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Southern Big Sur coast is about to reopen. Here’s where you’ll be able to reach on Hwy. 1

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

Access to popular spots on the southern Big Sur coast will be restored next week when Caltrans reopens a key stretch of Highway 1 — just in time for Memorial Day holiday weekend travel.The scenic highway is currently closed from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County to 18.7 miles south of Big Sur at Big Creek Vista Point in Monterey County due to a series of landslides.Caltrans will move the southern end of the closure north by about 21 miles at 4 p.m. Friday, May 26, the state roads agency said in a news release.That will allow travelers to once again reach Salmon Creek, Willow Creek, Jade Cove, Plaskett Creek, Pacific Valley, Sand Dollar Beach and Kirk Creek, as well as Treebones Resort.The popular resort just landed on Travel Lemming’s list of the 150 best places to visit in the United States this summer.However, Limekiln State Park will remain closed, Caltrans spokesperson Kevin Drabinksi.Caltrans originally estimated work to repair the road at Gilbert’s Slide would be complete...

Marin County median home price at $1.7 million as sellers remain scarce

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

The median price for a detached home in Marin County wobbled to $1.7 million last month, about the same level it was six months ago and about 20% lower than the prior year.The figure is based on the latest data released by the county’s assessor’s office, which logged 157 sales of detached homes last month. By comparison, 254 detached homes sold the previous April.The median price in April 2022 was $2.12 million, a peak for the county before the monthly figure fell as low as $1.5 million.“We’re still seeing a lack of inventory,” said Arun Burrell, a 20-year agent whose office is in San Rafael. “That’s been our consistent issue this year.”Burrell represented the sellers in a deal last month right at the $1.7 million median, for a three-bedroom home on Oak Avenue in the seminary neighborhood of San Anselmo. The property was listed at $1.65 million.Burrell said 28 agents quickly asked for disclosure packets and three made offers. The winning bid was by a family moving from San Francisco...

12-year-old Bay Area boy trains adults, peers on ChatGPT

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

Kaz Keller, 12, of Mill Valley, is silhouetted while giving a presentation on ChatGPT at the Mill Valley Community Center in Mill Valley on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Keller is a 7th grader at Mill Valley Middle School. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)Kaz Keller, 12, of Mill Valley, gives a presentation on ChatGPT at the Mill Valley Community Center in Mill Valley on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Keller is a 7th grader at Mill Valley Middle School. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)Patricia Applegate of Mill Valley gets ChatGPT instruction from Kaz Keller, 12, of Mill Valley, during a presentation at the Mill Valley Community Center in Mill Valley on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Keller is a 7th grader at Mill Valley Middle School. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)An audience member types in information as Kaz Keller, 12, of Mill Valley gives a presentation on ChatGPT at the Mill Valley Community Center in Mill Valley on Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Indepe...

Marin County faces discrimination suit by Black deputy sheriff

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

An African American deputy sheriff has sued Marin County alleging that he has been harassed, denied promotions and subjected to other unfair treatment because of his race during his 11 years on the force.David Lundie says senior leadership held him to different standards of conduct than White deputies; gave him biased performance reviews; micromanaged him; and subjected him to racist tokenization and microaggressions, among other allegations.Lundie is seeking an unspecified amount of money for compensatory damages, punitive damages and lost wages. The suit was filed Wednesday in Marin County Superior Court.“This lawsuit should serve as a wake-up call,” Lundie’s lawyer, Jennifer Reisch, said in a written statement. “Racial discrimination is rampant throughout Marin institutions and culture, and the Sheriff’s Office is no exception. Make no mistake about it: this is not an isolated incident, and the Marin County Sheriff’s Office needs to urgently revamp its practices and procedures to...

Authorities name 1988 Santa Cruz County homicide victim

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

LIVE OAK — A group of Bonny Doon hikers stumbled upon a skull wrapped in a plastic bag, just down a roadside embankment on a Saturday afternoon more than three decades ago.Marty Rupar Deputies, with the help of a forensic pathologist and anthropologist, shared suspicions that the individual’s death was a homicide and determined that the victim, estimated at the time to be a 17-year-old male teenager. He had likely been killed and dumped a year earlier, investigators told the press. The hikers were about 2.5 miles up Bonny Doon Road from the coast when they made their find, authorities said.For the next 35 years, the body remained listed as an unidentified “John Doe” and the case unresolved.On Thursday, however, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office shared a breakthrough: The found remains appear to be those of Marty Robin Rupar, born in 1966. He would have been about 21 years old at his death, a year before he was found on Feb. 13, 1988.Rupar, originally hailing from Green Bay...

