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TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival marks 20th year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

After helming TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s New Works Festival since 2014, Giovanna Sardelli is looking at the festival’s 20th anniversary from a different perspective, having recently been named TheatreWorks’ new artistic director,The New Works Festival runs Aug. 11-20 at Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. Kicking off this year’s festival at 6 p.m. on Aug. 11 is a special fundraising event featuring two contemporary playwrights: Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang (“Madame Butterfly,” “Chinglish”) and Obie Award winner Rajiv Joseph (“Archduke,” “The North Pool”). The benefit includes dinner and an onstage event, with all proceeds going to support TheatreWorks. Tickets are $75-$325.A second fundraiser, “Songs and Stories with Shakina: A Musical TheatreWorks Fundraiser and Party,” is set for Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 for the show and $150 for both the show and the after-party.Actor/transgender activist Shakina Nayfack will premiere a number of songs from her new mu...

Sunnyvale museum expands, extends Lockheed exhibit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

Lockheed exhibit extendedThe “Lockheed in Sunnyvale, 1956 to 2023” exhibit at the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum, which opened in June, has since been expanded to fill the entire upstairs space at the museum. The expansion was due to close this month but has been extended through the first week of September.The exhibit highlights how the company’s arrival changed the city and the surrounding Santa Clara Valley.While the museum still boasts a permanent Lockheed exhibit, the temporary exhibit features items acquired more recently as well as other materials that have never been on public view. According to museum director Laura Babcock, the exhibit will also provide an overview of the various divisions within Lockheed and the work accomplished there through the years.The museum, located at 570 E. Remington Drive, is open every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, noon-4 p.m. For more information, visit www.heritageparkmuseum.org or call 408-749-0220.Recreation scholarshipsYouths up to age 21 ...

Milpitas firefighters help keep things rolling at bike repair clinic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

Milpitas residents brought their broken-down, flat-tired bikes with rusted chains and squeaky brakes to Fire Station No. 1 on July 22 for TurningWheels For Kids fourth bike repair clinic of the year, where volunteers from the Bike Doctorz fixed them for free.Resident Stanley Lin rode to the fire station on the bike he bought at an impounded bike resale, followed by his three children riding their colorful hand-me-down bikes. Lin has been learning how to fix the family bikes himself and discovered TurningWheels For Kids as he was riding around town with his family that morning.Valley Health Foundation Senior Program Manager Ignacio Vallejo, who has been running TurningWheels For Kids for a decade, welcomed families with refreshments. Vallejo checked the bikes and documented the maintenance needs while ensuring that every bike would leave the station with reflectors on the handlebar.Dr. Tom of the Bike Doctorz coordinated the repairs. Volunteer Al, fresh off a 71-mile bike ride for hi...

49ers training camp: Padded practices starts today, but don’t expect big hits of old NFL

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

SANTA CLARA — The 49ers put on the pads for the first time Sunday.There will be collisions and the clashing of shoulder pads and a physicality which wasn’t allowed during their first three days of training camp before taking Saturday off to rest and recover.But the days of two-a-days and pit drills are long gone, as the NFL has gradually taken a more sensible approach to football in July and August. The goal isn’t to whip a team into shape through constant contact as much as it is to get to the starting line in Week 1 with players that are healthy and more fresh than their predecessors.When the 49ers held their first practice, coach Kyle Shanahan wanted his team focused on “keeping it light” rather than proving themselves physically.“My biggest thing is guys just not being too eager because everyone’s so gung-ho and you don’t have the pads on yet,” Shanahan said. “So just trying our tails off to keep everyone off the ground...

Latest line: A good week for Caltrain, a bad week for Chemtrade

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

CaltrainCommuter rail service from San Francisco to Gilroy unveils new electric trains to the public, a project in the works since the 1990s that will reduce noise and diesel air pollution, and bring more sleek, modern service for passengers.    ChemtradeRichmond chemical company hit with $1.15 million fine after Bay Area Air Quality Management District says it underreported sulfur dioxide emissions. Six years ago the company paid $135,000 in other air pollution penalties.   Dianne FeinsteinViral video clip seems to show California’s 90-year-old senator confused at a hearing this week. But she’s still in office, continuing to provide the swing vote on the 11-10 Judiciary Committee to approve President Biden’s judges. 

