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Opinion: VTA is spending $500 million to add 10 minutes to your commute

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

VTA is ready to spend $500 million of taxpayer money to connect a train station to San Jose Mineta International Airport, ignoring a second option that would cost one-tenth of that price. The plan is to connect San Jose’s Diridon Station to San Jose’s Mineta Airport. While both the airport and the Diridon Station are in San Jose, the two are separated by 4.1 miles. VTA’s proposal is to dig a four-mile tube under the city. This might make sense if it were the only option.It is not. Directly across the street from the airport is the Santa Clara Transit Station. For $40-to-$50 million, a connection from the Santa Clara station to the airport would require one undercrossing and a fleet of above-ground trolleys. Our group has timed the Santa Clara option and found that this solution would beat a commuters’ time to the airport by 10-15 minutes when compared to the Diridon option.With this $500 million option, Peninsula commuters would view Mineta airport as they whisked by and continued f...

Is job market turmoil shades of Triangle Fire, 112 year ago?

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

On March 25, 1911, my Great Aunt Fannie went to work in a high-rise garment factory in New York City.The workday ended with Fannie Lansner jumping from a ninth-floor window to avoid the scorching flames that killed her and 145 coworkers.The workplace horror known as the Triangle Fire became a rallying moment in America’s labor movement. The revolution greatly bettered the workplace in terms of routines, compensation and safety.Just think about why Great Aunt Fannie was on the job on that fateful Saturday. Because in 1911, a six-day workweek was a common requirement.So let me honor my great aunt’s memory with a history lesson that shows us the enduring struggle between worker and boss.At the start of the 20th century, sweatshops like the one run by Triangle Waist Co. took advantage of an ample supply of young, immigrant female workers. As one could expect, bosses didn’t take kindly to unhappy workers.Two years earlier, New York employers throttled a large garment workers’ strike. Jus...

Ukraine pushes for continued Russian Olympic exclusion

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine renewed its push to keep Russian athletes out of the Olympics on Friday ahead of an International Olympic Committee board meeting next week which is expected to set the framework for their return to international sports events. Vadym Guttsait, who is Ukraine’s sports minister and leads the national Olympic committee, was sharply critical of the IOC’s push to reintegrate Russia and its ally Belarus into world sports. Any return, Guttsait said, would highlight the inequality caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.“We do not have normal conditions for training and preparation for the Olympic Games. At the same time, the Russians have all the essentials to train and perform inside their country. They sleep at night, but we don’t sleep at night,” he told reporters.The IOC is expected to set out criteria for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete next week as qualifying events for the Paris Olympics ramp up. The IOC recommended excluding Rus...

30 years after ruptured pipeline, search for drinking water backup for Potomac River continues

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

After the 1993 rupture of the Colonial Pipeline in Reston, Va., oil flowed into Sugarland Run, and then the Potomac River. (Courtesy Interstate Commission on Potomac River Basin)Next week marks 30 years since the rupture of the Colonial Pipeline launched a geyser of oil in Reston, Virginia, before flowing into the Potomac River — D.C. area’s main source of drinking water.On March 28, 1993, the Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Houston to New York, ruptured and spilled 407,736 gallons of No. 2 fuel.“A 50 to 100 foot geyser of oil was observed behind the Reston Hospital Center,” recalled Michael Nardolilli, executive director of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. “The oil flowed into Sugarland Run, which a tributary of the Potomac River, and then entered the Potomac at Algonkian Regional Park.”More Local NewsMore Lifestyle NewsFairfax Water — one of three water suppliers in suburban Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. — had to shut down its d...

Fauquier Co. group files lawsuit to stop Amazon data center in Warrenton

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

Opponents of constructing an Amazon data center in Warrenton, Virginia, haven’t given up their pursuit of ending the project and have filed a new lawsuit.Filed by the Citizens for Fauquier County, the lawsuit states that the town council ran roughshod over numerous state and local zoning and planning requirements and seeks to stop the construction.More Virginia NewsMore Local NewsIn addition, several citizens like Dave Winn said at a recent town council meeting that Amazon has already started clearing trees at the site, violating town zoning rules.“They have cleared several acres, they are indiscriminately clearing it,” Winn said.In response to a question from Council member William Semple, Tommy Cureton, Warrenton’s acting town manager, acknowledging that there are some missing parts to Amazon’s plan.“We have not received a site plan at this time from the land owner, but the tree preservation plan will be included within that site plan once we are in receipt...

