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New San Jose swordfighting school promises your own personal ‘Game of Thrones’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

It’s 1 p.m. on a recent Thursday in San Jose, and Steaphen Fick is intently watching two grown men swing unsharpened steel swords at each other.One of them is apparently not striking the other with enough force. Fick interrupts.“Don’t be afraid!” he says, like a character going into battle in “Lord of the Rings.”Fick jabs a finger at the other man’s headgear and neck guard — called a gorget, French for “throat” — and turns to his opponent. “That’s what that’s for!”The click-clacking of swords resumes.Fick is no stranger to these swords. He started practicing Historical European martial arts (HEMA) more than three decades ago in his backyard in San Jose. Now, like the prodigal son so often mythologized in medieval art, he’s returning to the city after 14 years at various locations throughout Santa Clara.On March 4, Fick’s Davenriche European Martial Artes School had a grand opening i...

50 years ago today, he made the first cell phone call

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

Martin Cooper, who developed the first portable cellphone.(Sandy Huffaker/The New York Times/Redux via CNN) By Jennifer Korn | CNNOn April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper stood on a sidewalk on sixth avenue in Manhattan with a device the size of a brick and made the first public call from a cell phone to one of the men he’d been competing with to develop the device.“I’m calling you on a cell phone, but a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone,” Cooper, then an engineer at Motorola, said on the phone to Joel Engel, head of AT&T-owned Bell Labs.While cell phones would not be available to the average consumer for another decade, anyone walking by Cooper on the street that day could have seen history being made.In the fifty years since that first call, Cooper’s bulky device has evolved and been replaced by a wide range of thinner, faster phones that are now ubiquitous and reshaping industries, culture and the way we relate to one another...

Broken windows, falling glass in Bay Area’s recent storms raise concerns about building codes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

As violent storms beat down on the Bay Area over the last few months, rain hasn’t been the only thing falling from the sky.Intense winds with gusts over 70 mph wreaked havoc on the region, turning deadly as trees toppled over and landed on cars, roads and homes. And in San Francisco, windows cracked on at least six high rises, with some panes breaking completely, hurling shards of glass to the ground.The shatterings prompted the city to trigger several shelter-in-place orders. Department of Building Inspection Assistant Director Christine Gasparac said they’ve issued violation notices to the properties that had broken windows, giving building owners 14 days to provide the city with engineering reports on the windows.Windows breaking due to strong winds is supposed to be rare in this region, according to Megan Stringer, president of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California. But because it happened in several buildings, it has engineers across the Bay Ar...

A look at the wild Western Conference after Warriors loss to Denver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

The Warriors have three games left to play with too many potential playoff outcomes.With a loss to the Nikola Jokic-less Nuggets on Sunday night in Denver, the Warriors fall to 41-38 and are in the driver’s seat to either secure a guaranteed first-round series or potentially fall into the play-in tournament by the regular season’s end.“There’s a sense of urgency on these last three games and not only just the wins, but the vibe that you create going into a playoff series,” Steph Curry told reporters in Denver. “That does matter.”The path to a sixth or fifth seed (unlikely) in the Western Conference playoffs will be bumpy, but in reach.Golden State is tied with the Los Angeles Clippers (41-38), but sit in the sixth seed because the Clippers hold the tiebreaker via head-to-head matchup. They’re one game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers (40-38) and New Orleans Pelicans (40-38) with the Minnesota Timberwolves (39-40) and Oklahoma City Thund...

Michigan mother pleads guilty in ‘catfishing’ of her own teen daughter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

An Isabella County, Michigan woman accused of “catfishing” her daughter and another teen is set to be sentenced after entering guilty pleas to two charges.Kendra Gail Licari, 42, pleaded guilty last week in Isabella County Trial Court to two counts of stalking a minor and is to be sentenced April 26 at 2 p.m. in Judge Mark Duthie’s Mt. Pleasant courtroom.Stalking a minor is a five-year felony.In exchange for the plea, Isabella County Prosecutor David Barberi dropped three additional charges – two counts of using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime, and one count of obstruction, according to court records.Licari was accused of catfishing – creating a fake internet persona through electronic messages – her daughter and one of her daughter’s friends beginning in October 2021 for nearly a year.She is alleged to have made the messages appear to be coming from a fellow Beal City High School student, according to court records.The scheme is alleged to have involved the...