Scientist sues UC Santa Cruz over diversity statement requirement

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — Former professor at the University of Toronto J.D. Haltigan filed a lawsuit Wednesday against UC Santa Cruz officials over the school’s requirement for jobseekers to include a diversity, equity and inclusion statement, commonly called a DEI statement, in their employment application, claiming it violates the First Amendment.Haltigan, who earned his doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Miami, is currently an independent scientist and Pennsylvania resident and is being represented by Sacramento-based attorney Wilson Freeman with the Pacific Legal Foundation.“We’ve been keyed into the issue of DEI statements for a couple of years,” said Freeman. “We think it’s an important issue propagating, what we see as, a sort of orthodoxy throughout the academy. We think it’s a threat to the First Amendment and academic freedom. We think it’s especially bad at the University of California.”Diversity, equity and inclusion statements have been included in the emplo...

Pipeline Company Spent Big on Police Gear to Use Against Standing Rock Protesters

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

Their protest encampment razed, the Indigenous-led environmental movement at North Dakota’s Standing Rock reservation was searching for a new tactic. By March 2017, the fight over the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline had been underway for months. Leaders of the movement to defend Indigenous rights on the land — and its waterways — had a new aim: to march on Washington.Native leaders and activists, calling themselves water protectors, wanted to show the newly elected President Donald Trump that they would continue to fight for their treaty rights to lands including the pipeline route. The march would be called “Native Nations Rise.”Law enforcement was getting ready too — and discussing plans with Energy Transfer, the parent company of the Dakota Access pipeline. Throughout much of the uprising against the pipeline, the National Sheriffs’ Association talked routinely with TigerSwan, Energy Transfer’s lead security firm on the project, working hand in hand to craft pro-pipeli...

UN watchdog: Ukrainian nuclear plant briefly loses power supply again, is ‘extremely vulnerable’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest atomic power station, spent hours operating on emergency diesel generators Monday after losing its external power supply for the seventh time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said.“The nuclear safety situation at the plant (is) extremely vulnerable,” Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a tweet.Hours later, national energy company Ukrenergo said on Telegram that it had restored the power line that feeds the plant.But for Grossi, it was another reminder of what’s at stake at the Russian-occupied plant which has seen shelling close by.“We must agree to protect (the) plant now; this situation cannot continue,” Grossi said, in his latest appeal for the area to be spared from the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. IAEA staff are deployed at the plant, which is occupied by Russian troops.The plant’s s...

El comediante malasio ‘Uncle Roger’ bromea sobre China y los censores no le ven el lado divertido

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

Hong Kong (CNN) — Un cómico malasio fue expulsado de Weibo, la plataforma china de medios sociales parecida a Twitter, días después de que publicara clips de un espectáculo en directo en los que predecía que sus parodias sobre la política fuertemente censurada de Beijing y el líder chino Xi Jinping lo meterían en problemas.Nigel Ng, que actúa bajo el nombre de “Uncle Roger”, publicó la semana pasada en Twitter un tráiler de su nuevo espectáculo, en el que bromea sobre el estado de vigilancia de China y ruega al Partido Comunista Chino que “no lo haga desaparecer”.“Uncle Roger (está) a punto de ser cancelado”, escribió Ng en Twitter el martes pasado junto con un clip de su programa.El sábado, su cuenta en la plataforma china Weibo, fuertemente censurada, ya no podía crear nuevas publicaciones. Un mensaje en la página decía que Ng había sido bloqueado “debido a la violación de las leyes y reglamentos pertinentes”, pero no daba más ...

Elecciones en Grecia: conservadores gobernantes ganan las elecciones pero no logran la mayoría absoluta en el Parlamento

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:54 GMT

(CNN) — El partido gobernante Nueva Democracia de Grecia obtuvo una aplastante victoria en las elecciones parlamentarias este domingo, pero no logró obtener una mayoría absoluta en una votación dominada por la crisis del costo de vida, un escándalo de escuchas telefónicas y la ira por el accidente de tren más mortífero en la historia del país.Con más del 99% de los votos escrutados, el partido gobernante de centro derecha del primer ministro Kyriakos Mitsotakis superó todas las expectativas al obtener más del 40% de los votos en un resultado que calificó de “terremoto político”.Su principal oposición, el partido de centroizquierda Syriza de Alexis Tsipras, sufrió grandes derrotas, quedando en segundo lugar con poco más del 20% de los votos.Sin embargo, Mitsotakis no obtuvo suficientes votos para asegurar un gobierno de partido único. La votación se llevó a cabo bajo un nuevo sistema de representación proporcional que requiere un umbral de alrededor del 45%.La presidenta de Gre...