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2024's Social Security COLA increase won't match 2023

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – The next cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients is projected to be slightly better than previously estimated, but still the lowest in years, the Senior Citizen’s League predicts.The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, had estimated in mid-June that 2024’s COLA increase could be somewhere around 2.7% — a huge drop-off from 2023’s 8.7% increase.The group’s revised estimate, issued Thursday following the publication of the Labor Bureau’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W), now puts that number at 3%, they say.The revised estimate for 2024's COLA increase is still subject to change, the Senior Citizen's League warns. (Getty Images)Three percent, however, would still amount to the lowest COLA increase since 2020. “There are still three more months of data before the COLA is announced in October, and this estimate could change,” TSCL wrote in a Thursday news release, warning that CPI-W data in the...

Rezvan Hekmat Killed in DUI Crash on Barranca Parkway [Tustin, CA]

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

Miguel Xum Injured, Gerardo Joaquin Garcia Lopez Arrested after DUI Crash near Tustin Ranch RoadSANTA ANA, CA (July 14, 2023) – Sunday afternoon, Gerardo Joaquin Garcia Lopez was arrested after a DUI crash left Rezvan Hekmat dead and Miguel Xum injured.The incident occurred on June 4th, at around 5:15 p.m., near the intersection of Barranca Parkway and Tustin Ranch Road.According to reports, Lopez ran a red light on Barranca Parkway. As a result, Lopez’s vehicle collided with Hekmat’s vehicle. The impact of the collision caused Hekmat, Lopez, and his passenger Xum to sustain injuries.Emergency crews arrived shortly after and transported Lopez and Hekmat to a local hospital for treatment. It is currently unclear whether or not Xum needed to be hospitalized.At the hospital, officials pronounced 67-year-old Rezvan Hekmat, of Laguna Hills, dead, due to the extent of her injuries.Following his hospitalization, police arrested 25-year-old Gerardo Joaquin Garcia Lopez, of...

How an 8-year-old provided perspective on the A’s move to Las Vegas

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

The A’s impending move to Las Vegas had left me sort of .. well, unmoved. Aside from feeling badly for the faithful A’s fans, I’d mostly taken a pragmatic, almost apathetic view that comes from spending more than three decades as a journalist.Until I remembered an 8-year-old boy from my childhood. I wondered how he’d be handling John Fisher’s decision to forever uproot the A’s from Oakland.See we grew up in a neighborhood about three miles from the Coliseum. When the A’s played at home back then, you listened for fireworks coming from the stadium because it meant the A’s had won. While we all played in our dimly lit court on those summer nights, the boy often seemed distracted, as if waiting for the loud, rhythmic blasts of validation.That kid would cry every summer when his parents sent him to camp because it meant two weeks without the A’s. He loved horseback riding, boating, swimming and campfires, but he loved the A’s more, much more.That kid, when the bell rang at the end of th...

East San Jose senior housing complex is bought by Housing Authority

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

SAN JOSE — An affordable apartment complex for senior citizens in east San Jose has been bought by a county housing agency, a deal that occurred soon after federal officials had foreclosed on the property’s delinquent loan.Girasol Housing, a 59-unit apartment complex, has been bought by the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, according to public documents filed on July 13.The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department sold the property to the county housing agency after HUD had foreclosed on a defaulted mortgage for the site, the county real estate records show.The Housing Authority paid $4.15 million for the Girasol complex, according to the property files.MACSA Housing Corp. had owned the property for decades, but defaulted on a loan that had been provided by HUD, county documents show. HUD provided financing to the MACSA Housing group in 1997.The deal hints at a sharply declining value for the property. As of the end of June 2023, the property’s assessed va...

Editorial: When it comes to Skittles and kids, better safe than sorry

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

Better safe than sorry. When it comes to kids, that should be a no-brainer for the makers of candies such as Skittles, Pez, Sour Patch Kids and Nerds.Those sweets contain five chemicals that have been banned in Europe after they were linked to a range of serious health problems. But despite reformulating the candies in Europe with safer alternatives of similar cost, the candy makers are still selling the potentially harmful versions in the United States.Assembly Bill 418, introduced by Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, would prohibit the sale in California of candy with any of the five chemicals: brominated vegetable oil (BVO), potassium bromate, propyl paraben, Red Dye No. 3 and titanium dioxide.The chemicals are used to make the candies’ colors more vivid. But they have been linked to a higher risk of cancer, nervous system damage, hyperactivity and other neurological problems.In 1990, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned Red Dye No. 3 from use in lipsticks, powders, ...

