Category: Bay Area

It’s been nearly a month of vote counting in California’s congressional District 16 race that’s been full of twists and turns with frequent lead changes between Assemblymember Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, and with the unofficial election results finally in, the two are ending the primary election in a dead tie. The tie is the latest twist in the District 16 race to replace U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo that has captivated voters in the South Bay and on the Peninsula over the last month. On Tuesday afternoon, Santa Clara County posted its unofficial results, with Low leading by one vote. But on Wednesday, San Mateo County recorded its remaining votes, adding one more to Simitian’s total and keeping his congressional hopes alive. This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates. 

OAKLAND — The warfare over plans by Oakland International Airport to incorporate San Francisco Bay into its name widened on Wednesday after the East Bay aviation hub drafted travel leaders into its cause. San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport is the proposed new name of the East Bay air travel hub — which, according to a post on the Airport Parking Shop website, would approach the length of the current longest airport name, Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan palace Complex, an airport in Dubai. The new name proposed for Oakland International Airport prompted San Francisco International Airport officials to object, saying the suggested moniker would create confusion. “We are deeply concerned about the potential for customer confusion and disservice that could result from this proposed renaming,” said Ivar Satero, director of San Francisco International Airport. But on Wednesday, it became clear that Oakland Airport was determined to adhere to its plan to navigate its way to a new name and identity. “No one owns the title to the San Francisco Bay,” said Craig Simon, the Port of Oakland’s aviation director. Oakland Airport

By Hillel Italie | Associated Press NEW YORK — Maryse Condé, an acclaimed French-language novelist from Guadeloupe who in novels, stories, plays and memoirs imagined and redefined the personal and historical past from 17th century New England to contemporary Europe, has died at age 90. Condé, winner in 2018 of an “alternate” Nobel Prize, died Monday night at a hospital in Apt, outside Marseille. Her longtime editor, Laurant Laffont, told The Associated Press that she had suffered from a neurological illness that impaired her vision to the point of having to dictate her final novel, “The Gospel According to the New World.” But she still enjoyed a 90th birthday celebration, in February, when she was joined by family and friends. “She was smiling, she was joyous,” said Laffont, who otherwise remembered her as a woman of uncommon intensity and generosity. “It was a wonderful farewell, a truly great sendoff.” Condé, who lived in Luberon, France in recent years, was often called the “grande dame” of Caribbean literature. Influenced by Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire and other critics of colonialism, she was a world traveler who probed

In celebration of National Ramen Day April 4, Yelp is out with its Top 100 Ramen Spots in California list, a crowd-sourced ranking of customer favorites. “It’s no secret that Californians are obsessed with ramen,” Yelp said in its announcement. “In fact, according to Yelp data, California has had the second-highest number of searches for ramen in the country since 2019! And across the entire US, Los Angeles (#1) and San Francisco (#2) are the top 2 cities with the most Yelp users who have earned a Recognition badge for their reviews in the ramen category.” But it’s a Santa Clara restaurant that ranked highest in the Bay Area and Northern California, snagging the No. 3 spot. Ramen Hajime, located on Stevens Creek Boulevard near Lawrence Expressway, was founded by a ramen master, Hajime Kitayama, who became co-owner of a ramen shop in San Diego more than a decade ago, according to Yelp. That restaurant reportedly became so popular that is was selling up to 948 bowls a day. “Be sure to try one of their signature Kiwami ramen bowls (with your choice of tonkotsu

Lauren Peace, Tampa Bay Times | (TNS) KFF Health News OCALA, Fla. — Fire Capt. Jesse Blaire steered his SUV through the mobile home park until he spotted the little beige house with white trim and radioed to let dispatchers know he’d arrived. There, Shawnice Slaughter waited on the steps, wiping sleep from her eyes. “Good morning, Shawnice,” Blaire said. “How are you feeling today?” “I’ve been good, I’ve been good,” Slaughter said. “Much better.” Three days earlier, Blaire — a paramedic who leads the fire department’s emergency medical team — met Slaughter at a nearby hospital. She had overdosed on opioids. It took four vials of an overdose reversal medication and dozens of chest compressions to get her breathing again. At the hospital, Blaire told Slaughter about a free program that could help. It wouldn’t just connect her with a recovery center but would also get her doctors’ appointments, plus rides there. More important, she would get medicine to alleviate withdrawal symptoms so she wouldn’t search for drugs to ease the sickness. Blaire would bring that medication, daily, to her home. “I have a

