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Bay Area arts: 7 cool live shows to catch this weekend and beyond

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

There are a lot of great live shows in the Bay Area to catch this weekend and beyond. Here’s a partial rundown.Center Rep reaches the ‘Heights’“In the Heights” often seems relegated in theater discussions to being “that Lin-Manuel Miranda musical that isn’t ‘Hamilton,'” a designation which unfairly overlooks many of its wonderful attributes.First off, the music and choreography are beautiful and exhilarating and practically guaranteed to put you in great mood. The show immerses viewers in a vibrant Dominican American neighborhood in northern Manhattan for a three-day stretch with a fascinating cast of characters and storylines. And while it is not given credit, as “Hamilton” was, of rewriting the rules of the contemporary theater, it was groundbreaking in its own ways.Opening a decade before “Hamilton,” “In the Heights” featured a primarily Latin cast and score heavy on Latin and hip-hop songs ...

Public invited to tour Palo Alto’s colorful new murals

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

Palo Alto’s California Avenue has been getting a colorful makeover this week thanks to a mural festival sponsored by the city’s public art program. Three artists — Paz de la Calzada, Nicole Ponsler and Olivia Losee-Unger — were invited to create the large-scale paintings and have been working on them all week.Ponsler and Losee-Unger brought a little “flower power” to their work. Losse-Unger painted “Moonflowers for Georgia” on the wall at Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels, with the white blooms bursting out of a green and lavender background. (They were a favorite flower of Georgia O’Keeffe — Losse-Unger’s personal artistic hero. Meanwhile, Ponsler’s “Bloom” has come to life of Palo Alto Central, a few blocks away adding the sunset colors of marigolds to a blank wall.The third mural is a ground mural by Paz de la Calzada, who is working with groups of volunteers at the intersection of California Avenue an...

Two SF Giants prospects win monthly honors, plus more minor-league updates

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

The San Francisco Giants are getting major-league contributions from their latest crop of prospects earlier this season than most anybody expected thanks to the aggressive promotions of Casey Schmitt and Patrick Bailey, and they aren’t the only ones in the farm system who have moved quickly this season.A pair of 2022 draftees — well, one second-round pick and one undrafted free agent — excelled to such a degree in May that, when they earned monthly honors for their respective leagues, each had already been promoted to the next level.Left-hander Carson Whisenhunt, the 66th overall selection in the 2022 MLB draft, was named Pitcher of the Month in the High-A Northwest League, and outfielder Carter Howell, who signed for $50,000 out of Augustana University (Sioux Falls, S.D.), was named Hitter of the Month in the Single-A California League.Whisenhunt, 22, earned a promotion to Double-A Richmond on Saturday, reaching his third level in his first full professional season. He posted...

Explainer: Why is the GOP attacking the FBI director?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

By Farnoush Amiri and Eric Tucker | Associated PressWASHINGTON — The yearslong feud between congressional Republicans and the FBI is reaching a new level of rancor as lawmakers prepare a resolution to hold bureau director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has scheduled a committee vote for Thursday morning on the contempt resolution against Wray. He says the FBI has failed to comply with a lawful subpoena for an FBI record that documents an unverified tip about President Joe Biden.The resolution to hold Wray in contempt — which would have to be approved by the full House — is just the latest broadside from Republicans against the FBI. They accuse the bureau of harboring bias against conservatives dating back to Donald Trump’s presidency and allege the bureau is now stonewalling legitimate congressional oversight.Release of the document in question, FBI officials have warned, would jeopardize the...

