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Red Bird Rising’s “My Revolution”: A Powerful Anthem of Love and Defiance Amid War

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Red Bird Rising’s “My Revolution” is a powerful and moving anthem of love and defiance amid the chaos of war. The song, featuring Taras Kuznetzov on lead vocals, reflects the artist’s experiences living in Ukraine during the Russian invasion of 2022. The music and lyrics of “My Revolution” is beautiful and profound, expressing the urgency of a personal story and an anti-war statement.Diedrich Donald Weiss, the mastermind behind Red Bird Rising, has a world-worn faith in the power of music to change people’s lives. From 2009 to 2015, he performed music every Friday for patients, families, and staff in the cancer and mental health unit of Fairview Southdale Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, he recorded four solo studio albums, engineered and produced five albums for other artists, and performed as a studio musician. Critics have described Weiss’s music as compelling and emotionally charged.Weiss’s experiences traveli...

Women’s History Month–Highlighting Bella Modeling School as They Work to Revamp the Modeling/Entertainment Industry

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Women’s History Month is an important annual celebration of the achievements of women throughout history and the present day. This month is an opportunity to recognize and honor the contributions of women in all areas of life, from politics and government, to the arts and sciences, to athletics and business. It also serves to encourage young women to pursue their dreams and to inspire current and future generations of women to strive for equality, justice, and respect.The modeling industry is undergoing some major positive changes with a newfound focus on diversity and inclusion and taking a step in the right direction. One such company that highlights these positive changes is Bella Modeling School, located in Dallas, Texas, McKinney, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia. The school is actively working to break down barriers and create an environment that embraces all individuals regardless of race, size, or age.Bella Modeling School is the only one of its kind, as it shines a light on the ...

Silicon Valley Bank bought, but Silicon Valley has already moved on

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Silicon Valley Bank’s rapid fall this month initially felt cataclysmic for the Bay Area’s startup industry. Less than three weeks later, news of the bank’s purchase by First Citizens Bank was met Monday with little more than raised eyebrows.Silicon Valley had moved on, quickly.“We don’t even think about it anymore except to say, ‘Oh my gosh, remember how crazy it was?’ ” said Chon Tang, general partner at SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup accelerator.The Santa Clara-based bank’s demise set off a crisis in confidence in the banking industry but also opened up opportunity for other banks to jump in to serve startups suddenly scrambling for banking services.Penelope Finnie, CEO of menstrual products startup Egal, had long appreciated Silicon Valley Bank’s services, but its sudden implosion early this month, with a large sum of just-deposited Egal funding, spiked her stress level — and sent her elsewhere.“I went ...

Lawsuit: Plans for air tours over Bay Area national parks violates federal law

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

A lawsuit filed by environmental groups alleges the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration violated federal law by approving a plan to regulate air tours over Marin County’s national parks without adequately studying environmental impacts.The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Marin Audubon Society and the Watershed Alliance of Marin groups are calling on the court to toss the park service’s air tour management plan adopted in January for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument and the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.The groups are seeking a court order requiring an environmental analysis and limiting the number of flights over the parks to 50 per year until a new plan is adopted. The plan allows for about 2,600 trips annually.“The ability of commercial tour operators to fly above national parks is not a right, it is a privilege — a privilege that must be subord...

Klay Thompson closing in on career mark in first full season back

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — When Klay Thompson was nearing his return in January 2022 after missing 2 1/2 years of action, the Warriors medical staff told coach Steve Kerr it would take about a year or so for Thompson to fully get back to where he once was.Fourteen months later, Thompson is closing in on a career mark — the latest sign of how far he’s come since he suffered back-to-back devastating injuries.Thompson entered Monday leading the league in made 3-pointers and is just three shy of tying his regular-season career high of 276, set in 2015-16. After going 5 of 11 from deep in Sunday’s close loss to Minnesota, Thompson has made 273 treys in 64 games, converting on 40.7% of his attempts from beyond the arc. Pacers guard Buddy Hield is right behind Thompson with 271 3-pointers.In Kerr’s mind, Thompson will never lose his scoring touch.“He’ll be able to [bury 3s] until he’s 90,” Kerr recently said. “He’s always going to be a...

