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Garage full of cars catches fire in Woodland Hills 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

A large fire completely engulfed a garage with cars inside it in Woodland Hills late Saturday night. Video posted to the Citizen app shows the blaze, which occurred in the 22500 block of West Styles Street around 10:40 p.m., swallowing cars and beginning to spill into the driveway. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, crews were able to contain the fire before it spread to any adjacent structures. In total, 30 firefighters took around 22 minutes to extinguish the flames. Video posted to the Citizen app shows the blaze, which occurred in the 22500 block of West Styles Street around 10:40 p.m., swallowing cars and beginning to spill into the driveway. (Citizen App)Video posted to the Citizen app shows the blaze, which occurred in the 22500 block of West Styles Street around 10:40 p.m., swallowing cars and beginning to spill into the driveway. (Citizen App)Video posted to the Citizen app shows the blaze, which occurred in the 22500 block of West Styles...

Active citizens are the cornerstone of the Saratoga community

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

Active citizens are the cornerstone of a thriving and vibrant community. In Saratoga, residents have numerous opportunities to engage with our local government and make their voices heard to shape the future of our beloved city.Your participation not only ensures that the needs and values of our community are accurately represented but also fosters open dialogue, collaboration, transparency, accountability and a stronger sense of unity. Join us in making a difference as we work together to create a brighter future for Saratoga.Attending city council meetings is an excellent way to stay informed about the decisions and initiatives being discussed. These meetings provide a valuable platform for residents to voice their concerns, share opinions and directly interact with their elected representatives. Mark your calendars because Saratoga holds city council meetings on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 7 p.m. The meetings take place in the civic theater at city hall.We und...

Saratoga Library hosts mental health presentation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

Mental health info at libraryThe Santa Clara County Library District is partnering with the County of Santa Clara Health System, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Santa Clara County, and Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) to educate and empower local residents around mental health care through a series of events taking place at district libraries. The goal is to provide crucial information about accessing mental health care services.A presentation at the Saratoga Library is set for Tuesday, Aug. 15, 7-8 p.m. The presentation explains how common mental health conditions are and how to recognize signs and symptoms. It’s estimated that one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness. In Santa Clara County that equals about 340,000 adults.Mental health parity requires that commercial insurance plans provide the same level of coverage for mental health services as they do for physical health services. The presentation includes information on rights to mental health care, s...

Local nonprofit offers clean energy business rebates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

Clean energy business rebatesSilicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) recently launched its Small-to-Medium Business Rebate Program, designed to help local businesses and property owners adopt clean, efficient electric technologies. The program offers rebates of up to $20,000—$25,000 for nonprofits—for upgrading to electric heat pump water heaters and heat pump heating and cooling units, helping business and property owners transition toward an emissions-free building.Business and property owners can find more information at SVCleanEnergy.org/Business-Rebates.Virtual ‘mystery spot’ tourAn outdoor educator from the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority will lead a virtual tour of her favorite “mystery spot” in Coyote Valley Aug. 4 at noon. Learn about a new ecosystem with plants and animals only found at this location, and hear how you can get the chance to visit the area.This program will be hosted live on the Open Space Authority’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/opensp...

Latest line: A good week for Canada, a bad week for Stanford’s president

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

CanadaAmerica’s polite northern neighbor scores big on its plan to poach Silicon Valley tech workers, receiving applications from 10,000 H-1B visa holders in one day for a new program to grant Canadian work permits.    Marc Tessier-LavigneStanford president announces he will resign after a review panel finds that while he “did not personally engage in research misconduct,” he failed to correct errors in several scientific papers he authored going back decades.   Sheng ThaoOakland mayor rejects a $75,000 annual pay increase proposed by the city council, taking $13,000 instead and avoiding a growing controversy. Still, the move will leave her with a comfortable $216,000 a year. 

Bay Area real estate market: Will mortgage rates keep going up?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

Thinking of jumping into the Bay Area home market? Beware: Mortgage rates have been on the rise again in recent months — and are threatening to top 7% before the end of the year.As a result, steeper home loan payments continue squeezing out many house hunters. But growing demand from those who can still afford to buy — combined with a lack of properties coming up for sale during the traditionally busier summer months — is stoking competition, pushing the Bay Area’s typical single-family home price above $1.3 million.Despite the higher rates, which began to surge last year from historic sub-3% lows, buyers are now “biting the bullet” and moving forward with home purchases, said Matt Rubenstein, a real estate agent in Contra Costa County.Home seekers who had been holding out for rates to drop are accepting the increased borrowing costs just in time for the summer homebuying season. It signals something of a return to normalcy following a pandemic real estate boom tha...

They said it: Let the fun shine in

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

“I called the chief of police last night, called city manager this morning and said they need to yank that right away. They’re harmless. It’s part of the tour, part of the phenomenon of Taylor Swift, and it’s good fun for people attending.”— Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor, on Levi’s Stadium, where singer Taylor Swift will perform later this month, saying “friendship bracelets” traded by fans at her concerts won’t be allowed. Stadium management has since dropped the ban.

Did California’s DMV kill its no-party voter registration buzz?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

The announcement five years ago from California’s elections chief was sobering: Voters registering with no political party had edged out Republicans for the first time — relegating the GOP of Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln to third place in the Golden State and stirring speculation that traditional party structures were on their way to irrelevance.The trend proved short-lived. In the years since Democratic registration has continued its long rise, and even Republican registration has edged up slightly. But no-party registration has unexpectedly plummeted.What killed the Golden State’s decades-long embrace of independent voter registration? A new analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California points to one of the state’s biggest buzz-kills as a likely culprit: The Department of Motor Vehicles.“California’s version of automatic voter registration is playing a big role in this shift,” PPIC policy director Eric McGhee wrot...

2024 San Jose mayoral and council races will be one for the record books

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

In just the past 13 months, San Jose’s political machinery has seen two major upheavals: Voters approved changing the year in which the mayor is elected. And two councilmembers were appointed to their seats in January for the first time in nearly three decades, a move deemed as a power grab by the city’s moderate wing.Those developments are likely to prove consequential as candidates line up to compete in the city’s primary race on March 5, 2024, with Districts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 — along with the mayor’s seat — all up for grabs and fundraising set to begin Aug. 8.Here is a shortlist of who is running in the 2024 primary so far.District 2: Two candidates have officially registered for the seat now filled by Councilmember Sergio Jimenez. His term ends next year and the district he represents encompasses the far-reaching corners of south San Jose. Babu Prasad, an employee at Kaiser Permanente’s admitting department, has already garnered a long l...

Driving with hazard lights flashing might seem like right thing to do, but it’s illegal: Roadshow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:12 GMT

Q: I believe you may be incorrect in saying that using your hazard lights while driving is illegal. Having just had to take a test to renew my driver’s license, I recently studied the California Driver’s Handbook. On page 67 it says to turn on your emergency flashers to warn other drivers about a traffic break. Isn’t that the same as hazard lights?Jo Anna WattA: I checked that section of the handbook, too, and it refers to use of hazard lights when you are in a law enforcement traffic break, but does not address hazard lights in other driving situations.Q: Using hazard lights while driving can be legal in some situations. See CVC 25251 for one example. I think being tailgated on a curvy road counts as a hazard on the roadway.Michael GraffA: This covers use of warning lights while passing by an accident or hazard on the roadway.Q: Tailgating is also illegal and I’ve found that turning on the hazard blinker gets tailgaters to back off every time. When they do, I turn off the blinker. ...