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Aurora becomes 13th city in Colorado to outlaw selling cats and dogs in pet stores

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

Pet stores in Aurora will soon be prohibited from selling cats and dogs in their stores unless they have come directly from animal shelters or nonprofit animal rescues, making Aurora the 13th city in the state to implement such a ban as cities try to crack down on puppy mills.Aurora doesn’t have any pet stores that sell dogs and cats — the city shut down its last one in March 2020 because of unpaid taxes — but the new regulation, set to take effect Oct. 1, will prevent any future pet stores from doing so. Advocacy by Aurora residents prompted City Council members Danielle Jurinsky and Juan Marcano, many times at opposite ends of legislation, to jointly sponsor the proposal.“The hope is that we don’t have puppy mill dogs coming into Aurora,” Jurinsky said. She added that she thinks the rest of the state should follow suit.Colorado state lawmakers attempted to outlaw the sale of cats and dogs in retail stores in 2020, but even a significantly watered-down version of ...

Target store closes in Buena Park after suspicious fire erupts in children's section

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

A Target store had to be evacuated and closed in Buena Park after a suspicious fire broke out in the children's section Tuesday nightFire authorities received a call reporting the fire at about 7:15 p.m. in the store located at 7530 Orangethorpe Ave. Crews arrived to find a hazy, smoky scene and discovered the fire had already been extinguished, Orange County Fire Authority Battalion Chief Erik Miranda said.Cellphone video captures a fire at a Buena Park target on Sept. 5, 2023. (OnScene.TV)The sprinkler system had been activated and a video showed that a Target employee had also helped put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. The video showed flames bursting toward the ceiling from a children's clothing rack. “There are some items that were burned,” Miranda said.The store was open at the time, prompting dozens of employees and shoppers to evacuate the building. Thieves call rideshare after ransacking Macy’s store “We thought it was a Halloween prop,” witness Guillermo Sa...

wAFF Slaps that Funk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

wAFF Slaps that Funk: British dance music artist wAFF got his start performing at arts college, studying dancing and acting.“I used to be a sick street dancer ha which is quite funny to people when I tell them as I just look like Frodo is trying to take the ring back to Mordor… not a dancer,” he says with a laugh. “But my dance teacher would take all the dance class to nights out at house music events which was new to me then. So, after spending every weekend in clubs dancing my tits off to house music, one day I just decided to download fruity loops and try attempt making music. Turned out I became so addicted to it that I quit my college to pursue music. I was about 17 at the time, and by the time I was 18 I was going in the clubs in Hull (UK) the city where I lived back then. My life took a turn to music suddenly, but it just felt right and it seems as though it all worked out ha. But it didn’t really get serious until my very first proper show I played, like my...

Ex-city attorney, fierce critic of the 49ers, sues Santa Clara over ‘unlawful’ firing, retaliation for whistleblowing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Former city attorney Brian Doyle, a fierce critic of the San Francisco 49ers’ management of Levi’s Stadium, is suing the city two years after his firing, contending the Santa Clara City Council terminated him unlawfully and in retaliation for whistleblowing.The city and the NFL team were locked in several legal battles during Doyle’s four-year tenure, and his lawsuit said he sought “to hold the San Francisco 49ers to account” — well before the political makeup of the council began to shift.Doyle said he first became skeptical of the City Council’s motives regarding the NFL team ahead of a Dec. 8, 2020, council meeting in which Councilmember Raj Chahal had requested a closed-door meeting to discuss a lawsuit involving the California Voting Rights Act and a proposed change in electing city councilmembers.The request to put it on the Dec. 8 agenda was denied, prompting Chahal to ask for it to be placed on the Dec. 15 agenda,...

San Jose: Two injured in early morning shooting; ‘several’ people taken into custody

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

SAN JOSE — An early Wednesday morning shooting just south of downtown San Jose left two people wounded and several others being taken into custody, according to authorities.In a series of posts to social media, San Jose police said officers responded to a report of a shooting on the 160 block of West Alma Avenue at 1:12 a.m. Upon arrival, two men were transported to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.Police located a suspect vehicle which then fled the scene, and officers pursued the vehicle to a location outside of the City of San Jose. Police said that “several subjects” were taken into custody and at least one firearm was recovered.Officers are currently in 160 block of W Alma Ave investigating a shooting. Two adult males were transported to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. pic.twitter.com/I97PxmpWox— San José Police Media Relations (@SJPD_PIO) September 6, 2023Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | San Jose man sentenc...

