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Keeler: LoDo institution Blake Street Tavern went down swinging on last Rockies Opening Day. “I’ve cried four times.”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

Blake Street Tavern went down swinging.“Just so ya know, it’s cash only, we’re not serving any food,” the burly security guard said as he checked customer IDs at the door.This was 12:45 on a sunny Thursday afternoon in LoDo, 90 minutes from the first pitch at Coors Field. On Opening Day. The last Opening Day.On Blake Street Tavern’s Christmas, three days from its funeral, the computer ordering system crashed. Just for old time’s sake.“Apparently, the software company got told we were leaving the system Thursday,” the guard explained. “We meant next Thursday. They cut us off today.”During lunch hour. On Opening Day. The last Opening Day.“I’ve worked here four years. It’s always things going wrong,” bar manager Maureen Hogan laughed as patrons slowly filtered out of the patio and started on the three-block walk to the Rockies game. “If something’s not going wrong, I’m suspicious. It had been going smooth and we’re like, ‘It’s going to be a good day,’ and then Toast (the online orderin...

Opinion: Renaming Richmond’s Knox Freeway would denigrate legacy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

The recent well-meaning proposal by former Richmond Councilperson Nat Bates to rename the Knox Freeway by adding President Carter’s name is a bad idea.President Carter was not personally involved in the designation in the late 1970s of the then-Hoffman Boulevard project as a federal interstate highway. In contrast, John Knox. who served in the Assembly from 1961-80, worked for close to two decades to gain the interstate designation and the federal funding that would follow.The state Legislature’s naming of the project as the John T. Knox Freeway in 1980 was not just based on Knox’s advocacy for the Hoffman Freeway project but also based on his many accomplishments on behalf of Richmond infrastructure during his Assembly tenure.The Carter administration was certainly involved in approval of the proposal, but interstate designation and subsequent funding for the 6-mile freeway between Albany and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was mainly a legislative effort at the state level le...

Despite high profile killing of tech executive, San Francisco has far fewer homicides than other similarly-sized cities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

By Cheri Mossburg, Josh Campbell and Brad Parks | CNNThe stabbing death of CashApp founder Bob Lee has prompted comments perpetuating the notion that San Francisco is dangerous and crime-riddled, but data shows violent crime — especially homicides — are well below that of many other cities of a similar size.George Tita, a criminal justice professor at the University of California, Irvine, believes the perception has more to do with the profile of those involved in certain crimes than the actual data.“When a very high profile tech person is murdered, it is just going to get more publicity than if it was an impoverished person in a neighborhood of color,” Tita said. “It’s just low-hanging fruit. Nobody wants to look at actual statistics. Most of the states and counties with the highest level of crime statistics are in red states versus blue states.”Lee died after a stabbing attack in the Rincon Hill area of the city. Police officers responded ...

Elderly convicted killer pleads not guilty in 1980 slaying of woman found in Bay Area field

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

The suspect in a 1980 killing that went cold, Herman Lee Hobbs, 76, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Solano County Superior Court for the death of a 21-year-old woman whose body was found in rural Dixon.With Deputy Public Defender Nick Filloy at his side in Department 11, he also denied, as expected, all allegations and all prior felony strikes, and waived his right to an early preliminary hearing.Judge William J. Pendergast then assigned the case to Department 15, ordering Hobbs to appear in Judge Robert Bowers’ courtroom at 9 a.m. May 15 for a preliminary hearing setting in the Justice Building in Vallejo.Previously convicted in 2005 for a 1975 killing in Sacramento, Hobbs, bald and shackled in a wheelchair, showed no distinct emotions during the brief afternoon proceedings.District Attorney Krishna A. Abrams represented the people and will lead the prosecution.The case against Hobbs involves special circumstances, including the alleged prior murder conviction and the alleged murder...

Skelton: There’s a bright side to the battery of California storms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

Drought-busting storms this season have given California priceless opportunities on two ecological fronts.We’re practically drowning in water already, and the heavy runoff of record Sierra snow hasn’t even begun.First, we’ll have previously unimagined volumes of water to generate clean hydroelectric power. That means burning less dirty fossil fuel and less likelihood of power blackouts.Second, we can now earnestly pursue the ambitious task of refilling our depleted underground reservoirs, the sinking aquifers that have been irresponsibly overpumped for decades, mostly by farmers.But it’s not as easy as it might seem. Water doesn’t easily percolate everywhere. Sometimes it just evaporates unused, as is likely in the huge, newly reborn Tulare Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley.These storms have wreaked havoc in many regions — bursting levees, flooding crops, inundating residential neighborhoods and washing out roadways.But they’ve been a godsend — at least for this year — in the ...

