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Next-generation plastic recycling plant is bet on rising US demand

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

Leslie Kaufman | Bloomberg News (TNS)Most gamblers looking for action in Las Vegas head for the Strip, but the biggest bet to watch these days is on the edge of town. There, a vast new complex will take plastic waste from across the West and process it into high-quality material that manufacturers can turn back into water and soda bottles or other food-grade packaging.Republic Services Inc., one of the nation’s largest trash haulers, opened the new 75,000-square-foot Polymer Center on Tuesday. Republic says it has invested $70 million dollars in the plant on the belief that there’s a growing U.S. market for recycled pet flake. PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, is the light, transparent plastic used in soda and water bottles.Every year, the U.S. generates roughly 40 million tons of plastic, and at best, less than 9% of it is recycled. PET is recycled more than most types of plastic, at a rate of about 30%, according to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet that 30% ...

In which Bay Area cities do most people speak another language at home?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

As people sit down for dinner in Milpitas, two out of three of them are speaking something other than English when they ask for seconds.No other city in the Bay Area has such a high percentage of residents who come home and share the highlights and struggles of their day in another language.That’s according to a new round of data released Thursday from the U.S Census Bureau’s American Community Survey on the country’s households.Perhaps, not surprisingly, California is the state with the largest proportion of people who speak a language other than English at home — 44% of all residents 5 and older. Texas comes in second with 35%.In the Bay Area, the percentage is 43%, twice the national rate. In eight Bay Area cities, more than half of the residents speak another language at home, according to the estimates, based on survey responses over five years from 2018 to 2022.Nowhere stood out more than the South Bay city of Milpitas, where 45% of residents 5 and olde...

Palo Alto Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims, tech entrepreneur Peter Dixon announce bids for U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo’s congressional seat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

Two more Democrats have jumped into the increasingly crowded race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo — Palo Alto City Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims and tech entrepreneur Peter Dixon.After nearly three decades in Congress, Eshoo, 80, announced last month that she won’t seek re-election, giving a rare chance for congressional-hopefuls to run for her coveted District 16 seat, which spans from Pacifica in the north to San Jose, Los Gatos and Pescadero in the south.Lythcott-Haims, who was elected to the council in 2022, said that if elected she plans on continuing her advocacy for affordable housing, youth mental health, climate change, workers’ rights, reproductive rights and accessible healthcare.“Our Congressional District is one of the most prosperous communities on the planet, yet so many have been left behind,” she said in a press release announcing her candidacy. “Every year, the cost-of-living outpaces wages and salaries. Our kids do...

Detached house sells in Palo Alto for $3.2 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

160 Washington Avenue – Google Street ViewA 1,447-square-foot house built in 1948 has changed hands. The property located in the 100 block of Washington Avenue in Palo Alto was sold on Nov. 15, 2023. The $3,200,000 purchase price works out to $2,211 per square foot. The layout of this single-story home consists of three bedrooms and two baths. The home’s outer structure has wood shake roofing / shingles. Inside, a fireplace adds character to the home. In addition, the home is equipped with an attached one-car garage, ensuring secure parking and storage.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:A 5,588-square-foot home on the 2100 block of Emerson Street in Palo Alto sold in June 2023, for $10,000,000, a price per square foot of $1,790. The home has 7 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms.On Emerson Street, Palo Alto, in November 2022, a 1,400-square-foot home was sold for $3,300,000, a price per square foot of $2,357. The home has 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom.In December 2022, a 1,131-square-foo...

Abortion opponents push state lawmakers to promote unproven ‘abortion reversal’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

Anna Claire Vollers | Stateline.org (TNS)Anti-abortion organizations are pushing state lawmakers to promote a controversial and unproven “abortion reversal” treatment — flouting the objections of medical professionals who point out it is not supported by science.In the past several years, Republican lawmakers in at least 14 states have passed laws requiring health care providers to give patients information about abortion reversal. Kansas became the 15th state this year. Meanwhile, Democratic-controlled Colorado this year moved in the opposite direction, becoming the first state to effectively ban abortion reversal treatment, designating it as medical misconduct.The treatment involves prescribing the hormone progesterone, used for decades to help prevent miscarriage, to stem the effects of mifepristone, one of the drugs used for medication abortions. Medication abortion already accounts for a growing majority of U.S. abortions, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in recent yea...

