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Opinion: Paid family leave laws overlook babies in intensive care

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

On a Friday in February, I wished my team a great weekend, only I didn’t return. It was the Irish goodbye I never intended.After a complicated pregnancy, I was lucky and relieved to welcome our second son, Hudson, at 34 weeks. He was immediately whisked off to the neonatal intensive care unit where he spent the next 29 days learning to breathe, drink from a bottle and maintain his temperature.There are very few words to describe the NICU experience. It’s a paradox of emotions, each encompassing every fiber of your being. You feel the highest of highs and the lowest of lows: from isolated to grateful, frustrated to hopeful, and disheartened to excited all at once. Not to mention the all-consuming guilt when your baby isn’t by your side.In California, 9.1% of babies are born preterm, or before 37 weeks. A March of Dimes report estimates that infants admitted to a special care unit had an average length of stay of 13 days, ranging from five days for full-term infants to 46 days among t...

San Jose’s Naomi Girma providing steady presence for shaky USWNT at Women’s World Cup

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

It has been a frustrating and underwhelming performance for the U.S. women’s national team so far at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.But as the offense struggles to score and the midfield struggles to possess the ball, one player has been vital, anchoring the American’s solid defensive performance: San Jose native Naomi Girma.Girma has been a big part of the U.S. only allowing one goal through three matches in New Zealand, using her intelligence and quickness to anticipate opponents’ movements and cut off opportunities before they have gotten dangerous.To those watching the women’s game closest, it’s pretty clear what path the 23-year-old Girma is heading on.“Naomi Girma is going to be the best center back in the world,” Aly Wagner, Fox’s lead analyst at the Women’s World Cup, said before the tournament. “I think the potential is limitless for her.”United States’ Naomi Girma, left, attempts to control the ball as Netherlands’ Katja Snoeijs watches during the Women’s Wor...

Elias: Forcing appliance electrification may cause California backlash

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

There’s been copious news coverage of attempts by state government to force dense new housing construction on cities around California. Much less is said about attempts to compel Californians to switch almost every type of domestic appliance or machine from running on natural gas to electricity.Related ArticlesLocal Opinion | Elias: GOP hopeful’s entry changes race for Feinstein’s seat considerably Local Opinion | Active citizens are the cornerstone of the Saratoga community Local Opinion | Simitian: Let’s make Santa Clara County a more accessible place for all Local Opinion | Elias: Pause AI’s development until its regulation is assured Local Opinion | Elias: Judge-shopping a harmful American practice that should stop Also at the same time, little note has been taken of power blackouts — sometimes lasting a week or more — that accompanied myriad storms last winter, which set records fo...

Single family residence sells in San Jose for $2.4 million

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

1780 Cleveland Avenue – Google Street ViewA 2,532-square-foot house built in 1946 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 1700 block of Cleveland Avenue in San Jose was sold on July 13, 2023. The $2,375,000 purchase price works out to $938 per square foot. This single-story house offers a capacious living environment with its four bedrooms and three baths. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. The property is equipped with a heating system. In addition, the house comes with a one-car garage, offering a designated parking space and extra storage capacity. The lot of the property is substantial, measuring 6,588 square feet, and boasts a pool for relaxation and recreation.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:A 1,723-square-foot home on the 1800 block of Naglee Avenue in San Jose sold in January 2023, for $1,599,000, a price per square foot of $928. The home has 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom.In April 2023, a 2,667-square-foot home on Naglee Av...

Silicon Valley Bank shareholder sues bank group over stock

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

(KRON) -- A Silicon Valley Bank shareholder is suing the bank group in an effort to recover stocks that were held in reliance on executive misstatements. Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jane Lodato for alleged breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and deceit, negligent misrepresentation and constructive fraud. The complaint alleges that SVB hid the bank's severe liabilities and risks for years despite citations dating back to 2019 from the Federal Reserves Bank of San Francisco. 66-acre fire threatening structures in South Bay Lodato was a former employee at SVB and repeatedly planned to sell her shares of stock but she was persuaded to hold onto those shares. The complaint alleges that Lodato held over 1,400 shares that were worth $755 each at the time, and are now worth around 17 cents each.“As alleged in the complaint, SVB and its executives had a duty to accurately portray the risks and realities of the Bank—instead, they hid their mistakes in favor of ...

