Category: Bay Area

The ACBL’s efforts to attract players from a younger generation are paying off. The number of young players discovering the challenge of bridge, and the tournament competitions especially for youth, have soared. Junior players are known for ebullient bidding. In a secondary team event at the Fall NABC, Nathan Gong of Sammamish, Wash. was South. North was Stefan Skorchev, one of many foreign players at the “Nationals.” When Gong opened 1NT, West’s two clubs showed length in both majors. Skorchev had a shot at the nine-trick notrump game. CHANCE When East competed to four hearts, Gong figured he would have a chance at five clubs and couldn’t beat four hearts badly if at all. Then Skorchev placed his partner with aces to bid an 11-trick contract; he boldly raised to six clubs. East doubled, presumably asking West to lead a non-heart, but when West led a heart anyway, Hong won and tabled the ace of clubs. The missing honors fell, and Gong took the rest for the rare score of plus 1740. Gong-Skorchev and their teammates won the event. DAILY QUESTION You hold: S 10

Dear Amy: I am the “maid of honor” for my best friend’s wedding, which is happening this summer. It’s a big job and I have done my very best to step up in all of the expected ways. Like other people who have faced this demanding role, it can strain a friendship – but my friendship with “Chloe” (the bride) has survived just fine. So far, anyway. Last week, Chloe texted me to say that she sent out the invitations and that “William,” my very steady boyfriend of several years, was not invited. She texted me that she feels terrible about this, but this was because of “serious space constraints.” She has planned for 125 guests at the reception. Chloe has met William several times (we live out of state), and she knows that we live together. I’m completely shocked by this exclusion, and I don’t know how to respond. Any ideas? – Mad MOH Dear Mad: One of the most basic guidelines concerning wedding invitations is that engaged couples, longtime partners and couples living together should be invited as a couple. Chloe might justify

DEAR HARRIETTE: I recently discovered that my 20-year-old sister is adopted, and it has left me feeling shocked, confused and betrayed. I’m 25, and my parents never disclosed this information to me nor my sister. We lived our whole lives until now believing we were blood sisters. Our relationship hasn’t changed since the news came out, but it is still life-altering information. If I’m feeling betrayed, I can’t imagine how my sister feels! Her whole life, she thought that our parents were her blood relatives, but it turns out that some other people whom she has never met are her birth parents. I’m struggling to trust my parents and wondering what else they might still be hiding from my sister and me. It feels like a significant part of my childhood is a lie. How can I rebuild trust with my parents? How can my sister and I address the feelings of betrayal we’re experiencing? — Dealing With Adoption DEAR DEALING WITH ADOPTION: Do your best to focus on the love you all share with each other. Regardless of whose blood runs in your veins

Baseball  No. 5 Los Gatos 10, Mountain View 1 The Wildcats scored 10 runs on just six hits as Mountain View struggled on the defensive end.  The Spartans had five errors and Los Gatos scored runs on three of them.  Los Gatos senior AJ Ljepava batted 3 for 4 and scored a run. Donovan Freed hit a solo home run. Pitcher AJ Minyard pitched a no-hitter and allowed just a run in seven innings pitched.  Los Gatos improved to 10-2, 3-1 and will play Homestead on Thursday. Mountain View dropped to 6-8, 2-2. Freedom 4, Lincoln-Stockton 3 The Falcons halted Lincoln’s late-game comeback to pick up a road win and improve to 8-5. Down 4-1 in the seventh, Lincoln scored two runs to get within a run of sending the game to extra innings. With the bases loaded and one out, senior pitcher Adrian Boles retired back-to-back batters to seal the win. Freedom junior Adam Boccia had two hits and two RBIs. Caleb Emmons had two hits in three attempts and an RBI.  Starting pitcher Cael Green pitched four innings and didn’t allow a run

Caltrain hits vehicle on track in Atherton on Friday night The driver of the vehicle was transported by ambulance to a hospital after sustaining injuries. A northbound Caltrain hit an occupied vehicle on the tracks at Fair Oaks Lane in Atherton on Friday night at 8:33 p.m., according to a Caltrain spokesperson. The driver of the vehicle was transported by ambulance to a hospital after sustaining injuries. The 65 passengers onboard the train, Caltrain #133, did not seem to suffer any injuries, and emergency personnel are currently at the scene. Transit police reopened the southbound track at 9:35 p.m., but train speeds were restricted to 5 mph near the incident area.