Restored Delta tidal marsh fights climate change and attracts wildlife, native species

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

Once eyed for thousands of homes, the recently restored Dutch Slough tidal marsh in east Contra Costa County is already flourishing as a new habitat for fish and wildlife, a living laboratory for scientists and one of the world’s strongest sinks for absorbing and storing carbon long-term.Led by the state Department of Water Resources, the ambitious $73 million project to restore 1,187 acres of freshwater Delta tidal wetlands near Oakley – one of the largest such projects in the state – is a little more than half finished. When it is completed, the scientists are hoping it will become a model for future restoration projects, climate change defenses and scientific research.“It’s taking in carbon at a rate compared to the top 1 percentile (of all ecosystems) in the world (annually),” said Katie Bandy, the department’s Dutch Slough Tidal Marsh Restoration project manager. “It’s taking in a lot more carbon than other land is producing.”That’s important, because many scientists beli...

Opinion: California lawmakers should reject last-minute insurance scheme

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

Insurance lobbyists are scheming with Sacramento officials to neuter the consumer protections of insurance reform Proposition 103 as part of a last-minute industry bailout that will cost California homeowners, renters and condo owners potentially thousands of dollars every year.Proposition 103, approved by California voters in 1988 after a David vs. Goliath battle at the ballot box, bars insurance price-gouging. Companies must prove that the premiums they want to charge are necessary to cover projected claims, reasonable expenses and a fair profit. Unique in the nation, the initiative has saved Californians hundreds of dollars annually on their auto and property insurance — which is why the insurance industry badly wants to derail it.The deal being brokered in Sacramento would also bail insurers out of their responsibilities under the California FAIR Plan. That’s a state-created, but industry-controlled, operation through which people who aren’t able to purchase coverage from ...

San Jose hotel project site heads for real estate auction, foreclosure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

SAN JOSE — A lender has scheduled a property auction and foreclosure proceeding for a San Jose site where a hotel of more than 100 rooms was proposed but never built.North Star Hotel Development, which also operates as North Star Development, had proposed the hotel project on land it bought in 2019, according to Santa Clara County property records.The developer and property owner had pitched a 132-room, four-story at the development site, which is at 1510 South De Anza Boulevard in San Jose, city planning and county real estate documents show.132-room, four-story hotel at 1510 South De Anza Boulevard in San Jose, concept. (Lowney Architecture)The 0.9-acre development site is at the corner of South De Anza Boulevard and Sharon Drive.Acting through an affiliate, Northstar Hotel Development paid $6.5 million for the San Jose site in the 2019 transaction, according to a real estate database.In May, the property tumbled into a default on its loan, which totals slightly less th...

Things are looking good’ for crews fighting several Northern California wildfires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

Several fires in Humboldt County largely impacting the Hoopa and Orleans areas are in various stages of containment ranging from completely contained, to almost, to not very.Fires from the Six Rivers Forest Lightning Complex that ignited Aug. 15 following a lightning storm, have created warnings for roughly 243 residents around the Orleans area as of the Times-Standard’s print deadline, but some of the warnings should cease very soon, a spokesperson with the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team One said.“At this point, it’s not looking like there’s any immediate risk or threat to those communities,” Brenda Bowen, the spokesperson with the management team, said. “Certainly, we could get more lightning and a new condition that would impact something that we don’t know as of right now, if there were a new (fire) start, but with everything that’s going on right now, everything is looking pretty good.”The largest and least-contained blaze in the complex is the Pearch Fire spre...

Walters: California students among nation’s worst for math and language

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:02 GMT

Gov. Gavin Newsom and other political figures like to brag about California’s role as a national or even international leader in all things wonderful.They tend, however, to gloss over or ignore indications that California is falling short in some very important indices of societal achievement, such as public education.When measured against other states, much less other nations, California’s nearly 6 million public school students rank among the lowest in national education testing for mathematics and language skills.The latest round of National Assessment of Educational Progress test results, released last fall, revealed that California’s fourth- and eighth-graders were once again in the bottom tier of states in reading and math.Moreover, California’s unusually long school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced achievement even more, as a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California revealed.Before the pandemic, 51% of students met standards in English languag...