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Thousands of thrill seekers, including Americans, take part in Spain's running of the bulls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

Thousands of thrill seekers took part Friday in the first running of the bulls at the San Fermín festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona.Several runners took knocks and hard falls in the 8 a.m. event but no one was gored by the beasts, a frequent feature of the spectacle.The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists. Nearly 1.7 million people visited Pamplona for the celebrations in 2022, and forecasts are higher for this year with all COVID-19 constraints ended.La Palmosilla's fighting bulls run among revelers during the first day of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, Friday, July 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)In the run, six bulls guided by six tame oxen charged along a route through Pamplona’s streets for around two minutes and 30 seconds before reaching the bull ring.The festival was made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.” This year marks the 100th anniversary of Hemingway’s first visit to the festival. Vietnam b...

Tech exec tells whirlwind tale of starting SF Unicorns, Bay Area’s cricket team in new U.S. league

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

LOS ALTOS — When Anand Rajaraman first came to the Bay Area to attend graduate school at Stanford in the 1990s, he kept his connection to his home of India by playing cricket with a tennis ball on Stanford’s oval lawn.After 30 years in the tech industry all in the Bay Area, Rajaraman is now hoping that the region is ready to embrace the sport that he has always loved.Rajaraman is a co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns, one of six inaugural teams in Major League Cricket (MLC), a brand new league forming in the United States.“Over the past 25 years, more people from cricket-loving countries have come to the U.S.,” Rajaraman, 52, said. “Now, I think there’s enough of an audience for it to be the right time.”MLC will play a shorter version of cricket, popularized in the last 20 years, that may be more palatable to the American audience. The normal version of cricket often takes days to complete a four-inning game. MLC will use the Twenty20 (T20) version of cricket, which consists of o...

San Francisco’s weekday population dropped by 200,000 during the pandemic. Santa Clara County’s plunged too. What now?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

On a typical workday before the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of commuters flowed into San Francisco and Silicon Valley from around the region, swelling their daytime populations. Then COVID emptied streets and transit stations and quieted once bustling shops and restaurants that catered to the weekday crowds.A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau highlights just how big of a hit remote work had on the country’s commuter centers.San Francisco lost nearly 210,000 people during a typical workday in 2021 compared to 2019, a Bay Area News Group analysis found, and Santa Clara County saw a drop of nearly 110,000. That drop of more than 300,000 in what the Census calls the ‘commuter-adjusted population’ of the Bay Area’s two largest counties far outpaced — by nearly 100,000 — the decline in far-larger Los Angeles.On the flip side, Alameda and Contra Costa counties added tens of thousands to their workday populations between 2019 and 2021 as pre-pand...

Warriors at Summer League: Three things to watch in Las Vegas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

The Warriors’ Summer League squad will descend on Las Vegas this weekend looking for some rhythm after splitting two games in the California Classic at Golden 1 Center. A week in Las Vegas represents a chance for rookies to adjust, for familiar faces to show they have grown and for Summer League invitees to prove they belong.Golden State will play five games in Las Vegas. The Dubs open Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, then play afternoon games against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday and Houston Rockets on Thursday. A fifth game next weekend will be determined by standings after the first four.Here are a few names and trends to watch for at Summer League:Brandin Podziemski’s scoring touch Podziemski turned down a few open shots in his first Summer League game against the Kings in Sacramento, but he settled in late, scoring eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. Two of his more impressive scoring plays ...

Affordable homes project in San Jose heads toward construction start

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

SAN JOSE — A big development of affordable homes has landed the financing it needs to launch construction as soon as this month at a site next to a train station near downtown San Jose.Tamien Station has obtained roughly $139 million in funding from an array of government agencies to build an affordable housing project at 1197 Lick Avenue in San Jose, according to public records and the project’s principal developers, Core Cos. and Republic Urban Properties.In addition to real estate veterans Core Cos. and Republic Urban, the project’s key players include the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing.The housing would rise next to Tamien Station, which accommodates light rail and Caltrain stops.The Tamien Station residential project is slated to begin construction around July 23. The housing complex should be complete by July 2025.Along with the housing, the project will include 30,000 square feet of ground-floo...

