Photos: Pink salt ponds drawing scores of visitors off Bay Area trails

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

Photos: Pink salt ponds drawing scores of visitors off Bay Area trails Pink salt ponds at Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge are drawing crowds wanting to check out the water’s Barbie hues, and that has created a problem as people have been wandering off the trails and trampling on sensitive areas. U.S. Fish and Wildlife has a simple yet clear message to the public: “Stay on the trails.”Related ArticlesEnvironment | More pandas will be coming to California, China’s president signals Environment | Minnesota braces for wild ‘super pigs’ from Canada Environment | Coyote encounters: Keep the peace by keeping your distance Environment | Predator protector: Winston Vickers’ research aims to give California mountain lions a fighting chance  Environment | Spider season: Here are a few things you may not know about them In recent social media posts, the organization highlighted Pond A12 at Alviso Marina County Park. “These ponds provide a home to migrato...

Bay Area high school football 2023: Week 13 preview, schedule

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

Bay Area high school football 2023: Week 13 preview, schedule Championships will be on the line Friday in the Bay Area’s top two divisions.Elsewhere, teams will play semifinals in hopes of reaching next week’s section championship games.The biggest of the games Friday are De La Salle against San Ramon Valley for the North Coast Section Open Division title at Dublin High and Serra facing Wilcox for the Central Coast Section Open Division championship at San Jose City College.But there should be plenty more drama throughout the Bay Area.Los Gatos at St. Ignatius in the CCS and California at Pittsburg in the NCS fall into the must-see column, as does Cardinal Newman at Las Lomas and Christopher at Menlo School, the latter four a combined 44-4 on the season.The Bay Area News Group will have complete coverage throughout. If you have not already, please sign up for a digital subscription. Your contributions keep us going.Here are this weekend’s top matchups and schedule:NCS Open/Division IOpen championship gameNo. 2 San Ramon Valley (10-...

Former Cal star Troy Taylor shares Big Game memories before first edition as Stanford coach

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

Former Cal star Troy Taylor shares Big Game memories before first edition as Stanford coach After 15 Big Games representing Cal as a player, coach, and broadcaster, Troy Taylor will be on the Stanford side for the first time when the Cardinal coach faces the Bears Saturday at Stanford Stadium (3:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network).“It’s gonna be a little strange,” Taylor said. “I think once the game gets going, it’ll feel pretty normal to go into a kind of competition mode, but yeah, it’ll be a different experience for sure.”Taylor was Cal’s quarterback from 1986-89 and started two Big Games, which resulted in a tie in 1988 and a loss in 1989. He graduated as the program’s all-time leading passer with 8,126 yards.He soon turned to coaching, and had stints coaching receivers, quarterbacks and tight ends at Cal from 1996-99, even serving as the team’s recruiting coordinator in 1999. When he stepped away from coaching, he worked as an analyst on Cal radio broadcasts from 2005-11.“Just being a part of Cal for so long and having such a love for the university and what it...

MLB owners approve Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas in unanimous vote

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

MLB owners approve Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas in unanimous vote In the end, it was unanimous.All 30 owners of Major League Baseball voted Thursday morning in favor of approving the Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas.MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is scheduled to meet with reporters later this morning after the vote’s completion at the owners’ meetings in Arlington, Texas..The owners’ approval — it required 23 votes to pass — was the final step for A’s owner John Fisher as he looks to move his club 550 miles southeast, leaving the Bay Area behind after the team’s nearly-60-year run in Oakland.If completed, it will mark the second relocation for an MLB team in the last 52 years, and the first since the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C. to become the Nationals in 2005.Las Vegas would become the fourth home for the A’s since the franchise began playing in Philadelphia in 1901. The A’s moved to Kansas City in 1955, then to Oakland to begin play in 1968. No other MLB franchise has had four different cities to call home.It remains und...

7 awesome Bay Area things to do this weekend, Nov. 17-19

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

7 awesome Bay Area things to do this weekend, Nov. 17-19 It’s the weekend before Thanksgiving, and we have more than cooking on our minds. Here are some ideas for great ways to have fun at home or out and about this weekend (and we have some cooking ideas, too).Note that if you are headed into San Francisco, the massive APEC international conference running through Nov. 19 is going to pose traffic issues. More about that is here along with a map detailing the more heavily affected areas.And, as always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines. Meanwhile, if you’d like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.1 SEE, HEAR & LAUGH: Here comes TiffanyTiffany Haddish, one of the funniest humans on the planet (and there are a lot of funny humans on the planet) is headed to Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on Saturday. Here’s what she has to say...

MLB team owners approve Oakland A's move to Las Vegas: reports

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

MLB team owners approve Oakland A's move to Las Vegas: reports LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Major League Baseball team owners voted unanimously Thursday morning to approve the Oakland A's move to Las Vegas, according to major news outlets. Oakland A’s fans are sending MLB owners ‘Stay In Oakland’ boxes as Las Vegas vote nears The vote comes around six months after the A's reached a tentative agreement for a new stadium in Las Vegas after being unable to reach a deal for one in Oakland. Fans of the team tried to persuade the team owners, who were meeting in Texas, to vote against the move. Petition opposing A’s stadium struck down, lawyer says Earlier this year, the Oakland Athletic's, who have suffered low turnout at games, announced a deal was reached to build a new stadium on the current site of the Tropicana hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Nevada lawmakers even approved $1.5 billion for the ballpark.

David Cameron visits Ukrainian port of Odesa in first overseas visit as top UK diplomat

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

David Cameron visits Ukrainian port of Odesa in first overseas visit as top UK diplomat KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — David Cameron traveled Thursday to the Ukrainian port of Odesa in his first overseas trip as Britain’s new foreign minister, and pledged that the U.K. would continue providing military support until Ukraine is victorious in its war with Russia.Cameron, a former prime minister who returned to government in a surprise appointment Monday in a Cabinet shuffle, said he wanted to make Ukraine his first diplomatic destination, and met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.“I admire the strength and determination of the Ukrainian people,” he told Zelenskyy in a video posted by the president.Cameron said the U.K. would continue to provide moral, economic and diplomatic support “but above all, the military support that you need not just this year and next year but however long it takes.”The two-day visit came as Ukraine faces several challenges on and off the battlefield. Zelenskyy has struggled to capture the world’s attention as focus has sh...

The top U.N. court has ordered Syria to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent torture.

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

The top U.N. court has ordered Syria to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent torture. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top U.N. court has ordered Syria to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent torture.Source

The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been unanimously approved by MLB owners, AP sources says

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been unanimously  approved by MLB owners, AP sources says ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been unanimously approved by MLB owners, AP sources says.Source

Stock market today: Wall Street opens weaker, giving back some of November’s big gains

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:55:34 GMT

Stock market today: Wall Street opens weaker, giving back some of November’s big gains Stocks are opening slightly lower on Wall Street, giving back some of their big gains from a rally so far this month. The early weakness Thursday followed some unnerving profit forecasts from big companies, but hopes for a “Goldilocks” outcome that’s just right for markets are still rising following more signals that the economy is slowing. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% early Thursday. The Dow fell 67 points, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.2%. Walmart tumbled 7.3% after it warned that shoppers began pulling back on spending late last month. Cisco Systems dropped 12% after giving weaker-than-expected forecasts.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street turned modestly lower early Thursday with mixed results this week from some of the nation’s biggest retailers and a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping intended to lower tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Futures for the Dow Jones indu...