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COVID Q&A: Can I use an expired test? Time to get boosted? How to cope with the sneaky summer surge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

California’s COVID positivity rate has topped 10% and is still on a steep upward path, nearly tripling since June, according to new data from the state’s Department of Public Health.“Anecdotally, I feel like everybody I know has been getting COVID,” said Dr. Errol Ozdalga, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford.But unless your social circle has been hit by the virus recently, this wave might have caught you by surprise. The public health emergencies are over, testing has become harder to find, and data monitoring has been largely abandoned. But the virus is still among us, and more so now than in May or June.Once again Bay Area residents are scrambling to do the right thing when a family member tests positive, or they start feeling a tickle in their throat. What are the best practices these days for handling this persistent virus? What have we learned with three years of pandemic practice under our belts? We checked in with the experts.Q: I’m feeling sick...

Goodbye hotdogs, hello vegan masala: California’s school lunches are going gourmet

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

BY CAROLYN JONES | CalMattersThe hottest new restaurant in California might be your local elementary school.Thanks to a surge of nearly $15 billion in state and federal funding, school districts are ditching the old standbys — frozen pizza and chicken nuggets — in favor of organic salads, free-range grilled chicken, vegan chana masala, chilaquiles and other treats. Districts are building new kitchens, hiring executive chefs, contracting directly with local organic farmers, and training their staffs to cook the finest cuisine. One district in San Luis Obispo County even bought a stone mill to grind its own wheat for bread and pasta.The move to healthier, fresher school meals comes on the heels of California’s first-in-the-nation program providing free breakfast, lunch and snacks to nearly 6 million students in public schools, regardless of whether they qualify under federal income guidelines. The expansion of the meal program, combined with investments in school kitchens and training...

‘Underdog’ Ryan Walker enjoying rise from 31st-round pick to SF Giants’ bullpen

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

Toward the end of last spring training, Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey was giving manager Gabe Kapler the rundown of arms coming over from minor-league camp to round out their bullpen for one of their final exhibitions.Something stuck out about an otherwise relatively nondescript profile: 26 years old, right-handed, 31st-round draft pick, fifth year in pro ball, hadn’t pitched 10 innings above Single-A.“(Bailey) said, ‘It looks like he’s going to pick to third base every time he delivers the baseball,'” Kapler said. “I’m like, sure. Really can’t wait to see this. So I was excited to bring him into the game, and sure enough, full crossfire, full across-the-body delivery.“Sometimes different is enough to get hitters out. … It’d be cool to see him make a name for himself.”Speaking from the dugout of Scottsdale Stadium that morning in April 2022, Kapler had to be reminded of the name of the reliever he was talk...

Editorial: Finally, polluting Bay Area cement plant will be closed

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

At long last, after thousands of environmental violations and more than $2.5 million in fines, an agreement has been reached to shut down a 3,500-acre quarry that had sent wastewater laced with selenium into San Francisco Bay.The permanent closure of Lehigh Quarry and Cement’s cement production in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County near Cupertino is a long overdue environmental victory for the Bay Area.For decades, Lehigh had provided more than half the cement used in Bay Area construction projects. Cement distribution will allow construction projects to continue without the massive regional environmental impact.The East Bay Regional Park District’s new Dumbarton Quarry Campground in Fremont, seen from the air above, was converted from a gravel pit to a family campsite. The campground near the San Francisco Bay shore include 60 sites with full RV hookups, restrooms and showers, a camp store, an amphitheater, a playground and picnic areas. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Gr...

Mental health services firm buys San Jose office building in expansion

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

SAN JOSE — A mental health services firm has bought a San Jose office building in a deal that shows medical companies still seek expansion sites to operate despite economic uncertainties.LGTC Group, which describes itself as an outpatient mental health center, has bought a southwest San Jose medical office building that at present is occupied by units of Sutter Health, including hospice services.The mental health firm’s affiliate paid $9 million for the office building, according to documents filed on Aug. 7 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.The just-bought building totals 17,200 square feet and is located at 4850 Union Avenue in San Jose, according to county documents and a marketing brochure circulated by Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm.The deal was arranged by brokers Erik Hallgrimsom and Clark Steele of Cushman & Wakefield and Geri Wong of Newmark.“LGTC is in expansion mode,” said Wong, a senior managing direct...

