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Skelton: Most California Democrats don’t want U.S. siding with Israel

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

This just seems startling to me: California Democrats think overwhelmingly that America should not take sides in the horrific war in Gaza. But Republicans side strongly with Israel.That’s based on a statewide poll conducted by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.It’s startling because for most of my life, the Democratic Party has emphatically backed Israel and has been solidly supported by Jewish voters and campaign donors. Democrats and Israel have been closely tied.“Democratic candidates get support from Jews because of social issues and their advocacy on behalf of people of color and those struggling financially. That’s the Jewish culture,” says longtime Democratic strategist Darry Sragow, who is Jewish.Bob Shrum, a former Democratic strategist who now is director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, points out that “the Democratic leadership still firmly supports Israel. Some people are outliers, but they don’...

East Bay boyfriend eyed in Capitola woman’s disappearance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

Theobald “Theo” Brooks Lengyel. (El Cerrito Police Department — Contributed) CAPITOLA — Bay Area police are investigating a missing Capitola woman’s case as a potential homicide.The El Cerrito Police Department, which is leading the investigation, said that the family of Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, reported her missing Dec. 12. The family had not heard from Herrmann for more than a week and she was last seen on Dec. 3 in Santa Cruz, according to police.Hermann had missed her flight to Hawaii, scheduled for Dec. 12, according to Capitola police.Police are treating Herrmann’s boyfriend, Theobald “Theo” Brooks Lengyel, of El Cerrito, as a person of interest in their investigation. Lengyel, who also goes by the name of Mylo Stone, allegedly drove his blue 1989 Ford pickup to Portland, Oregon, in the days after Herrmann’s disappearance and has “not cooperated with the police investigation,” according to El Cerrito police. Hermann’s red 2007 Toyota Highlander SUV was fou...

Vans, North Face owner VF Corp. says a hack is disrupting holiday orders

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

By Tonya Garcia | BloombergStruggling apparel and footwear maker VF Corp. said it’s working to restore its ability to fulfill orders following a cyberattack, though the company hasn’t yet determined the full scope of the incident.“Unauthorized occurrences” were detected on a portion of the company’s information technology system on Dec. 13, the North Face, Timberland and Vans parent said in a filing. The “threat actor” also stole personal and other data. The company is working with external cybersecurity experts and has shut down some systems.Also see: Apple to halt Apple Watch 9, Ultra 2 sales in US over patent dispute with Irvine’s MasimoRelated ArticlesBusiness | Apple to halt sales of some Apple Watches in US over patent dispute Business | Move over rotisserie chicken, Costco’s hottest item is a $2,000 gold bar Business | Milpitas police arrest five at Great Mall in anti-shoplifting operation Business | S.J.’s Berr...

First look inside Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Disneyland

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

Walt Disney Imagineering offered the first look inside the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attractions coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World as the former Splash Mountain rides continue to undergo extensive “Princess and the Frog” makeovers.The brief peek inside the attraction showed Imagineers working in a scene with an old cabin framed by a magnolia tree and waving fields of tall grass set against a night sky in the background.The sneak peek of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure appeared during “Disney 100: A Century of Dreams” on Disney-owned ABC as part of a special edition of the “20/20” news magazine show.And here are the photos from inside Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: pic.twitter.com/q9VH7NqTQ4— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) December 18, 2023The preview scene from Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was reminiscent of the swamp shacks that sit on stilts in the water across from the Blue Bayou restaurant at the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Disneyland, according to Twitter...

How, at 85, Anthony Hopkins brought his A-game to filming ‘Freud’s Last Session’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

When director Matthew Brown was ready to cast “Freud’s Last Session,” a film that imagines a conversation between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, it was Anthony Hopkins he thought of first to play the father of psychoanalysis.“Anthony Hopkins, that was always the No. 1 you could ever dream of getting,” Brown says. “I wasn’t surprised when he said no at first. I think he was in the midst of [the film] ‘The Father.’”But Brown didn’t give up on the dream. He worked on the script that he co-wrote with Mark St. Germain, who had written the stage play upon which the movie was adapted, and found a way to get it back in front of Hopkins once more.“When he said yes, it was basically ‘game on’ at that point,” Brown says.Matthew Goode as C.S. Lewis and Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud in “Freud’s Last Session,” a new film from director and cowriter Matthew Brown which opens Friday, Dec. 22, 2023. (Photo by Sabrina Lantos, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)Matthew Goode as C.S....

