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Lawsuit: Plans for air tours over Bay Area national parks violates federal law

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

A lawsuit filed by environmental groups alleges the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration violated federal law by approving a plan to regulate air tours over Marin County’s national parks without adequately studying environmental impacts.The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Marin Audubon Society and the Watershed Alliance of Marin groups are calling on the court to toss the park service’s air tour management plan adopted in January for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument and the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.The groups are seeking a court order requiring an environmental analysis and limiting the number of flights over the parks to 50 per year until a new plan is adopted. The plan allows for about 2,600 trips annually.“The ability of commercial tour operators to fly above national parks is not a right, it is a privilege — a privilege that must be subord...

Klay Thompson closing in on career mark in first full season back

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — When Klay Thompson was nearing his return in January 2022 after missing 2 1/2 years of action, the Warriors medical staff told coach Steve Kerr it would take about a year or so for Thompson to fully get back to where he once was.Fourteen months later, Thompson is closing in on a career mark — the latest sign of how far he’s come since he suffered back-to-back devastating injuries.Thompson entered Monday leading the league in made 3-pointers and is just three shy of tying his regular-season career high of 276, set in 2015-16. After going 5 of 11 from deep in Sunday’s close loss to Minnesota, Thompson has made 273 treys in 64 games, converting on 40.7% of his attempts from beyond the arc. Pacers guard Buddy Hield is right behind Thompson with 271 3-pointers.In Kerr’s mind, Thompson will never lose his scoring touch.“He’ll be able to [bury 3s] until he’s 90,” Kerr recently said. “He’s always going to be a...

Sale closed in Palo Alto: $5.1 million for a five-bedroom home

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

817 Melville Avenue – Google Street ViewA 2,561-square-foot house built in 1960 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 800 block of Melville Avenue in Palo Alto was sold on March 16, 2023. The $5,100,000 purchase price works out to $1,991 per square foot. The property features five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a carport, and two parking spaces. There’s also a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on a 9,500-square-foot lot.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:A 2,440-square-foot home on the first block of Regent Place in Palo Alto sold in December 2022, for $3,650,000, a price per square foot of $1,496. The home has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In November 2022, a 672-square-foot home on Byron Street in Palo Alto sold for $2,000,000, a price per square foot of $2,976. The home has 1 bedroom and 2 bathrooms.On Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, in July 2022, a 823-square-foot home was sold for $2,437,000, a price per square foot of $2,961. The home has 1 bedroom and 1 b...

Opinion: California must provide a global model for coastal resiliency

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

Ten years ago, I wrote a book called “The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea.” Back then, I suggested that California, with almost 40 million people and the world’s fifth largest economy, was proof that you could grow a progressive society while protecting your coast and ocean. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the book “just might make you feel optimistic about the future.”Well, that future has arrived and I’m less optimistic. This winter’s atmospheric river storms, coastal flooding, erosion, sea level rise, saltwater intrusion into rivers, and sedimentation dumping thousands of tons of soil into the ocean were only the most recent of the state’s disasters. The year 2022 alone brought a massive red tide in San Francisco Bay, the continued die-off of 95% of northern California’s kelp forest between the Golden Gate and Cape Mendocino, and a spike of gray whale deaths along the entire coast.Climate impacts threaten communities, both human and wild, ra...

Opinion: There’s no place in police work for dogs trained to bite

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

There’s no place in police work for dogs trained to bite.That’s probably not what you would expect to hear from someone with 30 years in law enforcement and a lifetime owning and handling the kinds of highly trained dogs used by police.It’s not that I don’t love dogs or know what they can do. Quite the contrary.There’s no mistaking someone bitten by a police dog, and I’ve seen it too many times over my career. Bones cracked and broken. Flesh and ligaments torn. Wounds that resemble a shark attack, sometimes from head to toe.When a police canine is let loose, someone goes to the hospital. Police dogs in California seriously injure more people each year than are hurt by the batons and tasers wielded by all the other officers in the state combined.Most of the people police dogs hurt are unarmed. They’ve been known to attack their handlers, fellow officers and innocent bystanders as well as criminal suspects. And their victims are disproportionately people of color.When human officers u...

