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California is on pace to have fewest annual deaths in four years, from all causes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

For the first year since COVID-19 upended our lives, the number of deaths from all causes is expected to fall under 300,000 in the Golden State, closer to pre-pandemic normals.The decline is primarily due to fewer COVID deaths — there have been close to 6,000 deaths from the virus so far this year, compared to over 18,000 at this time last year. To date, the virus as killed more than 104,000 Californians.Although the final tally is not yet in, the lower death projections are evidence that with effective vaccines and three years of experience and exposure, COVID has taken its place alongside flu and pneumonia as an endemic disease. But they both can still kill.From 2017 through 2019, about 270,000 people died each year from all causes in the Golden State. In 2020, the first year with COVID in the mix, annual deaths shot up to over 315,000 and grew to nearly 330,000 lives lost in 2021. Last year 310,000 deaths were reported, still 15% higher than pre-pandemic averages.Dr. Bob Wa...

Opinion: As a Gaza teen, I used to dream of college

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

SOUTHERN GAZA — Until two months ago, my life as a 17-year-old in Gaza was marked by the predictable anxieties and aspirations of a student applying to university. I dreamt of crossing borders to pursue a better life — of landing on my feet at an American school and, eventually, of returning to serve my community as a doctor. Education was my blueprint for escaping this city of war.Now as I huddle in a cramped, dimly lit room with 12 other women in Rafah, those dreams seem like fragments of another life. Our stomachs echo with hunger, and our throats burn with thirst. We exist in constant darkness, the world illuminated only by the flashes of missiles and the red glow of destruction.As you read this, I urge you to pause — to hear the shrill sirens and the heart-stopping booms of bombs and feel the tremors that shake our jaws.I have lived in Gaza for 17 years. But amid the ruins, I no longer recognize its streets. Where will I walk now?My family was forced to leave ...

Downtown San Jose office tower trades for a big loss as market falters

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

SAN JOSE — A prominent office tower in downtown San Jose has been bought for much less than the last time the highrise was sold, a deal that underscores the frailty of the Bay Area office market in the wake of the coronavirus.The office building, located at 303 Almaden Boulevard in downtown San Jose, has been bought for slightly under $23.8 million, according to documents filed on Dec. 13 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.Entry area of an 11-story office tower at 303 Almaden Boulevard near West San Carlos Street in downtown San Jose. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)George Mersho, chief executive officer of Morgan Hill-based Shoe Palace, headed up the group that bought the 11-story office tower, county real estate files show.Another company that Mersho heads, Bridge Group Investments, recently began to team up with Los Angeles-based Steerpoint Capital, a real estate firm, on multiple commercial real estate investments. It wasn’t immediately certa...

49ers’ Nick Bosa about to encounter new-and-improved Kyler Murray

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Nick Bosa is forever linked with Kyler Murray as the 2019 NFL Draft’s top two picks. Both won NFL Rookie of the Year honors on their respective side of the ball, and, both have come back from anterior cruciate ligament tears.Whereas Bosa rebounded in 2021 from his knee injury, Murray is 2-2 in his return this season heading into Sunday’s game between the 49ers (10-3) and host Arizona Cardinals (3-10).“He looks great moving around. He’s actually playing this scheme better than the previous regime there,” Bosa said. “He’s kind of sitting in the pocket and playing quarterback more. Then obviously the run game and the scrambles, he’s an added element there, so we have to be ready.”Under first-year coach Jonathan Gannon, Murray is completing a career-low 60.8-percent of his passes (79-of-130, 864 yards), and he has as many touchdown throws as runs, with three apiece.The 49ers are freshly prepared for Murray’s regained mobility...

Details of Bay Area man’s alleged slaying of wife begin to emerge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

Suspicions of poisoning, the tainting of food and water, the finding of a victim’s burned body in Fresno County, lurid facts of an autopsy, and a murder suspect’s arrest.Those details in first of a two-day preliminary hearing for a 62-year-old Fairfield man, Gregory Grant Hobson, accused of killing his wife in February, emerged Wednesday in Department 23 of Solano County Superior Court.Judge Barbara A. Zuniga presided over the morning proceeding against Hobson, who has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Anu Anand Hobson, 53, of Fairfield, on or about Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.Shortly after 10 a.m., Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Flynn called to the stand his first witness, Fairfield Police Office Keli Callison, who testified that, on Feb. 16, after being alerted through a license plate reader dispatch, stopped Hobson in his pickup truck at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of Highway 12 and Walters Road.Callison said reports possibly linking Hobson to a missing p...

