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Bay Area

No water at Giants hotel in Philly before Eagles game due to ‘busted pipe’

PHILADELPHIA — They can’t call this Watergate. It’s Wooder-gate. The Giants’ Center City hotel had no water on Saturday morning due to a “busted pipe,” a source confirmed. What a coincidence. The hotel was working on fixing it, but in the meantime, Giants players and staff were unable to shower or use facilities ahead of their 8:15 p.m. NFC Divisional Round playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The news was first reported by Giants superfan License Plate Guy, aka Joe Ruback, on Twitter at 10:13 a.m. and confirmed by ESPN’s Jordan Raanan. This is a developing story. ()

Bay Area

Los Gatos Theatre, a ‘centerpiece’ of the community, reopens

It’s showtime at the Los Gatos Theatre for the first time in nearly three years. Local leaders and residents celebrated the reopening of the iconic downtown theater Thursday evening at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and screening of Tom Hanks’ latest film, “A Man Called Otto.” “I am a longtime resident, and I’ve been coming to this theater since 1987,” said Los Gatos Mayor Maria Ristow. “One of the things that struck me when thinking about the theater tonight was how it reflects our small town values.” The theater had been closed since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when its former owners, the Goetz family, donated the theater to the town. Los Gatos started its search for a new operator last year before selecting CineLux. The town signed a five-year deal with the theater management company.. “This has been a centerpiece for our family, and so when it was closed, it was like a piece was missing,” said Steve Chen, a longtime Los Gatos resident and member of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District Board. Ruth Mistry, a Los Gatos real estate agent, said she

Bay Area

Mike Lupica: Jets fans suffer through another NFL playoff season with Gang Green on the sidelines

There really is no better weekend in the pro football season than this one, two games on Saturday, including the one between the Giants and the Eagles, and two more on Sunday, including the one between the Cowboys and the 49ers, one of the storied rivalries in the history of the sport. I saw a lot of those games in person, including the one at old Candlestick Park when I was about twenty yards away from the late Dwight Clark when he reached for the sky and brought down the pass from Joe Montana that sent the 49ers to their first Super Bowl under Bill Walsh. But there is no season for Jets fans at this time of year. There hasn’t been any playoff season for Jets fans in 12 long years, practically 12 years to the day from when Rex Ryan’s guys nearly chased the Steelers into the parking lot at Heinz Field before finally losing that AFC championship game, 24-19. Every sports team in town, and on either side of the Hudson, has made the postseason since then. Except for the Jets. Everybody

Bay Area

RJ Barrett juiced for his head-to-head against Toronto’s Scottie Barnes: ‘That’s what I want’

ATLANTA — It goes back to high school, the rivalry between RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes. As Barrett pointed out ahead of their next matchup, “I busted his ass.” That was in reference to the 2018 national title game, when Barrett dropped 25 points with 15 rebounds in Montverde Academy’s beatdown over Barnes’ squad, University School. Now Barrett and Barnes are NBA foes with mutual respect but also some extra motivation for Sunday’s head-to-head in Toronto. “Hopefully [I guard him again],” Barrett said. “That’s what I want.” The fuel for Barrett, beyond the return to his hometown of Toronto and the need to snap a three-game losing streak, is the last matchup against the Raptors less than a week ago. Barrett buried a thrilling game-tying dunk and scored 32 points in that contest, but the Knicks dropped a heartbreaker with Barnes grabbing clutch rebounds. It prompted a postgame comment from Barnes about exploiting a mismatch against Barrett. “When I was posting up, RJ is a good defender, but I felt like with me being taller, with my size, I was going to be able to

Bay Area

Bill Madden: Yankees didn’t do much this offseason, but neither did rest of AL East

