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Bay Area outdoors: 10 guided State Park ‘First Day’ hikes to start off 2024

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

The roars of giant elephant seals against a backdrop of crashing ocean waves. Splashes from a sublime waterfall cooling hikers at the headwaters of Sonoma Creek. Armies of glistening banana slugs advancing under an ancient redwoods canopy.California’s state parks hold a bounty of natural treasures to delight even the most-veteran of explorers. And on Jan. 1, visitors can explore them in depth, thanks to the America’s State Parks First Day Hikes program.This year, more than 60 California state parks are offering 70-plus guided First Day Hikes, including a jaunt around Angel Island with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, a snowshoe trip under giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada, a visit to a historic Pacific coast lighthouse and so much more.The program originated in 1992, when Patrick Flynn, a supervisor at a Massachusetts state park, was looking for a way to entice people to get out into nature despite the colder, darker weather of winter. Flynn thought special interpretive tour...

7 incredible Bay Area things to do over Christmas weekend, Dec. 22-25

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

Got plans for the big holiday weekend? Besides the ho-ho-ho-ing and cookie nibbling? We’ve got some excellent suggestions for fun shows, great movies and other cool Bay Area things to do.As always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines. Meanwhile, if you’d like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.1 WATCH: Some of the year’s best moviesThis is the time of year when film studios release a lot of their best movies because … 1. they want us to enjoy the holidays even more, or 2. they want to win as many awards as possible (pick the explanation you like better). In any event, some of the year’s best releases are in theaters now.Chocolate-dipped cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies are easy to make(Courtesy of Laura McLively) 2 BAKE & SAVOR: Holiday cookies 2 die...

Share the Spirit: ‘Bags of Hope’ nourish families holding vigil over loved ones in the hospital

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

At the head of a long row of tables pushed together, Cheyenne Martinez listened to the directions. She is in Portable 1 at Deer Valley High School in Antioch and has been appointed the production manager for a group of her peers, about a dozen special-needs adults.Soon, the 19-year-old repeats the instructions to others in the class as they line up to form an assembly line along the tables.“Thirty white bags,” she told one person. “No mac and cheese today. We’re leaving that out,” she instructed another. To a third, the 19-year-old said, “Let’s make sure we don’t forget the peaches.”Classmates in Bruce Ellison’s special education class at Deer Valley High assemble bags of food to be given to parents holding vigil over their children at Bay area hospitals. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) Ray Chavez/Bay Area News GroupIn a flash, the assembly line is rolling. Small white bags are filled with various non-perishable food ...

Homeless memorials in San Jose, Gilroy to honor those who died while living on the streets

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

For years, rows of hand-painted tombstones carved from foam have been put up in San Jose to remember those who have lost their lives while living on the streets of Santa Clara County. Now, as the tradition continues in San Jose on Thursday, a memorial for homeless residents will be celebrated in Gilroy for the first time, offering a space to mourn the dead and raise awareness for the living who are still unhoused.“People die on the streets with no fanfare. Nobody knows. Nobody asks about it,” said Jan Bernstein Chargin, an advocate with Pitstop Outreach in Gilroy who helped organize the event. “We hope that (the memorial) gives some meaning and some closure to folks, and also brings awareness to the fact that being homeless puts you at greater risk of death.”First commemorated in 1990, National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day takes place each year on Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. Ten years ago, Santa Clara Union of the Homeless began partnering with the Silicon Vall...

Home sales hit their lowest level in 16 years, spurring a big scramble among Bay Area buyers

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

Plenty of buyers are in the market for a home — the problem is finding one.Persistently high interest rates paralyzed the Bay Area housing market in November, stymying would-be homebuyers and pushing sales in California to their lowest level in 16 years.“Buyers are willing to buy, but there’s terribly low inventory rates,” said Thao Dang Pham, a San Jose-based real state agent. The Bay Area had just 1.8 months of supply in November — the lowest of any region in California.With fewer homeowners trading up, home shoppers are left to compete over fewer available homes. As a result, prices are higher than they were a year ago. The median price of a single-family home in the nine-county Bay Area was $1.25 million in November — an increase of 4.4% from a year ago, according to data released this week by the California Association of Realtors.Bidding wars — while not as common as during the frenzied pandemic era of 3% mortgage interest rates — are ...

