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LAUSD unions to strike for 3 days next week, forcing closure of schools

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

Tens of thousands of union workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District plan to go on strike for three days starting Tuesday of next week, forcing the temporary closure of schools, union leaders announced at a rally Wednesday.SEIU Local 99, a union comprised of cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and other support staff, voted in February to authorize a strike over wages and to address what they describe as unfair practices by the district.“LAUSD has continued to harass and threaten SEIU Local 99 members engaging in union activities for a fair contract. In response, our SEIU Local 99 bargaining team has called for a 3-day unfair practice charges strike,” union members explained on their website.SEIU leaders are seeking a 30% wage increase across the board.United Teachers of Los Angeles, the union representing 34,000 educators in the district, plan to honor the picket lines.“We continue to be underpaid compared to districts in our area,” Mallorie Evans with UTLA said. “E...

Baldwin Hills homes on the brink of collapse after mudslides

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

As a storm battered Southern California Tuesday night, heavy rainfall caused multiple mudslides in Baldwin Hills overnight, trapping cars in sludge and leaving several homes on the edge of disaster. Homeowner Thomas Anderson says he’s doing everything he can to shore up his property even as his next-door neighbor’s home was yellow tagged, meaning they only have limited access to their home but cannot stay in it.  The yellow tag came after mud and debris flowed down their back slope onto El Mirador Drive below.  “Because the hillside went under their slab, one of the bedrooms is right on the edge,” Anderson explained.   Southern California’s wet winter: Here are rainfall totals for your neighborhood Anderson’s property is also in a precarious position.  “We’re doing all we can to hold on, but we’re only this far from the pool, and we don’t want that to go,” he told KTLA. “We just replaced the boards up here to stop the yard from going down and we have a ret...

Orange County beach closed after massive sewage spill

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

Authorities have closed off ocean access at Doheny State Beach following a massive sewage spill on Wednesday.The waters were contaminated after a 4,000-gallon spill was caused by “an overflow in a main city sewer line in San Juan Capistrano,” said the OC Health Care Agency.Located in Dana Point, ocean access will be prohibited both 1,500 feet upcoast and 1,500 feet downcoast of the San Juan Creek interface, officials said.The affected area will be blocked off from any swimming, surfing or diving. Waters will reopen when the tested water quality “meets acceptable standards,” officials said.Doheny State Beach ocean access closed after a massive sewage spill on March 15, 2023. (OC Healthcare Agency)“I am closely monitoring this situation along with the other incidents occurring throughout Orange County,” said Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley. “My office has participated in the County’s Emergency Operations Coordination since the Board of Supervisors passed my resolution to declar...

Sideshows aren’t going away, but could come off the street if there were legal places to perform: Roadshow

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

Q: I agree entirely with Nick Harrah. Punishment is not the best way to stop sideshows.There is no difference between sideshows now and street racing of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It is just 20-something boys showing off their cars and their macho, as immortalized in “American Graffiti.”Unfortunately, like the car that crashed and burned in the movie, many street racing kids crashed and burned, and some died. The solution was to build drag race parks to get them off the street and into a safe environment.What’s needed is a simple, paved lot with concrete barriers around it. Charge admission for participants and spectators. Provide an incentive for participants to get the shows off the street, just like they did in the drag race parks and Destruction Derbies, and like they do in race car tracks today.D.G.A: I understand the comparison between street racing and sideshows. The dynamics are different now, though. With cell phones and texting, participants can quickly draw ...

Pundits are picking against Saint Mary’s, but Gaels have hidden gem on their side

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

MORAGA — It’s the unheralded team from Moraga, the adorable little brother to Gonzaga, the not-quite-good-enough bunch of amicable underdogs that might win one game in the Big Dance, but even one could be a stretch.Despite No. 5 Saint Mary’s being four-point betting favorites over No. 12 Virginia Commonwealth University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Albany, N.Y., to pick a Gaels win is uncool. It’s unfashionable. It’s maybe even a little crazy.Within seconds of the Gaels being announced as the No. 5 seed in the East bracket, VCU was already being picked as an upset special.“VCU is going to win,” CBS analyst Seth Davis quickly announced on the national broadcast.In a piece he wrote for The Athletic the next day, Davis said the Gaels “have a rather low ceiling for a No 5 seed. Given the frequency of 12-over-5 upsets, this one was easy for me.”While the analytics are favoring Saint Mary’s — FiveThirtyEight.com gives the Gaels a 59% chance to w...