Spring training is right around the February corner and aside from signing Carlos Rodon for six years and $162 million, the Yankees have been pretty quiet on the home improvement front this offseason, content to have re-signed Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo while otherwise letting Steve Cohen grab the New York Hot Stove spotlight with his offseason outlay of over $500 million. No addressing the primary need for an outfield bat once Andrew Benintendi went off the board and signed with the White Sox. No finding any takers for Aaron Hicks or Josh Donaldson, and other than the re-acquisition of much-traveled Tommy Kahnle for the bullpen and the curious trade of Lucas Luetge to the Braves for two marginal minor league prospects, Brian Cashman has seemed content to go with essentially the same cast of Yankees that struggled mightily in the postseason last year. Whatever issues that remain unresolved — shortstop, left field, third base, fifth starter now that Frankie Montas is hurt again — are apparently going to be subjects for spring training. But you know what? The Rodon signing alone, giving them a

Los Angeles

Group asks California Attorney General to investigate soaring natural gas bills

A consumer advocacy group is asking California’s attorney general to investigate why SoCalGas customers have seen their natural gas bills soar to record highs this winter, and whether the utility’s parent company is improperly profiting. “Southern California Gas doubled consumers’ natural gas bills with virtually no notice, leaving its customers with large, unexpected bills,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, in a letter to Rob Bonta Thursday. “They are now forced to choose between paying their utility bills and their rent, food costs, and other monthly obligations with no warning.” California natural gas bills are soaring, and help is limited According to SoCalGas, which serves most of Southern California, prices are running about five times higher than last January due to market forces, supply issues and cold-than-normal weather along the West Coast. The utility, which warned customers about the looming spike in late December, insists it does not profit from these price fluctuations. “While we don’t set these prices (they’re set by regional and national markets), nor does SoCalGas actually profit from rising prices, we want our customers to know that we understand that this

Los Angeles

José Huizar Pleads Guilty to Racketeering, Tax Evasion; Sentencing Set April 3

Sentencing is scheduled April 3 for former Los Angeles City Councilman José Huizar following his guilty plea on two federal charges stemming from a City Hall-based bribery and money laundering scheme in which he took more than $1.8 million in cash, gambling trips and escorts in exchange for his support of a planned downtown hotel project.Huizar pleaded guilty Friday before U.S. District Judge John Walter in downtown Los Angeles to racketeering conspiracy and tax evasion. The charges could carry a sentence of up to 25 years behind bars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The plea agreement, which was filed Thursday, says the ex-councilman agreed not to ask for a prison term of less than nine years. Prosecutors said they will request a 13-year federal prison sentence.Huizar will also be ordered to pay restitution of $1.85 million, the document states. During the Friday morning hearing, it took prosecutors nearly 90 minutes to read the factual basis for the plea deal, outlining the intricacies of the pay-to-play scheme that prompted an FBI probe and cast a shadow of corruption over Los Angeles City Hall.Walter asked Huizar

Los Angeles

Google Announces Layoffs, Cuts 12,000 Jobs

Google Office – Photo courtesy of JHVEPhoto on Shutterstock Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, which has offices in Los Angeles, is cutting about 12,000 jobs from its global workforce, affecting about 6% of the company’s employees.Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai wrote an email to Google employees on the company’s news blog Friday morning saying he had some “difficult news to share.” “We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles … This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with,” Pichai wrote in the email, according to media reports. “I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.” Google employs about 2,000 people in its Los Angeles offices, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal in a report published in 2022. The Google offices in Los Angeles are spread across four sites, in the Westside Pavilion, the Binocular Building in Venice, the Spruce Goose office in Playa Vista and

Featured

Reassembling a 15th century ship: “The world’s largest 3-D puzzle”

The remains of a British ship that set sail years before Columbus were discovered two decades ago in a south Wales riverbank. After 20 years of painstaking restoration, archaeologists have started to reassemble the 15th century wreck. With almost 2,500 pieces, it has been called the world’s largest 3-D puzzle. The BBC’s Tomos Morgan has the story on the Newport Ship Conservation Project.

Featured

A German shepherd travels the world via motorcycle

Jess Stone and her husband, Greg, planned to see the world, but didn’t know what to do with their pet. The solution is turning heads, as Moxie has joined them on their five-continent motorcycle adventure, shared online as “GoRUFFLY Around the World,” which raises funds for the global nonprofit Girl Up! Correspondent Jamie Yuccas reports.