Category: Bay Area

The deal with seals California is turning 175 years old later this year. To mark the occasion, we will be looking at several aspects of the state seal, as well as the nation’s seal and those of other states. The seal of a nation or state is used for authenticating documents of high importance or high ceremony issued in the name of the sovereign or the chief executive authority, such as the president or governor. The California seal has changed several times over the years. The most recent version, the full-color version, was accepted as official in 1978. The California State Capitol Museum tells the seal’s history: “The Great Seal of the State of California was designed and approved at the 1849 Monterey Constitutional Convention. The complex imagery on the Great Seal serves as a snapshot in time, capturing some of the main issues facing the convention members. These included many activities and localities in the future state that were important to them – mining, farming and water transportation. After the Constitutional Convention, the first set of seals were engraved, with further changes following over

HAYWARD — A man was fatally shot Saturday night not far from City Hall, authorities said. Authorities are trying to identify the man. The shooting happened about 9:18 p.m. Saturday near the 22000 block of Mission Boulevard. Police said in a news release that officers arrived on scene and located a male of unknown age suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced deceased at the scene. Police have not yet released a possible motive for the killing. No one has been arrested in the shooting, which authorities said is Hayward’s second homicide of the year. Anyone with information related to the homicide is asked to call Detective Green at 510-293-7176. Originally Published: March 17, 2025 at 8:26 AM PDT

Even as rain was set to fall again throughout the day Monday, the National Weather Service said signs remained in place that the Bay Area’s most recent wet period may be ready to be  put into the past tense. “Once the sun sets,” National Weather Service meteorologist Nicole Sarment said, “this latest system will be done.” The system — the last in a weak atmospheric river pattern that has brought rain steadily since last Tuesday — was set to drop a quarter-inch to a half-inch on areas of the region Monday. Those showers will be isolated but at times may be very heavy with gusty winds and small hail, according to the weather service. The agency said there was a 10%-to-20% chance that some areas could see brief thunderstorms. “We still have a decent chunk of the system across the East Bay and South Bay that’s continuing to push southeast,” Sarment said. “So you’re going to see isolated showers fall throughout the day. It won’t be a washout by any means, but it will be there on and off.” Rain from the third system began

It has been a decade since three No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four, which means the favorites are due to dominate. Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here. Originally Published: March 17, 2025 at 8:02 AM PDT

Protesters hold signs in front of Tesla dealership on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) By Stephanie Lam | slam@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: March 17, 2025 at 5:45 AM PDT Some Bay Area residents are opting to leave Tesla in their rear-view mirrors. Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here.

Over three hundred people at a climate action conference had to be rescued on Thursday, March 13 after a heavy snow storm left them stranded at a camp near Big Bear. The group began to leave YMCA Camp Whittle in Fawnskin, where the conference was held, walking through roughly two feet of snow in an attempt to get to an area where the roads were clear enough for buses to wait. Initially, those buses were stuck in the snow, and that caught the eye of firefighters, including Captain Anthony Muscarello. The buses happened to be stuck near San Bernardino County Fire Station 96, almost two miles from the camp. “Within a few minutes, we had a couple hundred people standing in a blizzard in front of our station, waiting to get on these buses that were getting stuck and didn’t know the best way to get down,” Muscarello said. They opened up Station 96 and let people warm up as Muscarello and his colleagues tried to help figure out the best way for the seven buses to get down the mountain. As more and more

A 31-year-old woman has been charged with murder after a man who paid her to engage in fetish acts died after he’d had a bag on his head, secured with duct tape, during their encounter in an Escondido home. She recorded the interactions to use as content for her OnlyFans site, police allege in a court document. Video showed Michael Dale, 55, in the secured bag for at least eight minutes, investigators said. She also allegedly glued boots to his feet, which a court document indicates was done at his request. Michaela Brashaye Rylaarsdam now sits in jail without bail after being arrested and charged with murder last month — nearly two years after the death. The San Bernardino County woman pleaded not guilty in Vista Superior Court. RELATED: Olympians are turning to OnlyFans to fund dreams as they face a ‘broken’ finance system Details of the encounter are scant — laid out in a narrative that runs less than two pages in an affidavit for an arrest warrant that Escondido police submitted last month. The incident allegedly occurred between two consenting adults during what appears

Silicon Valley tech giants cozied up to Trump — his administration is still suing them Lawsuits ‘immensely consequential for these companies’ Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool) Feds’ continuing demand for breakup of Google may signal Trump administration committed to anti-monopoly legal action. Originally Published: March 17, 2025 at 5:30 AM PDT

