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Letters: Water conservation | Only conflict | GOP vocabulary | E-file plan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Time to start tough taskof water conservationRe: “State water conservation idea raises uneasiness” (Page B1, Oct. 18).Apparently measures to conserve water enacted by the Legislature might actually have some teeth. How do we know this? Water providers across the state complain that “steep cuts to outdoor water use” would be required; “it’s awkward”; “we won’t be able to convince our customer base to participate.”Nobody said this was going to be easy. “It takes decades of time, a significant investment of resources, as well as a population and a culture that want to participate,” according to Santa Rosa’s water efficiency supervisor. Well then, we had better get started now, hadn’t we?Mother Nature’s turning off the tap and turning up the heat, and she doesn’t care how difficult that makes life for us. This notion that we can’t do things because they might be difficult flies in the face of eve...

Man who crashed into Chinese Consulate in San Francisco was armed with knife, crossbow, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco police said Thursday that a man killed by a sergeant after intentionally crashing a car at the Chinese Consulate earlier this month was armed with a knife, and a crossbow and arrows, offering the first official details of the attack.San Francisco Police Acting Commander Mark Im said at a virtual town hall that Zhanyuan Yang stood against a wall hiding a knife in his right hand. He said Yang then rotated toward a police sergeant and a security guard, exposing the knife, and made “multiple, rapid, downward swinging motions with the knife" in the direction of the sergeant and the security guard. Silicon Valley tech executive sentenced to prison for COVID testing fraud The sergeant then opened fire after Yang failed to comply with orders to get on the ground. Yang was taken to a hospital, where he died.Yang, a 31-year-old San Francisco resident, rammed a car into the visa office of the consulate on Oct. 9. Investigators so far haven’t released a poss...

Victims robbed at gunpoint in downtown Walnut Creek

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

(KRON) -- Two people were robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night after leaving dinner in downtown Walnut Creek, the Walnut Creek Police Department said. According to police, the robbery happened at about 9:30 p.m. near the intersection of Botelho Drive and Locust Street, which is in the area of Broadway Plaza. Two women arrested for stealing $1900 of merchandise at Great Mall in Milpitas Two men approached the victims. One pointed a handgun at them and demanded they give up their belongings. Nobody was injured. The suspects were described as Black men in their late teens or early 20s. They wore sweatshirts with hoods and masks. Two other associates were standing near a white sedan nearby. Police said that after the robbery the suspects got into the car, which was driven towards Broadway Plaza. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call WCPD at (925) 943-5844 or its anonymous tip line at (925) 943-5865.

Two women arrested for stealing $1900 of merchandise at Great Mall in Milpitas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

(KRON) -- Two women were arrested at the Great Mall in Milpitas Wednesday for organized retail theft and grand theft, the Milpitas Police Department announced on Thursday. Detectives were driving through the parking lot at the mall when they noticed two people coming out of the mall.Police described the subjects as "suspicious characters" who were "hurrying out of the Great Mall with large bags filled with merchandise." Officers observed them get into a car and drive away.A patrol officer who was nearby stopped the car. Inside, officers found nearly $1900 in merchandise allegedly stolen from Marshalls, as well as a tool used to remove security sensors.The car's driver and passenger, two women from Merced, were arrested, police said. One of the women allegedly tried to trick officers by giving them a fake name. Officers learned her true identity and that she had a felony warrant for grand theft.The suspects were booked into jail on multiple felony theft-related charges, providing fal...

Calgary Flames 19-year-old prospect Topi Ronni being investigated for rape in native Finland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Calgary Flames prospect Topi Ronni informed his Finnish Elite League team on Thursday that he is under investigation for a rape allegation that occurred two years ago in his native Finland.In an announcement posted on its website, Tappara Tampere said Ronni is stepping away from team activities after receiving a court summons. The 19-year-old center was a minor at the time of the alleged rape.In a statement translated from Finnish, Ronni said: “The last two or so years have been hard waiting for the matter to progress. I trust that the related course of events will be clarified in connection with the trial.”Details of the alleged rape are unknown because the case documents are sealed, and a court hearing date has not been scheduled.Ronni was selected in the second round of the 2022 NHL draft by Calgary, and is in his third season playing for Tampere. He appeared in five games for Finland at the 2023 world junior championship.The Flames issued a statement saying ...

