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Disability lawsuits: Advocacy or shakedowns?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

Kate Bonnaud, operations manager of a Costa Mesa wine bar called Wine Lab, remembers clearly when a letter arrived a few months ago from an Orange County man with a bone to pick.The letter said Wine Lab’s website was inaccessible to visually impaired people like himself because it wasn’t equipped to handle screen-reading software. This meant the site wasn’t in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act."We took it very seriously -- seriously to the point that we took the website down so we could improve it immediately," Bonnaud told me.Not long after, however, the letter writer, Dominick Martin, filed a lawsuit against Wine Tribe, Wine Lab’s parent, seeking up to $75,000 in damages and legal costs.The lawsuit said Martin is a “tester” who seeks to ensure that businesses are in compliance with accessibility rules. It acknowledged that he has filed “multiple lawsuits” in this regard and intends to keep doing so."Generally speaking, we tend to see the same serial plaintiffs ov...

Nashville hotel manager enters guest's room, sucks on his toes: Police

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

A manager at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Nashville has been charged with aggravated burglary and assault after he reportedly entered a guest's room and sucked on his toes.According to Metro police, 52-year-old David Neal was the night manager at downtown Nashville's Hilton Hotel, located in the 100 block of 4th Avenue South. PREVIOUS: ‘Why is this person touching me’: Texas man files lawsuit accusing Hilton Nashville employee of sexual assault Police said Neal made a key card and used it to enter the guest's room on March 30 at around 5 a.m. The guest, Pete Brennan, told police he woke up and found Neal sucking on his toes. He immediately confronted Neal and recognized him as the person who had come into his room the day before with another employee to address an issue the guest was having with his TV, according to investigators. Officers arrived at the hotel and spoke with Neal who allegedly admitted to entering the guest's room but said he did so after he allegedly smelled smo...

Lakers-Warriors rivalry on display at Crypto.com Arena for Game 4 of Western Conference Semifinals

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

The L.A.-Bay Area feud was in full display Monday night outside Crypto.com Arena where the Los Angeles Lakers were hosting the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals.  For some fans, it was more than just bragging rights at stake.  “You have the Bay Area that comes down thinking they own Southern California, but really, SoCal is the spot to be,” Lakers fan Jeremy Dinkin told KTLA. “When you think of California, you think of Southern California. It’s a conflict of power in the state.”  The rivalry between the two teams is even enough to test some marriages.  “All time Lakers fan forever,” Lamarr Boudreaux said.  “The girls are Warrior fans and the boys, they’re Laker fans in our house,” his wife, Ebony Boudreaux, responded. “It’s a house divided.” Then there’s the battle between LeBron James and Steph Curry.  “It’s like the battle of California,” Bakersfield resident James Davidson said.  James and his dad, Ryan, drove ...

Imran Khan, Pakistan's ex-prime minister, arrested in court

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested Tuesday as he appeared in a court in the country’s capital, Islamabad, to face charges in multiple graft cases. Security agents dragged Khan outside and shoved him into an armored car before whisking him away.The arrest, which marks a dramatic escalation on Pakistan's political scene, drew nationwide condemnation from supporters of the popular opposition leader and former cricket star turned Islamist politician. Khan was dragged outside the Islamabad High Court and pushed into a police vehicle by agents from the National Accountability Bureau, according to Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Chaudhry denounced the arrest as “an abduction.” Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast images of the 72-year-old Khan being pulled by security forces towards an armored vehicle, which took him away. Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a...

Confused getting to downtown Mountain View? Access and signage getting an upgrade: Roadshow

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

Q: I often drive on Central Expressway from Palo Alto toward Mountain View, and can’t believe they haven’t fixed traffic flows into downtown Mountain View yet.I miss the ease of turning onto Castro Street on a whim, with its great shopping and dining. Instead, I pass, intending to turn around, then give up and continue on my way to another south/west valley opportunity.Are there plans to fix this quagmire, and improve downtown Mountain View access?If the goal is to continue the “no cars on Castro” policy, one solution is to resolve restrictions at Evelyn and Castro. Only a few restaurants there would be impacted, along with pedestrians going to or from the Caltrain station. It’s highly fixable. A more permanent solution is to limit parking on Castro to 20 to 30 minutes, rather than zero parking and no cars.More and better expressway signage before Shoreline advising about access to downtown Mountain View would be helpful, in any case.E. H.A: With the pe...

