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Scandal-scarred ex-Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi dies at 86

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

ROME (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy's longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption, died Monday, according to Italian media. He was 86.Berlusconi’s Mediaset television network announced his death with a smiling photo of the man on its homepage and the headline: “Berlusconi is dead.”Berlusconi was hospitalized on Friday for the second time in months for treatment of chronic leukemia. He also suffered over the years from heart ailments, prostate cancer and was hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020.A onetime cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi used his television networks and immense wealth to launch his long political career, inspiring both loyalty and loathing.To admirers, the three-time premier was a capable and charismatic statesman who sought to elevate Italy on the world stage. To critics, he was a populist who threatened to undermine democracy by wielding political power as a tool to enri...

Oakland district’s next Live in the Laurel concert coming up

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

Two years ago, when the Laurel District Association began to develop a new music series to be held in the Oakland neighborhood along MacArthur Boulevard, events planner Jody Colley had no list of local bands. In 2023, having launched the six-month Live in The Laurel music series May 19 and preparing for the second show June 24, Coffey’s contact list boasts more than 170 local bands and solo musicians.“I’m not a music promoter,” Colley said in an interview. “This isn’t me going out and soliciting; I just used social media. Since then, it’s getting easier to find and book bands because the musicians are spreading the word.“You’d think they’re competitive and trying to get all the gigs, but they’re not. They’re community-oriented, and I know that’s true because a lot of the applicants say they heard from other bands about the series.”The artists applying to perform are likely to be attracted by a signature feature of the series. Instead of formal venues like concert halls or stag...

Condominium in Palo Alto sells for $1.9 million

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

715 Webster Street – Google Street ViewThe property located in the 700 block of Webster Street in Palo Alto was sold on May 26, 2023. The $1,850,000 purchase price works out to $1,329 per square foot. The condominium, built in 1977, has an interior space of 1,392 square feet. The property features two bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a carport, as well as a pool in the backyard and four parking spaces. The unit sits on a 669-square-foot lot.Additional units have recently been sold nearby:In August 2022, a 2,042-square-foot unit on Byron Street in Palo Alto sold for $2,350,000, a price per square foot of $1,151. The unit has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 1,810-square-foot unit on the 500 block of Byron Street in Palo Alto sold in May 2023, for $1,150,000, a price per square foot of $635. The unit has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Byron Street, Palo Alto, in November 2022, a 1,778-square-foot unit was sold for $1,550,000, a price per square foot of $872. The unit has 3 bedrooms and 3 bat...

Bay Area firm’s fraud prompts 2nd lawsuit against Umpqua Bank

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

A second lawsuit has been filed against Umpqua Bank in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme engineered by a now-defunct Novato company.The lawsuit is the latest fallout surrounding the company, Professional Financial Investors, and its principals, Ken Casey and Lewis Wallach. Working exclusively through Umpqua Bank’s branch in Novato, Casey and Wallach raised millions of dollars, mostly from mom-and-pop investors, by promising them steady returns from investments in Marin County real estate.Casey and Wallach used money from new investors to make the promised returns to earlier investors and to fund their lavish lifestyles. The scheme unraveled after Casey’s death in May 2020.Wallach pleaded guilty to defrauding investors and embezzling more than $26 million of their money. He is serving a 12-year prison sentence.A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than a thousand investors claiming over $300 million in damages was filed against Umpqua Bank in 2020. The suit,...

Rent relief is still available for Californians denied COVID assistance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

More than 100,000 California tenants whose applications for COVID-era rental assistance were denied or delayed by the state’s housing department will get another shot at relief, thanks to a new legal settlement between the state and a coalition of anti-poverty and tenant rights groups.More aid isn’t guaranteed. But under the terms of the settlement signed at the end of last month, California’s Housing and Community Development Department agreed to audit its past denials and improve multilingual access for tenants who don’t speak English as a first language.It also agreed to flesh out the appeal process for applicants and provide more detailed explanations when it denies an application. And it committed to providing more data on the race, ethnicity and location of those who were denied help.California’s housing department received $5.2 billion in federal relief funds in 2021 to help struggling tenants keep up with rent while the state’s economy ground to a halt during the height of t...

