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csmonitor_main_feedgoodstuffhappenedtod_feedDavid Tennant is a shining example of how parents should support their trans children — AGAIN
Sade’s First Song in Six Years, ‘Young Lion,’ Is Tender Apology to Trans Son, Izaak
Colin Mochrie On Supporting His Transgender Daughter
the top one is the recent one, i just wanted a little collection of “parents can support their trans kids and no one went on fire or died”
and one for siblings:
Pedro Pascal’s Transgender Sister Lux Reflected On His Unwavering Support For The Trans Community
don’t forget about dwyane wade and gabrielle union supporting their daughter Zaya
sjmerc_local_feedAn executive from the Pacific Northwest with expansive international economic experience, including in semiconductors, will lead San José’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, replacing former Director Nanci Klein, who retired three months ago.
City Manager Jennifer Maguire has announced the selection of Jen Baker, who most recently served as the president and CEO of the Columbia River Economic Development Council in Vancouver, Washington, to head the department at a critical juncture with major sporting events coming to the region next year and the city looking to bolster its position as a hub for artificial intelligence.
“Jen’s proven track record and ability to coalesce thought leaders’ interests, develop policy, and interpret complex economic issues will help attract, retain, and grow artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, data centers and sustainable industries that will drive revenue and jobs to our city,” Maguire said in a news release. “Additionally, her dynamic skills will help foster small business success and contribute to the support of business districts throughout the City and the vitality of a thriving downtown, including developing a sports, arts and entertainment district.”
Communications Director Carolina Camarena said Baker was one of 65 applicants for the director’s position. Assistant City Manager Lee Wilcox had served as the acting director of the department during the recruitment process.
Baker will receive an annual salary of $295,000 with approximately 5% non-pensionable pay, bringing her compensation to $309,750. In the city’s recruitment brochure, the salary range for the position was advertised as between $204,437 and $341,149.
Baker began her career as a trade policy expert at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she negotiated bilateral and multilateral trade agreements before moving on to serve as the trade capacity building director at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
She also worked at the U.S. Small Business Administration in Portland from 2011 to 2018, where she rose through the ranks from economic development manager to acting director of the agency. During her tenure at the agency, its lending portfolio increased from $220 million to $609 million, representing a 275% rise.
Under her leadership at the Columbia River Economic Development Council, Clark County added $1.69 billion and 3,926 jobs from 2021 to 2024. She also was appointed as a member of the Washington State Commerce Department’s CHIPS and Science Act Working Group.
“Helping community members, industry, businesses, and individuals to optimize competitive advantages for a strong economy is what motivates me,” Baker said in a statement. “San José’s tech and small business ecosystems share strong parallels with my experience from the Pacific Northwest, and I am excited to meet City team members and peers to drive visibility and investment in the City of San José.”
Baker’s selection is one of several changes to top-line management at the city in this calendar year. Maguire named Aram Kouyoumjian director of the Human Resources Department and Office of Employee Relations, while appointing Jeff Provenzano as director of the Environmental Services Department earlier this year.
More recently, Maguire also selected Manuel Pineda, who previously served as Chief Electric Utility Officer at the city of Santa Clara, to serve as a deputy city manager, with Kip Harkness vacating the position in March.
At the city, Baker will oversee a department of 61 positions and an annual operating budget of approximately $67 million.
Along with the region welcoming Super Bowl LX, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and World Cup matches in 2026, which combined could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity, city officials have targeted several strategic initiatives in the budget to turn San José into a top-notch destination for sports, entertainment, shopping, and business creation.
These included planning efforts to create a future sports and entertainment district in downtown, support for business association expansion in commercial corridors and furthering the push for data center investment.
“San José needs a strong economic development leader to help us realize our tremendous growth potential,” Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement. “Jen Baker has the skills and experience to help San José attract new investment to make our Downtown Silicon Valley’s true urban center, build the housing we need for future generations, and grow the tax base to fund city services for all of our neighborhoods.”
csmonitor_main_feedsjmerc_ca_feedOAKLAND — A state parole agent was fatally shot Thursday afternoon in East Oakland and a large search was underway for the suspect, authorities said.
Police officers had taken the agent in a police vehicle to a hospital where he later died, authorities said.
No other information has been released so far about the agent, including his age and how long he had worked for the state.
The agent was shot about 12:48 p.m. Thursday at the state parole office building in the 7700 block of Edgewater Drive, not far from the intersection of Interstate 880 and Hegenberger Road, authorities said.
What prompted the shooting was not immediately known.
A suspect fled on foot before numerous police and other law enforcement agencies got to the scene. A detailed description of the suspect was not released. As of late Thursday afternoon, authorities did not announce any arrests.
Police shut down numerous streets in the area to search for the suspect.
On-ramps to nearby I-880 were also shut down by the California Highway Patrol.
A message left with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office was not immediately returned Thursday. A spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the agency was still gathering information.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
sanjosespotlight2_feedSan Jose plans to clamp down on vehicles with expired tags, which will affect thousands of homeless residents across the city.
Starting Aug. 17, vehicles with a registration more than six months out of date may be immediately towed without warning. This crackdown on expired registration will hit homeless people living in their vehicles. The city has more than 2,000 lived-in vehicles, and about 36% have expired registration.
“It’s going to be horrible, these people (will) have no place to go,” Rudy Ortega, who lives in Columbus Park where dozens of RVs are encamped, told San José Spotlight. “These people are going to be forced into encampments they don’t want to be in.”
California law requires a vehicle to have up-to-date registration if it’s driven or parked on public roads, but enforcement hasn’t been a priority due to the city transportation department’s small parking compliance unit. There are at least 4,200 vehicles with tags six months or more past expiration, a city analysis of 2022-2023 California Department of Motor Vehicles data found.
Six parking enforcement officers will patrol the streets and ticket or tow vehicles with expired registration. The team will be comprised of three new officers and three officers shifted from other programs. In addition, the city is planning to bring four officers to ticket RVs that have been parked for an extended time on streets in lesser impacted areas, with the intention to get them to move elsewhere. The cost for both programs is expected to be just more than $1 million this fiscal year, with ongoing costs of $1.1 million, taken from the general fund. Revenues from citations are expected to bring in approximately $55,000 this fiscal year and $125,000 in future years.
“We’ve always thought that the (transportation department should) not be punitive. We strive for compliance,” Colin Heyne, spokesperson for the city transportation department, told San José Spotlight. “But we and the councilmembers and the mayor have gotten lots and lots of complaints about expired registration.”
Heyne said the plan is to ticket vehicles with tags that are six months to a year expired, and tow vehicles with expired registrations of more than a year, though it depends on factors like the condition of the vehicle.
“We want to get the registration fee in part because it pays for safety improvements on our streets,” Heyne said. “So it helps improve the streets for everybody.”
Heyne said the city won’t tow a vehicle if someone is inside. Instead, workers will contact the police department for assistance to vacate the vehicle before removing it. The department has no plan to coordinate with the housing department or nonprofits to offer services for people who could be displaced, he added.
Ortega is living in a pop-up camper and has a car with tags that expired more than a year ago. He can’t update his registration because the car can’t pass a smog test, and he doesn’t have the money to fix it. He said his life would be upended if his car gets towed.
“I wouldn’t be able to work. I would then have no money to survive,” Ortega said.
The planned enforcement of vehicle tags comes as San Jose expands a program to ban lived-in vehicles on designated streets across the city. Last year, the city instituted temporary RV bans across 30 highly impacted zones through the $1.6 million pilot program known as Oversized and Lived-In Vehicle Enforcement (OLIVE). The city plans to enforce the ban across 50 more sites this fiscal year at a cost of $1.9 million. The new tow-away zones are concentrated in District 7 and near San Jose Mineta International Airport.
The pilot program added a supportive enforcement feature. San Jose will ticket lived-in vehicles parked in lower-priority sites to encourage residents to move.
“We have to be smart and strategic with limited resources, and we feel this move, along with our expanded enforcement of oversized and lived-in vehicles, will address some of the most common parking-related complaints we hear,” John Ristow, director of the transportation department, said in a statement.
Homeless advocate Gail Osmer, who works with people living in their RVs, said sweeps and temporary tow-away zones simply move people from one neighborhood to another.
“What a waste of money,” Osmer told San José Spotlight. “Not a lot of people have been going out and offering them any kind of services.”
The city has two safe parking sites, one on Berryessa Road and another at the VTA Santa Teresa light rail station, where people can park their RVs without fear of getting swept. The combined 128 spaces across both sites isn’t enough for the more than 2,000 people living in their vehicles.
“We need at least four, five more (safe parking) sites,” Osmer said.
Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
The post San Jose to cite and tow vehicles with expired tags appeared first on San José Spotlight.
rebeccatushnet_feedDonovan v. GMO-Z.com Trust Company, Inc., --- F.Supp.3d ----,
2025 WL 522503, No. 23 Civ. 8431 (AT) (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 17, 2025)
Plaintiffs sued GMO Trust, alleging that it violated federal
securities laws and NY state consumer protection laws in connection with the
“offer” of a digital asset known as “GYEN,” sold as a “stablecoin.” The court
found that GYEN wasn’t a security, but allowed the NY and California claims to
proceed. (Claims against Coinbase have
been sent to arbitration.)
GMO Trust touted GYEN as a fiat-collateralized stablecoin—that
is, one unit of the stablecoin is backed by one unit of fiat currency, here the
Japanese yen. GMO Trust retains for itself any interest generated by the bank
accounts where it deposits customer collateral, and it may receive monetary
benefits from third-party exchanges as consideration for agreeing to list GYEN
on their platforms.
Its Whitepaper on its website touted GYEN as “a global
currency solution” that can “virtually eliminate [the] volatility” associated
with traditional digital assets such as Bitcoin “while still benefitting from
the advantages of digital assets, such as high transaction speeds matched with
low costs.” GMO Trust advertised and linked to various “partner” exchanges,
including Binance and Coinbase. It allegedly consistently maintained in its
promotional materials that purchasers could “always redeem 1 GYEN for 1 JPY ...
directly with GMO Trust” and on any third-party exchanges that listed the
digital asset.
GYEN launched in March 2021, and there was a lot of price
movement. Plaintiffs bought at elevated prices and lost 90% or even 99% of their
purchase prices as the price of GYEN returned to its yen peg. For example, “GYEN
purchasers whose orders on Binance took time to fill, or who mistakenly bought
GYEN when the price on Binance was untethered from the value of JPY, lost as
much as 99 percent of their purchase value within hours.” Some of this occurred
when exchanges were restricting the ability of customers to trade GYEN in order
to deal with rapid fluctuations.
Whether GYEN was a “security” is outside my wheelhouse, so I’ll
just report the court’s top-line conclusion: no (specific to the stablecoin
context).
However, it was reasonably likely that there would still be
CAFA jurisdiction over the state law claims, to which the court turned:
Plaintiffs allege that GMO Trust
targeted consumers with statements and advertisements representing that GYEN
would always remain pegged to the value of a historically stable fiat currency;
omitted the risk that the asset’s value could become untethered from JPY on
certain of GMO Trust’s “partner” platforms; and continued to make such
representations and omissions even after the price of GYEN on Binance
temporarily untethered from the value of JPY in May 2021. Indeed, Plaintiffs
allege that GMO Trust not only omitted the risk that the price of GYEN could
become untethered on third-party platforms, but it affirmatively stated that
consumers would “always” be able to purchase GYEN at a one-to-one value with
JPY on GMO Trust’s “partner” exchanges.
They also sufficiently alleged that these statements were
objectively misleading, deceptive, and false because the value of GYEN in fact
could—and allegedly did—become untethered from the value of JPY on third-party
exchanges, and fluctuated over 200% against the dollar in one period. “Given
that GMO Trust held GYEN out to consumers as a ‘stable’ counterweight to the
extreme volatility of the digital asset market, and held itself out as a
regulated and licensed entity offering a product backed by fiat currency held
in FDIC-insured U.S. bank accounts and monitored by independent auditors, a
reasonable consumer, acting reasonably in the circumstances, could have been
misled or deceived by GMO Trust’s statements, acts, practices, omissions, and
advertisements.”
As to California law, the court declined to require plaintiffs
to meet Rule 9(b)’s heightened pleading standard, because the UCL’s “fraud”
prong is not the same as common law fraud—it has lower standards. Unfairness
claims also survived.
rebeccatushnet_feedMcCoy v. McCormick & Co., 2025 WL 1918546, No.
1:25-cv-00231-JLT-SAB (E.D. Cal. Jul. 11, 2025) (R&R)
McCoy alleged that French’s mustard bottles were falsely
advertised with the claim “Crafted and Bottled in Springfield, MO, USA,”
appearing at times with “American flavor in a bottle,” because the product
contains foreign-made components. The magistrate recommended granting the
motion with leave to amend. Interesting dive into the “Made in the USA” waters.
Specifically, McCoy alleged that the primary substantive
ingredient is mustard seed, which is sourced primarily, if not exclusively,
from Canada. Some varieties, including French’s Yellow Mustard, allegedly contain
turmeric, another imported ingredient.
McCormick argued that California’s statutory safe harbors for
“Made in the U.S.A.” protected it against McCoy’s California
claims (including state law claims). McCoy argued that California’s safe
harbor provisions are preempted by federal law—a conclusion rejected by the
court. But he also argued that he alleged that a substantial portion of McCormick’s
products exceeded California’s safe harbor levels.
The FTCA provides:
To the extent any person
introduces, delivers for introduction, sells, advertises, or offers for sale in
commerce a product with a ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ or ‘Made in America’ label, or
the equivalent thereof, in order to represent that such product was in whole or
substantial part of domestic origin, such label shall be consistent with
decisions and orders of the Federal Trade Commission issued pursuant to section
45 of this title.