Santa Clara County to expand substance use treatment, distribute naloxone with opioid settlement money

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

With opioid overdoses rising, Santa Clara County is expanding substance abuse support at schools, distributing more naloxone and fentanyl testing strips and boosting youth inpatient treatment using money from a settlement with opioid distributors.In 2014, Santa Clara County became the first jurisdiction to file a lawsuit against major opioid manufacturers for their roles in creating a nationwide opioid epidemic. In July 2021, opioid manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and three major distributors offered up $26 billion to settle more than 3,000 opioid lawsuits across the country.Santa Clara County could be paid up to $48 million over an 18-year period, and so far has received $5.8 million. On Tuesday, the county’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved how to spend some of those dollars to fight the local opioid crisis, with a good chunk of the money going toward youth-based programming.Approximately $1.5 million will go to help expand the School Linked Services Initiativ...

Photos: Bald eagle crashes into home in Palo Alto

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

(KRON) -- A bald eagle recently had an unfortunate run-in with the back patio window of a home in Palo Alto, according to Palo Alto Animal Control. Officers with PA Animal Control got a report late last month of a bald eagle that was injured in the backyard of a home in the Greenmeadow neighborhood."The officers thought that surely the report of an eagle was incorrect, and the bird was most likely a hawk or owl," read a Facebook post from Animal Control.However, when officers were dispatched to the residence they found a 4 to 5-year-old bald eagle that had crashed into the home's back patio window and was sitting in the side yard. The bird had stunned himself and was recuperating when officers arrived, according to Animal Control. What happened to Frank Somerville? A timeline of events "The eagle also appeared to be partially covered in baylands mud, so we could tell he was not having the best day," the post continued.The exterior pane of the window had been shattered by the impac...

A's stadium funding set for special session as Nevada Legislature meets in Carson City

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- The A's stadium has the full attention of Nevada lawmakers as a special session begins today in Carson City.Gov. Joe Lombardo issued a proclamation after last night's special session finished, ordering the Nevada Legislature to take up the funding plan for the stadium, which is planned at the site of the Tropicana Las Vegas Casino Resort on the Strip. Updates on the special session will be added to this report as the session begins, expected at about noon on Wednesday.Special-Session-Proclamation_June-7-2023Download

Power out in part of Pinole after truck takes out power pole

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

(KRON) -- Electricity is out in the area around Ramona Street between Carmelita Way and Higuera Avenue in Pinole after a truck crashed into a power pole, according to the Pinole Police Department. The crash took down several power poles, resulting in the power going out.Ramona Street is closed between Carmelita Way and Higuera Avenue. There is no ETA for when the roadway will reopen or when power will be restored. No injuries have been reported as a result of the crash.

North Carolina lawmakers approve sports and horse-race gambling, bill now heading to governor

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina General Assembly finalized legislation Wednesday to authorize statewide and regulate sports and horse-race wagering, a decision poised to open the nation’s ninth-largest state to more legal gambling options. The House voted 68-45 for changes completed last week by the Senate to the bill. It now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper, who again this week expressed support for legalized sports gambling. The Democrat is expected to sign the measure, which would offer online betting on professional, college and Olympic-style sports and some in-person betting to adults 21 and over starting in the next six to 12 months.House members tentatively voted for the Senate version of the bill on Tuesday after no debate. Anti-gambling forces made one last stand Wednesday seeking to block the proposal, which they were successful in doing to a similar bill nearly a year ago in the chamber. But lawmakers who opposed the bill in 2022 were no longer in the House as the ne...

Bronze statue of noted American author Willa Cather unveiled in US Capitol

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:46:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Willa Cather, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author renowned for her portrayal of the lives of pioneer settlers in the U.S. Heartland, was honored Wednesday with the unveiling of a bronze statue in her likeness in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.The statue’s creator, Littleton Alston, a professor of sculpture at Creighton University, is the first Black artist to have work represented in the national collection.Cather, whose works include “My Ántonia” and “O Pioneers,” spent her young years in Red Cloud, Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1895. She won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel “One of Ours.”U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, a Republican from Nebraska, noted that Cather was a trailblazer in the literary world who has earned a lasting place among the great American writers.And U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska said Cather’s fiction “truly feels like it grew from the soil of Nebraska.”“For decades until her death i...