Bay Area news from San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Alameda Count ([syndicated profile] sjmerc_local_feed) wrote2025-07-15 05:07 am

Semi-truck and train collide north of Gilroy Monday morning

Posted by Caelyn Pender

A semi-truck and a train collided north of Gilroy early Monday morning, authorities said.

The crash did not cause any major injuries, according to a social media post from the Santa Clara County Fire Department.

The two vehicles collided near Masten and Fitzgerald avenues, authorities said. Emergency personnel from the Santa Clara County Fire Department were dispatched to the site at 7:03 a.m. When authorities arrived, they found that the train had hit the front of the truck.

Two crew members and 18 passengers who had been riding on the train were taken on a bus, authorities added.

Bay Area news from San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Alameda Count ([syndicated profile] sjmerc_local_feed) wrote2025-07-15 04:26 am

Heartbreaker: Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas hits game-winning free throw in final seconds to down Valkyrie

Posted by Nathan Canilao

SAN FRANCISCO —  For a moment, it looked like the Valkyries were going to pull off the improbable. 

Down four points with 15 seconds left, Golden State miraculously tied the game after rookie Janelle Salaün hit a fading 3-pointer and a fall away jumper to tie the game at 77 with just over six seconds left.

But in a crucial defensive possession, the Valkyries got discombobulated and fouled Phoenix Mercury star Alyssa Thomas at the rim with one second left. Thomas went on to hit one of two free throws to give the Mercury a 78-77 win. 

Golden State Valkyries' Kayla Thornton (5) kneels on the court after their 78-77 loss to the Phoenix Mercury at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Golden State Valkyries' Kayla Thornton (5) kneels on the court after their 78-77 loss to the Phoenix Mercury at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

In front of its 11th consecutive sellout crowd of 18,064, the expansion team shot 33.8% from the field. Golden State has now lost four of its last five games. 

“I was so proud,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “The execution down the stretch, the fight, how hard we played; I couldn’t ask for a better game. I told them to keep their heads up. I Felt like we did the right things in a very crunch time moment. We knew what to run. So, that type of execution down the stretch was great. It’s just, you know, losing off of a free throw, to me that hurts.”

Veronica Burton had a team-high 17 points. Tiffany Hayes had 15 points and Salaün had 12. 

DeWanna Bonner led Phoenix with 22 points. Thomas finished with 17 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.

Despite not scoring more than 23 points in a quarter, Phoenix shot 47.4% from the field and 41.4% from the 3-point line. 

“That’s a frustrating loss, like that’s one that we can get and we should have gotten,” Burton said. “And obviously there’s some things we did well, especially down the stretch. I think we executed and got the looks that we wanted to in the late-game situation, but it didn’t go our way. I think there’s a lot of things throughout the game that we need to clean up.”

Golden State Valkyries' Veronica Burton (22) is fouled by Phoenix Mercury's Monique Akoa-Makani (8) in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Golden State Valkyries' Veronica Burton (22) is fouled by Phoenix Mercury's Monique Akoa-Makani (8) in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

The Mercury were without star players Satou Sabally (right ankle) and Kahleah Copper (right hamstring), who were out with injuries. 

Despite having some early offensive struggles, the Valkyries went into the fourth quarter down just a point. 

A 3-pointer from Burton at the 5:23 mark of the final period briefly gave the Valkyries a 67-63 lead. The Mercury quickly retook the momentum with a few timely shots and led by one point with 1:27 left in the game. 

Down three with 23.6 seconds left, the Valkyries had one more opportunity to tie the game. The Valkyries drew up a drive to the rim for forward Cecilia Zandalasini, but the Italian sharpshooter missed a lightly contested shot at the rim. 

Salaün scored five points in a four-second span to tie the game late. On the Valkyries final defensive possession, Hayes slipped trying to defend Monique Akoa Makan, forcing the defense to rotate, which ultimately led to Thomas getting fouled at the rim by Zandalasini. 

Golden State shot 42.4% from the 3-point line, but made just 25.5% of its shots inside the arc.

Phoenix Mercury's Kathryn Westbeld (24) is called for an offensive foul against Golden State Valkyries' Veronica Burton (22) in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Phoenix Mercury's Kathryn Westbeld (24) is called for an offensive foul against Golden State Valkyries' Veronica Burton (22) in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

“It was a physical game as anyone could see,” Burton said. “Sometimes there’s contact in there, and sometimes we need to finish through contact. But yeah, they clog the paint. That’s what they do. They’re long, they’re athletic.”

