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The Bay Area’s economy of mud: Dredging concerns threaten jobs, $100 billion in assets

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

At the Port of Oakland on a recent weekday, trucks, cranes and container-laden ships moved goods across the sprawling 1,300-acre complex with the precarious precision of a Rube Goldberg machine.Mere blocks from downtown Oakland, the port operates essentially as a city within a city. It’s the ninth biggest port in the country and the first stop for 99% percent of containerized goods moving through Northern California.A large container ship is docked at the Port of Oakland in Oakland, Calif., on April 4, 2023. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) In the whir of logistics and machinery, it’s easy to forget that everything happening here is made possible by one unsung, unglamorous and Sisyphean task: hauling mud from San Francisco Bay.That dredging process has enormous implications for the future of shipping and transportation in the Bay Area, and may hold the key to protecting local shorelines.“The bottom line is that if we don’t dredge, none of this happens,” said port spokespe...

Two dads, one baby? Gene technique works in mice

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

For the first time in history, scientists have created mice with two dads, foretelling a day when same-sex couples may be able to have biological children of their own.The success, announced by Japanese researchers last month, has not yet been tried on people.But scientists at two Bay Area startups, as well as a company in New York City and another in Japan, are striving to move the mouse research into humans, and rewrite the rules of reproduction by making sex cells in a lab. If successful in people, the technique would allow the creation of an egg cell from blood or a tiny sliver of a man or woman’s skin.So far, the research has focused on making egg cells, which would enable male-male reproduction. Creating sperm for female-female reproduction is a tougher scientific challenge.“Even the remote possibility of same-sex couples creating a baby without a donor is extraordinary and exciting,” said Drew Lloyd, board president of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Commit...

Pac-12 deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovich to depart conference

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

Pac-12 deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovich is leaving the conference this week after nine years to become managing director at TrailRunner International, a global strategic communications firm.Zaninovich doubles as the Pac-12’s chief operating officer and has worked closely with commissioner George Kliavkoff on the media rights negotiations.Friday will be his final day. However, his first consulting project at TrailRunner will be to advise the Pac-12 on the media negotiations, expansion and basketball strategy.(The media rights saga, which began in July, is expected to conclude later this spring.)In his new role, Zaninovich will help TrailRunner grow its sports business operation. The company is based in Dallas-Fort Worth but has offices across the country and in Shanghai.Its clients include the Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, Oakland A’s and, on two previous occasions, the Pac-12.TrailRunner worked with the conference during its multi-year initiatives in China and provided communic...

FBI warning: Don’t use free public phone charging stations

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials are warning travelers and shoppers to avoid public free phone charging portals, warning that “bad actors” use these to install malware and tracking software onto computers and phones.This is the practice commonly known as “juice-jacking.”“Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices,” FBI officials announced Thursday in a tweet.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Tesla staff shared images and recordings from customers’ cars, Reuters says Crime and Public Safety | Oakland’s ransomware crisis worsens as city confirms largest leak yet Crime and Public Safety | Ransomware fallout: Could lawsuits break Oakland’s silence? Crime and Public Safety | Asian Americans are anxious about hate crimes. TikTok ban rhetoric isn’t helping Crime and Public Safety | Twitter hunts Github user who poste...

Why some players believe the Giants-Dodgers rivalry could be even better in 2023

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Here come the mighty Dodgers, who will ride into Oracle Park for a quick three-game series then disappear, not to be seen in the Bay Area again for 172 days.The baseball gods have saved the Giants from facing the Dodgers 19 times a year and reduced that number to 13 with a new balanced schedule implemented this year.The Giants will now host their biggest rivals only twice: in their first homestand of the year, starting Monday, and then again in their last, starting on Sept. 29.It’s such an oddity that some of the players around the Giants clubhouse had no idea it was happening.“Is it really?” asked Anthony DeSclafani.“Huh,” said Logan Webb.Ross Stripling, one of five former Dodgers now on the Giants, said he hadn’t heard anyone on the team mention the six-month gap between home games with their rivals, but thinks the Giants’ ambivalence shows it’s “a good team that we’re tackling the game at hand before we think about the Dodgers. But I know it’ll be a big deal...

