Category: Bay Area

The two entrepreneurs who launched Silicon Valley’s first restaurant devoted to hard cider have announced that they are closing their Cider Junction. The taproom, located in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, will shutter at the end of service Saturday, Dec. 14 — or earlier, if the taps run dry, owners Claudia Derp and Tracy Smith said. “We hope the craft ciders we served brought as much joy to your lives as you’ve brought to ours,” they wrote on Cider Junction’s social media. “We think we have turned at least a few ‘never cider’ folks into cider fans!” Both Certified Cider Professionals, Smith and Derp had tasted ciders around the world but decided to showcase the efforts of others instead of making their own. Derp, a native of Germany, explained when they launched the enterprise in 2017: “We want to help expand the craft cider category so that it truly becomes its own category, and is no longer listed under beers.” Fermented apple juice was a fast-growing segment in the libations field when they opened. Their selection has run the gamut — “from craft ciders made

San Jose Sharks winger Luke Kunin is on pace to set a new single-season career high in goals scored. He is in his second season as an alternate captain and plays the type of north-south game coach Ryan Warsofsky appreciates. Those qualities will also likely make Kunin, a pending unrestricted free agent, an attractive trade target among playoff-contending teams early next year. Kunin scored twice and had 16:31 in ice time for the Sharks on Tuesday in their 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Going into Thursday’s date with his hometown St. Louis Blues, Kunin, after 31 games, is now tied for fourth on the team with eight goals, more than halfway past his career high of 15 set during the 2019-2020 season when he played in 63 games with the Minnesota Wild. Now, it’s a matter of whether the Sharks want to try to sign Kunin to a contract extension past this season or trade him for future assets as they did with goalie Mackenzie Blackwood on Monday. Blackwood was traded to the Colorado Avalanche as part of a deal that netted goalie and

Which radiant heater is best? For those cold days where your home’s furnace isn’t quite keeping up with the weather, a radiant heater is a nice choice. You can use a radiant heater to create warmth in the area directly around you, rather than heating an entire room. A radiant heater is a type of space heater that doesn’t use a blower or fan to circulate the warm air it generates. This means it doesn’t cause dust to recirculate throughout the room, making it an efficient option for allergy sufferers. Our favorite radiant heater is the DeLonghi Comfort Temp Full Room Radiant Heater. What to know before you buy a radiant heater Size When selecting the best radiant heater for your needs, pay attention to the physical size of the unit, its wattage and its power source. Also take into consideration the size of the area you intend to heat. Less than 100 square feet: Use a heater with less than 1,000 watts of power for a small area. You can usually carry this size of the radiant heater from room to room easily by hand. 100 to

The San Jose Sharks on Wednesday placed defenseman Valtteri Pulli on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his NHL contract. “Valtteri requested to play in Europe and we mutually agreed to terminate his contract,” Sharks assistant general manager Joe Will said in a statement. “We want to thank Valtteri for his contributions to the organization and wish him all the best.” Pulli, 23, was signed to a two-year, two-way contract by the Sharks in May 2023 after he played three seasons with TPS Turku of the Finnish League. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Pulli never played for the Sharks, but had 10 points in 59 games for the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL last season. Pulli was healthy again this season but only dressed for two Barracuda games, both in October. He had one assist in an Oct. 19 game against the Iowa Wild. The Barracuda have several new defensemen this season, including rookies Luca Cagnoni and Jake Furlong, and veterans Jimmy Schuldt and Joey Keane. Pulli fell down the depth chart and was usually unable to crack the team’s lineup. Pulli didn’t play again

By JUAN A. LOZANO HOUSTON (AP) — High-profile legal battles are nothing new for Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, with his latest being a lawsuit he’s filed against Jay-Z, accusing the iconic rapper as well as Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting a minor at an awards show after-party in 2000. The lawsuit against Jay-Z is part of a series of civil cases the Houston-based Buzbee has filed against Combs, who remains jailed in New York as he awaits trial on federal charges that he coerced and abused women for years. In his legal career, Buzbee has represented a variety of clients. He helped acquit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at his impeachment trial in the Texas Senate last year. He represented more than two dozen women who accused Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct and assault. Buzbee has also made a couple of unsuccessful runs at elected office, including a bid to be Houston’s mayor. His critics say he’s full of bluster and bombast. Jay-Z said the lawsuit against him is part of an extortion attempt. Buzbee’s law firm has said he’s worked

