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Bay Area parolee strikes plea deal for stabbing elderly man in 2018 restaurant attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

A 36-year-old parolee will soon face more than a decade in state prison as part of a plea agreement that settled his case for stabbing an elderly man in a Fairfield fast food restaurant in 2018.Solano County Superior Court records on Wednesday showed that Dale James Chordorowski, who appeared in Department 11, entered a no-contest plea to assault with a deadly weapon not a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury on a victim 70 years or older, and admitted to a prior strike.With the expected plea Chordorowski did not admit guilt but essentially stated that he would offer no defense. Judge William J. Pendergast immediately found him guilty and dismissed one count of attempted murder.The judge then ordered Chordorowski to return for sentencing at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 2 in the Justice Center in Fairfield, where he will be sentenced to 11 years in state prison and be on parole supervision for three years after release from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The jud...

Opinion: Want more diversity in colleges? Copy California’s model

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

The Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw the use of race and ethnicity in college admissions late last month was neither unexpected nor profound, even if it was disheartening. Higher education has been dealing with anti-affirmative-action legislation for a long time.Nine states (five blue and four red) have banned the use of race and ethnicity in admission, most notably California, whose voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996. These state-level prohibitions have passed legal muster after repeated challenges. As a result, colleges and universities as different as UCLA, Miami-Dade College and the University of Nebraska have been forced to develop admissions strategies that do not rely on an applicant’s stated race and ethnicity to create diverse college campuses.Elite institutions, especially private colleges and universities, have insisted that they face unique challenges that require the use of race and ethnicity to help create classes that reflect the diversity of the United States. B...

Suspect arrested in 2009 Monterey County rape case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

SALINAS – A suspect has been arrested in a 2009 rape case reopened earlier this year, police said.Juan Antonio Garcia Jimenez was booked into Monterey County Jail last week after new DNA analysis connected the 39-year-old to an unsolved rape case from 13 and a half years ago.In December 2009, Salinas Police officers responded to a 911 hang up call from a home in the Laurelwood community. On scene, a woman – identified as Jane Doe by authorities – told officers that she was inside her residence when an unknown suspect came in through an unlocked front door, police said.The suspect was reportedly wearing dark clothing and a ski mask covering his face. Police said the suspect dragged the victim by her hair into a bedroom and forcibly assaulted her, then fled the scene. Responding officers conducted a search of the area but couldn’t immediately locate the suspect.Meanwhile, the victim was transported to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, where a Sexual Assault Response Team exam (rape...

UC Santa Cruz team makes final round of Google app challenge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — A team of UC Santa Cruz students has made it to the final round of the Google Solutions Challenge, which gives app developer teams from colleges and universities all over the world an opportunity to compete with each other to create innovative apps that solve problems centered around the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.The UCSC-based team of four, called SlugLoop, is one of 10 Solutions Challenge finalists out of the top 100 teams from around the globe, and the only team from the U.S. that made the final round.The mobile app tracks the university’s loop shuttle buses in real-time, hence the name, SlugLoop. The application was developed by current UCSC students Annie Liu and Alex Liu, and recent graduates Nicholas Szwed and Bill Zhang, and is currently deployed and used by students at the university.“The inspiration for this project actually came from a Reddit post where some students were complaining about the irregular schedules of the loop buses,” sai...

Public urges housing committee to avoid sending violent sex offender to Santa Cruz County RV

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — Appealing to a committee assigned the task of locating housing for a convicted sex offender, a Santa Cruz County resident urged representatives on Wednesday to be careful in their release plan.Rayeann Jimenez said that while 71-year-old Michael Cheek had been deemed as no longer a safety risk to the public after completing his prison sentence and subsequent years of mental health treatment, he also had no healthy ties to the county where one of his two violent rape convictions took place in 1980.Jimenez spoke before a room with just a handful of other public attendees in a county conference room after the group had returned from a closed-door discussion about housing efforts on behalf of Cheek. The body, which included members appearing virtually from Sacramento, reported no decisions made during the closed session.To date, the committee, including representatives from California Department of State Hospitals, their housing contractor Liberty Healthcare Corp., the Santa...

