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Beverly Hills voters to decide fate of luxury hotel planned for Rodeo Drive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

Tuesday is decision day for a project that aims to transform Beverly Hills' famous Rodeo Drive.Voters are going to the polls to decide if the Beverly Hills Cheval Blanc hotel, a product of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton slated for the former site of the Paley Center for Media, should keep its approval from the City Council.The 109-room project includes about 25,000 square feet of retail space and amenities like a wellness center on one of the world's most famous luxury shopping destinations.In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, the developers will contribute $28 million to city coffers, according to the Los Angeles Times.However, because the project is being given permission to be larger than the zoning rules for the site allows, Councilman John Mirisch, the lone opponent on the council, said the developers aren't being asked to do enough.“We’re effectively doubling the value of their land,” Mirisch told the Times. “And the ci...

California cannabis tax revenue totals more than $200M in first quarter of 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

California has earned more than $216 million in tax revenue from the sale of legal cannabis this year.On Tuesday, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration reported the tax revenue generated from cannabis sales for the first quarter of 2023. Smoking cannabis doesn’t carry same risks as tobacco: study As of May 16, cannabis tax revenue added up to about $216.2 million, including $104.3 million from the cannabis excise tax, and $111.9 in sales tax revenue.Those totals are down slightly from the fourth quarter of 2022, when the state collected $248.5 million in cannabis taxes.The state says legal cannabis sales have generated nearly $5 billion in tax revenue since January 2018, when commercial cannabis businesses were first allowed to legally sell the previously outlawed product. Thieves break into L.A. dispensary, steal cash and product In previous years, cannabis retailers were required to pay a "cultivation tax," but that tax was dropped entirely in July 2022 foll...

Six Flags Magic Mountain announces re-opening date for Hurricane Harbor, other summer events

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

Six Flags Magic Mountain has announced a re-opening date for its waterpark Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, along with a new lineup of events expected to debut during the summer.The popular waterpark will be open on select days beginning on May 27, according to a news release.Guests, who are at least 18 years old, can celebrate Pride Month at the new “Pride Celebration After-hours Splash Party," an exclusive event happening in June at Hurricane Harbor. Disneyland to host its first-ever After Dark Pride event The event will include live music, dance areas, specialty food and drinks, and more. The party will begin at 9 p.m. and end at 1 a.m., officials announced. The after-hours event will occur on June 3, 10, 17 and 24. General admission event tickets cost $29.99 and can be purchased online.Across the way at Six Flags, guests can celebrate the summer season at the Viva La Fiesta and Flavors of the World events. Viva La Fiesta will celebrate cultures from North and Latin America with 10...

The free ride is over: Netflix begins cracking down on password sharing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

The day Netflix has been warning about has finally come to the U.S. – the streaming giant announced Tuesday that it has begun cracking down on password sharing.If you share a Netflix login with someone outside your home, you may have already received an email regarding "an update on sharing between households." The message reminds, "Your Netflix account is for you and the people you live with - your household."Netflix considers a "household" as a "collection of devices connected to the internet at the main place you watch Netflix."The email then encourages you to review devices that are logged into your Netflix account and sign out those that shouldn't have access. Arnold Schwarzenegger is Netflix’s new boss Then, Netflix offers two alternatives they already launched in multiple other countries: a user living outside your household can transfer their profile to a new membership they pay for, or the account holder can add an extra member for $7.99 a month. The option to add an ext...

‘Inappropriate all the way around’: Peninsula politicos play defense for landlord whose home was deemed uninhabitable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

SAN MATEO – Two prominent members of a Peninsula political dynasty successfully played defense for a landlord whose tenants lived in uninhabitable conditions for years, a move that critics say unduly influenced the city council’s decision not to hold the landlord liable for thousands of dollars in relocation payments mandated by the city’s red-tag law.Millbrae city council member Gina Papan and State Assemblymember Diane Papan – a former mayor of San Mateo – went to bat for landlord Trina Pierce during an appeal over the relocation payments.Pierce was ultimately able to skirt paying almost $13,000 in relocation fees. But the elected officials’ actions in her defense drew pointed criticisms from other political leaders who say their moves exacerbated the power imbalance between tenant and landlord and undermined the relatively new city law aimed at giving redress to tenants living in unsafe conditions.The Papans’ defense of this landlord, said former Mayor Rick Bonilla, gives “extra ...