SAN DIEGO — As the San Francisco Giants batted in the top of the seventh inning Friday night, a towel hung around Kyle Harrison’s neck as he sat on the bench inside the third-base dugout. Logan Webb walked over, put his arm around Harrison’s shoulder and smiled. There was an awful lot to be proud of in Harrison’s first start of his sophomore season. Limiting a star-studded Padres lineup to two runs over six innings, Harrison led the way to the Giants’ first win of the season, 8-3, over the Padres. It also gave Bob Melvin his first win as the manager in San Francisco, some satisfying comeuppance for the skipper who has been booed heavily by the home crowd before each game. “It’s definitely fitting,” said third baseman Matt Chapman, who played for Melvin in Oakland for six seasons and homered twice in the win. “I know how badly he wants to win every single day, so I didn’t want to make him wait too long. That’s a guy I want to win for, do anything for, so it’s fun that it happened like

OAKLAND — José Ramirez hit his first home run of the season, Andrés Giménez had three hits and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Oakland A’s 6-4 on Friday night in front of a sparse crowd at the Coliseum. Ramirez, an All-Star each of the past three seasons, hit a two-run homer as part of a three-run first inning for the Guardians. Giménez (3-for-3, two walks) hit a pair of RBI doubles, while Will Brennan added an RBI single for Cleveland. “That’s why he’s José Ramirez,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “He’s a professional and he caught a fastball up and hooked it out. We made the error in the first that ended up leading to another run. “But after that, I thought we played a good, clean game for the most part. Our at-bats got better as the game got on.” A total of 17,359 fans have shown up for the first two games in Oakland this season. A crowd of 3,837 fans was announced for Friday’s game, after 13,522 fans attended opening night Thursday, with thousands more in the parking lot protesting the A’s

SAN DIEGO — As the San Francisco Giants batted in the top of the seventh inning Friday night, a towel hung around Kyle Harrison’s neck as he sat on the bench inside the third-base dugout. Logan Webb walked over, put his arm around Harrison’s shoulder and smiled. There was an awful lot to be proud of in Harrison’s first start of his sophomore season. Limiting a star-studded Padres lineup to two runs over six innings, Harrison led the way to the Giants’ first win of the season, 8-3, over the Padres. More impressively, he required only 76 pitches to do so, displaying an efficiency rarely seen from the overpowering lefty as he climbed the minor-league ranks and made his first seven major-league starts last season. He was well on his way to besting the previous longest start of his career, 6⅓ innings, but handed off a comfortable lead to the bullpen to finish the final three frames. In his seven starts last season, Harrison averaged 16.9 pitches per inning, which would have ranked 38th out of 44 qualified starters. Against the Padres on Friday, he

Oakland resident Fares Abdo Al Eyani, 41, was sentenced to twelve months and one day in prison for conspiring to export defense items, including firearms and night vision rifle scopes, from the Port of Oakland to the Sultanate of Oman, according to a Department of Justice release on Friday. Federal prosecutors say that, back in 2019, Al Eyani acquired at least four firearms, 44 rifle scopes, magazine rounds, monoculars and night vision goggles. He then stashed those items in two different shipping containers scheduled to depart from the Port of Oakland. To conceal the firearms, he reportedly disassembled them into their component parts, wrapped them in separate pieces of aluminum foil, and hid them in automobiles inside each container. Law enforcement officers seized the items before they shipped out. “Such actions not only pose significant risks to national security but also contribute to destabilizing regions and potentially fueling conflicts,” said San Francisco Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Tatum King in the press announcement. Al Eyani’s wife was also separately sentenced to three years probation for making false statements to the FBI during an investigation into

Two Oakland residents originally from Honduras were handed multiyear prison sentences on Friday for selling fentanyl and methamphetamines in the San Francisco Tenderloin and other parts of the Bay Area, according to a Department of Justice news release published Friday. One of the defendants, Marcos Carcamo, 25, was given a 48-month federal sentence for fentanyl and cocaine trafficking charges. At sentencing, Carcamo acknowledged that he possessed almost four pounds of fentanyl, along with a lesser amount of cocaine, which he planned to sell before he was arrested in San Francisco on Aug. 9. Officers searched Carcamo’s Oakland home and seized methamphetamine, heroin, a firearm, ammo, a pill press for making drugs, and $59,000 in cash. The other defendant, Raul Alexander Guisa-Ortega, 25, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for meth trafficking charges after being caught selling drugs, including fentanyl and meth, to an undercover officer on three separate occasions. When arrested Aug. 31, Guisa-Ortega admitted that knew the fentanyl he sold could be deadly, according to the release. Police found more drugs in his car and home after his arrest. After completing their prison

