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Bay Area school enrollment has plummeted. So why has student population spiked in this East Bay city?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

For 18-year-old Grace Holmes, there’s one thing that speaks to the population explosion in her hometown more than anything else: the stairwells at her high school in Dublin.“I’m stepping, then I’m pausing, then I’m waiting five seconds, then I’m stepping again,” said Holmes, a senior at Dublin High. “It’s just crazy to see that many kids.”Over the past five years, 85% of school districts in the Bay Area registered a drop in enrollment, with some losing nearly a third of their students. It’s a trend largely driven by falling birth rates, a rise in homeschooling, and a steady stream of people leaving the state.But in Dublin, both the schools and the city have seen the exact opposite: Its student population has tripled since 2019. Dublin Unified is one of less than 15% of all Bay Area school districts that have grown its enrollment over the last five years — and only one of six districts to have grown with over 5,000 students.In the decade between 2010 and 2020, Dublin’s populati...

Former Idaho Fish & Game worker Seth Brown, new A’s teammates explain why they love outdoor sports

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

MESA, Ariz. – Seth Brown has been hunting and fishing for as long as he can remember, first starting out in Oregon with his older brothers and father.The serenity of the quiet woods, lakes and streams helps Brown find a sense of calmness with a busy baseball schedule. In the outdoors, he feels primal, as though he can get back to human basics.“When you get out a few miles away from any road or trail, it’s just human nature,” Brown said this week from the A’s desert spring training facility.Brown led the A’s with 25 home runs and 73 RBIs last season, splitting time almost evenly between first base and the outfield. This season will feature a bit more solitude for him in right field after the A’s signed veteran first baseman Jesús Aguilar over the winter.Brown’s interest in the outdoors led him during his time at Lewis-Clark State College (Lewiston, Idaho) to work his senior year for the state’s fish and game department as part of a class project focused on salmon migration. His job f...

49ers’ offseason checklist: Where things stand after first wave of free agency

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

With the first major wave of free agency in the books, the 49ers will look for complementary pieces to improve their depth for the remainder of the offseason.Here’s how the 49ers are looking with the remainder of free agency and the NFL Draft to come on April 27-29:FREE AGENTS FROM OTHER TEAMSDT Javon Hargrave (Eagles): Expected to become “Mr. Inside” to Nick Bosa’s  “Mr. Outside”. Should be the best 1-2 pass-rush punch in the NFL.QB Sam Darnold (Panthers): Viability as a potential starter, either through emergency or performance, will be assessed after Kyle Shanahan rebuilds his game.DL Clelin Ferrell (Raiders): Will be saddled with “overdrafted” reputation unless he can break out and do something special with help from Kris Kocurek.CB Isaiah Oliver (Falcons): Slot corner candidate took most of the season to feel normal again after 2021 ACL surgery.FREE AGENT DEPARTURESQB Jimmy Garoppolo (Raiders): Can Jimmy G’s reputation as a winner actua...

Editorial: How U.S. can reduce TikTok national security risk

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

The Chinese-owned social media giant TikTok has 100 million American users, including an estimated 30 million who are 10-to-19 years old and another 30 million who are 20-29 years old.Those numbers make it easy to understand why Congress and national security experts have concerns. They worry about the potential for spreading disinformation among young voters during the 2024 election campaign. They also worry that TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, could be required by law to turn over its massive accumulation of American users’ personal data to the Chinese government for nefarious purposes, including potential cyber attacks.On March 7, a bipartisan group of 12 senators introduced a bill known as the RESTRICT Act, which would give the White House expanded powers to control what apps and technologies Americans can access and limit users ability to challenge those actions in court. Former President Trump had tried to ban TikTok nationally in 2020 but was thwarted by the U.S. law t...

