Residents are urged to "exercise caution to reduce exposure during the clean-up of structural fire debris," said the Orange County Health Care Agency.According to the emergency proclamation from the city of Tustin, health officials have “conducted air quality samples which showed elevated levels of chemicals of potential public health concerns.”Air samples collected from public areas near the hangar and in local communities are also being analyzed for “gaseous air toxics, such as benzene.” Long-term environmental testing is anticipated as results are being processed. Orange...

A Masters deegie from the Wiltern

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

A Masters deegie from the Wiltern: L.A. pop-punk artist deegie told us about her Wiltern experiences.deegie: I’ve seen some wild shows between living in New York and LA. I saw Billy Joel’s Madison Square Garden residency twice, I was there for The 1975’s infamous December 2014 show at Terminal 5, aka Kissgate (to be gaylor on main), and I caught Bruce Springsteen’s cameo in Bleachers’ Radio City set last summer.  I’ve seen the 1989 Tour at Staples Center, been backstage for Wyclef Jean, and geeked out at Ben Fold’s Grammy Museum performance. But my favorite shows ever have been at the Wiltern Theatre in L,.A.It’s a gorgeous art deco vaudeville era theater, and former Warner Brothers movie palace, so just being in the space feels monumental and magical.  Two bands, on separate occasions, made it transcendent for me:  The Mowglis, with their warm fuzzy indie rock and their pure joy onstage, enveloped me in their spirit of universal love. And Smallpools, a band I’ve seen many times, me...

4 amazing things to do at Safari West in Santa Rosa

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

Peter Lang first heard the call of the wild as a little boy, scampering around Hollywood backlots in the ‘60s as his filmmaker father, Otto, worked on TV shows such as “Flipper,” “Daktari” and “Sea Hunt.”Beguiled by the lions and chimps he befriended on the “Daktari” set, the young Lang felt a deep connection to nature. It sparked a passion for animal conservation that led him to raise African eland, large antelopes with oxlike bodies, and eventually inspired him to found Safari West, a 400-acre nature preserve tucked amid the rolling hills of Santa Rosa, in 1993.For Lang and his wife, Nancy, a zoologist, this is more than just a wildlife refuge. It’s their life’s work. During the devastating 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, Lang refused to abandon the preserve. As the flames approached, he made everyone else evacuate, grabbed a garden hose and a shovel and fought the fire. He stood guard all night, making sure that all 1,000 animals — from the giraffes and the cheetahs to rhinos and ...

25+ Bay Area beer and wine events to enjoy this winter

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

Winter in the Bay can come with a chill, but booze can help ward off its frosty bite. From holiday celebrations to sip and shops, beer crawls, culinary delights and tons of tastings, here’s a sampling of local beer and wine events to check out this season.Holidays in Yountville: Nov. 19-Jan. 1, various Yountville locations. Enjoy six weeks of holiday-related events including wine tastings, holiday movies, music performances, cooking classes, grapevine wreath making, holiday trivia night, cookie decorating and holiday light tours via the Napa Valley Wine Trolley. Prices vary. yountville.com/events/holidays-in-yountville/Wreath Making and Wine Tasting: 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 29, 14210 Bacchus Landing Way, Suite 100, Healdsburg. Craft your own beautiful holiday wreath full of fragrant Sonoma County evergreens. The class includes two glasses of wine from The Setting Wines and food from Appellation Hotels co-founder and chef Charlie Palmer. $125. https://bit.ly/WreathsandWineCheese O&...

Biden and Xi will meet Wednesday in San Francisco for talks on trade, Taiwan and managing fraught US-China relations

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG | Associated PressWASHINGTON  — President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Wednesday in California for talks on trade, Taiwan and managing fraught U.S.-Chinese relations in the first engagement between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies in nearly a year.The White House has said for weeks that it anticipated Biden and Xi would meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, but negotiations went down to the eve of the gathering, which kicks off Saturday.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement the leaders would discuss the “continued importance of maintaining open lines of communication” and how the they “can continue to responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, particularly on transnational challenges that affect the international community.”China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that Xi would attend APEC...