The Valkyries found themselves in a 10-point hole just three minutes into the first quarter, but recovered to finish the period strong. Golden State went on a 18-1 run led by a flurry of 3s from Hayes that gave the Valkyries a four-point lead going into the second quarter. 

Hayes came into Monday’s game shooting 57.9% from beyond the arc in her previous five games. 

Golden State’s hot shooting cooled down in the second quarter as they shot 4-for-21 in the period. 

Despite shooting 39.3% from the field in the first half, Phoenix committed nine turnovers and struggled to stop Hayes, who had nine first half points. 

The Valkyries will return to the road on Wednesday when they play the Seattle Storm. Golden State will then enjoy a nine-day hiatus as the All-Star game is scheduled for Sunday in Indianapolis. 

Kayla Thornton is the Valkyries’ lone All-Star.

Golden State Valkyries' Janelle Salaün (13) celebrates her game tying basket with 6 second left in the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Mercury at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Golden State Valkyries' Janelle Salaün (13) celebrates her game tying basket with 6 second left in the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Mercury at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 14, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 
Bay Area news from San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Alameda Count ([syndicated profile] sjmerc_local_feed) wrote2025-07-15 02:06 am

Republic Services trash pickup resumes in parts of Contra Costa County

Posted by Caelyn Pender

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY — Republic Services is resuming some limited trash pickup services in Contra Costa County this week, according to local officials.

Waste pickup services have been suspended since last week as local Teamsters joined in on a nationwide garbage “war” to demand higher wages and better benefits. Cities across the Bay Area have been impacted, from San Jose to El Sobrante.

Republic will resume picking up waste from residential homes in west Contra Costa County, as well as from small and most other businesses, but recycling and green waste collection services will still be unavailable, according to a Monday announcement from Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia. Trash pickup may occur on days outside the usual schedule.

“It is throughout West Contra Costa, and they’re catching up on routes, so we don’t know which communities will get pick up tomorrow, which ones on Wednesday. We do know they’re going to run service through Saturday,” Gioia said in an interview. “I have requested that they provide rate relief. I think that’s what the county will be seeking now — that they provide rate relief to residents for the failure to pick up trash over the last week.”

Residents can put out extra bagged trash on the curb as well to be picked up at no extra cost, Gioia said in the announcement.

“We have mobilized additional Republic Services employees to assist with collections in the Bay Area and will continue to resume some residential collection in the coming days,” Republic Services said in a statement to Bay Area News Group. “We are asking all residents to leave their containers out as we work hard to resume regular service.”

In order to continue service, the company is “enlisting Republic Services employees from other areas,” according to the NorCal Community Updates page.

Republic Services is asking residents in Richmond to put black and brown bins and garbage bags out on their curb Monday night ahead of an anticipated limited pickups Tuesday through Saturday, according to a social media post from the City of Richmond.

Service will also resume Tuesday in San Pablo, according to an announcement from the city. Residents of San Pablo can continue to take household waste to drop off locations at 2600 Moraga Road and 1 Parr Boulevard until further notice.

West Contra Costa County residents can also continue to bring four bags of trash to the Golden Bear Transfer Station at no charge with proof of residency, Gioia said in the announcement. This service is available Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. or Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In other Bay Area cities, temporary trash drop off sites have been set up for residents.

“If I had to hear a common thread (from residents), it was we want garbage collection back and we support workers,” Gioia said.

Fandom is my Fandom ([syndicated profile] meedeetumblr_feed) wrote2025-07-14 05:37 pm

So…..they made a TV series out of The Black Dagger Brotherhood vampire books. Airing on&helli

So…..they made a TV series out of The Black Dagger Brotherhood vampire books. Airing on Passionflix which is also available as an extra Add-on service on Amazon Prime

Fanhackers ([syndicated profile] fanhackers_feed) wrote2025-07-14 08:17 pm

In Praise of a Classic Text: Understanding Comics - Part II

Posted by fanhackers-mods

Last week I posted about Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics - which, among many interesting arguments, postulates that when you look at a realistic drawing of a face, you see another, where when you look at a more simply drawn cartoon image  - a smiley face, Charlie Brown, Minnie Mouse - you see yourself.  I talked about the implication of that for certain kinds of fan art, and today I want to talk about a second interesting implication - specifically in terms of fannish identification with a character.