By David Hilzenrath, Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group, KFF Health News A year ago, a new head of Social Security set out to stop the agency from financially devastating many of the people it was meant to help. The agency had long made it a practice to reduce or halt benefit checks to recoup billions of dollars in payments it sent recipients but later said they never should have received. Martin O’Malley, then the Social Security Administration commissioner, announced in March 2024 the agency would no longer cut off people’s monthly old-age, survivors, and disability checks to recoup money they had allegedly been overpaid — a pattern he called “clawback cruelty.” Instead, it would default to withholding 10% of monthly benefits. The new policy allowed people who already live on little to pay their rent and keep food on the table. Last week, the Trump administration reversed that policy. Beginning March 27, to recover new overpayments, the Social Security Administration will automatically withhold 100% of recipients’ monthly benefits, the agency announced. The agency said it was acting in the interest of fiscal responsibility and that

Dear Eric: My brother passed in 2023. He was not married and had no children. He left an estate of $1.5 million. My two sisters and I split his estate equally and have finally closed the estate. From the start, my older sister’s husband protested that we should not split the estate equally. He says we should have split it to “level the retirement playing field.” In other words, I should have declined my inheritance to give my sisters a retirement financially equivalent to what my husband and I have. My brother-in-law is still being very aggressive that I need to gift my inheritance to my sisters and not share it with my adult children. Neither my sisters nor I agree with this. We, including my husband, are all disgusted by this aggressive repeated request from my brother-in-law. My sisters made different career and financial decisions than my husband and me. They are not concerned that my husband and I have a much more comfortable retirement than they do. However, it really makes my brother-in-law angry. I have repeatedly told him to stop asking, and

DEAR HARRIETTE: I am trying to work on becoming less bothered by the small things in life. I take things personally, whether they are big or small, and I let them ruin my whole day. For instance, if someone makes a harmless joke at my expense or if I receive minor criticism at work, I dwell on it for hours, sometimes even days. Even when I know deep down that the comment wasn’t meant to be hurtful, I can’t help but feel slighted or embarrassed. I replay conversations in my head, wondering if I said the wrong thing or if people are judging me. It’s exhausting to constantly feel like I have to prove myself or read between the lines of everything people say. I admire people who can brush things off and not take life so seriously, but I don’t know how to get to that point myself. I want to be more easygoing and confident, but no matter how much I tell myself to “let it go,” I still feel a knot in my stomach when I think about certain moments. How can

DEAR MISS MANNERS: On my daughter’s wedding day, the weather was perfect, as was the venue and all preparations. A few hours before the ceremony, the groom was arrested on an active warrant. (That’s an issue for another day.) We were already at the venue. The bridal party was getting dressed and photos were being taken while the bride was on the phone with an attorney, attempting to have the groom released. Guests were already arriving since it was more than an hour’s drive for all of them. Because we were hopeful that the groom would be released, and because the guests were already there and we couldn’t cancel, we decided to proceed with the cocktail hour and reception, hoping to hold the ceremony once the groom arrived. The groom was not released. The wedding ceremony never took place. I told my daughter to return all monetary gifts. She feels they should be kept since the couple “will be getting married eventually.” I am torn. Yes, we did have a wonderful party, although we were not in a very celebratory mood. But I feel that

Saint Mary’s may be the Bay Area’s only men’s basketball team in the NCAA Tournament, but four other local schools will also be participating in the postseason this coming week. Hours after the NCAA Tournament was revealed Sunday, Stanford, San Jose State, San Francisco and Santa Clara all accepted invites to the men’s National Invitational Tournament. Stanford (20-13) will be taking part in the postseason for the first time since 2018 when it hosts Cal State Northridge (22-10) on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Maples Pavilion. Santa Clara (20-12) plays host on Tuesday as well when it faces UC Riverside (21-12) at 8 p.m. Both USF and San Jose State will play at home Wednesday night in the 32-team NIT. The Dons (24-9) will play Utah Valley (25-8) at War Memorial at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, the Spartans (15-19) are set to make their first NIT appearance since 1981 when they face Loyola Chicago (22-11) at 8 p.m. Despite their sub-.500 record, the Spartans are enjoying a bit of a renaissance under coach Tim Miles. Their 15 victories gives them their most wins over a three-year

Oakland: Person alive after medical emergency declared at BART BART stopped in Oakland for over an hour after someone ended the trackway A medical emergency in Oakland Sunday night briefly stopped trains. A person on the tracks was removed alive. (File) A person who entered the BART trackway in Oakland was removed from the tracks alive after trains were halted for over an hour between the Lake Merritt and Coliseum stops Sunday evening, according to Chris Filippi, BART communications officer. BART police and the Oakland Fire Department responded around 8 p.m. to a report that someone had entered the trackway in Oakland and may have come into contact with a train. A medical emergency was announced, trains were stopped, and the person was removed, alive, from the track, according to Filippi. BART resumed its regular schedule around 9:15 p.m.

