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Oakland school board candidate gets union boost in race for critical swing seat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

OAKLAND — The special election next week for a key Oakland school board seat features two candidates, but only one will get a flashy mailer delivered to voters’ mailboxes in the coming days — thanks to a hefty dose of labor spending.It’s a familiar late-game push in the final days before a Nov. 7 election that could shift the balance of power in the cash-strapped Oakland Unified School District to either its administrators or the teachers union.As is typical in local elections with weighty political consequences, the largest source of spending is not from the candidates or their donors but by independent committees that operate outside the campaigns and often far outspend them.Only one candidate in this race, Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez, has those committees on her side, and together they have given her nearly a $46,000 advantage over opponent Jorge Lerma, who has no independent backers.Ritzie-Hernandez’s campaign has also directly outraised Lerma’s el...

Warriors 3 Things: Is that the shot that gets Klay Thompson going?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — No Warrior has been more affected by the changes to the roster than Klay Thompson.Since returning from back-to-back season-ending leg injuries, there had been a reliable, steady input and output from the five-time All-Star.But, this season, with the addition of Chris Paul to the lineup and amid a deeper and better-built team, everything was in flux.It hasn’t always looked pretty for Klay.Don’t get me wrong: Thompson has been good. But his role is different, and there have been times when you can see it manifest in less-than-ideal ways.This new role isn’t as active. Thompson spends much of the game on offense stretching the floor, instead of being directly in the action. On defense, he’s asked to defend in the post instead of on the perimeter.Some of this is the Warriors conceding that Thompson isn’t the athlete he was before his injuries. Another part of it is the simple fact that Thompson is one of the tallest players on the team and th...

Playoff prep roundup: St. Francis and Mitty cruise in CCS Open volleyball semifinals, Foothill and Head-Royce advance in NCS

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

Girls volleyballThe two best girls volleyball teams in the Bay Area will compete for a Central Coast Section Open Division title on Saturday. Archbishop Mitty took down Sacred Heart Prep 3-0 and St. Francis defeated Valley Christian 3-0 to set up the fifth showdown of the season between the West Catholic Athletic League powers at Palo Alto High.Archbishop Mitty 3, Sacred Heart Prep 0No. 1 Mitty won 25-18, 25-23, 25-19 in a home matchup with No. 4 Sacred Heart Prep. Isabella Romero had a number of kills and played great defense on the right side, and coach Jon Wallace said Nicole Macalintal’s passing and defense “turned around” the second set, which SHP led 15-10 at one point. Wallace wrote in an email, “SHP played very well, but Mitty was able to dig some balls and convert them into points.” St. Francis 3, Valley Christian 0Second seeded St. Francis cruised to a 25-15, 25-22, 25-19 victory, defeating No. 3 seed and WCAL rival Valley Christian for the eighth consecutive match. The ti...

Interstate 880 repaving through Fremont may be delayed into next year: Roadshow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

Q: I thought I read earlier this year that Caltrans planned to pave Interstate 880 north through Fremont in September.Here we are, already in November, and nothing has happened. The section between Stevenson Boulevard and Thornton is so incredibly bad. I am a “gentle” driver, but I broke an axle, and ended up having to buy a new car! Do you have any updates on that project? We are expecting another rainy winter and that road is already dangerous in its current state.Please don’t tell me they are going to let it sit through yet another winter!Also, I see they planned to pave the Dumbarton Bridge eastbound. The actual bridge isn’t bad at all, but the section between the bridge and Newark Boulevard is horrible, especially starting just before the old toll booths and through the Thornton offramp. They paved some of that before, but it didn’t hold and now there are huge potholes and ruts everywhere. People bob and weave, trying to avoid the worst, and they look like drunken sailors.Pleas...

A Northern California stabbing attack that killed 1 woman and wounded 2 men appears to be random, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

IONE — A woman was killed and two other people wounded in an apparently random stabbing rampage in a Sierra Nevada foothills community allegedly carried out by a man who was on parole for attempted murder, authorities said.The stabbings occurred Monday at three locations in a neighborhood in the small city of Ione, police Chief John Alfred told reporters Tuesday. Ione is in the foothills of Amador County southeast of Sacramento.All the victims had multiple stab wounds and a knife was recovered, the chief said. There did not appear to be any connection between the victims, and the violence appeared to be random, he said.A 34-year-old man was arrested on a street where two of the attacks occurred.“He’s being held on no bail right now,” Alfred said.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Man gets life without parole for murdering 2 in California burger restaurant Crime and Public Safety | One dead following Halloween shooting in East Bay Crime and Publ...

