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Study: Milpitas has 4th most affordable heating costs in state

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

Bringing the heatMilpitas ranked fourth in California in a recent study of most affordable cities to heat a home in winter. Overall, the study by HVAC Gnome determined that 94 of the most affordable cities to heat in the country are in California. The study ranked cities based on energy costs, cost inflators and lack of energy efficiency. It looked at average monthly electricity and gas bills, periods of extreme cold, the average size of homes and residential energy efficiency code adoption, among 10 total metrics.Milpitas came in behind Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale in the study. San Jose was No. 10.Second Harvest campaignTo meet the high need for food assistance in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley announced its holiday campaign to raise $30 million by year’s end. The number of people Second Harvest serves doubled during the pandemic—from 250,000 to 500,000 a month—and although the pandemic has waned, the need for food assistance has spi...

Campbell performer makes a ‘Bee’ line back to TheatreWorks after 13 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

When Jenni Chapman previously appeared with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in 2010, she was about the same age as the character she’s currently playing in the company’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”As a teen, Chapman played author Harper Lee’s alter-ego Scout twice for TheatreWorks, first in “To Kill a Mockingbird” then again in “A Christmas Memory.”“That was half my life ago,” says the Campbell resident. “I just got married in September.”Now a young adult, Chapman is portraying middle school student Logainne in “Bee,” running Nov. 29-Dec. 24 at  Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre.“I’m used to playing kids,” Chapman says. “I have a baby face.”Age difference aside, Chapman has a strong personal connection with her “Bee” character.“Logainne is very autisticly coded. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 25,” she says. “I vividly remember going through a lot of things she goes through. … Your value is about what you can provide for others.“I didn’t really meet myself u...

Latest line: A good week for Joe Simitian, a bad week for Barbara Lee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

Joe SimitianSanta Clara County supervisor and former state senator, assemblyman and Palo Alto mayor finally gets his chance to run for Congress as Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, announces retirement. And he has $680,000 in campaign funding already.    Barbara LeeNew poll shows Oakland congresswoman now in fourth place in the U.S. Senate race to succeed Dianne Feinstein. Meanwhile, with less than four months until the primary, her plan to win the state Democratic Party endorsement falls short.   Lassen CountyRural northern county has the cheapest median housing price of any California county — just $247,500, new data shows. But its population, which voted 75% for Trump, is aging and shrinking. And the largest employer there? Prisons. 

Share the Spirit: Richmond nonprofit gives a boost to immigrant families looking to better their children’s lives

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

There may come a day when 2-year-old Mauricio runs into a real-life problem that feels unfixable. In the meantime, though, nothing in the world is too tall a task for his toy hammer.As he clack-clack-clacks on the wooden table in a side room at the Oakland office of Brighter Beginnings, the boy glances up at his mother, who has temporarily given up shushing him.Blanca Panigua-Rodriguez, 27, has a lot more to think about in this moment: receiving a high-school GED, finding a steady job, overcoming her inner demons and making a case to regain custody of her other three sons.These are the kinds of things for which hammers — toy or otherwise — are of little use.But what does bring her relief is the help she receives from Brighter Beginnings, a Richmond nonprofit that assists mothers across the East Bay with a range of needs, from extra diapers to child care assistance to an everyday helping hand.“I’ve felt a lot of emotional distress,” said Panigua-Rodriguez, who lives...

They said it: Drugs are deadly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

“Fentanyl will kill you as easily as a bullet. It is killing the children of our community.”— Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, after charging a San Jose couple with murder over the death of their 18-month-old daughter who had lethal levels of the opioid fentanyl in her body and whose parents had been using the drug. Three Bay Area babies have died of fentanyl poisoning since May.

Caught dumping illegally? Better clean up your mess and more: Roadshow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

Q: If I were a judge and dealt with those charged with graffiti and trash crimes, as part of their sentence, I would start by issuing a monetary penalty and 50 hours of community service. The community service would be related to the crime committed, such as requiring them to remove graffiti or to pick up trash. For repeat offenders, community service would be 100 hours.If the offender is a minor, one of the parents would be required to be with the minor.Bruce Beyer, SunnyvaleA: And…Q: A couple of years ago someone was dumping dirt and rubble on Durham Road in Fremont near the Interstate 680 intersection. This was dumping on an industrial scale. I would estimate it was around a dozen full dump truckloads over a week or two. I immediately reported this to Fremont Code Enforcement and happily, the city and/or landowner cleaned it up and placed some concrete barriers to prevent trucks back up and dumping future loads.As far as I know, the company responsible for the dumping was n...

The Sharks hit rock bottom three weeks ago. Here’s how they’ve picked up the pieces

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

SAN JOSE – Members of the San Jose Sharks left SAP Center three weeks ago feeling as if they had hit rock bottom. They had just given up 10 goals for the second consecutive game and there was speculation, fair or otherwise, that their coach was in jeopardy of losing his job.Now the Sharks are going into Monday’s game against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals feeling about as good as they have all season.The Sharks on Saturday scored twice in the third period, got several key saves, and held on to a 4-3 home win over the Vancouver Canucks, the same team that trounced them by nine goals in their own building at the start of the month.Mike Hoffman and Mikael Granlund both scored in the third period and Calen Addison and Tomas Hertl each added two assists as the Sharks improved to 4-1-1 at home since that 10-2 drubbing at the hands of Erik Karlsson and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 4. That loss came two days after the Canucks crushed San Jose 10-1, handing the team its most lo...

An official says gunmen have attacked major detention centers in Sierra Leone and abducted or freed inmates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — An official says gunmen have attacked major detention centers in Sierra Leone and abducted or freed inmates.Source

Al menos 13 personas desaparecidas tras hundirse barco de carga en Grecia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

Un carguero se hundió frente a la isla griega de Lesbos en mares tormentosos la madrugada del domingo, dejando 13 miembros de la tripulación desaparecidos y uno rescatado, dijeron las autoridades.El Raptor, registrado en las Comoras, se dirigía a Estambul desde Alejandría, Egipto, transportando 6,000 toneladas de sal, dijo la guardia costera. Iban 14 tripulantes, entre ellas ocho egipcios, cuatro indios y dos sirios, dijo la guardia costera.El barco reportó un problema mecánico a las 7:00 a.m. del domingo, envió una señal de socorro y poco después desapareció a unas 4.5 millas náuticas al suroeste de Lesbos, dijeron las autoridades. Rescatan a 25 migrantes atrapados en un bosque en llamas en Grecia Ascienden los muertos a 96 en Somalia tras las inundaciones de ‘El Niño’ La vocera indicó que ocho barcos mercantes, dos helicópteros y una fragata de la marina griega estaban buscando supervivientes. Tres barcos de la guardia costera t...

Gluten-free bakery opens full location in Prince William Co. after farmers market success

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

A gluten-free bakery opened last week in Old Town Manassas, the first of its kind in the Prince William area.The Honey and Ivy Gluten Free bakery at 9105 Center St. originated from a farmers market stand.Honey and Ivy began selling at the Manassas Farmers Market last season. They have grown to attend three weekly markets and now the new shop in Old Town.In April 2022, Emily Hamby started her venture of baking and selling cookies, cinnamon rolls, and other tasty treats at the farmers market after she moved to the area and wasn’t able to find any safe gluten free options.When she saw the high demand for gluten free baked goods in Manassas, she decided to expand her reach and added the Haymarket Farmers Market weekly to her list of growing customers.The demand continued to grow as Honey and Ivy introduced new items, and requests that are hard to find within the gluten-free community. All of the menu items are gluten free, and many are vegan as well.To keep up with the growing customer ...