Massive snowpack’s summer bonus: Clean, cheap electricity for California

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

The huge snowpack that has blanketed the Sierra Nevada this winter has done more than end California’s drought and extend ski season. It’s also changing how Californians keep the lights on.With reservoirs full across the state, hydroelectricity generation from dams is expected to expand dramatically this summer, after three dry years when it was badly hobbled.In 2017, a wet year similar to this one, hydropower made up 21% of all the electricity generated in California. But by 2021, in the middle of California’s most recent drought, it provided just 7%.This year, billions of gallons of water are once again spinning turbines in power plants at huge dams like Shasta, Oroville and Folsom, and will be all summer and into the fall as the snowpack melts.More hydropower means more clean electricity, less need to burn natural gas and other fossil fuels, less risk of blackouts during heat waves, and less smog and greenhouse gas emissions, experts say.“It gives us more ...

Pashelka: After NHL draft lottery, one key ingredient remains for GM Mike Grier’s plan to work

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

It was four years ago this week that the San Jose Sharks beat the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series, leading them to what was then their fourth Western Conference Final in 10 seasons.After a gruesome head injury two weeks earlier, Joe Pavelski made a dramatic return to SAP Center, collecting a goal and an assist to give what would be that era of Sharks teams, that special and unique group of players, one final unforgettable moment.The Sharks then would lose to the St. Louis Blues in the next round, Pavelski would be allowed to walk as a free agent, and nothing’s been the same since.Sharks general manager Mike Grier knows it won’t be easy for his team to get back to where it was a few years ago, competing in playoff games in front of delirious, sold-out crowds. The best way to do it, at least from his vantage point, is to build from the ground up.Truthfully, that might mean being one of the NHL’s worst teams again next season and collecting another top...

Opinion: Why I quit my job and became a Bay Area teacher

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

Recent years have seen a national exodus of teachers who feel overworked and burnt out, leading to skyrocketing attrition and a national teacher shortage. However, California may be bucking that trend.The state saw a 35% increase in teachers who completed a California teacher prep program and their preliminary credential between 2017-21. I am on my way to being one of them. Two years ago, I decided to take a pay cut and leave my well-paying, low-stress private sector job to become a teacher.After graduating college, I moved to the Bay Area to become a management consultant. Despite the engaging work and learning potential, I felt unfulfilled. I longed for an opportunity to expand my impact and help others. Upon reflection, I realized that everything I had earned was due to the hard work and dedication of my teachers and mentors.It was time to pay it forward by giving other students what I had growing up: an engaging learning environment with teachers who believed and invested in the...

Woman guilty of murdering missing 11-year-old stepson Gannon Stauch, sentenced to life in prison

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

Gannon Stauch An El Paso County jury on Monday convicted Letecia Stauch of first-degree murder in the death of her 11-year-old stepson, finding the woman was sane during the brutal attack in the family’s Colorado Springs home three years ago.Jurors rejected Stauch’s defense that she suffered a mental break and was legally insane when she stabbed and shot Gannon Stauch on Jan. 27, 2020.The 39-year-old woman was also found guilty of tampering with a human body and tampering with evidence.Immediately after the conviction, Stauch was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 13.5 years in an emotional hearing during which Gannon’s family spoke about his life and death. The 11-year-old boy was born prematurely and weighed only 1 pound, 6 ounces at birth, his mother, Landen Bullard said. When he was born, his father’s wedding ring fit over Gannon’s arm up to his shoulder, another relative said.“You came into this world fighting, and unfortunately you left thi...

Skelton: 56 years after mental health reform failures, California tries again

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:49 GMT

There’s a bipartisan attempt in the state Legislature to finally finish the mental health reform that Gov. Ronald Reagan and lawmakers began 56 years ago. They botched the job back then.Their failure is a major reason why so many homeless people are living on California streets today.The 1967 reform was a splendid idea. It just didn’t get implemented as promised. Now it needs to be updated — altered to address the realities of mental health care — and given more money.The reforms under Reagan eliminated warehousing of mentally ill patients — frequently against their will — in depressing, oft-oppressive state hospitals. Everyone was told that the patients could be better treated in their local communities, close to family and friends.Great concept — except that neither the state nor local governments kicked in enough money for the treatment. Former patients — and thousands who should have been patients — wound up sleeping on downtown streets or in city parks or under freeways.The ref...