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Woman pleads guilty to 1993 murder of San Carlos store owner

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

SAN CARLOS — A 61-year-old Oklahoma woman is facing 18 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a San Carlos store owner during a robbery more than 30 years ago, prosecutors said.Rayna Ramos, also known as Rayna Hoffman, pleaded no contest Wednesday to one count of second-degree murder and admitted to using a firearm in the commission of the crime, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.The court approved the plea bargain, which called for her to serve 18 years to life.The case was only solved last year when detectives obtained a journal in which Ramos expressed regret for killing Devonshire Little Store owner Shu Ming Tang, prosecutors said.On April 26, 1993, Ramos entered the business at 20 Devonshire Blvd. at the direction of her husband, who instructed her how to use a handgun to commit the robbery, according to the district attorney’s office. Ramos’ husband waited outside in a car.Tang resisted and fought with Ramos, who fatally shot him during the str...

Four-bedroom home in Saratoga sells for $3.5 million

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

18789 Dundee Avenue – Google Street ViewA house located in the 18700 block of Dundee Avenue in Saratoga has new owners. The 1,928-square-foot property, built in 1951, was sold on Sept. 12, 2023, for $3,500,000, or $1,815 per square foot. This single-story house presents a roomy floor plan, featuring four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The property is equipped with forced air heating and a cooling system. Additionally, the home is equipped with a two-car garage, accommodating vehicles and storage needs efficiently.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:In August 2023, a 3,107-square-foot home on McFarland Avenue in Saratoga sold for $4,400,000, a price per square foot of $1,416. The home has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.On McCulloch Avenue, Saratoga, in June 2023, a 3,599-square-foot home was sold for $5,000,000, a price per square foot of $1,389. The home has 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom.A 1,128-square-foot home on the 13200 block of McCulloch Avenue in Saratoga sold in January 2023...

Video shows fire, explosion at Denver homeless camp

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Video shows a fire and explosion​ at a homeless encampment in Denver on Thursday afternoon. It happened near 16th Avenue and Sherman Street.No one was hurt, but the incident came as Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is working to address homelessness in the city. Johnston hosted a town hall Thursday at Evans School in District 10. Johnston gives updates on homeless and migrants in Denver According to Johnston, 8,000 calls were made to 911 about encampments so far this year.While no one was hurt in the fire Thursday, Johnston said 40 unhoused people have died of various causes in the last six to eight weeks alone.Witness: Propane tanks exploding in tentFOX31 visited the encampment where the fire broke out."The person's tent right here, I think something caught on fire, which made it lead to a bigger fire," said Monet Jutzi, who lives just a couple of tents from where the fire started."We all had to move 'cause I think there's tanks in there that was exploding … propane tan...

Star/co-director Peter Facinelli discusses making indie wildfire survival film ‘On Fire’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

Smokey the Bear says “only you can prevent wildfires,” but come on, you’re gonna listen to a cartoon bear?In the new movie “On Fire,” they’re way past the point of preventing a forest fire. They’re just trying to survive it.News reporter: “The destruction is catastrophic.”Lance Henriksen (as George Laughlin): “This is no joke.”“On Fire” is a film inspired by the West Coast natural disasters. It follows an ordinary Washington state family who’s up against a not-so-ordinary wildfire.Peter Facinelli (as Dave Laughlin): “We’re going to be OK.”Asher Angel (as Clay Laughlin): “Mom, Dad!”Fiona Dourif (as Sarah Laughlin): “Oh, my God.”Peter Facinelli: “It was really a movie to explore the characters, these characters, this one family that was going through this harrowing experience and how they grow together through it and overcome.”Peter Facinelli (as Da...

2 Sharon police officers fined after one officer tried to sneak the other officer into expensive suite at Patriots game

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

Two Sharon police officers were recently fined thousands of dollars by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission after one officer tried to sneak the other into a high-priced suite at Gillette Stadium, officials announced.The State Ethics Commission announced Thursday that Officers John Avelar and Robert Awad paid $8,000 and $4,000 respectively for violating the state’s conflict of interest laws.According to the ethics commission, Awad, who had been an officer for less than a year and was in his probationary period, was working a security detail at Gillette Stadium in December of last year as the Patriots took on the Buffalo Bills in Thursday Night Football. The commission said Awad agreed to get his off-duty coworker, Avelar, and a friend into the Putnam Club, an exclusive suite costing thousands of dollars and only open to season ticket holders.The commission said Awad escorted Avelar and his friend to the club, telling security Avelar was an off-duty officer. Several minutes...