Lauren Sausser | KFF Health News (TNS) When Karla Adkins looked in the rearview mirror of her car one morning nearly 10 years ago, she noticed the whites of her eyes had turned yellow. She was 36 at the time and working as a physician liaison for a hospital system on the South Carolina coast, where she helped build relationships among doctors. Privately, she had struggled with heavy drinking since her early 20s, long believing that alcohol helped calm her anxieties. She understood that the yellowing of her eyes was evidence of jaundice. Even so, the prospect of being diagnosed with alcohol-related liver disease wasn’t her first concern. “Honestly, the No. 1 fear for me was someone telling me I could never drink again,” said Adkins, who lives in Pawleys Island, a coastal town about 30 miles south of Myrtle Beach. But the drinking had caught up with her: Within 48 hours of that moment in front of the rearview mirror, she was hospitalized, facing liver failure. “It was super fast,” Adkins said. Karla Adkins works as a coach to help people quit drinking alcohol.

The 49ers won’t be doubling their Brock collection, after all. Over the weekend, the team signed restricted free agent Brock Wright to an offer sheet, but the Lions, for whom Wright played the last three years, announced Wednesday that they will match the offer. Wright will earn $12 million ($6 million guaranteed) over a three-year deal, according to ESPN. Detroit had tendered Wright a one-year offer of just below $3 million to maintain the right of refusal if Wright signed an offer sheet elsewhere. The 49ers are still seeking a second tight end to pair with George Kittle and spell him at times. Charlie Woerner left in free agency for the Falcons, leaving the 49ers with two players entering their second year behind Kittle on the depth chart. Cameron Latu was a third-round pick out of Alabama but missed the entire regular season and playoffs with a meniscus injury suffered in August. Seventh-round pick Brayden Willis dressed for seven regular-season games and all three playoff games, but only played 56 total snaps on offense with no catches, according to Pro Football Reference, instead filling more

As California’s $20 minimum wage kicked in for fast-food franchise workers this week giving them a 25% pay boost, the state’s Republicans pointed Tuesday to an ad for a $16-an-hour busser from a Lake Tahoe area cafe Gov. Gavin Newsom founded that’s part of a hospitality group now run by his sister. PlumpJack Cafe in the Lake Tahoe community of Olympic Valley, which posted the job ad last month for the restaurant and bar that opened in 1995, wouldn’t be subject to the state’s $20 fast-food minimum wage, which took effect April 1 for some 3,000 franchise restaurants belonging to chains with 60 or more locations nationally. But the Democratic governor’s Republican critics said it’s another example of the governor avoiding rules he imposes on others. “I wonder why Gavin Newsom’s food businesses don’t pay $20/hour?” Assemblyman Joe Patterson, a Rocklin Republican, posted Tuesday on X. “It’s very, very expensive to live there… but he doesn’t do as he tells others and doesn’t pay a living wage.” I wonder why @CAgovernor @GavinNewsom’s food businesses don’t pay $20/hour? Live job posting at $16/hr in Olympic Valley. It’s

SAN JOSE — A deadly hit-and-run crash occurred early Wednesday in a residential neighborhood, prompting several road closures in the area, according to San Jose police. The crash involving two vehicles was reported at 4:12 a.m. on Nieman Boulevard near Elkins Way, a street that becomes Daniel Maloney Drive on the west side of the boulevard and leads to Montgomery Elementary School and Silver Creek High School. Additional details about the circumstances of the collision were not immediately released by police. Nieman Boulevard, an arterial road that connects Capitol Expressway to Yerba Buena Avenue, was closed for one to two blocks in each direction surrounding the crash site to allow police to examine the site. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival has announced the lineup for its 24th season. The free outdoor offerings include music, theater, circus, dance, poetry and children’s programs. In all, more than 100 performances will be held from early May to early November at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. The festival opens with Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez on May 4. “We are so excited about this year’s Festival and we look forward to bringing so many artists from around the world to Yerba Buena Gardens,” says Linda Lucero, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival executive/artistic director .  “We are proud of the role Yerba Buena Gardens Festival plays in making downtown San Francisco a culturally vibrant place for everyone. We look forward to seeing all of you at the Gardens.” Festival Highlights Include: Balaklava Blues & Kitka “Songs for Ukraine,” May 11 Islands By The Bay Festival, May 19 CO-LLAB Choir directed by Cava Menzies, May 25 Dyertribe: Steve & Bokani Dyer + Izithunywa, June 8 RAWdance: Drawing on a Decade, June 14 & 15 Circus Bella’s “WOW!” June 21 & 22 Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest, July 13 &