By Cedar Attanasio | Associated Press STAMFORD, Conn. — The late Joe Lieberman on Friday was remembered by political allies and even a former foe as a “mensch” who both bridged and defied partisan political divides, during a funeral service for the four-term U.S. senator. Former Vice President Al Gore, who ran for president on a Democratic ticket with Lieberman in the disputed 2000 election, told mourners at the Stamford, Connecticut, synagogue that there is no English equivalent for the Yiddish term. But, he said, they could find its definition by looking at Lieberman, who passed away this week at 82. “They find it in the way Joe Lieberman lived his life: friendship over anger, reconciliation as a form of grace,” Gore said. “We can learn from Joe Lieberman’s life some critical lessons about how we might heal the rancor in our nation today.” A socially progressive foreign policy hawk, Lieberman was long known for his pragmatic, independent streak, which Gore noted sometimes “left him exposed to partisan anger from both sides.” Gore, who said he first knew Lieberman as Connecticut’s attorney general in the

Stanford achieved its goal of getting out of Maples Pavilion but will go no further, as senior post Cameron Brink saw her career end in her hometown having fouled out early in the fourth quarter. The No 2 seeded Cardinal lost 77-67 to No. 3 North Carolina State Friday night at the Moda Center in Portland, ending its season with a 30-6 record. The Wolfpack improved to 30-6 and will face either Gonzaga or Texas Sunday for the right to play in next weekend’s Final Four in Cleveland. In search of its 23rd appearance in the Elite Eight, Stanford saw the game unravel in the third quarter as the Wolfpack worked on keeping Brink and Kiki Iriafen in foul trouble while the Cardinal struggled from the perimeter to stay even. Stanford was just 4-for-22 from the 3-point line, with three of those from Hannah Jump. Two of those were in the first quarter. Aziaha James led North Carolina with 29 points, including 16 in the third quarter, nailing three 3-pointers during that time period. At the time of her disqualification, Brink had 13 points, nine

SAN PABLO — Body-worn camera footage and 911 audio released Friday reveal new details about an incident in September when police shot and wounded a man who had confronted officers, throwing rocks and swinging a 3-foot metal pole, during an apparent mental-heath crisis. The man, who was later identified as 44-year-old Andre Smith, was initially listed in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the upper-right portion of his leg. He was eventually released from the hospital and now faces criminal charges in the incident. Police were first called at 1:39 p.m. on Sept. 8 2023 to to a house on the 2600 block of Dover Avenue by Smith’s wife, who said he was “showing signs of schizophrenia,” according to the 911 audio as released by police Friday. “I don’t know how to handle this without it being a big deal,” she told the police dispatcher over the phone. Smith can be heard in the background on the call, saying that he does not have mental issues and protesting his wife’s call. When officers arrived to the home shortly thereafter, Smith locked himself in a

By Michael R. Sisak | Associated Press NEW YORK — Manhattan prosecutors suggested Friday that Donald Trump violated a gag order in his hush-money criminal case this week by assailing the judge’s daughter and making a false claim about her on social media. The Manhattan district attorney’s office asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to “clarify or confirm” the scope of the gag order, which he issued Tuesday, and to direct the former president and presumptive Republican nominee to “immediately desist from attacks on family members.” In a letter to Merchan, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass argued that the gag order’s ban on statements meant to interfere with or harass the court’s staff or their families makes the judge’s daughter off-limits from Trump’s rhetoric. He said Trump should be punished for further violations. Trump’s lawyers contended the D.A.’s office is misinterpreting the order and said it doesn’t prohibit him from commenting about Loren Merchan, a political consultant whose firm has worked on campaigns for Trump’s rival. President Joe Biden, and other Democrats. “The Court cannot ‘direct’ President Trump to do something that the gag order does

UNION CITY — The California Highway Patrol arrested a suspect in an Interstate 880 road rage shooting with the help of dashboard camera footage and an alert rookie officer, authorities said Friday. The shooting happened just before 3 p.m. on Wednesday in the northbound lanes of I-880 south of Alvarado-Niles Road in Union City. Before the gunfire, two 36-year-old men in separate vehicles began cutting each other off. The CHP said the 36-year-old Oakland man driving the green Toyota then shot at the van, shattering glass on the passenger side window. The victim driver, also 36, was not hit by a bullet but suffered minor injuries from the broken glass. He did not require hospitalization. The dashboard camera in the van recorded the shooting and captured images of the shooter, authorities said. CHP Officer Kylie Musselman said Friday the actual shooting was not reported until about 4 p.m. Wednesday, when the head of the company that owns the van notified the CHP and he and the victim came to the agency’s Hayward office. Musselman said it turned out that before that happened, CHP Officer Jan Manalac

