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Bay Area restaurant news: El Cerrito has a new Italian wine bar

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

Fifteen years after moving to the U.S. from Sri Lanka, Dulanthi Batathota — known to friends and family as Dolly — recently opened her own business: Dolly’s Tavern, an Italian wine and beer bar in El Cerrito. The new hot spot also offers appetizers, desserts and heartier fare like meatballs.Limoncello sorbet is among the desserts on offer at Dolly’s Tavern, a new Italian wine bar in El Cerrito. (Courtesy Dulanthi Batathota) Batathota moved to the U.S. in 2008 from Sri Lanka and first started working at Milano, an Italian restaurant in Tiburon. Milano’s restaurant owner mentored her as she worked her way up from wait staff to bartender and ultimately the restaurant manager.“Everything I know is from Milano’s,” she says.Dolly’s Tavern offers a wide selection of wine, plus a menu that ranges from salads to charcuterie, limoncello sorbet and chocolate mousse. Many items are imported from Italy, and she hopes to add pasta to the ...

Assemblymember Evan Low jumps into race to replace U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

Assemblymember Evan Low is officially jumping into the race to replace longtime U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo in what could make him the first openly LGBTQ congressmember to represent the Bay Area.Related ArticlesPolitics | Map: The big Bay Area district that will get a new Congress member Low announced his congressional bid Tuesday morning — two weeks after Eshoo said she wouldn’t seek re-election. The assemblymember was on the short list of names local politicos expected to vie to replace her after nearly three decades in Congress. Eshoo’s District 16 seat represents large sections of the Peninsula and the South Bay, running from Pacifica in the north to San Jose, Los Gatos and Pescadero in the south.Low told The Mercury News that he sees this as an “incredible opportunity to continue the legacy of Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.”“Our region here in Silicon Valley, we expect exceptionalism,” he said. “So I take that job very serious...

Pac-12 power ratings: The first NET rankings are out, and the news isn’t great for the conference

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

The first NET rankings of the 2023-24 season were revealed Monday. While it’s probably too early for panic across the Pac-12 footprint, it’s a fine time for concern.For those unfamiliar, the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) is an important piece of the March Madness selection process. There’s no hard cutoff for making the at-large field, but teams in the top-40 are fairly safe.The situation will change significantly over the next three months as the NET acquires more results to compute and the rankings better reflect the sport’s true hierarchy.That change could be for the better, or the worse.The Pac-12 placed just three teams in the top-40: No. 3 Arizona, No. 28 Washington State and No. 39 Utah.How does that compare to peer conferences? Poorly.Top-40 teams by conference:Big 12: sevenSEC: sixBig Ten: fiveMountain West: fiveACC: fourBig East: fourPac-12: threeAgain, the NET is fluid — the initial rankings are a means of providing context. But with more than 50...

Share the Spirit: Opportunity Junction helps East Bay job seekers find careers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

ANTIOCH — Diana Aleman had been working in a retail job when the coronavirus pandemic hit and she was laid off. She decided that she needed a fresh approach to advance her career, so she turned to Opportunity Junction.It was a perfect match. The East Bay nonprofit not only provided her with more than the basic skills to apply for a new job, it also served as the catalyst to help her launch a brand-new career as a COVID-19 ambassador for Contra Costa County.“I had a young baby, I didn’t want to go back to retail, and I didn’t want a gap in my resume,” said Aleman, a Brentwood resident.The organization helps job seekers acquire skills that allow them to pursue new careers or gain promotions that offer financial security, such as training for administrative careers, Certified Nursing Assistant training, career counseling services, English as a second language and technology classes. Students get help with resumes to land an interview, and coaching for the ...

Year-round farmers market and food hub coming to Morgan Hill will be first of its kind

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

A new year-round indoor farmers market is coming to Morgan Hill — the first of its kind in Santa Clara County.The Fattoria Public Market, which is planned to open in 2026, will be the first of its kind in the county and provide a hub for agriculture, food, beverage, and education while offering economic opportunity to small farmers throughout the region.The proposed project will be housed on more than 25 acres of agricultural land just south of Morgan Hill off Highway 101, and will feature a 40,000 sq.-ft indoor facility that will allow farmers to sell directly to consumers year-round, seven days a week.It will also include a beer and wine garden where local wineries and breweries can sell their wares, as well as a distribution and processing facility that will enable smaller farmers to band together to sell their produce to large-scale buyers. All of this will be surrounded by a functioning farm that will provide food for a tasting room on site and serve as an educational hub...

