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7 awesome Bay Area things to do this weekend, Dec. 15-17

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

Whether your weekend plans revolve around holiday shopping or doing anything but holiday shopping, we have some fun and festive ideas for you, from great movies and shows to holiday lights and hot mulled wine (yum!)As always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines. Meanwhile, if you’d like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.1 WATCH: A Japanese masterpiece vs. ‘Chicken Run’“Monster,” a gripping, family drama from esteemed director Hirokazu Kore-eda, opens this weekend and might be the year’s best movie. Or if you’re looking for something on the lighter side, the lovable cluckers from “Chicken Run” are back for a sequel. The two films top our roundup of stuff you should totally watch this weekend.Panettone, an Italian sweet bread, is a popular ho...

Share the Spirit: How to succeed in small business — meet the organization that helps make it happen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

For almost seven years, Lilia Vizcaino handled janitor duty at a coffee shop near UC Berkeley, cleaning up at closing time. But Vizcaino, who came to the U.S. from Mexico and now lives in Albany, wanted something better for her family.“I wanted stability, and I needed to do something else for the future,” she said.Today Vizcaino no longer mops floors at a coffee shop. She owns her own, El Tiny Cafe in Berkeley. It’s a cute neighborhood joint that offers Americanos and iced horchata lattes, made with coffee beans sourced from women-owned farms in Mexico. The kitchen serves sandwiches, overnight oats and avocado toast with eggs and salsa macha — and boasts five stars on Yelp.Vizcaino made it here with help from the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, a business incubator with headquarters in San Francisco and satellite centers around the Bay. For the last four decades, Renaissance has helped people — 2,500 last year, with an emphasis on women, people of color, low-i...

$10K worth of copper wire found after San Pablo traffic stop

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

(KRON) -- Three people were arrested Wednesday after police found approximately 600 pounds of copper wire inside a stolen vehicle during a traffic stop, according to the San Pablo Police Department. Video: Armed Pleasant Hill store clerk chases off would-be robbers San Pablo police officers on patrol spotted the stolen vehicle on Dec. 13 and conducted a traffic stop. Three suspects inside were detained, authorities said, while the officers searched the stolen vehicle.Police located the 600 pounds of copper wire, and an AT&T representative identified it as stolen from the telecommunications company, San Pablo PD said. The representative said that the wire was worth around $10,000.(Photo: San Pablo Police Department)(Photo: San Pablo Police Department)The copper wire was returned to AT&T, and the stolen vehicle was returned to the owner, police said. The three suspects were booked into county jail.

Judge to rule on issuing sanctions against San Leandro in 2019 case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

(KRON) -- A judge will decide Thursday to issue sanctions against the City of San Leandro for the destruction of evidence in a 2019 case.Attorneys for Sorrell Shiflett said that San Leandro Police Department officers attempted to arrest Shiflett on Oct. 6, 2019, while he was walking outside with his cousin before sunrise. Police were responding to a report of a suspicious person when they started to question the men. Banners calling for end to war in Gaza destroyed in San Jose Shiflett, who became disabled after a serious brain injury stemming from an armed robbery, ran from the police to get his father to help in the situation, attorneys said. San Leandro police officers later struck Shiflett with a baton and tased him, causing him to fall and sustain severe injuries, according to Shiflett’s attorneys.Attorneys said that critical evidence was intentionally destroyed after a civil rights lawsuit was filed against the city.

Academic arrested in Norway as a Moscow spy confirms his real, Russian name, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — An academic who entered Norway as a Brazilian citizen and was arrested last year on suspicion of spying for Russia has confessed his real, Russian name, Norwegian authorities said Thursday. The man was detained in the Arctic city of Tromsoe, where he worked as a lecturer at the Arctic University of Norway. Norwegian media have said he called himself Jose Assis Giammaria.A prosecutor for Norway’s domestic security agency told The Associated Press that the suspect had confirmed his real name at a custody hearing last week. The suspect arrived in Norway in 2021, and has researched the northern regions and hybrid threats. Norway’s Arctic border with Russia is 198 kilometers (123 miles) long.However, Norwegian investigators believe he was in NATO-member Norway under a false name and identity while working for one of Russia’s intelligence services. Norwegian investigators have said his real name is Mikhail Mikushin. Mikushin, who has been transferred to detentio...

