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Photos: Hundreds attend annual Oakland Pride Festival and Parade on Sunday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

Hundreds of people took to the streets during the annual colorful Oakland Pride Festival and Parade on Sunday.The two-day event, sponsored by Oakland Pride and Pridefest Oakland, celebrated the cultures and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community in Oakland and the surrounding Bay Area.More than 80 contingents rode on floats or in cars along seven blocks of Broadway between 12th and 19th Streets as thousands of people lined the sidewalks to cheer them on. They represented a wide array of community leaders, politicians, service groups, businesses, sponsors and allies. Rainbow-clad pets also joined the festivities.After the parade, the Oakland Pride Festival began around 12 p.m. with three live music stages, local nonprofit booths, food trucks and drinks and clothes and crafts from local businesses along Franklin Street from 17th to 22nd streets.Parade participants from UC Berkeley holds signs while marching during the Oakland Pride Parade in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. (Jos...

Mike’s Diner Bar evades eviction and will expand to offer breakfast and lunch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

Palo Alto residents received some good news alongside their ice cream scoops at the Midtown neighborhood’s annual ice cream social yesterday: The imperiled Mike’s Diner Bar will remain open and will soon begin offering breakfast and lunch.The popular 29-year-old Palo Alto restaurant had been embroiled in mediation efforts with the property owner, Scher Holdings LLC, after business owner Mike Wallau paid rent one day late in mid-July, a delay caused by a family medical emergency. The property owner’s lease included a year-long stipulation that the restaurant could be evicted if rent was paid even one day late, Wallau said.The eviction notice was to have taken effect today, Sept. 11, but on Sept. 8, Wallau reached an agreement with the property owners to continue to operate the restaurant. They agreed to accept the rent Wallau had paid for August and September, but reset the stipulation agreement, re-launching the clock on that one-year agreement. Scher Holdings has ...

Sale closed in Pleasanton: $1.9 million for a four-bedroom home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

3103 Ascot Court – Google Street ViewA house located in the 3100 block of Ascot Court in Pleasanton has new owners. The 1,873-square-foot property, built in 1986, was sold on July 19, 2023, for $1,850,000, or $988 per square foot. This single-story home boasts a generous living space with four bedrooms and two baths. Additionally, the house is equipped with a garage.These nearby houses have also recently changed hands:In August 2022, a 2,165-square-foot home on West Las Positas Boulevard in Pleasanton sold for $1,500,000, a price per square foot of $693. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 2,150-square-foot home on the 3600 block of West Las Positas Boulevard in Pleasanton sold in June 2022, for $1,760,000, a price per square foot of $819. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Dunsmuir Circle, Pleasanton, in June 2022, a 2,468-square-foot home was sold for $2,350,000, a price per square foot of $952. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

Halloween Horror Nights delivers big scares, Chucky, ‘Last of Us’ and more

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

Want to ratchet up the fear factor to a whole new level this Halloween season?Those brave enough to answer “yes” to that question should consider making a trip to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.The event, which continues through Oct. 31, distinguishes itself from other many haunted house/maze-style attractions by its use of actual horror franchises and movie monsters. So instead of getting the usual “our creatures kind of resemble the ones you know from the movies,” fright fans can experience the real deals — the ones who have haunted us from screens both big and small for years.This year’s Halloween Horror lineup is one of the best yet. Topping the marquee is a haunted house dedicated to “The Last of Us,” the post-pandemic PlayStation game turned hit HBO series. Right up there with it is “Stranger things 4,” which transports folks to the fourth season of the smash Netflix series.Other haunted hangs includ...

Earthquake robbed Moroccan villagers of almost everything — loved ones, homes and possessions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

By SAM METZ and MOSA’AB ELSHAMY (Associated Press)TAFEGHAGHTE, Morocco (AP) — His dead relatives have been dug out and buried, but the remnants of Musa Bouissirfane’s former life are still trapped under rubble and dust in the ruins of the mud-brick Moroccan village of Tafeghaghte.“It’s incredibly challenging to lose your entire family and all your possessions,” Bouissirfane said as tears welled in his eyes in the community less than a two-hour drive from Marrakech. “We have lost everything — our homes, our livestock and all our possessions.”Less than a week ago, he was excited about his daughter starting second grade. Now he’s mourning her death. Far from ambulances and authorities, villagers could not retrieve her body for more than 14 hours, until Saturday afternoon. The earthquake also killed Bouissirfane’s mother and father and a niece. His wife is hospitalized in an intensive care unit.The toll of the massive ear...