The FTC’s resulting Rule states:
[I]t is an unfair or deceptive act
or practice...to label any product as Made in the United States6 unless the
final assembly or processing of the product occurs in the United States, all
significant processing that goes into the product occurs in the United States,
and all or virtually all ingredients or components of the product are made and
sourced in the United States.
16 C.F.R. § 323.2 (emphasis added).
California law also makes it unlawful to sell products as
“Made in U.S.A.,” or other similar words, if the product or “any article, unit,
or part thereof, has been entirely or substantially made, manufactured, or
produced outside of the United States.” However, under California law, a
product may be lawfully labeled as “Made in the U.S.A.” if no more than five
percent of the final wholesale value of the manufactured product is obtained
from outside the United States, or if no more than ten percent of the of the
final wholesale value of the manufactured product is obtained from outside the
United States and the manufacturer shows that it can neither produce the
foreign article, unit, or part within the United States nor obtain the foreign
article, unit, or part of the merchandise from a domestic source.
The FTC’s Rule provides that “this part shall not be
construed as superseding, altering, or affecting any other State
statute...relating to country-of-origin labeling requirements, except to the
extent that such statute...is inconsistent with the provisions of this part,
and then only to the extent of the inconsistency.” There is clearly not field
preemption, and the judge was not persuaded that California’s safe harbor
provisions were inconsistent with the FTC’s “all or virtually all” standard. The
disjunctive standard of “all or virtually all” “necessarily means the FTC
contemplates that a small amount of foreign content may be present to lawfully
label a product as Made in the U.S.A.” The FTC has expressly declined to adopt
a definition of “all or virtually all” because “adding further specificity also
increases the risk the rule would chill certain non-deceptive claims.” Instead,
it says that its rule requires a “de minimis, or negligible, amount of foreign
content.” There was certainly no rule that a product containing foreign
materials that make up less than 90-95% of a product’s wholesale value
qualifies as more than a “de minimis, or negligible, amount of foreign
content.” The legislative notes for the state safe harbor specifically
referenced the FTC’s Rule, and the FTC, while it declined to adopt percentage
thresholds because the “ ‘all or virtually all’ standard is better tailored to
prevent unqualified U.S.-origin claims that will mislead consumers in making
purchasing decisions,” it didn’t suggest that California’s safe harbors were,
in every instance, inconsistent with the “all or virtually all” standard. Nor
was it inherently inconsistent with the FTC Rule to rely on “final wholesale
value,” since the FTC considered that one of the often-relevant factors in
determining whether foreign content was de minimis.
Thus, there was neither express nor conflict preemption. And
McCoy failed to plead facts showing that his claims weren’t barred by the safe
harbor provisions, but the magistrate judge recommended that he should get a chance
to fix that. It wasn’t enough that mustard seed was the third ingredient by
weight, since that didn’t show final wholesale value in a product with six or
more ingredients.
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Adding the crispy, browned top to your casserole or roast is supposed to be a quick finishing touch with the broiler. Unfortunately, depending on where your broiler is situated or what you’re cooking, you could be in danger of overcooking your dish. When the circumstances are right, I actually save time and avoid disaster by broiling with my air fryer.
I'm pretty sure I was born knowing how to fry an egg, but broiling was a mystery until I was an adult. The broiler is a special heat setting and it probably has its very own button on your oven. It’s a setting where an upper heating element in your oven fires at a high temperature (between 400°F to 500°F) aggressively browning and crisping anything in its path. If you have a large casserole or ham (or anything bigger than the air fryer) that you're trying to brown and crisp then you should definitely know how to use your oven’s broiler. (Do check out my article on how to use your broiler.)
The broiler will crisp and brown a cheesy bread crumbed topping or caramelize a sugar coated custard easily, but it can also be troublesome. Issues arise if you don’t account for the right distance from the heating element or if the dish your broiling takes more time to brown than you expected, it might be too long under the intense heat. That could lead to a dried out chicken or a broken and greasy mac and cheese. Trust me, I’ve ruined both under a broiler.
The air fryer, however, is an ideal broiler. The heating element in most air fryers is situated at the top, its small size usually puts the heating element very close to the top of your food, and the convection fan forces the hot air to continuously blast the food’s surface. Not only will your food brown evenly, but it’ll brown quicker than ever thanks to the fan.
I’ve had the most success broiling in my Instant Vortex air fryer because the basket can facilitate roughly two to four portions of any meal. Since I’m usually just cooking for myself and my partner, I don’t need much more space. The Cuisinart air fryer and toaster oven works perfectly well too for larger casserole dishes. You can read about both of these air fryers and my reviews of them here.
When making a casserole, consider if the dish is appropriate for the air fryer. One thing I learned from making a week’s worth of food only using my air fryer was that a metal cake pan is invaluable. The Instant Vortex can fit a 9-inch pan but it’s a tight squeeze and it’s difficult to lift the hot pan out of the hot basket later. I prefer a metal cake pan that’s six to eight-inches across. If you're not sure, it's an easy fix—shove the pan in there before you fill it with food to find out.
Place the food into the basket and secure it in the air fryer. Set the temperature to the highest setting (it’s likely around 400°F) and press start. Depending on what you’re cooking, this will take anywhere from two to four minutes. Check on it every two minutes to see when it’s finished to your liking.
I made this overnight mac and cheese from Ina Garten’s cookbook Go-To Dinners. I love this recipe the way it is, but lacking panko, I used extra cheese instead of bread crumbs for the topping this time. The top layer was crackling-crisp after three minutes, and the cheese underneath was irresistibly gooey.
It’s ideal for smaller dishes since you can fit them easily in the basket or slide them into the rack (for oven-style air fryers). However, large casseroles and roast meats are better served by the conventional oven.
Keep in mind that broiling in an air fryer is very directional, meaning the heat will really only shoot downward. This is excellent to keep meats plump in the center or preventing cheesy casseroles from breaking, but if you put a frozen or fridge-cold item in the air fryer to broil for 3 minutes, you may very well end up with a beautifully browned top and a cold underside.
To avoid that, be sure to heat up cold food in the air fryer on a lower temperature first to warm it thoroughly, then boost the temperature and fan speed to broil at the end.
lifehacker_feedI've had an Apple Watch for nearly a decade, and in that time, I've probably kept the sound on for about a day. No one really wants to hear your watch loudly dinging and ringing all day long, especially when you're in a quiet room. And since the only way to enable and disable alerts is via software, rather than a dedicated button, it's too inconvenient for me to leave the sound on at all. So, my watch reminds silent.
But that might change with watchOS 26, Apple's upcoming update for the watch. Alongside other useful features, like the addition of a dedicated Notes app (finally), watchOS 26 introduces a new, intelligent way to manage alerts. According to Apple, the update will allow your watch to analyze the ambient noise of your current surroundings, automatically adjusting the volume of your watch's speaker accordingly. That includes sound effects for alerts, timers, alarms, incoming calls, and Siri—all will be affected by the ambience of the room or space you're in.
Hypothetically, your watch could sense that you are in a busy bar, and up the volume so you don't miss a call or an important alert. Or, more importantly, it could tell that you're in a quiet room with polite conversation, and reduce the volume considerably. I'm interested to see how it performs generally, but particularly when it detects that I'm somewhere relatively silent. If I'm in, say, a museum, and no one is speaking, will my watch make a peep? Or will it default to silent as well, to match the ambient volume of the room?
Time will tell, once I get watchOS 26 up and running on my Apple Watch. I'll definitely put it to the test, but I'm not convinced I'll actually use it. Even if alerts are more appropriate (and something I don't personally need to think about to intervene with) my guess is I'll prefer to lean on Silent mode. It isn't necessarily a watchOS thing, either: Like many of us, I keep my iPhone on silent almost exclusively. But, hey, who knows: Maybe watchOS 26 will change my mind.
sjmerc_local_feedOAKLAND — A state parole agent was fatally shot Thursday afternoon in East Oakland and a large search was underway for the suspect, authorities confirmed.
Police officers had taken the agent in a police vehicle to a hospital where he later died, authorities said.
No other information has been released so far about the agent, including his age and how long he had worked for the state.
The agent was shot about 12:48 p.m. Thursday at the state parole office building in the 7700 block of Edgewater Drive, not far from the intersection of Interstate 880 and Hegenberger Road, authorities said.
What prompted the shooting was not immediately known.
A suspect fled on foot before numerous police and other law enforcement agencies got to the scene. A detailed description of the suspect was not released.
Police shut down numerous streets in the area to search for the suspect.
On-ramps to nearby I-880 were also shut down by the California Highway Patrol.
A message left with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office was not immediately returned Thursday. A spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the agency was still gathering information.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
sjmerc_local_feedMorgan Hill this week announced the retirement of City Attorney Donald Larkin, who closes out nine years working in the position.
“This has been for sure the most rewarding nine years of my career: being a part of a really fantastic community with co-workers who really care deeply about their work,” said Larkin.
Larkin, 57, began working for the city in 2016 as its legal adviser, where he said his most significant challenge was helping manage the city’s need to grow while preserving “the character of Morgan Hill.”
Prior to his time at Morgan Hill, he spent 15 years in legal roles with the cities of Palo Alto and Santa Clara as well as Santa Clara County. Larkin will join the legal firm Burke, Williams & Sorensen, which serves public and nonprofit clients.
“I’m not ready to stop working, it’s just a good time to move on to the next chapter,” said Larkin.
Through a contract with the firm, Larkin will continue providing legal services to the city part time until they find his replacement. Larkin’s retirement from the city will be effective July 25.
Mayor Mark Turner called the retirement “bittersweet” in a news release. “For the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of working with someone whose wisdom, integrity, and dedication are unmatched,” he said. “We are grateful for his service and fortunate to have him continue guiding us in this interim capacity.”
sjmerc_ca_feedOAKLAND — The suspect in a recent Oakland homicide was out on bail at the time of the shooting, awaiting trial in a Solano County case alleging he rammed a Vallejo police officer who then shot him in the face, court records show.
Jamazea Kittell, 31, was charged Wednesday with murdering 23-year-old Kalief Perez-Chambers on July 9, in a shooting on the 9400 block of C Street in Oakland. After the shooting, Kittell allegedly went south, getting as far as the San Bernardino County town of Apple Valley before police tracked him down and arrested him.
Kittell is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail. He faces charges of killing Perez-Chambers, shooting an unoccupied car and possessing guns and ammunition as a felon. Kittell was set to go on trial in September on charges that he rammed Vallejo police Officer Brad Kim, who then shot Kittell in the face during the June 27, 2023 incident.
The Solano County case proved controversial. While the Vallejo Police Department has faced a litany of scandals in recent years — including testimony from within their own ranks that officers celebrated on-duty shootings by bending their badges as a ceremonial reward — the prosecution also failed to convince Judge Robert Bowers that Kittell had attempted to murder Kim. The judge found that Kittell more likely committed assault during the alleged ramming, noting that prosecutors must prove intent in attempted murder cases.
In Perez-Chambers’ death, police say the young man — who registered an auto sales company in Oakland three years ago — and a friend were working on a car in the residential area when Kittell pulled up in an Acura, opened fire, then fled. Police were able to identify him through the Acura, which he recently had taken to a service station and given employees his real name, according to court records.
Investigators say they also identified Kittell from media reports on the Kim shooting, which include photographs of Kittell in a wheelchair still recovering from his injuries. These photos were matched to surveillance footage from the homicide, authorities said.
Police haven’t released the suspected motive. The man who was with Perez-Chambers during the shooting escaped injury, but police say he was physically underneath the car and only heard the shots.
Kittell has two robbery convictions in Alameda County, and a gun possession conviction in Contra Costa, which make it illegal for him to have firearms, authorities said.
sjmerc_ca_feedBRENTWOOD – After cost-saving measures by the city, an expected hike in water rates for Brentwood residents has been cut nearly in half.
The Brentwood City Council voted unanimously on July 1 to lower the rate from the previously approved 6.5% to the recommended 4% for the 2025/26 fiscal year.
Public Works Director Casey Wichert said as part of the ongoing fiscal review, staff determined there wasn’t a necessity to have the original 6.5% increase, largely due to operational savings.
“The weather, believe it or not, causes the biggest impact on the treatment plant,” said Wichert. “Lower chemical usage associated with good quality water in the Delta is the major reason for that.”
In June 2023, the City Council had adopted its rate structure for water, wastewater and solid waste utilities for fiscal years 2023/24 through 2027/28. It then requested that staff analyze the annual revenue and expenses of the Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Enterprise Fund to determine if a full rate increase was needed each year.
This year, staff determined that a 4% increase would suffice to cover the expenditures of the fund.
According to a staff report, various factors contributed to the healthy finances in the enterprise fund, such as the cancellation of the expansion on Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County; better quality of water in the Delta, resulting in lower treatment costs to convey and treat water; and a 10.7% operational budget savings in personnel costs.
Mayor Susannah Meyer asked how residents would be notified of the water rate reduction. Wichert said they would receive notifications in their bill inserts.
“We’ve also sent out some social media blasts, and we will put it on our website as well,” said Wichert.
Meyer also asked how often the quality of water is being evaluated at the treatment plants. Wichert said laboratories run tests daily.
“Those tests lead to chemical dosages. Those chemicals are very expensive, and when the water is cleaner, it requires less chemicals, so our costs go down,” said Wichert.
arstechnica_ip_feedA former cop in the United Kingdom was sentenced to five and a half years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to covering up his theft of 50 bitcoins seized during an investigation into the now-defunct illicit dark web marketplace Silk Road.