Thousands of seniors want to live on the 30 acres of Seven Hills Ranch. A 50-square-foot strip of land has been holding it up for months.

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

WALNUT CREEK — A tiny 50-square-foot strip of land was one of the last battlegrounds for opponents of a 30-acre senior care community slated to transform Seven Hills Ranch’s low rolling hills and wildlife habitat.Nestled in a residential neighborhood less than a mile northwest of the John Muir Health Walnut Creek Medical Center and east of Interstate 680, that minuscule piece of property at the northern end of Kinross Drive has for years been coveted as a potential primary access point for the planned Seven Hills Ranch development The Glen at Heather Farm.There was only one problem: the parcel was technically city property. That fact has kept the controversial gated development in a state of limbo, even after the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the plan in November of 2022, despite 4,000 signatures collected in opposition.But on Tuesday, the Walnut Creek City Council finally sold that sliver of land, technically designated “Lot A,” to Spieker Senior Dev...

Stock market today: Wall Street claws back some of Wednesday’s big loss, heads toward winning week

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is clawing back some of its sharp losses from the prior day, its first big step back since a rally began in late October. The S&P 500 was 0.7% higher in early trading. The Dow was up 219 points, a day after falling for the first time following five straight record-setting days. The Nasdaq composite was 1% higher. Micron Technology leaped to one of the market’s bigger gains after reporting stronger results than expected. Treasury yields were lower following mixed economic reports. Easing yields have been one of the main reasons stocks have charged so high the last two months.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.(AP) — World shares mostly fell Thursday after Wall Street hit the brakes on its big rally following disappointing corporate profit reports and warnings that the market had surged too far, too fast.Germany’s DAX slipped 0.3% to 16,676.00 and in Paris, the CAC40 fell 0.3% to 7,559.33. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.1% lowe...

El gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, inicia vuelos de migrantes a Chicago

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

(CNN) — El gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, está subiendo la apuesta en sus esfuerzos por transportar inmigrantes a ciudades santuario, llevándolos en avión a Chicago, dijo a CNN el secretario de prensa del gobernador, Andrew Mahaleris.“Hasta que el presidente Biden dé un paso al frente y haga su trabajo para asegurar la frontera, Texas seguirá tomando medidas históricas para ayudar a nuestros socios locales a responder a esta crisis provocada por Biden”, dijo Mahaleris.El primer vuelo partió de El Paso a Chicago con 120 pasajeros este martes, publicó Mahaleris en X. La publicación incluye un video del primer vuelo que muestra a familias migrantes, incluidos niños, abordando el vuelo y el avión despegando.La nueva ley de inmigración de Texas siembra confusión e incertidumbre a lo largo de la fronteraUna fuente familiarizada con las operaciones en tierra le dijo a CNN que los migrantes firmaron una renuncia de consentimiento voluntaria que estuvo disponible en vari...

Prince William School Board chair to run for lieutenant governor

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

Dr. Babur Lateef (Courtesy U.Va) Dr. Babur Lateef (Courtesy U.Va) Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef has filed to run as a Democrat for lieutenant governor of Virginia next year, according to documents from the Virginia Department of Elections.Lateef declined to comment on his campaign, but a spokesperson said a formal announcement is forthcoming after the holidays. As of Tuesday, Lateef was the only candidate who had filed to run for the office, according to the elections department.Lateef, an ophthalmologist who lives in Manassas, was first elected chair of the board in a special election in the fall of 2018 and was reelected in 2019 and 2023. Although School Board members don’t run with...

The Czech central bank cuts key interest rate for the first time since June 2022 to help economy

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:11:55 GMT

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s central bank cut its key interest rate Thursday hoping to give the country’s struggling economy a boost.The cut by a quarter of a percentage point brought the interest rate down to 6.75%. It was the first time the bank cut the rate since June 22 last year.Last year the bank raised its key interest rate as it tried to combat soaring inflation. The hike of a percentage point and a quarter took the rate to 7%, the highest level since early 1999. It was the ninth straight increase since June 2021.The move took place at the last meeting of the bank’s board on monetary policy under outgoing governor Jiri Rusnok.On July 1, Rusnok was replaced by Ales Michl, a member of the bank’s board since 2018 who opposed previous rate hikes.Thursday’s move was expected by most analysts.Inflation in the Czech Republic soared to 18% in September last year. It was at 7.3% in November this year, according to the Czech Statistics Office, which is still well above the...