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Concord starting fresh — again — in search for Naval Weapons Station master developer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

CONCORD — The largest development project in the Bay Area needs a new master developer — again.Concord City Council members this week discussed next steps in finding a new team to develop the Naval Weapons Station, a massive project 20 years in the making and which is expected to take four decades to complete.The new suitor will be Concord’s third in less than three years. In late January, the council voted 3-2 to cut ties with Concord First Partners following revelations of internal strife and legal battles within the Seeno family, troubles first reported by this news organization.Council members said they had lost faith and trust in the Seenos, a powerful family who operate an East Bay building empire. The family’s Discovery Builders Inc. led the Concord First Partners consortium, along with Lewis Management and Oakland developer Phil Tagami’s California Capital & Investment Group.Abandoned by the U.S. Navy in the late 1990s, the 5,200-acre weapons station of...

Feds charge San Jose man in deadly fentanyl overdose in Fremont

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

FREMONT — A San Jose man was jailed on a federal drug charge after the FBI alleged he sold pills secretly laced with fentanyl to an unsuspecting bar patron in Fremont, who died minutes after taking the drugs.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California announced Thursday that Ian Edward Parrish, 28, has been charged with one felony count of illegally distributing fentanyl. He made his initial court appearance in an Oakland courtroom Thursday and was remanded to federal jail custody by Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore, according to court records.According to an FBI investigation underpinning the criminal charge, Parrish was at a Fremont bar Aug. 16 when he approached the reported victim, a 46-year-old man from Cambridge, Ohio, and offered to get them drugs.Parrish showed them a clear plastic baggie, which he told the Ohio man and his friend contained Adderall pills and Percocet pills he referred to as “Perc 30’s,” the FBI stated in an affidavit acc...

San Jose restaurant owner accused of forcing waiter to house co-workers, threatening deportation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

A former San Jose restaurant worker has filed a lawsuit accusing his previous boss of forcing him to house two fellow employees in his small one-bedroom apartment, threatening to get him deported and saying he would “destroy him and his family” for disobedience.Afwan Mohammed claims his boss’s actions left him with panic attacks, dreams that someone was suffocating him, and “severe depression and anxiety” that put him in the hospital for a week under medication. He is still taking depression medication, the lawsuit alleges.“I was just hopeless,” Mohammed, 23, said by phone, adding that while working at Karimi Restaurant he failed two courses at De Anza College, where he’s studying business while employed full time now in a bank. “I couldn’t focus on my studies, I couldn’t do anything.”He said he quit his job as a waiter for a position as a bank teller and moved out of the apartment, but remains as the lease hold...

Thousands of PG&E customers remain without power across Bay Area

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

(KRON) -- Around the Bay Area, PG&E says thousands of customers remain without power following Tuesday's atmospheric river storm. Many of the outages are in the South Bay and along the Peninsula.PG&E reduced further the number of Bay Area customers without power to 43,794 as of Thursday morning, according to a company announcement. More than half of the total are still in the South Bay, where 22,415 are without power. 2 dead, traffic snarled following multiple Bay Bridge incidents Elsewhere those without power include 14,006 customers on the Peninsula, 7,249 in the East Bay, 41 in the North Bay and 83 in San Francisco. The total is down from nearly 160,000 as of 8 a.m. Wednesday. On Peach Hill Road in Saratoga, PG&E crews were replacing a high voltage power pole that was damaged during Wednesday's storm. "We're on day three of restoration efforts here in Santa Clara," said PG&E spokesperson Myra Tostado, who said installing a power pole in soil saturated by se...

Evacuation orders lifted for parts of Monterey County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

Monterey County officials have lifted evacuation orders for the Arroyo Seco area west of Greenfield and for the town of San Ardo, according to an announcement issued late Wednesday night. The Monterey County Sheriff's Office lifted the orders, according to the announcement. When will it stop raining in California? Here’s what meteorologists are saying "Evacuation Orders remain in effect for homes west of the slide (Jorgenson Flats) and south of the river from Sycamore Flats (Grandma Flats) until further notice." To view an evacuation map, see the Monterey County Emergency Information App. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

Accused San Jose drug dealer linked to deadly overdose appears in court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