Kevon Looney battles through pain but Warriors come up short

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

ATLANTA – Kevon Looney hobbled down the long hallway past the Atlanta Hawks’ locker room Friday night, stopping only to sign basketballs for two enthusiastic boys, before he took a seat in the visitor’s interview room.“I’m a little sore,” Looney admitted after the Warriors’ taxing 127-119 loss. “But I’m overall pretty good.” Back pain had landed Looney on the team’s injury list heading into Friday’s matchup against the Hawks. But this was another must-win road game for Golden State, which was already undermanned. With Draymond Green serving a one-game suspension for racking up 16 technical fouls this season, Looney felt the onus to set the tone defensively against the Hawks. So Mr. Reliable battled through, back pain and all, to extend his regular-season game streak to 182.“Loon brings it every night,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s gonna battle, he’s gonna be out there… making the little plays and he was fantastic.” Looney set sc...

Opinion: Alameda County mental health funding ‘shooting in the dark’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

The 20 people who voiced frustrations in a recent Zoom meeting represented a fraction of the membership of Alameda County FASMI — Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill. “Everybody here has skin in the game,” said Katy Polony, co-founder of this group whose members have firsthand or secondhand experience with serious mental illness.An Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report issued last year validated their complaints. “Alameda County residents witness daily the inadequacies of our mental health system,” the grand jurors wrote, calling our safety net “fragmented and unresponsive” and adding, “entry to the system must be streamlined.”County residents will have a chance to question this system when the Board of Supervisors considers how to spend the approximately $100 million we get each fiscal year thanks to the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA).California voters enacted the MHSA in 2004 when they approved Prop 63. It put a 1% income tax surcharge on earnings above $1...

Trump says in social media post he’ll be arrested on Tuesday as Manhattan prosecutor eyes charges in hush money case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Trump says in social media post he’ll be arrested on Tuesday as Manhattan prosecutor eyes charges in hush money case.Source

Trump predicts imminent arrest, calls for protests

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday called on his supporters to protest and “take our nation back” as he girds for an expected effort by the Manhattan district attorney to bring an unprecedented criminal charge over his handling of a hush money payment during his 2016 presidential campaign.“Protest, take our nation back!” the former president and 2024 GOP presidential candidate exhorted his followers Saturday morning on his social media platform Truth Social, after pointing to news reports about the possibility he could be arrested Tuesday or soon thereafter.Trump provided no clear basis for his expected arrest, beyond citing what he called “illegal leaks” about the ongoing investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.It’s unclear if Trump’s legal team has informed him of an impending indictment or whether he’s speculating based on news coverage.A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment Saturday. A Secret Service spokesperson did not immediately respond to ...

MBTA delays lifting ‘global’ speed restriction on Green Line, other restrictions remain

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

The MBTA has announced that it is delaying its plan to lift a global speed restriction in place on the Green Line on Saturday, just over a week after the restriction went into effect last Thursday.  Though officials said they hoped to lift the 25 mile per hour end-to-end Green Line restriction at the beginning of Saturday service, those plans were delayed, the agency said in a statement.In a statement, the MBTA said, “While running a Green Line test train in areas where defects had previously been detected, crews identified speed signs that need to be relocated to implement block restrictions. As result, the global speed restriction will remain in place until this manual process is completed.”Other restrictions will remain in place on sections of tracks across all T lines, continuing to cause headaches for some riders.MBTA Interim General Manager Jeff Gonneville discussed the changes at a press conference Friday afternoon.The T previously announced system-wide speed rest...

Nice Saturday, then a cold and windy Sunday

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:01:46 GMT

7Weather – Good morning! Who’s continuing the St. Patrick’s Day weekend celebrations? It’s a nice morning for it. Temperatures are starting off mild in the mid/upper 40s for MetroWest and the city of Boston. A lot of clouds were around overnight, allowing for this above-average start. Some of those clouds squeezing out sprinkles for the coast, Cape and Islands. Those sprinkles are part of a cold front. We won’t feel the effects of it yet. There’s still mild air above us in the clouds today. A westerly wind will start to pull in the cooler air. The colder temperatures are there back to our west. We’ll feel that waking up tomorrow morning and hold on the chilly feel through Sunday. We wake up tomorrow to temperatures in a range from 25° to near 30°. Temperatures tomorrow will be locked in the 30s. It’ll be windy. Westerly gusts will approach 35-40 mph by the afternoon. That’ll drop wind chill value to the 20s! That’s how you&...