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Crime victims assail bill they say could free some of California’s worst killers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

Vanetta Perdue’s mother had tried desperately to leave her abusive husband, but he wouldn’t have it. In 1982, he broke into their home near Monterey, doused Perdue’s mother with gasoline and set her on fire, leaving their children to die with her in the flames.Now Perdue fears that her father — who’s serving life in prison without parole for nearly killing her and her siblings along with their mother — might be freed under a San Jose lawmaker’s criminal justice reform bill set for a hearing Friday in Sacramento.“Convicted murderers sentenced to life without the possibility of parole do not deserve to be given a second chance,” Perdue, of North Carolina, said Tuesday at a news conference of crime-victim advocates, law enforcement officials and lawmakers opposing the bill. “Life without parole is supposed to be just that, life without parole. Period.”Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat whose bill, SB 94, heads to a s...

Bouie: The forgotten radicalism of the march on Washington

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

As remembered and commemorated by most Americans, the 1963 March on Washington — its 60th anniversary fell on Monday — represents the essence of the Civil Rights Movement, defined in our national mythology as a colorblind demand for neutrality and fairness in the face of discrimination, embodied in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”Less well remembered, in our collective memory at least, is the fact that both the march and King’s speech were organized around much more than opposition to anti-Black discrimination. It was officially known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, with a far more expansive vision for society than formal equality under the law. The march wasn’t a demand for a more inclusive arrangement under the umbrella of postwar American liberalism, as it might seem today. It was a demand for something more —...

Psychedelics have 3 paths to going mainstream in California. Here’s what you need to know

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

Psychedelics are having a moment. A nationwide push to bring magic mushrooms and other psychedelics into the mainstream is gaining traction, and some Californians want in.While hallucinogens are often associated with the drug culture of the 1960s, today’s movement on psychedelics is largely about using them to help treat the nations’ ballooning mental health crisis. Growing research portrays the drugs as a promising tool in helping people heal from various mental illnesses, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.Now several proposals floating around in California seek to make psychedelics more accessible for therapeutic and personal use. These include one legislative proposal that would decriminalize use of certain natural hallucinogens and two pending initiatives for next year’s ballot, one that would legalize the use and sale of psilocybin mushrooms and a second that would fund a $5 billion agency to research and develop psychedelic therapies.RELATED: She secretly...

Walters: California’s unemployment program remains a hot mess

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

Kevin Kiley, a freshman Republican congressman who represents Sacramento suburbs and parts of the Sierra foothills, posted a characteristic swipe at Gov. Gavin Newsom last week on X, formerly known as Twitter.Reacting to news that California still owes the federal government $18 billion in loans taken out to pay unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kiley said, “This is why Newsom is the Deadbeat Governor. After he and Julie Su squandered $30 billion in fraud, he took out a federal loan to make up for it — only now to default on that loan. As a result, California businesses are being taxed to pay it back.”The posting was about half fact and half falsehood, but the real story is equally damning, not only of Newsom and Su, the one-time Newsom administration official whose nomination as U.S. secretary of labor has been stalled in the Senate, but of California’s decades-long mismanagement of unemployment insurance.The Employment Development Department, whic...

Inman: Three biggest issues with 49ers’ 53-man roster

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

SANTA CLARA — How the 49ers’ roster evolves from today through Feb. 11 will be fascinating, especially if they’re indeed playing at season’s end for the Lombardi Trophy in Las Vegas.Tuesday’s 53-man roster reveal was not fascinating, not shocking, and not troubling.The 49ers made their biggest roster move four days earlier, when they unloaded quarterback Trey Lance on the Dallas Cowboys for a fourth-round pick. It was a combined effort to move on with other quarterbacks, grant him a trade, save a few million on next year’s salary cap, and, here it comes, take accountability and criticism for trading up in 2021 to the No. 3 pick for such a raw prospect.“Fortunately, we still have a really good football team that I think has a legitimate shot,” general manager John Lynch said Friday night. “We’re focused on Game 1, but we have a championship-level roster. Now it’s what we make of it.”Lynch will have more to say about th...

Big housing complex near downtown San Jose adds some affordable units

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

SAN JOSE — A big apartment complex being eyed north of downtown San Jose and near Japantown is now expected to include affordable units, city documents show.The residential development would sprout at 380 North First Street in San Jose, according to a city notice that a report is being prepared to assess the project’s impact on the environment.The 118-unit development would be seven stories, according to city public filings.7-story, 118-unit apartment complex at 380 North First Street in San Jose, concept. (Studio T-Square)The project would bulldoze and replace a small office building and a surface parking lot that now occupy the property.“This site is perfectly located in the middle of an urban residential neighborhood,” said Erik Schoennauer, a land-use consultant for the owner and developer of the site.Schoennauer added that the project is within walking distance to “light rail, Ryland Park, San Pedro Square, and Japantown.”Msasa Propertie...

Lake Oroville’s water levels continue slow downward trend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

OROVILLE — Lake Oroville is down 40 feet from the start of the summer when the water level was at capacity thanks to a string of heavy winter storms.The storms also boosted the snowpack, allowing for consistent and often substantial runoff into the lake. Earlier this year, the California Department of Water Resources, which oversees the lake as well as the Oroville Dam, began releasing water from the reservoir’s main spillway in an effort to keep up with the inflows.The view of Lake Oroville from the top of the Oroville Dam in Butte County, California on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. The 40-foot difference makes for a dramatic shift from what it was in May and June. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record) Because of this, the lake nearly reached its 900-foot capacity for the first time in years and for months following the storms. However, the slowing of the melt-off and the summer dryness have conspired to once again cut the water level. As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the lake sits at an elevatio...

Hurricane Idalia makes landfall on Florida's west coast as a dangerous Category 3 storm

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a dangerous Category 3 storm on Wednesday and was unleashing life-threatening storm surges and rainfall in an area not accustomed to such pummeling.More than 200,000 customers were without electricity as trees snapped by strong winds brought down power lines and water submerged streets. Along the coast, some homes were submerged to near their rooftops, and structures along the ocean crumpled in the surge. As the eye moved inland, destructive winds shredded signs and rooftops. “We have multiple trees down, debris in the roads, do not come,” posted the fire and rescue department in Cedar Key, which was taking some of the biggest storm surge. The department's post said most of the streets around the downtown area were under water. Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. It made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. as a high-end ...

28-year-old woman killed in Salinas home, boyfriend arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

(BCN) -- A Salinas woman was killed in her home Tuesday morning and police have arrested the man she was dating on suspicion of her death. At about 8:30 a.m., Salinas Police responded to the 500 block of Stevenson Street on a report of a man yelling that someone was just killed inside a house. A second person reporting seeing a man running from the property. While some officers began looking for the suspect, who was said to have been seen running eastbound toward Davis Road, other officers entered the residence and found a 28-year-old woman suffering from life-threatening injuries. She was taken to the hospital where she later died, police said. Police canvassed the area and located Edgar Zaragoza, 25, who was walking in the area of Boronda Road and Fontes Lane, about a mile and a half from the crime scene. Police allege he matched the description of the suspect and he was arrested. SF store owner killed after robbery, assault with bat Officers learned that Zarago...

Brown-Forman: Fiscal Q1 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:20:31 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Brown-Forman Corp. (BF.A) on Wednesday reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $231 million.On a per-share basis, the Louisville, Kentucky-based company said it had profit of 48 cents.The liquor company that makes Jack Daniel’s and other brands posted revenue of $1.04 billion in the period.Brown-Forman shares have risen nearly 7% since the beginning of the year. The stock has fallen nearly 4% in the last 12 months._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BF.A at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BF.ASource