Kurtenbach: Brandon Aiyuk was money in Week 1. That could mean big things — and big bucks — for the 49ers receiver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

Brandon Aiyuk was money in the 49ers’ season opener on Sunday.Money, as in eight catches for 129 yards and two touchdowns (and a big block to spring another).Money, as in “this guy is going to be paid so much” next offseason.It’s probably incorrect to say that Aiyuk’s Week 1 was a breakout performance — he had more than 1,000 receiving yards last season. It was certainly an eye-opening performance, though.Aiyuk wasn’t just good — he was great against the Steelers.And if that paradigm applies to the entire season, the 49ers will play deep into the winter, and Aiyuk will become a very rich man in 2024.After just making Nick Bosa the richest non-quarterback in the NFL, it’s fair to wonder how the 49ers will be able to extend Aiyuk after this campaign.The answer is simple:The NFL’s salary cap isn’t real.The more complicated way is to say that the 49ers — despite having eight players who average at least $15 million per season on thei...

Suspended Michigan State coach calls harassment allegations false and outside scope of Title IX

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

Suspended Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker said Monday that allegations of sexual harassment against him are “completely false” and the intimate phone call he had with activist and rape survivor Brenda Tracy is outside the scope of both Title IX and school policy.In a two-page statement released by a Detroit law firm, Tucker sharply criticized Tracy for suggesting their relationship was anything but consensual and ripped the months-long investigation into his behavior as deeply flawed. “I can only conclude that there is an ulterior motive designed to terminate my contract based on some other factor such as a desire to avoid any Nasser taint, or my race or gender,” said Tucker, who is Black.The university was fined $4.5 million four years ago by the Education Department for failing to adequately respond to sexual assault complaints against Larry Nassar, a campus sports doctor who molested elite gymnasts and other female athletes. The school has also settled lawsuits filed by ...

North Korean state media confirms leader Kim Jong Un departed for Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean state media confirms leader Kim Jong Un departed for Russia.Source

The Patriots see progress with their offense after their season-opening loss to the Eagles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The Patriots ended last season in need of a new direction on offense. The changes New England made this offseason weren’t enough to avert a 25-20 Week 1 loss to Philadelphia. But the Patriots appear to be in a better position to succeed going forward.New England’s biggest impediments on offense last season were turnovers, inconsistency in the passing game and an inability to score touchdowns in the red zone.Those problems resurfaced early on Sunday in the form of a pick-6 thrown by Mac Jones on the first drive and fumble by Ezekiel Elliott that contributed to a 16-0 first-quarter deficit.But after Jones failed to attempt a pass beyond 10 yards in the first quarter, new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien used some bunch formations to free up receivers over the middle of the field. Jones completed 11 straight passes, including a 23-yard strike to rookie DeMario Douglas and touchdown passes to Hunter Henry and Kendrick Bourne, to get the Patriots ba...

Mexico’s former foreign minister threatens to leave party over candidate selection process

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:02 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s former Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Monday that he will wait to see how the ruling party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador handles his call to nullify its recently completed presidential candidate selection process, but warned that if not satisfied he will leave the party.Ebrard said his team has presented evidence of numerous irregularities to party leadership, including the use of government social programs to benefit Sheinbaum’s candidacy and the intervention of government officials in the process. If those incidents “remain the same, I will not be interested in staying in Morena,” he said.Ebrard told reporters he had great affection for López Obrador, has always been loyal and would never do him harm for political reasons, but the party can’t accept practices that it says it opposes.“I have the greatest respect for the (party’s) popular representation, but my objective is not to get a senatorship or a position,” he said. ...