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At site of San Lorenzo house fire, cops find clandestine ketamine lab

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

SAN LORENZO — A home that caught fire here earlier this month was being used to manufacture large amounts of ketamine, according to Alameda County drug task force agents assigned to investigate the blaze.The fire occurred on Sept. 6 at a home on the 15000 block of Via Media in San Lorenzo, according to police. Inside, authorities reportedly found large flasks, sifters, bags of chemicals and other evidence indicative of a clandestine drug lab.Authorities initially weren’t sure whether they were dealing with a cannabis honey oil manufacturing facility, or something out of Breaking Bad, the TV crime drama about methamphetamine production. But an analyst with the Drug Enforcement Administration finally gave police their answer: it was the dissociative anesthetic ketamine that was being manufactured.Because ketamine disconnects people from reality, it is sometimes taken as a hallucinogen. Users commonly refer to it colloquially — but not accurately — as “hor...

Single-family home in Oakland sells for $1.8 million

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

4207 Huntington Street – Google Street ViewA spacious house located in the 4200 block of Huntington Street in Oakland has new owners. The 3,269-square-foot property, built in 1963, was sold on Aug. 8, 2023. The $1,787,500 purchase price works out to $547 per square foot. This single-story home offers a roomy layout with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Additionally, the house includes a two-car garage, offering generous space for vehicles and storage requirements.Additional houses that have recently been purchased close by include:A 1,277-square-foot home on the 4400 block of Carson Street in Oakland sold in June 2023, for $1,575,000, a price per square foot of $1,233. The home has 3 bedrooms 1 bathroom.In June 2022, a 1,857-square-foot home on Gregory Street in Oakland sold for $1,700,000, a price per square foot of $915. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Vale Avenue, Oakland, in June 2023, a 1,408-square-foot home was sold for $1,090,000, a price per square foot of $774....

Letters: Gun control | Paying for gun violence | Police shortage | Support Ukraine | Gaming benefits

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Newsom should signgun control billGun violence is tragically present in our society on a daily basis.AB 28 is historic and the first of its kind in the nation by establishing a dedicated revenue source to protect human life, just as the federal excise tax protects wildlife. This is even more critical as we head into tight budget years. We need a steady and reliable commitment to counter what the threat of gun violence continues to do to all of our communities, especially those that have historically been left behind.I look forward to gun safety champion Gov. Gavin Newsom signing the bill.Catherine EgelhoffAlamedaIndustry should helppay for gun violenceI’m a resident of Oakland and am writing to voice my support of Assembly Bill 28.I look forward to Gov. Gavin Newsom signing this bill into law and solidifying California as a leader in gun violence prevention. We need sustained funding to combat the ...

Walnut Creek’s new nautical speakeasy has just opened

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

Walnut Creek has a new high-end nautical speakeasy bar, complete with an extravagant orca mural and tables lit by candlelight.Luna Sea Lounge, which opened this week at 121 Pringle Ave., is a collaboration between Luna Sea Vodka founder Deven Wek and Auburn’s Kyle Wells, an Air Force pararescueman, who met at cocktail bar in Guatemala six years ago. Wek had been traveling and looking for interesting ingredients for his distillery — he’d learned the craft from his Ukrainian-born father. The two Californians spent the evening drinking vodka, playing chess and dreaming of a bar of their own.Today, Wek runs an award-winning vodka distillery in Santa Cruz, whose offerings include a color-changing vodka made with butterfly pea flowers that shifts from blue to purple in the presence of citrus. And the new bar opened this week.Luna Sea Lounge, located in Walnut Creek, opened its doors this week with craft cocktails and seafood dishes. (Courtesy Deven Wek) Luna Sea Lou...

