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Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Lottery should sharewealth of huge jackpotsRe: “Station sells winning Powerball ticket” (Page B3, July 12).The Powerball article in today’s Mercury News reveals that the next winner will get an outrageous $725 million, and the record-breaking ticket was worth $2.04 billion.Think of the number of needy people who could benefit if these wins were to be divided into reasonable amounts — like $1 million each.Kate BrophyLos GatosRestitution will comewith better educationRe: “Task force suggests restitution for slavery” (Page A1, June 30).Giving some people money and calling it restitution will look good for politicians. Real restitution will take work and money — money better spent on fixing the real problem. The U.S. Department of Education shows 85% of Black students lack proficiency in reading skills.If one looks at what slaves were deprived of, it was learning to read and wri...

Defense bill in peril as House GOP pushes social issues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

By Lauren Fox, Clare Foran, Melanie Zanona, Haley Talbor and Annie Grayer | CNNThe House voted Thursday evening to adopt several controversial amendments pushed by conservative hardliners to a critical national defense bill as the fate of the must-pass legislation hangs in the balance.Passage of the amendments – which touch on hot-button social issues, including abortion policy – is expected to cost Democratic votes and could potentially imperil final passage of the legislation, unless House Republicans are able to largely unite behind the measure to get it across the finish line. With only a narrow majority, House Republicans could only afford a few defections from within their ranks if there is no support from Democrats.If the House passes the defense bill – known as the National Defense Authorization Act – it would still need to be reconciled with the Democratic-controlled Senate.One of the most high-profile amendment that was adopted by the House would prohibit the secretary of ...

It will cost $110 billion to protect San Francisco Bay from rising sea levels, new study shows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

Protecting the homes and businesses, highways and airports, sewage treatment plants and other key parts of society that ring San Francisco Bay’s shoreline from flooding and storm damage as sea levels continue to rise will be a massive challenge over the next generation. And it’s not going to come cheap, according to a new report.The cost estimate: $110 billion by 2050.That’s the conclusion of a new study from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.So far, only $5 billion of that money is in hand, the study notes. The projects needed include expanding thousands of acres of wetlands, building dozens if not hundreds of miles of higher levees, constructing new tidal gates, strengthening sea walls, raising roads in some areas, and other protections around the nine-county Bay Area’s roughly 400-mile-long waterfront.But if nothing is done, $236 billion in property is at ...

Menacing band of car burglars caught on camera roaming Antioch neighborhood

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

ANTIOCH, Calif. (KRON) -- Imagine that it's 2:30 a.m. and you're awakened by your home security system. When you check the video, you see a disturbing site: Multiple people in hooded sweats tops, their faces covered, roaming the streets, breaking into vehicles -- including the cars in your driveway."When I see them I didn't know what was happening. I was like, 'I hope they don't try to go through the garage.' I was like, 'I am not going out there by myself.' It was about 10 of them," said Mike Allen, whose vehicle was burglarized. Reinforce your door, Oakland police say after spike in home invasions It happened in the early morning on July 6 in the Country Hills neighborhood in the City of Antioch. The person heard on the phone in the video said his car is the one being burglarized in the video. He asked not to reveal his identity."They broke into my girlfriend's car," Allen said. "She had her baby bag in the car. They went in there rummaging through everything. The following morn...

Car crash shuts down Santa Clara road for hours

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KRON) -- A traffic collision has caused a road to close Thursday afternoon, the Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD) said on Twitter. The northbound lanes of Lafayette Street at Great America Way will be closed for approximately five to six hours.Police did not report any injuries at this time.The location of the crash is approximately one mile north of Levi's Stadium. SCPD first tweeted about the crash at 2:16 p.m.KRON4 is headed to the scene to gather more information. KRON On is streaming news live now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }This story will be updated.