Held-to-answer arraignment set for East Bay siblings linked to Carmel woman’s 2021 death

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

After a preliminary hearing earlier this week, a Solano County Superior Court judge ruled there was enough evidence to schedule further proceedings against a brother and sister charged in connection to the late-October 2021 killing of a 19-year-old Carmel woman in Fairfield.Judge William J. Pendergast then ordered Jessica Yesenia Quintanilla, 22, and Marco Antonio Quintanilla, 28, both of Pittsburg, to return to Department 11 for a held-to-answer arraignment at 9:30 a.m. April 24 in the Justice Building in Fairfield. Following that proceeding, if it is held, the judge will schedule other case-related matters, including a jury trial date.Jessica Quintanilla is represented by San Francisco-based attorney William Alan Welch. She is being held without bail on first-degree murder charges in the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield.Marco Quintanilla, who is represented by San Francisco attorney Laurie D. Savill, is charged with being an accessory in the case and violating his parole a...

Jury convicts Bay Area man in hate crime case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

A Petaluma man accused of racially motivated vandalism against a Black woman in Novato last year has been convicted of a hate crime, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.Robert Lynn Thorne III, then 39, was arrested in October after an incident at the Novato Fair Shopping Center. The victim told police that Thorne, who is White, used racial slurs against her, spat on her car and kicked a door on the vehicle twice. The damage, which included scratched paint, was estimated at $1,000.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Saratoga High School leaders speak at county anti-hate incident panel after racist incident Crime and Public Safety | South Bay lawmaker’s bill aims to bolster hate crime charges Crime and Public Safety | Asian Americans are anxious about hate crimes. TikTok ban rhetoric isn’t helping Crime and Public Safety | Amid rising antisemitism, Jewish communities bolster security ...

Opinion: Wisconsin election shows Trump isn’t Republicans’ only headache

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

Republicans have a big problem. No, not the guy who got indicted. At least not directly.The most significant election of 2023 went to the Democrats on Tuesday, as liberal Wisconsin judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated her conservative rival Dan Kelly to flip the 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court.The outcome was a big achievement for Democrats, who rallied supporters and raised money across the country for what would normally be a little-noticed (and officially nonpartisan) contest. Protasiewicz made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign, and with her victory the court is now expected to overturn Wisconsin’s abortion ban rooted in a 19th century statute.Protasiewicz’s win continues a pattern of Democratic successes in the midterms and in other contests that we have seen ever since Donald Trump captured the White House in 2016. The results are especially remarkable given President Joe Biden’s unpopularity nationally.In particular, the Wisconsin contest marked another electi...

Bay Area’s wildflower season could be the best in years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

A Harlequin flower blooms in the Marin Headlands in Sausalito on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)Wildflowers bloom in the Marin Headlands in Sausalito on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)Show Caption of ExpandLove wildflowers? This year could be one of the best yet.“I think this is going to be the best spring in terms of diversity and flowers in Northern California – and probably the entire state – in 20 years,” said Seth Adams, land conservation director for the nonprofit Save Mount Diablo.This spring’s eclectic weather, featuring rain, snow, flooding and hail, actually benefits wildflowers, which thrive on the ecological adversity California has recently encountered.“Three years ago, we had giant fires on four sides of the Bay Area and almost no rain. The next year, we had really heavy, early rains that then stopped, and now we have so much rain it’s record-breaking and flooding,” Adams said.“Now, a lot of the ar...

Pajaro Valley cemeteries filling up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

WATSONVILLE — Cemeteries in the Pajaro Valley are facing a crisis in burial space.Of the Pajaro Valley Public Cemetery District’s five cemeteries, only Valley Public Cemetery in Watsonville has availability for new burials but only for single plots. However, even those spaces are limited, putting the district in a spot where all cemeteries are likely to fill up in terms of ground burials within the next five years.“We’re looking for more land to expand,” said District Manager Elizabeth Lopez. “We haven’t found anything yet, so right now, that’s our high priority for the district.”The Pajaro Valley Public Cemetery District is a special district funded through the taxes paid by community members and governed by a board of directors. It oversees Day Valley Cemetery in Aptos, and Pioneer, Valley Catholic, Watsonville Catholic and Valley Public cemeteries in Watsonville.Lopez said there has been a spike in burials at the cemeteries in recent years, something she largely attributes to the...