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Good Samaritan’s efforts lead to conviction of Northern California child predator

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

On Dec. 21, 2023, a Yolo County jury convicted Jayson Proctor, a 45-year-old Sacramento transient, of one count of communicating with a minor with the intent to commit an illegal sex act and one count of arranging a meeting with a minor to engage in lewd and lascivious behavior.According to a Yolo County District Attorney’s Office press release, Proctor’s behavior was exposed by a good Samaritan behind an online organization known as “People v. Preds.” This organization utilizes decoy profiles on online dating apps and artificial intelligence to pose as minors and engage with predators who are seeking sexual encounters with children.The individual behind the decoy profile documents these conversations and arranges meetings with these predators. That information is then reported to local law enforcement, who respond to the location of the meeting at the designated time to collect evidence and arrest those communicating with the decoy profile.While using a popular dating app, Proctor ...

Bay Area peace groups rally outside Travis assails base’s ‘complicity in genocide’ in Gaza

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

Religious literature tells us that there is a time for war, a time for peace, a time to sow, a time to reap, a time for all things.On Thursday morning it was time for several Bay Area peace groups to rally outside Travis Air Force Base gates to assail the U.S. government’s “complicity in genocide” as the ferocious Israeli siege of Gaza continues.The morning was also was a time for Fairfield police officers and Solano County Sheriff’s deputies to arrest more than a dozen of the estimated 150 protesters who, some time after they assembled at 6 a.m., blocked the north and south gates to the sprawling base just south of Vacaville.Jennifer Brantley, a spokeswoman for the Fairfield Police Department, confirmed in an email that the protest was prompted by the base sending “supplies” to the state of Israel and that protesters blocked off several gates with barricades.Fourteen people were arrested and booked into Solano County Jail on suspicion of refusing to disperse during the protest, whi...

Photos: High surf pounds Monterey coast

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

The Carmel Lagoon is being watched as hazards are in the weather mix over the next day or two and rain is in the forecast through Sunday.The County of Monterey reported Thursday evening that the lagoon that had been backed up by high surf had stabilized at about 12 feet and flooding had been contained onto 16th Avenue. The County also reported that pumps would be operating through the night to keep the lagoon water out of the surrounding neighborhoods.County public information officer Maia Carroll said that county crews mobilized on Wednesday afternoon to manage the Carmel Lagoon sandbar by constructing a small pilot channel with hand tools. Another one was dug Thursday evening.Waves batter the coast near Yankee Point Thursday. (Austin Robertson — Special to the Herald)The scene at Carmel River lagoon Thursday. (Austin Robertson — Special to the Herald)The scene at Carmel River lagoon Thursday. (Austin Robertson — Special to the Herald)County of Monterey crews mobi...

Marin’s 10 most expensive home sales of 2023

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

With all the bustle of the holidays, many Marin residents risk being distracted from their normal focus — real estate. Fortunately, there’s help.Data on the top residential sales of the year in the county offer a stimulating reminder of the market’s possibilities.Marin’s 10 most expensive home sales of 2023 cost a collective $144.6 million, according to the county assessor’s office. Six of the homes are in Belvedere, two are in Stinson Beach, one is in Ross and one is in Mill Valley.Butch Haze, a real estate agent who specializes in Marin and San Francisco properties, said the “double-digit” sales this year — meaning $10 million and up — show the health of the market, even in a climate of elevated interest rates and low sales volume.“It’s an indication the market is starting to turn,” he said. “It looks like 2024 is off to a good start. We found a tremendous amount of buyers wanting to wait till next year. It was almost a buyer mantra: Look this year, buy next year.”According to dat...

Photos: Waves batter Santa Cruz County

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

 A spectator near Lighthouse Point takes a selfie as massive waves come crashing into the coast Thursday. (Aric Sleeper/Santa Cruz Sentinel) A wave set repeatedly pushes up against the bottom of the Capitola Wharf on Thursday morning. The damaged wharf remained closed and under repair from a series of damaging storms at the beginning of the year. (Jessica A. York — Santa Cruz Sentinel) A man carris a woman through storm debris in the Rio Del Mar neighborhood of Aptos, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023. Powerful surf is rolled onto beaches on the West Coast and Hawaii as a big swell generated by the stormy Pacific Ocean pushes toward shorelines. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)  Related ArticlesWeather | Big surf slams Southern California beaches for exciting end to 2023 Weather | Watch: Monster waves crash into streets, cars, pedestrians along Northern California coast Weather | ‘Smart to stay away:’ High surf slams coast, Ba...

