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Border Patrol dealing with huge influx of flowers at LAX

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists are working overtime to ensure that imported flowers arrive on time for Mother’s Day, but they must be free of pests and diseases first. According to industry statistics, around 80% of cut flowers sold in the United States are imported from across the world. CBP says that the weeks that lead up to Mother’s Day are some of the busiest of the year, when millions of cut flower shipments arrive from Ecuador, Colombia, the Netherlands, Thailand and Australia. “It is critically important not only to consumers, but to the vitality of the U.S. economy that cut flower imports are carefully inspected by CBP agriculture specialists,” said Carlos Martel, the CBP Director of Field Operations in Los Angeles. “Some of these flowers may carry hitchhiking pests and diseases that could cause millions of dollars in damage to the U.S. agriculture sector.” U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at L...

Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong dead at 47

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

The pioneering mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, who laid bare her struggles as a parent and her battles with depression and alcoholism on her site Dooce.com and on social media, has died at 47.Armstrong's boyfriend, Pete Ashdown, told The Associated Press that he found her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City home.She had two children with her former husband and business partner, Jon Armstrong, began Dooce in 2001 and built it into a lucrative career. She was one of the first and most popular mommy bloggers, writing frankly about her children, relationships and other challenges at a time that personal blogs were on the rise.She parlayed her successes with the blog, on Instagram and elsewhere into book deals, putting out a memoir in 2009, “It Sucked and then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown and a Much Needed Margarita.”That year, Armstrong appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and was on the Forbes list of the most influential women in media. In 2012, the Armstrongs announced t...

Man arrested on assault with deadly weapon, child endangerment, probation violation charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

A Cathedral City man was arrested on multiple charges, including assault with a deadly weapon and child endangerment, after authorities spent two days searching for him. According to a release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, deputies from the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station responded to a residence in the 19000 block of Ford Avenue in the unincorporated community of Sky Valley after gunshots were heard around 3 a.m. on Sunday morning.  Deputies arrived at the residence and identified the suspect as 34-year-old Ryan David Sargent, who had an active felony probation violation warrant out of San Bernardino County. Sargent fled the scene before authorities were able to apprehend him.  Combative, knife-wielding man arrested after standoff in South Los Angeles “The investigation revealed Sargent fired a shotgun multiple times in the direction of the victims, one being a 7-year-old juvenile, prior to fleeing the scene,” RSD said in a statement. “A search warrant of the resi...

Rivertown Wine Walk, artisan fair is Saturday in downtown Antioch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

You can sip some local wines and walk amid an artisan fair in historic downtown Antioch on Saturday.The Celebrate Antioch Foundation will host its annual Mother’s Day weekend Rivertown Wine Walk & Artisan Faire from noon to 4 p.m. along Second and G streets.This free, family-friendly event will feature art and handmade crafts from more than 40 local artisan vendors along with live music by Project 4 Band performing R&B and dance tunes.To participate in the wine walk, the fee is $20 in advance and $25 at the door, subject to availability, which includes 12 local wines. Participants must be at least 21 years old and present valid identification.For more information, visit celebrateantioch.org online, where tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.com/e/546892689757.

Speed cameras in San Jose and Oakland? Lawmakers try for the fourth time to get tech on roads.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

Drivers with lead feet in San Jose and Oakland may no longer see police lights flashing in their rearview mirrors if a landmark legislative bill gets the green light. Instead, they’ll get a speeding ticket in their mailbox.The roadway bill — which the state legislature could consider by the end of the month — would bring automated speed cameras to San Francisco and the two Bay Area cities, marking the first time the technology is deployed in California. Cities claim the cameras can efficiently combat the rising number of traffic fatalities and decrease the chances of a bad encounter between motorists and law enforcement. Civil liberties groups, however, have raised serious privacy concerns about the cameras.If approved, AB 645 would add the first of about three dozen cameras in San Jose’s school zones and high-risk intersections starting next year. The law would require cities to send warning notices to residents during the first 60 days of their installation...

