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See the 13 California restaurants that made Esquire’s ‘Best New Restaurants in America’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

Esquire’s list of “The Best New Restaurants in America, 2023” just came out and – surprise, surprise – California comes out exceptionally strong, with many featured spots hailing from the Bay Area and SoCal.The magazine’s critics gave their top award of “Restaurant of the Year” to Ilis in Brooklyn,  where they were impressed by a “fish as it would have been done centuries ago, wrapped in bark and cooked over flames.” Hmmm… OK. But out of the 50 places they highlight, an impressive 13 hail from right here in California. Here are those restaurants; for the full list head over to Esquire.Auro, CalistogaThis 1 Michelin-starred Napa restaurant excels at the super-luxury tasting-menu experience, thanks to the talents of chef Rogelio Garcia, who’s worked at Cyrus and the French Laundry.Lady Edison ham plate with melon served at Burdell, a new soul food restaurant in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. ...

Texas man sentenced for threatening Georgia election officials

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

By Fabiana Chaparro and Hannah Rabinowitz | CNNA Texas man convicted of threatening Georgia election officials online after the 2020 election was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday.Chad Christopher Stark, who pleaded guilty to one count of a sending a threat using a telecommunications device in August, also was sentenced to one year of probation. The officials he targeted were not named in court documents.“As I see it, our country was on fire, and what Mr. Stark did was add fuel to the fire,” district Judge J.P. Boulee said in an Atlanta courtroom on Wednesday.Boulee described what he called “depraved” conduct in which Stark incited others to “kill public officials” before the judge ultimately handed down the 24 month sentence – the maximum prison sentence allowed under the law for the single charge.Officials have repeatedly warned of the increase in threats to election officials as the 2024 presidential election season heats up. The Department of Homeland Security warned in...

Eagles lament Hargrave’s defection to San Francisco with 49ers’ star-studded line on the rise

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

SANTA CLARA – Eagles coach Nick Sirianni praised the 49ers’ roster Wednesday for having “some of the best players in the world over there,” and one such player did not escape notice: defensive tackle Javon Hargrave.“Shoot, one of our better players from last year is on their team,” Sirianni told reporters in Philadelphia.Hargrave defected from the NFC champion Eagles to the NFC runner-up 49ers via a free agency payday, and he’s been as strong as any of their defensive linemen in their current three-game surge.The 49ers (8-3) need Hargrave and their all-world defensive front to stay hot Sunday, when they visit the Eagles (10-1) and elusive quarterback Jalen Hurts.However, A twist has arisen: Arik Armstead, Hargrave’s partner on the interior, did not practice Monday or Wednesday because of a foot injury. Armstead, who battled plantar fasciitis in a foot last season, is not wearing an orthopedic support boot and was seen walking OK in the locker room.“They’ve played really well off eac...

US boosts protections for endangered wolverines

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

By Matthew Brown | Associated PressBILLINGS, Mont. — The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists warning that climate change will likely melt away the rare species’ snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction.Across most of the U.S., wolverines were wiped out by the early 1900s from unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns. About 300 surviving animals in the contiguous U.S. live in fragmented, isolated groups at high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.Wolverines join a growing number of animals, plants and insects — from polar bears in Alaska to crocodiles in southern Florida — that officials say are at growing risk as increasing temperatures bake the planet, altering snowfall patterns and raising sea levels.In the coming decades, warming temperatures are expected to shrink the mountain snowpack wolverines rely on to dig dens where...

Grading the San Jose Sharks after turbulent first quarter: Is the worst behind them?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks coach David Quinn looked up at the massive scoreboard at SAP Center recently and watched a montage of the franchise’s most memorable goals, several of which came during the team’s numerous playoff appearances over a 25-year period.“We’re going to get there,” Quinn said, remembering the scenes of jubilation. “It’s going to take a little time, it’s going to be a process, but it’ll be well worth it.”More than a quarter of the way through the 2023-24 season, no one within the Sharks organization is thinking about the playoffs. With a .273 points percentage after 22 games, the Sharks (5-15-2) are off to their slowest start since the 1995-96 team was 2-16-4 just past the quarter-pole.The Sharks are last in the NHL in both goals scored and goals allowed and going into Thursday’s game with the Boston Bruins to start a six-game road trip, have yet to win away from home.Still, the Sharks appear to have turned a corner to some degree in the la...