Interesting implication the Second: There’s a great book called How To Be Gay by David Halperin  - (I did a Fanhackers post about it a couple of years ago) - in which he argues that his gay male students seemed to enjoy coded queer works - e.g. Broadway musicals, Hollywood melodramas, The Golden Girls, Steel Magnolias, Judy Garland and Adele, etc. - more than they enjoyed what Halperin calls “good gay writing,”  - that is, “fiction about gay men written by gay men that gave voice to the gay male experience.” As I wrote in my Halperin post (and as I wrote about at length in my article, “Slash/Drag: Appropriation and Visibility in the Age of Hamilton” in Booth’s Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies) this makes perfect sense to me as a fangirl - many female fans find more to identify with in Spock or Mulder or Sherlock or Aziraphale than they do in female characters in serious literary novels who are dealing realistically with the problems that they face.  That sounds like…a whole boatload of no fun, to be honest. (Personal sidebar: Do I want to read a serious literary novel about the travails of a female, middle-aged English Professor like myself? I do not. FWIW I basically had to be forced to watch even fluff like The Chair, and only because I knew everyone would ask me about it. I also personally don’t enjoy an academic AU, YMMV.  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t find places of strong identification in the TV I watch and the fic that I read - it’s just not straight-up literal like that.) 

But I think it’s McCloud who gives us the WHY of this phenomenon when he talks about how realist faces read as “another,” while more simply drawn faces provoke identification.  There’s a way in which “good gay writing”  - the voice of the gay experience - can feel disappointingly NOT YOUR EXPERIENCE - because of course there is not a single gay experience, and what you are likely to read is distorted by time and distance and age. I see it with my students, for whom the gay experience of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s might as well be ancient Egypt - (or may be less familiar than ancient Egypt, Egypt kind of being its own fandom.)  Anyway a lot of gay writing doesn’t speak to their problems or their issues, and while they’re interested in it, they don’t identify with it - and that can be really hard when you’re young and queer and feeling isolated, to feel like you don’t even relate to the people you are supposed to relate to. But in an odd way, the cartoons - the coded figures - don’t go out of style the same way. And they are places of broad identification over generations: We can all be Mama Rose or Dr. Frank N. Furter or sing “I Will Survive” – because it’s a metaphor (for being closeted, for being monstrous, for surviving, etc.) It doesn’t age the same way as, for instance, the novels of Ethan Mordden or Edmund White or plays like The Boys in the Band or Torch Song Trilogy. There’s a great passage in Stacy Wolf’s book, A Problem like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical, where Wolf, a lesbian, talks about driving cross-country in a convertible singing, “My Man,” (“Can’t Help…Loving That Man of Mine!”) which, she claims, provoked her to write her book about lesbian readings of the musical. In short, Steven Universe can do work that “good gay writing” cannot–and so can fandom, with its cartoon heroes, animated and live action both.

Calculated Risk ([syndicated profile] calculatedrisk_feed) wrote2025-07-14 07:43 pm

Tuesday: CPI, NY Fed Mfg

Posted by Calculated Risk

Mortgage Rates From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Just a Hair Higher Ahead of Important Inflation Report
Today's movement in mortgage rates, in and of itself, is barely worth mentioning. The average lender remains close enough to Friday's levels but is technically just a hair higher. That fact is offset by the counterpoint that most of the past two months saw higher rates.

The future is far more interesting than the present--specifically, the immediate future. Tomorrow morning brings the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is one of the most important economic reports as far as interest rates are concerned and tomorrow's example is especially notable.

This CPI marks the first major opportunity for the official data to show (or not show) a meaningful impact on inflation from tariffs.[30 year fixed 6.83%]
emphasis added
Tuesday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The Consumer Price Index for June from the BLS. The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in CPI, and a 0.3% increase in core CPI.  The consensus is for CPI to be up 2.6% year-over-year and core CPI to be up 2.9% YoY.

