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Miho Hazama takes her chamber jazz into orbit

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

After months of pandemic confinement, Miho Hazama needed to soar.Largely unknown to California jazz fans, she delivered an ecstatic apogee at the 2021 Monterey Jazz Festival with her commission, “Exoplanet Suite.” While the festival’s programming was sharply curtailed and the fairgrounds were rife with Covid anxiety, Hazama and the chamber jazz group she calls her m_unit swept the arena audience into celestial realms with a performance that earned a rapturous standing ovation. That’s how you make a memorable first impression.Only 34-years-old at the time she made her West Coast debut, Hazama seemed to revel in her ensemble’s nimble navigation on an extraterrestrial sojourn marked by a steadily shifting blend of strings, brass and timpani.“That was part of my intention after being stuck in a tiny apartment in New York City for all those months,” said the Tokyo-reared composer. “Now we could get together with 13 people and create a sound together in the same space. I’d missed it so mu...

Kirk Franklin leads powerhouse gospel lineup into the Bay Area

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

Kirk Franklin is heading back to the Bay Area.Yet, he’s not coming back alone. Instead, he’s bringing a cast of amazingly talented friends — including Israel Houghton, The Clark Sisters, David & Tamela Mann and Tye Tribbett — to the Oakland Arena on Nov. 5 as part of the Reunion Tour.Franklin, of course, is one of contemporary gospel music’s most highly decorated artists, having won 19 Grammys and even more Dove Awards.Related ArticlesMusic | Last KISS: Saying farewell to band with a look back at its biggest moments Music | Rapper Drake will give away free Dave’s Hot Chicken sliders on his birthday Music | Bad Bunny’s Most Wanted Tour visits San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento Music | One of the year’s very best concert tours is coming to San Francisco Music | Sax star Wayne Escoffery needs no introduction — but here’s one anyway The Texa...

AI is causing panic for authors. Now the courts are involved

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

By Brian Contreras, Los Angeles TimesWhen novelist Douglas Preston first started messing around with ChatGPT, he gave the AI software a challenge: Could it write an original poem based on a character from some of his books?“It came out with this terrific poem written in iambic pentameter,” Preston recalled. The result was impressive — and concerning. “What really surprised me was how much it knew about this character; way more than it possibly could have gleaned from the internet,” Preston said.The adventure writer suspected that the chatbot had somehow absorbed his work, presumably as part of the training process by which an artificial intelligence model ingests lots of data that it then synthesizes into seemingly original content.“That was a very disturbing feeling,” Preston said, “not unlike coming home and finding that someone’s been in your house and taken things.”Those worries led Preston to sign on to a proposed class acti...

Trump’s comment outside court draws judge’s attention again

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

By Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz | Associated PressNEW YORK — Michael Cohen returned to the witness stand Wednesday in his ex-boss Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial as the former president’s defense team tried to undermine the credibility and question the motives of his onetime personal attorney turned adversary.Outside the courtroom, Trump’s commentary led the judge to weigh whether Trump had violated a limited gag order imposed earlier in the case.With Trump at the defense table, his lawyer Alina Habba confronted Cohen with comments he had made praising Trump, before turning on him when Cohen’s legal problems started in 2018.Habba tried to suggest that Cohen had angled unsuccessfully for a job in Trump’s White House — Cohen insisted he never sought one — and asked whether he had “significant animosity” toward Trump.“Do I have animosity toward him? Yes I do,” Cohen replied.“You have made a career out of public...

San Jose declares homelessness emergency with hopes to cut red tape on shelter construction

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

In a move aimed at quickly expanding interim shelters in San Jose, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed an emergency declaration that will allow tiny homes to be built more rapidly by removing bureaucratic red tape.In passing the declaration, the city will now eliminate barriers that have slowed down development, including land use provisions, building codes and procurement decisions — potentially cutting down the construction of interim sites in half from up to two years to a year.“What this allows us to do is it sort of opens up the top of the funnel,” said Deputy City Manager Omar Passons during Tuesday night’s meeting. “Instead of looking at this many sites, all of a sudden we get to stretch that out and look at a bunch more.”Under the changes made by the council on Tuesday, the city will be able to consider sites that don’t have running water. The sites, however, will be supplemented by portable toilets and mobile showers. In ...

