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Biden mandates 90% cut in power plant emissions

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- The Biden administration has announced new regulations on power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency says it will limit carbon emissions from existing coal and gas plants by forcing them to cut their greenhouse gas output by as much as 90 percent or face closure. The new rule impacts plants that generate about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gases. It is based on an e-p-a proposal to make two-thirds. Of passenger vehicles, electric or zero-carbon, by 2032. But some lawmakers claim America simply can't afford it. They say the rule could impact the reliability of America's electrical grid and lead to higher energy costs.

Opinion: Add a right to housing to the California constitution

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s historic commitment to ending California’s housing crisis — and the administration’s arm-twisting to try to make local jurisdictions do the right thing — we have not made the progress that Californians need. Forty percent of the state’s households now spend more on housing than they can afford, and California is home to more than half of the nation’s unsheltered people.A new proposal in the Legislature, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, puts us on the precipice of significant change. If passed, the bill by Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, would give voters the opportunity to enshrine housing as a fundamental right in our state Constitution. The constitutional amendment would provide the state with a game-changing legal tool — and an ongoing obligation no matter who is in office — to ensure that every person has access to a permanent, stable home.Creating a fundamental right to housing is consistent with public will. ...

The 10 most expensive homes reported sold in San Jose in the week of April 24

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

A house in San Jose that sold for $3 million tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in San Jose in the past week.In total, 41 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $2.2 million, $946 per square foot.The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of April 24 even if the property may have been sold earlier.10. $2.3 million, detached house in the 5400 block of Blossom Vista AvenueThe 1,312 square-foot single-family home in the 5400 block of Blossom Vista Avenue in San Jose has now been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in April and the total purchase price was $2,325,000, $1,772 per square foot. The house was built in 1960. The house features 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.Blossom Vista Avenue9. $2.4 million, single-family residence in the 6500 block of Pajaro CourtThe sale of the single-family house in the 6500 block of Pajaro Court, Sa...

A’s prized pitcher seeking second opinion for elbow pain

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

OAKLAND — The A’s expect to have news regarding a promising young pitching prospect on Friday.Mason Miller, the 24-year-old right-hander who has dazzled with a high-90s fastball and wipeout slider through four major league starts, received a second opinion on his injured right elbow on Thursday.A’s manager Mark Kotsay said the doctors were discussing their findings on Thursday afternoon. The A’s expect to have more information about the next step for Miller on Friday.The news came as a surprise given what Kotsay had said two days earlier, when the A’s thought Miller was out of the woods for any serious elbow damage.Miller, who exited a start last Sunday due to elbow soreness, had a “clean, structural MRI,” Kotsay told reporters in New York on Tuesday.Thursday, however, the team placed Miller on the 15-day injured list with forearm tightness, which can sometimes be the first step before elbow surgery.It’s been a tough go for Miller, who missed most of the 2022 season with a rig...

Study to trace California cannabis lineage, preserve oral history of legacy cultivators

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Cal Poly Humboldt is part of a new study that will research cannabis across California. The interdisciplinary study aims to preserve oral histories and the legacy genetics of cannabis farmers, including those in Humboldt County.Dominic Corva. (Cal Poly Humboldt) One of the principal investigators is Dominic Corva, a cannabis studies program director at Cal Poly Humboldt. The study will start this year, coinciding with the launch of the university’s cannabis studies program.Corva said Humboldt is “the latest in the last 10,000 years of history, in terms of places that have become synonymous with the plant.”Corva said the most central, important part of the study is the community-based, participatory research. Legacy cultivation communities will decide where herbariums —traditional plant libraries that store genetics and seeds — will be built, and communities will take part in how they will preserve their genetics.“They get to own the process in so many ways — us researchers are ...