SAN JOSE – Landon Jacobs, who presided over a successful sports program at Branham High School for more than a decade, was relieved of his duties this month as a full-time athletic director for reasons he said have not been explained to him. He has been reassigned to another school within the Campbell Union High School District, Del Mar, to teach history, his credentialed subject. He hasn’t told the district whether he will accept the new position. Branham Principal Lindsay Schubert, in an email to the Bay Area News Group on Friday afternoon, wrote, “I understand the concern some in the community have about the decision to change Branham’s athletic director. It is a decision that I did not make lightly, and one that required that I take into account all of the facts. “Although I cannot share any details, as this is a personnel matter, I can share that I stand by my decision, and look forward to welcoming a new athletic director to Branham High School.” The Branham community is seeking answers for why an athletic director whose teams consistently contend for league

2181 Woodard Road – Google Street View A 1,234-square-foot house built in 1959 has changed hands. The property located in the 2100 block of Woodard Road in San Jose was sold on March 15, 2024. The $1,820,000 purchase price works out to $1,475 per square foot. The layout of this single-story home includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Additionally, the home includes a double carport. The property occupies a sizable 5,995-square-foot lot. Additional houses that have recently been purchased close by include: A 1,300-square-foot home on the 3600 block of Calvin Avenue in San Jose sold in February 2024, for $2,705,000, a price per square foot of $2,081. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. On Calico Avenue, San Jose, in September 2022, a 1,300-square-foot home was sold for $2,220,000, a price per square foot of $1,708. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. In December 2022, a 1,556-square-foot home on Stratford Drive in San Jose sold for $1,500,000, a price per square foot of $964. The home has 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom.

BYRON — A 22-year-old Antioch man is facing charges that he crashed into a car containing three women and a toddler while attempting to pass by driving against traffic, but police say they found evidence it was far from his first dangerous maneuver behind the wheel. The defendant, Jonathan Perez-Gaspar, faces charges of vehicular manslaughter and two counts of reckless driving, all felonies, for allegedly killing 20-year-old Jaleesa Martinez, and injuring Martinez’s mother and friend in the December 2022 crash. Martinez’s 1-year-old daughter was also in their car but escaped injury. At around 3:10 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2022, Perez-Gaspar allegedly drove his BMW into southbound traffic on Byron Highway to pass slower cars, then swerved back, striking a red Volkswagen containing Martinez and her family. He would later estimate his own speed at around 85 mph, authorities said. A GoFundMe page that raised $18,000 for Martinez’s family describes her as a nursing student, “serious grammarian” and former cheer captain who aspired to be a teacher. “Jaleesa was a beautiful soul with a warm heart and quick smile, who was loved by so many. She

RICHMOND — A person was the victim of a homicide Wednesday in South Richmond and a suspect has been arrested, authorities said. Police did not say if the victim was a man or woman or how they were killed. Authorities said only that they had sustained fatal wounds and that the case was being investigated as a homicide. According to a police department social media posting, the death happened Wednesday morning in the 300 block of South 36th Street. Police responding to a report of disturbance found the victim, the posting said. Police did not say if the victim was pronounced dead there or at a hospital. The posting said a suspect was later identified by detectives and arrested Thursday afternoon. Police have not provided a motive for the killing or said if the victim and suspect knew each other. The posting did say police believe the killing was an “isolated incident.”

Lauren Clason | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call A recent tweak to a Medicaid formula could be behind the shake-up to inhaler products, a series of changes that have both benefited and harmed patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Three of the four major inhaler manufacturers have announced plans to cap patient copays for all their inhalers at $35 a month in recent weeks, in addition to lowering the list prices of some of those products. But one drugmaker also withdrew two popular children’s inhalers from the market, and the alternative is in short supply. Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca PLC and GlaxoSmithKline, also known as GSK PLC, all announced the $35 monthly copay cap, which could significantly extend the impact of their current patient assistance programs. The companies have simultaneously cut list prices — the initial price before health plans negotiate discounts and rebates — for some, but not all, of their inhalers. The drug companies say they’ve made the changes because they’re committed to helping patients. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill say it happened because of public pressure. But some drug pricing experts

A condo in Saratoga that sold for $2 million tops the list of the most affordable real estate sales in Saratoga in the past week. For comparison, the overall average price of real estate in Saratoga during the last week was $4.1 million. The average price per square foot was $1,747. A total of 9 home sales were recorded for the period with an average square footage of 2,317 square feet, 3 bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms. The list below includes the best deals on real estate priced between $10-$10,000,000. Please note that the prices in the list below are for real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of March 18, even if the property may have been sold earlier. 9. $7.5 million, single-family house in the 20500 block of Montalvo Heights Drive The 4,137 square-foot single-family home in the 20500 block of Montalvo Heights Drive, Saratoga, has now been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in March and the total purchase price was $7,470,000, $1,806 per square foot. The house was built in 1969. The house features 4 bedrooms and