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Stanford football: New coach, new offense, transfers provide ‘blank slate’ for O-line hopefuls

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

STANFORD – It would be difficult enough for the Stanford offensive line to replace five players with a combined 142 career starts who all transferred after last season. The Cardinal also have to do it while learning a completely different offensive system.The group of inexperienced underclassmen has spent the offseason getting used to playing with each other as well as adjusting to new coach Troy Taylor’s hurry-up, no-huddle offense, a drastic change from the pro-style offense that Stanford used to run.“It’s definitely been challenging with the fast pace,” said Lucas Heyer, who came to Stanford in 2022 as the top-ranked recruit in Minnesota. “Just to read defenses and get the calls, it’s tough to think that quickly when you’re a little fatigued as well. Pro style, you’re huddling up and catching your breath between plays.“This is completely different. As a unit, we really had to buy in this offseason in getting to a different level of shape and I think we did that.”Heyer and f...

What 49ers cornerback Ambry Thomas learned from a lost season in 2022

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

SANTA CLARA — One of the longest held beliefs among NFL coaches is that the biggest leap in a player’s development comes between Year 1 and Year 2.How, then, to explain Ambry Thomas, who started slowly as a rookie cornerback before inserting himself into the picture of a playoff team and then played so infrequently in 2022 the 49ers could have been forgiven for filing a missing persons report.Thomas was praised Tuesday by new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks for doing a “tremendous job” in a 34-7 loss to the Raiders in the preseason opener, just as Kyle Shanahan did on Monday, calling Thomas “a different player.”Taken in the third round, No. 102 overall out of Michigan, the 49ers were intrigued with Thomas’ length and coverage ability at 6-foot, 190 pounds. But after a 2022 season during which seldom was heard an encouraging word, there were no guarantees Thomas would even make the roster this season unless he made people sit up and take no...

Big San Jose affordable housing development edges closer to reality

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

SAN JOSE — A big affordable housing development in San Jose has edged closer to reality with an environmental approval that clears the way for the city to land federal funds for the project.The project, which would contain nearly 100 apartments, would replace fire-scarred homes and a former restaurant that’s now closed.The development of 99 affordable homes is being proposed for 797 South Almaden Avenue near downtown San Jose.Berkeley-based Resources for Community Development bought the development site in 2021, paying just under $3.6 million for the five parcels where the homes would be built.On August 9, San Jose officials revealed that the city has determined that the project poses no significant impact on the “human environment” and that a full-fledged environmental impact report isn’t needed as part of the approval process.As a result, the city says it’s applying to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department for a release of funds to h...

San Francisco police find 1 dead in U-Haul; investigation leads to Northern California homicide at illegal cannabis grow

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

BERRY CREEK — The Butte County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an ongoing investigation into a homicide it says happened during a recent armed robbery at an illegal cannabis grow.According press release Wednesday by the Sheriff’s Office, Alexander Licona-Romero, 21, of Oakland, was found Aug. 4 dead inside a U-Haul truck by the San Francisco Police Department — and evidence found by police indicated that he had died in the Berry Creek area.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Body of missing Bay Area man found in San Pablo Bay Crime and Public Safety | Oakland man free on bail in earlier shooting charged with murder near same retirement center Crime and Public Safety | Defendant in East Bay homicide case gets 16 years behind bars Crime and Public Safety | Bay Area activist loses appeal of Oakland murder conviction after contentious trial Crime and Public Safety | Major lawsuit filed against FCI Dublin, wo...

5 lightning fires contained in Northern California forests

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

SUSANVILLE — U.S. Forest Service firefighters have contained several fires sparked by lightning strikes Tuesday in the Lassen and Plumas national forests.In Lassen National Forest, one fire measured one tenth of an acre in the Thousand Lakes Wilderness and another fire measured eight acres near the Philbrook Reservoir.The eight-acre fire, designated as the L-1 fire, began Tuesday evening and resources from the forest service and Cal Fire-Butte County responded to the fire.Both of these fires are 100% contained and the first has been controlled, the forest service said.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | Maui wildfire: Disasters more likely in California or Texas, not Hawaii Crashes and Disasters | Evacuations ordered after winds whip Northern California wildfire near site of 2022 deadly blaze Crashes and Disasters | Map: Head Fire evacuation order expands in Siskiyou County Crashes and Disasters | Did powerlines cause Ma...