What to expect during 2024 Lunar New Year festival at Disney California Adventure

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

The Asian-inspired food festival paying tribute to Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese traditions will return to Disney California Adventure with a lineup of multicultural food booths, live entertainment and Disney characters dressed in festive attire.Disney’s annual Lunar New Year event will be held Jan. 23 through Feb. 18 at the Anaheim theme park.The 2024 festival will celebrate the Year of the Dragon — which means Mushu will lead Mulan’s Lunar New Year parade at DCA.Disney has not yet announced an official lineup of festival marketplace booths, restaurants and menu items for the 2024 festival.The 2023 lineup of six festival marketplace booths included Bamboo Blessings, Wrapped in Love, Lucky 8 Lantern, Red Dragon Spice Traders, Prosperity Bao & Bun and Longevity Noodle Co.DCA restaurants that offered Lunar New Year menu items in 2023 included Paradise Garden Grill, Lamplight Lounge, Lucky Fortune Cookery, Pacific Wharf Cafe (now Aunt Cass Cafe), Sonoma Terrace, Boardwalk Pizza &a...

California less likely to have blackouts thanks to solar, big batteries

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

By Josh Saul and Tope Alake | BloombergCalifornia’s risk of blackouts has fallen as more renewable energy and batteries are added to its power grid, reducing the need to import electricity from other regions, industry regulators said Wednesday.The grid has been designated “elevated risk,” which means it has enough energy for normal conditions but could fall short in extreme weather, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said in its latest long-term reliability report. That’s actually an improvement over last year’s designation of “high risk,” meaning shortfalls were more likely and additional power sources were needed.Related ArticlesTechnology | Deadly Southern California wildfire triggered by sagging electrical line, Cal Fire report says Technology | PG&E customers face higher bills — yet again — after new company request Technology | Elias: California utility bills to rise for decades after PUC’s solar move...

Danes say 3 arrested in Denmark, 1 in the Netherlands suspected of planning terror attacks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Three people were arrested in coordinated actions across Denmark and one person in the Netherlands on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror,” Danish police said Thursday. Flemming Drejer, operative head of Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service, known by its acronym PET, said that Denmark was not changing the terror threat level, which has been at “serious,” the second-highest level, since 2010. He added that the case had “threads abroad” and “was related to criminal gangs,” singling out the banned gang Loyal to Familia. In January 2020, a Danish court upheld a nationwide police ban on the gang, saying that the LTF should be dissolved as illegal under Denmark’s constitution.The gang had been behind gang feuds, violence, robberies, extortion and drug sales in the Danish capital and “had used violence and illegal means to achieve its goal,” the Copenhagen District Court said then. In September 2018, police in Denmark issued a tempor...

Rising stock markets around the world in 2023 have investors shouting ‘Hai’ and ‘Buy’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been a great year for stock markets around the world.Wall Street’s rally has been front and center, with the U.S. stock market the world’s largest and its clear leader in performance in recent years. The S&P 500 is on track to return more than 20% for the third time in the last five years, and its gangbusters performance has brought it back within 2% of its record set at the start of 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high Wednesday.Even in Japan, which has been home to some of the world’s most disappointing stocks for decades, the market marched upward to touch its highest level since shortly after its bubble burst in 1989. Across developed and emerging economies, stocks have powered ahead in 2023 as inflation has regressed, even with wars raging in hotspots around the world. Globally, inflation is likely to ease to 6.9% this year from 8.7% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. The expectation ...

Stock market today: After Dow hits unprecedented heights, Wall Street points still higher

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

Wall Street pointed toward gains early Thursday following a powerful rally that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record high as the Federal Reserve indicated that interest rate cuts are likely next year. Futures for the S&P 500 rose more than 0.3% before the bell as did futures for the Dow. Lower rates can ease pressure on the economy and goose prices for all kinds of investments. Markets have been rallying since October on hopes not only that the Fed’s aggressive series of rate hikes were over, but that cuts may be on the way.The Federal Reserve held its main interest rate steady at a range of 5.25% to 5.50% Wednesday as was widely expected. That’s up from virtually zero early last year. And inflation has retreated sharply from its peak of 9% while the economy has remained solid. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the benchmark rate is likely already at or near its peak while acknowledging that inflation remains too high. Powell said Fed officials don’t...