Free Republic

First Lady Jill Biden is set to arrive Thursday evening in the Bay Area to attend a campaign fundraiser, according to the White House. Biden is expected to fly in from a political event in Minnesota and will arrive at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View. On Friday at 12:45 p.m., she will visit and talk at a political finance event in Los Gatos before going to Reno, Nevada, for another event later in the day, according to the White House. It is the second time that the first lady has been in the Bay Area in as many months...

Town council members in the Bay Area town of Los Gatos censured one of its planning commissioners last week for writing an email that included what some say is racist language toward white people.

After taking the life of an elderly married man and dearly loved father, Jennifer Higgins Bradanini was supposed to go to jail for six months, complete 350 hours of community service, pay $183,857 in restitution, and be on probation for two years. Even though the initial sentence was considered lenient, and outraged the victim’s family, the sentence later was unexpectedly modified. The six-month jail time became home confinement with an electronic monitoring device. Shortly thereafter, Higgins was seen on social media dancing with an ankle bracelet on a rally stage in Los Angeles. In divorce court, a family law judge...

Concerns are being raised over what the drought might be doing to an ancient salmon run that goes through the heart of Silicon Valley. Roger Castillo doesn’t look after the rivers and streams and their wildlife in Silicon Valley because it’s his job. He does it because he loves it. Storm Dumps Half-Inch Of Rain On Oakland, Peninsula, South Bay; 1" Reported In Santa Cruz Mountains “What are we going to leave our children you know?” Castillo said. The mostly self-taught citizen-naturalist is a former truck mechanic who just discovered thriving schools of Chinook salmon fry in Los Gatos Creek....

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District recently expanded one of its oldest preserves. The agency added 182.15 acres to the El Sereno Open Space Preserve that formerly belonged to the San Jose Water Company. The agency paid just over $1 million for the land, with funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board. El Sereno sits just south of Saratoga and west of Los Gatos in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s a public preserve, open to hikers, cyclists and horseback riders. The district has owned El Sereno since 1975, and in that time has expanded the public green space to more...

Michael Kail, former veep of IT Operations at Netflix, was convicted on Friday on 28 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering after a federal jury found that he took advantage of his position to demand bribes from vendors. "As Netflix’s Vice President of IT Operations, Michael Kail wielded immense power to approve valuable Netflix contracts with small tech vendors, and he rigged that process to unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks to himself," said Acting United States Attorney Stephanie Hinds in a statement. "Netflix and other companies expect and deserve honest services from its employees."...

VIDEO Watch as a former District Manager for Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Naturally), Margo Rosen, goes full TDS berserk when she illegally parks her car in downtown Los Gatos, CA and confronts a group of Trump supporters with her laughable insanity. Be sure to keep watching until the BIG MOMENT OF TRUTH when Margo suddenly realizes that the camera recording her will end up exposing her very ugly inner self for all the world to see.

Saying he was defending the Constitution, a Los Gatos teacher on Sunday stood firmly behind his decision to give a student a failing grade on a quiz after she left class to join a walkout aimed at bringing attention to gun violence last week.

A Los Gatos homeowner is worried people living in a downtown homeless encampment will start a wildfire, killing themselves, his family, tenants and neighbors. John Whitney says he’s been trying for years to get authorities to clean up the encampment, to no avail. The encampment runs alongside Highway 17 behind the post office. Ironically, there’s a blackboard at the encampment’s entrance that reads, “Stay Alive.” “This is a fire hazard right here,” Whitney said, pointing to a discarded pizza box, and sleeping and garbage bags. “The amount of dumping is unbelievable. Last year, Caltrans came out but nothing happened.” Caltrans...

Police are turning to the public to find the man who punched a woman as she was dropping her daughter off at dance practice in Los Gatos on Monday. Police released a sketch Friday of the suspect. They said he was wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and a backwards white baseball cap when he attacked the woman for no apparent reason. There is speculation the attack could be part of a disturbing prank called the "Knockout Game," where random people are attacked while someone else videotapes it. Witnesses said the victim was injured but refused to go to the...