What you should know about Airbnbs and short-term rentals

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

In 2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were broke and desperate to pay the rent for their San Francisco apartment. The Industrial Design Conference was in town and all the hotels were booked. So they offered attendees who needed a place to crash, airbeds, breakfast, Wi-Fi and a work desk. They called it “Air Bed and Breakfast.” What started out as an experiment turned into a hotel industry disruptor worth more than Hilton and Wyndham combined, second only to Marriott.Airbnb’s dominanceAirbnb’s highs and lowsCalifornia’s short-term rental restrictionsAirbnb’s extraordinary growth came under lax regulations on short-term rentals. Areas with a big Airbnb presence have had an increase in noise complaints, issues with parking and trash and the sentiment that rents were being forced up, limiting availability of affordable rental housing. As a result, municipalities worldwide have tightened restrictions on short-term rentals. Here’s a look at how restrictions vary in some of California’s dest...

Trellising tomatoes and harvesting herbs: 5 things to do in the garden

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

1. Trellis your row of tomato plants while they are still small. Hammer 8-foot stakes two feet into the ground, one on each end of the row and 10 feet apart within the row. Install hardware cloth (hard wire mesh) between the stakes. Place one tomato plant every two feet. Prune most suckers, allowing two or three stems to grow. You will not need to tie up your plants; just weave their stems in and out of the wire.2.  If you do not keep several inches of mulch around your citrus trees at all times – in which case fertilization of these and other fruit trees is not necessary – now is the time for the fourth and final application of citrus fertilizer for the year. The first fertilization is made in early February and every six weeks thereafter until this final application. Make it easy on yourself by procuring a product specially formulated for citrus and avocado fertilization, several of which are available at nurseries, home improvement centers or online vendors. 3. This is the approp...

Speed camera bill gets Assembly approval, now it’s up to Senate, Gov. Newsom

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

Cameras that can automatically send tickets to motorists who are speeding moved a big step closer to reaching city streets after the bill that would legalize such ticketing got state Assembly approval in late May by a wide margin.Assembly Bill 645, authored by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, authorizes “speed camera” pilot programs in school zones and on high-injury streets with speeding problems in five cities, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Oakland and San Francisco.Friedman’s bill was heavily backed in a 58-7 Assembly floor vote on May 31, and was introduced in the state Senate on June 1. The bill picked up both Democratic and Republican support.The bill’s next hearing may be before the Senate Transportation Committee, but that had not yet been scheduled as of Friday, June 9, said Leoda Valenzuela, a spokesperson for Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.If it goes to Senate Transportation, the bill must pass out of that com...

California doctor who became opioid ‘drug dealer’ gets 12 years in prison

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

A Tustin doctor who illegally distributed opioid pills linked to the death of an off-duty Costa Mesa fire captain, the suspected gunman in the Borderline Bar & Grill mass shooting and at least five overdose deaths was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison Friday, June 9, authorities said.Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham, who was also fined $35,000 Friday, was the owner of Irvine Village Urgent Care at the time he distributed more than 120,000 pills from Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 17, 2018, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Ciaran McEvoy said.During that time, he wrote prescriptions for about 53,000 oxycodone pills, 68,000 hydrocodone pills and 29,000 pills of amphetamine salts using 18 different patient names, in exchange for cash and insurance payments, according to a plea agreement submitted in October when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.“(Pham), a licensed physician trusted by society and the patients that went to him, stopped treating patients and...

Catastrophic hunger crisis? California food banks flooded by families seeking help

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:49 GMT

By Rya Jetha | CalMattersCalifornia food banks, which saw more families seeking help during the pandemic, are now serving more people every month as extra benefits started during the pandemic come to an end.The end of such programs is reducing benefits to 5.3 million Californians and prompting the statewide food banks association to warn of a “catastrophic hunger crisis” this year.Instead of functioning as sources of emergency aid, food banks say they are becoming long-term supermarkets for Californians facing food insecurity.Recipients of CalFresh, California’s version of the federal food stamp program, were given the maximum benefits available for their household size during the pandemic, or at least $95 more a month if they were already at the maximum. However, those emergency allotments ended March 26, meaning that for some single-person households, CalFresh benefits dropped from $281 to as little as $23 a month.Also, a federal program that gives eligible households food benefit...