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San José-reared author Viet Thanh Nguyen honors his late mother’s ‘epic’ life in his new memoir

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

Since winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, San Jose-reared novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen has become one of the leading voices of the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States. But he didn’t think his own story — about fleeing Vietnam when he was 4 and growing up in Silicon Valley in the 1980s — was compelling enough when it came time to write his memoir.So the author broadened the focus of “A Man of Two Faces” (Grove Press, 2023) to encompass the “epic” life of his late mother, Linda Kim Nguyen. She was born in a northern Vietnamese village during French colonial rule, came of age amid an escalating war that ravaged her homeland and scrambled to get her young sons onto a boat during the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Her last decades were spent working “relentlessly” long hours in her family’s SàiGòn Mới grocery store in San Jose’s pre-gentrified downtown.Author Viet Thanh Nguyễn and his mother, Linda Kim Nguyen, in Vietnam, before they left in 1975. (Courtesy of Viet...

David Mitchell dies; his little Point Reyes newspaper exposed Synanon cult

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

David Mitchell, a muckraker whose tiny California newspaper challenged the violent drug rehabilitation cult Synanon and, as a result, became one of only a handful of weeklies to win a Pulitzer Prize, died Oct. 25 at his home in Point Reyes Station, California, in Marin County. He was 79.His wife, Lynn Axelrod Mitchell, said the cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease.A gangly, grizzled former literature teacher, Mitchell also figured in a retaliatory libel suit by Synanon, the results of which advanced the rights of investigative reporters. In 1984, the California Supreme Court ruled that in certain cases they could keep the names of confidential sources secret without forfeiting their defense in libel and other civil cases.Mitchell’s newspaper, the Point Reyes Light, was struggling financially, and the strain of keeping it afloat ultimately cost Mitchell his second marriage; his wife at the time, Catherine Mitchell, was co-publisher with him.But the seven news articles and 1...

Supreme Court to rule on ban of rapid-fire gun bump stocks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

By Mark Sherman | Associated PressWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a Trump era-ban on bump stocks, the gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, violates federal law.The justices will hear arguments early next year over a regulation put in place by the Justice Department after a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.Federal appeals courts have come to different decisions about whether the regulation defining a bump stock as a machine gun comports with federal law.The Supreme Court already is weighing a challenge to another federal law that seeks to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders, a case that stems from the landmark decision in 2022 in which the six-justice conservative majority expanded gun rights.The new case is not about the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms,” but rather whether the Trump administration followed federal law in changing the bump stock regulati...

Ivanka Trump mocked for saying she can’t testify during ‘the school week’: ‘Find a babysitter’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

Ivanka Trump was mocked online for her failed attempt to argue that she should be spared having to give midweek testimony in her father Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York because she is a busy mother of school-aged children in Florida.An appeals court curtly denied Ivanka Trump’s request to delay her testimony, which is scheduled for next Wednesday, The Guardian reported. Meanwhile, people online used the “school week” argument to criticize the former White House senior adviser for either thinking she’s above the law or to show that she’s “privileged” and out of touch with the daily challenges of regular people, Newsweek said.“Ivanka has to find a babysitter,” MSNBC host Katie Phang wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Don’t look now, but someone’s privilege is showing,” Phang added.“As always, Ivanka has her finger on the pulse of the hardships faced by America’s working men and women,R...

Berkeley police release video of fatal police shooting at Toyota dealership in September

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

(KRON) -- The Berkeley Police Department released critical incident video Friday related to a police shooting that occurred during an active shooter situation in September. Graphic videos from officers' body cameras and surveillance footage detail Berkeley PD officers responding to a report of an active shooter at a Toyota dealership on the Albany border just before 11:15 a.m. on Sept. 21.Officers were dispatched to the Toyota of Berkeley Service Center at 1025 Eastshore Highway in Albany after a 9-1-1 call came in reporting an active shooter. According to the caller, a man entered the service center and shot a woman.In the video, which you can watch here (warning, graphic video), the initial 9-1-1 call reporting the active shooter can be heard. Surveillance video released by BPD appears to show the suspect, 24-year-old Lamar Walker, entering the second floor of the service center, retrieving a handgun and firing at the victim, identified as 24-year-old Alonna Gallon. Gun store o...

Petaluma Army veteran arrested for allegedly threatening multiple military personnel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

(KRON) – A Petaluma resident has been charged with a felony offense for allegedly posting online videos of himself threatening to kill multiple military personnel at the Fort Irwin army base in San Bernardino County, the Justice Department announced on Thursday. Christian Ernest Beyer, 41, was charged with making interstate threats. A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco ordered Beyer to be jailed without bond. Beyer was an Army veteran formerly stationed at Fort Irwin who was court-martialed in 2021 for assault. 3 passengers sue Alaska Airlines after off-duty pilot accused of trying to cut engines mid-flight Beyer posted a YouTube video, using an account in his own name, threatening to kill specific military personnel at Fort Irwin, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint on Oct. 30.“I had a great…life and I will…die for what I believe in. If you come to…get me and you have a …uniform on, you’re a[n]…enemy and I will not look at you as anything else. I will…f...

Mavs coach Jason Kidd has non-COVID illness, will miss game in Denver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd will miss Friday night’s game at Denver with a non-COVID-19 illness.Kidd didn’t make the trip and will be replaced by top assistant Sean Sweeney. It’s the second time Sweeney has filled in. He went 3-1 when Kidd was in the health and safety protocols during the 2021-2022 season, Kidd’s first with the Mavericks.Dallas goes into its first meeting with the defending NBA champion Nuggets as the only undefeated team in the Western Conference. The Mavs are 4-0 for the first time since 2004-2005.Source

A Maine community awaits Biden as it mourns after a mass shooting that left 18 people dead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, in Washington. Biden is heading to Lewiston, Maine, to mourn with the community after 18 people were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in state history.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(AP/Evan Vucci) President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, in Washington. Biden is heading to Lewiston, Maine, to mourn with the community after 18 people were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in state history.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(AP/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to Lewiston, Maine, to mourn with a community where 18 people were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in ...

Larimer County deputy shoots at vehicle in kidnapping case after chase

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (KDVR) -- Deputies chased a vehicle potentially involved in a kidnapping in Weld County which led to a deputy firing their weapon early Friday morning.On Thursday night, Fort Collins Police Services received information on a vehicle involved with a possible kidnapping in Weld County. Local law enforcement was advised to be on the lookout.Per the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Public Information Office report, the incident started early Friday morning when the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office located a potential match for the vehicle near Shields Street and Elizabeth Street.The driver refused to stop after deputies turned on their sirens and deputies tracked the vehicle for several miles through west Fort Collins. Rep. Ken Buck explains speaker vote, talks death threats After 1 a.m. on Friday, a deputy set up tire spikes at the intersection of Horsetooth Road and College Avenue. The suspect drove at the deputy and the deputy fired their weapon.The vehi...

Police arrest student who allegedly brought gun to Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:58 GMT

Police arrested a student who is accused of bringing a gun to a South Florida high school. Fort Lauderdale Police arrived at the scene at Dillard High School, located at 2501 NW 11th St, Friday morning. Accoding to police, they first arrived at the school when they received reports of two juveniles who trespassed. The school was placed on lockdown as officers searched the school. The subjects were found and were detained. Later that morning, at around 11:20 a.m., police were notified that a student potentially had a gun. With the school still on lockdown, officers found the student, but they were not in possession of a gun. After searching the school, officers found a firearm.The student, 17 years old, was arrested and will be charged. Their identity or the charges they face have not been disclosed. Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.