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Bay Point man gets three years for sexually abusing minor; human trafficking charges dropped in plea deal

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

MARTINEZ — A 34-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison as part of a plea deal to settle human trafficking and child molestation charges against him, court records show.Francisco “Pancho” Perea-Parra, of Bay Point, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading no contest to a sex abuse charge. In return, prosecutors dropped human trafficking and sexual assault charges against him, court records show.The plea deal was finalized in mid-June but hasn’t been previously reported. Perea-Parra was transferred from the Martinez jail to North Kern State Prison on June 17. With credit for time served and good behavior, he’ll be eligible for release this coming June.Perea-Parra was arrested and charged with raping and trafficking a 15-year-old girl in July 2022. The girl told police Perea-Parra gave her tequila at her home, then allowed another man to sexually abuse her for a $90 fee. Perea-Parra gave a voluntary police interview and denied most of th...

At Home: Good organization helps set up students for success

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

Tardy bells. Locker combinations. School has officially started. And in households across America, the cries are sounding: “Where’s my homework? Have you seen my soccer shoes?”But not at Lynn Stone’s house in Manhattan Beach. Two weeks before school started this year, the mother realized that with all four of her kids in high school, “life was about to get crazy, and I wanted to get ahead of it.” So she called professional organizer Erica Thompson, owner of Organized by Design, to give her family a running start.“With the kids all involved in different sports, and two working parents, the house is nonstop,” Stone told me over the phone last week. The day starts at 6 a.m. when her 15-year-old son goes surfing and ends at 9 p.m. when her 14-year-old daughter gets home from dance practice. In between, the other two teens are off to football and cheer.I’m tired just thinking about it.An interior designer, Stone said, “I know how to make my house look pretty, but I wanted it to be ...

Photos: Unusual Woodside home shaped by giant redwood water barrels listed for $5.3 million

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

The Barrel House, named after the four massive redwood water barrel walls that are the Woodside property’s cornerstones, is for sale for $5.295 million.The Barrel House is for sale for $5.295 million. (Casey Flannigan) The Barrel House is for sale for $5.295 million. (Casey Flannigan) The Barrel House is for sale for $5.295 million. (Casey Flannigan) A nod to the redwood water barrels that used to hold rainwater in Northern California, the home was built in 1973 and designed by Sidney Hoover, a well-known local architect influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.The Barrel House is for sale for $5.295 million. (Casey Flannigan) The Barrel House is for sale for $5.295 million. (Casey Flannigan) The property seeks to integrate the natural beauty of the forests in Woodside. In addition to the barrel walls, large windows and skylights frame the surrounding trees and mimic a feeling of living in a forest.The Barrel House is for sale for $5.295 million. (Casey Flannigan)&n...

Hawaii post-fire: 9 great reasons to visit Maui now — and help the locals too

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

As the island of Maui heals from the tragic wildfires that destroyed most of Lahaina this summer, the island’s tourism-dependent economy needs visitors more than ever to help stay afloat.Hawaii’s state and local officials are asking visitors to make regions unaffected by the fires their destinations of choice, places like the sublime beaches and luxe resorts of Wailea and the beach and-shop-lined town of Kihei in south Maui, the colorful surf town of Paia, the rural upcountry around Makawao and Kula and remote, serene Hana.We’ve curated nine great reasons to visit Maui right now (and take advantage of recently discounted airfares too).These are trying times for many of Maui’s islanders, many of whom lost their homes, businesses and jobs in the August fires. As travelers, it’s important to tread lightly, be respectful, tip generously when you can and live each moment of your Maui vacation with the aloha spirit. The locals will give you a big mahalo (thank you) for doing so.Maui for f...

Square outage results in multiple service disruptions

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- There is a widespread Square outage that's creating multiple service disruptions, including impacting balance and transfers, the online payment platform confirmed on its website. According to the website, Downdetector, reported outages for the payment app have spiked in the last hour."Our engineers are all actively working on a fix to address this disruptions and have now received confirmation that Balance and Transfers are currently affected by this disruption," Square said on its website. Paqui ‘One Chip Challenge’ pulled from shelves following teen’s death The outage has resulted in degraded performance and multiple service disruptions, according to the company's website. Square said its engineering team is "actively working on a fix."On X, formerly Twitter, multiple users across several markets reported problems using the platform. "Square is down, nationwide outage," wrote one user. "Cashier has been telling me our store can only do cash transactions."...

