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Top 10 Inspiring Innovators Pushing the Boundaries in Their Industries

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

1 – Alexandra RodriguezAlexandra Rodriguez, a remarkable financial and tax strategist at IRBusiness, IRB.Tax, and IRB Immigration, exemplifies perseverance and determination in adversity. Alexandra’s journey is rooted in her parents’ pursuit of the American Dream. Growing up in a household where financial struggles were constant companions, she witnessed her father’s rise from humble beginnings to owning his own tax office. As a young girl, she was instilled with values of hard work and self-education, starting with simple tasks such as organizing documents and cleaning the house. An avid interest in learning and contributing paved the way for a lifelong career in finance for her.With the foundation laid by her father, Alexandra embarked on a mission to empower individuals and businesses by providing them with the tools and knowledge needed to navigate financial complexities mostly only privy to the wealthy class. Her accomplishments speak volumes, as she tra...

Letters: Bottle bill | Highway failure | Serving citizens | Spur climate effort | Solutions over blame

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.State must do moreto promote bottle billRe: “Consumer convenience key to making bottle bills work” (Page A6, June 8).Too often, the media refers to plastic bottles as “single-use.” This is a misnomer, as 75% are recycled.This has led to a disturbing trend by some cities to ban the sale of plastic bottles. Such efforts do nothing to increase recycling but further the misinformation that plastic bottles are not getting recycled. This, in turn, discourages people from recycling. Instead of banning, how about making it easier to recycle?The Bottle Bill program is self-funding with an annual budget of well over a billion dollars. If a tiny portion of that budget was used to educate and inform consumers on how and why to recycle, participation would grow. Sadly, there is almost no public information by the state to promote the bill.We need to do better. With common sense, modernization, greater eff...

Wagner chief walks free. Many other Kremlin foes have not

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

By Dasha Litvinova | Associated PressTALLINN, Estonia — Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led an armed rebellion against the Russian military — and walked free. Others who merely voiced criticism against the Kremlin weren’t so lucky.On Tuesday, Russia’s main domestic security agency, the FSB, said it had dropped the criminal investigation into last week’s revolt, with no charges against Prigozhin or any of the other participants, even though about a dozen Russian troops were killed in clashes.The Kremlin had promised not to prosecute Prigozhin after reaching an agreement with him that he would halt the uprising and retreat to neighboring Belarus. That came even though President Vladimir Putin vowed to punish those behind the rebellion.Asked about this U-turn by The Associated Press during a conference call with reports on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment.Prigozhin’s escape from prosecution — at least for now — was in stark contrast ...

Former Fremont city manager pleads not guilty to theft by false pretenses charge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

OAKLAND — Fremont’s former city manager has pleaded not guilty to a new felony charge of theft by false pretenses, stemming from accusations he fraudulently concealed his misuse of a city-issued credit card to secure a severance payment of nearly $300,000 from the city.Mark Danaj — whose tenure as city manager ended in 2021 — entered the plea Tuesday in a brief appearance here in Alameda County Superior Court, setting up a preliminary hearing for Sept. 13.The new charge comes after prosecutors last year filed felony charges of embezzlement and public officer crime against Danaj, alleging he repeatedly used a city credit card on travel, medical services, food delivery and Apple products. He also has pleaded not guilty to those charges.According to a recently filed criminal complaint, prosecutors now also accuse Danaj of misleading Fremont’s City Council while negotiating a severance package during his final days on the job. The theft by false pretenses charge comes with a special all...

Facing SF Giants ‘definitely weird’ for Brandon Belt, but he’s still cracking jokes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

TORONTO — Brandon Belt ambled into the third-base dugout, plopped down on the bench and immediately turned a 10-minute question-and-answer session into a comedy bit. Set to face his former team for the first time, Belt is the same as he ever was, with signs from head to toe.He still has the same size 15 feet, but covering them (briefly) was a pair of white slides, adorned on top with a Blue Jays logo and “Belt No. 13” on the side. His neck (and the rest of him) are elongated as ever, but sitting on top was a blue cap accented in red and white.“It’s definitely weird,” Belt said, before he had gotten the chance to greet any former teammates, “but I’m not sure it’s as weird now as it’s gonna be when we’re out on the field.”Belt, 35, said he left open the possibility of returning to San Francisco, the organization that drafted him and where he spent the first 12 years of his big-league career, winning two World Series rings, up until the day he signed...