(KRON) -- A San Jose man accused of selling fake "M30" pills that killed one of his buyers in Fremont was taken into custody on Thursday. Ian Edward Parrish, 28, of San Jose, made his first court appearance in Oakland before U.S. Judge Kandis Westmore. The judge remanded Parrish into custody. According to a criminal complaint, Parrish sold two counterfeit Percocet pills to a person in a bar in Fremont. "The counterfeit pills were, in fact, laced with fentanyl," prosecutors wrote.After consuming just one pill, the person overdosed and died. Parrish was later arrested and charged with distributing fentanyl. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. The rise of fentanyl in San Francisco The DEA has an ongoing anti-drug campaign, "One Pill Can Kill." Fentanyl, a highly potent opiate, if often diluted by drug dealers with cutting agents to create counterfeit pills that purport to mimic the effects of Oxycodone, Percocet, and other drugs. However, very small variations in the am...

What’s next for Alaska’s Willow oil project? AP explains

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration’s approval earlier this week of the largest new oil project in years on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope was immediately met by lawsuits seeking to stop the Willow project. Lawsuits filed by environmental groups and an Alaska Native organization seek to overturn Monday’s approval of three drill sites and up to 199 total wells for the ConocoPhillips Alaska project. The lawsuits allege the U.S. government failed to adequately consider alternatives to greenlighting development.WHAT IS THE WILLOW PROJECT?The 30-year project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day. That is significant because Alaska’s economic fortunes are tied to the boom-and-bust cycles of oil. The flow of oil through the trans-Alaska pipeline is a fraction of what it was at its height in the late 1980s. Willow also is currently the largest proposed oil project on federal lands. WHERE IS WILLOW?Willow is on Alaska’s remote North Sl...

San Diego State tops Charleston 63-57 in NCAA tourney

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Matt Bradley’s last NCAA Tournament game essentially ended with him bobbling the ball out of bounds, a costly turnover against Creigton in an overtime loss last year.There was zero chance he was going to do it again.Bradley scored 17 points and made play after play down the stretch, including hitting two free throws in the final minute, and No. 5 seed San Diego State held on to beat 12th-seeded College of Charleston 63-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.The victory was a measure of redemption for Bradley, whose mistake last year proved costly in the three-point loss.“I’m just thinking positive things,” said Bradley, who insisted he had no flashbacks to the gaffe. “I’m looking at the bench and everybody trusts me now. Nobody side-eying. I think I have full trust in my teammates and in my coaches on making that free throw, so it felt really good.”The senior provided pivotal plays in this one, helping the Aztecs (28-6) win th...

No. 1 seed Kansas cruises past Howard with Self still absent

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Jalen Wilson had 20 points and seven rebounds for No. 1 seed and defending national champion Kansas, which allowed absent and recovering coach Bill Self to rest a bit more comfortably during a 96-68 victory over Howard on Thursday in a West Region first-round game. Self is recovering from a heart procedure.“He wished us good luck and told us to go out and do what we do,” Wilson said. Gradey Dick had 19 points and 11 rebounds in the freshman’s first NCAA Tournament game, his first career double-double. K.J. Adams Jr. scored 13 points and Dajuan Harris Jr. added 11 points, seven assists and four steals for the Jayhawks (28-7), who will play No. 8 seed Arkansas in the second round on Saturday.Kansas, which has won 16 consecutive first-round games, is aiming to become the first repeat national champion in 16 years.Shy Odom had 15 points and eight rebounds and Steve Settle III added 13 points for the Bison (22-13), who were making the program’s first tournam...

Ky GOP lawmakers pass ban on gender-affirming care for youth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:04 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky passed a measure Thursday to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, completing whirlwind voting on a repackaged proposal that triggered outrage and tears among opponents unable to stop the sweeping policymaking on a culture wars issue.Supporters of the proposal — which affects how gender is discussed in schools — beat a Thursday deadline to retain their power to override an expected gubernatorial veto.GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill, a day after a slimmed-down version had stalled in the Senate and seemingly left the issue in limbo. A cascade of shouting erupted from some bill opponents in the gallery after the Senate vote.The bill’s foes denounced the fast-track maneuvering and the expanded measure’s implications for trans youths. Overcome with emotion, a sobbing Rep. Josie Raymond said children would be harmed. “I’m embarrassed and I’m appalled and I&...