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Ready for the Big One? Homeowners in these Bay Area cities can apply for money to prepare for earthquakes

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

The Big One is coming. And thousands of homes across the Bay Area aren’t ready for it.If your house is among those that aren’t yet earthquake-safe, you may qualify for a new state program to help pay for seismic retrofits. Starting in late April, homeowners in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco can apply for grants to reinforce single-family homes with a vulnerable “soft story” on the ground floor.The most common example is an older house with a garage below the main living area, said Janiele Maffei, chief mitigation officer for the California Earthquake Authority, the agency overseeing the program.“You’ve taken out all the elements that resist earthquake forces — and that’s the walls,” she said.Many soft-story houses can be reinforced with steel or wood, but homeowners often balk at the hefty price tag — which can range from $14,000 to $27,000, Maffei said. The new pilot program, using $5 million in federal funding, is se...

49ers free agency: Time to pay up for a tight end to complement Kittle

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

When it comes to splurging on a tight end, the 49ers wisely did so with George Kittle in 2020.When it comes to free agency, they consistently avoid such spending.Perhaps that changes this shopping season.Adding a No. 2 tight end is an annual chore that seemingly fails to deliver, all due respect to Ross Dwelley’s sure hands and Charlie Woerner’s special teams value.Tyler Kroft’s one-year, $1.2 million deal last May was the largest given to a free agent tight end since Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch took command in 2017. Other one-year duds since then: Logan Paulsen (2017), Levine Toilolo (2018), and Jordan Reed (2020).Next month’s draft supposedly offers a deep pool of tight ends, which could tempt the 49ers to burn their free agent dollars elsewhere. Here is how that marketplace looks:WHO’S HEREKittleKittle had a career-high 11 touchdown catches in his sixth season, after missing the opening two games with a groin injury. He made his fourth Pro Bowl and drew All-Pro Second-Team honor...

Draymond Green-Dillon Brooks feud heats up but Warriors still don’t view Grizzlies as rivals

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

MEMPHIS — Dillon Brooks did his best to elicit a reaction out of Draymond Green Thursday night, but the Warriors star wouldn’t bite.After a week of the two exchanging verbal jabs to add even more fuel to what was already expected to be a hot Western Conference semifinals rematch in Memphis, Brooks saw an opportunity to get in the face of the Warriors player he said he hates the most.Brooks picked off an ill-advised Warriors’ pass and took it around Green for a finger-roll layup in the final minute of the second quarter. The Grizzlies wing celebrated the basket that put his team up 17 points by bumping into Green and barking in his ear.Brooks expected Green to talk back more. But Green, who’s one technical foul shy from a suspension, knew there was too much at risk to lose his temper in a moment like that.“He thought he would bait me like he gets baited,” Green said after the Warriors’ 131-110 collapse. “I get technical fouls when I want to g...

Editorial: Make California’s state superintendent of schools an appointed position

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

California should join 38 other states in making its state superintendent of public schools an appointed post.Legislation introduced by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, seeks to do away with the elective position that has been embedded in the state Constitution since 1849. If approved by two-thirds of the Legislature, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 9 would be put before voters on a statewide ballot in 2024.California has considerable work to do to improve its lagging K-12 scores. But for the past 28 years, the superintendent of public instruction has been a former member of the Legislature looking to use the job as a steppingstone to higher office. It would be refreshing for a governor to appoint an experienced education administrator to lead the California Department of Education.The only significant educational experience current Superintendent Tony Thurmond had before first being elected in 2018 was as a member of the board of the West Contra Costa Unified School Di...

Hundreds more tech, biotech layoffs hit Bay Area, Google real estate ally cuts jobs

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

About 600 more tech and biotech layoffs rocked the Bay Area job market in a fresh round of cutbacks that suggest the staffing reductions in the region have yet to run their course, new state government filings show.Four tech companies, two biotech firms and a real estate ally of Google that’s been jolted by the search giant’s development slowdown are among the most recent firms to reveal layoff plans to the Employment Development Department.Here are the details for the latest staffing reduction plans reported to the EDD through an array of WARN notices:Atlassian decided to cut 268 jobs in San Francisco, effective May 5. The software company rebalanced its workforce to focus on new opportunities.KLA is eliminating 72 jobs in Milpitas on or around May 8. The semiconductor company is among the companies caught up in a downturn in the chip sector.Lendlease is cutting 67 positions in Sunnyvale as of April 28. The company is a development firm that is Google’s developmen...