No evidence 2 students who brought guns to California school had plans for school violence, officials say

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

Police and school district officials said they found no evidence that the two students who brought loaded guns to Redondo Union High School had any plan to commit campus violence.Despite that, police and school officials said extra security measures would continue until Jan. 19 in the form of a police presence and third-party security, according to a joint statement.Police were called both on Dec. 4 and on 5 after receiving calls about a gun on campus. While the first student was found and detained quickly, police ordered a campus lockdown for about an hour the next day until they detained that student and found the weapon.The Redondo Beach Unified School District kept the campus closed on Dec. 6 so police could check the campus for weapons using K-9 dogs in classrooms, restrooms, lockers and common areas.Both 15-year-old sophomores were detained and charged by the the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for bringing loaded weapons to campus, police said, but the specific ...

La población mundial superará los 8,000 millones el día de Año Nuevo, según la Oficina del Censo

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

La población mundial aumentó por 75 millones de personas este último año y el día de Año Nuevo superará los 8,000 millones de habitantes, según las cifras publicadas el jueves por la Oficina del Censo de Estados Unidos.La tasa de crecimiento mundial el año pasado fue ligeramente inferior al 1%. A principios de 2024, se esperan 4.3 nacimientos y dos muertes por segundo en todo el mundo, según las cifras de la Oficina del Censo.La tasa de crecimiento de Estados Unidos el año pasado fue del 0.53%, aproximadamente la mitad que la mundial. Estados Unidos sumó 1.7 millones de personas y tendrá una población el día de Año Nuevo de 335.8 millones de habitantes.Si el ritmo actual se mantiene hasta el final de la década, la de 2020 podría ser la de crecimiento más lento de la historia de EEUU, con una tasa de crecimiento inferior al 4% en el periodo de 10 años comprendido entre 2020 y 2030, según William Frey, demógrafo de la Brookings Institution. Lo que viene en el 2024: la li...

An unidentified object has entered Poland’s airspace from Ukraine, search underway

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s armed forces said Friday an unknown airborne object entered the country’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine and subsequently vanished off radars.The Operational Command of the Armed Forces said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that the unidentified airborne object entered from the side of the border with Ukraine and was observed by radars of the country’s air defense system from the moment it crossed the border until the signal disappeared.It also said troops have been mobilized to identify and find the object.Local authorities said that the object crossed the border near the town of Hrubieszow.There were no immediate reports of any explosion or casualties.Source

El año que comienza en realidad no es el 2024 d.C. ¿Por qué?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

(CNN Español) — El año que comienza es el 2024 después de Cristo… según el calendario que seguimos mayoritariamente en Occidente. Sin embargo, en realidad no es el año 2024 después del nacimiento de Cristo ya que, según los historiadores, esa cifra es el resultado de un cálculo que hoy sabemos que es errado. En otras palabras: el mesías del cristianismo no habría nacido exactamente hace 2024 años.Primero lo primero: las generaciones iniciales de cristianos no contaban los años tomando como referencia la fecha del nacimiento de Jesús. En el Imperio romano en el que habitaban existieron diferentes criterios para llevar las cuentas. Uno de ellos, por ejemplo, era tomando como referencia la fecha de la fundación de Roma (que se expresaba con la expresión latina ab urbe condita, es decir “Desde la fundación de la ciudad”). También había sistemas que no implicaban una numeración, como identificar los años según quiénes eran los cónsules que estaban en el poder o qu...

Prince George’s Co. officer fires shots during carjacking in Oxon Hill, police say

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:37:59 GMT

Prince George's County, Maryland, police respond to a reported shooting near the Tanger Outlets National Harbor shopping center.(WTOP/Matt Kaufax) Prince George's County, Maryland, police respond to a reported shooting near the Tanger Outlets National Harbor shopping center.(WTOP/Matt Kaufax) Police in Prince George’s County are searching for two suspects who carjacked an off-duty police officer near the Tanger Outlets National Harbor shopping center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Thursday evening.The incident occurred on the 6700 block of Tanger Boulevard in the parking lot of a business building just across the street from the outlet mall at about 5 p.m.According to Assistant Chief Vernon Hale, the officer and...