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Tossing an old license plate in the trash landed this lawyer in jail for a theft he didn’t commit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

Manuel Diego Soza had no idea the trouble ahead when he tossed his old Texas license plate in the trash at an AutoZone store earlier this year.Months after throwing away the old plate and putting his new Colorado plates on his silver Subaru Forester, police officers showed up to Soza’s Denver apartment and took him to jail on theft charges.Their investigation hinged on the expired Texas license plate. A Hispanic man had walked out of a Walmart store with a stolen $199 speaker and climbed into a vehicle bearing that license plate. A Westminster police detective said Soza, who is also Hispanic, was “clearly” the thief.But the thief had a neck tattoo; Soza does not. And the thief’s vehicle was a different model and color than Soza’s Subaru.Westminster police botched the investigation and missed several red flags that should have alerted authorities that they were looking at the wrong suspect, Soza said. The criminal case against him was officially dropped last week after a request from...

Spicy Korean-Chinese hot pot is coming to Oakland’s Temescal district

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

Fans of gargantuan cauldrons of spicy hot pot – with even a “dry” version – have a new place to sweat this week in Oakland’s Temescal district.Pixiu Mala Hongtang, which specializes in Korean-Chinese fusion, is having its soft opening on July 20 at 4419 Telegraph Ave. in the former location of Japanese spot, Izza. Among other menu items, it’ll be serving malatang, a spicy and numbing soup, and mala xiang guo, a brothless and stir-fried version of hot pot. Both dishes can be customized with as many as 50 ingredients you choose at a self-serve bar, such as udon or ramen noodles, tofu skin or fried tofu, rice cakes, vegetables, ham, different types of mushrooms and meats loaded onto skewers.The restaurant’s location in L.A.’s Koreatown – it also has offshoots in Texas and Portland, Oregon – promises on its Instagram a “flavor explosion that will take your taste buds on a fiery adventure.” There’s not much online presence for the Oakland location, but a new...

Hollywood & the bomb: Here are 10 films about the ultimate weapon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

The atomic bomb has such a rich role in film history, we’re kind of surprised it doesn’t have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yet.This week’s opening of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” adds one more compelling chapter to the tradition. And what a compelling and extensive tradition it is. By our count, nearly 150 feature films, documentaries and series have been made that address nuclear weapons or atomic power either directly or metaphorically, and many more that use the weapon as a plot device.And there’s no mystery as to why. Few devices or developments in science offer such a fertile mix of intrigue, wonderment and abject terror. The idea that splitting an atom – the tiny, basic compound of all matter – can trigger the end of all life as we know it can, and should, keep us all up at night.And unlike vicious space aliens or homicidal supercomputers, this is no hypothetical boogeyman we’re talking about, but a run-of-the-mill, everyday science that we use to run our laptops ...

Russia blames Ukraine for strike on key Crimea bridge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

Associated PressAn attack before dawn Monday damaged a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, forcing the span’s temporary closure for a second time in less than a year. Two people were killed and their daughter was injured.Vehicle traffic on the Kerch Bridge came to a standstill, while rail traffic across the 19-kilometer (12-mile) span also was halted for about six hours.The strike was carried out by two Ukrainian maritime drones, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.Ukrainian officials were coy about taking responsibility, as they have been in past strikes. But in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment, Ukrainian Security Service spokesman Artem Degtyarenko said in a statement that his agency would reveal details of how the “bang” was organized after Kyiv has won the war.The bridge previously was attacked in October, when a truck bomb blew up two of its sections a...

