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Critical Raw Materials: Ensuring secure and sustainable supply chains for EU's green and digital future

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

On 20 March, the Commission proposed a comprehensive set of actions to ensure the EU's access to a secure, diversified, affordable and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. Critical raw materials are indispensable for a wide set of strategic sectors including the net zero industry, the digital industry, aerospace, and defence sectors.While demand for critical raw materials is projected to increase drastically, Europe heavily relies on imports, often from quasi-monopolistic third country suppliers. The EU needs to mitigate the risks for supply chains related to such strategic dependencies to enhance its economic resilience, as highlighted by shortages in the aftermath of the Covid-19 and the energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This can put at risk the EU's efforts to meet its climate and digital objectives.The Regulation and Communication on critical raw materials adopted today leverage the strengths and opportunities of the Single Market and the EU's extern...

Presale Codes for the My Morning Jacket Tour

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

If you’re trying to holler loud and make your way, and live one big holiday, well we got a tour for you. Louisville indie rockers My Morning Jacket are going on a tour across the U.S. and Europe as they hit several festival dates this summer. The tour will launch May 14 in Mobile, AL and wrap August 26 in Morrison, CO, and they will be hitting dates in Southern California on August 20 at the Hollywood Bowl and August 22 in San Diego along the way — see below for all dates. Passwords and presale codes for the My Morning Jacket Tour tickets are as follows:Presale codes for the My Morning Jacket Tour with CandleboxPresale tickets for the My Morning Jacket Tour are going on throughout this week and we’ve been told the following presale codes and passwords may work. Details are subject to change, and vary by event date:Live Nation website presale code or password: OPENERLive Nation mobile app presale code or password: COVERTSales for the general public should go on sale this Friday...

McManus: Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse may be a blessing in disguise

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

In the brief but spectacular collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, we may just have witnessed the best banking crisis ever.It might even have been useful.Nobody got seriously hurt, except bank executives who made bad decisions and shareholders who weren’t paying attention.Those Silicon Valley libertarians who spent years demanding that government get out of the way earned their comeuppance when they begged the Federal Reserve to save them. “Where is (Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H.) Powell? Where is (Treasury Secretary Janet L.) Yellen? Stop this crisis NOW,” tweeted David Sacks, the tech investor who was a fan of creative destruction until it got too near his bank account.Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in financial panics.Republican politicians provided a dose of comedy, blaming SVB’s financial blunders on the imaginary menace of “woke banking.” There’s no evidence that the bankers’ political leanings,...

Bay Area jail inmate awaiting murder trial to face March trial for trying to kill jail guard

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

A late-March trial setting has been scheduled for a 31-year-old man charged with the 2020 attempted murder of a Solano County jail guard while criminal proceedings continue in a separate 2018 case in which the defendant is accused of killing of a fellow transient in Fairfield.Official court records show that Derek Edward Dunlap Jr., who appeared Wednesday in Department 23 for ongoing matters in both cases, heard Judge John B. Ellis’ order him to return for the trial setting in the attempted murder case at 8:30 a.m. March 30 in the Justice Center in Fairfield. Ellis previously scheduled Dunlap for trial on the murder charge at 9 a.m. April 3 in the Justice Center in Fairfield. The judge also set a trial management conference in that case at 8:30 a.m. March 30.Senior Deputy District Attorney Julie Underwood leads the prosecution. Fairfield criminal defense attorney Sal Giambona represents Dunlap. The attorneys expect the murder trial to last two weeks, according to court documents.As ...

Bay Area man arrested on suspicion of laser strike at CHP copter

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

A 38-year-old Vacaville man was arrested late Friday on suspicion of a laser strike on a California Highway Patrol helicopter.Tyrel Frances was taken into custody shortly after the 11:28 p.m. and faces charges of discharging a laser at an aircraft and resisting arrest, Lt. Frank Piro, a Vacaville police watch commander, said Monday afternoon.Frances is no longer in Solano County Jail custody and a search of court records did not show when and where he would be arraigned in Solano County Superior Court.A social media post on the CHP’s Golden Gate Division Air Operations page indicated that CHP H-32 was aiding the Vacaville Police Department with a search, when, while orbiting, the helicopter was struck several times with a green laser.The copter crew was able to locate the source of the laser and directed officers to the location, which was not indicated in the post.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Hayward man shot in Union City Crime and Public Safety | ...