One person killed in strip mall parking lot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

(KRON) -- Police are investigating a homicide in a Pleasant Hill strip mall parking lot that left one dead. This is the first homicide since 2021, according to Pleasant Hill's crime statistics.The incident happened just after 1 a.m. Monday. Pleasant Hill police have not confirmed what caused the incident but they did have to call in Concord police to help with crowd control.Video shows a chaotic scene at Pleasant Hill Plaza. It sits off Contra Costa Boulevard and Gregort Lane just west of I-680. Video shows multiple people in distress. Police have also taped off a large part of the strip mall and placed evidence markers near a sedan and the body that laid not far from it.Fire and medical services were called to the scene. Police have not confirmed where the incident originated from, but the plaza does have more than a dozen businesses, including a Starbucks, Safeway and a sports bar near where the body was found.As of Monday morning, no details have been given on the victim. It is u...

Santa Clara police look for missing 91-year-old

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

(BCN) -- Santa Clara police said at 11:55 p.m. Sunday they're looking for a 91-year-old missing man. Lawrence Lara left his home near Santa Cruz and Cabrillo avenues around noon. He was driving a silver four-door Saturn, license plate number 6AOZ004, and may have been headed to Campbell. He is 5-feet-7-inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. It wasn't known what clothes he was wearing. Police ask anyone who sees Lara to call 911 immediately. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

Meghan to receive Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Award

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown will receive the Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Award in May, the nation’s oldest women’s foundation announced Monday.The awards will be handed out at the Ms. Foundation’s annual gala on May 16 at New York City’s Ziegfeld Ballroom, part of its 50th anniversary celebration where funds raised will go toward the organization’s equity-centered initiatives.The foundation will also honor Wanda Irving, co-founder of Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project, and Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of URGE, as well as emerging leaders abortion rights activist Olivia Julianna and LGBTQ+ advocate Rebekah Bruesehoff.“Meghan, LaTosha, Wanda, Kimberly, Olivia, and Rebekah are incredible leaders,” Teresa C. Younger, Ms. Foundation president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are grateful to be able to shine a light on their many accomplishments and tireless work on behalf of gender and racial equity ...

‘Underground’ tech aims to help Arlington drivers find parking

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

A new pilot program in Arlington, Virginia, is aimed at saving drivers time, using new underground technology that will track parking spaces.The Performance Parking Pilot Program will track parking across the Rosslyn-Ballston and Richmond Highway corridors and will provide drivers with real-time updates, according to a news release from the county government.More Transportation NewsMore Arlington County NewsMore Virginia NewsThe project will include 4,500 metered parking spaces.The county says it’s about improving the user experience, cutting down drive time and making more spaces available more often. The program won’t use any cameras and no personal information will be gathered.Prices will change to meet the goals of the project but the county stressed more revenue isn’t the goal.The program will be in place for three years and during the first year, system design, installation, testing, and initial data collection will be the focus. During the second and third years, officials pl...

Community colleges are reeling. ‘The reckoning is here.’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:56 GMT

When Santos Enrique Camara arrived at Shoreline Community College in Washington state to study audio engineering, he quickly felt lost.“It’s like a weird maze,” remembered Camara, who was 19 at the time and had finished high school with a 4.0 grade-point average. “You need help with your classes and financial aid? Well, here, take a number and run from office to office and see if you can figure it out.”Advocates for community colleges defend them as the underdogs of America’s higher education system, left to serve the students who need the most support but without the money to provide it. Critics contend this has become an excuse for poor success rates and for the kind of faceless bureaucracies that ultimately led Camara to drop out after two semesters. He now works in a restaurant and plays in two bands.___EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of Saving the College Dream, a collaboration between AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The H...