Syria gives green light to reopen key crossing to rebel-held northwest from Turkey— with caveats

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Syrian government gave a green light Thursday for the United Nations to resume delivering humanitarian aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey for six months, but said it must be done “in full cooperation and coordination with the government.”Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, said the U.N. should not communicate “with the terrorist organizations and groups and their affiliated illegal administrative entities in northwestern Syria.” Instead, he said, the U.N. must allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to supervise aid distribution in areas controlled by “terrorist organizations.”Sabbagh made the announcement after delivering letters to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council president with the government’s decision. It followed Tuesday’s failure of the Security Council to renew authorization of aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa, a U.N. operation...

El ritmo lento de la campaña de reelección de Biden impulsa la ansiedad de los demócratas de cara a 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

(CNN) — Las conversaciones no han cesado: susurros en voz baja al margen de los eventos, mensajes de texto, correos electrónicos, llamadas telefónicas furtivas, a medida que los principales demócratas y donantes se ponen en contacto con los que se consideran posibles candidatos presidenciales de reemplazo.Prepárate, instan, en conversaciones que ayudantes de varias de las personas implicadas han descrito a CNN: a pesar de lo que ha dicho, a pesar de la campaña que se ha anunciado, el presidente Joe Biden no se lanzará realmente por la reelección.Biden anuncia su candidatura a la reelección y dice que la batalla por el alma de la nación no está completaSienten que el tiempo ya se está acabando y que la falta de una actividad de campaña más robusta que quieren ver es una señal de que su intención no está realmente puesta en ello.Es una sensación persistente que el círculo íntimo de asesores del presidente y varios de los pocos asesores que han sido contratados para su campaña de...

More than 100 homes damaged when tornado hits suburb of Canada’s capital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — At least one tornado hit a suburb of Canada’s capital Thursday, damaging more than 100 homes, authorities said. Kim Ayotte, general manager of emergency and protective services for the city of Ottawa, said 125 homes were damaged in Half Moon Bay, a neighborhood in the southern end of the Barrhaven suburb.He said most damage involved roofs being ripped, windows broken or damage inflicted by falling trees.“It’s a variety of damage from small damage to quite substantial damage,” he said.He said only one minor injury had been reported involving someone whose foot was cut.Monica Vaswani, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada, said several funnel clouds were reported in the Ottawa area Thursday afternoon but only one tornado had been confirmed as of midafternoon.The community is about 14 miles south of Parliament Hill on Ottawa’s rapidly growing south end. Laurie Gillespie said her 82-year-old mother and her sister were at the home when he...

Soda sweetener aspartame now listed as possible cancer cause. But it’s still considered safe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has deemed the sweetener aspartame — found in diet soda and countless other foods — as a “possible” cause of cancer, while a separate expert group looking at the same evidence said it still considers the sugar substitute safe in limited quantities.The differing results of the coordinated reviews were released early Friday. One came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a special branch of the WHO. The other report was from an expert panel selected by WHO and another U.N. group, the Food and Agriculture Organization. The Lyon, France-based cancer agency periodically reviews potential cancer hazards, but doesn’t determine how likely they are to cause cancer in their evaluations which range from “possibly” carcinogenic to “probably” to cancer-causing. Aspartame joins a category with more than 300 other possible cancer-causing agents, including things like aloe vera extract, Asian-style pickled vegetables and carp...

Twitter comienza a pagar a los creadores de contenido; mira cuánto podrías ganar

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:16:58 GMT

NUEVA YORK- Twitter comenzó a compartir con los creadores de contenido el dinero generado por publicidad cuando esta aparece en los comentarios a sus tuits, una medida que hace cinco meses anunció el dueño de la red social, Elon Musk, pero aún no había puesto en práctica.La medida ya fue aplaudida por algunos de los beneficiarios: “Amo Twitter”, tuiteó este jueves Billy Markus, el cocreador de la criptomoneda Dogecoin, junto con un pantallazo en el que se veía que la red social le dará en los próximos días $37.05.Musk señaló que los primeros pagos, que retribuyen a los creadores por los anuncios que aparecen en los comentarios de sus tuits, serían acumulativos desde que anunció el programa por primera vez en febrero. ¿Furioso Twitter? Threads arrasa con récord histórico de descargas en su primera semana Twitter enfrenta tremenda demanda de unos $500 millones por parte de sus exempleados Para poder acceder a estos pagos...