In 2014, the former UK National Crime Agency (NCA) officer, Paul Chowles, assisted in the arrest of Thomas White, a man "who had launched Silk Road 2.0 less than a month after the FBI had shut down the original site in 2013," the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a press release.
Chowles was tapped to analyze and extract "relevant data and cryptocurrency" from White's seized devices, specifically due to Chowles' reputation for being "technically minded and very aware of the dark web and cryptocurrencies," CPS said.
arstechnica_ip_feedKarl Urban takes a break from The Boys to play a washed-up Johnny Cage in the trailer for Mortal Kombat II, a sequel to 2021's Mortal Kombat reboot and the fourth live-action film in the franchise based on the 1990s video game series. It comes one day after Warner Bros. released a (very entertaining) fake trailer for a new in-universe, faux 1990s Johnny Cage movie, Uncaged Fury. (Cage's prior fake film credits apparently include Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage.)
The first live-action Mortal Kombat film turns 30 this year. It was a box office success but a critical failure, although it has since evolved into a campy cult classic—and Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa is still considered by many to be the definitive portrayal of sorcerer Shang Tsung. A 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, however, bombed both critically and financially. And Midway, the game publisher, filed for bankruptcy soon after.
However, Warner Bros. bought the rights and eventually tapped Simon McQuoid to direct a reboot more than 20 years after the original's release, focusing on MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan). The 2021 film earned mixed reviews, but performed sufficiently well at the box office for Warner Bros. to green-light a sequel, also directed by McQuoid. The 2021 film ended with Cole heading to Los Angeles to look for martial arts movie star Johnny Cage, who is the main protagonist of Mortal Kombat II.
arstechnica_ip_feed| Specs at a glance: Samsung Odyssey 3D | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Panel size | 27 inches | ||
| Resolution | 3840×2160 (stereoscopic 3D compatible) | ||
| Refresh rate | 165 Hz | ||
| Panel type and backlight | IPS, W-LED | ||
| Ports | 1x USB-B upstream, 1x USB-A downstream, 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 | ||
| Size | 24.2 x 21.3 x 8.0 inches w/ stand (614.7 × 541 × 203.2 mm) |
||
| Weight | 16.5 lbs (7.48 kg) w/ stand; 10.4 lbs (4.72 kg) w/out stand |
||
| Warranty | 1 year | ||
| Price (MSRP) | $1,999 | ||
Gamers of a certain age will remember a period roughly 15 years ago when the industry collectively decided stereoscopic 3D was going to be the next big thing in gaming. From Nvidia's "3D Vision" glasses system to Nintendo's glasses-free 3DS to Sony's 3D TV aimed specifically at gamers, major gaming companies put a lot of effort into bringing a sense of real depth to the flat video game scenes of the day.
Unfortunately for those companies, the stereoscopic 3D gaming hype faded almost as quickly as it rose; by 2012, most companies were scaling back their stereoscopic investments in light of underwhelming public demand (case in point: Nintendo's pivot to the 3D-free 2DS line of portables). And while some stray upstarts have tried to revive the stereoscopic gaming dream in the years since, the idea seemed destined to be a footnote in gaming tech history.
lifehacker_feedGoogle is just about ready to launch its next set of Pixel devices, the Pixel 10 series, according to an invite received by tech journalists. The company says the event will focus on "the latest on our Pixel phones, watches, buds, and more," so expect a packed roster. Leaks have been all over the place for these devices, but in just a short few weeks, we'll finally know what to really expect.
Google's invite didn't give details about where to watch the event, called Made by Google, but if it's anything like prior years, you'll be able to stream it via YouTube. Made by Google will take place in New York City at 1PM ET on August 20, and while the general public won't be able to attend in person, you can check Lifehacker to stay up to date with news as it drops.
Tech companies are having a harder and harder time keeping devices under wraps these days, but that means we do already have a pretty good idea of what to expect. While it's impossible to confirm anything until the event itself, a number of reputable sources have already gathered info on the Pixel 10 from top to bottom.
Like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Google is set to continue releasing its foldable phones under the numbered Pixel line, rather than as separate devices. That's great news, given how much my colleague, David Nield, liked the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and the new model seems ready to continue that trend.
According to leaked specs courtesy of Onleaks and Android Headlines, who were largely spot on in their recent Samsung predictions, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will look a lot like last year's model, but with a few key upgrades. The cover display is going to be a little wider, at 6.4 inches over last year's 6.3 inches, but also notably brighter, with a 10% increase to 3,000 nits at max. Cameras are set to be identical, with a 48MP/10.5MP/10.8MP rear setup and 10MP selfie cams on both the front and inside screens. But the kicker is a much larger battery, at 5,015mAh vs. 4,650mAh on the Pixel 9 Pro. That's a 7% increase, and charging speeds are set to be faster, too. It's also supposed to be the first foldable to be entirely dust-resistant, with an IP68 rating that finally approaches the durability of non-folding phones.
Speaking of non-folding phones, you can expect the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, as well as the entire Pixel 10 line, to run Google's custom Tensor G5 processor, which should improve performance.
Supposedly, the Pixel 10 has already been seen out in the wild, thanks to photos of what seems to have been a Google ad shoot in Vancouver. These photos were originally shared via a now-deleted post from @MarksGonePublic on X, before being reported on by 9to5Google. They include looks at both the base Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro, which largely look similar to last year's models. That's great for fans of those phones, but a bit disappointing for me—I was hoping Google might ditch the camera bar on its newer phones after doing so with the Pixel 9a.
As for the phone's internals, it's back to Android Headlines. Again, you can expect a Tensor G5 chip here, as well as a returning 6.3-inch display with 3,000 nits of max brightness. The battery will supposedly be 5% larger, though, with a capacity of 4,970mAh. Additionally, charging speeds are set to increase here, too.
The odd thing here is the cameras—on the base model, they're arguably a downgrade. According to Android Authority, while the Pixel 10 Pro will have a similar 50MP/48MP/48MP rear camera setup as its predecessor, as well as a slightly more powerful 48MP selfie cam, the base Pixel 10 isn't so lucky. While it's gaining an 11MP telephoto lens, something the Pixel 9 didn't have, its ultrawide lens is getting much weaker to compensate. The wide lens is the same 50MP as on last model's, but the ultrawide is now 13MP instead of 48MP.
According to renders published by 91mobiles (provided by Onleaks), the next Pixel Watch actually appears to be a bit thicker than previous versions (14.3mm vs. 12.3mm), with two mysterious new buttons. While a thicker watch sounds disappointing on the surface, it could also point to a bigger battery, something that's backed up by the disappearance of the charging pins on the Pixel Watch 2, which could point to a new way to power up the device. Alternatively, there could be additional components or sensors.
As for internals, Android Headlines says the watch will continue to use the same main chip as the previous model, the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1, but with a new co-processor Google is calling the M55, which will handle Gemini-related tasks. It will also boast a brighter, 3,000 nit display. It will also continue to come in two sizes (41mm and 45mm). Android Headlines also seems to think the battery will be bigger, hitting 30 hours of battery life on the smaller model and 40 hours on the larger one (or more with battery saver turned on).
It's important to note that Google may not launch the Pixel Watch 4 at this event, and could instead just tease it; however, the Pixel Watch 3 did come out shortly after the Pixel 9 series.
Android 16 is finally here, and will almost certainly power Google's next suite of devices. Pixel phones are known for their smart software, and while Android 16 already comes with features like Live Updates and an improved desktop mode, there's also a rumored Pixel-exclusive AI assistant in the works called Pixel Sense. Pixel Sense will have access to information from your Docs, Files, Notes, Gmail, and more, which should make it more context-aware than the current Gemini assistant. We'll likely see other, smaller updates throughout the next few years, like "Speak-to-Tweak," which would be a voice-activated photo editing tool.
Sources disagree on pricing for Google's next set of Pixel devices. Android Headlines seems to think that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will drop $300 to $1,499 while the Pixel 10 will remain at $799 and the Pixel 10 Pro will each get a $100 price increase to $1,099. Meanwhile, leaker Roland Quandt over on Bluesky is predicting price increases across the board, but is notably only reporting European prices—they could differ by region.
sjmerc_local_feedOAKLAND — The suspect in a recent Oakland homicide was out on bail at the time of the shooting, awaiting trial in a Solano County case alleging he rammed a Vallejo police officer who then shot him in the face, court records show.
Jamazea Kittell, 31, was charged Wednesday with murdering 23-year-old Kalief Perez-Chambers on July 9, in a shooting on the 9400 block of C Street in Oakland. After the shooting, Kittell allegedly went south, getting as far as the San Bernardino County town of Apple Valley before police tracked him down and arrested him.
Kittell is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail. He faces charges of killing Perez-Chambers, shooting an unoccupied car and possessing guns and ammunition as a felon. Kittell was set to go on trial in September on charges that he rammed Vallejo police Officer Brad Kim, who then shot Kittell in the face during the June 27, 2023 incident.
The Solano County case proved controversial. While the Vallejo Police Department has faced a litany of scandals in recent years — including testimony from within their own ranks that officers celebrated on-duty shootings by bending their badges as a ceremonial reward — the prosecution also failed to convince Judge Robert Bowers that Kittell had attempted to murder Kim. The judge found that Kittell more likely committed assault during the alleged ramming, noting that prosecutors must prove intent in attempted murder cases.
In Perez-Chambers’ death, police say the young man — who registered an auto sales company in Oakland three years ago — and a friend were working on a car in the residential area when Kittell pulled up in an Acura, opened fire, then fled. Police were able to identify him through the Acura, which he recently had taken to a service station and given employees his real name, according to court records.
Investigators say they also identified Kittell from media reports on the Kim shooting, which include photographs of Kittell in a wheelchair still recovering from his injuries. These photos were matched to surveillance footage from the homicide, authorities said.
Police haven’t released the suspected motive. The man who was with Perez-Chambers during the shooting escaped injury, but police say he was physically underneath the car and only heard the shots.
Kittell has two robbery convictions in Alameda County, and a gun possession conviction in Contra Costa, which make it illegal for him to have firearms, authorities said.
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Click on graph for larger image.
On a rolling 12-month basis, inbound traffic decreased 0.3% in June compared to the rolling 12 months ending the previous month. Outbound traffic decreased 0.3% compared to the rolling 12 months ending the previous month.icanhascheezburger_feedThe internet can feel like a waking nightmare sometimes. One minute you're just trying to check your messages, and the next thing you know, you're caught in a whirlwind of chaotic discourse, pop-up ads, cursed timelines, and emails from someone asking if you "have a second". It's a lot. But thankfully, in the dark and twisted maze of the interwebs, there's always one shining beacon of pure joy: cute cat memes.
Yes, amidst the digital doom and gloom, cat memes remain steadfast. They don't ask anything of you. They just show up, looking judgmental in a loaf position, dramatically zooming across the room at 3 AM, or showing you the classic blep. They're the soft little daydream in a noisy online world - a reminder that life isn't all bad when there are toe beans and chaotic zoomies to admire.
So if you're overwhelmed by the never-ending scroll of nonsense, stop right here. These cat memes are the dream you've been looking for - fluffy, funny, and absolutely purrfect for restoring your sanity, one paw at a time.
Fluff. Chaos. Drama! Our weekly cat newsletter has it all - subscribe here.
lifehacker_feedIf you like planning way ahead, you can order tickets for the first screenings of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey now, an entire year before the movies release date of July 17, 2026. Pre-sale tickets are only for select showings of the 70mm IMAX version of the movie in a handful of cities in the United States and Canada.
Nolan's adaptation of the Homeric epic will be the first feature film shot entirely in IMAX, the director's preferred format. It stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and tells the story of the Greek king's perilous, 10-year journey home to Ithaca following the Trojan war (if Nolan sticks to the source material).
Universal's marketing department is clearly staking out a long-term strategy for hyping The Odyssey as a high-quality, prestige movie by focusing on the IMAX release this early. Among movie nerds, IMAX is considered the only way to really see Nolan's last movie, Oppenheimer, and nearly a fifth of its $975 million gross came from IMAX screenings. Film connoisseurs will no doubt snap up these tickets fast, so if you really want to be first (and you have adequate faith the world will still be around in a year) I'd act quickly. If you're a more casual film fan, tickets for other screenings of The Odyssey in lesser film formats will undoubtedly be available for pre-order (much) closer to the movie's release date.
sjmerc_local_feedBRENTWOOD – After cost-saving measures by the city, an expected hike in water rates for Brentwood residents has been cut nearly in half.
The Brentwood City Council voted unanimously on July 1 to lower the rate from the previously approved 6.5% to the recommended 4% for the 2025/26 fiscal year.
Public Works Director Casey Wichert said as part of the ongoing fiscal review, staff determined there wasn’t a necessity to have the original 6.5% increase, largely due to operational savings.
“The weather, believe it or not, causes the biggest impact on the treatment plant,” said Wichert. “Lower chemical usage associated with good quality water in the Delta is the major reason for that.”
In June 2023, the City Council had adopted its rate structure for water, wastewater and solid waste utilities for fiscal years 2023/24 through 2027/28. It then requested that staff analyze the annual revenue and expenses of the Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Enterprise Fund to determine if a full rate increase was needed each year.
This year, staff determined that a 4% increase would suffice to cover the expenditures of the fund.
According to a staff report, various factors contributed to the healthy finances in the enterprise fund, such as the cancellation of the expansion on Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County; better quality of water in the Delta, resulting in lower treatment costs to convey and treat water; and a 10.7% operational budget savings in personnel costs.
Mayor Susannah Meyer asked how residents would be notified of the water rate reduction. Wichert said they would receive notifications in their bill inserts.
