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Transit, child care are among the sticking points in California’s $300 billion budget negotiations

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

By ADAM BEAM (Associated Press)SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers passed a budget Thursday to ensure they keep getting paid, but it’s a blueprint unlikely to become law because the Democrat-controlled Legislature is still negotiating with Gov. Gavin Newsom. At stake is how to spend more than $300 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1.Legislative leaders and Newsom, who is also a Democrat, have until the end of June to agree on a spending plan. Lawmakers must pass a budget by June 15 to keep their paychecks, a requirement voters approved in 2010 to try to keep the budget process from dragging on.Here’s a look at the sticking points:THE NUMBERSNewsom’s budget is $306.5 billion. The Legislature’s is $311.7 billion.Both sides agree the state will have a $31.5 billion budget deficit, to be covered through a combination of delayed spending, some cuts and borrowing. Once those actions are taken, both sides end up with about $37 billion in reserve.PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONP...

Nick Gravenites reminisces about Janis Joplin, Michael Bloomfield and the Chicago blues migration to San Francisco

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

In the green room before Los Lobos’ Memorial Day concert at West Marin’s Rancho Nicasio, everyone’s attention was focused on the band’s guest for the day: 84-year-old bluesman Nick Gravenites.Wearing his signature Greek fisherman’s cap, Gravenites sat at the end of a couch with his cane by his side, signing copies of his albums and chatting with members of the band, who peppered him with questions about his life and the famous people he’d met and worked with along the way.Singer-songwriter-guitarist Cesar Rosas wanted to know if Gravenites had met Bob Dylan in New York.“Nah,” Gravenites replied. “New York wasn’t a blues town. It was a folk music town.”But he quickly segued into a story about Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, wanting Dylan to renegotiate his original Columbia Records contract because he was underage when he signed it.“Bob said no,” Gravenites said. “He told Grossman that he signed that contract with John Hammond (the respected producer and civil rights activist) in g...

San Mateo’s wealthy cities using ADUs to avoid building affordable housing, says report

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

Affluent cities in San Mateo County are using accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to meet affordable housing targets set by the state, according to a new report by the county’s civil grand jury. Effectively, this allows these cities to avoid constructing multifamily low-income affordable housing units, the report says.An ADU — sometimes called a granny flat — is a small secondary housing unit that shares the single-family lot of a larger primary residence. A recent change to California’s 1969 Housing Element Law allows communities to count ADUs as affordable housing in their state-mandated plans.The requirements for the 2023-2031 period call for approximately three times more affordable housing units compared to the 2015-2023 cycle, the report says. Cities like Atherton, Hillsborough, Portola Valley and Woodside plan to meet as much as 80 percent of these targets through ADUs, according to the report.This is a problem, the report says, because property owners often rent thei...

KRON4 celebrates Founder's Day of Caring

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

(KRON) -- June 16 marks Founder's Day of Caring, the celebration of when KRON4's parent company, Nexstar, was founded.KRON4 employees will be volunteering at food banks in San Francisco and Oakland on Friday to help fight food insecurity. "Right now, food banks really need money. We really need volunteers. All of our organizations have increased in size dramatically over the last couple of years," said Michael Altfest, Alameda County Community Food Bank. "We're spending $1.7 million every month just to buy food and that's relative to the $250,000 we were paying per month before the pandemic."KRON4's Will Tran reports from the Alameda County Community Food Bank Friday morning to share more. Watch his live report in the video player above.

Correction: Pakistan-Budget story

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — In a story published June 10, 2023, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Pakistan’s government budget for the coming fiscal year is $940 billion and that this compared to $786 billion in the previous year. The actual figure is $50 billion for the coming fiscal year, compared to $47 billion for last year’s budget.Source

Pokemon cards help tie suspect to series of explosions in Md. neighborhood

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

Authorities in Maryland have charged a man following a series of explosions over the last several weeks in Aberdeen — and they say his collection of Pokemon cards helped connect him to the blasts.Jeremiah E. Burnette, 34, of Aberdeen, faces charges of possessing and using explosive devices, following a joint investigation by the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal, Aberdeen Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.Burnette was arrested Tuesday after Aberdeen police officers responded to a reported explosion in the area of South Rogers and James streets around 3:30 a.m.The “loud explosion,” as described by the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal, happened in the same area residents had reported hearing explosions in the middle of the night since mid-May.Responding officers discovered a crater near a wood line littered with Pokémon cards. One of the officers recalled a similar stack of cards when previously arresting Burnett...

Gloria Estefan, la primera mujer latina en ingresar al Salón de la Fama

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

NUEVA YORK – La cantante Gloria Estefan se convirtió anoche en la primera mujer latina en ingresar en el Salón de la Fama de los Compositores de EEUU, en un acto en Nueva York donde afirmó que la música fue su refugio cuando su familia dejó Cuba para iniciar una nueva vida en otro país y con un nuevo idioma.Estefan subió al escenario mientras se escuchaba la música de Conga, un éxito del grupo Miami Sound Machine con el que se dio a conocer, y el público puesto en pie moviendo su cuerpo al ritmo del tema.La estrella latina agradeció ser incluida en el exclusivo grupo de compositores y hacer así un sueño realidad. “El mejor regalo de cumpleaños”: Gloria Estefan tiene su propia muñeca Barbie Gloria Estefan revela que fue abusada sexualmente cuando era niña “La música salvó mi vida cuando mi familia fue forzada a iniciar una nueva vida. La música fue mi terapia”, dijo la cantautora que emigró a Estados Unidos cuando...

Germany hands over 2 Indigenous masks to Colombia as it reappraises the past

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany handed over to Colombia on Friday two masks made by the Indigenous Kogi people that had been in a Berlin museum’s collection for more than a century, another step in the country’s restitution of cultural artifacts as European nations reappraise their colonial-era past.The wooden “sun masks,” which date back to the mid-15th century, were handed over at the presidential palace during a visit to Berlin by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The decision to restitute them follows several years of contacts between Berlin’s museum authority and Colombia, and an official Colombian request last year for their return.“We know that the masks are sacred to the Kogi,” who live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northern Colombia, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the handover ceremony. “May these masks have a good journey back to where they are needed, and where they are still a bridge between people and nature today.”Pet...

Live Nation and SeatGeek say you’ll see true costs up front as Biden pushes to end hidden junk fees

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

President Joe Biden speaks at the League of Conservation Voters annual capital dinner in Washington, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)(AP/Susan Walsh) President Joe Biden speaks at the League of Conservation Voters annual capital dinner in Washington, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)(AP/Susan Walsh) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden highlighted progress in chipping away at hidden junk fees tacked on to ticket, lodging and other prices as a “win for consumers” as major company executives meeting with him at the White House announced they’ll start showing customers the real cost up front.Live Nation, which is based in Beverly Hills, California, said Thursday that it will prov...

Michael Jordan selling majority ownership stake in Charlotte Hornets

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:59:25 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Michael Jordan is finalizing a deal to sell the majority share of the Charlotte Hornets, a move that will end his 13-year run overseeing the organization, the team announced Friday.Jordan is selling to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, the Hornets said. Plotkin has been a minority stakeholder in the Hornets since 2019. Schnall has been a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks since 2015 and is in the process of selling his investment in that team.It’s not clear how long the process of selling will take to finalize by the NBA’s Board of Governors. Jordan is expected to keep a stake in the Hornets, the team he bought in 2010 for about $275 million.“In the same way that it’s wonderful that one of our greatest, Michael Jordan, could become the principal governor of a team, he has the absolute right to sell at the same time,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month at the NBA Finals. “Values have gone up a lot since he bought that ...