Sale closed in Palo Alto: $5.1 million for a five-bedroom home

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

817 Melville Avenue – Google Street ViewA 2,561-square-foot house built in 1960 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 800 block of Melville Avenue in Palo Alto was sold on March 16, 2023. The $5,100,000 purchase price works out to $1,991 per square foot. The property features five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a carport, and two parking spaces. There’s also a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on a 9,500-square-foot lot.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:A 2,440-square-foot home on the first block of Regent Place in Palo Alto sold in December 2022, for $3,650,000, a price per square foot of $1,496. The home has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In November 2022, a 672-square-foot home on Byron Street in Palo Alto sold for $2,000,000, a price per square foot of $2,976. The home has 1 bedroom and 2 bathrooms.On Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, in July 2022, a 823-square-foot home was sold for $2,437,000, a price per square foot of $2,961. The home has 1 bedroom and 1 b...

Opinion: California must provide a global model for coastal resiliency

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Ten years ago, I wrote a book called “The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea.” Back then, I suggested that California, with almost 40 million people and the world’s fifth largest economy, was proof that you could grow a progressive society while protecting your coast and ocean. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the book “just might make you feel optimistic about the future.”Well, that future has arrived and I’m less optimistic. This winter’s atmospheric river storms, coastal flooding, erosion, sea level rise, saltwater intrusion into rivers, and sedimentation dumping thousands of tons of soil into the ocean were only the most recent of the state’s disasters. The year 2022 alone brought a massive red tide in San Francisco Bay, the continued die-off of 95% of northern California’s kelp forest between the Golden Gate and Cape Mendocino, and a spike of gray whale deaths along the entire coast.Climate impacts threaten communities, both human and wild, ra...

Opinion: There’s no place in police work for dogs trained to bite

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

There’s no place in police work for dogs trained to bite.That’s probably not what you would expect to hear from someone with 30 years in law enforcement and a lifetime owning and handling the kinds of highly trained dogs used by police.It’s not that I don’t love dogs or know what they can do. Quite the contrary.There’s no mistaking someone bitten by a police dog, and I’ve seen it too many times over my career. Bones cracked and broken. Flesh and ligaments torn. Wounds that resemble a shark attack, sometimes from head to toe.When a police canine is let loose, someone goes to the hospital. Police dogs in California seriously injure more people each year than are hurt by the batons and tasers wielded by all the other officers in the state combined.Most of the people police dogs hurt are unarmed. They’ve been known to attack their handlers, fellow officers and innocent bystanders as well as criminal suspects. And their victims are disproportionately people of color.When human officers u...

How the rule changes can turn the A’s tragic offense into something intriguing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland A’s hit four home runs in their final exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday. But unlike previous seasons, they won’t be counting on power to fuel their offense.A roster rife with young players and veterans fit for a MLB-low $53 million payroll will have to get creative to score runs. That means plenty of contact, stolen bases, hit-and-runs and focus on pitch selection; any means necessary to put pressure on opposing pitchers and defenses.“I think the biggest message to these guys is not necessarily to sit back and hit the three-run homer,” manager Mark Kotsay said before Monday’s game. “We have guys in the lineup with power, but the message is to get on base and put together a professional at bat for the next guy.”The A’s couldn’t find much power in Spring Training’s dry Arizona air, but had no issue cutting through the marine layer at Oracle Park. Jesús Aguilar, Esteury Ruiz...

Skelton: Newsom denies the obvious. California is no longer in drought

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Gov. Gavin Newsom came close but couldn’t quite bring himself to say it: The drought’s over.It’s disappointing when a governor won’t acknowledge what ordinary citizens already know because they can see things for themselves.Another drought will emerge soon enough. It always does. That’s the California pattern — climate change or not.But right now, the biggest threat this spring is flooding from rivers leaping their banks.There’s just something about California governors and water officials that prevents them from admitting we’re through a dry spell and into a wet period.They fear we’ll resume taking long showers and swamping our lawns. We’ll stop conserving water and go back to wasting it. So, they treat us like children, denying the obvious.On Friday, Newsom and his water advisors stood on a Sacramento Valley farm flooded with storm runoff and pointed out that this has been one of California’s wettest winters on record. The Sierra snowpack is historically deep.And we’re still in a ...