“We’ve also sent out some social media blasts, and we will put it on our website as well,” said Wichert.
Meyer also asked how often the quality of water is being evaluated at the treatment plants. Wichert said laboratories run tests daily.
“Those tests lead to chemical dosages. Those chemicals are very expensive, and when the water is cleaner, it requires less chemicals, so our costs go down,” said Wichert.
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Before the mayor of San Jose, California, arrives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new business, his aides ask ChatGPT to help draft some talking points.
“Elected officials do a tremendous amount of public speaking,” said Mayor Matt Mahan, whose recent itinerary has taken him from new restaurant and semiconductor startup openings to a festival of lowriding car culture.
Other politicians might be skittish admitting a chatbot co-wrote their speech or that it helped draft a $5.6 billion budget for the new fiscal year, but Mahan is trying to lead by example, pushing a growing number of the nearly 7,000 government workers running Silicon Valley’s biggest city to embrace artificial intelligence technology.
Mahan said adopting AI tools will eliminate drudge work and help the city better serve its roughly 1 million residents.
He’s hardly the only public or private sector executive directing an AI-or-bust strategy, though in some cases, workers have found that the costly technology can add hassles or mistakes.
“The idea is to try things, be really transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve,” Mahan said in an interview. “It’s always bumpy with new technologies.”
By next year, the city intends to have 1,000, or about 15%, of its workers trained to use AI tools for a variety of tasks, including pothole complaint response, bus routing and using vehicle-tracking surveillance cameras to solve crimes.
One of San Jose’s early adopters was Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at the city’s transportation department. She has already used ChatGPT to secure a $12 million grant for electric vehicle chargers.
Arjona Amador set up a customized “AI agent” to review the correspondence she was receiving about various grant proposals and asked it to help organize the incoming information, including due dates. Then, she had it help draft the 20-page document.
So far, San Jose has spent more than $35,000 to purchase 89 ChatGPT licenses — at $400 per account — for city workers to use.
“The way it used to work, before I started using this, we spent a lot of evenings and weekends trying to get grants to the finish line,” she said. The Trump administration later rescinded the funding, so she pitched a similar proposal to a regional funder not tied to the federal government.
Arjona Amador, who learned Spanish and French before she learned English, also created another customized chatbot to edit the tone and language of her professional writings.
With close relationships to some of the tech industry’s biggest players, including San Francisco-based OpenAI and Mountain View-based Google, the mayors of the Bay Area’s biggest cities are helping to promote the type of AI adoption that the tech industry is striving for, while also promising guidelines and standards to avoid the technology’s harms.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan Monday to give nearly 30,000 city workers, including nurses and social workers, access to Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, which is based on the same technology that powers ChatGPT. San Francisco’s plan says it comes with “robust privacy and bias safeguards, and clear guidelines to ensure technology enhances — not replaces — human judgment.”
San Jose has similar guidelines and hasn’t yet reported any major mishaps with its pilot projects. Such problems have attracted attention elsewhere because of the technology’s propensity to spew false information, known as hallucinations.
ChatGPT’s digital fingerprints were found on an error-filled document published in May by U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” commission.
In Fresno, California, a school official was forced to resign after saying she was too trusting of an AI chatbot that fabricated information in a document.
While some government agencies have been secretive about when they turn to chatbots for help, Mahan is open about his ChatGPT-written background memos that he turns to when making speeches.
“Historically, that would have taken hours of phone calls and reading, and you just never would have been able to get those insights,” he said. “You can knock out these tasks at a similar or better level of quality in a lot less time.”
He added, however, that “you still need a human being in the loop. You can’t just kind of press a couple of buttons and trust the output. You still have to do some independent verification. You have to have logic and common sense and ask questions.”
Earlier this year, when OpenAI introduced a new pilot product called Operator, it promised a new kind of tool that went beyond a chatbot’s capabilities. Instead of just analyzing documents and producing passages of text, it could also access a computer system and schedule calendars or perform tasks on a person’s behalf. Developing and selling such “AI agents” is now a key focus for the tech industry.
More than an hour’s drive east of Silicon Valley, where the Bay Area merges into Central Valley farm country, Jamil Niazi, director of information technology at the city of Stockton, had big visions for what he could do with such an agent.
Perhaps the parks and recreation department could let an AI agent help residents book a public park or swimming pool for a birthday party. Or residents could find out how crowded the pool was before packing their swim clothes.
Six months later, however, after completing a proof-of-concept phase, the city didn’t buy a full license for the technology due to the cost.
The market research group Gartner recently predicted that over 40% of “agentic AI” projects will be canceled before the end of 2027, “due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls.”
San Jose’s mayor remains bullish about the potential for these AI tools to help workers “in the bowels of bureaucracy” to rapidly speed up their digital paperwork.
“There’s just an amazing amount of bureaucracy that large organizations have to have,” Mahan said. “Whether it’s finance, accounting, HR or grant writing, those are the kinds of roles where we think our employees can be 20 (to) 50% more productive — quickly.”
The post San Jose mayor uses AI for work appeared first on San José Spotlight.
reactor_feedPublished on July 17, 2025
reactor_feedPublished on July 17, 2025
Screenshot: Warner Bros.
reactor_feedPublished on July 17, 2025
Screenshot: Marvel Studios
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Whether an inflatable model or the classic rigid plastic kind, kiddie pools are a super cheap way to cool off in the summer if you don’t have access to a traditional pool, only have a tiny space to work with, or have kids who are too young to wade into the deep water. It’s safe to say most houses have at least one old kiddie pool collecting dust in the garage, basement, or storage shed.
If you no longer use that old kiddie pool as a pool, you might think it’s time to just toss it or give it away. But it can be a lot more useful than you might think. Here are seven creative ways to repurpose an old kiddie pool and actually get. some use out of it.
If you’ve got a rigid kiddie pool lying around, it’s an ideal way to start a tiny container garden. This could be a decorative flower garden, a vegetable garden for DIY salads, or just a focal point for your landscaping. It’s pretty easy to whip up, too:
Choose your location. It’ll be more difficult to move once it’s filled with dirt, so figure out where you want the container garden to live and build it in place.
Drill drain holes. You’ll want to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom and sides for drainage. Spacing them out about a foot each will probably be sufficient.
Insert landscaping fabric. Line the pool with landscaping fabric (fiberglass window screening can be used in a pinch).
Dump in your soil and plant your plants! You can add fencing around the pool if you’re worried about animal invaders.
Alternatively, you could plant grass in your container garden and create a tiny lawn for a balcony or deck area.
It’s easy to spend a small fortune on our pets, and every pet owner has experienced the trauma of spending a ton of cash on a plush bed only to watch your cat choose to sleep in a cardboard box or your dog defiantly burrow into your bed instead. But if you have an old kiddie pool and some old bedding lying around, you can create a magnificent pet bed for exactly zero dollars. Whether you have an imperious cat or a big, floppy dog, a blanket and a few cushions are all you need to make your fur child as comfortable as possible.
If you have smaller pets—guinea pigs or turtles, for example—an old kiddie pool can be a lavish habitat for them. For guinea pigs, for example, a rigid plastic kiddie pool can be filled with bedding, toys, food and water, and anything else your pet needs to be happy, all without shelling out for a store-bought cage that’s probably not as big and roomy. Adding some caging material or chicken wire around the perimeter will kep your pets safely contained in their happy place.
And because they’re pools, they’re actually ideal temporary environments for turtles and other amphibious pets, a chance to let them explore and swim and bask to their heart’s content. The precise makeup of your pool will depend on what kind of turtles you have, but generally speaking, setting one up will require water, stones, gravel or sand, rocks for basking, and a simple filter system to keep the water from becoming too gross.
If you’ve got young kids or active dogs, an old kiddie pool can become that classic playground feature: A sandbox. Some play sand and plastic tools and the kiddos will be absorbed for hours, and your doggos will love digging in the sand (instead of digging everywhere else in your expensive landscaping).An increasingly popular alternative to sand (which gets everywhere and can be tough to keep sanitary) is corn. It offers much the same play dynamics, but it’s a lot easier to deal with.
Having a party? Indoor or outdoor, your old kiddie pool is a great way to keep things casual and drinks cold. Fill your pool with ice and drop cans, bottles, or pitchers of cocktails or soft drinks in there for people to grab whenever they’re thirsty. If it’s going to be used outside, you can drill a few drain holes to let the melting ice drain out.
Raise your hand if giving your dog a bath requires a raincoat and a bazillion towels. If you’d prefer not to have to squeegee the whole bathroom or kitchen every time you give Fido a bath, a kiddie pool could be the designated dog spa. Outside, your furry friend can get as feisty as they like, splash around, and shake themselves dry to their heart’s content without making more housework for you. The one downside is they’ll have a lot more room to run if they flee the experience—but at least they won’t take out your shower doors in the process.
If you upgraded your pool situation but you still have young kids running around (or host folks who have kiddos), an old kiddie pool can become something that will keep those kids occupied for hours: A ball pit! A few bucks spent on plastic balls is all you need to keep even the most energetic toddlers safely occupied and contained.
sjmerc_local_feed
A 3,174-square-foot house built in 2016 has changed hands. The spacious, recently built property located in the 6600 block of Prospect Road in San Jose was sold on June 4, 2025 for $3,885,000, or $1,224 per square foot. The layout of this two-story house consists of five bedrooms. Situated on a spacious 7,058-square-foot lot, the property offers ample outdoor space.
Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:
This article was generated by the Bay Area Home Report Bot, software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a template created by humans. Our real estate data comes from public records that have been registered and digitized by local county offices. You can report errors or bugs to content@bayareanewsgroup.com.
sjmerc_local_feedOAKLAND — The dog who bit two cops and a security guard on the same day is dead, but his owner no longer faces criminal charges for the bizarre and controversial gnawing spree.
Rafael Rivas, 38, had been charged with four felonies after his dog bit two Oakland police officers who were attempting to detain Rivas and his two canines, hours after the same dog bit a Grocery Outlet security guard. But half the case was thrown out at Rivas’ preliminary hearing, and prosecutors dismissed the second half months later, ending the office’s latest attempt to hold a man responsible for the actions of his dogs, court records show.
Rivas had been charged with assault and failing to control a dangerous animal. The charges involving bites on two Oakland policemen failed to convince Judge Rhonda Burgess, who noted that Rivas was in an Oakland patrol car and had nothing to do with the dog attack. Rivas’ lawyers subsequently argued that the security guard falsely accused Rivas of telling his dog to “attack,” calling the whole thing a misunderstanding that may have been caused by the guard’s limited English.
“I do think it is unfortunate that the police officers were bitten by these dogs, but I think it’s unreasonable in the factual circumstance that was indicated here where the defendant made efforts to tie that dog up,” Burgess said, adding that Rivas was “nowhere near (the dogs)” at the time.
Rivas was freed from jail after the Jan. 31 preliminary hearing, where Oakland police officers described the chaos that resulted as they found Rivas pushing his pooch in a stroller while another dog walked with them. The cops believed Rivas was the same man whose dog had bit a security guard earlier that day, sending the guard to the hospital.
But as Rivas surrendered, he tied his dogs to a fence. When police attempted to noose the animals, they wrangled free, then all hell broke loose. The officers pulled their Tasers and attempted to stun the smaller of the two dogs, who pirouetted between the cops’ stun guns and nooses, chomped down on Officer Vern Saechao and Sgt. Colin Cameron, and only then was captured. The second of Rivas’ dogs escaped into the night, never to be heard from again.
The captured dog was put down at the Oakland pound. Rivas’ lawyers had argued the animal was an emotional support dog and Rivas pushing it in a stroller demonstrated his strong attachment to the animal.
After two charges were dismissed — and Burgess reduced one of the remaining two counts to a misdemeanor — Rivas’ lawyers argued for a dismissal. They pointed out that the security guard, Georges Diedhiou, testified through a French translator and gave slightly different, but equally confident, versions of what Rivas had said. In one version he said “sic” and “attack” but in the second version it was just “attack,” though Diedhiou said he was certain of the “attack” part.
There were two problems with this logic, according to the defense: Rivas was eating ice cream with a spoon at the time. So both his mouth and his hands were decisively occupied, limiting his ability to either order the dogs to attack or to tug on their leashes.
“Given his limited English fluency, coupled with the fact that Mr. Rivas would have had a mouthful of ice cream at the time, Mr. Diedhiou likely misunderstood what Rivas said, if Mr. Rivas said anything at all,” Associate Deputy Public Defender Jenny Brandt wrote in court filings. Brand further argued that video of the incident showed that once the dog lurched forward, Rivas made efforts to secure his animals, thus contradicting the notion he wanted them to hurt anyone.
Prosecutors initially responded to the dismissal motion, but in June they came into court and dismissed the case “in the interest of justice,” according to the minute order.
Cases involving failure to control a dangerous animal are typically rare, but the Alameda County DA’s office has filed two, including Rivas’ case, in recent months. Last year, prosecutors filed similar charges against 58-year-old Brendan Burke, whose dogs attacked and killed a childhood friend, Robert Holguin.
But like in the Rivas’ case, the circumstances around Holguin’s death aren’t so straightforward. Authorities say Burke had attempted to get rid of his dogs because he believed they were too dangerous, but that they later broke out of his backyard and pinned Holguin underneath a vehicle. Burke has pleaded not guilty.
sanjosespotlight_feed
Before the mayor of San Jose, California, arrives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new business, his aides ask ChatGPT to help draft some talking points.
“Elected officials do a tremendous amount of public speaking,” said Mayor Matt Mahan, whose recent itinerary has taken him from new restaurant and semiconductor startup openings to a festival of lowriding car culture.