Two brothers accused of Northern California crime spree

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

On Thursday, the younger of the two brothers accused of a crime spree across Eureka culminating in an alleged gunfight where both men were shot by Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office deputies, was arrested.Jesse Widmark, 18, and his 27-year-old brother Brandon Widmark have been recovering at a local hospital from their gunshot wounds inflicted by police. As of the Times-Standard’s print deadline, official charges had not been filed against Jesse Widmark, and Brandon Widmark is still in the hospital.Jesse Widmark has no criminal record in Humboldt County, though Brandon Widmark has an open criminal case alleging assault. The complaint alleges that the elder Widmark attacked another man, Joseph Nunes, with a machete around Aug. 9, 2022. He also has a closed criminal case regarding entering Humboldt County as a fugitive from Jackson County, Oregon in 2021. A bench warrant was issued for Brandon Widmark’s arrest in the assault case.The brothers were also suspected of committing a robbery i...

Opinion: We know far too little about how social media affects kids’ brains

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

The American Psychological Association has issued its first advisory on social media use in adolescence. What’s most striking in its data-based recommendations is how little we really know about how these apps affect our kids.The relative newness of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok means little research is available about their long-term effects on teen and tween brains. Getting better data will require significant funding — and much more transparency from tech companies.Perhaps a lack of clear data is one reason that so much of the conversation around social media and kids leans on our personal experiences and attitudes. And so much of the available data is murky: There’s plenty of correlative evidence that platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram can have a negative effect on kids’ development, but very little causal data.That doesn’t mean that our assumptions about social media’s deleterious effects on kids aren’t true, or that parents don’t have cause to worry. But it has...

Review: The entertaining rise and fall of the ‘CrackBerry’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

By Mark Kennedy | Associated PressGather around, young ones. Silence your iPhones and Samsungs. We’re here to learn about the Before Times, when the hottest tech device was nicknamed “CrackBerry.”The gripping and hugely enjoyable “BlackBerry” is about the famous — and later infamous — Research in Motion gadget that helped trigger the global smartphone era as we know it, before sliding into obsolescence.The BlackBerry may seem quaint now in the days of sleek water resistant 5G phones with face ID, but it was the first mobile device with a pager, cellphone and email capability all in one thing. No idea? Ask your parents.“BlackBerry” tells the standard rise and fall of a tech startup that blows up, naturally leading to insider infighting — think “Silicon Valley” and “The Social Network” — but there’s a twist here: The main money guy, while very shouty, is not the sleazy, bad guy you might expect.Director and co-wri...

Kurtenbach: Draymond Green’s going to go down swinging. That’s why the Warriors are still alive

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

It’s pretty simple.If Draymond Green is going down — if the Warriors’ dynasty is coming with him — then it’s going to be an event.Green is not looking to hold onto any dignity on the way out.He came into the league swinging. He’s experienced the highest highs in the league by swinging. You can bet your last dollar that he’s going down swinging. There’s simply no alternative for Green — he’s a fighter who hates to lose more than he loves to win.That’s why the Warriors aren’t done and why, despite being down 3-2 in their series with the Lakers, they might not be done for a while yet.Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green #23 disputes a call with a referee in the second quarter of Game 5 of the NBA basketball Western Conference semifinal playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) Green, at his best, is a man possessed. A...

Skelton: Trump and GOP aren’t winning over young California voters

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Now that a jury has branded Donald Trump a sexual assailant, you’d think that Republican politicians in California might muster the courage to finally dissociate themselves from the poisonous polarizer.But sadly, the prospect of that happening is not promising.The former president, who’s the early Republican front-runner to be nominated a third time for the nation’s highest office, still intimidates elected officials on lower rungs of the political ladder. They’re afraid of alienating his hardcore worshipers.Too bad.It shouldn’t be difficult to use the civil jury’s verdict that Trump brutalized a woman in the dressing room of a posh Manhattan department store as a rationale for standing up at last and acknowledging that he shouldn’t be allowed back in the Oval Office.He’s too immoral, scary and divisive — not exactly a fitting national role model.Shunning him is arguably one of the most important things — maybe No. 1 — that the California GOP could do immediately to halt its downwar...