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Larry Magid: Buying a large appliance online vs. local store

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

Last week I bought a refrigerator. What was once a fairly easy buying decision can now be a lot more complicated thanks to feature creep and the inability to see many models on showroom floors.Related ArticlesBusiness | Magid: Could a smartwatch or fitness device save your life? Business | Larry Magid: Using AI and apps for summer travel plans Business | Larry Magid: Apple’s Vision Pro could inspire innovation Business | Magid: AI makes mistakes but could it destroy us? The one I bought has Wi-Fi, but as it turns out, that wasn’t part of my buying decision once I realized how little utility is actually added.For me, shopping involved visiting a couple of small appliance stores and a couple of big box stores, including Home Depot and Costco. The small stores and Home Depot had several models on display while Costco had very few. But the models at the other stores didn’t even begin to represent the range of options....

Newsom to double CHP deployment in Tenderloin fentanyl crackdown

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom is doubling the number of California Highway Patrol officers deployed in a joint operation cracking down on open-air drug dealing in San Francisco. The governor is also authorizing targeted law enforcement surges intended to boost public safety and crack down on fentanyl, Newsom's office announced Thursday.Personnel that will be assigned to the expanded operation will include some of the more than 100 new CHP officers graduating from the CHP Academy this week, the governor's office said. Active officers within the CHP's Golden Gate Division will also be assigned. San Francisco fentanyl trafficker convicted by jury “CHP’s recent results in San Francisco are nothing short of extraordinary — in just six weeks, the agency’s hardworking officers seized enough fentanyl to potentially kill the city nearly three times over, multiple firearms, and stolen goods," Gov. Newsom said in a statement. "Today, I’m authorizing a 100% increase in ...

Man charged in road rage incident that resulted in collision

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

(BCN) -- A man suspected of firing a gun at another driver during a road rage incident last month on Interstate Highway 580 was charged Wednesday in federal court with possession of ammunition. Antoyne Terrell Bullock, 43, appeared in federal court in Oakland to face the charges Wednesday, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Prosecutors said Bullock shot at an another driver on I-580 on May 25, prompting a collision between both vehicles. Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions, says race cannot be a factor Bullock and a female passenger tried to flee the scene when officers arrived from the California Highway Patrol, but they were quickly apprehended, prosecutors said. A search of the scene found a handgun and when Bullock was arrested, he had an ammunition magazine in his pocket, prosecutors said. KRON On is streaming news live now.embed-container { position: relative; paddi...

Progressives Use Pentagon Budget to Protest Outrageous Anti-LGBTQ+ Law

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

Last month, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed off on one of the most draconian pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the world.Homosexuality has been illegal in Uganda, a conservative East African nation, since 1950, but Ugandans now face life imprisonment for gay sex. Anyone attempting to have same-sex relations could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. Advocates for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, including human rights campaigners or those funding advocacy organizations, could face up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the “promotion of homosexuality.”“The enactment of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is a tragic violation of universal human rights — one that is not worthy of the Ugandan people,” President Joe Biden announced last month. “This shameful Act is the latest development in an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda.”Nonetheless, the United States is slated to give Uganda close to $20 million in security assistance this year, according to Donovan S...

Kosovo’s prime minister offers to hold new elections in tense Serb-majority municipalities

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s prime minister offered Thursday to hold new mayoral elections in four Serb-majority municipalities and reduce police there in an effort to defuse tensions with neighboring Serbia that flared anew last month.Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo boycotted mayoral elections in the four municipalities in April as part of a campaign for greater autonomy, and they now object to the ethnic Albanian mayors chosen in the polls. Neighboring Serbia has backed calls for the mayors to step down.Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a social media post that he would be willing to hold fresh mayoral elections if at least 20 percent of the electorate in the municipalities support a petition for the polls. He said he would instruct the four mayors elected in April to hand their posts to any newly elected candidates.He also offered to reduce the special police forces sent to guard municipal buildings when the mayors took office, which sparked violence in late May when ...