Other politicians might be skittish admitting a chatbot co-wrote their speech or that it helped draft a $5.6 billion budget for the new fiscal year, but Mahan is trying to lead by example, pushing a growing number of the nearly 7,000 government workers running Silicon Valley’s biggest city to embrace artificial intelligence technology.
Mahan said adopting AI tools will eliminate drudge work and help the city better serve its roughly 1 million residents.
He’s hardly the only public or private sector executive directing an AI-or-bust strategy, though in some cases, workers have found that the costly technology can add hassles or mistakes.
“The idea is to try things, be really transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve,” Mahan said in an interview. “It’s always bumpy with new technologies.”
By next year, the city intends to have 1,000, or about 15%, of its workers trained to use AI tools for a variety of tasks, including pothole complaint response, bus routing and using vehicle-tracking surveillance cameras to solve crimes.
One of San Jose’s early adopters was Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at the city’s transportation department. She has already used ChatGPT to secure a $12 million grant for electric vehicle chargers.
Arjona Amador set up a customized “AI agent” to review the correspondence she was receiving about various grant proposals and asked it to help organize the incoming information, including due dates. Then, she had it help draft the 20-page document.
So far, San Jose has spent more than $35,000 to purchase 89 ChatGPT licenses — at $400 per account — for city workers to use.
“The way it used to work, before I started using this, we spent a lot of evenings and weekends trying to get grants to the finish line,” she said. The Trump administration later rescinded the funding, so she pitched a similar proposal to a regional funder not tied to the federal government.
Arjona Amador, who learned Spanish and French before she learned English, also created another customized chatbot to edit the tone and language of her professional writings.
With close relationships to some of the tech industry’s biggest players, including San Francisco-based OpenAI and Mountain View-based Google, the mayors of the Bay Area’s biggest cities are helping to promote the type of AI adoption that the tech industry is striving for, while also promising guidelines and standards to avoid the technology’s harms.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan Monday to give nearly 30,000 city workers, including nurses and social workers, access to Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, which is based on the same technology that powers ChatGPT. San Francisco’s plan says it comes with “robust privacy and bias safeguards, and clear guidelines to ensure technology enhances — not replaces — human judgment.”
San Jose has similar guidelines and hasn’t yet reported any major mishaps with its pilot projects. Such problems have attracted attention elsewhere because of the technology’s propensity to spew false information, known as hallucinations.
ChatGPT’s digital fingerprints were found on an error-filled document published in May by U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” commission.
In Fresno, California, a school official was forced to resign after saying she was too trusting of an AI chatbot that fabricated information in a document.
While some government agencies have been secretive about when they turn to chatbots for help, Mahan is open about his ChatGPT-written background memos that he turns to when making speeches.
“Historically, that would have taken hours of phone calls and reading, and you just never would have been able to get those insights,” he said. “You can knock out these tasks at a similar or better level of quality in a lot less time.”
He added, however, that “you still need a human being in the loop. You can’t just kind of press a couple of buttons and trust the output. You still have to do some independent verification. You have to have logic and common sense and ask questions.”
Earlier this year, when OpenAI introduced a new pilot product called Operator, it promised a new kind of tool that went beyond a chatbot’s capabilities. Instead of just analyzing documents and producing passages of text, it could also access a computer system and schedule calendars or perform tasks on a person’s behalf. Developing and selling such “AI agents” is now a key focus for the tech industry.
More than an hour’s drive east of Silicon Valley, where the Bay Area merges into Central Valley farm country, Jamil Niazi, director of information technology at the city of Stockton, had big visions for what he could do with such an agent.
Perhaps the parks and recreation department could let an AI agent help residents book a public park or swimming pool for a birthday party. Or residents could find out how crowded the pool was before packing their swim clothes.
Six months later, however, after completing a proof-of-concept phase, the city didn’t buy a full license for the technology due to the cost.
The market research group Gartner recently predicted that over 40% of “agentic AI” projects will be canceled before the end of 2027, “due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls.”
San Jose’s mayor remains bullish about the potential for these AI tools to help workers “in the bowels of bureaucracy” to rapidly speed up their digital paperwork.
“There’s just an amazing amount of bureaucracy that large organizations have to have,” Mahan said. “Whether it’s finance, accounting, HR or grant writing, those are the kinds of roles where we think our employees can be 20 (to) 50% more productive — quickly.”
The post San Jose mayor uses AI for work appeared first on San José Spotlight.
sjmerc_ca_feedOAKLAND — The dog who bit two cops and a security guard on the same day is dead, but his owner no longer faces criminal charges for the bizarre and controversial gnawing spree.
Rafael Rivas, 38, had been charged with four felonies after his dog bit two Oakland police officers who were attempting to detain Rivas and his two canines, hours after the same dog bit a Grocery Outlet security guard. But half the case was thrown out at Rivas’ preliminary hearing, and prosecutors dismissed the second half months later, ending the office’s latest attempt to hold a man responsible for the actions of his dogs, court records show.
Rivas had been charged with assault and failing to control a dangerous animal. The charges involving bites on two Oakland policemen failed to convince Judge Rhonda Burgess, who noted that Rivas was in an Oakland patrol car and had nothing to do with the dog attack. Rivas’ lawyers subsequently argued that the security guard falsely accused Rivas of telling his dog to “attack,” calling the whole thing a misunderstanding that may have been caused by the guard’s limited English.
“I do think it is unfortunate that the police officers were bitten by these dogs, but I think it’s unreasonable in the factual circumstance that was indicated here where the defendant made efforts to tie that dog up,” Burgess said, adding that Rivas was “nowhere near (the dogs)” at the time.
Rivas was freed from jail after the Jan. 31 preliminary hearing, where Oakland police officers described the chaos that resulted as they found Rivas pushing his pooch in a stroller while another dog walked with them. The cops believed Rivas was the same man whose dog had bit a security guard earlier that day, sending the guard to the hospital.
But as Rivas surrendered, he tied his dogs to a fence. When police attempted to noose the animals, they wrangled free, then all hell broke loose. The officers pulled their Tasers and attempted to stun the smaller of the two dogs, who pirouetted between the cops’ stun guns and nooses, chomped down on Officer Vern Saechao and Sgt. Colin Cameron, and only then was captured. The second of Rivas’ dogs escaped into the night, never to be heard from again.
The captured dog was put down at the Oakland pound. Rivas’ lawyers had argued the animal was an emotional support dog and Rivas pushing it in a stroller demonstrated his strong attachment to the animal.
After two charges were dismissed — and Burgess reduced one of the remaining two counts to a misdemeanor — Rivas’ lawyers argued for a dismissal. They pointed out that the security guard, Georges Diedhiou, testified through a French translator and gave slightly different, but equally confident, versions of what Rivas had said. In one version he said “sic” and “attack” but in the second version it was just “attack,” though Diedhiou said he was certain of the “attack” part.
There were two problems with this logic, according to the defense: Rivas was eating ice cream with a spoon at the time. So both his mouth and his hands were decisively occupied, limiting his ability to either order the dogs to attack or to tug on their leashes.
“Given his limited English fluency, coupled with the fact that Mr. Rivas would have had a mouthful of ice cream at the time, Mr. Diedhiou likely misunderstood what Rivas said, if Mr. Rivas said anything at all,” Associate Deputy Public Defender Jenny Brandt wrote in court filings. Brand further argued that video of the incident showed that once the dog lurched forward, Rivas made efforts to secure his animals, thus contradicting the notion he wanted them to hurt anyone.
Prosecutors initially responded to the dismissal motion, but in June they came into court and dismissed the case “in the interest of justice,” according to the minute order.
Cases involving failure to control a dangerous animal are typically rare, but the Alameda County DA’s office has filed two, including Rivas’ case, in recent months. Last year, prosecutors filed similar charges against 58-year-old Brendan Burke, whose dogs attacked and killed a childhood friend, Robert Holguin.
But like in the Rivas’ case, the circumstances around Holguin’s death aren’t so straightforward. Authorities say Burke had attempted to get rid of his dogs because he believed they were too dangerous, but that they later broke out of his backyard and pinned Holguin underneath a vehicle. Burke has pleaded not guilty.
arstechnica_ip_feedThe premiere of Alien: Earth is just weeks away, and FX/Hulu dropped one last trailer to pique our interest, along with a much more detailed synopsis. It's meditative and existential in tone, with a haunting tune playing over footage of mysterious alien craft, dead bodies, blood-spattered humans fleeing through futuristic corridors, and, of course, a spooky silhouette of a xenomorph in the distance.
As previously reported, the eight-episode series is set in 2120, two years before the events of the first film, Alien (1979), in a world where corporate interests are competing to unlock the key to human longevity—maybe even immortality. Showrunner Noah Hawley has said that the style and mythology will be closer to that film than Prometheus (2012) or Alien: Covenant, both of which were also prequels.
Per the official premise:
arstechnica_ip_feedThe US Senate voted to rescind two years' worth of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), delivering a blow to public radio and television stations around the country. The CPB is a publicly funded nonprofit corporation that supports NPR and PBS stations.
The 51-48 vote today on President Trump's rescissions package would eliminate $1.1 billion that was allocated to public broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. All 51 yes votes came from Republicans, while Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against. The $1.1 billion includes $60 million for "costs associated with replacing and upgrading the public broadcasting interconnection system" and other back-end infrastructure for public media.
"Without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down. Parents will have fewer high quality learning resources available for their children," CPB CEO Patricia Harrison said. "Millions of Americans will have less trustworthy information about their communities, states, country, and world with which to make decisions about the quality of their lives. Cutting federal funding could also put Americans at risk of losing national and local emergency alerts that serve as a lifeline to many Americans in times of severe need."
arstechnica_ip_feedHow many Google AI researchers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A recent research paper detailing the technical core behind Google's Gemini AI assistant may suggest an answer, listing an eye-popping 3,295 authors.
It's a number that recently caught the attention of machine learning researcher David Ha (known as "hardmaru" online), who revealed on X that the first 43 names also contain a hidden message. "There’s a secret code if you observe the authors’ first initials in the order of authorship," Ha wrote, relaying the Easter egg: "GEMINI MODELS CAN THINK AND GET BACK TO YOU IN A FLASH."
The paper, titled "Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilities," describes Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Flash AI models, which were released in March. These large language models, which power Google's chatbot AI assistant, feature simulated reasoning capabilities that produce a string of "thinking out loud" text before generating responses in an attempt to help them solve more difficult problems. That explains "think" and "flash" in the hidden text.
lifehacker_feedWe may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day is long gone, but there are still deals that are meeting (or even exceeding) those Prime Day prices. One of those is this massive 100-inch TV, the Hisense U76N, which you can get for $1,399.99 (originally $1,898). This price beats its Prime Day discount, according to price tracking tools. For context, this TV was $2,300 (down from $3,000) during last year's Memorial Day sale.
100-inch TVs are huge, and usually come with a similar-sized price tag. There is also not a lot of competition for QLEDs at that exact size, since not many companies make them. But if you know when and where to look, you can score one for cheaper. The U76N is a good example, offering great value for its size and specs. It has 4K resolution, Dolby Vision compatibility (as well as HDR10+, HDR10, HLG), Dolby Atmos support, full array local dimming, and it comes with the Google OS. It's my favorite because you can easily cast your phone (Android or iOS) or computer into it, plus, the performance is fast and crisp.
This TV was announced at CES 2024, so it's at that sweet Goldilocks place where it's already seeing great discounts, but it's still a recent model with up-to-date tech. As mentioned, there aren't a lot of QLEDs at the 100-inch size with vibrant colors, deep blacks, and rich contrast like this under $1,400. It's also suitable for gaming, with its 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rates, including FreeSync Premium Pro and Dolby Vision gaming. Keep in mind, though, the speakers for the TV aren't great—like most TVs, you'll at least want to invest in a soundbar and a subwoofer.
sjmerc_local_feedPLEASANT HILL — Hyatt House Pleasant Hill was bought through a court-ordered receivership as part of a nationwide portfolio of hotels whose loans had failed, according to public documents filed in a federal court in New York.
The 142-room East Bay hotel is tied to a $204 million loan that financed 22 hotels across the country, documents show.
Located at 2611 Contra Costa Blvd., it is now owned by an affiliate linked to the Texas and Atlanta offices of London-based real estate and finance firm Mount Street U.S.
In May, the 128-room Hyatt Hotel Pleasanton also was seized by a Mount Street U.S. affiliate as part of the court-ordered receivership for the nationwide portfolio.
Hawaii-based Shidler Group purchased the portfolio of hotels in 2017.
In 2020, a few months after the COVID-19 outbreak, hotels in the portfolio that were managed by HHM Hotels were “cut off from some suppliers” and had “not made a payment in the last 2.5 weeks other than taxes,” according to federal court records.
Some hotels in the portfolio that were managed by Chartwell Hospitality appeared to be operating with no certainty that they could remain open for more than a week or so, court papers show.
“We are back to where we were two weeks ago, which is out of funds to keep these hotels open,” a Chartwell Hospitality executive stated, according to court papers.
The hotel managers were also scrambling to obtain funding from the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
“There is an incredible amount of stress that is being put on the teams at these hotels while they work incredibly hard to keep the assets open for business,” Chartwell Hospitality stated in an email that was part of the court record.
The foreclosure proceedings against the two East Bay hotels represent only some of the problems that have engulfed the Bay Area lodging sector.
— The 500-room Oakland Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland was seized through a foreclosure on July 8 that placed a $70.2 million value on a lodging tower that in 2017 was bought for $143 million.
— On May 12, the 541-room Signia by Hilton, a downtown San Jose lodging tower that is the South Bay city’s largest hotel, was seized through a foreclosure that valued it at $80 million, well below the foreclosed loan’s $134 million total.