How the rule changes can turn the A’s tragic offense into something intriguing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland A’s hit four home runs in their final exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday. But unlike previous seasons, they won’t be counting on power to fuel their offense.A roster rife with young players and veterans fit for a MLB-low $53 million payroll will have to get creative to score runs. That means plenty of contact, stolen bases, hit-and-runs and focus on pitch selection; any means necessary to put pressure on opposing pitchers and defenses.“I think the biggest message to these guys is not necessarily to sit back and hit the three-run homer,” manager Mark Kotsay said before Monday’s game. “We have guys in the lineup with power, but the message is to get on base and put together a professional at bat for the next guy.”The A’s couldn’t find much power in Spring Training’s dry Arizona air, but had no issue cutting through the marine layer at Oracle Park. Jesús Aguilar, Esteury Ruiz...

Skelton: Newsom denies the obvious. California is no longer in drought

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

Gov. Gavin Newsom came close but couldn’t quite bring himself to say it: The drought’s over.It’s disappointing when a governor won’t acknowledge what ordinary citizens already know because they can see things for themselves.Another drought will emerge soon enough. It always does. That’s the California pattern — climate change or not.But right now, the biggest threat this spring is flooding from rivers leaping their banks.There’s just something about California governors and water officials that prevents them from admitting we’re through a dry spell and into a wet period.They fear we’ll resume taking long showers and swamping our lawns. We’ll stop conserving water and go back to wasting it. So, they treat us like children, denying the obvious.On Friday, Newsom and his water advisors stood on a Sacramento Valley farm flooded with storm runoff and pointed out that this has been one of California’s wettest winters on record. The Sierra snowpack is historically deep.And we’re still in a ...

Elias: California joining Western power grid makes no sense

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

Almost everyone who lived through California’s 2000-2001 energy crisis remembers rolling brownouts and blackouts, plus thefts in the billions of dollars from California consumers by Texas companies like Enron and Reliant Energy, which purposely shut down power plants to create an electricity shortage and raise prices and profits.Related ArticlesLocal Opinion | Elias: Supreme Court case in works may cancel California’s EV mandates Local Opinion | Opinion: Senior year is a costly high school rite of passage Local Opinion | Elias: California’s fentanyl death rate likely rising due to mislabeled pills Local Opinion | Elias: California’s transit budget cut makes sense in light of numbers Local Opinion | Elias: Six other states ganging up on California over Colorado River water This was classic market manipulation, enabled by California’s 1998 electricity deregulation law, which encouraged re...

Another storm hits Bay Area Tuesday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The leading front of another big storm is set to arrive in the Bay Area Monday night before the brunt of the storm hits Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The incoming storm will bring gusty winds with moderate to heavy rainfall. The NWS advises to expect urban and small stream flooding, downed tree limbs and trees, and potential power outages."Another week another storm system," said KRON4 Meteorologist Kyla Grogan. "This all-too-familiar dance is happening once more in a season that has been impressive already. The biggest impacts from this latest round of weather will be wind and rain."  Many ski resorts near Bay Area are extending ski seasons, thanks to feet of fresh snow The strongest winds are expected along the coastline and at higher terrain, the NWS said. The National Weather Service warned that the winds could easily topple trees because the very wet winter has left soils saturated. A wind advisory for Monday nig...

Care, ‘magic’ help DC’s cherry blossom trees defy age

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

Peak bloom has arrived for the thousands of Japanese cherry blossom trees at the National Mall in Washington, and the area is awash in magnificent pink and white.Predicting the timing of peak bloom — defined as when 70% of the blossoms have opened — has been getting harder. In the 1920s, the average peak bloom was April 5. That moved up to March 31 in recent years, and the 2023 peak arrived yet a week earlier, according to the National Park Service on Thursday.“I’m feeling like this is going to be the trend” due to climate change, said Matthew Morrison, the park service’s urban forester charged with overseeing the trees’ care. The annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs through April 16, celebrates Japan’s 1912 gift of 3,020 cherry trees to the city of Washington. Two of those trees were planted by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, with just a few onlookers present. That small gathering ...