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Review: Murder & laughter co-star in City Lights’ ‘Game’s Afoot’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

The errant knaves who occupy the grand living room of William Gillette, an actual star of stage and screen, love to deep-dive into their own pedanticism. William Shakespeare’s multitude of transformative quotes are on this gathering’s agenda, provided by the guests who attempt desperately to out-Hamlet each other. It’s as if there are prizes for those who can quote the bard faster and more often than the other.City Lights Theater Company’s production of Ken Ludwig’s “The Game’s Afoot; Or Holmes for the Holidays,” in which a party at the actor’s castle becomes its own murder mystery, holds its own in the comic genre, delving into three distinct subtexts. Murder, mystery and madcap mayhem are all brought forth with shimmering glee within director Mark Anderson Phillips’ purposeful staging.Ludwig’s script meanders too much inside a first act which establishes the sometimes predictable rigor of a tighter and funnier Act 2. Within Phillips’ direction of a cast not alway...

Jury signs off on aggravating factors for San Carlos beheading killer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

REDWOOD CITY — The jury that on Monday found a man guilty in the brutal daytime killing of his child’s mother last year added enhancements to their verdict Tuesday, factors that will be taken into account when the man is sentenced to prison.All aggravating factors were found to be true by San Mateo County Superior Court jurors Tuesday; the panel had been asked to decide on the specific facts of the case as the last step of the trial in the grisly San Carlos beheading case. Now, only a sentencing hearing remains for Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta, 34, found guilty of murder in the violent 2022 killing.Solano, of Hayward, brutally killed the mother of his child, Karina Castro, in broad daylight on a suburban street on Sept. 8 of last year. After finding him guilty Monday afternoon at the San Mateo County Hall of Justice in Redwood City, jurors affirmed the first of five aggravating factors, agreeing that he used a sword in the slaying.Jurors reconvened Tuesday to address the four r...

Why Warriors’ Kuminga isn’t playing more despite Draymond’s absence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Three games into Draymond Green’s suspension, the Warriors have mostly gone small in their starting lineup. Rather than insert third-year wing Jonathan Kuminga, coach Steve Kerr has gone with veteran guard Chris Paul into his starting five each of their past two games.Kuminga, still only 21, has been left to fight for minutes with the rest of the Warriors’ reserves, a rotation Kerr said runs 12 deep.“Every night is going to be a little bit different. We’re going to go with whoever gives us the best chance to win,” Kerr said. “That’s going to be different guys unless there’s separation within the group. So far I haven’t seen that separation. A lot of guys are playing well but nobody’s separating themselves from the pack.”Kuminga made his first and only start of the season in the first game of Green’s suspension and put up 21 points in his most efficient shooting performance of the season. Playing a season-high 26 minutes, he a...

Oakland: Man shot to death in fast-food parking lot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

OAKLAND — A man was shot to death Tuesday morning in the parking lot of an East Oakland fast-food restaurant, authorities said.The man’s name was not immediately released pending confirmation of his identity and notification of his next of kin.The shooting happened about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in a parking lot in the 6900 block of Bancroft Ave. at Church Street. Police responding to a report of a shooting found a man suffering from at least one gunshot.Rescuers rendered emergency aid but he died at the scene.A potential suspect was seen driving away in an unspecified vehicle. Investigators were still working to determine a possible motive.The killing is the 113th homicide investigated by Oakland police this year. Last year at this time police had investigated 112 homicides in the city.Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $10,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. Anyone with information may call police at 510-238-3821 or 510-23...

Nearly a million US union members got double-digit raises this year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

By Chris Isidore | CNNNearly 900,000 Americans sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner this week will have unions – and the double-digit pay increases they won – to thank.That’s how many unionized workers have won immediate pay hikes of 10% or more in just the last year, according to an analysis by CNN.And the pace of increases of that size have been picking up. More than 700,000 of those workers won pay hikes over the course of the last six months, and of that group, nearly 300,000 saw deals reached in just the last six weeks.“I would say this is the best run of wage increases won by labor since the period right after the end of World War II,” said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Buffalo.Some of the deals arrived at the end of high-profile strikes, such as the United Auto Workers union strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which lasted more than six weeks, or one by 75,000 health care workers at Ka...