By Chris Megerian Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he pushes to end the war in Ukraine. The U.S. leader disclosed the upcoming conversation to reporters while flying from Florida to Washington on Air Force One on Sunday evening. “We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I will be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday,” Trump said. “A lot of work’s been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.” Although Russia failed in its initial goal to topple Ukraine with its invasion three years ago, it still controls large swaths of the country. Trump said land and power plants are part of the conversation around bringing the war to a close. “We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” he said. Trump described it as “dividing up certain assets.” Originally Published: March 16, 2025 at 9:22 PM PDT

By Jon Wilner | jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: March 16, 2025 at 6:54 PM PDT The heavyweight conferences gobbled up the majority of at-large bids, a sign of their growing influence over the rest of the sport. Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here.

BERKELEY — There was no real drama in terms of whether Cal was going to be part of the 68-team field for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Bears knew they were in, so they invited a few hundred of their closest friends and supporters to share in the fun. Cal hosted a watch party at the Field Club in Memorial Stadium on Sunday. There was a master of ceremonies, a DJ, the Straw Hat Band, family members, donors and students. The selection show began at 5 p.m., with Cal not hearing its name called until 5:47 when the Bears (25-8) were announced as the No. 8 seed and will face No. 9. Mississippi State (22-10) of the Southeastern Conference. As a bonus, after becoming experienced cross country flyers in their first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Cal’s opener Saturday will be in Los Angeles at 2:30 p.m. USC (28-3) earned the No. 1 seed in Spokane Region Four and will host a four-team pod that includes Cal. “We’re so glad we’re in L.A.,” forward Marta Suarez said. “We’re used to traveling but that

MORAGA — Bay Area college basketball fans should not take for granted Saint Mary’s earning its fourth consecutive NCAA tournament berth on Sunday. The Gaels (28-5) landed a No. 7 seed and will open on Friday against No. 10 seed Vanderbilt (20-12) at Cleveland in a time to be announced. It’s their 11th trek into the NCAAs under coach Randy Bennett, and their 14th in program history. A victory would send them into a second-round matchup against either No. 2 Alabama 25-8) No. 15 Robert Morris (26-8) on Sunday. Not only is the Gaels’ four-year run unprecedented in program history, but no local team has matched it since Stanford went 11 years in a row through 2005. Cal made it to the NCAAs four years in a row under legendary coach Pete Newell, but that stretch ended 65 years ago. San Francisco hasn’t done it since the days of Bill Russell in the 1950s. Santa Clara and San Jose State haven’t made it even once since 1996. “Three years in a row was the first time in school history,” Bennett said. “Four years is incredible.

Bay Area is under an updated wind advisory which was released by the National Weather Service on Sunday at 10:46 p.m. The advisory is in effect until Monday, Mar. 17 at 2 a.m. “South winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected,” the NWS San Francisco CA said. “Gusts greater than 60 mph can be expected in the higher ridgelines and peaks.” “Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” according to the NWS. “Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution. Secure loose outdoor objects that could be blown around or damaged by the wind.” The full list of affected locations includes: San Francisco Bay Shoreline San Francisco Peninsula Coast East Bay Interior Valleys Santa Cruz Mountains East Bay Hills San Francisco County Originally Published: March 16, 2025 at 10:48 PM PDT Sourcing & Methodology This article was generated by software that analyzes National Weather Service warnings and advisories and creates an article based on templates created by humans. Our data

The National Weather Service issued an updated lake wind advisory at 12:22 p.m. on Sunday in effect until 5 p.m. for the Greater Lake Tahoe Area. The NWS Reno NV adds to prepare for, “Southwest winds 25 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph and waves 3 to 5 feet for Lake Tahoe.” “Small boats, kayaks and paddle boards will be prone to capsizing and should remain off lake waters until conditions improve,” according to the NWS. “Check lake conditions before heading out and be prepared for a sudden increase in winds and wave heights. Consider postponing boating activities on the lake until a day with less wind.” Originally Published: March 16, 2025 at 12:26 PM PDT Sourcing & Methodology This article was generated by software that analyzes National Weather Service warnings and advisories and creates an article based on templates created by humans. Our data comes from publicly available information. You can report errors to content@bayareanewsgroup.com

By Bay City News BART service is temporarily suspended on the San Francisco/Millbrae line due to an equipment problem on the track, agency officials said Sunday morning. There is currently no Red Line service between Daly City and Millbrae and no Yellow Line service between Colma and Millbrae, the agency said. SamTrans is providing bus service on Bus ECR for service to all station between Colma and Millbrae. Bus 292 provides service between Millbrae and SFO.