OAKLAND — A lawyer who has accused former District Attorney Pamela Price of political extortion will likely soon have access to written communications exposing how Price handled day-to-day business as Alameda County’s top prosecutor. In a court hearing Friday, the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office revealed plans to file a subpoena for Price’s personal phone records, as it attempts to prove that Price imposed sentencing enhancements against a client whose attorney refused to work against Price’s recall. Judge Thomas Reardon indicated he would grant the subpoena and expects it be complied with by the year’s end. The controversy centers on the murder conviction of a man named Jamal Thomas, who was found guilty of fatally shooting his former neighbor following a lengthy campaign of harassment, vandalism and threats. After the conviction, Thomas’ trial lawyer filed a sworn declaration accusing Price of using her position as a political cudgel. Voters later booted Price from office in an unprecedented recall election on Nov. 5. Her last day on the job was Dec. 5. The following day, Kathleen Guneratne, an assistant public defender, aired her intention to file

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and COLLEEN LONG NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump used his image as a successful New York businessman to become a celebrity, a reality television star and eventually the president. Now, he finally will get to revel in one of the most visible symbols of success in the city when he rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Trump is expected to be on Wall Street to mark the morning’s ceremonial start of the day’s trading, according to four people with knowledge of his plans. It will be a notable moment of recognition for Trump, a born-and-bred New Yorker who gave up living full time in his namesake Trump Tower in Manhattan and moved to Florida. The U.S. stock market soared after Trump won the 2024 election in part by seizing on Americans’ worries over the economy. The ringing of the bell is a powerful symbol of U.S. capitalism — and a good New York photo opportunity at that. Despite his decades as a New York businessman, Trump has never done it before. The people who

DALLAS — The collective legacy of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow will not be defined by their résumés, but by their impact on the game of baseball. Still, there is no shortage of people in the baseball world who want to see Kruk & Kuip win the Ford C. Frick Award — together. Those folks will have to wait at least one more year. For a second straight year, Krukow and Kuiper both came up short Wednesday of winning the award given annually to an MLB broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball.” The honor went to Tom Hamilton, the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Guardians. The other nominees included Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Ernie Johnson Sr., Dave Sims and John Sterling. Given they’ve been one of baseball’s best tandems for three decades, Krukow and Kuiper will likely get another shot at winning the Frick Award. Kuiper jumped full-time into the broadcast booth in 1986 following his playing days. Aside from one year he spent working for the Rockies in 1993, Kuiper has graced the airwaves in San Francisco for

OAKLAND — A 30-year-old man was wounded in a drive-by shooting Tuesday evening in East Oakland, authorities said. The Oakland man was in stable condition at a hospital, where he was being treated for a wound to the lower part of his body. The shooting happened about 5:49 p.m. Tuesday in the 7300 block of International Boulevard. Initial police reports were that the shooting may have resulted from a fight earlier in the day between a group of teenage girls at another site that resumed in a lot at the International Boulevard location. It was not immediately known why the girls were fighting. That fight had apparently ended when a vehicle drove by eastbound on International and an occupant began shooting into the lot, police said. The man wounded was apparently walking in the area when he was hit. At this point, authorities do not believe he was an intended target. A parked trailer was hit by a bullet, but no other people were reported injured, including the girls involved in the earlier fights, authorities said. Detailed information about the shooter or the vehicle they

WASHINGTON — A Southwest Airlines jet wound up on the same runway with a small private plane that had stopped after an air traffic controller cleared both planes to land on the same California runway in October, according to federal investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that the planes came within 900 feet (275 meters) t of each other before the smaller plane taxied off the runway. The board said in a preliminary report that investigators interviewed the controller, a supervisor and others involved in the Oct. 19 incident in Long Beach, California. It did not comment on those interviews. The incident is among the latest in a number of recent cases in which planes came unnecessarily close due to errors by air traffic controllers or pilots. The NTSB said a controller told the crew of a four-seat Diamond DA40 to land on the main runway and stop short of an intersecting runway. About two minutes later, the controller cleared pilots of the Southwest Boeing 737 to land on the main runway, followed shortly by the Diamond crew telling the controller that they

