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VTA has one of the best transit recoveries in the nation, but ridership is still down from pre-pandemic numbers

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

While transit agencies across the country have struggled with getting riders back since the pandemic, prompting doomsday scenarios that include service cuts and fare hikes, the Valley Transportation Authority asserts its ridership recovery is among the best in the nation — although it has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.VTA transportation planning manager Jay Tyree said that bus ridership was 43 percent higher in 2022 than it was in 2021 — the second best in the nation after Washington D.C., which came in at 49 percent — according to data he analyzed from the American Public Transportation Association. Alameda County bus ridership came in third at 32 percent and San Francisco came in at eight with 29 percent.Because VTA shut down light rail service for some of 2021 following the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history at its rail yard, Tyree said in an email that its light rail comparisons between 2021 and 2022 are “meaningless.”The transportat...

Editorial: Antioch police indictment response doesn’t cut it, suggests need to clean house

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

The long-anticipated federal indictments this week of 10 Antioch and Pittsburg police officers reveal a pattern of corruption that should outrage not only residents but also cops.For some of the accused officers, policing wasn’t about serving and protecting the public, it was just the opposite. Policing was a vigilante assault game and suspects were the target.“lol putting a pistol in someone’s mouth and telling them to stop stealing isn’t illegal,” Antioch Officer Morteza Amiri texted in a telling exchange highlighted in one of the indictments. “It’s an act of public service to prevent further victims of crimes.”Unfortunately, the Antioch Police Officers Association seems to think this is just another case against some officers. “We are saddened to learn of what has happened and look forward to the legal process playing itself out,” the association posted Thursday on its Facebook page.The charged officers are entitled to due process. But if other cops in the Contra Costa County cit...

Opinion: What’s the matter with Kansas? Take a look closer to home

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

The Aug. 11 police raid on a local newsroom in Marion, Kan., drew national press coverage and provoked condemnation from press-freedom groups across the country. For good reason.The Marion Police Department’s execution of a search warrant on the Marion County Record was not only a likely violation of federal and state law, it struck right to the core of why journalism matters, and why it receives special protections, including the Constitution.But there’s also a deeper story out of Kansas, one that goes beyond the actions of a single police chief and a single judge in a small midwestern town.That is the story of decay — of public understanding of journalists and journalism; of the crucial role that independent journalism plays in keeping public servants honest. Of the Bill of Rights and basic civics.Setting aside the specific legal problems with the Marion search warrant — of which there appear to be many — raids like the one in Kansas couldn’t happen in a place where the bedrock pr...

“Serial” Podcast’s Adnan Syed Might Go Back to Prison Because of Toxic Maryland Politics

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

Even if you’ve never heard “Serial,” the true crime podcast that went viral in 2014, you’ve probably heard about the case it made famous. Adnan Syed was 17 years old when he was arrested in 1999 for killing 18-year-old Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore. A jury found Syed guilty the following year, and he was sentenced to life in prison.After “Serial” premiered in 2014 and raised questions about the case, a Maryland court heard Syed’s appeal and he was awarded a new trial. Holes in the original prosecution were established, new suspects were identified, and DNA evidence was newly tested. After a long fight, his conviction was overturned last year, and the charges against him were officially dropped in October 2022.In March of this year, though, Syed’s conviction was reinstated. Lee’s family had filed an appeal and argued that the state’s attorney — what the state of Maryland calls its local prosecutors — hadn’t given adequate notice for them to attend the September hearing ...

How a family’s choice to donate a body for pig kidney research could help change transplants

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Mary Miller-Duffy was dazed and grieving. Her brother suddenly collapsed and days later was brain-dead. Now she faced a tough question: Would she donate his body for research?That’s how the body of Maurice “Mo” Miller started its journey to a sunny corner of NYU Langone Health’s intensive care unit — and became part of the quest to one day ease the nation’s transplant shortage with organs from animals.“He always wanted to help people,” said Miller-Duffy, who struggled with the choice but is proud of her brother’s last act. “This tragic death, this fast short death — something good has come out of it.”Surgeons replaced Miller’s kidneys with one from a genetically modified pig on July 14. Then doctors and nurses cared for the deceased man like they would a living patient while anxiously ticking off the days.Remarkably, over a month later the new organ is performing all the bodily functions of a healthy kidney — the longest a pig kidney has ever worked in a ...