Virgin Galactic starts livestream for Italian researchers launching toward the edge of space

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A team of Italian researchers expects to reach the edge of space Thursday morning, flying aboard Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered plane as the company prepares for monthly commercial flights.The flight is scheduled to launch from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, with two Italian Air Force officers and an engineer with the National Research Council of Italy focusing on a series of microgravity experiments during their few minutes of weightless. One will wear a special suit that measures biometric data and physiological responses while another will conduct tests using sensors to track heart rate, brain function and other metrics while in microgravity. The third will be studying how certain liquids and solids mix in that very weak gravity.Virgin Galactic will be livestreaming the flight on its website.Next up for Virgin Galactic will be the first of hundreds of ticket holders, many who have been waiting years for their chance at weightlessness and to...

As Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action, colleges see few other ways to diversity goals

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As an alternative to affirmative action, colleges from California to Florida already have tried a range of strategies to achieve the diversity they say is essential to their campuses. Many have given greater preference to low-income families. Others started admitting top students from every community in their state.But years of experimentation — often prompted by state-level bans on considering race in admissions — left no clear solution. In states requiring race-neutral policies, many colleges saw enrollment drops among Black and Hispanic students, especially at selective colleges that historically have been mostly white.Now that the Supreme Court has struck down the consideration of race in college admissions, schools nationwide will face the same test. Some have warned the development could erase decades of progress on campus diversity.At Amherst College, officials had estimated going entirely race-neutral would reduce Black, Hispanic and Indigenous populations ...

Moscow critic and former publisher sentenced to 8 years for defaming Russian forces in Ukraine war

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced former publisher and chief editor Ilya Krasilshchik to eight years in prison in absentia for defaming Russia’s armed forces involved in the war on Ukraine. Krasilshchik, who has left Russia, is a former publisher of the Riga-based exiled Russian news outlet Meduza and a former editor-in-chief of Russian entertainment and lifestyle magazine Afisha. He is also the former head of delivery service Yandex.Lavka.Krasilshchik now runs the “Help Desk” project, a media platform and service to help those affected by the war in Ukraine. An arrest warrant was issued for him in March over materials he published online about atrocities by Russian armed forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Russian forces briefly occupied Bucha, near Kyiv, early on in the war, leaving hundreds of civilians dead in the streets and in mass graves.Krasilshchik is the latest in a long list of Kremlin critics sentenced for spreading “false information” about...

England cruise to 145-1 by tea after bowling Australia for 416 in 2nd Ashes test

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

LONDON (AP) — England cruised to 145-1 by tea on day two of the second Ashes test after bowling out Australia for 416 at Lord’s on Thursday.Ben Duckett had a patient 62 and Ollie Pope was on 32.Spinner Nathan Lyon got the only wicket, gifted by Zac Crawley on 48.Conditions favored the batters after lunch with the sun out and the slow pitch offering little movement.Crawley and Duckett took advantage, combining for an untroubled 91 runs, the best stand by England openers against Australia since 2011 when Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook made 98. That was 32 Ashes tests ago.Crawley was the more impressive of the pair, hitting back-to-back fours against Mitchell Starc, driving and pulling Josh Hazlewood to the rope, and sweeping Lyon through midwicket.But on 48 off 47 balls, he was outsmarted by Lyon. Crawley charged and Lyon combined with wicketkeeper Alex Carey to stump him down the leg side.England’s fourth stumping of the series marked the most in a home Ashes series sin...

Czech brewer Budvar’s 2022 net profit is 40% down due to Russia’s war in Ukraine and high inflation

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:53:29 GMT

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech brewer Budvar, which has been embroiled in a long legal dispute with U.S. beer giant Anheuser-Busch over the use of the Budweiser brand, said Thursday that it has registered a fall in its 2022 net profit and exports. The company said it’s due to Russia’s war in Ukraine and high inflation driven by soaring energy prices. Budejovicky Budvar NP, a 127-year-old state-owned brewery, said its net profit in 2022 reached almost 201 million Czech crowns ($9.3 million) — more than 40% down from the previous year.Exports were down by 4%, said the company, which sells its beer in some 70 countries. Budvar halted exports to Russia and Belarus following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which started in February last year. Exports to some other markets, such as Britain, Slovakia, Austria, Italy Spain or Canada, went up, it said. Budvar also registered a fall in its output by 1.2%, to 1.78 million hectoliters (47 million gallons).Budvar and Anheuser-Busch have been i...