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Travel Troubleshooter: Where’s the $10,954 insurance check for my canceled tour?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: My wife and I purchased a tour to Tuscany, Italy, for last October from Overseas Adventure Travel. For an additional fee, we also purchased cancel-for-any-reason insurance from their partner, Allianz. We had to cancel a week before the trip began because my wife broke her ankle. We filed a claim with Allianz and received an email from the insurance company a month later, stating that it had completed its review and “payment details” would be forthcoming from OAT.Christopher Elliott, the Travel Troubleshooter We never heard from OAT. When I called them, I was told that we would receive a check in 45 days. We received no check. I called again two months later, and a representative told me that we would receive a check within a month. The check still did not arrive.I called again. This time, OAT changed its story. A rep told me that Allianz had not completed its processing of our claim.The next month, I spoke with a representative at Allianz...

Yurosek aims to maintain Stanford tight end legacy in new coach Taylor’s offense

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

STANFORD – Of almost 100 Stanford football players whose portraits are shown on the 2023 team roster, one group stands out.The tight ends all wore thick black-framed glasses when they took their individual portraits – a nod to the legacy of their predecessors who prided themselves on “intellectual brutality” and used smarts and physicality to dominate the line of scrimmage.The Cardinal struggled to run the ball or stop the run in recent years, and appeared to give up on that mentality entirely by implementing a hurry-up spread offense under new coach Troy Taylor.But senior Benjamin Yurosek said the tight end group is still trying to return to its roots and play hard-nosed, old-school football.“We grew up watching Stanford and that style of play,” Yurosek said. “I think the Stanford man always has the same mentality. I don’t think any of that changes. Obviously, our offense is a complete 180 from last year, but talking about the person and the mentality we’re still aggressive SOBs an...

TasteFood: Too many tomatoes? Make a buttery, savory confit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

If you have the luxury — I mean, the problem — of too many end-of-season tomatoes, then this confit is for you. Confit is an ancient form of preservation in which perishable food is slowly cooked at a low temperature in fat and then stored in fat. It was (and is) an efficient and safe method to cook and store meat and fish that would otherwise perish. The term “confit” also applies to preserving fruits and vegetables, which may be slowly cooked in oil or a sugar syrup — a method that yields jams, chutneys and candied fruit.This end-of-summer confit is a rich, bright and buttery blend of tomatoes and garlic. The key to the recipe is its simplicity of ingredients and the slow cooking time, which allows the tomatoes to reduce to a juicy sludge and a whole head of garlic to collapse and melt into a buttery paste. Your reward is a savory jam with myriad uses. Smear the confit on crostini, spoon a dollop into a bowl of pasta, use as a pizza sauce, or dilute i...

‘Our school is in crisis’: James Lick High School teachers call for action after violence on East San Jose campus

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

SAN JOSE — Mike Gatenby decided to go public because he felt he had nowhere else to go.Two students had been hospitalized Aug. 17 after an on-campus stabbing in broad daylight, during school hours. It was the second major violent incident of the barely-begun school year.The 25-year English teacher at James Lick High School turned on his camera and pleaded to the community. Clearly shaken, he said his letters to the board of trustees at San Jose’s East Side Union High School District had gone unanswered.“Our community has always had its fair share of challenges but I’ve never experienced anything like the start of this school year,” Gatenby said in the video, posted to multiple social media feeds.“Our school is in crisis,” he added.The stabbing left one of the two students with life-threatening injuries, though both are now recovering. Police have not released any information publicly about arrests or potential suspects.On the night of the stabbing, at an East...

What’s happened to the barn owls in a Santa Clara neighborhood?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

DEAR JOAN: I used to see barn owls around my neighborhood a lot. Most nights I would hear or see one flying high overhead northwards and other nights I would see one flying around lower. But I have not seen or heard them for nearly a year. Where could they have gone? Do individual barn owls have their own territories that change over time?— Tim Avila, Santa ClaraDEAR TIM: It’s always awesome, I think, to have a barn owl for a neighbor, but there are a couple of things that might make them move to a different neighborhood.The first is a lack of food. Although it’s hard to imagine a shortage of rats, if other predators are taking a share and your neighbors are doing their best to keep the rodents at bay, the supply might be limited.Scientists believe barn owls eat at least one rat a day, so a mom and dad, plus a couple of kids, would need four a day. That comes to more than 1,000 in a year. One of their biggest enemies is the great horned owl, which loves nothing more than eatin...

