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California jury returns $63 million verdict against Chevron over chemical pit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

A California jury has returned a $63 million verdict against Chevron after finding the oil giant covered up a toxic chemical pit on land purchased by a man who built a house on it and was later diagnosed with a blood cancer.Kevin Wright, who has multiple myeloma, unknowingly built his home directly over the chemical pit near Santa Barbara in 1985, according to his lawsuit.Starting in 1974, Chevron subsidiary Union Oil Company of California had operated a sump pit for oil and gas production, a process that left the carcinogenic chemical benzene on the property, court papers said.Wright bought the land and built the house in 1985. Nearly three decades later, he was diagnosed with the cancer that attacks plasma cells in the blood and can be caused by benzene exposure, court documents said.Related ArticlesBusiness | Opinion: Consumer convenience is key to making bottle bills work Business | Flooding from dam break strands hundreds and leaves thousands with no ...

Highway 1 crash claims life of 34-year-old motorcyclist

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — A 34-year-old Santa Cruz motorcyclist died Wednesday evening after a two-vehicle collision on Highway 1.According to a release from the California Highway Patrol, Juan Manuel Maldonado Carranza was driving a 2013 Kawasaki motorcycle southbound along the highway. He began passing traffic on the left by crossing the solid double yellow lines and traveling in the northbound lane. Ahead of him, the driver of a 2001 Toyota Solara slowed and began making a left turn into a private driveway.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | 18-year-old passenger killed in Interstate 880 car wreck Crashes and Disasters | Wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with Redwood City street-racing crash that killed parents of twin girls Crashes and Disasters | Public’s help sought in identifying woman killed in San Jose crash Crashes and Disasters | Person dies at East Bay BART station, causing shutdown Crashes and Disasters | ...

Who is Jack Smith, the special counsel behind the Donald Trump classified documents indictment?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

(CNN) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s monthslong investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents has entered a new chapter with the indictment of the former president, sources familiar told CNN Thursday.Trump has been charged with seven counts in the indictment, according to another source familiar with the matter. The former president wrote on Truth Social that he had been informed by the Justice Department he was indicted and that he was “summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM.”Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, was tasked in November to look into whether Trump or his aides committed crimes by taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left the White House and whether they obstructed the investigation. The probe had escalated in recent weeks with several high-profile interviews and a former White House official telling prosecutors that Trump knew the proper process for declassifyi...

El Chapo’s wife transferred to Southern California halfway house to complete prison sentence

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has been transferred to a halfway house in the San Pedro area to carry out the rest of her prison sentence for helping Guzmán’s massive drug empire, officials say.Coronel Aispuro was transferred on May 30 from the Federal Medical Center at the Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas to the Bureau of Prisons’ Long Beach Residential Reentry Management Office in San Pedro, according to a spokesperson from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Where the halfway house is located was not specified.The facility is known as “community confinement,” or a halfway house, a type of supervised release that is reserved for inmates at the tail end of their sentence.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Baking instructor arrested on suspicion of bringing drugs into Bay Area jail Crime and Public Safety | Cardiologist now faces 34 felony counts for drugging or sexually assaulting 16 women Crim...

Hanson: Remembering the horrors of the World War II D-Day invasion

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

Seventy-nine years ago this week, the Allies assaulted the Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944.Their invasion marked the largest amphibious landing since the Persians under Xerxes invaded the Greek mainland in 480 B.C.Nearly 160,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers stormed five beaches of Nazi-occupied France. The plan was to liberate western Europe after four years of occupation, push into Germany, and end the Nazi regime.Less than a year later, the Allies from the West, and the Soviet Russians from the East, did just that, utterly destroying Hitler’s Third Reich.Ostensibly, the assault seemed impossible even to attempt.Germany had repulsed with heavy Canadian losses an earlier Normandy raid at Dieppe in August 1942.The Germans also knew roughly when the Allies were coming. They placed their best general, Erwin Rommel, in charge of the Normandy defenses.The huge D-Day force required enormous supplies of arms and provisions just to get off the beaches. Yet the Allies had...