What makes a Bay Area property ‘historic?’ The answer is anything but straightforward

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

As developers and homeowners take advantage of new state laws aimed at producing more housing in the Bay Area, some communities are applying for historic status in a last-resort bid to prevent redevelopment. It’s not just high-profile mansions built in the 1800s that are earning the label. It turns out, even a parking lot can be deemed historic — if your city’s local historic preservation committee is amenable to it.Those looking to apply for historic preservation may do so at either the federal, state or city level.National designationRelated ArticlesHousing | 300-plus homes may replace Sunnyvale office complex that’s in default Housing | 500-plus apartments are eyed at downtown Berkeley restaurant row Housing | Is historic preservation just another NIMBY tactic to avoid California housing laws? Housing | 203-unit affordable apartment project set for VTA station Housing | Silicon Valley bil...

Healdsburg man accused of vandalizing 34 vehicles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

(KRON) -- A 22-year-old man was arrested Monday after authorities found nearly three dozen vehicles vandalized near Healdsburg High School, police said.Spencer Martin, 22, of Healdsburg, was identified as the suspect reported to have damaged 34 vehicles, causing thousands of dollars in damage, according to the Healdsburg Police Department. Police initially responded to a report of several vandalized vehicles at Healdsburg High School and while gathering the victims’ information, were alerted to more vandalism nearby.KRON On is streaming live.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }After canvassing the area, officers located Martin, who matched the description of the caller’s report. Martin was charged with 34 counts of felony vandalism, police said.

More bodies found after sudden eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi, raising confirmed toll to 22

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

BATU PALANO, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano found 11 more bodies of climbers who were caught by a surprise weekend eruption, raising the number of confirmed dead to 22, officials said Tuesday. One person remained missing.More than 50 climbers were rescued after the initial eruption Sunday, and 11 others were initially confirmed dead. New eruptions on Monday and Tuesday spewed more hot ash as high as 800 meters (2,620 feet) into the air, reducing visibility and temporarily halting search and recovery operations, said Abdul Malik, chief of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency.The bodies of two climbers were located on Monday and nine more on Tuesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency said.One climber remained missing and was presumed dead because of being very close to the eruption site, said Edi Mardianto, the deputy police chief in West Sumatra province.The recovered bodies will be taken to a hospital for identif...

Stock market today: Wall Street sags and heads toward a rare back-to-back loss

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is sagging again Tuesday as a big rally that had sent it to a 20-month high loses steam.The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in early trading and on track for its first back-to-back drop since October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 131 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.Stocks were down even more sharply in Asia amid worries about the health of China’s economy, the world’s second largest. On Wall Street, KeyCorp slumped 2.5% for one of the larger losses after it cut its forecast for income from fees and other non-interest income. December’s loss of momentum comes after stocks charged higher through November on hopes the Federal Reserve may finally be done with its market-shaking hikes to interest rates. Inflation has come down since its peak two summers ago, and the hope is that means the Fed can soon turn to cutting interest rates, which could help keep the economy out of a recession and jui...

UK, Rwanda strike new treaty in an attempt to unblock their controversial asylum plan

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:13 GMT

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — The interior ministers of Britain and Rwanda signed a treaty on Tuesday that aims to revive a plan to send asylum-seekers to the East African country that had been blocked by U.K. courts.British Home Secretary James Cleverly said the legally binding agreement signed with his Rwandan counterpart, Vincent Biruta, would “address all the issues” raised by the U.K. Supreme Court when it ruled last month that the policy was unlawful.The court said the plan was illegal because Rwanda is not a safe country for refugees. Britain’s top court said asylum-seekers faced “a real risk of ill-treatment” and could be returned by Rwanda to the home countries they had fled.The treaty includes a promise by Rwanda not to send asylum-seekers back to their home countries, even if their applications are refused.“We feel very strongly that this treaty addresses all of the issues raised by their lordships in the Supreme Court and we have worked very closely with our Rwandan partners to ...