Why the SF Giants scheduled a single-admission doubleheader in 2024

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

From the time the Giants first arrived in San Francisco in 1958 all the way through the 1980s, you could expect at least one scheduled doubleheader on the calendar during the summer.But after mostly going away in the 1990s, the Giants are bringing it back in 2024.Oracle Park will host its first-ever scheduled, traditional doubleheader in the ballpark’s 25th season on Saturday, July 27, 2024 when the Giants host the Rockies.In a phone interview with this news organization Thursday evening, Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said that the decision isn’t entirely nostalgia-based, but there’s plenty of it to make it happen.“It all felt right, and it kind of fell into place,” Baer said. “The big thing was for the fans to experience something that a lot of people have asked us about.”It’s one of two traditional doubleheaders on the schedule in 2024, as the A’s will have one against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, May 8. These are the first two since the Tampa Bay Rays hosted ...

California still has an anti-gay marriage law on the books. Voters could remove it in 2024

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

By SOPHIE AUSTIN | Associated Press/Report for AmericaSACRAMENTO — California voters will decide in 2024 whether to enshrine the right to same-sex marriage in the state constitution, a chance for them to permanently remove an inactive ban on same-sex marriage that they approved in 2008.The California Senate overwhelmingly passed the proposed constitutional amendment on Thursday, though most of the chamber’s eight Republicans did not take a position. It would repeal a 2008 measure, known as Proposition 8, which voters approved to ban the state from recognizing same-sex marriages.In practice, that law has been void for about a decade. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in the state. But it remains on the books and can only be removed by voters.“What we are doing today is joyous,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat representing San Francisco. “What the voters, I believe, will do next year is joyous. This is about recognizing the fundamental humanity o...

Detached house sells for $2.9 million in Palo Alto

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

873 Oregon Avenue – Google Street ViewA house located in the 800 block of Oregon Avenue in Palo Alto has new owners. The 1,677-square-foot property, built in 1959, was sold on June 16, 2023, for $2,900,000, or $1,729 per square foot. The layout of this single-story house includes three bedrooms and two baths. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. In addition, the house includes a two-car garage, offering generous space for vehicles and storage requirements. Situated on a spacious 6,490-square-foot lot, the property offers ample outdoor space along with the added bonus of a pool.Additional houses have recently changed hands nearby:In July 2022, a 1,868-square-foot home on Warren Way in Palo Alto sold for $3,160,000, a price per square foot of $1,692. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.On Louis Road, Palo Alto, in March 2023, a 1,988-square-foot home was sold for $5,400,000, a price per square foot of $2,716. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.A 3,415...

Review: Musical theater meets mockumentary in ‘Theater Camp’

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

By Jake Coyle | Associated PressAmong the low-hanging fruits of satire, sleepaway theater camps would dangle about as low as social-media influencers and Def Leppard cover bands.But “Theater Camp,” a new comedy by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, energetically wades into the kind of mockumentary territory Christopher Guest would approve of. The spirit of “Best in Show” and “Waiting for Guffman” is often present, for better and worse, in Gordon and Lieberman’s film, which first debuted at Sundance earlier this year.But theirs is a much more earnest, loving lampoon, made by a group of friends with obvious affection for musical theater. Gordon and Lieberman co-wrote the script with Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, expanding their 2020 18-minute short. The result is something too tame for rich parody, but knowing enough to be kind of sweet. “Theater Camp,” at least, has the song and dance part down pat.The upstate New York camp of AdirondA...

Opinion: Stop California’s abusive Disabilities Act lawsuits

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:51:50 GMT

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 with the goal of providing access to public places for those with disabilities. It was the most sweeping affirmation of rights for the disabled in the nation’s history.While the spirit of the law is wholeheartedly embraced, the legislation has serious loopholes that have made California business owners the victims of predatory “gotcha” lawsuits, with little relief in sight.In California, penalties for ADA violations are much higher because state law provides for a fine of $4,000 per violation, a fine other states do not have, plus attorney’s fees. In 2021, 5,930 claims were filed in California — more than half of the 11,452 claims filed nationwide.Serial litigants and a small band of law firms have found a way to “game” the system and make matters worse. They are filing 30 to 40 boilerplate lawsuits per day against California businesses, attacking marginalized neighborhoods with limited access to justice.Aaron Hic...