— The 162-room Courtyard Oakland Downtown was bought in October 2024 for $10.6 million, a nosedive of 76% from its prior value.
— In August 2024, the Hilton Oakland Airport Hotel abruptly closed its doors, a shutdown that eliminated 152 jobs.
— The 145-room Waterfront Hotel in Jack London Square shut down without warning in late January.
— The 289-room Radisson Oakland received an appraisal of $15 million in October 2024, according to Morningstar. That was a 70% plunge from the hotel’s prior value.
— A 276-room dual-branded hotel at 1431 Jefferson St. in downtown Oakland was taken back by its lender through a streamlined foreclosure process.
sjmerc_local_feedANTIOCH — It may not be the final curtain call yet, but the spotlight is dimming for El Campanil Theatre as it may be forced to shut its doors later this year if financial conditions don’t improve.
Board of Directors President Kathie Campbell said the venue has faced difficulties after the COVID-19 pandemic due to competition, claiming people are more selective about how they spend their money.
“So many theaters have closed for that reason, aside from the fact that you can get entertainment in a lot of different ways now, you can get it on Netflix, you go to a winery for a concert,” said Campbell in a podcast interview with Contra Costa News. “So, there’s a lot of competition out there for the entertainment value and the entertainment dollars. As a result of that, we ran into some financial troubles.”
Campbell said in order to keep the theater afloat, the building was sold to clear debts incurred as a result of previous financial decisions. She did not go into detail about those decisions. She also did not respond to requests for comment from this news organization.
The board president said the new out-of-state owner is “very supportive” of the idea that the theater continues its operations.
“We all hope it doesn’t shut down. We’re desperately trying to prevent that, but with the current status, we are looking at probably by December 2025 or early 2026, we may have to close our doors,” said Campbell.
El Campanil Theatre first opened on Nov. 1, 1928, as a venue for vaudeville shows and movies. It was built and owned by Ferdinand Stamm and Ralph Beede and continued to be operated by the Stamm family until 2003.
In 2003, the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization, purchased and converted the building into a community performing arts center.
Originally, it had about 1,100 seats, but after remodeling, it now features about 700 larger, improved seats and an extended stage.
Cambell said there are a “myriad of reasons” that led to the current situation, which the organization is “desperately trying to get out of.”
“We have a great team moving forward, and we are working to keep going forward, but we will definitely need some assistance,” she noted.
Currently, Campbell said the theater needs approximately $240,000 per year to operate, and without it, the theater may have to close its doors.
“We are applying for grants, we are talking to corporations, we are asking people, we are doing everything short of holding a cup on the corner. We are doing everything we can to raise funds and keep it going,” said Campbell. “Nobody wants to see the theater closed.”
She noted it would be “heartbreaking” for Antioch to lose “an anchor in the downtown area.”
Despite bringing in shows such as a Taylor Swift tribute recently, Campbell said the theater has not received the strong support from the community that was expected.
El Campanil Theatre still has shows scheduled throughout the year, including “Comedy Game Night,” hosted by David Studebaker in September; an Eagles tribute in October; and locals Frank Giovanni (Frankie G) and Tia Carroll in November, among others.
sjmerc_local_feedIn the upcoming independent film “Magic Hour,” Charlie — portrayed by Daveed Diggs — breaks out in a sweat when his lover persuades him to hop on a Ferris wheel with her. Charlie, you see, is afraid of heights and more content keeping his feet firmly planted on terra firma.
That stands in stark contrast to Diggs himself. The Oakland native and Berkeley High School graduate is an accomplished multi-hyphenated actor, rapper and songwriter who has won a Tony, Grammy and Emmy — and even set a record as a hurdler at Brown University.
It seems he has no fear of heights — especially the professional and artistic ones.
Later this month, Diggs’ commitment to creative and artistic expression and his work inspiring future generations will be recognized when the 43-year-old “Hamilton” and “Blindspotting” sensation receives the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival’s Freedom of Expression honor. The award debuted in 2005 and has been bestowed on innovators such as Kirk Douglas, Lee Grant and Elliot Gould, amongst others.
“It’s really sweet,” Diggs said in an interview with Bay Area News Group in which he discussed his expansive career that includes being part of a three-member hip-hop band, clipping, made up now of dads. Give them a listen; they’re like lightning.
“It’s really gratifying,” Diggs adds. “It’s really nice that it’s back home too.” Diggs these days resides in the Los Angeles area with his partner, actress-musician Emmy Raver-Lampman — whom he met while performing with the original “Hamilton” Broadway cast. The pair have a 1-year-old son.
The festival runs July 17 through Aug. 3 and opens with the documentary “Coexistence, My Ass!” about comedian and activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi. The lineup includes world premieres of “The Feeling Remains,” Bay Area native Sophie Rose’s powerful personal documentary about a ‘90s-era family in crisis, and Oakland director Abby Ginzberg’s “Labors of Love: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Szold,” an illuminating portrait of the highly influential 20th-century humanitarian.
Diggs is slated to attend the 6 p.m. July 31 screening of “Magic Hour” at the Piedmont Theatre that includes a conversation afterwards.
It was a slam dunk to choose Diggs, says Jewish Film Festival’s executive director Lexi Leban.
“(The award) was really tied up in this idea of how important the arts are to a Democratic society and really honor freedom of expression — both in terms of political artists that take risks and that really foreground challenging ideas and encourage people to think deeply about their perspectives, but also the artistic imagination and artists that really break boundaries in terms of genre breaking, genre bending, and also creating new forms and thinking about new ways of storytelling,” Leban said.
“For us, Daveed Diggs is the embodiment of this award on every level.”
Diggs appreciates those kind words but says he’s just doing what he loves.
“I’ve been making art for a long time – that’s just sort of what I do,” he said. “So statements that seem to encapsulate a body of work, that’s never how I really think about it. I’m just doing things. I just really like making things. I’ve been really fortunate. … It’s nice to hear that when people look at it in its totality, it means that it’s greater than the sum of its parts. That’s really lovely because I don’t think of it in that way. I’m really not legacy focused. I try to mostly make things that are good.”
And he does just that.
In addition to making a splash playing Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s phenom “Hamilton,” he’s been on the sitcom “black-ish,” and the movie “Wonder”; appeared opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Netflix’s “Velvet Buzzsaw”; starred in the series “Snowpiercer” (spun off the 2013 film); played Sebastian the Crab in the live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid”; co-starred in the groundbreaking adaptation of “The Nickel Boys”; and played a conflicted Florida rabbi and later lawyer Matthew Tucker (he even gets a chance to sing) in two episodes of Apple TV+s climate-change-focused series “Extrapolations.” There’s more, of course, including a cute song (and video) “Puppy for Hanukkah.”
In addition to all that, he serves as executive producer on numerous projects, including the six-part PBS docuseries “The Class,” which shadowed college advisor Mr. Cam and East Bay students at Antioch’s Deer Valley High School campus during the 2020-2021 COVID-era school year.
He’s integral on the Bay List, a homegrown project spearheaded by his frequent collaborator and friend Rafael Casal. It unites Bay Area filmmakers and creative types — ranging from Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (“Freaky Tales”) to Boots Riley (“I’m a Virgo”) — on an initiative to choose, encourage and nurture 10 screenplays and pilots from writers with Bay Area ties. The response has been terrific with over 1,000 submissions received, he said. (Diggs also has returned to Berkeley High School to speak to students and revisited his collegiate alma mater Brown University in January.)
For people in the Bay, it was Diggs and Casal’s kinetic 2018 comedy-drama breakout hit “Blindspotting,” which he wrote, produced and starred in, that further cemented the pair’s rep as an East Bay creative force.
Ten years in the making, the East Bay buddy film was the first screenwriting project that he and Berkeley High School alum, rapper and actor Casal tackled and it knocked out Sundance Film Festival audiences. (“It was crazy, man,” he recalls about the Sundance experience.) It also blossomed into a one-of-a-kind series on Starz that sadly got canceled after two seasons. It’s a series he’s particularly proud of and wishes more people could get a chance to watch. (Diggs said they’ve been negotiating with Starz in hopes it can reach a wider audience.)
Both the film and the series addressed a slew of hot-button topics such as gentrification, racism, police brutality, life on the inside and the outside, and friendship and did so with vigor and smarts as well as dashes of humor, an essential ingredient that Diggs loves to put in the mix.
“I really like things that are funny,” he said, adding he grew up watching Abbott and Costello and Charlie Chaplin films. “I think they are one of the hardest things to create.”
It was his mother who ensured Diggs had “the option of religion.” He describes his Judaism as “pretty Berkeley” but says key aspects of that faith have “had a lifelong effect on me.”
“The emphasis on questioning things, the desire for coaching argument and being unafraid of dissent is woven into my experience with the religion,” he said. “Being in conversation with the text and not seeing it as static.” He also sees that text mirroring why he loves classic stage plays and how the text in those works can resonate and tap into the times in which we currently live.
His teen years growing up in the Bay (“the place has always been rich in culture, rich in art”) allowed him ample opportunities for creative pursuits as well as athletic ones (he started running at age 9). He was surrounded by young talent who would go on to big projects.
“I remember I was 16 when I made my first rap album with Jake Schreier, actually also at Berkeley High, who just directed ‘Thunderbolts*,’ he said. They recorded that album at Schreier’s mom’s house in a downstairs closet.
It was a bit of a whirlwind back then.
“Those days were like 5 in the morning I’m unloading trucks at Pier 1 Imports and then I would leave at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, go to track practice out at the college in Alameda and run really hard. We used to train so crazy back then. I barely could see straight at that point and then (I’d) get into my mom’s car and drive to Jake’s house and be there until 4 in the morning and nap on his couch for an hour and go back to Pier 1.”
Flash forward to today when Diggs says his foremost priority is fatherhood, and that’s involved a “steep learning curve” on how to fit in creative projects that he and his longtime partner are involved in. But it’s getting smoother thanks to his managers and agents, and learning to compromise.
“It’s made me more efficient with my time,” he adds. “ It’s made me better at prioritizing.”
While Diggs continues to alternate between high-profile endeavors such as his upcoming stint on the fifth and final season of Amazon Prime’s “The Boys,” he finds working on indie films such as “Magic Hour” opposite Katie Aselton, who also directed and co-wrote the heartfelt film, to be enriching when the cameras are on and off.
“There were maybe 15 people total out in the desert (it was shot in Joshua Tree National Park),” he said. “That crew and cast for just 11 days making something that I find really powerful and really beautiful. … It’s the way I love making art.”
Smaller films like that can face an uphill battle and it can be “really hard to get eyes on things like that.” Given the current movie climate, Diggs could see “Blindspotting” maybe encountering a rough time today landing a theatrical release.
“We need to start training ourselves to seek out things like that better,” he said. “Because they’re out there. There is so much good stuff being made that we don’t get, that doesn’t come to us. That’s so frustrating to me.”
In accepting the Freedom of Expression honor, Diggs notes frustration over how on social media, “We get fed things that we’re prone to agree with and (how) we’re also taught to yell really loudly at things we don’t agree with … and what we are not encouraged to do at all is is do any research.”
“In fact, we’re entering a time where we don’t know what research is real or not,” he adds. “It feels like now, despite having all the world’s information at our fingertips, it feels harder to do research than it did when I had to go to the library as a kid.”
That makes it more challenging for a younger generation to speak their truth and to have it not be greeted with a “ton of vitriol in your community, which for a lot of (younger) people, is online.”
Diggs said he feels very fortunate and privileged to be already an established artist who feels “very comfortable expressing myself. I’m not afraid of it and I’m not afraid of what I might get back in return because I’ve also taught myself how to really stand behind my art and I’ve also taught myself to just sit down and shut up and (that) you don’t need to respond to things that happen online, that place isn’t real to me.”
sjmerc_local_feedFRISCO, Texas — The latest development in the world of Big 12 football is not a development in the standard sense. It’s a pause.
The conference is waiting for the College Football Playoff’s future format to be determined before plowing forward with several strategic initiatives. Within that group of chess moves: the fate of non-conference schedules into the 2030s.
Big 12 schools have dozens of matchups with Big Ten and SEC opponents under contract over the next eight years, but many of the showdowns could be in jeopardy.
“We should have clarity in a few months,” Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini told the Hotline last week at Big 12 football media days. “A lot depends on what the SEC does.”
Check that: Everything depends on what the SEC does, from the CFP model for 2026 and beyond to the Big 12 non-conference schedules.
Specifically, everything depends on what the SEC does with its conference schedule. Will it continue to play eight games or add a ninth to equal the number played by the Big Ten and Big 12?
Let’s step back and connect the dots in a sport that is increasingly interwoven.
— The Big Ten and SEC control the playoff format for the next contract cycle, from 2026-31.
— The Big Ten favors a 16-team model with 13 automatic qualifiers and three at-large teams — the so-called 4-4-2-2-1 approach in which the Big 12 and ACC would receive half as many bids (two) as the Big Ten and SEC (four).
— The SEC favors a 16-model in which the five highest-ranked conference champions would receive automatic bids, with the other 11 allocated to at-large teams picked by the CFP selection committee.
— Convinced that playing fewer conference games confers an advantage within a highly subjective selection process, the Big Ten won’t agree to the 5+11 format unless the SEC expands its intra-league schedule to nine games.
— That ninth game could replace one of the non-conference matchups currently under contract for each SEC team. It also would create the potential for the SEC and Big Ten to form an in-season crossover series that would delight their network partners and gobble up Saturdays for the 34 schools across both leagues.
SEC teams could have just two non-conference slots available instead of four; Big Ten teams could have two available instead of three. Across the two leagues, as many as 50 slots could vanish in any given year.