Why Taylor Swift has more No. 1 hits on this chart than the Beatles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

Billboard Magazine announced last week that Taylor Swift — whose song “Karma” made it to No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart —  tied the record for the most No. 1 songs by an artist in the history of the chart.“Karma” is her 11th No. 1 hit on the chart, and that record puts her in good company, tying with Maroon 5, Katy Perry, and Rihanna who all also have 11. Just below them is Justin Bieber with 10. No other artists are in the double digits.You may be asking how that can be: What about The Beatles? The Bee Gees? Michael Jackson? Elvis?It’s not a technicality, but it has to do with what the list actually measures and how old the list goes back. In this case, it is a measure not of sales, but of how many times the song has been played by major stations across the country … and the Pop Airplay list only goes back as far as October 1992.RELATED: Students expecting a ‘fight to the death’ to get a spot in Stanford’s new Taylor Swift classIf you investigate the actual number...

Marine Protected Areas along California’s coast see success in first decade

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

California’s coastline is among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet and its protection the last 10 years through 124 separately designated areas has made the state a model and envy nationally and internationally.The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recently released its first study following the first decade since the creation of an ecologically connected network of Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, and the results are promising, especially in Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange counties, said Stephen Wertz, a senior scientist and manager of the wildlife agency’s Marine Protected Areas Management Project.Two paddlers pass each other in Upper Newport Bay in Newport Beach in 2021. The Upper Newport Bay State Marine Conservation Area is a marine protected area in Orange County(Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Ochre sea stars, purple sea urchins, sea anemones, and California mussels hang out in a tide pool near Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach, C...

Man shot in East Oakland on Sunday night

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

OAKLAND — A 29-year-old man was shot Sunday night in East Oakland, authorities said.He was in stable condition at a hospital, officials said Monday.The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Seminary Avenue outside an apartment complex. Authorities said the man was not a resident of the complex.The man got another person to take him to a hospital.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Emeryville: One shot during attempted armed robbery in Bank of America parking lot Crime and Public Safety | Three Antioch shootings leave one dead, at least three wounded Crime and Public Safety | 17-year-old boy killed in East Bay shootout Crime and Public Safety | One man killed, another injured in Pittsburg shooting Crime and Public Safety | 8-year-old boy gravely injured in I-580 shooting A motive for the shooting was under investigation. No arrests were announced.The shooting is being investig...

Veteran police official Edward Caban becomes first Latino to head the NYPD

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Edward Caban, who joined the New York Police Department as a young patrol officer in 1991 and rose through the ranks, was sworn in Monday as police commissioner, becoming the first Latino to lead the 178-year-old department.Mayor Eric Adams administered the oath of office in front of the Bronx stationhouse where Caban started his career, and praised his new police commissioner as “representative of this blue-collar city.”Caban, the son of a transit police officer who served with Adams when the now-mayor was on the transit force, said he joined the NYPD as “a young Puerto Rican kid” at a time when when “the top bosses of the police department didn’t really look like me.”His beaming father, retired Detective Juan Caban, and other family members joined Caban as he was sworn in as the city’s top police official.Caban thanked Adams for choosing him to head the 33,000-member police department.“To be the first Hispanic police commissioner is an honor of the highest me...

New drug to protect babies and toddlers from RSV gets FDA approval ahead of cold season

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials on Monday approved the first long-acting drug to protect babies and toddlers against a respiratory virus that sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year.RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening in the very young and the elderly.The Food and Drug Administration approved the injection for infants and children up to 2 years old who face increased risk of severe RSV.“Today’s approval addresses the great need for products to help reduce the impact of RSV disease on children, families and the health care system” said FDA’s Dr. John Farley in a statement. Last year, a surge in RSV cases flooded U.S. hospitals with wheezing children. There are no vaccines for babies yet, though Pfizer and other companies are working on them.AstraZeneca’s drug, to be sold under the brand name Beyfortus, is a laboratory-made version of an antibody that helps the immune system fight off RSV. Under the ...

Vanishing whale’s decline worse than previously thought, feds say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:59 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A review of the status of a vanishing species of whale found that the animal’s population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators said Monday.The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick since the start of the mortality event. That is an increase of 16 whales since the previous estimate released earlier this year.The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, said Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for NOAA.“Additional cases will continue to be reviewed, and animals will b...