Una niña se tragó un diente accidentalmente y el director del jardín de infantes le escribió una carta especial al hada de los dientes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

(CNN) — Kaisley Blake, de cinco años, tenía grandes planes para su primer diente flojo, y según su padre, involucraba una almohada, no de tragárselo.Las cosas no salieron según lo planeado para la niña de kindergarten de Oklahoma en su primer día de clases en la escuela primaria Henryetta.Después de mover el diente toda la mañana del 10 de agosto, Kaisley se lo tragó accidentalmente, junto con un bocado de su hamburguesa en el almuerzo, dijo Worren Blake a CNN este jueves.“Mientras la masticaba, pensó que la hamburguesa tenía semillas”, dijo Blake, padre de cuatro niñas.Quiso tocar el diente que se movía y se dio cuenta de que ya no estaba.“Estaba bastante molesta por eso”, dijo Blake.El director Roger Williams ayudó a salvar el día. Williams se enteró de lo que sucedió cuando un asistente acompañó a Kaisley mientras él monitoreaba la cafetería esa tarde.“Kaisley abrió la boca y me mostró que le faltaba el diente inferior”, dijo Williams a CNN este viernes. “Dije: ‘...

Poor water quality halts Paris Olympics swimming test event in the Seine

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Paris Olympics organizers and other officials canceled a paratriathlon swimming test event Saturday in the Seine River because of new concerns about water quality.The competition was transformed into a duathlon instead, involving just running and biking. The cancellation is a fresh blow both to organizers of the 2024 Summer Games and to the city’s ambitions to reopen the iconic river to public swimming after next year’s Olympics.Swimmers took to the Seine in competition on Thursday and Friday, but results of water quality tests showed “significant discrepancies” in the hours leading up to Saturday’s events, organizers said in a statement.It said officials from World Triathlon, the Paris Olympics, Paris City Hall and the Paris region jointly decided to cancel Saturday’s events “as a measure of precaution, to not put the health and safety of the athletes in danger.”A previous test event had to be canceled earlier his month because heavy rain had caused overflows of untrea...

El huracán Hilary provoca una advertencia histórica de tormenta tropical para California mientras el suroeste se prepara para lluvias peligrosas e inundaciones

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

(CNN) — Los residentes del suroeste se preparan para fuertes lluvias e inundaciones potencialmente catastróficas, ya que se espera que el huracán Hilary azote la región como una tormenta tropical rara a partir de este domingo y hasta la próxima semana.Hilary sigue siendo un huracán de categoría 4 mientras avanza hacia la costa de la península de Baja California en México con vientos sostenidos de 209 km/h, según el Centro Nacional de Huracanes. Se espera que su núcleo pase cerca de la península este sábado por la noche y luego se debilite hasta convertirse en una tormenta tropical a medida que cruza hacia EE.UU. y el sur de California.La amenaza ha desencadenado la primera advertencia de tormenta tropical de California que se extiende desde la frontera sur del estado hasta el norte de Los Ángeles.Trayectoria del huracán Hilary en vivo: dónde está en tiempo real y a dónde se dirigeSe pronostica que el suroeste verá fuertes lluvias hasta principios de la próxima semana, con las ...

Michigan becomes latest state to open up Baby Cafe, a community support for mothers

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (WSVN) – Mothers across the U.S. are getting a new way to access breastfeeding support thanks to a quickly growing national non-profit organization. The most recent location opened its doors in Michigan last week.Welcoming a new life into the world can come with a lot of new challenges.“There’s different obstacles that moms go through, so we know that it takes a village. It takes community support,” said Laurel McCamman, a supervisor at Maternal Child Health. And now that support is available after the grand opening of Baby Cafe near Lansing, Michigan. Their meetings come with food, a variety of educational topics and a monthly party.“And our babies get to play and socialize together, and just support for breastfeeding,” said Morgan Smith, a mother who attended Baby Cafe. “I would want a new mom to know, that our group is here to support her and help with all phases of like a baby, you know, there are new moms that are here an...

‘Zoo Pals’ plates return after almost 10 years of being discontinued

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:05:58 GMT

Household company Hefty is bringing back an old-time favorite — Zoo Pals plates.The plates were a lunchtime staple back in the 2000s and early 2010s but were discontinued in 2014.The 10 colorful fun characters that serve as disposable plates will be sold exclusively online.They are available in packs of 20 and 15.