“I would’ve waited five hours because it’s that important to me to get that vaccine.” — Nancy Thomas, 77, of Newark, who waited on hold for more than an hour before securing an appointment with Kaiser to receive her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. ...read more Source:: The Mercury News – Latest News...

SCOTTS CREEK — A man in his late 30s died Thursday afternoon after a fall from a cliff near Scotts Creek Beach, according to officials. Santa Cruz County deputies were dispatched shortly before 2 p.m. to the beach, where a man had been reported deceased on the shoreline. Related Articles US NTSB team arrives in Indonesia to look into jet crash New York City bus crashes off overpass; passengers left dangling Bay Area native injured helping rescue man from burning New York motel room Gilroy: Hecker Pass Highway closed for hours after vehicle hits pedestrian San Jose man missing after being swept into ocean at Marin Headlands Ashley Keehn, spokeswoman for th...

Summary List PlacementMany of President Donald Trump's supporters have been searching for a new home online ever since major social media platforms banished the president and cracked down on violent content. With Parler unavailable and YouTube inhospitable to them, a growing number are choosing to migrate to smaller 'free-speech' platforms that do little to moderate hateful and sometimes criminal videos. Why Trump's most extreme followers are migrating to other websites The search for a new digital home was accelerated by the events of last week's siege of the US Capitol building when social media giants responded to the chaos and violence by suspending President Donald Trump's accounts. Twitter banned Trump permanently, Facebook followed suit, and Snapchat also cut ties with the presid...

Michele Gutierrez’s 82-year-old mother hasn’t worked a day since retiring 18 years ago from a successful career as the owner of a Long Beach home health care business. So it was with dismay in December that Gutierrez discovered an unusual $450 charge to her mom’s debit card from ML Tax and Insurance in Cerritos to process an application for California unemployment benefits and qualify her for an additional $300 a week in federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. “She told me her friend referred her to a ‘Trump program’ that allows seniors to get money because of COVID,” Gutierrez said. “The debit card charge was a down payment to process her application and manage her account so she would continue to receive payments up to $20,000.” Unsatisfied with that explanation, Gutierrez spoke with a

Arnold Schwarzenegger Former Republican governor draws praise and national attention for comparing Capitol mob to WWII Nazis in Austria and urging GOP to accept election results. “I know where such lies lead.”               Charles Johnson Records show San Francisco Giants’ largest shareholder donated lavishly to fringe political candidates and QAnon conspiracy theorists, a move likely to lead to a backlash or boycotts in the Bay Area.               Derick Almena Founder of Oakland’s Ghost Ship collective, where 36 people died in a 2016 fire, is expected to accept a plea deal for nine years in prison. But he’ll get credit for time served, and finish under house arrest. ...read more Source:: The Mercury News – Latest News...

In the overflowing intensive care unit at Valley Medical Center, Dr. Amit Gohil battles the coronavirus every day. He calls it the monster. When he goes home each night, his wife and three young children are waiting with monster fears of their own. “Hey Dad, are you going to die?” his 9-year-old son, Shaan, asks. “No, I’m not going to die,” Gohil reassures him. “Because COVID’s not going to get you, right?” “No, it’s not,” he says. “But it could,” the child says. “No. It won’t.” How much truth can you tell your children? he wonders. It’s one more worry. For medical professionals, from nursing assistants at elder-care homes to pulmonologists like Gohil at county hospitals, home during the pandemic isn’t always a place of refuge. These overworked and often overwhelmed health care workers hav

Satish Ramachandran wanted to update and improve his one-story suburban home — spruce up his patio, remodel the kitchen and convert a garage into a living space. But a $50,000 renovation gradually and painfully turned into a life-altering obsession for the 57-year-old, Indian-born entrepreneur. His project — a routine home remodel in a wealthy Silicon Valley community — opened a bitter neighborhood dispute tinged with allegations of racism, video surveillance and years of recriminations and legal fees. The renovations have remained unfinished and in limbo for nearly eight years. Disputes with a neighbor and building inspectors stalled the project and spilled into criminal and civil state courts. Now Ramachandran has filed a federal civil rights suit claiming widespread racial discriminatio

Summary List PlacementThe FBI is investigating whether foreign governments, individuals or organizations provided funding for hardline Trump supporters who planned the protests that sparked the attack the US Capitol on January 6, NBC News reports.  A current official at the bureau and a former official told the outlet that it is probing a $500,000 Bitcoin payment apparently by a French national ahead of the riots to key far-right figures and groups in the US.  In a blog posting last week Chainanalysis, a company that specializes in tracking Bitcoin payments, documented how the money was paid on December 8 to a number of US far-right individuals and organizations. "We have also gathered evidence that strongly suggests the donor was a now-deceased computer programmer based in France," Ch...

Salem Davis died Jan. 15 at 4155 S. Packers Ave., authorities say. | Google MapsSalem Davis was pronounced dead at the scene at 4155 S. Packers Ave., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A 42-year-old man was crushed to death Friday morning while he helped move a filing cabinet from a warehouse in the Stockyards on the South Side. Salem Davis was pronounced dead at the scene at 4155 S. Packers Ave., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A supervisor told police they were lifting a filing cabinet through an opening in the building about 11 a.m. when a board propped against the wall fell and crushed the man, Chicago police spokesman Michael Carroll said. Davis was unable to be removed from under the board and was pronounced dead at the scene 20 minutes l...

Summary List PlacementConspiracy theorists and pro-Trump extremists are using podcasts hosted on mainstream tech platforms to push misinformation, despite a widespread crackdown on individual social media accounts that push these ideas. The AP first reported that podcasts on Apple, Spotify, and Google were peddling claims that the US election was rigged, and that the January 6 US Capitol riots were staged, among other claims. Insider likewise found podcasts easily available on all three platforms that claimed President-elect Joe Biden's win was "a fraud." The podcast "Red Pill News", hosted by a user called RedPill78, described the US Capitol riots as "a staged event" in an episode aired January 11. That's still available on Apple Podcasts as of January 17. The AP found another podcast,...

Summary List PlacementEach year sees a small number of airlines close up shop for any number of reasons, but last year had the pandemic to speed some along.  A surprise announcement in February that the promising Qatar Airways-backed Air Italy would be liquidated set the stage for a year of losses even before lockdowns grounded the world's airlines. And while the coronavirus was well-known by then, its destructive power in the airline industry was still yet to be realized.  In the US, all 11 major airlines remained intact but smaller regional carriers folded amid an unprecedented drop in passengers that remains low even into the new year. Three carriers operating flights on behalf of larger carriers both closed up shop after their services were no longer required by the majors, costing ...