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Benefit held for 5 teen ballet dancers injured in Seal Beach hit-and-run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

A special benefit performance was held Thursday night in Long Beach for five ballet dancers severely injured in a violent hit-and-run crash in February that was captured on surveillance cameras.  Footage released by the Seal Beach Police Department showed the moment a man in a gold 1987 Mercedes Benz 300 blew through a red light on Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street on Feb. 11, striking the sedan carrying five teenage girls.  All five of the girls, members of Premier Dance Arts of Los Alamitos, had been dancing together earlier in the day and were on the way to a dinner reservation when they were hit. After the crash, they were all rushed to the hospital. Four of the girls had been knocked unconscious by the sheer force of the impact. Thursday night’s benefit performance in the auditorium at Millikan High School was hosted by Los Alamitos Ballet Theater and titled “Ballet in Bloom.” The funds raised at the event will help to offset medical and recovery ex...

What can be done to make Highway 17 less hazardous?: Roadshow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

Q: Having lived in the Bay Area for a number of decades, I have traveled on a number of highways. I believe one of the worst stretches, if not the worst, is Highway 17 between Los Gatos and Scotts Valley.Even though there has been improvement here by placing a barrier and/or increasing the height of the barrier between the opposing Highway 17 lanes, accidents continue unabated. To ameliorate this problem, I would like to recommend that a new three-lane highway be constructed in both directions, with a shoulder on both sides.Sheridan Mowrer, DublinA: The highway will not be widened in this area. However, in the next year or so, work will begin to improve the Highway 17-Highway 9 interchange.This is part of the implementation of a long-range plan, the Highway 17 Access Management Plan. Full implementation of the plan will take many years, and cost more than $300 million. The goals are to improve traffic flow, provide strategic accessibility, and maintain safety on 17. Three new interc...

Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week: David Colon, Castro Valley baseball

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

NEW: PREP SPORTS MAILBAGThe Bay Area News Group is introducing a high school sports mailbag in May. Get your questions in as soon as possible. Our debut edition is an open forum. Got questions about spring sports playoffs, coaching changes, an early peek at football season, etc.? Send questions to [email protected]. Please include “mailbag” in the subject line.Castro Valley baseball player David Colon has been named the Bay Area News Group’s boys high school athlete of the week for April 24-29 after he had 32.17% of the vote at the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday.Foothill baseball player Jackson Flora (24.13%) finished second and Skyline baseball player Isaac Okajima placed third.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Colon, a sophomore, went 3 for 3 with a triple and three RBIs and scored three runs as Castro Valley defeated Piedmont 12-5 in West Alameda County Conference Foothill Division play. He also pitched five innings, allowing ...

Oakland teachers strike enters second day; State Superintendent offers to mediate discussions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

The Oakland teachers’ strike has entered its second day Friday and a mediator is attempting to make progress in negotiations after both sides strongly maintained their positions throughout a tension-filled day Thursday.State Superintendent Tony Thurmond offered Thursday to step in as a mediator, just as he did in 2019. Thus far, neither the Oakland Educators Association nor Oakland Unified School District has publicly agreed to the mediation.“We are disappointed that the parties could not find an agreement in time to avert a strike,” Thurmond said in a statement. “We observed how hard both sides worked and will start immediately working with the parties in a formal mediation capacity. Our goal is to help the parties reach an agreement and to end the strike so that students can return to class as quickly as possible.”The teachers union, which is urging the district to raise teachers’ pay and provide better resources for students, is set to return to the ...

Photos: Mubadala SailGP Season 3 Grand Final practice in San Francisco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

The Mubadala SailGP Season 3 Grand Final kicks off in San Francisco this weekend with some of the best sailors in the world from nine countries vying for the championship.The boats are known for high tech and high speed, and the identical hydro-foiling F50 catamarans can fly across the bay at speeds of up to 60 mph.The weekend’s racing will decide who will compete against Season 3 leader Australia in the Grand Final race, a winner-take-all, final sprint to claim the $1 million grand prize. The U.S. SailGP Team, helmed by sailing legend Jimmy Spithill, is mathematically unable to qualify for the Grand Final, but hopes to win the weekend Grand Prix on home turf.The event will also include onshore entertainment and activities for fans in the Marina Green Race Village, including live music, food and beverage vendors, and interactive exhibits. To purchase limited tickets and learn more, see their website here.Team USA practices on their F50 catamaran in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday...

