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New details surface about Pink Poodle scandal involving San Jose firefighters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

In a bid to quell a deluge of questions swirling around the scandalous video showing a dancer at a San Jose strip club seen exiting an on-duty firetruck in October, Fire Chief Robert Sapien Tuesday offered a few more details about the tawdry episode.In a memo released to the city council, Sapien said Engine 4’s firetruck traveled to the Pink Poodle on Oct. 5 to drop off a male passenger who was not authorized to be traveling with the crew. Upon their arrival at the strip club, one of the dancers entered the truck, asking for a ride-along.Sapien said that the fire crew initially refused the request, but eventually relented because the dancer “persisted.” For approximately four minutes, the fire truck drove around the club and dropped the scantily-clad dancer off at 9:10 p.m., a moment that was captured on video and shared widely on social media.The fire truck then traveled near AJ’s Bar — a bikini bar on Lincoln Avenue located two miles away from the Pink Pood...

Haitian neighborhood exacts fiery revenge on gang members

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

By Evens Sanon | Associated PressPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Armed with machetes, bottles, and rocks, residents in the hilly suburbs of Haiti’s capital fought back against encroaching gangs Tuesday, a day after a crowd burned 13 suspected gangsters to death in a gruesome outburst of vigilante violence.Tired of relying on an understaffed police department, scores of men in the Canape Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince spent the night on roofs and patrolled entrances of their community blocked with big trucks spray-painted with the words, “Down with gangs.”“We are planning to fight and keep our neighborhood clean of these savages,” Jeff Ezequiel, a 37-year-old mechanic, told The Associated Press. “The population is tired and frustrated.”The makeshift brigade is the latest example of growing attempts by Haitians to fight gangs on their own. Earlier this year, people elsewhere in Port-au-Prince and in the central Artibonite region, which has been h...

San Jose records its 10th homicide of the year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

SAN JOSE – An investigation is underway into San Jose’s 10th homicide of the year, police said Tuesday.Officers were called to the 1600 block of Inverness Circle at 1:14 p.m. Saturday for a welfare check. They arrived to find a man with “obvious signs of trauma” who was unconscious and not breathing, the San Jose Police Department said in a statement.The victim was taken to an area hospital, where he died of his injuries, police said.The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office will release the victim’s identity once it is confirmed and his next of kin is identified.Following an investigation, officers arrested an adult male family member in connection with the homicide. Police did not release the suspect’s identity Tuesday.The motive and circumstance surrounding the homicide are under investigation, police said.At this time last year, eight homicides had been reported in San Jose.Anyone with information related to the case can contact Detective Sgt. Martinez at 3934@san...

Justice Gorsuch’s property deal raises more ethical questions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

By Jessice Schneider and Tierney Sneed | CNNA nearly $2 million sale of property co-owned by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to a prominent law firm executive in 2017 is raising new questions about the lax ethics reporting requirements for Supreme Court justices.Property records from Grand County, Colorado, show that the Walden Group LLC — a limited-liability company in which Gorsuch was a partner — sold a 40-acre property on the Colorado River to Brian Duffy, chief executive officer of the prominent law firm Greenberg Traurig.Duffy and his wife, Kari Duffy, paid $1.8 million for the property on May 12, 2017 — just one month after Gorsuch was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.The sale was first reported by Politico.The financial disclosure report filed by Gorsuch for the calendar year 2017 lists a sale by the Walden Group LLC for a profit of between $250,000 and $500,000. However, the section where a buyer could be listed is blank. It’s...

Letters: Soften the blow | ‘Reverse Boycott’ | Wood frames | Guarantee debate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.A’s, city can softenthe blow of a moveSadly, it appears that the Oakland Athletics are poised to move to Las Vegas. Whatever happens with the current ill-conceived relocation plan, the team and the city should do the following.The team should at the very least adopt a new logo or cap insignia that reflects its current home, with possibly an acorn or oak leaf motif similar to cap designs of the historical Oakland Oaks. Like the Warriors’ Oakland jersey, this would reflect at least some sensitivity to the feelings of the city’s fans and should generate merchandise reflecting their hometown spirit.The city for its part should make every reasonable effort to maintain its options for housing potential sports franchises of at least a minor league classification. From Oakland’s earliest days, its sports teams have made significant contributions to civic pride and regional identity and this is a valuable t...