A week after Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal agents in a reported sex-trafficking investigation, Kelly Ripa was seen on her morning talk show this week begging for an invitation to join him on his yacht. Ripa made the “fawning” request during a “Live with Kelly and Mark” interview with singer Mary J. Blige, which aired on Tuesday, Page Six reported. But while viewers may accuse Ripa of very bad timing and extremely bad taste, they should keep in mind that that the interview originally aired in June 2023. The show was rerun this week because Ripa and her co-host husband, Mark Consuelos, are on vacation. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MAY 15: Sean “Diddy” Combs attends the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 15, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)  Still, Page Six surmised that some “Live with Kelly and Mark” staffers will be in big trouble for not vetting the episode and letting it get back on the air. “It’s not a good look for Ripa,” Page Six

An archway of blue and white balloons adorned the entrance of an otherwise unremarkable office building in San Jose this week, marking the grand opening of a new high-tech laboratory for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, which serves 4.5 million people in the region. The new lab is an effort to expand and streamline some common genetic testing routinely done by the insurer and health care provider, and a step towards increasing access to one of the next frontiers in tech and medicine, personalized “precision” treatment based on genome testing. “Genomics is the study of all the genes… in contrast to genetics… the study of a single condition or trait,” said Dr. Jason Rosenbaum, the director of the new lab, and a pathologist with Kaiser. Dr. Jason Rosenbaum, a molecular genetic pathologist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Regional Laboratory walks through a section fo the new facility on Monday, April 1, 2023, in San Jose, Calif. The new genomics lab will expand diagnostic testing capabilities and provide early screening and intervention for its 4.5 million members. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)  Rosenbaum led a tour

A new slew of mixologically-minded books is headed our way, offering everything from martinis to twists on palomas and pina coladas. There’s even a volume on “dusty collecting” — turns out that’s a hobby, not a housekeeping judgment. Some of the books in the pile are not our cup of tea, so if you’re looking for, say, a cocktail coloring book that touts its “thick lines” and “large print” or label-specific books touting their own brands, such as the Tito’s vodka volume authored by Tito’s Handmade Vodka, you’re on your own. These three, on the other hand, have broad appeal. Dusty Booze The new “Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits” dives into the world of vintage spirits collectors. (Abrams Books)  Imagine an Indiana Jones tale — if the golden idol was a bottle of post-Prohibition bourbon and the role of gigantic, skull-crushing boulder was played by rampaging hipsters on a Pappy Van Winkle hunt. Brooklyn journalist Aaron Goldfarb dives into the world of a very specific type of treasure seeker in his new “Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits” (Abrams Books, $27). The

As a child, I grew up having Eggs and Cigars for dinner on the reg and assumed it was a classic, both in name and substance. It consisted of a perfectly cooked, soft boiled egg delicately sitting in an egg cup, and buttered brown bread, cut into strips we pretended were cigars for dipping in runny yolk, as if stubbing out a cigar in an ash tray. In writing this recipe, however, I was stunned to find out that “Eggs and Cigars” is nowhere to be found on the internet. The dish is known as “Dippy Eggs and Soldiers” in the UK, but I couldn’t find any reference to the cigar nomenclature of my childhood! Was this a name we invented as kids? (Unlikely, since our cigar exposure was minimal.) Was it a name my mom came up with? It’s times like these that I really miss having her here to ask. Whether you call them soldiers or cigars, this is a slightly more fancy version of a classic, with lemony herbed chile butter slathered onto toast strips just before they take the plunge. Serve

By Nadia Lopez | Bloomberg The warnings are coming from across California. In Marin County, just across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco, there were five suspected fentanyl-related deaths in just two weeks in February. In South Lake Tahoe, four people died after sharing drinks and what they thought was cocaine during Super Bowl Sunday. Authorities continue to investigate the deaths of three people found this year in a downtown Los Angeles loft. California has spent more than $1 billion fighting the rise of fentanyl in recent years, but deaths keep increasing. The most recent state data shows there were 7,385 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022, more than three times higher than in 2019. Officials attribute the surge to fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that’s up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. RELATED: Helping Bay Area drug users survive, not abstain: free test kits find deadly fentanyl Now, to stem the soaring number of overdoses, the state government just began distributing fentanyl test strips that can detect the opioid in methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs and pills. In essence, the

LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man on Tuesday admitted stealing nearly $2 million worth of jewelry, clothing and accessories from guests at a Beverly Hills hotel, then traveling to Florida to sell the stolen goods, federal prosecutors said. Jobson Marangoni De Castro, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. De Castro targeted two victims, both residents of Brazil, who traveled together to Beverly Hills to attend a fashion event last May, the statement said. They brought with them six suitcases filled with jewelry and high-end items worth about $1.8 million, according to court documents. De Castro tricked a hotel employee into giving him a key to the victims’ room and stole all their suitcases while they were at dinner, prosecutors said. Investigators said De Castro then traveled to Miami, where he messaged a potential buyer on social media, saying he wanted to sell a diamond necklace and luxury watch but he did not have papers for them because

