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A’s second-half preview: What will it take to avoid historically bad season?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

OAKLAND — Forgive manager Mark Kotsay for the unrestrained optimism that often accompanies baseball at the close of spring training.Kotsay was sitting in the Athletics’ dugout at the Coliseum on March 26 before their Bay Bridge Series game against the Giants, talking about his team’s 102-loss 2022 season and having come through a “transition period” that gave young players some opportunity.“Our expectation this year is we’re going to go compete and find ourselves in a position to hopefully add at the break and surprise people,” Kotsay said.Fast forward to the All-Star break, with the A’s a major league-worst 25-67 as they open a 10-game homestand Friday night with a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins at the Coliseum.Besides the losing, the first half of the season saw the franchise cease negotiations with the city of Oakland for a proposed ballpark at Howard Terminal and commit to a 30,000-seat stadium in Las Vegas and the d...

Opinion: Why courts shouldn’t ban government from talking to Big Tech

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

Last Tuesday a federal judge banned communications between large parts of the federal government and social media platforms. The case was brought by two Republican attorneys general and several individuals to allege that the government has unconstitutionally censored online speech from conservatives.The issue of government interference in what social media platforms can publish is real. But the judge’s solution — widely halting contact between the government and Big Tech — is both legally dubious and practically dangerous. It’s important that online speech, irrespective of political viewpoint, flourish without the specter of censorship. But it’s also essential that the government be allowed to engage with social media giants to address manifest harms from online content.The solution lies not in this ban, but in exposing government communications with tech to scrutiny so that both parties are held accountable for ensuring that their relationships serve the public interest.The Biden a...

Real estate report reveals Silicon Valley’s weakest office markets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

SAN JOSE — Tech layoffs and retrenchments have shoved South Bay office vacancies higher and transformed downtown San Jose and Santa Clara into the region’s weakest office markets.The worsening vacancy rates in Silicon Valley were a key revelation in a new report for the April-through-June second quarter of 2023 that was issued by CBRE, a commercial real estate firm.“The office market continued its downward trend in the second quarter of 2023,” CBRE stated in its new report.During the second quarter, the South Bay’s office vacancy rate was 18%, CBRE reported. That was worse than the 15.5% first-quarter vacancy rate for Silicon Valley as estimated by CBRE. The real estate firm defines the South Bay as Santa Clara County and the Fremont-Newark area for the purposes of the report.“Many large tech tenants continued to offload their underutilized space,” CBRE researchers stated in the quarterly report.Yet while the South Bay office vacancy rate is...

Are SF Giants a true contender? Plus more outstanding questions entering second half

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

As the San Francisco Giants embark on the second half of their season, the answer will inevitably reveal itself: What is the true version of this team? Is it the one that reeled off 10 straight wins, the one that went 18-8 in June? Or is it something closer to the middling squad that didn’t own a winning record until Memorial Day weekend?Farhan Zaidi, head of baseball operations, leans toward the former.“I think (the first half) sort of validated our belief in spring training that this was a good team,” Zaidi said. “We’ve had our ups and downs health-wise and performance-wise, but I think we are a playoff team, a playoff-caliber team.”The projection models back up Zaidi’s confidence.They are much more bullish on the Giants’ postseason chances than they were on Opening Day. Both Baseball Prospectus (62.5%) and FanGraphs (58.4%) give them better than 50-50 odds after rating their chances between 20% and 40% entering the season. At 49-41, they ...

Army veteran paralyzed from run-in with Northern California police gets $20 million settlement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

By TRÂN NGUYỄN | Associated PressSACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California man who was left paralyzed after he was slammed to the ground during a traffic stop won a $20 million settlement, one of the largest in the state’s history, officials announced Tuesday.Gregory Gross, an Army veteran who lives in Yuba City, sued the police department in 2022 after police officers used “pain compliance” techniques and expressed disbelief when he repeatedly cried out, “I can’t feel my legs.” Police officers also dismissed Gross when he said, “I can’t breathe,” while being held facedown on the lawn outside a hospital, video released by Gross’s lawyers shows.Gross was accused of driving drunk and causing a slow-speed collision in April 2020.Gross was left with a broken neck, and he underwent two surgeries to fuse his spine. He said the officers’ use of force left him unable to walk or care for himself, and he now needs round-the-clock nursing care for the rest of his life.“We are not against...

California man accused of killing 3 women in Tijuana arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

LOS ANGELES  — U.S. authorities have arrested a California man accused of killing three women in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and crossing back and forth across the border after each of the deaths that occurred over the course of nearly a year starting in 2021.According to U.S. court records, 30-year-old Bryant Rivera, a resident of Los Angeles suburb Downey, was arrested July 6 on a femicide charge in the strangulation death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores, whose body was found in a hotel room in Tijuana on Jan. 25, 2022.Mexico plans to request his extradition in order to present evidence to add charges for the deaths of two more women in Tijuana, according to court filings. Ricardo Ivan Carpio, the attorney general of the state of Baja California, said they will include new evidence found when Rivera was arrested in California. It was not immediately known if Rivera had retained an attorney.Rivera appeared in federal court Monday, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen L. Steven...

Opinion: The lasting threat is not the ‘next Trump,’ but the MAGA base

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

The state-by-state MAGA takeover of the Republican Party machinery, underway since 2021, will make it easier for the “next Trump” to emerge. But what will actually propel such a figure into the White House is the transformation of the GOP base.The increasingly reactionary views of grassroots Republicans virtually guarantee that the movement will maintain its dominant influence on the party for the foreseeable future.A yard sign I saw in rural Pennsylvania during the 2020 presidential campaign tells the story. Planted in front of a house was a homemade poster with the words “RONALD REAGAN IS A LOSER.” President Reagan’s face was crossed out with an X, with Donald Trump’s smiling face next to it. Presumably this was a Trump supporter, but why attack Reagan? The 40th president was beloved by Republicans, not on the ballot, long dead and certainly not a threat to Trump. The last assumption is where I was wrong.Trump fixated on his predecessors and so have his supporters.“You go around P...

8 incredible US national park campgrounds you can’t drive to

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

By Joe Yogerst | CNNForget the road less traveled when it comes to camping in US national parks. How about sacking out in places where there are no roads?Even though most national park campgrounds are easily accessible by motorized vehicles, some of the coolest digs are in places that you can’t drive to. We’re talking permanent campgrounds with basic facilities that you can only reach by foot or boat.Sure, you’ve got to haul in all of your own food and equipment (and carry out your waste). But the reward is a wilderness sojourn that doesn’t get spoiled by obnoxious car exhaust, annoying RV generators or having your sleep disturbed by people arriving way too late or leaving before the crack of dawn.Below are eight incredible national park campgrounds that you can’t drive to.Garden Key (Dry Tortugas National Park)Have you always dreamed of staying on a romantic desert island? Garden Key is about as close as you can get without being an actual castaway.Located 70 miles from Key West at...

1 injured in shooting outside Oakland hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

(KRON) -- Oakland police are investigating a shooting that occurred Wednesday afternoon outside of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. Fired employee sues San Jose tech company for anti-Asian bias The shooting happened around 3:20 p.m. on 52nd Street and MLK Way. Police said they received a call regarding a person who had walked into the hospital with a gunshot wound. KRON On is streaming news live now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }The victim is currently recovering from their injury.

U.S. officials approve first over-the-counter birth control pill, a move that will broaden access for women and teens

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials approve first over-the-counter birth control pill, a move that will broaden access for women and teens.Source