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US government will relaunch free COVID tests by mail

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

By Jamie Gumbrecht | CNNThe US government will relaunch a program to provide free Covid-19 home tests to Americans, US Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.“We will once again begin our program to provide Americans with an opportunity to request tests,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said during an event at a Washington CVS Pharmacy where he was vaccinated against Covid-19 and flu.US households can order four free tests from Covidtests.gov starting September 25.The US government has shipped more than 755 million free Covid-19 tests to people who requested them through Covidtests.gov. The program was suspended in May, after the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency, to preserve supply.Becerra said HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response “has been resupplying our stockpile.”The tests coming available soon are intended for use through the end of 2023 and will include instructions on how to verify extended expiration dates, HHS said in an annou...

Behind Bijou Phillips’ surprise divorce from Danny Masterson

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

Tuesday’s news that Bijou Phillips filed for divorce from Danny Masterson came as a shock to many, even though his prison sentence — 30 years to life — means that he’s been geographically removed from the day-to-day life of the former actor and their 9-year-old daughter.Still, Phillips publicly stood by her husband through his arrest on multiple rape charges. She also attended every day of his two trials and reportedly let out an anguished sob when a jury in the second trial found him guilty on two of three counts of rape. But one report says that the divorce filing may be less a statement about Phillips’ feelings about her husband and more about the couple’s need to protect their assets. Another report said that the Church of Scientology could have played a role in her decision.Danny Masterson and his wife Bijou Phillips arrive for closing arguments in his second trial, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Los Angeles. Masterson is charged with raping three...

Hershey Felder’s one-night ‘Great American Songbook’ show will benefit TheatreWorks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

Hershey Felder, a TheatreWorks Silicon Valley audience favorite for years, will head back to the Peninsula this fall for a one-night-only benefit for the financially strapped theater company.The pianist-actor-playwright, who has been bringing the world’s great composers to life in sold-out shows, will turn his attention Oct. 11 to an array of notable U.S. composers with the “Great American Songbook Sing-Along.”He is donating his performance fee and all proceeds from the evening to the cause of TheatreWorks’ solvency. In early August, directors of the Tony Award-winning stage company announced that they need to raise $3 million by November — or risk closing the doors. The most recent update posted on the website said that a little over half that amount had been raised.Most recently, Felder, who has chronicled the works and histories of Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and others, performed “George Gershwin Alone” at TheatreWorks in March.Relate...

Sale closed in Fremont: $3 million for a five-bedroom home

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

75 Mission Ridge Court – Google Street ViewThe spacious property located in the first block of Mission Ridge Court in Fremont was sold on July 26, 2023. The $3,020,000 purchase price works out to $961 per square foot. The house, built in 1991, has an interior space of 3,142 square feet. This two-story home boasts a generous living space with five bedrooms and three baths.Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:A 2,836-square-foot home on the 100 block of Leal Way in Fremont sold in June 2023, for $3,120,000, a price per square foot of $1,100. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Corte Santa Barbara, Fremont, in July 2023, a 1,931-square-foot home was sold for $1,951,000, a price per square foot of $1,010. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.In January 2023, a 3,499-square-foot home on Vinha Way in Fremont sold for $2,875,000, a price per square foot of $822. The home has 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. 

Public health officials dispel claims that San Jose woman caught flesh-eating bacterial infection from fish, leading to quadruple amputation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

SAN JOSE — A San Jose woman recently underwent a quadruple amputation, but it remained unclear Wednesday what disease or infection may have forced the procedure.A statement released by the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department  contradicted the claims of a GoFundMe fundraiser, which said the 40-year-old mother, Laura Barajas, was forced to undergo a quadruple amputation procedure last week after contracting the flesh-eating bacterial infection Vibrio from fish she purchased at a San Jose supermarket. The page, posted Friday, has since gone viral, garnering coverage in People Magazine, Daily Mail, USA Today and Page Six.As of Wednesday morning, it had raised more than $108,000 for Barajas.In a statement, the County Public Health Department said that based off media reports, it identified a hospitalized patient matching the description Tuesday, and requested that the hospital notify the Public Health Department if there was suspicion of any disease it were legally required to...

