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Jury decides will found in Aretha Franklin’s couch is valid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

By Ed White | Associated PressPONTIAC, Mich. — A document handwritten by singer Aretha Franklin and found in her couch after her 2018 death is a valid Michigan will, a jury said Tuesday, a critical turn in a dispute that has turned her sons against each other.It’s a victory for Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin whose lawyers had argued that papers dated 2014 should override a 2010 will that was discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet at the Queen of Soul’s home in suburban Detroit.The jury deliberated less than an hour after a brief trial that started Monday. After the verdict was read, Aretha Franklin’s grandchildren stepped forward from the first row to hug Kecalf and Edward.“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to be adhered to,” Kecalf Franklin said. “We just want to exhale right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”Aretha Franklin did not leave behind a formal, ty...

Bay Area property manager with ‘regular access’ to children’s homes recorded disturbing video of himself in child porn collection, feds say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — A Bay Area man whose job allowed him access to numerous apartments where children live has been charged with possession of child pornography, and prosecutors say one of the videos shows him committing a lewd act involving a child, court records show.Cristian Mattus-Piccardo, 50, was indicted June 20 on charges of possessing child pornography. In a subsequent motion to keep him detained, prosecutors wrote that one of the videos depicts Mattus-Piccardo “sucking the tongue of at least one young girl for upwards of thirty seconds at a time,” then telling her to keep it a secret. The incident appeared to happen while he was babysitting the child, authorities wrote in court papers.“He works as a janitor at a building downtown, and is a property manager at a multi-family residence in Potrero Hill. He has regular access to the other units where children live. He babysits on occasion,” Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hageman wrote in a court motio...

Tech companies eye 100-plus more layoffs in Bay Area as job cuts widen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

Tech companies have revealed plans for additional job cuts in the Bay Area that top 100 positions, unsettling disclosures that suggest the layoffs in the struggling sector have yet to fully run their course.Sumo Logic, Intel and Microsoft are among the tech companies that have recently disclosed plans for job cuts, according to documents filed with the state Employment Development Department.During 2022 and so far in 2023, tech companies have revealed plans to chop more than 25,900 jobs in the Bay Area, this news organization’s review of the WARN notices the firms have filed with EDD officials shows.Here are the details of the most recent filings:Sumo Logic is cutting 79 jobs in Redwood CityIntel is laying off 21 workers in Santa ClaraMicrosoft is cutting two positions in Mountain View.The great majority of these layoffs were already scheduled to occur. However, they were posted only this week by the EDD on its public website.Sumo Logic had scheduled its job cuts for June 8 wh...

Oakland hills group, Fire Department vigilant at year’s riskiest time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

One of the best ways to prevent loss due to urban wildfire for people in the East Bay who own homes or properties is low-tech, requires minimal physical exertion and is entirely free: Getting to know your neighbors.Related ArticlesLocal News | Piano great Dick Hyman comes to Stanford Jazz Fest with an old friend This idea comes not from feel-good anecdotes or wishful thinking but is the most shared advice offered in separate interviews with Carolyn Burgess and Michael Hunt, two people whose life experiences, careers and volunteer activities have made them experts in urban wildfire prevention and readiness. Burgess is the North Hills Community Association’s (NHCA) public safety chair and second vice chair, and Hunt is the Oakland Fire Department’s public information officer.Involved for 12 years with the NHCA (northhillscommunity.org), Burgess lost her home in the catastrophic 1991 Oakland hills fire that killed 25 people, injured 150 individuals, destroye...

Manson follower Van Houten released after 53 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

By Christopher Weber | Associated PressLOS ANGELES — Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walked out of a California prison Tuesday after serving more than 50 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders.Van Houten “was released to parole supervision,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.She left the California Institution for Women in Corona, east of Los Angeles, in the early morning hours and was driven to transitional housing, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said.“She’s still trying to get used to the idea that this real,” Tetreault told The Associated Press.Days earlier Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not fight a state appeals court ruling that Van Houten should be granted parole. He shas said it was unlikely the state Supreme Court would consider an appeal.She is expected to spend about a year in transitional housing, learning basic skills such as how to go to the grocery ...

'Swifties' need to keep an eye out for scams ahead of Levi's Stadium shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

(KRON) -- Taylor Swift fans looking for tickets to the Eras tour at Levi's Stadium later this month need to keep an eye out for scams, the Better Business Bureau has warned. Elizabeth Holmes gets new release date, and it's years earlier than planned Tickets to the tour have been in incredibly high demand since the shows were first announced. Scammers are targeting "Swifties" by selling fake tickets. At least 30 reports of ticket scams have been reported to the BBB across the country so far. Taylor Swift performs opening night of "The Eras Tour" (Kevin Winter/Getty Images/ TAS Rights Management)The BBB says that scammers are making posts on social media which claim to have tickets for sale, often requesting payment through cash-sharing app Zelle. Some tickets have turned out to be fake, leaving fans unable to see their favorite singer and out hundreds of dollars. There is often an uptick in scams in the days leading up to shows, a spokesperson for the BBB told KRON4. Swift has t...

Oakland Athletics start the process of applying to MLB for a move to Las Vegas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — The Oakland Athletics have started the process of applying to Major League Baseball to move to Las Vegas.MLB last month established a relocation committee to evaluate the move, a group headed by Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio. Philadelphia Phillies CEO John Middleton and Kansas City Royals CEO John Sherman also are on the committee.“They have begun to submit information related to their relocation application,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. “It’s not complete at this point.” Arsonist who set Vallejo fire detained by ‘trained mixed martial artist,’ arrested Nevada’s Legislature approved providing $380 million in public financing for a proposed $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof on the Tropicana hotel site of the Las Vegas Strip. The new venue would be close to Allegiant Stadium, where the NFL’s Oakland Raiders moved to in 2020, and T-Mobile Arena, where the newly crowned S...

Woman charged with Kim Kardashian lookalike model's death to appear in court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

(KRON) -- Vivian Alexandra Gomez, a cosmetologist charged with causing a Kim Kardashian-lookalike model's death, is slated to enter a plea in San Mateo County court Tuesday.Gomez is accused of meeting the model, Christina Ashten Gourkani, inside a Burlingame hotel room and injecting silicone into the model's buttocks on April 19. Gomez remains out of jail on a $200,000 bail bond. She is scheduled to appear before Judge Kevin Dunleavy with her private defense attorneys, Geoffrey Carr and May Mar, for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Prosecutors charged Gomez with felony involuntary manslaughter. Christina Ashten Gourkani (Image via Twitter / Ashtens_Empire) Gourkani, 34, of San Jose, relied on aesthetic procedures to look more like Kardashian, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. Gourkani emulated the reality television star for her OnlyFans page and half a million Instagram followers.The unlicensed cosmetologist operated a beauty business in Florida, and Gomez flew to San Franc...

Utah high court scrutinizes process that sliced state’s most Democrat-heavy county into 4 districts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether courts should allow the state’s Republican-majority Legislature to carve up Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County into four congressional districts.The fight asks if state courts can evaluate whether district maps drawn by elected officials violate the state constitution and is the latest battle over how states draw such maps. It follows a recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling denying legislatures absolute power to do so.Utah — along with Kentucky, New Mexico, New York,Pennsylvania, Maryland and Alaska — is among the states in which Republicans and Democrats have battled over whether partisan gerrymandering violates the law and imperils people’s right to choose their representatives in a democracy.Utah differs from those other venues, however, because voters in 2018 approved an initiative creating an independent redistricting commission designed to ensure maps weren’t drawn to favor o...

How major US stock indexes fared Tuesday7/11/2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:09 GMT

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street as investors wait for updates on inflation and corporate profits. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% Tuesday after another quiet day of trading. The Dow rose 316 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6%. The week’s main event arrives Wednesday when the government offers the latest update on inflation in consumer prices. The hope on Wall Street is that a continued easing in inflation will convince the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates. Activision Blizzard jumped 10% after a judge ruled Microsoft could move forward on its takeover of the video game maker.On Tuesday:The S&P 500 rose 29.73 points, or 0.7%, to 4,439.26.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317.02 points, or 0.9%, to 34,261.42.The Nasdaq composite rose 75.22 points, or 0.5%, to 13,760.70.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 18.11 points, or 1%, to 1,913.36.For the week:The S&P 500 is up 40.31 points, or 0.9%.The Dow is up 526.54 points, or 1.6%.The Nas...