Guyana and Venezuela leaders meet face-to-face as region pushes to defuse territorial dispute

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

FILE - Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali arrives for the South American Summit at Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Irfaan Ali has on Thursday, Aug 24, 2023, lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders and said those who profited from the cruel, trans-Atlantic slave trade should offer to pay reparations to today’s generations. (AP Photo/Gustavo Moreno, File)(AP/Gustavo Moreno) FILE - Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali arrives for the South American Summit at Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Irfaan Ali has on Thursday, Aug 24, 2023, lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders and said those who profited from the cruel, trans-Atlantic slave trade should offer to pay reparations to ...

Stock market today: Wall Street up on hopes for relief from high rates; Dow heads for another record

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rising again Thursday following its big rally the day before on excitement that several cuts to interest rates may indeed be coming next year, as hoped.The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in early trading and within 1.3% of its all-time high set early last year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 93 points, or 0.3%, and on track to set a record for a second straight day, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.Moderna jumped 13.3% after it reported encouraging data from a study of its treatment for high-risk melanoma that’s used with Merck’s Keytruda. That helped to offset a 6.4% slump for Adobe, which gave a forecast for 2024 revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations.Stocks broadly have been shooting higher since October on hopes that inflation has cooled enough for the Federal Reserve to not only stop its market-rattling hikes to interest rates but to even begin considering cutting them. Those hopes strengthened We...

Police arrest driver involved in deadly hit-and-run of tree-trimmer on the Capital Beltway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

Police have arrested the driver of a car that struck a contractor trimming trees in a work zone during a hit-and-run Wednesday on the Capital Beltway’s Inner Loop in Silver Spring, Maryland.On Thursday, Maryland State Police identified Jadien Ranard Jones, of Virginia, as the operator of a white 2021 Freightliner straight truck involved in the crash. Officials located the truck and the 39-year-old driver at The Home Depot Distribution Center in Sparrows Point, Maryland Wednesday afternoon.Police say the truck was driving eastbound just before 10:15 a.m. when it drove through a work zone in the area of Interstate 495 and Georgia Avenue. The truck then veered into the right shoulder, striking multiple traffic cones and the tree-trimmer before leaving the scene.Eric Lewis, 57, of D.C. was identified as the struck foreman, and he died at the scene of the crash.Lewis was a crew member of a mobile tree trimming operation contracted through the Maryland Department of Transportation S...

Use of ‘morning after’ pills doubles, teen sex declines in CDC survey

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

Watch Video: Opill will be first over-the-counter birth control pill sold in storesThe share of American women who say they have ever used emergency contraception after having sex has more than doubled since the so-called “morning after” or Plan B brand pills were approved to be sold without a prescription, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.The increase is among dozens of trends tracked in two reports now released from the CDC’s National Survey of Family Growth, examining survey results through 2019 on sex and birth control among teens as well as all women ages 15 to 44 years old.Among teens and adult women who have had sex, 26.6% told CDC’s survey through 2019 that they have ever turned to the emergency contraception pills, up from 10.8% in a previous round of the survey from 2006 through 2010.Among female teens who have had sex, 22.3% said they had ever used emergency contraception, up from 13.7% through 2010.While emergency ...

Putin says there will be no peace in Ukraine until Russia’s goals, still unchanged, are achieved

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:20 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation marking the national holiday celebrated on December 12 - Constitution Day, at the Novo-Ogaryovo State residence outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (Mikhail Tereshchenko, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)(AP/Mikhail Tereshchenko) Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation marking the national holiday celebrated on December 12 - Constitution Day, at the Novo-Ogaryovo State residence outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (Mikhail Tereshchenko, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)(AP/Mikhail Tereshchenko) ...