By SEAN MURPHY | Associated Press Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation’s top private universities. Friends at an exclusive co-living space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Hawaii where the 26-year-old Mangione once lived widely considered him a “great guy,” and pictures on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man on beaches and at parties. Now, investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to piece together why Mangione may have diverged from this path to make the violent and radical decision to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen attack on a Manhattan street. The killing sparked widespread discussions about corporate greed, unfairness in the medical insurance industry and even inspired folk-hero sentiment toward his killer. But Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sharply refuted that perception after Mangione’s arrest on Monday when a customer at a McDonald’s restaurant

“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market. The pain: California’s home-repair inflation rate has more than doubled during the past five years. The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the California slice of the Verisk Remodel Index. These insurance industry consultants track “costs on 31 different categories of home repair, covering over 10,000 line items ranging from appliances to windows.” The pinch Verisk says a typical California repair cost is up 40% in the past five years, compared with a 16% jump in the previous five years. It’s no Golden State quirk, by the way. Nationally, repairs are 40% costlier since 2019 and increased 15% the previous five years. Painful points First, consider overall construction wages, as tracked by one federal index. Verisk says they’re currently 62% of California repair costs. The average weekly wage of a California construction worker is up 21% in the five years ended in June. That compares with a 17% hike in the previous five years. Repair’s big headache has been the ballooning costs of stuff used in construction. Everything from pandemic-linked shortages to that era’s building boom – remodels

A child with a potential bird flu infection had consumed raw milk before becoming ill, Marin County health officials reported Tuesday. The county is still waiting for test results to confirm whether the child had avian flu or seasonal flu, said Dr. Lisa Santora, the county’s public health officer. But the avian flu has passed from birds to cows, and health officials are warning the public to avoid unpasteurized milk. “Bird flu infections in humans are uncommon but there are ongoing outbreaks in dairy cattle and poultry farms in the United States,” Santora said. “The risk to the public remains low, as bird flu spread from person to person is rare.” The child who drank raw milk fell ill while visiting Marin during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the county. The child suffered fever and vomiting. RELATED: Maverick operator of California raw milk dairy could have role in Trump’s FDA Initial state and local tests for bird flu were inconclusive, and the county is waiting for results from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The child has recovered, and no other family members became

It was around Christmas in 1989, when Johnny Carson held a small box up to the “Tonight Show” cameras. “What do you think this weighs?” Carson said, his wrist bending from the weight. “It’s only a small box. But it weighs about 2 pounds.” It was a holiday fruitcake, but it might as well have been a magic pistol, about to fire a devastating bullet at the fruitcake industry. “Nobody eats (fruitcakes),” Carson said. “You put it up in the closet somewhere, then you wait until next Christmas, and you give it to somebody else.” The next six minutes of the “Tonight Show” included joke after joke about the density and indestructibility of the most unappealing of holiday desserts. Carson fired jabs while running video of a faux demolition company making half-hearted attempts to cut the cake open. Meanwhile, in Corsicana, Texas, folks at a century-old, family-operated fruitcake company — the largest in the nation — held its breath. “I grew up in the fruitcake business,” Collin Street Bakery partner Hayden Crawford said last week. “I’ll turn 70 in the spring. I saw the whole

The Best of the West offers fans a candid assessment of the top teams in the western third of the country — a collection that includes the Mountain West and the former Pac-12 schools now scattered across the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and West Coast Conference. The rankings will be published on the Hotline weekly throughout the regular season. 1.UCLA (9-0) Last week: 1 Results: beat Washington 73-62 Up next: at Long Beach State (Saturday) Comment: The Bruins trailed for only 20 seconds in their first Big Ten game and led by as many as 17 in the third quarter at Washington. Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice combined for 41 points, helping UCLA remain atop the AP Top 25 for a third consecutive week. 2. USC (9-1) Last week: 2 Results: beat Oregon 66-53 and Fresno State 89-40 Up next: vs. Elon (Sunday) Comment: The Trojans took control against Oregon with an 18-0 run in the second quarter in their Big Ten opener, leading 40-19 at halftime. JuJu Watkins scored 21 against the Ducks and 21 on Tuesday against Fresno State. USC rose one