White House releasing $3.7 billion in home heating aid. See if you’re eligible

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

By Niels Lesniewski, CQ-Roll CallWASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday announced the release of roughly $3.7 billion in funding to help lower-income households afford their home heating costs.The funding, according to a senior administration official, represents 90% of the allocated funding for the program known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for fiscal 2024, with the balance being held back in case there is a budgetary adjustment in the final full-year appropriation for the program, which is run by the Department of Health and Human Services.“We’ve got news because the president worked so hard to get a bipartisan infrastructure law passed,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said on a call with reporters. “We know that in the next several weeks — we’re beginning to figure out how people need to be able to stay warm.”Six million families were reliant on LIHEAP for heating or cooling last year, the secretary said. The funding largely comes from regular appropriations th...

San Jose police arrest man in connection to fatal September shooting

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

SAN JOSE — Police located and arrested a man on Friday who was allegedly responsible for the shooting death of a man in South San Jose last month, according to authorities.San Jose resident Javier Yanez, 40, was arrested on suspicion of murder one month after a man was found with a fatal gunshot wound in the area of Capitol Expressway and Monterey Road. Police said the shooting occurred around 12:48 p.m. on Sept. 19.Yanez was identified by detectives after a thorough investigation, authorities said, but they did not reveal how that determination was made.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | San Jose man charged in PG&E transformer bombings now faces federal indictment Crime and Public Safety | Alleged charity scam leads to Santa Cruz County rooftop chase Crime and Public Safety | Motorcyclist killed in San Jose crash; man suspected of drunken driving arrested Crime and Public Safety | San Jose leaders defend police ...

Hurricane Otis batters Acapulco before weakening

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

By Jose Antonio Rivera and Maria Verza | Associated PressACAPULCO, Mexico — Hurricane Otis ripped through Mexico’s southern Pacific coast early Wednesday as a powerful Category 5 storm, dousing steep mountains and leaving a trail of damage in Acapulco before weakening.Photos and video shared by local media after dawn broke in Acapulco showed the walls of buildings ripped off, flooded hotel rooms with collapsed ceilings, and rubble and downed trees lining the streets. Persistent rain and flooding made it difficult to move.Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported in a morning press briefing that the areas of Costa Grande, Acapulco and Técpan in the state of Guerrero were all “hit hard” by Otis. He said the storm caused property damage, landslides and obstructed roads, but he had no information so far on whether Otis had claimed any lives.Communications with the area have been “completely lost,” López Obrador said.The president added that dam...

Driver in crash that killed 4 Pepperdine University students is held on $8 million bail, authorities say

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

LOS ANGELES — Authorities say the 22-year-old driver of a car that struck and killed four Pepperdine University students in Malibu is being held on $8 million bail.The man was arrested in a murder investigation Tuesday in connection with the crash, and is due in court Wednesday, said the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He was previously arrested after the Oct. 17 crash but released a day later while investigators gathered evidence, the sheriff’s department said in a statement.Flowers are placed along along the Pacific Coast Highway, after a crash that killed four college students and injured two others, in Malibu, Calif. on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. Officials say police have arrested a 22-year-old driver on suspicion of manslaughter. Sheriff's officials say six pedestrians were struck at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday along Pacific Coast Highway, a few miles east of Pepperdine University. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)Debris is seen along the Pacific Coast Highway, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 20...

Detached house in Pleasanton sells for $1.5 million

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:57:12 GMT

4459 Bacon Court – Google Street ViewThe property located in the 4400 block of Bacon Court in Pleasanton was sold on Sept. 18, 2023. The $1,500,000 purchase price works out to $933 per square foot. The house, built in 1968, has an interior space of 1,607 square feet. This single-story house offers a spacious layout with four bedrooms and two baths. In addition, the house features a two-car garage, providing ample room for vehicles and storage needs.Additional houses that have recently been sold close by include:In July 2022, a 1,934-square-foot home on Benner Court in Pleasanton sold for $1,560,000, a price per square foot of $807. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.On Carver Court, Pleasanton, in August 2022, a 1,806-square-foot home was sold for $1,610,000, a price per square foot of $891. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.A 2,326-square-foot home on the 6000 block of Allbrook Circle in Pleasanton sold in November 2022, for $1,630,000, a price per square foot of $701. T...