Oakland City Council meeting speakers condemned for 'supporting Hamas'

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

(KRON) -- Viral video clips of commenters at Monday night's Oakland City Council meeting backing a cease-fire resolution in the Israel-Hamas war have drawn condemnation. California State Sen. Scott Weiner retweeted one clip in which a speaker claimed, "Israel murdered their own people on October 7th.""Calling Hamas a terrorist organization is ridiculous, racist, and plays into genocidal propaganda," said another commenter in the same viral clip. "Oakland City Council passed a reso calling for Gaza ceasefire," Weiner posted on X, formerly Twitter. "When a council member asked to add language condemning Hamas, a stream of public comment praising & supporting Hamas ensued.""The council then rejected the request to condemn Hamas," he continued. "Just awful." Nearly two dozen Bank of America branches closing across Bay Area "The public comment praising Hamas & defending the October 7 massacre of 1,2000 mostly Jews is despicable & unconscionable," Weiner posted in a subsequ...

Ted Cruz: “I Condemn Nothing That the Israeli Government Is Doing”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

This article was originally published as a newsletter from Ryan Grim. Sign up to get the next one in your inbox.The debate in Congress over Israel’s overwhelming response to the October 7 attack by Hamas would look much different today had not a big-money operation, unprecedented in its scope and scale, launched — purging the Democratic Party of some of its toughest critics of the Israeli government and cowing others into silence. That operation was organized by AIPAC and an allied super PAC called Democratic Majority for Israel, which was founded by Mark Mellman, a longtime adviser to a top Israeli government official, Yair Lapid, who rose from foreign minister to prime minister, a position he held only briefly before being knocked out by Benjamin Netanyahu. That operation, aimed squarely at the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, is the subject of an excerpt from my new book I just published at The Intercept. The book is called “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Politica...

Correction: France-Yoga Guru Arrested story

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

PARIS (AP) — In a story published November 28, 2023, about the arrest in France of a yoga guru, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the Atman Yoga Federation in some references.Source

Steelers’ Najee Harris, Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb among best bets to score in Week 13 of NFL season

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

Scoring is at a premium as we near the fantasy playoffs and these players are leading the way. These are my best bets to find the end zone in Week 13.___Running BackRAHEEM MOSTERT, DOLPHINSIt’s little surprise that the league’s rushing TD leader makes the list this week, especially considering his favorable matchup. Mostert faces a Washington team that’s our fifth-best matchup for opposing running backs in Week 13, having allowed 11 TDs on the season to runners. Vegas has the 49.37% TD dependent Mostert at 100 odds to score this week, the third-best odds for any RB this week. Even if De’Von Achane returns this week, Mostert is still a strong contender to score as he’s done so in 8 of 11 games this season.NAJEE HARRIS, STEELERSHarris has had a resurgence of sorts, scoring in three of his past four games. In any case, Harris is likely to make it back-to-back games with a TD this week against an Arizona team that’s our second-best matchup for opposing runners. No team has allowed more ...

Top diplomats arrive in North Macedonia for security meeting as some boycott Russia’s participation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:55 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Top diplomats from more than 50 countries arrived in North Macedonia on Wednesday for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, while others boycotted the expected presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had said they would not attend the talks due to Lavrov’s participation and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a brief stop in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, for the meeting but left for Israel hours later. He did not encounter Lavrov, who was due in Skopje late Wednesday.Blinken accused Russia of “flagrant violations of every single core principle” of Cold War efforts to ease East-West tensions that led to the creation of the OSCE, and “relentless efforts to obstruct the OSCE’s work.”Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels earlier Wednesday, Blinken said that the other OSCE member...