Editorial: Privatization could give MBTA the boost it needs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

If the MBTA is looking for a slogan, we suggest this: “It’s always something.”The latest “something” is the revelation that tracks on stretches of the new $2.3 billion Green Line Extension are too narrow.As the Herald reported, the speed in spots along the affected lines, which bring service to Union Square in Somerville and Tufts-Medford, has dropped to 3 miles per hour, according to the T’s slow zone dashboard. That’s the low end of what a mobility scooter can do.This particularly expensive whoops moment raises the question: When will the powers that be hit the Pacheco point with the MBTA?The Pacheco law restricts the MBTA from outsourcing work that its own employees could theoretically do. Then-Gov. Charlie Baker sought and was granted a three-year waiver from the law back in 2015, after a brutal winter saw bruising failures across the system.During that time, the T con­tracted out a range of services such as fare collection, the call center, m...

‘Fair Play’ fumbles, fizzles and flops

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

“Fair Play” begins with a young, drunk, attractive couple who cannot keep their hands off one another at a party while Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You, Baby” purrs in the background. He has a high-pitched voice you might get tired of (I did), and his name is Luke Edmunds (Alden Ehrenreich, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”). She speaks in a weird vocal fry that might get on your nerves (it did mine). She is from working-class Long Island, and her name is Emily Meyers (Englishwoman Phoebe Dynevor, “Bridgerton”).  After getting smeared with blood during a sexual interlude, Luke and Emily get secretly engaged (Is blood not ever a warning sign?). They do so secretly because it is against official policy at the high-flying New York City investment firm, where they work. Not only do they work at the same company, they sit a few feet apart in the office.In opening scenes, a young executive at their firm is fired and uses a golf club to smash his computer to bits while he weeps and swears pr...

Antoni: Expect more rate hikes if spending continues

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

The Federal Reserve’s rapid interest rate hikes over the last year have caused credit to become more expensive for consumers and businesses. The monthly mortgage payment on a median price home has more than doubled since January 2021 and credit-card interest rates are at a record high.Worse, the economy is stuck with these high interest rates because the government can’t control its spending.Interest rates are the price for borrowing money and, like all prices, they’re determined by supply and demand. The supply of loanable funds is provided by savers and the demand is generated by borrowers. Interest rates will rise if there is either a decrease in savings or an increase in borrowing. And the Treasury Department has increased its borrowing in spades.Because of runaway spending by Congress and the White House, the federal deficit has exploded. Consequently, the Treasury borrowed $2.8 trillion and $1.4 trillion in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, respectively. The current fiscal year’s de...

Yandle: Consumers ignored by labor & posturing pols

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

In an unprecedented move by a sitting president, Joe Biden joined a United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan on Tuesday in a strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre indicated the president wants to make it clear that he stands on the side of workers.This oversimplification suggests just two sides to the controversy — labor and management. But there is at least one other important side: consumers, and lots of them. Some families and communities suffer when a major employer is shuttered, with ramifications for schools, churches and governments.Why would a sitting president — one who promised to be the president of “all Americans” when taking office — decide to favor the UAW alone? Yes, workers have every right to strike and negotiate with their employers. And, yes, Biden has long supported labor. But the cold shoulder to consumers and affected communities across America still feels blatant.Speaking of blatant, Biden’s picket...

Hewson hits all the right notes in ‘Flora and Son’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

Irish writer-director John Carney, the genius behind the unique mix of cinema, romance and music known as “Once” (2007), has done it again. He has made a film that understands how music operates in the world as an expression of our passion, delight, despair and depression, soothing us or filling us with sadness or anger or rebelliousness. Music both brings us together or separates us into opposing camps. Music is, of course, also often an invitation to fall in love.In “Flora and Son,” Flora (a delightful Eve Hewson) is a savage beast, indeed. A 31-year-old Dublin single mother of a rebellious 14-year-old named Max (Oren Kinlan), who has been in trouble with the garda and on the verge of being sent to a juvenile detention center, Flora is at her wit’s end. She is almost a child herself. Max’s father Ian (Jack Reynor, “Midsommar”) is a bass playing ne-er-do-well with a wife and little time for his son. Flora lives in a box-sized council flat with Max and impulsively Dumpst...