Travel Troubleshooter: I paid Aer Lingus for luggage I didn’t need. Can I get a refund?

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I recently booked tickets through the Aer Lingus website. When I did, the site only listed that a carry-on was included with the fare, rather than both a carry-on and one checked bag before the final purchase.Christopher Elliott, the Travel Troubleshooter I was confused, and I unknowingly added three extra checked bags, which were unnecessary. I overpaid Aer Lingus $449 because it included an additional checked bag for each passenger on my itinerary.I called Aer Lingus twice on the same date of the ticket purchase and filed an online request that it return the luggage fee. I kept receiving messages that the fee was nonrefundable.I believed Aer Lingus’ online booking was very confusing and deceptive, so I also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). I received no further information from the DOT other than acknowledgment of my complaint.I want my $449 back. Can you help me get it?— Krista O’Brien, New Have...

Man who drove truck into Northern California home killing homeowner to be released after serving 3 of 11 years sentence

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

In 2019, Fields Landing man Ryder Stapp was sentenced to 11 years in prison for drunkenly ramming his truck through the wall of a Humboldt Hill home at after 10 p.m., killing a man who had been sleeping in his bed and injuring his wife.Stapp will be released in Eureka on Sunday, roughly three years into his sentence.On June 28, 2019, Stapp — his blood alcohol content almost three times higher than the legal limit — drove his truck through the master bedroom of Robert Beland, who later died from his injuries at St. Joseph Hospital. His wife Elizabeth Martin survived.As of the Times-Standard’s print deadline, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not respond to requests for comment asking what spurred Stapp’s early release. Eureka’s CDCR parole office also did not respond to a request for comment by the Times-Standard’s print deadline“I miss my husband and best friend desperately every waking moment of my life. I am profoundly sad most days,” Elizabeth Martin...

Fire destroys a dozen buses in San Francisco

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A fire destroyed a dozen minibuses in San Francisco shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday night on 23rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in the Potrero Hill neighborhood.The San Francisco Fire Department said the buses were privately owned.The fire was contained around 11 p.m. No injuries were reported.

Woman sexually assaulted in underpass in Palo Alto

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KRON) -- A woman was robbed and sexually assaulted at the underpass on California Avenue with when a suspect approached her from behind, according to the Palo Alto Police Department.Officials said the incident happened just before 3 p.m. Sunday. A woman in her 50s was walking her bike east bound through the underpass when she said a man was walking his bike the opposite way. They passed one another then moments later, she said he struck her from behind causing her to fall then sexually assaulted her.The woman screamed for help causing the suspect to flee the scene, but not before taking her cell phone.Someone passing by who did not see the incident heard the woman yelling and called police. Officials arrived shortly after, and the victim was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries to the back of her head and neck.Officers found her cell phone about 20 minutes after the incident on the 3000 block of Emerson Street. It's being processed for evidence, but the man is...

2 dead, 20 missing as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:08:36 GMT

ROME (AP) — At least two migrants have died and about 20 others are missing after their boat sank over the weekend in the Mediterranean Sea between Tunisia and Italy, German aid group ResQship said on Monday.ResQship said its rescuers reached the area of the wreck on Saturday and found about 25 people in the water, who said they had been there for two hours.“Our crew was able to recover 22 survivors and 2 deceased,” the aid group tweeted, adding that survivors said about 20 people drowned. The group’s ship, the Nadir, took the rescued migrants to the Italian island of Lampedusa.“We are angry. This is an unspeakable tragedy that could — and should — have been prevented by a humanitarian approach to migration instead of barb-wiring the European borders,” ResQship said.On Sunday night, humanitarian organization Alarm Phone said it received another distress call from a boat with about 400 people who had departed from Tobruk, Libya.The organization said that, according to the latest upda...