Frozen empanadas can be a party host’s salvation, when the Latin American pastry is a good one. (Getty Image) From Trader Joe’s to Maspanadas and 350 Whole Foods’ versions, frozen empanadas are all over the map. Here are the best — and worst — of the bunch, ranked just in time for holiday parties. Originally Published: December 11, 2024 at 6:30 AM PST

By DEE-ANN DURBIN Albertsons is giving up on its merger with Kroger and it is suing the grocery chain, saying it didn’t do enough to secure regulatory approval for the $24.6 billion agreement. The move came the day after two judges halted the merger in separate court cases. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the merger Tuesday after holding a three-week hearing in Portland, Oregon. An hour later, Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger in Washington after concluding it would lessen competition in the state and violate consumer-protection laws. Kroger and Albertsons in 2022 proposed what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history. The companies said a merger would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon. Under the merger agreement, Kroger and Albertsons — who compete in 22 states — agreed to sell 579 stores in places where their locations overlap to C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands. But the Federal

TODAY’S WORD — ORDEAL ORDEAL: or-DEEL: A severe trial or experience. Average mark 26 words Time limit 30 minutes Can you find 30 or more words in ORDEAL? The list will be published tomorrow. YESTERDAY’S WORD — WINNOWED: wend wide widen widow wind window wine winnow wino wowed neon nine node none owed owned endow enwind dine dino done down 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.

Dear Eric: My wife and I married two years ago. We were both widowed after long happy marriages and feel blessed that we have found each other. When our first spouses died, they were interred in different local cemeteries. In each case, the headstone includes the surviving spouse’s name and birth year (of course, no death year yet!). So, when my wife and I die, we would be interred with our first spouses, with no reference to second spouses. And yet, to take our names off the current headstones (actually bronze plaques, so it is possible to do) and be interred together somewhere else seems not right, either. How can we recognize our current and former spouses in our final resting places? I just want my second, happy marriage recognized, as well as my first, happy marriage – Thinking Ahead Dear Thinking: It’s a gift to those who will survive you that you’re thinking through this now. Perhaps the easiest option is for you and your wife to have your plaques list both spouses. So, the headstone where you’ll be interred would list both of

DEAR HARRIETTE: I have struggled with body image issues for years, even though I was always fit before getting married. My husband and I had a baby soon after marrying, which caused me to gain weight, and I’ve been struggling with it ever since. Despite trying various diets — like low-carb, intermittent fasting and calorie deficits — I often find myself returning to high-carb foods. Recently, the pressure to look a certain way has become overwhelming. Whether it’s from social media or comments from others, I feel constantly judged. I want to focus on self-love and acceptance, but it’s difficult to quiet the negative voices in my head. I’m searching for ways to feel confident in my own skin and break free from these insecurities. — Body Image Insecurities DEAR BODY IMAGE INSECURITIES: One important fact for you to consider is that your body will continue to change throughout your life. That is natural. Having a baby changes your body dramatically, and often the “new you” is never quite like the you from before giving birth. That is not bad; it’s just true. It is

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My husband and I have been invited to a wedding that begins at 3:30 p.m. on a Thursday. We are thrilled for the couple. However, I feel we should decline, as the bride and groom are sending a message — with their choice of a midweek afternoon ceremony — that they would prefer to have a small turnout. I believe we should say no but send a thoughtful note and gift. My husband feels that we should both take the day off from work and attend, and that declining would be punishing the couple for staying within their limited financial resources. Who is right? GENTLE READER: Perhaps neither. The midweek scheduling might have nothing to do with the wedding budget. And even if the happy couple is economizing, Miss Manners notes that they meant to include you. The problem with reading between the lines is that the print is so small. The safest assumption, when one receives an invitation, is that it means the host desires the pleasure of your company. DEAR MISS MANNERS: I used to frequent a coffee shop in