Flag football sights & sounds: Another daughter of a former 49ers QB leads Bay Area team

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

OAKLAND TECH: ‘SHE’S GOT HER DAD’S ARM’Menlo School’s Summer and Laila Young aren’t the only Bay Area flag football players to have a former 49ers quarterback as a father.At Oakland Tech, sophomore Jhai Johnson is following in her father Josh Johnson’s footsteps as a signal-caller in this first high school season of the girls sport, albeit somewhat by accident.“Actually, I wanted to be a receiver,” said Johnson, who is also a standout basketball player for the Bulldogs. “But nobody was trying out for quarterback so I was like ‘Why not?’”Her quick release, poise in the face of a pass rush and willingness to throw the ball across the middle helped Johnson pass for four touchdowns in Tech’s recent 28-6 victory over Benicia.“She’s got her dad’s arm,” a teammate yelled after the game.Johnson’s team, coached by athletic director Alexis Gray-Lawson, got its season started early. The Bulldogs had already played a couple of games before some of the other Oakland schools had even held tryouts...

Crash on Beltway in Fairfax Co. sends 4 to hospital, causing major delays

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

A serious crash on the Capital Beltway in Fairfax County has sent four people to the hospital and snarled traffic in the area.Fairfax County Fire and Rescue says three vehicles, including a box truck, were involved in the crash on the I-495 Express Lanes before Route 50.Virginia State Police said an officer was responding to a disabled vehicle near the 50-mile marker when a box truck overturned on a state police patrol vehicle, causing the multi-vehicle crash. There was person injured in the box truck, police said. The trooper was not injured.WTOP Traffic Reporter Dave Dildine said the crash has led to major delays, with vehicles slowly moving around the investigation in only the right two lanes.“Major delays on the Beltway in Virginia, the interloop bumper to bumper from Springfield towards Tysons,” Dildine reported. “The 495 express lanes are completely closed, don’t even bother trying to illegally drive into them across the flex posts, police are on the lo...

Communication outage hits flood-stricken city in Libya, further complicating search efforts

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A day-long communication outage in a flood-stricken city in eastern Libya further complicated the work of teams searching for bodies under the rubble and at sea Wednesday. The country’s chief prosecutor, meanwhile, vowed to take “serious measures” to deliver justice for the victims of the floods, which killed thousands of people and devastated the coastal city of Derna more than a week ago.The outage was caused by fiber-optic cables being severed Tuesday, Libya’s state-owned telecommunications company said. Engineers were investigating to determine whether it happened because of digging for bodies or was sabotage, the company’s spokesman, Mohamed al-Bdairi, told a local television station.Internet and phone service were knocked out, with residents and journalists unable to reach those inside Derna. Authorities said communications with the city were restored Wednesday evening.Heavy rains triggered deadly flooding across eastern Libya earlier this month. The storm overwhe...

A 96-year-old federal judge is barred from hearing cases in a bitter fight over her mental fitness

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

A 96-year-old U.S. federal appeals court judge was barred Wednesday from hearing cases for a year after a panel said she refused to undergo medical testing amid concerns that she is no longer mentally fit to serve on the bench. It’s the latest development in an unusually public and bitter fight over whether Judge Pauline Newman should continue to serve on the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that has sparked a lawsuit and turned judges against one another. Newman, a President Ronald Reagan appointee who has been on the court for nearly four decades, insists that she remains physically and mentally fit to decide matters of the law, and has accused her colleagues of making baseless claims in an effort to push her out because of her age. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is one of 13 U.S. appellate courts. It hears cases on issues like government contracts, patents and trademarks. Federal judges chosen by presidents and confirmed by t...

Calls renewed for ‘woefully underused trail’ to become bike path to new DC high school

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:48:36 GMT

Capital Trails Coalition is working to help connect trails in the region. (WTOP/Kate Ryan) Capital Trails Coalition is working to help connect trails in the region. (WTOP/Kate Ryan) With D.C. opening a new high school in the Palisades neighborhood, there are renewed calls to pave the Palisades Trolley Trail to create a bike path for resident and student use.When you are walking on the grassy Palisades Trolley Trail you’ll notice plenty of beautiful views of the Potomac, but very few other people.“It’s a woefully underused trail,” said Brett Young, who lives in the Palisades near MacArthur High School. “And there’s no bike lanes in this neighborhood.”Young is also a member of the Ward 3 Bicycle Advocate...