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Monterey County agriculture: survey finds $600 million in total damages, future losses from winter storms

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

SALINAS – Between January and March, the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office is estimating that torrential weather generated $600 million in damages, losses and future impacts to the local agricultural industry.After repeatedly heavy rain again doused local farmland with floodwaters in March – some just starting to recover from storms two months prior – the Ag Commissioner’s Office conducted a survey to gauge the extent of second-round impacts.Survey results, released on Friday, show damages, current losses estimated and projected future losses totaling $264 million from flooding in March. According to the Ag Commissioner’s Office, approximately 8,736 acres of crops were destroyed or unable to be planted due to the flooding, half of which were newly impacted from storms at the outset of the year.Strawberries were especially affected, primarily in the Pajaro Valley, where a breached levee along the Pajaro River forced thousands to evacuate and drowned nearby ag fields ...

Police activity at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

(KRON) -- Police are on the scene at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, a parent reported to KRON4. The reason for the police activity is unclear.This is the same high school where two students were stabbed, one of whom was killed, in an art class in March.This story is developing and will be updated.

Strike Day 7: $1 billion estimate is 'ridiculous' fiction, Oakland teachers union says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) -- On Day 7 of the Oakland teachers strike, their union blasted school district officials for tallying up a "ridiculous" price tag for the union's contract demands. The Oakland Education Association union wrote, "The district told the news media that OEA’s Common Good agenda would cost in excess of 'a billion dollars.' Typical of OUSD’s bargaining – or lack of it, this is a number and statement not backed by any facts." "We have no idea how OUSD came up with that ridiculous number," said Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, OEA vice president. "Our Common Good goals are largely about ensuring educators, parents, students and other stakeholders have a voice in the decision-making process. We also have proposed the addition of a small number of additional staff to support our most impacted community schools," Taiz-Rancifer said. A standoff between the Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Education Association union has left 34,000 students wondering if their ...

What to know about Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk is welcoming a veteran ad executive to the helm of Twitter, the social media site the billionaire Tesla CEO had been running since he bought it last fall.Musk announced Friday that he’s hiring Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of San Francisco-based Twitter, which is now called X Corp. He said Yaccarino’s role will be focused mainly on running the company’s business operations, leaving him to focus on product design and new technology.Here’s what to know about Yaccarino.VETERAN AD EXECYaccarino, 60, has worked as an advertising executive for decades. She came to NBCUniversal in 2011, just as Comcast was completing its merger with NBC, and oversaw integrating the companies’ ad sales platforms. There, her most recent title was chairman, advertising and client partnerships. She oversaw all market strategy and advertising revenue, which totaled nearly $10 billion, for NBCUniversal’s entire portfolio of broadcast, cable and digital ...

Nigerian court asked to stop president-elect’s inauguration, extend incumbent’s tenure

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A court in Nigeria has been asked to stop the planned inauguration of the country’s next president and to extend the incumbent’s tenure, court documents obtained Friday show.Five Nigerians made the request to the Federal High Court in Abuja, arguing that President-elect Bola Tinubu was illegally declared the winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election and therefore should not be sworn into office on May 29.The petition is among several challenges to the ruling party’s victory and raised concerns in the West African nation about a possible constitutional crisis should President Muhammadu Buhari remain in office until the case is decided.Chuks Nwachuku, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said Tinubu’s being declared president-elect was unconstitutional because he failed to win at least 25% of the votes cast in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.To be elected president, the Nigerian Constitution requires a candidate to win both the highest number of votes ...

Axel Witsel quits international soccer, ends 15-year career with Belgium

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Veteran midfielder Axel Witsel is the latest member of Belgium’s so-called Golden Generation to end his international career.The 34-year-old Witsel made 130 appearances in a 15-year career with Belgium, scoring 12 goals. He said on Friday he wants to dedicate more time to his family and focus on his career with Spanish club Atletico Madrid.“Good luck to the new generation who I am sure will make us live again incredible moments,” Witsel said on social media.In March, new Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco dropped Witsel in his first squad since being appointed with a mission to rebuild. Tedesco insisted at the time that the door remained open for Witsel to return.Tedesco replaced Roberto Martinez, who led Belgium to a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup and was in charge for six years. Martinez stepped down after the Red Devils failed to progress to the knockout stage last year in Qatar.Belgium was ranked No. 1 by FIFA for four years during Martinez’s tenure b...

Astros star Jose Altuve to begin injury rehab assignment at Triple-A

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Houston Astros star Jose Altuve is moving a step closer to returning from a broken right thumb.Altuve was set to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land on Friday.The eight-time All-Star and 2017 AL MVP broke his thumb when he was hit by a pitch playing for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. He had surgery March 22, and general manager Dana Brown said after the operation he’d be out at least eight weeks. This is the longest Altuve has been sidelined. He batted .300 with 103 runs, 28 homers and 18 steals for the World Series champion Astros last season.Mauricio Dubón has played well in his absence, with a .287 average entering Friday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.Sugar Land was scheduled to play El Paso, San Diego’s Triple-A club.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

Canadian diver charged with University of Utah dorm room rape

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A University of Utah diver has been arrested and charged with raping a young woman in her dorm room during the first week of the school year last fall.Prosecutors have charged Ben Smyth, a Canadian diver in his second year at Utah, with sodomy, sexual abuse and rape. In an indictment filed this week, detectives say Smyth went to a woman’s dorm room after confirming she was alone last August. He asked her to play “truth or dare” and then allegedly raped her while she resisted physically, said she “did not want to do that,” shook her head no and told him she was in pain.When detectives interviewed him, he initially denied knowing the woman but later acknowledged having sex with her and that she was in pain.The indictment, which does not name the woman, also says that when detectives went to serve Smyth with a protective order to keep him away from the woman, a roommate said he had moved out. A private investigator later told detectives that Smyth had returned to ...

Chief: Officers fatally shot man who attacked officer in cruiser

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Virginia police officers shot and killed a man who had attacked a third police officer inside his cruiser, the police chief said.A Fairfax County police officer was investigating a U-Haul truck at a gas station in the Alexandria area that had been reported stolen and approached a man standing beside the truck Thursday, police Chief Kevin Davis said at a news conference.Police say the officer informed the man that he was going to be detained in connection with the stolen truck. The man then shoved the officer through the open door of his cruiser and got on top of the officer, attacking him, Davis said. The cruiser then reversed out of control into the parking lot of a neighboring McDonald’s restaurant, where it hit a parked car.At that point the officer broadcast calls for help saying the man had his gun, Davis said.Two uniformed officers arrived. One fired several rounds and the other ran toward the vehicle, pulled the man off the officer being attacked and fi...

Here we go again? Flyers push back at narrative recycled players run the show

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:00 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The head of the Philadelphia Flyers understood the optics of a franchise going on 48 years since winning a Stanley Cup deciding to hire more former Flyers in the front office to try and win one.But the Flyers did it anyway.“I know some people are thinking,” Comcast Spectacor chairman Dan Hilferty said, “here they go again, hiring two former Flyers isn’t a fresh start.”The Flyers on Friday introduced Keith Jones — yeah, their former long-time broadcaster — as team president and stamped general manager Danny Briere as one of the leaders of the franchise. Jones and Briere each played for the Flyers and both have remained connected to the franchise in retirement.They both remember when the Flyers were an elite franchise — Briere as a star postseason player that led them to the last Stanley Cup Final in 2010 and Jones as a sharp-witted analyst affectionately known as “Jonesy” that watched it happen from the broadcast booth.But it’s been a long time since t...