Disneyland delays ‘Fantasmic’ return until Spring 2024 – without the 45-foot-tall dragon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

“Fantasmic” will remain out of commission for a year while Disneyland crews rework the nighttime spectacular without the 45-foot-tall Maleficent dragon that burst into flames and Disney’s creative team develops a new finale with Sorcerer Mickey.“Fantasmic” will return to the Rivers of America at the Anaheim theme park in Spring 2024, according to Disneyland officials.Related ArticlesEntertainment | 10 ‘Haunted Mansion’ movie Easter Eggs from the Disneyland ride Entertainment | SeaWorld coaster that was shut down because of a leg injury reopens Entertainment | Is this new $2 billion US theme park just another fantasy land? Entertainment | Disneyland reaches settlement in $5 million Magic Key passholder lawsuit Entertainment | This Haunted Mansion Airbnb is just like sleeping inside the Disneyland ride — If you dare “Our goal is to always deliver the best possible show for our guests,” according to Disneyl...

Police make arrests in Southern California online child-sex predator sting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

Clint Walton sounded crestfallen.The San Bernardino police detective had been posing as a 12-year-old girl in a text chat with a man who said he wanted to meet her in San Bernardino for sex. But the man had gone silent for more than a month when on June 21 he texted what sounded like a goodbye:“I’ll always love you. I miss you,” he wrote.Walton, maintaining his cover, responded: “You just left me all alone.”“I panicked,” the man texted back.“He legitimately broke my heart,” Walton joked after showing the texts to a reporter. “I thought he was going to be my first.”Nevertheless, Walton said it was a victory. The “breakup” meant there was one less man coming in to San Bernardino to sexually assault a child.Walton and other San Bernardino police officers arrested four other men during a two-week sting in July dubbed Operation Online Guardian that was overseen by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.For related, see: Southern California authorities arrest...

Gang probe launched after deaths of 2 California police officers nets arrests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

Images of El Monte police Officers Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana a mural at the El Monte Civic Center on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Federal and local law enforcement officials announced federal charges and arrests stemming from an investigation into a street gang accused of shootings and a wide array of criminal activity. The investigation was started after a member of the gang was accused of murdering El Monte police Officers Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana on June 14, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)Images of El Monte police Officers Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana a mural at the El Monte Civic Center on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Federal and local law enforcement officials announced federal charges and arrests stemming from an investigation into a street gang accused of shootings and a wide array of criminal activity. The investigation was started after a member of the gang was accused of murdering El Monte police Officers Michael Paredes and ...

Barabak: How New Mexico went from a battleground state to a blue state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE —  For five long weeks, the White House hung in the balance as one of the closest, most wrenching presidential campaigns in history went deep into overtime.It all came down to Florida, where Republican George W. Bush was finally declared the winner, by Supreme Court decree. The official margin was 537 votes.But in 2000, one state was even closer.Lost amid Florida’s tumult and all the legal gladiating was Al Gore’s victory here in New Mexico, where the Democrat prevailed by a mere 366 votes.The result established New Mexico as one of the country’s foremost presidential battlegrounds, a status reaffirmed in Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign when he won the state by less than a percentage point.Since then, it’s been one Democratic victory after another — none of them close.“We’re not purple,” said Joe Monahan, a blogger who has chronicled New Mexico politics for decades. “We’re blue. Very blue.”To a large extent, it’s a story of movement.People relocating from more liberal cl...

So much home, so little DIY

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:28 GMT

You’re the handy type. Or you’re not. You love to do-it-yourself. Or you don’t.You’d like to imagine that every build-it, create-it, decorate-it, plant-it, maintain-it or fix-it job is an opportunity to develop a closer relationship with your house. But who has the time?For many, if not most, new-home buyers, stepping back from DIY work for a while drives much of the decision to choose new construction, in which everything is brand new and perfect. For others, the new home provides an opportunity to learn some DIY basics.Some projects always require a professional. These include major plumbing alterations or updates; electrical rewiring or circuit additions; changes to the roof and gutters; HVAC installations; structural work or additions; and heavy-duty landscape or hardscape work.Now for the fun part: All homeownership comes with some degree of cleaning, decorating, maintenance and repairs. Even at a new home. This upkeep can be incredibly gratifying at a new home. Keeping the hou...