Editorial: Halt cannabis industry’s disgraceful efforts to target children

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

So it turns that, when it comes to marketing its products to children, the cannabis industry is every bit as irresponsible as the lowlifes who try to hook kids on tobacco products at an early age.Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, has the solution. Her Assembly Bill 1207 would have curtailed the disgraceful practice of creating and selling cannabis products in a manner that is attractive to children. We’re talking about flavoring marijuana cigarettes and vaping products. And psychoactive candies and snacks that resemble Doritos chips, Oreo cookies and Cocoa Pebbles.The bill should have had bipartisan support from the Legislature. It passed the Assembly without a single vote of opposition. But a Senate Committee this week watered it down. The cannabis industry managed to convince senators to strip out the provisions prohibiting flavoring of inhaled products.It’s the same sort of prohibition that voters, with passage last year of Proposition 31, applied to tobacc...

Morgan Hill man faces new charges in attempted murder in Santa Cruz Jail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — A Morgan Hill man awaiting trial in a Watsonville homicide case appeared in court Thursday with two others to face new gang-related attempted murder charges.Matthew Madriz Alcaraz, 19, and Adrian Ortiz, 23, were each charged with an allegedly gang-related shanking of a 20-year-old fellow inmate on June 26 in the Santa Cruz County Jail. The two face criminal enhancements of causing great bodily injury and participating in street terrorism. Attorneys for the two men delayed entering pleas at their arraignment until July 14. A third codefendant, Leo Rueda, 38, faces charges of gang-related assault with a deadly weapon and a street terrorism enhancement.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Intersection near SJSU closed after man brandishes knife Crime and Public Safety | Longtime San Jose activist arrested on suspicion of illegal firework distribution Crime and Public Safety | San Jose man who helped security firm launder mill...

Opinion: UC, CSU must comply with Native American repatriation laws

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

The Bay Area is home to three California State University campuses — in San Francisco, San Jose and the East Bay — and two University of California campuses, in Berkeley and San Francisco. The campuses are located in the ancestral territory of the Ohlone and an area that became a center for Indian relocation in the 1950s and 60s.Yet these educational institutions, which were centers of Native American activism, have, in large part, failed to comply with federal and state laws concerning the repatriation of Native American human remains and objects of cultural patrimony.NAGPRA, the federal Native American and Graves Repatriation Act, signed into law in 1990, established a process for federal agencies and federally funded institutions to repatriate the remains and objects to federally recognized tribes. The state, in 2002, enacted the California Native American and Graves Repatriation Act, requiring state agencies and state-funded institutions to repatriate human remains a...

Four-bedroom home in Oakland sells for $2 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

759 Santa Ray Avenue – Google Street ViewThe spacious historic property located in the 700 block of Santa Ray Avenue in Oakland was sold on May 26, 2023. The $1,967,000 purchase price works out to $850 per square foot. The house, built in 1925, has an interior space of 2,314 square feet. The property features four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a garage. The unit sits on a 3,296-square-foot lot.These nearby houses have also recently been sold:A 3,616-square-foot home on the 700 block of Calmar Avenue in Oakland sold in May 2023, for $3,300,000, a price per square foot of $913. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Santa Ray Avenue, Oakland, in September 2022, a 1,496-square-foot home was sold for $1,400,000, a price per square foot of $936. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.In October 2022, a 1,579-square-foot home on Santa Ray Avenue in Oakland sold for $1,815,000, a price per square foot of $1,149. The home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. 

England in trouble at 142-7 in 3rd Ashes test and trails catchy Australia by 121 runs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:48 GMT

LEEDS, England (AP) — England key batter Joe Root was dismissed on the second ball of the day and Jonny Bairstow departed in the opening half-hour as Australia gave the hosts a lesson in slip fielding to take firm control of the third Ashes test on Friday.At lunch on day two, England was 142-7 and still 121 runs behind Australia’s first innings of 263. All-rounders Moeen Ali (21) and Chris Woakes (10) were dismissed before the interval with Ali’s attempted pull shot costing him his wicket.England captain Ben Stokes, who shared a partnership of 44 with Ali for the sixth wicket, is at the crease on 27. Woakes’ dismissal saw lunch taken at Headingley. Root was earlier caught by first slip David Warner off the bowling of Australia captain Pat Cummins (4-59) without adding to his overnight score of 19.Bairstow was caught by second slip Steve Smith for 12 against Mitchell Starc (2-28).Both Root in the slips and Bairstow as wicketkeeper dropped chances on the first day in...