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Saratoga-based small business owner rents office space in parents’ home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

What started as a side hustle selling greeting cards nearly a decade ago has turned into a fulltime career for Kirstie Wang – one that’s allowed the Saratoga High School graduate to stay really close to home.Wang, a Sunnyvale resident, is running her online store from office space in the the front half of her parents’ Saratoga home. She started A Jar of Pickles after quitting her corporate job in February 2022 and now sells everything from stickers, pens and stamps to plushies, clothing and tote bags.The move is saving her thousands of dollars every month. Bay Area retail and office space rent can be pricey – and hard to find – making it a barrier for many small business owners.Wang started storing inventory and packaging orders in her childhood home in Saratoga last month after she outgrew her own garage space. Her parents, Johnson and Jennifer Lee, also built an attic space for extra inventory storage.“To clear the space they sold our childhood piano, which is a really...

Saratoga community event grant applications open

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

Community event grant applicationsThe City of Saratoga is accepting Community Event Grant Program applications for events that will be held from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. To qualify, events must be located in Saratoga, free and open to the public and volunteer led. They must concentrate on Saratoga’s character, diversity or history and celebrate the community as a whole, and event organizers must agree to obtain a minimum of $1 million liability coverage for the event.Applications, available at https://www.saratoga.ca.us/301/Community-Event-Grants, are due April 3. Qualified applications will be reviewed by the Library and Community Engagement Commission on April 10 to prepare a funding recommendation to be considered by the city council on April 19.Blossom FestivalThe annual Blossom Festival will be held on Saturday, April 29, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Heritage Orchard and Saratoga Civic Center, 13777 Fruitvale Ave. The festival features antique cars, live music, art, crafts...

Latest line: A good week for water districts, a bad week for the San Jose Police Officers’ Association

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

Water agenciesWith reservoirs full and state and federal deliveries up, Bay Area water agencies prepare to relax strict conservation rules after three years of drought, which will earn them more money from water sales.    San Jose Police Officers’ AssociationPolice union makes national headlines after its executive director, Joanne Segovia, a civilian, is charged with running a drug ring from her home since 2015, including distributing fentanyl.   Stanford Law School“Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle,” Stanford president says in apology after 100 students shout down a conservative judge at the law school. But the damage to the school’s reputation is done. 

They said it: Traffic is back

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

“You kind of got used to putting it in cruise control and doing 75 miles per hour. Maybe about three or four months ago you come around the corner and traffic is stopped.”— Ian Brown, 47, who commutes from San Francisco to Los Gatos for a job at Netflix. A traffic analytics firm found that Bay Area congestion fully returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

Caltrans mapping app helps drivers (and others) get around traffic problems: Roadshow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

Q: You mentioned Quickmaps in a recent column. That website and app are worth highlighting for your readers. It’s useful not just for car trips, but also bike riding in local mountains. As you know, it can show data from Caltrans, Google Maps, and Waze. It’s a great way to find information about closures, lane reductions, incident reports, and much more.It’s not perfect for cycling, as it doesn’t show many closed single-lane mountain roads, like Stage and West Old La Honda, but it gets the ones most traveled by autos, like Skyline and Highway 9, and 236 in Big Basin. For your readers driving to any of our mountains, it can be of great value. The app is better than the website, as it remembers your settings, and can push alerts for nearby issues. All in all, it’s a pretty slick app.Kudos to Caltrans for this one.Steve Rempel, Los AltosA: Thanks for sharing your experience with it.Q: My phone died and I need to reinstall apps on my new one. You named a go...

Black homeownership has declined across the Bay Area, furthering inequality

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

Since pulling herself out of homelessness a decade ago, Nadia Johnson has worked tirelessly to achieve what no one else in her family has accomplished: owning a home in the Bay Area.Johnson, a manager at a local Starbucks, and her husband, Andre, a driver for a private bus service, now rent a two-bedroom duplex in the Contra Costa County suburb of Rodeo with their 13-year-old daughter, Raiena.The couple has been saving to buy a house of their own in the working-class community known for its sprawling Phillips 66 oil refinery. But their modest incomes make it nearly impossible to qualify for a mortgage, even in one of the more affordable parts of the increasingly unaffordable Bay Area.“We’re trying to own a little piece of Rodeo, just a little bitty piece,” said Johnson, 48. “I just want to be able to leave something to my grandchildren.”Buying a home, a crucial stepping stone to wealth that can be passed down over generations, has long been a struggle f...

Brendan Rodgers fired by relegation-threatened Leicester

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

LEICESTER, England (AP) — Relegation-threatened Leicester fired manager Brendan Rodgers on Sunday in a late-season move to preserve its Premier League status.Rodgers, who has been in charge for four years, leaves with the team having dropped to third-to-last place with 10 league matches remaining.___More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces he’ll seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces he’ll seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.Source

Brittney Griner exige liberación de periodista estadounidense detenido en Rusia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

WASHINGTON DC — La estrella estadounidense del baloncesto Brittney Griner y su esposa están preocupadas por la detención en Rusia del reportero del Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich y dijeron que “debemos hacer todo lo que esté en nuestro poder para traerle a él y a todos los estadounidenses a casa”.“Cualquier estadounidense que sea detenido es nuestro para luchar por él y cualquier estadounidense devuelto es una victoria para todos nosotros”, dijo Griner, que estuvo casi todo el año pasado detenida en Rusia, en un comunicado con Cheredelle Griner publicado el sábado por la noche en Instagram.Las autoridades rusas de seguridad detuvieron el jueves a Gershkovich, de 31 años, y le acusaron de espionaje. El diario rechazó las acusaciones y exigió su liberación.El presidente, Joe Biden, instó el viernes a Rusia a liberar a Gershkovich, el primer corresponsal estadounidense detenido por acusaciones de espionaje desde la Guerra Fría. Tragedia en México: se lanzan al vacío...

Anthony Joshua sets sights on Fury in tweak to rebuild plan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:04:43 GMT

Anthony Joshua’s rebuild plan was to have three or four fights to gain momentum for another crack at a world heavyweight title.He’s happy to take a short cut.An all-British fight with WBC champion Tyson Fury could be back on the cards after Joshua beat Jermaine Franklin on points on Saturday in an unconvincing comeback fight following successive damaging losses to Oleksandr Usyk.Well, Joshua hopes so, anyway.“It’s 100% Tyson Fury,” Joshua said in the bowels of London’s O2 Arena early Sunday about who he wanted to fight next.“That’s the pot of gold. The WBC heavyweight champion of the world — that’s what it’s all about. Definitely Tyson Fury.”Fury might have something to say about that, though he is yet to respond to being called out by Joshua.And arranging a so-called “Battle of Britain” won’t be easy. A look at the two fighters’ previous attempts at negotiations point to that.In 2020, after some unseemly back-and-forth over social media, a Joshua-Fury fight to crown the winner the ...