Torso found in dumpster identified as missing California mother of 3

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

A woman’s torso found in a garbage bin in Encino last month has been identified as a mother of three from Tarzana believed killed along with her parents, the coroner’s office said Monday, Dec. 18.Mei Haskell, 37, her mother Yanxiang Wang, 64, and her stepfather Gaoshan Li, 71, had all been missing from their Tarzana home since early November.After the torso was found in a bag inside the bin behind an Encino strip mall on Nov. 8, police said they found surveillance camera footage showing Haskell’s husband, 35-year-old Samuel Bond Haskell, dumping the bag. They arrested him at the Westfield Topanga mall the same day.Coroner’s office records now show investigators have identified the remains as Mei Haskell. Wang and Li remain missing.Samuel Haskell has remained in jail since his arrest at the mall. He made his first court appearance on Dec. 8, but still has not been arraigned on murder charges for his wife and in-laws. He is due back in court in January.Related ArticlesCrime and Public...

What opening day was like at In-N-Out’s first Idaho restaurant

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

It isn’t often that restaurant openings in the suburbs of Boise make international news, but that’s what happened last week, thanks to In-N-Out Burger and crowd sourcing.In-N-Out opened its first restaurant in Idaho on Dec. 12 in Meridian, population just under 130,000, according to recent data.The Idaho Stateman’s report that customers waited in the drive-thru line for eight hours on opening day were repeated in long articles by the New York Post and the Daily Mail, which is based in London. The Washington Post put the wait at six hours.Customer John Sowell snapped a picture of In-N-Out Burger’s owner Lynsi Snyder minutes after the chain’s first Idaho restaurant opened in Meridian on Dec. 12, 2023. (Photo courtesy of John Sowell)The kitchen in Idaho’s first In-N-Out Burger is crowded employees rush to get orders out during the grand opening in Meridian on Tuesday, Dec. 12. (Photo courtesy of John Sowell)John Sowell’s Mini Cooper sits in the parking lot of th...

Assaults on transit workers tripled nationwide; income and distrust may be why

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

Serious assaults on bus and rail operators have tripled in the past 15 years, causing operators to fear violence on the job, seek transfers off the frontlines or just quit — adding to operator shortages, according to a new report examining incidents at transit agencies across the country.A study by the Urban Institute released earlier this month found major assaults rose from 168 in 2008 to 492 in 2022. The data was culled from the Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database. It’s important to note that the FTA data only included major assaults in which an operator died or was taken to the hospital for treatment.The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) reported one major assault in 2008 and nine in 2022, according to the study. In 2022, the Orange County Transportation Authority reported two and Riverside Transit Agency had one; neither reported any assaults in 2008, according to the study.LA Metro’s major assault incidents are low when ...

US works for new hostage release deal, scale-down of Israel-Hamas war

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

By TARA COPP, MELANIE LIDMAN and SAMY MAGDY | Associated PressTEL AVIV, Israel — The head of the CIA jetted to Europe for talks with Israeli and Qatari officials Monday, sounding out the potential for a deal on a new cease-fire and the release of hostages in Gaza, as the U.S. defense secretary spoke to Israeli military leaders about scaling back major combat operations against Hamas.Still, there was no sign that a shift in the war was imminent after more than two months of devastating bombardment and fighting. Fierce battles raged in northern Gaza, where residents said rescue workers were searching for the dead and the living under buildings flattened by Israeli strikes.Pressure is growing, as France, the U.K. and Germany — some of Israel’s closest allies — joined global calls for a cease-fire over the weekend. Israeli protesters have demanded the government relaunch talks with Hamas on releasing more hostages after three were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops while waving a white...

French: Behold, MAGA Man — whoever he once was is gone

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:52:10 GMT

On Wednesday, an election worker named Ruby Freeman took the stand in a Washington, D.C., courtroom and told the story of how her world was turned upside down by Rudy Giuliani. Three Decembers earlier, Giuliani shared a routine surveillance video of Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, doing the routine yet vital work of counting 2020 presidential ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.But Giuliani’s description of the video was anything but routine. He falsely claimed that the footage was evidence of vote fraud. In that moment, everything changed for Freeman. As she said in her testimony, “Giuliani just messed me up, you know.” That’s a polite way of describing the horrors that followed. She faced an avalanche of threats, racist attacks and harassment at work and home. She had to leave her house — and then, after law enforcement officials found her name on a death list, the house of the friend she’d been staying with. Even now she’s afraid to walk in public without a mask.The purp...