They said it: Not normal treatment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

“I had every alarm going off inside my body.”Former San Jose State University swimmer Caitlin Macky, testifying in the trial of Scott Shaw, the former head athletics trainer who is accused of sexually assaulting more than two dozen female athletes. Shaw is facing six federal civil rights charges for “willfully depriving four female student-athletes of their Constitutional fundamental right to bodily integrity.”

Could this GPS tarmac transmitter be a solution for noisy flight path over SFO?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

For years, neighbors who live along the flight path to San Francisco International Airport have suffered — and complained — about airplane noise. Now the airport is testing a new way to battle the nuisance that is growing worse in many nearby cities: Precision navigation.A powerful GPS transmitter on the airport’s tarmac will guide incoming planes with more accuracy than satellites in the sky alone, so pilots can fly higher over cities or soar out into the Bay, potentially reducing noise over Peninsula communities like Palo Alto and Menlo Park.The $11 million project — the first in the West — improves a plane’s three-dimensional positional accuracy from many hundreds of feet to an exacting 30 to 50 feet.A broadcast transmitter at San Francisco International Airport is part of a new aircraft positioning and landing technology, called the Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS), designed to reduce noise over Peninsula communities.(Photo courtesy of ...

Drivers may see red, but pedestrians come first at busy Highway 101 entrance: Roadshow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

Q: Can you explain why there is a No Right Turn on Red light in the eastbound direction of Mathilda for the northbound Highway 101 entrance?There is no blind spot and I do not understand why cars would not be able to make a right turn during a red light for the northbound Highway 101 entrance. And with cars backing up on Mathilda waiting for the light to turn green and then proceeding onto the northbound Highway 101 entrance, it can become a safety hazard as a long procession of cars builds up to merge onto Highway 101.Greg TsangA: I sent your question to the City of Sunnyvale. The No Right Turn on Red was installed to improve safety for pedestrians and was part of the Mathilda/237/101 interchange project. Since northbound Mathilda traffic cannot make a right turn on red now, motorists have a better view of pedestrians in that area. The city said that while there is additional delay for drivers, they do not see vehicle queues there as being excessive and all right turn traffic clear...

Why California is having its best wildfire season in 25 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

It’s nearly August, but one familiar summer trend has been very scarce this year: wildfires.California is off to its slowest start to fire season in 25 years.A state traumatized by huge fires over the past decade that have burned millions of acres — killing more than 200 people, and generating choking smoke and apocalyptic orange skies — has seen almost no major fire activity so far in 2023.As of Thursday, just 24,229 acres had burned in California since Jan. 1, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That’s 82% less than the state’s 10-year average and is the lowest of any year since 1998.Only four structures have burned statewide in wildfires so far this year and there have been no fatalities, reports Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency. By comparison, one fire in July 2018, the Carr Fire near Redding, destroyed 1,614 structures and killed eight people, including three firefighters.The reason for the state’s good fortune now, exp...

Canadian McIntosh, 16, secures 2nd swimming worlds gold with win in women’s 400m individual medley

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:02 GMT

FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — Summer McIntosh, the 16-year-old Canadian who promises to be a star at next year’s Paris Olympics, won her second gold medal of the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday, taking the women’s 400-meter individual medley in 4 minutes, 27.11 seconds.The victory for McIntosh, the world-record holder in the event, was the second of the worlds after winning the 200 butterfly on Friday. McIntosh seized the lead in the opening leg and won going away, recording the third fastest time in history. American Katie Grimes took the silver in 4:31.41, with Jenna Forrester of Australia picking up the bronze in 4:32.30.McIntosh got off to a slow start at the championships, finishing fourth in the 400 free and getting bronze in the 200 free, before striking gold in her last two individual races.Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden made history with her victory in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. The gold gave Sjostrom 21 medals in individual races in the world championships, surpassing Michae...