United by Necessity: How the American Revolution Averted Civil War

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In a provocative new book, historian Eli Merritt argues that the Thirteen Colonies only overcame their differences and united into a single entity due to an existential fear of civil war, collapse, and invasion. That fear is now gone. This week on Deconstructed, Merritt joins Ryan Grim to discuss his new book, “Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution.” Merritt argues that the founders — motivated by surviving as an independent government — united to avoid a civil war between the colonies. The “survivalist interpretation” of the nation’s founding, he explains, led to a historic “shotgun wedding”: a compromise-laden journey leading to the Declaration of Independence and a failure to confront slavery.Transcript coming soon.The post United by Necessity: How the American Revolution Averted Civil War appeared first on The Intercept.

Congressional delegation tours blood-stained halls where Parkland school massacre happened

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Nine members of Congress began a tour of the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, shortly before ballistics technicians reenact the massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the campus, locked behind a chain-link fence for use as evidence in last year’s penalty trial for the shooter.There is broken glass on the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on students’ desks — at least those that weren’t toppled during the chaos. In one classroom, there is an unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing, the pieces unmoved. The Associated Press was one of five media outlets allowed to tour the building after shooter Nikolas Cruz’s jury went through. The House members were led ...

What happens behind the scenes when storms knock power out?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

After Saturday’s storm in our region left homes cut in half and roads closed for days, many were left in the dark for hours — even days in some areas — and wondering when the power would come back on.At the Pepco Mobile Command operations center, currently stationed in Rockville, Maryland, crews are able to go out on the field and help people when their power goes out during storms. In our area, the mobile center has been deployed for the past two weeks.The 33-foot mobile vehicle is about the size of a camper Winnebago — but with a few cool additions. It has high-visibility lights, its own generating and satellite communication system and is completely self-sustained.“I don’t think we expected the level we saw, but we expected to be impacted,” said Pete Pedersen, manager of emergency preparedness for Pepco Holdings, of Saturday’s burst of weather.One of the biggest challenges the company said it sees is fallen trees that can down power lines. New techno...

Xabi Alonso signs a contract extension as coach of Bayer Leverkusen after a strong first season

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — Xabi Alonso extended his contract as coach of German club Bayer Leverkusen through to 2026 on Friday after a strong first season led to speculation linking him with some of Europe’s top teams.Alonso, who won the Champions League as a player with Liverpool and Real Madrid and the World Cup with Spain, took over Leverkusen in October when it was second-to-last in the Bundesliga. The team finished the season in sixth and reached the semifinals of the Europa League.“I see last season as a positive. But I want more, exactly as the club does. We are now working on that with ambition,” Alonso said in a statement.His contract had previously been due to run out at the end of the 2023-24 season. The Leverkusen job is Alonso’s first as coach of a senior team after stints in Spain with Real Sociedad’s B-team and as a Real Madrid youth coach.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/SoccerSource

Bark beetles are eating through Germany’s Harz forest. Climate change is making matters worse

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

CLAUSTHAL-ZELLERFELD, Germany (AP) — Nestled in the spruce trees in the Harz mountains of northern Germany is a bark-eating pest not much bigger than a sesame seed.Known as “book printers” for the lines they eat into the bark that fan out from a single spine resembling words on a page, these eight-toothed beetles have always been part of the local forest. Officials expect the bugs to typically kill a few spruces each summer as they find suitable trees to lay their eggs — they burrow into the tree’s cambium, or growing layer, hampering it from getting the nutrients it needs to survive.But the tiny insects have been causing outsized devastation to the forests in recent years, with officials grappling to get the pests under control before the spruce population is entirely decimated. Two-thirds of the spruce in the region have already been destroyed, said Alexander Ahrenhold from the Lower Saxony state forestry office, and as human-caused climate change makes the region drier and the tr...