Stanford alum Catarina Macario ‘won’t be physically ready’ to play for U.S. at 2023 Women’s World Cup

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

One of the top women’s soccer players in the world won’t be healthy enough to play for the United States at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.Stanford alum Catarina Macario announced on Tuesday that she “won’t be physically ready” in time for the World Cup, which is taking place in Australia and New Zealand starting in mid-July.Macario tore her ACL last year while playing for her French club team Lyon. While she has been training to try and get back on the pitch ahead of the end of the global club season this month, she appears unlikely to do so – and is now out of the World Cup.“The desire to return to play for my club and country has driven my training and fueled my everyday life,” Macario wrote on social media posts. “However, what’s most important right now is my health and getting fit for my next club season.”God’s plan. I will be back pic.twitter.com/JNMsl2RbMz— Catarina Macario (@catarinamacario) May 23, 2023Macario expressed gratitude to U.S. soccer and women’s national...

Police identify Oakland fatal shooting victim

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

OAKLAND — A 24-year-old man shot and killed over the weekend in East Oakland was identified by police Tuesday as Demetrius Jones.A 40-year-old man wounded in the same shooting is recovering.Police said the two men did not know each other and that the 40-year-old man was hit by a stray bullet.The shooting happened about 11:46 p.m. Saturday in the 7700 block of Bancroft Avenue.Police said Jones, an Oakland resident, was part of a group standing outside when someone began shooting at them.Jones died at the scene. The other man, who was walking to a store in the area and was not part of the group, got his own transportation to a hospital.Police have not determined a motive yet for the shooting or if Jones was the intended target of the shooter. No arrests have been made.Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $15,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. Anyone with information may call police at 510-238-3821 or 510-238-7950 or Crime...

Map: Where the new search for Madeleine McCann has led

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

The search for Madeleine McCann, who was almost 4 when she disappeared from a Portuguese resort in 2007, has led police to a reservoir 30 miles away, they announced this week.The reservoir, near the city of Silves, was searched by divers in 2008, with no findings other than animal bones. This time, authorities said, the search will be focused out of the water.The map above shows key sites in the long-running case.1/ Ocean Club, Praia da Luz. The McCann family, from England — parents Gerry and Kate, Madeleine, and younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie — was on vacation at the resort in Portugal’s Algarve region. On May 3, 2007, the children were put to bed in the villa and their parents went to dine with friends in the complex’s clubhouse, about 100 yards away. An adult went to check on the kids every 30 minutes. Around 10 p.m., Kate McCann went to check on them and found the room’s shutters open and Madeleine gone.2/ Suspect’s rental home. Officia...

Third man killed in Highway 101 pileup near Sunnyvale identified

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

SUNNYVALE —The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday identified the third man killed on Highway 101 early Monday after a multi-car pileup near Sunnyvale.Nicacio Negrete Gutierrez, a 53-year-old Sunnyvale resident, died along with 28-year-old Tyler Rasay of South San Francisco and 24-year-old Paul Dennig Jr. of Mountain View, according to the medical examiner’s office.The men were in separate vehicles that crashed into a disabled Ford pickup truck that had earlier lost control, hit the center median and blocked the far left lane on northbound Highway 101 just south of Fair Oaks Avenue.After the pileup, the men exited their vehicles and stood in the center median area when two more cars crashed into the collision site, killing one of them and throwing the two other men over the median, where they were fatally hit by a southbound vehicle, CHP Officer Ross Lee said.Lee said the crash remains under investigation. There was no immediate indication that any of...

California fines Walmart $500,000 over illegal online brass knuckle sales

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:28 GMT

Walmart will pay $500,000 to settle California authorities’ claims that the retail giant sold brass knuckles illegal in the state through its website, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday.The Attorney General’s complaint alleges that approximately 250 products that could be classified as brass knuckles were sold through Walmart’s Walmart.com website, which allows both direct sales to consumers by the retailer and provides an e-commerce platform for third-party sellers. About 60% of those brass knuckles were sold directly by Walmart, and the remaining 40% by third-party sellers, the complain alleges.“Illegal weapons have no place in California,” Bonta said. “The settlement we have reached with Walmart makes crystal clear that online retailers are responsible for what they are allowing to be offered for sale in our state.”The Arkansas-based retail giant had no immediate comment Tuesday afternoon. The company did not admit fault in reaching ...