GOP’s Jordan says he’s still running for House gavel, but plan for a temporary speaker falls flat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Refusing to give up, Rep. Jim Jordan told GOP colleagues Thursday he was still running for the House gavel — leaving Republicans few viable options after his hardline backers resisted a plan to expand the temporary speaker’s powers to re-open the House.The combative Jordan delivered the message at a fiery closed-door meeting at the Capitol as the Republican majority considered an extraordinary plan to give the interim speaker pro tempore more powers for the next several months to bring the House back into session and conduct crucial business, according to Republicans familiar with the private meeting who insisted on anonymity to discuss it.But neither option seemed immediately workable. GOP moderates who have twice rejected Jordan are unwilling to support him now, especially after some report harassing pressures and even death threats from his supporters. At the same time, Jordan’s hard-right allies are refusing to allow a temporary speaker to gain more...

US military shoots down missiles and drones as it faces growing threats in volatile Middle East

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With tensions spiking in the Middle East, U.S. forces in the region are facing increasing threats, as a Navy warship shot down missiles appearing to head toward Israel Thursday and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks. The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the U.S. military in the defense of Israel in this conflict.Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the U.S. hasn’t finished its assessment of what they were targeting. A U.S. official said they don’t believe the missiles — which were shot down over the water — were aimed at the U.S. warship. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations that had not yet b...

Pelicans exercise options on Murphy, Daniels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans have exercised a fourth-year option on wing player Trey Murphy and a third-year option on guard Dyson Daniels, securing both former first-round draft choices through the 2024-25 season.Murphy was selected 17th overall in the 2021 NBA draft and has appeared in 141 games with 66 starts during his first two NBA seasons.He has averaged 10.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 23.5 minutes per contest while shooting 46% on field goals, 40% from 3-point range and 90% on free throws.Murphy also participated in the dunk contest during last season’s NBA All-Star weekend, finishing second.He is expected to be one of New Orleans’ premier scorers off the bench after he returns from minor meniscus surgery on his left knee, which is expected to cause him to miss the first month of the regular season. Daniels was selected eighth overall in 2022. He appeared in 59 games with 11 starts as a rookie for New Orleans, averaging 3.8 points, 3.2 ...

¿Quién es Joran van der Sloot, el asesino confeso de Natalee Holloway y Stephany Flores?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

(CNN Español) — Joran van der Sloot reconoció otro crimen. Confesó que había matado a Natalee Holloway, la joven desaparecida desde el 2005 en Aruba a pesar de que antes se había declarado inocente de extorsión y fraude hacia la madre de la joven.Así, Van der Sloot profundiza su prontuario criminal. Ya había confesado también haber matado a Stephany Flores de 21 años, en la habitación de su hotel de Lima antes de ser extraditado a Estados Unidos para enfrentarse a los cargos de extorsión y fraude.Tuvieron que pasar casi veinte años para que la familia de Natalee Holloway pudiese ponerle punto final a su pesadilla. El sujeto neerlandés, actualmente de 36 años, está cumpliendo 28 años de prisión por el crimen perpetuado en Perú.Lo planeó todo: no solo fue la última persona con la que vio a la víctima, junto a otros dos hombres en un club nocturno en Aruba, sino que no se había quebrado en ninguna de las detenciones que tanto él como los hermanos Deepak y Satish Kalpoe habían ten...

Aaron Donald is still a Steelers fan. He’ll try to beat them when his hometown team visits his Rams

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Kenny Pickett was an early-enrollee freshman at Pitt when he first met Aaron Donald, who still spends every offseason training at his alma mater.Although the teenage quarterback understandably didn’t become fast friends with the All-Pro defensive lineman, Pickett credits the Los Angeles Rams star with more help in his football career than even Donald realizes.“He kind of showed me the way, and showed me how to train and how to work,” said Pickett, now the Steelers’ starting quarterback. “From afar, I would just watch. I never really talked — just hellos — until I earned his respect to be able to talk to him a little bit more. But there’s a reason he is who he is, and he works hard. Showed me the ropes.”So if Pickett ends up becoming the 53rd NFL quarterback to be sacked by Donald on Sunday when Pittsburgh (3-2) visits Los Angeles (3-3), he might feel the slightest bit ambivalent about it.Donald might have the same mixed feelings during his third ...