Walters: Legislature is avoiding key issues, including fire insurance crisis

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

As the Legislature reconvenes this week for the final month of its 2023 session, it will be deciding the fate of hundreds of remaining bills.It would be fair, if a bit cynical, to say that California could survive quite nicely if 90% of them never made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.It would be equally fair and cynical to say that the session will adjourn in September without effectively dealing with some very serious, even existential, issues that adversely affect the lives of those legislators are sworn to serve.The housing crisis is one. Another session will end without addressing misuse of the California Environmental Quality Act to stall or kill much-needed housing projects. Newsom persuaded the Legislature to reform CEQA’s effects of public works projects, but is apparently unwilling to take on the heavy lift of reforming its impact on housing.As the housing crisis persists, it forces ever-more low-income Californians out of homes and apartments and into the streets, thus wors...

Body of missing Bay Area man found in San Pablo Bay

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

American Canyon native Christian Massey, reported missing a week ago, was found dead on Sunday when a kayaker stumbled upon his lifeless body in San Pablo Bay near Cal Maritime Academy in Vallejo.“We are still in the dark on the how and why,” cousin Sumer Lyn Parchaso said on Wednesday. “We are waiting for his autopsy to finish in two weeks’ time.”A missing person police report was filed last week for the 27-year-old Massey, saying that he had been missing since Monday, Aug. 7. He was last seen on that day leaving UCSF wearing a light blue shirt and dark blue trousers. Massey works in San Francisco.Massey’s gray Honda with a license plate that reads 7PGL679 was caught by FasTrak going over the Carquinez Bridge on Aug. 7 and found on Sunday in the Cal Maritime parking lot.Parchaso said that she had no knowledge of Massey ever going kayaking.The autopsy report is expected to be done in two weeks. Until then Parchaso asks that others respect the families’ privacy.

Opinion: Sprawling, complex Georgia indictment poses legal challenges

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

Those eager to see Donald Trump and his allies brought to justice should welcome the Atlanta indictments of the former president and 18 others in what District Attorney Fani Willis called “a criminal racketeering enterprise” to overturn the 2020 Georgia election result.The sprawling indictment encompasses not only Trump’s well-publicized direct efforts to pressure Georgia and federal elections officials to reverse the verdict of Georgia’s voters but such related events as the recruitment of phony electors, a smear campaign against voter registrars and the break-in to steal election equipment at a county voting office.However, the scope of Monday night’s indictment, which follows more than two years of investigations, may demonstrate the wisdom of the U.S. Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith, in limiting charges against Trump in Washington to a narrowly drawn four-count indictment naming only the former president but including six unnamed co-conspirators.Both Willis and ...

Social media BB gun assault challenge warning

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

(KRON) -- The Alameda Police Department is urging parents to talk to their children about the risks of joining social media trends after numerous bystanders have been shot by BB guns since late July.The incidents mainly occurred between the afternoon and early evening hours, police said. The bystanders shot with the BB guns were not seriously injured, however, other law enforcement agencies have reported pellets striking victims in the eyes and causing other injuries. Suspect in custody after San Jose police officer shot responding to family disturbance Police believe the BB gun shootings are connected to a social media trend that encourages people to shoot at complete strangers. In some instances, the BB guns were altered to look like a real gun, APD said.

Laguna Honda Hospital approved for recertification after threatened closure

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:48 GMT

(BCN) -- The Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center was approved by state regulators on Wednesday for Medicaid recertification, a move celebrated by San Francisco city officials who had fought to keep the century-plus-old facility open amid its threatened closure. The California Department of Public Health and the state's Department of Health Care Services approved Laguna Honda's recertification for Medicaid, the federal program to provide free or low-cost health coverage to low-income people that is administered in the state as Medi-Cal. Mayor London Breed's office said that more than 95 percent of Laguna Honda's patients rely on Medicaid funding and that the facility represents more than 30 percent of all skilled nursing beds in the city. In April 2022, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) terminated Laguna Honda's participation in Medicare and Medicaid provider programs, threatening the closure of the hospital after more than 150 years in...