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Why look at birds? They bring happiness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

Why pay attention to birds? As with most fields of interest, you may hear a variety of responses to this question, depending on whom you ask. The most enthusiastic birders might display a rather strange intensity and competitiveness in their bird watching — I wouldn’t necessarily recommend you consult a gold medal swimmer to learn about the simple, relaxing pleasures of splashing about in the water. Earnest environmentalist types might point out how watching birds can help teach you about ecology or inspire you to become a more enthusiastic conservationist. That probably has some truth, but doesn’t really get at the central question.I have a simpler answer: I recommend paying attention to birds because I think that doing so adds to human happiness.I don’t mind admitting those claims of the serious birders and the conservationists. Birding — seeing many species, developing the knowledge that helps you find them and the skills that help you identify them — is fun. Humans like making l...

Suspected Oakland music-video shooter pleads not guilty after Santa Cruz County pursuit, arrest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

A Bay Area man considered a suspect in a fatal Oakland shooting earlier this year and person of interest in a shooting that injured nine people in San Francisco’s Mission District last week has been arrested in Santa Cruz County, authorities said.Friday morning, 22-year-old Javier Campos pleaded not guilty to Santa Cruz County charges of felony evading an officer with disregard for public safety, being a felon in possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and carrying an unregistered loaded firearm in a vehicle, which he allegedly ditched out his car window during a pursuit, authorities said.Police nabbed Campos on Wednesday evening after a vehicle chase by law enforcement officers from multiple counties up Highway 1, from Watsonville to the Soquel area, Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Yukiko Orii said Friday. Details of the arrest were not immediately available. Watsonville spokesperson Michelle Pulido said the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team was serv...

Downtown San Jose adds jobs but loses residents in post-COVID recovery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

SAN JOSE — Downtown San Jose’s job market is holding steady after a catastrophic decline due to the coronavirus outbreak — but the number of people living in the city’s urban core has dwindled, a new report shows.Ominously, the office vacancy rate for downtown San Jose is approaching its highest level on record and could jump further as new space comes on the market and leases expire, according to a report prepared for an upcoming meeting of a committee of the San Jose City Council.Significant challenges beset downtown San Jose — yet the city’s urban core is gradually overcoming its coronavirus-spawned maladies and still entices office tenants, the new report from the city’s Economic Development and Cultural Affairs Office suggests.Before the coronavirus outbreak, downtown San Jose boasted 43,000 jobs as of mid-2019, according to a previously released report from the city’s Economic Development Office.Now, San Jose’s downtown has...

Empty downtown San Jose supermarket space lands medical company

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

SAN JOSE — The site of a long-closed grocery store in downtown San Jose has landed a medical services organization as a new tenant, potentially bringing new uses to a dormant space.The medical use will occupy the Safeway store site at 100 South Second Street in San Jose.OneMedAll is the tenant, according to a brief bit of information posted on the company’s website.“Coming soon to downtown San Jose” reads the OneMedAll post.A OneMedAll sign that declared “coming soon” has also appeared on one of the sides of a space for a Safeway store that closed in 2019 at the corner of South Second Street and East San Fernando Street in San Jose.Safeway closed its store over concerns about crime and a lack of parking for customers.“Any use is better than a vacant use,” said Mark Ritchie, president of Ritchie Commercial, a real estate firm.OneMedAll is planning what it describes as a health and wellness center, the company states on its website.The m...

Looking for a housing price crash? That’s unlikely, real estate economists say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

The nation‘s housing market is going through a correction, not a crash.While sales are down and mortgage rates are up, home prices are still rising because there are so few homes for sale.And after a decade of rising prices, commercial real estate values have been dropping steadily over the past 18 months, particularly for offices. It’s going to take two to nine years for building and warehouse values to get back to 2022 levels, creating some risk for banks holding real estate debt. Another 311 banks will likely fail in the near future — equivalent to three Silicon Valley Banks, but not enough to tank the banking system.Those are among the conclusions from more than a dozen economists and analysts speaking at a gathering of real estate journalists in Las Vegas earlier this month.“We don’t foresee home price declines on a year-over-year basis nationally,” Selma Hepp, CoreLogic chief economist, told the National Association of Real  Estate Editors conference held in Las Vegas June 6-9...