Opinion: What happened in Pajaro isn’t just a ‘natural’ disaster

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

In the last few years, California has experienced extreme wildfires, heat waves and the ever-present COVID-19 pandemic. What has become abundantly clear, particularly from the ravages of the pandemic on low-income communities of color, is that disaster risk is not an equal-opportunity affair.The latest evidence of this came this month as the Pajaro River levee failed and flooded a small town populated mainly by migrant workers and their families. In an eerie coincidence, the levee failure occurred on March 12, 95 years to the day the St. Francis Dam catastrophically failed because of a defective foundation and other design flaws.The dam collapse triggered a massive flood in Los Angeles and Ventura counties that claimed the lives of nearly 500 people, many of them undocumented migrant farmworkers. It represents the second-greatest loss of life in California’s history, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and is still considered one of the worst civil engineering disaster...

Median home price in Marin County dips to $1.525 million

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

The median price of a detached home in Marin fell to $1.525 million last month as the Bay Area led the state in declining values.The median figure marked a 10.3% drop from February 2022 and a 28% decline from a peak of $2.12 million last April. It was also a slight decline from the $1.6 million median price in January.The price data for February were released this week by the county assessor’s office. The median price is the point at which half the homes sold for more money and half for less.RELATED: California home prices now 18% off all-time highThroughout the Bay Area, the median price for a detached home last month was $1.05 million, a year-over-year decline of 19.2%, according to the California Association of Realtors. By comparison, the statewide year-over-year price decline was 4.8%.The association said the Bay Area’s price decline in February was the largest since June 2009.“The uncertainty in the tech sector was partially responsible for the home price declines, but the sha...

‘It’s really sad’: Seacliff State Beach pier demolition process begins

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

APTOS — The familiar crash and sizzle of the rolling ocean tide in Aptos was peppered with the revving of chainsaws and the steady beep of heavy construction equipment being staged Monday as crews prepared to demolish the badly damaged Seacliff pier, formerly attached to the iconic Cement Ship.“It’s really sad. (The pier) has been such a mainstay here for such a long time,” said Pam Crowell, who has lived in the Aptos area for more than 45 years and took a moment Monday morning to gaze across Seacliff State Beach from the towering bluffs above it.Crowell said when her children were young, her family would frequent the beach, play on the pier, and read about its history in the visitor center. “In a way, it’s really devastating, but it happened and so you just have to move on.”A set of memorial benches were removed from the Seacliff pier Monday prior to the start of the demolition process. The benches will be stored in a safe location until the families that donated them are contacted...

Monterey County agencies assessing conditions for Pajaro reentry after flood

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

WATSONVILLE — It could be a little while before Pajaro residents who evacuated during the floods can return to their homes. Various agencies are still monitoring the conditions of structures, water, roadways and more before the reentry and repopulation efforts can get underway.That was the gist of a virtual press briefing hosted by Monterey County Monday, in which representatives of different agencies discussed the efforts being done to ensure conditions are safe for reentry following the March 11 Pajaro River levee breach that flooded the community of Pajaro and resulted in numerous evacuations of residents.Kelsey Scanlon, Monterey County emergency services planner, said it was a fairly involved process.RELATED: “When can we go home?” Pajaro residents agonize as key question remains unanswered“One of the more complex issues is when is it safe for critical infrastructure and utility organizations to get into an impacted area to start assessing the damages to their assets?” she said....

Sergeant sues California city for retaliation over wife’s affair with former police chief

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:18:30 GMT

An Irwindale police sergeant, whose wife previously sued the city over sexual harassment, is now alleging in a separate lawsuit that the city’s former police chief refused to promote him after an affair between the sergeant’s wife and the chief ended in 2019.The lawsuit, filed March 14 by attorneys for Sgt. Robert Avila, an officer with the department for 24 years, alleges Avila faced retaliation, discrimination and a hostile work environment in the wake of the breakup.Avila’s wife, dispatcher Mariela Avila, sued Irwindale in January, alleging she and former Chief Ty Henshaw had an affair — while she and her husband were separated — for nearly a year until she asked him to back off after she reconciled with her husband. Her separate lawsuit alleges Henshaw continued to contact her, made frequent sexual remarks, pressured her to meet up with him and brushed up against her inappropriately during a Christmas party.The couple alleged in each of their filings that Henshaw regularly dispa...