Smoke from Canadian wildfires reaches Europe

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

By Joe Sutton, Taylor Ward and Zoe Sottile | CNNCanada has officially marked its worst wildfire season on record, with smoke from the blazes crossing the Atlantic Ocean and reaching western Europe on Monday.Canada has had a dramatic start to wildfire season, with at least 19,027,114 acres already charred across the country. Wildfire activity in Canada typically peaks from June to August, leaving more than half of the peak season still to come.As a result of the unprecedented start to the wildfire season, this year has become the worst fire season on record, surpassing the previous benchmark set in 1989 for the total area burned. In 1989, at least 18,254,317 acres were burned in the country, according to fire statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.And the smoke from the wildfires, which wrapped New York City in a cloud of smog earlier this month, has now reached as far as the United Kingdom, according to the UK Met Office.The smoke that has made its way into Euro...

Severe storms scuttle more than 7,000 US flights

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

By Chris Isidore and Jordan Valinksy | CNNClaude Ronnie Msowoya and his family spent three days trying to get to Johannesburg, South Africa, only to be forced to return home by train, without his baggage.Msowoya told CNN that his United Airlines flight from Boston to Newark airport was delayed Sunday, which caused him and his family to miss their connecting United Airline flight from Newark to Johannesburg.Msowoya said his family was eventually booked on another United Airlines flight that was scheduled to take off Monday evening, but it was also canceled.“We had to go to the customer service line, which had taken us 10 hours the previous day. We didn’t get any help and later tried to get our bags to cancel the trip. We stood in line for 6 hours at luggage claim only to be told that they won’t be giving anyone their luggage and they should file a claim and pray and hope that their luggage gets delivered to them,” Msowoya said.Msowoya told CNN his family decided to take a train back ...

No layoffs, but cuts to violence prevention in Oakland’s new $4.2 billion budget

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

OAKLAND — The city’s new $4.2 billion budget will require no layoffs, bringing relief to thousands of city workers reeling from a major ransomware attack amid an uncertain economic climate.But the budget will merge some departments and squeeze a number of other services — including those dealing with violence prevention — to close what officials have described as a historic deficit.And despite amendments to relieve some of the burn, the cuts and mergers proposed by Mayor Sheng Thao led to a fractured City Council vote, with three of the eight City Council members declining to sign off on the final approved budget Monday night.After the dust settled, Oakland had closed its $360 million shortfall for the immediate future, though officials warned that another deficit looms two years from now when the next budget will be wrangled.Thao, in a statement following the meeting, said the budget “preserves jobs, delivering quality City services to residents and bu...

Sharks’ Mike Grier takes a stand in terms of trading Erik Karlsson

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier is working with Erik Karlsson and his representative to try and trade the defenseman to more of a win-now team but declared Tuesday that he has no plans to deal the three-time Norris Trophy winner for a minimal return, adding that Karlsson could also be back with the team in the fall.Grier said he has received interest from other teams inquiring about Karlsson, 33, who is coming off a 101-point season as he was again voted the league’s top defenseman on Monday night.While any trade involving Karlsson figures to be complex, considering his exorbitant contract, Grier said he’s not looking to give away the defenseman on the cheap just to create extra salary cap space.‘He’s not someone that we’re just going to toss aside,” Grier said of Karlsson, “and not take things into account and try and help the organization out.”Karlsson, who has declared his wish to play for a playoff contender, is set to enter the fif...

Julian Sands dies at 65; British actor starred in ‘A Room With a View,’ ‘Leaving Las Vegas’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:25:56 GMT

By Andrew Dalton | Associated PressLOS ANGELES — Actor Julian Sands, who starred in several Oscar-nominated films in the late 1980s and ’90s including “A Room With a View” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” was found dead on a Southern California mountain five months after he disappeared while hiking, authorities said Tuesday.An investigation confirmed that it was Sands whose remains hikers found Saturday in wilderness near Mount Baldy, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. The 65-year-old actor was an avid and experienced hiker who lived in Los Angeles and was reported missing Jan. 13 after setting out on the peak that rises more than 10,000 feet east of the city. Crews aided by drones and helicopters had searched for him several times, but, severely hampered by wintry conditions that lasted through spring, no sign of him was found until the civilian hikers came upon him.The chances of Sands being discovered alive had long since diminished t...