Review: ‘Rise of the Beasts’ fails to energize the franchise

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

By Mark Kennedy | Associated PressWith the “Transformers” franchise clearly at a crossroads, its latest protectors have turned to their deep bench of characters. But just adding more robots won’t transform this tired series.“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” returns the franchise to its galaxy-wide self-importance after taking a nice detour with 2018’s smaller “Bumblebee.” We have a new cast of animal robots and a very evil enemy in the planet-eating Unicron, but they’re not used right and the movie limps from fight to fight.The key to the film is actually a key, some sort of ancient glowing shaft that will open a portal in space and time. Everyone wants it — to go home, to kill planets or to save planets. The audience may also want to use it to beam into a more interesting movie.Directed by Steven Caple Jr. — using a screenplay by Darnell Metayer, Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber and Josh Peters based on a story by Joby Harold — “...

Collins: It’s only June, but the Republican silly season has begun

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

Whenever I want to put myself to sleep at night, I run through the names of all the former vice presidents. OK, sorta peculiar. It might be time for a break. Maybe I’ll just try making a list of Republican candidates for president.Back when Donald Trump announced it all seemed sorta life-as-usual, but now the race is definitely on. There are currently somewhere between 12 and 400 Republicans eyeing the White House.All the major names are men except Nikki Haley, who’s arguing that “it’s time to put a badass woman in the White House.” Well, yeah. There’s very little chance Haley’s campaign is going anywhere, but I think we can all agree she could really perk things up.We’re also expecting some energy from the newly announced candidate Chris Christie. Rather than dodging the whole Donald Trump matter whenever possible, Christie stresses that he’s running to save the country from a former close colleague who he now calls a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog.”And that’s just...

Review: Eva Longoria directs a spicy origin story

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

By Mark Kennedy | Associated PressFlamin’ Hot Cheetos get an origin story worthy of any Marvel superhero with Hulu’s totally engrossing “Flamin’ Hot.” It’s the tale of how a struggling Mexican American janitor came up with the idea of adding spice to the cornmeal, forever saving after-school snacking.Is it true? Probably not. Don’t let that stop you.You’ll wish “Flamin’ Hot” was accurate because it’s a winning tale of perseverance, family love, proud heritage and blue-collar success, told with a wink, some Cheetos dust and a ton of love by Eva Longoria, in her directorial debut.Jesse Garcia stars as Richard Montañez, a one-time Frito-Lay floor-sweeper in southern California who convinced his bosses to make a snack that celebrates the flavors of Mexico despite a seven-layer dip of sceptics.“New products take years to develop, cost millions to launch and they do not get created by blue-collar hoodlums, who p...

Official says two migrants drowned trying to reach Spain in two boats, 132 arrive safely

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The bodies of two migrants were found on a beach in southeastern Spain after 132 other people arrived in two boats Friday, a government official said. The two died while trying to swim to the coast, José María Martín, a central government official in the city of Almería told reporters. Martín said they were victims of criminal human smuggling gangs.The two boats carrying migrants are believed to have set sail from Morocco. Spain’s state news agency said the operators had forced the people who died to leave their boat.There were no details on their nationalities. Thousands of migrants from northwest and sub-Saharan African countries try to reach Spain in overloaded boats each year. Many die in the attempt.___Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migrationSource

Nuggets’ Christian Braun seeking NBA title a year after winning NCAA championship

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:27 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Denver Nuggets rookie Christian Braun is showing that the NBA Finals is not too big of a stage for him. The 21st pick in the draft last summer, Braun has made the most of his minutes off the bench, sinking 10 of 12 shots, grabbing a half dozen rebounds and collecting four steals against the Miami Heat while giving teammates an extended breather. “That’s a rare rookie right here,” Aaron Gordon said. “From Day 1 he’s been on top of it. This is a real winner right here. I say that because he’s always in the right spot. He’s in the right place at the right time, and he’s been doing that all year.” Braun has a chance to become just the fifth player in NBA history to win an NBA title a year after winning the NCAA championship, joining Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Henry Bibby and Billy Thompson. Braun gave the Nuggets a much-needed lift in Denver’s Game 3 rout of the Heat. With Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray making history with the first dual triple-double in the NBA Finals, B...