TODAY’S WORD — SYNTHESIS (SYNTHESIS: SIN-thuh-sis: The combination of parts or elements to form a whole.) Average mark 22 words Time limit 30 minutes Can you find 29 or more words in SYNTHESIS? The list will be published tomorrow. YESTERDAY’S WORD — WONDROUS wood word worn wound odor onus ours nodus donor door dour down drown rondo rood round snood snow soon sound sour sown surd swoon sword sworn To purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last! RULES OF THE GAME: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed. Contact Word Game creator Kathleen Saxe at kzsaxe@gmail.com.

Rose, whose courtesy and kindness toward her fellow club players is admirable, took on Unlucky Louie as a project. “He’s better than his results indicate,” Rose insists. “He plays too fast.” Louie was today’s declarer. A diamond lead would have sunk his slam for sure, but West led a heart. Louie promptly put up dummy’s king, and East won and shifted to the king of diamonds. Louie won and drew trumps. He threw a diamond on the queen of hearts, but East’s remaining J-10-5 were enough to stop Louie from winning a second heart trick. He lost a diamond. “The more I talk,” Rose sighs, “the faster he plays.” FIRST HEART Rose patiently explained to Louie that he must play dummy’s deuce on the first heart. East’s ten wins, but Louie wins the diamond shift, draws trumps and leads the king of hearts: ace, ruff. Louie then leads a club to dummy, throws a diamond on the queen of hearts and leads the eight through East’s J-5. Dummy’s six becomes high for a second diamond discard. DAILY QUESTION You hold: S Q 10 9 4

18639 Ravenwood Drive – Google Street View A 1,734-square-foot house built in 1954 has changed hands. The property located in the 18600 block of Ravenwood Drive in Saratoga was sold on March 12, 2024. The $4,800,000 purchase price works out to $2,768 per square foot. The layout of this single-story home includes three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Additionally, the house provides a one-car garage, offering a designated parking space and extra storage capacity. The lot of the property covers a substantial area of 10,400 square feet. Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby: In February 2023, a 2,213-square-foot home on Allendale Avenue in Saratoga sold for $2,910,000, a price per square foot of $1,315. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. On Allendale Avenue, Saratoga, in January 2024, a 1,515-square-foot home was sold for $475,000, a price per square foot of $314. The home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. A 2,571-square-foot home on the 18500 block of Allendale Avenue in Saratoga sold in March 2023, for $3,800,000, a price per square foot of $1,478. The home has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

Dear Amy: My good college friend “Clara” is getting married next month. Clara has several bridesmaids. We are all quite close. Her bridesmaid “Sara” has an older sister, “Anne,” and in our college days we would occasionally socialize with Anne. We consider her a friend. Anne was invited to the wedding with a plus-one, but she can’t attend and she RSVP’d “no.” Sara’s brother, “Brett,” had expressed his desire to attend the wedding. To be clear, he was not ever invited. Now, Brett has apparently helped himself to Anne’s declined invite, accessed the wedding site, and RSVPed “yes” for him and a plus-one! I am shocked on behalf of Clara, who has been meticulously planning this wedding for two years! She is sweet, kind and non-confrontational. And now she faces this insanely awkward dilemma. Allowing Brett to help himself and a plus-one to the wedding is out of the question. My question is, who is responsible for telling him off? Clara, as she is the one in charge of the guest list? Sara, who has already talked to her brother, but probably doesn’t know that

1190 Arlington Lane – Google Street View The property located in the 1100 block of Arlington Lane in San Jose was sold on March 15, 2024 for $2,780,000, or $1,875 per square foot. The house, built in 1959, has an interior space of 1,483 square feet. This single-story house boasts a generous living space with four bedrooms and two baths. Inside, a fireplace adds character to the home. Additionally, the house is equipped with a two-car garage, accommodating vehicles and storage needs efficiently. The property occupies a sizable 6,500-square-foot lot. Additional houses that have recently been sold close by include: A 1,328-square-foot home on the 7000 block of Blue Hill Drive in San Jose sold in November 2023, for $2,320,000, a price per square foot of $1,747. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. In May 2023, a 1,528-square-foot home on Phyllis Avenue in San Jose sold for $2,550,909, a price per square foot of $1,669. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. On Buckthorne Way, San Jose, in July 2023, a 1,472-square-foot home was sold for $2,360,000, a price per square foot