Put another way: If the CFP negotiations lead to the ninth league game, there could be significant collateral damage to Big 12 non-conference schedules.
Yes, that’s a worst-case scenario. But administrators in the Big 12, ACC and every other FBS conference are monitoring the situation.
“If the SEC goes to nine, my hunch is they’ll want out of our games,” Rossini said of ASU’s upcoming non-conference matchups. “We’re taking a wait-and-see approach.”
(Rossini added that he would love to play Pac-12 legacy schools and has spoken to UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond about scheduling a home-and-home series.)
Granted, the Sun Devils have more exposure than most Big 12 schools due to home-and-home series with Texas A&M (2026 and 2027), Florida (2028 and 2031), LSU (2029 and 2030) and Texas (2032 and 2033).
But all in all, the Big 12 has approximately 30 games under contract with SEC and Big Ten opponents over the next eight years, according to FBschedules.com, which tracks scheduling for college and professional teams.
Big 12 opponents for home-and-home series include Alabama, Oregon, Nebraska and Wisconsin, in addition to the quartet of schools set to play ASU.
Those home games provide the Big 12 with premier revenue opportunities through ticket and merchandise sales, but there are massive competitive benefits, as well. The next iteration of the CFP selection process is expected to place greater emphasis than the current approach on schedule strength and quality wins.
The Big 12’s challenge is steep enough within the 12-team model, as we saw last season in the committee’s treatment of Brigham Young.
If the conference is stripped of dates with SEC and Big Ten opponents — not all of them, just some of them — then its pursuit of at-large bids in a given season could become exponentially more daunting.
This being college football, no issue would be complete without deep irony.
The Big 12 is pushing for the 5+11 model because, as commissioner Brett Yormark said last week, it’s “the right playoff format.
“We want to earn it on the field. We do not need a professional model. We are not the NFL. We are college football and we must act like it.”
Left unsaid (by Yormark, not by the Hotline): The conference cannot agree to any format that codifies inferiority, which would be the case if the Big Ten’s 4-4-2-2-1-3 proposal is adopted.
The damage to the Big 12’s brand would be far more significant than if the conference simply didn’t perform well enough on the field.
And yet … the same 5+11 model proposed by the Big 12 and ACC seemingly requires the SEC to add a ninth league game and, potentially, spark a chain of scheduling decisions that would result in the Big 12 missing out on the very non-conference matchups that are essential to securing at-large bids.
It’s a fraught position playing out along a treacherous path leading to an uncertain future.
And it’s the reality for Big 12 schools as they cast an eye to Birmingham and prepare for “what the SEC does.”
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sjmerc_local_feedBy Michael Lozano, Calmatters
They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm.
RELATED: Restraining order extended against ICE in case of San Jose tattoo artist
The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is a new fact of life in Southern California this summer as the Trump administration carries out the president’s promised deportations.
Many residents may assume these masked agents are officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But that’s not always the case.
Many of them belong to the Border Patrol, the agency that traditionally has policed the nation’s border with Mexico. But the Trump administration sent officers from other agencies to Los Angeles, too, including the FBI and special tactical teams from the Department of Homeland Security not widely seen until now.
Democrats in California’s Legislature have proposed measures to unmask the federal agents.
Senate Bill 627, the “No Secret Police Act,” seeks to prohibit all local, state and federal officers from using masks with some exceptions. SB 805, the “No Vigilantes Act,” would require that officers clearly display their name or badge number. It’s disputed whether the state can regulate federal officers and law enforcement agencies are lobbying against the proposals.
Federal regulations state that ICE and Border Patrol agents should identify themselves when arresting someone “as soon as it is practical and safe to do so.”
And the public is allowed to ask federal agents to identify themselves.
But David Levine, a professor at UC Law San Francisco said, “they can ask but it doesn’t mean they’ll get the information.”
The number of sweeps and detentions appeared to slow this week after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, finding that agents stopped people based on someone’s race, language, accent, presence at a specific location or job. For ensuing stops, agents must have “reasonable suspicion” that doesn’t consider those factors “alone or in combination,” according to the judge’s order.
While ICE is a different agency than Border Patrol, both are part of the Department of Homeland Security and carry out immigration enforcement.
The difference may not always matter much, but misidentifying an agency can confuse the public, as it did with the sighting of federal agents outside Dodger Stadium in June. The agents reportedly had no visible names or badges and attempted to enter the stadium’s parking lots. The Dodgers put out a statement that “ICE agents” had been denied entry to the stadium. ICE denied it was ever there; the Department of Homeland Security then clarified that it had been Customs and Border Protection agents at the venue.
Images on social media show a constellation of federal agencies supporting immigration sweeps in Southern California. Here’s how you can identify them.
Border Patrol agents often wear green uniforms and “Border Patrol” and “U.S. Customs and Border Protection” might be labeled on their badge, vest, shoulder, back, bucket hat or cap, and usually in yellow text over blue.
Their marked vehicles tend to be white with a green slash, reading “Border Patrol” on the side.
Some might confuse Border Patrol with Customs and Border Protection officers. Those officials wear blue and usually stay stationed at ports of entry.
You may be wondering why Border Patrol agents are conducting immigration operations deep into Los Angeles neighborhoods, rather than staying closer to the border.
Border Patrol agents can search vehicles without a warrant throughout much of the country. They’re allowed to operate 100 miles from any edge of the country and coastline, reaching roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population, according to a CalMatters investigation and documentary produced in partnership with Evident and Bellingcat.
Since its creation by Congress in 1924, the Border Patrol’s role has been to prevent unauthorized entry into the United States. The agency polices trade, narcotics, contraband and combats human trafficking.
The agency has a SWAT-like unit known as BORTAC, or Border Patrol Tactical Unit, which has also been documented in immigrant hubs such as MacArthur Park, Los Angeles’ Toy District, and Bell. Border Patrol sources describe the unit’s use for “high-risk” purposes.
In fatigues, the unit wears a “BORTAC” patch on the left shoulder with, at times, black undershirts.
Customs and Border Protection also deployed its tactical Special Response Team in Los Angeles’ North Hills late June, executing a federal search warrant at a “human smuggling hub” tied to national security threats, arresting two, according to the agency.
ICE agents might wear an “ICE” patch on the front or back of their vest, usually in black-and-white, though they also can carry a badge of the same design in gold. The ICE emblem features the U.S. Department of Homeland Security eagle seal.
ICE agents might display “police” on their uniform. The ACLU wants ICE to stop using the word “police” on uniforms, contending the agency is impersonating local law enforcement officers
After 9/11, the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement within it shortly thereafter. ICE is tasked with enforcing trade and immigration laws, including within the interior of the country.
The Cato Institute found that ICE booked over 200,000 people into detention between October 1 and June 14. More than 93% of book-ins had no violent conviction and 65% had no criminal conviction whatsoever.
ICE itself has a few enforcement divisions. That’s why some ICE uniforms might read ERO—part of their “Enforcement and Removal Operations” team—or HSI for “Homeland Security Investigations.”
In 2024, ICE launched a rebrand and created the investigations unit to develop cases, and improve public outreach, including with local law enforcement, an HSI official told ABC News.
According to its website, HSI combats a broad array of transnational-related crime, ranging from narcotics smuggling to cybercrime, and from human trafficking to intellectual property theft.
ERO meanwhile manages all aspects of the typical immigration enforcement process: identifying, arresting, GPS monitoring, and deporting unauthorized immigrants. Their site description also says they seek to deport priority undocumented immigrants after they are released from U.S. jails and prisons. They can also assist multi-agency task forces in arresting unauthorized immigrants without any other criminal history who are “deemed a threat to public safety.”
ICE also deployed its Special Response Team (SRT), decked in military wear and weaponry, in San Diego late May. It sent a dozen or more of those officers to the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet near southeast Los Angeles in June, detaining two people for deportation.
Agents from those teams will often feature their logo on the shoulder and will be seen in heavy military-like uniforms. The teams are meant to engage “high risk” situations, according to ICE.
National Guard troops had been most visible outside a federal building during protests in downtown Los Angeles, but have also accompanied a few immigration enforcement operations. In mid-June, National Guard soldiers accompanied federal agents raiding marijuana farms around Thermal, a desert town near Coachella, where about 70 undocumented immigrants were arrested, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
On July 7, about 90 California National Guard soldiers swept through the Los Angeles immigrant hub of MacArthur Park, a defense official said, to protect immigration agents from potentially hostile crowds, according to the Associated Press. They also were on site in Carpinteria last week.
The National Guard troops in L.A. wear Army uniforms. Soldiers in the state units have patches on their left shoulder that show a raven, a sunburst, or a sunburst on top a diamond, each in black and green color schemes. Troops will also have a full color U.S. flag on the right shoulder. The patch under that, if any, can vary and may be based on a soldier’s past deployments.
Part of the U.S. military, the National Guard is able to serve both domestically and globally for state and federal duties, assisting with natural disasters, border security, civil unrest, overseas combat, counter-drug efforts and more. Soldiers largely stay in their home state and can be called on by the state governor or president.
Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed President Trump’s decision to send the troops to Los Angeles, and the assignment marked the first time that a president has deployed the National Guard over the objections of a governor since the Civil Rights era.
In January, a Homeland Security memo called for Justice Department agents to carry out immigration enforcement, according to ABC News. Deputized bureaus include the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons receiving the “same authority already granted to the FBI.”
Officers’ affiliations can be seen on their vests, jackets, or at times, their shoulder patches.
Agents wearing FBI fatigues were most visible in the worksite sweep at Ambiance Apparel in LA’s Fashion District, arguably the first major operation of the current wave of raids.
On June 10, FBI Los Angeles’ X account touted its collaboration with an ICE operation in Ventura County. They have also participated in other immigration raids across the country.
A spokesperson with the Justice Department declined to comment on how it deployed agents from various agencies. In early June, the FBI told KTLA that it is participating in immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and nationwide “as directed by the Attorney General,” supporting with SWAT, intelligence and more.
The ATF was also seen at the Ambiance Apparel raid. The DEA was there, too, and has since collaborated with ICE in the region.
On X, U.S. Marshals touted themselves as “on the front lines of immigration enforcement” in Los Angeles while showing officers interviewing a man on a bike. Marshals were also on site at a Ventura County marijuana farm raid where more than 200 people were arrested.
The use of masked agents without clearly identifying uniforms has confused the public, including local police receiving reports of kidnappings.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned in March that reports of ICE impersonations were growing. Alleged federal agent impersonations have occurred in Huntington Park, Wisconsin, Philadelphia and elsewhere.
“We don’t even know who these people are. It’s so dangerous, it’s so horrific, and it’s time to put standards in place,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who is backing two proposals that would compel law enforcement officers to go without masks and display identification.
The Trump administration maintains that the masks are necessary to protect officers’ identities as they carry out investigations.
“So, I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” said acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in a press conference early June.
And some law enforcement experts say the federal government has that authority.
“Certain legislators are giving a false sense of hope that California can legislate laws to control the practices of federal agents,” said Ed Obayashi, a longtime sheriff’s deputy in California and policy adviser to the Modoc County Sheriff’s Office.
“They cannot do that—bottom line. Plain and simple. Federal law is supreme.”
Acknowledging potential legal disputes, Wiener said he’s willing to test the “time-sensitive” bills in the courts.
“Federal employees can’t just come in and ignore all California laws,” he said. “There are laws that they have to follow.”
sjmerc_local_feedUp until Wednesday night, former Silicon Valley executive Andy Byron probably wasn’t known outside his professional world of tech, data analytics and AI, but that all changed when the married CEO attended a Coldplay concert and was caught on a stadium jumbotron, canoodling with a woman who is not his wife, according to a rather painful TikTok clip that went viral overnight.
It was none other that Chris Martin himself who provided the commentary as the jumbotron camera at Gillette Stadium in Boston surveyed the audience and unknowingly singled out the Astronomer CEO and his female friend, identified as Kristin Cabot, the company’s Chief People Officer, according to The Sun. As the kiss cam fixed on Byron and Cabot, they were initially seen on the big screen embracing and smiling. She was leaning back in his arms, as they both swayed to the music.
“Oh look at these two!” Martin exclaimed to the thousands in the crowd, as if to celebrate Byron and Cabot’s evident bliss with each other. When Byron and Cabot realized that their intimate moment was being projected onto the big screen, she clapped her hands in front of her face and turned away. The salt-and-pepper-haired Byron immediately dove down behind a barrier.
“All right. Come on. You’re OK,” Martin said. But in the next split second, the singer realized the camera had caught the couple in an apparent compromising moment. “Oh what?” he laughed uncomfortably before saying: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
For another split second, Cabot remained with her back to the camera, then stepped out of view.
As of Thursday morning, the clip has racked up more than 5 million views, according to the Daily Mail. Quite a number of people commenting on the video identified the couple as Byron and Cabot.
“Oh my God that looks like Astronomer CEO Andy Byron AND Astronomer Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot???” one person said in a comment that’s been liked by more than 122,000 people. “Oh that’s gonna be one awkward board meeting.”
Others noted that a woman standing next to Cabot, looking embarrassed about the situation, was identified as another member of the company’s executive team. “Yeah looks like the whole team knows. That makes it even worse for their partners,” one person said.
As people were convinced that Byron and Cabot wouldn’t be acting that way on camera, unless they were doing something they shouldn’t, two quipped, “Imagine being caught by Coldplay,” and “Chris Martin helping to consciously uncouple another couple.”
