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Letters: Redirect resources | Smoking loophole | Missed chance | GOP bails

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Redirect resourcesfrom jail to communityAlameda County residents can be thankful that, unlike Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution, detainees at Santa Rita Jail are not subjected to months-long lockdowns.But, nevertheless, warning signs abound. Staff shortages compromise re-entry planning for those locked up pretrial or serving sentences. And lack of re-entry preparation increases the likelihood of revolving-door returns into the jail.Sheriff’s deputies work mandatory overtime because the Sheriff’s Office can’t hire enough deputies to run the jail, and the county can’t employ sufficient behavioral health clinicians to work at the jail.The Board of Supervisors must take charge — supported by the courts, DA and public defender — to shift investment away from the jail and instead serve people’s housing and treatment needs in the community, through diversion and other programs.Thereby fewer people wil...

Critics of expansion say Oakland Airport’s zero-emissions plan is missing most crucial element

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

The Port of Oakland’s plan to reduce carbon emissions at the Oakland International Airport leaves out a crucial element, according to critics of its planned expansion: emissions from actual flights.The port’s announcement this week of its plan for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions at the airport by 2040 comes just days after a broad coalition of organizations rallied at the airport to protest plans to build a new terminal, add more gates and ultimately increase air traffic in the East Bay.Lin Griffith, a member of the steering committee for Stop OAK Expansion Coalition, which organized last week’s protest, said the plan represents merely a drop in the bucket of the airport’s emissions, primarily because it leaves out the biggest emitters.“Ninety-nine percent of emissions are from the airplanes themselves, not airport emissions,” Griffith said. “That’s what we need to reduce.”In pursuit of its emissions goal, the airport has already begu...

Heidi Klum boasts about her disturbingly low intake of calories

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

Followers of Heidi Klum’s Instagram either think the model is lying, or that she’s encouraging young women to starve themselves, after she recently revealed that she only consumes about 900 calories a day to maintain her slender model’s figure.The former Victoria’s Secret Angel, 50, shared the numbers on her disturbingly low intake of calories during a now-expired Q&A on her Instagram Story Sunday, according to Page Six and the Daily Mail.The judge for “America’s Got Talent” also revealed that her day usually starts off with a very low-calorie breakfast that consists of three poached eggs in warm chicken broth. When a follower asked her current weight, Klum pulled out a scale and stepped on it with her bare feet, to show that she currently weighs 138 pounds.Given that the German-born model stands 5 feet 9 inches tall, her body mass index would be within normal range, Page Six reported, citing the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute. But m...

“Downright Orwellian”: San Jose church that paid $1.2 million in Covid fines sues county over surveillance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

A San Jose church ordered to pay $1.2 million in fines for defying public health mandates at the height of the pandemic is suing Santa Clara County, accusing them of putting the non-denominational Christian church and its congregants under unconstitutional surveillance.The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by Calvary Chapel and its pastor, Mike McClure, alleges the county “embarked on an invasive and warrantless geofencing operation to track residents.”“Our church believes in the rights and privacy of all our members,” McClure said in a statement about the lawsuit.Geofencing uses cell phone data to track its users’ movements. In late 2020 and early 2021, the county used third-party phone data to monitor worshipers inside the Hillsdale Avenue church, according to court documents filed last November. The county’s COVID-19 Business Compliance Unit also parked a car in a neighboring church’s lot on numerous occasions for surveil...

'Aggressive shark behavior' reported near Pebble Beach

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

(KRON) -- Aggressive shark behavior was reported Tuesday in the vicinity of Pebble Beach, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. A kayaker had a close encounter with a shark that was behaving aggressively, but emerged unharmed, police said. Person robbed, dragged by 2 armed suspects in Oakland: video The encounter occurred just south of Pescadero, a state beach jurisdiction.No further information is available at this time.

Walnut Creek police search for missing man

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

(KRON) -- The Walnut Creek Police Department is searching for 82-year-old Michail Leydiker, it announced Tuesday.Leydiker was last seen in the area of Larkey Park, located at 2771 Buena Vista Ave. He is considered at-risk due to his age and dementia. He is described as a white man with a gray mustache, no shirt and pants of an unknown color. Anyone who sees him is asked to call (925) 935-6400.

Remains found near Castle Rock State Park were Katie Schneider's, police confirm

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

(KRON) -- Human remains found earlier this month near a park in unincorporated Los Gatos belonged to Katherine Schneider, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. Seventeen-year-old Katherine "Katie" Schneider was reported missing in July and was last seen leaving her home driving her white Honda Accord.Santa Clara Sheriff's investigators found her car abandoned on Skyline Boulevard near Castle Rock State Park on Aug. 8. "The vehicle was unoccupied," investigators said at the time. Person robbed, dragged by 2 armed suspects in Oakland: video A few days later, on Aug. 13, human remains were found in the same area as the car. At the time, her mother, Nola Schneider said the remains belonged to Katie.On Tuesday, law enforcement officials verified those claims."It is with heavy hearts we share the human remains located have been positively identified as Katherine Schneider via fingerprints by the County of Santa Clara Medical Examiner - Coroner," the sheriff's office post...

3.5 kilos of 'date rape drug' seized at Bay Area salon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

(KRON) -- Federal agents seized a huge cache of GBL/GHB, also known as the "date rape drug," that was mailed to a Fairfax salon, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office. A San Francisco man who allegedly received the package at the nail salon was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations Division detectives. The package continued 3.5 kilos of the "date rape drug." Investigators said Long Tran was busted in an undercover operation. "With cooperation of the US Postal Service, a controlled delivery was performed at the nail salon," MCSO wrote. After Tran's arrest, investigators said they found even more GBL/GHB inside Tran's home.In total, more than 3,500 doses of the drug -- with an estimated street value of $20,000 -- were seized, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office. Bay Area spa shuttered after 2 die from Legionnaires’ disease GHB is an illegal street drug that is sometimes sold at dance clubs and rave parties in a liquid form, the Drug Enforcement Administrat...

Oakland police safely locate woman reported missing 8 years ago

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

EDITOR'S NOTE: The name of the woman has been removed. (Aug. 22, 2023)(KRON) -- An Oakland woman reported missing nearly eight years ago has been located and is safe, the Oakland Police Department said Sunday. An OPD spokesperson said the woman contacted the department and told them she was never missing and had been unaware any report had been made. San Francisco man accuses St. Ignatius high school teacher of sex abuse Authorities took the woman off their missing persons list Sunday afternoon after she was found and confirmed to be safe, police said. Bay City News contributed to this report.

How Montgomery Co. Public Schools plans to reverse a trend of chronic absenteeism

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:37 GMT

Chronic absenteeism surged nationally during the pandemic, and Montgomery County’s public school system didn’t escape that trend.During the 2018 to 2019 school year the rate of chronic absenteeism was at just under 20%. In the 2022 to 2023 school year, the overall rate of chronic absenteeism jumped to 27%. In raw numbers, that translates to about 43,000 students missing more than 10% of the 180 days of school a year.According to data from MCPS, the rate of absenteeism among high school students during the last academic year hit nearly 36%, and the rate for Pre-K age students hit 45% — a jump of 14% over the 2018 to 2019 school year.Damon Monteleone, associate superintendent, said the school system is launching a number of initiatives to reverse the trend.The first, he said, will be a “qualitative root cause analysis” of why students aren’t coming to school, including a look at barriers to attendance. He also said there would be school-based “planning, monitoring and student interven...