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A Bay Area Elementary School has spent $250,000 on a 'Woke Kindergarten' program only to see its student's literacy and numeracy rates plunge. The 'Woke Kindergarten' program states its mission as an 'abolitionist early learning ecosystem' that trains teachers to uproot white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression which are barriers to learning. After spending the federal money on the program Glassbrook Elementary in Hayward saw numeracy among its 474 students fall to a new low of just 4 percent and literacy just 12 percent.

As you put away those zombie masks and Halloween decorations, it might be a good time to pull out that box of surgical or KN95 face masks again as respiratory virus season gets underway, especially if you are headed to the doctor’s office soon. In Santa Clara County, everyone — patients, caregivers and healthcare providers — will be required to wear face masks in public patient care areas in hospitals, clinics, and long term care facilities for the “winter respiratory virus period,” starting Nov. 1 and lasting five months through the end of March. Alameda, San Mateo, Contra Costa, and...

MARTINEZ, Calif. - Health officials in several Bay Area counties have issued new mask mandates as COVID-19 cases continued to rise and in preparation for the upcoming respiratory virus season. This week, Contra Costa, Sonoma, and San Mateo counties all issued mask orders for health care personnel in hospitals and other patient care facilities. All three orders were set to go into effect on Nov. 1 and last through April 30. On Tuesday, director of Contra Costa Health Services, Anna Roth, told the county Board of Supervisors that since July, hospitalizations numbers due to COVID-19 have increased from 8.1 per...

A Diablo Valley College faculty member and track coach has been charged with human trafficking, pimping and other charges for making two female victims commit crimes of prostitution, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. Kyle Lee Whitmore, a 39-year-old Crockett resident, was arrested last Thursday after one of the victims reported the case to authorities at DVC, a community college based in Pleasant Hill, prosecutors said. Investigators identified a second victim and Whitmore was taken into custody. He was charged Monday and was set for arraignment Tuesday afternoon in Martinez. Officials at the school and the Contra...

The public reaction against crime has been steadily growing in the Bay Area, with voters last year choosing to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who prioritized reducing incarceration through alternatives to prosecution and sentencing for a wide range of crimes. (The Center Square) - The Oakland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called upon city leaders to declare a state of emergency on crime, stop defunding the police, and prosecute people who commit serious crimes. In a written, open letter, Cynthia Adams, president of the Oakland branch of the NAACP, and Bishop...

Drivers may soon get speeding tickets without ever talking to an officer, if a bill gets approved authorizing speed limit cameras. The program would give speeding drivers a ticket by using speed cameras and an automatic billing system, according to Assembly Bill 645. "The speed safety system shall capture images of the rear license plate of vehicles that are traveling 11 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit and notices of violation shall only be issued to vehicles based on that evidence," the bill states. Fines would start at $50 for going 11 mph over the posted...

If the looting of retailers, hard drugs run rampant and a homeless population growing quicker than the regular one were not enough to make the Bay Area city of Oakland unlivable, add the challenge of so-called “sideshows.” Counter to the the carnival-inspired name sideshows have proven to be a menace to law-abiding citizens. Despite trying, the Oakland Police Department, which endured budget cuts, has not stopped the high-speed hoedowns. These days, sideshows are street spectacles that involve participants suddenly shutting down four-way intersections and even major bridges, and using the expanses of asphalt to put on displays of cars, often...

According to the 2023 edition of Charles Schwab's "Modern Wealth Survey," a net worth of $1.7 million is needed in order to feel "financially comfortable" in San Francisco. In order to feel "wealthy," that number spikes to $4.7 million. The survey was conducted online over a three-week span this year among 750 Bay Area residents aged 21 to 75. According to the survey, 39% of San Franciscans feel "wealthy" today, and 71% are confident about someday reaching their financial goals. The amount San Franciscans needed to feel wealthy is down $400,000 from last year's $5.1 million, but $1.7 million is...

“Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum” doesn’t sound like much, not for those who have followed the A’s in recent years. It sounds like the echo of plaintive voices in the gloom of desolation. Not this coming Tuesday night, though. The Oakland Athletics’ “reverse boycott” night could produce some of the most memorable scenes in Bay Area sports history. I didn’t think it was such a brilliant idea at first. The A’s seemed destined to leave town; would they really pack the stadium for a sort of maudlin farewell? It sounded to me like sadness, the kind that has swept...

A cold case investigator is claiming that the FBI has identified the man suspected to be the infamous 'Zodiac Killer' and believes the authorities didn't look into him enough when he was alive. Journalist Thomas Colbert says that an FBI whistleblower confirmed to him that Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste, who has been previously posited as the killer, is currently listed as a suspect. He claims that FBI labs have a 'partial' DNA sample on Poste that links him to the murders. Poste has been dead since 2018. 'The felon has been secretly listed as the Zodiac 'suspect' in...

Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area have seen a parade of storms since last December, and the rainfall totals are beginning to add up as the local reservoirs fill up. The National Weather Service said Monday morning that its gauge at the San Francisco International Airport had recorded 20.30 inches since Oct. 1, surpassing the average for a water year, the 12-month period running from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. This site, on average, records 19.64 inches in a water year. Water managers use the water year, which follows the water cycle starting in the rainy season and...

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal had a story about a topic I’ve covered before, the hollowing out of American cities as a result of changes brought on by the pandemic. One symptom of those changes is the decline of mass transit in major cities on both coasts.While offices have largely reopened and travel has resumed, many commuters are only coming in a few days a week. That shift has left subways, buses and commuter trains operating at well below capacity—particularly on Mondays and Fridays…The ridership drop also has fueled an increase in transit crime, which in turn has pushed away...

The victim and the woman were sitting in his parked car when two suspects approached the car, removed the victim from the vehicle before assaulting him and taking cash from him.Menlo Park police are investigating a brazen attack on a man who was meeting a woman he met on a dating app. Two men approached the victim’s vehicle and dragged him out, pistol whipped and beat him, then stole his cash. The woman took off with the men. Police in Menlo Park are investigating an armed robbery and assault that occurred on the 3600 block of Haven Avenue Friday evening....

Americans could suffer from Big Tech firms laying off workers and freezing hiring as the economy remains volatile, the founder of a Bay Area job search community told Fox News. "The average American will probably be impacted, at least in some form, by what may happen in this next economic downturn in the tech industry," Albert's List founder Albert Qian said. "We touch these things every single day, whether it's Google Search, a store on Amazon, an Apple device." "When the Microsofts, the Googles, the Amazons, the Twitters, when those companies start laying off people, that's when we need to...

Apart from all the leathermen, drag performers and nudists milling about, the scene at last month’s Bearrison Street Fair in SoMa could have been straight out of Wrestlemania VI. Early in the afternoon, the first of several professional tag-team matches was a contest between a local powerhouse and some challengers from Malibu. Money Power Re$pect, an up-and-coming duo composed of Marco Mayur and Fabuloso Fabricio, went up against MyloBoo Barbie and Barbie Boi to see who would walk out with Full Queer Wrestling’s title belts—and who would exit past the portable toilets with heads hung in humiliation. This was an...

The jigsaw puzzle of William Howard Hughes Jr.'s life has many missing pieces. After disappearing into thin air in 1983 he was wanted across the globe by numerous agencies, from the Air Force to the FBI to Interpol. At one point it was thought that he defected to the Russians. Some suggested he sabotaged the disastrous Challenger space shuttle launch. Even after his recent capture, much of this unlikely story remains a mystery for the ages. Here’s what we found out. Born in Seattle in 1950 to a father who worked in the airline industry, Hughes had three sisters. He...

The Fremont Police Department said Monday that it shut down a recycling company buying stolen catalytic converters, putting an end to a “major pathway for criminal activity.” After a year-long investigation, the department established that the Arrow Recovery recycling company at 46025 Warm Springs Blvd. was buying stolen catalytic converters, the department said in a news release. To confirm the operation was illegal, an undercover officer sold cut catalytic converters to Arrow Recovery marked or etched with "stolen" or other markings suggesting they had been illegally obtained and the company repeatedly purchased the stolen devices. Catalytic converters have increasingly become...

The monthly mortgage payment on a typical home in the Bay Area jumped more than 50% from a year ago, soaring to over $9,000 in San Jose and above $8,000 in San Francisco, according to a report from Zillow. The online real estate marketplace reported Tuesday that housing affordability across the nation is at a 15-year low, adding that buying a typical U.S. home at the current average mortgage rate of 5.78% would mean monthly payments of $2,127, 51% higher than a year ago. As is customary, that number quadruples in the Bay Area's two largest cities. Here are some...

A Bay Area police officer has been charged with masturbating in front of a family that called police during a fraught domestic violence call. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has charged Matthew Dominguez, 32, with a misdemeanor indecent exposure after responding to a restraining order call on the evening of April 21. An unidentified individual whose family put a domestic violence restraining order against him had allegedly violated the order and was at the family’s home, according to a statement of facts provided by the District Attorney’s Office. The mother, identified in the statement as Ms. S, the...

In the latest sign that the U.S. housing shortage is reaching crisis levels, a Bay Area startup is offering bunk-bed style pods at $800 a month for up to 14 people to live in a single home. Brownstone Shared Housing, an eight-month-old startup, bills itself as a short-term solution for students or people working on temporary jobs.