• Also at 8:30 AM, The New York Fed Empire State manufacturing survey for July. The consensus is for a reading of -10.1, up from -16.0.
Video - Works | Archive of Our Own ([syndicated profile] ao3_vids_feed) wrote2025-07-14 12:00 am
Video - Works | Archive of Our Own ([syndicated profile] ao3_vids_feed) wrote2025-07-14 12:00 am

[Video] Судьбы скрещенья

Posted by fandom Neglected 2025 (fandom_Neglected)

Fandoms: The Lion in Winter (2003)  

…То ненависть пытается любить или любовь хотела б ненавидеть? (Игорь Северянин)



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Bay Area news from San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Alameda Count ([syndicated profile] sjmerc_local_feed) wrote2025-07-14 11:59 pm

‘He did all the hard stuff’: Alhambra fireballer Cameron Millar highlights Bay Area selections in 20

Posted by Christian Babcock

Cameron Millar’s dream senior season has culminated in a dream come true for the former Alhambra pitcher. 

Millar was selected on Sunday by the Kansas City Royals in the third round of the MLB draft (No. 97 overall), opening the door to a professional career after Millar posted a 0.11 ERA and went 7-1 on the mound for Alhambra this season in 12 appearances. 

It’s still uncertain whether he will begin his professional tenure immediately or honor his commitment to the University of Arizona. Millar already traveled to Tucson to join his future teammates, finding out about his draft selection while preparing for summer workouts. 

Whatever he decides, it won’t diminish the joy of the occasion. Alhambra coach Gabriel Sahagun was up close for Millar’s growth, and he long-distance celebrated with Millar and his family when the young pitcher’s name was called. 

“He did all the hard stuff. It’s just cool to watch, and someone who deserved it more than most,” Sahagun said. “Sometimes you see these guys, they just have it. And he obviously has it, but he also was one of those guys who really, really worked for it.”

Millar’s ascent came after a spring where he increased his maximum fastball velocity from 92 miles per hour to 97, sparking elevated interest in his pro prospects. It’s fitting, perhaps, that he was taken with the 97th pick. 

It seems to be a magic number for him.

“That’s what everybody zoned in on,” Sahagun said. “And I get it. A kid jumping from 92 to 97, that’s unbelievable in and of itself.”

Sahagun said Millar’s leadership went beyond his play on the field and was unusual even for such a skilled player.

“If I left the cage unlocked, Cameron would say, ‘Oh, yeah, coach, I’ll run over and lock it up,’” he said. “The small little intangibles as a leader, all those things everyone talks about, he had it all.”

Millar will now have to make the biggest decision of his life with help from his family, friends and advisors. He’s hunkered down in Tucson for now, trying to compartmentalize and figure out his next move. 

“He went down there, because you just never know with the draft and what’s going to happen,” Sahagun said. “So they were out there, but we were texting throughout the day in the process, me and him. It was cool. He was excited. At some point, I told him to just put his phone away. Go enjoy the family. I think he’s probably getting blown up quite a bit.”

Millar was the key to Alhambra’s season, which ended with a 13-12 record and a loss to Livermore in the North Coast Section Division II opening round. Alhambra won nine of the 12 games in which Millar pitched. 

They lost the other three 1-0, 1-0 and 2-1. Millar gave up four total runs and one earned run all season.

“We’re probably the smallest school in our division,” Sahagun said. “Technically, we’re supposed to be like a D-III, D-IV school. Everyone in our division is D-II with a splash of D-I. So having someone with Cameron’s skill set, he gave us opportunities to win every game he stepped on the mound, and that’s all we could ask for.”

Other local players selected in the MLB draft include Scotts Valley High’s Kaleb Wing (fourth round, Chicago Cubs), Aiden Taurek of Saint Mary’s College (13th round, Seattle Mariners), Stanford’s Trevor Haskins (15th round, St. Louis Cardinals) and West Valley College’s Nico Wagner (16th round, Atlanta Braves).

Dublin High’s Elijah McNeal (20th round) will have the chance to stay local – he was selected by the San Francisco Giants. McNeal has also signed to play college baseball at UC Davis.

Notable undrafted high school players with Bay Area connections include De La Salle’s Alec Blair (ranked No. 52 by MLB.com’s 2025 prospect rankings), Irvington’s Brayden Jaksa (No. 88) and Valley Christian’s Brock Ketelsen (No. 165).

All three players are committed to colleges. Blair is playing baseball and basketball at Oklahoma and Jaksa will play baseball at Oregon. 

Ketelsen is staying local, heading to the Sunken Diamond to play for Stanford alongside fellow Valley Christian senior Quinten Marsh.

Bay Area news from San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Alameda Count ([syndicated profile] sjmerc_local_feed) wrote2025-07-14 11:51 pm