Opinion: ‘Oppenheimer’ intersection with sacred Hindu text misses the mark

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

A controversy has erupted about the way the movie “Oppenheimer” depicts the scientist’s relationship with the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita.J. Robert Oppenheimer saw the Gita as a reflection of his moral dilemma over the act of killing. He would use a line from a translation of the Gita to describe how he felt after the first atomic explosion: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”However, the movie refers to the Gita not in this accurate biographical context but in a sex scene instead. This has provoked outrage from some Hindu viewers. Officials of India’s ruling party have called the scene a “disturbing attack on Hinduism” and are demanding that it be cut from the movie. Critics of the government disagree and say this is just one more instance of Hindu Nationalist censorship.The bigger issue, in my view, is the lack of effort in understanding cultural context in our increasingly, if seemingly only superficially, globalized world.Even though in the past...

Opinion: Santa Clara County must not allow closure of inpatient psychiatric beds

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

For over a year, Santa Clara County has been in a mental health state of emergency. The County Board of Supervisors openly said our mental health system is “fundamentally broken.” They have acknowledged that the system is in dire need of inpatient acute care services, residential treatment facilities and staffing. Yet, the county has done nothing substantive to prevent 18 inpatient psychiatric beds at Mission Oaks Hospital, part of Good Samaritan, from closing.Last week, NAMI Santa Clara County, along with affiliates, community members and advocates, protested in front of Good Samaritan to save those essential beds. Losing them is not just a local issue but a regional one. Such a loss would push the problem into other counties as patients are transferred to hospitals in the East Bay, Central Valley or farther. No one wins in this patient shell game, especially if our most vulnerable end up in substandard facilities.If those beds disappear on Aug. 20, only 193 acute psychiatric beds ...

Lawsuit filed by family of San Quentin guard who died during COVID outbreak to proceed

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

The death of Sgt. Gilbert Polanco, a San Quentin State Prison officer infected with the coronavirus, the prisons department announced on Aug. 9, 2020. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabiliation) A lawsuit filed by the family of a San Quentin guard who died of COVID-19 in 2020 will be allowed to go forward.In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a federal judge’s refusal to dismiss the suit filed by the widow and children of Sgt. Gilbert Polanco. Polanco was the only guard to die in a COVID-19 outbreak at the prison that resulted in the death of 28 inmates and the infection of more than 2,100 inmates and 270 staff members.Terri Hardy, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, wrote in an email, “CDCR does not comment on pending litigation.”The outbreak occurred a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after officials in the California prison system transferred 122 inmates from the Califor...

Mountain lions seen eating deer on property in Hillsborough: resident

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

(KRON) -- A Hillsborough resident reported mountain lion activity in the 1400 block of Marlborough Road on Thursday. The resident said they saw two mountain lions eating a deer on their property. Additionally, the resident's neighbor said they saw cubs in a den nearby.Mountain lions are known to frequent the Hillsborough green belt area as deer is their primary source of food, police said. They are typically solitary animals and try to avoid human contact.Hillsborough residents are reminded to keep their pets inside and close and lock all doors. Maui residents had little warning before flames hit town. At least 55 people died Tips to remember regarding mountain lions, courtesy of the Hillsborough Police Department: Do not feed deer. It is illegal in California and can attract more mountain lions.Do not approach a mountain lion, especially if it is feeding or with their cubs.Avoid hiking through wooded areas during dawn, dusk or at night.Closely watch small children when hiking in...

31-year-old man dead in Antioch shooting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:45 GMT

(KRON) -- A 31-year-old man is dead following a shooting Thursday night in Antioch, according to police.Just after 6 p.m., police arrived at the 600 block of West 20th Street after receiving reports of a man who had been shot. Officers located the man suffering from a gunshot wound, officials said. Maui residents had little warning before flames hit town. At least 55 people died Despite officers and paramedics rendering aid to the victim, he was pronounced deceased at the scene. According to police, the man has been identified and his name is being withheld until next of kin is notified.The incident is currently under investigation.