A 45 day moratorium on gun sales has been unanimously approved by the Los Gatos Town Council. The moratorium gives town officials time to come up with a permanent ordinance regulating gun sales. The controversy started when Templar Sports opened in December. Some people had protested they didn't receive enough public notice before the store was issued a business license. The moratorium doesn't affect Templar. Town staff expects to bring a proposed ordinance to the council in four to six months.

Just how many new riders would jump on a train to one of Silicon Valley's most desired destinations? About 200, it turns out -- and it would cost taxpayers up to $175 million to build the rail line to Los Gatos. The new projections come from the Valley Transportation Authority's updated forecast for a long-envisioned light-rail extension. Still years from reality, the Los Gatos line would be one of the least-used light-rail extensions planned in the nation -- and would reduce South Bay vehicle traffic by a mere 0.01 percent.

This is my list of all the cats I can remember since I cared about pets.

SANTA CRUZ -- The Los Gatos startup that pledged to turn greenhouse gas into cement has landed its first job: a sidewalk in the city of Santa Cruz. While a relatively small project, the 400-foot walkway off Morrissey Boulevard will serve as a big test for plans by the environmentally minded Calera Corp. to capture carbon dioxide exhaust from the Moss Landing Power Plant and fashion it into commercially viable construction materials, like cement. "We're at the point where we want to start using our materials in the built-in environment," said Martin Devenney, vice president of materials development at Calera....

There is sadness in the South Bay today as people begin to learn the news that Charlie Wedemeyer has died. He died Thursday morning. Wedemeyer was a long time football coach at Los Gatos High School who was diagnosed with ALS back in 1978. He survived longer than most with the debilitating disease that slowly took away the use of his body. Over the past decades he and his wife Lucy became a motivational team. When he lost his voice, Lucy was able to interpret his words by the slight movement of his lips during countless Bay Area speaking engagements....

In the "Iron Chef America" battle between California casual and Southwest celebrity, David Kinch was a head above Bobby Flay. A head of cabbage, that is. Kinch, executive chef of the renowned restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos, wowed the Food Network show's panel of judges with his creativity and flavor combinations using the leafy vegetable — the secret ingredient around which both chefs had to create five dishes in 60 minutes. At a viewing party held at Manresa on Sunday night, Kinch said he was excited to work with cabbage, over the other two "secret ingredient" possibilities — squab and...

Sunday's episode of "Iron Chef America" could well be called Los Gatos' very own version of March Madness: Manresa restaurant's executive chef David Kinch battles TV superstar Bobby Flay in the Iron Chef challenge that airs March 15 on the Food Network. It is the first time Kinch has been involved in a television cooking competition. "I was surprised at how much fun it was," Kinch says. "The Food Network people take really good care of the challengers. They did a lot to alleviate any concerns we might have so we were as comfortable as we could be." Kinch was...

The saying you can't get there from here held true for people trying to drive on busy Winchester Blvd. in the South Bay. A Union Pacific train derailed as it was crossing the street just south Highway 85. The derail was in the middle of the road, which is about two blocks south of Netflix headquarters. All vehicles were forced to turn around in both the northern and southern directions. Our chopper flew over the scene and showed the derailment appeared to happen just as the train was making the turn north, which is to the left. A spokeswoman for...

A vintner is alleging that the man who wants to open a retail wine store on North Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos told him "God will punish" him if he spoke out against the application. Entrepreneur Rahul Ravulapati, who owns a winery in Livermore, says he never threatened anyone and accused the vintner, Fred Faltersack, and other Los Gatos wine makers of discrimination. "These people are blackmailing me," Ravulapati said after the July 9 planning commission meeting, where commissioners unanimously recommended against approving the permit. The dispute started last month when Ravulapati called local vintners to ask if they...

A Los Gatos doctor was sentenced Friday to three months in jail and three months of house arrest for falsely telling an 87-year-old patient he had prostate cancer and convincing him to undergo unnecessary therapy in which tiny radioactive rods were inserted into him with needles. Ali Moayed, 41, was also accused of falsifying pathology reports for two other patients and recommending they undergo the treatment, known as brachytherapy. Moayed's deception was uncovered before those two men had the procedure, Santa Clara County prosecutors said. All three instances were in 2005.