With La Niña officially over, El Niño will form during this hurricane season, forecasters say

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

By Allison Chinchar and Brandon Miller | CNN MeteorologistsAfter three consecutive years of an unusually stubborn pattern, La Niña has officially ended and El Niño is on the way, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.That could mean a less active Atlantic hurricane season, a more active season in the Pacific — and another spike in global temperatures, forecasters say.El Niño is associated with a band of warm ocean water that forms in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which has consequences for weather patterns around the globe.NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said “neutral conditions” are in place now and are expected to last through early summer in the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since the initial La Niña advisory was issued in September 2020.The prediction center also wrote its forecast now favors “El Niño forming during summer 2023 and persisting through the fall.”The transition to El Niño during the ...

Opinion: Why venture capitalist believes Elizabeth Holmes should be freed

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

After 30-plus years in venture capital and seeding  companies like Skype, Baidu, Robinhood, Tesla, SpaceX, Hotmail, and many others that were not so successful, I believe it is incumbent on me to do the diligence on any startup I back. If a company doesn’t work out, I take my lumps and move on. Startups by their nature are risky. Investors know these risks when we write their checks.Entrepreneurs, by their nature, are projecting a future that they want to accomplish and as my partner used to say: The best entrepreneurs have a reality distortion field because they often believe that they have accomplished what they have set out to accomplish because they have done so in their minds.When I first met Elizabeth Holmes, she was 19 years old and told me she wanted to “change health care as we know it.” I could see how passionate she was. She is determined about what she feels is unconscionable: the system of health care in our country is expensive, unfair and provides inadequate service, ...

Bay Area residents have 1 week until storm-related FEMA, SBA disaster relief deadline

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

(BCN) -- Bay Area residents have until March 16 to apply for federal disaster relief funding for damage caused by the winter storms that soaked the region throughout January. Disaster relief from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration includes grants, loans and other assistance to help residents pay for temporary housing, storm-related home repairs and storm-related expenses like transportation and moving and storage expenses. The SBA has approved $6.9 million in loans for businesses and $43.2 million for residents affected by the storms as well as flooding, landslides and mudslides caused by the multiple atmospheric rivers that passed over the Bay Area starting in late December. Bay Area storm updates: Flooding impacts morning commute In the greater Bay Area, residents in Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties are eligible for FEMA and SBA disaster assistance. "SBA's disaster assistance...

Two More Jan. 6 Capitol Rioters Have Fled Charges, Bringing Total to Six

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

Over two years since a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol, a small but growing number are on the run after being hit with federal charges for their involvement in the attack.Federal authorities have launched an ongoing dragnet to identity and detain individuals wanted for crimes that took place at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in the wake of Trump’s election loss. Despite these efforts, several of those identified on video footage remain at large, while others, who have been identified, arrested, and are facing charges, have decided to try their luck on the lam — including at least one man who has fled abroad to claim political asylum.This week, the U.S. issued arrest warrants for accused Capitol rioters Olivia Michele Pollock and Joseph Daniel Hutchinson, who, while out on bail, slipped their ankle monitors and escaped days before they were supposed to go on trial. They became the fifth and sixth Capitol rioters to flee following their arrests —...

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors considering higher salaries for members

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:50:58 GMT

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors could see higher salaries in the future.Supervisors this week voted 8-2 to consider raising board members’ salaries.The increase would see board members’ annual salaries go from 90,000 to as high as $130,000, while the chairman’s salary would increase from the current $100,000 to a range of $140,000 to $145,000. The board last received a pay raise eight years ago, in 2015.Supervisor John Foust, who’s retiring after this year, introduced the motion, saying it’s important to consider the evolving nature and increasing demands of board members and the chairman.“In addition to counting base work, the job of a supervisor or chairman requires participation in a growing number of regional bodies, in which most board members participate but are not comp...