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It’s not the usual suspects in Castro Valley bell pepper heist

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

DEAR JOAN: I’ve been growing bell peppers in my garden for decades. I’ve never had anything eat them — until last week.When I went to water and possibly harvest a couple of peppers, they had all been munched on.  It almost looked like the critter had cut them from top to bottom and eaten the part that fell on the ground, along with the insides of the half they left hanging on the plant.What critter had a feast on the peppers – rats, squirrels, opossums or raccoons or some other creature?— Andrew, Castro ValleyDEAR ANDREW: For once, those creatures aren’t on the top of my suspect list. I think the culprit might be a tomato hornworm.The fearsome foursome are less likely to eat peppers, even sweet bells. But we have a lot of sphinx moths flying around the Bay Area this year, and because the moths start out as hornworms, it stands to reason, there is an abundance of the voracious plant eaters out there, too.Although the tomato hornworm feeds on the leaves, stems ...

TasteFood: Elevating the chocolate chip cookie

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

This is no ordinary chocolate chip cookie. While it has all the luscious aspects of a traditional chewy Toll House-style cookie, this cookie notches it up to another level with roasted almond butter, chunky dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt.Almond butter does wondrous things to the cookie. It’s not as pronounced in flavor as peanut butter, which (in my opinion) easily overwhelms the flavor of a cookie. Almond butter is stealthier; it adds a mellow, toasty, golden-buttery backdrop to the dough.Meanwhile, chunks of dark chocolate stud the cookie, replacing the go-to chocolate chip. Many chocolate chips read “sweet” more than “chocolate.” By chopping up a quality bar of dark chocolate, the overkill of sweetness is avoided, while the flavor of the chocolate shines through. Not only that, but when you chop a bar, you will be left with a pile of chocolate shards and dust. Be sure to sweep all those little bits into the batter along with the chunks to ...

Travel Troubleshooter: Why won’t Swiss compensate me for my lost luggage?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: Swiss International Air Lines lost my luggage for eight days while I was on a hiking trip to Geneva. It sent my bags to the wrong address, then finally to my home almost two weeks later after our vacation had ended. Swiss never compensated me for the hiking gear I had to buy and never provided a mechanism in person, by phone or online to get reimbursed.Christopher Elliott, the Travel Troubleshooter The loss happened on a United Airlines codeshare flight from Washington, D.C., to Zurich, then a connecting flight on Swiss from Zurich to Geneva. Swiss has no process or points of contact online, or in person, at their airport counters for filing or getting reimbursed for lost luggage.It seems Swiss contracts all of its public interface activities to a company called Swissport. Swissport can file a complaint, but it has no authority to process a claim. I had a three-way conversation with supervisors from United Airlines and Swiss in the U.S. regarding com...

How to stop owls from killing owls — will new plan act fast enough?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

Perched high near Bolinas Lagoon earlier this month, a barred owl slowly swiveled its head, surveying its new home with sleepy disregard.Then it vanished — taking with it all hopes of capture.The owl’s escape underscores the challenge of preventing a surge of these invasive birds, which are expanding their range into the northern San Francisco Bay Area from the Pacific Northwest, threatening the nation’s richest population of native endangered northern spotted owls.Wildlife officials have shot 11 barred owls in Marin County over the past three years, helping to control the species’ spread. Yet the arrivals continue.To expand efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is proposing a new management strategy, easing the onerous permit process that’s currently required to kill the birds, which are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  The plan, which is likely to be controversial, will open for public comment within the next several months.“Without some sort of management...

In the battle over hate speech at Bay Area public meetings, are the Zoombombers winning?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

When Zoom meeting attendees start raising virtual “hands” to speak during Walnut Creek City Council meetings, administrators have few options but to sit in mortified silence as extremists and other online trolls spew hate speech, usually under the cover of anonymity.These “Zoombombing” incidents are on the rise, and officials around the Bay Area are throwing up their hands in frustration — with many unplugging from remote comments altogether.Last week, Walnut Creek became the latest city to announce that council and commission meetings will no longer be accessible via Zoom — joining a growing list of local governments that are able to legally make the change after California’s COVID-era emergency orders expired. Anti-hate groups are even considering proposing changes to California’s hallowed Brown Act, which guarantees public access to civic meetings, to try to deal with the problem.Elected officials in Antioch, El Cerrito, Fremont, Modesto, Sacramento, Santa Rosa and So...