Retrial ordered: Bay Area pair accused of killing Italian cop as teens

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest court has ordered a retrial for two young Bay Area men who were convicted in the slaying of an Italian police officer when they were teenagers vacationing in Rome.The Court of Cassation late Wednesday threw out the guilty verdicts against Finnegan Lee Elder, now 23, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 22, both convicted in the stabbing death of the 35-year-old caribiniere during a plainclothes operation in July 2019.The two had been classmates at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley; they met up in Rome after their first year of college. Elder, from San Francisco, was 19 at the time; Natale-Hjorth, from Mill Valley, was 18.The court will issue its reasons for the verdict in the coming weeks and instruct an appeals court on the precise issues to examine in a new trial.Elder’s lawyer, Roberto Capra, expressed satisfaction at the decision, saying a new trial would open the possibility of recalculating the sentence.“It confirms a topic we raised from...

Oakland A’s roster projection: Will it be Pache or Ruiz in center field?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

The A’s opened camp with no shortage of roster battles, and even with Opening Day just two weeks away, little has changed.That doesn’t mean players haven’t improved – or hurt – their stock in Arizona. This is Year Two of the franchise’s major overhaul, and there still is much work to be done. The A’s used a franchise-record 64 players last season, and it would be surprising if they don’t come close to that number again in 2023.There will be 26 players on the roster when the A’s face Shoeni Ohtani, Mike Trout and the Angels at the Coliseum on March 30, and then the evaluations and depth-chart jockeying really pick up.Most of the decisions are long-term, but there are still plenty of moving pieces general manager David Forst, manager Mark Kotsay and the A’s staff to consider before the team breaks camp.Here is a look at how the A’s roster is shaping up and what the Opening Day roster might look like:Starting rotation (6)RHP Paul Blackburn, RHP Shintaro Fujinami, RHP Drew Rucinski, RHP...

Krugman: How bad was the Silicon Valley bank bailout? Pretty bad

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

So the feds stepped in to protect all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, even though the law says that deposits only up to $250,000 are insured and even though there was a pretty good case that allowing big depositors to take a haircut wouldn’t have created a systemic crisis. SVB was pretty sui generis, far more exposed both to interest risk and to potential runs than any other significant bank, so even some losses for larger depositors may not have caused much contagion.Still, I understand the logic: If I were a policymaker, I’d be reluctant to let SVB fail, merely because while it probably wouldn’t have caused a wider crisis, one can’t be completely certain and the risks of erring in doing too much were far smaller than the risks of doing too little.That said, there are good reasons to feel uncomfortable about this bailout. And yes, it was a bailout. The fact that the funds will come from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — which will make up any losses with increased fees on bank...

U.S. says video shows Russian jet dumping fuel on its drone

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

By KARL RITTER and DINO HAZELL Associated PressKYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of what it said was a Russian aircraft pouring fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone and clipping the drone’s propeller in international airspace over the Black Sea.The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said. Dumping the fuel appeared to be aimed at blinding the drone’s optical instruments and driving it out of the area.On a second approach, either the same jet or another Russian fighter that had been shadowing the MQ-9 struck the drone’s propeller, damaging one blade, according to the U.S. military.The U.S. military said it ditched the MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after what it described as the Russian fighter making an unsafe intercept of the unmanned aerial vehicle.The video excerpt released by the Pentagon does not show events before or after the apparent...

Opinion: What does March Madness tell us about societal ills?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:14 GMT

It’s March and my uncontrollable passion for college hoops is starting to simmer. Two teams I have loved for decades are headed for the big dance. But I’m troubled. Is the sense of passion, belonging and comradery that bonds me to college basketball teams part of the poison that is driving the decline of civility in our society?Sociologists and anthropologists tell us humans are tribal. We form a sense of solidary around shared experiences, geographical proximity, religious affiliation and family. The exact basis for forming tribes varies, but once established we will fight to defend our tribe and the principles that separate us from those outside our physical or social boundaries.What does bond us to basketball teams?  It’s probably not identification with the players, who are genuine elites. They are separated from most of us by stature, strength, physical conditioning, discipline and God-given talent. But the small number of exceptionally tall human specimens offer a sense of com...