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Officials: Highland Fire in Riverside County completely contained 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

The Highland Fire has been fully contained a week after the blaze broke out, fire officials said. Reports of the fire first came in on Oct. 30 near Aguanga, located east of Temecula, and quickly exploded due to high Santa Ana wind gusts. No civilians were injured in the blaze, which burned 2,487 acres, but two firefighters sustained injuries, according to CalFire officials. Crews battle the wind-driven Highland Fire in Riverside County on Oct. 30, 2023. (RMG News)Crews battle the wind-driven Highland Fire in Riverside County on Oct. 30, 2023. (OnScene.TV)Firefighter seen working to extinguish several mobile home ablaze during the Highland Fire in Riverside County on Oct. 30, 2023. (Firewatch Photography)Crews battle the wind-driven Highland Fire in Riverside County on Oct. 30, 2023. (OnScene.TV)Crews battle the wind-driven Highland Fire in Riverside County. Oct. 30, 2023. (RMG News)Crews battle the wind-driven Highland Fire in Riverside County. Oct. 30, 2023. (OnScene...

Warriors: Will James Wiseman play against his former team?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

CLEVELAND — The Warriors face the Detroit Pistons tonight at Little Caesars Arena for a reunion with 2020 first-round draft pick James Wiseman.Odds are Wiseman won’t even touch the court against his former team.Wiseman hasn’t been playing much in Detroit, with just one appearance in seven games, in what’s been his second chance at a spot in the regular rotation. All the reasons the Warriors couldn’t find a fit for him last season now apply to his role with the Pistons.It makes the reunion less awkward for the Warriors. Any team that trades away a second overall selection runs a tremendous risk of watching that player develop into a superstar.  Truth is, Wiseman’s time in Detroit probably won’t be eliciting any trade remorse from the Warriors’ front office.In February, when the last-place Pistons acquired Wiseman, they gave him the opportunity to play he wasn’t afforded in Golden State. This season, under new coach Monty Williams,...

Dream home or paving paradise? Open space agency moves to force property sale to preserve Coyote Valley

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

Coyote Valley, a sweeping expanse of farmland and scenic open space between San Jose and Morgan Hill, has been at the center of huge development battles with some of Silicon Valley’s legendary companies over the past 40 years. And now it’s gearing up for another fight — on a much smaller scale.The new showdown, over a stately family compound proposed for a 4.6-acre lot flanked by farm fields and open space preserves, highlights a long-running debate in California over how to balance wildlife and land preservation with concerns about housing and private property rights.Environmental groups fought back plans by Apple and Cisco in the 1980s and 1990s to build corporate headquarters in Coyote Valley. Proposals for giant warehouses and distribution centers have risen and fallen. But the latest standoff could mark one of the rare times that the county chooses to use eminent domain to force a sale of private property to preserve open space.Two years ago, Edgar Andrade, a 33-yea...

Antioch police union president, acting chief found officers’ violence was justified before FBI deemed it criminal, new records show

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

ANTIOCH — Time and time again, Antioch police supervisors reviewed reports detailing the use of a less-lethal gun and K9 deployments on civilians and reached the same conclusion: The violence conformed with department guidelines and no discipline nor extra training was needed.The FBI and a federal grand jury reached a markedly different conclusion: that those same acts violated policies, constituted violent crimes that carry prison terms and were part of a years-long scheme to violate the civil rights of citizens. The officers who OK’d these use-of-force incidents include the city’s police union president and the current and former acting police chiefs, according to new records released by the city of Antioch.“Force appears to be within policy,” Sgt. Rick Hoffman wrote after Officer Eric Rombough fired a less-lethal projectile at a man who was backing toward officers with his hands on his head. The indictment against Rombough and officers Morteza Amiri and De...

Stanford men’s basketball preview: Cardinal likes its chances

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

STANFORD — Spencer Jones returned for a fifth year at Stanford because he believes the Cardinal can be an NCAA Tournament team come spring.The team is more experienced going into the 2023-24 season with several key newcomers such as highly touted freshman guard Andrej Stojakovic, the son of former Sacramento Kings star Peja Stojakovic.“That’s the reason I came back. I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t have full confidence that we have the talent and we have everything we need to get that done,” Jones said. “For me coming back, it was almost purely a basketball decision. I’ve done my schoolwork and all that. I’ve still got a little bit of work to do, but it was all basketball.”Stanford has more go-to shooting options entering coach Jerod Haase’s eighth season.Stanford went 14-19 overall last season and 7-13 in Pac-12 play.On his desk, Haase is keeping a special photo from his team’s preseason trip to France and Greece — one from the family home of 7-foot-1 junior forward Maxi...