Despite scandals, Jen Louis lands Berkeley police chief job

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

The Berkeley City Council has officially appointed Jen Louis as the city’s top cop — the first woman, Asian-American and openly gay person to lead Berkeley’s police department — despite controversy during her tenure and two pending misconduct investigations.Tuesday’s decision deeply divided both the council and community, coming nearly six months after damning allegations of arrest quotas, racial profiling and a targeted focus on homeless people first jeopardized efforts to confirm Louis, a 23-year department veteran who spent the past 26 months as interim police chief.Her appointment is clouded by controversies — one involving a racist arrest scandal among officers, the other past allegations of sexual harassment against Louis herself. Results of two investigations of misconduct within the department won’t be made public until early July.City officials, however insisted that Louis’ appointment be finalized, saying that continuing to delay the app...

Oakland: San Francisco man arrested in cleaver attack on BART rider

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

OAKLAND — A man who stabbed a fellow BART passenger with a cleaver as the train went through the Transbay Tube on Wednesday afternoon was arrested at the West Oakland station, authorities said.The transit agency reported that the stabbing victim was one of several people who ran through multiple cars of the train to escape the cleaver-wielding man as it traveled through the tunnel on the bottom of San Francisco Bay.The victim received treatment for his injuries and his condition was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon.Transit police arrested a 24-year-old San Francisco man as he attempted to run from the Antioch-bound train after it stopped in West Oakland around 1 p.m., BART’s interim police Chief Kevin Franklin said.Officers recovered the cleaver and a backpack the man stole from the stabbing victim, authorities said.The man, who has now received a prohibition order, will be booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, armed robbery and proba...

Single family residence sells for $1.6 million in Oakland

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

4260 Detroit Avenue – Google Street ViewA historic house located in the 4200 block of Detroit Avenue in Oakland has a new owner. The 1,753-square-foot property, built in 1928, was sold on April 10, 2023, for $1,605,000, or $916 per square foot. The property features three bedrooms, two baths, a garage, and one parking space. The unit sits on a 4,000-square-foot lot.Additional houses have recently changed hands nearby:A 1,418-square-foot home on the 3600 block of Monterey Boulevard in Oakland sold in August 2022, for $1,400,000, a price per square foot of $987. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.In June 2022, a 2,072-square-foot home on Jordan Road in Oakland sold for $1,800,000, a price per square foot of $869. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Detroit Avenue, Oakland, in June 2022, a 1,335-square-foot home was sold for $1,685,000, a price per square foot of $1,262. The home has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

Letters: Masking up | Gun violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Masks should remainat health care sitesRe: “Patients’ health risked by lifting mask mandates” (Page A6, May).Kudos to Dr. Aboelata for her commentary. I can attest to the devastating impact the decision to remove masks from health care has had on high-risk patients.It’s not just hospitalized patients now at risk. Every time immunocompromised patients need a medical visit, a lab test, an X-ray or any other in-person service, we must weigh whether it’s worth it to contract COVID. As a Kaiser patient, I know they have not offered any accommodations for high-risk patients to safely continue accessing care. One-way masking is far less effective in light of current highly contagious variants. We are exposed to COVID not just by unmasked providers, but also by maskless patients with whom we share crowded waiting rooms and check-in lines. We are reluctantly foregoing vital diagnostic and preven...

House GOP alleges millions in foreign payments to Biden family

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:19 GMT

By Annie Grayer, Alana Treene, Jeremy Herb and Sara Murray | CNNHouse Oversight Chairman James Comer laid out new details to support allegations that members of Joe Biden’s family including his son Hunter received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania including when Biden was vice president, according to a memo obtained by CNN.New bank records cited in the memo were obtained by the committee through a subpoena and include payments made to companies tied to Hunter Biden. Republicans also alleged that Hunter Biden used his familial connections to help facilitate a meeting in 2016 between a Serbian running for United Nations Secretary-General and then-national security adviser to the vice president Colin Kahl.The foreign payments raise questions about Hunter Biden’s business activities while his father was vice president, but the committee does not suggest any illegality about the payments from foreign sources. The bank records by themse...