Sale closed in San Ramon: $1.7 million for a four-bedroom home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

2783 Ellingson Way – Google Street ViewA spacious house located in the 2700 block of Ellingson Way in San Ramon has new owners. The 2,260-square-foot property, built in 1977, was sold on April 7, 2023. The $1,715,000 purchase price works out to $759 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, three baths, an attached garage, and two parking spaces, as well as a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on a 10,044-square-foot lot.Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:On Corey Place, San Ramon, in October 2022, a 1,940-square-foot home was sold for $1,500,000, a price per square foot of $773. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.A 1,946-square-foot home on the 200 block of Saint Denis Court in San Ramon sold in April 2023, for $1,475,000, a price per square foot of $758. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In July 2022, a 1,989-square-foot home on Pinkerton Court in San Ramon sold for $1,720,000, a price per square foot of $865. The home has 3 bedrooms and ...

Fuel shortages prompt rationing, event cancellations in Cuba

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

Associated PressHAVANA — Cuba’s fuel shortages have increased dramatically with authorities suspending activities, including a concert by the country’s national symphony, as well as rationing gasoline sales and moving some universities’ classes online.Cubans have experiences shortages of all kinds of goods amid the recent economic crisis but the cancellation of activities because of fuel shortages had not been reported previously. The cancellations come following days of long lines to get gasoline at filling stations.Experts say the lack of gasoline and diesel is not due to a lack of crude oil — Cuba produces about half of what it needs and buys the rest from other countries – but to the difficulties refining it.“There is no lack of crude oil in Cuba,” said Jorge Piñón, senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.He said Venezuela is selling Cuba a similar amount of crude or even slightly more than it did l...

Woman seen in SJ fire truck outside of strip club wanted ride-along, investigation reveals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

(KRON) -- On Tuesday, the City of San Jose released the results of its investigation into the San Jose Fire Department after a video captured a scantily-clad woman leaving an SJFD truck outside of the Pink Poodle strip club in October 2022. The investigation revealed that the "unauthorized female" climbed into the truck and requested a ride-along. A letter penned by SJFD Chief Robert Sapien Jr. said the firefighters originally declined but drove her around the block after she persisted. Victim who died in North Beach shooting was attempting to rob other victims, arrest made The trip to the Pink Poodle was made because the truck was assigned to transport a man from the fire station to the club, where he was an employee, the letter said. The city confirmed to KRON4 that it never received a call for service from the club that night. The truck left the fire station at 9 p.m. and arrived at the Pink Poodle's location at 328 S. Bascom Ave at 9:06 p.m. The woman's short ride-along was f...

Mets make fashion statement of Scherzer’s `sweat and rosin’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets have turned Max Scherzer’s suspension into a fashion statement.With the team just back from a West Coast trip, new Mets T-shirts that read “Sweat and Rosin” showed up in the clubhouse Tuesday before New York’s series opener against Washington.One rested on reliever Tommy Hunter’s chair, right next to Scherzer’s locker.“I don’t know who brought ‘em in, how they got there,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “I’m not in the T-shirt policing business — but I could be.”Scherzer was suspended for 10 games by Major League Baseball last week following h is ejection for having a foreign substance on his hand while pitching in a game at Dodger Stadium.The three-time Cy Young Award winner insisted the substance umpires found too sticky was simply his sweat mixed with rosin — a legal substance for pitchers, if applied properly.Scherzer initially challenged the suspension but dropped his appeal hours later, saying the Mets urg...

El tercer ciclo de diálogos de paz entre el gobierno de Colombia y el ELN comenzará el 2 de mayo en Cuba

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:00 GMT

(CNN Español) — El presidente de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, anunció este martes que el 2 de mayo recibirán a las delegaciones del gobierno de Colombia y de la guerrilla del Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) para realizar el tercer ciclo de la mesa de diálogo bilateral.“Ratificamos nuestro compromiso con la paz en Colombia, con la esperanza de que las partes en este ciclo logren avances en la agenda pactada”, escribió en su cuenta de Twitter.Gobierno de Colombia y el ELN discutirán en Cuba la incorporación del grupo a la política cuando cese la violenciaLa primera ronda de estas conversaciones se realizó en Caracas a finales de 2022, y la segunda se llevó a cabo en México en febrero.Ambas partes acordaron discutir en esta nueva ronda la posible incorporación del ELN a la política una vez que deje las armas, de acuerdo con el texto que recoge los acuerdos alcanzados en la Ciudad de México.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery ...