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‘A man enraged’: San Carlos beheading case goes to jury after erratic trial

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

REDWOOD CITY — A grisly murder case in which a man was charged with hacking his child’s mother to death with a sword — and virtually beheading her — is now in the hands of a jury, following a bizarre trial that reached a fever pitch when the defendant abruptly refused to speak halfway through his own testimony.As he has done since that bizarre court sequence Monday, 34-year-old Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta refused to leave his jail cell and appear in court Friday morning for closing arguments in his murder trial, which charges him with killing 27-year-old Karina Castro on a San Carlos street last year.But he changed course in the afternoon and appeared in court, wearing a dark suit as he watched his attorney while clasping his hands on a desk and occasionally whispering to his legal team.The trial was notable in some ways because Solano’s culpability was never in dispute. Eyewitnesses recounted watching the slaying unfold the afternoon of Sept. 8, 2022 i...

Los Gatos’ Oak & Rye, Enoteca La Storia expanding to Morgan Hill

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

Two longtime standouts in the Los Gatos food and wine world are expanding to Morgan Hill.Look for them to open in 2024.Restaurateur Ross Hanson, owner of the popular Oak & Rye artisanal pizzeria, will open a new restaurant called The Silos in the historic Granary District on Depot Street. The restaurant and bar will go into newly constructed space at the Weston Miles project and will feature indoor dining for about 52 patrons and patio seating for 27.There’s no word from Hanson yet about the menu, but a wood-fired “Scotty 2 Hottie” pizza, his popular spicy Italian pie drizzled with honey, is bound to make an appearance.And South Bay wine experts Mike Guerra and Joe Cannistraci will open their newest wine shop, Ancora Vino by Enoteca La Storia, in a downtown storefront on Monterey Highway. The duo, who operate both in Los Gatos and San Jose’s Little Italy, are planning to build out a 2,200-square-foot retail shop and tasting room.At this location, they wil...

Here are the best times to fly and drive in the Bay Area during busiest Thanksgiving travel season in decades

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

This year’s Thanksgiving travel season is predicted to be the busiest in the past two decades, with 7.5 million Californians expected to travel over the next 10 days, according to estimates from AAA.“Pack your patience,” said Christie Hudson, a spokeswoman for travel company Expedia.Airlines for America, an airline industry group, forecasts that a record 29.9 million passengers will travel nationwide between Nov. 17 and Nov. 27 — up 1.7 million passengers over pre-COVID levels, and up 9% over 2022 levels.Here are travel experts’ tips on how to navigate the highways and airports this holiday season:Book air travel on off days. Nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration projects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday, 2.7 million on Wednesday, and 2.9 million on Sunday — making it the busiest travel day for TSA since it was created in 2001. In the 12 days between Nov. 17 and Nov. 28, the TSA expects to screen 30 million U.S. air passengers.Whil...

Warriors: Steph Curry could return Saturday, Gary Payton II ruled out, Steve Kerr calls for faster play

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry practiced with the Warriors on Friday morning and there’s a chance he’ll return to their lineup for Saturday night’s rematch with the Oklahoma City Thunder.Head coach Steve Kerr said Curry looked good in practice and should be considered questionable for Saturday while he recovers from a sprained knee. He’s missed the last two games.“Some of it will depend on how he responds to today’s practice,” Kerr said.The Warriors will certainly be without Gary Payton II as he recovers from an ankle sprain suffered in the team’s 128-109 loss to the Thunder on Thursday. An MRI revealed no major damage, “but there were some things on the MRI that he felt, in terms of pain, to rule him out for tomorrow.”Kerr said Payton won’t be out long and he’s considered day-to-day.The Warriors are also without Draymond Green, who will be out for the rest of the homestand while he serves his five-game suspension for putting Rody Gobert in a chokehold.There might be temptation t...

43-unit housing project for homeless youth coming to San Jose

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

Construction is underway on a supportive housing project in San Jose to provide stable homes for more than three dozen young adults who are homeless or leaving the foster care system across the South Bay.The former Pavilion Inn at 1280 North Fourth St. will be converted to 43 studio and one-bedroom apartments. It’s set to open by next summer. The site will offer residents wraparound services, including mental health care and job counseling.“Providing these young people a lifeline to housing and services now is an investment not only in their future, but in the future health of our own community,” Laura Archuleta, executive director of project developer Jamboree Housing, said in a statement.An estimated 764 children and young adults are homeless in Santa Clara County, according to the most recent count early this year.Buying and redeveloping the motel is expected to cost around $32 million. That comes to about $744,000 for each unit, less than the typical $938,000 p...

Diablo Valley College coach built ‘sex dungeon’ in his Crockett home, coerced woman to become a ‘girlfriend for hire,’ police say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

CROCKETT — While he was receiving accolades for his skill as a track and field coach, 39-year-old Kyle Whitmore was allegedly sexually assaulting women in his customized “dungeon,” inside a customized school bus known as the “F— Truck,” and on the Diablo Valley College campus, police revealed Friday.Whitmore, a longtime coach at both DVC in Pleasant Hill and Hercules High School, was in court Friday for a preliminary hearing where police revealed new details about the allegations behind his nine-count felony case. Whitmore was charged in September with two counts of human trafficking, two counts of pandering, one count of pimping and four counts of forcible sexual penetration with a foreign object against two alleged victims, one of whom was his college student, court records show.Judge David Goldstein is expected to rule at the end of the hearing whether there is enough evidence to order Whitmore to stand trial on all counts.At Friday’s hea...

Oakland parents warned about scam calls demanding ransom for 'kidnapped' children

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

(BCN) -- The Oakland Unified School District is warning the public about alleged scam calls that attempt to extort money from parents by making it seem like their children have been kidnapped. Some families have reportedly received phone calls from strangers who claimed to have kidnapped their child, saying they were holding them for ransom, the school district said in a statement this week.The calls were allegedly made during the school day while students were in class. The caller would even use a child's voice in the background saying something like, "please don't let them hurt me." The caller would then demand money in exchange for the child being released. Tesla crashes into kitchen of San Mateo home Friday morning The school district said the attempted scam happened to the family of one student once this week, once earlier this month, and a few other times this fall. In every case, the child in question was in school and safe."Every day, our focus is the safety and security o...

Alleged assault on Muslim student being investigated by SFUSD

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

(BCN) -- Parents and a civil rights group are calling on Francisco Middle School in San Francisco to conduct a thorough investigation after a student made allegations of a physical and verbal assault last month. The victim's mother told the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that as her daughter walked home from school on Oct. 25, she was struck in the back of the head, fell and suffered a concussion, and that the assailants also threw strikes to her chest and ribs. She alleges that one of the attackers said "f---ing Muslims" as they left. Tesla crashes into kitchen of San Mateo home Friday morning The victim's mother also told CAIR-SFBA that she alerted the school the next day and subsequently a meeting was held five days after the attack and her daughter identified the attackers after looking through a yearbook. However, the organization says action had yet to be taken on the part of the school administration."CAIR-SFBA is concerned that n...

Pentagon Fails Sixth Audit in a Row, Claiming “Progress Sort of Beneath the Surface”

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

The U.S. military appears unfazed in its inability to account for billions of dollars. On Thursday, the Department of Defense failed its sixth consecutive audit — but hailed its “incremental progress.”As the Pentagon budget nears a watershed $1 trillion — the largest of any federal government agency — it has never passed a single one of the annual audits mandated by Congress. In a press briefing, the Department of Defense said it had no timeline for passing an audit.“We’ve heard the same platitudes about audit progress for years,” said Julia Gledhill, an analyst at the Project on Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information. “They’re meaningless, especially since the Pentagon can’t even commit to a timeline for achieving a clean audit.”“We’ve heard the same platitudes about audit progress for years. They’re meaningless.”Former Pentagon comptroller Thomas Harker, now the secretary of the Navy, had publicly set a deadline of 2027 for a clean audit...

The RSM Classic Scores

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:15:12 GMT

FridaySea Island, Ga.a-Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club (Host Course)7,005 yards; Par 70b-Plantation Course at Sea Island Golf Club7,060 yards; Par 72Purse: $8.4 millionSecond RoundNote: Tournament is played on two courses with different pars.Ludvig Aberg67b-64a—131Eric Cole66b-66a—132Denny McCarthy65b-67a—132Sam Ryder67a-65b—132Tyler Duncan68a-65b—133Austin Eckroat65b-68a—133Ben Kohles66a-67b—133Matt Kuchar65a-68b—133Peter Kuest67b-66a—133Ben Griffin67a-67b—134Mackenzie Hughes68b-66a—134Kelly Kraft69b-65a—134Nicholas Lindheim68b-66a—134Taylor Montgomery69b-65a—134Matthew NeSmith71b-63a—134Adam Schenk68a-66b—134Greyson Sigg66a-68b—134Robert Streb66a-68b—134Adam Svensson68a-66b—134Brendon Todd68b-66a—134Cameron Young66b-68a—134Ricky Barnes67b-68a—135Akshay Bhatia69b-66a—135Wesley Bryan68a-67b—135Stephan Jaeger69b-66a—135Luke List67a-68b—135William McGirt67a-68b—135Maverick McNealy68a-67b—135Alex Noren67b-68a—135Davis Thompson66b-69a—135Vince Whaley66a-69b—135Ben Carr68b-68a—136...