Cash App outage reported Thursday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

(KRON) -- Cash App reported connection issues on Thursday. Many users were not able to open the app due to the problem. "We're aware of an issue that's affecting multiple features of the app and are actively investigating. Please visit https://status.cash.app for the most recent updates," Cash App tweeted.On its website, Cash App first reported the issue at 11:35 a.m. The website said not to re-attempt pending payments during the outage. Square outage results in multiple service disruptions Its most recent update came at 1:38 p.m. Cash App says not to log out of your account while the malfunction is occurring. When trying to open Cash App, the app simply says, "Please try again later." The website Downdetector saw more than 7,000 reports of a Cash App outage. "My son is stranded, can’t get him a ride home because the app is down," wrote one user on X, formerly known as Twitter. Another payment app, Square, is also down on Thursday. That outage has caused service disruptions and w...

Weston McKennie wants to prove he’s worthy to Juventus and its fans.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

Weston McKennie wants to prove he’s worthy to Juventus and its fans.He joined the 36-time Italian champion for the 2020-21 season, had his following season cut short by a broken foot, then was loaned to Leeds United last January and couldn’t prevent the English club from relegation. McKennie returned to Juventus this summer as a teammate of fellow American Tim Weah, entered the first two matches as a substitute and made his first start last weekend in a 2-0 win at Empoli.“Coming back to Juventus wasn’t easy,” the 25-year-old midfielder said Thursday during a news conference at U.S. national team camp in St. Louis. “I left the club at a time of crisis, I guess you could say. And so coming back I felt like I started back at square zero, but that is a challenge I’m always up for, a challenge that I think I needed at this time in my career to kind of prove to people that I still have it.”Juventus was penalized 10 points in the standings last season for financial violations, ...

No. 20 Ole Miss’ trip to No. 24 Tulane brings big-game vibe to cozy venue

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tulane coach Willie Fritz had an announcement to make as he prepared for a matchup with No. 20 Mississippi that has become arguably one of the toughest tickets ever for a Green Wave home game.“Please quit calling me. Everybody keeps wanting tickets,” Fritz said. “It’s a sellout. There aren’t anymore tickets. And that’s great. We’re very excited about it, and so are the players.”Yulman Stadium — which opened in 2014 and has the look of a cozy English soccer ground wedged snugly into a historic neighborhood — holds about 30,000 spectators. That’s less than half the capacity at the cavernous Superdome, where Tulane played from 1975 to 2013 (and where Tulane beat Ole Miss in the dome’s first college game in 1975). The old Tulane Stadium that was torn down a few years after the Superdome opened held around 80,000.Yulman Stadium has never hosted a ranked SEC team — and the fact that No. 24 Tulane also is in the AP Top 25 makes this arguably the h...

Ram, Salisbury reach US Open men’s doubles final, aim for 3rd straight title in Flushing Meadows

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have a chance for the first U.S. Open men’s doubles three-peat in more than 90 years.The No. 3-seeded team pulled out a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory over the No. 2-seeded duo of Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek on Thursday, moving into the finals with their 17th straight victory in Flushing Meadows. Ram and Salisbury will face 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, the No. 6 seeds, on Friday. Bopanna and Ebden beat the veteran French team of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the first semifinal.Ram, an American, and Salisbury, from Britain, haven’t lost at the U.S. Open since the 2020 semifinals. They are the first team to reach three straight finals in Flushing Meadows since the famed Australian duo of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde from 1994-96, and can become the first to win it three straight times since Americans John Doeg and George Lott Jr. from 1928-30.They surged ahead by breaking Dodig’s ...

Canadian journalist and author Peter C. Newman dies at 94

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:24 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Veteran Canadian journalist and author Peter C. Newman, who held a mirror up to Canada, has died. He was 94.Newman died in hospital in Belleville, Ontario, Thursday morning from complications related to a stroke he had last year and which caused him to develop Parkinson’s disease, his wife Alvy Newman said by phone.In his decades-long career, Newman served as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star and Maclean’s magazine covering both Canadian politics and business.“It’s such a loss. It’s like a library burned down if you lose someone with that knowledge,” Alvy Newman said. “He revolutionized journalism, business, politics, history.”Often recognized by his trademark sailor’s cap, Newman also wrote two dozen books and earned the informal title of Canada’s “most cussed and discussed commentator,” said HarperCollins, one of his publishers, in an author’s note.Political columnist Paul Wells, who for years was a senior writer at Maclean’s, said Newman built the publicati...