Opinion: California health care providers’ retreat from COVID masking is shameful

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

When the California Department of Public Health last month lifted mask mandates in health care settings, it didn’t even cross my mind as a physician and CEO of Roots Community Health Center to drop masks in clinics I oversee in the East Bay and San Jose.Dr. Noha Aboelata, founder and CEO of the Roots Community Health Center, speaks during a 2021 news conference. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)The absence of a public health order never determined health care facility policy before, so I was shocked that several health systems dropped masks the moment they stopped being required. I did not need to be mandated to do the right thing for patients and staff at the onset of the pandemic, and the removal of a mandate did not erase my duty to protect and advocate for essential frontline workers and marginalized community members.With the swift unmasking, I was not surprised by the COVID outbreak within about two weeks at Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa Hospital and the facility’s qu...

Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Laila Wang, Archbishop Mitty softball

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

NEW: PREP SPORTS MAILBAGThe Bay Area News Group is introducing a high school sports mailbag in May. Get your questions in as soon as possible. Our debut edition is an open forum. Got questions about spring sports playoffs, coaching changes, an early peek at football season, etc.? Send questions to [email protected]. Please include “mailbag” in the subject line.Archbishop Mitty badminton player Laila Wang is the Bay Area News Group’s high school girls athlete of the week for April 24-29 after she received 35.22% of the vote at the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday.Mercy-Burlingame softball player Jazlyn Villavicencio (24.75%) placed second and Oakland Tech track and field athlete Jada Williams was third.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Wang, a freshman, finished her season with a 13-2 record and was awarded the No. 1 seed in the women’s singles in the Mt. Hamilton Division. In 12 of her matches, Wang stopped her opponent from scoring doub...

Skelton: Want to stop California desertion: Lower housing costs — and taxes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

Higher-income people are fleeing California to live in lower-tax states.For years, we denied that. Maybe it wasn’t even happening. But it definitely is now.It’s logical given our high taxes, high housing costs and high costs of living, period. And there’s new evidence of it.The Public Policy Institute of California reported in March that higher-income people were leaving the state. I wrote about it. Later, the institute’s researchers dug deep into the data and saw where they were moving.The more income the departees had, the more likely they were to be headed to states with no income tax.“Our findings suggest that taxes might be a factor in where higher-income people go when they leave the state,” PPIC demographers Eric McGhee and Hans Johnson wrote in their recent report.“The eight states with no income tax…drew a larger net outflow of higher-income than middle- or lower-income migrants from California, while the opposite was true in the other 41 states. There is some evidence that...

Iran expels four Azeri diplomats amid ongoing tensions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has expelled four Azeri diplomats amid ongoing tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan, Iranian media reported on Friday.Iran’s semiofficial news outlets did not provide details except to say that the four had been working in Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northwestern city of Tabriz.Last month, Azerbaijan expelled four Iranian diplomats from Baku.Relations between Tehran and Baku, long chilly, soured further after a gunman in January stormed Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran’s capital, killing its security chief and wounding two guards.Azerbaijan accuses Iran of supporting hard-line Islamists who tried to overthrow the government in Baku, a charge Tehran denies.Relations between the two also are tense because Azerbaijan in March opened an embassy in Israel. Iran has repeatedly opposed improving relations between Azerbaijan and Israel. Iran and Israel see each other as archenemies. Source

German chancellor supports permanent UNSC seat for Africa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:10 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on a visit to Kenya, has offered support to African countries seeking a permanent seat on the U.N Security Council.Scholz told his host, President William Ruto, that he believes in African-led solutions to African issues such as the ongoing conflict in Sudan.“Germany therefore supports the efforts for permanent African seats on the U.N Security Council and we also support a formal seat for the African Union within the G-20,” he said on Friday after bilateral talks with Ruto.Currently, three African states, Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique, are non-permanent members of the council.Calls in the past for African states to get at least one permanent seat in the council have been supported by various leaders including the U.N secretary general.Scholz expressed concern over the conflict in Sudan that has led to hundreds of deaths, and lauded Ruto’s mediation efforts.He said the two warring generals must end the fighting for the sake of civil...