Kim Jong Un prueba un peligroso dron submarino capaz de causar tsunamis radiactivos

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

Corea del Norte anunció que probó un dron submarino nuclear capaz de generar tsunamis radiactivos, afirmación que plantea dudas en los expertos pero que supone un nuevo golpe sobre la mesa en un tenso panorama marcado por las maniobras de Seúl y Washington y los test de armas de Pionyang.El objetivo de estos sistemas lanzados desde un submarino es penetrar en aguas costeras y provocar una gigantesca ola radiactiva que elimine flotas enteras, destruya puertos y demás infraestructura y genere un daño terrible en las regiones litorales, que quedarían altamente contaminadas durante al menos varias décadas tanto tierra adentro como en sus aguas circundantes.Los medios norcoreanos informaron que el régimen hizo la prueba esta semana en presencia del líder Kim Jong-un. Se trata de un nuevo tipo de dron submarino o torpedo guiado que al estallar es capaz de provocar gigantescas olas contaminantes al igual que el sistema ruso conocido como Poseidón. Corea del Norte lanza dos mi...

Where are the best cocktails in Denver?

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- If you are looking for a place to grab a drink to celebrate the weekend or just enjoy for a midweek pick-me-up, there are several options in the Mile High City.National Cocktail Day is March 24. Colorado pizza place ranked one of top in US Best places for cocktails in DenverFOX31 compiled a list of the highest rated places for cocktails in Denver with at least 4.5 stars and 100 or more reviews on Google.Bar Max - 4.6 stars for 172 reviewsChurchill Bar - 4.5 stars for 245 reviewsCruise Room - 4.6 stars for 119 reviewsDeath & Co Denver- 4.6 stars for 999 reviewsDew Drop Inn - 4.8 stars for 125 reviewsesp - 4.8 stars for 222 reviewsFort Greene - 4.7 stars for 356 reviewsGold Point - 4.5 stars for 338 reviewsHAZEL - 4.5 stars for 170 reviewsHoney Elixir Bar - 4.6 stars for 183 reviewsHudson Hill - 4.6 stars for 686 reviewsHumboldt Kitchen + Bar - 4.5 stars for 1,251 reviewsLady Jane - 4.8 stars for 267 reviewsMillers & Rossi - 4.5 stars for 434 reviewsMytholog...

Good news, bad news for coffee lovers after study examined effects of coffee consumption

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

For years many thought drinking coffee every day was bad for your heart health but according to a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine that’s not true. The study showed that drinking coffee did not significantly increase a healthy person’s chances of experiencing premature atrial contractions. Premature atrial contractions are extra palpitations that can make you feel like your heart skipped a beat. However, it’s not all good news the study also found that people who drink two or more cups of coffee every day experience a small increase in a type of irregular heartbeat called premature ventricular contractions. Doctors said this is common. “The significance of people having a few extra heartbeats, in this case, it was about 50 over the course of the day. The ventricular is the main pumping chamber of the heart side made no difference from the other side of the heart. That difference is not going to make it much difference clinically or i...

Parents recall moments after 11-month-old son falls from changing table at Naples daycare

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

NAPLES, Fla. (WSVN) — An 11-month-old boy is now back at home with his family after falling from a changing table at a daycare center in Naples. Angel’s parents, Brayan Guisandes and Alejandra Fajardo are now sharing their story and want answers from the facility after the harrowing incident.According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, the incident occurred on Wednesday at a YMCA. Angel was placed on a changing table when he suddenly fell off, sustaining injuries that required hospitalization. Heartbreaking photos shared by Angel’s parents showed the little boy with a hospital bracelet wrapped around his wrist, an IV in his bandaged arm, a bruise on his forehead, and a cut on his nose.Angel’s mother arrived on the scene to find her son unconscious, and she was not allowed to see him right away. “She gives me a call, you know, crying, saying that the baby’s unconscious and not letting them see he’s in the ambulance, you know, and all of a sudden, yo...

Europe’s TB deaths rise for first time in 2 decades

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:00:02 GMT

Tuberculosis (TB) deaths in Europe increased in 2021 for the first time in nearly two decades due to the pandemic’s disruption on treatment and diagnostic services, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization’s Europe office said today.In the WHO European Region, 27,300 people died from TB in 2021, compared with 27,000 deaths in 2020. The situation in Europe is detailed in a report on TB surveillance and monitoring in Europe, also published today, in which the ECDC and WHO/Europe warn that there is much work to do when it comes to ending TB on the Continent. “In 2021, the raging COVID-19 pandemic continued to heavily affect our Member States. TB resources were diverted, and patients experienced difficulties in accessing clinical services, possibly resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment of some TB cases. Therefore, we need to increase the number of people diagnosed and successfully treated,” said ECDC Director Andr...