Pearl Harbor survivors return to honor those who perished

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

By Audrey McAvoy and Claire Rush | Associated PressPEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Ira “Ike” Schab had just showered, put on a clean sailor’s uniform and closed his locker aboard the USS Dobbin when he heard a call for a fire rescue party.He went topside to see the USS Utah capsizing and Japanese planes in the air. He scurried back below deck to grab boxes of ammunition and joined a daisy chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun up above. He remembers being only 140 pounds (63.50 kilograms) as a 21-year-old, but somehow finding the strength to lift boxes weighing almost twice that.“We were pretty startled. Startled and scared to death,” Schab, now 103, said at his home in Beaverton, Oregon, where he lives with his daughter. “We didn’t know what to expect and we knew that if anything happened to us, that would be it.”Eighty-two years later, Schab returned to Pearl Harbor Thursday on the anniversary of the attack to remember the mo...

A California couple bought a house in France for $20,000 without seeing it. Here’s what happened

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

By Tamara Hardingham-Gill | CNNHer fascination with France began when she spent a summer in the European country while working as an au pair back back in the 1970s.From then on, Ellen, originally from the East Coast of the US, made it her mission to travel to France whenever she got the chance to.She met her now husband Joseph, from the West Coast, in the late 1970s and the couple went on to marry and have three children, continuing to travel to the country as a family once every two years or so.“It’s funny, Joseph and our daughter would tease me, because anytime we were planning a vacation, I always wanted to come to France,” Ellen admits.“They liked France too, but they would say, ‘Can we go somewhere else?’ [I would say,] ‘Yes, as long as we stop in Paris first or something like that.’ So, it was a compromise usually.”‘Half house’They completed extensive renovation work on the home over a period of nearly seven years, replacing the floors and walls, as well as the electrics and p...

Golden State no more? California budget deficit balloons to $68 billion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

California faces a $68 billion deficit in its budget, largely as a result of a severe revenue decline in the current 2022‑23 fiscal year, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office reported Thursday.“The state faces a serious budget deficit,” the analyst’s office said. “We estimate the Legislature will need to solve a budget problem of $68 billion in the upcoming budget process.”Gov. Gavin Newsom must present a proposed 2023-2024 budget early next month.Typically, the budget process does not involve large changes in revenue in the prior year, the LAO said, because prior‑year taxes usually have been filed and associated revenues collected. But because of federal tax filing extensions this year, the Legislature is now gaining a complete picture of 2022‑23 tax collections after the fiscal year has already ended.The LAO said that 2022‑23 revenue will be $26 billion below budget estimates.“This creates unique and difficult challenges — ...

Annual public menorah lighting is back at SF Union Square

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

(KRON) -- The 48th annual public menorah lighting “Chanukah in Union Square” kicks off on Thursday at 3 p.m. The event will have live music for the gathering. At 5 p.m., the first lighting ceremony will commence.  Globally, Mariah Carey is still dominating Christmas The ceremony will take place at San Francisco's Union Square.This lighting ceremony has been happening in San Francisco since 1975 and is open to everyone. The event is sponsored by the Bill Graham Menorah Project. The initial ceremony garnered support from the late rock promoter and Holocaust survivor Bill Graham.     After Graham’s death, Chabad wanted to honor his memory by dedicating the menorah in his name. 

US Soccer Federation to built training center in Lileth, Georgia, outside Atlanta

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:08 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. Soccer Federation’s new training center will be built in Triluth, Georgia, about 20 miles from downtown Atlanta and a 30-minute drive from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.The USSF announced the specific site Thursday after saying on Sept. 15 it intended to construct a complex in the Atlanta area. Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank is contributing $50 million for the project. The complex will be more than 200 acres.The USSF said in 2002 that the complex in Carson, California, would serve as its national training center. While that has been used often for winter training camps, the men’s national team has located training ahead of games at sites more convenient for its matches, such as in Florida ahead of games in the Caribbean and Central America and near the venues of home games. U.S. Soccer also opened a national development center in Kansas City, Kansas, in 2018.The federation’s headquarters was in New York, then mo...