Both The Sun and Newsweek said they had reached out to Astronomer and to Byron, his wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, and to Cabot for comment but had not heard back. Newsweek said that it wasn’t clear whether Megan Kerrigan Byron had been at the concert as well, but her Facebook page was inundated with messages of support before she deactivated her account Thursday morning. One comment read: “I really hope if she sees all this and it’s news to her that she is surrounded by people who truly love and support her to help her get through this. This is so wrong and hurtful.”
Coldplay played Tuesday and Wednesday at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Newsweek, citing public records, said that Byron and his wife live in nearby Northborough.
Astronomer is a private data infrastructure startup that achieved “unicorn” status in 2022 with a $1 billion or more valuation, Newsweek reported. The company recently moved its headquarters to New York City.
Byron became CEO at Astronomer in July 2023, according to his LinkedIn. Before that, he served as president for three years at Lacework, a Silicon Valley-based company, which is involved in computer and network security and is now part of Fortinet, a cloud-native application protection platform. Much of Byron’s career has been based in the Boston area, which may explain why he and his wife currently live there.
Meanwhile, Cabot, who also is reportedly married, began working at Astronomer in November, describing herself on LinkedIn as “a passionate People leader known for building award-winning cultures from the ground up for fast-growing startups and multi-national corporations.” Cabot also said she tries to “lead by example and win trust with employees of all levels, from CEOs to managers to assistants.”
sjmerc_local_feedAttorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are visiting Alcatraz Island today to advance a proposal to reopen the former federal prison.
The move drew immediate condemnation from Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker who represents San Francisco, who revealed the visit in a news release Wednesday afternoon.
“With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” Pelosi said in a statement Wednesday.
The Department of Justice had not announced the visit and did not immediately respond to questions about it Thursday. But local news media photographed Bondi and Burgum on a boat ramp in San Francisco on Thursday morning. On social media a few hours later, Burgum posted about the trip: “Spent the day on Alcatraz Island… to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals.”
Spent the day on Alcatraz Island, a @NatlParkService site, to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals.
This administration is restoring safety, justice, and order to our streets. @Interior & @TheJusticeDept are following… pic.twitter.com/1CA9O5WWSu
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) July 17, 2025
Bondi posted on social media as well: “A great morning at Alcatraz… Under President Trump, we are Making America Safe Again.”
In May, President Trump proposed converting Alcatraz — now one of San Francisco’s most visited tourist attractions — back into a high-security federal prison for violent offenders.
But reopening the island would be a major undertaking. It remains unclear how the federal government would reclaim the island, which has operated as a park and museum since the early 1970s. The National Park Service currently maintains the site, which draws more than a million visitors each year. Removing the island’s national park status would require a vote of Congress.
Even if the plan passes the numerous bureaucratic hurdles and regulations before it, construction on the rocky island could be prohibitively expensive.
Pelosi framed the visit as a “diversionary tactic” to draw attention away from his recently passed tax and domestic policy bill that would expand tax cuts while also adding more than $3 trillion to the national debt.
There’s another story that the Trump administration may also be trying to get away from: this week, Bondi has faced scrutiny over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Frustration has mounted amongst Trump supporters over the administration’s failure to release documents tied to the investigation of Epstein, who was charged with sex trafficking and later found dead in his jail cell in 2019.
It remains to be seen if Bondi and Burgum make any announcements about the reopening of the prison. Earlier this month, Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social that he had seen renderings of a new site.
“We’re going to look into renovating and rebuilding the famous ALCATRAZ Prison sitting high on the Bay, surrounded by sharks. What a symbol it is, and will be!”
In a statement posted to social media Thursday morning, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said that there was no “realistic plan for Alcatraz to host anyone other than visitors.”
“If the federal government has billions of dollars to spend in San Francisco, we could use that funding to keep our streets safe and clean and help our economy recover,” he continued.
Local officials and historians have questioned the practical and symbolic implications of converting the island back into a penitentiary. Alcatraz housed some of America’s most notorious criminals during its 29 years of operation, including Al Capone.
“It’s nowhere near a functioning island by any means,” said San Francisco historian John Martini previously told this news organization.
The main prison has been deteriorating for years, save for some seismic upgrades that made it safe for visitors. Back in 1962, the Bureau of Prisons weighed making upgrades to the prison, but it would have cost $5 million — or $52 million today.
“The reason it is not a prison now is because of the daunting challenges from six decades ago,” Martini said. “The idea that we’re going to forget all that and pick up where we left off during the JFK administration — let’s just say there will be a lot of challenges.”
sjmerc_ca_feedPLEASANT HILL — Hyatt House Pleasant Hill was bought through a court-ordered receivership as part of a nationwide portfolio of hotels whose loans had failed, according to public documents filed in a federal court in New York.
The 142-room East Bay hotel is tied to a $204 million loan that financed 22 hotels across the country, documents show.
Located at 2611 Contra Costa Blvd., it is now owned by an affiliate linked to the Texas and Atlanta offices of London-based real estate and finance firm Mount Street U.S.
In May, the 128-room Hyatt Hotel Pleasanton also was seized by a Mount Street U.S. affiliate as part of the court-ordered receivership for the nationwide portfolio.
Hawaii-based Shidler Group purchased the portfolio of hotels in 2017.
In 2020, a few months after the COVID-19 outbreak, hotels in the portfolio that were managed by HHM Hotels were “cut off from some suppliers” and had “not made a payment in the last 2.5 weeks other than taxes,” according to federal court records.
Some hotels in the portfolio that were managed by Chartwell Hospitality appeared to be operating with no certainty that they could remain open for more than a week or so, court papers show.
“We are back to where we were two weeks ago, which is out of funds to keep these hotels open,” a Chartwell Hospitality executive stated, according to court papers.
The hotel managers were also scrambling to obtain funding from the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
“There is an incredible amount of stress that is being put on the teams at these hotels while they work incredibly hard to keep the assets open for business,” Chartwell Hospitality stated in an email that was part of the court record.
The foreclosure proceedings against the two East Bay hotels represent only some of the problems that have engulfed the Bay Area lodging sector.
— The 500-room Oakland Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland was seized through a foreclosure on July 8 that placed a $70.2 million value on a lodging tower that in 2017 was bought for $143 million.
— On May 12, the 541-room Signia by Hilton, a downtown San Jose lodging tower that is the South Bay city’s largest hotel, was seized through a foreclosure that valued it at $80 million, well below the foreclosed loan’s $134 million total.
— The 162-room Courtyard Oakland Downtown was bought in October 2024 for $10.6 million, a nosedive of 76% from its prior value.
— In August 2024, the Hilton Oakland Airport Hotel abruptly closed its doors, a shutdown that eliminated 152 jobs.
— The 145-room Waterfront Hotel in Jack London Square shut down without warning in late January.
— The 289-room Radisson Oakland received an appraisal of $15 million in October 2024, according to Morningstar. That was a 70% plunge from the hotel’s prior value.
— A 276-room dual-branded hotel at 1431 Jefferson St. in downtown Oakland was taken back by its lender through a streamlined foreclosure process.
sjmerc_ca_feedANTIOCH — It may not be the final curtain call yet, but the spotlight is dimming for El Campanil Theatre as it may be forced to shut its doors later this year if financial conditions don’t improve.
Board of Directors President Kathie Campbell said the venue has faced difficulties after the COVID-19 pandemic due to competition, claiming people are more selective about how they spend their money.
“So many theaters have closed for that reason, aside from the fact that you can get entertainment in a lot of different ways now, you can get it on Netflix, you go to a winery for a concert,” said Campbell in a podcast interview with Contra Costa News. “So, there’s a lot of competition out there for the entertainment value and the entertainment dollars. As a result of that, we ran into some financial troubles.”
Campbell said in order to keep the theater afloat, the building was sold to clear debts incurred as a result of previous financial decisions. She did not go into detail about those decisions. She also did not respond to requests for comment from this news organization.
The board president said the new out-of-state owner is “very supportive” of the idea that the theater continues its operations.
“We all hope it doesn’t shut down. We’re desperately trying to prevent that, but with the current status, we are looking at probably by December 2025 or early 2026, we may have to close our doors,” said Campbell.
El Campanil Theatre first opened on Nov. 1, 1928, as a venue for vaudeville shows and movies. It was built and owned by Ferdinand Stamm and Ralph Beede and continued to be operated by the Stamm family until 2003.
In 2003, the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization, purchased and converted the building into a community performing arts center.
Originally, it had about 1,100 seats, but after remodeling, it now features about 700 larger, improved seats and an extended stage.
Cambell said there are a “myriad of reasons” that led to the current situation, which the organization is “desperately trying to get out of.”
“We have a great team moving forward, and we are working to keep going forward, but we will definitely need some assistance,” she noted.
Currently, Campbell said the theater needs approximately $240,000 per year to operate, and without it, the theater may have to close its doors.
“We are applying for grants, we are talking to corporations, we are asking people, we are doing everything short of holding a cup on the corner. We are doing everything we can to raise funds and keep it going,” said Campbell. “Nobody wants to see the theater closed.”
She noted it would be “heartbreaking” for Antioch to lose “an anchor in the downtown area.”
Despite bringing in shows such as a Taylor Swift tribute recently, Campbell said the theater has not received the strong support from the community that was expected.
El Campanil Theatre still has shows scheduled throughout the year, including “Comedy Game Night,” hosted by David Studebaker in September; an Eagles tribute in October; and locals Frank Giovanni (Frankie G) and Tia Carroll in November, among others.
calculatedrisk_feedThe U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 12 July. ...The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.
6-12 July 2025 (percentage change from comparable week in 2024):
• Occupancy: 67.2% (-3.2%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$158.42 (-0.5%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$106.39 (-3.7%)
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.icanhascheezburger_feedIt's said that cats rule the internet, but they also rule our lives - and sometimes even our schedules. If a cat demands attention, memes must be served. Luckily, this list is here to deliver a delightful scroll through feline chaos, charm, and cuteness.
Cats are the ultimate blend of fluff and drama. One moment they're peacefully loafing in a sunbeam, and then they're launching into full zoomies at nothing in particular. They eat like royalty, nap like pros, and keep their hoomans wrapped around their adorable little toe beans. It's no wonder so many people dream of living nine lives as a spoiled house cat.
If today calls for a little mental boost, or just an excuse to avoid chores - these funny cat memes are here to serve. Whether you're a longtime cat lover or simply a fan of floofy feline antics, this scroll of whiskered wonders is bound to bring some much-needed pawsitivity.
Fluff. Chaos. Drama! Our weekly cat newsletter has it all - subscribe here.
lifehacker_feedMost of us use our devices as the companies and developers who make them intend, waiting around for the latest operating system to be pushed out to the general public before upgrading. That's the safe bet: The features that ship with an OS like Android are have generally been workshopped and tested to death, so they will (hopefully) run as they should.
But not all users experience their tech this way. Some of us like to run betas—versions of the software that are not yet finished. Betas allow developers (or the merely curious) to test new features and changes with a smaller pool of users so they can iron out any bugs or glitches before they make it to the general public. It's not necessarily the safest software to run on your devices—since it's unfinished, you run the risk of experiencing instability and data loss—but it can be a good way to add some novelty (and functionality) to your otherwise vanilla tech.
But betas aren't even the only way to experience new features early. Depending on the company you made your device, betas might actually be a halfway point between testing and shipping a piece of software. You might hear pre-beta software referred to as "alpha" or "canary:" essentially, it means software that's fresh out of development, and in the earliest stages of testing. In short, being on the cutting edge of software means accepting the biggest risks of instability.
If you have an Android device, this earliest testing experience is known as the Canary release channel. It's a pretty new option, at least at the time of writing, as Android only announced it on July 10. It's intended for developers to test their apps with upcoming versions of Android well in advance.
Technically, the Canary release channel replaces another early access model: the Developer Preview. Like the Canary release channel, Developer Previews were designed for developers (though anyone with the know-how could install them) to access the earliest possible versions of new Android features. However, there have been some major changes. Developer Previews did not have a release channel, which meant you had to manually "flash" the software any time a new Android version cycle started. Plus, once Android released a beta for a given software version, the Developer Preview would no longer be available.
The Canary release channel changes that. Once you flash the Android Canary release channel, you can install new updates like any other software via over-the-air (OTA) updates. But just because Android makes it easy, that doesn't mean you should try it.
There's a reason Android aims the Canary channel at developers only: This is early-stage software that hasn't gone through the rigorous testing you might be used to as an end-user. It hasn't even gone through the initial debugging that beta testers are used to. This software is nearly brand new, having only completed a short test with internal users, and might ship with issues that are not only annoying, but hinder or prevent your use of Android entirely. Android specifically warns this is not software meant for your primary device.
If you're willing to take on those risks, more power to you. The benefit of the Canary channel is not only trying out new features, but also experiencing changes that might not even make it to the official Android build. But it does come with significant risks. If you want to test features early while mitigating some (but not all) of those risks, the beta program might be more your speed.
Whether you choose to flash the Canary channel, or enroll in the beta program, make sure your data is backed up somewhere safe. If something goes horribly wrong with your unfinished software, you'll want to ensure photos, messages, and any other important data are safely secured elsewhere.
To start, make sure your Pixel device is in Developer Mode. You can enable this by heading to Settings > About phone and tapping Build number seven times. Then, head to System > Developer options and enable both OEM unlocking and USB debugging.
Now, plug your Pixel into your computer, then head to the Android Flash Tool. Click Get Started, then choose Allow ADB access when prompted. Next, choose Add new device, pick your Pixel from the list, and click Connect. On your Pixel, choose Always allow from this computer then select OK. Choose the device in your browser, then find the most up-to-date Canary build in the Flash Tool. Once flashed, choose Install. Wait until you see Flash Complete, at which point you're safe to disconnect.
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