Ex-Alamo attorney convicted of embezzling $400,000 from clients

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

MARTINEZ — An attorney and former Alamo resident was convicted this week of bilking his clients out of a $400,000 settlement Pacific Gas & Electric Co. agreed to pay following a 2006 wildfire near Woodland in Yolo County, according to prosecutors.On Tuesday, a Martinez jury found William James Reed, 80, guilty of grand theft by embezzlement and a white collar crime enhancement related to the settlement agreement, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Thursday.Two families, including elderly victims with ranch properties damaged by the wildfire, agreed to let Reed represent them in a lawsuit against PG&E after he assured them the utility would be responsible for his attorney’s fees, according to prosecutors.In 2013, Reed secured a $400,000 settlement — $200,000 for each family — but he did not inform his clients, the district attorney’s office said, adding that the money was paid to Reed at an unrelated court hearing.When the families asked Re...

Oakland’s leaders pressured to support ceasefire in Gaza as warfare continues

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

OAKLAND — City leaders are feeling pressure from residents to support a call for a ceasefire in Gaza as the death toll among Palestinians rises amid Israel’s continuing retaliation after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.On Wednesday, an Oakland school board meeting descended into chaos after its president, Mike Hutchinson, halted pro-Palestinian speakers, saying their comments were out of turn, before a ceasefire resolution could be introduced later that night.A day earlier, members of the City Council struggled to maintain decorum when an animated group of pro-Palestinian speakers urged the city’s leaders to join the call for a ceasefire.The statement would be a starkly more diplomatic resolution than the outright support for Palestinians shown by Richmond — the first city in the country to commit to such a declaration.Ceasefire resolutions have since been taken up by a few small cities nationwide, including Providence, Rhode Island, Easton, Pennsylvania, and the ...

Here’s where San Jose may lose thousands of homes because of ‘builder’s remedy’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

San Jose stands to lose more than 4,000 new housing units if developers in Northern California’s largest city move ahead with a legal mechanism allowing them to scale back their projects, a Mercury News review found — an outcome that policymakers and housing experts say they never expected.Angered by the move, city leaders are exploring their options for how to push back on developer proposals seeking to downsize a slew of residential projects under the “builder’s remedy” — a provision in state housing law meant to penalize cities that fail to meet state-mandated housing goals and allows property owners to push through projects of virtually any size.Developers argue that today’s high interest rates and exorbitant construction costs make high-density housing in San Jose financially unfeasible and are turning to townhome-style projects.Of the 19 builder’s-remedy applications submitted to San Jose’s planning department, eight seek to produce housing at a d...

San Francisco homicide: Off-duty officer spots suspect 10 days later

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

A homicide suspect was arrested on a San Francisco street after an off-duty officer noticed his resemblance to a crime bulletin picture.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Bay Area homicides 2023: Map and details The 38-year-old man was wanted in a fatal stabbing that happened around 10:35 a.m. Oct. 24 near Eddy and Taylor streets, in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he died on Oct. 28, the police said.Around noon on Nov. 3, an off-duty police officer assigned to the Tenderloin saw the suspect on Eddy Street within a block of the attack site.The man was arrested without incident and booked on suspicion of homicide, drug possession and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the police said.The attack was one of five San Francisco homicides in a week — four stabbings and a shooting.

Joan Baez said she wanted a ‘warts and all’ film about her life. She got one.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:33 GMT

At the start of the new documentary, “Joan Baez I Am A Noise,” there’s a quote from the writer Gabriel García Márquez that fills the screen for a moment: “Everyone has three lives: the public, the private, and the secret.”It’s a signal that this film has stories to share about the 82-year-old folk singer and political activist that have never before been told.That wasn’t the original intent, Baez says with a wry smile on a recent video call.“It was going to be about the last tour,” Baez says of a run of 2018 farewell shows. “Then at a certain point, I realized I had to let them in farther than just that. I literally handed them the key, the three directors, to the storage unit. In the film, when I walk into it, that’s the first time I’ve ever been in there.”With that key, co-directors Karen O’Conner, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle entered a chamber of treasures that Baez had forgotten existed.“I knew that my mom had kept some stuff,” Baez says. “In the back of my head, I knew that....