Teachers from the Philippines and beyond are filling gaps in Bay Area schools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

This time last year, John Carlo Chan was teaching students half a world away.He’d been educating 30 kids on the autism spectrum in his native Philippines. But when a friend mentioned the demand for teachers on the other side of the ocean, Chan decided to apply. Less than a year later, he landed a job as a special education teacher at Pacifica’s Oceana High.“I wasn’t even considering going abroad,” said Chan, 25. “But then I heard about this opportunity.”With teacher shortages worsening across both the state and region, Bay Area districts are relying more than ever on recruiting teachers like Chan from across the globe, with the vast majority of them coming from the Philippines.At the Jefferson Union High School District, Chan is one of 15 new Filipino educators who are working at the district’s five schools. At San Jose Unified, 34 teachers from the Philippines have made the South Bay their home. And at the San Mateo-Foster City School...

If 49ers keep getting pushed around, Chase Young isn’t going to fix anything

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

A bye week that will serve as an identity check for the 49ers included a ballyhooed deal for edge rusher Chase Young to join a defensive line already crowded with big names, big salaries and big expectations.Young’s biggest asset is his pass rushing ability, and the 49ers are looking for some juice when they line up against Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville when they resume play on Nov. 12.Maybe Young can provide that, freeing up Nick Bosa to do more damage at closing time with sacks rather than simply putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks for an average salary of $33 million.Yet the issue that has hampered the 49ers the most over their three-game free fall to 5-3 has been more basic and primal. Coach Kyle Shanahan believes in landing the first punch, and in a football sense, the left jab lies in the running game on both sides of the ball.If the 49ers can’t approach what they’ve been in those areas earlier this season as well as the previous two years, the blame ...

Chemerinsky: Nothing prepared me for current campus antisemitism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

I am a 70-year-old Jewish man, but never in my life have I seen or felt the antisemitism of the last few weeks.I have heard antisemitic things from time to time through my life. I remember as a child being called a “dirty Jew,” and my friends and I being called “Christ killers” as we walked to Hebrew school. I recall a college girlfriend’s parents telling her that she should not go out with me because “Jews are different.” I had an incident in a class I was teaching about the ethics of negotiations, where a student matter-of-factly said, “the other side will try to Jew you down,” without the slightest sense of how that was a slur.But none of this prepared me for the last few weeks. On Friday, someone in my school posted on Instagram a picture of me with the caption, “Erwin Chemerinsky has taken an indefinite sabbatical from Berkeley Law to join the I.D.F.” Two weeks ago, at a town hall, a student told me that what would make her feel safe in the law school would be “to get rid of th...

Adobe officially completes and opens eye-catching downtown San Jose bridge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

SAN JOSE — Adobe has opened an eye-catching new bridge that connects the tech titan’s new Founders Tower with its other downtown San Jose office highrises, an overhead link that also completes Adobe’s campus.The bridge over West San Fernando Street in downtown San Jose features artwork that symbolizes the link between the orchards that dotted the Santa Clara Valley and the cutting-edge innovations that Adobe creates.(Left-to-right) State Assemblymember Ash Kalra; San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres; Scott Ekman, Adobe Senior Director of Workplace Strategy and Solutions; Gloria Chen, Adobe Chief People Person; San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan; and Jonathan Francom, Adobe vice president of Employee & Workplace Solutions, cut a ribbon for the new Adobe Bridge at 333 West San Fernando Street in downtown San Jose. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)San Jose-based Adobe also announced that Adobe Foundation is launching a fresh round of grants totaling $1.8 million ...

Cal QB Mendoza preparing for wet Oregon weather that doomed Goff

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:17 GMT

BERKELEY — Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza began his Wednesday afternoon news conference by thanking the equipment staff for spraying his hands and keeping the football wet throughout practice to prepare for Saturday’s game at No. 6 Oregon in Eugene, where the forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of rain.“I don’t believe they get as much love as they need,” the redshirt freshman said of the Bears’ equipment crew.The Ducks (7-1, 4-1 in Pac-12) would be a challenge in any environment, but in front of 54,000 raucous fans at Autzen Stadium — and especially in bad weather — the assignment will be tougher still for Cal (3-5, 1-4).Ten years ago, another Cal freshman quarterback was greeted by monsoon rains in Eugene and did not fare well. Jared Goff, who was leading the nation in passing yards at the time, could not grip the football and completed just 3 of 7 attempts for 11 yards before getting the hook in a 55-16 defeat.Mendoza grew up in Miami, where he says humid conditions helped ...