Ex-San Jose PD officer who allegedly masturbated at crime scene arrested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

(KRON) -- A disgraced former police officer who was fired from the San Jose Police Department last year is back behind bars.Ex-SJPD Officer Matthew Dominguez was arrested by his old co-workers on November 17 in connection to a hit-and-run crash. A police department spokesperson told KRON4, "Mr. Dominguez was arrested for allegations of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run, and failure to yield to a peace officer."Santa Clara County jail inmate records show Dominguez, 33, remained locked in a jail cell as of Tuesday afternoon in lieu of $105,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. Dominguez was fired from the police department in the summer of 2022 after crime victims came forward with disturbing allegations. A family told SJPD that Dominguez and two other officers went to their home in response to a 911 call for a mentally ill family member. Dominguez was alone in a room with a mother and her 23-year-old daughter when he allegedly unzipped his pants and began...

Acclaimed Oakland BBQ goes up in flames, days after being vandalized

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

(KRON) -- Days after its owner announced on social media that it had been vandalized a popular Oakland BBQ spot was badly damaged in a fire Tuesday morning. One day earlier, on Monday, Matt Horn, owner of Horn Barbecue in West Oakland, wrote a lengthy Instagram post that showed the popular restaurant defaced with graffiti.In his post, Horn said that in addition to the graffiti, there was an attempted break-in to the restaurant's trailer. Ex-San Jose PD officer who masturbated at crime scene arrested again "To you cowardly individuals responsible for this, hear me clearly: you are nothing more than filth that plagues our beautiful city," Horn wrote. "Your actions are a pathetic display of disrespect and ignorance attacking not just our business but the very fabric of our community in which you inhabit." On Tuesday, the Oakland Fire Department received a call at 4:19 a.m. reporting a fire at the restaurant. Crews arrived on the scene three minutes later.Approximately 20 firefig...

SF late night, Sunday parking meter hours expansion halted for now

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

(BCN) -- A proposal that would have seen San Francisco parking meter hours expand into late nights and Sundays has been halted. Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Ahsha Safai announced Monday that they had reached an agreement with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to halt the plans after a backlash by city residents.The SFMTA had proposed increasing parking meter hours to 10 p.m. on weekdays, an increase of four hours, and adding meter hours from noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. The Board of Supervisors said they received thousands of letters voicing opposition to the SFMTA's plans, which were first announced in May, and calling on the board to urge the transit authorities to delay implementing the new proposal. Ex-San Jose PD officer who masturbated at crime scene arrested Prior to reaching the agreement, Safai had planned on taking the issue to voters in March of next year but has since tabled that proposal."Small businesses and working familie...

Crypto scam organization disrupted through seizure of nearly $9M

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

(KRON) – The seizure of nearly $9 million worth of Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar, was traced to cryptocurrency addresses allegedly associated with an organization that exploited over 70 victims through romance scams and cryptocurrency confidence scams, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.“The department hopes this recovery of assets will bring some closure and a sense of justice to the over 70 victims affected by this series of scams. This seizure should also serve as a reminder to cybercriminals that, although the current landscape of the cryptocurrency ecosystem may seem like an ideal way to launder ill-gotten gains, law enforcement will continue to develop the expertise needed to follow the money and seize it back for victims,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  Wife and lover who allegedly conspired to kill her husband arrested for murder in Hayward According to court docume...

Democratic division blocks effort to end Michigan’s 24-hour wait for an abortion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:59:06 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Democrats, who early this year had built on the state’s recent reputation for safeguarding abortion rights, have stalled on the once-assured effort due to dissent within the state legislative caucus in recent months.Two key pieces of legislation that would have repealed a 24-hour wait period required for patients receiving an abortion and also allowed state Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions were left out of a package signed Tuesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The scaled back package of bills known as the Reproductive Health Act will repeal regulations aimed at abortion providers, known as TRAP laws, that critics had said were designed to close abortion providers. It will also ensure that students at Michigan public universities can access information about all their reproductive health options and repeals a law that forced patients to buy a separate insurance rider for abortion. But the absence of more substantial policy changes appeared to detract f...