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7 fantastic Bay Area things to do this weekend, March 24-26

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

Got your weekend plans? We are here for you on that front, with details on compelling new movies and shows as well as some awesome ways to have fun in Sonoma Valley. So let’s get to it, shall we?As with everything these days, be sure to double check websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines. Meanwhile, if you’d like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.1 WATCH: A racy ‘Great Expectations’?An edgy new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic 19th-century novel finds Pip getting a somewhat more visceral education, if you catch our drift. It tops our list of new shows and movies you should watch this weekend. Also on the list is “A Good Person,” Zach Braff’s new tragicomedy starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman which, he tells us, he had a brutal time directing.The sculpture grove at Santa...

Prescription for housing? California wants Medicaid to cover 6 months of rent

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

By Angela Hart | Kaiser Health NewsSACRAMENTO  — Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose administration is struggling to contain a worsening homelessness crisis despite record spending, is trying something bold: tapping federal health care funding to cover rent for homeless people and those at risk of losing their housing.States are barred from using federal Medicaid dollars to pay directly for rent, but California’s governor is asking the administration of President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, to authorize a new program called “transitional rent,” which would provide up to six months of rent or temporary housing for low-income enrollees who rely on the state’s health care safety net — a new initiative in his arsenal of programs to fight and prevent homelessness.“I’ve been talking to the president. We cannot do this alone,” Newsom told KHN.The governor is pushing California’s version of Medicaid, called Medi-Cal, to fund experimental housing subsidies for homeless people, betting that it’s cheap...

Reader offers to pay for slain SJ Safeway worker’s permanent memorial: Roadshow

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

Q: I’m sending you the response I wish I could have sent directly to Robert Flanagan (featured in Roadshow on March 17). I lived in the Bay Area for over 50 years. This made me so sad. I would pay for the memorial outside Safeway on Hamilton Avenue.Lisa Johnson, Coeur d’Alene, IdahoA: And her follow-up…Q: Dear Robert, What an inconvenience to you and neighbors for what you think is an unsightly memorial. You didn’t elaborate on why the site is problematic, just that neighbors are tired of it. I’m pretty sure the parents, family, and friends of 24-year-old Manny Huizar, whose precious life was cut short trying to stop a shoplifter at the store, are not.What about a kind gesture from you and your neighbors, offering to work with Safeway to establish a plaque, plant, or something that honors Manny’s life in his community, in place of the site? If you and your Silicon Valley neighbors can’t afford it, I’ll pay for it.Lisa JohnsonA: Here is what Colin-a-San Jose-s...

Art from encampments: Bay Area’s homelessness crisis inspires wave of artistic expression

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

There’s nothing beautiful about homelessness.Or is there?Amid the heartbreaking conditions of the Bay Area’s homeless encampments, those with little recourse are fighting their despair by creating works of art. The results can be uplifting — like the celebratory murals painted to cheer up residents of tent clusters and cars turned into homes. Other times — like a recent play that dramatized Caltrans workers kicking unhoused residents out of a camp — they’re gut-wrenching.With more than 30,000 unhoused residents in the Bay Area and little visible progress toward stemming the homelessness crisis, those who live or have lived in encampments, and those who work with people who do, describe this artistic expression as vital. For some, it provides a way to heal from the trauma of life on the streets. For others, it’s an opportunity to tell their stories and teach the world what it’s like to live in their shoes.“Art has a way of involving peo...

Cottage cheese injections and electric shocks: Emeryville attempts to reclaim toxic soil

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

Emeryville is still digging itself out from under its industrial past.For years, the city has cleaned up vast swaths of land contaminated by the scores of commercial warehouses that used to dominate the East Bay shoreline community. By the early 2000s, Emeryville earned a reputation as “one of the foulest industrial wastelands in the Bay Area,” according to one news outlet, which said the soil was “so toxic that anyone treading it had to wear a moon suit.”In 2004, for instance, 15,000 gallons of cottage cheese was injected into the groundwater below an abandoned factory, cleaning up the toxic hexavalent chromium — a substance some have dubbed “the Erin Brockovich chemical” — that was produced while manufacturing car bumpers in the 1950s and ’60s.This week, city officials kicked off the complex task of cleaning up roughly 78,000 square-feet of contaminated soil on another city-owned property just across the railroad tracks from the popular Bay Street Emeryville shopping c...