US raises the death toll to 9 of Americans killed in the weekend Hamas attacks on Israel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Monday that at least nine American citizens have been killed in the weekend Hamas attacks on Israel, raising the toll from four.It says an undetermined number of American citizens remain missing and unaccounted for. On Sunday, an official said that number was fluid and had ranged from between six to 12. It is not clear whether the missing had been taken hostage, were killed or are in hiding.The State Department is in touch with families “and providing all appropriate consular assistance,” said spokesman Matthew Miller.The attack by Hamas has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is...

Half Moon Bay 50th annual pumpkin weigh-off returns Monday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KRON) -- It’s a sure sign of autumn in Northern California. The 50th annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off returns Monday in Half Moon Bay, and $30,000 is up for grabs if a world-record-setting pumpkin enters this year.Organizers brought a new scale to Monday’s pumpkin weigh-off because they expect a pumpkin to weigh over 2,560 pounds, which was the winner last year.The current world record sits at around 2,700 pounds for a pumpkin weighed in Italy in 2021. Contestants at Half Moon Bay hope to beat that, earning them $30,000 for a record breaker. If a record isn’t broken, the first-place pumpkin will still earn a hefty $9 per pound. Had enough heat? Wet weather returning to Bay Area Early arrivals Monday were pumpkins from the Napa and Sacramento areas. However, the largest seen so far traveled from Minnesota.The weighing of pumpkins is set to begin Monday around 7 a.m.

Founder of Joby Aviation says electric air taxis will be in service in 2025

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

The notion that hundreds or even thousands of electric-powered air taxis could be whisking people over jammed roads is inching away from science fiction and closer to reality.Battery technology is improving enough for eVTOLs – short for electric vertical takeoffs and landings, the name given to these aircraft that can act like helicopters near the ground but fly like small planes. The bigger question may be whether there is a profitable business in producing them.JoeBen Bevirt is an evangelist for the new industry and the founder and CEO of Joby Aviation Inc., which delivered its first eVTOL to the Air Force last month. Bevirt insists that his Santa Cruz, California-based company, whose largest shareholder is Toyota (11%), can meet an ambitious target of entering commercial air taxi service in 2025.Like other eVTOL startups, Joby is losing money — more than $400 million in 2021-2022. Analysts don’t know when, if ever, it will be profitable.Bevirt spoke to The Associated Press. His c...

Take Greek souvlaki off the rotating spit for weeknight cooking

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

Souvlaki translates from the Greek as “skewer,” but a rotating spit and open fire are not necessary to achieve similarly satisfying results.For this easy weeknight version, from our book “Tuesday Nights Mediterranean,” which features weeknight-friendly meals from the region, we forgo the skewers and cook individual pieces of chicken. And instead of firing up the grill, we simply turn on the broiler.A quick marinade of olive oil, garlic, lemon and oregano seasons boneless, skinless thighs while the oven heats. The small pieces of chicken and wedges of red onion finish cooking in less than 15 minutes.Souvlaki wouldn’t be complete without tzatziki, a cooling cucumber-yogurt condiment. For ours, inspired by a lesson we learned in Athens, we shred and then salt an English cucumber and squeeze the liquid out of the shreds to keep the tzatziki from becoming watery. Fresh dill adds bright herbal notes.To eat as a wrap, squeeze fresh lemon juice over the chicken, then spread tzatziki on the ...

Al menos nueve ciudadanos estadounidenses murieron en el conflicto de Israel, según el Consejo de Seguridad Nacional de EE.UU.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:10 GMT

(CNN) — Al menos nueve ciudadanos estadounidenses murieron en el conflicto de Israel, informó este lunes un portavoz del Consejo de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos.“En este momento, podemos confirmar la muerte de nueve ciudadanos estadounidenses. Hacemos llegar nuestro más sentido pésame a las víctimas y a las familias de todos los afectados, y deseamos una pronta recuperación a los heridos. Seguimos vigilando de cerca la situación y permanecemos en contacto con nuestros socios israelíes, en particular con las autoridades locales”, señaló el portavoz en un comunicado.Antes, este domingo, el senador Chuck Schumer había confirmado la muerte de cuatro estadounidenses.“Lamentablemente, sabemos que hay estadounidenses que fueron asesinados. El Gobierno nos dijo que sabe de cuatro hasta ahora, pero, lamentablemente, sabemos que la cifra aumentará”, dijo el senador demócrata en un comunicado.Más temprano este domigo, el secretario de Estado Antony Blinken...