Hayward man charged after girl’s parents walk in on them sexting, police say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

OAKLAND — A Hayward man has been charged with planning to sexually abuse a teen girl whose parents allegedly walked in on her exposing her private parts to the defendant, court records show.Edgar Coc-Sacul, 22, was charged in late August with contacting a minor with intent to commit a sex crime and sending harmful material to a minor, both felonies. He was released from jail Aug. 30 over the objection of Alameda County prosecutors, and ordered not to contact the alleged victim, court records show.Coc-Sacul was arrested on Aug. 27, after the girl’s parents walked in on her engaging in a lewd video chat with him, authorities said. The parents called police that same day.Police reviewed his cellphone and found messages indicating he “told her that he would go to her home when everyone was asleep” and “coerce” her into removing her clothes, investigators said in court papers.There was also evidence he’d sent her lewd pictures of himself, police ...

Sam Bankman-Fried’s mom blasts ‘McCarthyite’ prosecutors, unfair media and ‘credulous public’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

Ahead of Sam Bankman-Fried going on trial next week for allegedly perpetuating one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history, his long-esteemed Stanford law professor mother has lashed out at various entities she believes are to blame for her son’s legal troubles, as well as the destruction of her own reputation and that of her husband, Joseph Bankman.In a lengthy New Yorker profile of Bankman-Fried’s “family bubble,” the emerita professor descried the “McCarthyite” actions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the bankruptcy estate of FTX, her son’s failed cryptocurrency empire. She wrote about a “relentless pursuit of total destruction” in an email to New Yorker writer Sheelah Kolhatkar.This pursuit, she said, has enabled “a credulous public” and the media to “unfairly” assume that her 31-year-old son is guilty because it has failed to examine weaknesses in the government’s case, the New Yorker reporte...

Alameda Sheriff's Office confirms report of kidnapping is unfounded

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

(KRON) -- The Alameda County Sheriff's Office confirmed that a kidnapping it reported on Tuesday was unfounded. ACSO first announced the kidnapping at 12:12 p.m. on social media, posting a screenshot from a doorbell camera and saying that the woman pictured was dragged into a minivan. The alleged incident happened in unincorporated San Leandro, the sheriff's office said. Man fatally struck by garbage truck in San Jose Just two minutes later, ACSO said that a "possible suspect with a similar vehicle" was detained, but the woman was not located. At 3:33 p.m., ACSO called the kidnapping claim unfounded. The woman in the photo (top of the story) was identified as Veronica Kersten. ACSO is attempting to contact her for a welfare check.

Patriots place defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale on injured reserve

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The New England Patriots placed defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale on injured reserve on Tuesday. The 29-year-old left in the first half of last week’s 15-10 win over the Jets with an elbow injury and did not return. Ekuale has played in each of New England’s three games this season, with three tackles and a forced fumble. He has appeared in 25 games over the past three seasons with the Patriots and been used primarily as a sub in select packages. New England visits Dallas on Sunday. ___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflSource

Canadian fashion mogul lured women and girls to bedroom suite at his Toronto HQ, prosecution alleges

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard leveraged his wealth, assets and status over several years to lure young women and girls to a top-floor bedroom suite at his company’s Toronto headquarters where he forced himself on them, prosecutors alleged Tuesday as arguments at his sexual assault trial got underway.Nygard invited all five complainants in the case — whose identities are protected by a publication ban — to visit his custom-built office building under pretenses ranging from tours to job interviews, with all the encounters ending in the bedroom suite, the prosecution said. There, he sexually assaulted them at different times, sometimes trapping or intoxicating them, the prosecution alleged in opening arguments.“Five women, it took them years to come forward. 1 Niagara St., a custom-design office building with huge letters on the front: Nygard. The Toronto headquarters of a fashion empire,” assistant prosecution attorney Ana Serban said.“But within these wall...

Which state would be hurt most by government shutdown?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:58:32 GMT

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., questions the panel during a Senate Banking Committee annual Wall Street oversight hearing, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)(AP/Jacquelyn Martin) Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., questions the panel during a Senate Banking Committee annual Wall Street oversight hearing, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)(AP/Jacquelyn Martin) U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., like many in Congress, has growing concerns about the potential impact of a government shutdown on federal workers, military personnel and contractors, many of whom live in the D.C. area.He said he believes his constituents in Virginia will feel i...