Why were San Jose firefighters at a strip club? Still no answers on Poodlegate

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

A five-month investigation into why a San Jose firetruck dropped off a bikini-clad woman at a strip club has concluded, but officials have yet to answer many questions about the scandalous incident caught on video, including which firefighters were outside the Pink Poodle and what discipline — if any — they face.In a letter sent to city councilmembers earlier this month, San Jose Fire Chief Robert Sapien wrote the department “extends a sincere apology” to the community. But he said the identities of the firefighters seen at the strip club won’t be released.“The actions portrayed in the video were received with disappointment and concern, as they appeared seriously misaligned with the Department’s mission and values and were highly detrimental to the confidence and trust of our community and our workforce,” Sapien wrote in the 343-word letter dated March 10. It was the first time that he apologized for the incident.Sapien said the city would ...

UEFA to investigate Barcelona for its referee payments

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Barcelona is facing a new legal threat from UEFA, including a possible Champions League ban, because of its payments of millions of dollars to a company linked to a Spanish refereeing official.The European soccer body asked Thursday for an investigation into the matter, which is already being pursued by prosecutors in Spain.Champions League regulations in effect since April 2007 allow for clubs to be removed from European competitions if they were involved in fixing matches. Further disciplinary sanctions can follow.UEFA said Thursday it asked disciplinary inspectors to “conduct an investigation regarding a potential violation of UEFA’s legal framework by FC Barcelona in connection with the so-called ‘Caso Negreira.’”Court documents show Barcelona paid 7.3 million euros ($7.7 million) from 2001-18 to the company of José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice president of Spanish soccer’s refereeing committee.Prosecutors in Spain have formally accused Barcelona of cor...

Jury finds former Puerto Rican mayor guilty of corruption

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A federal jury has found a former Puerto Rican mayor guilty of bribery, extortion and conspiracy in the U.S territory’s latest government corruption case.Ángel Pérez Otero, who was mayor of the northern city of Guaynabo and president of Puerto Rico’s Mayors’ Federation, was released on bail after the verdict in U.S. District Court court late Wednesday. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.Otero had been accused of accepting almost monthly payments of $5,000 for nearly two years in exchange for securing a more than $1 million road work contract for a local company.The U.S. Attorney’s Office submitted pictures and video of Pérez accepting cash payments inside a car and under a restaurant table that were taken by the company’s owner, who was cooperating with federal authorities.Pérez is the 10th Puerto Rico mayor to be accused of corruption in the past couple of years, and the third in the case involving the road work. His attorney, Eduardo Ferrer, sai...

No red carpet: French unrest impacts King Charles III’s trip

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Unrest in France is tarnishing the sheen of King Charles III’s first overseas trip as monarch, with striking workers refusing to provide red carpets amid pension reform protests and critics calling for the visit to be canceled altogether.The British king is scheduled to undertake the trip beginning Sunday on behalf of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which hoped the glamour of a royal tour would underscore efforts to rebuild Anglo-French ties that were frayed by the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union.But anger over French President Emmanuel Macron’s resolve to increase the retirement age by two years are clouding what was meant to be a show of bonhomie and friendship. Instead, Charles’ visit is being seen as an unnecessary display of hereditary privilege.“It’s very bad timing. Normally the French would welcome a British king. But in this moment, people protesting are on high alert for any sign of privilege and wealth,” Paris-base...

Slim pickings for buyers amid near-record low homes for sale

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:59 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Americans eager to buy a home this spring, beware: It’s slim pickings out there.The number of U.S. homes on the market is at near-historic lows, which could dim would-be buyers’ prospects for finding a house or condo and fuel competition for the most affordable properties, economists say.As of the end of February, just as the spring homebuying season got under way, some 980,000 homes were on the market nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors.That’s an increase of 15.3% from February last year, when the number of homes for sale sank to an all-time low.February’s tally of homes for sale translates into a 2.6-month supply at the current sales pace, according to NAR. In a more balanced market between buyers and sellers, there is a 5- to 6-month supply.While homebuyers will have more properties to choose from now than last spring, the low supply and sharply higher mortgage rates set the stage for a higher overall price tag for homeownership.“Buyer...