Fremont is buying a big downtown office building — what for?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

The Fremont City Council has bought an office building next to its City Hall complex, with an eye toward possibly converting the building into a new City Hall at some point.The 23,000-square-foot building at 39180 Liberty St. is in Fremont’s budding downtown district. It currently houses several commercial tenants, including real estate and financial firms, law offices and a mental health clinic, according to business listings on Google.The council unanimously approved buying the building for $6.54 million at its Aug. 15 meeting.The purchase agreement does not require any changes to the terms of existing leases, and city officials did not specify any immediate plans for the businesses that call the building home.Mayor Lily Mei reflected on Fremont’s past — “five small towns that came together” — and used the building purchase to look toward the next phases of the city’s development.“This is something that would hopefully be an opportun...

Apartment construction in Silicon Valley grinds to a halt amid cost crunch

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

If the Bay Area hopes to solve its housing crunch, it will need to build a lot more apartment buildings. But after adding thousands of units in recent years, construction is grinding to a halt.In fact, no apartment projects broke ground in Silicon Valley during the first half of 2023, according to data from CoStar, an international real estate analytics company. Compare that to the last six months of 2022, when developers started construction on 5,298 multifamily units in the region.There’s also a slowdown in the East Bay, where construction began on just 672 apartments, condos or townhomes, down from 1,170 during the last half of 2022. In San Francisco and on the Peninsula, work started on only 229 multifamily units, falling just slightly from the back end of last year but well below the 1,846 units during the first six months of 2022.The reasons for the downturn are plenty: Higher interest rates are making financing development more expensive, project lenders and investors a...

Person shot and killed near Rodeo shoreline

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

(BCN) -- A person was shot and killed Saturday night in Rodeo. Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Jimmy Lee said deputies were dispatched at about 10:34 p.m. to a report of suspicious circumstance on the 100 block of Rodeo Avenue in Rodeo. Dispatchers received "several" calls around the same time of shots being fired in the area. Deputies and fire department personnel located a person suffering from a gunshot wound. Violent crowds of teens shut down Emeryville mall, 1 stabbed Despite firefighters attempting lifesaving measures, the victim died at the scene. Lee said Sunday the victim wasn't being identified yet. Anyone with information about the shooting can contact investigators at (925) 313-2600 or through dispatch at (925) 646-2441. For any tips, email: [email protected] or call (866) 846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

3 people killed in separate collisions in SF, including pedestrian

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

(KRON) -- The California Highway Patrol is investigating two deadly crashes that occurred early Sunday morning in San Francisco. First collisionAround 2:30 a.m., a car hit and killed a pedestrian in the southbound lanes on Interstate 280. According to CHP, the pedestrian died at the scene. Second collisionA fatal head-on collision occurred on northbound Highway 101 near Silver Avenue. CHP received reports of a wrong way driver who was traveling southbound on the northbound lanes. Violent crowds of teens shut down Emeryville mall, 1 stabbed The driver crashed into another car, killing two people. Firefighters had to remove the two victims from their car, police said.It is unknown whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in this collision.

16-year-old in custody after chase across Bay Bridge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:17:25 GMT

(KRON) -- California Highway Patrol confirmed it was involved in a chase Friday across the Bay Bridge in both directions. The suspect was taken into custody just after 9 p.m. in Richmond. CHP said the pursuit began at about 3:20 p.m. when a Costa Costa County Sheriff's deputy attempted to stop a white Infinity traveling westbound on State Route 4. Police pursued as the car went onto Interstate 80, CHP said. The suspect then went across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. The deputy chose not to follow the car for the sake of the other drivers on the road, but a sheriff's helicopter followed the vehicle overhead as it drove recklessly and at high speeds, per CHP. The driver eventually crashed into cars in San Francisco, and CHP officers arrived at the scene. As officers prepared to possibly chase the suspect on foot, he took off driving, striking two cars and a police K9, CHP said. The dog has non-life-threatening injuries. The chase then crossed back over the Bay Bridge into the East B...