Railroad industry sues California over zero-emissions rule for locomotives

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

By Thomas Black | BloombergRail industry trade groups filed a lawsuit against a California state agency for rules that call for zero-emissions locomotives to replace existing equipment — a technology the industry says isn’t ready.The rule by the California Air Resources Board would force rail companies to retire more than 25,000 locomotives early, according to the Association of American Railroads and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, the two groups that brought the lawsuit.Although the railroads are experimenting with locomotives powered by batteries and fuel cells, the technology hasn’t been tested enough and it’s not yet available for purchase, the rail groups said in a statement. Railroads have worked with the agency, known as CARB, on initiatives to reduce emissions, said Ian Jefferies, president of the AAR.“While the urgency to act is real and unquestionable, CARB uses unreasonable, flawed assumptions to support a rule that will not result in emissions...

6 people injured in gun battle near Pier 39: SFPD

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Six people were injured Sunday evening after a shooting near Pier 39, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) confirmed to KRON4. Now, police are still looking for one of the cars involved. Dolores Heights business faces 2 break-ins in 2 days The shooting happened around 6:48 p.m. near Beach and Stockton streets. SFPD says two vehicles were chasing each other down The Embarcadero. The rolling gun battle between two shooters ultimately ended near Pier 39. When SFPD officers arrived at the scene they found two victims with gunshot wounds. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital, and one victim suffered life-threatening injuries. The second victim suffered non-life threatening injuries. KRON On is streaming now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100...

Nick Kyrgios out of Halle Open with knee injury shortly after comeback

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

HALLE, Germany (AP) — Last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Halle Open on Monday in his latest setback as he tries to recover from a long-running knee injury.“I tried everything here in Halle the last couple of days, but then I had to make the decision to pull out”, Kyrgios said in a statement on the tournament website. “I want, when I play, to deliver a performance like last year when I was in the semifinals. But that will really not be possible.”Tournament organizers said Kyrgios was “still suffering from the aftereffects of a complicated knee injury which had put him out of action for around seven months,” adding that he felt a recurrence of the knee issue while training in Halle.Kyrgios, who had knee surgery in January, returned to action last week for the first time since October in a straight-set loss to Wu Yibing at the grass-court Stuttgart Open. Halle is another grass event viewed as a warmup for Wimbledon. The Australian had been ...

Insider Q&A: Lithium batteries have a 4-hour limit. Mateo Jaramillo hopes to solve that

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

Wind and solar power are sometimes dinged for not producing electricity 24 hours a day, but one of the most abundant minerals on the planet, iron, could be key to changing that. Form Energy, founded in 2017, recently broke ground in West Virginia on its first commercial-scale factory to make iron-air batteries — totally different from lithium ion. The company’s goal is to one day help supply the electrical grid across the United States with renewable energy 24 hours a day and slash the need for burning coal and natural gas, polluting energy sources we currently rely on.CEO Mateo Jaramillo spoke with The Associated Press about progress toward achieving this vision. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.Q: Why do you consider batteries a climate solution?A: When I left divinity school in 2004 I made a sector bet and figured at some point, society will want effective energy storage. I grew up in Salinas, California, which is an agricultural town, and my parents wor...

Mueren 5 personas, incluidos dos menores, en incendio en una casa rural de Carolina del Norte

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:57 GMT

Cinco personas murieron en un incendio en una casa en un pueblo rural de Carolina del Norte el domingo, dijeron las autoridades. La Oficina del Sheriff del condado de Harnett dijo a los medios de comunicación que la causa del incendio en la comunidad de Broadway estaba bajo investigación y que podía proporcionar pocos detalles. Tres adultos y dos menores murieron en el incendio, dijeron investigadores de la oficina del alguacil. Balean fatalmente a cuatro personas en residencia en Idaho; arrestan a sospechoso ¿Cuál es el significado de Juneteenth? El feriado del 19 de junio en EEUU Los agentes bloquearon el camino que conduce a la casa mientras los bomberos investigaban la causa. Broadway está a unas 45 millas (72 kilómetros) al suroeste de Raleigh. Esta es una historia en desarrollo. Vuelva a consultar las actualizaciones.Source