Cal Bears basketball preview: Mark Madsen has “lofty goals”

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

BERKELEY — New coach Mark Madsen recognizes all that went wrong for California men’s basketball last season, and he also insists that from those struggles has been tremendous growth.He’s counting on that as Cal tries to bounce back with a new-look roster and new leader.Even if the loyal fan base in Berkeley might not have seen the development watching the Golden Bears last season. Madsen also realizes he has quite a task at hand to turn over a proud program that is reeling from the embarrassment of so much losing.Madsen is guiding the Bears following a 3-29 season — worst in school history — that led to the firing of coach Mark Fox and cleared the way for the former Stanford star.“It was a tough year last year for Cal, but it’s not like there wasn’t a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We’re probably benefiting right now from a lot of the work, just even in terms of infrastructure,” Madsen said. “I’ve never been more optimistic, and I love our team. I love all the changes...

Ohtani? Yamamoto? Chapman? Assessing the best free agent fits for the San Francisco Giants

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

In Farhan Zaidi’s eyes, it seems, there is one statistic that sums up the San Francisco Giants’ shortcomings in 2023 better than any other. You don’t need to know what WAR, wOBA or VORP stand for to understand it. But it’s something the club’s top baseball boss has cited multiple times.“One thing that I don’t really think there are two sides of the coin in explaining,” Zaidi said most recently, to a scrum of reporters after introducing new manager Bob Melvin earlier this month, “is we were last in the league in stolen bases. That just can’t happen. To be that much of an outlier shows it was a real deficiency.”It’s not just that they swiped 15 fewer bags than the next-closest team, fewer than two individual players, that after Thairo Estrada (23) they didn’t have a single player with more than four, a number equaled or eclipsed by 251 players league-wide — it’s what it said about team.The league introduced new ru...

Hope emerges for Oakland A’s fans: Nevada teachers hoping to get Las Vegas ballpark funding on the ballot

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

A judge’s decision on Monday in Nevada could give A’s fans new hope of the team remaining in Oakland.On one side is a Nevada teachers’ union challenging the state’s plan to provide $120 million in public money to build a $1.5 billion ballpark on the Las Vegas strip. The group is seeking a November 2024 referendum on state Senate Bill 1, the ballpark spending deal signed in June by Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.“Nevada voters should decide whether their tax dollars are used to subsidize a billionaire’s stadium,” said Alexander Marks, a spokesperson for the Nevada State Education Association. “We’re confident Nevada citizens are going to choose schools over stadiums next November.”The teachers union is opposed by a coalition of lobbyists and construction union leaders assembled by A’s ownership. They accuse the teachers’ union of submitting an “inaccurate, misleading and argumentative” petition that improperly targets ...

Blinken wraps up Mideast tour; little support for pause in Gaza fighting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a grueling Middle East diplomatic tour on Monday in Turkey after only limited success in efforts to forge a regional consensus on how best to ease civilian suffering in Gaza as Israel intensifies its war against Hamas.In the Turkish capital, Ankara, Blinken met with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan following a frantic weekend of travel that took him from Israel to Jordan, the occupied West Bank, Cyprus and Iraq, to build support for the Biden administration’s proposal for “humanitarian pauses” to Israel’s relentless military campaign in Gaza.“All of this is a work in progress,” Blinken said before leaving Turkey. “We don’t obviously agree on everything, but there are common views on some of the imperatives of the moment that we’re working on together.”Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy came as Israeli troops surrounded Gaza City and cut off the northern part...

Traffic on SF Bay Bridge will be impacted by APEC summit

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:37 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- In cooperation with the California Highway Patrol, Caltrans is implementing enhanced safety measures on highways and bridges around San Francisco during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2023 Summit starting on Tuesday, Nov. 14.The U.S. Secret Service recently designated the APEC Summit as a National Special SecurityEvent, requiring heightened security measures in San Francisco.CalTrans officials wrote, "We understand that these closures may cause temporary inconvenience, but they are essential to help ensure the safety and security of this significant event and to promote immediacy and availability for emergency response."Caltrans will be implementing the following closures to help ensure safety and security:Closure of eastbound I-80 at 4th Street off-ramp and westbound I-80 at 5th Street off-ramp: From Wednesday, Nov. 15 through Friday, Nov. 17, between 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.Closure of #1 (far-left) lane on eastbound I-80 (San Francisco / Oakland Bay B...