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From the Roadshow archives: Being thankful for the kindness and heroism in others

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

Editor’s note: Mr. Roadshow wanted to share some of his favorite columns and stories from more than 30 years of informing, entertaining and getting things changed for Bay Area (and beyond) drivers. He’ll be back on the road with new material soon. In the meantime, please keep sending Mr. Roadshow your comments or questions to [email protected] story originally was published on Nov. 26, 2020.Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. We will find a way to enjoy it even during this terrible pandemic, with the guidelines on not gathering in large groups to celebrate and feast in the ways we normally would. So here’s some cheer, and good stories, to recognize people who have performed kind and heroic acts.TWO HEROES AT A BART STATIONA young woman dropped a bag at the BART Powell Street station in San Francisco. When she leaned to pick it up, she slipped off the platform onto the tracks below. An unidentified man jumped onto the rail line to try to get her ...

Are more trades on horizon? San Jose Sharks GM talks Couture, Hertl, UFAs, and when rebuild might end

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier is keeping all of his options open when it comes to potentially trading centers Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl and re-signing pending unrestricted free agent wingers such as Anthony Duclair and Alexander Barabanov.Reiterating what he discussed last year after he became San Jose’s top hockey executive, Grier said Thursday he would listen if a veteran like Couture or Hertl came to him looking to move to more of a playoff-contending team with the rebuilding Sharks perhaps needing another year or two to become postseason threats.Grier extended the same courtesy to Norris Trophy winners Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson the last two offseasons, as both sought moves to win-now teams with the Sharks still in a transitional phase. Burns was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in July 2022 and Karlsson was shipped to the Pittsburgh Penguins in August.Couture and Hertl have both played their entire careers with the Sharks after they were dr...

Giants learn blitzing Brock Purdy isn’t the answer in loss to 49ers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Shorthanded as they were going in without the left side of their offensive line and running back Saquon Barkley, the New York Giants figured a full assault on 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was their best chance Thursday night.Rattle the kid with pressure from every angle. Get a few sacks, some turnovers and who knows? An overmatched 10 1/2 point underdog might actually have a chance.Apparently blitzing Brock isn’t the answer either. The Giants sent enough blitzers to make Purdy look off his game early on, but by the time a 30-12 win at Levi’s Stadium was secured, the 49ers quarterback did what he’s done every time he’s gone wire to wire.Win the game.“I thought it was a huge challenge, one of the biggest Brock’s been in,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “It’s a short week of practice, they have six guys on the line of scrimmage, half the time they’re coming, half the time they’re not. He settled dow...

Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week: Jacob Alvarado, Milpitas football

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

Milpitas football player Jacob Alvarado is the Bay Area News Group’s boys high school athlete of the week for Sept. 11-16 after he received 42.4% of the vote.Oakland football player Joshua Oludayo (27.1%) took second.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Alvarado, a senior, ran for 328 yards and four touchdowns in 13 carries as Milpitas rolled over Santa Clara 56-14 in a nonleague game. The Trojans improved to 3-0.To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email [email protected] by Monday, Sept. 25, at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps.com by coaches/team statisticians for consideration.Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News & East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.Related ArticlesHigh School Sports | Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Lauren Grgurina, California flag football ...

Foreclosed San Jose office building near big malls is bought — again

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

SAN JOSE — A San Jose office building near the city’s big malls that lurched into foreclosure, was seized by its lender, and is deemed to be an eyesore has been bought by a Bay Area real estate investor.The building, located at 826 North Winchester, was bought for slightly more than $6.5 million, according to documents filed on Sept. 21 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.The office building, which is scarred by graffiti and is said by its neighbors to be a blighted property, has been bought, seized through foreclosure, bought by a new owner, and then seized through foreclosure again in June of this year, prior to the most recent purchase.The merry-go-round of transactions began in 2020, when a Redondo Beach-based investor bought the building for $8.25 million. After that loan was foreclosed, a Grass Valley-based real estate group paid $10.75 million for the site in 2021.The most recent price, $6.54 million, is 39% below the prior purchase price less than...

Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Lauren Grgurina, California flag football

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

California girls flag football player Lauren Grgurina is the Bay Area News Group’s girls high school athlete of the week for Sept. 11-16 after she received 41.3% of the vote.San Ramon Valley flag football player Mackayla Chojnacky (28.6%) took second.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Grgurina, a senior, scored the only touchdown of Cal’s 7-0 victory over San Ramon Valley on Wednesday. Later in the week, the senior caught two touchdowns from Kylie Tabor, and returned one of her two interceptions for a touchdown.To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email [email protected] by Monday, Sept. 25, at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps.com by coaches/team statisticians for consideration.Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News & East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.Related ArticlesHigh School Sports |...

Editorial: Don’t let PG&E further gouge its 16 million customers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

PG&E has few peers when it comes to raking in profits at the expense of its customers.Since 2018, the utility’s average bill for the typical residential customer who received gas and electric services has skyrocketed by 42%, from $169.73 a month to $240.73 a month. That compares to the overall Bay Area inflation rate over the last five years of 13.5%, or 2.7% a year.If that wasn’t bad enough, the two-time convicted felon is now proposing that it be allowed to harvest even higher revenues from its customers.PG&E had the temerity to ask the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to increase its revenue in 2023 by a whopping $3.2 billion, or 26%.The PUC, which has a long history of cozying up to PG&E, must not allow PG&E to further gouge its 16 million customers, not when they already pay some of the highest utility rates in the nation.The PUC should instead consider the two alternative proposals it issued last week — one crafted by PUC ...

Woman rescued from outhouse toilet after climbing in to retrieve Apple Watch, police say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

BAGLEY TOWNSHIP, Mich.  — A woman was rescued Tuesday from an outhouse toilet in northern Michigan after she climbed in to retrieve her Apple Watch and became trapped.The woman, whose name was not released, lowered herself inside the toilet after dropping the watch at the Department of Natural Resources boat launch at Dixon Lake in Otsego County’s Bagley Township, state police said Wednesday in a release.First responders were called when the woman was heard yelling for help. The toilet was removed and a strap was used to haul the woman out.Related ArticlesNational News | $10,000 Depression-era bill sells for $480,000 National News | High school band director hit with stun gun, arrested after refusing to end performance National News | Woman accused of setting California Target afire so she could steal baby formula is arrested National News | GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert escorted out of “Beetlejuice” musical in Denver after “causi...

Another top Silicon Valley investor is splitting off its China business as pressure mounts

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

By Michelle Toh | CNNHong Kong  — GGV Capital, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has become the latest big investor to break up its US and China operations into separate companies as tensions between the two countries over tech and geopolitics continue to rise.The firm announced Thursday that it would divide its business into two “completely independent” firms with separate new brands, which have not been revealed.According to the company, one side will concentrate on North America, Latin America, Europe, Israel and cross-border US-India deals, led by teams in California and New York by managing partners Glenn Solomon, Hans Tung, Jeff Richards and Oren Yunger.The other side will focus on China, Southeast Asia and South Asia, run from its headquarters in Singapore, by managing partners Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo.GGV’s existing Chinese yuan-denominated funds “will continue to be managed independently” under its Chinese brand, Jiyuan Capital, it said.In a statement, the fir...

Opinion: Remembering Adobe’s John Warnock, a Silicon Valley giant

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:12 GMT

I recently went to the memorial service for John Warnock. Most will not be familiar with the name — he was a brilliant man but a modest one. He was also a person ranking with Bill Hewlett, David Packard, Gordon Moore, Bob Noyce and Steve Jobs in the pantheon of those who created our special valley and changed the world.As I sat thinking of my time with him on the Tech Museum board, my mind drifted back to the place I now sit, the  headquarters of Adobe Systems — the company he co-founded with Chuck Gesecke and one that changed so much of how we do our writing and communicating and dreaming. It was a place I know well. I attended St. Joseph’s Grammar School on that very site, about nine years with the Sisters of Notre Dame and Jesuits of the church down the street.  We lived in a very different place then, not really a city but definitely the beginnings of one.My family has lived and worked in our downtown for generations, and from my bedroom window I could see AP Giannin...